Guild Wars 2

There is very little we know about the jungle dragon, but maybe that is what this whole thing is leading up to?

I have a similar thought:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Mordremoth-painting/first#post3591814

This is the current popular theory, her journal in particular heavily implies something related to plant life.

Agreed. At this point my guess is that Sylvari are indeed dragon minions of Modremoth but that that something (likely Ventari’s teachings) have protected them from its influence.

When Ceara went into Omadd’s cube, she lost that protection, and she is succumbing to Modremoth’s influence. This aligns with what Vorpp said in the latest story instance and could imply that every Sylvari would turn into a minion of the Elder Dragon if it is not defeated.

I keep saying this, but Ventari’s teaching were non-magical, and couldn’t protect anyone from dragon influence. Not even Sylvari. Plus, if Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth, what about all the Sylvari that weren’t born on the Pale Tree?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I keep saying this, but Ventari’s teaching were non-magical, and couldn’t protect anyone from dragon influence. Not even Sylvari. Plus, if Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth, what about all the Sylvari that weren’t born on the Pale Tree?

1. All sylvari were born of the Pale Tree. The only known exception is Malyck (from the sylvari Personal Story), and his origins remain a mystery so far. Also, sylvari do not reproduce. They have the organs, but they don’t get to have babies.

2. Ley lines. They are underground conduits for magical energies, similar to how streams and rivers are conduits for water on the surface. The seed that grew out to be the Pale Tree was planted and tended by Ronan. He treated it as a proxy for his dead family. After his death, he was buried beneath the Pale Sapling by Ventari, who continued to tend the plant. After Ventari’s death, all that remained was the tablet.

Speculation starts here:
What if it was a combination of Ventari’s care and Ronan’s grave that interrupted the normal flow of ley lines underneath the Pale Sapling, and instead of the Dragon’s energies, it was fed by the (human) form of Ronan and Ventari’s dreams of peace and serenity?
Ventari was known to create little havens of peace wherever he settled, and he may have had the ability to adjust ley lines in those places to reflect his own inner peace.
Whatever the case, my guess is that the specific circumstance of the Pale Tree’s growth somehow caused it to no longer feed on the ley lines with dragon influence, and to instead be shaped by Ronan’s human form and Ventari’s ideals. Which is why sylvari appear roughly human (including non-functional genitalia) and why the Dream is permeated with Ventari’s teachings.
The importance of the tablet could be slightly different: it could simply be the first thing that the slowly developing Pale Sapling used to relate to, and the first knowledge she acquired. As such, she has internalized its values and teachings into the very core of her being and personality, shaping the Dream with it before her first children appeared inside it.
Finally, what may be important is the location where Ronan planted the seed. What if it simply had no major ley lines that could feed the seed with dragon influence? Remember that Ronan snatched it away from a cave deep in the Maguuma jungle and took it many miles away to the place that is now the Grove.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I keep saying this, but Ventari’s teaching were non-magical, and couldn’t protect anyone from dragon influence. Not even Sylvari. Plus, if Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth, what about all the Sylvari that weren’t born on the Pale Tree?

The tablet doesn’t have to be magical. What if the grove is located on an intersection of ley lines. The extra magic in the area may explain why both the pale tree and the White Stag share the dream, but Malyck doesn’t.

DarcShriek.5829:

The tablet doesn’t have to be magical. What if the grove is located on an intersection of ley lines. The extra magic in the area may explain why both the pale tree and the White Stag share the dream, but Malyck doesn’t.

That is a possibility.

I agree that the teachings may not need to be magical. I will also go so far that magic may not have been necessary. The pale tree is a living, thinking entity. It is possible that in its planting and subsequent exposure to Ronan and Ventari that it in some way freed itself or perhaps it was not controlled at that point. We don’t know for sure at what point a dragon takes control of its minions. Perhaps Mordremoth was too deeply asleep to exert his control. We do know that minions can be freed (Glint), and we do know that minions have to be ‘taken’ at some point; so would that not imply that at some point they are their own masters in a sense? Sentient beings with the ability to make choices?

Beyond that, we know that the tree speaks to it’s children in the dream, and that all sylvari (with one or two exceptions) are born of it. I think she is the one setting up the protection, walling off the darker components in a sense. Perhaps trying to ‘save them’ (after all, they are her ‘children’ and what mother doesn’t try to look after her chirlden?) from the darkness that is servitude to the dragon. However, like all things dealing with the mind, nothing is fool proof. In some, it still leaks through, as such we have sylvari that have ‘gone over to nightmare.’