Is There a Way to Save Dettlaff in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

As a passionate gamer and content creator focused on the acclaimed Witcher franchise, one of the most common questions I see pop up around the Blood and Wine DLC is: is there any way for Geralt to spare Dettlaff?

After analyzing all possible endings extensively, I can definitively say there is no path in the base game that allows Dettlaff to walk away alive. His fate seems set in stone. However, some ingenious PC modders have created alternative scenarios where the higher vampire lives.

Below I’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to all of Geralt‘s choices regarding Dettlaff, Syanna, and Anna Henrietta and why CD Projekt Red sadly made Dettlaff‘s demise inevitable no matter what.

Understanding Dettlaff’s Origins and Relationship with Syanna

To analyze Dettlaff’s role in the story, we first need to understand his backstory.

Dettlaff van der Eretein is introduced in the Blood and Wine expansion as a higher vampire – an immensely powerful being that can live for centuries. Long before the events of the DLC, Dettlaff resided peacefully in Nazair with his vampire friend Regis.

That changed when Dettlaff met a woman named Rhena, whom he became infatuated with. Unbeknownst to the vampire, Rhena was actually Syanna, the exiled sister of Anna Henrietta, Duchess of Toussaint.

Syanna secretly despised her sister for casting her out of the duchy at a young age over rumors that she was cursed. Bitter and resentful, Syanna manipulated the smitten Dettlaff’s feelings to engineer her revenge plot.

When her schemes ultimately failed, Syanna disappeared without a word, leaving Dettlaff emotionally shattered. The scorned vampire lost himself in a maddened rage, unleashing his fury on the city of Beauclair by transforming into “the Beast of Beauclair” – a deadly, animalistic form.

Encountering Dettlaff in Blood and Wine, it’s easy to initially see him as merely a monster. But analyzing his backstory shows he was a peaceful soul twisted by Syanna’s deception and betrayal.

Which begs the question – in such context, does Dettlaff deserve Geralt’s mercy? Or is he doomed to meet his end no matter what?

Breakdown of Ending Possibilities and Consequences

When Geralt finally tracks down Dettlaff at Tesham Mutna with Syanna in tow, he faces a crucial decision that radically impacts the fates of all three characters, as shown in the comparison table below:

As the table shows, no matter what Geralt chooses, Dettlaff inevitably perishes – either slain in battle or executed by his friend Regis after-the-fact.

Conversely, whether the scheming Syanna lives or dies depends on if Geralt undertakes an earlier quest to retrieve a special ribbon from the Land of a Thousand Fables. But her survival comes at a bloody cost – Dettlaff must be defeated no matter what.

Meanwhile, the noble Regis can only stay gracefully in Toussaint if Geralt allows Dettlaff to murder Syanna. So in many ways, the player must choose which ally lives and which kingdom suffers.

Why Sparing Dettlaff Was Never an Option

Given Dettlaff’s sympathetic motives for his rampage through Beauclair, one may ask – couldn‘t CD Projekt Red have allowed for a peaceful resolution? Why make killing Dettlaff mandatory?

Based on insight from lead quest designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, it seems the pivotal choice to slay or spare Dettlaff was designed to create a tense, morally difficult moment. As he told gaming publication Polygon:

“We wanted to touch this subject that not every story has a happy ending…we wanted to achieve this bittersweet feeling. It’s not only about killing monsters. Sometimes you have to make really difficult choices."

From a gameplay perspective, depriving the player of a climactic boss battle with such an infamous higher vampire would be anti-climactic. The epic showdown was likely crafted to be an intense capstone to the storyline.

However, Tomaszkiewicz did acknowledge regret about condemning Dettlaff outright, saying:

“If I could go back in time, I think I would tweak this story to give Dettlaff some sort of chance.”

So perhaps due to time constraints or technical limitations, even the quest designer himself wished Dettlaff could have been shown mercy!

Mods Enable Dettlaff to Survive

While witchers like Geralt are bound by rigid codes of honor, the wonderful thing about PC gaming is the ability for modders to bend reality to their wills and realize such wishes!

Creative modders have crafted mods that allow Dettlaff to survive his encounter with Geralt. Usually this involves changing certain gameplay flags so fighting and defeating him is no longer required.

For example, popular mods like Happy Ending for Dettlaff make Syanna non-hostile at Tesham Mutna, enabling dialogue options where Geralt can broker peace between them. Dettlaff then leaves Beauclair in grief-stricken exile, but lives to see another night.

However, mods obviously require playing The Witcher 3 on PC and tampering with game files. For players experiencing Blood and Wine directly as the developers intended – across PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch – sadly Dettlaff must perish.

But perhaps these mods offer hope that in some alternate Witcher universe, Dettlaff found redemption!

Conclusion: Dettlaff‘s Fate Cruelly Sealed

In closing, much as we may wish to avoid further meaningless tragedy and violence, there remains no possibility to save the sorrowful higher vampire Dettlaff within official game canon. His destiny comes to an unavoidable end.

Yet even in futility, exploring complex gray areas of morality among mortals, vampires, and witchers makes the tale so compelling. Not every storyline has a faultless happy ending – sometimes justice has worrisome costs.

But the creativity of modders does give hope – and if lead quest designer Tomaszkiewicz could redo Blood and Wine‘s harrowing finale, perhaps even he would show Dettlaff mercy rather than mandatory execution.

So while Dettlaff‘s fate seems cruelly sealed in-game, the gaming community‘s passion offers alternative paths for fans to explore where everyone wins – or at least survives. Even in fantasy realms, second chances remain possible, leaving room for redemption.