The Witcher Lynx

Speculation has engulfed fans of The Witcher over the last 48 hours or so, following the announcement of a new game in CD Projekt Red's role-playing series. The developer has yet to reveal any details on the game itself — other than it's being made using Unreal Engine 5 — so all we've had to go on is the key art that dropped alongside the reveal.

This art clearly shows some kind of witcher medallion, partially buried in snow. Almost immediately, fans realised that said medallion did not resemble the wolf medallion that Geralt wears — reinforcing the notion that this new game is separate from Geralt's saga, which CDPR considers to be done and dusted.

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So what animal does the medallion depict? After taking a closer look, we concluded that it was a cat of some kind — possibly a wildcat, like a lynx, because of how spiked the ears are.

As it turns out, we (and many others) were bang on the money. CDPR has confirmed to Eurogamer that the medallion does indeed depict a lynx — but this has thrown open the gates for yet more speculation.

Witcher medallions are based on the various witcher schools — the most prominent being the schools of the wolf, cat, bear, griffon, viper, crane, and manticore. Could this new medallion just be a cat school redesign? It's possible, but CDPR's specific stance on it being a lynx has raised a few eyebrows.

This is because there is no school of the lynx in official Witcher lore — but interestingly enough, the lynx school does exist in what is essentially Witcher fanfiction. As noted on the Witcher fanfiction wiki, the 'School of the Lynx' was partly formed by Lambert and Keira Metz, who you may know from The Witcher 3.

Could it be that CDPR is basing its next game on fanfiction, at least to some degree? It's obviously impossible to say right now, but this whole thing certainly makes for an interesting coincidence, if nothing else.

In any case, it's clear that CDPR wants to take The Witcher in a new direction — as highlighted by its repeated use of the phrase "a new saga begins".

[source eurogamer.net]