Character Analysis: Atlas au Raa

“Don’t forget the scalps.”

We hear initially Atlas au Raa was a patron of the Grand Library of Ptolemy, and comments upon the underappreciated nature of a famous Violet thespian when not the sudden presence leading an assassination unit overseeing boobytrapped impalements in the deserts of Mercury. Atlas was friend to a great man, beloved by many, killed in a fake accident.

Atlas is more heinous a villain than a modern contemporary, such as a Roose Bolton, despite committing similar atrocities. Rather than being inhuman in sentiment and action, he is expressly soulful. Appreciation for the theatre (even wearing an elaborate wig for some dark comedy given this seems not to fit the persona he openly detaches from being a situation of psychological embellishment or mantling) and literature is part of Atlas’s character, and he was used as a tool after being taken as a child hostage, simply responding by following his tyrannical Society. The soft words may actually be well intentioned to those he speaks with, to estranged family members and those of Gold. Never heeded. Never a lie, because it’s quite simple for a champion literally modelled to take the mantle of a “Fear Knight”, just embodies that archetype as a soldier. Mutilate and torture, terrify, paralyse, stabilise Gold and maintain the solar hierarchy. Pierce Brown does make an intelligent point alongside an impressive span of betrayal and intakes of breath he forces readers to read because the villains and antagonists are artful, expressive, intelligent beings.

Rather than the banality or the stupidity of evil, a darkling thought I’ve only recently come to realise is a person willing to commit evil, while soulful, obsessed of rationale is a threat in how they can pave over the atrocities. In an empire of Napoleons, a Sun Tzu with the mind of Vlad III facing the boyars sticks out by merit of his ability to terrifying many quite dangerous characters, swooping in to command the defilement of a beaten man, or be the lynchpin of a barbarian empire he was thrown into to not even destroy, but as a means of removing a noble with a good name who learned quite cooly the sour nature of the world and that he can enforce its rule by merit no matter the consequences.

The twisting of fatherhood in Raa’s character, being a sterile donor for what’s called an explicit “experiment” and calling his son by title rather than name, and propping up a hideously barbaric regime which sadistically mutilates an emerging paganistic culture, with himself as the dread “Allfather” is a kind of breathtaking evil, fitting with a theme in the second trilogy that a failed father or a neglectful one is something of a catalyst for people who are destabilised and scarred over time, bereft of the best opportunities in life, not seen as anything beyond genetic refuse, or an animate mistake or bland addition to territory and scheming.

Mutilation as a means rather than an end is a peculiarly sinister touch also, Atlas being unlike the typical butcher or villain going so far as to lose limbs simply to emulate another, reflecting upon a plan while waiting for Carver artisans to reattach his own arms. Like a doll, devoid of something, or rather, past our common perspective and seeing the body as merely a utility. After stealing the biological parts needed to fool scanners, to unlock a world’s codes Atlas calmly orders with a little respect a painless passing for a “tough man”, the enemy Consul he captured. Red Rising is adept with using medical breakthroughs and speculative genetic choices to press how far human beings could and would go.

Atlas expressly finds the question he acts to betray his own as part of his orders disgusting, expressing sheer distain to be compared to the villain of the first trilogy, Adrius au Augustus, an expressly sociopathic and psychotic enemy to anyone around him.

“I am in agony, but these matters are not personal. These are matters of state. The highest matters of humankind.”

Another shock, part of the enjoyable surprise of Atlas au Raa’s character are the small scraps of his own thoughts and words. Brotherhood, where quite savage people become fast friends and heroes also has this parallel, where one seeing beyond caste line is reassured by a friend, though ultimately not encouraging the Rising’s desire for freedom. One of many diabolically intelligent, violently minded, philosophical actors on a stage rife with dissent, growth, loss, and drive to set about a different age.

References:

Brown, P. Iron Gold. Hodder & Stoughton. 2018

Brown, P. Dark Age. Hodder & Stoughton. 2019

Brown, P. Light Bringer. Hodder & Stoughton. 2023