Guild Wars 2

Ok, so while playing GW1, I came across a statue of Melandru in pre-searing Ascalon.

The description of the statue reads:
“And it was that a tribe of godless humans wandered the land. Where camped did they lay waste, senselessly destroying everything nearby.
And so the tribe set out to find another camp, when suddenly sprouted a wall of thorny branches, which blocked their exit.
Then saith Ewan, leader of the tribe, “Know ye our ways. Whosoever does magic in this tribe shall be put to death.”
Yet none comes forward. Then, from the earth grows forth a large tree, and unfurling its branches, reveals the upper torso of a woman. Saith She, “I am Melandru, the Mother of earth and nature. Henceforth I bind ye to these lands. When they suffer, so shall ye suffer.”
And as She saith, so was it done. From their limbs sprouted branches, and the blood in their veins was the sap of trees. Then was Ewan and his tribe converted, and became they stewards of nature.
— Scriptures of Melandru, 48 BE"

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Melandru

So at some point, Melandru turned a bunch of humans into “tree people”. And they became stewards of nature. We also know that Malyck is a Sylvari that comes from another tree, not our Pale Tree. Or at least that it what is thought…

So I propose that Malyck is actually a decendant of one of those turned into “Sylvari” by Melandru in ages long past. That there is no other tree, it’s just assumed there is, because him being Sylvari, he would need to come from a tree. He, and his people, would not have “the dream”, as they were never born from a tree similar to The Pale Tree.

In any event, I found this bit of lore to be rather interesting, and wondering if there is any connection at all to modern day Sylvari.

Any thoughts?

The humans turned into druids.

The sylvari-Melandru connection was a pretty common theory at one point, I think, but it seems to have fallen out of favor, probably because that one very vague scripture is the only evidence for it, combined with widespread cynicism regarding the prospects of ANet ever giving the gods a new role to play. (Although, with this new scroll of the five nonsense…)

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything necessarily disproving it, and I’d be excited to see the story go in that direction; there’s just no real reason to believe it will.

@Buddha That’s one interpretation, anyway. No real evidence for that either, except what the scripture says and the fact that they were humans who apparently at one point turned into treants, with evidence against being that it’s heavily implied the druids remained in human form until at least a century before Prophecies (972 A.E. or thereabouts, over a thousand years after the transformation of the tribe of Ewan).

BuddhaKeks.4857:

The humans turned into druids.

I don’t think that’s true because the story of the druids and the story of melandru are quite different. See, the druids were originally humans wanting to be closer to nature and were possibly followers of melandru. They chose to go to the jungle and shed their physical body. The humans of the story were exactly the opposite of druids, namely humans who did not want to be close to nature nor were they followers of melandru.

The alternative is that both stories are based on the same events but that over time, the stories about the events diverged. That doesn’t even sound very implausible.

Going back to Malyck. I don’t think the two groups of either story are directly related to Malyck or rather, I think that if either of the groups is related to Malyck then they are also related to the other sylvari. The reason why I think this is because Malyck looks, sounds and acts exactly like other sylvari, he even comes from a pod similar to those of normal sylvari. In addition we know that the cave which had the pale tree’s original seed had other seeds as well. If he turns out to not be a sylvari at all then there really is no explanation why Anet did their very best to make him and his origins so similar to those of other sylvari and their very best to set him up as being so important for both the nightmare court and for Caithe and Trahearne.

The reason for the lack of a dream for Malyck has been discussed many times before. Several possibilities are offered. It might be that he lost his memory. It might also be that he was detached from his tree before receiving a dream. It might be that his tree has no dream because it was not nurtured by conscious beings nor growing on top of the graves of ex-conscious beings.

@OP: As Aaron said, the sylvari being from these humans-turned-planty is one of the theories that have gone quiet in favor of the less likely former-dragon-minion theory.

There really isn’t anything to support it. That scripture is more likely referring to treants or even wardens in Cantha (whom were also said to have once been druids by in-universe belief).

It’s possible, but it is equally likely it isn’t possible.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

The humans turned into druids.

Or treants, depending on the theory.

Technically speaking, nothing says that the druid’s losing their human form was involuntary – in fact, everything points to saying it was voluntary.

“The druids of Maguuma, holy beings who surrendered their mortal flesh to become one with the jungle, […]”

To surrender something is to give up willingly. But Melandru didn’t give Ewan’s tribe that chance.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Wisdom_of_the_Druids

That’s why I shouldn’t post in the morning, when I’m in a hurry. I was actually thinking about treants, but for some reason I linked to druids instead. Anyway, the text was created long before Sylvari were even a concept, so it can’t be talking about them. Unless of course Anet goes and retcons it, it’s not like they haven’t done that before. Until that, I stay with the explanation that they are treants or possibly druids (they could have given up there corporal forms later voluntary).

BuddhaKeks.4857:

That’s why I shouldn’t post in the morning, when I’m in a hurry. I was actually thinking about treants, but for some reason I linked to druids instead. Anyway, the text was created long before Sylvari were even a concept, so it can’t be talking about them. Unless of course Anet goes and retcons it, it’s not like they haven’t done that before. Until that, I stay with the explanation that they are treants or possibly druids (they could have given up there corporal forms later voluntary).

Brings up an interesting question- should it be considered a retcon if there was no specific meaning intended in the first place?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Brings up an interesting question- should it be considered a retcon if there was no specific meaning intended in the first place?

To be honest, I’d say yes. There is a chance that the designer who wrote the text in the first place doesn’t even work at Anet anymore or that (s)he has forgotten about it. So no matter if they say it’s Sylvari now or if they say it’s treants/druids or whatever, it would be technically a retcon in my opinion. Though less obvious if they choose to say it’s the latter, as treants and druids existed in the game (or as concepts atleast) when the text was written.

Ewan and his tribe lived in Orr. There’s even a POI related to him in one of the Orrian zones. So this “second pale tree” would have to be in Orr, and we all know that can’t be.

Actually, there is just a village named Ewan. Nothing said Ewan and his tribe lived there.

Remember that everything in GW2 suggests that the Sylvari are an entirely new race. We have no evidence of any transformed humans acting like Sylvari at any time. Known Sylvari history starts with the seed of the Pale Tree. The Melandru theory does not explain how transformed humans created those seeds.

Stooperdale.3560:

Remember that everything in GW2 suggests that the Sylvari are an entirely new race. We have no evidence of any transformed humans acting like Sylvari at any time. Known Sylvari history starts with the seed of the Pale Tree. The Melandru theory does not explain how transformed humans created those seeds.

i can’t even remember the description at this point but wasn’t there tree like creatures protecting the cave Ronan stole the seeds from?

ukuni.8745:

Stooperdale.3560:

Remember that everything in GW2 suggests that the Sylvari are an entirely new race. We have no evidence of any transformed humans acting like Sylvari at any time. Known Sylvari history starts with the seed of the Pale Tree. The Melandru theory does not explain how transformed humans created those seeds.

i can’t even remember the description at this point but wasn’t there tree like creatures protecting the cave Ronan stole the seeds from?

Yeah i remembered reading that as well.

I guess what im trying to say, and wasnt very clear in the OP, but those transformed into plant people by Melandru are not Sylvari, as Sylvari are the offspring of the pale tree. What i am postulating is the the transformed people are similar to Sylvari as they are both plant people, and Malyck and his tribe are decendents of or those who were transformed themselves. And while they look similar to Sylvari, they are not Sylvari. There is no second pale tree, and while there were many seeds, it was only the pale tree seed that grew to be sentient due to the care of ronan and ventari.

But where did these seeds come from? Seeds generally come from a mother tree, which comes from a seed, etc etc etc