Guild Wars 2

Sylvari are… Antibodies. The planet’s biosphere’s response to the Elder Dragons. The dragons themselves are intelligent but not sentient (And they lack free will)
They mereley act to restore the planet to its primal state (That is, without life of any kind and with the elements constantly “pushing” at one another) The dragons are the Soul of the World in a way.

Ventari infused part of his “essence” into the pale tree, that’s the only reason the Sylvari we know look humanoid and have a consciousness, they are pretty much an accident..

Somewhere, more trees are growing, and the things that will come out of them won’t be nearly as pretty or kind. First they will turn their attention to the dragons. Then the Sylvari we know, then probably all other sentient species. They will be Life unleashed… Cancer, if you will.

They are also not immortal, they just stay in decent shape to carry on with their task. Once they reach 50~ years old they become possesed by the mad desire of… recycling themselves. The pale tree itself is growing, I wonder what will she think in 20 more years when the first pools of acid start to take shape, maybe she’ll get hungry…

The nightmare court is what happens when you mix consciousness with the natural inclinations of Sylvari to… Cleanse the world. You get pretty perverted stuff.

The Pale Tree might know of this and do a very hard effort to brainwash all of her spawn into goodness through “The Dream”.

The Dream is a defective version of true Sylvari’s telepathic communication network, again limited by conciousness and subjective appreciation.

The Asura, through their studies on fractals and what they call the eternal alchemy, already know of this and are preparing in advance.