>>96531328
>is there anything Atlan represents besides that?
Autarkia, jingoism and the pathos of being a hard man doing hard things because the world is hard on you. The strange amoral bent of (some, but more than you'd expect) Ancients who justified seemingly very evil things through (mostly) valid arguments (either Thrasymacus never made that argument, or he was trolling).
>Like what's the civilian population like?
A very large percentage of slaves, who for the most part are considered cattle. With the exception of rarely glimpsed gargoyles, grotesques, titanium olms and the highly sought after Amazon Slaves, you don't see Subhumans or Degenerated in an Atlan city (maybe in the shadiest ones), only Atlans, or rarely some Deepfolks from a vassal tribe.
An adventuring party would probably not just stumble into one, they'd be invited as part of some negotiations, or captured and brought back, or would have to befriend an Iconodule they've met outside and somehow convinced him to smuggle them in. They probably wouldn't want to, Atlans are a dreary, taciturn and generally unpleasant people to be around, and unless they have some reason to, will be outwardly hostile if not aggressive toward any foreigner. Atlan women are ... "classically" beautiful (i.e, pretty by lower standards imo but that's me... ) but their character ruins any appeal they could have had (tsundere greek girls constantly asking you to die for the King is fairly niche, in an underworld otherwise filled with buxom cave babes) so the usual french (I'd say Latin, but whatever) incentive for contact doesn't apply.
>How would a DM describe it?
I assume it would be highly ordained and defensible, something like Tarragone or Split. I liked the idea of medieval metal brutalism, but if we go with Baroque it doesn't necessarily fit so much.