Lost Precipice History

[Juli Jules.8490]

Hello folks! I just wanted to hear your opinion about what the History of the Lost Precipice might be? Are there any background Infos that I have overseen? From what I can tell Gilded Hollow is just a part of Tarir (underground) but we have no Info what kind of Settlement the Lost Precipice might be? The Architecture clearly looks elonian … so who build it and why? Any Speculations?

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Funny thing: I was actually thinking of making a thread about the Lost Precipice based off of learned knowledge from Path of Fire, so that we finally had a thread that wasn't complaining about the storytelling or characters.

 

Gilded Hollow was basically the "Tarir prototype" according to A Study in Gold panels. It was where the Forgotten turned humans into Exalted, but then abandoned the place to build Tarir.

 

The Lost Precipice does appears to be of Elonian origin. Likely from the short-lived 58 years that they ruled over Kryta. We can tell this because the statues are seen in Vabbi (namely, we can find a series of them in [the Crypts](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Crypts) underneath the Necropolis, and the structure form is seen in both modern and archaic architecture throughout the Crystal Desert, from the [Altar of Dakhma](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Altar_of_Dakhma) to the [Kodash Bazaar](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kodash_Bazaar) (I am not sure if we see this in Kourna or Istan though).

 

> so who build it and why?

 

Given the obvious (by now) Elonian origins, and the likely timeframe it happend (300-358 AE), the who would be the Primeval Dynasty. Most likely whoever was put in charge of Kryta at the time, who would have been a duke in title if they carried other European nobility titles like Ascalon has (perhaps a secondborn prince given his own little colony to run far away from the true throne).

 

As to why: the Primeval Kings _loved_ to expand, expand, expand. Even more so than King Doric who ruled over Orr, Kryta, and Ascalon until his death and the nations' eventual divisions. They ruled from Istan to the Desert Highlands by the height of their domain, and I wouldn't doubt they even went eastward from Vabbi and Kourna into the currently-unknown-to-players land and Dzalana (it had to be named by someone, and who would name uncharted territory?), and under unknown circumstances gained Kryta from Ascalon's/Orr's control (while Orr became an independent nation in 2 AE, we do not know whether this included Kryta or not at the time; given the proximity of mixed structures in Sparkfly Fen, I would imagine that Kryta couldn't have been hostile to Orr at the time, and the borders were obviously very mixed at some point; from what we know, Mazdak founded Kryta in hostility to his father Doric, and since Doric "ruled over all three modern kingdoms" and had LA as home of his royal palace, that means Doric at some point conquered Kryta; the question would then just be whether Kryta became part of Orr, or part of Ascalon).

 

_My theory_ is that Elona had warred with either Orr or Ascalon, and won, winning Kryta as a consolation prize for leaving the main nation alone. Thus colonizing it when it already existed. Being the expansionists that they are, whomever was put in charge of Kryta tried to expand westward into the Maguuma and established the ruins of Silverwastes (then Silverwood), [shrouded Ruins](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shrouded_Ruins), and Lost Precipice. It's even possible they had established [Fort Koga](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Koga_Ruins) as well, as it [once was part of a route to the western shore](https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fort_Koga). These three other ruins were, I have little doubt, other parts of this route, which was likely used to circumvent Orr's stranglehold over the Strait of Malchor given their [Tarnished Coast presence](https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shards_of_Orr). Especially during the Third Guild War, where Orr had finally joined in (though Kryta wouldn't have been a colony of Elona any more at that point, they no doubt maintained that route as long as possible for the sake of a tariff free trade).

 

Then what we know: long after it got abandoned (if I am right about above, then it would have been abandoned at the same time as Fort Koga, which would have been 100-10 years before GW1's time, when the druids went missing), and after the events of GW1, the Forgotten went there and placed that crystal we find that attracted the mordrem, for unstated reasons.

[Rognik.2579]

We know that the Maguuma wastes had settlements long abandoned even in GW1's time from an unknown civilization. I don't believe their architecture was very Elonian, but the culture there doesn't even have to be related to the one that built the Lost Precipice. As a completely wild and probably wrong theory, a bunch of Elonian refugees, not wanting to settle in Divinity's Reach for whatever reason, headed west into the jungle and found that plateau clear of most debris and tried to make a colony there that rapidly failed.

[Yannir.4132]

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Then what we know: long after it got abandoned (if I am right about above, then it would have been abandoned at the same time as Fort Koga, which would have been 100-10 years before GW1's time, when the druids went missing), and after the events of GW1, the Forgotten went there and placed that crystal we find that attracted the mordrem, for unstated reasons.

 

AFAIR A Study in Gold also mentions the Lost Precipice, though not by name. IIRC the Forgotten stayed there while they were building the Gilded Hollow. The reference in question may also, on the other hand, be referring to the Shrouded Ruin, as I don't think it's ever referred to by name.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

It's actually the Lost Precipice that's mentioned by name, while the Gilded Hollows isn't:

 

8 "We began our journey among the magical canyons of the Lost Precipice, and when it no longer served us, we moved on."

9 "En route to our final destination, we sheltered in a hollow and performed the exalting rituals, but ultimately, we left there as well. One day, Tarir will no longer serve us, and you will move on."

 

We don't know what they were doing at Lost Precipice, just that they were there, and the other guild hall, for a short time. The only similarity between the two guild halls is the guild crystal that attracted the mordrem.

[Bast.7253]

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> It's actually the Lost Precipice that's mentioned by name, while the Gilded Hollows isn't:

>

> 8 "We began our journey among the magical canyons of the Lost Precipice, and when it no longer served us, we moved on."

> 9 "En route to our final destination, we sheltered in a hollow and performed the exalting rituals, but ultimately, we left there as well. One day, Tarir will no longer serve us, and you will move on."

>

> We don't know what they were doing at Lost Precipice, just that they were there, and the other guild hall, for a short time. The only similarity between the two guild halls is the guild crystal that attracted the mordrem.

 

 

Really frustrates me that we never got more story on the purpose of those crystals as it was implied we would. I don’t know if they abandoned everything guild hall related because of the seeming lack of interest from the player base or the complaints about the costs of them or the fact that players figured out how to bypass the further exploration blocks and it discouraged the devs from wanting to do anything with them anymore.

 

[Juli Jules.8490]

Thanks for all your replies. Really interesting ideas out there … I myself like Konigs suggestion the most … an early elonian settlement in the Maguuma Wilds. It is a shame really, that the lore of the Guild Halls was not developed further. Excavating deeper into them could have brought up some really interesting Lore.