Guild Wars 2

Just a tought that popped in my head and now I’m curious about it.

Technically, every single Sylvari is the brother or sister of all the others (Edit: include Nightmare Court and Soundless).

However, they may feel closer to one or another, and use the term “brother” or “sister” with a stronger personal meaning behind it.

Depending on how you look at it, all sylvari born from the same tree could be siblings.

Or perhaps it is more of a “batch” type of situation where all sylvari born from the same batch are siblings. Though, what dictates when a new batch is started or ends?

Most likely, sylvari “born” in the same cycle on the same day may be the closest to what they might use to determine sibling status, if they have the concept of sibling/non-sibling at all.

Kultakorppi.4769 showed photos of their female sylvari with her male ‘podtwin’.
I’m not sure of what their criteria was to determine their being podtwins.

Are sylvari birthed from pods? I honestly have not looked to find out before, but during creation the cinematic does seem to show the character unawakened inside of a chrysalis.

• If so: Can there be more than one sylvari per pod? Or could two pods be grown into eachother like two human fetuses inside of one womb?
  • Are they individual pods or like a pea pod with multiple sylvari per pod?

Really haven’t thought about it before. Good question though.

Yes, there are sylvaris born from one pod so we can call them “twins”.
There are even few missions with them : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wild_Growth .

StinVec.3621:

• If so: Can there be more than one sylvari per pod? Or could two pods be grown into eachother like two human fetuses inside of one womb?

That is what I was wondering.

Thanks for the answers so far!

leny.3065:

Yes, there are sylvaris born from one pod so we can call them “twins”.
There are even few missions with them : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wild_Growth .

I forgot all about Arlon and Pellam! I’ve still not finished that storyline yet. :\
“Two sylvari, a pair of twins named Arlon and Pelham”
“Sylvari born from the same pod are extremely rare”

Stupid memory. Grr.

Thanks, leny.

(Note, the wiki shows “Pellam” and “Pelham”, so not sure if it is error on there or if it is also inconsistent in-game. Need to look next time I do that line)

Doesn’t matter either way. To the Sylvari, every sibling they have, whether from the same pod or not, is a prospective mate. That said, I can only assume that they do not view the relationship between siblings in the same sense that we do.

Just a funny thought, but they may not comprehend the default reaction of other races when they are asked if a sibling is their mate.

Sylvari: “Are you two a mated pair?”
Human/Norn/Charr/Asura “No! She’s my sister!”
Sylvari: “What does that have to do with it?”

My Sylvari’s certainly made comments along those lines at times.

But my character is one those “naïve” types. I’d imagine that most Sylvari would have been given instruction on cultural norms of other races to understand that incest is a taboo activity among most sapient species.

Technically speaking, we are don’t know for sure if that taboo exists in Tyria (I hope it does, lol)

Like others have said technically all sylvari are siblings.

As for the incest thing, it obviously doesn’t matter to sylvari as a lot of them love each other. The reason for it is stagnation of the gene pool anyway and as sylvari don’t reproduce that’s a non-issue for them.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

Like others have said technically all sylvari are siblings.

As for the incest thing, it obviously doesn’t matter to sylvari as a lot of them love each other. The reason for it is stagnation of the gene pool anyway and as sylvari don’t reproduce that’s a non-issue for them.

Technically, you are only half right. If a homosexual couple also happened to be siblings then it would still fall under the range of taboo in order to prevent a double standard. Then you also have to consider that incest could opt out for the aid of a third party in order to have a healthy child.

At any rate, back on topic. I would like to rethink my answer. I get the feeling that Sylvari do not have “siblings” so much as they have “kin”. They are all created by one god-like being, each one radically different from the other. So it really depends on your point of view.

If real world plants were sapient, they would probably also be much less bothered about incest than we are. Self-pollination is a common occurrence among many plant species; if you think incest is squicky, imagine fertilising yourself and growing your own child purely from your own sperm. XD

Zaxares.5419:

If real world plants were sapient, they would probably also be much less bothered about incest than we are. Self-pollination is a common occurrence among many plant species; if you think incest is squicky, imagine fertilising yourself and growing your own child purely from your own sperm. XD

………. grody :P

bullyrook.2165:

Technically speaking, we are don’t know for sure if that taboo exists in Tyria (I hope it does, lol)

There are genetic reasons why breeding with close relatives is undesirable. Humans have probably evolved to not breed with genetic relatives for that reason.

For Sylvari, breeding isn’t an option.

Wanderer.3248:

bullyrook.2165:

Technically speaking, we are don’t know for sure if that taboo exists in Tyria (I hope it does, lol)

There are genetic reasons why breeding with close relatives is undesirable. Humans have probably evolved to not breed with genetic relatives for that reason.

For Sylvari, breeding isn’t an option.

For the most part a human’s brain will turn them off to their siblings. Now there have been cases throughout history where this hasn’t happened so obviously I can’t say that’s always the case; but a sylvari’s brain wouldn’t naturally do this because they can’t reproduce in the first place.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

Wanderer.3248:

bullyrook.2165:

Technically speaking, we are don’t know for sure if that taboo exists in Tyria (I hope it does, lol)

There are genetic reasons why breeding with close relatives is undesirable. Humans have probably evolved to not breed with genetic relatives for that reason.

For Sylvari, breeding isn’t an option.

For the most part a human’s brain will turn them off to their siblings. Now there have been cases throughout history where this hasn’t happened so obviously I can’t say that’s always the case; but a sylvari’s brain wouldn’t naturally do this because they can’t reproduce in the first place.

Think about what you just said friend. They can’t reproduce, but they still have sexual desires. If they were all asexual, your logic would make sense. As is, there could be any number of reasons.

In the sylvaris case, their sexual desires would be no different than any other intimate, pleasurable activity they can share with a loved one. Tickeling, sitting around a fire telling stories, and intercourse. All are there to share an experience cement bonds.

for them, the worse type of cheating would be emotional cheating. because they have no alternative animalistic reproductive drive to blame it on. So any intimate bonding would come from an emotional connection.