Sylvian, The Old God of love and fertility, is an old god in Fear & Hunger and Fear & Hunger 2: Termina. In Fear & Hunger, she makes a physical appearance as an end-game boss of Terror & Starvation mode.
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Warning! Spoilers ahead!
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Lore[]
A goddess of fertility, love, lust, and creation. She is one of the old deities worshipped by Man, before Man decided to supplant the Old Gods and instate a new order. Like Gro-goroth, the god of human sacrifices, she comes from the green hue.
Sylvian created men and women at the dawn of time, the creation of the world. She ordered a deity known as Vitruvia to create an architectural reprography of a man and a woman that would be the likeness of Sylvian herself. She fell in love with the results and created mankind according to Vitruvia's drawings. Because of this, she could be seen as a Mother Goddess, the one that brought life to everyone in many ways, while Gro-goroth, her opposite, brought death to everyone in many ways, mirroring many mythological depictions of life and death. Her union with Gro-goroth also spawned another old god: Vinushka, the god of nature.
Sylvian wishes for men and women to make love in her name, though this notion of love may be interpreted in different ways- some choose to express love to one another by way of marriage, most notably in-game as a beautiful marriage of flesh between two individuals and in some rare cases, three.
Book showing a depiction of Sylvian. Her iconography accentuates her status as a deity of fertility.
Cults like the Bunnymasks engage in ritual orgies in Sylvian's name, performing it as a form of open practice as they welcome any willing participant, an act the goddess is actively pleased by, as partaking in this ritual will increase the player's affinity with the deity. The masks these adherents wear may be an indication of the rabbit being a sacred animal to Sylvian, as they are known for their energetic breeding and have traditionally symbolized fertility.
The distorted notions of love displayed by magic aligned with Sylvian stems from the fact that the humans she created were unable to love her in the way that she loved them. Love, from her perspective, takes on a more twisted and physical form, as exemplified by Marriages of Flesh; such creations are more aligned with her own image and embody her gift to Man- Love Magic, also known as Flower Magic.
It is unknown when she abandoned the human world, but she is the first of the Old Gods to have disappeared, most likely followed by Gro-goroth afterwards.
The Traces of Gro-goroth reveal, after defeating it in battle, that the Old Gods the humans knew have left the world because of humanity's selfishness and ambition towards usurping their position, not understanding the purity of the Old Gods' machinations- in truth, even if humans did glimpse these concepts they would not be able to comprehend it, as observed in Ending B. This notion is consistent with what is known about Sylvian and her disappointment in the limits of Man's love.
In modern times, while not as prominent a deity as in the past, Sylvian still holds considerable cultural relevance: her cult of Bunnymasks remains active to this day around the continent of Europa, and the goddess has a town square dedicated to her name in Prehevil, capital of Bohemia.
Her symbol is the shape of an opened eye. In Fear and Hunger 2: Termina, another of her symbols is introduced, a vertical slit. This icon could be interpreted as both an eye and a vulva.
Sylvian's current symbol as seen in Termina
Location[]
Encountering Sylvian is only possible in Terror & Starvation mode.
She is found in the Void, after finding and following the wooden path. She is guarding a bridge that leads to Le'garde and will arise from the green hue to fight the player. The player will be noted "The green hue is starting to make you feel dizzy..." before finding the bridge, indicating they have entered the correct area.
Strategy[]
As a one of the Old Gods and creator of mankind, Sylvian is one of the strongest beings in Fear & Hunger - even her Traces. Her body consists of four tentacles that each attack individually with devastating strength, causing possible cuts, stuns and may entangle a player, preventing them from taking any actions for two turns. This means she is almost impossible to battle solo. She has a high amount of health, her head especially. Her attacks affect both the health and mind of your party.
It is recommended to first find your party members scattered in the Void before engaging in the battle, as Sylvian can easily wipe out a full party. If you have failed to find them for whatever reason, or are playing on Hard Mode, it is good to make use of spells such as Blood Golem or Demon seed, which can be raised from a corpse of a Blight or baby-Blight in the area.
One of her body parts is a tumor, which will grow during turns until it becomes a copy of one of the four main playable characters, and will use a unique attack attributed to the character. She also has a unique attack called Color of the unknown, which causes the party's psyche to crumble and lose ~25 mind each. When battling her, it is recommended to use strong physical attacks as she can easily make the player run out of mind-restoring consumables via repeated use of her unique attack.
It is recommended to gather as much strength early in the fight as possible and chop off her tentacles, as leaving them free to grab you and damage every turn can be devastating. It is also useful to poison her body early to make her lose health every turn while the player is busy fighting her tentacles. Certain skills, such as Locust swarm, which can stun every body part, can completely nullify Sylvian.
Alternatively, if your party has sufficient offensive capabilities it is possible to focus exclusively on her torso to finish the fight as quickly as possible, as removing her tentacles will result in Sylvian utilizing Color of the unknown on every turn, making it near impossible to conserve your party's Mind.
