“We are pleased to announce that the next installment of the video game series the witcher is currently in development, which begins a new saga for the franchise.” This is the message with which CD Projekt Red confirmed, during this week, that its next game will return to the universe created by Andrzej Sapkowski. Although in the statement they did not want to advance much, over the days some important details about The Witcher 4 —as the community knows it—.
First, we have to talk about the image that the Polish studio itself shared with the announcement – and which you can see at the top. Some curious people observed it in detail and realized that it was not the distinctive badge of the School of the Wolf which formed Geralt of Rivia and Ciri (Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon). What does this tell us? so what The Witcher 4most likely, will move away from the adventures of these characters.
The figure we see in the picture is actually a lynx. Robert Malinowski, Head of Communications at CD Projekt, has already confirmed this in an interview with Eurogamer. “Some mysteries shouldn’t be so mysterious. I can confirm that the locket is in fact shaped like a lynx,” he said. And what does all this mean? If you are a connoisseur of traditions from the witcherYou probably already have an idea in mind.
Although the Lynx School He is not mentioned in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, nor in the video games, let alone in the Netflix series, yes. exists in the collective imagination of the franchise. It was created by fandom and its history is documented in the wiki of the witcherwhich remains to this day one of the most active among the fantastic universes.
So according to the wiki, the Lynx school originated in 1273. It was founded by Joël, Gaetan, Libellule, Lambert and Keira Metz —the last two were present in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—. The most interesting thing is that his existence was after the school of the wolf, so the events of The Witcher 4 would take place after the adventures of Geralt of Rivia.
“The School of the Lynx arose shortly after the official extinction of the School of the Wolf; when its remaining members, including the notables Eskel, Geralt of Rivia, and Lambert, went their separate ways after Vesemir’s death. [Geratl]continuing his work as the last active member of the Wolf School, Eskel marching east (some rumors suggest he ended up joining the Manticore School), and Lambert marching south, with his lover Keira Metz in search of a new life.”
The Witcher 4 have creative freedom
Now then… Why would CD Projekt take the liberty of using a narrative proposal that was not proposed by Sapkowski? Very simple: the story of Geralt de Riv, at least as written by the Polish author, has little more to explore.
Before the announcement of The Witcher 4, it was speculated that Ciri could star in her own adventure. However, this idea would amount to sticking to a set of already established stories. It seems that Poles want total creative freedom offer for the first time its complete vision of the universe the witcher. It will be interesting to see how CD Projekt will create a completely new scenario, because it is not easy.
Another point to consider is that The Witcher 4 will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 instead of REDengine. Regarding the latter, its weaknesses in a larger project have been exposed with Cyberpunk 2077. Using the Epic Games graphics engine avoids many technical disasters and, above all, saves a lot of time. The second will be essential for each section of the game to receive the attention it deserves, including the story.
