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Atlantean Legends: General Sevalis and the Chests of the Sea


When the God of the Sea forbade the use of the Eye of Poseidon and the Scepter of Ampheres, the priests at the Temple of Poseidon in Atlantis forged two sacred chests, which they called the Chests of the Sea in which to store the treasures. Upon their completion, Poseidon was pleased and he offered the Atlanteans solace. If any one were to use his treasures, they need only return them to the chests and their curse would be lifted. For this gift, the Atlanteans were grateful and the Chests of the Sea became just as renowned as the treasures they bore. As time passed by, only few remembered the importance of Poseidon’s treasures and the chests that bore them.

Two-hundred years before the destruction of Atlantis, a great war raged between the Atlanteans and their enemy to the east, the Athenians. What they were fighting for, how long the war lasted, and who won, no one person can be certain. What is known are the feats of one general and a band of warriors that secretly

infiltrated the City of Atlantis.

Deep in the shadow of night beneath the pale half-moon, the Athenian general Sevalis of Haros and his several dozen warriors quietly and one by one made their way into the City of Atlantis, disguised as beggars and merchants. Over the course of several hours, they made their way through the city and to the canal that surrounds the central island of the city. Discretely, they waded through the water until they came to the western-most edge, which was closest to the Palace of the Kings. Sevalis knew that if they passed through the ten gardens and past the palace, he would reach the Temple of Poseidon and fulfill his goal.

Several months earlier, the Athenian king heard reference to the treasures that Poseidon had placed in the care of the priests at his temple in Atlantis. The possession of these treasures would give Athens immediate leverage over Atlantis and might even end the war with their quick surrender. For the purpose of obtaining these artifacts, the Athenian king sent Sevalis to Atlantis.

With the utmost skill, Sevalis and his men quietly broke away a small section of the wall; a hole big enough for one man to get through. Silently they filtered through and slinked around the Palace of the Kings and its surrounding gardens and made their way to the Temple of Poseidon at the city’s center. With five men, Sevalis sneaked into the temple and made his way to the top-most tier of structure and stole the two Chests of the Sea.

As he and his men made their way back to the break in the wall, they met the resistance of the Atlantean guard. Most of the general’s men were killed during this altercation, but Sevalis and a few of his men made it back to the wall and escaped the city. What Sevalis did not know, was that as he and his band of warriors made their way toward the Temple of Poseidon, the arch priest saw their shadows in the moon light and hid the Eye of Poseidon and the Scepter of Ampheres in an underground chamber. The priest intentionally left the Chests of the Sea for Sevalis to find, though he later regretted it.

It was not until Sevalis returned to his ship and set sail for Athens that he bothered to look inside of the chests. He was most displeased with their vacancy, and now unable to re-penetrate the City of Atlantis, he faced his fate and returned to the king in Athens. The king, although quite furious, was not as mad as Sevalis would have expected. The king reasoned that Poseidon did not wish the removal of these treasures and therefore made them disappear. As a consolation for his efforts, the king gave one chest to Sevalis and kept the other at the Temple of Zeus in Athens, assuming that they held no real value.

As time passed, the Athenian king learned of the importance of the Chests of the Sea and sent for Sevalis to return the chest he had given him. The king promised that the two chests would ensure the safety of the Athenians if they were to ever be attacked by Atlantis. Sevalis, unfortunately, no longer possessed the second chest. During his travels, he had bartered it away for goods in a city far south of Athens, on the other side of the sea in the Realm of Saїs. Threatened with the death and dismemberment of his family, Sevalis left for Saїs and never returned to Athens. After the months of his absence turned into a year, the Athenian king assumed Sevalis could not find the chest and dared not return without it. Sevalis’ family was executed in the king’s anger. No one outside of the general’s crew knew the location of Saїs at that time. The king’s ambitions to find the second chest died with him and it was not spoken of again.

In truth, Sevalis did arrive in the Realm of SaÑ—s, but the Saitians refused to return him the chest, no matter their price. The general grew angry and in this blunder, he attacked the Saitians, to which they quickly killed him in their own defense. The few of his men who survived left SaÑ—s immediately, but found they could not sail their ship effectively with so few men and were soon shipwrecked. None survived.

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