*Geralt walks into the armorer* “Ahh! A Witcher finally someone to make some interesting armor for!” *Geralt puts his hands on the table and leans forward* *The Armorer seems intrigued and leans in also* *Geralt leans in a little closer and whispers into the armorers ear*
I’ve called to my mind how deeply I love Regis from The Witcher universe^^
He is so adorable, his black eyes have taken away my soul)
Well, this art is some combination of canonical Regis from book (after Tussent, where he’s got a new black costume), his game vesion and my imagination
Real talk right back at you, anon 😀 To be honest, my favourite vampire is neither of them. My favourite vampire in the Witcher games is the humanist. I know, I know, we don’t even know his name, but does that guy not intrigue all of you as much as he intrigues me? I want to know who he is! I want to know why he does what he does! Where does his respect for humans come from etc.? Why did Regis get the ring in the first place? (I have to admit, I lowkey ship them. Okay, not lowkey. I am completely and utterly obsessed with these two.)
If I only get to choose between the two of them, though, I have to say it’s Regis. Simply because he is the more fleshed-out character. There were things Dettlaff could have been, but most of it is fan interpretation. Let’s be real here, we don’t really know him well. I identify with Dettlaff more, though. Simply because he is me both in terms of overall sensitivity and level of social anxiety 😀
I am very curious about the humanist too!!!
I have a
theory in which “the humanist” was Hubert Rejk, the coroner. I know
that it sounds ridiculous, but if you think carefully it makes sense. Hubert
and Regis are doctors and they studied at Oxenfurt Academy, and don’t exclude
the possibility that they might have been classmates and become friends, or
that they even knew each other already and decided to study medicine together.
Or even that Hubert encouraged Regis to study medicine (or vice versa). In addition,
I also think that Hubert Rejk might belong to the tribe of Tdet whose symbol is
a serpent coiled in one hand, the serpent has always had an opposite symbolism:
for some cultures it symbolizes evil,
sins, death, and for other cultures perfection, change, wisdom, eternity and of
course medicine. The god of medicine, Asclepius, was depicted carrying a rod
with a snake. That is why I quickly related the Tdet with medicine or healing.
In addition, the ring that Regis gave Dettlaff has two coiled snakes, and if my
theory about the Tdet and Hubert belonging to that tribe are real, then the
ring could have been a family heirloom that Hubert gave Regis as a sign of
friendship.
I know that
Hubert Rejk proved to be a cruel murderer who tortured his victims, but in a
certain way he did it to protect society from those people who were bad and
depraved for him, in his head he was doing something good. So in a way he acted in a very human way, any vampire would
have given a damn if humans had died in the student protest in 1242. Unlike
Orianna who basically admitted that she didn’t care about the death of thousands
of innocent people: “It’s rather irritating” that is what she said if
I am not mistaken. And Dettlaff? He paid with a whole city that his girlfriend
had deceived him, probably because they were human and not vampires, and
therefore he did not care. That is, apart from Regis, no other vampire feels
that empathy and cares about humans, but Hubert did.
Apart from
this, Hubert has always been in contact with humans and it seems that he cares
little about blood as Regis (he does not mind being surrounded by blood). He
studied in Oxenfurt and he had human companions, he has surely cured humans and
he taught medicine to humans and after the student revolts he felt so much
regret for having sent his best student to prison that he left his position as
a teacher and he started working in the morgue. Not to mention that he lives in
Novigrad surrounded by humans.
Before
fighting with him, he says that before he started killing, he tried to make
people aware that what they were doing was wrong, but that they laughed at him
and threw stones, which made him even more angry and we all know
what happens when a vampire is pissed off. According to him his deaths would be
lessons for others, in his head he wanted to help people and to improve the
city of Novigrad that for him was a fallen city, although his acts were
unforgivable and brutal.
I do not
know if I have explained well, and of course this is just something I thought
when I played the game for the first time, but it seemed to me a lot of
causality that Hubert and Regis were both vampires and doctors, and that later
in Blood and Wine Regis speaks about an old friend who was a humanist and who
gave him a ring adorned with snakes, the symbol of medicine.
As always
sorry for my terrible English, when I write long texts like this one my English
just sucks…
This is the darkest take on this character I have ever seen. Wow. I’m seriously impressed by how well this is thought through. @lithiumgrayangel, I tip my hat. I love it when people take time and put work into theories, and this is a sound one. Thanks for posting this! (Though I do belong to the group who say that Hubert is a katakan rather than a true higher vampire.)
Mind if I just add my own headcanons to make this post complete? 😀 My humanist is a real-life fluffball. It’s funny how you and I both headcanon him as being a Tdet. It makes a lot of sense. My interpretation of the Tdet tribe is that they are scientists and engineers.
My humanist is way old. Old as balls. Somewhere between 30,000 – 80,000 human years old. He doesn’t know; they probably had no concept of time in the homeworld. So, he came over during the Conjunction, or, rather, was sucked through the portal against his will.
He was actually called into the position of an Elder, but he refused – which was a major faux-pas.
He’s actually anathema. He’s the ultimate traitor. He thought highly of his own species until he saw what they were capable of in this strange new world. He wanted no part in it. As to why he’s anathema: I’m actualy working on a story about that. But I call him the ultimate traitor because he made the step Regis has yet to make: he turned his back on vampires entirely. If it came to a fight, he would gladly kill his own and protect humanity as a whole with his life.
I headcanon him as being Regis’ teacher. A mentor. The person Regis went to after waking up and wanting to get rid of his addiction. And he was actually able to help him – mainly by showing him the worth of human life. He taught him that respect for someone is the simplest way of making it hard to kill that person.
The ring. Mh, that ring, yes. I agree with you that the snakes are 1) a symbol if medicine, wisdom etc. and b) the symbol of the Tdet, directing us towards his origins. My headcanon for it is that the reason Regis got it is also the reason why Regis gave it to Dettlaff: to remind him of the humanist ideals of the, well, humanist. The beginings of working as a doctor can’t have been easy for Regis – what with all the blood oozing out of open wounds and all. The ring was a wearable reminder of why he has decided for this way. It helped him stay in control.
Also, I heavily ship him with Regis. Nobody can tell me they didn’t have a fling.
This is… late. I’m sorry for it, but – as always – I wanted it to be good. Yeah, I almost thought as much regarding the pairing, but I thought I’d better ask you again before I write about something you might not even want to read. Dat description tho *snorts* These can be read as either romantic or platonic, whatever people want.
1. It took Regis quite a while to get used to Dettlaff. After having lived with humans for centuries, suddenly being confronted with a vampiric relationship again was… difficult, to say the least. Vampires have completely different boundaries than humans. What humans would deem a violation of privacy is called “cuddling” for them. I headcanon the lesser ones as being very keen on physical contact, and Dettlaff has adopted their behaviour – maybe without even realising it. I don’t mean this in a sexual way at all, but Dettlaff will randomly touch Regis, nudge him with his head, do anything a big cat would do to get his attention. Regis – who has become a very reserved individual over the years – is a bit overwhelmed at first.
2. Dettlaff hugely enjoys being read to. The topic of the book doesn’t even matter; it could be one of Regis’ science books, even. It’s just that Dettlaff wants to listen to Regis’ concentrated and calm voice. (Everyone in the fandom, also: “Regis’ voice actor [any of them] could read a phone book, and I’d gladly listen.”) He will listen with the focus and enthusiasm of a six-year-old being read a story before bed.
3. They share their clothes. First, it was a matter of necessity. Regis was obviously naked after his regeneration, and since Dettlaff didn’t exactly want to go out and shop for clothes (which would mean a lot of interaction with humans), he decided to just give his own clothes to Regis. And since Dettlaff probably only owns a second spare outfit apart from the one we see him wearing all the time, Regis didn’t have much to pick from, initially. But even after Blood and Wine, they still like to share whatever little they have. I mean, they are about the same height and have roughly the same build. Their clothes fit each other.
4. Dettlaff likes to sing, but he doesn’t like to sing to people. Lesser vampires are a-okay because they don’t understand the awkwardness behind singing in front of an audience. They simply like the sound of his voice. Regis does, too, but even though they share this bond, he knows Dettlaff is uncomfortable with the thought of having him listen. (Regis himself can’t sing at all, not even hum a steady melody without screwing up royally.) He does anyway, though. Dettlaff might think he’s alone out in the woods, sitting on a stone singing songs like a Disney prince, but somewhere in the distance, a puff of grey fog is listening.
5. Right after Regs’ regeneration had him at a point where he was more or less conscious for 12 hours in one going, he began guilt-tripping Dettlaff into interacting with humans more, and – as always – he was a bit sneaky about it. He would go on and on about how he wanted a certain thing that could be found at the market outdoors, but he can’t take himself there, woe is him! All of it served the purpose of getting Dettlaff used to the humans right outside the door. And it worked. Regis was a picture of misery, and Dettlaff didn’t want to hear him beg for even the simplest thing, though he tackled his own social anxiety 😛
6. Living with Regis is easy, and Dettlaff knows it, but there is one thing he can’t stand. It’s kind of backed by canon that Regis snores a bit (if you don’t believe me, tweak the sound settings a bit and replay the Unseen Elder path). It’s bad now. Imagine how bad it was when his respiratory system was still regenerating. Imagine how bad it is for a being with superior hearing. Regis was right when he told Geralt that Dettlaff “bore [his] weakness bravely”.
I might expand this list. I might even turn it into a small project of domestic moments… I dunno yet. My headcanons regarding these two are far from finished. They are constantly being expanded as new things come to my mind. We’ll see what happens 🙂
whitemanning critical 