Originally Posted by
godisawesome
I'm afraid I don't have enough pure knowledge of Aquaman to really make this work as well as it should, but how's this for an idea?
The Atlantean Revolution (Compare to: The French Revolution)
Stage 1: Establish that Atlantis has numerous little subkingdoms and outlaw enclaves across the rest of the ocean, the general idea being that they were brought to heel a few generations ago by Arthur's ancestors. There's a Pacific Islander themed Pacific enclave (with a corresponding mythic characters to whom King Shark can belong), other ancient lost cities like Ys in Brittany (with the corresponding morgen mermaid sorceresses), Lyonesse in Cornwall (guarded by some surviving member of Arthur's court, like Sir Gareth), the ancient Indian city of Dvārakā, the Russian Kitezh, the Baltic city of Vineta, etc.
The general rule of thumb would be that these enclaves, the further they are from Atlantis proper, have very different cultures and beginnings. Atlantis itself still has the lion's share of the overall population, political, and magical power, and it turns out that the overall political structure of the empire is as complicated and contradictory as the Ancien Regime in France; the reason why their kings have generally been badasses is because it's the only way to make the thing work, as a kind of paralell even to how Ancien a Regime France needed highly capable kings approaching absolute monarchy-levels of power to remain stable. A few of the other kingdoms are autonomous (like Xebel), but most are under Atlantis's thumb
Stage 2: Ramp up the political intrigue under the throne and have Arthur banished to the craziest, most unstable, and unknown waters of Xebel. Since Arthur's a good guy, he was managing to run Atlantis well for the common people. But some of the old guard nobility who like Orm or Corum Rath better reject him (*again*), and imprison him in Xebel's wilderness, so he's occupied trying to survive monstrous waters and get out for about two years of real world time. Meanwhile, since Orm is still imprisoned, the Atlantean nobility tries to run things through a council. Mera manages to instigate a reaction against this that resembles the first phase of the French Revolution, taking a place as a "liberal noble" character like Phillipe d'Orleans, with a kind of provisional Democratic government that challenges the nobles.
Stage 3: Everything goes to hell. Black Manta, The Deluge, and Orm get involved, as does some new version of Haagen, and I'd add in some new characters to act as counterparts to the French Revolution's Robespierre and Napoleon, or rework some of the characters to fit those archetypes. Some surface world nations try and get involved, and in return, one of the many regimes that seizes power launches attacks on surface world cities, which Mera and co. manage to alleviate by making them like Sub Diego. Xebel invades Atlantis and actually takes some serious territory, Orm ends up reluctantly seeking Justice League help against Rath, the Trench is allied with a faction, the whole works. And I'd have a new Kordax appear as the Napoleon-like figure who will win and become the new Atlantean Emperor.
Arthur frees himself, and it's his and Orm's alliance with the new Kordax character that manages to stabilize the situation... But now Arthur and Orm are forbidden from returning to Atlantis and must operate in the Pacific Commonwealth, which they managed to get set up as a kind of Republic. Orm is still not friends with Arthur, and is clearly going to try and depose Kordax, Rath is dead but succeeded by someone else in his role as a terrorist leader in Atlantis, Arthur has picked up Lorena Marquez, Garth, and Kal'Duram as his new team trying to keep the peace in the Republic, and Kordax basically becomes a super-pragmatic and realistic despot who sometimes allies with the rest fit eh world while trying to become more powerful himself.