The world of the Witcher is that of moral greys, there usually isn't a cookie-cutter villain and when there is they tend to have understandable motivations. Even in the main story Eredin is only doing what he is doing to save his people from The White Frost. Now, Hearts of Stone is probably the greatest DLC I have ever played and also probably one of the best gaming stories ever. But, in my mind, as far as a central villain for that DLC goes I believe that Olgierd is the true villain not Gaunter O'Dimm. Honestly, I've seen a lot of love for this character on GAF which prompted me to make this thread as I do not see how anyone can see him as a "good" person, let alone lovable. I think a lot of people are confused or forget certain aspects of his character, chalking up his faults to Gaunter.

Let's recap:

Olgierd Von Everec, before his run-in with Gaunter, was the eldest son of a declining noble family. He and his younger brother were essentially bandits, pillaging and raping their way through whichever town and village they liked. At some point, Olgierd fell in love with Iris, a more prominent noblewomen, but his family's debts caught up to him and her family didn't want to marry her off to a pauper and tried instead to marry her to an Ofieri prince who liked her. Olgierd became enraged and jealous at the prince, and already a student of the Dark Arts, turned him into a monstrous toad and preventing the marriage from happening.

Now, in order to win back Iris and his family's fortune he turns to Gaunter O'Dimm whom he had learned about through his dabbling in Dark Magic. This is the important part, Olgierd knew what he was getting into when he decided to deal with Gaunter, he knew the cost of the deal and the price he would have to pay. The first part being that he had to sacrifice his brother's life for the contact and the second being that once his wishes were granted his soul would be the final payment. Gaunter knowing this accepted because he believed he could literally outsmart the devil incarnate. He believed he could do this by inserting the clause about the moon in the contract and later the impossible tasks he asks of Geralt.

Thus, to clarify Olgierd was already a selfish, murderous, raping, asshole BEFORE he met and dealt with Gaunter. What he wished from Gaunter was for his fortune to be restored so he could marry Iris and to "live like there is no tomorrow" granting him immortality. But, his immortality turned his heart to "stone" as he quickly began to lose feeling for those around him, including Iris. The thing is we are never given a clear answer as to whether Gaunter's wish slowly sapped him of emotion or if his own guilt over his brother coupled with the fact that death was now meaningless to him turned him that way. Though either way it doesn't matter because he willingly went into the pact and was already a bastard before the wish. He just became even more cold and uncaring for others have Gaunter's dealing.

Any way, the point is that Gaunter's actions led him into the predicament the player finds him in during HoS and his main goal throughout the DLC is trying to cheat himself out of the consequences of the contact he signed. While Gaunter O'Dimm appears to be evil incarnate he for the most part does not directly screw with people, except for the spoon guy. Instead, he deals mostly in pacts. He gives people the free choice of entering into compacts with them and their own rotten natures are revealed through their choices. Thus, to me I merely saw him as a force of nature doing what he's supposed to do, meanwhile Olgierd is the true evil because he willingly chose to do the actions he did knowing the pain and suffering they would cause.

To that end I believe that HoS is asking you what is truly evil and what is the lesser of two evils? This debate is mirrored within the Borsodi plot line. At the end you have to choose which brother to side with and thus which one will die. But, neither brother could be considered a good person. Yet, Horst Borsodi merely did what his job was, to collect debts, much like a certain merchant of mirrors. He only ousted his brother because he squandered the family wealth but he never tried to kill Ewald. On the other hand, Ewald was motivated by pure greed and jealousy at no longer being the head of the household. He attempted to kill his brother, in addition to having no qualms killing guards and taking hostages, to reclaim his status and wealth. Even when you side with Horst he initially tries to spare Ewald if he recognizes him as Head of the House but Ewald instead tries to kill him and thus he himself is killed. A choice between the two is essentially asking which do you believe is the true evil person? For me I believed Ewald to be the true evil whereas Horst displayed more humanity.

Likewise, at the end of HoS we are asked the same question again, who is truly more evil Gaunter or Olgierd? For me, the choice was simple Olgierd. He did everything for his own pure selfish needs and cared nothing at all for the pain, suffering, and dead bodies he left in his wake. And, when those actions finally caught up to him he tried to cheat away his own doom. Gaunter, on the other hand, was just a force of nature plying his trade and enforcing an agreed upon contract. To me true evil is doing something you know is wrong but don't care because of your own selfish reasons or leaps of logic. Whereas, an individual that does evil acts but doesn't know any better is not. For example, a sociopath that kills people I don't really believe a evil, they literally do not know any better. Instead, I view them as sick whereas someone like Hitler is a truly evil person because he was perfectly "sane" and chose to wipe out a race of people.

Olgierd is the Heart of Stone and a true example of evil. Gaunter, the master of mirror, merely showed us a reflection of Olgierd's true nature.