Notes

This story is quite obviously inspired by the myth of Atlantis. I wanted to make something in the same vein, but different than the many stories already told.

So it’s not a city, it’s the back of a Primal Turtle. The Alasti were the folk who lived on this turtle. That kind of thing.

Yet it has a lot in common with the original myth, even more so than most adaptations.

Below is research I found interesting.

Where does Atlantis come from?

Atlantis is a “lost” island with an advanced and prosperous society. Supposedly, they had the knowledge to establish world peace.

The story was first told in “Plato’s Dialogues” around 330 BC.

He says the founders were “half god, half human”. They quickly became a great naval power. It consisted of concentric islands, separated by canals, but connected by one large canal running through the middle. The islands contained gold, silver, an abundance of raw materials and exotic nature. The central island had a tremendous capital.

What’s interesting is that in these stories, Atlantis is portrayed as anything but positive. Yes, they had technology and wealth, but they were morally corrupt. They wanted to conquer the world with their power. Only the pure Athenians stood in their way, who, using only the power of their minds, held back Atlantis.

But holding back was not enough.

The gods were furious—because they had given this civilization everything, but they misused it and became greedy—and called upon natural disasters to sink Atlantis.

So the story was also meant as propaganda for the heroic people of Athens.

Could it be real?

Furthermore, no credible sources or references can be found. Which is strange, because such a tremendous place must have been mentioned more often. Plato claimed Atlantis existed about 9,000 years before he wrote about it, and that he knew this because of priests and poets who had passed down the story all that time.

But the legend does have historically accurate events that resemble it and is, partly because of that, “believable enough”.

About 3,600 years ago a volcanic eruption destroyed the island of Santorini. At that time, one of the most advanced civilizations lived there—the Minoans—who disappeared from history around that time.

Naming

Turtle names all start with an “s”. (Primal Turtles don’t, they end in “hon”.)

Sharks end in “z” or “ez”.

Miscellaneous

The “Pillars of Gibra” are a mix of two factoids. Plato claimed Atlantis lay in the Atlantic Ocean, close to the “Pillars of Hercules”. Researchers are pretty sure he meant what is now the “Strait of Gibraltar”.

It was protected by Poseidon. His son Atlas became king—that’s where the name Atlantis comes from.

Their armies eventually conquered Africa up to Egypt, and Europe up to Italy.

The following dialogue was originally in the story, but eventually there was no more room for it: “Temperature determines whether a boy or a girl comes out of the egg. At a low temperature, a male comes out. At a high temperature, a female. An ice age is coming—and I’m afraid the temperature will drop to such a low point that nothing more will hatch from the eggs!”