Vampires - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Database

Blood and Wine

One can be forgiven for thinking garkains harbor some kind of particular hatred for humans. After all, given what humans are like, it would be hard to blame them.
– Agnes of Myrkvid, druid flaminica and scholar.

Blood and Wine

*Looked like a bruxa, but that was no bruxa… *
– fragment of a conversation between the ealdorman of Falkoane and a witcher.

Alps are vampires that resemble bruxae in appearance. They are called phantoms by some, a name which fits well enough, for like phantoms they haunt and torment men. They usually take on the form of a woman, though they can also appear as animals. They are most often found prowling near villages. They attack at night and are most active when the moon is full. Alp saliva can make one fall asleep, and when applied to a sleeping man, can invoke horrible nightmares. Some suggest they are the cause of legends about men who go to sleep healthy and are found in the morning white as snow, not a drop of blood in their veins.

Blood and Wine

If you must travel through the woods, steer clear of any places where you can hear several different kinds of birds at once. That sound means you’re entering a bruxa’s territory and can kiss your life farewell.
– anonymous piece of advice*

Fortunately for us all, bruxae are rare creatures. Most live far from population centers, for they care greatly for their own safety and make their lairs in places where they cannot be taken by surprise. Those who decide to live near men avoid crowds and emerge from their shelters only at night. When they do, one could almost mistake them for delayed travelers hurrying towards their night’s lodging, yet subtle details give them away: their close ties to birds, their piercing voices and the breathtaking speed of their movements. Bruxae are far swifter and stronger than men, but their greatest asset is their ability to turn invisible.

Blood and Wine

It was horrifying to watch… that gentleman suddenly turned into a ghastly beast, with claws, and… tore those men to shreds with the precision of a master butcher…
– a witness to Dettlaff’s attacks

Dettlaff is a higher vampire and one of the most terrifying creatures the world has ever known. Some vampires of his sort live among men easily and inconspicuously, sometimes even gaining the respect and admiration of their community. Yet even the most civilized vampire can be incredibly dangerous if provoked, and Dettlaff… Dettlaff was far from civilized.

When in his two-legged form, Dettlaff strikes in surprising and unique ways, so one must be extremely alert and attentive. His razor-sharp claws, wielded with great strength and precision, are his chief weapons, yet he can also wield weapons of human devising with extraordinary skill.

Like all higher vampires, Dettlaff can turn into fog and envelop opponents. When fighting a vampire in this form, one must watch out for magic puddles and attacks from the air. When wounded, Detlaff tends to assume his winged form, using these powerful appendages to stun his foes near effortlessly.

One must remember higher vampires are immortal creatures and thus do not fear for their lives while fighting, meaning they take every risk. They are able to turn invisible and can regenerate strength during combat. All in all, they are supremely difficult foes, even for a witcher.

Bah, ain’t nothing to fear. Ekimmaras, why, they ain’t nothing more than overgrown bats.
– Anonymous city guardsman’s last words

Like other vampires, ekimmaras are not, despite what village gossips might say, undead humans. They are instead post-Conjunction monsters who have no particular feelings about garlic, holy water or religious symbols.

Unlike their portrayals in ballads and legends, they look nothing like handsome, pale aristocrats with charming eastern accents, though, like katakans or nekurats, they do bear a strong resemblance to overgrown bats. They also do not suck blood from the necks of virgins with a delicate, kiss-like bite – they tear them to shreds using long, sharp claws and then slurp the splattered blood off the ground.

Blood and Wine

The deceased’s corpse was completely mutilated. All that remained of the nose was a hole clotted with blood. One eye socket had been chewed beyond all recognition. The mandible had been torn off. Seeing this, Sergeant Dovate vomited profusely and the administration of smelling salts was required. The investigation has been discontinued and the deed attributed to a supernatural being.
– fragment of a Toussaint Ducal Guard report

Fleders are classified as lesser vampires. Though weaker than the rest of their ilk in every aspect from the physiomagic to the physiognomic, they should not be underestimated – for they are very, very dangerous. Fleders cannot be mistaken for any other creature, with their wide, toothy jaws, flat, unpleasant faces and completely hairless, often warty bodies. These vampires mainly fight with their teeth and claws, flailing them blindly and not stopping even when their victim is already dead. Even a solitary fleder is strong enough to take down a trained soldier.

Compared to other vampires, fleders display meager intelligence, seen most clearly in the mindless rage which causes them to try with all their might to attack and tear to shreds any weaker being.

Vampire bites… and the strong stench of alcohol.
– Geralt of Rivia

Blood and Wine

Blood on the ceiling, guts on the walls… Must be a garkain.
– Yan of Lan Exeter, investigator and Captain of the City Watch

Garkains, like fleders, belong to the class of particularly dangerous vampires whose strength exceeds even that of fiends. An encounter with one of their number almost always ends in death, which is why there are not many eye-witness accounts of them. From the city guard reports written up in Lan Exeter describing the attacks committed in that city in 1104 by three garkains (later killed by a certain Olivier of Gulet, witcher), it seems these horrible monsters do not content themselves with drinking the blood of their victims. The investigators concluded from the blood and guts strewn around the crime scenes that garkains tear their victims to shreds with great delight and muck about in their bloody entrails.

Men, the polite ones, at least, would call me a monster. A blood-drinking freak.
– Emiel Regis, higher vampire

Only a mutual thirst for blood links higher vampires to their distant and much more primitive cousins: ekimmaras, alps, katakans and the like. Higher vampires are, in fact, much more similar to humans than to those bat-like blood slurpers. They not only resemble us in appearance, but also share our intelligence and behavioral patterns. This means they do not squat in distant forests or hide in the shadows. On the contrary, they are particularly fond of cities, where they live out deceivingly normal lives. Even witchers are not capable of recognizing them at once, for their medallions remain perfectly motionless in the presence of higher vampires. Yet all these similarities should not blind us to an essential difference: unlike men, higher vampires are immortal. Those who have faced them in combat and survived can be counted on one hand.

Melitele, Great Mother, protect us from evil, from unclean devils and foul demons, and most of all from the clutches of katakans and nekurats…
– fragment of a prayer

Katakans and their more dangerous kin, nekurats, are the embodiments of human fear. They hide in the shadows. They feed on blood. They resemble enormous bats – though with long fangs and even longer talons. And, as if that weren’t terror enough, they can turn invisible, waiting unseen while dread of their unpreventable attack overwhelms their victim.

Blood and Wine

Never seen a vampire like that in my life.
– Geralt of Rivia, witcher

Protofleders are relatives of fleders which came from the world of the higher vampires to our own during the Conjunction of the Spheres.

The members of this species are characterized by their considerable strength and agility as well as the strange glow they emit, a trait most likely tied to their otherworldly nature. Protofleders have never had significant contact with the outside world, having spent their entire time on our planet in the Unseen Elder’s cave, whose atmosphere is very similar to that of their home world.

We dug out a chamber. There was a beast sleeping inside. We fell over the props to collapse the ceiling, but it must not have buried the monster…
– Bytomir of Velen

Blood and Wine

The bruxa Geralt encountered and killed in self-defense at Corvo Bianco differed from other creatures of this sort. Firstly, it was more intelligent, capable even of articulating words in human language without much difficulty. What’s more, this bruxa was tied to the Beast, the mysterious murderer prowling Beauclair at the time.

Fighting it presented Geralt with quite the challenge. Like other bruxae, this one possessed strength and speed far above that of any human, could turn invisible and could attack using a sonic wave.

As is typical for all vampires, it sought to suck its victim’s blood. This meant the usual defense against those creatures, the Black Blood potion, was an effective weapon against it, as were the Moon Dust bomb and, naturally, the witcher’s trusty silver blade.