Guild Wars 2

Just some thoughts I had the other day, wanted to know what you guys think.

I’ve seen Malyck’s lack of a Dream cited several times as evidence that it is something unique to the Pale Tree, and not the sylvari race on a whole, but Malyck is also set apart by being, to the best of my knowledge, the only sylvari to ‘awaken’ after his pod had been carried quite a significant distance. What if that, and not his separate origin, is why he cannot remember his Dream? After all, assuming this other group of sylvari works the way the Pale Tree’s does, then their tree would also be inextricably tied to their Dream. Perhaps severing the connection to the tree too early also severs the connection to the Dream.

If I am somehow off course, and Malyck is truly dreamless, I’d like to know what your theories are as to how he learned to talk and fight. It was pondering those questions that birthed this theory in the first place. I vaguely recall that there might have been something to say that the Wardens were responsible for the later, but it has been far too long since I played that storyline for me to be sure.

Well, it could be that the earliest portion of the Dream is where they learn the more basic skills that aren’t necessarily tied to memories. I mean I do not remember the first time I talked or ate, but I still have these skills. If he was cut off from the Dream after this portion and was not allowed the latter portion of the Dream which could include more of the Wyld Hunt and such, then it is not impossible for his tree to have a Dream and have him cut off from it.

The soundless have managed to cut themselves off from the dream, I don’t see why Malyck not having access to the dream would be significant since there obviously are ways it can happen. Evidently it wasn’t by his choice, but as you’ve suggested there could very easily be other reasons.

It’s something I’ve pondered myself, and pretty much came to a similar conclusion as Narcemus: Chances are, he did have a Dream that granted him the basic skills, but he got severed from it before it reached a point where he had conscious memories of it.

Another possibility, of course, is that what the Pale Tree we know has IS special, but all Pale Trees can still teach skills to sylvari that are still in the pod without a Dream.

What IS interesting, when we put it under a microscope, is the question of why this mysterious Pale Tree would still be teaching Malyck to speak Krytan…

The Dream isn’t unique unto the Pale Tree. Other beings are able to access it – the White Stag, for example. And whatever the origin of the Nightmare is, possibly if it is sentient.

Furthermore, sylvari are far from the Pale Tree all the time, and only able to cut out the dream – which they are part of from birth – through a lot of meditation and concentrated will effort. I just don’t see the distance-upon-awakeing as being a (strong) factor in the matter. Especially since in Caithe’s story option it is shown that Malyck doesn’t have amnesia – he remembers everything; the amnesia was just speculated by the PC, Caithe, and Trahearne due to the no Dream experience (something unheard of prior even for Firstborn).

draxynnic.3719:

What IS interesting, when we put it under a microscope, is the question of why this mysterious Pale Tree would still be teaching Malyck to speak Krytan…

Well there’s only one spoken language in the continent, that’s common enough at least. Perhaps Malyck’s tree grew up learning this language and thus is the only language it knows (not Krytan, btw; that’s just the written alphabet).

It’s true, there only seems to be one object that I have ever seen that can cut a sylvari off from the Dream, and that is an Asura Gate. There is dialogue at the gates in Lion’s Arch where a sylvari states that she loses contact with the dream for just that one second. This is the only outward disconnect from the Dream that I’ve seen. Otherwise it seems to have to be the sylvari initiating the disconnect… Perhaps we have some inquest playing around with a younger tree and they thought disconnecting a sylvari could give them a living vegetable (mentally) to study?

While the Dream isn’t unique to the Pale Tree and sylvari, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s a connection all Pale Trees share. Additionally, while the sylvari we know have a connection to the Dream through their lives – unless they choose to sever it themselves – it’s possible that a premature severing of the bud from the tree might prevent that connection from forming. After all, we don’t currently have any precedent of a sylvari from the tree we know having had the bud severed long before they were ready and carried off into the wild blue yonder.

Finally, on the amnesia question… he doesn’t have amnesia as we’re used to talking about it, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have experienced a Dream that taught him basic skills that he’s forgotten. After all, how many humans can remember their first words and their first steps? The same is likely true of the sylvari, except their first words and steps take place in the Dream.

draxynnic.3719:

After all, we don’t currently have any precedent of a sylvari from the tree we know having had the bud severed long before they were ready and carried off into the wild blue yonder.

Nor do we know that’s the case with Malyck, technically speaking.

We don’t know how long the time is between when a sylvari “leaves the dream” and is born. IIRC, the buds sylvari are born from drop from tree branches… so if the same happened to Malyck’s bud, but it happened to get swept up in a river, then there’d be nothing abnormal of his birth.