The Maguuma Jungle · Metrica Province
The Thaumanova Reactor explodes over a ley-line nexus
An Inquest reactor built on a ley-line intersection is destroyed when a draconic energy source (slipped in under the urging of consultant Scarlet Briar) is mixed into a chaos-magic experiment, tearing reality open and spawning rifts and elementals.
The Thaumanova Reactor was an asuran Inquest research complex in northwest Metrica Province, raised over an intersection of ley lines, the magical channels that lattice Tyria. There the Inquest experimented with chaos magic, and a sylvari consultant named Scarlet Briar pressed them to add what they took to be more chaos magic but was in truth draconic energy.
The mixture caused a catastrophic explosion that tore the fabric of reality, opening chaos rifts that flung creatures from across the world into the ruins and leaving behind distinct elemental zones: fire, ice, water, earth, and a Branded crystal chamber. Scarlet deliberately drove the experiment past its limits to study how the energies flowed and to map the ley-line network, knowledge she would later turn to her own ends.