Guild Wars 2

I notice that the Lunatic Court and the Nightmare Court have some similar features:
1. Both of them use fear and other dark emotions;
2. Both of them seem connected with nighttime. In Lunatic Inquisition we can see that Lunatic Court active at nighttime (villagers had to survive the night). And Nightmare Court is just nightmare.
3. Both of them are courts.
Is there any reason for all this coincidence? Was Cadeyrn inspired by Lunatic Court when he created Nightmare Court?
Yes, I know that my list is short and maybe too obvious.

We actually aren’t sure what exactly the Lunatic Court is up to- “activities” like Lunatic Inquisition are always of questionable story canon.

That tidbit aside, I believe the answer to your question is no, for two reasons- first, the Lunatic Court had not been seen in almost two centuries, so at the point Cadeyrn formed the Court it was just an obscure cultural myth of another race, if indeed the Court themselves were remembered at all, and secondly, one of the largest reasons Cadeyrn had for forming the Nightmare Court was to purge the influence of other races from the sylvari mindset, and so it is unlikely he would have used a human organization as the template.

While I would love to agree with you and say that Mad King Thorn really is Mordremoth or viceversa, Erridein, I believe that it cannot exist, as Aaron pointed out.

I’ll just leave this here:
1302 AE – the Sylvari race is created. The Nightmare Court is created only after this date, as it is created by the Secondborn Caydern (and that means some time later 1302 AE)
1079 AE – believed to be the date in which the Lunatic Court began to be operative.

@Arlowix: about those dates…

The Lunatic Court existed when Mad King Thorn reigned Kryta – which would be the early 800s (and possibly late 700s) AE. They went to the Mad Realm with Ozzy upon death and was unheard from for roughly 250 years – until 1079-ish AE. When they were last heard before GW2 is unknown but roughly 250 years again.

The sylvari race was created in 1302 AE indeed, but the Secondborn didn’t come about for 6 or 7 years later, and it was still some time after that in which the Nightmare Court was formed. Which would place it probably about 1310 AE.

But regarding similarities…

The Nightmare Court’s structure isn’t really akin to a typical noble court (which is what the Lunatic Court is). The NC is more akin to a knighthood than a nobility, even if they have a small handful of nobility rankings (Grand Dutchess); with the exception of Faolain’s retinue that are the highest ranking members (taking on equal titles of baron, count, countess, duke, and duchess), they’re all Knights at best (e.g., Knight of Embers). The ranking of the Nightmare Court is literally:

Courtier → Knight → Retinue → Grand Dutchess

The Lunatic Court is a nobility court, thus lack knights and courtiers, and the standard noble rankings are not equal either. While both have a theme of darkness and invoking fear, this is purely coincidental – fear is a tool to scare people by the Lunatic Court as is the fashion with being tyrannical and comedic during Halloween; and it is a tool to envoke bad memories which in turn spreads the Nightmare within the Dream of Dreams

I did not mean that Caydern and Lunatic Court interacted and Mad King affect to Nightmare. Only that Caydern somehow found information (not necessarily come down to him not distorted) about it and use. In the same way, perhaps, his conception of the human noble court was skewed because he was not well acquainted with it. Caydern could not just go and invent the same titles (even if he doing this wrong), so it already some influence of other races.
I do not insist on this version. Just it looks like a human court anyway has been the basis of Nightmare Court structure. And the Lunatic Court looks similar – if taking into account the distortion of information.