She freed the children and wiped their memories of the horrors they witnessed if you speak to the children they have no idea who you're. That kindness makes me think she is alot more kind then the stories make her out to be.
Yeah she frees the children but she kills the village of Downwarren. If you go back later it's all wraiths. Of course the other option is to kill the spirit, which saves the village but the Crones eat the kids.
I think the Crones killed their "mother" with the aid of the Wild Hunt. They are clearly subservient to Imlerith in the Bald Mountain quest and Imlerith has the magic acorns that can be looted from his corpse. So it seems like part of the operation is to farm these Acorns for the Wild Hunt. Also, the Crones were ordered by the Wild Hunt to keep their ears out (literally) for Ciri in case she appears in Velen. Avallac'h tells Ciri that there used to be a druid circle in Velen and the Crones corrupted the sacred tree, so that seems to match the spirit's story better than the "She Who Knows" book.
The actual real identity and appearance of the Whispering Hillock has been revealed in Gwent. The "She Who Knows" card depicts her as she is creating the 3 crones.
I read a story once where the main characters discussed how to deal with spirits and other entities and it boiled down to basically 1: always be on guard and be respectful as spirits couldn't tell humans apart and you had NO idea what the last human had done or promised which could affect you. 2: ALWAYS follow the WORD of a deal made with a spirit even if you twisted the meaning of the word until it was nearly unrecognisable. 3: always remember that spirit don't think like humans, they are what they are with all that that entails.
@@urippe The overall theme comes from a lot of old folk-lore and myth but the story in question is a Avatar the last airbender fanfic called Embers and written by Vathara, if that is your thing I highly recommend it even if just for the authors notes and book suggestions at the end of the chapters. Happy reading if you decide to give it a chance.
Just found out the crones feed the villagers their own children. If you kill the tree you can tell the alderman what you saw. Dialogue goes like this: Geralt: You trust women you have never even seen? Why? Alderman: ere the evil took root on the hillock. the ladies always helped us healthy babes were born. And once a year we get a giant pot of boiled meat Geralt: Once a year, that's it? Alderman: At the time of the feast, the ladies of the wood give us the scrapings from their table.
I mean… it doesn’t make much sense for Geralt to release the Whispering Hillock. Whomever it is. Just keep in mind it is impossible for him to see the whole picture in that particular moment. He has made a deal with the Crones to kill it and they’ll tell him what they know about Ciri’s whereabouts. The Crones have that as leverage. I don’t think Geralt would risk that even though sacrificing those children is a difficult choice. I always feel like he’d rather not get involved in the Crones-Velen inhabitants relationship either. He refers to Velen as an awful place several times, and shows no intention to improve it. He knows he is being used, but finding Ciri is his number one priority. Don’t get me wrong, i am not saying that killing the spirit is the right choice. I feel like releasing it is too risky, considering he doesn’t know what’s going to happen
Perhaps the spirit was indeed taken by madness and her daughter's killed her for the sake of Velen, But overtime the same madness took over the crones.
Ultimately, while it costs you 5 children in a line of many, the best thing is to kill the tree thing THen beat the crones. It's sad that if you wanna kill all three, you have to let ciri die. REALLY wish there was a way to kill the third one, because for the love of all things Yen and triss, those three were ploughin' awful
It’s entirely possible she does hunt down and kill the last one if she becomes a witcher. I mean who knows what she got up to? I’d imagine she wouldn’t exactly let it go.
I was also meant to say but I couldn’t remember exactly what it was but it just come back to me. Ciri wears the medallion later that Weavess took. Implying she did actually go back and get it. Ofc she could just have had a replica made.
I freed the spirit prior to meeting he Crones but in between the Baron's quest. That choice saved Anna and Phillip ultimately, but they said the orphans would also be spared and that they'll be at the orphanage in Novigrad. But during my stay at Novigrad with Dandelion's quest to visit the orphanage, I did not recognize any of the children to be from the crookback bog. Dunno if the kids were eaten or what not. BUT I was still glad that Anna was saved, thus preventing Phillip from committing suicide. I mean he actually treated Ciri well. Like a daughter he'd always wanted. Contrary to that brat Tamara.
I did what you mentioned on your 1st paragraph on my 2nd run of the game and there's still a line by one of the Crones that mentions "those children you brought us were tasty" (probably saying that to Anna) or something to that effect - implying the children still get eaten if you release the Spirit before starting the Baron's quest.
5:15 Wrong. That doesn't show that there is some goodness in her heart. You've clearly misinterpreted the situation. It demonstrates, that she honored her end of the deal. This is how making a bargain with a supernatural being works - both sides prefer not to face any backlash from a broken agreement. Sometimes they are straight up forced to do it by supernatural means, like magic.
I did the quest before meeting the crones and the kids were freed none the less. I don't remember the dialogue with the willow all too well but I remember the kids never being mentioned. She might have wanted to free the kids all along.
@@DaLoler1 i tried it and i can say that the quest is bugged this way, cause in my dialog the children were eaten AND beeing freed.(crones say children tasted good and they say the black beauty took them)
this was the most twisted quest: .if u look from the front - saving the children seems the best choice .if u look from the back - saving the baron + villagers seems better choice your viewing angle changes everything
I love how in this series, books often aren't a reliable source of information, to reflect that the were written by flooded humans, and to actual understand the subject, you must firstly take away lies. And i am almost certain, that there are people who only played Witcher 3, and think that Humans in this universe, were there before conjunction of spheres, just because first cinematic told them so.
@@gageschmidt3208 maybe, i don't remember, its been a while since i played but i remember book that call this "elvish propaganda" but i know that in both witcher 1 i 2 this wasn't mention
So the only question I still have about this, is if you free the spirit, why doesn’t she go after the Crones as revenge for killing and cursing her in the first place. Destroying a small village that has had who knows how many generations since the supposed betrayal, is one thing, but not going after the ones that actually killed and cursed you? That seems a little suspect to me.
I'm a year late, but I would figure she isn't anywhere near strong enough to face her daughters just yet. Afterall, they already killed her once. This is made all the worse by the fact that the crones have been growing from the sacrifices of nearby villages, Downwarren being one of the most subservient and reverent. By destroying the village, and possibly others like it, she weakens the crone's powerbase and becomes that much closer to her original status.
I just started this game and am on this level. Freed the spirit. I think it is weak from being imprisoned and if the daughters defeated her once I'm sure they're stronger now and have something up their sleeve. Also don't know anything about this game but someone was saying how the daughters lend their ears to the enemies of the game. So they probably would have help idk. Also she wanted revenge right? Ig it wouldn't matter how many generations have passed if she's a spirit and they just honor their deals or something. Whoever was connected to her betrayal if she had the power to exact revenge she would. She did and even if it was evil whoever made those decisions against her knew the risks. If you harm someone they'll want to harm you I'd assume. Not defending the spirit it just is common sense in some aspects. She could be majorly evil idk but a lot of what is said in this video has some weight. But yes she could still be evil in her own ways I feel like everyone is and if she's some spirit with power then it's just like anyone else who would have that much power. It would go to their head but she still honored the land and people. Co existence that they chose. And they deceived the villagers in the end to eat children and probably other stuff that was asking for more from the villagers.
Think of the Crone worship as a weed, you can’t just break off the stem, the weed will regrow. So if the Lady went after the Crones the villagers would still worship and do terrible things, by destroying Downwarren the most faithful village, the Lady has committed a cleansing and an act of striking fear against the Crones. She has gotten rid of the root of the Crone worship and made a symbol to the Crones saying I have returned and your end is nigh. Now let’s take this one step further, the Lady is clearly something more than a Druidess, she knows things, she has a greater sight than any mage, seer, or mortal in general. I believe she knows who Geralt is and when she met him face to face, for lack of a better term, it donned on her as you, you are the one who I have awaited, the time of my insolent daughters’ destruction is nigh. She knew these events unfolding, she knew Geralt would find Ciri, and thereby Ciri would destroy two of her daughters leaving the third severely weakened and thus she would fade from power or she or somebody else would destroy her third daughter. This would mark the end of the age of the Three Ladies, and her new age would begin, thus Velen would return to beauty and glory beneath her benevolent reign once more. The Lady has a far-seeing vision, she knows things that are to come and this is why she did not act against her daughters.
Has anyone noticed how The Whispering Hillock’s voice keeps changing throughout the quest? Three times to be exact. I think The Whispering Hillock is really just the Crones toying with us.
The Crones' appearance in the tapestry was likely their original appearance when they were first "created" or were younger (depending on whether they're actually created "offspring" of the Ghost in the Tree or were just devoted human followers who became powerful and eventually used witchcraft to overthrow her). This is evidenced by them remarking that their youthful appearance and the feeling of being young are made possible by their consumption of children and their blood. They're likely just humans who used sorcery to keep themselves alive over thousands of years and mutated and/or aged into their current forms due to time and experiments with magic they likely did to prolong their lives.
If you free the spirit before meeting the crones or entering the village where the crones live she doesn’t offer to save children so this could be proof that she only offers to save the children in order to make you think she’s good and therefore get you to free her
I tricked the thing after telling it I would free it and it died. I thought leaving it alive would spread more evil out among the land so I made that last second choice. Then went back with the Baron to kill some things there.
She still does it tho, difference is the crones don't blame Anna for it because she didn't get the crones to direct you to the tree which causes the children to be freed since it already happened. Freeing the spirit early lets you save everyone but downwarren
@@bavarianalex Wait, really, oh thank goodness, so I’ve been making the right choice all along. I always wanted to save as many lives as I can, kind of making Geralt’s morality align more with the Griffin School. I am so glad to learn that I have been saving everybody except Downwarren because I honestly believe they must die. For Velen to be cleansed the root of the problem must be exterminated, and the Crones and Downwarren are the very root of it all.
If I am not mistaken, Geralt was tasked by the crones to kill the spirit, "the creature that was disturbing the villangers" in order to gain information on Ciri. So they had their reasons which I don't exactly know, but I think it makes sense for the crones to kill the villagers and Anna who was guarding the children, if geralt decided to free it.
In my NG+, i did the 3rd option in this quest where i saved the Spirit thus Punishing the village and (sadly) the Orphans eaten by the Crones while Keeping Anna alive.
Well, there's one detail missing: If you free the spirit before the quest is given to you, she'll only destroy the village but will not safe the children. So in this case freeing her will result in the ending in which Anna and Philipp Strenger live.
@@chaoticstudent1815 they appear at the orphanage, the kids don't remember you no matter what and they are common reused assets so they're easy to miss
We all should remember that revenge can suffocate everything, if you only feel the wanting of revenge in your heart, all other feelings will stop. It´s differently with sadness, madness or any other emotion, you can still feel them all, with the whole revenge thing you can´t, it all turns into one, I would rather be sad for a while than to truly feel the need for revenge.
I saw some people somewhere mentioning that the spirit in the tree wasn't even human (Geralt comments on the bones he finds). I've also seen people mention that the spirit was just as evil as it also had human sacrifices, some suggesting that the sacrifices rule out the possibility of Druidism (though I may be imagining this). However, I'm just wondering if those comments are made based off of a lack of knowledge of Druids? In real historical texts, Druids were known to be in charge of sacrifices in their communities and did participate in human sacrifices. In historical texts, they had also been said to be users of magic with the ability to cast spells. Furthermore, I did some research and found some evidence of multiple accounts of shapeshifting for various reasons in Celtic mythology, for reasons of rebirth, punishment, survival, etc. One of these stories includes a Druid turning himself into a Boar. I think it's entirely possible that the reason the bones Geralt found were not human is because the Druid shapeshifted as she tried to escape the Crones, only to be murdered in that form. After all, if you free the spirit, she takes the form of a black horse, a rebirth shapeshifting, so the story already includes shapeshifting. Anyway, I truly do think the argument that the spirit is a Druid is quite strong. Not only does the above strengthen the argument, but the word druid literally translates to "knower of the oak tree", and the spirit happens to be bound to an oak tree. In more modern mythologies of Druids, they are known to be in tune with the natural world as an important part of Druidism. The spirit mentions nature's wrath when explaining the deaths surrounding the tree, implying a higher understanding of the natural world. Lastly, as Tony N commented, Avallac'h mentions a druid circle in Velen and Crones corrupting the sacred tree. It would seem quite likely that the Druid was protecting the sacred oak, the bog, and it's people through sacrifices and other common Druid practices until three Crones ironically bound the "knower of the oak tree" to the sacred oak tree in order to gain control of the region and its people. Honestly, that seems entirely like the kind of sadism I'd expect from the Crones.
A better reason would be the fact that if you choose to spare the tree she asks you to collect her remains....from a hill due west. Only her spirit is said to be trapped in the tree so the bones are most likely to be that of whatever the thing her spirit was encased in.
Honestly I liked the spirit more than the crones. At least she keeps her word. There's an order it follows while the crones are just chaotic evil. This made me feel it was a natural spirit but if you pay attention to fairy tales of old. Old spirits are seldom kind, but they are pillars of the world. I hate this quest because it feels like a no win scenario.
Maybe the lady of the wood did go mad and her daughters removed her and were benevolent but whatever drove their mother mad happens to them too. So when we see them in the Witcher 3 they have already gone mad but they had each other so they didn’t get lonely like their mother and create any more daughters. Hence there was no one to overthrow them when they went mad.
Thank you, yes. I agree. I mean...the village kinda deserves it. I see releasing the Lady from the tree as the good (well, in Witcher terms lol) ending. The only ones who die are killed because they were complicit in murder to some extent. They knew their kids were being sacrificed. And Anna knew that she was to plump the kids up and care for them so they would be eaten later. This upset her/drove her mad, and she was forced to some extent, true, and that's sad...but she did enter into a contract with them of her own free will. Common sense should have told her that was a bad idea. I've been in an abusive relationship. I understand that it's difficult to leave. But she made selfish choices that led to her participation in child murder. All The Lady does when you release her is put things into balance. If you notice, no one else dies by her after that. There are no more werewolves popping up or people being driven mad to sacrifice themselves there. It's not like that continues. It could have been the crones doing that the whole time to make sure no one could get into the cave to talk to her spirit in the 1st place. Once she's released they stop enchanting the area around because she was already released. A bit "barn door after the horse" and all. To bother with keeping it up would be a waste of their power, which they would clearly need to conserve and use wisely after losing Downwarren and future children they could have gotten from there. So the focus on other villages nearby instead. Cut their losses. So, that's always been my thought process when deciding how I deal with that quest. Releasing her is the good outcome option. And I think Geralt would be savvy enough to realize that.
I mean both endings suck. If u release her the children are save but the village, baron and anna dies If u kill her only the kids die So in my opinion since we are following barons and anna's story it is better to kill the lady of the woods even if she was telling the truth. After that baron and anna get closer since baron has to take care of anna. Besides doesnt geralt kill the crones anyways later in the game? Not sure because i didnt go through the whole game yet.
Wait, why does the village deserve to be slaughtered? The current residents' only bad deed is sending their children to the Crones, which other villages also do. It is something that was done to their peers when they were also children, it's what they believe keeps them safe, as well as increases the food per person in an exceptionally impoverished region. This is not a justification, but to claim they deserve wholesale slaughter is hardly a fair and balanced response. The Lady of the Wood claims she was placed in that tree long ago, so it's not like she can be excused for killing the current villagers. As for Anna, it really depends on the wording to which she agreed. It may have been that she agreed to 'anything' when the Crones created the contract for her to escape the Baron and lose her own child, which caused her to lose her own mind in the process. By the time she was presented to the Crones by the fiend, she was likely too mad to fully realise what she was doing. It's hard to judge to what extent she understood what she was doing and from what point that changed. Furthermore, if the Lady of the Wood was concerned about putting things in balance, why does she only offer to free the children after you have agreed to the deal with the Crones to kill her? Why does she then not go after the Crones, who were the very people behind her death and entrapment in a tree and only the descendants of peasants who were involved? I don't think either choice is good. I think Geralt is right when he states it's a choice between two evils, and I also agree with Geralt's implication in the narrated scene where he states helping the Lady of the Wood was the greater evil. A handful of children are freed, yes, but that doesn't prevent future children from being taken. A whole village dies, Anna dies, the Baron dies, Tamara (the Baron's daughter) will suffer immense psychological pain as she was present in seeing her mother like that. The Crones carry on and the Lady just buggers off after saving kids (IF you only speak to her after the Crones) and massacring an entire village.
@@spudssnowdrops6286 Your logic also helped me make a decision after 3 long hours of searching for a bloody solution and sucking up a huge spoiler regarding the end. Tho, it's a shame that the kids must die, but I guess it's about the total number of lives lost, and 4 or 5 children are way less than an entire village. Besides, I found out that later in the game, you get to kill the crones, so I guess the eating of more children will stop there. At least I hope so :)
Hot take right here, you should do a video on the romances, and why you shouldn't romance anyone. Yen gas lights you and blames it mostly Geralt even though he lost his memory. And Triss didn't tell her friend that her boyfriend is alive and well, and even knowingly slept with him even though she knew he couldn't have said no on the basis that he was dating Triss
Should do a video on the Crazy witcher that can be found underground in Novigrad there is a tunnel covered by an illusion on the cliffs around the city. In the hidden chamber is a side quest of one of the witcher gear sets and is probably one of the most sad story's of betrayal you will find in the game. You gotta read the notes that are scattered in the chamber and will explain how a mage basically tortured a witcher to insanity in his search to see how much pain a witcher could handle before death. It's pretty crazy shit.
Thats Mad Kiyan of the School of the Cat. Poor Bloke's been druged up too much that drives him Mad and suffered long because of his Witcher Regen Mutation.
Did anyone else have the glitch where you go to the tree and couldn't hear it speak at all,every time I go to it geralt can speak,but the hillock is dead silent
Just played this part and freed the spirit. From everything I've seen now so far I think freeing her was the best option. She could be evil in her own ways like anyone with that much power could be but she chose to co exist with the people. The daughters wanted more and overruled her. The offerings they ask for is more than the mother. The mother never asked for children. The witches have to be using their power to their fullest in any way they could from the looks of it. We may not know everything but if the witches are also helping the enemy by using their gifts of ears to find ciri. And probably more since knowledge is power. Info matters. I'm assuming it's better to have some powerful spirit who once ruled in co existence and asked for less compared to her daughters that killed her would be a good ally if the time ever came. The mother and daughters are both bad in their own ways so it's just down to your personal preferences and what information you choose to acknowledge. Because in the end I only see how these beings are here and their wants and needs will always affect others and how they are will determine what your decision will be
It's the mother of the ladies of the wood is what I've come to find. On my second playthrough I found the book titled she who knows and from what I read I gathered that is their mother who they sealed away in there and it said she had gone mad and was bloodthirsty and that while the ladies demand sacrifices that they feared she would have ruined all of velen so they sealed her away. But I don't know what to think. I just know the ladies are definitely evil and she claimed to be a druid spirit or something but the horse she turned into certainly didn't look like a good spirit it looks like a horse from the depths of hell and it terrorizes downwarren shortly after and fucks the whole village up and kills some people.
I entered the cave not knowing about the mission related to saving the spirit, I found something someone a ghost whomever is it asking me to free it which I did, then I found that first no children left in the orange second village was destroyed, that my actions led to the the worst results.
Why the spirit is still killing the people after destroying that village? There is a part about that in the story after you finish Bloody Baron questline.
If she was a female version of Gaunter o Dim, it would make sense for him to "help" the witcher to get revenge for their betrayal. She honors promises just like him as well, with a terrible price.
4:59 I actually think that the reason as to why the Spirit destroyed the village is very simple and straightforward. It is clear that she cares for the children, however saving the ones currently in the Crone’s hideout is not enough, given that the villagers themselves willingly sacrifice their own children to the Crones, so I believe the Spirit destroyed the village for the children’s sake, to stop the sacrifices and thus….ending the cycle. Putting an end to the child sacrifices for good. Which is also why I believe the reason as to why she was slowly trapping villagers in dreams/nightmares and making them go to her woods, where they would never return was for the exact same reason; it was all done in an effort to, then again, stop the sacrifices. She didn’t know whether someone would go and free her, so she was most likely doing all she could in an effort to save the children’s lives….even in death.
I always loved how in the world of the Witcher any and all of 'the old' powers aren't really good nor evil. They just are. They are honorable (they hold to promises. If geralt bargains, the Lady of the Wood will save the children. If he comes across the Lady before the Crones, she won't).
Everyone says you see the children in Novigrad, but is there any actual proof they're the same kids? There are kids at the school in Novigrad regardless of if you free the tree spirit or not, and there's no extra lines that indicate they recognize you if you did. Most likely some of the children character models are reused, which isn't unusual for a game this size, and people just assumed they're the same characters.
I know this Answer comes 1 Year + later but yes there is proof Inside the School, a Note with the same Names of the Children from the Swamp. The Teacher there is one of Dandelions Girlfriends that you get from the Mission to find Dandelion. I think her Name is Marabella.
Granted, I would be EXTREMELY pissed and broody if some folks who I may hqve helped or not trapped me in a damn tree for however long and there is a chance I'd bop em when I got out. But I know that's a flawed argument but hell I think I can understand where she's coming from.
There is another way in which the children are rescued and Anna is unharmed.....I just free the spirit from the tree before meeting the witches in the village outside the main quest
You have done a great job collecting info, I had wondered at some of the details and despite finding and checking out most of the books I missed that she was thought to be their mother. I did find some info you didn't cover, that the Crones "trail of treats" was a method of sacrificing a child yes, but was employed during times when they were already starving to death. One of the bog area villagers says to Geralt (I don't recall the precise wording) that their ways are no harder than the times and land and that the Crones help more than hurt. It's grim, brutal, pragmatic, it's survival. He refuses to let Geralt shame him and rightly so I think. It's easy for us to find it repugnant and incomprehensible, but generally until well after the Renaissance less than half of all humans ever reached their 10th birthday.
@@Makarosc have you even played them ? Abigail vs villagers, kill Leto or let him live, save Ada or not there are so many interesting choices (specialy in witcher 2)
@@marcinkrz3140 About the only really interesting video I could see out of the first two games is: "Elves in the Witcher series, is there anything redeeming about them?"
@@Archone666Yes Witcher 1 and 2 don't have that much interesting hidden lore like this. But Avarti in this series mainly makes a videos about a choices and for that Witcher 2 would be perfect
Here is my take, the lady of the wood is the goddess Melitele upon abandoning her homeland she made a pact to protect the people of Velen and created 3 daughters as she(Melitele) has 3 forms, Virgin ,Mother and Crone.She made the Crones in her image with the water and earth from Velen bounding them to the land, so they cannot leave such as her(she cannot leave cause of her pact as protector) and used part of her essence in doing so.Now, i believe that the image of a god determines their shape, that means that if humans worship them they can literally twist the image of such god with their perception and being out of her homeland she got corrupted by the people of Velen and probably something similar happened to the crones.When you meet the crones they ask Geralt if the town girls have been gossiping about them, that is if they have been putting a bad word of them, that could maybe twist their form in how we see them now.At that point the 3 crones are 3 virgins and are clearly seeing the corruption of her mother so they take it upon themselves to protect velen and they kill their mother and curse her so that her influence doesnt corrupt more the land.In doing so they become the target of the corruption of the people that is why they avoid meeting with the townsfolk, probably one side effect of the corruption is the decrease in their power and turning them into the aspect of the Crones we know and love.They start depending of obscure magic so their power doesnt deminish, Weavess builds tapestries,Brewess cook meat from animals and humans and Whispess uses severed human ears to hear the gossips of the town lasses so that no one bad mouth them.When Siri arrives they want to consumpt the elder blood cause maybe that power will make them revert to their virgin state, they said that it reminded them of their youth, probably that is why they need to devour human flesh and are desperate for finding power but the corruption is twisting their good intend.Now the Whispering Hillock cannot be freed unless she takes another for, so Geralt reincarnates Melitele and she takes another form and doing so unbounding her from the land and Velen, still the corruption might be there to a lesser extend so it is unclear if she will turn out to be evil but she probably will considering how the world of the Witcher treats its inhabitants.As for me, i think that the cannon version would be for geralt to disobey the crones , anna dying, the hillock being reborn and geralt and ciri killing all but one crone as that would make the next game more interesting.
I couldn't imagine Melitele would actually make an apparition or even ever existed in physical form (remember, the Crones' Mother actually has bones which "don't look human"). Now that could get mistaken with the Crones' Mother - since they she was a "woman figure" and cared for the land and people of Velen. However, the cult of Melitele is something much bigger, older and widespread (Freya's being another version of that). "they said that it reminded them of their youth" probably just because they actually looked beautiful when they were young and "freshly made".
God dammit, after watchin your TW3 videos i got the urge to play agian, after watchin a couple of 5 min videos i now need to spend 300 hours in TW3, thx man xD
Damn I love this game. It’s been a year since my second playthrough and damn it I think I’ll do a third right now lol. Cyberpunk has kinda dried up for me after 3 full runs and I’m just bored with assassins creed snowrunner horizon 4 Star Wars fallen order and avengers. Witcher 3 is a gem and I sincerely hope we’ll get another
The question to me is why do creatures go mad in her presence? Perhaps it's the blackness in their hearts? Geralt wasn't affected. The result in Downwarren may not be her maliciousness, but a result of their own behavior.
Yeah I found a book at Bald Mountain that briefly goes over this story. It kind of pisses me off because I killed the tree spirit due to another guide saying it was a random evil spirit. Not so random after all…
The moment i came across the Lady of the Woods and heard her voice, i was like , " Yes Night mother I shall be your Listener in the Witcher universe XD".
I never actually got the cutscene or option to spare the spirit in the tree. I walked into the room and immediately entered into a boss battle. If it weren’t for these videos I would have no idea you could spare her
I did kill her in the 'betray' ending after gathering the stuff needed and waffling a bit. Her final 'promises' seemed rather unhinged and megalomaniacal ('flying across the land' and so on), and she was an unknown. I knew the Crones were probably evil, but they'd been part of the local culture and could be borne indefinitely if necessary. Contrariwise, I had no idea what the heck this thing was, no one seemed to know about it, and it could be literally anything including something unspeakable. Better the devil you know. Excellent writing.
Did you finish the quest? Tamara should show up there with the witch hunters at the same time you and the barons men do, if you met up with Anna prior to taking the baron to the bog. If you did all that, some more stuff will happen but I won't get into that.
I think it is obvious from the W3 dialogues and sources that the Lady of the Woods is otherworldly and most like a druid. But one thing that I think many people assume is game/book lore verses the nature of druids. How can a druid be at one with nature if it's not its natural world due to the conjunction of the spheres? I theorise that the natural land of the witcher and the the druid were a tragic concoction that did neither good and so their was a trade off. To me this explains the sickness of the land, the druids decrepit offspring, her daughters bitterness towards her and the futile rewards they give the townsfolk. What I am trying to say is that the druid and her daughters were bound to despair and decrepidnous because this world was not naturally theirs to dwell and flourish in - thus cursed and further unintentionally cursing their inhabitants with their I'll fate. They just tried to make the best of their futility by making it worse for everyone else.
When u start the looking women's on dandelion's ledger, on novigrad a school teacher says 5 mysterious orphan children came from temeria to her doorstep
Interesting ideas. My take on the Lady of the Wood is another, though. She stated in the beginning that she left her circle. A circle in the Witcher universe is normally attributed to the druids, but i guess some witches also have circles, especially in slavic and germanic mythology. So she must have been a user of magic/chaos. So far we heard only of Aen Seidhe and human sorcerers/sorceresses or druids/flaminikas. But there is another group of beings, who come together in circles - dryads. I would say that she could have been a dryad as well that left Brokilon and went north. Velen and Brokilon arent that far away and we dont know if the "woods" in those times where larger and Velen and Brokilon where linked through woods and forested areas. We know about dryads, that they are very well attuned with the elements (especially with earth, which was used for the creation of the crones). I always was a little bit confused with the title Lady of the Wood, because the crones live in a bog, which is not a wood. But who normally lives in the woods? Dryads. I guess that the lady was really a dryad, that created the crones to serve as her proxys, because thats what dryads do normally. The creation of the ladies must have happened after humans arrived, because who should they sacrifice if not humans? The Aen Seidhe dont really have a lot of religious background and i dont see them worshipping someone else than their craft and art. So they are out of the picture. My guess would be a dryad, because they are clearly not human anymore.
@where's the lamb s a U C E yup, i did it by accident on my first playthrough and then did it again on my second years later. You just have to do a certain order of events.
It annoys me how many people decide to kill the spirit when the crones, a trillion monsters, and the devil reincarnate are roaming free in the witcher's world. If anything, the spirit is quite neutral and deals a massive blow to the crones which to me is good enough, fuck them.
To me the game is in favor to save the baron, but to me his life was his to take. Sell your children to monsters because you chouse to belive in a lie, make you as guilt as them, I will always chose the Ghost in the Tree.
Well, in the question of her need for human sacrifices, it may not be her voluntary tastes, it may be her need. Perhaps human sacrifices were the only nutritious enough for her to survive. In that case, it was not really a willing choice but still a relatively fair trade considering all the circumstances.
She is not bound by any goodness in her heart, which does not even exist. She is bound by her word. If you encounter her before the mission is given to you and you release her she makes no effort to save the children. She does not even mention them to Geralt to let him know that they are in danger. Her motives are entirely selfish. Even so, I always save the children.
If you choose to go with Ciri to the Sabbath as part of hunting Imlerith, the tree spirit is a trapped soul of a druid of the druid circle (similar to the druid circle on Skellige) that was destroyed by the sisters. Avallac'h tells Ciri this.
Now this makes the most sense, and this druid was most likely of Elven race given her bone structure. Probably happened so long ago when Elves and Humans co-existed.
I went with the better safe than sorry option in my playthrough. Obviously even if the Whispering Hillock was good in life, the fact they annihilate the village after being released heavily implies to me that they arent anymore. I knew I'd get the chance to kill the Crones later, I'd hunt them personally, so I opted to take out the potentially greater threat of the tree then go after the Crones. Destroying a village for crimes committed centuries before is not something I'll so quickly forgive.
Technically it isn't something that happened centuries ago but rather it's something that keeps happening to this day. Her anger was because of the humans stepping into forbidden land and continuing to worship her daughters. And let's be honest, the people there aren't saints either, but I agree in that it's best to put that evil spirit down once and for all.
@@cesargarcia8299 Indeed. AND I'm more referring to how long she was in the tree. IF the villagers helped usurp her, that was many generations in the past and no longer the fault of those currently in the village. And considering she took human sacrifices, I'm not sure she would punish the townspeople for that, likely for that transgression not their own. That was my thought process at least. It was a case of "either this creepy tree that MADE THE CRONES helps, or we kill the Crones and now we have a mad god on our hands". Really I hate the "kill them all" option, but in this case there was no better option really.
I'm almost certain, that the spirit in the tree, is worse than the crones. I think, that the crones themselves are awful beings, but maybe they saw that the evil of their mother started to get out of hand, I mean, the crones clearly do want to keep thos whol cherade up, since they could esily send monsters to grab some children or comquer villages, they don't need to be in hiding, they could just rule over Velen openly - with their magic, noone would be able to beat them. So maybe their mother was getting greedier and greedier and threatened to expose herself to the public, so they killed her and basicly started to rule for themselves. Maybe they had help from the wild hunt, at the very least they serve the wild hunt. I would even go so far and say it is a wrong choice to free the spirit, she is clearly mlre evil than the crones, even though she might safe the children.
I don't think you can really assume that the lady was any better than the crones just because they killed her and they are awful. Two evil entities don't need to be allies. I think the daughters just saw how profitable the lady's business was and they killed her out of greed. Overall, as horrible as the witcher world is, assuming the worst from these kind of legends is the safest option.
I am just wondering why the children are saved but Anna is punished? I’ve played both scenarios, even with lingering consequences, it seems to be over as soon as it begins and you’re left wondering why with the consequences. About ready to embark this quest here soon and wondering which scenario. It’s not like the Baron or Anna is seen again if you save them, so I wonder if it benefits better to save the children.
Nah, she prolly just saved the children to spite the crones. Killing her is definitely the lesser evil. If you free her, there's now another evil entity that roams the land besides the crones. I really don't think this spirit is the type to return favors, else she would've helped geralt and ciri kill the crones on bald mountain if you free her
Okay, I don't get it, everyone always talks about beating the crones and having saved the Baron's wife, but I never got that. Did I do something wrong? I only ever did one playthrough.
The idea that she demanded sacrifices comes from a book that is, for all intents and purposes, crone propaganda. Any information in it should be interpreted as unreliable. For all we know it may have been the crones who demanded the sacrifices, and when their mother opposed them they got rid of her. As for revenge on the villagers who trapped her in that horrible form for years...well wouldn't you be a little upset if they did that to you? And regarding the implication that her origins are somewhat "demonic", her situation seems inconsistant with that, as true demons (like Gunter, Cat and Dog) don't seem to require a physical vessel and can't really be killed, supposedly if they are destroyed they just go back wherever they came from. Both she and her children are likely more mundane creatures than that, magical and long lived but not immortal, clearly very good magic users but a notch below something like a higher vampire, and not all that tough when caught off guard.
It is not even a borderline neutral act to take revenge on a village because - and this is key - those villager's ancestors from what sounds like many generations ago cooperated with your rival. There is no continuity in the people involved. It would be like modern Poland shooting up Eastern Germany because of things that happened in WWII. Sure, Poland has very strong and legitimate issues with what happened 75-80 years ago. But killing modern East Germans is not the same thing as taking revenge against against the perpetrators of such wrongs.
The baron's guards yell her name all the time: PAM PA RAAAAAM
That is the 2nd most annoying background noise in the game. First place goes to "its rainin', its rainin'.."
Alec Cross no, the most annoying background noise is “they have sent the BEEEAAAASSSST as punishment for our sins”
@@aleccross3535 How much do you have to play for it to be annoying because I've playing a couple days and I sing along everytime I hear it lol
@@rpg23245 I can't remember how many times I've played over these years and it was annoying at first but then it started to grow on me lol
I LOVE PAM PA RAAAAAAAAAM. I've put over 400hours in to the game and it never gets old.
She freed the children and wiped their memories of the horrors they witnessed if you speak to the children they have no idea who you're. That kindness makes me think she is alot more kind then the stories make her out to be.
I think the Crones make some peasant write bad about her
Where do you even find these children after they escape Croockback Bog?
There at The Orphanage. If you don't know where that is play the game more you will get sent there.
@@suzukirider9030 an orphanage in Novigrad
Yeah she frees the children but she kills the village of Downwarren. If you go back later it's all wraiths. Of course the other option is to kill the spirit, which saves the village but the Crones eat the kids.
I think the Crones killed their "mother" with the aid of the Wild Hunt. They are clearly subservient to Imlerith in the Bald Mountain quest and Imlerith has the magic acorns that can be looted from his corpse. So it seems like part of the operation is to farm these Acorns for the Wild Hunt. Also, the Crones were ordered by the Wild Hunt to keep their ears out (literally) for Ciri in case she appears in Velen. Avallac'h tells Ciri that there used to be a druid circle in Velen and the Crones corrupted the sacred tree, so that seems to match the spirit's story better than the "She Who Knows" book.
Wait... How do you loot his body? I can never find it!!
@@ladymacbeth7129 You can return to the battle site and loot Imleriths body.
I should have read your comment before whatching the video to save me the 8 mins. Thank you,
There is book in Yens room in Skellige( that has the unicorn), that says also this.
Makes sense. You have my thanks
The actual real identity and appearance of the Whispering Hillock has been revealed in Gwent.
The "She Who Knows" card depicts her as she is creating the 3 crones.
The book as well
I read a story once where the main characters discussed how to deal with spirits and other entities and it boiled down to basically
1: always be on guard and be respectful as spirits couldn't tell humans apart and you had NO idea what the last human had done or promised which could affect you.
2: ALWAYS follow the WORD of a deal made with a spirit even if you twisted the meaning of the word until it was nearly unrecognisable.
3: always remember that spirit don't think like humans, they are what they are with all that that entails.
The Master of mirrors would be pleased
What's this story from? Is it related or just like from something else. I'm just curious it sounds interesting
@@urippe The overall theme comes from a lot of old folk-lore and myth but the story in question is a Avatar the last airbender fanfic called Embers and written by Vathara, if that is your thing I highly recommend it even if just for the authors notes and book suggestions at the end of the chapters.
Happy reading if you decide to give it a chance.
@@widgren87 nice thank you
Occultism in a nutshell
Next video: “Why The Crones are Idiots”
Or does addicted to fisstech really worth it?
Just found out the crones feed the villagers their own children.
If you kill the tree you can tell the alderman what you saw. Dialogue goes like this:
Geralt: You trust women you have never even seen? Why?
Alderman: ere the evil took root on the hillock. the ladies always helped us healthy babes were born. And once a year we get a giant pot of boiled meat
Geralt: Once a year, that's it?
Alderman: At the time of the feast, the ladies of the wood give us the scrapings from their table.
Jonathan Swift would be proud.
I have never done the quest this way so this is truly disturbing to me, makes me hate the Crones even more.
@@trucid2 a modest man of culture, i see
I mean… it doesn’t make much sense for Geralt to release the Whispering Hillock. Whomever it is. Just keep in mind it is impossible for him to see the whole picture in that particular moment. He has made a deal with the Crones to kill it and they’ll tell him what they know about Ciri’s whereabouts. The Crones have that as leverage. I don’t think Geralt would risk that even though sacrificing those children is a difficult choice. I always feel like he’d rather not get involved in the Crones-Velen inhabitants relationship either. He refers to Velen as an awful place several times, and shows no intention to improve it. He knows he is being used, but finding Ciri is his number one priority. Don’t get me wrong, i am not saying that killing the spirit is the right choice. I feel like releasing it is too risky, considering he doesn’t know what’s going to happen
This guy: The TRUE Identity Of The Whispering Hillock REVEALED!!!
Also this guy: I just do my best to piece together who the Whispering Hillock is
Does he actually give a worthwhile answer? I don't wanna waste time
@@augustocoss3687 Not really, basically a powerful unamed alien mage
Facts
I flipped do hard after watching. Blatant lie in the title and a waste of time
@@manuxx3543 Isn't this the truth.
I literally just finished this mission an hour ago, on my first ever playthrough of the witcher 3 and you randomly release a vid on it! insane.
Perhaps the spirit was indeed taken by madness and her daughter's killed her for the sake of Velen, But overtime the same madness took over the crones.
Ultimately, while it costs you 5 children in a line of many, the best thing is to kill the tree thing
THen beat the crones. It's sad that if you wanna kill all three, you have to let ciri die. REALLY wish there was a way to kill the third one, because for the love of all things Yen and triss, those three were ploughin' awful
Yea it would have been awesome if Geralt and Ciri could hunt down the last Crone and slay her together if you chose the Witcher route for Ciri.
Maybe, just maybe, the surviving Crone is intended to have a cameo in Ciri's (rumoured) story-line in Cyberpunk 2077.
A mod released recently if you’re on PC that let’s you do exactly this. It’s called “Ciri’s Sole Memento” and it is fully voiced and very well done.
It’s entirely possible she does hunt down and kill the last one if she becomes a witcher. I mean who knows what she got up to? I’d imagine she wouldn’t exactly let it go.
I was also meant to say but I couldn’t remember exactly what it was but it just come back to me. Ciri wears the medallion later that Weavess took. Implying she did actually go back and get it. Ofc she could just have had a replica made.
I freed the spirit prior to meeting he Crones but in between the Baron's quest. That choice saved Anna and Phillip ultimately, but they said the orphans would also be spared and that they'll be at the orphanage in Novigrad. But during my stay at Novigrad with Dandelion's quest to visit the orphanage, I did not recognize any of the children to be from the crookback bog.
Dunno if the kids were eaten or what not. BUT I was still glad that Anna was saved, thus preventing Phillip from committing suicide. I mean he actually treated Ciri well. Like a daughter he'd always wanted. Contrary to that brat Tamara.
I did what you mentioned on your 1st paragraph on my 2nd run of the game and there's still a line by one of the Crones that mentions "those children you brought us were tasty" (probably saying that to Anna) or something to that effect - implying the children still get eaten if you release the Spirit before starting the Baron's quest.
She's a brat because she doesn't want anything to do with her dad who beat her mother?
5:15 Wrong. That doesn't show that there is some goodness in her heart. You've clearly misinterpreted the situation.
It demonstrates, that she honored her end of the deal.
This is how making a bargain with a supernatural being works - both sides prefer not to face any backlash from a broken agreement.
Sometimes they are straight up forced to do it by supernatural means, like magic.
I did the quest before meeting the crones and the kids were freed none the less. I don't remember the dialogue with the willow all too well but I remember the kids never being mentioned. She might have wanted to free the kids all along.
@@DaLoler1 i tried it and i can say that the quest is bugged this way, cause in my dialog the children were eaten AND beeing freed.(crones say children tasted good and they say the black beauty took them)
the spirit wanted to free the children from the start
If she honored her deal she is slightly good. The Crones are pure evil though. Killing Children is beyond forgiveness
@@HumanB312 I think eating then is a far worse thing 😂
this was the most twisted quest:
.if u look from the front - saving the children seems the best choice
.if u look from the back - saving the baron + villagers seems better choice
your viewing angle changes everything
I love how in this series, books often aren't a reliable source of information, to reflect that the were written by flooded humans, and to actual understand the subject, you must firstly take away lies.
And i am almost certain, that there are people who only played Witcher 3, and think that Humans in this universe, were there before conjunction of spheres, just because first cinematic told them so.
Reminds me of Morrowind, very immersive in that respect (among others)
I thought the game mentioned that the humans came during the conjunction? Does it not?
@@gageschmidt3208 maybe, i don't remember, its been a while since i played but i remember book that call this "elvish propaganda" but i know that in both witcher 1 i 2 this wasn't mention
@@marcinkrz3140 wtf, in W2 it's clearly mentioned when going on Roche's path (quest chain with Henselt's curse and Vran's mystery in Loc Muinne)
@@maciejpawe3700 As i said last time i played any of the Wither games was long ago so i can forget about something's
Oh No, Why TH-cam Why, i just Finished The Witcher 3, now You Make me wanna play or again, ahh here we go again, silver for monster, steel for human.
Man, I finished it 7 times together with DLCs. Every few months you will want to play it again
I did notice though that Gerald takes our his steel sword for dogs... Or my game is buggy
@@jeroenvanos9653 yeah steel is for animal, human
Silver is for monster or magic thing
So the only question I still have about this, is if you free the spirit, why doesn’t she go after the Crones as revenge for killing and cursing her in the first place. Destroying a small village that has had who knows how many generations since the supposed betrayal, is one thing, but not going after the ones that actually killed and cursed you? That seems a little suspect to me.
I'm a year late, but I would figure she isn't anywhere near strong enough to face her daughters just yet. Afterall, they already killed her once. This is made all the worse by the fact that the crones have been growing from the sacrifices of nearby villages, Downwarren being one of the most subservient and reverent. By destroying the village, and possibly others like it, she weakens the crone's powerbase and becomes that much closer to her original status.
I just started this game and am on this level. Freed the spirit. I think it is weak from being imprisoned and if the daughters defeated her once I'm sure they're stronger now and have something up their sleeve. Also don't know anything about this game but someone was saying how the daughters lend their ears to the enemies of the game. So they probably would have help idk. Also she wanted revenge right? Ig it wouldn't matter how many generations have passed if she's a spirit and they just honor their deals or something. Whoever was connected to her betrayal if she had the power to exact revenge she would. She did and even if it was evil whoever made those decisions against her knew the risks. If you harm someone they'll want to harm you I'd assume. Not defending the spirit it just is common sense in some aspects. She could be majorly evil idk but a lot of what is said in this video has some weight. But yes she could still be evil in her own ways I feel like everyone is and if she's some spirit with power then it's just like anyone else who would have that much power. It would go to their head but she still honored the land and people. Co existence that they chose. And they deceived the villagers in the end to eat children and probably other stuff that was asking for more from the villagers.
Think of the Crone worship as a weed, you can’t just break off the stem, the weed will regrow. So if the Lady went after the Crones the villagers would still worship and do terrible things, by destroying Downwarren the most faithful village, the Lady has committed a cleansing and an act of striking fear against the Crones. She has gotten rid of the root of the Crone worship and made a symbol to the Crones saying I have returned and your end is nigh. Now let’s take this one step further, the Lady is clearly something more than a Druidess, she knows things, she has a greater sight than any mage, seer, or mortal in general. I believe she knows who Geralt is and when she met him face to face, for lack of a better term, it donned on her as you, you are the one who I have awaited, the time of my insolent daughters’ destruction is nigh. She knew these events unfolding, she knew Geralt would find Ciri, and thereby Ciri would destroy two of her daughters leaving the third severely weakened and thus she would fade from power or she or somebody else would destroy her third daughter. This would mark the end of the age of the Three Ladies, and her new age would begin, thus Velen would return to beauty and glory beneath her benevolent reign once more. The Lady has a far-seeing vision, she knows things that are to come and this is why she did not act against her daughters.
I freed her in the hopes she would be an asset in fighting the crones.
Ifi cant trust other mammals i cant trust a rotten tree
roach is the only one you can count on no matter what and the whispering hillock turns into a horse
coincidence?!
A tree with a spiky beating giant heart attached to it too
Has anyone noticed how The Whispering Hillock’s voice keeps changing throughout the quest? Three times to be exact. I think The Whispering Hillock is really just the Crones toying with us.
Nah, is a independient creature, search in google "She Who Knows Gwent"
The Crones' appearance in the tapestry was likely their original appearance when they were first "created" or were younger (depending on whether they're actually created "offspring" of the Ghost in the Tree or were just devoted human followers who became powerful and eventually used witchcraft to overthrow her). This is evidenced by them remarking that their youthful appearance and the feeling of being young are made possible by their consumption of children and their blood. They're likely just humans who used sorcery to keep themselves alive over thousands of years and mutated and/or aged into their current forms due to time and experiments with magic they likely did to prolong their lives.
If you free the spirit before meeting the crones or entering the village where the crones live she doesn’t offer to save children so this could be proof that she only offers to save the children in order to make you think she’s good and therefore get you to free her
I tricked the thing after telling it I would free it and it died. I thought leaving it alive would spread more evil out among the land so I made that last second choice. Then went back with the Baron to kill some things there.
She still does it tho, difference is the crones don't blame Anna for it because she didn't get the crones to direct you to the tree which causes the children to be freed since it already happened. Freeing the spirit early lets you save everyone but downwarren
No, she does free the kids. The crones just don't blame Anna for "letting the kids escape"
@@bavarianalex Wait, really, oh thank goodness, so I’ve been making the right choice all along. I always wanted to save as many lives as I can, kind of making Geralt’s morality align more with the Griffin School. I am so glad to learn that I have been saving everybody except Downwarren because I honestly believe they must die. For Velen to be cleansed the root of the problem must be exterminated, and the Crones and Downwarren are the very root of it all.
If I am not mistaken, Geralt was tasked by the crones to kill the spirit, "the creature that was disturbing the villangers" in order to gain information on Ciri. So they had their reasons which I don't exactly know, but I think it makes sense for the crones to kill the villagers and Anna who was guarding the children, if geralt decided to free it.
In my NG+, i did the 3rd option in this quest where i saved the Spirit thus Punishing the village and (sadly) the Orphans eaten by the Crones while Keeping Anna alive.
Well, there's one detail missing: If you free the spirit before the quest is given to you, she'll only destroy the village but will not safe the children. So in this case freeing her will result in the ending in which Anna and Philipp Strenger live.
The children are still freed the crones just blame you not Anna for it
@@Absolutemooreon But why couldn't I find them in Novigrad after that?
@@chaoticstudent1815 they appear at the orphanage, the kids don't remember you no matter what and they are common reused assets so they're easy to miss
@@Absolutemooreon I went there several times after the good ending, no one is there...
@@chaoticstudent1815 did you go to downwarren before freeing the spirit and doing the quest for the crones?
This mission is so creepy with the music and the way horse's eyes turm red when the spirit possesses it
We all should remember that revenge can suffocate everything, if you only feel the wanting of revenge in your heart, all other feelings will stop. It´s differently with sadness, madness or any other emotion, you can still feel them all, with the whole revenge thing you can´t, it all turns into one, I would rather be sad for a while than to truly feel the need for revenge.
I read a book about the Crones killing their mad mother and imprisoning her in a tree. I'll watch the video now.
I saw some people somewhere mentioning that the spirit in the tree wasn't even human (Geralt comments on the bones he finds). I've also seen people mention that the spirit was just as evil as it also had human sacrifices, some suggesting that the sacrifices rule out the possibility of Druidism (though I may be imagining this).
However, I'm just wondering if those comments are made based off of a lack of knowledge of Druids? In real historical texts, Druids were known to be in charge of sacrifices in their communities and did participate in human sacrifices. In historical texts, they had also been said to be users of magic with the ability to cast spells. Furthermore, I did some research and found some evidence of multiple accounts of shapeshifting for various reasons in Celtic mythology, for reasons of rebirth, punishment, survival, etc. One of these stories includes a Druid turning himself into a Boar.
I think it's entirely possible that the reason the bones Geralt found were not human is because the Druid shapeshifted as she tried to escape the Crones, only to be murdered in that form. After all, if you free the spirit, she takes the form of a black horse, a rebirth shapeshifting, so the story already includes shapeshifting.
Anyway, I truly do think the argument that the spirit is a Druid is quite strong. Not only does the above strengthen the argument, but the word druid literally translates to "knower of the oak tree", and the spirit happens to be bound to an oak tree. In more modern mythologies of Druids, they are known to be in tune with the natural world as an important part of Druidism. The spirit mentions nature's wrath when explaining the deaths surrounding the tree, implying a higher understanding of the natural world. Lastly, as Tony N commented, Avallac'h mentions a druid circle in Velen and Crones corrupting the sacred tree.
It would seem quite likely that the Druid was protecting the sacred oak, the bog, and it's people through sacrifices and other common Druid practices until three Crones ironically bound the "knower of the oak tree" to the sacred oak tree in order to gain control of the region and its people. Honestly, that seems entirely like the kind of sadism I'd expect from the Crones.
A better reason would be the fact that if you choose to spare the tree she asks you to collect her remains....from a hill due west.
Only her spirit is said to be trapped in the tree so the bones are most likely to be that of whatever the thing her spirit was encased in.
Well I freed her before talking to the crones. Both the children and the village people died.
Honestly I liked the spirit more than the crones. At least she keeps her word. There's an order it follows while the crones are just chaotic evil. This made me feel it was a natural spirit but if you pay attention to fairy tales of old. Old spirits are seldom kind, but they are pillars of the world. I hate this quest because it feels like a no win scenario.
Maybe the lady of the wood did go mad and her daughters removed her and were benevolent but whatever drove their mother mad happens to them too. So when we see them in the Witcher 3 they have already gone mad but they had each other so they didn’t get lonely like their mother and create any more daughters. Hence there was no one to overthrow them when they went mad.
I turned the Hillock into a hellish mare because I thought I could ride on it later (:
Thank you, yes. I agree.
I mean...the village kinda deserves it. I see releasing the Lady from the tree as the good (well, in Witcher terms lol) ending. The only ones who die are killed because they were complicit in murder to some extent. They knew their kids were being sacrificed.
And Anna knew that she was to plump the kids up and care for them so they would be eaten later. This upset her/drove her mad, and she was forced to some extent, true, and that's sad...but she did enter into a contract with them of her own free will. Common sense should have told her that was a bad idea. I've been in an abusive relationship. I understand that it's difficult to leave. But she made selfish choices that led to her participation in child murder.
All The Lady does when you release her is put things into balance. If you notice, no one else dies by her after that. There are no more werewolves popping up or people being driven mad to sacrifice themselves there. It's not like that continues.
It could have been the crones doing that the whole time to make sure no one could get into the cave to talk to her spirit in the 1st place. Once she's released they stop enchanting the area around because she was already released. A bit "barn door after the horse" and all. To bother with keeping it up would be a waste of their power, which they would clearly need to conserve and use wisely after losing Downwarren and future children they could have gotten from there. So the focus on other villages nearby instead. Cut their losses.
So, that's always been my thought process when deciding how I deal with that quest. Releasing her is the good outcome option. And I think Geralt would be savvy enough to realize that.
I mean both endings suck.
If u release her the children are save but the village, baron and anna dies
If u kill her only the kids die
So in my opinion since we are following barons and anna's story it is better to kill the lady of the woods even if she was telling the truth. After that baron and anna get closer since baron has to take care of anna.
Besides doesnt geralt kill the crones anyways later in the game? Not sure because i didnt go through the whole game yet.
Wait, why does the village deserve to be slaughtered? The current residents' only bad deed is sending their children to the Crones, which other villages also do. It is something that was done to their peers when they were also children, it's what they believe keeps them safe, as well as increases the food per person in an exceptionally impoverished region. This is not a justification, but to claim they deserve wholesale slaughter is hardly a fair and balanced response. The Lady of the Wood claims she was placed in that tree long ago, so it's not like she can be excused for killing the current villagers.
As for Anna, it really depends on the wording to which she agreed. It may have been that she agreed to 'anything' when the Crones created the contract for her to escape the Baron and lose her own child, which caused her to lose her own mind in the process. By the time she was presented to the Crones by the fiend, she was likely too mad to fully realise what she was doing. It's hard to judge to what extent she understood what she was doing and from what point that changed.
Furthermore, if the Lady of the Wood was concerned about putting things in balance, why does she only offer to free the children after you have agreed to the deal with the Crones to kill her? Why does she then not go after the Crones, who were the very people behind her death and entrapment in a tree and only the descendants of peasants who were involved?
I don't think either choice is good. I think Geralt is right when he states it's a choice between two evils, and I also agree with Geralt's implication in the narrated scene where he states helping the Lady of the Wood was the greater evil. A handful of children are freed, yes, but that doesn't prevent future children from being taken. A whole village dies, Anna dies, the Baron dies, Tamara (the Baron's daughter) will suffer immense psychological pain as she was present in seeing her mother like that. The Crones carry on and the Lady just buggers off after saving kids (IF you only speak to her after the Crones) and massacring an entire village.
@@spudssnowdrops6286 you just helped me make a decision after a very long period of deliberation. Thank you
@@im_that_guy happy to be of service lol
@@spudssnowdrops6286 Your logic also helped me make a decision after 3 long hours of searching for a bloody solution and sucking up a huge spoiler regarding the end. Tho, it's a shame that the kids must die, but I guess it's about the total number of lives lost, and 4 or 5 children are way less than an entire village. Besides, I found out that later in the game, you get to kill the crones, so I guess the eating of more children will stop there. At least I hope so :)
Can you make a part about Lambert, Lambert who is the most tragic witcher ever lived?
Lambert, Lambert, what a prick
@@The_winds_of_change nice tune
Hot take right here, you should do a video on the romances, and why you shouldn't romance anyone. Yen gas lights you and blames it mostly Geralt even though he lost his memory. And Triss didn't tell her friend that her boyfriend is alive and well, and even knowingly slept with him even though she knew he couldn't have said no on the basis that he was dating Triss
Lol I used Geralts magical he-pussy and manwhored every chick throughout the whole game.
That's why being a loving father to Ciri is the best choice
Nothing wrong with a bit of romancing Keira though
Should do a video on the Crazy witcher that can be found underground in Novigrad there is a tunnel covered by an illusion on the cliffs around the city. In the hidden chamber is a side quest of one of the witcher gear sets and is probably one of the most sad story's of betrayal you will find in the game. You gotta read the notes that are scattered in the chamber and will explain how a mage basically tortured a witcher to insanity in his search to see how much pain a witcher could handle before death. It's pretty crazy shit.
Thats Mad Kiyan of the School of the Cat. Poor Bloke's been druged up too much that drives him Mad and suffered long because of his Witcher Regen Mutation.
@@johndelgado8536 ahh thankyou I didnt remember his name just the fact he looked like burnt man.
Did anyone else have the glitch where you go to the tree and couldn't hear it speak at all,every time I go to it geralt can speak,but the hillock is dead silent
Always kill her. Because if you dont, eventually you can kill at least 2 of the crones, but you never get the chance to kill the lady of the woods
You only kill the last crone if ciri dies lol what
Just played this part and freed the spirit. From everything I've seen now so far I think freeing her was the best option. She could be evil in her own ways like anyone with that much power could be but she chose to co exist with the people. The daughters wanted more and overruled her. The offerings they ask for is more than the mother. The mother never asked for children. The witches have to be using their power to their fullest in any way they could from the looks of it. We may not know everything but if the witches are also helping the enemy by using their gifts of ears to find ciri. And probably more since knowledge is power. Info matters. I'm assuming it's better to have some powerful spirit who once ruled in co existence and asked for less compared to her daughters that killed her would be a good ally if the time ever came. The mother and daughters are both bad in their own ways so it's just down to your personal preferences and what information you choose to acknowledge. Because in the end I only see how these beings are here and their wants and needs will always affect others and how they are will determine what your decision will be
The mother didn’t want sacrifices, she wanted genocide.
It's the mother of the ladies of the wood is what I've come to find. On my second playthrough I found the book titled she who knows and from what I read I gathered that is their mother who they sealed away in there and it said she had gone mad and was bloodthirsty and that while the ladies demand sacrifices that they feared she would have ruined all of velen so they sealed her away. But I don't know what to think. I just know the ladies are definitely evil and she claimed to be a druid spirit or something but the horse she turned into certainly didn't look like a good spirit it looks like a horse from the depths of hell and it terrorizes downwarren shortly after and fucks the whole village up and kills some people.
I entered the cave not knowing about the mission related to saving the spirit, I found something someone a ghost whomever is it asking me to free it which I did, then I found that first no children left in the orange second village was destroyed, that my actions led to the the worst results.
Why the spirit is still killing the people after destroying that village? There is a part about that in the story after you finish Bloody Baron questline.
If she was a female version of Gaunter o Dim, it would make sense for him to "help" the witcher to get revenge for their betrayal. She honors promises just like him as well, with a terrible price.
4:59 I actually think that the reason as to why the Spirit destroyed the village is very simple and straightforward. It is clear that she cares for the children, however saving the ones currently in the Crone’s hideout is not enough, given that the villagers themselves willingly sacrifice their own children to the Crones, so I believe the Spirit destroyed the village for the children’s sake, to stop the sacrifices and thus….ending the cycle. Putting an end to the child sacrifices for good.
Which is also why I believe the reason as to why she was slowly trapping villagers in dreams/nightmares and making them go to her woods, where they would never return was for the exact same reason; it was all done in an effort to, then again, stop the sacrifices. She didn’t know whether someone would go and free her, so she was most likely doing all she could in an effort to save the children’s lives….even in death.
I always loved how in the world of the Witcher any and all of 'the old' powers aren't really good nor evil.
They just are. They are honorable (they hold to promises. If geralt bargains, the Lady of the Wood will save the children. If he comes across the Lady before the Crones, she won't).
By that same logic then the tree is also honourable as well
Everyone says you see the children in Novigrad, but is there any actual proof they're the same kids? There are kids at the school in Novigrad regardless of if you free the tree spirit or not, and there's no extra lines that indicate they recognize you if you did. Most likely some of the children character models are reused, which isn't unusual for a game this size, and people just assumed they're the same characters.
I know this Answer comes 1 Year + later but yes there is proof Inside the School, a Note with the same Names of the Children from the Swamp. The Teacher there is one of Dandelions Girlfriends that you get from the Mission to find Dandelion. I think her Name is Marabella.
Granted, I would be EXTREMELY pissed and broody if some folks who I may hqve helped or not trapped me in a damn tree for however long and there is a chance I'd bop em when I got out. But I know that's a flawed argument but hell I think I can understand where she's coming from.
First! Last time i was this early Avarti only made Skyrim videos.
Actually...there's a book in Kaer Trolde's inn, in Yennefer's room, that uncover some lore about the relationship between the Crones and the Hillock..
There is another way in which the children are rescued and Anna is unharmed.....I just free the spirit from the tree before meeting the witches in the village outside the main quest
the children got eaten though
You have done a great job collecting info, I had wondered at some of the details and despite finding and checking out most of the books I missed that she was thought to be their mother. I did find some info you didn't cover, that the Crones "trail of treats" was a method of sacrificing a child yes, but was employed during times when they were already starving to death. One of the bog area villagers says to Geralt (I don't recall the precise wording) that their ways are no harder than the times and land and that the Crones help more than hurt. It's grim, brutal, pragmatic, it's survival. He refuses to let Geralt shame him and rightly so I think. It's easy for us to find it repugnant and incomprehensible, but generally until well after the Renaissance less than half of all humans ever reached their 10th birthday.
The lady in the wood is Carnan from Shadow of War, at least in my mind because they are both two of my favorite questlines in both games.
Avarti will you make videos about the witcher 1 and 2?
Not much lore in them
@@Makarosc have you even played them ?
Abigail vs villagers, kill Leto or let him live, save Ada or not there are so many interesting choices (specialy in witcher 2)
@@marcinkrz3140 About the only really interesting video I could see out of the first two games is: "Elves in the Witcher series, is there anything redeeming about them?"
@@Archone666Yes Witcher 1 and 2 don't have that much interesting hidden lore
like this.
But Avarti in this series mainly makes a videos about a choices and for that Witcher 2 would be perfect
Here is my take, the lady of the wood is the goddess Melitele upon abandoning her homeland she made a pact to protect the people of Velen and created 3 daughters as she(Melitele) has 3 forms, Virgin ,Mother and Crone.She made the Crones in her image with the water and earth from Velen bounding them to the land, so they cannot leave such as her(she cannot leave cause of her pact as protector) and used part of her essence in doing so.Now, i believe that the image of a god determines their shape, that means that if humans worship them they can literally twist the image of such god with their perception and being out of her homeland she got corrupted by the people of Velen and probably something similar happened to the crones.When you meet the crones they ask Geralt if the town girls have been gossiping about them, that is if they have been putting a bad word of them, that could maybe twist their form in how we see them now.At that point the 3 crones are 3 virgins and are clearly seeing the corruption of her mother so they take it upon themselves to protect velen and they kill their mother and curse her so that her influence doesnt corrupt more the land.In doing so they become the target of the corruption of the people that is why they avoid meeting with the townsfolk, probably one side effect of the corruption is the decrease in their power and turning them into the aspect of the Crones we know and love.They start depending of obscure magic so their power doesnt deminish, Weavess builds tapestries,Brewess cook meat from animals and humans and Whispess uses severed human ears to hear the gossips of the town lasses so that no one bad mouth them.When Siri arrives they want to consumpt the elder blood cause maybe that power will make them revert to their virgin state, they said that it reminded them of their youth, probably that is why they need to devour human flesh and are desperate for finding power but the corruption is twisting their good intend.Now the Whispering Hillock cannot be freed unless she takes another for, so Geralt reincarnates Melitele and she takes another form and doing so unbounding her from the land and Velen, still the corruption might be there to a lesser extend so it is unclear if she will turn out to be evil but she probably will considering how the world of the Witcher treats its inhabitants.As for me, i think that the cannon version would be for geralt to disobey the crones , anna dying, the hillock being reborn and geralt and ciri killing all but one crone as that would make the next game more interesting.
I couldn't imagine Melitele would actually make an apparition or even ever existed in physical form (remember, the Crones' Mother actually has bones which "don't look human"). Now that could get mistaken with the Crones' Mother - since they she was a "woman figure" and cared for the land and people of Velen. However, the cult of Melitele is something much bigger, older and widespread (Freya's being another version of that). "they said that it reminded them of their youth" probably just because they actually looked beautiful when they were young and "freshly made".
At the moment I think the option is either try and save the kids or not even bother. Obvious which would book Geralt choose.
The true identity of the lady of the wood: no new information from the game. Just some magical being.
God dammit, after watchin your TW3 videos i got the urge to play agian, after watchin a couple of 5 min videos i now need to spend 300 hours in TW3, thx man xD
Damn I love this game. It’s been a year since my second playthrough and damn it I think I’ll do a third right now lol. Cyberpunk has kinda dried up for me after 3 full runs and I’m just bored with assassins creed snowrunner horizon 4 Star Wars fallen order and avengers. Witcher 3 is a gem and I sincerely hope we’ll get another
I literally did this quest yesterday, great timing!
The question to me is why do creatures go mad in her presence? Perhaps it's the blackness in their hearts? Geralt wasn't affected. The result in Downwarren may not be her maliciousness, but a result of their own behavior.
Yeah I found a book at Bald Mountain that briefly goes over this story. It kind of pisses me off because I killed the tree spirit due to another guide saying it was a random evil spirit. Not so random after all…
No one:
Nobody:
Not even Philippa Eilhart:
The Crones: Sweet mother, sweet mother....
The moment i came across the Lady of the Woods and heard her voice, i was like , " Yes Night mother I shall be your Listener in the Witcher universe XD".
Anna dies if you free the hillock while doing it for the crones in the main quest if you do it before Anna does survive
I never actually got the cutscene or option to spare the spirit in the tree. I walked into the room and immediately entered into a boss battle. If it weren’t for these videos I would have no idea you could spare her
I did kill her in the 'betray' ending after gathering the stuff needed and waffling a bit. Her final 'promises' seemed rather unhinged and megalomaniacal ('flying across the land' and so on), and she was an unknown. I knew the Crones were probably evil, but they'd been part of the local culture and could be borne indefinitely if necessary. Contrariwise, I had no idea what the heck this thing was, no one seemed to know about it, and it could be literally anything including something unspeakable. Better the devil you know. Excellent writing.
I don't know what I did wrong but I freed the ghost but the baron didnt kill himself because his wife turned into the monster
Did you finish the quest? Tamara should show up there with the witch hunters at the same time you and the barons men do, if you met up with Anna prior to taking the baron to the bog. If you did all that, some more stuff will happen but I won't get into that.
Three crones were really creepy, each with its own twist, loved it!
The standalone game of Gwen has interesting information about She Who Knows, the mother of the Crones
This tree spirit might be the origin of Voleth Meir in the Witcher Series, but the one that survived was her.
Imagine the awkward family reunion
I think it is obvious from the W3 dialogues and sources that the Lady of the Woods is otherworldly and most like a druid. But one thing that I think many people assume is game/book lore verses the nature of druids. How can a druid be at one with nature if it's not its natural world due to the conjunction of the spheres?
I theorise that the natural land of the witcher and the the druid were a tragic concoction that did neither good and so their was a trade off. To me this explains the sickness of the land, the druids decrepit offspring, her daughters bitterness towards her and the futile rewards they give the townsfolk.
What I am trying to say is that the druid and her daughters were bound to despair and decrepidnous because this world was not naturally theirs to dwell and flourish in - thus cursed and further unintentionally cursing their inhabitants with their I'll fate. They just tried to make the best of their futility by making it worse for everyone else.
Love the Witcher videos mate you are doing a good job. I’m just starting new game+ and your videos give great insight to the alternative paths. 👍
The music in this quest is just on point. Makes you feel very uneasy. Fitting for the area .... 👍👍👍
my 1st playthrough, I was exploring and came across this before the crones, saved the spirit
When u start the looking women's on dandelion's ledger, on novigrad a school teacher says 5 mysterious orphan children came from temeria to her doorstep
Interesting ideas.
My take on the Lady of the Wood is another, though. She stated in the beginning that she left her circle. A circle in the Witcher universe is normally attributed to the druids, but i guess some witches also have circles, especially in slavic and germanic mythology. So she must have been a user of magic/chaos. So far we heard only of Aen Seidhe and human sorcerers/sorceresses or druids/flaminikas. But there is another group of beings, who come together in circles - dryads. I would say that she could have been a dryad as well that left Brokilon and went north. Velen and Brokilon arent that far away and we dont know if the "woods" in those times where larger and Velen and Brokilon where linked through woods and forested areas. We know about dryads, that they are very well attuned with the elements (especially with earth, which was used for the creation of the crones). I always was a little bit confused with the title Lady of the Wood, because the crones live in a bog, which is not a wood. But who normally lives in the woods? Dryads. I guess that the lady was really a dryad, that created the crones to serve as her proxys, because thats what dryads do normally. The creation of the ladies must have happened after humans arrived, because who should they sacrifice if not humans? The Aen Seidhe dont really have a lot of religious background and i dont see them worshipping someone else than their craft and art. So they are out of the picture. My guess would be a dryad, because they are clearly not human anymore.
That's also my idea of the whole situation. The slightly inhuman bones especially point towards a dryad.
Wasn't it obvious?
And, Avarti, since you dived into Witcher you're doing an excellent work. Keep it up man! Best of luck for you!
This community is awesome, really love this game 🚀❣️
I killed it bc I wanted there to be hope for The Baron.
@where's the lamb s a U C E yup, i did it by accident on my first playthrough and then did it again on my second years later. You just have to do a certain order of events.
It annoys me how many people decide to kill the spirit when the crones, a trillion monsters, and the devil reincarnate are roaming free in the witcher's world. If anything, the spirit is quite neutral and deals a massive blow to the crones which to me is good enough, fuck them.
I think she is some form of Zmora (Mare) common in folklore all around the world en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore).
To me the game is in favor to save the baron, but to me his life was his to take.
Sell your children to monsters because you chouse to belive in a lie, make you as guilt as them, I will always chose the Ghost in the Tree.
I always wondered about this glad I have most of an answer now. Separately, do you plan on making Cyberpunk videos when that game comes out?
I'll definitely do Cyberpunk videos :)
Well, in the question of her need for human sacrifices, it may not be her voluntary tastes, it may be her need. Perhaps human sacrifices were the only nutritious enough for her to survive. In that case, it was not really a willing choice but still a relatively fair trade considering all the circumstances.
She is not bound by any goodness in her heart, which does not even exist. She is bound by her word. If you encounter her before the mission is given to you and you release her she makes no effort to save the children. She does not even mention them to Geralt to let him know that they are in danger. Her motives are entirely selfish. Even so, I always save the children.
You can save the children and the baron’s wife if you free the spirit of the woods before the crones mission
If you choose to go with Ciri to the Sabbath as part of hunting Imlerith, the tree spirit is a trapped soul of a druid of the druid circle (similar to the druid circle on Skellige) that was destroyed by the sisters. Avallac'h tells Ciri this.
Now this makes the most sense, and this druid was most likely of Elven race given her bone structure. Probably happened so long ago when Elves and Humans co-existed.
The Crones shirked their duties, huh? Sounds like they're getting a beating from grelod
I went with the better safe than sorry option in my playthrough. Obviously even if the Whispering Hillock was good in life, the fact they annihilate the village after being released heavily implies to me that they arent anymore. I knew I'd get the chance to kill the Crones later, I'd hunt them personally, so I opted to take out the potentially greater threat of the tree then go after the Crones. Destroying a village for crimes committed centuries before is not something I'll so quickly forgive.
Technically it isn't something that happened centuries ago but rather it's something that keeps happening to this day. Her anger was because of the humans stepping into forbidden land and continuing to worship her daughters. And let's be honest, the people there aren't saints either, but I agree in that it's best to put that evil spirit down once and for all.
@@cesargarcia8299
Indeed. AND I'm more referring to how long she was in the tree. IF the villagers helped usurp her, that was many generations in the past and no longer the fault of those currently in the village. And considering she took human sacrifices, I'm not sure she would punish the townspeople for that, likely for that transgression not their own.
That was my thought process at least. It was a case of "either this creepy tree that MADE THE CRONES helps, or we kill the Crones and now we have a mad god on our hands". Really I hate the "kill them all" option, but in this case there was no better option really.
@@clayxros576 well the way they usurp her is by the sacrificing itself it grows power to whoever they sacrifice too
I was always kinda pissed we couldn't kill the crowns they would never hid from geralt
I'm almost certain, that the spirit in the tree, is worse than the crones. I think, that the crones themselves are awful beings, but maybe they saw that the evil of their mother started to get out of hand, I mean, the crones clearly do want to keep thos whol cherade up, since they could esily send monsters to grab some children or comquer villages, they don't need to be in hiding, they could just rule over Velen openly - with their magic, noone would be able to beat them. So maybe their mother was getting greedier and greedier and threatened to expose herself to the public, so they killed her and basicly started to rule for themselves. Maybe they had help from the wild hunt, at the very least they serve the wild hunt. I would even go so far and say it is a wrong choice to free the spirit, she is clearly mlre evil than the crones, even though she might safe the children.
I don't think you can really assume that the lady was any better than the crones just because they killed her and they are awful. Two evil entities don't need to be allies. I think the daughters just saw how profitable the lady's business was and they killed her out of greed. Overall, as horrible as the witcher world is, assuming the worst from these kind of legends is the safest option.
You should do a video on if you should kill the borsodis or not in the heats of stone hesit
in my head cannon, geralt killed everyone. the spirit, the crones, the town, even the baron's men...
I am just wondering why the children are saved but Anna is punished? I’ve played both scenarios, even with lingering consequences, it seems to be over as soon as it begins and you’re left wondering why with the consequences. About ready to embark this quest here soon and wondering which scenario. It’s not like the Baron or Anna is seen again if you save them, so I wonder if it benefits better to save the children.
Anna is punished because the children were her responsibility to look over and protect the children.
Free the whispering hillock before asked to do so. The children will be saved and Anna will remain human.
actually the children will die
Nah, she prolly just saved the children to spite the crones. Killing her is definitely the lesser evil. If you free her, there's now another evil entity that roams the land besides the crones. I really don't think this spirit is the type to return favors, else she would've helped geralt and ciri kill the crones on bald mountain if you free her
Okay, I don't get it, everyone always talks about beating the crones and having saved the Baron's wife, but I never got that. Did I do something wrong? I only ever did one playthrough.
You need to destroy the lady of the wood. The Children will die, but the Baron and his Wife will live.
The idea that she demanded sacrifices comes from a book that is, for all intents and purposes, crone propaganda. Any information in it should be interpreted as unreliable.
For all we know it may have been the crones who demanded the sacrifices, and when their mother opposed them they got rid of her.
As for revenge on the villagers who trapped her in that horrible form for years...well wouldn't you be a little upset if they did that to you?
And regarding the implication that her origins are somewhat "demonic", her situation seems inconsistant with that, as true demons (like Gunter, Cat and Dog) don't seem to require a physical vessel and can't really be killed, supposedly if they are destroyed they just go back wherever they came from. Both she and her children are likely more mundane creatures than that, magical and long lived but not immortal, clearly very good magic users but a notch below something like a higher vampire, and not all that tough when caught off guard.
It is not even a borderline neutral act to take revenge on a village because - and this is key - those villager's ancestors from what sounds like many generations ago cooperated with your rival. There is no continuity in the people involved. It would be like modern Poland shooting up Eastern Germany because of things that happened in WWII. Sure, Poland has very strong and legitimate issues with what happened 75-80 years ago. But killing modern East Germans is not the same thing as taking revenge against against the perpetrators of such wrongs.
@@craigaitken7611 The Villagers still serve the Crones though and provide them with sacrifices.