#chatter!

This is sleepy 2am spitballing on a theory I had virtually back at GW2 launch and I was suddenly reminded of now that Cantha is back on the table.

When we first heard that Malyck was from another tree, I almost immediately made this association with Cantha. Why Cantha? Well, because it was one of the places where I thought about massive trees. More specifically The Echovald Forest.

The Echovald Forest is the ancestral home of the Kurzick people. Originally teeming with life, the Jade Wind has since petrified all natural life within the forest. Silence pervades the air that the music of life once filled. Despite the calamity that has befallen their home, the Kurzicks stayed, as only they were able to adapt to their new environment and carve dwellings amongst the petrified trees. Through the generations, life has found a way back into the forest, with unique species of flora and fauna thriving within the petrified forest. 

While playing GW1, The Echovald Forest always struck me as one MASSIVE tree that branched off rather than a forest in the way we usually think of it, and some of the concept art certainly reflects that:

So, imagine this... Elder Dragons, as we know, have existed for a longass time. What if one of Mordremoth’s seeds went to the Maguuma Jungle, and another managed to make it as far as Cantha. 

After all, we know that the following points in history are true:

872 AE The Jade Wind occurs; “In the moment before he died, Shiro let out a wail that unleashed the magic within him, causing the Jade Wind. The Jade Wind spread out, turning the Jade Sea into solid jade, and the Echovald Forest, and the creatures within it to stone.”

1072 AE Events of Factions begin.

1302 AE The sylvari first appear along the Tarnished Coast, sprouting from the Pale Tree.

1327 AE Mordremoth awakens

So what if this tree of Mordremoth was petrified for years under the Jade Wind, and like the Pale Tree, it didn’t start to have Sylvari emerge until around 1302. Maybe the Jade Wind did something to those forming Sylvari too, which is why Malyck doesn’t remember anything.

Additionally, with the way that the Pale Tree didn’t produce Sylvari for over a century after Ventari died even when he tended to the Tree for years, it’s very likely that the Kurzicks could have worked around their petrified tree for years without knowing any different.

Idk man, I know I’m hard Kurzick biased, I’ll admit that, but there’s something really cool about the concept of Petrified Sylvari. It’s something I think is plausible though not very likely and I just kinda like this idea of where Malyck could have come from.