Right off the bat, the assassin reminded me of Berengar. Not likely though, as there is option to kill him in the game, so yea. not likely. However, The Lady of Lake did mention that Berengar's destiny did entwine with Geralts, so some might think that Berengar came back as did Geralt.Lambert, likely, Why? Because he went to Redania to search for the Salamandra, and whats is brought up that Foltest and Radvoid made a pact that when Foltest died he would lead both countries, could he or some of his council setup an assassination attempt?Leo, not likely. Leo was not a true witcher with the mutations, so the idea of it being him is outruled.Unknown witcher, this seems the best route. judging by facial features, and what i mean by that is facial hair, chin, and nose. Lemme explain, the facial hair, now as you can clearly see this guy has 5 o' clock shadow, we all know Mach 3 razors can take care of easily, but back then, no way. Geralt shows no facial like that at all. Chin, the assasin clearly has a much larger chin than Geralt does. Nose, Geralt has a narrow bridge nose that flames out just a little bit at the base. The assassin's nose flames alot more at the base almost making it look like it was mashed in. Scars, Geralt has the scar running from the top of his left eyebrow to underneath of it from right left, we see no sign of such a scar on him. i should probably also mention that the assassin does look a little shorter than geralt.Geralt clone or time traveled, this seems highly unlikely, but ill explain both in different terms. Clone Geralt - First of all who cloned Geralt? and if he did im pretty sure he made more than just one. If it was alvin who cloned him, then i have to say, there is nothing stopping him from making more of himself, am i right? I mean cmon, if someone in the story had the power to clone, im pretty sure they wouldnt clone just one Geralt. Time travled Geralt, doesnt seem likely either as how would he have time traveled? However, i dont shoot this theory down all the way, if it is a time traveled geralt, he is more or less alot younger geralt, this would explain alot of the missing features that the current geralt has. But once again, we have to ask ourselves, how?My theory goes to the unknown witcher that geralt may have known in the past and is shocked to see another witcher hired as an assassin (clearly because he weilds no silver sword or steel sword)
I also think it was Lambert, although I wouldn't like that possiblity (hey - Lambert is a really nice guy!) As for an expansion - I think that we have to wait for a sequel. And God I hope the requirements won't kill my PC again!
I don't think it's meant to be Lambert. You see his face up close for several seconds, if it was someone of major relevance like Lambert it would be easy to identify and we wouldn't have this huge thread with all this guessing at who it might be.On a side note, in the case of Lambert i also don't think CD Pro would take as much license as to take that character down a path like that, if i were Sapkowski i might think to myself "What the hell? Lambert would never do this"I find it slightly irritating that it's not clear who the assassin is, i think we can logically assume that it's a currently unknown person and that perhaps it will relate to what will happen in the sequel.I'm trying to think of how the story tellers at CD Pro would think, that's what you have to do in this situation, think of a plot device they would logically use. This leads me back to what i mentioned above - i think if we were supposed to know who the assassin was we WOULD know, because they would have made it plain as day and there wouldn't be this much guessing at who it is. I know, it's slightly irritating when you see the reaction of Geralt when he sees the face - it implies that we SHOULD know who the assassin was, and that we should be surprised along with Geralt.Keeping that in mind one development that would make sense is that the assassin is one of Javed's 'mutant' soldiers that he was breeding (obviously a successful mutation rather than the monsters you fight near the end of the game). If that were the case, it would make sense as we are expected to be surprised, along with Geralt, that after we just cut the head off Salamandra there could possibly be a couple of surviving mutants.It's not a great theory and it's missing lots but i just thought of it in the last 5 minutes 
eace:
eace:TheoriesI would have thought that if Azar had advanced his technique far enough to result in a true Witcher-type construct, he probably would have used one as a bodyguard, and thus would have faced Geralt in Act V. And the facial resenblance looks nothing like the characters Geralt has met so far. May I also point out that the Grand Master's plan was to create super-humans who were physically powerful, unflinchingly loyal, and had no concept of remorse or sympathy. He seemed pretty happy with the Greater Brother project, and it would seem that he was nearing what he would term "perfection". Quite a far fling from creating the usual Witcher if you compare the mutations.IdentityIt could still possibly be a witcher from another clan. It is easy to explain away the lack of silver sword here - an assassin only carries the tools necessary to do the job he is contracted for. The less he has to carry, the better he can perform the job. This would assume that one of the witcher clans (or perhaps a previously unknown one) has turned to a more lucurative business than monster-slaying (remember - the witchers are counted as "relics" soon to be replaced by knights such as the Order of the Flaming Rose). It may also be a witcher from the wolf clan, long forgotten and presumed dead from the battle of Kaer Morhen.MotiveRegardless of where he came from, there is some contention over whether the "assassin" is truly a killer-for-hire at all. The blatant hand-to-hand attack on Foltest may suggest someone out for vengeance rather than someone hired to assassinate him. Surely someone of such skill could find a simpler and far less risky method of killing Foltest than rushing him in his own castle?TimelineMuch of the speculation regarding the identity may rely heavily on just how long after Geralt's dissassembly of Salamandra did he receive his reward (cue Final Cutscene). If you count it only a few days, it is again unlikely that the unknown warrior is in fact a construct of Salamandra's mutant program. This is because that if other Salamander cells elsewhere in the world (like, say Nifgaard) came up with a Witcher mutant soon before or during Azar's confrontation with Geralt, that the chances are minute that the "assassin" would reach Vizima in time, especially since the destruction of the cell in Temeria would have also disrupted communication with the other cells. If they came up with one sooner, Azar probably would have gloated this fact to Geralt before their duel.What do you think?
It is that old woman from Shani's house!Now really, the only guy he reminds me of is not from the Witcher universe, it is from Warcraft universe and he reminds of Medivh or whatever he is called.
Now really, the only guy he reminds me of is not from the Witcher universe, it is from Warcraft universe and he reminds of Medivh or whatever he is called.I couldn't help notice the dual-weapon fighting style, and I understand witchers train to leave the offhand free for casting signs, which this assassin showed no evidence of. This suggests he wasn't trained as a witcher. EDIT: Speculation: the assassin wasn't expected to finish the job so much as to send a message, both to Foltest and the witcher Geralt, that witcher secrets had been successfully compromised and that agents could be augmented with them.
Why can't the witcher in the final cutscene be from another Witcher's school? Vesimir told Geralt that there were at least 3 of them, including Kaer Morhen. Why does everyone invoke "time travel" or "clones" when Geralt's own mentor acknowledges that there could be more, unaccounted for witchers out there... perhaps some that have forsaken the outdated "kill monsters for coin" and turned to the much more lucrative business of "murder for hire"?Someone, please tell me why this infinitely more likely event cannot transpire.
No one's saying it can't, this thread is for conjecture, extrapolation and pure speculation.Deimos1313 said:
eace:When we mention time travel we're talking about Alvin / Grand Master, not the mysterious assassin the final scene.If you ask me it presents an extremely compelling premise for the attacker to be a Witcher from another school (or even from Kaer Morhen - who's to say there are more that we don't know about, i would not put it past CDPR to take certain creative license here)I imagine a sequel where in the opening scene you find out Geralt is in Temeria Castle's Jail. Foltest was outraged at the Witcher attack and, despite all that Geralt just did to aid him, he orders him held for questioning (or perhaps someone else does).At the start of the game is a conversation with Foltest, who apologizes for the way Geralt was treated, but asks him if he knows anything about this assassin and why he would be attacking a human, after all Witchers hunt only monsters. An extended discussion follows, and in the end Geralt vows to investigate where this Witcher came from, and put a stop to whatever organisation he was a part of. Queue epic adventure of tracking down perhaps a group of renegade Witchers or indeed heading to one of the other schools, and of course unfolding a much grander plot as the story progressed.That's just one of a million possibilities, but i'm definitely down with the whole Assassin = another Witcher theory.The final cutscence led me to believe right away that there is a rouge witcher organization . I think the biggest clues were in the style of dress game wise Gerralt and the other witchers were dressed pretty much the same . The fighting styles were slightly different Gerralt was getting beat throwing the gold was the distraction to get the kill . I think the King will send Gerralt on a mission to find out what going on but Vesamir may return also the other witchers had quest as well or inferred quests going in four different directions . I think Azar and the grand master were only the tip of much bigger plot from the south or should I say Azar was one and the Grand Master was something else but worked together .
:hmmm: Perhaps Lambert or the others have stirred up another hornet's nest involving these assassin-type witchers elsewhere. Geralt is not necessarily the centre of the universe when it comes to finding trouble. You never know, the sky's the limit.
Yes, they wear makeup and like to do Japanese theatre. ~ Roxydmcaldw said:
LOL really poor at spelling oops good one . I think the sequel will be interesting all the same political groups , religious zelots , and guilds playing for power . Monsters at every corner , Nilfgaard is busy they had five years to lick their wounds and seeing how most of the northern kingdoms have less then adequate resources to handle outside threats it would be a great time to strike . Kill a couple of kings keep everything in a uproar . Triss has her own plot going . Nilfgaard would be able to just walk in and take the kingdoms of the North if things keep going like they are . So what ever direction the developers decide to go in there is major quest implications abound . The hint I think was the rogue witcher we will see . I will buy the sequel regardless of the direction except for maybe having Vesamir and Gerralt dress like Geishas might cross the line.RogueRoxy said:
Finished the game today. Loved the ending, and that is a lot, because I usually find endings in CRPGs to be lopsided and dull and they usually never make me want more, like this game and its ending did.I have been studying the art of creative writing for two years now, and what has been told us is, that when one writes a story, what the characters say doesn't have to be the truth. So, I personally think, that Geralt realized that the Grand Master in fact was Alvin, but he didn't want to believe that and thus, made himself to believe that it wasn't. That is why he didn't say it directly to Dandelion at their end discussion. After all, people are like that, they don't always want to see the truth, because it can either hurt too much, or they don't want to accept the fact, that they themselves can be wrong and do wrong. Just think about it, Geralt realizes he has killed the boy he loved, and who looked to him as a father figure, and that that boy had become the GM partially because of what Geralt had told him. Now how much quilt is in that, if he'd fully accepted his deeds? Maybe too much for him to handle. (And fo course, it is also the game developers way of make us all guessing how it was after all ).Other thing is that usually these kind of clues that are given to us during the game really mean the simplest thing they point at. And IMO in this game they point at the thing that GM is Alvin. Similar kind of solutions can be found on many games and movies and television series, if you look at them carefully. And the simplest solution is usually the right one, and the best. I have hard time believing that once the CDProject has made such an effort to giving out the hints during the game, that they would have any other solution behind what happened to Alvin and if Alvin is GM. Might be bit too complicated for a game to start to build all these other possibilities that much, and time consuming too.Third reason why I think GM = Alvin is, that there is another story behind the game, one which the game developers perhaps haven't thought about that much, but is visible to me. This game is a story about a father and a son. The son (Alvin), who graves for attention from the father (Geralt). But the father is always working (killing monsters or such). So the boy starts to hate the father, but still graves the attention and love and approval from him. Where it ends is, like in good old psychology theories, that in the end the boy just wants to kill the father, because the father denies him his choices and wants to suffocate them and make him see his own way, whereas the boy wants to make the father to see his way about things. The eternal batlle of the generations.
).Other thing is that usually these kind of clues that are given to us during the game really mean the simplest thing they point at. And IMO in this game they point at the thing that GM is Alvin. Similar kind of solutions can be found on many games and movies and television series, if you look at them carefully. And the simplest solution is usually the right one, and the best. I have hard time believing that once the CDProject has made such an effort to giving out the hints during the game, that they would have any other solution behind what happened to Alvin and if Alvin is GM. Might be bit too complicated for a game to start to build all these other possibilities that much, and time consuming too.Third reason why I think GM = Alvin is, that there is another story behind the game, one which the game developers perhaps haven't thought about that much, but is visible to me. This game is a story about a father and a son. The son (Alvin), who graves for attention from the father (Geralt). But the father is always working (killing monsters or such). So the boy starts to hate the father, but still graves the attention and love and approval from him. Where it ends is, like in good old psychology theories, that in the end the boy just wants to kill the father, because the father denies him his choices and wants to suffocate them and make him see his own way, whereas the boy wants to make the father to see his way about things. The eternal batlle of the generations. the grand master teleports you to the future right? but in the monsters section of the journal it says that stoneheads are extinct ( as in the existed in the past not the future) so is the grandmaster must be Alvin because in the outskirts Alvin gets possessed and recites ithliens prophecy. am i right? :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm:
I finished the game other day ago, and altho absoulutely thrilled, I was left with many questions. Many of them were answered in this topic, hence I decided to post here.I was left pretty much puzzled with the fate of Geralt and his chosen lady. So grab your tankard of dwarwen ale or Metina Rose and let's discuss women I went with Shani, since Triss seemed more of a no strings attached, sex plaything. Also, I love how they gave Geralt complete freedom in redefining his character after loosing memory. Which I percieved as perhaps a chance to lead a different life. And I was thrilled how things were going. But then, the war erupted, Alvin went back in time and I had only very brief moment with Shani since the last time I saw here in Vizima when Geralt made love to her. And I found it wierd he had time only to give her a short kiss and a hug, while having time to have sex with Toruviel. Also, I expected the whole time some sort of cinematics or anything at all, about how things ended. But except Geralts thoughts in Murly Waters, when he doubted his desicions about Shani, I got nothing. It's like suddenly Geralt was more interested in war and kings than in his own life and future he chose for himself, and I felt extremly agitated having lost control of my character after so much freedom. Perhaps they intentionally didn't give any info on his private life because of a sequel or I didn't do something right in a game? But then, won't it be rather difficult for devs to work the sequel and having them chosing will it be Triss or Shani? What makes this game different from other rpgs is a fact that every aspect of life is covered, not just fight the bad guys and kill the boss. But as the game neared it's end, it reverted back from complex to simple. And they built up so much expetations now for the sequel, I wonder if it would have been better to put a bit longer endgame cinematics and explain less unexplained later.In any way, I think Shani's character is one of the best female characters in games. No superpowers, except her own cute, yet strong personality.
I went with Shani, since Triss seemed more of a no strings attached, sex plaything. Also, I love how they gave Geralt complete freedom in redefining his character after loosing memory. Which I percieved as perhaps a chance to lead a different life. And I was thrilled how things were going. But then, the war erupted, Alvin went back in time and I had only very brief moment with Shani since the last time I saw here in Vizima when Geralt made love to her. And I found it wierd he had time only to give her a short kiss and a hug, while having time to have sex with Toruviel. Also, I expected the whole time some sort of cinematics or anything at all, about how things ended. But except Geralts thoughts in Murly Waters, when he doubted his desicions about Shani, I got nothing. It's like suddenly Geralt was more interested in war and kings than in his own life and future he chose for himself, and I felt extremly agitated having lost control of my character after so much freedom. Perhaps they intentionally didn't give any info on his private life because of a sequel or I didn't do something right in a game? But then, won't it be rather difficult for devs to work the sequel and having them chosing will it be Triss or Shani? What makes this game different from other rpgs is a fact that every aspect of life is covered, not just fight the bad guys and kill the boss. But as the game neared it's end, it reverted back from complex to simple. And they built up so much expetations now for the sequel, I wonder if it would have been better to put a bit longer endgame cinematics and explain less unexplained later.In any way, I think Shani's character is one of the best female characters in games. No superpowers, except her own cute, yet strong personality.I liked Shani but she disapointed me with her reaction when I chose to give Alvin to Triss. I prefered Shani, but being a sorceress Triss seemed a better choice to educate Alvin. And Shani never even let me explain. She just wanted a kid, no matter if he would be better with another woman. Really big disapointement.
Well, I guess that logic can be used in both ways. When I gave the boy to Shani, Triss was behaving juvenile and spiteful. And I chose Shani, not for my feelings for her, but because I believed boy needed a mother not a magic tutor.So, given the complexity of women, as in their nature, perhaps it would be most fair to judge them both before Alvin situation?