The Atlantean empire had a political structure which was split into 12 major sections. They allong with their symbols will be explained here.
The first section: the emperor[]
The symbol for the emperor
The emperor, also known as the first section was a single person who had nearly all of the power. He signed contracts and was part of the imperial council. Normally the title of emperor was passed down from father to son. However, about one-in-five emperors was a woman. An emperor’s rule would end when he died or resigned. However, it is estimated that one-in-ten emperors was assassinated. The symbol for the emperor were a circle and a square, the circle represented the emperor self and the square the people, it shows that the emperor was more important than the people (circle is above the square), but also that he serves the people (pieces of the square not under the circle).
The second section: the imperial council[]
The symbol for the imperial council
The imperial council controlled the internal affairs, helping colonies and settling debates between regions. The council consisted of 143 people. It would take 100 votes against what the emperor decided to stop it from happening. These 143 people were democratically elected by the inhabitants of the empire. Each one of the counselors ruled for three years, and could rule four times. The imperial council met every day in the imperial palace, in Kleitow. The central circle of the symbol represents the emperor, the middle on the council and the outer one the people, the rectangle is the communication between the emperor, council and population.
The third section: the priest king[]
The symbol for the priest king
The priest king was the leader of the Atlantean religion. He controlled the religion from the very top, he decided what god should be worshipped, when people would get a holiday, etc. One of the most famous priest kings was Thomeow, literally meaning ‘soothsayer’. He made a lot of reforms including - but not limited to - legalizing local ‘cults’ (groups who worshipped one god above the rest). He studied geometry and mathematics. The symbol for the priest king is quite mysterious, but some things have been discovered or theorized. For example the circle stands for the religion, the 8 petels probably represent several things, one of them is Xadow, another one is the 4 primary gods, yet another one is the elemental gods and a fourth one is the secondary gods. The four other petels are more mysterious, but it is almost universally agreed that one of the petels stands for the believers, another one is the priests and the third one is the priest king. The meaning of the last petel is unknown and the theories vary a lot.
The fourth section: the military[]
The symbol of the Atlantean military
This section is pretty self explanatory, the military was in charge of protecting the empire from the ‘outsiders’ and expanding the empire. The hierarchy of the military was similar to the Roman or Greek but had its fair share of differences. The military was also the only organization for which you had to have (military) education in order to legally climb up the hierarchy. The symbol for the military was the Atlantean letter for ‘Z’, being the first letter of the Atlantean zulaplentow, meaning army or military.
The fifth section: the internal military[]
Symbol of the internal military
The internal military was an organization that was used to preserve public order. It was a combination of what we would call the police and firefighters. They were used to put out fires, stop protests, undermine rebellions and investigate crimes. A part of the fifth section, called the imperial guard, protected the emperor and the counselors and the palace. The fifth section had barracks in every section (agglomeration). Their symbol is a helmet with a vine growing from it. The vine -which is in Atlantean culture a symbol for peace and prosperity- represents that the organization creates peace. The helmet shows that they weren’t afraid to use brute force and the feathers on top represent their flexibility and speed.
The sixth section: Kwaletriw[]
The symbol of the Kwaletriw
The kwaletriw (literally ‘meaning they who guard’) are a trio that are tasked by watching over the national treasury. They did this by informing the emperor every week of what they had spent and how much money they still had. While they didn’t have any actual power, they were very important and most emperors listened very well to the Kwaletriw. The few that didn’t, often brought their empire into an economical crisis and usually lost their power because of revolutions, not only from the normal populace but also from seven of the 12 sections. Their symbol represents two arms - one from the imperial council and emperor and the other one the Kwaletriw themselves - holding a weird shape. In the beginning historians had no idea what this central thing was until they discovered the treasury, a massive tower in that exact shape, with that symbol all over the place. It is believed that symbol represents money, wealth, treasure and power.
The seventh section: the judicial system[]
The symbol for the judicial system
The Atlantean judicial system was, unlike that of Rome, a very well organized system where everyone was equal for the law, no matter how powerfull or rich you were, the only members ‘immune’ to the law were the emperor, priest king and imperial council. Some of the laws enforced by this section were: Do not kill, do not steel and many more. A copy of the Atlantean laws was discovered on the African coast, the empire had over 3000 laws and most of them are pretty advanced with the exception of slavery which was still allowed. The symbol represents the judges (left circle), the people (right circle), the law (rectangle) and how all of them are unified (the large circle).
The eighth section: the sciences[]
The symbol for the sciences
The sciences were an organization that was responsible for creating the technology of the empire. They invented: a primitive steam, balloons (which could fly al the way from the iberian peninsula to the continent of Atlantis, very primitive cars and even a type of plane which could fly up to 15 km far. The symbol’s meaning is based on records but also just speculation. The top (horizontal) line represents all lf science, the left (vertical) line stand for technology, the right (vertical line) stands for science’s ability to explain the natural world, the central (vertical) line stands for the scientists themselves.
The ninth section: the urban order[]
The ninth section was not really like the other eleven sections. In contrast to the other sections, this section has a different group of people (usually 3 or 4) who are in charge of the state of the city. For example if a temple was destroyed during a rebellion, than the urban order would ask for money from the aldermen of that city and then organize the reconstruction. They did not create new buildings, that was the job of the aldermen.