Witcher 3 Paid Expansion May See Witcher 1's Shani Return

CD Projekt Red has offered a glimpse of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's upcoming paid expansions, Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. The developer recently updated the game's Steam page with new promotional art for both add-ons, in the process potentially revealing some story details about the content.

As Witcher forum users point out in this thread, the art for the Hearts of Stone expansion appears to show the character Shani from the original Witcher. The red-haired woman is referenced in The Witcher 3, but never makes an appearance--perhaps that is soon to change.

In fact, CD Projekt Red already teased that Shani may have some story involvement in The Witcher 3. When the developer officially announced Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone back in April, the studio teased that the content would see the return of characters who are "both new and dearly missed."

A CD Projekt Red representative told GameSpot that the artwork is indeed genuine, but wouldn't confirm the identity of the red-haired lady. "As far as the character portrayed on the illustration, we'll leave that for the community to figure out," community manager Marcin Momot said.

As for the Blood and Wine teaser image, it depicts a castle on a hillside. Presumably, this is set in the DLC's all-new region called Toussaint. This content will "take Geralt to a land untainted by war, where an atmosphere of carefree indulgence and knightly ritual masks an ancient, bloody secret."

Blood and Wine is expected to provide 20 hours of gameplay, while Hearts of Stone should add around 10 hours of new content.

Hearts of Stone launches in October, while Blood and Wine is due to release in the first quarter of 2016, meaning it should arrive by the end of March 2016. The expansions will be sold together through the $25 Witcher 3 Expansion Pass.

What are you hoping to see from The Witcher 3's paid DLC? Let us know in the comments below.

Update: This post has been updated to correct the content descriptions for Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone.