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Thoughts on ATLAS Characters?


Butterrobber202

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Making an ATLAS character is just like making any character from a potentially contentious background: The character has to be foremost a person, not an ATLAS member.


What I mean by that is you should not make the character being ATLAS their single defining characteristic. That leads to shallow characters that become stale to play and observe. A way to flesh our your character is really delve into where they are from, and the specific views they carry with them - and why. 'Why' can be just as important as 'what.'


The primary way I suggest making a character from Sol, regardless of their political views, is to consider where they are from. The lore writers have put an incredible amount of effort into each location and background in order to give you the most information possible. There are even suggested majority views to conform (or not!) to, things to know, prejudices to have, and full character concepts!


However, as I said earlier, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that you're making a character, not a caricature.

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Things to never forget:

  • ATLAS is literally just the nationalist party of Sol. Most of them don't hate aliens. Most of them don't hate robots. Most of them don't love war criminals. Most of them just want to put Humans first, as a human government, and would likely expect other governments of other species to do the same.
  • Your character moved to Tau Ceti. This means that they live with aliens, whether they like it or not, and knowingly signed up for one of (if not the) the most pro-xeno human corporations in our lore.
  • They fund the IAC, which assists all species. They don't hate aliens. They're not against helping aliens. They're just against putting them FIRST.
  • They come from Sol, which is pretty clearly an authoritarian state (though not a dystopic one). This will greatly influence their point of view.

 

With that out the way, I want to make this quite clear: ATLAS aren't the bad guys. They might be the bad guys to your character, but they aren't the bad guys in the setting. Their opinions are not unfounded. It's not like they're big bad racists. Our lore has a lot of shades of grey, and they have some very strong points about some elements of alien cultures being very dangerous to humanity. To give only a few examples:

  • Tajara are so politically divisive that they can't stop having civil wars. They're far, far more likely to engage in terrorism or political extremism than humans. Unlike Unathi, they don't need to sign a pledge of loyalty in Biesel to be granted most rights.
  • Unathi are sexist towards their own species. They are capable of tearing apart a normal human with ease, and their sense of honor makes it difficult for them to co-exist with humanity given that they are completely at fealty with their clan rather than the nation they reside in.
  • Vaurca are far and away the most egregious offender, with almost all of them within Sol occupying slums and draining resources. They are all capable of tearing apart humans with ease. Their technology is mysterious, their motives unknown, and they are seeking to move their central hive to Biesel. Any one of them could be a hidden, bloodlusting terrorist, they would let the most influential human on earth die to save one of their own, they can't form human connections in any real meaningful way, and they collectively easily hold enough power to overthrow humanity.
  • Dionaea's first interaction with humanity was to tear apart a ship of researchers and devour them. They have no human emotion, operate bipedally for convenience alone, and are practically immortal, unkillable entities who build colonies of their own flesh. They have no recognizable human motives bar the absorption of knowledge and the advancement of their own species.
  • ATLAS pushes for a stronger navy and capability to protect itself, which recent events (the attacks on Elyra, the risk of war with Tau Ceti, and the perceived invasion of the Lii'dra) have proved is incredibly necessary.

 

Admiral Frost showed up out of nowhere and saved the lives of tens of thousands of people who were abducted. He's performing seemingly impossible tasks as the current governments seem to ignore the growing threats of the galaxy. He represents ATLAS supports combined desire for action, for a figurehead, for a hero.


And, in closing, don't be upset when people jump on your character for being racist. People do that because they don't think about what the lore and setting means. Stand by your opinions realistically. Back down from fights. But don't change your characters views to 'fit in' with the clique. Act like a real person who cares about his family and friends in the face of an increasingly dangerous universe. Act like a real person who enjoys the company of Unathi, who believes they are very intelligent, but believes that it is in everyone's best interest if they are left to their own devices. Play a character who believes in ATLAS, not ATLAS who is portrayed in a character.

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Orinas and turtle hit the nail on the head really. Like with all concepts being a member of a faction will be part of the character not THE character and there a multiple sensible reasons for supporting ATLAS, just think from your characters perspective why they'd matter to them.

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