The Goddess of Atvatabar: Being the history of the discovery of the interior world and conquest of Atvatabar

In Short

When an Arctic expedition sails through an open polar chasm into the hollow center of the Earth, Commander Lexington White discovers Atvatabar, an opulent, technologically advanced civilization under a perpetual central sun. In this interior realm of reduced gravity, flying machines, and living plant-animals, spiritual power is embodied by the supreme goddess Lyone. Lexington falls in love with Lyone, sparking a religious schism and a catastrophic civil war over her right to renounce her vows. After battles featuring flying armies and magnetic weapons, the invaders conquer Atvatabar, leading to Lexington's coronation alongside his reborn queen.

The Story

Commander Lexington White leads a scientific expedition aboard the steamship Polar King, aiming to discover the North Pole. Beyond the ice, the crew enters a vast polar gulf that leads directly into the hollow interior of the Earth. Within this inner world, illuminated by a central sun hanging thirty-five hundred miles overhead, they find an ocean surrounded by populated continents and a land where reduced gravity grants humans extraordinary physical buoyancy.

The explorers make contact with Atvatabar, a prosperous empire with high technology and a unique culture. Welcomed by King Aldemegry Bhoolmakar and his officials, Lexington and his crew are introduced to a society that worships ideal inventors, artists, and spiritual forces. At the sacred palace of Egyplosis, Lexington meets Lyone, the Supreme Goddess of Atvatabar, who embodies romantic, ideal, and hopeless love. Although bound by strict vows of celibacy and spiritual devotion, Lyone returns Lexington's affection, causing a crisis in a faith that demands absolute detachment from physical union.

Recognizing that her love for Lexington violates the dogmas of her office, Lyone resolves to renounce her position, triggering a political and religious upheaval. High priests and conservative leaders view this as a betrayal that threatens to destroy the spiritual foundation of Atvatabar. The crisis escalates into an all-out civil war between the royal forces of King Bhoolmakar and the reformist faction aligned with Lexington and Lyone.

armed with terrorite guns and supported by allied aerial fleets, Lexington's forces engage the vast winged armies of Atvatabar in dramatic mid-air battles. Lyone dies during the turmoil, but through the occult spiritual sciences of the realm, her soul is preserved and eventually reincarnated into a new body. Lexington's forces achieve victory over the royalist military, and King Bhoolmakar dies shortly after the defeat of his regime. With the old order overthrown, Lexington and the resurrected Lyone are united in a combined ceremony of marriage and coronation, becoming the King and Queen of Atvatabar and ushering in a new era of trade and exploration between the inner and outer worlds.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins Lexington White equips the Polar King with advanced steam engines, heavy weaponry, and specialized uniforms before setting sail for the far north. After quelling a potential mutiny by allowing frightened crew members to depart in a boat, the ship crosses the polar ice-foot and enters a subterranean gulf.

Discovery of the interior world Sailing into the interior sphere, the crew experiences a dramatic loss of physical weight and discovers a tropical realm lit by a suspended central sun. They are met by the aerial fleet and high officials of Atvatabar, who greet the American travelers with elaborate ceremony and lead them toward the metropolis of Calnogor.

The goddess of hopeless love Lexington travels via a flying magnic yacht to the sacred island palace of Egyplosis, where he meets Lyone, the spiritual symbol of the nation. As the two fall in love, the delicate balance of Atvatabar's celibate spiritual order collapses, driving the priests to suppress the growing rebellion among their followers.

War in the atmosphere After Lyone chooses to abandon her vows, Lexington prepares his ship and allies for war against the royal army. Clashing high above the city in massed, globe-like formations of winged soldiers and aerial ships, Lexington's crew uses high-explosive artillery to counter the overwhelming numbers of the king's forces.

Reincarnation and conquest Following Lyone's death in the conflict, her spiritual essence is restored through Atvatabarese occult rites into a living body. The rebellion claims total victory, the old king perishes, and Lexington and Lyone are crowned joint rulers of the interior world before a vast assembly in Calnogor.

The People

• Lexington White: The ambitious American commander of the Polar King expedition. Driven by a desire for discovery and fame, he seeks to explore the unknown, but his focus shifts entirely to winning the heart of Lyone and overthrowing the established religious order of Atvatabar. He ends the story as the crowned King of Atvatabar.
• Lyone: The Supreme Goddess of Atvatabar and representative of the Holy Soul. Bound by solemn vows to embody abstract, unattainable love, she desires personal, human affection after meeting Lexington. Her choice to break her vows leads to her death, spiritual reincarnation, and eventual coronation as Queen alongside Lexington.
• King Aldemegry Bhoolmakar: The sovereign ruler of Atvatabar. He initially welcomes the foreign explorers with great honor, but he resists the dismantling of his nation's spiritual traditions. He leads the war against Lexington's reformist alliance and dies following the collapse of his reign.
• Master-at-Arms Flathootly: A lively officer aboard the Polar King. He embraces the strange physics of the interior world with enthusiasm, reveling in the low gravity and serving as Lexington's loyal aide-de-camp throughout the military campaigns.
• Boatswain Dunbar: A cautious crew member on the Polar King. Terrified by the discovery of the subterranean gulf, he leads a group of sailors who abandon the main expedition, suffering extreme hardships across the polar ice in a desperate struggle to return home.

In Its Own Voice

"At a height of sixty miles, if the wings remain motionless, we perceptibly ascend with a slowly increasing motion toward the sun..." Astronomy reports from the atmosphere show how gravity behaves differently inside the hollow Earth.

"'Everything here bids us love, but the artificial system under which we have lived arbitrarily draws a line and says, thus far and no further.'" A rebellious young priest challenges the severe vows enforced by the religious authorities of Egyplosis.

"The approaching fight was a question of life or death to both combatants." Lexington prepares his flying legions for a decisive collision with the massive aerial armies of the king.

What It's Really About

Beneath its adventure plot, the novel explores the tension between mechanical progress and spiritual idealism. Atvatabar represents a society that has elevated technological invention, artistic creation, and spiritual energy into a unified state religion. However, the book argues that pure spiritual devotion, when divorced from human nature and enforced through rigid celibacy, creates an unstable system destined to explode into rebellion. By contrasting the practical, industrialized force of the American explorers with the exotic, mystical traditions of the inner world, the story examines how conquest and romantic love disrupt ancient dogmas, suggesting that true human fulfillment requires balancing material power with emotional freedom.

Why Read It Today

The Goddess of Atvatabar offers an extraordinary look at late nineteenth-century speculative imagination, written at a time when hollow-earth theories and lost-world romances captured the popular mind. Modern readers will find a wildly creative blend of early science fiction, Victorian technological optimism, and ornate fantasy. The novel stands out for its elaborate world-building, which includes detailed descriptions of levitating airships, magnetic energy systems, and an extensive catalog of bizarre, hybrid flora and fauna called zoophytes.

The narrative does present structural hurdles for contemporary audiences. Its pace frequently slows for lengthy expositions on imaginary science, formal poetry, detailed ceremonial dress, and military logistics. Readers should also expect the typical geopolitical attitudes of its era, as the American protagonist unhesitatingly assumes the right to conquer an ancient civilization and claim its throne. Nevertheless, those fascinated by early science fiction, steampunk aesthetics, and the visionary concepts of nineteenth-century literature will appreciate the book's sheer scale, eccentric charm, and uninhibited imaginative scope.