possible lore-mechanic inconsistency--Wild Hunt are elves and Geralt use silver sword?

[mad9]

possible lore-mechanic inconsistency--Wild Hunt are elves and Geralt use silver sword?

As topic. I just turn back to the game to confirm--when you fight Wild Hunt with steel sword, it deals no damage and automatically switch back to silver. Since they are confirmed elves and elves falls in the human&non-human department, supposedly Geralt should use steel sword against them.
So how can this be explained? The armor makes them monster-elves or something? I've always wondered a great deal about whether I should use human or specter oil against them and end up not using any. meh

 

[Lucas182]

I wondered this my entire playthrough... don't know.. would love to.

At first I thought.. they are some skeleton, Game of Thrones like, white walkers... but then I realized they were elves... so why the silver sword? Dont know.

Also, why does Ciri only have one sword? She uses the same sword to fight humans AND monsters. So what is this? Some kind of hybrid?

 

[Charcharo]

This bugged me out. A lot.

@Lucas182
Monsters arent invulnerable to normal steel swords (though the core of the Silver sword is again steel). They just take more damage from it. It is more effective.

 

[Lucas182]

This bugged me out. A lot.

@Lucas182
Monsters arent invulnerable to normal steel swords (though the core of the Silver sword is again steel). They just take more damage from it. It is more effective.

In this game you basically can't use the wrong sword because it auto switches pretty quickly, but in Witcher 1 and 2 you could and the damage dealt was negligible. It was minuscule. And Ciri being trained by Witchers in Kaer Morhen... it just made no sense that she uses one sword for both.

 

[Charcharo]

In this game you basically can't use the wrong sword because it auto switches pretty quickly, but in Witcher 1 and 2 you could and the damage dealt was negligible. It was minuscule. And Ciri being trained by Witchers in Kaer Morhen... it just made no sense that she uses one sword for both.

I think it is more a problem of acquisition. Not so much a problem of her not knowing.

Yes I remember how it was in W1 and 2. In fact Id rather it stayed that way.

 

[mad9]

I wondered this my entire playthrough... don't know.. would love to.

At first I thought.. they are some skeleton, Game of Thrones like, white walkers... but then I realized they were elves... so why the silver sword? Dont know.

Also, why does Ciri only have one sword? She uses the same sword to fight humans AND monsters. So what is this? Some kind of hybrid?

I remember in the witcher Ciri ending and delivery guy mentioned her sword is steel core with silver edge. I'd think its reasonable for her lone sword to be a combination of both.
Besides, she's the lady of Time and Space. She can spit folks to death.

 

[Veirian]

I remember in the witcher Ciri ending and delivery guy mentioned her sword is steel core with silver edge. I'd think its reasonable for her lone sword to be a combination of both.
Besides, she's the lady of Time and Space. She can spit folks to death.

Ciri's sword was commissioned by Leo Bonhart and it was a gnomish sword made by dark iron. I think in the Witcher universe steel can be used on most monsters though silver is a lot more effective (I think silver burns most monsters and they are "allergic" to it [like dopplers] , but that does not mean you cannot kill a doppler by slicing his throat with a steel sword

Spoiler

Dudu got a scar by being cut by a steel sword

). Werewolves can regenerate extremely fast unless they are harmed by silver, which is why a witcher would use a silver sword. Ciri can teleport in an instant - I guess she would not need a silver sword to teleport behind a monster and slice it.

This is not really confirmed, though in the books Geralt says both swords are for monsters, so I guess only a few monsters can be harmed only by a silver sword, while most of them are just more vulnerable to it. Otherwise, a mage would curse a soldier and turn him into a werewolf, then send him into an enemy camp. Normal soldiers do not wear silver weaponry and I doubt they would stop the werewolf by using silver cutlery. If monsters were only vulnerable to silver they would be able to destroy whole towns and armies pretty easily.

Another thing - mind that Ciri was always on the run. She had Kelpi in the books but in the games she has no horse and she teleports, runs or gets a horse if she can find one. Carrying two swords on your back is heavy enough to allow for quick movement, especially for a girl that has not undergone any mutations and is not strongly built. I guess Geralt could be fast enough even with the two swords on his back, even though he carries the silver sword on Roach most of the time in the books. In the novels he also uses only one sword - a dwarven Sihil, for quite some time .

 

[warbaby2]

I remember in the witcher Ciri ending and delivery guy mentioned her sword is steel core with silver edge. I'd think its reasonable for her lone sword to be a combination of both.
Besides, she's the lady of Time and Space. She can spit folks to death.

The steel core is a must for the sword to be any good... a pure silver blade would bend and break pretty dramatically.

As for the Hunt and silver swords: They are elves, true, but from another dimension, that technically makes them outsiders like demons and elementals. In most fantasy settings, creatures like that can be harmed most effectively by silver or cold forged iron weapons. It's not that they can't at all be harmed by steel, but they are quite resistant against all forms of physical punishment. Magic and certain elements, however, disrupt their connection to the realm they visit, and rob them of that resilience.

 

[moonknightgog]

Wild Hunt are not elves. Or better, they are elves, but from another world.

 

[Randomdrowner2015]

But Aen Seidhe do share a common ancestry with the Aen Elle right?

 

[Lightice]

The way it seems to function is that extensive travel between worlds is what makes you sensitive to silver, and the Wild Hunt have been on the move for so long that they've become more like interdimensional monsters than elves of Tir ná Lia at this point.

 

[warbaby2]

But Aen Seidhe do share a common ancestry with the Aen Elle right?

Yea, but that's the extent of it - common ancestry.

As for silver being effective against supernatural entities: All monsters in the Witcher world originally hail from another world... even lychantropes, since they are cursed by magic that also came from another world. So, the easiest, preudo-scientific explanation for silver being effective against (otherworldly) monsters would be, that something in their bodies reacts strongly to silver like, say, sulfur. Silver is also a strong antibacterial agent...

 

[Charcharo]

So... in their own world they would be fought with Steel weapons, but if Geralt or Ciri teleport to the other world, they would stop them with Silver ones

Wild Hunt are Arthas cosplayers

 

[Willowhugger]

It's also possible all the dimension hopping has screwed with their DNA.

Monsters aren't innately evil after all.

Dudu is vulnerable to silver, for example.

 

[Demoniko]

I think this is for gameplay reasons. In almost every encounter with Wild Hunt in the game they come with some kind of monsters, which would case constant sword switches (because he now switches sword if you're using the wrong one). Just a thought.

 

[saricc]

Technically the Aen'Elle are from the exact same world as the Aen'Seidhe. As for silver swords... In the books Ciri defeats Eredin with a steel sword as well... Also Ciri fights against all the other Wild Hunt creatures with her steel sword in the game.

---------- Updated at 07:11 PM ----------

I think this is for gameplay reasons. In almost every encounter with Wild Hunt in the game they come with some kind of monsters, which would case constant sword switches (because he now switches sword if you're using the wrong one). Just a thought.

You're probably right.

 

[Lucas182]

I think this is for gameplay reasons. In almost every encounter with Wild Hunt in the game they come with some kind of monsters, which would case constant sword switches (because he now switches sword if you're using the wrong one). Just a thought.

Now THIS makes complete sense.

You win the internet

 

[mmasc4492]

Wild Hunt are not elves. Or better, they are elves, but from another world.

They are elves, they are not technically from another world. They are from the same world as the Aen Seidhe, they just left that world a long time ago.