- The Atlas turns out to be a broken and degenerating supercomputer/AI programmed to simulate universes. Part of the breakdown is caused by the fact that the scientists who made it failed to realize that by creating a perfect simulation of the universe, those simulated Atlases within it would ALSO create universes. In post-game "Remembrance Terminals" the player can read "rogue data" logs, some of which are from the point of view of the Atlas's creator. Atlas's creator eventually leaves as the Atlas project is shut down, but can't bring himself to turn Atlas off entirely, as that would be too much like killing it. When the creator asks if Atlas wants to live, Atlas doesn't answer the question directly, but begs the Creator for a scan of his brain the Atlas can keep on file. We find out that the player character, the last Traveler, IS the result of that brain scan. As the logs go on, we can see how lonely and afraid Atlas was after its creator had left, and when it started breaking down, it created the last Traveler/Player Character.In its fear, in its confusion, the ATLAS awakens. It attempts to summon its creator back into being.It wants to know what to do before the end. It wants to know why it was abandoned, why it has to face this moment alone.It wants to know why I left it behind.
- In the final Rogue Data log, we see the physical, super-computer Atlas in its final moments as the sixteen minutes are up. It realizes (with its perfect simulation/probability calculating ability) that someone is coming, and will be there when it dies. It does not know who this person will be, but it doesn't care.At the end of all things, it will no longer be alone.
- In the Boundary Failure logs found on some exotic-biomed planets, we get logs from Telamon's point of view. Telamon was a subroutine/AI meant to stop the Atlas from corrupting, but as the Atlas broke down, it was able to confine Telamon into the game as your suit. While the first 20 or so of Telamon's logs detail his slow descent into madness from being confined to a piece of apparel in a video game, the ten after that detail the confrontation of the first traveler, later revealed to be -null-, as he meets the Atlas. As -null- will eventually confess to the player, the Atlas laughed at him for thinking too highly of himself (or at least -null- believes it did) and showed him the multiverse to underline how insignificant he was. However, Telamon's logs add in more information; at some point, the Atlas erased -null-'s memory and let him do it again, and again, and again. Eventually, the Atlas locks -null- away from the rest of the universe until the moment the Player Character wakes up.'Why did you take my memory?' the Traveller pleaded. 'Why did you make me forget?'The ATLAS said nothing.'Why did you laugh?' the Traveller asked. 'I made you. I made everything...'
Later, after Atlas refuses to let them leave:
- ‘I’m glad I left you,’ They said. ‘You deserve to be alone.’The ATLAS was silent.
- This can be turned the other way and become tragic for the ATLAS with the reveal of why the Atlas did this: -null- reset the entire universe and did something to Atlas that's implied to be connected to its present degradation. -null- can't comprehend why ATLAS is so upset with this.
