Ýfalos (E-fall-os)

"While the builders of the city were concerned with structural integrity, and the druids were concerned about the potential issues in the water, those close enough to the ground to see the smaller details saw the shimmering colors the landslide had uncovered at the coast.
It wasn't a learned historian, or a powerful mage, or some wise scholar who found this treasure trove, it was a simple farmer with a shovel and a curious mind. To that end, the sand fell, and the hues of the marble were exposed, along with the first pieces of this ancient city.
The statues that adorned the exposed courtyard were carved with gentle, almost matronly smiles, and the waves along the edge of what might've been planter's, or perhaps small ponds, directed further in, as if these ruins were not discovered, but allowed us to witness them."

--Excerpt from 'Ancient ruin found amidst landslide panics in capital', published in The Parisian Express

Edda is home to many lost histories, but the city of Ýfalos is one that has found its way back into the public eye. Roughly meaning Coral Reef in the words of the civilization, this city seemed to be a metropolis of sorts, either a political capital or a center of trade. While many had theorized about its location for years, ever since references to it were compiled from old sources in Hippolyta, Avalon, and Agartha, a landslide in Cooling Autumn of 825 on the edge of Helen, the capital of Atalanta, exposing a portion of the coast that had somehow been formed *over* remnants of the ancient city, sparking a massive dig that has since uncovered multiple portions of the larger city, with many more just waiting to be found.
Due to the nature of the city being presumably a center for these people, it is assumed that there are other cities, and one prevalent theory is that due to the high amount of Tritons, Sea Elves, and other more non-descript Merfolk, some of these cities if not the entire rest of the civilization was underwater, perhaps even suggesting that the rest of Ýfalos was underneath the current capital, Helen, which is also notable for being partially under the water due to the ingenuity of those very same demographics.
However for now, even almost 200 years later, much is still being discovered and uncovered about the ancient city, including most mysteriously of all references to The Kingdom of The Rings, a name that has not appeared in any other historical references pre-kingdom. What this kingdom is exactly is an answer only time will tell.

Demographics

The people of Ýfalos were a culture all their own, being the epicenter of their society at the time. However, a handful of historical sources paints the society as mostly human but also containing Triton's and Sea Elves as a significant demographic second to them. While writings speak of a variety of people "as varied as the materials the ships sailed in with", no other demographics are explicitly referenced.

Government

Little is known about how the government functioned. In the early days of research into Ýfalos, it was suspected from large frescos that they had a central leader who acted as a religious leader as well, akin to the Grand Seer in Avalon. However, new translations of documents found in the city show that the figure depicted as called a 'spokesman' or 'representative' from the central government to the people, without detailing an exact reference to what this central government was like, outside of referring to them as "The Gilded Seats."

Defences

Stories of the city speak of a comprehensive military force, both on land and in the sea, protecting the country and utilizing unique magical armaments to create a "lattice shell of defense" around the city in times of war, presumably barricading the portions of the city in the ocean as well. 
While there was no wall around the beached portions of the city, the existence of a naval system according to murals around the city along with its coastal location meant that the well-armed and defended ships would be able to cover the land entrances as well, where the standard military and magic defenses failed.

Industry & Trade

Ýfalos seemed to have a high amount of trade coming through, due to its fame in the region and the power of its naval forces. Apart from that, it also seemed to be a city that prided itself on education, both magic and how they understood the natural world, and contained many libraries and archives of information for citizens and travelers alike. Alongside that, fishing and masonry were the biggest practical exports of the land, as nearby accounts of the city speak of the bounties of its sea, and the deftness of their chisels.

Infrastructure

The city of Ýfalos boasted a comprehensive waterway system, which under the city functioned as sewage, while through the city functioned as an expedient form of travel as well as a power source in many parts of the city. It was so developed that few sources of Ýfalos' existence outside of Atalanta come from citations of its system and the power of its hydraulic energy generators, although described in more archaic terms.
The city was also home to well-structured regular streets as well as a powerful port if the tales of old merchants are anything to go by.

Assets

Ýfalos was seemingly the capital of the ancient Atalantan society, or potentially a powerful metropolis akin to Paris, meaning that the citizens of the city would have access to a large amount of wealth in material items, resources, and influence on a day-to-day basis.

Tourism

The few excavation sites on the coast of Helen's territory have brought in swathes of archeologists, researchers, explorers, and historians of all stripes to uncover a missing puzzle piece of Edda's history: The Pre-Kingdom Civilizations.
Before the main kingdoms of Edda began to work together to some degree around -8000, there were a lot of disparate cultures and smaller settlements that became lost, and even larger civilizations that weren't as long-lasting as the likes of Hippolyta, Avalon, and Agartha failed to the test of time before centralized records and inter-kingdom communication became prevalent. But, due to the slow progression of time, the conflicts of other kingdoms, the co-opting of ancient structures into new settlements, and the restructuring caused by the limitation of Edda's landmass, many of these civilizations don't have any traces left behind, making a giant hole and question mark in Edda's history.
Ýfalos had been written about in space tellings, but when the first sites were discovered along the coast of Helen in 825 it sparked a fire in archeologists the world over, and that excitement carries today as more and more have been found, and even more can be theorized about the city.

Architecture

The architecture that has been discovered in Ýfalos has consisted mostly of a material colloquially known as Reef Marble, a type of multicolored clay formed when the unique minerals within Atalantan Coral mix with the soil on the shore. In small doses the minerals do nothing, but after years of build-up, it creates a wide spectrum of color. Using this material, it seems that most of the settlement was built with large open pavilions and courtyards, with even homes and businesses only having full walls around private areas, with many other areas being open to the elements with large circular entrances.
One common theme with the settlement, aside from having lettering, art, and carvings on basically every piece of architecture, seemed to be waves as well, with ledges, railing, tiling, and accent work on the edges of building all tending to swoop and curve, like depictions of wind or crashing waves, perhaps indicative of the cities nature as a popular port town and capital for the rest of the yet-undiscovered Ýfalos culture.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
-8,800

Founding Date

-12,600

Type

Large town

Population

Unknown, estimated to be over 50,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Ýfalin

Location under

Helen