-Wasn’t it confirmed (I’m not sure about this one) that the Pale Tree consciously shaped Sylvari to look very human-ish ? Their true form could be something more freaky like this.
You guys keep talking about “true form”. There is no such thing. Even these letters t-r-u-e[space]f-o-r-m, they only mean what they mean because we all agree they mean what they mean. We only agree that the letter “t” is the letter “t” and the combination of the letters t, r, u, and e forms a word with a set of very specific meanings. To an alien with no knowledge of our culture (read: Mother Tree), they mean absolutely nothing.
My PC sylvari had an interview with the Pale Tree where she said the dream of dreams originated from beyond the Mist.
From this I infer that only perhaps somewhere in the Mists, is there some sort of vague representation of any creature’s “true form”, and this is why Mother Tree herself does not know, understand, or reveal her knowledge or understanding of all things, especially in relation to the Dragons (some things she can’t know or understand either). This may also be why Scarlet had the Aetherblades explore the Mists, and this opens up the question of what exactly did or will Mai Trin and/or Rytlock find in the Mists about the Elder Dragons?
Our Pale Tree could be one, that is outside the normal seed distribution region, which would explain why we haven`t seen the growth of other similiar plants.
This is very true. We have no idea where Ronan found the seed. For all we know the other seeds could have been right above Mordremoth’s head – from its main “flower”. They could have been harvested and then placed in the cave for safekeeping by dragon minions, as Ronan did flee from creatures after grabbing the seed. We also don’t know how much the dream can influence all Sylvari, so Malyck could have broken away from a malevolent Mother Tree through magical means, like with an Asuran experiment either on him – or even his originating tree – or after a traumatic battle which either involved magic that snapped his link from his Tree of origin, or that tree was disabled or destroyed. This could explain how he does not feel nor remember his origin, but also that where he comes from could perhaps be not such a good place.
The most influential figure in the Pale Tree’s experience is Ventari, not Ronan (or another human). Ventari’s philosophy is the one that the sylvari live by, it’s his teachings they treasure – not Ronan. If the Pale Tree was making sylvari in the image of anyone, why would she choose humans instead of centaurs?
Wasn’t Ventari dead by the time Sylvari Firstbornes arrived? And since they were well out of centaur territory, there were no physical centaurs to model from.
If Malyck’s origin tree is younger than the Pale Tree, it’s possible that he may be one of the first generations from his tree. Assuming his tree doesn’t have access to the pool of knowledge the Pale Tree holds (but possibly has access to big picture things like physical form and knowledge of language) his Dream would be a lot more primal than even the firstborn sylvari.
This is very true. How recently the Sylvari first appeared in Tyria should not be overlooked. It is a tiny fraction of time compared to the other races. This emphasizes their ties to Mordremoth and perhaps the Mists, but more importantly to the fact mentioned above, that the emergence of other Trees would only have started a few decades ago, as opposed to centuries ago for other species’ lore. So very little is known about them both by the NPCs and by us, and as with most young’uns, they hardly know themselves.
Maybe the Trees (assuming there is indeed more than one and Malyck is not just a stray pod from something) are linked somehow on even a subconscious level (do trees even have a consciousness?). Maybe we’ll get some answers from deep in Maguuma.
It’s kind of like how Humans (at least in the real world) are linked at the DNA level, the molecular level. I don’t think any of these Mother Trees would purposefully want to make creatures different from ones they’ve already been making, provided they had a say in what their offspring looked like in the first place. We must not forget biology: that we have a consciousness as a result of our bodies, not the other way around (that other way around is basically what the Elder Dragons do).
As for the OP’s image, it looks like somewhere an Inquest scientist developed and then forced an assistant to drink a Mordrem-infusion tonic so he could have his own personal Mordrem minion(s) (usually resulting in the scientist’s own demise). The upper curve of the creature’s head makes it hard for me to say it’s from any species other than Asura.
