Yesterday, May 27th, CD Projekt finally held their hands up and revealed that the extra DLC long-rumoured to be coming to The Witcher 3 is indeed a thing. It's called Songs of the Past and will arrive in 2027, they said, also lobbing out some promo art of Gerry from the River holding a sword in front of a spooky tree bloke. Cue a Witcher 3 modder cracking their knuckles and immediately getting to work re-creating the sword from the artwork and adding it to the RPG as a way for folks to celebrate the news.

"Who could have guessed that I’d be getting a new expansion pack after a full 11 years?" veteran REDkit whiz Merigoldmaribor wrote in the description of their new blade. "In honour of this announcement, I decided to make a sword inspired by the one Geralt is holding in the promotional poster for the Songs of the Past expansion pack." Said sword went live in Nexus Mods at 5:41PM UK time on May 27th, following the DLC's reveal that morning. That's some impressively rapid modding to my eye.

As a recreation based on the art, this weapon might not end up being an inch-perfect replica of the one Gerry wields in the DLC, but it certainly looks the part. The main aspect that sets the blade apart from the game's established pile of stabby implements is the curved decoration around the guard. It's more ornate than your typically more practical Witcher swords, but I'd say not quite as flashy as some of the swankier swords found in the Blood and Wine DLC's Toussaint or the sabers found in Hearts of Stone. As such, it doesn't scream any obvious hints at a setting for Songs of the Past at me.

Perhaps that'll change when I've had a chance to give it a whirl in game thanks to this mod, which swaps the promo art sword and its scabbard in for the Wolf School steel swords.

As James laid out yesterday, one of the few concrete things CD Projekt have revealed about Songs of the Past thus far is that it'll be raising TW3's minimum system requirements. So, it's worth checking those out if you're keen to make sure you'll be able to run the expanded version to find out how Gerry gets his hands on this new sword.

Meanwhile, if Cyberpunk 2077's more up your alley than The Witcher, CD Projekt sadly moved to rule out that getting any surprise extra expansions further down the road earlier this year.