Guild Wars 2

Adding in a bunch of things to this theory.

First off, yes, the Crucible has 6 “sides”, one of which is Plant. This confirms the 6th Dragon is related to plantlife.

The seed Ronan found was in a cave with many other seeds. It’s very likely those seeds could be the actual Dragon, Champions, or any number of other things. It was heavily guarded though, and being led by Ventari’s teachings/Ronans desire for Peace was not part of the original plan at all.

All the Elder Dragons corrupt the land to their image. Go to Brisbain/Caledon/Asuran Starter Zone, it’s full of new plantlife in the image of the Grove. The Grove itself is a self grown city entirely built by the Pale Tree. There are mentions that within the next few years the Pale Tree will create life in the desert regions of Maguuma as well. It is in fact “corrupting” the land, just corrupting it with life.

The Sylvari are birthed and connected by a psychic link. They are given “Wyld Hunts” by the Dream. Almost all the other corrupted races are also birthed off the dead of other races, and are connected psychically, and given quests by the Elder Dragon themselves.

The Nightmare Court isn’t controlled by any dragons, and Sylvari are almost 100% resistant to corruption, this is mentioned several times at the end of the Personal Story. Instead, the Nightmare Court has just thrown off the shackles of Ventari’s Teachings/cut themselves off from the Dream, implying Sylvari at base are actually quite aggressive/violent/psychopathic. The Soundless and Malyck also show these qualities, if you sit around the Soundless Isle long enough, you’ll hear them mention they need to rely on Ventari’s Teachings more, and all of Malycks cutscenes show him to be a very killhappy man.

Also, remember, ANet has said repetedly that the Elder Dragons don’t really have any plan, they are just forces of nature. Fire is a force of nature, as is death, ice, water, and sandstorms/desert. But so is life and growth. The idea of a 6th Dragon that’s not evil isn’t out of the question. The dragons could be part of a cycle, clear the world of life, then the 6th comes out and rebuilds everything, and this time thanks to Ronan/Ventari it’s actually fighting the other dragons due to the teachings it gave them.

I don’t think the Pale Tree is a dragon however. As she says, she can’t control the Dream, she just interprets it, and functions as the mother to the Sylvari. I’m guessing the 6th Dragon is the Dream, or lives within the Dream.

I agree, yet disagree.

Destinies Edge was handled really well, especially in the context of what they were build to be. ANet has said several times they wanted them to be a dysfunctional normal guild represented by NPCs, and thats exactly what they are, from the reliable raider, to the minmaxer, to the “bro” who “g2g gf aggro”.

Trahearne’s entry to the story for nonSylvari was somewhat weak, but as a character, I don’t find him much of a Mary Sue. While most of the other characters treat him with tons of respect, he’ll readily admit several times during the story that he has no idea whats going on, and once he realized he had no idea how to tackle his Wyld Hunt, he spent the rest of his time just running around chatting with people, and fraternizing with foreign women. That’s why he’s the leader though, all three Orders/Nation Leaders respect him greatly, while the troops respect you. Together you two can get everyone to shut up about their issues, and get them into Orr where they are needed.

There’s quite a few spoilers near the end that the Sylvari as a whole have a lot more story to tell however, so I can see why ANet set him up in that position for future storytelling as well.

So I’d like to see what the devs say about this.

In the Sylvari storyline, you meet several major people early on, Caithe, Traeherne, the Pale Tree, heck even people like Malyck can be introduced earlier then normal due to you being a Sylvari.

This is all well and good for levels 1-20, as you get to know these people and befriend them, you leave to join an Order, and next thing you know, the Pact is forming up, and you need to meet one of it’s leaders, a strange Sylvari known as Traeherne…

Who gets introduced to you as someone you’d have never met, acts as if he’s never met you, and talks about his race as if it was something you wouldn’t know about.

The entire game after the Order storyline feels like Sylvari wasn’t done at the time, so they just get the same lines as everybody else. That’d be fine, but we know far more about this stuff going forward then a human would, so it’s really jarring to have to “meet” Caithe and Traeherne, or “meet” the Pale Tree when we’ve been the Herald of the Sylvari and a good friend to those to for a solid 20-30 levels before that point.

I’m just curious if it’s a bug, or if Sylvari did get written last and this part got forgotten, and if there’s any chance we could get some actual replaced cutscenes or something.