I got to thinking about what other lost civilizations there are in the Hollow Earth. Certainly the Hollow Earth is filled with the remnants of Atlantean civilization, but what about the ruins of other civilizations that rose and then collapsed under the constant assault of the extremely hostile environment of the Hollow Earth? Mysteries of the Hollow Earth gave us few fixed cities or expanding empires in the Hollow Earth. At first I chalked that up to the constant assault by dinosaurs and megafauna tending to keep civilization in check by limiting the amount of agriculture available to any given society. If you can’t farm, you can’t support large populations, you can’t have cities, and you can’t have an empire. But I think the real reason for the lack of expanding civilizations is the piratical nature of the most powerful societies in the Hollow Earth. Obviously the descendants of the pirate crews prey on other societies in the Hollow Earth, including each other. All that 16th and 17th Century black-powder technology gives them a hell of an advantage- they can plan and direct their raids over great nautical distances. But while maneuverability and firepower are their greatest assets, they don’t have great numbers and, I suspect, don’t get very far inland unless the rewards are great and the risks are low. Then there’s the Hawkmen of the Aerie. But since their technology is basically Iron-age level and they cannot direct the Aerie’s random path through the Hollow Earth, they are limited to opportunistic raids. That’s slightly ameliorated by the fact that they’ve got a pretty good idea where they are at any given time. They can plan to raid a place as they approach, but often times they’ll return to good hunting grounds only to find their prey has moved on or been destroyed. But the real civilization-stompers are probably those Vril-ya dicks wandering around the inner seas on their predatory island of Atlantis and all their scavenged technology. Yes, their flying disks’ range is limited, but it’s good enough for raiding. They can go where they want, when they want. Then there’s that nasty weather control system they have for offense and defense. The purpose of their raids are two-fold- raiding for slaves and supplies is all well and good, but their primary goal (I suspect) is to wreck any society before it can challenge the primacy of the Vril-ya. And since the Vril-ya have been at this since the Atlanteans took their leave of the Hollow Earth (thousands of years ago, at least) then there are probably plenty of cultures who have risen and fallen (or been destroyed by the Vril-Ya) inside the Hollow Earth. P.S. The image is from George Pals (not very weak and filled with stock footage and reused props & sets) Atlantis The Lost Continent from 1961.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 02:10:18 +0000
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