Was the great wall a huge mistake in planning?

The majority of Ascalon is actually in front of the wall and not behind it. Why would it be built this way? Originally I had thought the wall was originally planned as a defensive measure for an attack from the south, possibly Kryta. But it's usually assumed that the wall was built as a defensive measure against the Charr. But if it was to keep out the Charr, why not build the wall further north? The Charr seem to be well known to Ascalon before the searing and for that matter why keep your capital cities where they are? Wasn't the threat of invasion at least a possibility that would've at least brought up the idea to move the majority of your population behind the wall?|||I think Ascalon was originally built with the majority of the population behind the Wall, but with the in-fighting amongst the Charr without a powerful leader, the Ascalons grew bold and pushed the Charr back further into their own lands. By building settlements beyond the Wall, they solified their claim over conquered Charr territory, and the disorganized tribes could do nothing to stop them. It wasn't until the Charr found the Titans and their unity of purpose in religion that they managed to become a truly credible threat to humanity.|||The Charr lore on PC Gamer made human sound like the evil one. The Charr was in Ascalon first, then came the human. The human driven the Charr north and built a wall to protect themselves from the Charr that want their land back. The human and charr have fought for ages over the history, but the charr were never successful. They saw the human worship gods, and in return are granted magic. They become hungry for power, and adopted the Titans as their god. Throught their god's power, they finally struck down the wall only to be killed by King Adelbern's "white sword" magic.

So yea..the wall was originally built to protect against the charr. But before the Charr have god, human were much more powerful and driven the Charr far north. So the wall became useless and people start to built homes outside of the wall.|||That could be a credible answer except for the fact that there's little evidence of a larger population behind the wall. All of Ascalons major ruins are north of the wall and it doesn't take much to assume that you needed a large workforce to build it. There's no place to house them on the south side. Sure there's Fort Ranik but I would assume it's more of a military housing and not a place for the citzens of Ascalon. Other then that you have Serentiy Temple ,two small villages and a church. No real evidence of a large population anywhere in the south. If the people of Ascalon were so bold as to build north as a show of dominance then it's rulers had failed in the walls planning. Why build a wall to defend yourself and then not use it?|||Um, Ascalon City and Rin, the two largest cities in the country, are both behind the wall. Nolani is behind the wall. Barradin's Estate is behind the wall. Ashford was behind the wall.

The only major cities north of the wall were Surmia and Drascir.|||I thought Rin's where stormcaller was.

In GW, the notion of good and evil are subjected to one's point of view, very similar to the real world (eg Korean War, Vietnam, Israel etc)|||My thought was that Ascalon City was the home of the king and the surrounding area of his home is the market place. As for Barradins Estate, I'm sure it was his land and not a place for the general population. Nolani Academy looks to be north of the wall on the map. And like Fort Ranik wouldn't house a general population. Rin on the other hand is clearly south of the wall and it was my mistake for not paying attention to that. It still doesn't explain why Surmia and Drascir are built North of the wall. My point was why build anything north of the wall when you're enemy lives there?|||Actually, Nolani is on the northern side of the Wall. Rin is on the south. In the nolani mission, you have to cross a gate in the Wall to go south (in a cinematic).|||as you see in GWEN much of the Charr homelands did belong to the humans cause I seriorusly don't see Charr building elegant bridges let alone enjoy beautiful waterfalls|||Actually, it looks to me like the majority of the Ascalonians lived in the Eastern Frontier region. Where there's a huge crater next to Serenity Temple looks to have housed a moderately sized population and it looks like south of it there were at least two large cities.