Nearly a decade after its release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues to surprise fans. A recently datamined collection of information from its early development reveals a game that could’ve been dramatically different.
A team of dedicated modders—Moonknight, Ferroxius, Crygreg, and Glassfish—has meticulously compiled their findings into a massive 585-page document titled What Lies Unseen – A Witcher 3 Cut Content Document Series.
So far, only the first and third volumes are available, detailing cut content like Iorveth, the infamous plague questline, and even a Cyberpunk 2077 crossover. Here are the full details, including concept art.
Table of Contents
A Longer, Darker Adventure
The first volume of the datamine unpacks the original vision for Witcher 3’s story subtitled A Time of Sword and Axe. This 2012 prototype boasted an ambitious main story estimated at 150 hours—three times the length of the finished game. This version was notably grittier, featuring darker themes and endings.
Interesting storyline additions include:
- A choice between Yennefer and Triss with harsher consequences—the rejected love interest wouldn’t appear in the final act of the game.
- Fan-favorite elven rebel Iorveth from Witcher 2 playing a major role, including attempting to assassinate the Nilfgaardian Emperor.
- A sprawling plague questline (more below)
- The Crones relocating to a swamp treehouse near Novigrad at some point. They’re weakened because they are no longer in No Man’s Land, and Geralt would have an easier time facing them in battle.
- Geralt infiltrating the Naglfar (Wild Hunt ship) disguised as a member of the Wild Hunt. Avallac’h would use magic to help complete his disguise. Geralt would reportedly pretend to be Nithral, one of the Wild Hunt generals we slay early on in the game.
- A darker “Ciri is dead” ending, where Geralt has visions of Ciri and drinks to get over his guilt.
- Expanded ending content for Ciri becoming an empress or a witcher.
A surprising crossover with Cyberpunk 2077 was also planned. In one scene, Geralt and Avallac’h would enter a portal to Night City:
Geralt: What… What is this place? Is this the afterlife?
Avallac’h: No. Just another of the realities the Spiral leads through… Technologically advanced, but broken. Dying.
Meanwhile, gameplay changes included a Fallout VATS-like system for targeting weak points, no Gwent (replaced by mini-games like axe throwing and a card-based drinking contest), and more expansive travel between Velen, Skellige, and Novigrad.
Did you know? Most of the original quests were rewritten in 2014, which is why the released game is quite different from this 2012 version. The game was too long and too ambitious with too many characters, so CDPR had to cut many things out.
The War Questline
The datamine includes a 154-page preview of Volume 3 of the leak, focusing on the War questline, a huge side quest that most fans know as the cut Catriona Plague questline.
At the heart of this abandoned narrative was a villain named Hector Krafft Ebing, a mad scientist aligned with Nilfgaard. Hector had struck a deal with a demon, and Geralt’s mission was to hunt him down, deliver justice for his heinous experiments, and stop the demon from wreaking havoc.
This grim plotline intertwined with the Catriona plague—a deadly disease ravaging the Northern Realms—and involved prominent characters like Roche, Thaler, Iorveth, Ves, Emperor Emhyr, and even Gaunter O’Dimm, who later became the main antagonist of Hearts of Stone.
The story was incredibly intricate, balancing Geralt’s pursuit of Hector with Roche and Thaler’s scheme to assassinate Emperor Emhyr, while Iorveth sought the plague cure for his own purposes. Even spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra played a role, offering an alternate lead-in to the Reason of State quest where players decide King Radovid’s fate.
Despite its ambitious scope, the questline was ultimately abandoned by CD PROJEKT RED in October 2014. According to the dataminers, the developers felt the story was too complex and “wasn’t coming together.” Instead, the final game focused on simpler narratives, leaving Hector, Iorveth, and the plague largely absent.
The Modding Community’s Role
This incredible treasure trove became possible thanks to CD PROJEKT RED’s release of the RedKit modding tools in 2024. The RedKit included a database containing nearly every line of text written during The Witcher 3’s development.
The modders translated this data into a cohesive synopsis, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the creative process behind the game.
A Must-Read for Witcher Fans
From concept art to alternate questlines and endings, this datamined volume is packed with awesome details. And this is just the start—at least three more volumes are planned.
If you’re curious and want to read all the details, check out the official github page. Reading this will take you at least a few hours, but if you prefer a visual format, popular Witcher YouTuber xLetalis has made a video version summarizing the datamine here:
We’ll keep you up to date on the release of the next volume of the datamine!
Gleb has played PC games since the late 1990s and has always enjoyed RPGs the most. He had tons of fun playing Witcher 3 and learning about the greater Witcher universe, so he made this website for news, guides, and other info related to the Witcher games, books, and cinematic universe. He travels the world as a digital nomad while working on website projects, kickboxing, and telling people how awesome intermittent fasting is.