Novigrad is the biggest and richest city in the North, a free port at the mouth of the Pontar with some thirty thousand inhabitants, and one of the few places the war has barely touched. Its thick walls have never been breached, and behind them the city climbs and sprawls in crowded lanes, harbours and tall houses, a look its designers based on medieval Amsterdam with a hint of Venice. It smells of fish, smoke and money, usually in that order.

On paper, Novigrad is ruled by the Hierarch of the Church of the Eternal Fire, and his Temple Guard and Witch Hunters make sure everyone knows it. In practice the underworld has a great deal to say about how the city is run. The Big Four split it between them: Sigismund Dijkstra, who goes by Sigi Reuven, Whoreson Junior, Carlo Varese, better known as Cleaver, and Francis Bedlam, the King of Beggars.

The city is split into districts such as Glory Lane, Hierarch Square with its fish market, Silverton, the harbour and the northern quarter of Gildorf, with the Church’s stronghold on Temple Isle. Geralt arrives in the main quest Pyres of Novigrad, just in time to watch Captain Menge burn a sorceress and a doppler at Hierarch Square, and his search for Triss and Dandelion leads him through some of the most memorable story quests in the game, including Broken Flowers and Get Junior.