By now, you probably know The Witcher 4 is coming and it will feature Ciri as a protagonist, and a true witcher to boot. But there’s a lot of people that don’t think that’s possible, and now I feel like I’m the one going through the Trial of the Grasses.
I was sitting in the crowd at The Game Awards when I realized Ciri was going to be the protagonist in The Witcher 4, and the energy for the reveal was tremendous. And why wouldn’t it be? Ciri is a beloved character, one of the focal points of the masterpiece that is The Witcher 3 and the culmination of its story. Spoiler alert for those of you who still haven’t played it, but one of the best endings you can actually get in the game (and some say the best ending, full stop) is Ciri rescuing the world from an unstoppable force and then slipping away from her imperial responsibilities to become a witcher. The Witcher 4 trailer made good on that ending, showing off an older, hardened Ciri who has picked up a few new tricks of the witcher trade. These include potions that are dangerous for normal humans, as well as cat-like eyes that indicate she’s gone through the witcher mutations which make those potions marginally safer to consume, known as the Trial of the Grasses in the games and Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories.