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.