Guild Wars 2

How come cows and other herbivorous creatures aren’t always trying to nibble on sylvari? Do they taste bad?

Some sylvari have flowers in their hair. How come hummingbirds (or other creatures drawn to flowers) don’t swarm around them looking for a taste? Would hummingbirds (or other creatures drawn to flowers) be the sylvari equivalent of mosquitoes?

Are moths drawn to sylvari bioluminescence?

How fast does sylvari ‘hair’ grow? That is, if a particular sylvari discovered that the leaves (or whatever) forming his or her hair could be made into a tasty tea or some other beverage, could he or she regrow his or her ‘hair’ fast enough to make a living as a source of that tea or some other beverage?

Do dogs every try to fetch the more woodsy sylvari?

Do sylvari have an irrational fear of croutons?

First question: Sylvari tend to move a lot faster than freely available grass and shrubbery, whether that movement is to fight or flee. Most herbivores (and omnivores, for that matter) will probably prefer the easier to catch vegetables unless they’re really hungry.

Second question: Depends. Sylvari flowers seem to be more for decoration (certainly not for reproduction!) – they may not have the nectar or fragrance that attracts pollinators.

Third question: Insects in general do seem to be attracted to bioluminescence, so probably. I’d imagine most sylvari aren’t particularly bothered by this, though.

Fourth question: We actually have an official indication of this! While we don’t see much of it mechanically in-game, according to the devs sylvari plant clothing is something that they can grow anew every morning. This implies that they have a certain level of control over what they grow, and when they choose to, it can grow quite rapidly. It’s likely that they still need to renew the nutrients that are used for that growth, though, so the hypothetical tea sylvari would need to eat more, and spend more time in the sun, in order to produce that tea.

Fifth question: No more than they’d try to fetch trees if the sylvari is standing still. Odds are, a dog would regard a sylvari as a person that smells a bt strange.

Sylvari are probably happy to eat croutons with or without salad. As long as the salad doesn’t come from a sylvari, to them it’s just like a human eating cow, chicken, and so on. In fact, a sylvari may well claim that if anything it’s less disturbing.

draxynnic.3719:

First question: Sylvari tend to move a lot faster than freely available grass and shrubbery, whether that movement is to fight or flee. Most herbivores (and omnivores, for that matter) will probably prefer the easier to catch vegetables unless they’re really hungry.

Well, certainly, if a sylvari saw an animal coming toward him with herbivorous intent, he could take steps to avoid being foraged, and would quite likely prevail even if it became a matter of life or death. But distractions abound in the wide world, and even the most alert sylvari might not always see the nibble coming.

draxynnic.3719:

Second question: Depends. Sylvari flowers seem to be more for decoration (certainly not for reproduction!) – they may not have the nectar or fragrance that attracts pollinators.

Life will find a way! Ahem. I cling to the theory that Trahearne and Caladbolg were, in spite of anything and everything else, a delivery system, and that a new tree is even now taking shape in the newly cleansed and promiscuously fertilized soil of Orr.

draxynnic.3719:

Third question: Insects in general do seem to be attracted to bioluminescence, so probably. I’d imagine most sylvari aren’t particularly bothered by this, though.

Perhaps this could become fashionable. Sylvari could sport, quite literally, beehive hairdos!

draxynnic.3719:

Fourth question: We actually have an official indication of this! While we don’t see much of it mechanically in-game, according to the devs sylvari plant clothing is something that they can grow anew every morning. This implies that they have a certain level of control over what they grow, and when they choose to, it can grow quite rapidly. It’s likely that they still need to renew the nutrients that are used for that growth, though, so the hypothetical tea sylvari would need to eat more, and spend more time in the sun, in order to produce that tea.

Forget kopi luwak, in Tyria we have Wyld Hunt Tea!

draxynnic.3719:

Fifth question: No more than they’d try to fetch trees if the sylvari is standing still. Odds are, a dog would regard a sylvari as a person that smells a bt strange.

There could be industry in the making here, too: dogs, bred to be extra large, trained to fetch wounded sylvari from the battlefield.

draxynnic.3719:

Sylvari are probably happy to eat croutons with or without salad. As long as the salad doesn’t come from a sylvari, to them it’s just like a human eating cow, chicken, and so on. In fact, a sylvari may well claim that if anything it’s less disturbing.

Hmm, well, I wasn’t thinking so much of sylvari eating salad as potentially being salad, but I suppose one never knows.

Something else to consider: charr and their cattle… meatoberfest… ‘grain-fed beef’ and all that… but how many charr do we see growing grain-producing vegetables? Do they import all their grain from — where? Kryta? What if there’s something even better than grain to feed the cows… something that makes the meat even more, shall we say, ‘festive’…

Seems there is potential for profit in all things sylvari!

Wait wait wait. Who said that Sylvari could regrow clothes each day. That implies a huge degree of body manipulation. And is confusing because Sylvari need Menders. Perhaps they grow clothing out of their skin similar to a seed pod out of soil?