A werewolf man in wolfskin passages and curiosities

 Werewolves are unfortunate creatures that occur in almost all cultures in the world. We can hear about them, among others, in Slavic mythology. The fact that our ancestors struggled with people imprisoned in the body of the beast is told by many legends and folk tales.

Formerly a werewolf, a man in the skin of a wolf, was called a wicked man. The word literally meant a man in wolf's clothing and referred not only to the cruel beast of legends but also to evil, false and untrustworthy people. In Slavic mythology, the werewolf was also known as oborot. It was a man changing into an animal, and not necessarily a wolf. There are reports that selected people had the ability to take the form of a bear, a big cat, or a deer.

In some parts of Europe, the werewolf was identified with the figure of the lord of the forest, a demon whose task was to care for the backwoods and old forests. When Christianity replaced the old beliefs, the role of the patron saint of forests was taken over by saints, which differ depending on the region.

The Slavs believed that a cursed person could become a werewolf, punished by a strong spell. In Eastern Europe, there was a belief that a betrayed or despised woman had the power to cast a werewolf curse on an unfortunate lover. In other parts of the continent, there were other sins for which you could be cursed into a wolf. In the south of the Czech Republic and Hungary, it was believed that a wolf could become someone who messed with the priests of the old faith.

In Western countries, a belief persisted that a werewolf was an inborn curse that manifested itself in the seventh son of a family whose ancestor had sinned so badly that the gods would punish future generations for his guilt. In Anglo-Saxon countries, the werewolf was like an infectious disease. The curse spread from werewolf to human as the former bit the other.

Although the belief in werewolves and stables was very strong among the Slavs and other peoples of Europe, these beasts appeared much earlier, already in the legends of the ancient world.

The first mentions of people turning into bloodthirsty, animal-like demons appeared as early as the fifth century BC. The historian and philosopher Herodotus of Halicarnassus, called the father of history and geography, wrote about a mysterious tribe from the East, whose members were able to turn into wolves at will. When they no longer needed the wolf form, they returned to human form and continued on to the great ordinary life, until the next transformation. Herodotus gave the name to this ability that still functions - Lycanthropy, which is a combination of the words Lycos and Anthropos (wolf and man).

The ancient Egyptians also had their werewolves. In the local legends, there is a myth about a mysterious man who was banished from Egypt for practicing black magic and contact with demons. For the help that these people gave to the inhabitants of the world of the dead, they were to receive the ability to transform their bodies into a wolf. From the moment of their exile, the entire tribe wandered through the deserts of Africa, staying nowhere for long. In ancient records, one can find information that it was possible to hire these travelers for murder and other heinous acts.

The Romans worshiped wolves and considered them sacred. The god Mars himself chose a wolf as his companion, and a lonely she-wolf fed Romulus and Remus, who gave birth to Rome. For these and many other reasons, the wolf symbol was an extremely popular sign on the banners of the Roman legions.

The above information may give the impression that werewolves were believed centuries ago, and the fear of them disappeared with the advent of modernity. Nothing could be more wrong. Until recently, in the eastern and southern parts of Europe, the myth of the werewolf attacking wanderers was still alive. Apparently, today you can meet people who, to protect against the demon, keep rifle bullets cast of silver in their homes, because they believe that only this metal can hurt the beast.

In the press from the beginning of the twentieth century, horrific reports appeared about the attacks of mysterious monsters on unsuspecting people. An example would be a story from the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. In 1904, articles about a cruel beast prowling in the nearby forests appeared in the local press. Apparently, the huge animal attacked people, tearing them to shreds. This tragedy would not be anything extraordinary, were it not for the fact that the attacks always took place during the full moon, and the traces of a huge wolf and a man were found at the crime scene.

According to the press information, a special group was established, consisting of hunters and scientists, as well as a priest. Their task was to find or what was responsible for the brutal attacks. The matter was never cleared up and the attacks stopped after a few months.

There were many similar stories in different countries. It also happened that the attacks of ordinary, hungry animals were attributed to the powers of hell.

Thanks to science, it can be assumed today that the creation of myths about werewolves is associated with a very rare disease called the werewolf syndrome. It manifests itself in profuse body hair, including on the face, hands, and feet.

In 1995, scientists managed to discover a mutant gene that causes an extreme form of this disease. Hypertrichosis is so rare that only several dozen of its cases have been documented in the last few hundred years. Perhaps it was this disease that contributed to the creation of legends and myths about people turning into wolves.

People love fears, especially when they only appear in thrill stories. Therefore, the world of popular entertainment is full of spooks, demons and various beasts. In all this mass of monsters, the werewolf ranks high. We can watch people turning into wolves in cinemas and television, as well as in popular novels and computer games.

FILMS ABOUT WOLVES

• Wilk (Wolf) - A 1994 movie in which the werewolf was played by Jack Nicholson and he was really good at it. The movie itself is pretty good horror and light satire at the same time.
• Underworld - This is a series of movies about werewolves and vampires. They tell about the struggle of both species hiding in the darkness of the human world.
• Werewolves (Wolfen) - A movie from 1981, which tries to combine sensational cinema with horror. In my opinion, this attempt turned out to be quite successful.
• The Howling is - Cool comedy-drama from the director Gremilina rozrobać.
• The Company of Wolves - This film combines various fairy tales with a horror film. Therefore, you can see not only wolves on the screen but also, for example, Little Red Riding Hood.

BOOKS ABOUT WEREWOLVES

• Wolf trail - Patricia Briggs.
• The Wolf's Pact - Melissa de la Cruz.
• Wolf litter - S. Andrew Swann.
• The Girl in the Red Cloak by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.
• Call of the Night - Keri Arthur.
• Werewolf - Steve Feasey.
• Indigo - Gale Camille.
• Shadow Falls - C.C. Hunter.
• Raging Hunger - Kresley Cole.
• Year of the Werewolf - Stephen King.
• Wilkozacy - Rafał Dębski.
• Chronicles of Wolf's Gift by Anne Rice.

COMPUTER GAMES WITH WOLVES

• The Witcher III
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
• The Secret World
• Secret World Legends
• Blood of the Werewolf
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Wolfhunter

INFORMATION AND CURIOSITIES

• In Russian legends, the werewolf was called vovkulak, and in the old Czech Republic, it was called vlkodlak.
• Many legends say that you need a full moon to turn into a wolf. This is because wolves howl especially intensely during a full moon.
• It is believed that a werewolf cannot be injured with ordinary weapons.
• The only metal that can kill a werewolf is silver or mercury.
• Werewolves hate other supernatural creatures, especially vampires.
• In legends, a werewolf can infect humans and turn them into beasts.
• When there is more than one werewolf in an area, the same rights apply as in a wolf pack.
• Werewolves are very strong, fast, and extremely cunning.
• At the court of King Henry II of France employed a jester covered with black bristles from head to toe. He was presented as a werewolf, but today we know that the man suffered from hypertrichosis.
• The first patient suffering from hypertrichosis, described in scientific papers, was Petrus Gonzales, who lived from 1536 to 1618. Interestingly, Petrus happily married and had five children, passing on his condition to them.
• Animals also suffer from hypertrichosis, but in their world, it is even rarer than in the human world.
• Currently, there is only one representative of the domestic cat with observed hypertrichosis.
• In the years from 1500 to 1700, over 30,000 reports of meetings with werewolves were recorded.
• Werewolves were blamed for the emerging epidemics in Europe.
• Another disease that may have contributed to the werewolf myth was rabies.
• There are known cases of people beginning to believe that they turn into wolves. The culprit for this is a rare mental condition called lycanthropy.
• Personally, I believe that the combination of many diseases and mental disorders that have spread across Europe contributed to the fear of werewolves.

CASTLE IN NIEDZICA TREASURES OF INCA AND WHITE LADY

 The legend of the castle in Niedzica is an amazing story interwoven with facts, full of twists and amazing events. Where did the descendants of the last Inca ruler come from in a small village? Was there a treasure hidden in the Dunajec Castle, on which the Spanish conquistadors wanted to put their hands? What became the descendants of the ruler Tupac, and why is the castle haunted by the White Lady?

Sebastian was a man who couldn't sit still. His desire to explore the world and discover unknown places became his life passion. Wandering through Europe, he finally came to Venice, which, due to many sea routes, was the proverbial window to the world.

Whether Sebastian hesitated when he was climbing the wooden gangplank onto the deck of a sailing ship sailing to the other end of the world, I cannot tell you. One thing is certain when the ship left the shore and set a course for Nowy Świat, goosebumps probably appeared on its hands.

A long voyage lasting many months was successful. Sebastian Berzeviczy, with great relief, stood on the sandy shore and looked around.

- So this is the land that, according to the assurances of Spanish sailors, is surrounded by gold. - He thought, looking at the hills drowning in green. Probably at this point, our hero had no idea what treasures he would find in Peru.

It is not known how it happened (there are no records from that period of Sebastian's life), but months later Sebastian married Umina. Was it his oriental appearance for the natives, or perhaps the gleam in the eye of the adventurer caused him to embrace a beautiful Inca princess, descended in a straight line from Atahualpa himself.

Perhaps you know this ruler. It was he who had the misfortune to meet Pizarro, who, obsessed with a lust for inexhaustible riches, ordered Atahualpa to fill a large room with gold, and the next two with silver, which he did scrupulously.

Sebastian's relationship with Umina resulted in the emergence of a girl in the world in 1762. She was given the same name as her mother, Umina. The happy parents looked with great joy at their children running around the yard. Years passed, and finally, Sebastian's daughter was old enough to look at the bachelor, blushing slightly on her cheeks.

There were many competitors, hoping to receive a juicy kiss from Umina, but there could be only one winner. It was Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru

In 1780, the Incas, who had been oppressed for years, decided to oppose the Spanish invader. The uprising was led by Umina's husband, they take the name of Tupac Amaru II, in honor of their ancestor, the last ruler of the Inca Empire, Tupac Amaru, who fought fiercely with the Spaniards in a guerrilla war.

Unfortunately, like the previous Inca revolts, this one was also unsuccessful. Despite their initial successes, the Spaniards finally tipped the scales to their advantage. The surviving insurgents experienced a whole range of atrocities on the part of the invaders. They have been torn apart with horses, burned at the stake, and strangled with garroted families together with their families. The uprising collapsed.

Seeing what was happening, Sebastian Berzevicy, being an elderly man, decided to flee Peru. He left behind a lot, including the grave of his wife, who had passed away a few years earlier.

However, he did not set out on his journey overseas alone. He was accompanied by his pregnant daughter Umina, who, like her father, left memories and graves of her relatives behind her. Together with them, the most faithful set out on the journey of life, surviving noble warriors, who swore to protect the unborn child and the wife of their deceased ruler.

After many months of travel, the escapees reached the port in Venice, from which young Sebastian set off on his journey many years earlier.

Here was born Tupac Amaru III, who was christened Antoni. Not wanting to stay in a city full of Spanish spies who were constantly on their heels, Sebastian decided to set off with his family to the place where he was the only one in the world associated with a safe haven - Niedzica.

The castle in Niedzica initially seemed to be the perfect place to raise a grandson. The estates, away from the great worldly intrigues, ensured peace for its inhabitants. Antoni, a descendant of the Inca rulers, felt great here. He ran around the vast chambers of the castle and looked from the castle walls at the Dunajec flowing lazily in the distance. Everything indicated that the Spanish spies did not reach the Pieniny. They were wrong.

In 1797, on a warm June night, Umina was found dead next to the castle chapel. She was dealt a dozen blows with a dagger and left in a thickening pool of blood. It is not known who committed this macabre murder, but rumors circulated that it was the work of a Spanish assassin, whose task was to obtain information about the treasure that the refugees brought to Niedzica.

Desperate Sebastian, wanting to save what was most precious to him, hastily packed the most necessary things and set off, with his grief-stricken grandson Antoni, to Moravian Krumlov near Brno.

There Antoni hugged his grandfather for the last time and, looking back several times, he crossed the walls of the church in the company of his new guardian - Wacław Benesz, Sebastian's cousin. It was June 21, 1797, as evidenced by the adoption act of Antoni in Niedzica.

Years later, Antoni Benesz (Berzevica), on his deathbed, was to confess that grandfather Sebastian and his mother Umina, when fleeing South America, actually took a huge treasure with them.

It was supposed to be Inca gold on which a powerful curse rested. It was this that was to be the cause of all the misfortunes that befell Antoni's family. Therefore, he warned his children who listened to their tales not to seek a bloody fortune under any circumstances.

They obeyed ... until ...

Many generations later, Andrzej Benesz entered the stage of our story. Antoni's descendants wanted to get what his ancestors had hidden. He was helped by his archaeological education and the fact that after the end of World War II, he actively participated in shaping the policy of the Polish state.

On July 31, 1946, Andrzej Benesz, accompanied by a befriended village administrator, came to the castle in Niedzica. He was very happy because, after many years of waiting, he finally got permission to start the search. After many failed attempts to find anything related to his family history, luck smiled at him.

Under the last step of the stairs of the first gate of the upper castle, he found a lead tube 8.5 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. From inside he pulled out a kipu - Inca knotwriting.

On three of the twelve strings with golden beads at the ends, there were the words - Dunajecz, Vigo, Titicaca.

Andrzej had no doubts, the letter indicated the place where the parceled treasure was hidden, some of which was supposed to be somewhere in the Pieniny Mountains.

The report on this discovery was written by Benesz, and all the witnesses signed next to him, i.e. the mayor Andrzej Pukański, WOP platoon leader Jan Kotowicz, forester Stanisław Gołąb, WOP privates Kazimierz Sitny and Jan Sobkówka, friends of Benesz Roman and Krystyna Alfawicki, Krystyna Benesz and Aleksander Bugayski, who also photographed this event. The further fate of this extremely interesting artifact is unknown.

It is not known whether it was possible to decode the kipu found by Andrzej Benesz

After this unusual discovery, Benesh believed in his heritage. For many years he was looking for a legendary treasure. He even received a permit to carry out exploration work at the nearby castle in Czorsztyn in 1976.

Whether he found something, unfortunately, it is not known. He died tragically the same year in a car accident near Kutno. It is said that he was struck by the curse of the Inca treasury, although it is more likely that his political opponents caught up with him. But that will remain a mystery forever.

Well, it was supposed to be about ghosts. Niedzica Castle is one of the most haunted places in this area. The stabbed Umina did not leave this world, as little souls are used to, but decided to stay at the place of her execution. To this day, you can meet her wandering around the castle courtyard and at the castle chapel, where she gave up her ghost.

Local residents claim that she remained in the earthly valley to guard the Inca treasure, which was the cause of all the misfortunes that befell her family. Is it really so? Who knows, maybe when you get too close to the place where the treasure is hidden, even unconsciously, you will have the opportunity to meet her angry little soul.

A FEW INTERESTS AT THE END

• The amount of gold and silver that Atahualpa gave to the Spaniards for his freedom is unimaginable. In one room, gold ornaments with a total weight of 6 tons were collected, and in the next 2, silver ornaments with a total weight of 11 tons.
• The accumulated riches did not help Atahualpa. Soon after the treasury was handed over, the Inca ruler was accused of non-cooperation, incest, polygamy, and pagan practices. The president of the court, Father Vincente Val Verde, sentenced him. At first, Atahualpa was ordered to be burned at the stake, but after he was baptized, the "gentler" method was used. The condemned man was strangled with a garrote.
• In 2003, Gloria Estevan recorded the song "Hoy", which recounted the fate of Tupac Amaru II and the prophecy that one day he would return and free the oppressed Incas.
• Kipu - is a form of three-dimensional record with the use of knots set at appropriate distances. To date, most of the copies have not been deciphered. Unfortunately, the Spaniards are to blame, who smoked everything they could get their hands on.
• Mr. Samochodzik was also looking for the Inca treasure in the book - Pan Samochodzik and the Inca Treasure.
• Tupac Amaru Shakur (2Pac), a popular American rapper who tragically died in 1996, was named after the Inca rulers.

STONE CIRCLES IN ODRY IN KASZUBY- LEGENDS, HISTORY, THEORIES AND CURIOSITIES

 From time immemorial, when Bory stretched across immeasurable lands, these lands were inhabited by peaceful people. The forests abounded in such an amount of game and undergrowth that it did not take much effort to feed all the inhabitants, so no one walked with an empty stomach. It is safe to say that the land they lived in was flowing with milk and honey.

But one day the earth shook. Gently at first, but over time, the shocks began to be felt more. Something huge was clearly walking towards their lands, and it was.

They were creatures that no one had ever seen in the vicinity - large, wild, with mighty weapons and clad in the skins of wild animals. They were as high as the largest oaks that covered the nearby forest. The hearts of the people who saw them for the first time froze with fear.

The tables, when they saw the nearby area, stopped, looked at everything from above, and decided to settle down. As you can probably guess, it didn't take long to force people to obey them. It was not a long war, just one short battle, but what did those few little daredevils mean against mighty beings?

The giants crushed their opponents to dust and made those who were buried in their huts waiting for the result of the clash, made their slaves. Since then, the peaceful land has changed beyond recognition. People, laboring in the sweat of their brows, had to provide food for their tormentors, and they starved themselves. The Stolen, on the other hand, played, hunted, and set off to distant lands for prey.

This state lasted for many years, and with everything they needed to be happy, the giants began to neglect their gods. Priests warned and exhorted them to return to the path of faith without much effect.

The more the priests of the giants explained, so as not to neglect the gods who impatiently waited for blood sacrifices, the wilder the revelations organized rebellious Stolems. It got to the point where they got drunk the most on their holidays, and then they would play the wildest frolics and mate wildly with their maids.

- What do we need gods for? - they asked - We are gods, look at these little people we run. It depends only on our will whether they survive until the next day. It is to us that they should offer sacrifices and worship us. The greatest celebration of the giants was approaching.

The captive population brought countless amounts of food from the surrounding fields and forests and dragged out countless barrels of alcohol. When it started to get dark, the Stolems began to dance as they did. They danced in circles, giant against the giant. Father with son, daughter with mother. Faster and faster and at some point as if by magic, they froze.

Their mighty feet seem to be chained to the ground. They stared at each other in surprise as their flesh began to harden. It turned out that the measuring cup changed and their gods decided to punish them in this way. Some of them called for help from their priests, who were watching it from the side. Some sobbed, and some cursed their gods.

The surrounding population heard the damned howl in the wilderness for a long time, but until it died down, no one dared to go and see what was happening. Only after many years, when the only thing that could be heard was the rustling forest, did a few daredevils go to the giants' camp.

What they saw was out of this world. Huge boulders are arranged in circles. Some are bent as if on their knees, others climbed up. It is said that the little stones are enchanted women, and the bigger ones are lusty Stolems.

This is how the powerful beings known as Stolems perished. Years passed, and the stones sank more and more into the ground. What you can see today sticking out of the ground are the heads of giants, because the rest has already been buried deep by the passing of time. So if you haven't seen this strange cluster yet, don't hesitate, because soon their remains may disappear for good.

The town of Odra, in the vicinity of which the stone circles are located, is a little over forty kilometers from Chojnice, and the road leading to them is wide and comfortable. So the journey passed quickly and efficiently. The last section leads through a beautiful old forest and driving the bumps alone gave us a lot of satisfaction.

The area of ​​the "Stone Circles" Reserve covers over sixteen hectares and includes ten stone circles and twenty-nine barrows, some with a central stone, i.e. a Stella. Which makes it the second-largest building of this type after Stonehenge in Europe! The stones were driven into the ground to a depth of up to 2 meters. Together with what is sticking out, it makes quite big boulders.

Who built these stone buildings? When and why? And here it gets interesting, the answers are many, and each of them is more or less probable. From the boards placed in the reserve, we found out that the Goths are responsible for all this fuss. In the 1st or 2nd century CE they landed on the shores of the northern Baltic Sea and with time wandered to the area of ​​today's Kashubia. They allegedly came from the legendary Scandinavian island of Skandza.

We learn about these mysterious people from excavations, including the Odra Mounds where the Goths buried the dead. Some scientists believe that although the remains of the Gothic dead lie in the stone circles, the circles themselves are much older and were only used by ancient peoples as magical places with supernatural powers. The fact that graves of many cultures have been unearthed among the mounds, as evidenced by the ornaments or everyday objects found there.

Anyway, stone circles were a very important place for their creators, building them had to be a lot of effort and required extensive knowledge. They probably served as the central meeting point for the elders when the most important matters concerning the tribe were discussed. Perhaps it was here that people contacted the old Slavic gods, the real ones who walked on the earth among people, with a hammer, ax, and fire forcing obedience and devotion.

In such a place it is easy to feel the sublimity of the old rites. The hum of mighty trees, the silence is broken only by the magical rhythm of the old songs, and the tension cleverly graduated by the shamans. No wonder after something like this people saw drowns, strikes, drawings, and edges around.

The arrival of the Goths with a pantheon of their own gods and mythical beings must have been very interesting. Can you imagine our duel with the others? The Slavic mighty Perun in battle with the Scandinavian Odin. The Slavic team would probably win because the match would be at our place, but you never know with the gods.

If you are curious about what happens to powerful gods when they are forgotten, I recommend a good book - American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Amazon produced a series based on it.

As for the circles, however, it gets even more interesting when we start looking for information about them in slightly less official sources. Here we find references to their cosmic origin, they were to serve as a landing site for alien stargazers or as part of a complex machine focusing the energy of the cosmos.

Somewhere in the middle, between dry scientific chatter and extreme fantasy, we find the information that appeals to us the most. It could be a kind of a calendar or a clock counting downtime to very important events, such as the winter and summer solstices, similar to the aforementioned Stonehenge.

Somewhere, I found information that the arrangement of the stones reproduces the arrangement of the stars in the sky at certain times of the year. I believe that people from the dawn of time tried to understand the world around them, this every day, easy and tangible one, but also reached further towards the stars, asking questions thanks to which we are where we are today.

You can walk between the circles without restrictions or prohibitions, but let's remember what the curator informs us before entering that the reserve is not only cold stones but also unique nature.

Among other things, the lichens that live on the surface of boulders are protected, some of them can live for hundreds or even thousands of years, remember this when you want to sit on one of the stones to draw their supernatural power through the back of your body. Apart from lichens, rare and beautiful heathers, blueberries, mosses, bushes, and trees grow around the stones and barrows.

I mentioned the power of stones for a reason. Many people believe that circles strengthen cosmic energy, and these places are called chakras. This is confirmed by dowsers who argue that there is an exceptional accumulation of energy in stone circles. They even drew a map, a plan where exactly the power bands run. There is also a theory that says that lines connecting all the circles discovered on earth run through the stone circles in Odry.

There are many similar circles in the area, after visiting the Oder ones, we went to Leśno, wherein the forest circles as old but not as impressive as those in Odry were discovered.

CHOJNICE WITCHES - THE DARK HISTORY OF THE CITY

 In the old, dark times, when faith in witchcraft and the witches engaged in it were part of the culture of the time, the church and its secular institutions made women a real hell on earth.

The year 1623 went down in the history of Chojnice as the one in which the piles burned. On September 14, the walls of the Witch Tower, also known as the Witches' Tower, trembled with the scream that Lorenz Lewe gave for the first time.

This simple servant, born in Konarzyny Wielkie, has just begun to testify. Not just any testimony, but in the first serious witchcraft trial in many years.

The interrogation was conducted by a city executioner, perfectly trained in his trade, as evidenced by screams and spreading pleas for mercy. However, there was no question of pity in any way, as the testimony had to be written down quickly because at least 3 people were waiting in the queue for the interrogation.

Under the influence of the "charisma" of the interviewer, Lorenz quickly lets go of his mouth, and this is how the story begins.

20 years ago, a tramp came to a small estate and stayed in the farmyard of Lorenc for 8 days, and after 8 days, in gratitude for the care, he sold him the spirit of a guardian, whom he called Margarethe (Margaret), for a small amount.

Lorenz agreed to such an arrangement and took the otherworldly entity under his roof. The tramp warned him, however, that the spirit can also take a material form and when it appears on his floor, let him not get angry, but receive him calmly.

And so it happened, after some time Lorenc saw a purchased ghost, which took the form of a beautiful woman with skin as gray as the sky before the storm, which Lorenc, who lived eagerly alone, took advantage of. The last time this ghost appeared was one Sunday and said to him.

"Go to the Town Farm and find David Woerlaman and tell him that the disease he complained of until recently was caused by Peter Splittstoser's wife." The reason for bringing the disease was the fact that once she received milk and bread from Woerlaman, but when she asked for the same again, he refused her.

Lorenc obediently obeyed this order, but he did not receive the expected reward for his "denunciation", only what awaited him was a trial.

Kat interrupted the hearing, after all, he had already heard what he wanted to hear.

- Get him ready. - He said in a booming voice and went to wash the blood from his hands.

The trial was extremely short. Lorenc Lewe was sentenced to death by burning for unworthy deeds, for cooperating with the spirit, and for using witchcraft. Soon after that, the first pile caught fire, and the sickening smell of roasted protein spread through the crowd, which, like theater audiences waiting impatiently for the performance to begin, gathered on the Katowice hill.

Another person who appeared at the interrogation in the Witches' Tower was Mrs. Blingkrähm, whom Lorenz Lewe, already charred at this moment, indicated in his testimony. The mere sight of the torture devices caused Ms. Barbara Blingkrähme, wife of the city servant Peter Splittstoser, to testify.

The scribe meticulously wrote down the testimony in which the accused informed in 19 points as follows. While still living in Hammerstein (today Czarne), she received a household spirit named Nickel as a gift from an unknown person.

The accused did not want to accept this troublesome "gift", but the spirit itself had completely different plans and threatened that if it did not accept it, it would tear her to shreds. Terrified, she agreed, and from then on Nickel, who turned out to be an extremely malicious spirit, began his reign.

The first victims of the poltergeist were 2 piglets, the only offense of which was that they fell into the beds that were cared for by their owner and destroyed all planted plants. The ghost didn't think too long and just broke the necks of both culprits.

The next in line, who fell in love, was the son of the carpenter Hinz, who at school made fun of Barbara's son, but in this case, it did not end tragically, and only young Hinz suffered a slight shock. Salomon Buckwitt of Nieżyży, who once broke the beer mug on the head of her husband, Peter Splittstoser, during a row in the inn also deserved the disease.

The scribe, seeing that this list was not going to end yet, asked for a break so that he could sharpen the pen again. Kat complied with this request, after all, his hands were sore from work, and there was no end in sight.

- Let's breathe a little. He said and sat down, still staring in disgust at the witch. After all, this is an unusual sight.

The writer finished sharpening the pen, picked up a new parchment, and, prepared in this way, waited for the next testimony of the Chojnice witch. Between the screams, he skillfully picked up the names of people whom Nickel's ghost was supposed to harm.

David Woerlemann, because he did not want to give the woman free milk and bread again. Also, a certain Ascherbarner deserved punishment, it is not even known for what reason. Kara also reached the wife of the host of the house, Georg Berend, who dared to mock her. In this case, the poltergeist killed her animals.

Interestingly, the defendant also testified that every year on the holiday "Walpurgisnacht" (Walpurgis night - a popular medieval festival that always took place on April 30), a Sabbath was held in the Człuchów county, in which she and other nearby witches, along with with their spirits helpers joyfully participated.

Usually, as the accused herself admitted, they met on the Blocksberg hill and after a feast consisting mostly of groats, peas, and meat, they would start dancing on the rope, to the beat of the music played by the old peasant, who gave the rhythm with a drum made of pig's head.

The testimony continued for many days. Many pages of the parchment were written in black ink and only at the end of October did the judge, having examined the collected evidence, issue a verdict. Death by burning at the stake.

- Hello Mr. Splittstosser. Please, sit down, we have a very long day ahead of us. As the executioner spoke these words, you could see the gleam in his eyes for a brief moment. He knew he had a lot of work to do today, but he didn't complain, after all, he liked what he was doing.

It was his profession, this was his life. Nobody else in the area was able to get a statement as efficiently as he did. He got used to being around him from afar. Sometimes he heard insults against him behind his back, but is it important? It is important that today he is to extract a testimony and he will do so, even if he has to torture the accused for several hours.

- Do you know, Mr. Piotr, why we met here today? The executioner's gaze pierced Peter's soul, who, sitting tied to the chair, stared in horror at the torture devices on the table. The tongue, out of fear, refused to obey him and with only a nod of the head, he confirmed that he knew perfectly well why he was in such a poor situation. His wife, of whom only a burnt carcass remained, had to tell about all his misdeeds.

This is how a third-person witchcraft interrogation began. The accused city servant, whose wife had previously burned at the stake, was put on trial as a result of her testimony in which she told how he not only knew about her dealings with demons but also committed other nefarious offenses.

It turned out that the Splittstosser liked to appropriate other people's property in his spare time, especially those that belonged to the city.

Many hours have passed, which have turned into many days in which they were forced to testify to the accused. Many times the executioner had to revive Peter, who could not endure the enormous pain he was inflicting on him and fell lifeless in the Katowice chair.

The defendant turned out to be so resistant to cooperation that the torturer had to rise to the heights of his skills, depriving him of a few fingers and breaking countless bones. However, after four days the scribe had everything that the city councilors wanted to hear written down.

Four years ago, Peter had come up with a brilliant plan to appropriate the property that was kept in the city council building. To this end, he persuaded his son Georg, and they ransacked the town hall together.

The plan, surprisingly, worked perfectly well and after searching a few wardrobes, with pockets stuffed with valuables, they fled to their farm, where they buried the loot in a pile of manure behind their house so that after the matter died down, they could enjoy their prey.

To divert suspicion from himself, Splittsotsser left the sword on the bench at the scene and ordered his son to leave a ladder at the walls, so that investigators would think that someone outside had done it.

A year later, he managed to cash in part of the loot by selling the stolen goods to a fence named Christoffer. The transaction was to be made outside the city walls on Wzgórze Wolności. After the deal was concluded, they drank with the fence - according to the testimonies - 500 liters of beer, which Peter's son brought from the city along with the food.

However, the most important question from the executioner's lips was yet to be asked.

- Did you know about the magic that your spouse used to practice?

- Yes, I knew. - Peter replied.

- She came to me once, and it was after I had been hit in the head with a pint of a mug by a man named Solomon Buckwit of the Dead, while I was sitting in the inn, and she told me.

- I'll take revenge on him, I'll hurt him.

- I did not know what she meant, but I replied that if he is able to do damage, let him do it. A few days later Buchwitz fell seriously ill and I already knew that my wife was witchcraft, but it didn't bother me. Anyway, why should it disturb me, it wouldn't hurt me.

It was October 13, when the testimony read out before the judge-led to Peter's conviction. As a punishment, the criminal was sentenced to cage around the city, so that potential thieves, wishing to reach the city's coffers, could see what could happen to them.

During this show, the route of which ran along the streets of Chojnice, it was ordered to make stops and tear the body of the accused with red-hot pliers on each of them. At the end of this bloody procession, the body was dismembered into four parts and hung on the city walls. On the other hand, the separated head was impaled, as a warning, on a stake.

And in two weeks' time, the city executioner will try to extract the testimony of the last person who sat in the dock in this trial, the son of Peter Splittstosser.

- Next? How many more will you bring? The slightly tired executioner looked at the condemned man. He did not expect an answer, he knew perfectly well that the demand for his services this year was exceptional and that the whole situation was also exceptional.

After all, city councilors hate it when the city treasury is robbed, and even more so when the son of a witch does it.

The ex officio torturer got up, stretched the stiff muscles of his neck, and then he laced the fingers of both hands bending them backward at the same time, the effect of which was crackling like broken bones. Anyway, this sound will fill the walls of the cell more than once, but this time the source of the sound will be Georg Splittstosser's bones.

The torture began. All the "toys" at the oppressor's disposal went into motion. More bones cracked, and the city scribe dipped his pen in ink over and over again, noting everything related to the case from four years ago, when young Georg heard these words from his father for the first time

- Son, we are poor, we have no food at home and we are starving. However, I know that our fate will change soon, but you have to help me, I will not be able to cope without you.

At first, the young man did not know what his father was talking about, but after a few days Peter described the plan to rob the Town Hall.

- It's not a stupid idea. - He thought. - Anyway, if we don't do anything, we'll probably starve anyway.

- Okay, father, I will help you, what should I do?

A few days after this conversation, he and his father began the implementation of the evil plan. As he was smaller and more agile than Peter, his task was to enter the building unnoticed on the facade and open the front door, which he managed to do without any problems. Overall, it went better than he thought. For the first time in his life, he had seen so many material things, and now it was all theirs.

After looting everything that could be looted, in order to direct suspicion on strangers, they left their swords at the crime scene.

- Leave them in sight, George. - said, Peter. - Let them think that it is these poor Poles who sneaked in here.

As his father ordered, he did so. You could see Peter knew what he was doing. Many days after the robbery, they were looking for thieves in the city, but they disappeared like ghosts. Suspicion, as the clever Peter had predicted, fell on the Polish thugs who were supposed to get into the city unnoticed and loot the city treasury.

- Managed to. George shouted.

- It really worked. Coins glittered in the young man's hands, many coins. He looked at his father with pride, finally, fate smiled at them, they will no longer be slapped by poverty, whatever that is. From today they will be great Lords. However, for this to happen, this hot time should wait, and the loot should be hidden somewhere.

Huge drops of sweat ran down the executioner's forehead. It took a great deal of effort to get these statements. However, once again it was successful, although the testimony suffered "slightly", but it is obvious that they will only testify if one breaks a bit. A satisfied scribe, drying the parchment, went to the judge, who, after reading the case files, decided about the fate of Georg, the son of a witch and a thief.

- The audacious robbery of the city treasury, minor thefts of pigs from neighbors, and the fact of knowing about the dark practices of his mother.

- I find him guilty. The punishment must be severe so that others will think twice as to whether it is worth reaching for someone else. Therefore, I order the death penalty by beheading. Throw the carcass into an unmarked pit and cover it up, impose its head on a stake and place it next to his father's rotting head.

The sentence was carried out on the same day.

This is the end of the story that Lorenz Lewe began on September 14 with his testimony. As a result of his testimony, he and the whole Splittstosser family - Barbara, Peter, and their son Georg - said goodbye. In the trial of 1623, the "helpers" of the witch were tortured, but their testimony did not have a great impact on the investigation, and their guilt turned out to be so slight that after the testimony was written, "exceptionally" was sentenced to exile with a lifetime ban on entry to the areas belonging to the city of Chojnice, on pain of death.

There was little in this episode about witchcraft, so as a curiosity I would like to add that in 1661 the executioner from Chojnice, Hans Mölenbeck, famous for his exceptional efficiency, was summoned to the Prussian Friedland, where he was to be tortured to obtain testimony from a witch called Troiksche.

However, after entering the accused's cell and unfolding the tools he had brought with him, the executioner fell dead as if struck by a thunderbolt. A smile appeared on the accused's face as her body fell limp to the floor. A few weeks later, the accused was to testify that it was her helper demon who had killed the previous executioner.

Let me know if you liked it, maybe I'll look for something else in a similar atmosphere. After all, there were lots of witches in Poland, and the Inquisition had a special use in some places.

KIKIMORA MONSTER FROM SLAVIC LEGENDS AND NIGHTMARES

 The world of the Slavs at the beginning was extremely dark and full of monsters. When the ancient gods walked among the Slavic tribes, doing what the gods should do, they were accompanied by more or less mean creatures, rarely only favorable to people. The collection of these monsters is so extensive that more than one book has been devoted to them.

Over the centuries, humans have learned to recognize and even deal with hellish beasts. New and strong rituals and prayers were created. Shamans and magicians prepared potions and built amulets that were to protect man from the omnipresent demons.

Despite all these efforts, however, it was enough that it was getting dark and the fire slowly faded, and the monsters appeared.

Today I will tell you about Kikimor, one of the less pleasant creatures that haunted the country cottages, poisoning the already not easy peasant life.

KIKIMORA ALSO CALLED CHINESE

Kikimore was a nasty creature. She visited remote villages and settlements, looking for a place for herself. She was drawn to cursed places and places where horrible things had happened, the more horrible the better.

Kikimora felt especially comfortable in houses built in old cemeteries and former places of dark cults. She really liked people who were cursed or cursed by someone. When such people lived in their cursed house, Kikimora felt there, just like you in a luxury hotel.

The appearance of the monster could be deceptive, for it resembled an aged, impoverished old woman dressed in patched and frayed clothes. On closer inspection, however, you could see a bird's beak-like nose and bird's claws for feet.

Once she had chosen the place where she wanted to live, it was hard to dissuade her from doing so. She settled down in some dark, rarely visited corner, and hidden in the gloom, she began her reign. She loved dusty attics or dark and damp basements, preferably those that had never been cleaned.

Kikimora's job was to make life difficult for the inhabitants of the farmyard. Their fear and anger were food for her that she could never get enough of. It started out inconspicuously and rather not threateningly, with gentle knocks and noises. Over time, however, the Kikimora grew louder and the noise grew louder. There were loud moans, screams, and screams. Worse still, the monster was starting to harass the townspeople more directly.

Kikimora sneaked into the bedroom at night and ripped people's hair out of people's heads, as well as tore clothes and destroyed various equipment. She also did not forgive domestic animals. Frightened cows stopped giving milk, and chickens with feathers torn out wailed all day instead of laying eggs.

Most often, the only way to get away from Kikimora was to move.

A LEGEND OF DEFEATED KIKIMORA

It once happened that a family of peasants struggled for months with the problems caused by their cottage. There was still something squeaking and squeaking, and it was impossible to sleep at night due to the squeals and terrible gurgling noise from the attic. One evening a peasant complained to other cops in a nearby inn that he would have to look for another place in the world for himself and his family.

Fortunately, all this conversation was listened to by a merchant, returning from countries far to the east. He puffed on a pipe and scratched behind the ear of the huge wolf that lay at his feet. Finally, he approached the peasant and asked if he probably had a solution to his problems. Wandering through the great world for many years, he had heard about such monsters and probably could deal with them.

They agreed that the peasant would take the family to his neighbors and that the merchant and his wolf would take his place.

The first night passed rather quietly, as did the second and third. Another one was full of screams and screams coming from the attic. The monster, initially slightly intimidated by its new host, has now begun to rage with redoubled strength. The next night, the merchant opened all the doors and windows, and then let the wolf into the house.

At night, Kikimora came down from the attic and began to rummage with interest among the things of the new inhabitant of the hut. Eventually, she saw a wolf and mistook it for an ordinary dog ​​that couldn't see her anyway. However, she was wrong. The wolf, like a wild creature, was not much different from the shadow beast and perfectly saw the monster wandering around the house.

Finally, Kikimora noticed the animal, which seemed to be looking directly at her, and got angry. She came closer and was about to pull his tail to scare the pooch out of the house when she suddenly felt his teeth against her neck. The wolf tore her neck with one snap and without a moment of pause, he started massacring other parts of the old woman's body. Terrified by the animal's reaction, she howled and scurried out the window, to disappear somewhere in the surrounding fields.

The monster never returned, and the peasant and his family continued to live as they had before the monster appeared.

Monsters that haunted Poland

 Not only the basilisk and the Wawel dragon prowled around Poland. In addition to stories about these well-known monsters, from the earliest times, much less popular stories about strange creatures circulated around the country on the Vistula River. Some were nice - they could bring milk, drink sewage water or bless the crowd, others had a reputation for being bloody and unpredictable. Here are unknown stories about Polish monsters!

Good snake

They breathe fire, swallow virgins and trample everything - such an image of native dragons has survived to our times. Meanwhile, it is a harmful image! In Slavic mythology, there was a so-called proto-Slavic viper and he was usually presented as a positive figure. He looked after people, looked after their crops and ponds, and when some less friendly dragon appeared in the area, he fought him victorious. The vipers even had ... romances with women, and from these relationships, brave warriors were born, defending the Slavic lands against all invasions. In partially Polish Lusatia, vipers stood behind local farmers to an exaggeration. In order that they would not lack anything, they would steal rye, money, or milk from other peasants and bring them to their own. So they were called rye, money, and milk vipers, respectively.

Fish with the face of a bishop

In the 16th century, an amazing creature was fished out of the Polish sea. According to the message of the scientist Konrad Gesner, it was a cross between a fish covered with scales and a man with a dignified face. The creature's head was crowned with what looked like a bishop's headdress, hence the animal was called a sea bishop. The creature was taken to the court of Sigismund the Old and welcomed with Old Polish hospitality, but the bishop, tired of the feasts, finally began to give the ruler signs that he wanted to return to the sea. He was transported there, and before he disappeared under the water, he blessed everyone with the sign of the cross.

The rabbit bites

Creatures unknown to science in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries absolutely did not become extinct in Poland. Especially in the cucumber season, there are more and more native monsters. Today, hardly anyone remembers the Kingis who appeared in the Kampinos Forest in the summer of 1990. The creature with the body of a fox and the head of a rabbit roamed the backwoods of the forest, and when it was in a bad mood, it could gnaw the wires in cars parked nearby. Television even aired a short film of the creature and interviews with witnesses. As people guessed at that time, such a mutant probably arose because of the Chornobyl explosion.

Paskuda in brine

The Poles also had their own Loch Ness monster. In the 1980s, Polish Radio gave shocking news about a strange creature living in the waters of the Zegrze Reservoir near Warsaw. Paskuda, because this is how journalists christened the game, was a huge earthworm with an open mouth. It was useful because it ate the sewage from the water. Disputes continue to this day as to whether Paskuda was born in the rich fantasy of radio broadcasters or in the waters near Zegrze.

Chupacabra in Poland

Some creatures come to Poland from abroad. This was the case with the chupacabra. The first reports of a monster that sucks blood from livestock, resembling a cross between a red-eyed kangaroo and a dragon, come from South and Central America. An extremely lively creature can jump over the top of a tall tree, and it is not a problem for her to overcome the fence of the property and suck the blood from all the goats on the farm. In the end, she jumped over the ocean and found herself near Radom in the Kozienicka Primeval Forest, where two men saw her with their own eyes, stealing forest wood. Then, dead goats without a drop of blood were found in the area.

It was not the end of the bloodiest Polish monster of our time. In 2009, a mysterious slaughter of a herd of goats took place in Kornelin. Witnesses told about the creature resembling the famous Chupa. Whatever it was, it had sucked tens of gallons of goat blood in one night. Reports about Polish chupacabra also appeared in the Opole region and in Hrubieszów in the Lublin region. Sometimes the inhabitants blamed the slaughter on the puma, which could have escaped from the farm. The story of the puma soon took on a life of its own. The exotic creature has been seen in the last few years, incl. in Łódź, West Pomerania and Lower Silesia. This season, the wild cat reportedly appeared near Częstochowa. It is possible that this monster is real, because in 2009 a hunt for pumas, considered by many to be an invention, ended with the finding of these animals and shooting by hunters. It turned out that they had escaped from breeding in the Czech Republic. Who knows, maybe there is some grain of truth in each of the stories about Polish monsters?

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - review

 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings deserves the highest honors in many ways. The non-linear, hellishly addictive storyline, touching on an issue that is quite difficult for game developers, i.e. politics, is a strong plus point. Amazing graphics, dynamic and character-dependent combat, extensive crafting options ... there are many advantages, moreover, we will tell you about all the advantages and disadvantages in turn.

First, however, a small technical issue: the game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which we find on boards in a box - by the way, the basic edition is richer than many special editions and comparable to cheaper "collectors" - is not a complete product. We need to download the patch, which currently also removes the SecuROM protection and tightens some data that allow the game to run. Let's add that removing DRM is a new solution, probably caused by the fact that the authorization server played tricks from the very beginning ...

Night vigilance, or sliding. All in all, the buyers of the Collector's Edition have the right to be the most dissatisfied. They were promised that they would sit down for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings much earlier than the rest. First, it turned out that it would only be the day of the forums against other players. Then came "zero hour" and problems began. As a result, thousands of players waited half a day for CD Projekt RED to solve problems with registering the game, downloading the required patch (anti-piracy protection), and promotional DLC. The problem with the latter has not been fully resolved to this day.

The very beginning of the game is based on the assumption of maximum non-linearity. By using the save file from the end of The Witcher game, we introduce changes to the presented world, although we do not immediately find out about it. Someone survived, someone, failed, certain people remember our actions and are willing to help ... there are several of these modifications and they are more important to the overall story than in the case of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Moreover, many of these differences appear in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, thanks to our decisions in the first part, which will clearly play a significant role in the continuation of the series. You can end your adventure with Geralt in sixteen ways, of which at least four should be considered key variations. The creators set a great challenge if they intend to take full advantage of non-linear endings in the next installment of the series.

The most interesting thing is that we are often really unable to judge which of our decisions will be of great importance in the rest of the game. This makes life difficult for fans of "optimization" - who will go back to the saved state of the game from 15 hours ago, only to fix their mistake. Anyway, in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings it is difficult to talk about mistakes in decisions - there is no single path planned by the developers to be the right one. Just whatever we do, we need to be aware of the possible implications. In this respect, the new CD Projekt RED production refers very much to a certain cRPG assumption, i.e. empathizing with the character: it is simply best to think about how our Geralt should behave and follow this path consistently.

Character development in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is Talent-based, just like in the previous installment. However, there are fewer of them to give away than before - just one for each level of experience. It is not enough for everything, you need to think carefully about the development of Geralt. We have 51 special skills, each has two levels of development, and I finished the game at level 33, so I didn't even have the Talents to buy 1/3 of what I could ... This goes well with non-linearity because in the second pass you can play completely a different Geralt, dealing with problems differently. With advanced skills, there is also an option to strengthen them with a mutagen - and we obtain them from enemies (or as a side effect of alchemy, when we invest in it with Talents) and they are very diverse, so there is another piece of the puzzle.

Lucas' Path: I bet on fencing, leaving the signs (except Aard) completely undeveloped. Geralt, in my version, did not have to be afraid of blows in the back, he slashed several opponents at once, and in a rush of adrenaline he launched collective "finishers". Each blow ended with the immediate descent of the enemy. Of course, the damage dealt with the swords also increased accordingly.

Mousesack's path: I, as agreed, did the opposite. I was consistently expanding the character tree with the goal of achieving two things: AoE Igni and Heliotrope. Thanks to the former, I only used the swords to finish them off, and after unlocking the Heliotrope, the fight against hordes of enemies became child's play. The first ones burned happily around Geralt, and any reinforcements hit their "time bubble" slowing them down. These were not fights anymore - it was a slaughter.

One of the goals of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was to make it difficult enough for demanding players to feel satisfied. At the same time, it was announced that the easy level would be friendly for people who play games occasionally. Well, according to forum feedback, the second assumption has been crushed. It's difficult for casuals and that's it. Even at the easiest level. Importantly, this difficulty does not result from the massive infusion of respawned enemies, but from the need to use something more than the left mouse button. In addition, as already mentioned, character development significantly differentiates the way the battles are played.

The general rule is to focus on what comes easiest for us and to develop Geralt's combat abilities in this direction. If we want to limit the number of buttons and buttons to be seized during the fight, it is probably enough to invest in dodging and damage to some extent. For others, it will be more fun than dodging to parry blows and deliver quick retorts. You can also play in the style of a magician from other games, mainly using characters (including a heliotrope, causing a kind of bullet-time). Units that value cunning and clean hands will set up complicated combinations of traps, drag the enemy into them and finish the fight with firecrackers and throwing daggers. Some will use such witcher potions (but beware - you have to swallow before the fight, during it is impossible), others will be completely different, or they will leave these "boosters" only for the most important battles ... Something nice for everyone, but without scratching in the head and tactical approach, do not move.

Admittedly, such a fight, difficult in an honest way, gives a lot of satisfaction. Even if we flake a few times, success will more than compensate for it. Well, unless we're playing on the Sudden Death difficulty level, when each Geralt's death means starting the whole game all over again ... yes, there's a place for hardcore like this too. I wonder if anyone except CD Projekt RED employees can manage this trick ... Visually, the fights are a feast for the eyes, the characters bustle on the screen and perform realistic attacks. The effects of witcher signs and alchemical inventions were also done very carefully. Boss fights are both a great challenge and a feast for the eyes (thanks in part to cleverly placed QTE). From the visual side, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is closer to the best slashers than to cRPG. I repeat: from the visual side so that there are no misunderstandings because you have to figure it out.

Another very important element of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is craftsmanship. Geralt of Rivia can deal with alchemy on his own, but he has to hire professionals for all armory and foraging. In each act, there are several craftsmen on hand and some sellers of various materials needed to create items. However, in order to order or make anything yourself, you need recipes or diagrams. We get them from traders, find them somewhere or get them as part of the plot. Of course, you have to pay for someone else's work - from five orens for a simple semi-finished product, to two thousand for the best armor.

Yes, semi-finished products - sometimes the necessary ingredients are missing and you have to invest in schemes for them. For example, such studded leather is a valuable ingredient. We need two pieces of hardened leather, a bottle of oil, and twine. The hardened leather is made of three pieces of genuine leather, and two bottles of oil are also needed. And the oil ... well, we either buy it or produce it from dead eaters (their skins and blood are needed). For the best armor, for example, you need different armor (also a considerable and unique gadget, by the way), and a specific and expensive armor reinforcement, not to mention a few ordinary components.

An additional difficulty is a fact that Geralt has a limited load capacity and we often end up in a situation when something needs to be removed from the inventory. After a few hours of playing, it turns out that this junk would be hellishly useful at this point. While leather, twine, cloth, and other ordinary materials are always picked up or bought somewhere, the ingredients from the monsters may not be recoverable ... so we also have to think hard if we want to properly dress and equip our character.

Okay, technical stuff is cool, but the most important element is the story anyway. We have already mentioned the fact that it is non-linear in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. It's time to move on to the plot details and dialogues. As for the latter, I risk saying that I have not seen a game in which they are more interesting and juicier. With one click on the topic selection list, we usually generate long statements, often involving several people. All this is filmed by dynamic cameras, just like in a good movie. An interesting solution is to present to us some side events, fictional backgrounds, not in the form of long films, but in interactive scenes in which we jump into the shoes of someone other than Geralt.

Importantly, this story is not an overriding value, so we are not forced to follow every fragment of it. The dialogue options sometimes permanently change the course of the conversation, the events take place differently. While on this topic, it is worth mentioning the audible aspect of the dialogues in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The Polish sound is amazing, the English are a bit behind it, but it is also happy. Our actors, led by Jacek Rozenek, did a fantastic job. I think that to some extent this is due to the text that they read. Lively, interesting, full of jokes and emotional elements. It encourages good acting, as opposed to short, clichéd phrases.

Nothing is perfect, however. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings also has a lot of minor flaws. Not all actors were chosen wisely, in both language versions there are weaker roles within important characters. In some places, the game does not allow us to save manually, and the automatic takes place very far (we die in a boss fight, so we return to the dialogue scene, a small fight, a bustle, a second small fight, a dialogue, a cutscene, a fight with a mini-boss, another cutscene. .. and only the key battle). It happens that scripts prevent us from further playing (something does not activate) and we need to look for an earlier save point. Well, there are a few such details.

Pros

• rich, comprehensive world
• the nonlinear storyline with politics in the background
• great graphics
• great animations
• colorful, lively dialogues
• challenging combat system
• no distinction between good and bad
• difficult ignition delay decisions

Cons

• so far no scaling to 16x10 monitors (stripes)
• occasional script errors
• a sloppy automatic recording system in places
• random inventory and save file problems
• Geralt wears pants too often

JOURNEYS OUTSIDE THE BODY, OR THE OOBE PHENOMEN

 OOBE, or exteriorization, is a phenomenon that consists in perceiving reality from outside your own body. It can be experienced by anyone, both unconsciously and with the help of special techniques to facilitate it. What should you know about OBE?

The art of exteriorization is popular and many people say they have experienced it. However, scientists believe that this is impossible and it all takes place within the human brain, not in reality. The skeptical theory says OBE is just a figment of the imagination. Externalization can be experienced while sleeping or meditating, and there are special techniques to facilitate this. What exactly is out-of-body-travel?

OOBE is an abbreviation of the English "out-of-body experience", meaning out-of-body experience. The person who experiences this has the feeling that they are seeing the world beyond their own body. This is a phenomenon that can be experienced in a dream or during deep relaxation or trance. Anyone can experience it, even unconsciously. However, people who would like to enter OBE should use appropriate techniques and exercises to facilitate this.

Survivors say they could move, observe, and communicate with others while their bodies were asleep. They also believe that you can move far away from your body during this time, even over long distances. Interestingly, blind people after experiencing OBE were able to accurately describe their surroundings. There are also known cases where patients experienced exiting their physical body during surgery. According to esotericists, some people experience this condition once or several times in their lifetime for no apparent reason.

The most popular theory is that the soul leaves the body during exteriorization. It is difficult to verify this view from the point of view of science because in science there is no concept of the soul. In turn, in most religions, the departure of the soul from the body is called death.

Advocates of exteriorization emphasize that there are many techniques that deliberately help out the body travel.

One of them is visualization, during which you should focus your thoughts on your goal, which is leaving the body.

Then it is worth imagining looking at the body from the perspective of flight. You can also imagine yourself in motion, which supposedly helps in achieving your OBE.

It is mainly about movement that will allow the physical body to detach from the astral, so you should visualize, for example, swinging on a swing, rotating around your axis or climbing a rope, and then jumping off or throwing out of the vortex, thus achieving exteriorization.

Another technique is the trance technique, which consists in focusing on one specific target, e.g. by relaxing and not moving, which allegedly causes physical paralysis and detachment from the physical body.

According to the supporters of OBE, the effectiveness of the technique results from focusing on the inside and ignoring external and bodily sensations.

Another way to get the externalization state is the technique of lucid dreaming, which resembles visualization because it involves making a sudden movement during sleep, e.g. jumping off, lifting, hitting, etc.

Another way is to use the 4 + 1 technique, which involves falling asleep for 4 hours and then waking up, getting up, and doing any activity actively outside of bed for 1 hour. After this time, go to sleep again.

According to advocates of this technique, it is very easy to achieve an OBE with this method.

This technique is often modified and occurs e.g. in the 6 + 2 variant. In order for the externalization to take place, it is also recommended to induce it with drugs such as phencyclidine or ketamine.

The most famous researcher and popularizer of exteriorization were Robert Monroe. The American parapsychologist published his experiences with the OBE in three books and founded his own research center, in which, inter alia, compiled a collection of recordings facilitating out-of-body travel.

According to the researcher, it is possible to leave the physical body and consciousness wandering beyond it, and the return is possible thanks to a special connection between soul and body, i.e. silver line.

Robert Bruce, who described them in his book, Treatise on Astral Projection, also had similar experiences. Currently, the phenomenon is also popularized, among others in esoteric and some religious-philosophical circles (e.g. in Hinduism and Buddhism).

Science clearly states that it is impossible to leave the physical body and travel outside of it.

This is evidenced by the fact that many experimental attempts were made during which the sense of locating oneself in space was manipulated.

Initially, these were only visual illusions and perceptual experiences used in research individually, but in 2007 researcher Henrik Ehrsson decided to combine them and thus showed that it is possible to induce an illusion involving the whole body.

Virtual reality apparatus was used in the experiment, which made it possible to see the delocalized body of the participant.

In practice, this meant that when the equipment was turned on, cameras placed behind the participant showed him an image in which he could see the back of his back not far in front of him.

At this stage, the researcher tapped gently on the subject's real chest and at the same time made a similar movement on the reflection of the cage, after which the participants of the experiment declared that they felt the touch in both cases.

Thus, these people had the impression that they were functioning outside their own bodies, from which they could view their backs.

Also interesting is the recent research by scientists from the University of Ottawa in 2014, during which the brain activity of a woman who allegedly experienced externalization was examined.

As she claimed, this was due to years of exercises in which she visualized the observation of her body from above, being outside of it.

In the experiment, scientists used nuclear magnetic resonance and obtained brain scans in which the areas responsible for visual coordination were less active, and those for motor coordination were more active.

Experience has shown that the states experienced by a woman are similar to those that can be obtained through meditation and induce hallucinations on their own, such as hearing colors or feeling sounds.

The research conducted in 2004 and 2007 by the researcher Blanke and Thut also shows that the experience of exteriorization may also be the result of temporal-parietal contact dysfunction, which causes disturbances in the perception of locating one's body in space.

In addition, it is also worth remembering that phenomena identical to externalization very often occur in people suffering from epilepsy and after taking psychoactive substances.

The Dead Internet Theory

 The internet does not exist, and all online content is generated by bots.

After flat earthen and anti-vaccines, the time has come for the supporters of the Dead Internet Theory.

According to this relatively new and quite surprising conspiracy theory, the internet as we know it has been non-existent for about 4-5 years, and what we are dealing with today is largely made by bots. They publish a large part of the content or comments on social media, claiming to be people.

The theory gained popularity due to an entry on the Agora Road Macintosh Cafe online forum.

In January this year, a user with the nickname IlluminatiPirate, who privately is the operations manager of a Californian logistics company, created a forum thread titled 'The Dead Internet Theory: Most Internet is Fake'. The author explains there in a rather vulgar way that a large part of it is managed by artificial intelligence and filled with bots. These, in turn, would be supported by a group of initiated influencers.

Who and why would care about creating an imitation of the Internet? The answer will not surprise you, because the 'torturers' are the same as most other conspiracy theories - they are large corporations that work with the government. They and their managers would spread propaganda, control our thoughts and ultimately persuade us to buy the products.

Well, there is probably a grain of truth in this and many other conspiracy theories.

First, it cannot be denied that the internet as we know it today looks very different from the same place a few years ago. Algorithms are becoming more complicated and tracking mechanisms are becoming more advanced. The online world is much more controlled than before. Much of the content we come across on the internet has actually been passed through the artificial intelligence filter.

The Dead Internet theory is quite niche for now, but more forums and threads on Reddit are slowly entering. Caroline Busta, the founder of the Berlin media platform New Models, recently referred to this theory in her speech at an event organized by the KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin. She admitted that much of the post is just paranoid fantasies, but the general idea seems to be right. Speculations about the validity of the theory also began to appear on the widely read Hacker News forum and among fans of Linus Tech Tips - a YouTube channel.

Even if there is something to it and some of the content was created by bots, you can be sure - some of your friends 'Insta posts, memes or politicians' tweets bots would not come up with.

Conspiracy theory claims the internet has been "dead" since 2016. A conspiracy theory is that the internet has been "dead" for several years and most of the content found there was created by bots. some US media recently released this fancy assumption.

The earth would be flat, the coronavirus vaccines would contain 5g microchips ... these are some of the weirdest and sometimes dangerous conspiracy theories circulating on the internet.

Another of these fanciful "assumptions" was recently unveiled by the American magazine the atlantic: "dead internet".

According to this conspiracy theory, the web didn't really exist for several years and much of the content posted on the web, including the poems you are reading now, would be created by robots (which is not the case here).

Where did this theory come from?

Journalist Kaitlyn Tiffany, author of an investigation published on the atlantic on August 31, 2021, first learned about the theory on the English-language online discussion forum agora road's macintosh cafe. an exchange platform originally devoted to vaporwave culture, an artistic movement related in particular to the electronic music genre. users sometimes discuss conspiracy theories there.

The "dead internet" postulate was first developed in a long text published on January 5, 2021 by a user with the pseudonym illuminatipirate (a reference to another popular conspiracy theory). the title of his message: "Dead Internet Theory: Most Networks are Bad."

An anonymous author told the Atlantic that he was the chief operating officer of a logistics company in California, in the western United States.

The theory he describes in his message "was originally written" by users of other online discussion platforms, he explains.

What does this theory say?

According to this theory, the internet network would be "dead" in 2016 or 2017. by "dead" author of a post posted on the forum means that the web appears "empty and devoid of any human" and "completely sterile".

It should be noted that the postulate is quite chaotic. The author of the news cites "artificial intelligence networks", that is, robots that collaborate with "paid secret influencers" by people who are not mentioned (sic!). they would be lagging behind "a large proportion of allegedly human-produced content posted on the internet."

Their goal would be to "create consumers who buy a growing range of newly standardized cultural products."

The Internet user still provides several elements which, in his opinion, would allow him to "support" his theory. thus, among the users he had contact with on the internet, "they all evaporated without leaving any traces." and "I see the same discussions, the same photos and the same responses posted over and over over the years," he repeated.

The "dead internet" theory is "a niche" among conspiratorial ideas, says the Atlantic, although it is "widespread". A Spanish-language video on this topic, posted on YouTube, has been viewed over 260,000 times since May 2021.

Why is it wrong?

The internet is not "dead" and the content you discover there is not entirely machine created. on the other hand… it is true that much of the content on the internet is created by robots.

According to US cybersecurity company imperva, in 2020 40% of global internet traffic came from "bots". "Bot"? is "autonomous and automatic software" as defined by the specialized website le journal du net.

In detail, 25.6% of these "bots" were described as "malicious" and 15.2% liked "benevolent".

What are these bots doing? some of them are "chatbots", conversational robots used to provide information to internet users in an automated manner.

Others are used to generate false impressions on streaming platforms (online distribution) and thus allow holders of certain accounts to sell ads at a higher price, the US New York magazine pointed out in a long article dedicated in 2018.

Some of these "bots" are also used to spread false information or create deepfakes, very realistic videos but completely artificial and often used for malicious purposes.

So many elements which, if they exist, do not make the "dead internet" conspiracy theory realistic.