Amala predicted the Sylvari?!

[Laurelin.2658]

In the Twilight Oasis fractal, we get to see (well, participate in) Amala's death and subsequent Awakening. During the fight, Amala transforms into a number of Dervish forms and in most cases, uses the old Dervish elite-forms we knew and loved in GW1. Except for 2: Grenth and Melandru. I don't care much about Grenth's just being GW2 armor skins (though, I would've loved to see the old Grenth Dervish elite-form again!), but the Melandru form is a Sylvari.

Amala was slain and Awakened in or around 1175 AE.The first Sylvari didn't appear in Tyria until 1302 AE.

I have the perfect solution to this, though: Make the original Melandru elite-form a gemstore costume (like Lyssa, Dwayna, and Balthazar), release it for Earth Day with part of the proceeds going towards something green in nature (no pun intended), and (of course) re-costume Amala in the Melandru elite Dervish form since it'll be in the game. Oh, and gift me the skin for free for noticing your goof.

I'm mostly joking about that last part...mostly. >.>

Apologies to anyone who has noticed and posted about this. I only did a cursory search on the forums (which I admittedly don't use very often, so I may have missed it!).

[Teratus.2859]

It's noted on the wiki as well.

It's a funny conflict when you get into it but unfortunately it really isn't anything more than Anet reusing assets to save time and resources most likely lol

[Laurelin.2658]

Yeah, I noticed it said it on the Wiki, but the Wiki doesn't point out the inconsistency in the timeline, which is mostly what this post is about, haha.

However, I did recently start playing my sylvari Warrior and she could use a very cool armor set or costume (hint, hint) and I'd wear the heck out of that Melandru elite-form if they offered it (which there's precedent for since they've recycled a few of the other Dervish elite-forms for gemstore costumes already).

Edited to add: And yes, I agree that it's most likely just Anet reusing existing resources to save time and it is half-right: Awakened Amala being modeled after a sylvari when we meet her in Istan isn't weird or inconsistent - the Sylvari have been in Tyria for 30ish years at that point. Mostly I'm just poking fun at a bit of trivia I noticed 3+ years after the release of that fractal, lol.

[Cyninja.2954]

You are also taking into account the Sylvari not related to the Pale Tree here too right? Which for all purposes would look similar to the Sylvari which were raised by the Pale Tree.

[Laurelin.2658]

Oh, good point, I forgot about them.

But do those sylvari predate the Pale Tree sylvari by 100+ years? If they do, there's possibly no inconsistency. But, if they don't, there definitely still is.

I'm going to look that up now, thanks!

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

The other thing is, Melandru is just a nature themed god and all of her art has her looking like the original concept of Sylvari. There are also the druids (Oakhearts and such) which have a very similar theme to Melandru. What's going on here is likely that Melandru's avatar form looks a lot like a sylvari already and, to save time in development of a new model with new animations, they just re-used a sylvari model.

[Laurelin.2658]

Yeah, but the Melandru form in Twilight Oasis fractal is very clearly a modern sylvari in Tier 2 Light Cultural Armor (I probably should have mentioned that earlier). (I specify modern sylvari because the original concept art for them looked more like humans wearing plants instead of humanoid plant-creatures).

So, yeah, I get that they're recycling models to make it easier for themselves irl, but from an in-game perspective, it looks like a goof.

Edit to add: the Melandru Dervish elite-form looks more like a walking tree than even the modern Sylvari do (imo). I personally would've loved to see them recycle all 5 of the Dervish elite-forms.

[dace.8019]

Normally I'd try to see past ArenaNet's creative process and commit to seeing the content for what it is but I struggle to do that with this one. It just seems like a time saver!

[Tseison.4659]

Melandru doesn’t have a proper model such as Balthazar, Kormir etc... so I guess they were lazy and used the Sylvari model lol shrugs

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

SPOILERS FOR HEART OF THORNS AND PATH OF FIRE STORYMelandru far predates the Sylvari, so you're assuming the form is based upon Sylvari rather than the Sylvari being based on Melandru. We don't know the origin of why non-corrupted Sylvari (including those from other trees, like Malyck) look the way they do.

We do know its not their natural form. Perhaps neither is the Modrem Guard, which are twisted from existing forms.

Melandru's magic was extremely prevalent in the world until recently. Its very likely that the Sylvari simply take their from from some natural convergence of Mists and Nature magic. With Modremoth asleep, this was Melandru. This would also explain why they have a Human-like appearance and anatomy as the Human Gods look similar to Humans themselves.

The Gods only truly left Tyria about a year ago, they were still around (just non-interfering) before that.

[Fueki.4753]

It's just an asset reuse because there is no Regalia for Melandru.

However, we have something similar to Sylvari, that is related to Melandru: Druids (not the elite specialization)Druids were human followers of Melandru that somehow turned into plant creatures and eventually into spirits (sharing a model with Oakhearts in GW1) to become one with nature.This is purely my speculation, but during their transformation from human to plant, they may have had a step in which they were still human in shape, but already turned into plant - this would make them physiologically similar to Sylvari during that step.

It's quite possible that the Pale Tree somehow tapped into Druid magic and accidentally (or maybe even on purpose) shaped Sylvari after them.And let's not forget that Sylvari have a strong enough link to the Druids that one of their racial abilities let's them call onto Druid spirits.

This is connection is much more loose, but there was one Druid who could use Divination with a Centaur sacrifice.The Dream also is a kind of Divination that is affected by Ventari's tablet (since the dream receives feedback from all Sylvari and most follow the tablet's words).

[ugrakarma.9416]

also balthazar model is probably a "bigger" norm;

[Fade.1743]

Amala is a Dervish. In GW1, each of the five human gods had an avatar form. Amala uses some unique models for each one, but if you look at the Avatar of Melandru, it's a very similar model.

Avatar of Balthazar is the same model as in GW1. Remember that both Guild Wars run on the same engine.

Also, Sylvari are based off human designs. Ventari was only influence of the Sylvari. Ronan (human) was also present in Ventari's Refuge. The Pale Tree based Sylvari upon him. So it's more than likely showing how the Sylvari of the Pale Tree are based off humans.