Songs of the Past Letten, Dandelion's homeland

Where Letten sits on the Continent

Letten is the new open-world region in Songs of the Past, the upcoming paid third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, due in 2027. It is Dandelion’s homeland: northern and northeastern Redania, close to Kovir and Poviss, which also puts it nearer The Witcher 4’s neighborhood than Toussaint ever was. Fool’s Theory’s Péter Gelencsér gave the map-nerd version during a gamescom stream: somewhere halfway between Kovir and Kaedwen. If you go to the Gulf of Praxeda, follow the Buina east, take a right on the Nimnar, the southern shore is the lovely place. The short version is simply north.

That placement matters for tone. Letten did not live through the Nilfgaardian war the way Velen did. It is not a second Beauclair either. Designers described an idyllic land of harvests, folklore, and lavish festivals, inspired by Polish rural holidays and English countryside, with Slovak village memory in the mix. A mountain silhouette in the range has been compared to Giewont. None of that is a tourist brochure once you leave the valley floor. CD Projekt Red’s own text says the peaceful surface hides a dark secret.

Scale is comparable to Blood and Wine. Expect a full region of contracts, points of interest, and a main path that does not require you to hug a corridor. A public interactive map does not exist yet because the expansion has not shipped. This guide is geography and atmosphere from what developers and preview sessions have shown, not a pin list of every notice board.

For plot framing after you understand the land, use the spoiler-marked Story Overview. For the people who own the hill, start with Dandelion and Lilla. Footage and designer comments from August sit in the gamescom 2026 recap.

Settlements, harvests, and Belleteyn

Letten’s villages are meant to feel lived in. Preview coverage kept returning to denser NPC routines than The Witcher 3’s original hamlets: people farm, walk, drink, and keep hours instead of waiting on a quest marker. Festival space is part of the design, not a cutscene overlay. Belleteyn is the calendar spike you will hear first. It is the night of fires and fertility rites that opens Geralt’s stay, and it is why the first morning feels like a hangover instead of a royal reception.

Expect:

• River work and orchards rather than Toussaint’s vineyards as the default postcard.
• Markets and halls that still play Gwent. New cards are confirmed; new factions are not.
• Notice boards and contracts. Developers confirmed extra witcher work besides the family story.
• Crowds that matter. A line you overhear at a stall can unlock a later dialogue. The map is an investigation surface.

Do not treat every extra as a merchant. Some are clocks. If you ride through at the wrong hour you will miss the version of a person the quest wanted. That is a feature Fool’s Theory highlighted, not a bug in the preview build.

Compared with Velen, Letten is less burned and more watchful. Compared with Novigrad, it is less stacked and more horizontal: valley, estate on a hill, forest that should not be that hungry. Compared with Toussaint, the wealth is older and more familial. Knights exist, but the fashion is countryside nobility rather than a duchy performing chivalry for tourists.

The de Lettenhove estate

Dandelion grew up as Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove, and then ran away to be a poet. The estate is the hilltop house Geralt approaches after the festival. Previews showed hulking doors, a long dining table, and a family that is not delighted to host a witcher even when the witcher is the bard’s closest friend.

Walk the grounds like a contract, not like a loading screen. Witcher Senses will have work in bedrooms, halls, and yards. The house is also a character engine: a stern grandmother who treats Geralt as a bad influence, cousin Lilla who wants a life beyond the walls, and serious brother Gustav in the family orbit. You do not need the full dinner scene to understand the geography. The estate is the civilized mask. The valley is the public face. The Garden of Thorns is the thing the family would rather you did not name at table.

Roach still works here. Roads were called out as a Remastered pathfinding pass, which should matter on estate tracks and festival lanes. Signposts and fast travel will almost certainly exist in the usual Witcher 3 pattern; exact pin names have not been published.

The Garden of Thorns

The Garden of Thorns is the flawed spot in an otherwise pretty valley. It is a location you will hear in rumor and in Geralt’s own uneasy dreams before you should treat it as a sightseeing stop. Preview language describes a branch-tangled entrance, deer carcasses at the roots, and a cursed well deeper in. That is enough map knowledge. The well, the knight, and the family history are story. Keep them in the Story Overview until you want mild spoilers.

From a navigation standpoint, treat the Garden as a dungeon-like outdoor space inside the open region, closer in mood to a cursed wood than to Beauclair’s palaces. Bring poison planning. Thorn Flowers, an archespore variant, attack from underground and fire large poisonous projectiles. Swarmions travel in groups. The Slumbering Knight is the armored, rooted presence tied to this land’s secret. The new monsters page is the combat overlay for this corner of the map.

You will not clear the Garden by riding in a circle on Roach. Dismount, sense, and assume the flora is an enemy faction.

How to read Letten against Toussaint and Velen

Toussaint was a painted duchy with a vampire problem. Velen was a war grave with a family problem. Letten is a harvest homeland with a curse the locals have been living beside. The beauty is the bait. Designers said they wanted the feeling of childhood weeks at grandparents’ countryside, which is why the first hours look gentle. The map is still a witcher’s map: notice boards, hidden places, and a forest that drinks.

Practical habits once the 2027 chapter is in your library:

• Unlock signposts as you ride, the way you did in Toussaint, instead of fast-traveling past festival crowds.
• Visit the estate, the village, and the river at more than one time of day.
• Do not mark the Garden of Thorns as your first tourist stop. Let the story walk you there.
• Use Lilla as a local compass when she is with you, then verify with Witcher Senses. Companions in this series are not infallible maps.

Until launch, the useful study is Continental placement, tone, and the three named spaces: valley settlements, de Lettenhove, Garden of Thorns. Everything else is pins CD Projekt Red has not published. When a public map appears, this page should grow with landmarks. Until then, do not download a fake Letten overlay. The gamescom 2026 footage is the honest preview of light, density, and how the idyll sits next to thorns.