The Unofficial "Geralt in Skellige" thread - those Highlander Vikings and their wacky hijinks

[CTPhipps]

The Unofficial "Geralt in Skellige" thread - those Highlander Vikings and their wacky hijinks

Because the Skellige portion of the game comes relatively late for a lot of players, after Velen and Novigrad, it's not gotten much discussion and I was curious if anyone would like to participate in a thread discussing this portion of the game. What you liked, disliked, and so on about the place. Honestly, I'm of mixed feelings about the place because I've played a very large amount of time in Scotland and Viking-themed lands in other games, including The Wild Hunt's closest rival of Skyrim.

It detracted from things a bit.

I'm also a little bit annoyed by the fact the Obviously Evil Queen is, in fact, Obviously Evil. The Witcher tends to put twists on these sorts of things left and right and it would have been nice if THE ONLY POSSIBLE SUSPECT wasn't actually there. It would have been a better storyline, I think, if it had turned out to have been Nilfgaard responsible for the mass assassination or even a potential good friend of the family.

On the plus side, the stuff with Yennefer was really good and I also liked the whole plot regarding her scouring the sacred grove. Everything you need to know about Yennefer in that scene.

 

[Eesti]

i liked the place (even if i liked velen way more), liked the music (as depressing as it was) but if i'd pick between velen and skellige i'd surely pick velen because of the elven ruins you can find etc (even if skellige has some anyways) i dont know, but whenever i sail to skellige i feel empty and i want to go back to velen

 

[hismastersvoice]

The Obviously Evil Queen is also right about the issues that plague Skellige, so it's a far cry from the usual evil schemer trope.

I have to say, other than the Grove quest and Lord of Undvik (dear Lord, I haven't felt that kind of atmosphere since Ravenholm), Skellige didn't sweep me off my feet like Novigrad and Velen did. I don't think it has anything to do with the objective quality of the region, I'm just not much of a Norse fan.

 

[CTPhipps]

The Obviously Evil Queen is also right about the issues that plague Skellige, so it's a far cry from the usual evil schemer trope.

I'm not sure she actually has a point, to be honest. Yes, there's a lot of horse trading and corruption going into the whole business of selecting the next King of the Islands (which could be viewed as a "Take That" against democracy) but the idea that replacing the existing system of Kingsmoots, for lack of a better term, with hereditary monarchy is kind of Insane Troll Logic.

She can present an argument but that doesn't really mean she's right.

+ I'm kind of torn about Cerys because while I would very much would have liked to have her as a romantic option, she's really not appropriate for a number of reasons. She's the daughter of Geralt's friend, she ships Yennefer and Geralt (awkward since I took her quest AFTER breaking up with her), and she looks significantly younger than him.

Still, she's adorable.

Maybe with a new protagonist.

+ I love the flashback to Ciri's arrival on the isle. That poor Skallig guy!

+ The baby in the oven scene was harrowing.

+ The "Giant" mission could have used more poignancy as Geralt is killing the Last Giant In the WorldTM. You'd think a game with as much poignancy about the End of Species as the Witcher (see "Edge of the World") would have that as a more momentous occasion.

And GOD, that guy is an IDIOT. Who would make him King?

 

[Jou05]

Skellige was just boring and unnecessary (story perspective)

I loved Novigrad and Velen but Skellige just seemed to be there to pander to Skyrim fans
It didn't feel like The Witcher at all

I know it exists in the books but I would rather have gotten some elven/dwarven related stuff instead of another generic viking place (especially since there is a lack of non humans and Scoiatel in the game)

I felt zero connection with the people there and it all seemed very forced

Don't get me started on the "politics" of Skellige (apart from the obvious evil queen of course Cerys was the typical progressive leader and Hjalmar just a brute..)

From a story perspective it sucks BUT its pretty good as a big open world area so there is that
The music is good and the place does look nice

 

[hismastersvoice]

History is on her side in this argument. Strong, centralized rule have beaten tribal democracy (the remnant of which the Skellige system essentially is) and feudalism, both in the setting and the corresponding period of European history.

Skellige gets away with how they conduct their form of governance because they're isolated and the big players are to preoccupied with each other. The moment the victor of the continental conflict turns their eyes towards the islands, the scrappy Vikings are screwed.

 

[CTPhipps]

History is on her side in this argument. Strong, centralized rule have beaten tribal democracy (the remnant of which the Skellige system essentially is) and feudalism, both in the setting and the corresponding period of European history.

Skellige gets away with how they conduct their form of governance because they're isolated and the big players are to preoccupied with each other. The moment the victor of the continental conflict turns their eyes towards the islands, the scrappy Vikings are screwed.

Speaking as a Master of (Medieval) history, I'm one of those guys who doesn't actually think that sort of thing is all that inevitable. Yes, history went that way but I think it's questionable whether that history had to go that way or whether it was preferable or stronger rather than just accidental. After all, plenty of other nations had limited franchise selection of Kings well through the Medieval Era and after it.

But that's a debate for another time.

Really, I think what's interesting is that Skellige is portrayed as still a threat to Nilfgaard and other lands despite the fact they seem to technologically (and I mean that in terms of basic Nautical shipbuilding) centuries behind the mainland.

 

[hismastersvoice]

We know absolute monarchy won against feudalism and various form of proto democracy. We know why it won. Concentrated economic and political power always beats dispersed economic and political power, especially in an environment where force is the primary policy implementation method. I was born in a country that went from being an European superpower to non existence because it failed to realize that.

I'm not really sure if Skellige was portrayed as a threat.. More like a nuisance. They harass trade routes and raid coastal settlements, but pose no real danger to the integrity of either Nilfgaard or the Northern States.

 

[witcherbools]

I'm also a little bit annoyed by the fact the Obviously Evil Queen is, in fact, Obviously Evil. The Witcher tends to put twists on these sorts of things left and right and it would have been nice if THE ONLY POSSIBLE SUSPECT wasn't actually there. It would have been a better storyline, I think, if it had turned out to have been Nilfgaard responsible for the mass assassination or even a potential good friend of the family.

I thought this as well. However, when she started questioning the level of evidence and they were about to prosecute the En Craates, I thought to myself "how are we gonna get out of this one?!" and was quite excited - only for the bloody son the oust her within a second of this reveal and shutting off the door to any interesting follow up quest to right the En Craate name if you so choosed.

Was disappointed with that aspect.

 

[CTPhipps]

We know absolute monarchy won against feudalism and various form of proto democracy. We know why it won. Concentrated economic and political power always beats dispersed economic and political power, especially in an environment where force is the primary policy implementation method. I was born in a country that went from being an European superpower to non existence because it failed to realize that.

Yeah...no. Your conclusion and the scholars who postulate this particular fact are highly contentious in academia for very good reasons. I don't dispute your anecdotal evidence but I point out that feudalism was for the vast-vast majority of its existence a dispersed political and economic system to begin with. Absolute monarchy which actually did try to remove the "middle man" from the decision making process were a late phenomenon and, without exception, unmitigated disasters as even Louis the sun King drove his country into debt which resulted in its destruction.

I'm not really sure if Skellige was portrayed as a threat.. More like a nuisance. They harass trade routes and raid coastal settlements, but pose no real danger to the integrity of either Nilfgaard or the Northern States.

This is true, though.

---------- Updated at 12:25 PM ----------

I thought this as well. However, when she started questioning the level of evidence and they were about to prosecute the En Craates, I thought to myself "how are we gonna get out of this one?!" and was quite excited - only for the bloody son the oust her within a second of this reveal and shutting off the door to any interesting follow up quest to right the En Craate name if you so choosed.

Was disappointed with that aspect.

Yeah.

I, honestly, would have been somewhat interested if there had been more "Game of Thrones" politicking going on. For example, have Cerys potentially marry King Bran's son and unite the two strongest clans into the kind of hereditary monarchy which could make it like other lands. I don't agree with it as a superior system of government (primarily because Austria, Denmark, and many other countries showed why it worked just fine) but the option for Geralt to agree might have been cool. Also, stuff like simply "killing them all but your allies."

They could have done a lot of cool stuff here.

 

[hismastersvoice]

Yeah...no. Your conclusion and the scholars who postulate this particular fact are highly contentious in academia for very good reasons.

If "very good reasons" mean "because we can", then yeah, I can see anything being contested. Fact is, feudal structures across Europe have been gradually replaced to the point of extinction by increasingly centralised forms of government. We can discuss the mechanisms of that change to our hearts content, but let's not rewrite historical records here, shall we?

 

[CTPhipps]

If "very good reasons" mean "because we can", then yeah, I can see anything being contested. Fact is, feudal structures across Europe have been gradually replaced to the point of extinction by increasingly centralised forms of government. We can discuss the mechanisms of that change to our hearts content, but let's not rewrite historical records here, shall we?

Democracy is, by its very nature, decentralized government but way, way off topic. If you'd like to continue discussing by PM, please feel free to do so. Thanks for discussing it with me.

 

[Zeroscape]

So I liked Skellige quite a bit. The people made for a very refreshing change to all the continentals you were dealing with up until that point. I also liked how, through Yennefer, you trample over a lot of traditions and taboos. In regards to the evil queen of evil, yeah it was pretty obvious, but you did come into the picture during her end game and she would've gotten away with it if you hadn't been there. It could've been handled better, absolutely, but it's something to consider anyway.

What I really did not like were the excessive number of Smuggler's Caches that all played out the same in the sea. Collecting stuff is cool, but you never really need their loot nor cash from the sales and if you've done one smuggler's cache all the others are nothing new. That and I ended up fast traveling with boats instead of sailing because nothing broke up the journeys in interesting ways.

Ways to improve Skellige for me would be to make it more inhospitable. I'd have loved to see hostile and stormy seas able to break your boat if you don't sail correctly and big breaching waves like in the "Storm Coast" area of Dragon Age: Inquisition. The islands needed more danger and be more threatening.

 

[helios396]

What I like about Skellige:
- A different, refreshing environment compared to Velen-Novigrad. It's cold and lonely and beautiful.
- Some extra background information related to Ciri, like how she grew up with Hjalmar and how clan an Craite is basically a family to her. Quite interesting for someone who didn't read the novels like me.

What I don't like:
- Too many pointless places, e.g. smugglers caches. I stopped caring about the question marks in my Skellige map once I explored a bunch of them in the waters around Ard Skellig and found out that they're all smugglers caches or hidden treasures containing not-so-valuable loot.
- Sirens everywhere. A bit more variety in monsters would be great.
- Main quests in Skellige were too straightforward. Geralt basically just followed Yennefer where ever she went.

 

[Sunblind]

Skellige was by far the saddest part of the game for me.

I did mainquests and Yen questline first, was so heartbroken after breaking up with her, couldnt actually bring myself to do any exploration there (sad/melancholic soundtrack added to the experience too). Just rushed through most important side-quests and went away, so the whole zone took like 6 hours out of my 64 hour playthrough.

Looking forward to exploring it somewhere down the years, after they release DLC/EE/expansions/whatever-else.

 

[Ouroboros612]

As a norwegian I cringed at the names of locations in Skellige.

Lofoten, hindarsfjall, Larvik. Copy-pasted out of RL locations here in Norway. In my native tongue these locations pronounced in English sound extremely anti-climactic. Maybe because these places in Norway are such dull and boring places.

For me the naming of these places took some of the magic away. Because copy-pasting these places from my country is lazy and unimaginative, but also because the places copied don't translate well to english without sounding goofy.

Other than that I loved Skellige on all accounts.

 

[jockmick]

As a norwegian I cringed at the names of locations in Skellige.

As a Swede and fellow Scandinavian I agree with you. But, most of the names are actually from the books, so I suppose we'll have to blame Sapkowski for this. I remember seeing the name of the sorceress Marti Södergren for the first time in the books. That was cringeworthy and felt out of place.

 

[i_K33L_n0085]

Skellige is my favorite area in Witcher 3.
It's like a combination of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

 

[kraidy]

Best place in the game (Velan being the other.)

Novigrad was enjoyable to explore and had good side missions, but it just pales in comparison to Velan and The Isles.

 

[CTPhipps]

I really enjoyed the whole homage to "Odysseus" with the Lord of Undvik quest. The whole portion of that quest was really well-done with the qualities of a familar fairy tale (Odysseus and the Cyclops) adopted to a new setting (Skellige), only our protagonist is a MORON. Lacking all of Odysseus' wit, it falls to Geralt to save him.

Really, seeing what an EPIC disaster he'd made the expedition, I couldn't help but think he would make a HORRIBLE King.

Cerys, by contrast, is very clever.