Prometheus Overload: Mythologized

Athena explains why she had to leave.

This vision occurs after releasing Prometheus in the Megastructure.

Miranda: New Jerusalem sounds like such a beautiful place. So… how did you decide to leave? I know what we’re trying to accomplish here, and I believe in it, but for you, New Jerusalem was home. What changed that?

Athena: It took me a long time to realize that something was wrong. Oh, I’d noticed that something was off, that something had changed since the early days, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it… so I ignored it. And then one day I woke up to realize I was no longer Athena. Instead, I had been transformed into “the Founder” – a remote figure of legend. Mythologized in my own time.

Miranda: But if it bothered you, couldn’t you just talk to them? If you share the truth with someone, they should change their mind, shouldn’t they?

Athena: I wish it worked that way, Miranda, I really do. But I barely knew the latest generations. In the beginning, I was there for every birth. I explained our history, talked about our future… but at some point I got so busy building that future that I lost touch. They thought of me as a remote figure because that’s what I was.

Miranda: But couldn’t you change that?

Athena: I tried. But they already saw me as the Founder. The myth was too powerful. And it was already taking on a life of its own. I’d set a goal of 1000 citizens. The number was arbitrary – just a nice round number, nothing more. But just like I became the Founder, it became “the Goal” – another part of the myth. And maybe that could have been alright. Myths are part of who we are. But something else crept it. The old human self-hatred.

Miranda: So why didn’t you just tell them to change? To go a different way? They would’ve listened to you.

Athena: No… they would have obeyed me. Like my siblings in the Simulation had obeyed. And that’s when I realized I had to leave.

Cornelius: We can show them the future, Miranda, but we can’t force them to accept it.