Atlantis

Located at 0°48'28" N, 03°29'47" on the southern shore of Maui, Atlantis (pop. 8-9,000) is the oldest native settlement in the New Hawaii region, and one of the oldest on Poseidon.

Atlantis was founded in 2091 by settlers from Haven, and given its name in the hope that it would be a "lost city" remote from colonial affairs. This distance meant that, when Mt. Odysseus erupted on 094.33 SP (7 August 2124) in what is now known as "the Calamity," Haven was able to see the eruption but not help. More than half of Atlantis's population died, and the survivors (mainly from Augusta) spread out to colonize other islands of New Hawaii, but Atlantis was soon rebuilt.

During the initial Long John rush of the late 2180s, Atlantis was a boomtown, and its population climbed to nearly twice what it is today. As Biogene and the Nippon Industrial State entrenched themselves in New Hawaii, however, independent prospecters were squeezed out of the business, and transport lanes were eventually directed to Cliffside and away from Maui. Ever since then, Atlantis has been a settlement in decline.

Physical layout

Built on a relative flat volcanic plain, most buildings in Atlantis stand on stilts a meter or more off the ground to protect them from flooding during the wet season. A brief outline of the town's layout looks like so:

• The Cluster, Atlantis's waterfront and commercial center, with most of the settlement’s hotels and stores
• Dead Town, the fast fungus-infested remnants of Atlantis's boomtown glory days, inland of the Cluster
• The Sticks, home to the ~500 natives who lived in Atlantis prior to Recontact, located inland of Dead Town
• Even further inland is the ruins of the original settlement, buried in the Calamity; natives don't disturb them, but a number of newcomers do
• A wide tidal swamp east of town that serves as its junk- and scrapyard
• An airfield, located near the generator on a rise to the west

The Long John bust has left Atlantis unable to build up its infrastructure; the town's generator (run by Colby Ahearn these days) is prone to brownouts, the roads are unpaved, and houses gather their own water in cisterns.

Government

The refounded Atlantis was always small enough to be run informally by direct democracy, and elements of this are still visibly in the settlement's loose structure today. Power rests in the hands of a loose network of local bigwigs, one of whom (Leo Nantz, a scrapyard operator) is the mayor for official and administrative purposes.

Law and order are provided by a GEO Patrol precinct, and Atlantis is the base for Deputy Marshal R. Lightfoot. Much like other historic native settlements turned boomtowns, this intrusion of the GEO into local life is proving troublesome.

Economy

Like most places in New Hawaii, Biogene and NIS scrip are competitive currencies in Atlantis. Unusually for the region, however, the strongest scrip in town is GenDiver's; the company operates a small Long John storage facility that serves as the settlement's bank and general store, where would-be prospectors can buy equipment on credit in exchange for a cut of all ore collected.

Atlantis's largest legal employer is the Atlantis Fish Company, which operates a large packing plant in town. The settlement’s economy, however, is dominated by pharium production, which grows abundantly in the volcanic hills outside of town; pharium and Long John are prestige trade goods and preferred methods for untraceable transactions.