In the events of Witcher 3 it is MANDATORY for the story that Geralt helps the other witchers and sorceresses at Kar Morhen to IMPROVE AND MODFY the original Trail of Grasses to the point that it can be used ON ELVES to physically cure them of a shape-change curse. In Witcher 3, if you played it, we all took part and paving the way open for Ciri to take the trial herself and anyone bitching about it now either never played that quest to begin with so they are just bitching because they got triggered, or they IGNORED that part of the story and want to act like Witcher 3 has to deliberately say the words rather than the 3hour long quests tied to the trial of grasses. Either way, anyone who played the witcher 3 already experienced why Ciri can become a witcher and why there was a ending to the game where Ciri becomes a witcher 3. So yea, if anyone can survive a new and improved Trial of grasses based on Geralt's help in Witcher 3? it would be the princess of Time and Space...Ciri
'Stromford' (in a Nordic language, but it for surely isn't either Finno-Ugric or Slavic) translates into English as 'Stream Ford', not 'Storm Ford'. Blood and Wine, of course, chose to use Danish accents for (the English language localisation of) a story which otherwise references Languedoc, so there's nothing unusual in the developers choosing an improbable accent. Notable that the peasants here are wearing finely woven, well finished clothes with lots of high quality fur and without tears, dirt or patches. Of course these are festival clothes, they will be the best they have, but unless the devs are getting sloppy these are pretty prosperous peasants (they also look well fed). Definitely agree it seems to be the location shown on the coin. Armour very clearly leaves her throat exposed; that's not particularly great, but I can see why they chose it. The monster model appears to be based on a Kikimore, but it clearly has a humanoid face so it is not a pure insectoid, as (I think) Kikimores are canonically supposed to be. So this may be some (cursed?) hybrid. Also, the name they gave it (yes, they did give one, but I too forget it) may be a particular name for this individual, rather than a general name for the species (for example, in the first game, 'Nadir' is the name of a particular Drowned Dead). Canonically, I think that being a Source should enable her to use substantially more powerful magic while drawing on the Force, rather than actual new spells. Consider Pavetta in A Question of Price. Signs are fairly low-grade magic which Witchers are taught, possibly in conjunction with the Trial of the Grasses. If Ciri has done the training and been through the Trial, she can do signs. No canonical problem with that. Related, is cutting off her connection to the Source something which Ciri can actually, canonically, do? How? She may have been in denial about her powers for years, she may have been refusing to even try to use them, but that doesn't mean they've gone away. Even if she truly believes, and tells everyone, that they have. This doesn't feel like much of a retcon to me. In any case, in the Witcher III, Ciri has been jumping around in space and time, so she's already got her powers back right there. I really disagree with you about Nilfgard winning! Mind you, in a war like this, it isn't necessary for either side to win.
Hi, thought I'd try and answer a few of your questions. To start with the peasants clothes, I admittedly didn't really noticed that. I think in fantasy costume designers tend to give peasants more detailed outfits to keep them looking interesting at the cost of historical accuracy. Probably oversight or intentional ignorance to keep outfits from looking to plain. While the monster does seem to be based on the Kikimore design from Netflix Witcher it doesn't match the CDPR design. In both Witcher 1, B&W and Gwent they are 4 legged with no face or even eyes from the look of it. Could be a Hybrid or Cursed like you said but it does appeared to be new so speculation can only go so far unfortunately. I do thought agree that it's name is probably a unique name and not the species name. Being a Source would definitely make Ciri more power than most mages (at the cost of it being hard to control) but how they are working that into gameplay will have to be seen because mages are insanely powerful and I don't think they'd let us go that far outside of maybe some scripted sequences. Signs are low grade, but Ciri still couldn't cast them. Lambert even doubted Ciri was a Source because over her about 2 years of training she still couldn't cast a single one. Re-reading that second of Blood of Elves (Chapter 3, about page 90) Triss explains that a Source has no control over their power and are more like a transmitter so no matter how much Ciri tries she won't be able to cast Aard. However at some point she won't even try, like she's daydreaming and suddenly she'll cause a shockwave that'll destroy a house. Training obviously stabilises that but as I previously said, doubt we'll see it outside of scripted sequence. About Ciri did cut off her connection to "the Power" as it's put in the books to refer to spell casting. In Time of Contempt Ciri used to power to save the unicorn Ihuarraquax but as the fire she drew on to cast the spell tried to draw her to the dark side she yelled "I don't want that power! I don't want it! I relinquish it" which is then followed by to beings, I can't remember who but likely other unicorns, discussing if they should help her. One says in response to Ciri being able to harness magic "It will not be able to use it. Never. It relinquished it. It relinquished the Power. Utterly. The Power disappeared. It is most curious..." It's also referenced in W3 during the quest "Payback" right at the end after stealing the horses if you say "Gifts can be renounced..." although she does respond with "It's not that easy. I tried once, remember?" so maybe they retconned this... My current theory as why Ciri can cast spells again (besides a retcon) is that the Trial of the Grasses, which are meant to grant magic to non-magic users, reawakened that. My thought's on Nilfgaard winning are more that most people would have done the Radovid assassination quest and not let Dijkstra win, and that it lines up slightly better with future cannon. It's not perfect but considering the last game ends with someone winning it would be odd for them to go with a 3rd option. I could so that being that Nilfgaard holds everything south of the Pontar rather than the Yaruga but I also think the world politic being reset back to Nilfgaard being south of the Yaruga means they are restored back to the beginning of the Blood of Elves once again. Nilfgaards victory could lead to some interesting stories including a potential "fall of Rome" kinda thing or of them being stretched too thin and crumbling apart. Redania was meant to more or less reestablish the status quo with returning the former boarders (although I assume they'd keep Keadwin and Temeria) so I find that a less interesting prospect to explore compared to Nilfgaards efforts to erase Northern culture, language and religion and replace it with their own and how people react and push back against that. Hope this answers some of your questions. I'll be real, didn't really know what to say about the location name and accents although I thought Toussaint used French-ish while Nilfgaard as a whole uses Dutch? I'm terrible with accents though.
@@tomjones8859 Regarding peasant's clothes: clothes of the peasants in Velen and White Orchard (and even Tousaint) in Witcher III look a lot dirtier and more distressed than this. The ealdorman of White Orchard, who must be one of the richest peasants, wears a shirt with ragged sleeves, for example. I *think* the reason the kikimores in Witcher 1 are quadripedal is simply that the Aurora engine did not have rigging for six legged skeletons (yes, I know CDPR did an enormous amount of work on Aurora, but I've built things with both the Neverwinter Nights version and the Witcher 1 version, and they were pushing that tired old engine to its absolute limits). It's the fact that the 'thing' in the trailer has a humanoid face that makes me think that it is not a true kikimore, but something cursed. Nilfgard (in Witcher III) certainly uses something based on Old Low German but I hadn't recognised it as Dutch, I thought it was something they'd just made up! You could be right, though. The problem with the 'Nilfgard wins' ending is that if Ciri is a witcher, the empire is likely in the middle of a civil war -- either Emhir is dead and has no successor, or at best he has been publicly spurned by his heir apparent which has to cause a political crisis. I mean, I think if I were Ciri with the choice between being emperor of a militaristic, over-expanded and politically unstable empire or being an itinerant pest control operative, the latter does sound like the more sensible choice; But it leaves the empire even more of a powder keg than it was before. Anyway, exciting times. I cannot wait to see what CDPR comes up with! Have you seen @glassfish777's work on recovering the 'Yennefer betrays the lodge' sequence at the end of Witcher III? @xLetalis has a video on it. It would be SO INTERESTING to know whether this will become canon!
@@simonbrooke4065 True enough about the peasant clothing. I did recently watch an interview PC Gamer did and they did say Stormford is located far north so maybe they want to try and make even the peasants of the rich nation (assuming it's Kovir or Poviss) look fancier than the other peasants. Admittedly though that would be a weird logic so probably just an error on their part. They also did say that the monster was new, stating it's Serbian inspired (I think Kikimores are more Ukrainian/Russian), feeds on fear and plays with their minds victims minds. Hoping cursed honestly and they talk a lot about the "mist" in interviews so there might be more there. Also Kikimores do appear in Blood and Wine in the quests A Knight's Tale, La Cage au Fou and a couple others according to the wiki and use the 4 legged W1 design so it seems to be their interpretation of it. It doesn't really match the spidery shape the books describe but as you said it could have been an engine limitation and they have just maintained it for consistency. To be fair a Nilfgaard civil war they could build to for a sequel could be cool, but on a lore front Emhyr retires from the throne at some point after 1290 and dies at some point before 1301 according to Time of Contempt so Redania couldn't have won as he gets killed when the nobles turn on him for failing. From a story side, as I said, I'd like the status quo not to reset with Nilfgaard's lose, although not everything would return to how it was before like Temeria and Kaedwen so there is still narrative potential around those regions and their new rulers. Also, to be honest a story on Nilfgaard falling apart would be something I'd be very interested in playing. The outcome of the war is probably going to be the most controversial part of making this sequel because of just how big the ramifications of it have to be but I don't think any ending can line up with the future cannon established because... well the books never planned for there to be a third war. As for Yen betraying the Lodge, I hadn't heard of it although I do watch xLetalis and Witcher George content every now and then so I'll give it a look. Can't wait to learn more about this and I'll try and do some follow ups when we get enough substantial material to make a video on.
I don’t remember the canon lore saying that adults can’t survive the trial. We had Uma survive what I thought was the most dangerous part of the trial in TW3. What would you say about the argument that she couldn’t go through the trials as an adult?
@@rafegraves1453 Uma only under went the first part of the trial as it would sorta... "soften him up" for what Yen needed to undo the curse. I believe it was actually the safest part as it was more to get the body ready for the main mutations. As for Ciri undergoing it as an adult... I speculate it could be a weaker version of the trials creating ultimately weaker Witchers but with Ciri's other abilities it wouldn't make much of a gameplay difference. Alternatively it could be the Elder Blood or maybe they found a way to make the mutations safer. We'll have to see, but they've said it'll be set "a few years after Witcher 3" so development of a new mutation process feels more unlikely. Not impossible though. Not sure how well that answers your question
@@tomjones8859 The way of the Trials is forgotten, and no one can perform them anymore. While they aren’t completely lost, they are certainly no longer understood. How many test subjects would need to die to perfect the process again, especially for women? Arguing that Elder Blood could help her feels like a cheap trick. Elder Blood and destiny prevented Ciri from becoming a Dryad in Brokilon-why would it help now? There’s no guarantee of surviving the Trials-only 3 out of 10 boys survived. How could you suddenly make it safe? Witcher potions are inherently poisonous, and they called the one in Trailer poison to explain it. I also don’t believe Elder Blood can be "lost"-if it could, the bloodline would be gone. Ithlinne’s Prophecy is unfinished business, right?
The entire quest chain for setting up the trials was establishing, narratively, that they were modifying and IMPROVING the trial of grasses. The only part of the trial of Grasses Ciri needs is to take the physical enhancements...not the magical infusion that does most of the killing
Great, level-headed and knowledgeable
Subscribed
In the events of Witcher 3 it is MANDATORY for the story that Geralt helps the other witchers and sorceresses at Kar Morhen to IMPROVE AND MODFY the original Trail of Grasses to the point that it can be used ON ELVES to physically cure them of a shape-change curse. In Witcher 3, if you played it, we all took part and paving the way open for Ciri to take the trial herself and anyone bitching about it now either never played that quest to begin with so they are just bitching because they got triggered, or they IGNORED that part of the story and want to act like Witcher 3 has to deliberately say the words rather than the 3hour long quests tied to the trial of grasses. Either way, anyone who played the witcher 3 already experienced why Ciri can become a witcher and why there was a ending to the game where Ciri becomes a witcher 3. So yea, if anyone can survive a new and improved Trial of grasses based on Geralt's help in Witcher 3? it would be the princess of Time and Space...Ciri
'Stromford' (in a Nordic language, but it for surely isn't either Finno-Ugric or Slavic) translates into English as 'Stream Ford', not 'Storm Ford'.
Blood and Wine, of course, chose to use Danish accents for (the English language localisation of) a story which otherwise references Languedoc, so there's nothing unusual in the developers choosing an improbable accent.
Notable that the peasants here are wearing finely woven, well finished clothes with lots of high quality fur and without tears, dirt or patches. Of course these are festival clothes, they will be the best they have, but unless the devs are getting sloppy these are pretty prosperous peasants (they also look well fed).
Definitely agree it seems to be the location shown on the coin.
Armour very clearly leaves her throat exposed; that's not particularly great, but I can see why they chose it.
The monster model appears to be based on a Kikimore, but it clearly has a humanoid face so it is not a pure insectoid, as (I think) Kikimores are canonically supposed to be. So this may be some (cursed?) hybrid. Also, the name they gave it (yes, they did give one, but I too forget it) may be a particular name for this individual, rather than a general name for the species (for example, in the first game, 'Nadir' is the name of a particular Drowned Dead).
Canonically, I think that being a Source should enable her to use substantially more powerful magic while drawing on the Force, rather than actual new spells. Consider Pavetta in A Question of Price.
Signs are fairly low-grade magic which Witchers are taught, possibly in conjunction with the Trial of the Grasses. If Ciri has done the training and been through the Trial, she can do signs. No canonical problem with that. Related, is cutting off her connection to the Source something which Ciri can actually, canonically, do? How? She may have been in denial about her powers for years, she may have been refusing to even try to use them, but that doesn't mean they've gone away. Even if she truly believes, and tells everyone, that they have. This doesn't feel like much of a retcon to me. In any case, in the Witcher III, Ciri has been jumping around in space and time, so she's already got her powers back right there.
I really disagree with you about Nilfgard winning! Mind you, in a war like this, it isn't necessary for either side to win.
Hi, thought I'd try and answer a few of your questions.
To start with the peasants clothes, I admittedly didn't really noticed that. I think in fantasy costume designers tend to give peasants more detailed outfits to keep them looking interesting at the cost of historical accuracy. Probably oversight or intentional ignorance to keep outfits from looking to plain.
While the monster does seem to be based on the Kikimore design from Netflix Witcher it doesn't match the CDPR design. In both Witcher 1, B&W and Gwent they are 4 legged with no face or even eyes from the look of it. Could be a Hybrid or Cursed like you said but it does appeared to be new so speculation can only go so far unfortunately. I do thought agree that it's name is probably a unique name and not the species name.
Being a Source would definitely make Ciri more power than most mages (at the cost of it being hard to control) but how they are working that into gameplay will have to be seen because mages are insanely powerful and I don't think they'd let us go that far outside of maybe some scripted sequences.
Signs are low grade, but Ciri still couldn't cast them. Lambert even doubted Ciri was a Source because over her about 2 years of training she still couldn't cast a single one. Re-reading that second of Blood of Elves (Chapter 3, about page 90) Triss explains that a Source has no control over their power and are more like a transmitter so no matter how much Ciri tries she won't be able to cast Aard. However at some point she won't even try, like she's daydreaming and suddenly she'll cause a shockwave that'll destroy a house. Training obviously stabilises that but as I previously said, doubt we'll see it outside of scripted sequence.
About Ciri did cut off her connection to "the Power" as it's put in the books to refer to spell casting. In Time of Contempt Ciri used to power to save the unicorn Ihuarraquax but as the fire she drew on to cast the spell tried to draw her to the dark side she yelled "I don't want that power! I don't want it! I relinquish it" which is then followed by to beings, I can't remember who but likely other unicorns, discussing if they should help her. One says in response to Ciri being able to harness magic "It will not be able to use it. Never. It relinquished it. It relinquished the Power. Utterly. The Power disappeared. It is most curious..." It's also referenced in W3 during the quest "Payback" right at the end after stealing the horses if you say "Gifts can be renounced..." although she does respond with "It's not that easy. I tried once, remember?" so maybe they retconned this...
My current theory as why Ciri can cast spells again (besides a retcon) is that the Trial of the Grasses, which are meant to grant magic to non-magic users, reawakened that.
My thought's on Nilfgaard winning are more that most people would have done the Radovid assassination quest and not let Dijkstra win, and that it lines up slightly better with future cannon. It's not perfect but considering the last game ends with someone winning it would be odd for them to go with a 3rd option. I could so that being that Nilfgaard holds everything south of the Pontar rather than the Yaruga but I also think the world politic being reset back to Nilfgaard being south of the Yaruga means they are restored back to the beginning of the Blood of Elves once again. Nilfgaards victory could lead to some interesting stories including a potential "fall of Rome" kinda thing or of them being stretched too thin and crumbling apart. Redania was meant to more or less reestablish the status quo with returning the former boarders (although I assume they'd keep Keadwin and Temeria) so I find that a less interesting prospect to explore compared to Nilfgaards efforts to erase Northern culture, language and religion and replace it with their own and how people react and push back against that.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I'll be real, didn't really know what to say about the location name and accents although I thought Toussaint used French-ish while Nilfgaard as a whole uses Dutch? I'm terrible with accents though.
@@tomjones8859 Regarding peasant's clothes: clothes of the peasants in Velen and White Orchard (and even Tousaint) in Witcher III look a lot dirtier and more distressed than this. The ealdorman of White Orchard, who must be one of the richest peasants, wears a shirt with ragged sleeves, for example.
I *think* the reason the kikimores in Witcher 1 are quadripedal is simply that the Aurora engine did not have rigging for six legged skeletons (yes, I know CDPR did an enormous amount of work on Aurora, but I've built things with both the Neverwinter Nights version and the Witcher 1 version, and they were pushing that tired old engine to its absolute limits). It's the fact that the 'thing' in the trailer has a humanoid face that makes me think that it is not a true kikimore, but something cursed.
Nilfgard (in Witcher III) certainly uses something based on Old Low German but I hadn't recognised it as Dutch, I thought it was something they'd just made up! You could be right, though.
The problem with the 'Nilfgard wins' ending is that if Ciri is a witcher, the empire is likely in the middle of a civil war -- either Emhir is dead and has no successor, or at best he has been publicly spurned by his heir apparent which has to cause a political crisis. I mean, I think if I were Ciri with the choice between being emperor of a militaristic, over-expanded and politically unstable empire or being an itinerant pest control operative, the latter does sound like the more sensible choice; But it leaves the empire even more of a powder keg than it was before.
Anyway, exciting times. I cannot wait to see what CDPR comes up with!
Have you seen @glassfish777's work on recovering the 'Yennefer betrays the lodge' sequence at the end of Witcher III? @xLetalis has a video on it. It would be SO INTERESTING to know whether this will become canon!
@@simonbrooke4065 True enough about the peasant clothing. I did recently watch an interview PC Gamer did and they did say Stormford is located far north so maybe they want to try and make even the peasants of the rich nation (assuming it's Kovir or Poviss) look fancier than the other peasants. Admittedly though that would be a weird logic so probably just an error on their part. They also did say that the monster was new, stating it's Serbian inspired (I think Kikimores are more Ukrainian/Russian), feeds on fear and plays with their minds victims minds. Hoping cursed honestly and they talk a lot about the "mist" in interviews so there might be more there. Also Kikimores do appear in Blood and Wine in the quests A Knight's Tale, La Cage au Fou and a couple others according to the wiki and use the 4 legged W1 design so it seems to be their interpretation of it. It doesn't really match the spidery shape the books describe but as you said it could have been an engine limitation and they have just maintained it for consistency.
To be fair a Nilfgaard civil war they could build to for a sequel could be cool, but on a lore front Emhyr retires from the throne at some point after 1290 and dies at some point before 1301 according to Time of Contempt so Redania couldn't have won as he gets killed when the nobles turn on him for failing. From a story side, as I said, I'd like the status quo not to reset with Nilfgaard's lose, although not everything would return to how it was before like Temeria and Kaedwen so there is still narrative potential around those regions and their new rulers. Also, to be honest a story on Nilfgaard falling apart would be something I'd be very interested in playing.
The outcome of the war is probably going to be the most controversial part of making this sequel because of just how big the ramifications of it have to be but I don't think any ending can line up with the future cannon established because... well the books never planned for there to be a third war.
As for Yen betraying the Lodge, I hadn't heard of it although I do watch xLetalis and Witcher George content every now and then so I'll give it a look.
Can't wait to learn more about this and I'll try and do some follow ups when we get enough substantial material to make a video on.
I don’t remember the canon lore saying that adults can’t survive the trial. We had Uma survive what I thought was the most dangerous part of the trial in TW3. What would you say about the argument that she couldn’t go through the trials as an adult?
@@rafegraves1453 Uma only under went the first part of the trial as it would sorta... "soften him up" for what Yen needed to undo the curse. I believe it was actually the safest part as it was more to get the body ready for the main mutations. As for Ciri undergoing it as an adult... I speculate it could be a weaker version of the trials creating ultimately weaker Witchers but with Ciri's other abilities it wouldn't make much of a gameplay difference. Alternatively it could be the Elder Blood or maybe they found a way to make the mutations safer. We'll have to see, but they've said it'll be set "a few years after Witcher 3" so development of a new mutation process feels more unlikely. Not impossible though.
Not sure how well that answers your question
@@tomjones8859 The way of the Trials is forgotten, and no one can perform them anymore. While they aren’t completely lost, they are certainly no longer understood. How many test subjects would need to die to perfect the process again, especially for women? Arguing that Elder Blood could help her feels like a cheap trick. Elder Blood and destiny prevented Ciri from becoming a Dryad in Brokilon-why would it help now? There’s no guarantee of surviving the Trials-only 3 out of 10 boys survived. How could you suddenly make it safe? Witcher potions are inherently poisonous, and they called the one in Trailer poison to explain it. I also don’t believe Elder Blood can be "lost"-if it could, the bloodline would be gone. Ithlinne’s Prophecy is unfinished business, right?
The entire quest chain for setting up the trials was establishing, narratively, that they were modifying and IMPROVING the trial of grasses. The only part of the trial of Grasses Ciri needs is to take the physical enhancements...not the magical infusion that does most of the killing
Ciri needs her Witcher 3 style boots back
Love those boots lol. I’m sure there will be many boots to choose from but it would be cool to get those back.
Eskil protagonist?? Bizarre 😂 only option besides ciri is new character or customizable
first :)