Dragon1893
Member
The Witcher is a series of fantasy novels written by polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, published between 1992 and 2013. They follow the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher.
Realizing the potential of the rich world created by Andrzej Sapkowski, polish videogame developer CDProjekt Red decided to create a rpg based on the Witcher universe.
The Witcher (2007)
With a story set after the novels, The Witcher was released for PC in 2007, followed by an enhanced edition in 2008.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
The sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, was released for PC in 2011 and also received an enhanced edition in 2012, which was ported to the Xbox 360 in the same year.
Both games were praised for their perfect depiction of The Witcher universe and deep rpg elements.
All updates and dlc provided for the games are completely free. There’s also no form of DRM in these games. If making amazing games wasn’t already enough, here’s another reason to support this fantastic studio.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (2015)
The Witcher 3 is set to arrive on May 19 2015 for PC, Xbox 1 and PS4 and is expected to set a new standard for role-playing games.
The Witcher 3 Sword of Destiny trailer
The Witcher 3 Killing Monsters Cinematic Trailer
35 Minutes of Gameplay (HD 1080p)
The Witcher Adventure Game (2014)
The Witcher Adventure Game is a board game. It has a physical version and is also available digitally for PC, MAC, Android and iOS.
If you’re considering getting into the franchise, reading the novels will considerably enhance your experience.
To preface, let me clarify that the first 2 books are a collection of short stories. Two of these stories, one in each book, serve as the introduction to the saga which is made up of the following 5 books.
In 2013, Sapkowski revisited the saga by writing a prequel, Season of Storms.
Not all of the novels have been translated to English yet.
You can find the books translated into the following languages:
Czech, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Russian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, French, Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Hungarian, Dutch, Chinese and obviously in the original language, Polish.
Please keep in mind that not all of the books are available in all of these languages at this point in time.
The Spanish and Czech translations are generally regarded as the best.
If you’re wondering in what order you should read the books and which ones have an English version, look no further:
The Last Wish (Original Release: 1993 / English Release: 2007)
The Sword of Destiny (Original Release: 1992 / English Release: 2015)
Blood of Elves (Original Release: 1994 / English Release: 2008)
Time of Contempt (Original Release: 1995 / English Release: 2013)
Baptism of Fire (Original Release: 1996 / English Release: 2014)
The Swallow's Tower (Original Release: 1997 / English Release: 2016)
Lady of the Lake (Original Release: 1999 / English Release: 2017)
Season of Storms (Original Release: 2013 / English Release: tba, Spanish release: April 23, 2015)
*All covers presented here (except Season of Storms) are english mock-ups from the spanish versions, in chronological order of the events occuring in them, and each country may differ in covers, release dates and order of release. The spanish softcover version of Lady of the Lake was split into 2 parts but then released as a single book in the hardcover version.*
Please note that The Last Wish was published after Sword of Destiny but should be read before.
Even though Sword of Destiny was skipped by the english publisher initially, fortunately an English version was released later, in May 2015 to be exact.
English versions of the remaining books should happen in the next couple of years.
You can download the high resolution images from the spanish cover arts, drawn by Alejandro Colucci, here:
Geralt of Rivia (769x1134)
Yennefer of Vengerberg (769x1134)
Jaskier/Dandelion (769x1134)
Ciri (769x1134)
Milva (769x1134)
Regis (769x1134)
Cahir (769x1134)
Triss Merigold (769x1134)
Geralt, also known as the White Wolf, is the character the player controls in the games and the protagonist of this story. He’s a Witcher, a professional monster slayer. Witchers undergo very strict training and also mutations to make them the perfect killing machines. They fight using swords and a rudimentary form of magic known as signs.
Geralt is a legend among Witchers and though people think of him as ruthless killing machine with no emotions, the truth is very different.
Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, also known as The Lion Cub of Cintra or The Child of Destiny.
Tied to Geralt’s fate by Destiny itself, a dreadful and misterious chain of events forces Geralt to adopt and raise her. Though Geralt is the protagonist of this story, Ciri is the driving force of the events in the Witcher universe. She has the fate of the world weighing on her shoulders.
A very powerful and incredibly beautiful sorceress, she and Geralt are lovers but they have a troubled relationship, even though they care deeply about each other. She’s also a mother figure to Ciri.
Jaskier, known as Dandelion in the english version.
A famous minstrel and poet is unlikely company for a witcher but as it turns out, Dandelion is a close friend of Geralt’s and shared a lot of his adventures.
Though Geralt gives the impression that the bard annoys him more than anything, he actually cares a lot about him.
Dandelion is useless in a fight but his fame and connections can come in handy sometimes. Though he’s a coward by nature, he won’t hesitate (much) putting his life on the line to help Geralt.
Would spend his entire life in a brothel if he could afford it.
Triss is also a sorceress and though she fancies Geralt, she reluctantly accepts that his heart belongs to her friend Yennefer.
Like most sorceresses, her beauty is astonishing. She also helped raise Ciri and is a close friend who can be trusted in times of need.
In the first 2 games, Yennefer is absent and Geralt and Triss are in a sort of “friends with benefits” relationship.
A dwarf with a very strong personality, he's also a close friend of Geralt's and is never afraid of speaking his mind or using his axe in a fight.
The oldest Witcher alive (no Witcher has been known to die of old age though) he's a father figure and mentor to all the other Witchers trained at Kaer Morhen, the keep where Witchers of the Wolf School are trained.
The emperor of Nilfgaard. A cunning ruler who has already waged war against the Northern Kingdoms on two occasions, with the goal of conquering them. The second war, which involved Geralt, Ciri and all the others, takes place during the novels.
Emhyr also plays an important part in the events depicted in the second game and has his own reasons to get his hands on Ciri.
In The Witcher 3, we finally get to meet him face to face.
Leader of a group of specters known as The Wild Hunt. A lot of rumours surround these misterious entities but little is known about them.
The Wild Hunt has crossed paths with Geralt on several occasions but now that it has set its sights on Ciri, the next confrontation will have to be the last.
The Witcher world is divided into two major regions, the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire.
Both regions are separated by the Yaruga river.
Geralt's adventures take place in the Northern Kingdoms, which are made up of Temeria, Aedirn, Cintra, Kaedwen, Redania, Kovir and Poviss, Lyria and Rivia.
There are also other Minor Kingdoms and Principalities
The first game takes place mostly in the Kingdom of Temeria, which is ruled by King Foltest.
The second game takes place on several locations along the Pontar Valley which cuts across the middle of the Northern Kingdoms. The Pontar river acts as a border between the North’s biggest kingdoms.
The third game will take place in 3 areas:
No man’s land is an area already conquered by the Nilfgaardian empire when the game starts. It’s an area ravaged by war that spreads across Cintra, Temeria and Redania, kingdoms that have lost their rulers and were therefore the empire’s primary targets.
Novigrad is a large city located in the kingdom of Redania.
The Skellige Islands, which are located in the sea to the west.
Community spotlight:
The Witcher story recap (tons of spoilers for both the games and the books)
The best of Vernon Roche
The Witcher lore series
The following summary establishes a chronological order of all the events in the books. Keep in mind that you should read the books in the order posted above, this is just putting the short stories and events within the books in chronological order, including stuff like flashbacks, etc.
Thanks to blueteainfusion for the heads up.
Source
Credits:
A very, very special thanks to fellow gaffer and Witcher fan SpacePirate Ridley for providing all the images and banners in this OT.
Last but not least, please make sure you ALWAYS use spoiler tags both when discussing the games and the books.
