Knowledge has always been the building block of any society. While individually our memories and instincts were limited, collectively we were arguably smarter. At least that was the intention.
Almost all prehistoric knowledge revolved around survival. What not to eat, what not to do, what to stay away from. But as humans began to evolve as a species, the knowledge they acquired gradually broadened.
No longer concerned with starvation or shelter, man began to learn about his surroundings. Somehow, the lives of the people of Hellsgate would already have followed a similar path.
The first ones there would must have been scared and focused on not dying. And we, the generation that came much later, now reaped the benefits of what the pioneers learned. But it was not enough.
Take, for example, the rules of Devil's Remains and Malice. Or the arbitrary limit of 100,000 souls. How did our kind learn such knowledge?