In The Movement of the World article, released by ArenaNet, it says that the cave where Ronan found the seeds was guarded by terrible plant creatures that forced him to flee carrying only a single seed. What if these terrible plant creatures were in fact those same Sylvari guarding the future of their race until the time came for them to take root and grow? No one would have seen a Sylvari in millennia, which, combined with the possibility of the Sylvari taking root and being grown over after standing guard for thousands of years, could make them pretty terrifying if they woke up thinking you were a threat. That Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade didn’t look too pretty either.
But if it is true that those plant creatures were the guardians of the seeds, why did they chase off Ronan yet allow another seed to be taken and grown into a new tree? Ronan managed to sneak away with a seed, but that could be because the guardians had been inactive for so long they were too slow to react, a problem that wouldn’t have happened immediately after for a Sylvari on their Wyld Hunt.
What we know of the dream is that it is built on the experiences of the Sylvari, Ventari’s Tablet and this anti-Elder Dragon drive. Maybe the Sylvari Wyld Hunt was not just to ensure the survival of the Sylvari but to ensure they survived to fight the dragons when they returned. This would make the idea that the Sylvari were born to fight the dragons not some fantasy but their race’s true Wyld Hunt. So if you were to take out the experiences of the Sylvari and the Ventari’s Tablet, you would get an inexperienced Sylvari willing to fight the dragons. Remind you of someone?
What if Malyck knew nothing, not because he lost his memory or was disconnected from his tree before his birth, but because he is the first of his tree’s Firstborn. According to the timeline of events, the Pale Tree’s seed was planted in 1078 AE, around the time of the events in the Eye of the North expansion for GW1. Due to the events of the player, it was another 40 years before the first Elder Dragon, Primordius, awoke. The Pale Tree’s Sylvari are almost 25 years old. This means the new tree would only be about 15 years younger than when the Pale Tree had her first Sylvari. Which isn’t much if you consider the Pale Tree is 250 years old and doesn’t look a day over 200!
This could also explain why we never saw Malyck again with his army he promised to fight the Elder Dragons. Instead of finding a tree full of Sylvari, maybe he was alone or there were a couple more new Sylvari born from the tree and, thanks to the player, Malyck is taking back all the good mood experience to share with his tree and fellow Sylvari.
Minions of a Nature Dragon
One thing I want to do with this column is look at what the community thinks and examine it just as I have above; examining the information we know from the game and the developers. With the Sylvari, the biggest theory I have seen is that the Pale Tree is a Champion of a Nature Elder Dragon and the Sylvari are its minions. I don’t think this is the case, not only from a lore perspective but also from a design perspective.
So first off is the Sylvari tutorial where players are faced with the dragon from their dreams. Some look at this dragon, made of vines and uprooting itself, to be a nature dragon champion much like Tequatl the Sunless, the Shatterer and the Claw of Jormag. New players however are in a dream surrounded by the nature near the Pale Tree where the vines could have coalesced to form the image of a dragon. Not only that but the form mimics that of Tequatl the Sunless which even convinces the Pale Tree that your Wyld Hunt is to kill not just any Elder Dragon but Zhaitan specifically. Then consider that this dragon has only been shown to two Sylvari, the player and Caithe. This makes this dragon showing up as a sign to Sylvari very unlikely.
Another notable point of discussion revolves around the Nightmare and how it could be the dragon calling Sylvari back to their true nature, away from the Pale Tree which broke free of the dragon’s control like Glint, thanks to Ventari’s Tablet. The first indication otherwise is that no other dragon minions are intelligent. Champions have intelligence, but the actual Risen and Icebrood are practically mindless zombies. Sylvari on the other hand not only are born with intelligence and have to choose the Nightmare, but they also keep their intelligence after falling to Nightmare.
