Guild Wars 2

From the Fallen Hopes instance, Jory points out that the soundless seems to be the one affected by Mordremoth’s power, she says that right after we talk to her about the note signed by Aerin.

But if you followed Trader Aerin in Labyrinthine cliffs, when he ran around the Zephyr Sanctum, he would mention the Pale Tree quite often, kind of going against him being a Soundlesss (cutting all ties from the Pale Tree and the Dream of Dreams).

So is he a Soundless?

He had a Soundless mantra, so I certainly see that as the most likely answer. I’d have to see them for myself again, but I think his mentions of the Tree were all just sylvari exclamations, not actually mention of any connection between it and him.

I found this

His dialogue during FotFW suggests that at the time he was, in fact, connected to the Dream. Specifically, “I shall record every moment in my journal so that even those who can’t access the Dream know the joy I’m experiencing.”

Could it be that he decided to become Soundless after joining the Zephyrites?

Huh… you’re right, at least two of those sound like he was connected to the Dream. As a sidenote, I didn’t realize before how shady he seems if you put all the dialogue together like that.

@Tamias There’s still that mantra to consider, though. He would not have been able to get that once they left.

Tamias.7059:

Could it be that he decided to become Soundless after joining the Zephyrites?

That would be the only explanation.

When he enters the Sanctum there’s this here

Trader Aerin: “Hello! I’m Aerin. I’ve been given permission to come aboard for your next voyage. Where should I put my gear?”
Zephyrite: “Welcome, Aerin. It is customary to leave your burdens behind when you take your first journey with us.”
Trader Aerin: “Say no more. My burdens and my gear will stay here on the docks. When do we depart?”
Zephyrite: “As soon as we meet our obligations to Lion’s Arch.”

So maybe over time he decided to cut himself from the Pale Tree/Dream of Dreams.

Or maybe he was a Soundless all along, (there was no metion of PT in first Bazaar, but it doesn’t prove my point ofc) and during the second Bazaar he can be simply (wait for it!) LYING and pretending to be a Dreamer. Not everyone speaks the truth teh whole time, you know.

Why would he lie? Few possibilities:

- He likes to lie to people. Compulsive liars are do exist.

- Mordremoth told him to. Because even if players/npc population aren’t privy to teh fact that Dream protects from corruption, Mordie sure as hell knows it, and might have commanded his puppet to lie about it, just in case. On the other hand, careful and smart villain are hard to come by in heroic fantasy.

- He is batkitten insane. Why not? He might be simply driven madder than a battub full of drunk monkeys and talk jibberish, even though he retains some composure and semblence of sanity at first.

Just my theory

“I shall record every moment in my journal so that even those who can’t access the Dream know the ~joy~ I’m experiencing.”

Where have we heard of this before?

The Pale Tree’s voice was faint and distant, but it snapped Ceara back to viewing the tree from a distance.
" If you are not one with what you were born to be, you are lost. Worse, you are dangerous."

~~Sheer joy surged through Ceara.~~

“Dangerous, you say? Her thoughts boomed loud as thunder across the void. So be it.”

I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Either these two realized something likewise euphoric, or the same joy was a byproduct of Draconic corruption?

It’s actually the Player Character who presumes Aerin is a Soundless, this being due to the note left about him leaving the Pale Tree and his voice becoming sole in the cacophony.

Unlike what Aaron said, this is not a Soundless mantre per se, but it is very similar to their ideology. Hence the connection made. But that connection is never proven true.

This said, when he joined the Zephyrites one of the dialogues was him asking a Zephyrite where to put his belongings and she replied that it is customary for those joining for the first time leave their burdens on the ground – to which Aerin replied that he would “leave [his] gear and burdens on the dock.”

Combine this with the existence of another Zephyrite sylvari (generic named) and a sylvari mentioning that there’s no knowledge of the Zephyr Sanctum in the Dream of Dreams, and it seems like sylvari must become Soundless to join them (hence leaving burdens behind – the burden of memories and their racial connection).

Elesh.6192:

“I shall record every moment in my journal so that even those who can’t access the Dream know the ~joy~ I’m experiencing.”

Where have we heard of this before?

The Pale Tree’s voice was faint and distant, but it snapped Ceara back to viewing the tree from a distance.
" If you are not one with what you were born to be, you are lost. Worse, you are dangerous."

~~Sheer joy surged through Ceara.~~

“Dangerous, you say? Her thoughts boomed loud as thunder across the void. So be it.”

I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Either these two realized something likewise euphoric, or the same joy was a byproduct of Draconic corruption?

You’re making a connection between Aerin and Scarlet… on the fact that they enjoyed getting what they wanted?

Yeah… a huge amount of sylvari feel joy, throughout the game.

It might be because he’s a sylvari character, but my ranger recognized the note as a common Soundless mantra/meditation device (can’t remember the exact wording).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

It might be because he’s a sylvari character, but my ranger recognized the note as a common Soundless mantra/meditation device (can’t remember the exact wording).

Interesting.
Will have to confirm this tonight

That is indeed interesting. Had only seen it on human. Going to have to go through on my sylvari for sure.

Indeed, it did not strike me as thetypical joy as in “Things are going well”. To me it very much looked like the kind of euphoria one acquires from a supreme realization, or potentially the opposite – the touch of a Dragon’s hive mind, or generally influence, in that it would seem “right” for the character in question to follow the directives suggested, thus the feeling of joy.

Scarlet felt a rush of joy the very moment she ignored the Pale Tree’s final warning and proceeded out of her boundaries, Aerin’s turning point might’ve been something different, but with the same end result. Perhaps Mordremoth does call to Sylvari as their true creator? Either way “I shall record every moment on this journal” does not strike me as a particularly level-headed statement to make.

Scarlet felt that joy while ignoring, but before she actually crossed the threshold. She was still under the Pale Tree’s protection at that time.

So was Aerin, by all indication.

He could have had multiple personality disorder or some form of dissociation disorder, including amnesia.

Sometimes he was connected to the dream (or thought he was), and sometimes he was disconnected from the dream (or thought he was). He could have forgotten either state, so when he was connected to the dream he had no memory of ever being disconnected.

Deliberately blocking off memories and/or parts of ones personality are also symptomatic of avoidant personality disorders.

It wouldn’t be surprising to find that occurrences of personality disorders are higher among the soundless. Choosing isolation is a symptom of many disorders. (That doesn’t mean that all soundless are mad, just that mad Sylvari might be more likely to become soundless).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

This said, when he joined the Zephyrites one of the dialogues was him asking a Zephyrite where to put his belongings and she replied that it is customary for those joining for the first time leave their burdens on the ground – to which Aerin replied that he would “leave [his] gear and burdens on the dock.”

I took that as a generic reference to leaving your life behind you not specifically cutting a connection with the Pale Tree. I’ve never considered the Pale Tree to be a burden to sylvari, the empathy they feel for each other is a proximity thing and there were few sylvari on the Zephyr Sanctum. The Zephyrite philosophy seems to be one about peace, leaving your burdens behind you is a common cliche when on a journey for inner peace. To reshape yourself into something new and embrace a new life, you can’t bring your old prejudices, grudges etc, you need to let them go, leave them behind you.

To me that doesn’t include becoming a Soundless or cutting off ties with the Pale Tree – plenty of sylvari are free from the Pale Tree’s influence, Ventari’s Teaching or the Nightmare (sylvari pirates are a prime example – they don’t fit the bill of a Ventari sylvari or a Nightmare sylvari, they walk their own path). Scarlet created this false frame for the sylvari where there was a duality to them, Dreamers and Nightmare Court, either Dreamers is very broad and unrestrictive enough to include “evil” pirates (in which case, what restrictions was she talking about if she could be a Dreamer and still act as a pirate?) or Scarlet was just wrong.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Combine this with the existence of another Zephyrite sylvari (generic named) and a sylvari mentioning that there’s no knowledge of the Zephyr Sanctum in the Dream of Dreams, and it seems like sylvari must become Soundless to join them (hence leaving burdens behind – the burden of memories and their racial connection).

Wasn’t this explained by one of the writers as an indication of how long it’s been since the Zephyr Sanctum last visited Tyria? It’s been so long that no sylvari had heard of them yet. The reason the Zephyrites weren’t in the Dream yet was simply because the sylvari hadn’t come across them yet. We don’t know when the first sylvari Zephyrite joined the ship, it may have been during that very visit and that’s why it wasn’t in the Dream – it only just happened. Alternatively, any sylvari on the ship may have come from another mother tree and any of their experiences wouldn’t be shared with the sylvari of the Pale Tree.

It could be possible that the Zephyrites persuaded Aerin to drop the teachings of the ventari tablet and adopt their beliefs instead. As part of this, he became soundless.

As for leaving his personal belongings behind, that seems strange a thing for a merchant to do. What is he going to trade if he leaves his merchandize behind? That suggests to me that the Zephyrites have communal property, and even if they don’t then traveling on their ships is about joining their lifestyle and philosophy rather than traveling in the air.

I don’t even know why the Soundless dialogue was put into the game, there was no hint at it before any of this happened and it doesn’t even seem to be a big plot point supported by anything seen or said elsewhere. At no point did Aerin show signs of being a Soundless prior to boarding the ship so it’s kind of frustrating to me that the Soundless mention was put into my PC’s mouth as words I’d say when no context supports its mention. If there is a Soundless plot happening here (wouldn’t it be nice to have an actual sylvari around to talk about these things – instead we have two humans) it’s being handled really clumsily.

There are suggestions Aerin is more like Scarlet than a Soundless, although he never rejected the Pale Tree like Scarlet did.

Master of Peace: Aerin!
Aerin: What? Huh? You’re here?
Master of Peace: Aerin, you have broken your Zephyrite vows.
Aerin: Trivial vows. Trivial people. I’ve seen the bigger picture.
Master of Peace: You’ve lost your mind, and your true heart. I’m sorry. You will not prevail.

Aerin specifically mentions seeing “the bigger picture”. Sounds a lot like Scarlet seeing the Eternal Alchemy. He considers the Zephyrites and their vows to be trivial, again like Scarlet’s view of the world and people around her.

The Master of Peace further elaborates on Aerin’s situation.

Taimi: Why was he after you?
Master of Peace: He started losing his mind on the ship. He’s the one who sabotaged it, you know.
Rox: Yes, we know. Did he want revenge on you for something?
Master of Peace: No. He wanted me to give him power. Great power that he couldn’t handle. I refused. He could not let it go.

Something happened to Aerin on the ship. The Master doesn’t say he was a spy or had ill intentions the whole time, the Master explicitly says “He started losing his mind on the ship”. If Aerin had planned this all before boarding the ship, it wouldn’t be perceived as losing his mind, rather it would come across as premeditated sabotage.

The question (which we can’t answer yet) is what caused Aerin to lose his mind. Best bets are on the same thing that influenced Scarlet (the Entity). In Scarlet’s room there is a paper written by Snaff about controlling golem’s remotely and some mumbo jumbo about leylines and magic (which is everywhere) being used as a medium. I don’t recall exactly what it was and I can’t get back into the instance, but I think it said something that could be linked to mind control. Perhaps it was proximity to the leyline Scarlet was researching, and all the NPCs keep talking about under the mine, that played a role in Aerin’s transformation. If nothing else, the mind control/empathy angle of magic as a medium could play into how the Pale Tree is connected to her children. I’d have to reread the short bit in that instance to go on more about it, but everything a writer does is for a reason. Snaff’s paper is related to what’s going on somehow.

Note the devs: Please make all of the story content easier to access. It’s great that we can replay it now, but ease of access to every piece of it is just as important. Perhaps allow us to select an instance from the journal to trigger the start to enter it at that location. I don’t want to repeat the final mission (or all of them for that matter) just to access a dialogue heavy instance. I also don’t want to sit through biconic banter when I’m trying to hone in on the bigger story going on. Waiting long periods of time in each instance for the biconics to do their thing gets really annoying really fast, especially the more you repeat the instance for achievements or plot details.

Is it that easy to become a soundless ? I don’t know why, but I thought it took a little bit of training and isn’t something that’s done in a few weeks.

Went back and got screen caps:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s actually the Player Character who presumes Aerin is a Soundless, this being due to the note left about him leaving the Pale Tree and his voice becoming sole in the cacophony.

Actually, the diary segment talks about him listening to one voice rather than the cacophony. You can interpret that one voice as either his own voice or the same voice he’s hearing when we finally meet him. Maybe someone can post up the exact text.

I’ve posted why I don’t think Aerin is Soundless here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Soundless-Mordremoth/first#post4173624

Stooperdale.3560:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s actually the Player Character who presumes Aerin is a Soundless, this being due to the note left about him leaving the Pale Tree and his voice becoming sole in the cacophony.

Actually, the diary segment talks about him listening to one voice rather than the cacophony. You can interpret that one voice as either his own voice or the same voice he’s hearing when we finally meet him. Maybe someone can post up the exact text.

The exact quote is “I turn my back on you, Mother. My solo voice of truth shall drown out the cacophony of fools. – Aerin.”

The interesting bit is, if your character is a Sylvari, you immediately recognise this as a common meditation mantra used by the Soundless. So it’s not just the PCs presuming that Aerin is a Soundless. What’s truly odd is how Aerin felt the need to sign his name to it though; perhaps they do it as part of a “pledge” to strengthen their commitment to distancing themselves from the Dream.

I’m also convinced that it’s the same Entity talking to Aerin as was talking to Scarlet. His lines sound like he’s having a conversation with someone in his head, and Scarlet’s holologs back in the Dead End bar show her telling someone to get out of her head.

It seems like Aerin succumbed to this being’s influence much faster than Scarlet did, since he didn’t have the great intellect and strength of will she did.