If you played the original Witcher, you'll no doubt remember Shani, a friend of Geralt's from back in the day who played a prominent role in the game's opening chapters, but was absent from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But it looks like she might make a return in Hearts of Stone, one of the two expansions being developed for The Witcher 3.
A promotional image for the expansions on the CD Projekt forums and Steam contains an image of a woman with close-cropped red hair that looks very much like Shani as she appeared in the first game. That's admittedly a thin connection, but recall as well that the April announcement of the expansions said they would include "characters both new and dearly missed." That narrows the field of candidates.
CD Projekt confirmed with Gamespot that the image is legitimate, but declined to do the same regarding the identity of the person in it. "As far as the character portrayed on the illustration, we'll leave that for the community to figure out," Community Manager Marcin Momot said.
Hearts of Stone is expected to be out in October, and will add an estimated ten hours of playtime to the game. A second expansion, Blood and Wine, is slated for early 2016 and will tack on another 20 hours.
As Netflix's The Witcher Season 4 loses another star, once again I feel compelled to tap the 'this no-budget YouTube fan film does the Witcher better' sign
I can only assume this upcoming Witcher children's book takes it easy on the folk horror, fantasy racism, and brutal violence I associate with the series
