Radovid V the Stern Main Characters

Journal Description

It did not take long for King Radovid of Redania to prove himself a hard and ruthless ruler, one fully deserving to be styled “the Stern.” His father, King Vizimir, was murdered when Radovid was quite young, and his mother, Hedwig of Malleore, and a Regency Council ruled in his stead.

Young Radovid soon seized power in his own right, however, and wrought vengeance on those who had treated him with disrespect. He took to forcing all his potential political opponents to swear allegiance – or face death.

He waged war not only against Nilfgaard, but also against mages, whom he saw as the root of all evil. Radovid also made every effort to gain control over the Free City of Novigrad, whose fleet and treasury could tip the scales of the ongoing conflict in his favor.

Geralt’s meeting with Radovid confirmed the rumors circulating about the king’s mental state. The Redanian monarch was a dangerous madman trapped in his own world of disturbing visions. This did not make him one jot less intelligent or cunning, however.

Despite his mental afflictions, the young king was manipulating his opponents like a highly skilled puppet master.

Radovid burned with particularly intense hostility (first kindled in his early childhood) for the sorceress Philippa Eilhart. Rumors spoke of a special torture regimen he had prepared just for her. And while the two dozen points they mentioned were surely an exaggeration, they accurately conveyed the general scale of his hatred.

The terror of Radovid’s reign had led not just his enemies, but also his allies and even his subjects to long for his death.

The phrase “monster in human flesh” fit Radovid the Stern perfectly. Perhaps it was awareness of all the cruel and bestial acts this madman perpetrated that led the witcher to get involved in the plans for his assassination.

Hatred for Philippa Eilhart proved to be Radovid’s weakness. He was ready to do anything to capture her - even abandon the safe confines of his flagship.

The plan for luring Radovid out of hiding worked, though not without complications. Irritated by Geralt’s typical cheek, Radovid brayed for the witcher’s blood, and Geralt only dodge the executioner’s axe thanks to the intervention of his co-conspirators.

Perhaps the delay this caused was what allowed the ruler to nearly escape his assassins, but in the end he could not cheat fate and died at the hands of Philippa Eilhart, who descended suddenly, a veritable demon of vengeance, to revenge the wrongs he had done her.