Mother Nenneke. Could White Orchard be replaced with Ellander?

[draconis184]

Mother Nenneke. Could White Orchard be replaced with Ellander?

I feel like Mother Nenneke is the absolute must-have character in the Witcher games. Almost all minor characters appearing in TW's short stories and novels are given at least some roles. Shani was simply a tiny, minor role in Blood and Elves, yet she appeared in both Witcher 1 and Hearts of Stone.In terms of appearance, Mother Nenneke had about the same screentime as Vesemir in the books. Yet up until now, she has been mentioned ONLY once, during the dialogue with Tomira the herbalist. I feel like this isn't enough to do her justice. Come on. Geralt needs a mother figure! And Nenneke is awesome, she's one of the very few people in the world who actually treats Geralt with kindness.

That's why I felt like the Temple of Melitele in Ellander might be a bit better prologue location than White Orchard. For two reasons: it's very close to White Orchard. The distance between the Temple to Vizima is roughly the same as the distance between Vizima and White Orchard. Hence changing the locations won't cause any impact whatsoever. On the contrary: we get to visit a location that book readers are familiar with, and spend time with a significant character in Geralt's life. This is his last adventure. Come on! At least Ciri and Geralt could have had the chance to spend time with their grandmother/mother figure. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Kallelinski]

And Nenneke is awesome, she's one of the very few people in the world who actually treats Geralt with kindness.

“She was too possessive,” he muttered, turning away his face. “I couldn't stand it. She treated me like—”
“Stop it,” she said sharply. “Don't cry on my shoulder. I’m not your mother, and I won't be your confidante either. I don't give a shit how she treated you and I care even less how you treated her. And I don't intend to be a go-between or give these stupid jewels to her. If you want to be a fool, do it without using me as an intermediary.”
...
“You're more of an idiot than I thought.” Nenneke picked up the basket from the ground.
...
“If it's so clear, then I don't understand why she keeps on trying to—”
“You understand very little,” interrupted the priestess.
...
“You're a fool!”

Probably the only other woman in his life, who doesn't mince words

That's why I felt like the Temple of Melitele in Ellander might be a bit better prologue location than White Orchard. For two reasons: it's very close to White Orchard. The distance between the Temple to Vizima is roughly the same as the distance between Vizima and White Orchard. Hence changing the locations won't cause any impact whatsoever. On the contrary: we get to visit a location that book readers are familiar with, and spend time with a significant character in Geralt's life. This is his last adventure. Come on! At least Ciri and Geralt could have had the chance to spend time with their grandmother/mother figure. Just my 2 cents.

As much as I would love to see it, I think this will be just a dream.

“Well,” said the priestess finally, wiping her eye with the sleeve of her robe, “now go. May the Great Melitele protect you on your way, my dears. But the goddess has a great many things on her mind, so look after yourselves too. Take care of her, Yennefer. Keep her safe, like the apple of your eye.”
“I hope” – the magician smiled faintly – “that I’ll manage to keep her safer.”
Across the sky, towards Pontar Valley, flew flocks of crows, croaking loudly. Nenneke did not look at them.
“Take care,” she repeated. “Bad times are approaching. It might turn out to be true, what Ithlinne aep Aevenien knew, what she predicted. The Time of the Sword and Axe is approaching. The Time of Contempt and the Wolf’s Blizzard. Take care of her, Yennefer. Don’t let anyone harm her.”
“I’ll be back, Mother,” said Ciri, leaping into her saddle. “I’ll be back for sure! Soon!”
She did not know how very wrong she was.

.__.


Not just adding a whole temple + surroundigs into an exisiting location, but also adding at least one really important character into the game...I don't even know where they have to start changing dialogues for that. There are so many things to reconsider then, Geralt could have asked Nenneke about removing the curse of Uma for instance.

 

[draconis184]

Probably the only other woman in his life, who doesn't mince words




As much as I would love to see it, I think this will be just a dream.



.__.


Not just adding a whole temple + surroundigs into an exisiting location, but also adding at least one really important character into the game...I don't even know where they have to start changing dialogues for that. There are so many things to reconsider then, Geralt could have asked Nenneke about removing the curse of Uma for instance.

Jeez that whole thing with Ciri promising to come back soon is pretty twisted, isn't it? GOT's Stark kids-get-separated-forever' level kind of twisted. That's why I'll say it again. White Orchard makes for a pretty weird choice for a prologue. Heck, we can just copy paste the whole region, replace that village with the temple, add Nenneke and several priestess and voila... problem fixed and the game is much better thanks to that.

 

[Kallelinski]

Yeah, but I think without a connection to the main game or an expansion, this is going to be lost cause, I am afraid, but it would be nice, indeed.

Things like this would have been more than possible, if we had a Redkit for Witcher 3.

 

[draconis184]

That's why I said it'd be better if the devs just decided during the development process that the prologue should happen around Ellander instead of creating an entirely new region and name it White Orchard. What's the difference? Geralt can look for Yennefer there, there can be a Nilfgaardian garrison. Geralt can kill a griffin. yadayada. Except for all that, he also gets to get some convos with Nenneke, perhaps Nenneke can even patch up Vesemir while Geralt go searching for that griffin. Sounds better than sitting at an inn to me...

 

[Euripides66]

Isn't Geralt banned from entering Ellander? Due to one of the short stories "The Voice of Reason"?

 

[draconis184]

Isn't Geralt banned from entering Ellander? Due to one of the short stories "The Voice of Reason"?

Like he would care. Besides, there's a war going on. Temeria has already been assimilated to the empire, and since Ellander is a fiefdom within Temeria, I dare say the same fate as befallen the region. So yeah... ban or no, no one will actually bother to block his entrance.

 

[Guest 3842753]

Probably the only other woman in his life, who doesn't mince words

In general, very few female characters in the saga mince words

---------- Updated at 08:46 PM ----------

Geralt needs a mother figure

I'd say she was more of a big sister / aunt to Geralt than a mom figure. She even tells him "I'm not your mom and won't be your confidant either". She's a stern friend and always helps him out but she never hesitates to scold him when he's being a big baby which is always amusing.

 

[draconis184]

Still she deserves to have some screen time in the game, especially if this is indeed Geralt's last adventure.