Post-Season 2 Questions Regarding Sylvari
Generally speaking, we try to keep spoilers tagged after a release, but it usually is only for a couple of weeks or so. No need to worry about a revelation from six months ago.
Your questions are all up to player interpretation at this point, and mine is no more valid than yours, but I’m not worried at this point. We’ve seen twice now that the Elder Dragons seek to destroy freed champions; that suggests to me that they can’t be recorrupted or of benefit. Add to that the nature of the growth we see, not at all like the mordrem tendrils. My hunch is that Caladbolg was only a conduit to the Pale Tree, or more likely, the Dream, and it’s effects aren’t something that Mordremoth can easily usurp.
What Caladbolg isn’t said to be is protection against corruption. Trahearne is probably as safe as any other Dreamer sylvari, and we’ve yet to see just where the limits of that shielding are.
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
We’ve seen twice now that the Elder Dragons seek to destroy freed champions; that suggests to me that they can’t be recorrupted or of benefit.
Well Mordy is the exception then, Scarlet, Aerin and the pack soldiers all fell under his sway again. Mind you in the case of Aerin and Scarlet they were pretty unstable, but still did as Mordy wanted, for the most part.
They weren’t champions, though. The Pale Tree is a champion. Regular vari are more like minions and the ones that fell under Mordy’s sway were Soundless who had cut themselves off from the protecting Dream.
Not that I think every Pact vari was Soundless, but they were also much closer to Mordremoth when they were nabbed, and the Tree is still weak from the Shadow’s attack on Her.
@Tapioca:
Caladbolg would indeed be considered a ‘dragon artifact’ – but in the same light, so are all Zephyrite crystals, which house Glint’s magic. It should be noted that ‘dragon artifacts’ are not inherently bad or evil, as we see from the Pale Tree and Glint doing good and their magic being a lighter, brighter variation of their former master’s darker looking magic.
As for Orr’s cleansing… I suppose that’s a matter of perspective. The magic of the Elder Dragons is, as I said, not inherently evil. Given that the Elder Dragons consume all magic in Tyria, and it is harmless when seeped out during hibernation, one can argue that all Tyrian magic is Elder Dragon magic – we only see corruption happening when they are actively twisting things. Glint never twisted things after being freed of corruption, though as we see of her lair, she still could create crystals, and as we see of her sky magic that the Zephyrites use, that’s not corruptive either (though given that’s postmortem, that’s hard to argue properly).
So is Orr ‘cleansed’? Well, it’s cleansed of Zhaitan’s corruption, certainly, but would you consider good magic corrupting? It can change things, just like bad magic can, but it isn’t malevolent. So it’s a matter of perspective.
As for Trahearne – that’s up in the air and I would argue unlikely for immunity. All sylvari can be corrupted by any Elder Dragon, as implied by the Pale Tree during Rallying Call, but their connection to her via the Dream seems to be preventing this. Mordremoth has a closer tie to the sylvari, however, which allows him to overcome this protection – as indicated in Points of Interest Episode 18, he does this via Wyld Hunts and Dark Hunts (which means that even the Nightmare is protection against Elder Dragon corruption). During said PoI episode, it is said that it is a combination of the Pale Tree’s protection and willpower that keeps a sylvari safe from Mordremoth – as we see in the personal story, Trahearne’s will is… rather low. But this might have changed with his huge success in Orr given that said low will is because of being dismayed over an ‘impossible destiny’ (cleansing Orr).
In practice, Trahearne can be corrupted. But it’s a matter of his connection to the Pale Tree and his will that can prevent such. So in theory, being so close to Caladbolg may protect him from corruption.
@CureForLiving:
It was said in a twitchtv interview with Ree and Jeff (no longer up on Anet’s channel sadly, for some reason they took it down over a year ago now) that whether or not Glint’s children could be corrupted by Kralkatorrik is intentionally left as an unknown. This plot is probably why.
Given the lack of attempt to try to corrupt the Pale Tree and Glint, it seems that those who personally undergo being freed of the mental ties that dragon corruption causes become incapable of having those mental ties re-established. In other words, Glint and the Pale Tree (and potentially the other seeds in that cave – depending on when the Pale Tree was freed of corruption) cannot be corrupted. However, as we have seen, sylvari themselves can be. This means that this prevention-of-recorruption does not extend to the freed one’s children/creations.
This could explain why in Edge of Destiny, we see no hide or hair of the Crystal Guardians and Crystal Spiders – Glint likely destroyed any that remained after the events of GW1 to prevent Kralkatorrik from taking control over them.
This also means that Gleam, should he still live, can be corrupted by an Elder Dragon (Gleam is the baby dragon from Eye of the North), as could any other hatched egg – and the egg that Caithe took (the last egg – we don’t know if any other eggs beyond Gleam’s hatched). And that Kralkatorrik will have the easiest time of corrupting them.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Well Mordy is the exception then, Scarlet, Aerin and the pact soldiers all fell under his sway again. Mind you in the case of Aerin and Scarlet they were pretty unstable, but still did as Mordy wanted, for the most part.
Without reading past this post (will catch up later), that part is actually false. IIRC, we see lionguard sylvari going crazy, and a few others without any uniform.
Anet has stated that one of the main surviving units of the Pact is actually the Pale Reavers, which is 100% sylvari, and the current highest ranking pact officer known alive is also Sylvari, and trying to regroup the Pact forces.
Soundless Sylvari seem weak to being corrupted, dreamer sylvari are not.