A collection of folk stories, myths, and legends from Liyue. It's quite a page-turner. This segment is on the Dunyu Ruins.
—Hidden Jade—
In the valley northwest of Liyue Harbor and south of Nantianmen lie many silent, ancient ruins.
One of these areas is known as the Dunyu Ruins. This area is said to have already existed even before the time of the Archon Wars.
According to old legends passed by word of mouth, "Dunyu" means "the land to which beauteous jade flees."[Note 2]
In a past beyond memory, when even Rex Lapis would still have been young, a star fell from the sky into the barren plains west of Liyue. These plains were transformed into a huge and deep chasm in the wake of that star's descent, and jade would emerge from within, beautiful and limitless, and it would become the foundation for a thousand years of industrial mining in Liyue thereafter.
Legend has it that when that nameless star fell, a fragment of it broke off and crashed into the rocks in northern Lisha.
As most know, wordless stones harbored soul and spirit, and in manners and times not witnessed by mortal eyes they watched and listened to the ley lines' pulses, the echoes of the alpine springs, and the slow but inexorable movements of the mountains.
But unlike the ordinary but enduring stone of the earth, the fragments of the meteorite that fell from heaven had a proud and agitated temper.
Later, when countless gods and rulers fought over the appointed celestial seats, and the very stars and abyss themselves faded, tragedy and evil embarred the breath of the waters and mountains. The fallen star could bear this no longer, and heedless of the great chasm's persuasions to stay it leaped away, away towards the heavens.
As it returned to the skies, the heavenly jade left behind a deep pit, within which humans would build great cities and mighty fortresses, finding refuge and shutting themselves in with the leftover inheritance of that fallen star.
Over the tumult and storms of the next few thousand years, the redoubts of the Dunyu Valley stood tall and maintained prosperous relations with Liyue Harbor up till 500 years ago.
But with the coming of the black calamity and the rise of the Abyss, the residents of Dunyu sealed the ancient city and departed for other lands. None know why these refugees chose to shut the gates of their home, and even the millennia-old adepti and yaksha are silent on this matter.
And so, the sealed fortresses became giant, silent tombs, with naught left in them but the sound of pond water and the wind whistling through empty halls — and thusly, too, did they come to be called the "Dunyu Ruins" by the people of Liyue.