History NightmareFuel / TheWitcher3WildHunt

** Even those involved in the hunts aren't safe. Radovid cheerfully tells Geralt [[DisproportionateRetribution what he did to would-be bounty hunters who wasted his time]] with false information about Philippa Eilhart's whereabouts; one who presented him with a dead owl missing its eyes [[EyeScream got his own pulled out]] before [[KillItWithWater being thrown in a lake with a rock tied round his neck]], while a postmaster who claimed to have a letter from Philippa [[Fingore got his fingers cut off]] and [[TongueTrauma his tongue pulled out]] so he could never write nor speak a lie again.

** Worse, Yennefer shoots down the attempt by Geralt to calm his wounded spirit. She doesn't believe its really a person after all. Although to be fair, the situation is something that is very hard to confirm either way.

** Even those involved in the hunts aren't safe. Radovid cheerfully tells Geralt what he did to would-be bounty hunters who wasted his time with false information about Phillipa Eilheart's whereabouts; one who presented him with a dead owl missing its eyes got his own pulled out before being thrown overboard with a rock tied round his neck, while a postmaster who claimed to have a letter from Phillippa got his fingers cut off and his tongue pulled out so he could never write nor speak a lie again.

* The witch hunts in general but also what happens to Keira Metz in particular if you let her go seek amnesty from Radovid with Alexander's research. You later find her in "Main Game" folder was not fitting for a NightmareFuel entry. See the streets of Novigrad, whole body impaled on a wooden pole with the tip sticking out of her mouth.

* The "Concerned Citizen" serial killer from the Carnal Sins sidequest in Novigrad tortures his victims in ways so brutal even Geralt is visibly disgusted. Even in this CrapsackWorld, it still manages to be one of the darkest quests in the game.

** Worse, Yennefer shoots down the attempt by Geralt to calm his wounded spirit. [[FantasticRacism She doesn't believe its really a person after all.]] Although to be fair, the situation is something that is very hard to confirm either way.

** The orphans %%Nearly everything in the swamp are handling their situation quite well. But you really should think twice about asking Johnny's friend what happened to his parents.

* A Hym possesses people that have committed horrible crimes and forces them to hurt themselves. Even horribly mutilating themselves in the later stages. One might think that wouldn't be bad, but they only latch on to guilt. Meaning [[TheSociopath sociopaths]], psychopaths, and [[ObliviouslyEvil people who honestly don't believe their doing anything wrong]] won't attract it. It's highly likely that [[TheAtoner someone that would do anything to make up discussion page for their actions]] would be the most susceptible to possession.

%%Nearly everything in the "Main Game" folder was not fitting for a NightmareFuel entry. See the discussion page for more information.

* Although Dettlaff isn't actively malicious, he is incredibly emotional and impulsive, and his anger is all but directionless, lashing at anyone in his vicinity. When he learns that the love of his life had used him as a pawn, he promptly declares war on Beuclair, itself, swarming the city with lesser vampires in a massive temper tantrum, filling the streets with blood and death, just to force her to show herself one last time.

* If You let Syanna die in the finale, then during your subsequent imprisonment the guards arrange for you to witness a gruesome execution just to prove to Geralt that the prosecution is playing for keeps this time.

** Another victim of Gaunter’s sinister DisproportionateRetribution: as Geralt arrives for a meeting at a tavern, O’Dimm waves him over from across the room. Before Geralt can approach, he’s accosted by a ‘’very’’ inebriated fellow who wants the Witcher to share (and presumably buy) a drink with him. Gaunter freezes time so the two can finally be free from harassment, but as soon as business is concluded, he walks over to he drunkard, chastises him for interrupting, and ‘’drives a spoon handle through the man’s eye socket’’. He’s dead instantly as soon as time starts back up.

** The world within Iris' dream, depicting the history she and Olgierd had together. Geralt has to solve some minor puzzles to piece together the various memories. As he does so, you discover the SanitySlippage on Olgierd's part, ultimately culminating in him killing his father in law, locking Iris into the mansion with the haunted cat and dog and the Smiley expy, who serves as her ''caretaker''. Finally, you face Iris' Nightmare: a collection of deranged and physically twisted manifestations of Olgierd, who ominously speak to you as you fight them.

*** Pay close attention when Geralt and the professor are talking. Geralt will get momentarily distracted by the floor above them shaking and dust falling onto the professor's makeshift prison. We never find out what is up there, but one interpretation is that Gaunter secretly followed you, is in the house, and ''is upstairs, listening.'' It's very possible that Gaunter then killed the professor, as punishment for revealing his secrets to Geralt.

** Right before you enter the estate, you encounter a thief. Moments later Geralt and the thief watch a hooded figure draw a corpse towards the backyard. Geralt follows the trail. After a run-in with a seemingly possessed cat and dog who warn you, you run into the figure. It appears to be digging graves with an absurdly large spade that doubles as blade. When Geralt gets closer, the figure removes its hood, revealing it to be what seems to be an animated, stitched together body with [[TheFaceless no face]]. The creature [[Film/{{Smiley}} invokes the image of a certain smiling character...]]]]

** Right before you enter the estate, you encounter a thief. Moments later Geralt and the thief watch a hooded figure draw a corpse towards the backyard. Geralt follows the trail. After a run-in with a seemingly possessed cat and dog who warn you, you run into the figure. It appears to be digging graves with an absurdly large spade that doubles as blade. When Geralt gets closer, the figure removes its hood, revealing it to be what seems to be an animated, stitched together body with [[TheFaceless no face. The creature [[Film/{{Smiley}} invokes the image of a certain smiling character...]]]]

** In certain endings of the main game, the dwarves you meet on the Isle of Mists will discuss how they were hired to steal a chalice by a certain "Mister Mirrory." This can happen *after* you've finished Hearts of Stone, and if it does, Geralt will do an alarmed little [[DoubleTake double-take]]. Gaunter O'Dimm was right - [[InvincibleVillain he'll always be back]].

** In certain endings of the main game, the dwarves you meet on the Isle of Mists will discuss how they were hired to steal a chalice by a certain "Mister Mirrory." This can happen *after* you've finished Hearts of Stone, and if it does, Geralt will do a horrified little [[DoubleTake double-take. Gaunter O'Dimm was right - he'll always be back.]]

* The spotted wight's curse is strongly hinted to be caused by Gaunter O'Dimm, as all she can remember of the vagrant she had slighted was "that he sold mirrors".

** If you choose to best him in a battle of wits, Gaunter decides to let the mask of human form slip off partially, revealing his HellishPupils, his face crawling with TaintedVeins and is now babbling in BlackSpeech. And that otherworldly scream when he's banished, it only hammers in that Gaunter is something... [[HumanoidAbomination wrong.]]

[[folder:Main Game]]
* The events on Fyke Isle in Velen is huge for two reasons - first is that the peasantry decided to RapePillageAndBurn the place because the Lord and his family had fled there, but even worse is that the mage had given Annabelle, the daughter, a potion to drink if she were found. Rather than poison, it was a sleeping potion - but this [[AndIMustScream kept her paralyzed]] as [[FateWorseThanDeath the rats devoured her alive]].
** Which isn't to say the tower's inhabitants were entirely innocent. The mage Alexander conducted experiments with plague rats, then with live human subjects, while researching the Catriona plague, and the Lord was fully aware of this. So the peasants did deliver some sort of justice... for entirely the wrong reason.
* The Botchling, which is a thing straight from real-life fairy tales. A miscarried child which was abandoned without proper rites coming back from the dead to haunt the family which abandoned it.
** And 'haunting' translates to causing miscarriages or even murdering pregnant women and infants.
* The entire concept of the ''Ladies of the Wood''. The all-seeing, all-hearing god-like entities who capture and eat children are like something out of the very darkest fairy-tales.
** The horrifying realization that ''you can't rescue the children you just met'' if you refuse to let an EldritchAbomination out of a tree. If you do, it destroys a nearby village and can lead to the Bloody Baron's suicide, if you aren't careful in your dealings with him.
*** Later, you come across the Ladies of the Wood in their nubile young female forms, [[FanDisservice covered in blood and eating human flesh.]]
** The orphans in the swamp are handling their situation quite well. But you really should think twice about asking Johnny's friend what happened to his parents.
* The witch hunts in general but also what happens to Keira Metz in particular if you let her go seek amnesty from Radovid with Alexander's research. You later find her in the streets of Novigrad, whole body impaled on a wooden pole with the tip sticking out of her mouth.
** Sile, the proud Sorceress and villain from ''The Witcher 2'' is found in the dungeons of Temple Isle if you spared her. She's been shaved, tortured, beaten, and possibly sexually abused to the point of death. ''She begs you to kill her.''
* Whoreson Junior's residence's upstairs which contains almost a dozen freshly-murdered prostitutes whose blood he's taken to bathe in.
* The scene where Yen uses forbidden, arcane black magic to reanimate a terrified, pain-wracked corpse in order to extract information from him on Ciri's whereabouts is chillingly disturbing -- even Geralt is visibly shaken by the experience. Yennefer herself describes the experience as feeling like she had stuck wriggling cockroaches inside her mouth.
** Worse, Yennefer shoots down the attempt by Geralt to calm his wounded spirit. [[FantasticRacism She doesn't believe its really a person after all.]] Although to be fair, the situation is something that is very hard to confirm either way.
* The "Concerned Citizen" serial killer from the Carnal Sins sidequest in Novigrad tortures his victims in ways so brutal even Geralt is visibly disgusted. Even in this CrapsackWorld, it still manages to be one of the darkest quests in the game.
** The killer's MO is to bind the victim, gouge out the eyes to replace with burning coals, their heart carved out and replaced with a salamander egg, and pouring formaldehyde down their throat. RuleOfSymbolism is in full force as well, as the killer is on an extreme version of a ScareEmStraight campaign in the name of the Church of Eternal Fire. It bears mentioning that all of this is done ''while the victim is alive'', with the killer taking pains to keep them that way until the torture is finished.
** The RedHerring in the form of the ObviouslyEvil former torturer church official is equally scary as a brutal sadist who enjoys torturing helpless women, claiming no higher purpose to it beyond his own pleasure and satisfaction. Made worse by the fact that if, after catching him red-handed torturing a prostitute, you leap to the obvious conclusion that he's the killer and kill him without talking to him, the actual killer may continue with his work.
*** The worst part? Even after killing the actual murderer, other "Concerned Citizen" sermons can be found in Novigrad, indicating that he had, indeed, lit a spark.
** An extra layer of horror is added when you learn, in ''Blood & Wine'', that higher vampires can't be truly killed except by another higher vampire. All it would take is another vampire like Detlaff to bring Hubert Rejk back to life.
* A Hym possesses people that have committed horrible crimes and forces them to hurt themselves. Even horribly mutilating themselves in the later stages. One might think that wouldn't be bad, but they only latch on to guilt. Meaning [[TheSociopath sociopaths]], psychopaths, and [[ObliviouslyEvil people who honestly don't believe their doing anything wrong]] won't attract it. It's highly likely that [[TheAtoner someone that would do anything to make up for their actions]] would be the most susceptible to possession.
** It's worse than that, even. You don't actually have to commit the crime, you just have to believe you did. While this comes in handy for tricking the Hym away from its victim (by making someone believe they've done something horrible, and then showing them the truth once the Hym's let the first victim go), it means the Hym's haunting isn't necessarily deserved. For Udalryk, his "crime" was [[SurvivorsGuilt failing to rescue his brother]], because he couldn't hear Aki drowning until it was too late. The guilt over this accident made Udalryk the Hym's victim for years, causing him to eventually [[EyeScream gouge out his own eye]]. It's basically PTSD in demon form, at least for some of its victims.
[[/folder]]

* The events on Fyke Isle in Velen is huge for two reasons - first is that the peasantry decided to RapePillageAndBurn the place because the Lord and his family had fled there, but even worse is that the mage had given Annabelle, the daughter, a potion to drink if she were found. Rather than poison, it was a sleeping potion - but this [[AndIMustScream kept her paralyzed]] as [[FateWorseThanDeath the rats devoured her alive]]]].

* The events on Fyke Isle in Velen is huge for two reasons - first is that [[spoiler: the peasantry decided to RapePillageAndBurn the place because the Lord and his family had fled there]], but even worse is that [[spoiler: the mage had given Annabelle, the daughter, a potion to drink if she were found. Rather than poison, it was a sleeping potion - but this [[AndIMustScream kept her paralyzed as]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the rats devoured her alive]]]].

** The horrifying realization that ''you can't rescue the children you just met'' if you refuse to let an EldritchAbomination out of a tree. [[spoiler: If you do, it destroys a nearby village and can lead to the Bloody Baron's suicide, if you aren't careful in your dealings with him.]]

* The witch hunts in general but also what happens to Keira Metz in particular if you [[spoiler: let her go seek amnesty from Radovid with Alexander's research. You later find her in the streets of Novigrad, whole body impaled on a wooden pole with the tip sticking out of her mouth.]]

* The "Concerned Citizen" serial killer from the Carnal Sins sidequest in Novigrad [[spoiler: tortures his victims in ways so brutal even Geralt is visibly disgusted.]] Even in this CrapsackWorld, it still manages to be one of the darkest quests in the game.
** The killer's MO is to bind the victim, [[spoiler: gouge out the eyes to replace with burning coals, their heart carved out and replaced with a salamander egg, and pouring formaldehyde down their throat.]] RuleOfSymbolism is in full force as well, as [[spoiler: the killer is on an extreme version of a ScareEmStraight campaign in the name of the Church of Eternal Fire]]. It bears mentioning that all of this is done ''while the victim is alive'', with the killer taking pains to keep them that way until the torture is finished.
** The [[spoiler: RedHerring in the form of the ObviouslyEvil former torturer church official]] is equally scary as a brutal sadist who enjoys torturing helpless women, claiming no higher purpose to it beyond his own pleasure and satisfaction. Made worse by the fact that if, [[spoiler: after catching him red-handed torturing a prostitute, you leap to the obvious conclusion that he's the killer and kill him without talking to him, the actual killer may continue with his work]].
*** The worst part? Even [[spoiler: after killing the actual murderer, other "Concerned Citizen" sermons can be found in Novigrad, indicating that he had, indeed, lit a spark]].
** An extra layer of horror is added when you learn, in ''Blood & Wine'', that [[spoiler:higher vampires can't be truly killed except by another higher vampire. All it would take is another vampire like Detlaff to bring Hubert Rejk back to life.]]

* Everything to do with [[spoiler: Gaunter O'Dimm]]. The man is [[spoiler: the [[SatanicArchetype closest equivalent to the ''Witcherverse'' version of the Devil]]]].
** Seeing him [[spoiler:steal Olgierd's soul by aging him and reducing him to ash before nonchalantly tossing about his skull is particularly chilling.]]
** Even people who don't [[spoiler: make pacts with Gaunter]] can suffer terribly. The professor you meet has [[spoiler:went blind from simply learning about Gaunter and spent years inside a protective circle, out of fear. When knocked out of the circle he immediately dies due to a misstep.]]
** [[spoiler:If you choose to best him in a battle of wits, Gaunter decides to let the mask of human form slip off partially, revealing his HellishPupils, his face crawling with TaintedVeins and is now babbling in BlackSpeech. And that otherworldly scream when he's banished, it only hammers in that Gaunter is something... [[HumanoidAbomination wrong]].]]
** In certain endings of the main game, [[spoiler:the dwarves you meet on the Isle of Mists will discuss how they were hired to steal a chalice by a certain "Mister Mirrory." This can happen *after* you've finished Hearts of Stone, and if it does, Geralt will do a horrified little [[DoubleTake double-take]]. Gaunter O'Dimm was right - he'll always be back.]]

* Both scenes in which we learn about [[spoiler:Olgierd's CompleteImmortality. If Geralt choses to fight him to save the man he was about to have executed, Geralt ends the fight by slashing Olgierd's neck, nearly severing it and causing it to dangle at his back. Cue Olgierd applauding and complimenting Geralt's skill completely nonchalantly ''as his neck stump spews and gurgles blood'' before he reattaches his head.]]
** If, on the other hand, [[spoiler:Geralt lets the execution go through, Olgierd is impaled with a sword by the daughter of the noble his men murdered. Olgierd simply has one of his men remove the sword, and his complete indifference can be chilling.]]
** In either case, [[spoiler:Olgierd's men show no reaction whatsoever to the seemingly fatal wound. In fact, in the scenario where the noble's daughter attacks him, one of his men removes the sword for him completely straight faced.]]
* Everything about the [[spoiler: Von Everec]] estate and the haunting atsmosphere that lingers around it.
** Right before you enter the estate, you encounter a thief. Moments later Geralt and the thief watch a hooded figure draw a corpse towards the backyard. Geralt follows the trail. After a run-in with a seemingly possessed cat and dog who warn you, you run into the figure. It appears to be digging graves with an absurdly large spade that doubles as blade. When Geralt gets closer, the figure removes its hood, revealing it to be [[spoiler: what seems to be an animated, stitched together body with [[TheFaceless no face]]. The creature [[Film/{{Smiley}} invokes the image of a certain smiling character...]]]]

** The wraith of [[spoiler: Iris]] which calls out to Geralt as he enters the building, occasionally popping out of Paintings to scream at him and has objects drop and fall in an attempt to hurt him as he explores the mansion. Then in one room the doors to a dim hallway open rather ominously on their own. Upon entering, all the lights go out, a green glow appears in the distance and the wraith appears to do battle.
** The world within [[spoiler: Iris']] dream, depicting the history she and Olgierd had together. Geralt has to solve some minor puzzles to piece together the various memories. As he does so, you discover the SanitySlippage on Olgierd's part, ultimately culminating in [[spoiler: him killing his father in law, locking Iris into the mansion with the haunted cat and dog and the Smiley expy, who serves as her ''caretaker''. Finally, you face Iris' Nightmare: a collection of deranged and physically twisted manifestations of Olgierd, who ominously speak to you as you fight them.]]

* The spotted wight's curse is strongly hinted to be [[spoiler: caused by Gaunter O'Dimm, as all she can remember of the vagrant she had slighted was "that he sold mirrors".]]
* [[spoiler: Regis' GameFace is straight out of nightmares. The torture he forces himself to endure the first time he shows it in order to help Geralt and Dettlaff, doubly so.]]
* [[spoiler: Seeing Regis and Dettlaff go through Dun Tynne in search of Rhena, they butcher the enemy like something out of a horror film. Fast, powerful, and unstoppable. And Regis is the one who views himself as a pacifistic humanitarian!]]
* [[spoiler:Although Dettlaff isn't actively malicious, he is incredibly emotional and impulsive, and his anger is all but directionless, lashing at anyone in his vicinity. When he learns that the love of his life had used him as a pawn, he promptly declares war on Beuclair, itself, swarming the city with lesser vampires in a massive temper tantrum, filling the streets with blood and death, just to force her to show herself one last time.]]
* [[spoiler: The final confrontation with Detlaff is both awesome and terrifying. After damaging him enough, he will unleash his OneWingedAngel form and it is downright hideous, resembling a demon-like monstrosity with a very long neck and claws, no facial features besides a monstrous mouth, wings and hooked appendages. His attacks aren't anything to laugh at either, dealing massive damage. If pushed even further, he creates a dome of flesh, hiding in a core while attacking you with amorphous blobs of blood with his likeness, which he controls.]]

* If [[spoiler:You let Syanna die in the finale, then during your subsequent imprisonment the guards arrange for you to witness a gruesome execution just to prove to Geralt that the prosecution is playing for keeps this time.]]

** In either case, [[spoiler:Olgierd's men show no reaction whatsoever to the seemingly fatal wound. In fact, in the scenario where the noble's wife attacks him, one of his men removes the sword for him completely straight faced. Just how many wounds that would kill any normal man has this guy sufferd?!]]