Guild Wars 2

Do sylvari have souls like the other races do, and if so, what happens to them when they die? Do they return to the Dream? Can they become ghosts and wander Tyria and the Mists like humans do? Is there any known lore that answers this question?

It seems from the few that have talked about that they just die. So far it seems that the only ghost are corrupted or have been made from the foefire. As far as the mists goes, who knows.

The sylvari are connected to the dream, but when they die that connection is severed. So thats why the pale tree knows what killed certain sylvari.

To answer your question, Sylvari would gradually decompose over a long period of time and form into compost that would then be reused as a fertilizer.

Human ghosts in standard ghost fare have existed ever since GW1, and there’s multiple quests in the open world pertaining to what are just restless/lingering spirits. Charr and Norn ghosts are less populous, but exist, but all three and the Asura has proof that they go to the Mists when they die, as all of them were shown as members of the Lunatic Court in Halloween (who are the dead under Mad King Thorn in the area of the underworld basically sectioned off for crazy evil people, for lack of a better descriptor).

But there’s no tangible evidence that Sylvari have spirits (and we never see Sylvari ghosts, but I don’t think we see Asura ghosts either so), or if they do where they go. Sylvari themselves generally seem to think that they do, but it’s no more than humans in real life believing that they have an eternal spirit that moves on—they don’t have any proof of it, they just say it’s so.

The closest proof I can think of is Secrets of the Earth, but the ritual is never properly explained that I can remember so I take it with a grain of salt, and it still doesn’t talk about where they actually go.

Edit: Although personally, I’d say if Dolyaks and Oakhearts (Or was it a Mossheart) have spirits the chances are good Sylvari do too.

They become fertilizer.

/endsarcasm

I’ve actually speculated that the sylvari are soulless for a while. We never once see a sylvari spirit – but we do see charr, asura, human, norn, and other non-major races having souls. It’s very interesting to consider.

Naturally, the sylvari themselves think that they have spirits. But there are conflicting views on what happens to them after they die – some, like Seiran and Cadyrn, believe they go into the Mists like everyone else. Others, such as a generically named Warden in the Grove, believes that they’ll return to the Dream of Dreams. Still others, if I remember correctly, believe that when they die they become nothingness (effectively same outcome as if they had no soul).

@Athuria: We see Oola’s spirit, so we do see an asura ghost outside of the Lunatic Court.

And Secrets of the Earth isn’t about souls at all – it’s just about the past events. The ritual allows you to witness what happened in the past, though to you it becomes tangible (think of the Matrix movie, how things in the matrix can hurt your body – die in the matrix, die in real life).

And I don’t recall any treants having spirits. Perhaps you refer to the druids? They were originally humans who took on a plant-like appearance (Willowhearts, to be exact).

So we do. :|a I’ve never actually been through her lab, just the hologram skillpoint. And there’s a skillpoint in Brisband Wildlands for “defeat the restless Arboreal spirit”, which I don’t recall being a druid spirit and still looks like an Oakheart. But I must have forgotten to cap the pre-skill dialogue and can’t find it so I could be mistaken.

For Secrets of the Earth, I was thinking of Iowerth’s line of “contacting his spirit” as part of the ritual—but I can’t recall any proper explanation of that, which is why it’s shaky ground for me. It’s possible I’m forgetting something you can talk to him about between cutscenes/the ritual, as I didn’t save them and can’t re-reference.

I think they get cremated. Probably either wrapped in a paper death shroud or in a hookah.

There’s two Arboreal spirits – one outright says he’s a druid, and his body is called a druid husk by the Priory. The other one doesn’t speak though.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’ve actually speculated that the sylvari are soulless for a while. We never once see a sylvari spirit – but we do see charr, asura, human, norn, and other non-major races having souls. It’s very interesting to consider.

I would suggest that, like many things to do with sylvari, it depends on what exactly the Dream is. If they don’t have souls in the conventional sense, then their share of the Dream would sort of be what animates them. It seems likely that sylvari ‘spirit’ would “return to the Dream,” but we really don’t know what that means in contrast to the Mists or whatever.

It would be neat if sylvari were reincarnated (souls go back to the Dream and are reborn from the Tree again), though I don’t know how we would find out if that were true.

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

I think they get cremated. Probably either wrapped in a paper death shroud or in a hookah.

That just brought a whole new meaning… to smoking weed.

Went back to check the skillpoint (I’ve never seen the other event, and didn’t even hear about it until it popped up in Google alongside the skillpoint search), it actually does speak to you, through telepathy. :|a If the other one calls himself a druid this one probably is too, then, what it is isn’t actually addressed in the skillpoint dialogue.

It’s skin, however, is definitely an Oakheart and not a Willowheart, though. So either something’s up with that or someone done messed up.

In Tyria, nature obviously has its own life. This can be seen in the Norn’s Spirits of the Wild and the human god Melandru. When discussing with Shamans of the Spirits and priests of Melandru, they provide strong support for the existential nature of all living things in nature — including plants and trees.

The Sylvari are based on the Celtic cultures who lived in the late B.C.E and early A.C.E era in what is modern day England. This culture had a firm belief in coexistence of all life (much like the Sylvari and their connection to the Pale Tree). Based on the rituals of the ancient Celts, it is most likely that dead Sylvari are cremated or buried in cairns (in Hoelbrek lodge, there is a cemetery of cairns in the caves to the northeast of the area, this shows that cairns is a common system of burial in Tyria.)

Also, they might be based off druids of Greco-Roman mythology who were the spirits of trees or perhaps even the more recent mythologies of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, living plants are very much alive and have souls just as every other living being.

Based on their religious beliefs involving the Pale Tree and the Dream, it is most likely that the death of a Sylvari results in being “reabsorbed” into the earth and possibly being reincarnated. Their plant based physiology would support this cyclic system as this what occurs with plants in real life.

Another theory could be that Sylvari are actually parts of the Pale Tree. That is to say, the Pale Tree was a living being throughout the history of Tyria, but only recently decided to begin creating Sylvari. In this view, Sylvari are not sentient lifeforms at all, but merely pieces of the Pale Trees consciousness given a physical form. If this was the case, then the idea that they live a cyclic existence would become very literal. In death, the Sylvari would not actually die, but their part of the Pale Tree’s conscious would return to the Pale Tree to be imparted to another Sylvari.

SimpleCrow, one problem here is that you are assuming that sylvari beliefs about themselves have anything to do with their actual nature. No, I’m not advocating for that theory about the Pale Tree – but those of us who knew the Five, later the Six Gods of the humans in GW1 have been burned before by accepting racial beliefs as truth!

Konig actually has a point when he says they become fertilizer. Killeen’s grave has a tree on top of it and, in a similar fashion, the Revered Terebinth sprouted out of a sylvari’s grave (if I my memory’s correct). The Revered Terebinth seem to be a very particular tree, maybe having some sort of spirit.
Riannoc’s grave however hasn’t much going on about it as far as I remember, but it’s in the middle of a swamp, and a swamp with risen at that.

The Sylvari are said to bury their dead to “return them to the earth” (although they seem to be in practice of headstones and not actively planting things, looking at Riannoc and Evart), so if we want to be literal yes, if they don’t make use of coffins (and they don’t seem to) they do become fertilizer. But so does everything that dies and decomposes and isn’t disposed of in other means.

Toss them in my garden so the tomatoes grow better..

Kalas.6743:

The sylvari are connected to the dream, but when they die that connection is severed.

I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Aren’t their memories forever kept a part of the Dream? That’s part of the Nightmare Court’s idea, to scar the dream with bad memories.

I think that’s part of why so many people believe the Sylvari return to the Dream. At least their memories do.

I was under the impression that sylvari send their memories and experiences to the Pale Tree as and when they experience them though. I sometimes hear my sylvari say, “I’ll pass this along to the Pale Tree!” whenever she discovers a new area.

An interesting side-implication of this is that sylvari can voluntarily choose which experiences to share with the Dream, meaning that those who follow Ventari’s teachings may experience pain, sorrow or loss during their lives, but choose to send back only happy or enlightening experiences. Alternatively, they may also choose to withhold certain experiences that they deem too personal or intimate to share. (Might be wise to ask if one were a non-sylvari getting into a relationship with one!)

Sylvari can’t choose which of their memories go to the Dream any more than they can choose which ones they get out of it. It’s understood that those with the strongest emotion or meaning behind them are the ones most likely to be taken up, and they are absorbed as they’re experienced and not after death.

Of course, most of these memories get passed on only in vague parts, so Sylvari are not really waking up with intimate details of other Sylvari’s lives (that they would at all be aware of, anyway).

Tauril.8504:

Konig actually has a point when he says they become fertilizer. Killeen’s grave has a tree on top of it and, in a similar fashion, the Revered Terebinth sprouted out of a sylvari’s grave (if I my memory’s correct). The Revered Terebinth seem to be a very particular tree, maybe having some sort of spirit.
Riannoc’s grave however hasn’t much going on about it as far as I remember, but it’s in the middle of a swamp, and a swamp with risen at that.

For some reason, this reminded me of the Pequeninos of the Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card. Though I am glad that Sylvari do not make a tradition of ritual dismemberment of people they admire (though that would solve the Trahearne problem since everyone idolizes him.)

If slyvari simply return to the dream, how about the soundless and the nighmare court?

Well, if they do, the Nightmare Courtiers would as well. They’re still connected to the Dream, after all, even if they’re trying to do bad things with that connection.

The Soundless, I’m not sure. Is the connection severed one way or two ways? In other words, the Soundless don’t hear the Dream anymore, but can the Dream hear them and receive their memories and feelings, or not?

If not, they might just… fade away when they die.