Guild Wars 2

Quick note: This theory has just been debunked by the posting on the main page of the short story, “What Scarlet Saw” by Scott McGough. I’ve decided to still post it, since I put a good bit of work into it and maybe it can still serve as a bit of “what might have been”.

Spoiler Warning: There are some spoilers about Crucible of Eternity if you haven’t played through it yet.

There has been a lot of discussion since the release of the latest Living Story update about our new nemesis, Scarlet Briar. Except for a few lines of dialogue, not much is known about her. We know Scarlet appears to be a Sylvari, we know she seems to be the leader of the Aetherblades, and we know she supposedly “earned special dispensation to study at all three colleges in Rata Sum and earned advanced engineering degrees at each. " (link) We also know from the Aetherblade Retreat Story Dungeon that the Inquest are working in some capacity with the Aetherblades.

The Devs have hinted that there’s much more to Scarlet’s story than we know. Poster Nilkemia.8507 writes, “Given that the Inquest are working with the Aetherblades (and her, by extension) it’s possible that they arranged for her to be able to attend and graduate all 3 colleges.”(link) And this is what got my gears turning.

Why would the Inquest go through the trouble of getting a random Sylvari into all three colleges? And how are they benefiting by helping the Aetherblades? Let’s take a step back for a moment to look at each of the individual ingredients.

The Sylvari
Many people believe the Sylvari are actually minions of the Elder Jungle Dragon, Mordremoth, and that the Pale Tree is the equivalent of a Dragon Lieutenant or Champion. The Sylvari are, for instance, the only known living things on Tyria immune to Dragon Corruption besides minions of another dragon. They all share the accumulated knowledge of their predecessors in the Dream of Dreams before emerging fully formed from buds of the Tree. The Dream also seems to act as a sort of training or programming. Though each Sylvari seems to have it’s own free will, some are driven by a Wyld Hunt: a goal or specific set of tasks given to them in The Dream.

The Inquest
The main aim of the Inquest in GW2 has been the study and research of dragon energies. They want to conquer the other races by harnessing the power of the Elder Dragons and creating their own slave-army of minions. This is more or less what Crucible of Eternity and Subject Alpha is all about (There are six segments to the structure of CoE, each representing one of the Elder Dragons; Subject Alpha goes through several phases throughout CoE Explorable, many of which correspond to a particular ED). The head researcher and final boss of CoE is Kudu, a former apprentice of Snaff, who also happens to have been the first member of another race to meet a Sylvari. Malomedies was that Firstborn Sylvari, and according to the wiki, Kudu conducted some unknown experiments on him.

Continued…

The Theory
This is where it gets interesting, as it could have far-reaching implications for a huge swath of the lore of GW2 if it turns out to be correct. What if Subject Alpha wasn’t the only (somewhat) successful result of the Inquest work at Crucible of Eternity? What if Kudu, fueled by the results of his experiments on Malomedies, was able to create a “test-tube” Dragon Minion, totally cut off from the influence of it’s Elder Dragon? What if, somewhere between the meltdown of the Thaumanova Reactor and the events of Crucible of Eternity, the Inquest managed to create a Subject Beta and this Subject Beta is none other than Scarlet Briar? This would not only confirm that Sylvari are a form of altered Dragon Minion, it would also mean the Inquest are an actual credible threat to Tyria instead of simply the bumbling bullies who try to steal other people’s inventions. It might also bring to light some of the deeper mysteries surrounding the nature of the Elder Dragons and the very fabric of Tyria itself.

Scarlet Briar
If the Sylvari are a form of altered dragon minion, and the Inquest managed to create a test-tube Sylvari – completely cut off from the influence of the Pale Tree – would that Sylvari experience The Dream? We already know that The Dream can be heavily influenced by things in the environment, as is evidenced by the effect Ventari’s Tablet has had on the Sylvari Race in general. Perhaps a Sylvari grown in an Asuran lab, forced to fruition through the bombardment of immense Alchemagical energy (could this be the cause of the Thaumanova meltdown?), didn’t experience the Dream at all. Maybe she instead caught a glimpse of the Eternal Alchemy itself. And maybe that’s enough to drive someone mad.

But how do the Aetherblades fit in?
Imagine you’re the Inquest. You’ve created a Super Soldier, a force with the goal and potential to conquer all the other Races on Tyria. Wouldn’t you want to pour all of your knowledge into this creation, sending her to each of your races’ Colleges if she showed an ability to absorb so much knowledge? And wouldn’t you want her to go out and learn from all the other races as well – their tactics, history, and (most importantly) their weaknesses – to better defeat them? “Know your enemy” and all that.

But what if your Super Soldier had a mind of her own? Knowing what we know of the Inquest and Asura in general, would they abandon an experiment just because it goes a little bit off the rails? No! They would go along for the ride, providing assistance when needed and direction where possible. If Scarlet is going to conquer Tyria through her own diabolical machinations (and I believe the Aetherblades are her own creation), the Inquest are only too happy to ride her coat-tails to mutual victory.

TL;DR
Sylvari are Dragon Minions. The Inquest created a test-tube Sylvari (Scarlet Briar) to take over the world, and now they’re riding her coat-tails to victory.

There is no evidence of the Inquest capturing and experimenting upon Sylvari and it seems highly unlikely that they could create a new Sylvari otherwise.

Actually, if you spend time in Sparkfly…

The hole here is that the notion that sylvari are dragon minions has been thoroughly debunked. Several times. That, and dragon minions are not immune to other dragons’ corruption- see Kudu’s Monster and Subject Alpha.

The short story released before you posted debunks this theory of yours.

As Aaron says, the sylvari=dragon minions has, thus far, been debunked as well. Unless Angel McCoy goes to retcon lore again, it will remain debunked.

Stooperdale.3560:

There is no evidence of the Inquest capturing and experimenting upon Sylvari and it seems highly unlikely that they could create a new Sylvari otherwise.

Actually, if you follow the link to the wiki in the OP, there is specific reference to Kudu himself experimenting on Malomedies.

Aaron Ansari.1604

The hole here is that the notion that sylvari are dragon minions has been thoroughly debunked. Several times. That, and dragon minions are not immune to other dragons’ corruption- see Kudu’s Monster and Subject Alpha.

I was not aware that that theory had been debunked, and would appreciate some link to the debunking. You do certainly have a point with Kudu’s Monster and Subject Alpha being amalgamations of several different dragon minions, but it’s not clear how this was achieved and Asuran science is a little… fuzzy anyway.

Konig Des Todes.2086

The short story released before you posted debunks this theory of yours.

Yeah, that story was posted right before I went to post this thread. I decided to post it anyway, as noted at the top of the OP, as a sort of “what might have been”. Besides, I like my version better than the canon, “Scarlet’s just a Sylvari who happens to be an Evil Super-Genius.” Best part is, my theory could still incorporate the good parts of that story (the vision-journey through the Mysts). But yeah, oh well.

Gotta love this forum’s search feature… /sarcasm

Here are some of the old threads: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Origin-of-The-Pale-Tree/first#content and https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Slyvari-a-dragon-minion/first#content. Credit to Konig for digging those up when this came up three months ago. At the time he also deemed it worth adding on that Malyck proves sylvari are not particularly homicidal or practitioners of dragon worship even without exposure to Ventari’s Tablet.

EDIT: As a personal point of interest… can anyone tell me where it’s stated that Kudu was mixed up in what happened to Malomedies? I’ve checked every forlorn corner of the game I could find and it’s availed me naught, so I’m assuming it’s from an interview I missed… or unsubstantiated rumor-mongering on the part of the wiki.

About Malomedies – it was part of sylvari week, in one of the interviews where Ree (iirc) explained that Kudu was the one in charge of the asura krewe that was experimenting on Malomedies.

This, if I’m remembering correctly so I’m not 100% sure, was said to have occurred while he was still Snaff’s apprentice and is, in fact, the main reason why Snaff ousted Kudu – it would also be before Kudu joined the Inquest.

I’m assuming it’s been taken down? Googling only led to several places that didn’t cite their source, several pages that cite the wiki, and a disturbing amount of KuduxMalomedies.

I suppose it’s possible, shame. A quick google search yielded nothing for me as well. Doesn’t help that Anet went and took down their blog as well. :/

The biggest problem with Sylvari being dragon minions is that they are a playable race. You need to add an escape hatch to your theory whereby the race can continue being played.

Living Story update:

You can no longer make a sylvari character. All sylvari PCs are hostile to formerly allied NPCs. Quaggans now playable in their stead.

8D

Please purchase a Race Change Kit from the Gem Store for 800 gems and change your Sylvari to some other playable race if you wish to keep your character.

^You have 2 weeks to comply before your character is deleted. Have a nice day!

@Konig, can’t be quaggans!! They are themselves minions of the Deep Sea Quaggan…don’t let them blind you with the cuteness, they are the purest if evil!!!
Maybe instead, they’ll give us tengu finally, use the dominion of winds as the city zone, turn Caledon into their starter zone and turn the grove into a new dungeon!!!

The Grove would be a boring dungeon…

you just need some good ol’ fashioned corruption! Shards of Orr was there once upon a time (sorta) so there is definitely an underside to the grove, maybe around the taproot….

Just resurrecting this old dead thread to gloat and :smug: about how close to right I was. I’d almost completely forgotten I even wrote all that stuff, but Scarlet was the subject of an Asuran experiment and the Sylvari are dragon minions! Lookit all dem wrong people in here! AHAHAHahahahaaa better get your race-change kits!

> They called me crazy! They said I was a fool! Muhahahaha!

Next thing, you’ll say that Isgarren is an Asura and experimented on the Pale Tree after Ventari died.

But it wasn’t Kudu who experimented on (with) Scarlet, it was Omad. And he didn’t intend to turn (or un-un-turn) her into a Dragon minion.

Arguably, the plot of LS2 might have made a lot more sense if it was Kudu who created Scarlet.

It would have made more sense if mordry wouldn’t have created them. I still hope it’s a grand hoax that a-net is pulling on us.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Actually, if you spend time in Sparkfly…

The hole here is that the notion that sylvari are dragon minions has been thoroughly debunked. Several times. That, and dragon minions are not immune to other dragons’ corruption- see Kudu’s Monster and Subject Alpha.

Just kekkek.