Guild Wars 2 Sylvari race shown off

Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet is shining the spotlight on its playable plant people in a week of videos and articles. The Sylvari race might have similarities with the elves seen in every fantasy game under the sun but, thankfully, they seem far a more interesting take on the idea of wise and noble forest-dwellers, and not nearly as tiresome.

The Sylvari, writer Angel Leigh McCoy explains in a blog post, are a race of plant people who've only existed in the game's universe for 25 years, spawned from pods grown on a magical, sentient tree. Lore lovers can enjoy heaps of details on Sylvari society, culture, life, and whatnot, and a few speech samples.

The evolution of their leafy look is shown in another post, by character artist Kristen Perry. The challenge, Perry explains, was in finding middle ground between a race which look like humans wrapped in costumes and decorations, and a race of woody, leafy, rooty dryads or ents. Plenty of pictures showing ArenaNet's refinement of the idea.

There's no firm word yet from publisher NCSoft on when the subscription-free PC MMORPG will launch.

And now, a pair of Sylvari trailers: