Guild Wars 2

Maybe it’s time for a ‘Crisis on Infinite Tyrias’.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

like how sylvari couldn’t be corrupted by Kralkatorrik (eventually re-found that it was from the original sylvari page on guildwars2.com).

To add to this, I saw an explicit mention of Sylvari being immune to Zhaitan: Branthyn of the Vigil says it during the story portion where you defend the Overlake Haven fort in Kessex Hills.

FrizzFreston.5290:

I wonder, since for a human it’s pretty clear that a day is chronologically morning-noon-dusk-night. But there’s no indication that for sylvari it might just as well be dusk-night-dawn-noon, because their race started at dusk.

I agree with this. Knowing that Trahearne is Dusk and also the eldest, it makes sense that they started to be born at dusk. But then there’s the issue of what the Luminaries say about their time of birth: if they say “on the first day” versus “on our first dawn”.

Koviko.3248:

FrizzFreston.5290:

I wonder, since for a human it’s pretty clear that a day is chronologically morning-noon-dusk-night. But there’s no indication that for sylvari it might just as well be dusk-night-dawn-noon, because their race started at dusk.

I agree with this. Knowing that Trahearne is Dusk and also the eldest, it makes sense that they started to be born at dusk. But then there’s the issue of what the Luminaries say about their time of birth: if they say “on the first day” versus “on our first dawn”.

They could be using day as a measure of 24 hours, rather than as a specific 24 hours (as in, dusk-dusk is 24 hours and therefore their first day, rather than 12:00 – 12:00).

I have the sneaking suspicion that I’ve made this comment before… :S

That, I doubt. There’s no indication that the Sylvari don’t subscribe to the normal definition of what a day is and unless it’s explicitly said, it’d be grasping at straws to assume so.

Koviko.3248:

That, I doubt. There’s no indication that the Sylvari don’t subscribe to the normal definition of what a day is and unless it’s explicitly said, it’d be grasping at straws to assume so.

I’m not saying they don’t subscribe to the traditional notion of a day, I’m saying that in that instance they used it as a synonym for 24 hours – which people do in real life as well. When you say something is ‘a day away’ you don’t typically mean that at midnight that thing is suddenly here, it just refers to something that is within 24 hours from your present time.

The twelve firstborn, 3 to each cycle, is there a chance they could’ve been born every 2nd hour during that first day?
That way you’d still have 4 luminaries (the 4 who woke first in each cycle – apart from Trahearne who seemingly is the absolute firstborn but somehow isn’t a luminary)?

There was an old discussion on the gw2guru forum about the Dream and Nightmare blog post Anet wrote during the racial focus features; where people were questioning the day’s split in cycles and Ree (via Regina) commented on some players feedback that instead of a strict 6-hour separation of a day for the hours 00 – 24, it made more sense to think of the cycles as going from 9pm-3am; 3am-9am; 9am-3pm and 3pm-9pm, thus placing midnight, “dawn” (6am), midday and dusk (“6pm”) in the middle of each cycle?
To save you the googling, here’s that exact comment…

How is a Sylvari born at 12:30 am anywhere near dawn? While a Sylvari born at 7 am, which may be before dawn depending on time of year, becomes a Sylvari of Noon.

Why not break things up at 9/3/9/3? It would make more sense.

3 am – 9 am Cycle of Dawn (covers the range of times for dawn)
9 am – 3 pm Cycle of Noon (the three hours on either side of noon)
3 pm – 9 pm Cycle of Dusk (covers the range of times for sunset)
9 pm – 3 am Cycle of Night (the three hours on either side of midnight)

This is contrary to what the wiki states on the entry for Cycle

Ree wrote as much back in 2011 to support the notion that the cycles varied with time of day with the seasons;

The twelve Firstborn were divided among the cycles, three to each cycle. I think you have nine of their names so far. I’ll also note for the record that yes, Caithe is Night; Faolain is of the Cycle of Dusk. The am-pm turning of the hours mentioned in my post are less hard-set than they appear in the article. Rodinia & the others commenting on this are correct in that there’s fluctuation in the precise ‘clock hour’ between the cycles at any given time (or during Tyria’s seasons).

Given that Trahearne is the first Firstborn, he is born early during the first Cycle of Dusk, and then you have Kahedins ‘born as the sun set on the first day of our race’ possibly making him the second of the Firstborn, followed by the remaining Firstborn of Dusk, Faolain.
That order might explain Kahedins as tender of newborn Sylvari, seeing as he’d be the first of the Luminaries too following this logic?

That is; if all 12 Firstborn were indeed born on the same day – which could be the case seeing as Konig des Todes’ reference about the 1-per-cycle doesn’t seem to be part of the Anet lore bible (ref. Bobby Stein questioning the reference).

Dondarrion.2748:

Ree (via Regina) commented on some players feedback that instead of a strict 6-hour separation of a day for the hours 00 – 24, it made more sense to think of the cycles as going from 9pm-3am; 3am-9am; 9am-3pm and 3pm-9pm

Well yes, she did comment on that feedback, but she didn’t support the suggested alternative. She simply said:

Ree (via Regina)

The am-pm turning of the hours mentioned in my post are less hard-set than they appear in the article. Rodinia & the others commenting on this are correct in that there’s fluctuation in the precise ‘clock hour’ between the cycles at any given time (or during Tyria’s seasons).

So, as far as I can see, the wiki is correct. Though Ree’s comment about the fluctuation should be added to the notes section.

Koviko.3248:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

like how sylvari couldn’t be corrupted by Kralkatorrik (eventually re-found that it was from the original sylvari page on guildwars2.com).

To add to this, I saw an explicit mention of Sylvari being immune to Zhaitan: Branthyn of the Vigil says it during the story portion where you defend the Overlake Haven fort in Kessex Hills.

Personally I found that speech to be a play on words since Zhaitan was the only conflict in which the player gets directly involved with. Hence, the justification for mentioning that advantage. This was brought up a lot during the debates as well, taking comments literal when perhaps the NPCs were just as mislead. Some maybe annoyed with that excuse because they want answers chiseled in stone but that’s kind of where I derive my enjoyment from, that even a snowflake can be mistaken, mislead, or downright incorrect.

Except the Vigil was aware of more than just Zhaitan, therefore so was Branthyn.