CD Projekt Red properly revealed new Witcher 3 expansion Songs of the Past yesterday during Opening Night Live, confirming the new playable location as Letten, the place Geralt’s best friend bard pal Dandelion comes from. But where exactly is Letten on the map? It’s bloody hard to find.
Indeed, I’m not sure it’s marked at all on any maps yet because it’s a location CDPR has padded out to set this original Witcher story in. But we do finally have official guidance on how to find it. That guidance comes from Peter Gelencser, who’s the world director of Songs of the Past at developer Fool’s Theory – the co-developer of the expansion.
Gelencser was speaking in a CDPR Gamescom stream earlier today and clarified: “The whole thing plays out in Letten, which is the birthplace of Dandelion. It’s in the north, somewhere half-way between Kovir [I think he says Kovir] and Kaedwen for all you map nerds out there. If you go to the Gulf of Praxeda and take the Buina river to the east and take a right on the Nimnar river, on the other southern shore of the Nimnar you will find this lovely place.
“But it’s in the north if you want the TLDR version,” Gelencser said.
Even with those directions, it’s hard to pin-point on a map, because as I said, I don’t think it appears on any maps yet. But on a detailed map I did find, you can clearly see the Gulf of Praxeda body of water in the north, then follow the Buina river from it to the Ninmar river until you get to where roughly Letten must be: somewhere near Gelibor, I estimate. Somewhere in northern Redania, in other words, and not very far from Blaviken, the place Geralt picked up his infamous “Butcher of Blaviken” moniker.
Importantly, this puts the expansion relatively close geographically to the region where The Witcher 4 takes place: Kovir. It’s also a significant distance away from the locations in The Witcher 3, which are down in southern Redania leading into Temeria; and away from Cidaris, the rumoured location of Songs of the Past.
Letten itself was described by Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz, the vision director Fool’s Theory, as a “very calm” and “idyllic” Polish countryside area. It’s spring when we visit, because they’re celebrating the end-of-winter festival Belleteyn, so the “mornings are fresh” and “you can see the crisp light travelling on all the vegetation”. It’s a green and blooming purple, colourful place, as you can see in gameplay footage shared during the CDPR stream (segment starts from 2 hours 15 minutes in). But of course there’s a darker “underbelly”, Gelencser said, that we do not yet see.
A few images pulled from the stream. That huge estate: that’s Dandelion’s family’s country manor. No wonder he’s so happy all of the time.
As to when this expansion takes place, Kuzia-Rokosz explained Songs of the Past starts what sounds like immediately after the second Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine, where we believed we left Geralt retired on his vineyard. “So the events of the third expansion unravel after Geralt hoped to retire at Corvo Bianco,” Kuzia-Rokosz said, “but then yet another adventure unveils.”
The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past wasn’t the only major Witcher announcement yesterday. Alongside it, CDPR also announced a Remastered edition of The Witcher 3 that will not only overhaul graphics but also gameplay elements of the game – yes, including combat.
Dom saw the expansion at Gamescom earlier today and will share their full thoughts soon, but already they’ve shared that CDPR had the idea for this expansion “years ago”, and that there’ll probably be a new romance for Geralt in it. Songs of the Past is due for release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and Switch 2 – that’s a new addition – next year.
