Guild Wars 2

For this topic I’ll go with the assumption that not all sylvari are, or can be, corrupted by Mordremoth. After all we still see sylvari fighting alongside the good guys in the trailer while the ending of the LW-season pretty much depicted the whole lot of sylvari aboard the pact-fleet going berserk.

However, one thing should definitely be in HoT: A solid and lore-consistent reason for the imunity of some sylvari. (Bolded for importance, not yelling ).

A simple “Some of my children have an especially strong will.” from the half recuperated pale tree simply won’t cut it. The whole lot of sylvari aboard the pact fleet has gone berserk, some of them battlehardened veterans from the war against zhaitan.

What do you think?

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

myself.2143:

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

Where was this stated? (if I missed that part, I would genuinely like to read up)

I do recall them stating that the Sylvari were incorruptible by Elder Dragons in general, but this was theorised to be because of them being minions of another dragon already (Mordy).

psizone.8437:

myself.2143:

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

Where was this stated? (if I missed that part, I would genuinely like to read up)

The trailer shows (insert name here) saying "We are NOT all monsters. Sorry his name escapes me at the moment.

Syione.3046:

psizone.8437:

myself.2143:

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

Where was this stated? (if I missed that part, I would genuinely like to read up)

The trailer shows (insert name here) saying "We are NOT all monsters. Sorry his name escapes me at the moment.

Canach

Syione.3046:

psizone.8437:

myself.2143:

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

Where was this stated? (if I missed that part, I would genuinely like to read up)

The trailer shows (insert name here) saying "We are NOT all monsters. Sorry his name escapes me at the moment.

Yeah I saw that part, but it didn’t state why he wasn’t affected. Will be interesting to find out when it’s released.

I’m wondering if the Soundless might finally come into their own here. If they’re strong enough to be able to ignore the Dream then you’d think they might strong enough to resist the call of Mordremoth as well. There might be a role for them to play.

Syione.3046:

psizone.8437:

myself.2143:

Huh, I already thought it was established that some Sylvari are strong of body mind and spirit and cannot be influenced by Mordremoth, hence PCs and certain important NPCs.

Where was this stated? (if I missed that part, I would genuinely like to read up)

The trailer shows (insert name here) saying "We are NOT all monsters. Sorry his name escapes me at the moment.

Yeah, Canach.
Still I don’t recall reading, hearing or seeing a reason for this in the game. We know that not all sylvari are affected and it’s rumored that sylvari closer to the dream and the pale tree are less likely to be corrupted, but that’s it.
No real explanation this far.
So far I only recall one other example where someone was immune to dragon-corruption. The founder of the vigil, Almorra Soulkeeper, who had to witness her old warband turning into crystal-abominations while the brand was created. We get no reason for her immunity either.
However, for the charr in the brand to become minions, they had to be transformed. As far as we’ve been told, sylvari are offsprings of mordremoth, meant to be minions without being transformed.
We have no canon information how the pale tree turned against it’s creator and how it is that some sylvari remain free-willed, while other sylvari fall into the corruption of the dragon.

Its established in the Living World Season 2 that
The Pale Tree is the protector of the dream and it is inferred that this connection to the dream is what keeps a Sylvari safe. So if the Pale Tree dies, she is still gravely injured at the end of Season 2, Then its possible that all Sylvari are at risk of regressing back into Mordrem.

tekfan.3179:

We have no canon information how the pale tree turned against it’s creator and how it is that some sylvari remain free-willed, while other sylvari fall into the corruption of the dragon.

We do actually have a canon reason. Back in GW1 The centaur Ventari had found the seed that was to become the pale tree and planted it in his refuge, there the pale tree had sprouted and was influenced by the teachings of Ventari and passed on his teachings to the Sylvari. Additionally the pale tree protects the sylvari from the influence of Mordremoth through the dream. No pale tree no dream, no dream no protection.

Oddly enough the Nightmare Court was right when they said that the teachings of Ventari had twisted the true nature of the Sylvari XD

I would assume the first borns are safe (since they have the strongest bond to the pale tree).

After that the Pale Tree protects the sylvari, but since in the trailer it shows a sort of Sylvari epidemic I would assume not all of them are safe.
~side comment: I would assume the opposite about the sylvari who reject the pale tree, more likely they’ll follow their ‘true’ purpose.

During the personal story also she stats the dream protects them from the corruption of the dragons and then again in the living world story right before you have the summit meeting with the other races she tells you this. Its explained quite well in fact from a story stand point. And no Treherne will most likely turn ethier sense he carry’s Calidbog or however its Spelled he was given it to protect him from Zhiatan’s corruption so I think it will do the same here but will we find him again in this story is another factor.

The pale tree protects her children with the dream, on that I agree. But the rest is mostly player-canon.

For the pale tree to become the entity she is now is speculated to either be because of Ventari’s teachings and being planted on the graves of a loving human family, or that the seed had actually been purified by the ritual that freed Glint from dragon-control before it had been taken from a cave full of hostile plant-creatures. So far I’m not aware that ANet has confirmed either theory.

Now that the pale tree is weakened, we see sylvari falling to corruption. Canach seems to retain his mind though, so should the PC-sylvari and I guess some other plot-relevant ones.
As I mentioned we saw every pact-sylvari in viewing-range become a mordrem-convert in the ending of the living world season. Granted that the pale tree is weakened and they were very close to mordremoth, we still have the fact that at least the PC-sylvari will enter the jungle too.

I hope we will free the corrupted sylvari in the end by defeating mordremoth, but I really want a good, canon reason why some converted dragon minions retain their free will and others don’t. All those friendly sylvari we fought alongside in Orr suddenly go berserk and the only reason should be “Those battle-hardened veterans who chose to fight zhaitan for the greater good had a weaker will than others.”? Seriously?

My personal theory is that the Pale Tree is able to protect all “dreamers”, but that the combination of the Pact’s close proximity to Mordremoth combined with the weakening of the Pale Tree herself meant that Mordy was able to overpower that protection and corrupt a portion of them. Probably a sizeable portion.

Not all of them, though. Trehearne is likely protected by Caladbolg, we’ve seen Canach isn’t corrupted (though its not entirely clear if Canach went with the Pact ships or if he’s going to enter the jungle later, as we don’t see him anywhere during Point of No Return), and the new article on the GW2 main page mentions Laranthir and his group of “elite” Sylvari called the Pale Reavers and events surrounding them so clearly they aren’t corrupted either.

I’m sure they’ll explain the specifics of why some are more susceptible to corruption than others at some point, but I’m guessing it will boil down to either being particularly strong of will OR a deeper connection with the Pale Tree. Possibly both to varying degrees.

Its also possible the player characters and any other Sylvari who enter the jungle starting in HoT will strengthen their resistance in some way before heading in. Perhaps the Pale Tree will provide talismans of protection or perhaps another ritual or something, who knows.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

I thought Canach was at the end of the trailer when Braum says "We take the fight to momdroph(sp).