Sun King

The Sun King was the grandson of Dyeus Pitr of Lansinar. He attempted to claim the throne of Atlantia but was defeated by Aurakles and a time-lost Batman.

Bill Willingham created the original Sun King as an enemy for the Shadowpact. However, our version is more like Doctor Gotham, a warlock who was allied with the Sun King and spent forty thousand years asleep under Gotham City.

Biography

The Orichalcum Age

We do not know the true name of the mage who styled himself the Sun King. However, we do know something of his lineage. He was the only son of Paean of Lansinar and the great-grandson of the Old Power, Kronus. Despite being born into the most technologically advanced civilisation of his time, the Sun King rejected the technologies and conveniences of his birthplace. Instead, he became obsessed with the magic of the Atlantean people. Yet he was repeatedly denied permission to study at their academies by the Lansinarian authorities.

His father, Paean, was the faithful squire to his brother, Aurakles (the Sun King’s uncle), the great hero of Lansinar. While Paean was good-natured and a loving father, he does not seem to have connected emotionally or philosophically with his son. Thus, while Paean was on an adventure into outer space, the Sun King deserted Lansinar and disguised himself as a humble acolyte to join the Great Academy of Magic in Evaestedt, Thule. He excelled in his studies and eventually rose to the rank of Arch Magnus.

While the Sun King concealed his identity from the Thurians, he was eventually discovered by Kronus, his great-grandfather. Kronos convinced the Sun King that he should not skulk in secret but instead should embrace his destiny to rule. Thus, the Sun King returned to Lansinar and acted as an inside contact for Kronus’s attack alongside the surviving members of the 666 Monsters of Chaos. Aurakles and Dyeus repulsed that attack, but the Sun King’s turn to outright enmity towards Atlantis and Lansinar had been set.

Kronos had been granted several weapons from the War Menagerie of Apokolips by Matron Moreau. This included a reprogrammed New Genesisan Hyper Adapter, which had become a sentient weapon capable of terraforming entire worlds. The Sun King and the weapon, which called itself Barbatos, attempted to blackmail Atlantiades (the Younger) into ceding the throne of Atlantia to him. He almost succeeded, but for the intercession of Aurakles and the time-lost Batman from the far future, he was defeated.

However, the defeat was not without repercussions. The Hyper Adapter partially fired, sculpting the coastline of Maine into its present form and altering the geology that forms modern-day Gotham. Moreover, it locked onto Batman as its enemy and pursued him relentlessly through time, its dark influence casting a shadow over Gotham City even into the present day. As for the Sun King himself, he was buried within the temple he had built and forgotten for tens of thousands of years.

Family