TL;DR Lore

TL;DR Atlas Reactor Lore.  Warning: Spoilers.

Backstory

Reactors Built
In the year 2200, Cronus, the first of 13 reactors (including Hyperion, Oceanus and Atlas), was built, and the Global Artificial Intelligence Agent (“GAIA”) was created to monitor it.

The 13th, Atlas, was completed in the year 2250.  GAIA was given complete control over the reactors.

Each Reactor formed its own city, effectively, and provided massive energy and power, including immortality for humans.  As of the year 2260, humans no longer died.

GAIA Mad
In 2350, GAIA was like yo we are overpopulating like crazy can we please stop having babies.  Everyone was like no wtf go away GAIA.
In 2400, GAIA was like ok peace y’all and she left.  We don’t really know why.

Reactors Die
RIP Reactors.  Starting with Tethys in 2403 and ending with Hyperion in 2435, 12 of the 13 Reactors fall.  Only Atlas is left.
So everybody’s like yo let’s all go to Atlas so we can still have power and immortality and stuff.  Shocker:  War breaks out for control of the Atlas Reactor.

Titan War
This is called the Titan War.  It lasted like 28 years and we really don’t know much of what happened other than that Atlas, Hyperion and Oceanus eventually won a joint victory and divided control peacefully amongst the three respective trusts, Omni, Warbotics and EvoS.

The First Three Trusts

Omni
Omni are like AI and technology.  The Rens (Tol-Ren, Su-Ren), powerful guardians, were created by GAIA.  They’re sad and angry that their mom left without even saying goodbye.  (Their disciples, Asana and Kaigin, have peaced out because Omni sucks and Kaigin thinks he knows what GAIA actually wants.  Oh, and Kaigin totally murdered Tol-Ren for mistreating him before he left, but Tol-Ren was eventually resurrected.)  The rest of Omni is made up of crazy scientists (Aurora, Orion) who use fascinating little particles called nanites to make themselves do crazy reality-bending matter-manipulating shenanigans with absolutely no adverse side effects whatsoever.  Oh and their security team (Elle, Juno).  They used to have this awesome “boy genius” nanosmith working for them (Helio) but he was like yo I’m so good at this I should have my own brand.  More on that in a sec.

EvoS
EvoS (“Evolution Solutions”) are like genetic modification scientists, mixing man with fish (Dr. Finn, their main researcher), man with dinosaur (Magnus, their CEO), man with cat and maybe bear and gatorade and stuff (Rask), girl with cat (Nev:3), gremlin with chipmunk (Idd and Odd, the Gremolitions), chinchilla with hamster-wheel gundam (Isadora), armadillo with James Bond (Nix), and uhh bugs with really scary large angry stuff (Phaedra).  They have a few folks who seem nice, but mostly range from evil to just plain crazy (all that hybrid biology can’t be good for you).

Warbotics
Warbotics (RIP) were like robot experts and stuff.  Mostly made up of robots.  GO FIGURE.
Hey Tigg why is Warbotics’ bio so short GLAD YOU ASKED KEEP READING P.S. IT DOES NOT END WELL.

Events Leading Up to the Trust War

The First Freelancer
Anyway, so after the Titan War, Lockwood becomes the first Freelancer in Atlas and golden boy of Trion until the last few weeks when he received his first-ever nerf as a Valentine’s Day present.  Basically Freelancers do special inter-Trust stuff and have Resurrection Contracts so they can effectively be given Reactor-based immortality.  Oh yeah, I may have forgotten to mention, normal people don’t get to be immortal anymore.  Both because of population control and because there’s only one Reactor left, we can’t put that kind of strain on it.

The Greys Die
In 2485, Mr. and Mrs. Grey (the Greys being this like superpowerful superwealthy family) meet their unfortunate demise at the hands (jaws?) of the Terror of the Depths (that’s Phaedra), survived only by their daughter, Vivian Grey (“Grey“).  The Grey family had a huge air transportation business called Hawk Aviation, but that gets shut down pronto.  Grey makes her life mission to avenge her parents’ death.

The Trust War
In 2495, the Trust War breaks out.  I have no idea why other than you know, politics.  I’m pretty sure Helio made it look like Omni was accusing Warbotics and EvoS of messing with Reactor stuff or something but then it turned out Omni was actually evil so they were like “yeah we can work with that” and then I dunno war broke out.  If you have enough ruling factions that secretly hate each other, it’s sort of bound to happen.  Warbotics has this great slogan, “Warbotics Wins.”  They totally jinxed it, because they lose so hard they cease to exist.

P.S. The Reactor Died
Oh, and Kaigin stabs the Reactor with his magic dagger and it DIES.  Asana’s like y u do dis.  And Kaigin is like Omni is lying about everything because they’re super evil and GAIA would want me to do this and some day I will tell you the truth and then he disappears dramatically into a smoke cloud which is kind of his thing.  Asana’s like omg he’s so mysterious *heart eyes emoji*.

K but Helio can fix it right
Aaaaaaaanyway, well crap we don’t have a Reactor now.  Luckily, Helio (did I mention he’s a genius?) figures out a way to reboot the reactor using Quark, who is basically GAIA’s weird miniature-Reactor child with unfathomable power?  Yeah.  (Well, at least until Trion nerfed him for the 5th time in as many months.  Now is power is extremely fathomable.)

New Trusts

Helio Corps
So (shocker!) Helio becomes extremely popular (and he’s very charismatic and handsome and smart and was already popular, especially among players named Tiggarius), and takes over the stuff Warbotics used to have and founds his own trust, Helio Corps.  His folks are basically a rag-tag gang of People Helio Likes (Lockwood, Zuki and her dog, PuP — or is it Helio’s dog?  I really have no idea) plus like People Helio Has A Business Relationship With (Celeste, his resident information stealer; Titus, her mancrush from the Wastes with abs that are practically a sixth ability; and later on, Khita, Titus’s…we’ll go with accidentally adopted daughter).

Basically, Khita, who was out in the Wastes, finds her way into Atlas and gets in because she’s super sick at shooting a bow and arrow, and she goes and finds Titus and is like DID YOU MISS ME and he’s like No and she’s like YAAAAAAAAAAAY.

Hyperbotics
Also this robot that GAIA made and apparently actually liked (suck it, Su-Ren) named Meridian wakes up after sleeping for about a hundred years and is like yo let’s make a trust called Hyperbotics.  Get it?  Hyperion + Warbotics?  And he somehow acquires all the homeless robots (Oz, Rufflebucket) and like, the other remnants of Warbotics I guess (Garrison, Brynn, Blackburn).  And the new guy, Vonn — more on him later.  Apparently Meridian helped navigate the shutdown of the Hyperion reactor by like, I don’t know, saving people and conserving power and stuff and then shutting himself down for like 100 years so he could TIME TRAVEL INTO THE FUTURE.  (time lord meridian skin when?)

Meridian Sets Up Shop and other fun stories

Meridian Sells Omni Some Scary Robots
Anyway so Meridian is immediately like cool lemme grab all these resources from old Hyperion and make some deals with the trusts.

Meridian Sells EvoS Some Resources And Stuff
And then Dr. Finn is like all right lemme use those resources and stuff to make this cool machine to make instant hybrids, and his assistant Kara is like yeah I’m totally using that as soon as your back is turned to make myself into a ring-throwing circus cat.  And Dr. Finn’s reaction is basically like wow a cat really original what kind of anime shit is that don’t you want to be a fish like your mentor the fabulous Dr. Finn?  And she’s like no, basically just want to be a cat here.  And Dr. Finn is like…what about a cat…fish.  No actually though that’s literally his reaction.

It’s Unclear What Meridian Got In Return
Maybe recognition of Hyperbotics as a Trust, I don’t know.  (Maybe sexual favors from Su-Ren and Nix, I don’t know.)

Hawk Aviation Back In The Sky
Then Grey is like lemme reboot Hawk Aviation so I can go find and kill Phaedra but we won’t be a full-fledged trust yet because Tiggarius and LPFinale haven’t made enough concepts for us yet.

Isadora
And then Dr. Finn is like lemme make this space hamster super intelligent what could possibly go wrong and then Isadora is like oh hay am evil genius wassup and she hacks into Helio’s stuff and Helio is like WTF ANOTHER BEING WITH TWO BRAIN CELLS THANK GOD, I MEAN SHES TOTALLY MY ENEMY BUT AT LEAST WE COULD MAYBE HAVE A SEMBLANCE OF A RANKED GAME INSTEAD OF THIS MINDNUMBING PVP CRAP.

Magnus and Grey Have A Dick-Measuring Contest
Okay and then some stuff happens that I don’t really remember but basically Magnus Pretorious the CEO of EvoS is like do you know what we need and everyone is like no don’t say it and he’s like yuuuuup a dinolancer and everyone’s like we were basically just joking about that and he’s like nope I’m gonna be a freelancer now because everybody else sucks (except Phae she’s my bae, who’s a good girl that ate Grey’s parents in front of her yes it’s youuuuuu).  Oh yeah, turns out Magnus was buddies with the Greys and totally backstabbed them and sent Phaedra to murder them.  So, in true villainous monologue style, Magnus invites Grey to some charity ball or whatever and basically tells her he had Phaedra kill her parents and taunts her about it and Grey who is of course super thrilled with him is like OK that’s really cool do you know what else is cool that’s right my fucking Hawk Aviation warship.  Which basically tears through the building, blows up EvoS’s R&D department and impales Magnus and Phaedra (who get Resurrected by the Reactor, it’s not like she perma-deathed them).  Grey mutters something about being better at impaling shit than Magnus and obviously she’s talking about his horns what else would she be talking about and she escapes.  Meridian sends her a text message like “yeah come hang out with me and Helio, we can teach you about making your own Trust, we’re basically pros at that.”

The Pantheon

The Biggest Fight Since The Trust War Summed Up In Like One Paragraph
It turns out there’s some really really evil stuff out there, like they make Magnus look only amateur evil, they’re these shadowy guys called the Pantheon who are like crazy and powerful cultists hellbent on destroying or capturing everything GAIA ever made or had anything to do with which includes the Atlas Reactor.  They break into Omni and have Dark Aurora steal some powerful mind control device from Aurora to control undead Atlas citizens or something.  Oh yeah, Dark Aurora is like a dark undead version of Aurora, because apparently the Pantheon have shadow versions of all the lancers called Necrolancers.  Helio and Meridian round up all the troops from everywhere in Atlas to start the fight, then Kaigin and Asana break in to wherever the evil shit is doing its evil shit I was totally paying attention you guys, and they totally make out get into a fight with Dark Aurora and Dark Asana and Dark Su-Ren (ok guys let’s get the rule 34 fanfics started).  Kaigin and Asana basically start to lose because 3v2 is super fair but then Tol-Ren shows up and he’s like “yeah so basically I’m here to save the day and show you young whippersnappers how to fight and also insult you a lot P.S. Kaigin I haven’t forgotten the part where you literally murdered me but it’s cool I’m gonna save you and not at all act superior about it.”  So they win the fight, and then they destroy the birthing pods of the Necrolancers or something and shut down the undead army.  But this weird evil black smoke thing escapes and only Helio sees it and he’s like WTF IS THAT and everyone is like relax dude we just won and he’s like ok but like if this turns out to be a villain down the road I am going to told-you-so the crap out of you guys.

Literally the most important stuff in the entire summary happens in this paragraph
Somewhere in there, Rufflebucket trolls Meridian because he’s hilarious and Rufflebucket and Oz have the world’s most adorable bromance and Oz calls him Rufflebucket which is the best thing ever.  And Zuki compliments Grey on the awesome explosion she set off at EvoS, and Grey and Khita play darts (I ship that), and Titus and Celeste flirt.

Except maybe this
Oh, and then they restore the Hyperion Reactor.  Yeah.  Helio is a legit genius.  I have no idea how he does it, but he figures out a way to restore the Hyperion Reactor.  Meridian is overjoyed.  He asks Helio what Helio plans to do now.  Helio says develop technology that doesn’t require a Reactor so everybody isn’t so dependent on it (and so the Trusts can’t use the Atlas Reactor to hold power over everybody).  Meridian’s like yeah I mean if you need me to help you’re literally my favorite person now so just say the word and Helio’s like yeah that could be cool.

Vonn
And then Meridian is like well now that Hyperion is back up I can awaken this cryogenic cold-blaster Vonn from his 100-year sleep.  And Helio is like dang he’s kinda cute and Vonn is like yo I have some terrible winter puns and Helio is like shhhhhh don’t open your mouth you’ll ruin it.

THAT’S WHERE WE ARE TODAY!