Redania is the largest and wealthiest of the Northern Kingdoms, and it knows it. The royal capital is Tretogor, but the real action happens elsewhere: the free city of Novigrad sits inside its borders, and the university town of Oxenfurt gives the kingdom its scholars, doctors and a remarkable number of hungover students. When the North needs an army big enough to stand up to Nilfgaard, it usually has to ask Redania.
Redania in The Witcher 3
In The Witcher 3, Redania is ruled by King Radovid V, called the Stern, and he is the last Northern king still fighting Nilfgaard in earnest. He is also obsessed with destroying magic. Together with the Church of the Eternal Fire, his witch hunters turn Novigrad into a city of pyres, raids and frightened sorceresses. Radovid’s other obsession is Philippa Eilhart, the sorceress who once ran his kingdom for him, and Geralt eventually gets a face-to-face audience with the king himself, who holds court aboard his flagship.
Meanwhile, Redania’s former spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra lives in Novigrad as a crime boss and quietly plans the king’s murder with Vernon Roche and Thaler. Whether Radovid lives or dies in Reason of State decides who wins the war, and if Dijkstra ends up in charge, Redania gets a ruler who is clever, practical and not remotely a king. See our Witcher 3 endings guide for the details.
In The Witcher 2
A young Radovid attends the summit at Loc Muinne, already sharper than anyone expects and already done with being Philippa’s puppet.
In the books
In the saga, Redania is ruled by King Vizimir II, with Dijkstra running its intelligence service and Philippa Eilhart as royal sorceress. After Vizimir is murdered, Philippa and Dijkstra effectively govern the kingdom for the boy Radovid, which explains a great deal about the man he grows up to be.