Guild Wars 2

Is my sylvari hard like wood? Or is his skin more soft, like a plant? I’ve always wondering whether or not sylvari’s skin was hard or soft…

Similarly, is the leaf-hair razor sharp? Is the branch hair an extension of the skin or more like hair, where we can cut it off and they won’t feel pain?

In the personal story “The Blossom of Youth,” Whisper agent Cai will need to disguise you into a human. And you’ll say that you feel “mushy and unwieldy,” so I’m assuming Sylvari skin is a lot harder than human skin.

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.
http://www.arena.net/blog/dream-and-nightmare

So as Recycle said probably harder than flesh but their plant armor can be shed like we cut off out hair so they may be able to do the same thing with leaf hair. branches, i assume are more permanent since they are still branches and the sylvari are actually plants after all. i’ve seen no indication that the sylvari parts like leaf hair are too much diffrent than what they look like. So if you have thorns that may be razor sharp or pointy but a leaf is probably just a leaf.

edit: they have two body types on character creation. Wood and leaf. So wood is probably rougher while leaf is smoother but a mass of twisted leaves as thick as a human limb is still tougher than flesh.

OP, your skin is soft like a plant, and when roasted and slathered in garlic butter it has a sweet taste reminiscent of lightly carmelized asparagus. Mmmmm, nom, nom.

So state the chosen Asuran race chefs society.

Wood is sylvari bones, their skin would probably be more akin to the stem of a plant. It’d be tougher and perhaps rougher than atypical animal skin, but not that hard.

They aren’t actually built like us. they don’t have bones made of plants and skin and a heart and all our organs made of plants. they are basically a plant grown into a humanoid mold to imitate our sillouetter and primary limb functions.

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. http://www.arena.net/blog/dream-and-nightmare

the same source cites that they can’t reproduce becasue they don’t have the internal organs to create children and that they have no pulse. So they have sap-blood like plants but they have no pulse becasue they have a plant-like system. Not a human-like system made of plants.

It’s outright stated by both devs in interviews and sylvari Menders in the Grove (or was it just outside the Grove?) that the sylvari have wood instead of bone – well, how the Mender put it was that other races are weird and that instead of wood and sap, they have bone and blood.

The blog quote is likely in reference to what wraps around the wood that is the sylvari bone structure – as wood in of itself can count as “tightly-woven” plant fibers (since that is what wood is). The blog post obviously just flavorized it with “stems and leaves” rather than what stems and leaves are made out of.

Idk. They may have meant that the wood provides the same strength that a bone would but this link seems to confirm that they aren’t built the same way other creatures are. Look at the jaw and blood example.

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.

Their blood is a sticky sap, and though they can bleed, they do not have blood pressure or a pulse.

This all seems to indicate that they are a mass of twisted plant parts that have grown together to form a “sillouette” rather than a human sytem made of plant parts. especially the “To do the work of such a limb” part. and before talking about the bone sais "very diffrent’.

edit; so jawbone especially is confirmed not to be there. Only a sillouette made of a pressed together mass.

So my Sylvari’s skin is more like the stem of a plant? Not hard but not as soft as human skin? In other words, something very smooth and firm?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around what touching a Sylvari is actually like.

The fact that female town NPCs bare their midriff make me wonder whether it’s hard like wood or just how hard it really is if I were to touch it..

Either hard and smooth like a mass of twisted leaves and stems or hard and rough like a mass of stems and bark. Up to you and what you made.

Your sources are a little suspect, Dust, as Ree made a later statement about the sylvari physiology and how she’d misspoken in the blog post. Though I’m not too sure if said statement adressed the wood-bone thing or not.

i got to go with what i see. if i see anything that disqualifies it, i’ll go with that. that’s why i provide source refernce because i’m a lore nerd. And it gets tiring seeing the same misconceptions over and over. But if the material is sourced then it’s easier for everyone and promotes discussion on the actual lore.

edit: if there’s more statments on them I’d love a source to look at. I save them to refer to later.

EUREKA! Not really but maybe.

Nov 20, 2001: They are plants, really, their bodies, if you want to take a Sylvari and do experimentation, which the Asura did – these horrible creatures- , they have sap instead of blood, they have hard wood where bones are, they’re built very much like a plant what’s trying to replicate humans. Like it had looked at them, had seen them and understood how they worked and it made a plant form of a human. http://www.wartower.de/artikel/artikel.php?id=651

Sept 1, 2009: The sylvari are a very young race of nature spirits, who have awakened with the rise of a new age in Tyria. http://www.wiispace.com/wii-forum/open-topic/23788-wiispace-interview-ree-soesbee-world-designer-writer-guild-wars-2-a.html

Aug 11, 2011: The main key to the design was developing an obvious anatomy that clearly described the race as plant rather than an offshoot of human. However, because the race tightly relates to the essence of human due to the Pale Tree’s influences from Ronan, the overall form has a human silhouette. But if you look more closely, you’ll see the forms are really quite alien. They are a collection of abstract notions the Pale Tree had about what made up the human, as she really only saw the surface. They are a tree’s interpretation of humans.

In exploring the anatomy, you can see a lot of different details. The forearms, for example, are not a human arm with leaves tacked on top, but rather a shape created by many stem tendons and long leaves coiling around one another to create the structure. The faces of the sylvari are not restricted by the anatomy of the skull as a human would, but are created by layers upon layers of plant materials that press together, forming the illusion of anatomy.
http://www.talktyria.net/2011/08/11/sylvari-lore-interview-with-ree-soesbee-kristen-perry/

Aug 12, 2011: 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.

Their blood is a sticky sap, and though they can bleed, they do not have blood pressure or a pulse. http://www.arena.net/blog/dream-and-nightmare

Okay. It seems in 2001 they had bones because the pale tree knew how humans worked, internal functions and all. Then in 2011 that was changed because the pale tree didn’t know the internal functions of a human. Only abstract notions of what she saw on the surface. So, instead of one solid wooden endoskeleton they have a sort of endo/exo-skelton because the limbs are composed of stems and leaves within and without tightly wrapped together. But not having an actual skeletal structure as the faces are “Not restricted by the anatomy of a skull”.

Yeah, also in 2001 the sylvari looked a lot more like humans with green skin before they were re-designed. Look at concept art of Caithe, she actually had hair instead of leaves.

In 2001, sylvari weren’t even a figment in the developers’ imagination. :P

The Greyhawk.9107:

Your sources are a little suspect, Dust, as Ree made a later statement about the sylvari physiology and how she’d misspoken in the blog post. Though I’m not too sure if said statement adressed the wood-bone thing or not.

The statement was about organs.

Sylvari do have organs, but they are not similar to animal organs. E.g., they do have an organ to pump sap, and one to breath, and one to digest food, but these are nothing like a heart, lung, or stomach.

@Dustfinger: I would take in-game dialogue over old blog posts and interviews any day. They’re more recent and more canonical, being from the game and all and not an outside source. And currently, in-game sources state that they have wood instead of bone. It’s probably not a perfect endoskeleton – or rather, endoskeleton replica – but it is wood that’s used to support and shape the mass of the sylvari body (the skeleton’s purpose).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Dustfinger: I would take in-game dialogue over old blog posts and interviews any day. They’re more recent and more canonical, being from the game and all and not an outside source. And currently, in-game sources state that they have wood instead of bone. It’s probably not a perfect endoskeleton – or rather, endoskeleton replica – but it is wood that’s used to support and shape the mass of the sylvari body (the skeleton’s purpose).

Quite possible. In that case the ingame and out game sources wouldn’t have to be in conflict.

Huh weird, tightly woven leaves you say. The purpose of leaves is to absorb sunlight and facilitate photosynthesis, it doesn’t really make sense for leaves to be woven like that…
I had always assumed their bones were hard wood, their muscles a sort of plant fibres, their skin like a layer of stem/bark and their hair leaves.

Well, keep in mind that they are the pale trees attempt to to create something humanlike. But she doesn’t know how we actually work. she just has what she sould see from the outsdie. And since they are mobile they can’t completly survive on photosynthesis. Even though they can and do benefit from the sunlight.

Jelle.2807:

Huh weird, tightly woven leaves you say. The purpose of leaves is to absorb sunlight and facilitate photosynthesis, it doesn’t really make sense for leaves to be woven like that…
I had always assumed their bones were hard wood, their muscles a sort of plant fibres, their skin like a layer of stem/bark and their hair leaves.

Some creation options do imply (to my eyes) a bark like skin. Also, different plants do have leaves that have extra specialized uses. I believe that the ‘trap’ of a venus fly trap are such special leaves. Beyond that, I would recomend that you not let real world rules get in the way of a story; after all, it also doesn’t make sense for a plant to walk and talk.

[quote=900874;Jelle.2807:][quote=898906;Konig Des Todes.2086:]

Jelle.2807:

Huh weird, tightly woven leaves you say. The purpose of leaves is to absorb sunlight and facilitate photosynthesis, it doesn’t really make sense for leaves to be woven like that…

Have you ever seen a cabbage?

Hah. Or lettuce?

I would imagine that it is firmer than human skin but supple like a leaf. Picture wet bark and how it feels. I would imagine it feels like that…but not wet.

Given the huge disparity in physical appearance for Sylvari, I would say that it varies from sylvari to sylvari. For instance, there are some faces where their features appear bark-like, others where they appear like hardwood, one that looks cactus-like (this one I imagine would be firm but springy to the touch), and others where it’s difficult to say what texture their skin might feel like. The face I chose for my sylvari looks like hardwood, so I imagine her skin feels like smooth, polished wood, but with an underlying flexibility that allows her to have facial expressions. (So something similar to young bamboo shoots, perhaps.)

I think there are a few different options… if you look at character creation for sylvari there are some skin choices that look more like leaves/tendrils and others that look more like bark. My sylvari’s skin definitely looks more like bark, so I imagine that her skin feels like malleable wood. Like Zaxares said above, it has to move around and be expressive, so it’s not going to be 100% hard. However, if someone wants their sylvari’s skin to be softer like leaves, I don’t think that would be a problem either.

well there are two skin options for the sylvair the more flowery stem option and the more bark tree like option

“Is my sylvari hard?”

Plants are surprisingly resilient. For example a bamboo.

First, I have to point out a forum rarity, peer review leading to better understanding.

Dustfinger.9510:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Dustfinger: I would take in-game dialogue over old blog posts and interviews any day. They’re more recent and more canonical, being from the game and all and not an outside source. And currently, in-game sources state that they have wood instead of bone. It’s probably not a perfect endoskeleton – or rather, endoskeleton replica – but it is wood that’s used to support and shape the mass of the sylvari body (the skeleton’s purpose).

Quite possible. In that case the ingame and out game sources wouldn’t have to be in conflict.

Sylvari botanical anatomy could certainly provide limitless combinations of woody core structure supporting winding tendrils, leaves, stems etc.
Begs the question of how durable they are and how they heal. The strength potential of their anatomy is quite high, as is their healing factor.

OP, I would accept any story of Sylvari skin from hard as heartwood to as soft as petals.