Pale Tree

From Guild Wars 2 Wiki

The Pale Tree, also known as the Mother Tree, is the birthplace of all sylvari. It is located in the Grove.

Two hundred and fifty years ago the Shining Blade warrior Ronan discovered a cavern filled with strange seeds. He managed to steal one from the plant-like guardians and intended to show it to his family on returning home. However, when he returned to the Tarnished Coast he found that his entire village had been destroyed by the mursaat. He buried his family and planted the seed on their graves, swearing to never fight again.

Soon after he was joined by a centaur called Ventari. Ventari had sought to foster peace among the warring clans of his people but had failed and chosen to seek a place of solitude to live out the rest of his life. It was he who took care of the tree after Ronan's death. Before Ventari died, he wrote down his life's lessons and teachings of peace and harmony on a marble tablet and placed it at the base of the tree. The tablet seems to have had a huge effect on the sylvari's development and thinking.

The presence of "nightmares" in the sylvari Dream of Dreams, as well as the presence of the Nightmare Court, a sylvari splinter group that has arisen to challenge the sylvari way of life, may indicate that other similar trees exist elsewhere, except without Ventari's good intentions to guide them.