In one second gentleman has changed into a monster, cutting people with a precision of a master butcher.
Higher Vampires - an ancient race from another world who has appeared in the world of the witcher due to Conjunction of the Spheres. Most of them decided to hide from the folks or blend into the crowd. And that's why the world is lucky. Higher Vampires are the most powerfull creatures in the witcherverse. (besides Gaunter O'Dimm).
Regis: Geralt, imagine the least comfortable situation you could ever find yourself in. What would it be? I don't mean the moment of pain, with a death knocking at your door, just a circumstance of great unease.
Geralt: All right, in that case a court banquet. Gotta show up in a hose and a tight doublet. Gotta smile at everyone and engage in vacuous conversation. While Dandelion sings a ballad about me and Yennefer for all to hear.
Regis: Very well. Now imagine you're stuck there - not for an hour, not for an evening, but for all time. And should you fall out of character for but a moment, should you so much as scratch yourself where stitching chafes, all around you scream, "Monster! Monster!" And they'll turn on you and tear you to shreds.
Short description of few Higher Vampires
Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff Godefroy
Regis: Extremely intelligent and well-educated person, which shouldn't be a surprise regarding his age (428 years in human calendar or 642 in elvish). Years ago he was an calm and polite but cocky person who liked to show off his knowledge. To be true he's very knowledgeable in medicine, history, law and alchemy. He joined to Geralt's of Rivia team (Geralt is a witcher - monster hunter) in journey to save Geralt's adopted daughter. He was the most even-tempered, peaceful and rational member of the group. Due to his intelligence and experience, Geralt often consulted Regis on difficult matters. He's kinda a complex character. Once when he was younger he has been very cruel and stupid but after an accident with peasants it took him ~50 years to rethink his live in a grave while regenerating. He bacame more wise and stopped drinking. They captured him when he was drunk, cut off his head, pierced his heart with wooden stakes, chopped his body into pieces, doused him in holy water and buried him in the ground.
Dettlaff van der Eretein
Dettlaff: Regis was once defeated by a sorcerer - Vilgefortz during the assault on Stygga Castle. Geralt and his companions had assumed that being reduced to a puddle of plasma was a fatal condition, but Dettlaff was able to save Regis, completely regenerating him. They became "blood-brothers," and Regis is forever indebted to Dettlaff for his selfless actions. Dettlaff wast stated to be less "civilized" than Regis. He prefers to be around lesser vampires than humans to he doesnt understand human terms such as manipulation or lie. He's still intelligent person. When he's angry, his ruthless. He was able to destroy entire city to force person who was manipulating him to show in certain place to meet with him. He should be around Regis age.
Oriana
Oriana: She is deep friend of Regis from the past. Orianna appears to be very wealthy, she owns an estate, where she hosts lavish parties for artists. She owns her own orphanage (where children allows her to drink blood from them). She was defeated later by Geralt of Rivia, but she's still alive due to being Higher Vampire.
Abilities
- Fire resistance - they are resistant to natural fire. For example in the books Regis was able to pick up a hot horseshoe with his bare hand without any sign of pain. His hand wasn't burned either. But they are not resistant to fire made by magic. For example a mage burned Regis into dust and glass with magical inferno + in the game "Witcher 3 Blood and Wine" Dettlaff can be injured by magic sign Igni.
- Invisibility. They can turn invisible when they want in a second.
Dettlaff turns into a fog and then, when invisible, grabs Regis and throws him at the wall.
- Shapeshifting (they can turn into fog, their vampire form, true vampire form and giant bat). While they are in the fog form they are visible as a literal fog. They can't be injured in this form, because they are not material. It's worth to mention that when they are in the fog form the can turn invisible and attack you when you can't attack them. For example Dettlaff in 3 forms:
Dettlaff turns into his vampire form. Like you see his one hand was already vampire, then when he became angry he turned into full vampire in two secondsDettlaff turns into his true vampire form, it took him ~10 seconds. This form allows him to fly without using mist form
Higher Vampire can turn into a fog and stay in this form as long as he wants. Here you can see that Dettlaff turns into fog when he wants to move faster. In this form he can fly. In the gif it looks like he's teleporting - wrong! He doesn't have teleportation powers. He just can move that fast.Dettlaff and Regis in their fog form lolstomp soldiers
- Regeneration similar to Deadpool/Wolverine. Examples:
Regis was burned down by magic inferno. He turned into dust and some glass. And he regenerated from this. This took some time and he needed help from Dettlaff, but still it's impressive.
Dettlaff lost his hand and then he regenerated it pretty fast (offscreen)(pretty fast means ~less than day)
Regis - they cut off his head, pierced his heart with wooden stakes, chopped his body into pieces, doused him in holy water and buried him). It took him ~50 years to regenerate from that. So long because all of pieces of his body were buried and separated.
Besides that regeneration, they are completely immortal (their spirit lives even if there's no body and they can be resurrected with the help from other Higher Vampire) and they dont feel pain.
- They can put you into sleep or charm you by just looking at you.
His gaze can charm you and put you into sleep. He did that to the guards in the Vissegerd camp.
- You cannot locate/detect them with magic. Regis speech
- They can communicate and talk with animals (at least with ravens)
Their reflexes feats are pretty good. Thanks to their amazing speed their are able to lolblitz theirs opponents. They are faster than Geralt who was stated to be operating at/reacting to blur speeds (also Geralt has shown multiple times that he can move and attack faster than blink of the eye) and he was able to block two strikes from two other sides, with one sword simultaneously (so fast that there was only one blocking sound). Those vamps are faster than him. Regis and Dettlaff were lolblitzing highly trained soldiers in this whole scene. Dettlaff was so fast in his fog form that many people think that he can teleport (they don't have any teleporting abilities! He just mixes his raw speed with invisibility and shapeshifting into a fog). Overall when he decides to blitz, he moves so fast that you can't perceive his motion. There you have Dettlaff blitzing another soldier who is looking at him in defensive position. Oriana's fight with Geralt. You can see how fast she can travel/fight. Almost instantly across the room, Dettalaff & Regis can do the same.
- Regis was taking upper hand during his duel against Dettlaff what makes him more skilled. (Regis was not in his peak physical condition while Dettlaff was)
- Regis lolstomped two Bruxas in a second. One Bruxa is enough to give Geralt a challange.
- It was stated by Regis that Geralt of Rivia the best hunter in witcherverse with superhuman senses will not be able to find Dettlaff. Regis speech. When Geralt tried he was hunting him whole week but he was not able to find him.
IS this game still good to get? I have a lot on my plate now with the new shadows of war game, horizon zero dawn , etc.
I'd recommend this over HZD by a considerable margin, though it is pretty good it's not on par with Witcher 3, the Elder Scrolls etc. I doubt SoW will surpass it either.
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