Witcher de la Vague
2022-12-17

Witcher de la Vague

The Dark Horse has released volume one of The Witcher Rōnin. Eastern European folklore is replaced with Japanese Yōkai and it blends nicely.

I admit it, I only know The Witcher from Netflix. I know nothing from its video game incarnations. What drives me toward the franchise is the "field trip" aspect of Geralt. He is very strong but it seems he always has to consider context and knowledge to solve the threat's equation.

Survive long enough, take a step back, see it all encompassing and shut down its system.

The original books are in my reading queue. My Netflix viewing queue has gone bankrupt. Books are better, games with friends are better.

I have this romantic belief that the original books are weaving on a forked interpretation of D&D in a fertile "east of the west" soil. A "Summer will end soon" stasis behind the curtain and a writer that still remembers his grand-mother and the tales from the farm, in the time before the roadside got littered with jerricans.

This Dark Horse Witcher approaches farther eastern reaches. The woman of the snow is lovely, almost that Galaxy Three-Nine profile, eyes much colder, a beauty for our century. The tunnels ends for Geralt, snow country and then what? Golden bridge?

 

This volume one of the Witcher Rōnin ends with a treat for us role-players — each of the Yōkai encountered by Geralt is detailed in a bestiary, explaining the monster in the Japanese tradition and how they weaved it in Geralt's path.