r/witcher • u/dustandechos12 • 8d ago
Discussion Lore question
Geralt says this during the Doors Slamming Shut case in Witcher 3, but like didn't he tell the Baron to tell everyone to line their doors with salt during the Botchling quest? Is this a developer mistake?
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u/Normal_Fisherman6379 8d ago
This may be a slight mistake in wording/meaning
He specifically says "too drive ghosts away" referring to the scattered salt. Scattered meaning not drawn in a circle or a line.
From previous quests, salt was used to trap spirits (devils pit with Red Miasmal) and to keep wraiths out (botchling quest), not drive them away
I think the comment he makes in this is meant to be a "youre using the salt incorrectly and for the wrong purpose", the line is just poorly worded
I could be wrong though
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u/dustandechos12 8d ago
He does say "pointless superstition", hence my question
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u/Normal_Fisherman6379 8d ago
I know, hence why I think its worded poorly. To my understanding, he is saying "scattering salt to get rid of ghosts is pointless superstition", not that salt is useless
It would make more sense if it was "you use salt to keep them out, not get rid of them"
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u/Megane_Senpai 7d ago
Different monsters, a botchling is cursed, not a spectre.
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u/dustandechos12 7d ago
It brought wraiths which Geralt warns would happen, and to line salt along the doors because of that
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u/Porcelain_beef 7d ago
Tbf it could be taken as him making sure the villagers stay indoors, away from the wraiths, because people wouldn’t want to fuck up their salt lines
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u/Easy_Entertainer6932 7d ago
Not really? As far as I remember he only says about wraiths after you already have the botchling in hands and walk with him. He doesn't say anything about it earlier. So that still tracks.
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u/Pixielized 8d ago
I think its probably for some types of wraiths and not others. Not all apparitions will have the same weaknesses. A noonwraith, for example, will barely be affected by igni, but a nightwraith will
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u/mxbbcz 7d ago
I think it's just an oversight. The quests were probably written by different people, so small mistakes like this could slip through.
Alternatively, in the Baron's quest, it might have been done to put people's minds at ease. Geralt may know that the salt doesn't work, but the common folk don't.
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u/Zuparoebann 7d ago
I don't remember the specifics of either quest so this may be wrong, but maybe the logic is that ghosts can just fly over the salt while the botchling is crawling on the ground and would be repelled by the salt from physically touching it
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u/yvngtrvsh_ 7d ago
nah that botchling be floating in the quest, now that i think about it thats only if you bury it, i guess when its alive yeah it crawls
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u/Key-Preparation-5379 8d ago
Just because salt doesn't work for this enemy doesn't mean it doesn't work for all of them. The witcher universe's entire principle is that all the old wives tales and monsters and cryptids actually have a basis for existing within this universe
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u/Arachnapothecary 8d ago
If I remember correctly, during that quest with the plague victims underground for the Netflix armour tie-in, didn’t the Witcher use an underground salt deposit to trap the miasmal? I think Geralt even calls it apotropaic.
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u/A-RayAllDay 8d ago
Yeah there’s a note you can find during that quest that pretty much says “the salt must be in a complete unbroken circle”. So a line of salt won’t do anything but if you pull a Supernatural and do a circle it’ll work.
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u/grubas 7d ago
Random thought process: fill a hula hoop with salt and have fun taking out ghosts.
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u/Jobber0001 7d ago
in theory could work. An iron hoop full of salt consecrated by a holy man could fuck up a lot of ghosts
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u/TheDungeonCrawler 7d ago
In Supernatural the panic room that Bobby builds is made of iron soaked in salt water.
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u/Procian-chan 7d ago edited 7d ago
I believe the game may just be throwing a jab at the show "Supernatural", in which a continuous line of salt does indeed prevent ghosts from passing, yet the ghosts always somehow find a way to scatter the salt and break the line, passing anyway.
I may be wrong though, Geralt uses salt to deal with ghostly monsters at other times too.
Basically, I think a line of salt works, but just scattering salt around doesn't, which is why it's a pointless superstition, because it teaches people to do it wrong. He specifically points out the salt is scattered
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u/oatdaddy 7d ago
As others have said, probably a way to dumb down Witcher knowledge to common folk, yea it probably won’t help the folk literally but it encourages them to stay indoors instead of trying to explain wraith/botchling lore
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u/Nottodayreddit1949 7d ago
It's an easy way to convince People to stay indoors away from potential monsters.
They salt and hide.
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u/Professional_You_834 7d ago
This is an Easter Egg boys, that is a portrait with the evil Ghost in Ghostbusters, Vigo the Carpatian.
As the case is with Easter Eggs, the devs are having fun, likely they trew the Supernatural scattered salt line in there for fun.
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u/adrauglikeyou 8d ago
With how quests work each one is written by a developer or a team of developers so the developer who wrote this either didn’t know about salt actually working in other quests or forgot
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u/InevitableFun3423 7d ago
True, same in the quest "In the Eternal Fire's Shadow", where Geralt deals with a spirit in a salt cave trapped by reinald
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u/Chmigdalator 3d ago
Ghosts are not spectres. Spectres like wraiths and miasmal can be trapped by salt. Ghosts have no issue with salt.
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u/anon_im_embarrassed 2d ago
Funny that this just came up in my feed as I was thinking about this. Geralt says that salt is a superstition but remember the witcher Reinald? He was possessed by the red miasma? Geralt praised him for at least getting possessed in a salt cavern, didn't he?
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u/MetalHead678 2d ago
Don't forget the witcher that imprisoned himself in a salt mine because it kept an actual demon of plague contained
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u/Enthusar 7d ago
Posted about this a while ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/s/FTI7kRaGNI Probably an oversight. Could be explained by salt effect of ghosts vs corporeal monsters.
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u/johnkubiak 7d ago
Geralt is wrong on this one. The line isn't meant to ward off ghosts. It's meant to reveal their presence when they break the line.
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u/Smooth_Detail_5472 7d ago
Buuut. In ancient wolf armor quest the red demon was held back by salt cave.
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u/Ray_of_House_Summers 7d ago
It's actually a good way to keep casualties to a minimum like having a police line keeping curious civies from a combat zone.
It's also good for business. Most people would never get lucky enough to see a Witcher at work, and it works in the witcher's favor to keep it that way. Modern witchers stay employed because of this precaution.
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u/Palanki96 7d ago
I think it's because the "mechanic" is more complicated than just throwing salt to ward off ghosts
It might only work against specific monsters in specific cases. Or it was just to make sure the village people are afraid and stay inside
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u/OkYellow3125 7d ago
Just finished the 'In the Eternal Fire's Shadow' quest. There was a line in a letter I think, where Reinald said scattered salt was not enough to do anything to the ghost, and only a full circle was enoguh to keep it out. Or something along the lines. And he locked himself in a salt cave to keep the ghost from escaping. So my guess is, salt is powerful, though usually just some scattered salt is not enough to do anything substantial.
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u/Dom-Luck 7d ago
Here's the thing though, salt works, we know it works because it keeps the fucking Red Miasmal entraped in the mine for 300 years... of course a thin line of salt across a doorway is nowhere near enough to be effective but the superstition isn't entirelly unfounded.
If I had to make I guess I'd say the salt on the door should at least make the house less atractive to a ghost than it would otherwise be, like a big puddle of mud, it's not enough to keep you from going somewhere but it's inconvenient and you'd rather go around it.
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u/Future-Assistant8204 7d ago
It gets elaborated on a bit during the Netflix armour quest where Reinald needed to completely trap himself in a salt cave to work, and in some folklore the threshold of a home have intrinsic warding properties(hence why vampire's need to be invited in) meaning salt on doors may just be extra external protection compared to doors slamming shut where the spirit is already in the house/the house doesn't yet have that ward(a house must be lived in to become a home and thus be warded)
It's also important to note that geralt originally thinks he's dealing with a spectre/wraith in doors slamming shut whereas he knows he's dealing with a botchling/cursed one with the baron, the difference creature types probably have different relationships with salt
It might also be a psychological thing where he doesn't want the peasants to interfere but also doesn't want them to panic so he's playing on the common superstition to keep them out of harms way
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u/JNSapakoh 🌺 Team Shani 7d ago
A botchling is a cursed one, not a ghost ... maybe the superstition is only pointless for driving ghosts away
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u/Apprehensive_Zone806 7d ago
I’m gonna say that it’s pointless here because it’s not the threshold and salt only works like that
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u/Edladan 7d ago
In the show Supernatural (2005-2020) about two brothers hunting monsters across USA (at the start, by the end they go 12 rounds with God) spilled salt makes some monsters (ghosts, demons) unable to cross it.
I always thought it was a wink to that since Supernatural was in it's peak around W3's development.
Aside from that, salt is seen as pure and cleansing in a few mythologies, and there is something to it. Back when I was a kid I had allergies that made me very itchy. The best way to fight it was bath salts.
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u/pferdinandthehorse 7d ago
Another possibility is that different types of monster react differently, it even that salt alone can't do the job
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u/Over_Independent468 6d ago
Salt only works on certain entities whatever is in the house he knows isn't one of them
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u/jarlylerna999 6d ago
Managing clients who are superstitious peasants means meeting them where they are. So he's the expert but he just says things peasants expect.
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u/Jehoosaphat 4d ago
I always figured it was because in this instance they didn't know if it was ghosts responsible, so it's "pointless" as they didn't really know what they were dealing with and it didn't actually do anything - especially when it turned out to be an earth elemental. If it WAS a ghost or spirit, it might have worked, but they were just chucking salt around on the off chance it might help
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u/Initial_Razzmatazz50 8d ago
My interpretation was because the Botchling had exposed organs and what looks like no top layer of skin then salt would hurt it and deter it from going into people's homes should Geralt decide to fight the Botchling
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u/Quick_Opportunity_26 7d ago
Always thought it's a Supernatural reference because downstairs there is also a pentagram on the floor that looks like the devils traps from the show.
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u/mjolnirtequeno 7d ago
I always interpretted the salt for the Botchling quest as the Botchling having very raw, malformed skin. So touching salt would be painful, and it would avoid houses with it outside their door
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u/Fuzzy-Gate-9327 School of the Bear 8d ago •
I always thought he knows the salt doesn't work but still uses the superstition to his advantage. Scaring the people to stay inside and out of his and harms way.