Cursed Ones - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Database

Blood and Wine

Looks like a flower to me. A hideous, disgusting flower.
– Blasco Tennerbe, last words

Archespores look like gigantic, aesthetically unpleasing flowers with some of the traits of exceptionally cruel and bloodthirsty sundews. They are, however, far more dangerous than even the most colossal sundew. Their peculiar appearance makes them practically impossible to discern amidst other plants. By the time one draws close enough to realize what they are, it is often too late to flee.

According to popular belief, archespores are cursed plants grown in soil fertilized by the blood of the dying. They are most often found in places which in the past saw pogroms, bloody rituals or cruel murders. Four types of archespore have been catalogued to date, differing from one another in terms of coloring: brown (the least dangerous), green and purple (the most dangerous). The final variant, said to have been cultivated by mages from Ban Ard, is the yellow archespore, whose strength is similar to that of its green-colored cousins.

Now finish your soup, or a berserker’ll come and swallow ye whole.
– Skellige mother scolding a child.

Skellige legends speak of men known as berserkers who transform into bears when overwhelmed by battle rage. In doing so, they lose all self-awareness and are driven by a bloodlust which they must satiate in order to return to human form. Few believe these blood-curdling tales, however, not even in Skellige, where the inhabitants usually treat even the least probable legends with the utmost gravity. This indicates either that berserkers are in fact mere figments of mead-sodden imaginations, or else that they have learned to hide their abilities from the rest of the islanders.

Saying a botchling’s ugly is like saying shit’s not particularly tasty: can’t say it’s a lie, but it doesn’t exactly convey the whole truth, either.
– Lambert, witcher of the Wolf School

Botchlings are perhaps the most repulsive creatures a witcher will ever have the displeasure of meeting. Born of dead, unwanted babies discarded without a proper burial, their appearance is that of a partially-decayed fetus, their unformed flesh twisted with hate, fear and malice. These hideous creatures feed on the blood of pregnant women, driven by a mad hunger that most often leads to their victim’s death.

Hearts of Stone

The girl walked up to the edge of the pond. There, squatting amidst the fragrant lilies and broad lily-pads, she saw a most unusual sight: a small green frog with a golden crown perched on its warty head. Charmed by this curious little creature, the girl picked it up and gave it a kiss. Immediately the little frog transformed into a handsome prince. Overcome with gratitude, he asked the girl to be his wife.
– folk tale, author unknown

Timeless tales always carry within them a grain of truth. The legend of the frog prince is no exception, or at least that’s what the folk of Oxenfurt wished to believe when they found out a monstrous toad lurked in their city sewers. The women who hunted it in search of romance and a better life, however, found their tales had a most unhappy ending. The creature they encountered was no small, sweet frog but a bloodthirsty beast, who not only did not let them in for a kiss, but instead greedily devoured them and anything else that strayed into its slime-covered lair.

Ulfhedinn? What’s that, some kind of fish?
– Professor Artibus Joannes Rack, geographer, disappeared during a surveying expedition in Skellige

Ulfhedinn are a breed of werewolf found mainly in Skellige. The harsh and barren conditions of the isles might explain why they primarily hunt men and are stronger than their Continental brethren. Older and particularly dangerous ulfhedinn are called vorefs. Only a few daring warriors in all of Skellige history have managed to defeat an ulfhedinn, and each of them is commemorated in ballads as a hero to this day.

Wolves aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be. Werewolves, though – they’re every bit as bad and worse.
– Elsa Vilge, archer

Werewolves are creatures with both men and wolves inside them. When in beastly form, they take the worst traits from each: the wolf’s drive to kill and hunger for raw flesh and the man’s cruel and calculating intelligence. A werewolf’s condition comes about through a curse, and the transformations happen outside his conscious control. When he reverts to human form, he has no memory of his deeds – otherwise he would surely go mad and take his own life.