Ves

The only woman in Vernon Roche’s Blue Stripes, a deadly crossbow shot who fights on for Temeria in The Witcher 3.

Ves is a Temerian soldier and the only woman ever to serve in the Blue Stripes, the elite unit commanded by Vernon Roche. Her road into the army was a brutal one. At sixteen she was spared when Scoia’tael raiders wiped out her village, only to be carried off by their leader and held captive for several years. Roche and his men eventually freed her, saw her potential and talked her into enlisting. She never looked back. Ves is the unit’s best sharpshooter, deadly with a crossbow and throwing knives, and fiercely loyal to her commander.

Ves in The Witcher 3
By the Third Northern War the Blue Stripes have been decimated and officially disbanded, and Ves is the only soldier from Roche’s old unit still at his side, carrying on a guerrilla war against Nilfgaard. She makes a brief appearance when Geralt visits Roche’s hideout during Get Junior. As Roche’s second-in-command she is normally the one who punishes insubordination, but she is also more radical than he is. In An Eye for an Eye she leaves her post against orders to defend the village of Mulbrydale, whose peasants once helped the partisans, and Roche asks Geralt to help him bring her back. Afterwards she and Roche argue over a wounded Nilfgaardian, and Geralt has the final word on whether he lives.

If she survives, Ves follows Roche to Kaer Morhen and fights in The Battle of Kaer Morhen. She is also part of the plot against King Radovid with Roche, Thaler and Dijkstra.

What happens to Ves?
Ves can die in two places. The first is An Eye for an Eye: if Geralt does not reach her in time, she falls defending Mulbrydale, and Roche will then refuse to come to Kaer Morhen. The second is the end of Reason of State. Once Radovid is dead, Dijkstra turns on the Temerians in their theatre hideout. If Geralt walks away, Ves dies fighting at her commander’s side with Roche and Thaler. If he stands with them and kills Dijkstra, she lives. The Witcher 3 endings guide explains how this shapes the fate of the North.

In the earlier games
Ves first appears in The Witcher 2 as a member of Roche’s unit. Roche sometimes played her as his trump card on missions where her looks mattered more than her fighting, though anyone who underestimated her paid for it. Depending on whom Geralt sides with, he can spend a night with her in chapter II.

Across the games

In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Ves is a fair-haired member of Vernon Roche’s Blue Stripes and the only woman in the elite unit. Her looks draw attention, but she earned her place through skill, determination and ruthlessness, and underestimating her is a costly mistake.

She is the unit’s best marksman and has few equals with throwing knives. Because of her appearance, Roche has more than once given her missions in which her beauty mattered more than her fighting ability.