The Witcher 3 is an easily approachable game even for those that haven’t read the books. But, if someone wants to truly understand the mechanics, world, and narrative, they’ve got to do a bit of reading. For example, it may seem confusing to a first-time player why everyone despises the country of Nilfgaard so much, Geralt included. From what we’re shown in W3, they’re different in culture, but not at all the monsters the narrative makes them out to be. But, if you know the source material, it’s a lot more clear since it’s all written from the “Northerners” point-of-view. That said, there’s much about this war-crazed yet Avant-garde nation of Nilfgaard that we still don’t know or doesn’t make sense, so let’s delve into them a bit.
DISCLAIMER: Book and game spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.
10 Emhyr Isn’t Quite As “All-Powerful” As He Claims To Be
So, throughout the entirety of any Witcher material, Emhyr Var Emreis is made out to be this godly, imposing man who leads the largest nation and army in the world. And, in a lot of ways, that’s completely true. But, if someone read the books or started to look at the deep lore of the Witcher world, they would see that this isn’t entirely the case. Basically, Emhyr’s war is disliked by the nobles of Nilfgaard because of how costly and “needless” it is. In fact, as soon as he “loses” the war, he’s immediately assassinated mercenaries hired by those same nobles. Emhyr is a man holding a lot of power, but boy is that grip more of a struggle than it appears.
9 His Change Of Heart Is Canceled In The Games
So, the Witcher games, especially Witcher 3, take place after the novels. This is why they aren’t “canon” and why people who watched the show were so confused by how everything was suddenly so different. The novels finished for all intents and purposes and at the end of them, Emhyr (Cirilla’s father) has a change of heart, realizes the error of his extremist ways, allows Ciri to stay with Yen and Geralt, and promises to “do better”. But, the games took a different route since the last book wasn’t published outside of Poland yet and made Emhyr exactly the same as he used to be with no explanation as to why his change of heart didn’t stick.
8 He Wants To Save The World By Conquering It And Marrying His Daughter
So, as we find out later in the Witcher story, Emhyr’s entire purpose for his world-wide conquest and his obsession with Cirilla is all due to Ithlinne’s Prophecy. This is a prediction made by a famous Elven Prophetess that directly ties into the Witcher narrative pretty strongly. It basically states that the Wild Hunt will cause the end of the world.
Well, Emhyr wants to twist fate by marrying his daughter Ciri, making a child with her that holds the Elder Blood and having them face the Wild Hunt. But if he believes in the validity of the prophecy so wholeheartedly, how does it make any sense that he thinks he can also change said prophecy in any way shape or form?
7 Geralt Spent The Entire Second Game Stopping Letho, Only To Become Him
Now, this next one isn’t necessarily something that makes no sense about Nilfgaard, but rather that the relationship between Nilfgaard and Geralt makes no sense. Basically, Letho assassinated King Foltest in Witcher 2 for Nilfgaard in exchange for being able to remake his Witcher School, the School Of The Viper. Geralt spent the entirety of W2 hunting him down for assassinating a king, even though he and Geralt had quite the past together. Yet, he does the same thing with the King Radovid assassination in Witcher 3!
6 Speaking Of Which, Why Betray Letho But Honor Geralt?
More on that, basically, Nilfgaard never intended to follow through with letting Letho restart his Viper School. That was just candy to sweeten the deal so they could use Letho as a tool. This is cold, efficient, and cruel, which all makes sense for Nilfgaard. Yet, in Witcher 3, Emhyr works with Geralt, honors the deal they make if you choose to bring Ciri back, and even lets him leave with no consequences.
Obviously, Emhyr has a past with the Witcher back when he was Duny the Hedgehog man, but that still doesn’t make it clear why all the rest of the Nilgaardian nobility treat him so favorably. Plus if Letho proved how useful Witchers are as assassins, why did Nilfgaard betray him? Apparently it was due to Letho knowing of Emhyr’s grand plan…but so does Geralt?
5 If “Real” Nilfgaardians Are From The Heart, What Is Everyone Else?
So, there’s a concept common among the people of The City Of Golden Towers, which is the capital of Nilfgaard. Basically, the concept is that the only true Nilgaardians are born there, and all the ones “brought into Nilfgaard” due to their conquest aren’t true Nilfgaardians. That would be fine if Nilfgaard had captured only a bit of territory or something, but Emhyr has made it obvious over the multiple wars he’s started that he plans to turn Nilfgaard into a world-wide empire. So how does that concept make any sense? You heard it here folks, the only true American’s are the ones born in Washington D.C, the rest of us are just pretenders.
4 The Whole Appropriating Elven Culture Aspect
Humans are constantly are war with the Elves in this setting and tend to treat any other sentient races or creatures quite cruelly as well. And, in contrast, Nilfgaard seems to hold Elven culture in quite high esteem. But, upon further inspection, it turns out they like it so much because they’ve started believing they’re the true descendants of Lara Dorren due to conflicting historical texts on how her affair with Cregennan went down. Thus, they were more deserving of Elven ways than the elves themselves. There is more to it than that, but at a base level, it doesn’t quite make a ton of sense.
3 Much Less Individuality, Except For Nobles And Kings Apparently
For people who have read the books, played the games, or seen the Netflix adaptation, it’s a recurring theme that the Nilfgaardian troops seem to have more uniformity and share the exact same outlooks than any other army.
This is in one part due to their faith to the Great Sun but it is also due to the shared ideals of their nation which worships their Emporer like a god and pushes the idea that everyone else is meant to serve him. Yet, the further up the “food chain” you go, the more these nobles and soldiers tend to have a lot of individuality. It just seems like opposing ideologies is all.
2 They May Seem Much Less Racist, But It’s Complicated
Again, we want to go a bit more into the whole “Nilfgaard is perfect for demi-humans” thing. First of all, Nilfgaard isn’t amazing for Elves, but it is better than in the northern kingdoms. Secondly, they’ve been shown to use demi-human groups as tools for their own purposes, like with Iorveth’s band of rebels. Third, they don’t treat magic users well at all, mostly distrusting them and keeping them on a tight leash.
1 Emhyr Falls In Love With His Fake Daughter And People Are Fine With It?
Lastly, we want to end again on Emhyr’s gross obsession with his own daughter. After Ciri runs away for the first time, Emhyr grabs a random Cintran noble that looks sort of like her and forces her to “become” Ciri to the public so that no one will know that she’s run. Well, after the events of Witcher 3, it’s clear that Ciri is the one at the center of this narrative, and we’re sure word has made it to the Nilfgaardian capital of this. Yet, in the book, Emhyr marries this same “Fake Ciri” once he lets the real one escape, and no one seems to have any problem with it or ask any questions?
