Origin of Gridania: Gelmorra

[Enkidoh]

Catapult could probably clarify things more clearly than I can, but from what I understand about Gelmorra, the whole civillisation existed simply because the elementals refused anyone to set foot in the Black Shroud (it's the same reason why the Ixal were driven out) - they were just too powerful. It was only when the moogles interceded on the Gelmorrans behalf that they were finally allowed to live on the surface in the Black Shroud, leading to the foundation of Gridania. Hence why Gelmorra was abandoned - it had simply served it's purpose.

And such things usually fall into ruin pretty quickly (just look at the actual 'Gelmorran Ruins' location in the North Shroud itself and compare it to it's 1.0 appearance - in 1.0 it was still rather substantial and complete, but now in ARR it's partially buried under rubble, a tree is growing out of the central pit and most of the columns are broken and strewn around the surrounding area.) so it's not surprising little is known about these things.

As for Toto-rak, that was technically not connected to the Gelmorran civillization, as Gridania built that as their main prison (a literal dungeon), but abandoned that when they built a new prison facility closer to Gridania itself.