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En anglais:
World of The Witcher
This fantasy world is inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and many other creatures. The game takes place in the Northern Realms - currently humans are the strongest but also the most divided race there. Non-humans (elves, gnomes and dwarves) are very often repressed and persecuted. The elves have only one free kingdom, some of them dwell in the forests and lead a hopeless guerilla-like war against men, which they are doomed to lose. Some elves have settled in towns and villages, creating separate communities. The dwarves are formally subjected to men and a lot of them live in ghettos in human towns. Roads and routes are dangerous - swarming with monsters, wild animals, bandits, rogues and starving peasants. Ragged and savage elven commandos roam through the forests, unpaid soldiers create confederations and set upon ordinary people.
In such times many people foretell the end of the world. According to their prophecies, ice will approach from the north and swallow the Nordling Realms. There must be some truth in it, as the winters are becoming longer and the days colder. However, a recently established Order of Flaming Rose claims, that the power of fire will save them from the ice. Only those shall survive, who follow the path indicated by the order of monk-knights.
The Northern Realms are quarrelling and at war, and also threatened by Nilfgaard - a powerful empire from the south which is planning to conquer their neighbors. However, for simple peasants, townsmen, merchants or innkeepers, the black armies of Nilfgaard are not the greatest danger. What they fear most are monsters, which are the plague of this world. Werewolves, stregas, ghouls, graveirs and manticores are lurking in dark forests, caves, wilderness, swamps and haunted places. Boneheads, wyverns, forktails and flykites prey in the mountain ravines, and people often encounter ghosts, wraiths and sprites in the woods.
The world presented in the game is known from the novels and short stories written by a Polish fantasy author, Andrzej Sapkowski. The world created by Sapkowski shares many common features with other fantasy lands. However there are also many distinguishing features setting it apart from the crowd. The world is not black and white, and there´s no clear distinction between good and evil. Therefore it is populated by believable characters that act like real humans. It is a vivid and colorful place bearing many analogies to our reality, as well as references to such plagues as totalitarianism and racism. This is also a grim world, full of violence and vulgarity, a place where only the strongest and most cunning can prevail.
But from the player´s point of view the most important feature of this world is existence of witchers. They are members of a brotherhood of warriors, trained to kill monsters and protect people from danger... for a price. There are only few of them left now, and time comes for one of them to play a very important role in the story that is about to unfold.