The Bauk Rises

This is a fan theory — a fictional take on the Witcher 4 universe.

In the ancient, isolated village of Stromford, in the far north of Kovir, as close to the Dragon Mountains as one can get, Nocthyr was at his workbench with a potion in hand. He followed the instructions of his father, master sorcerer, very carefully.

For Nocthyr knew what awaited him if he failed to do so, the face that would turn very slowly and look back at him, followed by his father’s fury, and new scars on Nocthyr’s body.

Nocthyr was a man living in fear. Fear of someone that only took the appearance of a man, but whose attitude in his laboratory was closer to a beast, one that feeds on others’ doubts and insecurities.

But Nocthyr would not sustain this psychological torture anymore. He would take his fate, into his own hands.

That night, he went into his father’s library, a room that was forbidden to him and to anyone else for that matter. There he picked up a book titled Ancient Rituals.

As he read it, he desired to have a his own servant, one that would know no fear and one that everyone else would fear.

He would bind fear itself into flesh.

The following nights, Nocthyr took the remains of dead animals left from his father’s experiments and started to whisper words he did not fully understand from the book he stole.

Every time, the result was the same. The little creature would start to change, its body parts becoming deformed, and eventually the ritual would end with an agonizing death.

One night, Nocthyr went into the forest to conduct the ritual. Ravens and other animals fled at the sight of the man and what he was carrying with him.

Nocthyr was holding a heart, the heart of a young girl deceased the week earlier from a case of catriona plague.

He started to draw circles on the grass, each one bigger than the one before. He whispered the words, trying to summon fear itself.

Shadows appeared around him, piercing the heart with their claws. The heart started to twist and grow, endlessly.

What emerged was a horror with six arms, dark claws and two long, grotesque legs.

The monster’s giant eyes fixed on Nocthyr. A dreadful feeling invaded the young sorcerer’s mind and body. He felt his father’s menacing gaze, his scars burned, and all the memories he had tried to overcome came back stronger than ever before.

Nocthyr became paralyzed.

And the Bauk smiled.

Each year, a young woman is taken away from the village of Stromford to be sacrificed to the Bauk. This offering is meant to appease the monster’s hunger.

The monster desired young girls for a reason. The sorcerer’s failed spell tied the Bauk to innocence itself. Fear tastes sweeter when it is pure.