Came across this while reading random Witcher articles and this wild conspiracy fucked me up fam. I'll note that the original Reddit post dates four months back, but doing a cursory search I didn't see any mention here.
Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/9fzm57/the_greatest_easter_egg_ever_the_identity_of/
Quoting w/ slightly edited formatting & grammar:
Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/9fzm57/the_greatest_easter_egg_ever_the_identity_of/
Quoting w/ slightly edited formatting & grammar:
tl;dr: Triss died during the Battle of Sodden Hill, due to how badly burned the bodies were as they could not correctly ID anyone, Coral(Lytta Neyd) was healed instead and she never fessed up because she fell for Geralt, but really read the post for yourself.The Death of Triss Merigold
On Sodden Hill, Triss Merigold was hit by an explosive fireball. Her remains could not be identified and she was laid to rest along with the other mages who fell on the Hill.
The sorceress who survived is Lytta Neyd, better known as Coral. But she too suffered burns so bad that she could not be identified either. After the battle healers simply mixed up these two and so Lytta Neyd was restored with Triss Merigold's appearance. Coral still retains her original hair and eye color though.
Coral has been impersonating Triss Merigold since the beginning of the book Blood of Elves. The real Triss Merigold of Maribor is only ever mentioned, she never appeared anywhere in the Witcher-series. Only things that are known about her is that she had chestnut hair and blue eyes.
To better understand this you must to read the books in chronological order, not in the order the books were published. So you must read the Season of Storms first.
Proofs:
1. Already mentioned the eye and hair color. Triss Merigold had chestnut hair and blue eyes. Coral has red hair and green eyes. CD Projekt Red didn't butcher the canon when making the games.2. At the end of the book Sword of Destiny when Geralt is visiting the obelisk on the Sodden Hill, his thoughts for Triss Merigold state that he and Triss had only liked each other. Geralts thoughts for Lytta Neyd describes events of the Season of Storms-book.However, in the next book, Blood of Elves, after the sorceress arrived Kaer Morhen, she is tossing and turning in her bed, clearly thinking about the time when she had seduced Geralt. Triss Merigold never seduced Geralt. The person is Lytta Neyd and she is thinking of the events that happened in the Season of Storms.3. The reason why Coral never corrected this mistake was that she fell in love with Geralt and she thought that she would get another chance to be with him as Triss Merigold. However, there never was anything between Geralt and Triss Merigold but Coral thought so. Right after she arrives Kaer Morhen she attempts to romantically approach Geralt in the stables and Geralt turns her down.4. A bit later in the book, she talks about the battle of Sodden Hill. She mentions the explosive fireballs and how corpses were in hard-to-recognize pieces and that "the living were hard to account for, too".But what is really noteworthy is how she claimed how she couldn't wear "plunging neckline" ever again, blaming her scars. The real reason why she couldn't wear revealing clothing was the tattoo she had. Coral used to have a notable fish tattoo on her lower body. In the Season of Storms -book it is mentioned that she never removed the tattoo despite it no longer being fashionable.In the Witcher 2 when Geralt drinks with the Blue Stripes, he ends up taking a tattoo on his neck. You can ask Coral to remove it and it turns out that the tattoo removal is an alchemical mixture. And she is allergic to those.In the book, right after the trio leaves Kaer Morhen, Coral suddenly becomes extremely sick. I believe this is when she removed her tattoo. Awkward moment for sure, but perhaps she had no ingredients before or didn't want to risk it.(I digress) Or perhaps she wanted to force Geralt to care for her while they were on the road, hoping that it would make their relationship more intimate. She had "forced"... or seduced Geralt before with magic and tried to do it again in the Witcher 2 by using the petal from the Rose of Remembrance. Luckily Letho kidnapped her before she could cast the spell.You knew why she wanted the Rose of Remembrance, right? Its petals are used for charm spell.5. In the book Tower of Swallows, after Yennefer disappeared from Skellige, Coral comes looking for her. There is a short piece of text where she is having candlelight dinner with Crach and he mentions how her "lips are like coral". Coral lipstick is her favorite and is how she got her nickname.6. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt also contained clues:-If Geralt asks Coral to stay in Novigrad, she'll take Geralt to the lighthouse to watch ships. They watched ships in the Season of Storms too.-Hydromancy. Coral uses it to track down Philippa. She used it in the book to track Geralts stolen swords.-Nobleman's figurine. After uncompressing him she mentions how her taste has gone worse since he was sleeping with her. I believe this is a reference to Lambert.(During the drinking game in the Witcher 3, Lambert admits that he has jumped out of lovers window. This happened in the first Witcher game. In the beginning of chapter 3 after Coral has teleported Geralt from the swamp back to her house, in her room you can find Lambert's footsteps coming out of the bathtub, going towards the window.Also in the first Witcher game when you sleep with women, you get their sex cards. Lambert has the Triss Merigold -Gwent card in the Witcher 3.)
That's all I'd like to say. I'm not looking to convince anyone, I'm just telling how I see things.
