Gnolls and Elves.

[Kraytdragon.6452]

Were the Charr modeled after Gnolls? They remind me of Gnolls with horns (Awesome concept, FYI). Anyways, I'm really enjoying the game and its beautiful.

 

Also if the Sylvari are supposed to be Elves of GW2 then its one of the best original ideas for an Elven race in my opinion and it is how I would imagine them to be if Elves were real. The whole idea of being born from a tree (Modeled after Humans) and entering into the world is brilliant. I wonder can Sylvari procreate since there is female and male Sylvari and would they produce an offspring that looks more human like of plant like? I guess my question would be, would the offspring of a Sylvari look like something the Pale Tree had produced or would it look more Human?

 

Anyways thanks for your time from a new player.

 

[Mewcifer.5198]

afaik Sylvari can not procreate on their own at all, much less with other races.

[crepuscular.9047]

nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree, basically...

their grand old daddy is the big bad Mordremoth

[phs.6089]

Imo Norns are more of a elves then Sylvary, they juts had crossbreed with small giants at some point.

[Westenev.5289]

I'm pretty sure Sylvari can change their genders (it's purely aesthetic) - similar to how they can turn into 7 foot muscleheads after hearing "the call".

 

Wasn't the Pale Tree in gw1 planted near a human grave site? It sure would be creepy if that was the reason why they were given human form.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Sylvari are only born from pods produced by the Pale Tree. The devs said they are unable to reproduce.

 

>Sylvari emerge fully formed from golden fruit pods which grow on the branches of the Pale Tree.

 

The Charr do look like Gnolls, but I’ve always thought of them as being inspired by the [Kzinti](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kzin)

[Batel.9206]

> @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree,

 

Uh...might want to edit the latter part of your post out. OP said they're a new player; don't want to spoil anything. ;)

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Nvm Deleted

[crepuscular.9047]

> @"Batel.9206" said:

> > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree,

>

> Uh...might want to edit the latter part of your post out. OP said they're a new player; don't want to spoil anything. ;)

 

oh RIP :lol:

[Danikat.8537]

I don't know about charr and gnolls, it's certainly possible but I've never seen much info on how the charr were designed. If anyone knows of an article about this I'd love to read it.

 

But I do know Arenanet went out of their way to try and make sure the sylvari weren't just 'plant elves'. Their early designs looked a lot more human (you can still see some of the concept art around) and relatively late in the process they almost completely scrapped those designs and started over to try to make them look more like humanoid plans than people with plant themed clothing.

 

At first glance they are the most elven of GW2s playable races, but I agree with @"phs.6089" that culturally the norn are a better fit with their reverence for nature and the influence it has on their culture. (There's also a strong Viking influence, but that's not necessarily a bad fit since a lot of fantasy elves trace their origins back to pre-Roman cultures in North-western Europe. Usually more Celtic than Viking, but they're not entirely dissimilar.) But one of the things I like about Guild Wars is that a lot of the races, the lore, the history etc. is quite different to other fantasy games I've played. It makes it more interesting when it's not just a slight change to the same old tropes.

 

Back to the sylvari, as other people have said they can't reproduce. They're kind of like a plant version of bees or ants - the Pale Tree is the queen who stays in the 'hive' (the Grove) and the sylvari are the workers who either tend to the Grove and the lands around it or they're driven to explore and fulfil specific purposes - which can be anything from "find a place which looks like this" to "protect this tree/road/village" to "save the world from the greatest threat it has ever known". (There is a lot more info on all this which comes out during the story - including some of the history of how trees which produce humanoid children came about - but I'll leave that for the OP and anyone else to find out while playing.)

 

Sylvari will look either male or female, and are capable of intercourse with each other and with humans (and presumably other humanoid races) and will have romantic relationships, but they don't have any reproductive organs and can't have children of their own, with other sylvari or anyone else. We know the Pale Tree grew from a seed, but given what the story tells us about her origins we don't know if she's capable of producing those seeds or if she can only make sylvari.

 

> @"Westenev.5289" said:

> Wasn't the Pale Tree in gw1 planted near a human grave site? It sure would be creepy if that was the reason why they were given human form.

 

Not exactly. The Pale Tree's seed was found by a human called Ronan who took it to a small island where a few individuals chose to live (mainly humans and two centaur - most importantly Ventari who was a famous pacifist centaur in GW1). He planted the seed and it grew in the middle of their little village. They did, eventually, die there because they'd all gone there to live out the rest of their lives away from the chaos in the rest of the world, but the Pale Tree modelled the sylvari after Ronan and the others because of her memories of living with them, not because of having their dead bodies.

 

Extra note on this for people who have played (or don't mind massive spoilers for) Heart of Thorns and minor spoilers for Season 3:

 

 

 

The Blighting Trees - which we now know is what the Pale Tree was supposed to be - do use dead bodies as templates to create minions. But we find out during and after the HoT story that this is because Mordremoth absorbed some of Zhaitan's power when he died and so gained some necromancer abilities. Before that point he and his minions couldn't use death magic or make minions from corpses and since the Pale Tree broke free of his influence hundreds of years before she never gained that ability. But just like Mordremoth's earlier minions are based on creatures found in the jungle, like trolls, wyverns, wolves and other plans the Pale Tree took inspiration from what was around her when making her 'minions'.

 

 

[derd.6413]

depends on what you mean when you say elves and gnols. purely aesteticly, archetype, etc. etc.

 

but i doubt it, gw2 has always tried to strave away from "generic" fantasy. (iirc they redesigned the sylvari because they originally looked too much like elves)

[crepuscular.9047]

i booted up guildwar sometime last year, and i remember in a zone around ascalon there were ele mobs that resembled elves

[ShiningSquirrel.3751]

> @"Kraytdragon.6452" said:

> Were the Charr modeled after Gnolls? They remind me of Gnolls with horns (Awesome concept, FYI).

>

 

I would very much doubt it. The charr are more of a feline race while gnolls are more hyena then anything else.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

Some stuff from a really old thread:

 

 

> The original concept behind the charr was to make a replacement for the standard fantasy orcs and hobgoblins that you see in Dungeons & Dragons or Lord of the Rings. The designers settled on demonic cats that worship fire.This evolved into the charr. At a root concept level, they are demon cats.

 

-----------

 

> When Arenanet was trying to design an enemy race for Guild Wars 1, they wanted it to be unique. They thought about how being killed and eaten by big cats is a human fear, so they decided they would design a cat race. However, the first charr concepts were just that—cat people. And cat people are too cute. So they thought “What can we do to make this race scary instead of cute?”. That’s when they decided to give the charr huge horns and teeth, and give them a fire-worshipping religion. They became “demons”, “demon-cats”, or “hell-cats”

 

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/charr/What-are-Charr-Cats-or-Cows

[Bunter.3795]

I was just about to post about the thread that @"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" linked. I didn't have the links but I remembered the message. Same goes for elves, while they didn't want elves, they weren't opposed to elf-like races and through development came up with the sylvari.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

> @"Batel.9206" said:

> > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree,

>

> Uh...might want to edit the latter part of your post out. OP said they're a new player; don't want to spoil anything. ;)

 

Spoil, what, sorry? It's part of lore, not plot. You can't "spoil" lore, it's, in contrary, helping somebody to learn it.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > @"Batel.9206" said:

> > > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > > nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree,

> >

> > Uh...might want to edit the latter part of your post out. OP said they're a new player; don't want to spoil anything. ;)

>

> Spoil, what, sorry? It's part of lore, not plot. You can't "spoil" lore, it's, in contrary, helping somebody to learn it.

 

Look at the part of the post Crepuscular put into a spoiler tag - that's the big plot twist for Season 2 and a major part of the plot for Heart of Thorns. It is also lore, but it's lore that very, very few people in Tyria knew until that point in the story and it's intended to be a surprise for the players when they reach that point.

[Biff.5312]

Gnolls and elves don't exist in GW2. It's its own game. Charr and Sylvari are just that, not equivalent races, but their own things.

[Rauderi.8706]

Sylvari seem to be the elf-alternate for Tyria. Which.. is kinda cool. I like the twist, and I'm glad to not see elves and dwarves and most other fantasy-bait.

Sylvari have a new-race feel and their personalities are a delightful step away from the aloof and pompous nature of the typical fantasy elf.

 

Charr fill the checkboxes for "warrior race" and "beast race", but they do it with a wonderfully steampunk-Roman flair that still makes them feel unique.

Now if we could do something about the clipping...

[Tiviana.2650]

> @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> Sylvari seem to be the elf-alternate for Tyria. Which.. is kinda cool. I like the twist, and I'm glad to not see elves and dwarves and most other fantasy-bait.

> Sylvari have a new-race feel and their personalities are a delightful step away from the aloof and pompous nature of the typical fantasy elf.

>

> Charr fill the checkboxes for "warrior race" and "beast race", but they do it with a wonderfully steampunk-Roman flair that still makes them feel unique.

> Now if we could do something about the clipping...

 

I love them but settled on asura just too cute to pass up. But Charr will be my next, i dont think i can do norn i already have human and to me there isnt a lot of difference aesthetically. But building a charr is hard work so many options, i sat for almost 2 hours trying to decide lol.

[crepuscular.9047]

> @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > Sylvari seem to be the elf-alternate for Tyria. Which.. is kinda cool. I like the twist, and I'm glad to not see elves and dwarves and most other fantasy-bait.

> > Sylvari have a new-race feel and their personalities are a delightful step away from the aloof and pompous nature of the typical fantasy elf.

> >

> > Charr fill the checkboxes for "warrior race" and "beast race", but they do it with a wonderfully steampunk-Roman flair that still makes them feel unique.

> > Now if we could do something about the clipping...

>

> I love them but settled on asura just too cute to pass up.

 

they weren't meant to be cute, from GW2 , and especially LW S2 with the introduction to Taimi they went toward the cutie direction

 

the original concept arts reminded me of those little imp demon creatures from Diablo Act 3 the swamp jungle

 


 


 

 

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> Not exactly. The Pale Tree's seed was found by a human called Ronan who took it to a small island where a few individuals chose to live (mainly humans and two centaur - most importantly Ventari who was a famous pacifist centaur in GW1). He planted the seed and it grew in the middle of their little village. They did, eventually, die there because they'd all gone there to live out the rest of their lives away from the chaos in the rest of the world, but the Pale Tree modelled the sylvari after Ronan and the others because of her memories of living with them, not because of having their dead bodies.

But there are no salad centaurs afaik?

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > Not exactly. The Pale Tree's seed was found by a human called Ronan who took it to a small island where a few individuals chose to live (mainly humans and two centaur - most importantly Ventari who was a famous pacifist centaur in GW1). He planted the seed and it grew in the middle of their little village. They did, eventually, die there because they'd all gone there to live out the rest of their lives away from the chaos in the rest of the world, but the Pale Tree modelled the sylvari after Ronan and the others because of her memories of living with them, not because of having their dead bodies.

> But there are no salad centaurs afaik?

 

Yeah I always found that odd. I assume it's because of the problems caused by adding another body type, and one very different from the existing characters, meaning all the armour sets would have to be completely re-designed to fit centaur sylvari. But I don't know why there aren't at least NPC centaur sylvari.

 

Lore-wise I assume it's something like the Pale Tree had too much reverence for Ventari to copy him, or maybe thought he was too unique since there were only 2 centaurs in that village and about 10 humans. But I've never seen it directly addressed in game.

[dace.8019]

> @"ShiningSquirrel.3751" said:

> > @"Kraytdragon.6452" said:

> > Were the Charr modeled after Gnolls? They remind me of Gnolls with horns (Awesome concept, FYI).

> >

>

> I would very much doubt it. The charr are more of a feline race while gnolls are more hyena then anything else.

 

Interestingly, hyenas are cats (or cat-like) and are classed as feliformia.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> nope, all Sylvari are borne from the Mother Tree, basically...

their grand old daddy is the big bad Mordremoth

 

 

Actually, that's not true.

 

>! You forgot about Malyck, who is a slightly strange-looking Sylvari who was *not* born from the Mother Tree.