That mysterious Witcher 4 medallion represents a lynx, the game's developers have confirmed.
In a statement to Eurogamer, CD Projekt Red's global communication director Robert Malinowski said that "some mysteries should not be so mysterious. I can confirm that the medallion is, in fact, shaped after a lynx."
While Malinowski's confirmation is an intriguing piece of information, it also conjures a number of its own questions. Since there's no such thing as the School of the Lynx in either the Witcher books or games, there are many different things this image might mean.
First up, is this medallion the official jewelry of a never-before-seen school, or simply a custom piece? If it's the latter, who does it belong to? If it's the former, who took it upon themselves to found the new school? The smart answer to those last two questions is Ciri, who's attached to both the School of the Cat and Geralt's School of the Wolf in the Witcher books and games. A lynx might represent a nice half-way point between those two animals, but that still doesn't tell us much about her potential role in the game.
'The School of the Lynx' currently only exists as extremely unofficial Witcher fanfiction, but the medallion - released earlier this week as part of the Witcher 4 announcement - has already sparked theories ranging from a confirmation of Ciri's involvement in the game to the suggestion that you'll get to pick - or perhaps even create - your very own school.
An announcement like this is a statement of intent as much as anything else, so it's very possible that CD Projekt Red's vision for The Witcher 4 could change significantly over the many years that we'll be waiting for the game. Still, the move away from Geralt's iconic Wolf medallion seems to have been confirmed, paving the way for an uncertain future for the series.
That future is so uncertain that The Witcher 4 technically isn't called The Witcher 4.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.