Velen, often called No Man’s Land, is a Temerian province south of the Pontar and one of the largest regions in The Witcher 3. It is a flat, waterlogged land of bogs, birch forests, burned-out villages and muddy roads, where the gallows outnumber the signposts and every crossroads seems to have a hanged man for company. The Third Northern War has rolled right over it: Nilfgaardian garrisons hold the roads, deserters and bandits hold everything else, and the peasants who are left survive on turnips and superstition.

At the centre of it all sits Crow’s Perch, the palisaded hold of Phillip Strenger, the Bloody Baron, where Geralt’s hunt for Ciri really begins in Family Matters. From there the region opens up in every direction: the fishing village of Blackbough and its pellar, Midcopse, Heatherton and Lindenvale along the roads, Fyke Island and its haunted tower, and the harpy cliffs around Lornruk. In the south lies Crookback Bog, home to the orphanage, the village of Downwarren and the Ladies of the Wood, three ancient Crones who rule the swamp from behind a tapestry. Their story runs through Ladies of the Wood, The Whispering Hillock and Bald Mountain, where the Wild Hunt’s general Imlerith waits.

Velen is also witcher country. Drowners crowd the riverbanks, ghouls feed on the battlefields, noonwraiths haunt the fields and nekkers swarm the forests, while the notice boards offer contracts for everything from a phantom on the trade route to the Merry Widow of Lindenvale. Keira Metz hides out in a cottage in the woods, the elven ruins hide secrets older than the kingdoms around them, and wherever Geralt goes, the war is never more than a hill away. It is bleak, it is beautiful in a grey sort of way, and it is where many players fall in love with the game.