Guild Wars 2

Well, to be honest, I have a hard time imagining the devs making enemies looking pretty much like Sylvari on steroids, and using the term “Mordrem Court” on one type of those enemies, just to end up saying “nah, it isn’t a Sylvari at all, it’s just a new type of husk”. :p
I may be jumping to conclusions a bit too quickly, but this, plus the other points raised before, really make me think I’m right. Maybe not about the whole “they’re the Sylvari that turned against the Pact”, but at least about the fact that they could be Sylvari.

Looking at today’s PoI, I guess I was right. ;p

The NPCs faces, armors and beards.

For the faces, I’m not just talking about main NPCs like the Pale Tree, Caithe or Braham : there’s even minor NPCs in the human storyline who have got exclusive faces from the very beginning (like them : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blaize , http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Andrew , http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Big_Nose_Ted ), and I still don’t understand why Arenanet don’t want to give those to the players. Because they’re not looking like pretty ken dolls ? e_e
Even for main NPCs like Trahearne, it makes no sense : there’s some random Nightmare Courtiers with the exact same face, so why can’t we have those ?

My take on Griffith from Berserk !
I prefer using Sylvari rather than human for Griffith, because there’s a more fitting haircut, and a face that’s got a smug smile and an eyeshape that’s closer to what Griffith’s eyes look like. It’s better for a more sly and feminine face. :p

CureForLiving > There’s fire because that’s where the Pact’s airship crashed, you can see them burn.

Ronin > Yep, I think it could be that. The fact that it’s breathing fire still make me doubt about the Fern hound, though, we’ll see.

Shinreigari > I still think it could be a Sylvari, as there’s no trace of it being a parasited body or anything like the other living creatures corrupted by Mordremoth. Also, as Mordremoth is a plant dragon, and Sylvari are plant creatures… I guess they’d kinda be like modelling clay to him. :p

Could be !
The teeth are very human-like, so I think it’s either a Sylvari, a human or a Norn.
I think it’s most likely a Sylvari, though, because the Mordrems that seem based on living creatures look more like are corpses infested by plants (mordrem wolves and mordrem trolls). The creature shown in the trailer doesn’t look like something infested or parasited, but something actually made of bark.

I never argued that wurms were dragon minion ! Just that jungle wurms are some kind of plant thingies. Why are they called Nightmare vines in Twilight Harbor if they aren’t plants ?

BrunoBRS > I always thought the jungle wurms (not just the boss, every wurm from Maguuma) were plant-thingies. Maybe not plants in the strict term (of course they’re not flowers), but they may be something between plants and animals : it’s a fantasy world, after all.
There are wurms made of ice in the Shiverpeaks, why couldn’t there be wurms made of plants ?
Also, they’re called “Nightmare vines” in Twilight Harbour.

(Edit : I don’t think the Triple Trouble Wurm is a Mordremoth champion, though. Just some giant wurm that’s being disturbed by Scarlet’s devices.)

I have no idea if this has been pointed out before, but… Could this creature be a Sylvari ?

It’s obviously made of bark, and has a very humanoid shape. It’s also carrying what seems to be a Mordrem weapon (same blue glow), and has got some kind of pet. Both have orange/red-ish eyes… Like the Pact Sylvari that went mad in the first HoT trailer.
And… you can see what I think are the crashed, burning Pact airships in the background.

So could this be one of the Sylvari that turned against the Pact we saw in the first trailer for HoT (and probably what was a fern hound along with him, though I must admit that the fact it’s spitting fire makes me doubt, it could be some random new quadruped Mordrem) ? Maybe that’s what they’re supposed to look like when Mordremoth actively controls them ?

EDIT :

Other informations about those creatures in the HoT Beta :

This is so Out Of Character, it burns :

Bunnikk.2146:

I am just hoping that Sylvari PCs will be have a separate story or at least something more than responding dialogue options. It will feel really wrong if Sylvari have the same story was everyone else given all that has/will happen.

I’m afraid that they won’t change much stuff for Sylvari players. If there’s prejudice against the Sylvari in Tyria because of the reveal and loss of the Pact, I’m quite sure the PC is going to have a magical plot armor that’s going to make people see him as a perfectly ok person (“oh yeah we just threw rock on sight at your bros but you, you’re a nice guy, Hero !”).
I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it : they’re not going to change every dialogue just for one race, no matter if it’s totally immersion breaking or not.

Also, for the whole “Sylvari attacking the Pact’s airship” stuff, I think the whole point of this is that they were actually Dreamers. If they were just Soundlesses and/or Nightmare Courtiers, that wouldn’t make much sense, unless the Pact was full of idiots. Plus, the fact that Dreamers ARE vulnerable to the Dragon’s influence is actually what’s going to make the whole “Sylvari are dangerous” crisis legit (and regarding the plot, I think it’s way more intersting than “oh no, a bunch of evil Sylvari just happend to have planned an attack on the Pact from the very beginning !”).

Aethgar.1784:

Trahearne saying “fire” seemed tactically unwise.. who’s to say he was acting under his own bidding? /archbrow
I like that sort of suspicion.

Actually, I was thinking…
What if Mordremoth didn’t actually make any conscious effort to mind control Sylvari at this point ? What if it’s the fact that it was hurt that triggered some kind of instinctive response from the Sylvari ? Pretty much as if they had some kind of “berserk button” in their mind, that could only be activated if you actually threatened directly their posible creator ?

I’d prefer this option, actually, since it would mean that we’d have to find another way to fight Mordremoth rather than just using brute force.

I have a hard time imagining Courtiers joining the dragon willfully if that was going to turn them into mindless puppets. Either they’re victims, or Mordremoth’s influence on the Nightmare Court is different than it is on the Soundless.

Actually, with the whole “the Dream is some kind of shield against Mordremoth’s influence” thing, I don’t see how a Nightmare Courtier would become the dragon’s slave. The Nightmare is a part of the Dream, it has been stated a few time, so wouldn’t the Nightmare Courtiers be as much protected as the Dreamers ?
Why the whole plot point about the Soundless being the most vulnerable to the dragon if the Nightmare Courtiers were as much exposed as them ?

I think it would be more interesting if they were actually some Nightmare Court groups that’d be opposed against the whole “hey guys, let’s join the Dragon”. It would give a lot more depth to their Faction.

Can we at least post some links to threads that got devs responses, so you just move them out of the archives and we can still read them ? Some are still useful. :/

Looks awesome ! I’d have bought something like that if those hadn’t been… let’s say, limited editions. :p
Kicks kitten ! And wurms are probably my favourite monsters in GW2.

Sins.4782:

I would suggest leaving the Dungeon and BLTC subforums, and merging the Asura/Sylvari/Norn/Human/Charr forums into a single ‘Races’ subforum or such..

Yes, please. The races need at least a subforum, all the stuff that isn’t related to the races of Tyria isn’t necessarly related to the Lore… For exemple the hairstyle thread for the Sylvari, who got some really nice feedback from Kristen Perry, and where people continue to suggest ideas.

She’s clearly trying to do something she thinks is good (I don’t think she would have said “no time to explain” if she was just evil, and I don’t think that Arenanet’s writers are going to make any of their main NPC heroes a bad guy).
What if she wants to use the egg to, somehow, fight the Nightmare, but in a non violent way for once ? For a Dreamer, I think Nightmare Courtiers could be seen as suffering : they’re corrupted by the Nightmare, and that’s why they turn evil. What if she found a way to cure it, somehow ?
I don’t see which pain could it be, if it isn’t about the NC.
Plus… there’s Nightmare chests in the Silverwastes, now, I doubt Arenanet named them that way for no reason.

Kralkatorrik corrupts all kinds of creatures and presumably minds.
Isn’t it different ? I’d say Sylvari like Aerin and Scarlet got mind controlled while they weren’t really corrupted yet. I think the difference is that : usually, it’s the corruption that makes you a dragon servant (except from Jormag who seems to rely on promises of power), while Mordremoth seems to be able to heavily influence minds without having to directly corrupt (Scarlet and Aeryn seems to have struggled with that, and developped some kind of split personnalities. If they were fully corrupted, I guess they wouldn’t have argued with themselves multiple times ?).

but Mordremoth can’t corrupt other races because they aren’t plants.
Yet ! I remember seeing a dialog where someone said that a few people weren’t killed, but kidnapped by the vines. Surely this is something that’s going to change once the Mordremoth has a better understanding of them.

By the way, if you talk to Ogden at the end of the last LS instance, he also says that talking about Dream and Nightmare is oversimplifying, and that there’s more about that. I was playing a Sylvari, so I was wondering if other races get that info or not !

-Moonwalking. Just for some sillyness, to be honest I just want my characters to be able to retreat while moonwaling.

-I’d love to see some tap dancing too ! I always thought it looked really nice, seeing it ingame would be awesome.

-And some nice belly dancing ! I really love it, no matter if the dancers are males or females, it’s always really enjoyable to watch.

GW2 animators are really great at making good looking emotes/animations, it’s a pity there isn’t more of those !

I found it !
Is there any confirmation that it isn’t some kind of metaphor ?

Well, it’s not Mawdrey yet, but I don’t think I’ll keep his appearance once I’ll get it, anyway. The purple glow on the tendrils is a bit too much for my tastes.
So here’s Lyvenlurn, my mesmer, with the cultivated vine ! I used a little purple on the t3 shoulders to make it appear like it’s the vine’s leaves.

Sorry to bump this old topic, but does anyone knows exactly where it’s possible to hear the ambient conversation about Sylvari actually falling from their pods ? Or does anyone has screenshots about it ? I remember seeing it once, but I can’t find any proof to actually convince someone who think it’s not true.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Aaron: My dislike for the quaggan actually stems from the over-cutifying the race, and how they seem to get highlighted so much more out of any other minor race simply because they’re “cuter”.

This is pretty much why I hate them.
I’m tired of seeing them everywhere just for the sake of bringing some cuteness where it’s not relevant at all. Plus, yeah, Arenanet seems to forget that they can be total brutes when transforming.
This, and their annoying voice acting.

I’d say it depends.
There must be Dreamer pirates, and also Nightmare pirates. Falling to the Nightmare doesn’t mean a Sylvari is going to stick with the Court in Maguuma (Noxia in the Shiverpeaks teams up with a Norn Shaman to kill children), so I can imagine a bloodthirsty courtier joining a pirate crew if it allows him to spread some chaos. There’s even a Sylvari in the Grove telling a friend that she had trouble with Nightmare Courtiers in Lion’s Arch, so we can imagine that they’re in more places than we actually see them ingame, and probably not all invested with the ranks and schemes of the Court.

But yeah, most of the pirates that aren’t trying to kill you on sight are probably Dreamers. As Ioneknight said, being a pirate doesn’t mean they’re cold blooded killers.
Plus, killing doesn’t make Sylvari evil, it’s more about abandonning most of the positive aspect in them (I say “most” and not “all”, because it’s obvious Nightmare Sylvari can still love, even if it’s a twisted love… :p).

Thanks for answering ! I’m a member of a Sylvari roleplayers guild, and we’re always looking for more informations, those clarifications about the Wyld Hunt are going to be quite useful for us.
I have a silly question about the Dream and the fern hounds, by the way. :’p I guess the answer is no, but do Sylvan Hounds experience the Dream (or a part of it) ? Do they share some sort of empathic bounds with the Sylvari, or are they just like normal dogs ?

Thanks, Dulfy !
It’s probably the only outfit I really want to buy, but I really hate the shoulders on it.
Do someone know if that part of the outfit can be removed like the helmet ? I’m clearly not going to buy it if it’s to get giant shoulder armors on my character again.

Edit : Got my answer from someone who bought it. Apparently, it’s not possible to hide the shoulders.
Why, Anet ?

I like it a lot ! There’s not enough plant-themed armors in that game, I wish he’d become a full armor later in the story, but I’m sure that’s not going to happen. :p
Also, I think it’s cool that we’re supposed to make it grow and kinda tame it by feeding it and stuff, that’s a nice touch.

I really wish we could turn off the glow, though. I don’t think a pink glow suits that many characters skins.

Aweome ideas, wrathes ! I hope to see those in the game someday, they’re awesome ! Vine dreads are my favourite by far.
I really dig the faces too !

Same problem here.
I had the cultivated seed in my bank before the patch, and I made the back item yesterday.
I think it was changed into a pet seed just after the patch, before I even started playing today’s living story, but I’m not quite sure about this.

Ayrilana.1396:

Whether people coordinate or not makes all the difference. People that work together and play efficiently are rewarded more than people that don’t. It makes sense. People need to split up and tackle all of the events simultaneously.

Exactly.
When I’m on a map where there isn’t much people, I try to organize some groups. If people are really motivated to get to tier 4, they’ll do their best to do what you tell them to do.
Also, no commander needed : people tend to follow the commander tag without thinking, and that’s exactly what you mustn’t do in Dry Top. When I’m on a map with a commander, I try to find a few players willing to get to tier 4, so we work together to do the events the commander isn’t doing in time.
Most of the events can be done with only 1 to 3 people (per event :p). Some are even easier if you are just two people.

“And what’s so poweful about Mordremoth’s corruption ? Don’t tell me they are actually writting him as the biggest and baddest ED…”
There’s even an event that makes him a bit trivial. The one in the Iron Marches where you have to cover yourself up in Mordrem spores. I mean, come on, apparently we have jackals infested with Mordrem plants everywhere, but yeeaaah let’s roll into the spores, they can’t be that bad, it’s just a Dragon after all !

“Possible connection to the Nightmare Court conversion style as well?”
Actually, I think the Nightmare Courtiers are as much protected as the other Sylvari. The shield seems to be the Dream, or the influence the Pale Tree has on the Dream, at least. The Nightmare is a part of the Dream, hence why it’s not the Courtiers that are the most sensitive to corruption, but the Soundless, who try to isolate themselves from the Dream. I see a lot of people linking the Court to the Dragon Corruption, but I think that’s the contrary : they’re protected, as much as the Dreamers, they’re in the Pale Tree’s “grand design”.

“Scarlet giggled as she raised her hand to her face and watched the red thorn vine chase itself between her fingers. “So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain…it’s all part of a grand design.”
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/

“The whole premise here was so sloppy – the audience with the Pale Tree was done via Kasmeer (despite it not making sense) because there isn’t a single biconic from the sylvari race (it even happens if your PC is sylvari).”
I agree. Even if the PC isn’t Sylvari, it makes no sense to me that Kasmeer is the one organizing the audience. I only play Sylvari, but if I’m not wrong, every race meet the Pale Tree in the personnal story, right ?
I’m a bit annoyed by the fact that they try to use the biconics even where it makes no sense at all. They could have used a firstborn, if they really wanted to make someone else than the player ask for an audience, at least it would have made more sense to me.

We’re a bunch of players waiting for the Dolyak supply to come in frostgorge sound. They don’t seem to show up, so we’re gessing it’s bugged. We can’t continue the living story because of this.

It may also depend on the problem.
All injuries aren’t the same, and don’t forget other cases : poisons, sickness, etc. I don’t think magic can cure everything, after all a lot of people died because of the toxic miasma used during the attack on Lion Arch, and we even heard about a disease that appeared after that (scarlet’s rattle).
And what about Braham’s leg ? Apparently magic can’t cure this, while it seems to be a very common injury. So, yeah, I’m also with Erukk on that point.
Hence why Sylvari needs menders, I guess. As magic itself doesn’t cure everything, you need specialists for what’s left.

The fact that the antennae/stems/stamens clips through the helmets with that leaf face is actually what makes it even more great for me. I just think it’s cute to see those two little things popping out of most headgears, as if the character would poke holes in any helmet possible to let them out. :’p

Because of Scarlet’s shenanigans, some decided to poison Sylvari with weedkiller.
This can’t end well :

(Try a /cry on a male Sylvari with a bobblehead to see him choke. :’p)

“As I understand it, the Tablet is the whole Sylvari races’ moral guideline and all of them follow it and if they don’t and they reject it or ignore it then they are automatically Nightmare”

=> It’s not that simple, actually. You see Sylvari that aren’t Nightmare Sylvari, but apparently did things that got them banned. I think there’s two NPC in this situation, the only I remember about the most is the one in Caledon Forest, who tells you he got banned because he stole something from a firstborn. There’s also a Sylvari in Sparkfly Fen who complains that some of her friends at the camp started to enjoy killing, or something along those lines.
It’s more about what you do, I think. I don’t see why a Sylvari would be instantly turned Nightmare just because he said “I’m not interested in this Ventari stuff, I’d rather follow my own way, kthx”. It’s clearly about acts, and/or starting to have a twisted mind (Physically or mentally abused Sylvari are also prone to fall into the Nightmare, as you can see in Twilight Arbor, with the conversion-pods thingies : we don’t know exactly what happen inside of it, but they seem to suffer a lot, and sometimes gets changed into Nightmare Courtiers when you save them too late).

For your question about the Soundless and Ventari, I actually think it’s more of a personnal thing rather than “they all do this or that” : they’re all individuals, so their point of view about it must differ from Sylvari to Sylvari. It’s not very realistic to think that they all work the same way.
Some Soundless must follow Ventari teaching, other not, and I’m quite sure it’s possible for a Dreamer to not be interested in that Centaur stuff, and as long as he does nothing criminal, I don’t see why he would become a Nightmare Courtier. Rejecting a philosophy does not equal being a psycho. :’p

Male & Female in my screen.
I forgot to screen the 4th haircut, though ! It’s another version of the one looking like the heavy t3 cultural, but there’s flowers on it (those flowers don’t glow during the night).

Soooo yeah, thanks Kristen, they’re awesome !

To be honest, I just wish they’d put the two cultural armor sets we can see on some of the Grove’s NPC… I just don’t understand why arenanet like to torment its players so much by putting armors or faces that are just available to NPCs.

I love that they tried to make something different, buuuut… Honestly, unless it’s on a blue Sylvari, I just don’t want my characters to wear those armors.
If the face mask looked a bit different (highlighting the eyes, some details carved in it or something like that), I’d prefer. I don’t like the idea of having my character’s face being replaced by a blank mask… but in the same time, I really with there were more full masks, and not a bajillion venetian masks. It’s really the lack of details on the mask part of those new armors that annoys me, I think.

Also, I’d totally love to see another version of those armors, without the glowing blue parts. The light armor (that looks like a medium armor) is actually awesome, it has some kind of Stargate Jaffa armor feeling, which I really like.

Not buying it right now for a blue Sylvari because I want to see if they’ll make another version of those without the blue parts.

DallasisaLeo.1584:

That’s still a very strange hangup to have about a face. Just pretend their nostrils were relocated to the corners of their eyes or something.

They do have two little holes on the chin. Who knows if those aren’t nostrils ? :’p

Regarding the fact that their models ingame appear to breathe, actually I think it’s more kind of a game design aspect more than a lore thing : If your character don’t have a breathing animation, then it’ll look too stiff and poorly animated, especially if the other characters does have a breathing animation.

I was in love with the noseless face with the scars the instant I saw it. :‘p It makes me think about a wooden mask, rather than Voldemort (he does have nostrils, so…) or whatever, it’s kinda freaky, uncanney valley-ish, so I really like it, there’s already a lot of very human looking Sylvari, a little bit of variety can’t hurt.
I don’t like the one with the big eyes very much, though. It looks too “cute” for my tastes, and a bit out of place, even if it’s quite alien-looking. It’s possible to make it look like a younger version of the one with the scar by making the eyes smaller, though.

My engie, Kögwyhle, have black eyes so he does look like a wooden mask rather than a face even more. :’p

Question 1 : Why is there no mention of the 3 missing Firstborns ? It’s been said that they’re twelve, but we only see or hear about nine of them (Dagonet, Caithe, Faolain, Aife, Malomedies, Riannoc, Kahedins, Trahearne, Niamh).

Question 2 : What are the sclerite weapons ? They appeared with the SouthSun’s Cove living story update, but I can’t remember seeing any bit of lore regarding them, which always seemed quite weird for me. It doesn’t look karka-related at all.

I do have a red Sylvari, my hunter, Badhynn. :’p His glow is green, I was thinking to a strawberry when I first created him.

But yeah, they tend to be rare. I wanted to make a yellow Sylvari, but I don’t really like the tones of yellow we can use, I wish there was some more. :/

smeen.4237:

Can anybody who has changed to a new face show me how they glow? I have a male and a female Sylvari that might need a make-over but it depends greatly on the glow.

Here’s how mine glows :
(He’s smiling because I was dancing, by the way.)

I’m actually really happy with two of the three male faces. I wished for some more freaky looking faces, and the one without a nose is just perfect, for me. :> (I don’t like the one with the big eyes, though. It looks too “cute” for my tastes, and a bit out of place, even if it’s quite alien-looking.)
I love the fact that they’ve added more variety for the males.

Redenaz.8631:

but I do think there’s a missed opportunity to give it some costume brawl skills, or some more emotes.

I’ve just noticed it has a different idle animation if you use the draw weapon command, by the way.
Still want a command to make it do his funny ressurection animation without having to find someone dead.

I made this tonic yesterday, and I really love it.

What annoys me greatly is the lack of attack animation and costume brawl skill. For an infinite tonic, I expect more than just being there “just for looks”.

I do enjoy the swimming and harvesting/resurrecting animations a lot, but I really wish it could be possible to see that last one just by typing an emote (like /dance or /beckon, I don’t care much, as long as I can see it without having to wait for someone to die, which usually means I have to defend myself, and therefore, can’t stay transformed).

“Additionally, there are no “Nightmare Sylvari”. There is simply the Nightmare Court and the inhabitants (Sylvari of the Nightmare Court).”

The Court has been created by Cadeyrn, as an organization with a precise goal, but the Nightmare was part of the Dream before, and so Sylvari were able to fall before, it’s just that it didn’t happen because… well, it’s not like they were a lot at this time. :’p

Also, you can actually see a non-courtier Nightmare Sylvari in the Snowden Drifts. I guess some pirates are Nightmare Sylvari also, who just don’t give a kitten about Ventari’s teaching and don’t want to be tied to the Court at all (but yeah, it’s just personal supposition here. The Nightmare Sylvari in the Snowden Drift, though, exists).
I think it’s just that the game focus around the Nightmare Court, but yeah, I don’t see any logical reason why there couldn’t be Nightmare Sylvari who aren’t part of the court.

The new emote range is just horrible and spammy, please think about the roleplayers ! :/
Plus, we get also spammed from too far by the Mist recruiters NPC, they’re like harassing people every 15seconds even if you don’t even see them from the distance.

“Immune to magics of the series main antagonist (dragons).”

Well… They don’t get corrupted, but die instead if a dragon tries to corrupt them… so it’s not really a valid point, no ?

I think she’s a Nightmare Sylvari, but she’s simply not interested by the Court. She wouldn’t be the only Nightmare Sylvari in that case we can see ingame, by the way. People tends to mix up Nightmare Sylvari with the Nightmare Court, while the Court is actually just an organisation.