Songs of the Past story

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Songs of the Past is an original story, not a chapter lifted scene-for-scene from Andrzej Sapkowski. It was conceived years ago at CD Projekt Red by writers who had already worked on The Witcher 3, set aside when schedules refused to fit, and later revived with Fool’s Theory. Jakub Rokosz has described the delay as stars having to align: the studio had to grow, the combat pass in Remastered had to exist, and the company had to want one more Geralt ride before The Witcher 4 hands the Path to Ciri. CD Projekt Red has said this is not a secret prequel that makes Ciri the playable lead; Doug Cockle and John Schwab return as Geralt and Dandelion, and The Witcher 4 remains aimed at 2028. The opening jobs sit in the Bed of Thorns quest. The household names sit with the de Lettenhove family.

This overview stays spoiler-light in the first half and clearly marks mild preview spoilers from gamescom 2026 and press sessions in the second half. It does not describe endings, romance outcomes, or the fate of anyone still missing when the demo faded to black. Geography without plot lives in the Letten Map Guide. People live on Geralt, Dandelion, and Lilla. How this chapter sits beside Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine lives in the expansion comparison.

The expansion is upcoming for 2027. It has not shipped. Everything below is setup, not a walkthrough.

After Blood and Wine, before Ciri’s trilogy

The timeline sits after Blood and Wine. Geralt hoped to rest at Corvo Bianco. Dandelion calls him anyway. CD Projekt Red has billed the chapter as Geralt’s last adventure in this seat, a pass of the torch before Ciri’s game. That is marketing language with a design consequence: Letten is written as a farewell to this witcher’s particular friendships, not as a side contract you could have slotted between Novigrad acts.

The friendship in focus is Geralt and Dandelion. Senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki said the books gave them philosophical conversations the base game never had room for, because Ciri took the oxygen. Fool’s Theory’s Rokosz joked that The Witcher 3 had romances and never quite a bromance; this is the space they are aiming at. You still play Geralt. You are going north because of Dandelion.

Letten itself is the bard’s homeland in northern Redania, near Kovir and Poviss. It looks like harvest country. The official synopsis says an idyllic land hides a dark secret, and that the fate of the land and even Geralt’s closest friendship are at risk. Believe the second clause. A missing poet is never only a missing poet in this series.

Mild preview spoilers: A Bed of Thorns

The following paragraphs describe the opening quest shown to press, including the first estate scene, the lute, and the Garden of Thorns as a destination. They do not describe the end of the quest. Skip to the family section if you want names without the demo’s sequence.

A Bed of Thorns is the opening quest. Geralt wakes hungover after Belleteyn, the fire festival that starts his stay in Letten. Dandelion is gone. In his place Geralt finds the bard’s unique lute, the kind of personal object that, in Witcher logic, means the owner did not leave on a whim. The search is the job. The estate dinner is the briefing you did not ask for.

Geralt brings the lute to the de Lettenhove house. The grandmother is stern enough that previews compared the meal to a reason Dandelion fled into verse. Lilla, Dandelion’s cousin, is the person who actually wants to look. Geralt mentions uneasy visions of a place called the Garden of Thorns. Naming it at table is enough to crack the grandmother’s composure. That is the tell: the idyll has a forbidden wood, and the family has been living beside it on purpose.

Lilla walks the investigation with Geralt. The Garden is not a metaphor. It is a location on the Letten map, tangled, wrong, and defended. Inside that space the demo showed a well and a fight that belongs to a witcher rather than a viscount. Take the rest as a reason to bring oils and the silver chain, not as a plot dump. If you want the land without those images, stay in the Letten Map Guide and come back later.

Family, curse, and what is original

Dandelion’s family is new to the games in this density. The grandmother is the matriarch and the freeze. Cousin Lilla is the optional romance; the gamescom demo showed Geralt able to shut the door if he stays loyal to Yennefer. Serious brother Gustav is part of the household even if he is not the person pouring wine in every preview clip. Ancestor Count Humbert de Lettenhove is the historical wound: a family curse attached to a noble who did not stay merely noble.

Preview reporting has sketched Humbert as a count whose love for a witch, and whose revenge on the people who harmed her, poisoned the land that became the Garden of Thorns. Treat that as a legend Geralt will test, not as a spoiler of every boss identity. The Slumbering Knight shown in combat footage is a skeletal, rooted thing wearing Lettenhove signs. Whether every rumor about Humbert is true is the point of a witcher’s investigation.

This is not a direct novel adaptation. The books gave Dandelion a viscount’s name and a talent for trouble. They did not hand CD Projekt Red this curse, this cousin, or this last ride. Ola Motyka and Philip Weber’s old outline grew at Fool’s Theory into the chapter you will play in 2027. Expect difficult decisions with consequences, because that is the house style, and expect the comedy of Geralt versus nobility to sit next to something that drinks blood in a well.

Lilla is written as intelligent, restless, and local. She has heard Dandelion’s embroidered stories about Geralt and wants a life outside the estate walls. Romance is optional. Using her as a compass is not optional if you want the human version of Letten rather than only the monster version. Gustav, by contrast, is the serious sibling: useful as a read on what the family will admit in daylight.

What this chapter is for

Read Songs of the Past as a bridge, not as a reboot. Hearts of Stone was a deal. Blood and Wine was a duchy. This is a homeland and a friendship. The expansion comparison is the page that stacks size, tone, and whether you should replay Toussaint first. You should. Dialogues notice.

Then remember the limits. No launch day. No published quest list. No ending. The useful story prep is smaller than a wiki dump: Geralt is in Toussaint, Dandelion calls, Belleteyn goes wrong, a lute is the first clue, Lettenhove is a family with a curse, and Ciri’s game is the next trilogy. Everything else is a song you should hear in order, in Letten, when the paid chapter actually arrives in 2027.