If the swords, magic, and dark vibes of The Witcher 4’s first cinematic trailer has piqued your interest, but you’ve never played any of the previous games before, there’s good news: CD Projekt Red’s upcoming RPG is the start of a brand new saga, complete with a new protagonist and story. It’s set to be an ideal place for new players to begin.
Still, there’s no escaping that it’s the fourth game in a series with very deep and complex lore, and so it may be helpful to know the basics before jumping in. Thankfully we’ve convinced two Witcher loremasters from the development studio – franchise and lore designers Cian Maher and Marcin Batylda – to introduce you to everything you need to know, from the bare essentials that explain just what a witcher is, all the way to more complex topics such as the mysterious Lara gene and the bloodline that makes the white haired woman in the trailer so special.
So without further ado, let’s begin your Witcher education.
What is The Witcher?
You likely already know that The Witcher is an RPG series developed by Polish studio CD Projekt Red. But before those games The Witcher originated as a series of books, also from Poland, written by author Andrzej Sapkowski. Starting out as short stories, The Witcher eventually grew into a series of five novels known as The Witcher Saga. In total, there are nine novels and 15 short stories.
Cian Maher: The Witcher is a low dark fantasy series set in a world that, after a cosmic event known as the Conjunction of the Spheres, is populated with all kinds of different monsters. As a result of this, the monsters in this world are a regular threat to people. They would be somewhat akin to natural disasters or anything like that.
What is a witcher?
At the centre of both Sapkowski’s and CD Projekt Red’s stories are monster hunters for hire known as witchers. While there are several witchers featured in the stories, the series protagonist is Geralt of Rivia. Famously played by Henry Cavill in the Netflix adaptation of the books, Geralt represents all of the key elements of what it means to be a witcher: a professional killer of monsters who remains politically neutral.
Marcin Batylda: Witchers usually don’t have the kinds of moral dilemmas [seen in fantasy universes like Dungeons & Dragons.] Are the orcs good or bad, or should I kill the goblin family? Witchers kill monsters, the creatures who prey on humans and on other intelligent races.
Cian Maher: Witchers encompasses a number of archetypes. The witcher is a professional. They roam from town to town through the wilderness, taking contracts [to kill] monsters, and they do this for money. That is their job and they’re very good at it.
In order to perform their job effectively, all witchers as young boys undergo the Trial of the Grasses, which is this very dangerous process. Only three or four in every 10 boys will survive the initial trial. All of these different mutagenic elixirs are intravenously pumped into their body, and as a result of this they become faster and stronger than a regular human. They also are either resistant or immune to all known diseases and poisons, but there is a very high price to pay for this.
Which brings us to the last thing of what a witcher is, which is an outsider. An outcast. They are often seen as little better than the monsters they kill. In some ways they would be akin to the gunslinger in the Western or the ronin in the samurai movie. They are, by nature, people who walk alone and do important work.
What are the tools of a witcher?
A witcher may be mutated, but they cannot hunt monsters with just their fists and wits alone. They use a variety of tools that you typically find in fantasy settings, such as crossbows and chainmail armour, but also many items that are bespoke to the series. For example, witchers are expert botanists able to brew potions that heal their wounds and allow them to see in the dark. These potions are poison to regular humans, but a witcher’s mutations allow them to digest and absorb the potion’s beneficial effects.
The most recognisable element in a witcher’s toolkit, though, are their two swords: one made of silver, the other steel.
Marcin Batylda: Witchers carry two swords because, in this world, monsters are vulnerable to silver, so witchers carry [a silver] sword. [The other] is a steel sword for fighting some of the monsters that are not burned from the curse.
Swords don’t solve every problem, though. While witchers are not sorcerers and thus cannot control the magical energies of the world, they are capable of casting some basic magic spells.
Marcin Batylda: Signs are simple spells designed especially for witchers to give them this edge in combat. They only require a simple gesture [instead of a verbal incantation], and they are this handy opener for such situations where you have to gain the upper hand in combat. So your basic tool for the job is a sword, but the signs I like to see as [the equivalent of] a grenade for a spec-ops soldier.
Who is Ciri?
As previously mentioned, Geralt of Rivia has been the central character throughout both the Witcher books and games. But things change with The Witcher 4, in which we will play as a woman named Ciri. But while she’s a new protagonist, Ciri is not a new character.
Cian Maher: Ciri is Geralt’s adopted daughter, but she’s so much more than that. She’s the heiress to multiple thrones. She has this Elder Blood running through her. She’s also attuned to magic.
I think The Witcher as a title refers to both Geralt and Ciri and always has. There would be no saga without Ciri. I think she’s arguably more important to the plot than Geralt himself is.
In the new trailer we can see that Ciri is a witcher. She has a silver sword, kills monsters for money, and her eyes have become cat-like thanks to the mutation process. That last factor is something new for The Witcher 4, as in both the books and games Ciri did not partake in the Trial of the Grasses and thus never truly became a witcher in the traditional sense. Despite that, Ciri is still typically considered a witcher by both the story’s other characters and the author Sapkowski himself.
Marcin Batylda: Ciri was referred to as a witcher in the books. The author [Sapkowski] acknowledged her as a full-fledged witcher and she was trained in [the witchers’ fortress] Kaer Morhen by Vesemir, the mentor of Geralt of Rivia. She received as formal a training as the witchers in Kaer Morhen were able to give her without mutating her. She’s been trained in magic by [the sorcerer] Yennefer of Vengerberg, and not classical witcher signs but proper spells.
Cian Maher: I think at the age of 15 or 16, she manages to kill a wyvern completely unmutated, completely untested at that point.
It’s obvious, then, that Ciri is more than just a regular person. That’s made all the more obvious in the books and games by the fact that she is constantly hunted by powerful sorcerers, monarchs, and even a gang of spectral elves known as the Wild Hunt. Why do these people want Ciri? Well it’s all due to the blood that flows through her veins.
What is the Elder Blood and why does it make Ciri special?
The Elder Blood, sometimes known as the Lara Gene, is a key and complex part of Witcher lore. It’s a bloodline initiated many generations ago by elven mages with the goal of creating a child whose power would exceed even that of the elves. For many years it seemed as if the gene had died out, but when Ciri was born it soon became apparent that she was a carrier of the Elder Blood. This is unfortunately a bit of a blessing and a curse for Ciri thanks to an ominous prophecy…
Cian Maher: There are various interpretations of this prophecy, but essentially people believe that Ciri’s child will either be the savior of the world or the avenger who destroys it.
In The Witcher 3 we see that the Elder Blood affords Ciri certain abilities. She’s known as the Lady of Space and Time and in the books we see she’s able to travel between dimensions thanks to this Elder Blood. But the main reason that people pursue her is because of that prophecy.
What is the monster in the trailer?
As we’ve established, a witcher’s job is to hunt monsters, and so naturally the centrepiece of the new trailer is Ciri fighting a horrifying, multi-limbed creature. We see her make use of the classic witcher tool kit – she drinks a potion to gain the upper hand, and then uses a silver sword and silver chain to subdue and kill the beast. We also see her using magic, but rather than basic witcher signs, Ciri utilises proper sorcery to cast spells – a result of her Elder Blood and training with Yennefer. But what is the target of her spells and strikes?
Cian Maher: The monster is a bauk, which is derived from Serbian mythology.
Marcin Batylda: In the [Serbian] mythology, the bauk was kind of a boogeyman, something that lurks in the dark. [Many of the monsters and creatures in The Witcher are] inspired by the various European mythologies. The bauk is a very good example because it’s from Serbian mythology, but we also have monsters inspired by Norse, Celtic, and Slavic mythology.
What is the message of the trailer?
The cinematic short tells the story of Ciri attempting to save a woman named Mioni from a ritual sacrifice, but in doing so she becomes indirectly responsible for Mioni’s murder. This kind of scenario is commonplace in the Witcher games, which frequently ask players to make decisions that will result in unforeseen consequences. Recurring themes like these are part of not just the games, but one of the foundations of the Witcher series as a whole.
Cian Maher: A lot of [the Witcher short stories] are centered around themes that recur. For example, A Grain of Truth, which is largely a subversion of Beauty and the Beast. It is the story in which Geralt lifts the curse from Nivellen, a man who’s been cursed, who lives in a manor in this forest on his own. [The events of this story] tells us that there is a grain of truth in every fairytale, which becomes a motif throughout The Witcher.
With The Lesser Evil, which again is just a version or re-imagining of Snow White, this is the story in which Geralt becomes [known as] The Butcher of Blaviken. And in that he’s faced with a choice to which there is no correct answer. This again becomes absolutely fundamental to the Witcher world as a theme that comes up over and over again. Anyone who’s played The Witcher 3 will be familiar with the fact that there are often no strictly right answers.
Will Geralt be in The Witcher 4?
The trailer makes it pretty clear that Ciri is the protagonist for this new Witcher saga. But, and spoilers for the previous game here, Geralt does not die at the end of The Witcher 3. So can we expect the original hero of the story to make an appearance in The Witcher 4?
Cian Maher: Geralt will probably be around for a long time. In [prequel novel] Season of Storms, there is an epilogue. It takes place in Magpie Forest in 1373, 101 years after The Witcher 3. And in that epilogue there is a certain white-haired Witcher hunting a monster who remains unnamed, but who behaves in a certain way. And obviously he has white hair. I think we can expect Geralt to be around for a long time. The capacity in which he does is… we’ll see. But I don’t think he’s going anywhere.
And with all that, you’re now in a great position to begin your Witcher journey proper. From here, the most logical next step is playing The Witcher 3, which is not just an excellent starting point (it doesn’t really require knowledge of the previous entries) but also one of the best RPGs ever made. Following that, if you’re eager to explore the deepest lore, you should head down the rabbit hole that is the original Witcher books – start with The Last Wish, a collection of short stories, and then proceed onto Blood of Elves, the first novel of the five-part Witcher Saga. Alternatively, if you’d rather continue with the games, The Witcher 2 is an excellent, ambitious story with one of the best branching narratives in all of gaming. You could also go all the way back to the start and play 2007’s The Witcher, but it’s definitely showing its age – unless you totally fall in love with the universe, it may be best to wait for the upcoming remake.
Whatever path you choose, you’ve got some great stories ahead. The Witcher has become one of the most respected fantasy series for a good reason, and we can’t wait to play the next chapter.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
