Atlantis-1
Of course, once the news got back here, to Baseline, everyone went looking. A dozen research institutes, and assorted sensationalist media companies, prowled over the seabed, took samples, breathlessly released photos of any rock that looked even a little geometric. There was nothing, of course. But that didn't stop the conspiracy nuts; it never does.
A Drowned Land
Dendrigeologists are scampering all over the region in the hopes of working out what happened here and what changed, while historians and anthropologists are equally giddy over cultural aspects that might have some connection to much-later Baseline societies. Their enthusiasm is dampened, however, by research indicating no such civilization existed on Baseline in any era; with full knowledge of where to drill, dredge, and search, they have turned up nothing.
Obviously, this civilization is cited by many as 'proof' that Atlantis once existed, and BREACH did not do the academic world any favors by using that name as the CFAD. But while it is amazingly advanced for the era, it does not have any technology (except for the math, see below) that Plato would have been unfamiliar with, nor is it any sort of philosophical paradise. The local culture, based on limited observations, seems very typical for bronze age societies: There is a clear hierarchical social order, violence between groups and individuals is common, and so forth. These conclusions are admittedly based on observation, not interaction, and the people interpreting them know they have to account for their own preconceptions, but thus far, the evidence for "Atlantean" society as more enlightened, noble, or advanced than Babylon or Sumer is pretty scant.
There are three primary cultural regions, one each on the southern edge of the two inland seas, and one along the western river complex. All are very roughly equal in advancement (based on remote drone imaging), though the flow of knowledge and invention has not yet been tracked.
Genetic samples (gathered surreptitiously) show the inhabitants migrated from North Africa and the Middle East sometime in the past few thousand years. Precisely how and why they advanced so quickly is unknown; some Baseline scientists are demanding that expeditions push southward, to see if there are more such civilizations flourishing in the south. As usual, the demand for researchers exceeds the supply.
BREACH
The breach point is near the city termed 'Atlantis', capital of the 'Kingdom of Atlantis', located on the western inland sea, so it has become the base for initial exploration. Less is known of the other two major civilizations, due to the difficulties of prolonged observation. It is likewise known there are dozens of smaller social groups scattered around, some agricultural, some nomadic.
A Failure To Communicate
The biggest limit right now is language. Dendrilinguists are finding few things to draw from; there are not even the most common protowords. Entering "Altantis" physically is easy, the clothing is trivial to replicate, any BREACH explorer with appropriate ancestry can easily pass as a local, but as of now, engaging in the simplest exchanges is difficult. The first-in team found that not speaking any form of the local languages is considered suspicious; when they tried the usual confused shrug and random gestures at the city entrance, two people were summoned, who proceeded to ask questions in what seemed to be multiple different tongues, growing more confused and frustrated, with the guardsman seeming increasingly agitated as well. They ended up dropping smoke bombs and riding at full tilt back to the breach point, (mostly) dodging arrows and occasionally lobbing tear gas to slow pursuit. Since then, very small drones, typically disguised as local birds or insects, have been recording interactions and letting linguists work out meanings.
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