Long ago, the Atlanteans were a nomadic race capable of traveling the stars. Each mature Atlantean was armed to the pointed ear with boundless knowledge, tools, and strange powers incomprehensible to early humans. But for reasons unknown even to their descendants today, they chose to remain on the planet Earth instead of continuing their travels. The first Atlanteans settled on a small island off the coast of some great forgotten continent: the island of Atlantis.
Nothing is told before the time Atlanteans were already waging war. They made enemies of a sundry of primordial races who shared their antediluvian world. Trouncing them all, the Atlanteans built a vast empire that knew not the setting of the Sun. But like all things of this world, nothing lasts forever.
End Of The Last Age
No one could defeat the Atlanteans but themselves. As time passed in the score of eons, their immortality turned from blessing to curse. Slowly, they grew callous and apathetic to the happenings of the outside world. Their latest enemies—humankind among them—grew obnoxiously smarter and bolder. At first, the slave rebellions across their empire were but an annoyance to quell. The initial ease made the Atlanteans indolent; as they put their counter-insurgency plans on the back burner, eventually those rebellions ballooned out of all possible control.
So did their interest in world domination wane, as they gave into decadent recreation. The Atlanteans gradually withdrew from their conquered realms. By the turn of the new age, the empire was no more, and all that remained was their island kingdom of aborigin: Atlantis. The shining utopia of life and progress. But it was doomed not to last.
Hitherto, at the end of the last age, the Pale Death withdrew before a coming warmth. Its great ice sheets melted in short time, unleashing a watery deluge remembered as the Great Flood. It became the doom of Atlantis, now buried beneath those breaching waves borne of the ripple of titans, along with her aged treasures and memories. Gone forever.
Survivors In Thule
There still are Atlantean remnants in the world. But those who reached the coastal hospices of Thule to sit through the Great Flood now live in dark shadows of their glorious past, with no dry records from the previous age to help them recover their lost wits and intellect.
These Atlanteans are impossibly old and have little desire to produce offspring. Their sloth and decadent livelihoods still linger by depressing threads within the smoky halls of Imystrahl, an impregnable fortress-city teetering at the brink of... something.
All other Atlantean holdings have been razed and conquered by humans. Those crusades are collectively known to history as the Atlantean Expulsions. Nostalgia for Atlantis may yet thrive among cultures of humankind who know little of history's truths. Few of them ever interact with the last Atlanteans enough to understand them beyond their perceived "othering" as monsters who no longer deserve a place in nature.
Appearances
Atlanteans are a rare sight outside of Imystrahl. Their unique appearances would surely stand out in most crowds. They stand taller than most humans and possess graceful, fragile physiques that are accentuated by their long and pointy ears. Like gemstones, their eyes sparkle and vary in color and depth.
Atlantean engineering has produced many wonders of the world. Chitinous and demonic, their plate armors fit no human being. Their projectile weapons can fire rays of destructive light capable of piercing any man-made metal. However, such powerful relics of war are increasingly rare even among the Atlantean remnants. After all, the Great Flood knocked them backwards by centuries of advancement, as the means to preserve and reproduce these technologies were lost.
By nature and culture, Atlanteans are uncaring at best and downright cruel at worse. Some are sociopaths, and most have no moral standards whatsoever. They tend to focus on themselves first and foremost and have a bad habit of looking down on the "lesser races" (almost every species besides their own), seeing them as less sophisticated and unworthy of respect. A comparison to cats can be drawn, seeing how both creatures can be so uncaring and derive pleasure from the suffering of their prey.