Guild Wars 2

The nightmare court claims freedom is their goal, whilst imprisoning sylvari, poisoning people, and beating fern hounds into fear and submission. They also attack the soundless, other free sylvari, on sight. Sylvari connected to the dream are only guided by the tree and Ventari’s teachings, they are free to disobey or join the soundless.

Joining the nightmare court is fine, so long as you can admit your character is evil. The sylvari may not be perfect, but the court are hypocrites and sadists in the extreme.

I would never want my sylvari to join the nightmare court. Its a pretty silly concept, like the Sith Empire had a bone for salads and 9 months later gave birth to the lollipop guild of evil.

Ramethzero.3785:

I would never want my sylvari to join the nightmare court. Its a pretty silly concept, like the Sith Empire had a bone for salads and 9 months later gave birth to the lollipop guild of evil.

ROFL! I’m glad I wasn’t drinking when I read this … I’d have drenched the keyboard.
As for Lis’ earlier comment RE: cannibal Sylvari: I haven’t thought that, but I’ve bloody well wondered if one could get a buzz from the leaf-hair.

I am Sylvari, I am a protector of the land, of Tyria and though in truth I have been tempted by the Nightmare I will not abandon Mother, the Grove or Ventari’s teachings. At times my Wyld Hunt has left me feeling as if I had no freedom to chose my own path but then I remember that through my Dream and my Wyld Hunt I have been tasked with an honorable task to protect that which I hold dearest to my heart.

Though the Nightmare maybe free from the same charges as my self or other Valiant’s have I can not condone their actions, their thirst for blood. They want to force all Sylvari to conform to them, this is not true freedom. They want to harm mother, the Grove and all Sylvari who do not conform to their will…I will not allow it.

I, Castiel Kyros, am of the Pale Tree and I will destroy the Nightmare just as I will defeat the Elder Dragons to protect Mother, the Grove and all of Tyria from their evil.

Nightmare hounds look awesome.

I’d rather kill Nightmare Court-people (Courtians?) and steal one, though.

Bet it’d do beefy damage with that bad temper.

If you think about it, the nightmare court actually do follow Ventari’s teaching…especially, “hard ground makes for stronger roots”

They indulge on pain to be stronger than the ‘lies’ of the dream….

For my part, I remain a contented citizen of the Grove, aware of the teachings of Ventari, and yet equally able to renounce what parts of it do not resonate with my own personal Dream, which is simply great cooking. Mother Tree lets me cook in peace, and Ventari’s tablet can keep its other pontifications to itself.

I’ve travelled, met the dark courtiers of the Nightmare and heard their compelling arguments. Like all political factions, they talk the talk: say great things about freedom and rail against imagined opression, but their walk is only the lame shuffle of the bitter and twisted. Beautiful Faolin may have had good intentions, but her followers are in it for darker reasons.

For years I flirted with the idea of joining them, for I wondered if I could create some wonderful dessert to tempt them back to happiness. I even traded with them for ingredients they could bring me from their dubious connections with Orr. I don’t like the dragon, but he’s sitting on some wonderful truffles!

The real crux for me is the Nightmare shows no passion for great food. No matter how I plead I’ve never gotten one of the Courtiers to sample my decadent melting-centre chocolate omnomberry pudding. Subtle flavours and textures are not something I can see them getting excited about.

You may think I live at my stove and care nothing for the wider problems of the world, but you’d be mistaken. I know what peril faces us all, and I know my place in it. It was my Dream. An army marches on its stomach, and to take down Zhaitan, Tyria needs my culinary might. Even the sturdiest Norn will be fortified by my Moa-egg Snow Truffle Omelette in the morning before a fight. Food makes morale, and great food makes for great soldiers!

One day, when Zhaitan is vanquished, I may turn my mind back to the problem of the Nightmare Court, and see if I can introduce a cookery program or a gourmet pizza delivery service into their dark realms.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must check on my muffins.

— Oakenseed
The Cuisine Dreamer

Not really…some of their ideology seems ok, in terms of…not embracing the darkness, but acknowledging it more? Jedi-style rules tend to end in disaster. But, based on what is shown in personal storylines and Twilight Arbor, they don’t really seem to be about freedom as much as they claim – more brainwashing, cruelty and destruction. Torturing fern hounds to corrupt them into becoming nightmare hounds, for example, is just evil. So I can’t get behind that.

The Soundless are much more interesting as an alternative, for me.

Lis.6475:

I like the idea of Ventari’s tablets but I’ll also like to be able to choose the path I wander instead of being forced fed someone else’s ideas. Sure, the nightmare court may commit “evil” acts but their ultimate goal seams to to be free. I also like to do as I wish but not commit to some “evil” cult so I made my sylvari (in my own little fantasy version of tyria) a soundless one.

Also she’s a cannibal. : )

What? No one thought sylvari sap actually may taste good?

Yipes! (Also, I have gone for a technicolour look so I think mine probably tastes like pixy stix. Also, stay away! :O )

I like my Sylvari being a good guy and wouldn’t join the Court on my main. That said, I do still wish the option was there. That would open the door to some cool PvP lore.

honestly, no.

I’m all for ignoring ventari’s teachings (“all things have a righ-whatever BURN RABBIT BURN! AHAHAH!”), but attempting to force others to believe the same is just the same as what the tablet did.

if it was to join the lunatic court though, I’m all for it, king thorn is AWESOME