Overview
Stromford is a remote village in the far north of Kovir, featured in The Witcher IV's cinematic reveal trailer shown at The Game Awards on December 12, 2024. Game director Sebastian Kalemba described it as "an isolated village up north" that does not rely on witchers to deal with its monsters.
Events of the trailer
When Ciri arrives at Stromford, she finds a community that has developed a tradition of offering human sacrifices to a creature called the Bauk. The latest victim selected by lot is a young woman named Mioni, who has been chosen to appease the monster.
Ciri objects to the sacrifice. She lets Mioni lure the Bauk out with a sacrificial song, waiting until she senses "the evil waking up," signified by an abundance of fog. Ciri then sends Mioni back to the village while she stays to fight.
In the Bauk's cave, Ciri takes a witcher potion that activates her mutations (her eyes shift to the cat-eye form). She fights the creature using her chain weapon, the Igni sign, and elemental water-to-electricity magic. After a brutal fight, she beheads the Bauk.
But when Ciri returns to the village, she discovers Mioni already has a dagger in her heart. The villagers killed her themselves, furious that she did not fulfill her duty as a sacrifice. Ciri completed her contract and saved the village from the monster, but the villagers' fear and superstition led them to commit murder anyway.
Thematic significance
The Stromford sequence is designed to showcase the moral ambiguity that defines the Witcher series. Kalemba described Ciri and Mioni as "mirrors of each other" in an official GameSpot breakdown. Mioni accepts her destiny while Ciri is defined by fighting against it. There is no clean victory.
Kalemba confirmed this scenario is part of The Witcher IV's actual story, not a standalone cinematic created for the trailer. The events take place in-game.
Setting
Stromford appears isolated, set among snowy hills and sparse vegetation. The architecture suggests a poor, subsistence-level community far from Kovir's wealthy urban centers like Lan Exeter. A cave system where the Bauk resides is nearby. The village's isolation and poverty explain why the inhabitants turned to appeasement rather than hiring a witcher.
