If you were looking at the teaser image for The Witcher 4 and thinking, “That’s not like any Witcher medallion I know,” then you were right on the money - publisher CD Projekt has revealed that it has created a whole new Witcher school for the new game.
We still know very little about The Witcher 4 beyond the fact that it’s in active development. CD Projekt put out a short announcement earlier this week confirming the open-world PRG was in the works and that the team had swapped from its own REDengine to Unreal Engine 5. Beyond that, all we have to go on is the teaser image – a Witcher medallion half-covered in snow.
While the medallion looks similar to the one we’ve come to know across The Witcher trilogy, that of the School of the Wolf, it is a narrower face with pointier ears.
Fans weren’t sure if they were looking at a redesigned medallion, either of the School of the Wolf, another canon Witcher School, or an entirely new medallion.
Our own Jessica Weatherbed called it, saying that not only was it a new medallion, but that it would be an entirely new school that didn’t feature in the games, books, or television series.
Yea, i'm pretty convinced this is a new Witcher school. Possibly a prequel set in the Second age of Witchers. Not book canon of course, but then, non of the games are either. pic.twitter.com/eC3gt2Em2tMarch 21, 2022
"I can confirm that the medallion is, in fact, shaped after a lynx," global communication director Robert Malinowski told Eurogamer.
However, while the School of the Lynx doesn’t appear in official Witcher fiction, there are stories about the school elsewhere on the internet – on a Witcher fan fiction wiki.
On the fan wiki, the School of the Lynx forms after the School of the Wolf dissolves. Founded by the surviving members – including Geralt – the school eventually departs its homeland and explores the Western continent. However, remember that this is all fan-fiction and unlikely to be similar to the story that CD Projekt is working up for its new RPG. For a start, Geralt may not even feature in the new game. Indeed, the developer was talking about having a different protagonist for future games.
Also, we have no guarantees that the new Witcher game is set after the events of the original Witcher trilogy. To avoid the difficulties of picking which possible ending to the games is canon, CD Projekt may make the new game a prequel to the old trilogy.
While we are still likely years away from playing The Witcher 4, we now know a little more about the world that CD Projekt is developing.
