Theme

Atlantis

Atlantis is a fictional island in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias, illustrating the hubris of nations. The punishment of the Gods was to let Atlantis submerge into the sea.

The story may be fictional but Atlantis has lived on in literature and fiction and even given birth to pseudoscience on lost civilizations. Others have searched for the inspiration to the Atlantis myth and a common contender is the island of Thera, that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in the mid-second millennium BC.

The cataclysms

The eruption was one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history. Not only did it devastate the island of Thera but also the communities and agricultural areas on nearby islands through related earthquakes and tsunamis and some think it contributed to the fall of the Minoan civilization.

The calamities of the game are all inspired by those historic cataclysms and have also been linked to one element each to link the closer to the wrath of Gods: Volcanic eruption (Fire), Earthquake (Earth), Flood (Water) and Storm (Air). The word flood was used instead of the modern but exotic word tsunami while the storm made more sense than ash falls, since I needed to link a cataclysm to the "corners" of the map.

The island

Thera is today known under the name Santorini and its characteristic looks clearly shows the impact of the ancient volcanic eruption. Actually, a typical game of Apokalypsis turns the round island into scattered land tiles not unlike Santorini!

Plato

Atlantis

Santorini