Get ready for The Witcher 4 with this new, Ciri-led Witcher 3 story mod inspired by the sequel's reveal trailer

I'm of the belief that there's no bad time to return to The Witcher 3, but it certainly helps when there's something new to do. Recently, rumors of a potential third DLC have been rumbling in the undergrowth, but here's something more immediate. New Witcher 3 story mod 'Dawn over Kovir' is designed to act as a prelude to The Witcher 4, putting you in Ciri's boots for a quest inspired by the upcoming CD Projekt Red RPG's cinematic reveal trailer.

This new mod for The Witcher 3 is designed to be played after the main game, and specifically follows Ciri's induction as a Witcher (and the consequences that brings) in accordance with the sequel. It was built by one developer, Alexander Fandera-Maslov, who tells me the project took approximately "800 hours, from initial concept to final testing." It makes use of the existing 'Custom Player Characters' mod to allow you to take charge of Ciri, but also turns her prop silver sword into a fully functional version.

"While hunting monsters, Ciri increasingly finds them not in the forests, but in people. Disillusioned with humanity, she balances between compassion and rage. Will the witcheress be able to master her anger and avoid becoming a monster herself?" The parallels to the reveal trailer for The Witcher 4 are immediately apparent, and Fandera-Maslov is keen to stress that the questlines included in the mod "may overlap or be enhanced" by the new game when it arrives.

The story of Dawn over Kovir takes you to the eponymous, mountainous northern region; Fandera-Maslov explains that he took a section of the Skellige Islands as a starting foundation and reworked it "to fit Kovir's atmosphere and narrative needs." The resulting zone is approximately the size of White Orchard, and you don't travel there directly, but are instead taken to it as part of the main quest.

You can expect Dawn over Kovir to take you "between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours to complete." It's been primarily balanced for the 'Pain and Suffering' difficulty, though its creator recommends that you turn on enemy level scaling for the best experience. He says that the project was handcrafted "entirely using assets from The Witcher 3" (and that it does not contain any AI-generated material), albeit with some technical or functional reworks for features such as the implementation of Ciri's silver sword.

The Witcher 3 'Dawn of Kovir' mod is available now. You can download it via Nexus Mods. You'll also need Custom Player Characters and the Community Patch installed, both of which are linked in the mod's description. Note that while the current version includes the full questline, Fandera-Maslov plans to improve animation and gameplay components in future updates.

The developer tells me that he hopes to get Dawn of Kovir's 1.0 update out "before the end of 2026," and is currently considering ways to implement full voiceover. As for what this will look like, he says, "My preferred direction is working with real people, potentially professional actors or experienced members of the Witcher fan community."