Theseus

King Theseus (a.k.a. Sea-King)

Theseus of the House of Atlan is the first scion of an Atlantean and a surface-dweller in the modern age. Raised as the child of two worlds with a royal heritage and responsibility, Theseus also inherited certain powers from the combination of his father’s royal Atlantean bloodline and his mother’s blessings from the Sirens. In particular, he could transform himself bodily into water, while retaining control over his fluid form. He also possessed greater strength, speed, and endurance than an ordinary Atlantean.
As he reached the age of maturity, Theseus traveled to the surface world, to his mother’s homeland, to better understand that aspect of his heritage. Things did not go smoothly at first; the prince’s sense of royal privilege and lack of legal identity in the United States struck sparks, as did his tendency to confront challenges head-on. Nonetheless, Theseus became an ally of Freedom City's heroes, joining the Freedom League under the name Sea-King.
There he first met the embodied loa Siren, successor to his mother’s use of that name in the 1940s, and the immortal inventor Daedalus.
For many years, Sea-King split his time between his service with the Freedom League and his duties in Atlantis, too long, according to some, who feared their prince’s heart truly lay with his mother’s world and not theirs. Theseus’s long and frequent absences from Atlantis caused friction and arguments between the fiery-tempered prince and his father, King Thallor, as well as between Theseus and Captain Marta, the equally hot-tempered captain of the Palace Guard, although in the latter case, the disputes also concealed a potent attraction between Marta and the Sea-King.
The rift between king and prince became the focus of a coup attempt by Atlantean barbarians that succeeded for a time in ousting Thallor and Evelynn from the throne, and brought Theseus back to Atlantis (aided by his surface world allies) to deal with the challenge.
King Thallor sacrificed himself to defeat the barbarian warlord Orzan, and Sea-King found himself with the role in reality as well as in name when the battle was over and he was proclaimed rightful king of Atlantis. Theseus has never forgotten this harsh lesson in duty—nor entirely forgiven himself for it.
Sea-King wed the brave and brilliant Captain Marta not long after ascending the throne, and has ruled Atlantis as a just and fair monarch since. The king’s fiery temper has cooled somewhat over the years, although it has led to conflicts with surface-dwellers and impatience with their short-sightedness and fractious politics. Still, King Theseus’s guiding light remains his family and a desire to leave a more peaceful, prosperous, and enlightened Atlantis as a legacy to his children.