The 2nd Atlantean Renaissance:

The 2nd renaissance began in earnest with the coming of a plague. A miserable event that caused much consternation amongst the peoples of Atlantis. Since they had built the aqueducts, and learned of and implemented basic hygiene, disease amongst the people had reduced so much it was never a civic problem. This new plague however was fast to spread and deadly. The response of the Atlanteans was swift quarantine, families were separated from one another and panic started to set in as the death toll quickly rose. The best minds of the Atlantean people were put to work to find a solution.

Attempts to find a source failed as did a search for the first infected, with no one being able to identify any patient zero, or common causality. This greatly slowed their ability to create a cure and lead to further deaths. It was at this time that the peoples of Atlantean began to suspect a divine hand in the genesis of the blight, or perhaps a foreign agent. But no such agent was ever found. Rumours grew, fear and panic quickly got out of control. In the end the people had to swallow their pride, and ask Lord Morpheus for help.

Once the petition was delivered, by a soldier named Douglas, a disappointed Morpheus aided his people as only a capricious half mad deity could, by remaking Douglas into a golem, a form entirely immune to the ravages of disease, and an example to the people of what their future held. Soon thereafter all the people of Atlantean were upgraded in the same way, and each was granted a finely crafted, elegant body of iron. The Second Atlantean Renaissance was a remaking of he people from flesh and blood, into immortals made from iron.