History Characters / TheWitcher3WildHunt

* TheUnfairSex: ZigZagged, and left to personal interpretation. Though several characters blame him alone, the Baron argues that there was fault on both sides. He spent longs periods away from home and became an alcoholic; during one of his absences, Anna had a long-term affair with another man and tried to run away with him. After Philip killed her lover, she verbally abused him to push him into [[SuicideByCop killing her]], and then ultimately [[spoiler:made a deal with the Crones rather than bear the Baron's second child]].

* SirSwearsALot: She has a surprisingly-filthy mouth.

* TheUnfairSex: ZigZagged, and left to personal interpretation. Though several characters blame him, the Baron argues that there was fault on both sides. After he began drinking to cope with being away at war all the time, Anna cheated on him and tried to run away with another man. After Philip killed the man, she did things to hurt him and push him into [[SuicideByCop killing her]], and then ultimately [[spoiler:made a deal with the Crones to have their unborn child killed]].

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: She made a deal with the Crones to [[spoiler:get rid of her unborn child, and they did--by forcing her to miscarry during a fight with her husband. Then they sent a Fiend to collect her and transformed her into Gran, who is basically their slave.]]

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Left ambiguous which side it falls on. Philip began drinking to cope with being sent off to war all the time, and at some point Anna began having an affair and no longer loved him. Trying to run off with her lover is what led to the complete collapse of their marriage. Whether or not she was wrong for cheating on Philip and trying to leave him, rather than standing by him to deal with his issues, is left up to the player to decide.

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Her miscarriage and servitude to the Crones did much to erode her mind, to the point where she doesn't even seem to remember who she was when Geralt first meets her. After the children are eaten, she completely snaps, turning into a barely functioning TalkativeLoon who's completely unaware of what's going on around her.]]

* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:She's in her 40s, but when you see her, she visibly grey and looks like she could be in her 60s. Whether her condition is due to the stress that her married life put her through or the Crones' influence is unclear.]]
* YourCheatingHeart: She didn't just cheat on Philip (he actually says he could have dealt with it if it'd been a fling or one-off affair) but the fact that the affair had gone on for ''three years'' and she ultimately left him drove Philip to a rage.

* {{Foil}}: To Geralt in some ways. Both have preternatural swordsmanship skills. However, Olgierd's emotions are bombastic, but superficial. Geralt's on the other hand, are very subdued in expression due to the Witcher trials, but his are authentic and truly from the heart. Geralt has an ironclad morality and has considerations of the good of the many, while Olgierd is devil-may-care to the extreme. When described by others, Gaunter does a TitleDrop for the DLC, saying Olgierd has a heart of stone, while Olgierd can say that Geralt has a heart of gold after one instance of standing up to Olgierd's band of thugs for someone they were treading upon.

* Foil: To Geralt in some ways. Both have preternatural swordsmanship skills. However, Olgierd's emotions are bombastic, but superficial. Geralt's on the other hand, are very subdued in expression due to the Witcher trials, but his are authentic and truly from the heart. Geralt has an ironclad morality and has considerations of the good of the many, while Olgierd is devil-may-care to the extreme. When described by others, Gaunter does a TitleDrop for the DLC, saying Olgierd has a heart of stone, while Olgierd can say that Geralt has a heart of gold after one instance of standing up to Olgierd's band of thugs for someone they were treading upon.

* KarmicDeath: Either killed by Triss in revenge for [[spoiler:subjecting her to above-mentioned torture]] or burned posthumously with all of his followers in their headquarters.

* CoveredWithScars: All of Olgierd's visible skin is littered with different scars

* BlackSpeech:
** [[spoiler:Spouts what sounds like a litany of curses in unidentified but unpleasant sounding tongue when defeated in his game of wits.]]
** [[spoiler: That is the Elder Speech, which translates to variations on the phrase "you cannot defeat me forever" and such, until Geralt tells him to begone.]]

[[folder:Gaunter O'Dimm/Master Mirror/Man of Glass/Evil Incarnate]]

* ExactWords: He adores tricking people by way of ambiguous wording that can be interpreted however suits him.

* IHaveManyNames: Different cultures have different names for him. One persists - [[spoiler: Evil Incarnate]].

* DrivenToMadness: [[spoiler:Her miscarriage and servitude to the Crones did much to erode her mind, but after the children are eaten, she completely snaps, turning into a barely functioning TalkativeLoon who's completely unaware of what's going on around her.]]

* CloudCuckoolander: As [[spoiler:Gran, since her mind has completely broken.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: A possible ending of his storyline. Specifically, if you choose to free the spirit trapped in the Whispering Hillock. The children in the swamp escape, but the spirit takes its revenge by burning Downwarren to the ground, and the Crones punish Anna for failing with a curse that will kill her even if it's lifted. With Anna dead and his daughter wanting nothing to do with him, the Baron takes his own life.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: If Geralt kills the tree spirit and finishes the quest "Return to Crookback Bog," The Baron will leave for Blue Mountains a changed man with his wife Anna.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Gives one for his behavior. [[spoiler: He was traumatized by his experiences during wartime and turned to alcoholism to cope, which led him to... overreact... when he found out his wife had run away with their child, which in turn led to her no longer even maintaining the pretence of loving him.]]

* TheUnfairSex: ZigZagged, and left to personal interpretation. Though several characters blame him, the Baron argues that there was fault on both sides. Anna cheated on him and tried to run away with another man, did things to hurt him emotionally, and ultimately [[spoiler:made a deal with the Crones to have the child killed]].
-->'''Phillip Strenger:''' She cuckolded me for ''three years'', with no regard to my feelings, no regard for my love! [...]\\
'''Geralt:''' You're right, the fault's on both sides.
* TheQuisling: Has willingly joined Nilfgaard in the hope of they'd make his title a real one. Despite this, he is portrayed sympathetically since Temeria really does have no hope of victory against Nilfgaard.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Implied to be the beginning of his problems. He began drinking as a way of dealing with the horrors of war, but after the war was over he was unable to quit.

* WomanInBlack: Played with. She's definitely creepy and menacing up until [[spoiler:Geralt helps her regain sense.]]

* TheUnfairSex: Averted to an extent. Though Tamara sees her father as the only one with blame, the Baron makes it clear that there was fault on both sides. His wife cheated on him with another man and when he had that man killed, she took her hatred out on him, suffered fits of violence and suicidal despair, [[spoiler:and bargained with the Crones to get rid of the child that he so desperately wanted]].

* DarkHorseVictory: If she wins the royal election.

* ChekhovsGunman: Appears in Velen, with no apparent significance. Is then discovered to be [[spoiler: Avallac'h, the elven sage who helped Ciri escape the Wild Hunt.]]

* BullyingTheDragon: Torments an armed Geralt with his lover's screams while sitting across from him in small room, guarded by a single man. Said lover is one of the most powerful magicians alive. [[spoiler: Either way, it doesn't work out for him.]]

* TheSadist: he quite enjoys inflicting horrible tortures on his victims, including making them drink embalming fluid and putting burning coals in their eye sockets. [[spoiler: And then subverted; the torture isn't because he likes it, he just wants to frighten the people of Novigrad into being more righteous and pious. Even the hot coals in the eyes are a ploy in case he needs to a scapegoat to pin everything on.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: He appears very briefly in the quest to find him long before the characters have any idea who he really is, and yet drops a clue hidden in vagaries. [[spoiler:He falsely attributes his apparent youth to the preservation chemicals he works with in the morgue without actually naming any. Among those chemicals would be the formaldehyde he uses to inflict torment on his victims.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Pretty much this for all of Skellige - how about we figure out what's ''actually'' wrong with the Jarl rather than assume it's the gods? How about we ''don't'' piss off Nilfgaard and make them decide we're too much trouble to ignore? How about we actually ''find out who committed the massacre at the feast'', using logic and deduction, rather than charge at the first apparent guilty party?

* TheHighQueen: Like her brother, she too makes an ideal ruler for Skellige. She's a clever, more introspective sort, knowing the value of when to parley and when to fight. Under her the island prospers, as she's strong enough to temper her people's ProudWarriorRaceGuy antics to keep them from engaging in something stupid.

* TheSadist: According to Dudu, [[spoiler: taking Menge's form for too long fills him with an outright compulsion to start torturing witches and non-humans.]]

* HumanoidAbomination: He's a Higher Vampire, the one who [[spoiler: turned Regis]] to be exact, so he's this by default. Although [[spoiler: when he goes into an UnstoppableRage against Geralt, his lapse in emotional control causes him to transform into an eyeless, winged monstrosity, and it only gets worse from there.]]

* EyeScream: [[spoiler: At the Alchemist, some rowdy drunk had the misfortune to disrupt his meeting with Geralt and gets a spoon in the eye.]]