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Mantle was old news - and the Kingdom of Atlas was born. "A golden age of prosperity", they called it - but those left behind in Mantle would probably tell you it was the coldest winter they ever knew.

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Mantle was a city in the former Kingdom of Atlas, located on the northern continent of Solitas. It was the former capital of the now-defunct Kingdom of Mantle, later known as Atlas. It was located under the floating island of Atlas City.

In "The Final Word", it was destroyed when the city of Atlas crashed into it. At least thousands of its population were transported to Vacuo beforehand, using the Relic of Creation to create a pathway.[1]

Description[]

Mantleelectoralmap

An electoral map of Mantle, seen on James Ironwood's Scroll

The city was situated on the landmass of Solitas. It was located on the edge of a giant crater that formerly housed the flying island of Atlas. Tethers from the Snow Shoe Shipping Facility used to send Dust to Atlas connected Mantle to the flying city.

The majority of the city was dense and industrial with a wall used to separate it from Solitas' Tundra and the Grimm living in them. By Volume 7, the wall was damaged and needed to be repaired with supplies to do so, with them instead being diverted to Amity Communications Tower. A gray fog covered the city due to the effects of Dust mining, giving everything a darker tone. Many signs and billboards hung on the tall buildings. Orange lighting throughout Mantle was part of the city's heating grid.

Due to having the military and government centralized in Atlas, Mantle's economic and living condition were poor in comparison to the latter and had only continued to plummet due to the Dust Embargo implemented by James Ironwood. In election polls, Mantle was shown to have a total of 41 voting districts on electoral maps.

Many people attempted to try improving Mantle's working conditions throughout it's history, including the Happy Huntresses who were eventually forced to steal from the military after believing that their people were attacked by them, as well as Mantle's most well-respected Union leader Hanlon Fifestone prior to the events of "RWBY: Arrowfell".

Mantle Crater[]

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The slums around the crater

In the crater directly underneath Atlas, Mantle was shown to have slums within the edges of its borders. Oscar Pine landed in these slums in "The Enemy of Trust". The crater was a mining pit with trains and other locomotives present, as well as other mining gear.

The crater was a home for many Faunus who built slums with run-down buildings and tents with tattered cloths on them to live in. After the heating grid in the city went out, the city's population was forced to temporarily relocate here to stay warm. It was also shown that the slums were built in a crate yard with crates labeled "Mantle Shipping Co". The Happy Huntresses set up a tent with their Emblem to use as a temporary base of operations.

Underneath the crater were a series of vast interconnected underground tunnels known as the "Crater Caverns". In the past, the Schnee Dust Company mined these tunnels for Dust until they eventually ran out and were abandoned by the company afterwards.[2]

History[]

Originally founded by settlers who traveled north, the Kingdom of Mantle was well-protected from the Grimm due to the harsh, cold conditions. The climate's hostility also forced the people of Mantle to adapt quickly in order to survive and led to the development of new Dust technologies.

During the Great 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.

Atlas 00017

Atlas Academy grows into the Kingdom of Atlas.

After the war, Alsius was reopened under the name Atlas Academy and was secretly given a Relic to safeguard. 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.

Mantle, as former capital, appeared to have subsequently fallen on hard times as alluded in Word of Remnant: Atlas. During the charity concert in "Tipping Point", guests converse 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 lived in the poorer city of Mantle and were economically disadvantaged themselves. The Schnee Dust Company, among others, promised those who moved to the city of Atlas jobs, though it was implied that this was not working out as well as the immigrants would have hoped.

The relationship between the Kingdom's new capital city of Atlas and its former capital Mantle seemed to have greatly diminished due to severe difference in its economic and living conditions, with Atlas having been much more well off in comparison to its former capital causing a slight rift to initially develop between the two city's citizens. Many people tried to fight for better working and living conditions in Mantle such as Mantle's most well-respected Union leader Hanlon Fifestone. At some point however, Hanlon started to work with Bram Thornmane in his conspiracy against General James Ironwood who convinced him to use his Semblance to drain the emotions of his fellow workers and weaponize them into orb that could attract the Grimm.

In the aftermath of the Fall of Beacon, both a Dust Embargo and the closing of Atlas' borders were implemented by Ironwood, in order to prevent those responsible from entering the Kingdom. However, these actions also harmed Mantle's living conditions due to the economic blow dealt to their economy.

During Team RWBY's time doing missions to help the situation in Mantle, they eventually discovered the conspiracy against Ironwood led by Thornmane who had managed to convince multiple people from different factions to assist him. Among them was Hanlon Fifestone who already started to mistreat many of his fellow workers by the time they met him. Following a fight between them, Hanlon was arrested by the Atlas Military for his part in the conspiracy. Before he was taken away however, he activated four orbs that attracted the Grimm all over Solitas. One of the orbs was hidden in Mantle and was destroyed by Team RWBY.

After Penny Polendina opened the "Crystal Nexus" gate underneath Mantle, Team RWBY met with Roane Ashwood from Team BRIR who learned that Thornmane had tricked her and her team into believing his lies. She then decided to help Team RWBY enter Fort Arrowfell by giving them her Nexus key.[3]

The tension between the two cities were worsened by Jacques Schnee, who in a bid to win the council election, shut down all of the SDC's "non-essential" operations all over Atlas, specifically those within Mantle, effectively laying off hundreds of Mantle's citizens from their jobs and leaving the rest unable to access the company's Dust supplies, eventually causing a mass riot to erupt all over Mantle.

Later, the negativity and animosity between Mantle and Atlas was worsened due to the massacre at Robyn Hill's victory party and framing of Penny Polendina for it, to the point that the major suppliers of materials for the Amity Project refused to do business or sell their product to Atlas until Mantle was repaired.

When the heating for Mantle was shut off by Arthur Watts in his plot to foster large amounts of negativity, the citizens began large scale riots and started a gigantic bonfire to keep warm, breaking into and stealing Fire Dust from shops to feed it in order to increase the fire's size. Eventually the riot grew in size and the citizens began to destroy military drones when they attempted to break up the riot. The negativity of the masses attracted a large scale Grimm invasion that successfully penetrated the cities outer wall via the unrepaired damaged parts.

Following this, Ruby's Group, the Ace Operatives, and the Happy Huntresses, along with the Atlesian army arrived in the city, working to bring citizens to safety from the Grimm using Atlesian transports to bring them to the city of Atlas. During the Battle of Mantle, Ironwood reveals the existence of Salem to the citizens of Mantle while also apprehending Tyrian Callows and Arthur Watts. After Ironwood returns to his office and learns that Cinder Fall has also infiltrated Atlas while confronting Team RWBY over lying to him and his group of followers, Salem reveals herself to everyone and tells them that she is coming to Atlas herself.

Upon hearing this, Ironwood decided to change his plan and instead use the Relic of Creation to raise Atlas and keep both Relics and the Winter Maiden out of Salem's reach. However, when Ruby's Group opposed it due to Mantle being abandoned, Ironwood puts out arrest warrants for all of them and orders the Ace-Ops to arrest them so they couldn't get in the way. After they defeat the Ace-Ops and Penny becomes the Winter Maiden instead of Winter Schnee, she leaves with the group and they head to Mantle to help the Happy Huntresses deal with getting the people of Mantle to safety.

After the group have a falling out about how to best deal with the current situation and split into two groups, Ruby's team decides to head to the Atlas Command Center to get the launch codes to Amity Communications Tower while Yang's Group decides to help the people of Mantle head to the crater to keep them warm. While Yang's Group is helping out the people, Oscar Pine is kidnapped by an intelligent Grimm known as The Hound and the group are forced to leave Mantle behind to rescue him. Ruby's Group later head to the Schnee Manor to recuperate and manage to get Whitley Schnee to help use his position in the Schnee Dust Company to send drones to help evacuate the people of Mantle to safety.

After the Battle of Atlas, Ironwood sends multiple Manta ships to destroy the drones and sends Ruby's Group a message to have Penny open the Atlas Vault within the hour, or Mantle will be destroyed using the bomb originally planned forMonstra. as the group argues on how to handle the situation, they realize that they haven't considered using the Relic of Creation themselves to evacuate both the citizens of Atlas and Mantle from the Kingdom.

After the group defeats Ironwood and restrains the Ace-Ops thanks to the help of Marrow Amin, they use the Relic and ask it's spirit Ambrosius to save Penny from succumbing to the virus by having him make her a Human body. They then ask him to create a space to help connect the cities of Atlas and Mantle to Vacuo in order evacuate both cities. However, Harriet Bree manages to escape being restrained by Marrow's Semblance thanks to Arthur Watts interfering and decides to deliver the bomb to Mantle herself with Vine Zeki, Qrow Branwen, and Robyn Hill attempting to stop her. Watts also cuts off communications in the Kingdom, preventing the group from telling both cities of their plan.

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Atlas crashes into Mantle and both cities are flooded

Harriet is talked out of bombing Mantle by her teammates and Qrow manages to stop the bomb from falling out of the ship, but Watts arms the bomb himself. Vine decides to sacrifice his life for his friends to stop the explosion from killing them using his Semblance. The remaining Ace-Ops along with Qrow and Robyn later watch Atlas fall onto Mantle and both cities are flooded with water as a result.

Layout[]

Mantle was shown to have a total of 41 voting districts on electoral maps, whether this reflected city districts is unknown.

Establishments[]

Major Establishments[]

  • Pietro's Pharmacy - a clinic owned by Pietro Polendina which provided prosthetics to the people of Mantle; first seen in "The Greatest Kingdom".
  • Schnee Dust Company Dust Shop - a shop specializing in the sales of Dust owned by the SDC; first seen in "Sparks" and was closed by Jacques Schnee in the same episode.
  • Mantle Warehouse - used as a location for Robyn Hill's election party; seen in "A Night Off".
  • Burger Bar Restaurant - used as the Happy Huntresses' hideout during the Grimm invasion in Mantle. In the bar, there was painting of the location's owners - a man with an eyepatch and a Faunus woman. Prior to the attack, the eyepatch guy was working in the mines and Faunus lady was working in Mantle, both attempting to raise money for the restaurant. Then eyepatch guy was caught in a mining accident where he lost his eye and arm, and at that point they pooled their savings and opened the restaurant.[4]
  • Snowshoe Shipping Company - A subsidiary of the Schnee Dust Company which transported refined Dust to Atlas through the pneumatic tubes that linked Mantle to the floating island.

Minor Establishments[]

  • Grocery Market - a groceries store; seen in the Volume 7 Opening.
  • Brian's Bed & Breakfast - motels services; seen in "The Greatest Kingdom".
    • "Brian" is an Irish name possibly meaning "noble" or "high", bringing about gold and purple colors to mind.
  • Mining Gear - provided mining gear; seen in "The Greatest Kingdom".
  • Mantle Daily - a news establishment, seen in "A Night Off".
  • Crater Cafe - a café establishment, seen in "A Night Off".
  • Fast - seen in "A Night Off".
  • Quality Products - seen in "Worst Case Scenario".
  • Secondhand Scrolls - seen in "Cordially Invited"; sold technology, specializing in Scrolls.
  • Garin Technologies - specializing in technology; seen in "Cordially Invited".
    • Garin is a boy's name of German origin meaning "guardian".
  • General Store - sold general goods; seen in "As Above, So Below".
  • Smithy's - seen in "As Above, So Below".
    • The word "smithy" means a blacksmith or forgery.
  • Rebecca's - seen in "As Above, So Below".
    • The name "Rebecca" means a "servant from God", bringing about white and gold colors to mind.
  • Borderside Hotel - provided hotel services; seen in "As Above, So Below".
  • Dust in the Wind - seen in "As Above, So Below".
    • Based on the name, this shop might have sold Dust.
  • Guerra Supplies - seen in "Out in the Open".
    • "Guerra" is the Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian term for "war", implying this establishment sold weaponry.
  • Sam and Weston Pawn Shops - seen in "Out in the Open".
  • Hostel - seen in "Out in the Open".
    • A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen.

Image Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • While the main four Kingdoms are represented by a distinct color, Mantle appears to have more than one color associated with it. In the RWBY: World of Remnant episodes "Atlas" and "Vacuo", representatives of Mantle are generally color-coded as dark gray-blue (distinct from the more saturated blue of Mistral) but the first settlers of the land are also shown as both white and blue-green. In earlier World of Remnant episodes, they were color-coded white, the same color that represents the successor state of Atlas.
  • Mantle can refer to the region of the earth's interior between the crust and the core, an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another and it also refers to a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl.
  • 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.[5]
    • The Kingdom of Atlas represents two different versions of America with Mantle representing the cities and Atlas representing technology.
  • During the Battle of Mantle, the city was restructured a bit to make sure the Alpha Megoliath could fit in the streets.[6]
  • In Remnant: The Game, units from Mantle have a repair time of only one turn under certain conditions.
    • In "Welcome to Beacon", Ruby Rose says that Atlas is "part of" Mantle. While this may not be true in the present day of Remnant, the game may be set at a point in the past, after the founding of Atlas but before the moving of the capital and renaming of the Kingdom.
  • The terrible state of Mantle was foreshadowed in the Atlas World of Remnant episode.

References[]

  1. The Final Word
  2. "RWBY: Arrowfell"
  3. "RWBY: Arrowfell"
  4. Sana Freeman's Twitter
  5. RWBY Volume 7 Crew Commentary - Chapter 1
  6. RWBY Volume 7 Crew Commentary - Chapter 10
Locations
Minor Locations
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