Radovid V

The brilliant but paranoid king of Redania, known as the Stern, whose witch hunts and war with Nilfgaard shape the North.

Radovid V, remembered by history as the Stern, is the king of Redania. His father, King Vizimir II, was murdered when Radovid was only twelve, and for years a regency council ran the kingdom while treating the boy as a nobody. The court sorceress Philippa Eilhart made herself his tutor and ruled in his name, using harsh methods that scarred him. Once Radovid took real power, he took revenge on everyone who had shown him disrespect.

Radovid in The Witcher 3
Radovid is at war with both Nilfgaard and the mages, and his witch hunts send sorcerers, non-humans and herbalists to the stake all over the North. He also wants the Free City of Novigrad, whose fleet and treasury could decide the war, and pays the crime boss Whoreson Junior to turn on the city’s other bosses. Geralt meets him in Oxenfurt through Vernon Roche, and finds him plainly unhinged yet as cunning as ever. In A Favor for Radovid the king calls Geralt aboard his flagship and orders him to find Philippa, the woman he hates above all others. If Keira Metz tries to bargain with him, he has her impaled.

What happens to Radovid?
His fate depends on whether Geralt joins the conspiracy of Dijkstra, Roche and Thaler. To unlock it you must settle things with Dijkstra peacefully rather than breaking his leg. In Reason of State Geralt uses Vizimir’s ring, supplied by Philippa, as proof that he knows where she is hiding. Radovid leaves his ship, turns on Geralt and orders him executed, but Roche’s partisans spring their ambush on St. Gregory’s Bridge. Cornered, the king bangs on a door, and Philippa opens it, blinds him with powder and stabs him in the back. If Geralt stays out of the plot, Radovid survives, defeats Emhyr’s invasion and swallows the whole North, Novigrad included. Our Witcher 3 endings guide shows how this shapes the fate of the Continent.

In the earlier games
In the first game Radovid is staying in Vizima to build ties with Temeria, and asks Geralt’s opinion of Princess Adda, whom he marries if Geralt saves her. In The Witcher 2 he comes to the summit at Loc Muinne with the Order of the Flaming Rose, has Philippa arrested and puts out her eyes to avenge his father, though she escapes.

In the books
In The Lady of the Lake, a thirteen-year-old Radovid rides in the victory parade in Novigrad after the Peace of Cintra. Ignored by the nobles along with his mother, he silently swears they will one day learn otherwise. Philippa, who was very likely behind Vizimir’s murder, senses something in the boy at that very moment.

Across the games

Radovid, here called Radovid the Stern, appears in the secondary quest Royal Edicts in Vizima’s Trade Quarter. Geralt promises to get him a set of royal edicts kept in the army warehouse on the main square. The contact turns on them, and Geralt has to fight soldiers and Salamanders inside the building to find the papers. Once he has them, it is up to him whether Radovid gets them.