Everything You Need to Know Before Witcher 3

This post is designed to teach you lot everything you need to know about the world of The Witcher, so you tin be prepared for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. If you've played the commencement two games, this may serve as a good reminder of the places and characters. If y'all're new to the series, this should give you lot a great start on understanding what is going on in Wild Hunt.

Spoiler warning: This story contains spoilers for The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and draws some information from the series of Witcher novels. The mail service does not contain any straight spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Chase, but the segment on The Witcher two is specifically tailored around the choices that you tin can make in the beginning of The Witcher three to set your world state.

What is a Witcher?

Witchers are for-rent monster hunters who are mutated and trained during childhood to be significantly faster and more resilient than an average human. They also have the ability to use Signs, which are basic magic spells. They alive much longer than otherwise possible, but are sterilized as part of the mutation.

Witchers became necessary subsequently an upshot known as the "Conjunction of the Spheres" introduced monsters to the globe. Monsters ran rampant, and Witchers were created as a defense against evil beasts. Because Witchers are mutated and considered inhuman, public opinion nearly them varies. A few romanticize their club, while many tolerate them as a necessary evil,. Others outright hate them.

The story of how Witchers were showtime created is lost to fourth dimension, merely Witcher schools, such every bit the school of the Wolf where the series' protagonist Geralt trained, were congenital to facilitate the process of mutating and training new Witchers. The novels reference three schools, the Wolf, the True cat and the Griffon. The schoolhouse of the Viper is introduced in the games.

The Law of Surprise

The Law of Surprise is an important custom in The Witcher'southward universe. When a person's life is saved, their savior might ask the debt exist repaid by The Law of Surprise. The law states that the savior may asking "that which yous already take but exercise non know." This can have many dissimilar meanings, but about importantly it can mean that an unexpected child becomes bound to the person who invokes the law.

Because Witchers are sterile, they rely on abased orphans and the Law of Surprise to grow their ranks, and 1 instance in particular is especially meaningful. It is through the Constabulary of Surprise that Ciri, a primal character in The Witcher 3 became bound to Geralt, though information technology wasn't a very straightforward transaction.

Sorcerers and Sorceresses

In the earth of The Witcher, sorcerers and sorceresses play a big role. They are immensely powerful magicians and, considering of their power, are highly desired as advisors in politics.

Both men and women can wield magic in the fantasy universe, but many of the loftier profile magic users in The Witcher video games are women. Like to Witchers, most magic users are sterilized by their use of magic.

Exercise the books overlap with the games?

The Witcher novels by Andrzej Sapkowski are the ground for the universe and characters featured in the games, but chronologically the story told in the books takes identify earlier the events of the beginning game. The first game opens with Geralt suffering from amnesia, and so he remembers none of the events that happen during the novels.

The Cast

Geralt of Rivia

Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist of The Witcher video games. Every bit a kid, his mother abandoned him at Kaer Morhen, the Wolf schoolhouse'due south fortress. He was afterward mutated and trained equally a Witcher. His white hair was a effect of an uncommonly harsh phase of the mutation, and is non characteristic to all Witchers. Geralt'south true historic period is not revealed in the games, but based on information in the novels that, he is probably around 100.

Geralt is not really from Rivia, having no home other than Kaer Morhen, but his mentor Vesemir suggests he pick a homeland and accent to assistance with securing Witcher contracts.

Triss Merrigold

Triss is a powerful sorceress and a recurring character in the novels every bit well as the games. She is a friend and sometimes lover to Geralt. She serves as a main character and companion in the outset 2 games.

Yennefer of Vengerberg

Yennefer is another powerful sorceress and Geralt's principal love interest in the novels. She makes her first appearance in the outset Witcher book, simply The Witcher 3 volition be the first time we come across her in a game. She is, however, mentioned in earlier games, and every bit Geralt recovers from his amnesia, he begins to remember Yennefer.

Yennefer serves as a mother figure to Ciri in the novels and is a key figure in training Ciri to use her magical abilities.

Ciri

Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Ciri for curt, is many things, but the about straightforward way to describe her would be as Geralt's adopted girl. She was trained at Kaer Morhen as a Witcher, just never underwent whatever of the physiology-altering mutagens.

Revealing too much about Ciri would be a disservice to readers hoping to avoid Wild Chase spoilers, just suffice information technology to say that Ciri is an extremely talented fighter and an even more powerful magic user. She is an incredibly important character in the universe of The Witcher.

Emhyr var Emreis

Emhyr var Emreis is the emperor of Nilfgaard. Aside from existence potentially the most powerful leader in the earth, he also has a rich history with Geralt. He is a major character in the Witcher novels, but makes his outset in-game appearance in The Witcher 3.

Dandelion

Dandelion is a lifelong friend to Geralt. He is a famous and roguish bard who follows Geralt to get together material for his songs, as Geralt is e'er getting into noteworthy adventures. He serves as a sort of narrator in the 2d game, and the in-game journal is written from his point of view.

Síle de Tansarville

Síle is a sorceress who plays a pregnant function in The Witcher two. She aids Geralt in Act 1 by helping him slay the Kayran plaguing Flotsam. Information technology is later discovered that she was a significant actor in the plot to assassinate the Northern Kings, having cooperated with Letho, another Witcher that nosotros discuss below. Depending on Geralt's choices in The Witcher two, she may be dead.

Philippa Eilhart

Another powerful sorceress, Philippa Eilhart is one of the most important secondary characters in The Witcher 2, as well equally a fundamental player in the novels. She is considered to be the leader of the Lodge of Sorceresses.

Letho of Gulet

Letho is a Witcher who has go a tool of both the Social club of Sorceresses and the Nilfgaardian Empire. Both parties pay him to assassinate kings in the Northern Kingdoms to disrupt political stability in that region. He is a member of the defunct Viper schoolhouse, which was located somewhere in Nilfgaard. Depending on Geralt'south choices in The Witcher 2, he may exist dead.

Locations

The Continent

The land in which all of the lore takes place. The Continent contains the Northern Kingdoms and the Empire of Nilfgaard.

Northern Kingdoms

The Northern Kingdoms are a group of states in the northern part of The Continent. They are mostly centrolineal together against the Nilfgaardian Empire, though there is enough of infighting and grouse. At that place are a number of major and minor kingdoms, provinces and regions, and during The Witcher three, you'll discover the Northern Kingdoms shrinking as Nilfgaardian forces invade from the south.

The Empire of Nilfgaard

By and large seen every bit "The Bad Guys" in the Witcher novels and games (alongside all of the monsters, manipulative mages, racist kings and spectral murderous ghost elves), the Nilfgaardian empire is a powerful southern entity. While the Northern Kingdoms signed a peace agreement with Nilfgaard, the final cinematic of The Witcher 2 (as well every bit much of the marketing textile for The Witcher iii) shows Nilfgaardian forces marching to war.

Kaer Morhen

Kaer Morhen is the fortress for the Witcher School of the Wolf, the school Geralt belongs to. Much of the stronghold was destroyed when a group of people and mages who disagreed with the being of Witchers laid siege to the fortress.

THE TALE And so FAR

What follows are plot synopsis of the first ii games designed to help you prepare for Wild Hunt without getting too deep into the latitude and plot complexity of the game. It volition help you lot understand, as a new player, the decisions you'll be asked to recall in the third game because, early in The Witcher 3, you'll have a conversation where you reply questions nearly these decisions to properly fix the globe.

The Witcher

The plot of the outset game is more often than not cocky-contained within the broader storyline of the novels and games. During the game, Geralt of Rivia suffers from severe amnesia. While the amnesia trope is certainly platitude as a plot device for games, it helped CD Projekt Blood-red brainstorm its story without carrying too much baggage.

The events of the kickoff game deal largely with a criminal organisation called the Salamandra, and the game opens with this grouping stealing the mutagens used to create Witchers.

The driving motivation of the game is hunting downwards the Salamandra, but the scale expands to an epic quest that ends with Geralt killing Jacques de Aldersberg, a madman who intends to use the stolen Witcher mutagens to create a race of superhuman warriors.

There is lilliputian in the way of overlap between the get-go game and the rest of the series, but Geralt does meet (and has the option to fight) a specter of the King of the Wild Hunt.

As the game ends, Geralt is receiving a reward for saving the day at King Foltest of Temeria'southward palace when an assassin makes an effort on the king's life. Geralt successfully defends the king and the would-be assassinator is shown to have the cat-similar eyes of a Witcher.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

The Witcher ii is significantly more than complex than the first game in terms of how information technology relates to the broader world. To briefly summarize, a number of kings in the Northern Kingdoms are assassinated in a Nilfgaardian plot to destabilize the region and weaken it for invasion. A number of sorceresses are also seeking to destabilize political power to build an organization that operates above the dominion of kings and laws.

What follows is a more in-depth epitomize, specifically to help you sympathise the choices you lot'll be asked to recall in the beginning of The Witcher 3.

The second game opens with Geralt imprisoned and being interrogated by Vernon Roche, the caput of The Blue Stripes, Temeria'southward secret service. The prologue proceeds as a frame story where Geralt recounts the events of a siege by Foltest. In a lover'due south quarrel, the king is endeavoring to accept the castle of his mistress, Baroness Mary Louisa La Valette, with whom he has two children, Boussy and Anaïs.

After saving King Foltest's life at the end of the first game, Geralt becomes his body guard. While it isn't typically the nature of Witchers to involve themselves with kings or politics, Geralt is given little choice in the matter.

During the siege, Geralt encounters the Baroness' older son, Aryan La Valette. The player is given the pick to kill him or force him to surrender. This choice is reflected in the first phase-setting question you'll become in The Witcher iii. Alive or die, he's a fairly insignificant graphic symbol in The Witcher 2, and then it's unclear what part this option will play in the third game.

After the siege, Foltest is reunited with his children immediately before some other assassination try is made. This time information technology succeeds. The assassinator escapes and Geralt is defenseless in the bedchamber with the expressionless King Foltest past The Bluish Stripes, effectively being framed for the king'south murder.

During the interrogation, Roche believes Geralt's telling of the events and agrees to help him hunt down the assassin. Roche, Triss and Geralt commence upwardly the Pontar River.

The adjacent segment takes identify in and effectually Flotsam, a small riverside town. Hither, Geralt discovers that the assassin is Letho, a Witcher from a different school. Later on helping rid Flotsam of some monster problem, Geralt encounters Letho for the commencement time. Letho escapes and kidnaps Triss.

At this point in the game, the Witcher will make a choice that defines the unabridged second act. Geralt can decide to side with Vernon Roche and the Blue Stripes, or align himself with the human-hating elf Iorveth and the Scoia'tael, a rebellious ring of not-humans fighting for equality.

This is the second choice that you'll exist asked to recall early on in The Witcher 3.

If Geralt choses to side with Iorveth, he'll cease up fighting aslope Saskia, a rebellion leader (and secretly a dragon disguised equally a human) with whom the Scoia'tael are aligned. If he chooses to side with Roche, he'll fight on the side of Male monarch Henselt (yet another king in the Northern Kingdoms.) There is also a secondary plot where Geralt has the option to save Rex Henselt, or let Roche kill him.

Later this battle, the chase for Letho continues and leads the Witcher to Loc Muinne, the concluding location in the game. The politics of the remainder of the game are complex, but can generally be distilled down to a few cardinal points.

Many powerful mages take formed a sisterhood known as the Club of Sorceresses, a group designed to be above the dominion of kings and politics, exerting their will equally they see fit. Philippa Eilhart is a sorceress considered to exist the leader of this Lodge. She was able to place Saskia nether a powerful mind control spell, effectively giving the Lodge admission to a dragon as a weapon.

If Geralt sided with Iorveth, he will have the option to rescue Philippa Eilhart from prison, which will later allow Geralt to free Saskia from the mind control, but this path comes at the cost of rescuing Triss. However, regardless of choice, Triss doesn't dice.

If Geralt sided with Roche, he has the opportunity to rescue Foltest'due south girl Anaïs instead of Saskia. Being the simply remaining child of Foltest (Boussy having died off-screen earlier in the game), she is the merely heir to the Temerian throne.

This is the third set of choices yous'll be faced with in The Witcher 3.

The final segment of the game includes a political conclave where leaders and mages accept come together to decide the fate of the Northern Kingdoms in the absence of Kings Foltest and Demavend (and, potentially, Henselt). The conclave is interrupted when Saskia, in dragon form and yet under the control of Philippa Eilhart, attacks the tiptop.

Equally the dragon is attacking, Geralt encounters Síle de Tansarville looking to teleport away from Loc Muinne. Geralt, knowing that her teleportation device has been damaged and will kill her, has the option to warn her and salve her life, or let her destroy herself in the endeavour.

You'll exist asked to recall this choice at the beginning of The Witcher three.

After defeating the dragon, players who chose to rescue Philippa volition have the selection to release the dragon from the heed control.

After that, Geralt faces Letho in a final duel, simply he also has the pick to hear out his reasoning and permit him go free.

Choosing whether or not to kill Letho is the final option that you lot'll use to gear up the world country in the beginning of The Witcher 3.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2015/5/18/8620223/witcher-3-guide-witcher-2-witcher

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