Guild Wars 2

Let me first start off by saying this is nothing more then a theory and I have no proof whatsoever on this.

I have been thinking for the past few days about the Sylvari Wylde Hunts and how many Sylvari get some sort of calling regarding usually (from what I have seen) the Elder Dragons whether it is about killing minions, champions, or even more difficult ones like healing Orr or killing Zhaitan. Now my theory is (And I have heard this one before and don’t remember if it was shot down for being wrong or not) that Sylvari are a sort of “white blood cell” sort of thing. As in the Sylvari are Tyria’s way of fighing the ED’s.

Now my reasoning for this theory is that first off the Sylvari are (so far at least) are 100% immune to being corrupted by any Dragon. Second off the Sylvari are the only race that get a Wylde Hunt or a calling to destroy or help weaken the ED’s. Every other race fights by choice, not by having a calling to do so. I also do not think it is a coincidence that the Sylvari immediately start off by fighting Zhaitan’s minions about 20-25 levels before everyone else.

Any thoughts or comments on this theory? Did I forget anything major in my reasoning? Discuss!

This doesn’t go against your theory but may add to it:

Individual sylvari may be immune but if they see enough horror by fighting the ED’s, they become an entire race of corrupted. But not corrupted minions of the ED’s. So they would need more Pale Trees to spread out the horrors. We know there were more seeds and at least one more Pale Tree. But the second PT doesn’t seem to have a dream that we know of to give out wylde hunts.

Hmm. So I guess the Nightmare court could still fight the ED’s since they aren’t corrupted into minions but I don’t know how to reconcile the lack of dream for the other tree.

Not all Wyld (not Wylde) Hunts deal with ED threats, but most do. There are quite a few that deal with the Nightmare Court presence in Brisban Wildlands, and even some dealing with bandits, centaurs (I think), or even more simpler things like negotiations, exploration, and the like (I think there’s one sylvari mentioned from an interview who’s Wyld Hunt was establishing negotiations with other nations).

As for the fighting Zhaitan’s minions sooner – that’s less due to the Wyld Hunts or sylvari’s purpose, and more to do with how they’re much closer to Orr than anyone else.

@Dustfinger: It was said – not sure if it’s an interview or the sylvari blog post from before launch – that the Nightmare Court also view the Elder Dragons as an ultimate threat, and they’d certainly fight against them if the time comes. It’s just that they don’t believe the sylvari race can properly fight the ED minions while adhering to Ventari’s Tablet.

Then again, the very same interview said the Nightmare Court holds a heavy disdain for all asura because of what happened to Melomedies (being experimented on by asura when the two races first met – and iirc, the one who experimented on Melomedies was Kudu), so it’s a bit odd we see them in GW2 in an alliance with the Inquest.

hmm. That does make sense that they would fight the ED’s. They wouldn’t need ventari’s teaching to do it either. Did malyck ever get his memory back so he could have been a soundless without knowing or did he get it back complelty with confirmation that the other tree definaly doesn’t have a dream?

edit: As I think about it, the sylvari can still be a defense for tyria without a dream. those tees and their sylvari without dreams may be likended to regular folk while those trees and their sylvari with the dream may be likened to an oracle or shaman of the race. Wich would put our Pale tree as bit more special. Kind of like “The Voice” of the kodan link their minds to the mists in order to giude the people.

The Wyld Hunts come from the Dream. Im pretty sure the Pale Tree says at one point that she has no control over who get what Wyld Hunt. She doesnt control the Dream but is merely its caretaker. The question is born from this what exactly is the Dream. If we knew that then perhaps we would understand what the Wyld Hunt’s actually are.

On a seperate but perhaps related topic, during one of the Personal Story missions, a Nightmare Courtier called the Knight of Embers refers to her Dark Hunt (with capitol letters). More curiously is she doesnt even know what the Harbringer she is hunting actually is and nor does the rest of the Nightmare Court. When she discovers the truth you rush to cut her off from telling the rest of the Nightmare Court.

This makes me wonder if Nightmare Courtiers can get an equivilant to a Wyld Hunt from the Nightmare part of the Dream or if they are just impersonating the Wyld Hunts.

Edit: Soundless cut themselves off from the Dream. According to the Seer in the PS, Malyck was never a part of it.

Actually the wording of her vision was interesting:

“A distant shore – and darkness,
A root, a cave… you. You are the
seed. What Rohan knew but never
told still lingers in the Dream.”

From that Trehearne got that Malyck was from another tree. Not sure how but their you go.

@Dustfinger: Actually, if you play through Caithe’s choice, it’s shown that Malyck never lost his memory. That was just a false presumption made by the PC because Malyck didn’t know what the Dream, Pale Tree, or Grove was – or even what sylvari were. Since when the PC met Malyck, it was thought Malyck came from the Pale Tree it was a (rather natural but wrong) assumption that Malyck lost his memory. However, during the path where he retraces his steps, he perfectly remembers everything and shows this.

Malyck always had all of his memories – he never had a Dream experience. However, whether this means his tree isn’t tied to the Dream of Dreams (my suspicion given how the Dream isn’t unique to sylvari – the White Stag, for instance) or he’s as you said an unintentional Soundless is left unknown (though Trahearne’s path implies that he was never of the Dream and thus implies the former).

@Lutinz: We’re told that the Dream is made of ether, and we know it to hold memories of the sylvari but also contains possible futures and even pasts that the sylvari didn’t experience. We also know non-sylvari can enter the Dream with the aid of beings tied to it (such as the Pale Tree) and we know more than the Pale Tree are tied to the Dream (White Stag).

This all makes it sound like the Mists to me, which is made of protomatter (probably very akin to aether), is connected to the past present and future like the Dream, and beings can only enter it with the aid of those tied to both realms in some way (like Havrouns), which in turn are given this ability (usually at least) via dieties.

And though this may be mechanical, the portal used to enter the Dream of Dreams during A Light in the Darkness is the same as the portals used to enter the Mists in the norn Defend the Mists storyline, iirc.

As to the NC getting Wyld Hunts – that’s what the Dark Hunt seems to be.

So if the Dream is connected to the Mists could perhaps the Gods themselves be directing the Sylvari with both their Wyld and Dark Hunts?

I agree that the Dream is almost definately some form of realm within the mists. I wonder exactly though how it is tied to Tyria. Is it something that was their before the Pale Tree or did it grow from the Pale Tree. I personally expect the latter. Are druids connected to the Dream in some way? Perhaps other nature spirits like Urgoz?

One thought I had is that it could be either the realm of Melandru or one set up by her. There is a line in the Orrian scrolls which vaguely talks about Melandru heading out to prepare the world for a difficult future.

Alternatively there may have always been a dream and the Pale Tree somehow tapped into it from due to either where it was planted or something special about it.

One of the things that I wondered about from the vision from the Seer was the line ‘What Ronan knew but never told still lingers in the Dream’. Actually the distant shore line I found curious too but the Ronan line makes me wonder if the fact there were other seeds in the cave was actually an unknown fact in Tyria prior to Malyck turning up.

If thats not the secret then what is it what he knew?

On the Dark Hunts, I find it curious that the NC would get twisted versions of the Wyld Hunts. It makes me wonder on the source of the Wyld Hunts to begin with. Wyld Hunts arent just a guide on what your supposed to do. They are a nagging thing constently on your mind.

Konig: That’s a real good point about the stag.

Lunitz: The idea that the dream is from melandru is interesting.

But, it’s too late for me. i’ll mull it over in my sleep and see if I can come up with something. Night all

Skykiller.3160:

So if the Dream is connected to the Mists could perhaps the Gods themselves be directing the Sylvari with both their Wyld and Dark Hunts?

That wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

More Mary Sue love for the Mary Sue race.

tegwen and carrys with their group of sylvari and those who were in an order and merged into the pact, fight against the ED´s because they want to, not because they have a Wyld Hunt to kill a dragon – thats just caithe´s and your charackter`s dream.

to the corruption-topic:
“Golden sap moves through their veins instead of blood and pollen shakes off of them as they move.”http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sylvari
i think that might explain it abit, but im not pretty sure if thats the mainreason.

@Skykiller: It’s possible; I’d place my bets on Melandru being an originator then personally. However, if their Dark Hunts are tied to the Six Gods, then I can only see them coming from Menzies or Dhuum. However, I suspect the Nightmare on a whole is originating from Mordremoth (the supposed name of the Sixth Elder Dragon).

@Lutinz: Nothing indicates a tie to the formerly-human Druids or the forest spirits that Urgoz was a member of.

It’s certainly not Melandru’s realm – the Six Gods’ Realms are their own physical place. The Dream of Dreams is, like the Mists you enter during the norn Defend the Mists storyline, is just a spiritual/etheric version of Tyria (the sylvari tutorial is within Caledon Forest, in fact – SW corner). Melandru’s realm would be akin to The Underworld, Realm of Torment, or the Fissure of Woe. The line about Melandru preparing seems more about what she did in the past about trying to bring peace between the races and working to help reduce the strife that Balthazar and others were so keen on causing.

The existence of other seeds was a known fact. So I’m rather curious about what’s “never told” – probably the location of the seeds. It’s said somewhere (in the Grove I think) that the sylvari have spent the time since their awakening searching for the cave that Ronan found the seeds in, but they’ve had no luck in finding it.

@MidnightX: Tegwen has a Wyld Hunt to kill Herboza the Wretched during the personal storyline. Many sylvari share similar Wyld Hunts. They’re not to kill the ELder Dragons – as you said only Caithe and the PC has ever had such a Wyld Hunt – but many of them have Wyld Hunts to go to places and face dangers there, and most Wyld Hunts deal with going to where ED forces are in large forces. Their Wyld Hunts are to face the Elder Dragons’ minions, not the dragons themselves.

And I don’t see what their sap or pollen has to do with preventing dragon corruption – that’s no different from standard plants, really, and we see many plants corrupted by Zhaitan and Kralkatorrik’s energies in Orr and the Dragonbrand respectively.

Here’s a crazy thought, if the dream is a part of the Mists, perhaps the Mists themselves are shaping out the Wyld Hunts? I know there is nothing to prove that the Mists are sentient, but there are strange aspects of the Mists that kind of give the feeling that perhaps there is something more to it than what we can see. This Mists mimic Tyria and other worlds on a consistent basis, and when you truly think about it Mimicry can be a simple form of learning. The most recently seen application of it’s knowledge was in the creation of Razah! I know it may seem crazy, but it’s so crazy it just might have to be true, lol.

I’d say that Sylvari being “100% immune” is a bit of an exaggeration. Corruption still effects them, just not in the same way it effects other species. We’ve seen them poisoned by Zhaitan’s corruption in the Lynchcroft Mere in Kessex Hills, and we do know if exposed to enough corruption they will die from it.

The advantage that they have is that don’t appear to change into Dragon Minions from Corruption though. Or at the very least, they don’t appear to turn into Branded or Risen. I’m not entirely sure if Jormag has ever tried to corrupt any of the Sylvari for us to know positively of whether or not he can corrupt them, though evidence does support that they cannot become minions as far as we know.

Their epic Mary Sue armour protects them, obviously.

Excelsior!

@Ratphink: That was kind of what I was getting at. They can’t become dragon minions, but they’re still affected – and killed – by what would normally corrupt. The only dragon that might be able to corrupt sylvari (though I suspect this is more of a case of influence rather than corruption) would be Mordremoth via the Nightmare/Nightmare Court – should my view on the too-popular theory regarding the ties between sylvari and Mordremoth hold water.