The Witcher 3 Easter eggs/Literature


 * A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. The term draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt.

This article catalogues Easter eggs and pop culture references in. For easier viewing, this page has been broken up into sub-pages based on the topic.


 * In Blood and Wine halfway between Dulcinea Windmill and Coronata, you can encounter a bear wearing a ragged red shirt. That is a reference to Winnie the Pooh, a character first created by the English author A. A. Milne. You can loot three honeycombs and a jar of honey after you have killed the bear.
 * At the start of Blood and Wine, the scene with Guillaume & the windmill is clearly a reference to Don Quixote (seeing windmills for monsters; only this time a true monster pops out). Furthermore, there are notes spread across Toussaint calling on Knights Errand to no longer fight windmills
 * In the island where the GOT Easter Egg is found one of the bandits drops a note with: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". Direct reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. Appropriately, the Necronomicon, which was referenced in works of H.P. Lovecraft, can be found as an in-game book. In "Blood and wine", in the hut of the witch of the lynx crag, a book named "Liber ivonis" can be found, a reference to an occult book mentioned in Lovecraft's stories. Geralt makes a comment about that book being banished by the sorcerers.
 * In Velen, not too far from the village of Heatherton, there is a Cyclops guarding a treasure but is also to be found a herd of sheep. This is a direct reference to The Odessy, by Homer, in which Odysseus and his men are beset by the Cyclops, Polyphemus
 * In Oxenfurt, near the northeastern gate, you can find a man who has a wyvern in a cage. He tries to cheat you, as well as the soldiers that are there, by telling that the beast inside the cage is a basilisk, but Geralt notices the fraud. After this, the wyvern breaks the cage and kills that guy. This quest, called 'The Most Truest of Basilisk', represents a scene from Time of Contempt, the 4th book of Geralt's saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. In the book Ciri is hanging around Gors Velen with another kid when she suddenly enters a tent and sees a man with a wyvern in a cage. The same thing happens here. The man says that it's a basilisk, trying to trick everyone there, but Ciri says that it is a wyvern... Eventually, the wyvern breaks the cage and kills the guy.
 * During the quest The Great Escape, you can find a list of prisoners with several inside jokes, including a reference to a prisoner named Sardukhar, a member of the Nilfgaardian Elite Palace Guard. Sardukhar is a long time user and moderator of the CD Projekt RED forums.
 * The Forefathers' Eve quest is a reference to the poem "Dziady" (Forefather's Eve) by Adam Mickiewicz. The ceremony on the island directly quotes parts of it. Both the poem and the events in the game are a reference to actual pre-Christian Slavic / Baltic commemorations of the same name.
 * In the quest, The Great Escape, Geralt and Yennefer go to meet a man who escaped from the prison. His name is Abbé Faria, which is a reference to the priest that Edmond Dantes meets in the book The Count of Monte Cristo. Additionally, the way the man escapes from prison is by playing dead and being tossed in the sewers, which is similar to the way Edmond Dantes escapes the Chateau d'If prison island, by pretending to be dead and being tossed into the sea.
 * The Mission Swamp Thing refers to the character with the same name from DC comics.
 * There is a trophy called "Fist of the South Star", a reference to the manga "Fist of the North Star".
 * When talking to the Old Sage in the The Truth is in the Stars quest, if asked about his "gift", the Old Sage will first respond that as a child he fell into a cauldron of magic brew. This is how Obelix from the comic book series "Asterix and Obelix" gained his superhuman strength.
 * On one of the notice boards, there's a notice from "Ismael" claiming "if you see a white whale in the sea, let it swim on. It's mine. If anyone catches it before me, Freya be my witness, I will stab that wretch to death with my harpoon" Clearly a reference to Ishmael and Moby Dick / the whale by Herman Melville.
 * There is an in game book titled "How to Avoid Colossal Vessels" which is a reference to "How to Avoid Huge Ships"
 * The book Journey to the End of the World is a reference to Jules Verne's adventure novel "Around the World in Eighty Days". It also mentions the German film star Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Man Who Laughs, The Thief of Bagdad, Casablanca), who was one the first actors playing the main character of this story in a movie adaption.
 * During The King is Dead – Long Live the King Geralt is tasked with finding a key to place in a statue's hand, opening a secret passage. Many items are provided to try, only one work. One of the items is a skull. Nothing happens when it is placed in the statue's hand. After, Geralt sighs, "Guess you're no indecisive prince." A reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet and the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" scene, and Hamlet as a character.
 * The quest The Play's the Thing is a reference to Shakespeare's play Hamlet, where Hamlet says "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."
 * On a notice board in Toussaint, the poet and tournament-announcer Le Papillon accuse a guy named William of Stratford to "steal rhymes". That is an obvious reference to the old debate, whether William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon, was indeed the author of his plays and poems.
 * The name of the side quest Waiting for Goe and Doh is an obvious allusion to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot".
 * Captain Wolverstone and his ship Atropos are right from Sabatini's book 'Captain Blood'
 * Towards the end of the quest Where the Cat and Wolf Play Geralt may say "The soil lie light upon you." depending on your choices made throughout the duration of the quest. This is a reference to an inscription commonly used on funerary items from ancient Roman times; "Sit tibi terra levis." Translated from Latin meaning: "May the earth rest lightly on you."
 * During the quest Count Reuven's Treasure, it is mentioned that one of the customers in Novigrad baths is named "General Joseph Svejk", being a reference to the main character of Jaroslav Hašek's novel "The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk".
 * The backstory of a quest The Fall of the House of Reardon is about a 14-year-old girl Dolores Reardon and her brother/guardian Humbert. They're the main characters of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita".
 * The title of a quest The Fall of the House of Reardon references Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". During the same quest, one can find Humbert's remains, who was entombed alive behind a brick wall. The whole setup is a reference to "The Cask of Amontillado" by the same author.
 * During the quest The Mystery of the Byways Murders, Geralt has to track and kill the old vampire named Sarasti, who is a reference to one of the main characters of the novel "Blindsight" by Peter Watts.
 * After being possessed by a spirit, the random black mare caught for the quest will be called "Black Beauty".
 * During the quest Final Preparations, you encounter a character by the name of Abbe Faria. This is the name of the prisoner who helps Edmond Dantes escape the prison in "The Count Of Monte Cristo" by faking his own death.
 * During the quest Through Time and Space on the desert planet, Avallac'h describes a living sea that was on this planet. A direct reference to Solaris novel by Stanislav Lem.
 * The quest The Sad Tale of the Grossbart Brothers is a direct reference to the book "the Sad Tale of the Grossbart Brothers", about the murderous and grave-robbing brothers Hegel and Manfred Grossbart. You are asked to kill them and will later fight them later in a cave.
 * Walking around in von Everec mansion in the, Geralt can make comments about certain objects. Of the portrait depicting Olgierd and Iris together, he says "Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", quoting the first line of Leo Tolstoy's famous novel "Anna Karenina".
 * On one of the notice boards, there's a story about a girl named Rossa being put in a bread oven for the amount of time equal to "counting dozen three times" as suggested by the Pellar. The tale is similar to the one portrayed in the 19th-century short story "Antek" by Bolesław Prus, where the main protagonist's sister Rozalia was put in the oven for the duration of "three Hail Maries" to sweat out a fever as per local folk medicaster's suggestion. The child had died of severe burns.
 * Olgierd von Everec resembles Andrzej Kmicic, a character from the novel "The Deluge" by Henryk Sienkiewicz, who was an extraordinary soldier and commander, but also a thug and a brawler. Kmicic leads a band of criminals (like Olgierd's Wild Ones) and has a fiancé by the same family name like Iris, Olgierds wife. Olgierd's model bears resemblance to Daniel Olbrychski, an actor who played Kmicic in the film adaptation.
 * In the quest Turn and Face the Strange which involves the witcher mutation laboratory of Professor Moreau, the professor's name is a reference to the character of Dr. Moreau from the 1896 science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, "The Island of Doctor Moreau."
 * The sidequest The Last Exploits of Selina's Gang, from the, mentions three robbers: Selina, Bruce - her lover, and Robin. This is a nod to DC Comics' Batman (Bruce Wayne), Robin, and Catwoman (Selina Kyle).
 * The quest's title is also a reference to the 1970s Danish comedy, The Last Exploits of the Olsen Gang
 * The Blood and Wine quest The Inconstant Gardener is a reference to the 2001 novel The Constant Gardener written by John le Carré. Like the Hearts of Stone quest Tinker, Hunter, Soldier, Spy before it, the journals and books around the treasure site reflect many of the author's portrayals of double-agents living under assumed identities.
 * The character Gaunter O'Dimm is a possible reference to the Stephen King character Walter O'Dimm who is a powerful wizard in the Dark Tower series.
 * The Blood and Wine Guarded Treasure, located to the right of Trading Post, in the North-Center portion of the map, features a black panther guarding a camp. After slaying the panther, you can find a letter addressed to "Calvin", admonishing him for adopting a panther and naming it Hobbes. This is a reference to the comic Calvin and Hobbs, in which a small boy lives a fantasy that his stuffed toy tiger (which is incidentally orange) is alive and who is often criticized for being so friendly with it.