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For the other uses of "Atlas", see Atlas.
Atlas is Remnant's youngest and arguably, most successful Kingdom. But it's a bit of a special case.

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Atlas, formerly known as Mantle, was one of the Kingdoms of Remnant. It was located in the far northern continent of Solitas.[1][2]

The Huntsman Academy of Atlas was known as Atlas Academy.[3] Unlike most Kingdoms, Atlas' government, military and the Academy functioned as a single entity and made it a military state. It was also the location of the Schnee Dust Company headquarters.

The notable cities of the Kingdom were its capital, Atlas, and the former capital, Mantle.

In "The Final Word", the Kingdom was destroyed when the city of Atlas fell and crashed into Mantle, causing them to be flooded under the melted glaciers. At least thousands of its population were transported to Vacuo beforehand, using the Relic of Creation to create a pathway.[4]

Atlas was the primary setting for Volumes 7 and 8.

History[]

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The early settlers of Mantle faced difficulties on many fronts.

Early settlers came to the icy continent of Solitas in order to begin a new civilization. Its harsh climates and great mountain ranges helped to suppress the threat of the Grimm, but it also proved difficult for the population to grow. Humanity adapted, however, by using Dust in tandem with advanced technology, developed out of necessity and at faster progression than the rest of the world, creating what came to be known then as the Kingdom of Mantle. Their advancements in Dust application allowed Mantle to expand and devote more territory to mining and research, including the area beside the Kingdom's combat school, Alsius Academy.

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Mantle, represented during the Great War by the white figure wielding a gun

Around eighty years before the beginning of the series, a massive ten-year conflict known as the Great War came to an end. In this war, Mantle and Mistral fought Vale and Vacuo. Prior to the war, Mantle formed an alliance with Mistral. The two traded frequently, and Mantle taught Mistral how to form settlements in the snowy northern region of Anima.

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An incident involving Grimm leads to an unexpected decree.

After an incident with the Grimm, Mantle came to the conclusion that, if it controlled its citizens' emotions through the abolishment of the arts and self-expression, it would become safer from Grimm. Rather than lose the alliance, Mistral did the same, to an extent. This added to the list of things Vale disliked about Mantle and Mistral, among which was the treatment of their own citizens, their use of slavery and their insistence that their way of life was what was best for everyone.

Eventually, Mistral entered a conflict with Vale, after a riot between settlers from the two devolved into the first battle of the Great War. Mantle rushed to their ally's aid, and together, they fought Vale on both Sanus and Anima soil. Having established a presence in Vacuo, the two allied Kingdoms were able to keep Vacuo out of the conflict, and some time into the war, they began pressuring the desert Kingdom to join the war on their side. Fearing that they would conquer Vacuo, should Vale fall, the citizens of Vacuo pushed Mantle and Mistral out of their territory and allied themselves with Vale.

Grimm attacks increased worldwide and as a result, Mantle lost many of its settlements to the creatures, some of which were never reclaimed.

During the war, Mantle accelerated the pace of its technological innovation, developing new weapons and applications of Dust, giving them an edge during the conflict. Large tracts of land were set aside for Dust mining and research. The Kingdom was also home to at least one combat school, Alsius, located to the northeast of the main settlement. The territory surrounding Alsius was used as a research and development facility during the war.

The Great War finally came to an end with the deadliest battle in the war's history. Mantle and Mistral attempted to take Vacuo's Dust mines to cut off their enemy's supply. There, they were met with the King of Vale personally leading his army alongside Vacuo. It is said that he laid waste to countless men, but historians claim that this feat was aided by the unusually violent weather and Mantle's inexperience in desert combat.

With the war over, the leaders of the four Kingdoms gathered on neutral ground on Vytal to form a treaty and plan the future of Remnant. There, the four Kingdoms' governments were restructured, their territories were redistributed, slavery was abolished, the tradition of the Vytal Festival was begun and the King of Vale founded the four Huntsman Academies.

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The advancement of technology in Mantle following the war led to a new era.

Alsius was reopened under the name Atlas Academy and was secretly given a Relic to safeguard. As a gift to the world, Atlas invented the Cross Continental Transmit System and had the towers for it built on each Huntsman Academy's campus, thus allowing all four Kingdoms to communicate. In an attempt to give back to its citizens, Mantle applied many of the techniques and technologies used in the war to enhance the Huntsman Academy's campus, expanding the school grounds and even securing the surrounding areas. Along with the eventual establishment and merging of the military and research facilities with the government and schools, the original capital of Mantle was overshadowed. The decision was made to move the capital to Atlas, and the Kingdom as a whole was also accordingly renamed to Atlas. Around this time, an incarnation of Ozma used the Relic of Creation to raise Atlas off the ground. By the present day, the public story for Atlas being kept afloat is due to Gravity Dust.

The former capital of Mantle appears to have subsequently fallen on hard times, as alluded to in World of Remnant: Atlas. During the charity concert in "Tipping Point", guests are heard conversing with Jacques Schnee about the economic disparity between the cities of Atlas and Mantle. At the same time, they discuss Faunus-Human relations; it is implied that a significant portion of Faunus live in the poorer city of Mantle, and are economically disadvantaged themselves. Those that moved to the city of Atlas were "promised jobs" by the Schnee Dust Company amongst others, though it is implied that this is not working out as well as the immigrants would have hoped.

Decades prior to the start of "RWBY", Atlesian researchers at the now defunct Fort Arrowfell developed a deployable device for attracting Grimm through the use of stored fear energy. However, these devices proved to be too dangerous to manage, so Ironwood's predecessors canceled the project and closed the facility. They then assigned the protection of what remained of the technology to a secret Huntress team known as the Keepers of Arrowfell.[5]

Sometime prior to the events of the series, Bram Thornmane once trained in the Atlas Military in order to become a member of the Ace Operatives. However, he was rejected as a member and eventually left he military as a Huntsman and became resentful towards General James Ironwood. Around the same time, Hanlon Fifestone enlisted in the military as a soldier in order to fight for better rights for the people of Mantle. It was during this time that he saw the corruption, wealth and greed of the people of Atlas and deserted military duty in order to become a union leader in Mantle and resulting in him having a bad reputation among the people of Atlas.[6]

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Members of the Penny project

Some time before the beginning of the series, James Ironwood became the general of the Atlas Military first and the Headmaster of Atlas Academy second, gaining two seats in the council as a result. He also became a member of Ozpin's Group and learned of the existence of Salem.

In the past, a young Cinder Fall was adopted by the head of the Glass Unicorn and was forced to work there while being constantly abused by her and her daughters. After she steals Rhodes' Weapons, Rhodes finds her and decides to train her to be a Huntress for the next few years so she can eventually leave. One night, she snapped and killed her abusive step-family and Rhodes attempted to arrest her after he witnessed this until he was defeated and also killed in the process. After this, Cinder joined Salem's Inner Circle.

At some point, Ironwood asked his best scientists to come up with a way to improve the Kingdom's defenses with the winner having their project be the one that would be chosen. In the end, Pietro Polendina was the winner with his project, Penny Polendina being the first artificially created soul in Remnant. One of his co-workers, Arthur Watts later faked his death in "The Paladin Incident" and joined Salem's Inner Circle after his project was rejected in favor of Pietro's.

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Atlesian Technology was hijacked and attacked the innocent

During the 40th Vytal Festival, the hosting Kingdom, Vale, is attacked and Beacon Academy and its Cross Continental Transmit tower was destroyed, cutting off Atlas' communication with the other three Kingdoms. The festival's live broadcast and Atlas' robots were hijacked by the attackers, who made it appear as though Atlas attacked innocent civilians. Beacon became overrun with Grimm, and the presence of a petrified Wyvern drew in even more Grimm. Atlas officials searched for a solution, but with Vale making slow progress to retake the academy even after several months, they were not optimistic.

During the several months between the end of Volume 3 and beginning of Volume 4, the Atlesian council voted to place an embargo on Dust exports, in an attempt to prevent conflict, due to the other Kingdoms believing Atlas attacked Vale. This embargo continued into the events of Volumes 4 through 7.

After seeing how the embargo would cause his profits to plummet, Jacques holds a charity for the victims of the fall of Beacon to help give his company good PR. After Weiss Schnee realized how the guests were apathetic to the fall of Beacon, she accidentally used her Semblance and almost killed one of the guests until General Ironwood stopped it and scorned the crowd instead of arresting Weiss like the guest asked. After this, Jacques decided to strip Weiss of her status as heiress in favor of her younger brother while attempting to keep her locked up at the family home. After Weiss manages to master her Semblance, she decided to escape Atlas with the help of her family butler Klein Sieben and learns of the strange incidents happening in Mistral. Ironwood sent many of his forces to investigate it, including Weiss' older sister Winter Schnee and doesn't trust Leonardo Lionheart to handle it. After getting into an argument with Jacques, he also reveals his plans to close the Kingdom's borders and not letting anyone in without his permission. Before he does however, he recalls almost of his soldiers to Atlas, including Winter with the exception of the ones stationed at the Argus Military Base.

During the time Team RWBY assisted the military, a conspiracy led by Bram Thornmane against Ironwood was discovered and eventually multiple people involved were arrested by the military including Hanlon Fifestone, Lieutenant Colonel Olive Harper who secretly provided military technology to Amoncio Glass and his goons and turned herself in out of guilt, and Bram Thornmane himself after being defeated by Team RWBY. During this period, a deal between the military and the Schnee Dust Company set up prior to the events of "RWBY: Arrowfell" to find a new Dust Mine for the company was also completed with Winter acting as the contact between both factions. However, the new Dust Mine site was deemed unusable due to the Dust inside it having inert specks and imperfections.[7]

Throughout Volume 7, the effects of the embargo can be seen on the people of Mantle. The city became even more resentful towards Atlas, the Happy Huntresses steal resources from the military to help fix the wall protecting Mantle after believing that they were behind the massacre at the election for the newest council member, and Jacques shut down all non-essential SDC facilities in Mantle at the advice of Arthur Watts. This causes the citizens to riot and most of them are forced to be restrained. Eventually, Robyn Hill learns of Ironwood's plans thanks to Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long and almost convince her to trust them.

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Jacques Schnee is arrested for his crimes

Later, Jacques invited Ironwood and his followers to dinner at his home where he and the other members of the council along with Robyn Hill attempt to remove Ironwood from the council after he kept using his power to overrule their authority. While this is going on, Watts uses Jacques credentials to shut the heat in Mantle and causing another riot. When Weiss Schnee gets evidence of Jacques getting help from Watts to win the election thanks to her mother keeping recordings around the manor, she presented it to the council and they arrest Jacques in the process. After this, they reveal the existence of Salem to the entire Kingdom as well as Amity Communications Tower in order to lure out Tyrian Callows and Watts.

Once Ironwood returns to his office however, he learns that Cinder Fall has also infiltrated the Kingdom and confronts Ruby's Group over lying to him and his forces. While this is happening, Salem reveals herself to everyone present and states that she is on her way to Atlas herself. Upon hearing this, Ironwood decides to change his plans for Amity and apply it to Atlas, using the Relic of Creation to raise the city out of her reach. When Ruby and her group opposed this, as that would mean abandoning Mantle, he puts out arrest warrants for them. During all of this, Tyrian escaped and frames Qrow Branwen and Robyn Hill for the death of Clover Ebi and the two are arrested. After Penny became the Winter maiden instead of Winter Schnee, she leaves the City of Atlas to help the people of Mantle with the rest of Ruby's Group and the Happy Huntresses.

When the group reach Mantle, they begin to argue about what to do next. Yang's Group decides to help evacuate the people of Mantle to the crater so they could stay warm while Ruby's Group decide to get Amity Communications Tower into the atmosphere to send a warning to the rest of Remnant. While this is happening, Ironwood kills Councilmen Sleet after he confronted him over declaring Martial Law and forced Watts to try and hack Penny in order to bring her back to his side.

When they were helping with evacuations, Oscar Pine ends up getting kidnapped by an intelligent Grimm known as The Hound and Yang's Group are forced to leave Mantle to pursue it. Meanwhile, Ruby's Group infiltrated the Atlas Command Center in order to get the launch codes for Amity Communications Tower but are confronted by the Ace Operatives in the process with Nora being critically injured and Penny having one of her swords stolen.

As they attempt to get Amity Communications Tower up and running, Cinder and her followers interrupt the process and cause it to fall out of the atmosphere. Penny decides to raise Amity up herself against the wishes of her father and they managed to send Ruby's message to all of Remnant. Before the message finished however, Watts hacked into Penny and she started to fall all the way back to Atlas where she was later found by Ruby's Group outside the Schnee Manor.

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The Battle of Atlas

With the help of Whitley Schnee, they managed to find safe shelter to help Nora heal. Meanwhile, Yang's Group asked The Ace-Ops for help with dealing with a recently formed river of Grimm Liquid only for them to care more about recovering Penny. However, the River spout upwards and attacks Atlas instead of Mantle like they thought it would. It creates multiple Centinel Grimm that destroy the city's Hard-Light Dust Shields and Salem lands her Monstra Grimm on the city's fields and creates multiple Grimm to invade.

After arresting Yang's Group and getting close to the battle, Ironwood orders Winter and the Ace-Ops to bomb the giant Grimm. However, Winter instead let's Yang's Group go attempt to rescue Oscar from Salem while telling them that they will still detonate the bomb whether they are still inside or not. While the others object, they follow Winter's orders due to her outranking them. They managed to succeed and even kill the monstra with Oscar's magic and the help of Hazel Rainart and Emerald Sustrai. Cinder later rescues Arthur Watts from prison and coincidentally frees Qrow and Robyn in the process.

Back at Schnee Manor, Ruby's Group tried to restore the building's power and are attacked by The Hound when it is hunting Penny. Whitley uses his position as heir to the Schnee Dust Company to send drones to Mantle to help evacuate its people to safety. Before they kill The Hound, they learn that it was once a Silver-Eyed Faunus.

After the Battle and Ironwood learns that Winter went against his orders, Ironwood learns he still has his bomb and destroyed all of the drones while sending Penny an Ultimatum. Either she handed herself over to him within an hour, or else he would use the bomb to destroy Mantle himself. After the two groups argue on how to handle the situation, they realize that they haven't considered using the Relic of Creation to evacuate the people of both cities to safety. At the same time, Winter and Marrow also defect from Ironwood's side and join up with Qrow and Robyn to stop him.

Once the group defeats Ironwood and restrains the Ace-Ops, they reach the Vault and ask Ambrosius to create an exact copy of Penny's robot body with the virus still inside it while she gained a human body. After this, they asked him to create a one-way passageway to Vacuo that connected with both cities. When they try to tell the Kingdom about this, kingdom-wide communications are blocked by Arthur Watts after he takes control of the Atlas Command Center. He also hacks an Atlesian Knight-200 and detonated it towards Qrow and Robyn. Marrow takes the blow, freeing the other Ace-Ops and giving Harriet the chance to bomb Mantle herself. Her friends talk her out of this and they manage to stop the bomb from falling out of the ship thanks to Qrow, but Arthur arms the bomb himself and Vine is forced to sacrifice himself to save his friends.

Cinder and Neo later attack the refugees in the passageway and sends Yang into the void below. Ironwood meanwhile escapes from his cell and kills Jacques. During Penny's fight with Cinder, she is mortally wounded and asks Jaune Arc to kill her to prevent her powers from going to Cinder. Once Ironwood confronts Winter in the Vault and is about to kill Winter, she obtained the powers of the Winter Maiden and manages to defeat Ironwood before heading into the passageway to help.

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Atlas crashes into Mantle and both cities are flooded

In the end, Cinder obtains both Relics and betrays Neo, while sending her falling into the void along with the rest of Team RWBY and Jaune. Winter is forced to retreat to Vacuo to help the refugees. After leaving the portal, Cinder hands both Relics to Salem, who arrives at the Vault. Ironwood attempted to take a shot but gave up upon Cinder declaring checkmate. Afterwards, the two fly away from Atlas, leaving Ironwood in the Vault. The remaining Ace-Ops, along with Qrow and Robyn watch as Atlas crashes into Mantle and both cities are flooded.

Culture[]

Atlas was well known for being the youngest Kingdom in modern day Remnant after it succeeded its predecessor Mantle. However, the former capital and its people were neglected for years which led to Mantle ending up in a ruined state as a result. Because of this neglect, Mantle citizen Robyn Hill attempted to run for a position on the Kingdom's council to improve its state.

Prior to the Great War and Mantle being succeeded by Atlas, practices such as slavery were allowed and following an incident involving the Grimm the arts were suppressed to avoid future attacks. Because this practice seemingly worked, the Kingdom's ally Mistral also followed it to an extent with both trying to do the same with Vale and Vacuo and eventually starting the Great War as a result. Following the Great War and the dissolution of the Monarchy, these practices were made illegal.

The Kingdom also had differences between its class system. Those up in the capital such as the Schnee family lived in comfort and luxury while those who lived down in Mantle struggled in hard times. The Schnee Dust Company was also known for mistreating its Faunus workers such as Adam Taurus who as branded with the company logo on his face. Other people like Madame, the owner of the Glass Unicorn and her two daughters abused a young Cinder Fall after adopting her from Mistral to work as a servant at the hotel, which eventually led to Cinder snapping a few years later and killing them as a result. After returning from Vale and experiencing the Fall of Beacon first-hand, both Weiss Schnee and General James Ironwood were disgusted by this behavior.

The nightlife in the capital consisted of opera houses, clubs, and fine dining. By the time of "RWBY: Arrowfell" however, this attracted mobsters and goons in the capital with high tech weaponry due to a weapons furnishing operation that took place in the southern coast Dust Mine in Solitas led by Amoncio Glass.[8]

The settlements around Solitas usually worked together in order to survive with the people of Dormir using their ice fishing skills around the huge lake in Solitas to get food which they distributed to the other settlements like Essen and Crossed before it's destruction. According to residents of Essen, they would end up starving without the food they get from Dormir.[9]

The Tumak Ruins also held an important part in Atlesian culture and all of Humanity due to being a formal Remnant heritage site with relics pre-dating the Great War telling what the past was like for the residents. In more recent times however, well-meaning historians had made off with the relics that were in the Ruins for thousands of years. However, nobody could get into the ruins by the time "RWBY: Arrowfell" started due to being overrun by the Grimm. Despite that, there was a conservation effort underway for the ruins.[10]

Technology[]

The Kingdom was known for its innovation and far-reaching technological achievements, having developed, and then gifted the Cross Continental Transmit System to the rest of the world after the Great War, allowing for communication between the four Kingdoms.

Atlas was also a primary producer of Dust, and the Schnee Dust Company's main headquarters was located in the Kingdom.

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Atlas, creator of the Cross Continental Transmit System

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Atlas is revealed as a floating landmass

Other technological advances spearheaded by the Kingdom of Atlas included great strides in the field of robotics. Robots built for combat included the Atlesian Knight-130, supplied by Atlas to the rest of Remnant for several years. Penny Polendina, the first artificial being capable of producing Aura, was also built with assistance from the Atlesian Military, as revealed in "Painting the Town...".

However, some of the Kingdom's scientific research into the nature and composition Aura took it into more morally questionable areas. Their research yielded experimental technology that was capable of "capturing" Aura from a person and transferring it to something or someone else. The existence of this technology is highly classified, but many of those who do know of it see it as unnatural and wrong. Regardless, this technology may play a key part in preventing the power of the Maidens from falling into the wrong hands.

Similar to Lake Matsu's floating islands in Mistral, Atlas used Gravity Dust to keep itself floating high above the ground, tethered to the soil by a series of cables. However, this was just the public story. In reality, Atlas was kept afloat using the Relic of Creation hidden under Atlas Academy.

Over time, Atlas' technology developed a blue and white color scheme, with most of its former technology having been bronze and grey color scheme as seen in the Colossus.[11]

Politics[]

Like the other Kingdoms, Atlas was governed by a council consisting of five seats. General James Ironwood held two of the seats, one of them by virtue of being appointed head of Atlas Academy. Ironwood was said to have amassed even more sway over the council by virtue of other representatives becoming afraid after the Fall of Beacon.

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Atlas Council Election Ballot

At least some positions on the council were filled through a competitive electoral process. Volume 7 presented an election in which two primary candidates and two minor candidates ran against each other for a seat. There were also campaign posters put up throughout the city of Mantle.

Jacques was later revealed as one of the candidates in the election, running based on Ironwood's presumed amassed power and abuse of his authority in implementing the dust embargo that had damaged the dust trade in Atlas, specifically to the Schnee Dust Company.

The other major candidate, Robyn Hill, had been advocating the betterment of the kingdom's former capital's social and economic conditions in comparison to its new capital, Atlas. This stance earned her the support of many of the kingdom's citizens. The minor candidates for the election were Ivy Brown and Pearl Wistier.

Robyn was shown to be an active rival against both Jacques and Ironwood. The first due to him also running for the council seat and for his deplorable business methods, worsening Mantle's economic state, and the second for his implementation of the Dust Embargo, which had worsened the already poor living conditions of Mantle, and his diverting the majority of the Kingdom's resources to his "Secret Pet Project" that had left Mantle particularly vulnerable to attack from Grimm without revealing the reason why Mantle was being denied aid.

Voters used an electronic system where they selected their favored candidate by tapping on a box with that candidate's name. Due to it being electronic, the system was vulnerable to hacking, a fact exploited by Arthur Watts in order to rig the election in favor of Jacques.

Camilla and Sleet were the other members of the council. While members of the council were routinely informed of certain efforts undertaken by the military, Ironwood was allowed to withhold certain information as indicated by him concealing the details about the Amity Communications Tower project. They were also allowed to withhold details about ongoing investigations. However, the council provided apparent checks on the power Ironwood wields. Their exact means of keeping the military's authority in check was never revealed, but it was implied to be by striping him of his council seat.

At the end of Volume 7, Ironwood announced his intentions to declare martial law due to the impending arrival of Salem. Ironwood claimed by doing this the Council would be unable to countermand his decision to place Atlas into orbit to protect the Kingdom from attack, suggesting martial law granted him nearly or completely unchecked authority. After the council confronted him about these intentions, Ironwood decided to kill council Sleet to Camilla's horror.

Military[]

Main article: Atlas Military

With their headquarters located at Atlas Academy, the Kingdom's armed forces were made up of an organized body known as the Atlesian military, which was regarded as the world's strongest military power. Human soldiers were seen wearing a uniform that included metal body armor and helmets that concealed the top of their faces. They were seen wielding a variety of weapons including rifles, pistols and swords.

The Kingdom's forces were also referenced in "Welcome to Beacon", depicted as a playable force in the tabletop, Remnant: The Game. One of the units mentioned in the game is the Atlesian air-fleet. Yang Xiao Long also comments that most of the Atlesian troops were "probably androids".

In "The Final Word", the military was destroyed alongside the Kingdom.

Notable People[]

Atlesian Military[]

Schnee Dust Company[]

Atlas Academy[]

Atlas Council[]

Mantle[]

Others[]

Trivia[]

  • Its name is likely a reference to Atlas, a Titan in Greek mythology who was punished for opposing the Olympians by being made to hold up the sky for all eternity. It could also be a reference to Atlas as a large map, similar in symbolism to other Academy names such as Beacon and Signal Academy.
  • As of Volume 3, the Kingdom is represented by the color white in the World of Remnant episodes.
  • Atlas' emblem features a staff, which is a reference to the Relic of Creation hidden in the Vault underneath its Academy, Atlas.
  • In the Camp Camp episode, "Into Town", David can be seen shopping in a hardware store with the same name.
  • The Kingdom was described as "The America of Remnant" and compared to the products of Apple".[12]
  • The commentary describes Mantle as more utilitarian looking and compared to the movie Blade Runner, while Atlas was made to look like it was created by Apple. Two different futuristic looks.[13]
    • The Kingdom of Atlas represents two different versions of America with Mantle representing the cities and Atlas representing technology.
  • The fall of Atlas, and the subsequent flooding of both it and Mantle, may allude to the legend of Atlantis; an ancient yet advanced city who's hubris caused its eventual sinking.

Image Gallery[]

RWBY[]

RWBY: World of Remnant[]

RWBY: Amity Arena[]

References[]

Locations
Minor Locations
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