Beasts - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Database

*Know that ditty about the bear “climbing the mountain, to see what he could see?” Biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard. When a bear climbs a mountain, it’s not to see. It’s to hunt. To kill. *
– Jahne Oldak, royal huntsman

Bears are omnivores – meaning men find a place in their diet beside berries, roots and salmon. When they snack on humans, they most frequently partake of the meat of travelers unwittingly trespassing on their territory, or else that of hunters for whom besting such a creature is a lifelong ambition.

There are several subspecies of bears – black bears, polar bears and cave bears – which differ from one another in coloring as well as in size and strength. All share one trait in common, however: a near-unmatched ability to kill.

Blood and Wine

You ask why I have these big hands, my friend? Well, I’ll tell you my secret: exercise.

• Big Bad Wolf

The Big Bad Wolf who lived in the Land of a Thousand Fables was, like the other denizens of that strange sphere, created by Artorius Vigo based on a figure from folk tales. Once he served as a playmate to the duke’s daughters, acting out scenes with a certain red-hooded girl and her grandmother, but as the fable land slowly degenerated, so did he.

Geralt and Syanna met the Big Bad Wolf while he was nursing a nasty hangover and was not eager to cooperate. Yet since our heroes needed a bean which the wolf had, they forced him to act out his tale.

That tale ended as it always had: the Big Bad Wolf attacked the Hunter (played by Geralt), biting and clawing him fiercely while his own wounds healed almost instantaneously. Inevitably, however, the Big Bad Wolf was killed and his stomach cut open.

This time, out came not a grandma and her granddaughter, but a magic bean.

They say a dog’s a man’s best friend… But in these foul times one best be wary, even of his friends.
– Alfred Pankratz, beggar from Novigrad

Some claim dogs are reflections of their masters. A well-treated pet repays his owner with loyalty and trust, whereas an ill-treated one repays this treatment in kind as well, meeting yells with barks and kicks with bites. Since there is an abundance of bad men, so, too, is there an abundance of bad dogs. Most dangerous of all are the vagrant mutts who have lost all respect for men and developed a taste for blood and carrion.

Blood and Wine

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?
I’ve been to Cintra to look at the queen
Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?
Run, fool, that’s not a cat but a panther!
– rare variant of a traditional folk rhyme

Panthers are dangerous predators found in forests and other woodlands. They are quick, agile and, like all cats, diabolically cunning. In many less-than-thoroughly-urbanized areas, folk still believe panthers are the stranded souls of those who die in their sleep. Superstition thus holds anyone perishing in this way should be dragged to the nearest woods and left there without a burial. The panther-spirit of the deceased may then devour its own body, thereby passing on to the nether realms.

This belief must be eradicated by any means, for it leads to epidemics of cholera and other contagious diseases born of rotting corpses.

Besides, it is patently ridiculous, given panthers are not necrophages and will not consume carrion of any sort. They prefer more spry and lively prey, such as deer or even humans, provided they are not ill and do not stink too badly.

Blood and Wine

Why bother with brick? In this climate, even a straw house’s nice and cozy.
– a little pig

The three little pigs are perfect examples of a rather unfortunate phenomenon. Leave even a kind-hearted, warm, naively benign creature to fend for itself, and it won’t remain so benign for long.

The three little pigs from the Land of a Thousand Fables were left for years without Artorius Vigo’s supervision. During this time they went completely feral, transforming into three wild boars which attacked anyone who dared approach their ruined home.

Hearts of Stone

*How doth the little wild boar
Improve his shining tusks,
And rut them ‘gainst the forest floor,
And on the trees’ rough husks!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little lasses in,
With gently smiling jaws!*
Louis of Charolle, mathematician, author and poet

These woodland beasts are as “wild” – untamed, nasty and aggressive – as their name indicates. To this day, many peasants in outlying Kaedweni villages believe wild boars persist on a diet of young maids, though in truth they most often slate their hunger with roots and acorns. Do not think this vegetarian diet makes them harmless, however. In fact, these animals’ stout build and sharp teeth render them veritable fur-covered combat machines. Mother Nature has additionally equipped them with dual pairs of tusks - upper “pipes” and lower “sabres” - and this weaponry’s sum effect is to make the beasts the terrors of the woods, a threat to all who venture or dwell there, human, humanoid and otherwise. Boars also have hard, club-like snouts, which some peasants call their “whistles,” though no boar has ever been heard to make such a noise. Instead, they emit a characteristic grunt, which sounds to some like the snoring of an extremely overweight man. Another peasant belief claims boars have extremely prickly natures, and, if offended, will vent their anger by knocking down fences and gobbling up potatoes. Though they sometimes live alone, boars usually appear in small groups of 3 to 5 specimens.

Friend of mine used to say that with all these griffins and basilisks and whatnot, good old fashioned wolves weren’t nothing to worry about… Then the damned beasts devoured half his flock.
– Yngvar, shepherd

Once upon a time wolves were the absolute rulers of the forest. Men used them to frighten children, while adults, too, trembled at the sound of their howling. Post-Conjunction monsters not only pushed wolves into the deepest wilds but also took over their place in human nightmares. Yet this does not mean the old predators ceased to be a danger. Wolves do not have a drop of magic within them, breathe no fire and spit no acid, but that in no way stops them from killing unwary travelers and hunters.

Particularly dangerous are wargs, a nasty and ferocious subspecies of wolf, and the snow-white wolves which today can only be found in the wild highlands of the Skellige archipelago.