The halls of Wayne Manor used to be filled with the sounds of laughter. A happy family had once lived there: a mother, father, and their young son Bruce. But as time progressed, the structure heard less and less merriment, until suddenly one day the joyous emotion ceased altogether.
It began with the deaths of the Wayne parents. Their departure shook Bruce to the core. Whenever he walked into a room, a memory of his parents would cross his mind. Months turned to years, and time would not allow these memories to pass.
When the boy turned the legal age of eighteen, he abandoned the manor as soon as he had the chance, favoring a custom glass cottage near a lake. The aquatic landscape surrounding his new abode served a duel purpose. Metaphorically, it reminded him of a purification process: when you set yourself in water you can be washed clean, for it is never too late to begin again. On the other hand, geographically speaking, the cottage provided a wonderful cover for when the man shed his millionaire life for the justice-seeking form of a masked bat.
And so the manor sat, unused and unloved. Without the care of humans to nurture it, nature slowly overrode what was left of the humanity, snaking it's way across the floors and over the bannisters. It became a memorial to what once was, and even then it was not considered a revered place. The children of Gotham would dare one another to trespass, intrigued by the rumor that ghosts haunted the mansion. Older teens, having no belief in such stories, vandalized the walls, knowing full well that neither it's master nor law enforcement would intervene.
Still, the manor sat dutifully and waited. It had weathered countless storms for generations; in time, the house of Wayne would be called upon once again.