'Kaaḍhu (ˈkaːɖ̤u)

The small islands scattered throughout the Kolokolou ocean are the tops of volcanos and undersea mountains, and the area is seismicly active, with islands appearing and disappearing as volcanoes erupt or are swallowed by earthquakes and tsunamis. Various attempts to settle the area throughout the Fifth Age have been abject failues, rarely lasting more than a few decades before being abandoned or destroyed. However, we now know that the area was once host to a thriving metropolis.
In 5.918, an independent esaanla trader, Ankita B. Vatsala, appeared in Kawale, Waiaka, selling golden jewellery and icons with a unique design for little above scrap value. Two years later, a jewelled collar sold by B. Vatsala was worn to a gala at Waiaka's Naopo Museum - the museum of aesthetics and design. Intrigued by the piece, the director of the jewellery department began a multi-year quest to track down the seller and find out where it had come from.
B. Vatsla was eventually traced to Auuiki, Kono'i, and was happy to talk about the place she found the jewellery but was unwilling to disclose the exact location. She described an enormous city made of gold on the sea floor, with wide streets and canals, multiple temples, a palace complex, and walled gardens. A city of that size and complexity was unheard of in the notoriously unstable Kolokolou, and the director initially assumed she was lying. The story was overheard by the media and immediately made front-page news. Media outlets were divided into two camps - those who were excited by the prospect of a lost city filled with treasure for the taking, and those who asserted that B. Vatsala's criminal meant that she was most likely running some kind of scam or covering up for a theft.
B. Vatsala's maps and sketches of the golden city were subjected to lengthy examination by experts in archaeology from around Aeho'ai, and - based on the architecture, decoration, and layout of the city - they were found found to be consistent with artefacts from the Fourth Age. B. Vatsala was interviewed again, but was unwilling to cooperate; she was eventually deemed to be too ill-educated to be capable of creating convincing forgeries.
The lost city was ultimately named 'Kaaḍhu, after a city described in Aeho'aiwae oral history as being lost to a cataclysmic tsunami, and an international expedition was dispatched to its most likely location. Despite spending eight months searching the area initially indicated by B. Vatsala, nothing resembling a man-made structure was found.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
Fourth Age

Founding Date

Fourth Age

Type

Metropolis

Location under

Kolokolou ocean