They were, yes. I'm sure you've realized Elsword's house is the old Sieghart house. The buildings are reconstructed from the materials, magic, and latent memories. Or... not so latent, with my own involvement.

( if he could, he'd take a seat, smoke a pipe. he misses having lungs. )

It depends on the building. At one point, Nene was possessed by the forest, set half the town ablaze. She- she fled into the woods after that. Others... others were the siege. The last stand. The Woods made it's army of monsters and corpses and plants and just... attacked, one night. Broke things down. Crumbled them. It was a slaughter.

... My sister tried to distract the Woods while the ritual started. But I'm startin' to think the people who were supposed to do it never got to the grounds.

Baseless speculation, mind you.