Guild Wars 2

I created a role-playing backstory for my new Sylvari Ranger, and my guild leader suggested I ask around before I use this, incase its too overpowered or out of character.

My idea is my female Sylvari is actually a female Human cursed by Faolain and turned into a Nightmare Court Sylvari. She was able to break free of Faolain’s hold on her, but is stuck as a Sylvari and cannot change back to Human.

Is that something Faolain would do, or could do, or is it out of character for her?

I’ll help because I love lore

A couple problems I see are that faolin probably doesn’t have the power to curse humans into nightmare court sylvari. if she did, they wouldn’t need to turn the Pale Tree to nightmare.

The second problem I see is that there is no cure for nightmare corruption. So if your character broke free of faolin, she would still be nightmare court. So the only option would be and independent nightmare courtier or a separate faction of nightmare court. Either way, still evil.

Possible fixes for the first issue. You may still be cursed by a greater being. maybe a god. (melandru seems to have the power to turn humans into plants) Just not by Faolin. Maybe she doesn’t know who cursed her. Or maybe is was the result of a lost artifact of melandru in Orr:

And it was that a tribe of godless humans wandered the land. Where camped did they lay waste, senselessly destroying everything nearby.

And so the tribe set out to find another camp, when suddenly sprouted a wall of thorny branches, which blocked their exit.

Then saith Ewan, leader of the tribe, “Know ye our ways. Whosoever does magic in this tribe shall be put to death.”

Yet none comes forward. Then, from the earth grows forth a large tree, and unfurling its branches, reveals the upper torso of a woman. Saith She, “I am Melandru, the Mother of earth and nature. Henceforth I bind ye to these lands. When they suffer, so shall ye suffer.”

And as She saith, so was it done. From their limbs sprouted branches, and the blood in their veins was the sap of trees. Then was Ewan and his tribe converted, and became they stewards of nature.

— Scriptures of Melandru, 48 BE

Possible fix for second issue. if she was turned into a plant by a god, she might not be a “real” sylvari. So she may have no connection to the Dream. But if she was mistaken for one, then she may still have been kidnapped and tortured (resulting in Stockholm syndrome which can be cured) or recruited by the Courtiers. And that would be a way that faolin would have controle over her the way she seems to have had over kaithe, without your character being doomed to eternal evilness. If she was recruited, she may have come to her senses about the NC before the corruption took effect if she is even capable of being corrupted. Either way, keep in mind that your character may not even know if the curse turned her into a “real sylvari” or if she is capable or incapable of being nightmare corrupted.

Those a just a few suggested possibilities for you. Have fun

Dustfinger.9510:

-snippity-

Wow, that’s a fantastic alternative and fixes all the problems I saw. It would also bring up the interesting question of whether or not that character could be susceptible to dragon corruption, since Humans are but Sylvari aren’t.

" If she was recruited, she may have come to her senses about the NC before the corruption took effect if she is even capable of being corrupted."

I just wanted to chime in real quick about this option that Dustfinger presented to you.
The Nightmare would not be able to affect your human-turned-plant-person. The Dream and Nightmare, so far from what we know, are constructs limited to only sylvari born from the Pale Tree found in the Tarnished Coast. Since your character is not a sylvari, let alone one born from our Pale Tree, it would not be possible for her to be consumed by the Nightmare. She could however go mad from seeing what it is the Nightmare Court is capable of, and they can get into some deep skritt when they want to.

Additionally, keep in mind that if your character doesn’t know if she is or is not a sylvari, then other sylvari around her would have to assume that she’s either from a different tree (like Malyck, who was born from an unknown Pale Tree in the Northern, yet to be explored regions of the Maguuma Jungle), or she’s a Soundless (a sylvari that has cut themselves off from the Dream through meditation). I say this because they’ll want to know why they have no connection with her, as all sylvari are born with an weak empathetic bond with other sylvari. That is unless they don’t know she was originally a human. If they do know her secret, then it can be easy to explain it as her not being an actual sylvari, but a human turned into a plant-humanoid.

Thank you for the input, everyone. Sounds like I am going to abandon this idea, and come up with something else. Maybe a Sylvari who WISHES she was Human? And almost turned to the Nightmare Court, believing Faolain had to power to change her? And then Caithe rescued her, or something….

Malganis.7468:

Thank you for the input, everyone. Sounds like I am going to abandon this idea, and come up with something else. Maybe a Sylvari who WISHES she was Human? And almost turned to the Nightmare Court, believing Faolain had to power to change her? And then Caithe rescued her, or something….

That sounds promising. Don’t forget there are lots of other Firstborn besides Caithe and Faolain, some who work especially with “saplings” and try to teach them in the ways of the world.