R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
Sylvari nervous system
Well, they definatlly feel pain because they are tortured in game by the NC. I would guess that the thickness of their skin varies with the skin type.
From GW2 wiki “When a sylvari is harmed, instead of scarring tissue they heal via tendrils and expanding bark, but heal at the same general rate as humans”
So the thicker skin types like bark may well be more resistant to damage but if the nerve endings are closer to the surface they can be just as sensitive. or, the skin may be alot thinner on the areas that require a greater sense of touch like finger tips.
They experience cold, pain, pleasure, hunger- all that good stuff. (Basing this knowledge on what I’ve seen Sylvari Npcs say, like complaining about the cold.)
Bark is probably more durable than leaf or petal, but the skin would be thinner and more flexible around areas that are more sensitive/needed for touch, like the inside of the elbow, the hands, or the back of the knee. I would think so anyways or it would be a lot harder for them to move with inflexible skin covering both sides of a joint. At most they just seem a little more tolerant of warm weather, but that’s what you get from being born in a jungle!
I was wrong. they have no “skin type”. No real limbs or organs the way we do. they have only imitations, so their nervous system would be contained in each individual vine/branch/leaf/etc. Thoug hit references "skin’ it references it as the covering of each peice that makes up the imitation limb, body part, etc.
Sylvari biology is very different from any other race. They do not have internal organs, but instead are formed of growing plant matter, sap for blood, leaves and bark for skin. A jaw, for example, can be formed by leaves, vines, or even shards of bark that grow and press together to form the silhouette, but if you look closely you can still see the fibers and holes of the structure. Instead of bones, an arm is a mass of tightly-woven stems and leaves that work together to do the work of such a limb.
Plants react to the environment without needing a brain. In the animal world, octopi have an individual “brain” controlling each arm. It’s possible that the Sylvari nervous system could be decentralized in this way, with a lot of tissues reacting without conscious input.
In any case, I’m sure the moment some poor human first ran across one was right out of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Keep in mind our understanding of real world plant biology is still expanding and they make have means of feeling and communication we still don’t understand. For example look at a venus fly trap, when something is inside it and disturbs one of the “hairs” it starts an internal clock. Should another hair be touched within, I think it’s about 5 seconds, then the trap closes. What mechanisms are in place to determine this countdown and to keep track of how many hairs have been touched? Unknown.
Going off an tangent I suppose and it’s certainly a stretch to liken the venus fly trap to a thinking, speaking, complex organism.
so…
Magic!
What’s interesting is that as their make up is described, they should technicaly be able to be unwound and if you didn’t do too much damage unwinding them then they would be a flailing living moving bush. (Probably in immense pain wich is kind of disturbing).
Really, they are intelligent plants that were “put through a mold” as they matured to give them a humanoid shape. So, as Urthona said, many of their functions would have to be decentralized.