Guild Wars 2

I never played a Sylvari up until now; but given the trailer and how the Sylvari got corrupted once the Pact Fleet assaulted the Maguuma Jungle, how does this play out for all Sylvari player characters?

Can they enter Heart of Maguuma jungle in HoT without any temporal debuffs where they struggle to retain “sanity”?
How is Anet planning to handle that the Sylvari race are suddenly under control of Mordremoth in his vicinity, but thousands of Sylvari PCs manage to withstand him?

With a reference to some musings in this old article on ZAM (see quote below and note its date; this was waay back in 2013!), how is it intended that Sylvari go on as playable race until Mordremoth is defeated and hopefully the Sylvari are free of its control?

MattstaNinja

On to the game design reason for why Sylvari are not minions of a dragon. ArenaNet has constantly said that they never planned to let players play the evil side, that the player would be the hero who saved the day. To this end they did it perfectly, even having an evil faction of each race (Nightmare Court, Inquest, Sons of Svanir, Flame Legion/Renegades, and Bandits/Separatists) to contrast the player’s light against their darkness. To this end turning around and saying that the true origin of the Sylvari is actually as minions of an evil Elder Dragon, would ruin that heroic outlook. The Nightmare is a constant threat when everyone thinks Ventari’s Tablet is the way to be. If it is then said that the tablet is lies, tricking a race from its roots, it would weaken the resolve to resist the Nightmare, lead many Sylvari to turn away from the Pale Tree and would, in essence, be making the race fundamentally evil and the opposite of the heroic race they are designed to be. It would be an interesting plot twist, but would ruin Sylvari as a playable race.

(http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=31628&storypage=3)

i have a simple explanation for it:

the pale tree was gravely injured, and as such lost her influence on sylvari that were furthest away from her, which in the case of sylvaris that went after mordremoth, meant they were easy prey.

by the time we go to the jungle ourselves, she’ll have recovered enough to protect us.

it’ll be something of the sort that explains it. that, or sheer force of will. who knows, maybe trahearne is still on our side.

Episode 3 hints that Mordremoth’s control over sylvari is highly tied to the individual’s own willpower.

Weaker will means they can be turned by Mordy. But stronger will – like the PC no doubt – will be able to resist.

Does not bold well for Trahearne, though he didn’t seem to turn during the cinematic so perhaps Caladbolg protects him.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Does not bold well for Trahearne, though he didn’t seem to turn during the cinematic so perhaps Caladbolg protects him.

obligatory “this won’t end well” joke.

Just watched WP’s QanA a bit ago and someone asked him that questions about Trahearne’s possible demise. I have to say, it does look suspicious and we’ll probably have to go in and save his rear before the process of corruption can be undone – unless of course they plan on him to die. That is however, assuming he’s been corrupted. I take both sides of the spectrum each with a grain of salt.

The Pale Tree has protected the Sylvari up until this point. She is still incredibly weak from the attack on her, and therefore Mordremoth was able to take them with ease. There are also hints, as stated above, that it has something to do with the individuals willpower.

I’d assume the Tree will have recovered by the timelime of HoT, so I doubt the Sylvari will be so easy to get down with Grandpa Mordy. Ignoring that though, our PCs have been through hell and back with a smile.

We traipsed through Tyria, wiping out centaur tribes and bandit clans, dealt huge blows to the Inquest, the Nightmare Court, the Son’s of Svanir, the Destroyers, the Icebrood, you name it, we defeated it and planted our leafy feet on it’s corpse. To finish our first Wyld Hunt, we leisurely strolled through Orr, killing minions, lieutenants, and champions alike, then took to the skies and blew Zhaitan into smelly dragon kibble.

As a vacation from dragon slaying, we took down the Molten Alliance, ruined the Consortium’s schemes, killed some Sky Pirates, tore down the Nightmare Tower, chased after Scarlet, battled her forces in Lion’s Arch to help evacuate, eventually helped storm the city, and finally drove our leafy hands through her leafy chest cavity. We even let that kittening human mesmer take credit, because we knew the truth would be recorded in the dream.

Of course, a salad’s job is never done. Now there was a new dragon to kill, and lord knows how much we love that. So we took off to Dry Top to save some more squishy humans, killed another crazy Sylvari, romped back through some forts to save the day, tracked down a Ley Hub, peaked into the Eternal Alchemy (with sanity intact), nearly eliminated the Ascalonian ghosts, saved the Waypoint network, united the racial leaders, saved the Grove from the Shadow of the Dragon, danced through Glint’s Lair, hunted down Glint’s Egg, relived Caithe’s life, and finally killed the little kitten that hurt our Mother Tree. With divine fire.

Nothing stops the Leafy Pact Commander. Mordremoth is praying he corrupts us before we find him.

So… uh, that’s the long way of saying the PC Sylvari is too strong for Mordremoth to take. Trahearne helped with some of the first part, and he has that sword, so he is probably okay.

I read that first ZAM link…wow. Some awesome ideas.

doogal.9368:

I read that first ZAM link…wow. Some awesome ideas.

That’s the problem with speculation. More times than not, you end up getting ahead of yourself and what you get is much less satisfying than what you imagined. IE: Guild Wars: Eye of The North.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Episode 3 hints that Mordremoth’s control over sylvari is highly tied to the individual’s own willpower.

Weaker will means they can be turned by Mordy. But stronger will – like the PC no doubt – will be able to resist.

However that would imply that every Sylvari that joined the Pact was weak willed, which I find simplistic.

Well Mike did say that Mordremoth corrupted most, not all, sylvari.

@Ronin: Given all the other story pandering I’ve been seeing in S2 and HoT, I wouldn’t be surprised they do kill Trahearne off because “no one likes him”.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Episode 3 hints that Mordremoth’s control over sylvari is highly tied to the individual’s own willpower.

Weaker will means they can be turned by Mordy. But stronger will – like the PC no doubt – will be able to resist.

Can you elaborate on this? I’ve been picking up on the same thing, but I’d like to read the Konig version.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Does not bold well for Trahearne, though he didn’t seem to turn during the cinematic so perhaps Caladbolg protects him.

Trahearne will be fine. It would be really lame if they went the cliche route and turned him into a mordrem. Not only should he have a strong will (the first of all sylvari, leader of the Pact and the Personal Story dedicates a large chunk of time into establishing him as a strong willed and confident person by the end of it) but as you point out, he wields Caladbolg, a powerful sword made out of the Pale Tree (who claims to protect sylvari from Mordremoth). If anyone in Tyria can resist Mordremoth, it should be Trahearne.

i find the “weak willed sylvari are corruptible” thing to be rather, well, weak, as an explanation.

we do know (or at the very least, it’s very heavily implied) that mordremoth’s corrupting powers are stronger the closer you get to the source (aka him). attacking the pale tree didn’t allow her to keep her “barriers” up for the sylvari that venture far, which isn’t a problem for sylvari that go to ascalon and beyond, but it’s a problem to the ones that are charging towards mordremoth (as we’ve seen).

assuming the pale tree regains enough strength, it would once again allow her to protect sylvaris heading towards mordremoth. otherwise, we’ll just have to dig up some old Snaff technology.

Or refine Scarlet’s tech. The Tower of Nightmares used pollen to alter the player’s mental state, maybe she was researching how to protect from Mordremoth’s mind magic? Any sylvari not strong enough to resist Scarlet’s toxin likely would turn to Mordremoth,so Scarlet killing them with her toxin is arguably helping Tyria – cull the weak before they turn.

I don’t think sylvari will-power is the sole explanation for why some sylvari turn while others remain defiant, but I suspect it’s part of the picture. Wynne knew sylvari’s destiny and she emphasised teaching sylvari the words of Ventari. The Pale Tree knows the destiny of sylvari and she does the same. I think the sylvari are being prepared all their lives to fight a battle of wills in their mind – they are nurtured to turn their backs on Mordremoth’s corruption. The Pale Tree likely plays a role in protecting them, but I suspect there is a will power component on its own.

There probably is a proximity component, maybe a ley line one (if magic can act as a conductor for mind powers, a ley line would be a powerful tool for enhancing the range of your mind powers) and that could explain why Aerin changed from Dreamer to servant of Mordremoth so suddenly – he didn’t choose to become Soundless and incidentally let Mordremoth in, his mind was broken into.

Regardless, I expect sylvari to freely enter Maguuma without any extra hindrances other races won’t have to deal with. It doesn’t make gameplay sense to cripple an ntire race.

Shiren.9532:

Regardless, I expect sylvari to freely enter Maguuma without any extra hindrances other races won’t have to deal with. It doesn’t make gameplay sense to cripple an ntire race.

Oh, but I do think the devs teasing about players ought to have a Sylvari char ready for when HoT releases points in the direction, something might occur to your character from time to time… maybe there’s a debuff that will trigger occasionally, or certain encounters will have phases where Sylvari players are “corrupted” like the branded in that beta finale event. Who knows…

Dondarrion.2748:

Oh, but I do think the devs teasing about players ought to have a Sylvari char ready for when HoT releases points in the direction, something might occur to your character from time to time… maybe there’s a debuff that will trigger occasionally, or certain encounters will have phases where Sylvari players are “corrupted” like the branded in that beta finale event. Who knows…

I think their remark points more towards Sylvari-specific dialogue or at most at Sylvari-specific story but not at Sylvari-specific gameplay mechanics.

Player Sylvari have mental plot armor.

And RPG blinders. It’s typical of open world games that also have a linear plot. The bad guy has unleashed his full forces and the world is about to end, but what the hell, I’ll just do a bunch of unrelated missions, or go and collect some flowers.

I liked that in Mass Effect 2 if you ignored the main plot and did your own thing then it caused people to die.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i find the “weak willed sylvari are corruptible” thing to be rather, well, weak, as an explanation.

we do know (or at the very least, it’s very heavily implied) that mordremoth’s corrupting powers are stronger the closer you get to the source (aka him).

Well, maybe not. Proximity does seem like the most important factor for Zhaitan and Jormag. Zhaitan corrupted mainly Orrians in Orr. Jormag corrupts norns, mainly norns that actually heads out to attack him.
But, Primordus doesn’t corrupt existing mammals at all, instead he creates his own minions. Bubbles’ corruption may function similarily.

In other words: their ways of corruption isn’t necessarily the same.

If you take into consideration Mordremoth’s “spheres of influence” which is plants and mind: maybe his corruption relies more heavily on the strength of his subjects’ mind – instead of just proximity.
He seem to have a much broader presence in the world than the other dragons. While Zhaitan had to physically move his troops around, Mordy was able to incluence the flora and create minions far far away during season 2. I think that may support the theory of him relying less on proximity than the others (though I presume proximity still matter at least to some degree).

^ mordremoth only dislocates his troops further, they aren’t corrupted on the fly all the way in ascalon.

and when i was talking about distance, i meant how the corrupted sylvari seem just fine until they get too close to the source. we’ve seen it several times by now.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i have a simple explanation for it:

the pale tree was gravely injured, and as such lost her influence on sylvari that were furthest away from her, which in the case of sylvaris that went after mordremoth, meant they were easy prey.

by the time we go to the jungle ourselves, she’ll have recovered enough to protect us.

I think this is what makes the most sense given the insight we have been given on the way the Sylvari are born, and how the dream and the Pale Tree affects them.
Heck even the song “Fear not this night” is supposedly sung by the Pale Tree to the newborn as a precaution to shield them against their dragony origins.

Secondly I would assume that the entirety of the Nightmare Court is now followers of Mordremoth. Probably still sort of autonomonus, but it seems pretty likely that they now have found the meaning behind their “anti-dream” tendencies.