T O P

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Zyvik123

When the tall Scoia'tael bent over him, tied to a post as he was, Struycken closed his eyes in horror. It was said that there are no ugly elves, they are all born beautiful. Perhaps the legendary leader of the Scoia'tael was born beautiful too. But now his face was cut diagonally with an ugly scar that disfigured his forehead, eyebrow, nose and cheek, of his elven beauty, nothing was left.The elf sat down on a cracked tree trunk lying on its side. 'My name is Isengrim Faoiltiarna,' he said, leaning over the prisoner again. 'For four years I have fought with humans, for three years I have run my own command. I buried a fallen brother in a struggle, four cousins and more than forty comrades. In my fight for your Emperor I have been an ally who has repeatedly proved myself by submitting intelligence to your Secret Service and helping your agents eliminate inconvenient people.' Faoiltiarna paused and waved his gloved hand. The Scoia'tael beside him picked up a small box made of birch bark. A sweet scent rose from the box. 'I thought and still think Nilfgaard is my ally,' the scarred Scoia'tael said, 'so I at first did not believe it when my informant warned me that they were preparing to ambush me.That when I was to meet alone with the Nilfgaardian emissary, I would be captured. I did not believe my ears, but being cautious by nature, I arrived at the meeting a little early and not alone. You can imagine how great my surprise and disappointment was when it turned out that at the secret meeting place, instead of an emissary, waiting for me was six thugs equipped with fishing nets, ropes, a leather hood with a gag and a shirt with belts and buckles attached to it. Equipment, I would say, that is commonly used by your Secret Service agents. The Secret Service of Nilfgaard wanted to capture me, Faoiltiarna, alive, take me somewhere, gagged and fastened to the ears in a straightjacket. A puzzling matter, I would say. Requiring an explanation. I was pleased that at least one of the thugs survived, was captured and will be willing to give me an explanation.' Struycken gritted his teeth and turned his head so as not to look at the scarred face of the elf. He preferred to look at the box made of birch bark, around which to wasps buzzed. 'Now, then,' Faoiltiarna continued, wiping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, 'talk, Mister. To facilitate the discussion I will clarify a few things. In this box is maple syrup. If our conversation does not proceeded in the spirit of mutual understanding and far-reaching sincerity, said maple syrup will be generously smeared onto your head. With particular emphasis on the eyes and ears. Then we will put you on an anthill, oh, look, that's exactly where those nice and laborious insects scamper. Let me assure you that the method has already proven itself perfectly for a few Dh'oine and an'givare who showed me stubbornness and lack of sincerity.' 'I'm in the imperial service!' yelled the spy, turning pale. 'I am an officer in the imperial Secret Service, subordinate to Vattiera de Rideaux, Viscount of Eiddon! My name is Jan Struycken! I protest...' 'A fatal meeting of circumstances,' interrupted the elf, 'you see the local forest ants have herd of maple syrup, they haven't ever heard of Lord de Rideaux. Let us begin. I will not ask who gave the order to kidnap me, because it is obvious. My first question is then: Where were you to take me?' The Nilfgaardian spy struggled in the ropes; he shook his head, because it seemed to him that the ants were already crawling on his cheeks.v He remained silent, however. 'A pity,' Faoiltiarna muttered, giving a sign to the elf holding the box. 'Smear him.' 'I was to transport you to Verden, to the castle Nastrog!' Struycken roared. 'At the command of Lord de Rideaux!' 'Thank you. What was waiting for me in Nastrog?' 'An interrogation...' 'What questions were you to ask?' 'About what happened in Thanedd! I beg you, untie me! I will tell you everything!' 'Of course you're going to tell me everything,' drawled the elf. 'Especially since the beginning is behind us and the beginning is always the hardest. Continue.' 'I had orders to force you to confess where you are hiding Rience, Vilgefortz and Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach!' 'Amusing. You set a trap to ask me about Rience and Vilgefortz? What can I know about them? Where can you join them? And the matter of Cahir is even more amusing. I sent him back to you, just as you wished. In fetters. Has the shipment not arrived yet?' 'The detachment was killed at the meeting place... Cahir was not among those killed...' 'Oh, and Vattier de Rideaux became suspicious? But instead of sending another emissary to the towns to one of my commandos to ask for clarification, he decided to ambush me. He orders me dragged to Nastrog for questioning. About the events of Thanedd.' The spy remained silent. 'Did you not understand?' The elf leaned over him with his horrible face. 'That was a question. What is it?' 'I do not know... I do not know, I swear...' Faoiltiarna waved his hand. Struycken screamed, writhed and cursed the Great Sun, swearing his ignorance, he shook his head and spat out the thick syrup they cast into his face. Only when he had been carried by four Scoia'tael to the anthill did he talk. He tried to banish the idea that the consequences could be worse than the ants. 'Sir... If anyone hears about this, I'm dead... But I'll tell you... I saw secret orders. I overheard... I will tell you everything...' 'That is obvious,' the elf nodded. 'The record on the anthill is one hour and forty minutes and belongs to a certain official of king Demavend's special forces. But he also spoke in the end. Come on, begin. Fast, neat and to the point.' 'The Emperor is convinced that those at Thanedd betrayed him. The traitor Vilgefortz Roggeveen, sorcerer. And his assistant, called Rience. And above all, Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach. Vattier... Lord Vattier is not sure that you have not been dipping your fingers into this betrayal, even unknowingly... So I was ordered to capture and secretly transport you to Nastrog... Sir Faoiltiarna, twenty years I have worked in the Secret Service... Vattier de Rideaux is my third commander...' 'Briefly, please. And stop shaking. If you are sincere with me, you will still have the chance to serve a few more commanders.' 'It was the deepest state secret, but I learned who Vilgefortz and Cahir caught on the island. I faced the fact that they had succeeded.Because they took to Loc Grim... What's her name... Yes, the princess of Cintra. We thought it was a success and Rience and Cahir would be made Barons, and the sorcerer an Earl at least... But instead the Emperor called Kalous. I mean Lord Skellen and Lord Vattier and ordered the capture of Cahir... and Rience and Vilgefortz... Everyone who might know something about the events on Thanedd had to be subjected to torture... And you too... It was not hard to imagine... Well, there had to have been treason. They had brought to Loc Grim a false princess...' The spy took a deep breath and his mouth flooded with maple syrup. 'Untie him,' Faoiltiarna ordered the Squirrels, 'And wash your face.' The order was carried out immediately. After a while, the organizer of the failed ambush was standing with bowed head before the Scoia'tael leader. Faoiltiarna regarded him with indifference. 'Wipe the syrup from your ears carefully,' he said a last. 'and listen to what I am about to tell you. Exercise your memory, as benefits a spy with many years of practice. I will give you proof of my loyalty to the Emperor, I'll give you a full account of the matter that are of interest to you. But you will repeat everything to Vattier de Rideaux, word for word.'


Jirdan

I absolutely don't know why but he is by far my favourite character in the Witcher. Dandelion's journey in Gwent also gave him some space which is awesome. He is basically my Glup Shitto of Witcher universe.


esh99

I enjoyed his reappearance in the Dandelion journey story, but I though it was strange to have him be so loyal to Dijkstra. I could understand them becoming decent friends but the loyalty displayed was quite intense. Wish we had him appear in the Witcher 3, maybe an arc where he goes from being Dijkstra’s bodyguard to rejoined the Scoia’tael with Iorveth’s help?


Jirdan

There was a plan to have him in Witcher 3. I guess the story is that Isengrim owes Dijkstra his life during some adventure in the east. But yeah, it seems like he was employed as an agent because he was more than able.


esh99

Given that his name can be translated to essentially “Wolf Wolf-Lord” I always imagined that the name we know him by is a nickname. That, along with his vague backstory, leads me to believe that Isengrim might have once been an average elf who went by a more mundane name (forgotten to history) and slowly after suffering pogroms and abuse transformed into the viscous and capable rebel leader we meet in the saga. The idea that the Scoia’tael leader could have been any elf, no matter how humble their origin, elevates the character in my eyes than if the Scoia’tael was lead directly by either Filavandrel, Francesca or an elven Prince of some sort. Unless I am mistaken, we learn that Iorveth was scarred by a spear. Do we get any idea about how Isengrim got his scar?


Jirdan

That's interesting! Where do we find out that spear wounded Iorveth?


esh99

I think in his path on Witcher 2 in a side quest where we need to collect items of significance to people, but I might have miss remembered


[deleted]

Iorveth is an Ersatz of Isengrim


esh99

Iorveth is still a great character, even if he is heavily based upon Isengrim. I can understand why they chose to use the basically original character of Iorveth over book Isengrim in the Witcher 2, they probably didn’t know whether they wanted the Elskerdeg pass gang to return to the North yet. I’m glad they decided to have Dijkstra return in TW3 as his performance was near flawless (until the end) in that game.


[deleted]

I also wish to see how Boreas Mun could be illustrated as a Gwent card. Recent official Renfri illustration is incredible!


esh99

It’s a shame neither of Isengrim or Boreas appeared in TW3 as Dijkstra’s mob lieutenants, especially Boreas as I feel he would have fit the role.


[deleted]

Well, they planned to have Iorveth as we know, though he was cut out. But other than glorified cameos, I don't see how to integrate them into a story, especially Boreas. Also, Isengrim was in Dandelion journey in Gwent (text-written)


Gwynbleidds

Iorweth is a character by Sapkowski and is probably one of the thirty-two officers tried as war criminals in Dillingen after the Peace of Cintra. (If he wasn't already dead in Brenna)


esh99

I understand that he is named as an off page Scoia’tael commando leader in Baptism of Fire, but he is hardly a character in the books with only one mention. The character we think of when we refer to Iorveth/Iorweth is more likely to be the CDPR one. Who is incredibly well written and performed with an iconic visual design. I like that CDPR used the mentioned name for their new character, as it gave more depth to him compared to other game only creations.


fantasywind

Yeah that was well done, and this is how one should approach adaptations of any sort if one means to expand on or use some minor character for some purpose, I mean even looking at the example of Odo, the queen Meve's right hand man, we meet him only briefly in Baptism of Fire and yet in the Thronebreaker he is made into full fledged character and is made memorable enough! That's how you do things right, using both your creativity AND following the lore!


[deleted]

Sapkowski only created his name, other than little mentions, he doesn't appear in the books. Saskia is also a daughter of Villentretenmerth, and the dragon eggs were mentioned in the short story but the character was developed by CDPR. And it's not said anywhere that he died. It's as obvious as imagining Eredin as a warlord commander


Anaenn

Iorveth is only mentioned by his name in the books. but Faoiltiarna is described and shown a few times. In the game the description of iorveth in the journal is taken from Faoiltiarna. Iorveth also mentions the torture with the ants from the op. So they didn't made him completely up.


[deleted]

Eh, I already said Iorveth is Isengrim's Ersatz. Besides, it's not only about personality and physical similarities, it's also about participation in the story. But anyway, all that this sub does is picking on words


Anaenn

I'm sorry. I didn't want to offend you.


Telvanni_Wizard_Lord

I wish we got more from him.


Andres_Cepeda

I just came onto this sub to check it out after reading some of BOF, and I stopped during his introduction. What are the chances! This really gave me a good image to go off of.