The God Machine, located within the core of Atlantis.
The God Machine, also known as The Colossus, was a device of Atlantean technology built by Nur-Ab-Sal and based upon designs by the non-human visitors, who once brought orichalcum and other technology to Atlantis. It was intended to transform people into supreme beings like said visitors. However, the machine at best mutated people into deformed horned creatures and at worst, turned them into unstable ethereal entities that only existed briefly.
The God Machine was located in the inner circle of Atlantis inside a massive volcanic chamber. The outer walls held a maze of archways and several statue heads from which lava flowed into the central magma pool. It also featured a dangerous lava moat with cooled lava rocks on top of it which had to be crossed in order to reach the staircase leading to the God Machine.
The machine itself was inside a massive tower that was suspended from the ceiling high above in the very center of Atlantis. The tower was full of lights and machinery and had bridges connecting it to the walls, allowing people to work their way down and reach the machine from the middle circle.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Inside the God Machine.
In the video game, the machine can turn people into glowing ethereal lifeforms, but this transformation is very unstable and the entity will die shortly afterwards. This transformation isn't seen in the comic adaptation where all victims are turned into mutants.
In the video game, using 10, 20 or 100 oricalcum beads results in the ethereal transformation, whilst using one bead turned Klaus Kerner into a mutant.
Nazi Hans Ubermann claims that the mutant bones are the result of the Atlanteans using unworthy, foreign "subhuman" slaves as test subjects and were destroyed by their "genetic imperfection." However, whilst the God Machine being used on slaves is implied in the game and confirmed in the comic, the validity of the machine creating gods from pure humans is very questionable; all shown subjects of the god machine were similarly turned into mutants or destroyed regardless of bloodline.
In the comic, the machine was built under the misconception that the horned beings were divine rather than extraterrestrial. It was made after the beings left in a desperate attempt to replace them. This is implied to be the reason why the machine never worked.