Talk:In the Heart of the Woods/@comment-81.158.107.21-20171024001047

You know,I started this quest ready to dismiss the elder as a lunatic, following deluded beliefs. You hear the trials and sacrifices line attached to deaths and my first thought was, no, it's probably just killing people, no test involved. That seems to be the mnd of the younger generation. But, you know, the comments so far seem to talk about it like slavery or something, maybe akin to the crones in Velen, but out of curiousity I did the mission both ways. This is one of the quests that just makes me a bit angry, mostly because no matter what you do that band of lunatics goes on a killing spree and is all too eager to drive out an innocent young girl. I ended up siding with the elders, partially because I refuse to condone that slaughter, but also because it actually seems the right thing to do, in a warped way.

You go up to that alter, and, it's a literal test, with the Leshan watching intently. It struck me, the elder was accurate, not deluded. They made a pact long ago, and are literally being punished for breaking it. This Leshan is old, maybe even older than the village, those woods, presumably, "belong" to it. It lives there, doing whatever leshans do, and allows people to hunt there, in its territory, peacefully, presuming they pass its wolf test. Harsh, but well within the mentality of this culture. Test of strength and cunning, pass, and you have free reign. I'm not taking the weaponry line too literally, it didn't seem to care I used swords crossbows and magic. Know this opinion is going to be unpopular, hence explaining it so longwinded, but in this world of monsters where every village seems to have some vicious problem or another, being forced to pass a trial by five wolves almost seems fair, and when possible, if a creature is either innocent or, in this case, not openly hostile (when human keep their word, though to be fair I guess, it is an individual, the humans who agreed all died) I try to find a no killing alternative