#sapkowski

here :( the water pole, speaking to reynevan wasn't telling him to say a tongue twister, but a shibboleth: instead of "she sells seashells on the seashore" he orders him to say "soczewica, koło, miele, młyn" (lit. lentil, wheel, grinds, mill) which is NOT a tongue twister!!!! that was a legitimate shibboleth used by poles in 14th century after one uprising or another, to identify and kill germans and german-speakers.

what Reynevan says back to him, is "stół z powyłamywanymi nogami" (lit. table with the legs broken off), which is. just a tongue twister. because he's obnoxious and wants to prove to a random polish guy he met that he speaks polish better than him LMFAO

but here's the thing: as a game it would actually work perfectly.

why? because kingdom come: deliverance, its sequel, and maybe even a third installment of the game would do the heavy lifting. KCD guides you through the exact setting that leads into the hussite revolution. the politics, the factions, and the political landscape of bohemia are already there, baked into the lore and the worldbuilding. players are already learning about the politics of bohemia without even realizing it.

so imagine this: warhorse takes that foundation and then moves directly into a hussite trilogy adaptation. the “niche history” issue disappears because the audience already has the context from playing KCD.

Based on the post I made a while ago:

I feel like Regis is just silly fella. Also higher vampires love shiny things like their lesser cousins and you can fascinate a higher vampire with a piece of jewelry

Today, as part of the Opole Book Festival, a meeting with Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski took place, led by Daniel from Strefa Czytacza and Geralt of Rivia: The Story of "The Witcher"! Below is a "short" report.

The meeting took place in the Opole Philharmonic building and lasted almost an hour. Then, Mr. Andrzej signed books for the participants of the meeting (one at a time) for over an hour.

What could we learn at the meeting?

As always, Mr. Andrzej recounted many anecdotes from his life. Including the following:

- He mentioned the translations of his prose, where he stated that he considered the Czech ones to be the best. He also mentioned various translation "somersaults".

- When he was in Russia, they encouraged him to change the character of Mistle to a boy, because how is it a girl with a girl? To which he categorically refused, because, as he put it, "he would be damned". And the Russians, fearing this, caved in.

- He mentioned money very often... A coincidence? 😄 In particular, he remembers how he was given money by one of his fans after the publication of his first story.

- In jest (although ...) he mentioned that he is still waiting for the Golden Gloria Artis, because he already has a silver one and wants some Minister of Culture to finally call him a "national treasure". Ahh modesty!

- Mr. Andrzej mentioned that he writes to spite people who think that after 70 you shouldn't do anything anymore. And he does it to train his brain, so that sclerosis doesn't get him.

- He said that it was a "stupid thing" because he hadn't watched the animation "Nightmare of the Wolh", so the fact that he described the vision of the Kaer Morhen pogrom in a completely different way he called "well, that's too bad" 😄.

- Since he is a visual person, he tends to avoid audiobooks, but he is currently listening to the latest radio play by Wieża Jaskółki! However, he is doing it slowly.

- He mentioned that he has copies of his oldest publications somewhere (older than Steelhead), but it is his private copy and he hopes that people will forget about it.

And what is "most important"? Mr. Andrzej mentioned that he, unlike George R.R. Martin, will write another book! It is true that it will be published in about 10 years (at the latest), so we have to be patient 😄. However, he did not want to reveal whether it will be another Witcher or something else, although he admitted that he did not remember that during the Freedom Games he mentioned a book on the subject of the 30 Years' War 😉.

It is worth emphasizing that Daniel devoted almost half of the meeting time to the Fans, who gathered in large numbers at the Philharmonic Hall, could ask Mr. Andrzej questions. Among others, a question was asked about Leo Bonhart, about the Witcher author's attitude to adaptations (Mr. Andrzej stated that there are better and worse ones and that it is very rare for an adaptation to be better than the literary original, here he gave The Shining by Stephen King as an example), but he did not want to point out any specific adaptations of his prose and evaluate them. He also joked about the time he currently spends writing. This time I also managed to ask (as usual, rather incoherently) a question. I asked Mr. Andrzej if he had heard of or used the Witcher Wiki, a fan project that was created in 2006 and will soon celebrate its 19th anniversary! As it turns out, Mr. Andrzej not only knows the Witcher Wikipedia, but also uses it sometimes. Below is a quote:

"Of course I know what the Witcher Wiki is. What's more, I sometimes even look there. Not often, but I do. And that's because not only have I myself slightly, let's not be afraid of the word, inflated the onomastics in the books. There are an infinite number of names and names there. In addition, the adapters shamelessly add all sorts of crap to this onomastics and topomastics. With a persistence worthy of a better cause. Because of that, sometimes I also slowly start to get lost in all this. And then this wiki comes to me with invaluable help. Because then I can find out that, for example, the name of a given river is a name invented by CD Projekt, I have nothing against it, it lives peacefully. And sometimes it turns out that

It's not meant to be this epic fantasy. Of course there are some fights and battles but most of the time the characters are just talking, riding horses and talking, drinking and talking, laying in bed and talking, getting lost in the woods, because why not, oh now they have to fight someone. And someone have to save them because they just looks like they can save the world by themselves. They can't. They all need someone to look after them. And after that they talk.

Geralt is this guy that says he's so lonley and he doesn't have feelings 'cause he's mutant. All that when he's actually talking about his feelings to his friends that laugh at him when he tells them that he's going somewhere alone. Friends that somehow saw eachothers one day and decided "yes, i'm keeping them. we are the family now". Also not this traditional family that Netflix is making.

And that's also what made Witcher games such a hit. Because players were involved in the plot. Because you interact with others so much. I myself were on the edge of crying when i finished both main game and Blood and Wine dlc.

Sapkowski was a Soviet spy.

This is not a joke. This is an interview with José María Faraldo, the official translator of The Witcher books in Spain and friend of Sapkowski. I attach the original video in Spanish, it is uploaded on the official YouTube channel of the publisher that publishes the books in Spain.