And the majority of Witcher3 players never read a Witcher novel or either of the previous games, yet it's clear he has an aura to his character that immediately draws players attention regardless of their knowledge about him.
I actually played the second game, once, before playing the third and found it impressive with the improvement of Geralt's characterization.
Yup, just a young peasant... From the little what we know. Something tells me there's got to be something special about him for him to be the 'Dawnwalker.'
But besides that, there has got to be something more to him... his characterization... his aura.
'Aura' is the best word I can think of for it.
It's the subtleties that sometimes determines a character being great, memorable, and attracts players to them... And the piles of 'Meh' characters that are cookie-cutter or monotonous.
Some characters have it when developers don't necessarily mean them to have it.
Some characters don't have it although developers desperately want them to have it.