Atlas: A Closer Look

By: HiRezHoney | 2021/11/22

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WHO IS ATLAS?

"Atlas the baleful; he knows the depths of all the seas, and he, no other, holds the tall pillars that keep the sky and earth apart." – Homer, The Odyssey, 8th Century BC

In mythology there are many types of supernatural beings, none more powerful or intimidating than the Greek Titans.

Titans were the first gods, born directly from the primordial Uranus and Gaia. The Titan Cronus rose up against his father Uranus and defeated him – creating a golden age where the Titans ruled the cosmos and humanity prospered in limitless paradise and peace.

Cronus had learned from Gaia that he too was destined to be overthrown by his son. So as he and his partner, Rhea, bore each child, Cronus would devour them. Rhea, distraught by this, set in motion a plan to save the 6th child: Zeus. She gave birth to him in secret and provided Cronus with a stone as a decoy. Years later Zeus would, of course, challenge Cronus for the rule of the universe. He would free his siblings, the other future Olympian gods, and wage a ten year war against the Titans known as the Titanomachy.

The Olympians were victorious. Most of the Titans would be imprisoned in Tartarus, the darkest depth of the underworld, as punishment for their defeat. However, some of the Titans were sent to various other punishments. Atlas was sentenced to hold up the sky from the earth, eternally bearing the entire weight of the cosmos on his shoulders.

Atlas will be playing an interesting role in the SMITE storyline: what if he just… let go? What if he stopped, refused, or cast off this burden? When offered this option Atlas has to seriously consider it, and there will be dire consequences regardless of his decision.

OUR VISION

The title of “Titan” brings along high expectations. In many traditional works of art the Titans look exactly like the gods of Olympus, but modern interpretations often have some significant visual changes to them, and we intended to do the same.

We want Titans in SMITE to stand out from the rest of the roster. We have already set a precedent for Titans in our universe through the game mechanic of Titan bosses – the ones players must slay to win the game. We will draw inspiration from these, as well as taking strong themes from Atlas’ unique persona.

Atlas is not only strong, he is also described as the wisest of the Titans. He was well versed in many scholarly arts such as Philosophy, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Some sources even say he was the original inventor of astronomy, and the world’s first astronomer.

CORE THEMES

• Theme – Perseverance – Atlas at his core is a myth about never giving up, about enduring through impossible challenges. He was given a near impossible task that he upheld for millenia.
• Visuals – Cosmic Strength – Atlas is solid as a rock, unflinching, and extremely strong. How else would someone be able to hold such a weight for so long? He also has a close connectivity to the concepts of space, the cosmos, or the universe.
• Personality – Experience – Atlas has been through a lot. He was born into direct strife between his brother and father, he fought the gods of Olympus, and then watched the entire planet develop from afar. He carries all of this with him on the battleground.
• Perspective – Ancient – The Titans are seldom seen or heard from. Atlas was all but forgotten by Zeus and the modern gods of the SMITE universe. He is a relic of the past, or so they thought.

ARTISTIC PROCESS

What are the key visual traits that come to mind with Atlas and the Titans?

Atlas has an extremely iconic look of him holding up a massive orb. There are many famous artworks of it, and it was obviously something we grasped onto as a major theme from our early brainstorming processes.

Due to these artworks, there is a common misconception that Atlas holds the Earth on his back. What this is actually supposed to be is a Spherical Astrolabe. A tool for measuring the cosmos, which represents the cosmos itself in depictions of Atlas.

We started off with the idea of the Astrolabe being a key focal point for the cosmic Titan.

Earlier iterations of Atlas experimented with some otherworldly body types. Extra limbs, floating body, non-human faces were all considered but ultimately ruled out as they just didn’t feel like Atlas. Atlas is pretty clearly described and depicted as having a traditional human form, and we felt confident we could deliver something that was impressive for him without those more wild physical features.



So what other physical features did we decide on for Atlas? He is big. All SMITE Titans are much larger than our normal gods. Atlas won’t be as big as them for gameplay reasons, but he will be taller than the average god, with his astrolabe adding a significant amount of height on top of that. He is also stone-skinned. In a myth relating to Perseus Atlas was turned to stone. This gave the character a unique look which separated him from the Olympians while also being a nod to a specific myth.



After a few iterations the god and his weapon found their final form. The concept artist devised some impressive armor for this new guardian which complimented his themes of strength and the cosmos. His astrolabe became truly a god-level instrument, containing a living cosmos within it. His stone skin fit into his themes and color palette beautifully, and his hair became cosmic as a symbol of the endless space he had carried for so long. We liked the cosmic hair so much that the final model actually has his cosmic beard and eyebrows as well.

GAMEPLAY

Atlas is a traditional guardian, focused around crowd control and bolstering allies or hindering enemies. He is designed specifically to be a duo lane guardian. Although we fully expect players and pros to try him in the Solo Lane, he will likely struggle there. Atlas can be played in an aggressive fashion, setting up kills for his team mates, but he can also be played as a true peel guardian. We believe that he can be flexible in his play style while still being a Support.

Unique Gameplay Features

• The Astrolabe is Atlas’ primary unique gameplay feature and it heavily influences the rest of his kit.
• The Astrolabe is the first SMITE weapon with true object permanence and transference. When most gods throw their weapons, it’s just an ethereal copy, but when Atlas does it the weapon actually leaves him, changing his animation set and his abilities
• Atlas can throw his Astrolabe with his first ability to deploy it to a location. While deployed Atlas’ basic attacks and second ability will swap to types of attacks
• Atlas’ Basic attacks are slower and heavier than average when holding his weapon, and become ranged AoE attacks around the deployed Astrolabe when he is not holding it.
• Atlas’ Basic attacks can also become empowered into a heavy slam with soft CC through his passive ability
• Atlas can pick up and throw enemy gods with a non-ultimate ability
• Atlas has an ultimate that is both a large AoE damage and debuff area as well as a global ranged skill shot

SMITE Season 8 will be ending with the much awaited Guardian for the year. We know players have been eagerly awaiting a new Support, and we only wish we could have gotten him to you sooner. December is the time for giving and caring, so why not become a Support main and aid your allies on the battleground with Atlas?! Surely the burden of carrying your team can’t be as heavy as the entirety of the universe, can it?


Source: https://www.smitegame.com/news/atlas-a-closer-look/