Favorite Villains #8--Striga

Favorite Villains #8--Striga

Geralt battles the striga.

The Witcher saga contains some really fun monsters to slay.  The thing I like best about the monsters in The Witcher is that there is a very clear explanation as to how the many different varieties of monsters came to be.  I've always liked the lore in the series and the fact that it is somewhat based on real-life myths from eastern Europe.

Out of all the monsters you slay in The Witcher, the striga has to be my favorite.  And, I suppose you don't have to slay her.  Maybe it's the opening cinematic in the first game that makes me remember the striga so much.  There's an epic fight between Geralt and this hideous beast.  The fight lasts till morning and then Geralt attempts to lift the curse.  Re-watch it!

Only females can become striga and the cause of the curse seems to be somewhat poorly explained.  In the case of Princess Adda, the curse was placed on her by a member of King Foltests court when he learned of the king's incestuous relationship with his sister.  As a result of this curse the morher (also named Adda) and the child both died in childbirth.  The child was laid to rest in the same sarcophagus as the mother but continued to grow into a hideous beast within the tomb.  Seven years later a full grown monster emerged, a monster whose only goal in life is to satisfy it's hunger by hunting down humans.

This is where our brave witcher, Geralt of Rivia, is called in to lift the curse.  The only way to lift the curse is to fight the creature through the night until dawn and prevent it from returning to it's tomb.  In the cinematic players see Geralt jump into the tomb and slide the lid closed as the beast pounds on the coffin.  When he emerges, he sees the human princess laying on the floor and he attempts to rouse her to see if the curse has been broken.  It's at this moment that he discovers that the curse is still somewhat intact and he is mauled.

In The Witcher 2, Geralt is called in again because it appears that Princess Adda is still cursed.  Members of the court notice her strange habit of requesting raw meat and realize the curse wasn't fully lifted.  So Geralt returns to the tomb where there have been sightings of the striga and he enters.  The fight largely consists of running away and laying traps to keep her from catching you.  As you watch the candles on the sarcophagus burn down, you realize that dawn is nearly upon you.  The last candle burns down and Geralt hops into the tomb.  This time when he emerges it appears that the curse is lifted and Princess Adda can go back to not eating people.

I like the striga because of the specific details that explain how to lift the curse and the fact that you have the option of lifting the curse rather than simply slaying it.  The fight against the striga is a little annoying if you are used to a straight up type of hack-n-slash monster kill.