Homo Mermanus - History

History

The Homo mermanus are often referred to as Atlanteans, as it is in the city of Atlantis that their first complex society emerged. Like humans they learned to domesticate animals, such as dolphins, while humans domesticated horses, dogs and camels.

Atlantis itself had been a small above ground continent with many human settlements, when an event 10,000 years ago called the "Great Cataclysm" caused it to be submerged into the sea. 2,000 years later, a group of Homo mermanus made the ruins of the human settlements in Atlantis their home and went on to develop a society there using as much of the material as they could scavenge from the wreckage. Many of the warring tribes united under a single emperor (although by the 20th century there were still some barbarian tribes).

500 years after the settlement of Atlantis, another group of Homo mermanus left Atlantis to found their own city -this time in a part of the ruins of another continent submerged during the Great Cataclysm - Lemuria in the Pacific Ocean.

These "Lemurians" would discover the Serpent Crown in the ruins of their city, and through their Leader Naga's exposure and extensive use of the ancient mystical device, they would become more serpent-like in appearance than their Atlantean cousins.

Many Atlanteans worship Neptune, Roman god of the sea.

During the 20th century the Homo mermanus race began to come into sustained contact with their human cousins. These contacts have often been hostile, and have included many aborted invasions (Atlantis Attacks etc.) and even separate occasions when large numbers of Homo mermanus were rendered comatose or sterilized for periods. During the Second World War the kingdom of Atlantis also fought against the Axis Powers in alliance with the Allied Powers.

However, not all interactions between Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus have been hostile - during the 1920s a Homo mermanus female, Princess Fen of Atlantis mated with the human sea captain Leonard McKenzie - a union which produced the first human/Atlantean hybrid - Namor {avenging son in atlantean}, the Sub-Mariner.

In the aftermath of the Civil War and the World War Hulk events the homo mermanus, being blamed for the terrorism due to the actions of Kamar, militaristic son of Namor, are forced to leave the seas, using the established sleeper cells to live within humanity. The Atlantean Army resided in Latveria, guests of Doctor Doom, and the civilians lived alongside the rest of humanity.

After their leader Namor allied with the X-Men, the Atlanteans began to build a support pillar that would keep the newly established mutant nation of Utopia (near the coast of San Francisco) from sinking. Around this pillar, called the Atlantean column, they established a city called New Atlantis.