‘The Witcher’ Season 3’s weapons are full of hidden clues
Despite appearances, a sword isn’t a sword isn’t a sword in The Witcher.
Season 3 is heaving with Nilfgaardian daggers, Redanian swords, elven bows, and dwarven axes, and it’s all helmed by head armourer Nick Jeffries. Expanding the range of equipment used by Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) and his allies and enemies, Jeffries has designed all the weapons for The Witcher and run the armor department since Season 1, working also on the Blood Origin prequel series.
In the latest season of showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s adaption of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, the weapons are out yet again. Geralt’s two-handed steel sword is back, battling bounty hunters and horrifying monsters alike, this time alongside junior witcher Ciri (Freya Allan).
Dwarven warrior Yarpen Zigrin (Jeremy Crawford) and his ranks take on Elven queen Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson) and Scoia’tael leader Gallatin (Robbie Amell) in the ruins of Shaerrawedd with all their latest bows and hammers. Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr var Emreis (Bart Edwards) — aka The White Flame and Ciri’s very much alive father — spends an entire scene getting excited over his fresh Mahakam sword made by his bladesmith: “A sword like this won me an empire once.”
Mashable chatted to Jeffries about the weapons and armor in The Witcher Season 3, and what Easter eggs fans should look out for.
Mashable: Obviously, you have a huge weapons and armor collection by Season 3. Are there any new pieces that you’re particularly excited for fans of The Witcher to see?
Nick Jeffries: We double the amount that the dwarves have, for example, we’ve doubled their weapons, they have a lot more. There’s a few other fun items in there. We’re always looking to make stuff that’s really interesting and fun to look at as well as to use so that it fits the bill of what it needs to do. There’s a few little Easter eggs hidden in the weapons, there’s a couple of re-uses. As soon as people see it, hopefully the big fans they’ll realise what it was and then it will also tell its own story to why it’s where it is now.
M: Geralt’s sword is the heart of his weaponry, has anything changed about it this season or does it continue its journey?
NJ: It continues a journey. Little bits do change, plus we do little unseeable tweaks as well, just to maybe suit a particular shot or style that we’re doing. So you get little tweaks that are visual, and little tweaks that are just practical to help items do the job that they need to do.
M: How do you differentiate contextually between a Nilfgaardian and Redanian warrior?
NJ: Nilfgaard, for me, I have a rule of threes on them. So I build facets into their weapons in sets of three. So if you look at the back of a Nilfgaard sword, it has three sweeps on it. If you look at their polearms, they have a set of threes built in there as well. Their daggers do, everything. So they have a general look — the general colour to the Nilfgaard is always dark and black.
When you look at Redania, from the outset much more of a standard European medieval country. In my brain, I’ve got them as kind of an Eastern European medieval country and everything I’ve got within their base is from a standard medieval base, a more recognisable look. So Redania do have fun things, but their lines are different to where Nilfgaard would be.
M: For sure, and different to the Elven warriors’ weapons as well.
NJ: Yeah, for example, everything they have has a root in some animal. Their bows, for example, have a little Easter egg hidden in them: a little bronze lizard climbing up them. If you know it’s there you can see it but it’s only a small little lizard. But everything has that tie-in somewhere. Some are more obviously animals, some have a more subtle animal hint built into them.
If you put enough hidden little details in it, I think people’s brains pick it up as more substantial. You might not know why, but there’s something going on with it, which is always fun.
M: It’s impossible to pick, but do you have any favourites in the arsenal that you’re just like, “This is the greatest weapon. This is the coolest thing.”
NJ: I suppose my favourite to design for would have to be the dwarves, simply because it’s very important for the dwarves not only to beat you but to humiliate you at the same time. So they’re going to beat you with weapons that are not ridiculous but a little bit strange. So that’s always fun because their stuff is out of the box. I don’t want to say that a sword is just a sword and a sword’s a sword’s a sword. But once you get the dwarves there is just so many more fun elements that you could look at. They have very much the church gargoyle feel about a lot of their stuff, it’s that crazy medieval rudeness built into it.
How to watch: The Witcher is now streaming on Netflix.