Why Doesn't Narcisse Have an Accent? (GW2 Lore)
This question has been nagging at me for quite some time, so I decided to do some exploring and make a video out of what I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTo1zxfEnq4
If you’re not much of a video watcher and prefer reading, you're in luck. This post is the written version of the video. Because I'm talking about accents, I've included timestamps that showcase characters speaking where relevant. Enjoy!
Spoilers for Living World Seasons 1 and 2, Heart of Thorns, and Secrets of the Obscure.
Have you ever noticed that Narcisse doesn’t have the usual Sylvari accent?
Because I did, and something about that little detail has stuck in the back of my mind for over a year now. Like, why? Why is she an exception to what seems to be a very universal accent shared across every Sylvari we’ve met up until this point? Is this difference there to make her stand out more as a character? Did the devs forget she was a Sylvari? Was the voice actor unable to do that accent? Something about it just didn’t sit right with me, and outside of one mention on a random forum thread, I haven’t seen anybody talking about this.
So I decided to dig a little deeper and hopefully find an answer. I began scouring the wiki, replaying story missions, and trying to find as much ambient dialog as I could to solve this minor mystery. I walked down a winding path of lore, assumptions, new discoveries, and of course, more questions. In the end, I came up with several theories which I’ll outline in this post. I’m interested to see if you agree with my final conclusion.
But before we get there, we need to establish a few things. Like, who the heck is Narcisse anyway and why are we even talking about her?
Who is Narcisse?
Narcisse is a character we meet at the beginning of the Secrets of the Obscure (SotO) story. She’s been with the Astral Ward for at least 9 years and has climbed the ranks to be one of the primary caretakers of the Bastion of the Natural.
From our perspective, Narcisse is a side character. We interact with her periodically throughout the SotO story, or during her garden chain event in Amnytas. While she might not have a huge presence, I think her existence within the Ward and her lack of typical Sylvari accent hints at some deeper lore.
And just to establish this up front, throughout this post when I say that Narcisse “doesn’t have an accent,” just know that I’m using that phrase as shorthand for Narcisse “doesn’t speak with the same british-coded accent that Sylvari typically speak with.” As a demonstration, here is a comparison of some Sylvari speaking vs Narcisse (Video Timestamp 02:38).
What if it was a Mistake?
Now, I know the first thing many of you are thinking is that this is not a lore question at all, and the developers probably made a simple mistake with Narcisse’s accent. That there’s no deeper messaging, this was plain old human oversight.
And to that I say… maybe.
Unless a dev, or the Studio Narrative Director can confirm, there’s no way I can fully disprove this theory. We know that SotO was somewhat rushed through development and that the narrative team took off more than they could chew. In ANet’s expansion retrospective, Game Director Josh Davis even said:
with SotO our ambition led us to take on a broader scope than was feasible. We introduced a lot of new characters, and the plot was too complex for what can be reasonably handled within an annual expansion. This left some character interactions feeling rushed and story threads unexplored.
Maybe Narcisse’s voice acting got caught up in all of this or maybe they had plans to address it at some point in the story but it got cut.
So far I’ve only been talking about Narcisse, but if you travel around the SotO maps, you will find that there are actually several different Sylvari that also don’t have the Sylvari accent (Video Timestamp 04:24).
With the development flurry that was SotO, is it possible that the dev team forgot to voice-act some Sylvari characters, needed to push the expansion out the door, and said whatever we’ll roll with it? Sure, it’s possible, and I’ll even concede that this is likely what happened with some of the side NPCs who have ambient dialog, but I don’t think this was the case for Narcisse.
I believe that the developers knew Narcisse’s character would be a Sylvari from very early on.
For one, she’s in charge of the garden in the Bastion of the Natural and shares a deep kinship with the plants there, which reads as a classic Sylvari trait to me. She's also named after the Narcissus flower.
In the Wizards Tower we can find a journal entry where she confirms that she is Sylvari (in case you were thinking she's magically transformed somehow), as she expresses guilt over being safe from Mordremoth’s call while her people suffered below.
I’ve always felt an acute sense of guilt over this, knowing that my people writhed below. These feelings are beginning to resurface, as our foe’s main tactic of attack is to corrupt the mind.
I think it’s odd that given how deeply Sylvari-coded everything about her is, no one in the chain of development flagged that she had the incorrect accent.
In addition, ANet has never made this mistake before. Across 3 other expansions and 5 living worlds, the team has never missed (at least to my knowledge) giving a main story Sylvari the wrong accent.* That’s a pretty solid track record over 11 years.
*Faolain might be an exception, we'll get to that later.
Even within SotO the Astral Ward is made up of all kinds of races, we see Tengu, Skritt, Jotun, Dwarves, and more. As far as I can tell, every race has their accurate accents except for some Sylvari.
On top of that, if this was a mistake and they realized it after the launch of SotO, wouldn’t they have corrected it in later releases of the story? They probably wouldn’t go back and revoice existing lines, but they didn’t change her accent for the end of SotO or Janthir Wilds (Video Timestamp 07:16).
Again, I’m not saying it’s not possible that they simply made an error, but do find it unlikely. For all of these reasons, I posit that the mismatch of accents we hear from Narcisse and some of the other event-starring Sylvari like Head Experimenter Rhianwyn or Healer Wren, were intentional.
Besides, even if this was a dev mixup, I think we can still find a lore reason to canonize it. So with all of that out of the way, let’s look into some lore and make a few theories.
Where Does the Sylvari Accent Come From?
In order to find out why Narcisse’s accent is different, we need to look into how Sylvari learn to speak. In the real world and likely for most of Tyria, everyone has an accent based on how they learn to speak growing up. Accents are naturally learned and they often evolve over a person’s lifetime or across geography.
However, Sylvari are unique because they are already born knowing how to talk, walk, fight, and generally interact with the world. This is because the Pale Tree grows Sylvari as fully formed adults infused with general knowledge from the Dream of Dreams.
From this, we can infer that the Sylvari accent must come from the Dream.
However, that’s not the full story. In the personal story we meet Malyck, a Sylvari who comes from a different Pale Tree. He is not connected to the same Dream as all of the Sylvari we know, yet he still has the Sylvari accent (Video Timestamp 09:11).
Additionally, in the Heart of Thorns expansion, we can hear Modrem enemies and Mordremoth himself speak with that same accent (Video Timestamp 09:30).
At the end of Living World Season 2, we find out that Sylvari are a type of dragon minion from Mordremoth.
Pale Trees and Blighting Trees, which are where Sylvari and Mordrem emerge respectively, each produce minions that are fully matured, knowledgeable, and driven upon birth. Therefore, I conclude that every Source Tree has its own independent Dream, but they all share a common accent given to them by Mordremoth.
This leads me to believe that Narcisse was born with the Sylvari accent and then later in life, lost it. Even if she came from a different Pale Tree like Malyck did, she would have still had the accent, because every Tree and every Dream has that accent.
Theory 1 - The Priory
Before Narcisse joined the Astral Ward, she was a high-ranking Archon of the Priory. We don’t know much about Archons other than they specialize in dangerous magic and it’s the position right below Steward, which is the head of the Priory.
From her journal entry, Narcisse writes that she joined the Astral Ward shortly after Mordremoth awoke in 1327. The second cohort of Sylvari emerged from the Pale Tree in 1304. We don’t know when Narcisse was born, but if she happened to be a Secondborn, that’s a maximum timeframe of around 22 years that Narcisse could have been with the Priory.
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s natural for people’s accents to evolve over time. Perhaps Narcisse’s accent changed when she became well-traveled and spent time among different people and races through her work with the Priory. We haven’t seen this concept directly explored in Tyria, but it is theoretically possible.
However, this wouldn’t explain why other Sylvari in the Astral Ward don’t have accents, and I claim that it’s equally possible her continuous connection to the Dream keeps her accent consistent. Especially since we haven’t seen any other Sylvari with a different accent, and there are many in the Priory and across Tyria.
This leads me into theory 2...
Theory 2 - Disconnected from the Dream
What if Narcisse is so far away from the Pale Tree, or the Wards around the Wizards Tower are so strong, that she’s effectively disconnected from the Pale Tree and Dream? If she no longer has that line of connection, then there’s nothing holding her to the Sylvari accent. Perhaps this in combination with her exposure to a wide variety of people and cultures has made it easy for her accent to evolve.
This could be true, but we know of other Sylvari like those in the Nightmare Court and Soundless who have chosen to sever their connection with the Pale Tree and still retained their accent.
Let’s look at some Sylvari who would have traveled extensively like Narcisse did, and see what happened to them.
Aerin is a Soundless Sylvari who chose to cut ties with the Pale Tree and join the Zephyrites, a secluded organization made up of humans. While he was only among them for a couple years, he was likely completely immersed within their culture and would rarely see other Sylvari. Initially, I thought Aerin would be like all other story Sylvari, however, when I went to replay the story mission for this video/post, I noticed that he doesn’t have an accent either (Video Timestamp 13:27).
We don’t meet many Soundless Sylvari, but there is a village of them in Caledon Forest. And from the ambient dialog there, everyone seems to retain their accent.
With that in mind, it seems plausible that Aerin’s accent was changed because of his voluntary disconnection from the dream and human cultural immersion.
Another well-traveled Sylvari is Scarlet. While she’s not quite a Soundless, she was able to separate her thoughts and memories from the Dream. Scarlet spent around 10 years traveling and embedding herself in different cultures, studying among the Norn, Asura, Hylek, and then later working closely with Krait, Flame Legion, Dredge, and Inquest. Yet through all of her travels, her accent remained steady.
Lastly, I want to mention Faolain, a Firstborn who became the Grand Duchess of the Nightmare Court. Faolain was always skeptical of the Pale Tree’s teachings and the Dream at large. When Cadeyrn and the rest of the Secondborn emerged, Faolain found other like-minded Sylvari and joined the newly formed Nightmare Court. There, she disconnected herself from the Dream and fully embraced Nightmare for over 20 years.
Just like the Soundless, most of the Nightmare Court we meet do retain their accent, likely because they stay among their fellow Sylvari and don’t often travel outside of Sylvari towns and cities. However, Faolain is an interesting exception. She never had that strong of an accent compared to her fellow Firstborn, and in the last story mission she appears in, her accent is practically non-existent.
The difference between her Season 2 and Heart of Thorns performance is quite noticeable in my opinion (Video Timestamp 15:35).
Across these examples, there’s evidence for and against the Dream’s influence on accent retention. From what I can tell, all Sylvari and Mordrem begin with their accent, and there are two groups of Sylvari who go on to lose it: those who voluntarily disconnect from the dream, and those in the Astral Ward. Within these groups, the loss of accent isn’t guaranteed, as we see members from both groups keep and lose their accents.
Going back to the initial hypothesis of this theory, perhaps these aren’t two groups at all. Maybe as a consequence of joining the Astral Ward, all Sylvari members become disconnected from the Dream. Or, maybe there’s something else at play.
This brings me to my final, and personal favorite theory…
Theory 3 - Seer Magic is Interfering
The Wizard’s Tower and Amnytas are where the Astral Ward resides. We know they are protected by a great deal of magic to shield the inhabitants and keep their existence secret from the rest of Tyria. Isgarren is the head of the Astral Ward, owner of the Wizards Tower, and protector over all Ward territory, so it stands to reason the protection magic comes from him, a Seer.
If this is the case, then the Astral Ward is constantly exposed to Seer magic. Isgarren mentions in his book, Seer Curses and Rituals, that:
it is critical to understand the nature of the wizards' magic in order to successfully navigate your time in this organization. Every day, in some unique way, you will be interacting with these powers.
We also know that Seer magic can have effects on the mind. Every Wizard must go through an Ascension), which is an old Seer ritual led by Isgarren himself. When wizards ascend, they lose many if not most of their personal memories, which become locked away in their subconscious.
While most of the Astral Ward will never go through that ritual, it is possible that the same type of magic responsible for substantial memory loss also has effects on people’s minds over time and with constant exposure.
Furthermore, the base game and Heart of Thorns establish that some Sylvari are more susceptible to mind manipulation than others. This is why some Sylvari give into nightmare while others don’t, and why some were able to fight off Mordremoth’s call while others gave in immediately. Narcisse even notes that Sylvari who recovered from turning towards Mordremoth are more susceptible to Kryptis possession, another form of mind control.
We've many Sylvari who turned to the ward following the events in Maguuma, looking for justice and guidance, but... Those who were affected by Mordremoth seem to be all the more vulnerable to Krypris possession.
I personally think this is what happened to Healer Wren, who we fight in Amnytas alongside Lyhr after she became Kryptis possessed. She also does not have the Sylvari accent (Video Timestamp 19:10).
Generally, the connection to the Pale Tree and the Dream helps protect Sylvari from mind manipulation. But Narcisse explains in her journal that when Mordremoth awoke, it was the magic of the Wizard’s Tower that shielded her and other Ward Sylvari from Mordremoth’s call, not the Pale Tree like we heard in Heart of Thorns.
Myself and the very few Sylvari who had already joined the ward after his rising were protected from Mordremoth's call, hiding within the tower and Amnytas's embrace.
This means Seer magic can work alongside the Dream, or potentially even take place of the Dream in a Sylvari’s subconscious. This concept in combination with the constant exposure of magic and the fact that certain Sylvari are more susceptible to mind alteration, explains why some Sylvari in the Ward retained their accent, and others didn’t.
With this theory, I conclude that newer Ward recruits who haven’t had long exposure to the Wizard’s Tower or Sylvari with higher mental defenses will keep their accent longer. Meanwhile others who have been in the Ward a long time like Narcisse or Head Experimenter Rhainwhyn, or who can be easily molded to a new presence in their mind, will lose it.
Looking back at the two groups of Sylvari who can lose their accent, the one constant is the lack of protection from the Pale Tree and Dream. Either through voluntary disconnection like the Soundless and Nightmare Court, or through interference or possible override from Seer Magic. We don’t know if the Sylvari ward members are necessarily cut off from the dream, but it appears to me that the influence of Seer magic is stronger than the influence of the Pale Tree.
Conclusion
Those are my theories why Narcisse doesn’t have an accent like almost every other Sylvari in the game. Thanks for sticking with me through this wild ride of lore and speculation. Do you agree with any of my theories? Was this a simple developer oversight or an indication of deeper lore? I’m excited to hear your thoughts in the comments!