adventuresofasylvari - Tumblr blog

[adventuresofasylvari]

Inhales. You know what gets me when I think about Heart of Thorns. The anti-sylvari sentiment in-universe was SO real for a while there. During the period of time where the whole world of Tyria learned the secret that Wynne had died to protect, that sylvari came from the jungle dragon, that they were made to serve it. Everyone turned on them. Friends, lovers, commanding officers, it didn't matter anymore. They COULD turn mordrem at any time, so you had to assume that they would. You couldn't trust something that belonged to a dragon. Even Laranthir (of the Wild) right after the crash, being held captive by his own people, waiting for him to go feral and tear their throats out. The sylvari Commander was granted a little wiggle room, a little space to walk around freely, but it's all very conditional. Prove you're a good one, that you won't fall to the dragon. There's the event in Verdant Brink where they round up all the sylvari in a camp and ask you to interrogate them, to break them down until they confess to being mordrem. And inevitably a few of them are hiding among the camp, but an equal number of sylvari run from you in fear, more afraid of you and the Pact than the certain death of the jungle beyond. The other innocents that stay don't have a choice. It's keep your head down and don't say anything or be killed, one way or another, while the Commander that you've worked under for the past couple of years interrogates a crying novice, asking if they've heard a voice. And who hasn't heard the voice at that point? The Commander admits to hearing it too. Canach likens it to a buzzing fly. Irritating. Nothing more. Strong willed sylvari don't stumble when Mordremoth speaks. But even that's not true; maybe not everyone's played Heart of Thorns on a sylvari Commander, but the closer you get to the dragon, you start to falter, to black out and lose time. In its domain you actually do fall to it. Briefly. Just for a while, you forget who you are and what you're doing there, and mordrem start giving you killing orders. And you snap out of it and never tell anyone, never. They can't know how close you got.

But what GETS ME is that after the dragon is dead, no one talks about it. It all returns to normal. Like the tension was never there in the first place. I'm sure there might be some loaded quips about sylvari in Living World Season 3 right after, but the next time I actually can recall it coming up is in Path of Fire. Right as you get into Desert Highlands; Canach says something about "I always knew this whole human/gods arrangement wouldn't work out" and Kasmeer shoots back "This coming from someone with a DRAGON in their family tree." And that's that. No one actually really discusses it in-game. They all moved on and don't care if you're a dragon minion or not.

Which. Augh. WHAT!!!!! NO ONE CARES? I'm sure it's a better end-user experience than if everyone you encountered as a sylvari player was like "OOOOOH I DON'T TRUST YOUR TYPE... YOU WRETCHED DRAGON PLANT FOLK" but narratively it's a little boring. At least in the sense that it doesn't feel finished. There should still be tons of anti-sylvari sentiment in Tyria and propaganda spread to force them out of parts of society and stupid hoops to jump through to be considered safe. Just as I think that sylvari should still hold anti-asura sentiment--you're telling me their small second generation had a huge group taken away and tortured to death and there's no ingrained fear of it happening again? I want my sylvari commander to have met Gorrik in LWS4 and been like haha. uh. 😥 (do I really have to work with this guy. An inquest...) (and EVENTUALLY come to like and trust him!) instead of the game plowing over it like oh yeah don't worry about it n_n the facility exploded and all so he doesn't work there now don't worry n_n NO I'M WORRIED!-- again I'm sure that the smoothing over of Everything is a better end-user experience. rather than everyone you meet being rude to you or vice versa. However----💥 (I am killed by a sniper from a long distance so that I stop talking before I begin delving into the prejudices that are already baked into the narrative)

[adventuresofasylvari]

found the commander's new inedible snack

[adventuresofasylvari]

Lowland kodan: sorry, no magic allowed in the wilds

Warclaws: :3

Lowland kodan: ok we will make an exception because they look very polite

[adventuresofasylvari]

reuploading my old art (from previous deleted blog commander-winterberry )! art and friends from previous art fights, art trades and such!

belonging to @sleidog @faehrnem @silvesi @commander-gloryforge @legavo @commanderthalys @likemesomesalads

[adventuresofasylvari]

[adventuresofasylvari]

Color it gray Until I forget you

Like I never met you My dearest, my dearest Clementine

[adventuresofasylvari]

fancy golden lionfish Arun concept for @norn-knot

and sekhmet not kidding around with protecting the environment

[adventuresofasylvari]

8/3 VS Artparty NA

Zafira Al Rajihd @moth-tea-merchant

Thora Hrutdottir @gwtoomanyalts

Luenwen @signifiedsatyr

Evil Mabaki @mabaki

[adventuresofasylvari]

8/3 VS Artparty NA

Zafira Al Rajihd @moth-tea-merchant

Thora Hrutdottir @gwtoomanyalts

Luenwen @signifiedsatyr

Evil Mabaki @mabaki

[adventuresofasylvari]

reuploading my old art (from previous deleted blog commander-winterberry)

more doodles of Khayyir (his lore post)

[adventuresofasylvari]

Attack on @king-there0f

I realy like Kerxsus's design.

[adventuresofasylvari]

dudeboi

[adventuresofasylvari]

Commander Week Day 5: Love

(Letter from Caithe to Commander Alderspark, 1335 AE)

"I told you so."

—

Pyrite doesn't currently have a partner (he will by the time Janthir Wilds happens but I'm still workshopping that lore) so here's his adopted daughter Sorcha instead! He becomes her mentor within the Crystal Bloom (sort of like the Order mentors) shortly after the Icebrood Saga, then formally adopts her after End of Dragons.

Sorcha didn't awaken from the Pale Tree. Her pod was donated (surrendered) to the Crystal Bloom by an asuran lab running experiments on blighting pods after they were 'gently' reminded of Rata Sum's ethical experiment guidelines. This was during the time just after Aurene's ascension when she was flying around trying to cleanse the Brand, and likely testing her abilities on other sources of dragon corruption. Having been told that the donated blighting pod was empty, the Crystal Bloom attempted to cleanse it of Mordremoth's corruption, and with apparent success but no idea what to do now, they stored it safely away to keep an eye on.

(The pod was not empty.)

About two months before the falls of Primordus and Jormag, sapling Sorcha wanders out of the storage chambers beneath the Eye of the North and gives Caithe a near heart attack.

No one's quite sure what she is. A dissolved Pact soldier who got put back together by Aurene's brand? A baby Mordrem Guard? A failed clone? Just a normal sylvari? Sorcha's got no connection to the Pale Tree, and struggles to connect with her peers without access to the Dream, though she's a very talented druid and often holds better conversations with plants than people.

She very much struggles with the concept of Not having a Parent, which she views as something crucial to the experience of being a sylvari since they've all got their 'Mother Tree'. Caithe sends her to Orr with Commander Alderspark hoping that his perspective from the farhar system might resonate with her, and instead he decides "Welp, I'm a father now. Can't be helped." They're a good team.

[adventuresofasylvari]

[adventuresofasylvari]

“The world can wait til tomorrow. Stay with me for today.”

Aildyn and Matthias (who belongs to @mystery-salad <3) turn 3 today! They’ve faced a lot together as co-commanders, but at least they can have this now~

[adventuresofasylvari]

Sometimes a family is a dad, a kid, and two... *double checks transcript* tw-... *triple checks transcript*... two species of aye-aye.

(i.e. @thehowlingowl and I made the most normal family in gw2)

[adventuresofasylvari]

guys help my brother is dying of radiation poisoning and only has 5 days left to live. @magitechbatt