[Video] Well that's weird

[treesus]

[Groggy and confused was a much better state than he expected to be in. Alive was a better state than he expected. Maybe he wasn't alive? It was pretty easy to die when one's airship was destroyed under their feet.

After fiddling with the phone for awhile, and dropping it twice, he gets it working. He might as well ask, right?]

Greetings. I will not waste time inquiring about how this... world works but I must know how it is that most come to be here. The circumstances that led to my being unconscious before arriving were dire, leading me to believe that this is either some kind of afterlife or that my mind is locked here while my body is controlled by a very powerful entity.

The complexity of the illusion makes it unlikely that the dragon is behind this. Unless it is far more intelligent than previous speculation suggests.

[As calm as his words are, he looks concerned.]

Is it common for others to arrive here in the middle of a deadly encounter? If there are other sylvari that can hear me now, I would be exceptionally grateful to know how you came to be transferred to this place. I still feel a connection to the Dream, though it is fainter than I have ever felt before.

I welcome any explanations that disprove my theories.

Comments

[Video]

[hero_for_fun]

[Saitama blinks at the camera.]

Well, uh... Genos and I were just on our way back from the market when we woke up here.

So I don't think it had to be anything serious. Sadly.

[treesus]

Mmm... Was there nothing else to it than that?

[hero_for_fun]

Well... we went out because there was an alert about a monster threat, but when we got there it was already taken care of. So we just hit up the nearest discount grocery...

[Saitama pauses. Absolute dread comes over his face.]

...store. Wait. People show up here with items, right? Like, stuff they had on them...

[treesus]

[Trahearne looked more bemused than worried now.]

I would imagine it depends on the proximity of the item in question, if the presence of my sword and nothing else is an indication. Did you leave behind something of importance?

[hero_for_fun]

Our groceriiiiieeeees!

[Saitama scrambles for a moment with the phone while he surges to his feet, and then accidentally hangs up in his total distress.]

[Video]

[black_black_heart]

[Tannusen looks completely, deathly serious.]

We're all definitely dead. Anyone who says otherwise just forgot.

Or is lying.

Don't believe them!

[treesus]

[Trahearne stared for a few seconds, unsure if he was being teased or not. He sounds dubious when he replies.]

Is that so? Might I ask how you know this?

[black_black_heart]

Well, I died, of course. So has everyone else I've spoken to. Except the liars, lying to themselves as much as anyone else.

Why are you glowing?

[treesus]

...The glowing is bioluminescence, a trait common among sylvari. I'm unsure if it serves any practical purpose.

[Wait that wasn't important.]

So you have evidence those that came here without memories of a near death experience are lying? Or are somehow deluded into thinking otherwise?

[liorafae]

[Here's a Fae dragon who's pinged by this person's mention of a dragon. Which dragon is he talking about...?]

Um...I don't think dragons have anything to do with this...

[She can't be too sure, being fairly new herself. And though she was still a bit timid, she still felt the shred of pride to defend her kind...]

[treesus]

[Trahearne didn't immediately recognize Liora as a dragon. She wasn't made out of what dragons typically were, like rotten flesh or plant matter. She also looked much too small.]

Do you have any knowledge on how a dragon's mind control might work?

[...Was she some kind of bat?]

[liorafae]

Um...we dragons don't control minds...at least not where I come from...

Do dragons exist in other worlds, too? Do they control minds?

[treesus]

[Oh.]

My apologies, I didn't realize you were a... dragon. I doubt you belong to the same, ah, type I speak of.

[Unless magic devouring, genocidal beasts came in bite sized variations now.]

If we are speaking of the same thing, yes, they do. Few lesser dragons are not controlled by the Elder Dragons. I'm sorry, I've never seen a dragon of any variety that looked like you.

[Video] *just flings half my alts at Trahearne's FACE*

[astronema]

[Astronema's hair today is long and wavy; purple. She's got her chin propped up in one hand on a table of some sorts. The background is very dark, with only the occasional flicker of a colored light.]

I was in the middle of a deadly encounter. Conscious, though, until I... wasn't.

Trahearne's word of the day is "um"

[treesus]

[Purple hair and all, she was the least odd person Trahearne had seen today.]

Abrupt loss of consciousness before it makes sense is what I experienced, perhaps it is common with this transfer? Though head injury could explain it just as well. I appear to have no injuries at all, other than mundane cuts and bruises.

I'm not seeing much of a connection, yet, I'll have to do more careful research.

[astronema]

I doubt it's possible to transfer us between worlds while conscious. Or perhaps it's possible, but our minds would blank out the experience.

[Something to ponder.]

[treesus]

If I am to take what this place is as it is, with no concern for death or mind control, yes, I imagine it would be hard to move us while conscious. That deadly or dire situations before transfer are not required does make me wonder what does determine us showing up here. I doubt the dragon is clever enough to create all of this.

It's hard to believe this is real.

video;

[strawberrypenguin]

Not an afterlife. I mean I am fully aware that when I came here I wasn't dead.

[And if he had he really wouldn't of had a single clue anyway.]

Although some people have said something along those lines before, so I have to assume it's not always the case of people always being alive.

[treesus]

As far as I've been able to determine so far, there's no significant common factor among any of us brought here.

[He looked to the side briefly, looking resigned.]

That is distressing but perhaps not the worst possible situation.

[strawberrypenguin]

I think this world picks people at random. I don't think there is any type of pattern.

[But he knew he couldn't be certain anyway.]

it's not. I mean there could be worst things.

[treesus]

This is true. I might be leaving a situation I could not recover from. It is difficult being here and not knowing that for sure. It is fairly peaceful here, as far as I've been told. I may not be well suited here.

[Video]

[youfool]

[So many questions from this chipper fool]

"I've certainly heard of arrivals that happen after or near death, yes. One man even died, had a spectral existence for a while, then came back in the flesh good as new. Well, relatively speaking.

I doubt this is some sort of afterlife; it's not quite directed enough to be purgatory, I think. Not enough people pay for their sins, for one.

The Dream? The Dragon? What are those? In as much detail as you please."

[treesus]

[It was strange to explain concepts that had consumed his life up until less than a day ago.]

That is not comforting to hear but it is good to know, thank you. I'm only vaguely familiar with the concept of purgatory, though I agree this is not what I would imagine such a thing to be. Ghosts, I know well, though mostly of the vengeful sort. Did he still retain his mind while incorporeal?

Ah, pardon me, I should answer your question before asking more of my own. I will do my best to do so, anyway. The dragon is the simplest. Tyria, where I hail from, is plagued by beings called the Elder Dragons. They seek to devour all magic on Tyria, regardless of what they destroy and corrupt in their path. The damage they leave behind is devastating, both to the land and the various races that try to cling to life while their minions swarm everywhere their masters can not reach.

[Trahearne shook his head, looking grim.]

The dragon I was engaged with is Mordremoth, the jungle dragon. He is the fastest spreading and most dangerous of the dragons we've seen so far. He has particular sway over my race, which has had... terrible, terrible repercussions.

[Trahearne realized he was rambling and cleared his throat.]

The Dream is less concrete. It is a gathering of knowledge, memories, experiences, between sylvari. We are born with knowledge from the Dream and can feel the emotions of our fellows by being connected to it. It also serves as some protection from Mordremoth. Not enough, but some. The full extent and capability of the Dream is not even known to our mother, the Pale Tree. It is what binds most of my kind together and where many of us learn what we are meant to do for Tyria.

...I hope that explanation is adequate.

[youfool]

[If anyone could forgive, nay, enjoy rambling, it'd be Ted. It's interesting stuff, but he's still captivated by talking to a leaf-man. Talking flowers is one thing, but this...]

"Yes! Really very little was changed but the corporeality, to hear him tell it. His quest changed with him, of course, which led to...

[But the man he spoke of was, for all intents and purposes, dead, and it hurt to remember.]

...never mind. Oh! But I haven't got your name! Or your race, either; it's a very interesting one. I'm Ted, and a man, respectively, though you probably figured that.

Dragons, eh? Interesting; the ones I've heard of are more interested in treasure than magic. Suppose a world without it might be...mm, simple, at least, and honest, if a little duller. Pity their destruction is so indiscriminate, but that seems to be the way with the scaly beasts. Were you a knight, then, out to valorously slay this Mordremoth?

Concrete dreams! I sometimes wonder if Genessia isn't one of those. It's dreamy yet visceral enough. Good, then, that such things retain their abstract nature. [He's very interested in this part. Dreams and truth and reality and so on were hard-hitting topics for him.]

Huh...so a sort of...collective encyclopedia, nervous system, and granter of fate all at once? It sounds romantic. Not to be morbid, but do your people ever...dislike the Dream, or unfavorably compare it to reality? It's relation to truth sounds interesting.

[treesus]

Ah, my apologies. I am Trahearne, a firstborn of the sylvari. Our race is young, only thirty years or so old. We are all born from the Pale Tree. As are our companions, fern hounds.

[And here he was, the very first of the firstborn, a novelty.]

It is good to speak with you Ted. I am not a knight, no, but I was a valiant not long ago. The concept is similar, though my goal has been completed. Leading the fight against the dragons was one assigned to me by the Mother Tree, as an extension of my Hunt.

Are dragons also a part of your world? I've spoken to another, a dragon herself actually, that lives in a world covered in them. Though they are far less harmful than what I am accustomed to.

[And now for a less pleasant subject.]

A dislike of the Dream... Yes, yet that might be understating the issue. The Soundless, our brethren that cut themselves off from the Dream, they can be friend or foe. Typically they keep to themselves in small communities. Cutting themselves off from the Dream puts them at risk of corruption from Mordremoth, more so than those of the Dream... or Nightmare.

Nightmare may or may not be what you expect. It is the other side of the coin of the Dream. A force that corrupts those that not only reject the Dream but seek to harm it and turn even the Tree to darkness and cruelty. It is not a pleasant topic.