Crow’s Perch is the closest thing Velen has to a capital, and it only looks the part if you squint. A low moat and a wooden palisade ring a small village of maybe fifty peasants, and the only way in is a rickety wooden bridge that always seems one heavy cart away from giving up. Inside, muddy lanes climb toward the top of the hill, where a red-brick keep watches over the fields with the tired calm of a building that has seen better tenants.

The keep once belonged to Baron Vserad, until rumours of approaching armies sent him running for Fyke Isle. Phillip Strenger, the Bloody Baron, moved in soon afterward with his family and his men, and the place has been under his thumb ever since. Soldiers watch the gate, the village below scrapes by in the shadow of the wall, and there is a steady feeling that everyone is being noticed.

In the game, Crow’s Perch is the hub of Velen. It is where the Family Matters storyline unfolds, and it has merchants, Gwent players and Yoana, the Skelliger armorer who can become a master craftsman after the right quest.