[SPOILERS] Forgotten City rope

How come literally everyone over 2000 years and 300+ iterations just jumped blindly down a pit? "Gee there's probably water down there, not like, rocks, or Dwemer spiders, or the bones of everyone else who already jumped. COWABUNgaaaaa!" Nobody thought to tie a rope at the top, or to levitate? We're the only person with Quicksave, right?

If they can get away with killing looters in that entryway, then why not gradually dig a tunnel up, or hammer some pitons into the side of the pit?

Instead, the cycle is broken by a lazy otherwise nonmagical jarl who casts a groundbreaking time travel spell, with his own soul across the lake instead of using the nearby soul he obviously doesn't care about to travel back by himself.

It was a fun mod, but this seemed absurd in a world with talking cat people.