Tomorrow, @NYVGCC will sweeten the pot! Come back here tomorrow and see what cool, free thing you’ll get when you procure a ticket to our big @Reggie event on 8/3! I mean, it’s Reggie! https://t.co/PMA3f2NFJl

— harold goldberg (@haroldgoldberg) July 20, 2021

You’ll have to wait until December 17 to watch Season 2 of The Witcher, but Netflix will tide you over until then with The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which releases on August 23. The anime film introduces Geralt’s mentor and adoptive father, Vesemir, who will be voiced by Theo James (Divergent and Castelvania). Kim Bodnia will also play the character in the live-action show.

While Vesemir is a grey-haired veteran by Geralt’s time, in this film he’s a young and dashing swashbuckler earning his fortune by slaying monsters… But he’s forced to confront his past and a monster that’s preying on a kingdom already dealing with political discord.

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With the first teaser trailer for the anime now out, let’s break it all down to see what adventures await us in this latest installment of The Witcher franchise, which was written by Beau DeMayo and directed by Kwang Il Han of Studio Mir, the animators of The Legend of Korra and Young Justice: Outsiders. 

You can keep scrolling for all the clues, Easter eggs, and references we found, or simply click through the following slideshow:

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Kaer Morhen

The Witchers of the School of the Wolf, including Geralt and Vesemir, train and spend their winters at the mountain fortress of Kaer Morhen. It’s a ruin by the time we see it in The Witcher Season 2, having been destroyed by a mob and a group of mages who considered Witchers to be monsters themselves. Here we see the keep in its former glory, but the ominous voiceover hints at its future fate.

Theo James’ Vesemir and a Witcher Message

Here’s Vesemir perusing the message that’s being read at the beginning of the trailer. A journal entry in The Price of Neutrality module for the original Witcher game notes that “various publications defamatory of Witchers” were responsible for inciting the attack on Kaer Morhen. Presumably this is one of them.

Gold Eyes

A close up on Vesemir shows the gold eyes that mark Witchers who have undergone the Trial of the Grasses, an extremely dangerous and painful alchemical and medical procedure that kills most potential initiates. Those who survive gain the ability to see in the dark along with enhanced senses and reflexes. They also age significantly slower than a normal person. These mutations are one of the main reasons so many people fear Witchers.

Oiled Blade

Witchers can coat their swords with oils to make them more dangerous, often tailoring them to be particularly nasty against specific types of monsters. Presumably a Witcher is coming to this kid’s defense prepared for battle.

Sign of Aard

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf introduces a few new characters including Deglan (voiced by Graham McTavish of The Hobbit and Castlevania). He’s Vesemir’s mentor who claimed him based on the Law of Surprise. Here he’s using the Sign of Aard to blast a woman. She is likely actually a bruxa, a very powerful vampire with the ability to take on the guise of a dark-haired human. In The Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine, the Sign of Aard is the best way to kill bruxa as the telekinetic attack will knock them back and allow you to slay them with a single sword blow.

Obligatory Bathtub Scene

Apparently all Witcher stories need to show their protagonists taking a luxurious bath. We don’t make the rules.

Bloody Medallions

This appears to be an entire bag filled with bloodied Witcher medallions, the necklaces worn by all Witchers that alert them to the presence of monsters or magic nearby. It seems like besides incensing the populous through rhetoric, someone may be actively hunting the monster slayers.

Vesemir With Wanted Sign

A smug looking Vesemir poses with a sign offering a reward for a dark haired witch as people throw money at him, eager to enlist his services. The wanted woman could be the bruxa or a sorceress who’s run afoul of the locals. Either way “fear and ignorance are good business,” Vesemir says with a wink.

Vesemir and Tetra

Tetra (voiced by Lara Pulver of Sherlock and DOTA: Dragon’s Blood) is another new character. She appears to be a skilled archer who teams up with Vesemir. It’s possible she’s the “witch” he was initially after.

Wanted Posters

Geralt often struggles to find paying work, but Vesemir seems to have no such problem. Both monsters and Witchers were more common in the past, but monster populations declined as humans conquered more of the Continent. It seems this area has a werewolf problem and Vesemir is on the case.

Vesemir Fights Ghouls

Ghouls wander in packs eating corpses and living humans or livestock. They can be killed by a silver sword, but fire is one of the most effective ways to dispatch a group of them. Vesemir is looking pretty confident as he takes the monsters down with flame and blade.

Lots of Ghouls

That is a whole bunch of ghouls shambling around. Presumably that’s how the fight starts before Vesemir sets them all on fire.

Drinking a Potion

Beyond the Trial of the Grasses, Witchers also make and drink potions that can further enhance their senses, resistances, and stamina. Vesemir’s chugging one that gives him the same black and veiny eyes that Geralt sports in The Witcher.

Wraith

This appears to be some form of wraith, a ghost entirely motivated by its hatred of the living. Like ghouls, they’re often found around cemeteries, so it’s possible this is part of the same fight scene we saw earlier.

Wolf Sigil

This is the School of the Wolf symbol warping to look more like a wolf’s skull. Considering the name of the film is Nightmare of the Wolf, this could be some sort of prophetic warning of the devastation to come.

Alp

The naked woman here is an alp, a type of vampire similar to a bruxa but less powerful. She’s fighting alongside some form of draconid, reptilian monsters with bat wings that can serve as guard animals. Tetra asks Vesemir if they’re his friends and he blithely responds that the Alp is a “friend of a friend,” which could imply that they’re after his mentor Deglan, or perhaps that they’re minions of the bruxa Vesemir is hunting.

Whatever the situation is here, it’s probably not gonna end too well for those creatures facing off against Vesemir! 

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What other details did you notice in the teaser trailer for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf? Let us know, and be sure to also check out our breakdown of The Witcher: Season 2 trailer!

Hearthstone is going back to its World of Warcraft roots this year, first in the Horde-aligned Barrens and next in the Alliance-themed expansion, United in Stormwind. The new expansion introduces questlines, multi-step quests that pay off with a big reward. And given that this expansion is Stormwind focused, it only makes sense that the Paladin’s quest is all about marshaling the forces of the light.

The Rise to the Occasion quest rewards you for playing various 1-cost cards. Like all of the quests, the first reward is fairly minor, simply giving you a 1/4 Light’s Justice weapon. As you proceed to stage two, Pave the Way, you’ll earn an upgraded hero power that summons two Silverhand Recruits instead of just one. The final step, Avenge the Fallen, will earn you Lightborn Cariel. After you play this 5-Mana 7/7, you’ll get a dramatic +2/+2 boost to your Silver Hand Recruits for the rest of the game. This could mark the return of “Dude Paladin,” a formerly popular archtype that relies on overwhelming your opponent with tons of powered-up Silver Hand Recruits (aka dudes).

Gallery

It’s notable that the quest demands you play three different 1-cost cards in each step, which means you need nine different 1-cost cards in total. You can’t, for example, bounce a Pen Flinger back into your hand to use it in the next quest phase. Still, this questline is relatively easy to complete compared to some others we’ve seen thanks to Paladin’s many 1-cost options. First Day of School is a 1-cost spell that gives you two more 1-cost minions. If you use an Aldor Attendant to make your Libram of Wisdom cost one Mana–a very common early-game Paladin play–that’s two steps in the quest down already.

You may even be able to actually complete the quest by turn five and then play Cariel on-curve, making for a huge tempo play. Once you’ve completed the quest, your 2-Mana Hero Power will be able to generate two 3/3 Silver Hand Recruits in perpetuity.

You can pair this with other Silver Hand synergy cards as well. Lothraxion the Redeemed, a Legendary card from the Barrens expansion, will give those Silver Hand Recruits Divine Shield for the rest of the game. You can also summon the Silver Hand en masse using cards like Day at the Faire and Stand Against Darkness. Dude Paladin saw a brief re-emergence during the Forged in the Barrens meta based on some of these tools, and this new questline could be what it needs to push it to a powerful mainstay.

United in Stormwind launches on August 3. Two preorder bundles are available now–a standard bundle with 60 packs, one random Legendary, and a Lady Katrana card back for $50; and a mega bundle with 80 packs, two random Legendaries, five golden packs, the Lady Katrana Mage hero and card back, and a Ve’nari Battlegrounds Bartender cosmetic for $80.

Take a minute to set up a free 30 day trial, and Amazon’s Prime Gaming service will deploy a copy of Battlefield 1 your way. While that’s going to be a tough deal to top, we think we’ve also gathered an array of must-haves for console folk, too. Quick e.g.: sports fans should pay particular attention to the exclusive kit being offered in Amazon’s FIFA 22 edition on PlayStation and Xbox…

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Following a two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the state has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for fostering a “frat boy” culture in which female employees are allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.

As reported by Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard is being accused by the state of California of discriminating against female employees at nearly all levels of employment, including in regards to compensation, promotion, assignments, and termination. The state alleges Activision Blizzard’s leadership has failed to address any of these outstanding issues or prevent them from occurring within the workplace. You can read the full details of the lawsuit here.

The suit, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, says Activision Blizzard — which is made up of about 20 percent women — assigns women, and women of color, to “lower paid and lower opportunity levels” with lower starting pay for similar work as their male counterparts.

The documents also accuse Activision Blizzard of fostering a “pervasive ‘frat boy’ workplace culture in the office. Male employees are said to drink “copious amounts of alcohol” as they make their way through cubicles and “often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”

Male employees are said to come to work hungover, play video games during work “while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape.”

The lawsuit also cites one particular incident where a female employee, who was already subjected to intense sexual harassment at the company, committed suicide during a work trip with a male supervisor who allegedly brought inappropriate, sexual items with him on the trip.

The lawsuit is asking for an injunction that will force Activision Blizzard to comply with workplace protections, as well as deliver unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent the following statement in response to the allegations:

We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue. 

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived.  They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so.  Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family.  While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California. 

The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years. 

We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process. 

We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.

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Matt Kim is a News Editor at IGN.