Guild Wars 2: Sylvari Week Summary

Sylvari week has blasted onto the Guild Wars scene with a vengeance. I don't believe there has been a reveal more anticipated, and I don't believe there will be another one quite like it until the game hits the shelves. The sylvari went under a tarpaulin in the back of ANet's grand workshop a long while back, since then we've heard the whizzing of circular saws, smelt the burning scent of singed plantlife and heard the unmistakable sound of a power drill being taken to a geranium but nothing more than little snippets of info has been leaked to us. The past week has seen a cornucopia of new info on the race, and I'm here to snip it up, lay it out and stick pins in it so you can oggle in wonder:

Day 1: Kristen Perry does the BIG reveal in "Designing and Redesigning the Sylvari". This article could have been written by a blind monkey using wax crayons crudely constructed from his own earwax and we would have lapped it up like it was Tolstoy; such was the anticipation for the release of the redesign. Fortunately, it was an incredibly well written piece, and it was really interesting to hear about the great depth of thought and research that went into producing the sylvari we see today.

From the building of the torso; whereby the primary growth socket on the back sprouts the leaves which construct the shoulder, arms and other musculature and is mirrored (think the two ends of a lemon or a banana) by an opposing divot on the belly button. To the beautiful faces; where jawlines are constructed by vines and leaves and where, relatively unlimited by a human bone structure, Kristen and the design team were able to build brows out of twisting myriads of leaf and bark.

She also touched on how they designed sylvari clothing and armour in much the same way. Rather than saying "let's make a dress out of leaves" they asked "if this dress was to grow naturally, what would it look like?". So, the clothes also tend to flow out of a central "growth socket" much like where a leaf attaches to a stem, or a flower's petals are attached at the centre.
She also breifly talked about the more gnarly elements of plantlife which a sylvari might emulate. Rather than going down the summery green route, you might want to choose to go more wintry  - with bark, roots and branches being the prevailing theme in that palette.

Day 2: Angel McCoy (doesn't that sound like a TV cop name? "Dammit Angel, you're a loose cannon!") with "The Sylvari Soul". Now, there was a craptonne of information in this article and it took me a long while to read through/listen to it all - and I thoroughly enjoyed it but, a few days down the line, the thing that has really stuck with me is: FRICKEN BRITISH VOICE ACTORS! Or at least British accents. It was a brilliantly refreshing sound to hear - almost like having soft cheese gently massaged into my earholes (particularly after all I've heard over the past week has been a drunken and drug addled slurs of an angry riot mob and the pustulous rantings of angry Daily Mail readers). Thankyou ANet, I am a happy-Will.

 

 Day 3: Video: "Growing the Sylvari"

Day 4: The update of the sylvari GW2 page. Not a lot of new information, maybe a little on how the cycles affect the sylvari. But mostly, I was there to see the tour of The Grove (and the AMAZING Soule score that went with it which I've listened to a number of times since)

Day 5: Ree Soesby talks about the Nightmare Court in "Dream and Nightmare". Once again Ree deals with the darker side a race with her lore-post on the final day. We already know a little about the Nightmare Court, but this post really blew things wide open. We found out a little bit more about how the Nightmare Court go about their dastardly ways and I have to say, it's pretty fricken evil. Essentially, they see the teachings passed on by Ventari's tablet as a millstone around the neck of the sylvari race and they want to free their people from the moral bindings which hold the society together. They do this by committing terrible and horrific acts upon sylvari and non-sylvari alike, hoping that the memories of their evil acts will filter down to the Pale Tree and into the Dream of Dreams which each sylvari experiences as they are growing in their pods. 

Ree also covers how the cycles of day affect the sylvari, and how each sylvari is supposed to be changed by the part of the day they were born in:
Those born in the cycle of dawn are keen talkers and diplomats. Those born in the cycle of noon are skilled combatants and prefer action over talking. Those born in the cycle of dusk are thinkers, riddlers and philosophers. Finally, those born during the cycle of night are loners, secretive and silent.

As with all the final day posts, Ree weaves the story of the first of the second wave of sylvari newborns (after the "Firstborn", the first 12 sylvari to have been born from the Pale tree, there was a period where no more were born for a long time) Cadeyrn and his eventual descent into the ranks of the Nightmare Court. If the upcoming "Sea of Sorrows" Guild Wars novel is anything like the past few stories we've heard from Ree, then it will be epic on a whole new scale.


Sylvari week was the time of reckoning for a lot of GW fans. The time when we could finally judge whether the months of redesign for the race had really been worth it. I have to say: ANet talk the talk, and BOY do they walk the walk. I was on the fence between a number of races when it came to my main character. But I'm almost 100% sure that it will be a sylvari after the events of this week.

Unbe-freaking-leafable - Sylvari Week!

Hold onto your hyacinths, people; it's freaking sylvari week! Just like the other weeks, I thought I'd give you the whole branching sylvari story to pan the time between the end of Guild Wars and the start of Guild Wars 2. Also, I will be including as many plant puns as is humanly possible, so I apologise if I branch off onto irrelevant tropics - beleaf me, I'll try and keep them pruned.

The sylvari are a budding new race in the Guild Wars ecology. Their story is fairly cool in my opinion, and is worth telling from the very start:

After the end of EotN Tyria was still not a very safe place for humanity - they faced threats from the remaining White Mantle, Mursaat, Charr and the growing threats caused by the wakening of the dragons. One settlement of human exiles had sprung up in the Caledon Forest (east of Rata Sum, west of the Henge of Denravi). Ronan, a human soldier, had made this his home for himself and his family. Whilst on patrol and separated from his group, Roran came across a strange cave guarded by "terrible plant creatures" - he scooped up one of the fist-sized seeds and fled (hoping to give the seed to his daughter as a present to celebrate his return from the war). Unfortunately, upon returning home, Ronan found his family dead and the settlement ruined by a mursaat attack. In his grief, Ronan planted the seed on the graves of his family members. He swore never to return to battle.
 

Arbor Bay - Ventari's Sanctuary

Roran was joined by the centaur Ventari, who also shared his abhorrence for violence. Together the human and centaur built a small community around the ever-growing tree. As the tree grew, the world changed around it - krytans, fleeing violence in their own lands, clashed with centaur clans across the human kingdoms, the dragons began to emerge and allegiances and borders shifted and tore. Fewer and fewer people were willing to follow Ronan and Ventari's peaceful way of life. Eventually Ronan passed away, and before Ventari did the same he wrote his life-lessons on a tablet and placed it amongst the roots of the Pale Tree.

In his absence, the tree grew for 100 years. Eventually great cocoons began to sprout and twist away from the branches of the now massive tree - from these cocoons came the firstborn sylvari.

Dociu concept art of the Pale Tree

The sylvari almost worship the words written by Ventari on the tablets and attempt to live by the rules he passed on. Whilst in their "gestation" period the sylvari dream of the world, it is through these dreams that each sylvari learns the wisdom of their race. Ree Soesbee describes:

The Dream is a deep well, into which memory and thought are poured as each sylvari learns and experiences the world. A newborn sylvari takes memories from that well in part, not in whole; like a bowl filled with water from that lake, they see only a small fraction of their race’s collective experience. 

So, they are born with a working knowledge of the world - but are able to go out and explore and learn on their own. The sylvari are children in relative terms, the oldest of their race is only 25 when the events of GW2 occur. They bring an almost bitingly sheer look to a world filled with wholly cynical races. Their honesty is often misinterpreted as ignorance, their innocence as helplessness. They may appear to be children, but they grew from a tree grown on the site of a massacre, they bear the weight of the wisdom of a very old and very wise centaur and the passion of a shining blade warrior and their unending curiosity for the new world around them drives their race to expand like so many winding weeds.

I'm hesitant to talk too much about the sylvari culture until we learn a little bit more, that's what sylvari week i is about after all! But that's their history, at least. I'm also not going to talk about the FREAKING AWESOME SYLVARI REDESIGN here - as that's a whole other blog post altogether.

What Beef do the Sylvari have with the Dragons?

Each of the races in Guild Wars 2 is driven into a situation where they must face off against an Elder Dragon. The humans, spread out across the several continents, face attack on several fronts - Zhaitan off the coast of Lion's Arch, Kralkatorrik in Ascalon and the deep sea dragon cutting them off from Cantha. The charr have found their newly conquered lands torn apart by the crystalline monstrosities produced from the dragonbrand. The norn were forced from their homes in the north by the advance of Jormag and his icebrood. The asura, although much better off than the dwarves, have been forced to the surface by the hordes of destroyers directed by the Elder Dragon Primordus. The sylvari, on the other hand, seem to be considerably less threatened.

Their home by the Pale Tree is far from Kralkatorrik and Ascalon. Zhaitan's forces pose no serious threat to their home whilst they are preoccupied by Lion's Arch. Jormag is barely a blip on their radar; it's hard to worry about an ice dragon when you live in the jungle. There has been no mention of Primordus offering any threat to the Maguuma Jungle and don't even get me started on the deep sea dude.

So, you have to ask yourself - is this even their fight? Every other race fights for their land, for their freedom and for their lives. Are the sylvari just tagging along for the ride?

I suppose their is the argument that if they hold off now and don't step in, then eventually the dragons will reach the Pale Tree and then they'll have to deal with them alone. With the theme of GW2 being "bringing the races together" then it makes sense to say that no race could handle a single Elder Dragon alone, let alone all five of them at once. If the sylvari chip in their help now they know that they will have a better chance of protecting their home in the future.

Alternatively, they could be driven by something more mystical. It's well noted that the sylvari interact regularly with the Pale Tree; perhaps they feel that not only are the dragons a threat to their home - but also to the world as whole. If the sylvari (in typical elf/planty people fashion) could feel the pain of the planet, then perhaps they would be compelled to jump in and get involved.

I guess we'll find out a bit more once sylvari week hits.


What do you reckon? Are the sylvari in it to protect the Pale Tree or to help fight the good fight? Are they altruistic or egoistic?

Sylvari Week, Gamescon Fun and Metrosexual Rangers

Thangis the Red has informed me that ANet dropped the S-Bomb on the Guild Wars community not that long ago. It appears that Sylvari week will fall between now and Gamescon, and the race will be available to play in Cologne at the end of August. 

I personally believe that ANet have set out to humiliate me. Back in April I said on my my wildly successful (and still often hit) Sylvari redesign post that:

"I think it's because they've got this whole schedule set out for when they want to reveal information. They know that the two things people are most eager to see are the final adventurer class and the Sylvari. So they will do the adventurer class reveal last, and Sylvari week will come after Asura and Charr week."

Stupid ANet, making me look like an IDIOT.

Nonetheless, I'm excited about seeing where they've actually taken the race. The week will be punctuated by my typical coverage; like I did for Charr Week, Norn Week and Human Week. So - keep a look out for when that hits!


In Guild Wars 1 news: I've finally hit survivor! Woooo! Now I can die all I want - isn't that what everyone wants, really?
So, now it is just the simple matter of making money to buy booze and party points. And what better way to mark this milestone than some new threads:

It's me, btw, I'm fabulous.