#witcher lore

[0dde11eth]

Jaskier creating a rumor that witchers can't taste honey and in fact, it's mildly poisonous to them. If you serve a witcher honey cakes or put some honey in their tea, they'll be forced to vacate the premises and will run away to heal.

This way people can "protect themselves from witchers, and banish them". And since the witcher can't taste the honey, the human is safe from retaliation! The monster hunter won't know who harmed them!

The rumor helps the witchers too. They can get a rare delicious treat, and a subtle warning that the humans are untrustworthy. If they taste honey, they should leave the town immediately as a Mob may form if they stay too long.

[donovaneagle2098]

A Complete Encyclopedia of the Lore of Every Witcher School

This is a project I've been working on for a long time. The Witcher Schools in general have lore spread across 3 or 4 different sources, so it's very easy to find inaccurate details about each school due to a person only going off of one source without even knowing of the others. Hell, I've been guilty of this in the past. So I've gone out of my way to find every source available for the various Witcher Schools and compile it into one master post, mostly pulling from the standalone Gwent game, and the Witcher TRPG, as well as an email conversation I've had with the TRPG's writer, Cody Pondsmith. Without further ado, let's start out with the original school, the Order of Witchers.

Witcher schools are like the Clans of Skellige, subtly different, but largely united by their common ground, and that common ground is the Order of Witchers.

The Order of Witchers began as an experiment by the rogue mages Alzur and his mentor Cosimo Malaspina. They "recruited" tests subjects from orphanages, buying them from neglectful parents, or outright kidnapping street kids.

From Cosimo's Gwent Card:

"Children keep asking him for gifts. He doesn’t know why, but it really helps with finding subjects for his experiments."

The main goal of this project was to create an order of knights artificially mutated and imbued with extreme levels of magic to protect people from a world where, at the time, monsters were often literally around every corner.

The mutation experiments were grueling, and most early candidates died horribly, the girls especially, as the mutagenic compounds the mages were working with at the time were better suited for a boys physiology, and they quickly stopped trying to find a mixture that worked well with women, instead refining the more successful candidate pool to meet deadlines. Even with these refinements, however, the Witchers couldn't actually generate much in the way of magical power, at least not nearly as much as those funding the project had hoped for.

These early candidates were encouraged to stick to political neutrality, were told of their duty to protect the common people, and their sword instructor tried to encourage them to take on knightly virtues to live their lives by, though only a few candidates actually bought fully into these particular knightly ideals.

The school developed a training regimen that all later Witcher schools would put their own small twists on. They perfected the whirling sword style, practiced on the Pendulum and Gauntlet training courses. They learned the Witcher Sign magic, created by Cosimo. They were taught hunting and monster lore from experts hired from across the world, and master alchemists crafted the famous Witcher potions.

Ultimately, funding from this school would be pulled due to the Witcher candidates lack of truly powerful magic ability, and the order would start to fracture. Witchers dissatisfied with their lot in life after being forcibly mutated, and railing against the Order's enforced ideals began getting combatative with other Witchers over petty contracts. At this time, contracts were so plentiful that there was no real need to fight over them, but these dissident Witchers did so anyway out of a desire for autonomy and to be free of the Order's code, which they saw as having no practical purpose to prepare new Witchers for the road ahead, and hypocritical as it was forced on them by the mages who never cared for the Witcher's lives. This culminated in one such outspoken Witcher, Arnaghad, attacking another Witcher who poached a contract from him.

After being forced into the painful life of a Witcher, Arnaghad loathed anyone who imposed their will upon him, the Order and it's codes especially. He led an attack on the Order proper, aided by fellow Witchers who respected his defiance towards authority. Once they were beaten back, these dissidents fled to the Amell mountain range to start the next Witcher school, the School of the Bear.

The School of the Bear is one of the most misunderstood schools of them all, owing to the first major lore drop about them being largely in-universe rumors and conjecture surrounding the school, and as such I may need to go more in depth. The two major misconceptions stemming from this is the rumor about their armor, which claims that they don't bother dodging like the other Witchers and instead take blows head on (generally a bad idea, according to Geralt in the books), and the rumor about them attacking most Witchers they meet.

I contacted Cody Pondsmith, who wrote a great deal of this lore, and he mentioned that Bears do often threaten or even fight other Witchers, but in a very Skellige way, only to ward off the other Witcher from contracts they want. The Bears just want to live lives where they aren't commanded by others, and were trained especially brutally, and so will fight for what contracts they want. However they will NEVER kill another Witcher, just draw first blood (outside of duels to decide who runs the school, which occasionally turn deadly. It's unknown if Arnaghad has ever lost these duels) and if that other Witcher stands up to the Bear, they'll let them have the contract and if they meet up and work together enough even maybe become a lifelong friend.

To quote Cody himself: "I like to think of the Witcher Order as a big family in which the Bear School is the blunt, no-nonsense brother. He can be prickly and a bit of a bully sometimes but he takes his job seriously and he can be a good drinking buddy if you get to know him. Not the friendliest of people but far from evil. If you stand up to him and show him you're not afraid of him, he'll respect you."

The other rumor is also an exaggeration. The Witcher TRPG mentions that the Bear armor was designed with flexibility in mind, and while they trained to take on weaker blows with their armor and "mastery of the Quen sign", they also trained how to move quickly in their armor if they needed to dodge a fatal blow. The Bears also still trained on the gauntlet and pendulum like the other schools. Cody Pondsmith also confirmed that the Bears are just as agile as the other Witchers.

The Bears' core philosophy is almost very Lambert like, viewing Witcher's work not as a duty, or knightly virtue, but as difficult, brutal work. The only reason they stick to this work is to do a job where no one else commands them and they're left in peace. They focus only on the practical aspects of their profession, and as such discourage their students from working together in training, since Witchers work alone. As Arnaghad said, "We pass through life alone, better get used to it!" As a result, Bears are very isolated, preferring their own company to that of other Witchers, and were encouraged to value their autonomy and self care above all else. The Bears' approach to teaching was embodied as "let them better themselves through practical, dangerous trials. Survival of the fittest", embodied by final trial, that involved climbing to the top of Mt. Gorgon and back, and any who died from the cold were left "as a sobering reminder of the dangers of their trade". This resulted in the students of the school seeing things in a very callous, survival of the fittest way. Be as strong as you can, and let the perils of Witcher training and life pick off those who can't keep up. As a result, the Bears were by far the smallest Witcher school.

Despite this, the TRPG has a list of random early training events Witchers from all schools can have, and Bears could sometimes make friends amongst their fellow witchers in training just like members of every other school.

Once the new Bear students left their keep of Haern Caduch, most wouldn't return to winter there, unlike the other schools. They developed a reputation as being terrible to fight, and for being firebrands, often speaking very bluntly and quick to anger no matter who they spoke to, authority included. One such Witcher, named Gerd, was asked by a Duchess to help kill her father. He insulted her so badly he got a warrant for his death placed on him, though all the peasants he met spoke rather highly of him. As a result, Bears found it easiest to make friends amongst the similarly minded Dwarves and Gnomes of the Amell mountains, and people of the Skellige Isles. According to Cody Pondsmith, this is the main reason the Bears stayed together as a group at all. They valued autonomy above all else and so long as they functioned as a Witcher school, they were left alone and no rulers would try and command them. They also largely take their ideals of free will and apply it to others, never seeking to rule over others. They simply wish to live their lives free.

One of the original Witchers to side with Arnaghad, Ivar Evil-Eye, had extra mutations done to him by the Order of Witchers during his trial, allowing him to see into other worlds. In these visions he saw the Wild Hunt rampaging across them, conquering them. Ivar became obsessed with stopping them, and tried to kill Arnaghad to take command and lead the Bear school against the Hunt. This failed, so he and his supporters left to form the Viper School.

The Witchers of the Viper school, based in Gorthur Gvaed, were said to be the most secretive, taking contracts as both assassins and witchers. They at first dedicated themselves finding a way to stop the Wild Hunt, amassing a massive library on the subject. Fighting with an unpredictable, ambushed based variant of the Witcher fighting style, Viper Witchers employed poisons, brewed by skilled Viper alchemists, on both their swords, and a dagger in their offhand, their biggest deviation from typical Witcher combat techniques.

Vipers, for an unknown reason, eventually forgot their purpose. In his time, Letho of Gullet could only guess at why the school had been founded. Instead, they became famous for their skill at political killings, dealing with the nobility of the southern countries before Nilfgaard had even become a large-scale power.

Viper students had a different type of trial, after more grueling than typical training. Instead of any physical task like the other schools, the Viper students were given a pet at their induction to the school. And to graduate, they simply had to hunt it down and kill it, showing their lack of mercy.

While most of those who supported Ivar followed him to the Viper school, one group broke off and west east, across the Korath desert, to Zerikania, founding the School of the Manticore.

The School of the Manticore was founded by the Witcher Iwan, from the School of the Bear, following Ivar's assassination attempt on Arnaghad. They got work in the Korath desert as caravan guards, earning the attention of the Zerrikanian Queen after a deadly battle with a manticore. The Queen sponsored the Witchers of the Manticore, making them the only school to be officially backed by any government. They were experts on potions and anti-toxins, a necessity of dealing with the poisonous creatures of the Korath desert.

A unique adaptation to the monsters of the desert also had Manticore Witchers employ shields into the whirling combat of their Witcher training. Given their extra support, the Manticores held two keeps, Behelt Nar and Bailsuf Alsarea, on opposite sides of the desert, so that they might better patrol and guard those within it.

The Manticore is the final school to come from the schism Arnaghad had led. The other voices of dissent against the ideals of the Order would soon hear of these new schools and decide to break off as well to form the School of the Cat.

The School of the Cat was founded out of a response to the hatred and distrust Witchers received. They desired to be seen in a better, more respectful light. Ironically, they would end up doing the opposite. The Cat School stole away with several of the mutagens needed to make more Witchers and headed to Ebbing, and Stygga Citadel, where they would begin to experiment on human-elf children in an attempt to perfect the mutations. Its possible that the mages at this time furthered experiments on making women Witchers, but this is not confirmed yet.

Attempting to make a name for themselves, the Cats hired themselves out as spies, assassins, and mercenaries, genuinely earning them some respect from common folk for killing bandits.

In their attempts to perfect the mutations and further dull the emotions of their Witchers, the Cat school experimented harshly on a group of children that resulted in the opposite, giving these Witchers hightened emotional responses instead. These students, cast aside and left for dead, fled into the arms of a group of elves, who agreed to support them if this branch of the Cat School supported the elves' fight for freedom.

This branch, led by Gezras of Leyda, attached itself to the Dyn Marv caravan and traveled the continent, lending their services mostly to those nonhumans who could pay, while the main Cats at Stygga ended up getting assaulted by angry royals incited by their political maneuvering. This left the Dyn Marv branch as the only functional element of the School of the Cat. These Cats would train students' agility in a light, fast Elven take on Witcher fighting style, and would train their balance by making students walk a tightrope, starting low to the ground at first, but getting higher and higher each attempt.

The Cat school's breaking of Witcher neutrality and reputation for bloodlust earned Witchers such a bad name that those in the Order who most cherished their old swordmaster's knightly virtues would leave to form the School of the Griffin.

The School of the Griffin, led by Erland of Larvik, wished to truly achieve the dream of the original Order, and Gryphon, the Order's sword instructor. They traveled north to Kaer y Saren, an old fortress the Order once used, and cleansed it of the spirits of those who died in the first Witcher mutations. From there, they began a Witcher school focused on respectability and honor, believing in their knightly duties. And it worked, somewhat. The Griffins were sometimes advisors to nobility, and seen as honorable, but the prejudice against Witchers would never leave, and most would never see a Griffin Witcher as anything more than a monster playing at being a knight.

These Witchers tried their best to cushion their students against the pain of their lives on the Witcher's path, and were more brotherly than the other schools, though their knightly virtues and brotherhood were oftentimes cold comfort to Griffin students.

From the Witcher TRPG Sourcebook:

"Witcher I knew couldn’t really remember much ‘bout his past. Heh, too young to really form a lotta memories when they took him to Kaer Y Seren. Told me that the memory he did have made the mutations easier. Poor bastard clung to a memory of his pa takin’ him on a horse for a ride in the fields. Don’t know why he chose that one. Probably the only normal memory he had."

The Griffins amassed a huge library of magical knowledge, though they could only push sign magic so far, and the books were likely wasted being in a Witcher library. The library held several incredibly famous tomes on magic within, and was the envy of full mages across the Northern Realms. Despite all their efforts, they never could achieve their goal of bringing about the Order of Witcher's vision. The Griffins even had their own breaches of Witcher tradition in pursuit of their knightly heroics. An often said mantra of the Griffin school in Gwent is "To slay dragons! Tis our knightly duty!" despite dragons being largely innocent, intelligent beings who mostly wish to be left in peace.

Code Pondsmith had this to say about the Griffins:

"The Griffins stuck to the knightly traditions that the original witcher order tried to uphold. As a result it's safe to say that the Griffin school taught that monsters were the enemy of mankind and must be defeated. I don't think they would all be blindly overzealous but they wouldn't have any qualms about slaying sapient monsters if they believed it was for the good of mankind. Similarly, it's likely that they would side with humans in any conflict between monsters and humans. In a way, the Griffins' knightly virtues made them easier to manipulate than the other witcher schools. They were bound to protect humanity and thus were more likely to be convinced to hunt a monster if a local noble or alderman claimed it would be for the good of the people. This is the case with the dragons. The kingdoms and jewelers guilds of the North convinced the Griffin School that dragons were a blight upon humanity and the Griffins started slaying dragons regardless of whether all of the dragons they slew deserved it. Additionally, the knightly values might make Griffin school witchers more likely to take pity on desperate humans and work for free."

Those few Witchers remaining in the Order by now traveled to northern Kaedwyn, and started a school based on their tempered, traditionalist, and realistic view on the Order's goals. They based themselves in Kaer Morhen and dubbed themselves the School of the Wolf.

The School of the Wolf is the most famous Witcher school, known for their professionalism and efficiency. They don't kill humans like the Viper or Cat. Aren't bold or brash like the Bear, or put Knightly virtues above Witcher ideals like the Griffin. I mean, anyone reading far this knows who the Wolf Witchers are, so I'm not going to get into to much detail. They're Geralt's school. Ciri's school. While the Griffins school wasted it's energy on trying to be what Witchers were supposed to be, the Wolf set its goals on being the best they realistically could be.

They took a balanced approached to Witcher life and as such trained Witchers who were the best adjusted out of the schools, with neither the Bear's harshness nor the Griffin's egocentrism. They perfected the Witcher's style of combat, refining their swordsmanship into an incredibly graceful dance. Combined with their professional attitude and teachings that allowed Wolf Witchers to adapt very well to most situations thrown at them, Wolf Witchers were lauded all across the Continent.

With all Schools formed, the Golden Age of Witchers began, at first with the Bears and Griffins making peace. From Erland of Larvik's Journal (The TRPG's monster manual):

"Surprisingly enough the fracturing of the witcher order had lead to a more effective organization for us witchers. Spread across the Continent and each making more witchers independently, it was no longer the task of 60 or 70 witchers to patrol the entire Continent from Nilfgaard to Kovir. Each school patrolled their own path and when a Gryphon met with a Bear each knew they had their territory and any infighting wouldn’t be worth the bloodshed. We managed to broker peace and live as somewhat estranged brothers rather than bitter enemies"

Witchers at this time were seen largely as heroes, with their detractors' voices largely simmering underneath. With Witchers around to kill monsters, people felt safe and so ignored any misgivings they might have.

Witchers, no matter the school, aren't too dissimilar from each other, and so the Cintinent at large formed an overall opinion of the Witchers based on the traits they all shared. From the TRPG:

"In the heyday of witchers there were many many seperate schools, which all mutated new witchers and taught them the neccesary skills to hunt monsters and lift curses. While it’s generally agreed that there is a core set of skills required to a be a witcher, each school taught its students differently and focused on different aspects of witcher training. Thus, witchers from different schools often act differently and go about their jobs in similar but varied ways."

During this period, the Schools all would produce hundreds of Witchers (though at any given time, most schools had about 20 Witchers running the school, a handful of novices undergoing the trials, and around 30-50 Witchers on the path hunting monsters. This fluctuated from school to school. The Bear's brutal training resulted in the lowest number of Witchers amongst the schools, while the Wolves' prolific status and high success rates meant they took in more candidates and had more Witchers than the other schools), and each was their own person, With their own preferences and personality, despite the schools themselves having reputations for Witchers with only a few certain traits. For instance, the Bear Witcher Ivo of Belhaven fought like a Viper or Cat Witcher, but in personality was a perfect fit for the Bear School with how standoffish he could be. The schools kept to their own territory at first, but as time went on and contracts got ever more rare, these already thin lines fell apart and the schools stopped caring much about territories.

They also all customized their gear in different ways, usually keeping their gear in similar fashion to their school's, as its what they trained in an were used to. For example, Bear Witcher Junod of Belhaven wore what appears to be a set of Wolf School armor he had modified to fit Bear Witcher style.

Witchers also at this time experimented with signs. The Griffins obviously focused on making them more powerful, and the Bears pushed Quen to a level beyond any other school. But the most interesting case is that of Warrit, a blind Viper Witcher who used the lesser known Suppire sign as a form of echolocation.

The Golden age lasted for around 150-200 years or so, ending around 1160 when the monster populations had been hunted down enough that people's main concern stopped being the monsters, and became the Witchers themselves.

The Griffin School, refusing to share the knowledge of its library, was destroyed by jealous mages. A group of peasants and mages attacked the Wolves' keep out of nowhere. The Bears failed to destroy a powerful cabal of vampires and, when peasants rioted and came for their keep, chose to disband rather than engage in needless slaughter. The Cat's keep of Stygga is destroyed, but the Dyn Marv chapter may still be alive and well. The Manticore School failed to protect an important prince from a fire elemental, and so lost their funding and closed. The Viper refused to support the Nilfgaardian usurper and were destroyed.

If you've made it this far, holy shit, thank you! I hope you have a great day!

[tooboredtothinkofaname]

[impish-community-tumbler]

is it weird that I don't think Ciri from Witcher 4 is Ugly? I mean I get that game devs have been pushing out some hideous abominations like in Veil guard . also as far as changes in lore and I looked this up just to double check. she has Elder Blood so she doesn't need the transfusion.

[klinefelterrible]

Very cool post, but merely about the books, most info is from the games just so you know

world building cause twn doesn't part 11: witchers

we all love witchers, they're dramatic, they're sexy, and they're very important. some might say they are the namesake of the entire series. also, fair warning that it gets very geeky and into the bits of polish media that are hardly relevant for twn at all, so feel free to skip after the cut.

an asterisk means the bullet point is not from the saga, but has the same canon deal as the games– it could happen and would not affect the original canon, so do with that what you will

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

history

witchers, also known as vatt'ghern in elder speech, have been around in some form for a really long time

when humans started populating on the continent in the late 700s, they encountered a lot of scary shit that they had no idea how to deal with

for around 200 years people just got eaten, until around 950 when the kings hired some slightly mad mages to create a magical knightly class to kick monster ass. they called this class the order of witchers, beginning the first age of witchers

the main mages and leaders of the order, cosimo malaspina and his student alzur, started with creating witchers from adults. this didn't work, so alzur kidnapped 38 children and brought them to rissberg castle in western temeria. yeah. these were not good dudes

alzur developed the first witcher trials, putting the children through first physical training and then alchemical processes designed to mutate them into witchers.

the physical training had a lot of climbing cliffs, running obstacle courses of death, and hitting each other with sticks. before alzur could even start mutating the kids, 4 had died

the alchemical processes started with giving the children shrooms and toxic tea, which this ended up killing a large amount of them. however, after a month, the first witcher was created. a week later, erland of larvik (hes important for later) finished the process. by the end, there were only 5 alive.

these 5 were continuously trained by the best hunters, trackers, mages, alchemists, and warriors on the continent. however, the whole point of making witchers was to have magically enhanced knights, and none of these five had exceptional magic powers, so the whole process was officially declared a failure

cosimo and alzur didn't agree, so they took the 5 witchers to the abandoned morgraig castle in the remote kaedweni kestrel mountains to continue training the existing witchers and create some new ones*

after the originals set out on the path, the mages kept creating more witchers. in the winter, they would all go back to morgraig castle to spend time together and mourn those who had died

after a while, the original leaders of the order had left and the witchers started in-fighting, tricking each other, and even threatening to kill each other just for a contract

this escalated until a witcher named arnaghad nearly killed another witcher named rhys. when the order told arnaghad that this was super against the rules, he summoned his crew and they battled the order. arnaghad's group lost, so they left the order and travelled south to the amell mountains in nazair and formed a new witcher school - the school of the bear*

the drama didn't end here, however. a group of bear school witchers decided they didn't like arnaghad and tried to kill him. these witchers then travelled to the far southeastern tir tochair mountains and founded the school of the viper*

these two schools became especially famous for their chronic backstabbing, and public opinion began to turn on witchers. the other witchers were obviously not pleased with this, so twenty of the others left the order and decided to try and help witchers regain respect.

these 20 took tons of alchemical and mutagenic knowledge and equipment with them, planning to improve the recipe used to make witchers. they travelled south to ebbing, where they eventually settled in stygga castle and formed the school of the cat

however, the cat school was all the way across the continent from morgraig castle, so the advancements they made didn't really help the order. the remaining original witchers were feeling a little bummed and useless, but they didn't want to cause some huge problems by leaving to form their own school.

fortunately, our friend erland of larvik was the diplomatic leader of this group. he explained to the remaining order members why he wanted to leave, and then peacefully took 13 of his bros to the far northern kingdom of kovir. they settled at the kaer seren fortress and called themselves the school of the griffin*

the last witchers of the order figured there was no reason to stay in the practically-abandoned morgraig castle, so they travelled to eastern kaedwen and formed the school of the wolf, headquartered at the kaer morhen fortress

these schools turned out to be a pretty good idea, since they were so spread out their respective witchers rarely encountered one another and were cold but civil when they did.

the establishment of these five schools ended the first age of witchers, but began the period where the schools flourished, known as the golden age

here are the general locations of the 5 schools

training and the trials

"the trials" is the collective term for the processes that young boys go through with the goal of becoming witchers. it was initially developed by alzur and contained physical/combat training followed by mutations, but was later expanded to include monster knowledge, use of potions, and magic

the trials begin with the choice, which is kinda what it sounds like; a voluntary decision to commit to a witcher's diet and training, both incredibly gruelling and frequently led to heart or liver failure, insanity, and/or death

a witcher's training can be divided into physical and mental. physical training includes swordplay, hand to hand combat, use of magic, obstacle courses, tracking, and hunting. mental training is about studying alchemy, monsters, and herbalism

the diet is really just a lot of shrooms. like, a lot of shrooms

the first big trial is the incredibly painful trial of the grasses. it gets its name from an alchemical mix known as the grasses: corn lily, nightshade, speargrass, wildrye and wolfsbane

the entire trial takes about a week, beginning with drinking a tea made from the grasses. the adepts would then be tied down and intravenously given herbs and elixirs, the most deadly step of the trial. those who survived would fall into a disturbed sleep characterized by glassy eyes, ragged breathing, and coughing, which would progress to vomiting and seizures after the elixirs were administered again. they would fight the herbs, elixirs, and viruses in their bodies until the seventh day, when they woke up with cat eyes. only 3 out of 10 survived, gaining heightened senses, slowed aging, faster reflexes and metabolism, and superior strength

the gwent card for the trial of the grasses paints a lovely picture

how slow is this aging? very. vesemir, the oldest witcher alive, is around 290 and looks like a middle aged man. unfortunately, this isn't a profession that allows for death from old age, but i'd assume witchers have the life spans of aen seidhe elves: 350 ish years

the fast metabolism is responsible for a lot of cool things that come with being a witcher, their bodies naturally run warmer and are therefore less susceptible to infections and better equipped for freezing cold winters, they heal incredibly quickly, toxic potions aren't really a big deal, and they're horny all the time. yeah, it's canon. you can hear geralt explain it to some school children here.

the next trial is the trial of the dreams, in which the witchers in training basically trip balls under the supervision of druids or mages. it enhances the abilities from the trial of the grasses and grants night vision, but also makes witchers sterile.

the last trial is the trial of the mountains, which is a test of physical strength, survival, and combat skills. there's no real standard process here since different schools have different environments, but it's usually a specific and dangerous course the adepts need to run.

after this trial, the adepts receive their medallions and officially become witchers

the trials are meant to not only train witchers but to prepare them for the dangers of life on the path, so by nature survival is rare and indicates high skill.

however, on the rare occasion that a master witcher does not believe that a student is ready, they can have the student go through an additional trial known as the trial of the sword. this is really just a kill or be killed combat where the adept must prove their skill.

the path

the path is really just the outside world where a witcher will do their witchering. most witchers go on the path for the first time in the spring after they finish the trials, and then return to their schools in the winter

it's obviously quite a dangerous life, witchers often don't know that their brothers have died until they just don't come back for the winter

especially since humans don't really like them, and it's hugely common that witchers get cheated out of their money or even tricked and killed by villagers

why don't humans like these wonderful monster killers? it really varies. witchers are quite secretive about their lives, so people tend to fill in the gaps. negatively, i might add

that's where we get the myth that witchers have no emotions, which is completely untrue. witchers do tend to be fairly low-affect, like they wouldn't really react to death or sickness or war in general, but it's probably more because they've seen it all before than that they don't care

many witchers have incredibly strong bonds with their brothers, horses, and mentors. of course, geralt and his family are a lot closer than most witchers would be to theirs, but the basic capacity for emotion stands

people also think that witchers will steal their children, which is sort of partly true? the vast majority of children who become witchers are child surprises of other witchers, but it's important to note that there just aren't that many witchers out there

more accurate is the belief that witchers will steal your girl. now many of our lads can and will be monogamous, but countless more just... won't.

a lot of human hatred for witchers is just plain racism. witchers aren't really considered nonhuman, witchering is more of a profession than a separate race, but they are called nonhuman as an insult both to them and actual nonhumans. it's complicated.

you may have heard geralt grumble something about the witcher's code, which, as cool as it sounds, isn't real. the order had a set of moral objectives they wanted to serve, but that died with them. geralt heard about this and knew that no one knows what the witcher's code is, so he would make it up whenever he didn't want to do something. i love that energy

the closest thing most witchers have to a code is their commitment to neutrality, which is basically just what it sounds like but a lot more complicated.

it doesn't mean that witchers can't play a force in politics, since there's a lot of perfectly normal witchering things that can be argued to change the political climate, especially in a time of war.

it does mean that witchers cannot commit to a political cause, like enlisting in the army or assassinating a king. geralt is famous for not giving a shit about this rule. literally. that's a big part of where his fame comes from. he was knighted while his poet gigolo boyfriend sat there and reported on it.

it's also important to note that neutrality is more of a school's commitment than an individual witcher's. for example, when nilfgaard tried to buy out the viper school, they straight up said no because that would be committing their entire school to a cause. however, when nilfgaard went to hire a few viper witchers as assassins, they agreed. yeah, this was frowned upon since it is certainly not neutral, but it's a lot more common than entire schools breaking the rule.

magic, alchemy, and equipment

witcher potions are very useful, but also highly toxic, and would definitely kill a normal person. even with mutations that make potions much safer, witchers have limits and can't use too many potions at once

signs are simple spells that don't take the years of training and genetic predisposition required for most magic. they can be cast easily with one hand and in the middle of combat, or just when you need a bit of spice in your day. we know of 8 signs, but it's entirely possible there are more

aard - a simple but powerful telekenetic super punch

axii - jedi mind tricks

hate reflecting sign - used almost exclusively by the wolf school to reflect a monster's bloodlust back on itself. especially helpful for a particularly angry monster like adda the white when she was in striga form.

heliotrope - a shield that absorbs a singular impact, needs to be timed well as it disappears in a few seconds. best for blocking single massive attacks, like when you wake up a hung over sorceress and she tries to turn you into kentucky friend witcher

igni - turn your hand into a magical flame thrower

quen - a shield that is active until broken, best for buying time under fire or waiting for an sneak attack

somne - puts someone to sleep

yrden - creates an area that monsters can't enter, if they do they are slowed down and forced into their corporeal form (if they don't already have one)

witchers are proficient with practically any weapon, but of course they're are known for their two swords, steel for humans and silver for monsters

they're both for monsters OoOooOoOO

some carry crossbows as well, but that's definitely rarer

all witchers also have a medallion in the shape of the animal of the school where they were trained, these medallions don't only distinguish different schools of witchers but can sense magic in the world

keep reading if you honestly have nothing better to do

the school of the bear*

the bear school was founded by the rebel arnaghad after he left the order with 13 other witchers. they knew they wouldn't exactly be popular, so they travelled south and built the haern caduch fortress in the amell mountains

the mountains are freezing cold and inaccessible, before the witchers they were only populated by gnomes and dwarves. the bears did establish decent relations with these two, but still mostly kept to themselves.

they're definitely the most solitary school, some would sail to skellige to avoid other witchers

there's no real sense of brotherhood between bear school witchers, they've been known to fight each other if they have a chance encounter on the path

the bears needed to adjust to their new much much colder environment, so they began using heavy armour and prioritizing defense over agile attacks. bears are also the only school other than the cat to widely use crossbows

this is reflected in their trial of the mountains, in which students had to run to the peak of mount gorgon and bring back a special runestone. most froze to death on the way and their bodies became trail markers for future generations

because they're so reclusive, we don't really know many bear school witchers or if there are even any left

the school declined after a chunk of them broke off to form the school of the viper, but the official breaking point was when some angry and war-weary villagers climbed all the way up to haern caduch and started rioting after the bears failed to deal with some vampires

the school itself didn't have a dramatic end, it was already rare that witchers would spend winters together and they just didn't care enough to defend their keep. the remaining bears took still contracts in surrounding areas and haern caduch still stands, although covered in snow, if any wished to visit again

the school of the viper*

why did a group of witchers led by a man called ivar evil-eye chose to leave the infamous kinslaying bears? because they weren't dramatic enough. this should tell you a lot about the viper's vibe

their main gripe was that the bear school frowned upon taking contracts on people. also known as being a hitman.

clearly they didn't want intruders, so they found an even more remote location than haern caduch, the tir tochair mountains.

these mountains have the last large settlement of gnomes, and are located between the nilfgaardian province of geso and the korath desert (aka the frying pan aka if you end up here you will be stuck here and die).

they built their keep literally into the mountains and named it gorthur gvaed, but it was sometimes called the blood gate keep. intimidating.

the founders also really wanted to take on the wild hunt, so they created a school to train witchers to help out. the libraries of gorthur gvaed arguably contain the most complete collection of information about the wild hunt on the continent

unfortunately for those of us who want to fight the wild hunt but fortunately for the hunt itself, the vipers were super super secretive about their knowledge and never shared it

viper teachers were notoriously cold and cruel to their students, but in different ways than other witcher teachers. the viper version of the trial of the mountain doesn't include a mountain at all, instead the adepts had to kill the pet they had been given at their arrival at gorthur gvaed.

the viper fighting style was the direct opposite of that of the bears, they would wield two weapons and use unpredictable and rapid attacks to overwhelm their opponent. armour was light and flexible, allowing for as much movement as possible. vipers also loved using their alchemical knowledge to coat their blades in poison

when the usurper was collecting power in nilfgaard, he heard of some super killers with shady morals and wanted to recruit them. the vipers refused due to their neutrality and the usurper destroyed gorthur gvaed and the school with it. oops?

apparently, the refusal to work for the nilfgaardians was not a sentiment shared by future generations of vipers. in the 1270s a small group of vipers were hired by emperor emhyr var emreis to kill the northern kings and create chaos in the north. he called them the kingslayers, which isn't very creative but quite accurate and intimidating.

this did break the vow of neutrality, but only on behalf of the kingslayers and not the whole school. however, it definitely gave all vipers a reputation as assassins

the most prolific kingslayer, letho of gulet, enjoyed this line of work so much that he started looking for employers outside of nilfgaard.

philippa eilhart and sheala de tancarville hired him to kill king demavend of aedirn, which gave letho enough of a reputation to be hired by the scoia'tael to kill king foltest of temeria

two other kingslayers, serrit and auckes, were tasked to kill king henselt of kaedwen but failed and died in the process.

we don't meet any vipers other than the kingslayers, but letho mentions that there are at least two still alive

the school of the cat

the cat school is my personal favourite because they are so fucking interesting. they're absolutely awesome.

the school started with around 20 witchers in the order who were getting a bit irritated with the order's lack of well, order. they really wanted to improve the witcher recipe, so they took a huge amount of alchemical and mutagenic ingredients, tools, and formulas when they left

they travelled south to the famous stygga castle, which has been occupied by numerous politically shady organizations over the years due to its seclusion. it's very rare that anyone not associated with the current owners know where the castle even is, and if they did they would probably be hunted down

cat witchers broke the vow of neutrality that previous schools took, like... a lot. as in they encouraged their students to work as spies and assassins for the local rulers to help make the school more popular.

luckily for them, it worked! the cat witchers didn't just deal with monsters, but bandits and warlords too, and were very well liked by the locals

unfortunately, the success was pretty short lived. remember those formulas the cats took with them to improve the witcher recipe? yeah, they worked. really well. as in the first batches had almost no emotions at all, they didn't even seem human.

but in the spirit of progress, the cats wanted to make their witchers even better. but, they didn't have any test subjects that weren't monster killing zombies. the solution? make some witchers with extremely enhanced and unpredictable emotions, throw them in cages, and run tests on them! yikes

one of these literal lab rats, a young witcher named gezras, managed to free the other survivors and escape stygga. they ended up with a group of aen seidhe guerrillas, who helped hide them in exchange for their fighting skills. this definitely saved gezras and his friends' lives, but was yet another hit to the school's reputation*

as a reaction, some of the local nobility (who didn't even know the school had split), began to plan an attack on stygga castle. right before the forces arrived, however, gezras and his allies snuck into the castle, killed the mages and witchers who had tortured them, and snuck out without warning the other witchers about the incoming attack. everyone still inside when the soldiers arrived ended up dead in three days*

without any leaders or home base, gezras took the surviving witchers north. along the way, they picked up mercenaries, other disillusioned witchers, and nonhumans, forming the dyn marv caravan, the new nomadic headquarters of the cat school*

a big part of the caravan was that they rejected mages, but were also big into trying to improve the witcher recipe. this led to some seriously terrible variations on the trials (ie human experimentation) that earned them a solidly awful reputation that was made worse when the caravan supported aelireen in her rebellion against humans*

eventually, the caravan settled like right next to kaer morhen, the headquarters of the school of the wolf. most of the witchers actually got on quite well, but a small group of cats led by this idiot named treyse wanted to be special. they made a deal with the kaedweni king radowit's mage astrogarus that in exchange for killing the wolves, they would be the leaders of a new special kaedweni witcher order*

the older members of the school, like the then-leader guxart, knew this was a terrible idea, but were arrested by the kaedwenis so they couldn't interfere*

surprise surprise, this was indeed a terrible idea. after the cats attacked the wolves, radowit told his men to kill all the surviving witchers from both schools, including treyse. turns out the king didn't like all the witchers in the area and wanted them dealt with. the few cats who survived were permanently banned from taking shelter in any other schools*

eventually, guxart got out of prison on the condition that he would keep his witchers far away from king radowit*

the school declined significantly after this, but officially ended when soldiers took control of the caravan, killing most of the witchers. all hopes of revival were dashed when one of the few survivors killed the others to obtain some armour diagrams*

yeah, the story of the cat school is very dramatic. i wouldn't expect much less from them.

the school had a reputation for being extremely emotional and unpredictable, they had no issue with taking contracts on humans or even other witchers. the cat school is also the only one to train women and nonhumans, and they were publicly sympathetic towards elves, even fighting on their side against the northern realms.

their fighting style is similar to that of the vipers, relying on speed, agility, and accuracy. cat weapons aren't very powerful, but lightweight and precise and designed for deadly hits, like a crossbow. armour is also incredibly flexible and lightweight, made to be easily repaired on the road.

one of the cat trials is walking a tightrope blindfolded, they would practice this throughout their training on increasing heights that eventually became deadly if failed.

some cat witchers we meet are brehen of iello, aiden, jad karadin, kiyan, and gaetan.

the school of the griffin

they're literally the opposite of the cats. erland of larvik and 13 of his friends left the order amicably and travelled west to one of alzur's old fortresses, kaer seren in kovir. apparently it was haunted, but they're witchers so it wasn't a problem

the school was strictly neutral and placed high value on knightly virtues, training was focused on magic, preparedness, and etiquette. the older griffins were mentors and parents, not just teachers, for the younger ones. erland made his school sort of like a family, kaer seren even had a graveyard to bury griffins who had died.

griffins were definitely the most respected by the north, their masters would even be summoned to give advice to kings, especially on matters related to magic.

their fighting style emphasized powerful signs and taking on multiple opponents at once, cause that's just awesome. griffin armour was medium weight, light enough to offer good movement but heavy enough for the freezing temperatures at kaer seren.

griffins were expected to be polite and kind to everyone, and had no issue killing dragons. those are unrelated though. you can be an ass who lets dragons live.

the library at kaer seren had a huge collection of magical information, but it was all destroyed when some local angry villagers caused an avalanche that killed multiple witchers and made the fortress pretty much unusable

fortunately, the surviving witchers were well liked enough that other schools offered them shelter in the winter. that's why coën got to hang out with the wolf witchers, and the griffin attitude is definitely why he was the most comfortable with ciri

other than coën and erland, the only moderately important griffin witcher is keldar, an expert on monsters and mentor to coën, who still guards the ruined kaer seren*

the school of the wolf

definitely the one you are most familiar with, the school of the wolf was the last school founded when the few remaining witchers in the order decided to join the new age of witchers

they chose the recently abandoned kaer morhen fortress in kaedwen as their headquarters, and quickly earned a reputation as a professional and reliable institution. they even helped hide count esteril thyssen and his wife agnes from the angry king videmont.

unfortunately, in around 1170 some angry mages and priests led a mob that attacked kaer morhen and killed every witcher inside. the school recovered somewhat, but a few years later the massacre from the school of the cat happened and nearly all witchers from before the attacks had died

the last children trained in kaer morhen were trained in the 1230s, but by then the only pre-pogrom witcher alive was vesemir, a fencing teacher with little knowledge of how to carry out the trials, so the school couldn't make any new witchers.

however, vesemir kept spending winters in the keep with a few of his younger witchers, geralt, eskel, lambert, and later, the griffin witcher coën. kaer morhen also housed geralt's child surprise, ciri, and eskel's, deidre, for a while, and was open to witchers from all schools except the cat and viper.

wolf fighting was similar to that of the griffin, they used mixed attacks and medium-weight armour and valued relationships with each other, but did not place as high a value on magic

other than vesemir, eskel, geralt, and lambert, the witchers leo and berengar were also from the school of the wolf

future

by the 1250s, all the schools were functionally extinct, although a few witchers still travelled the continent doing the same work as always

alzur never shared his process for creating witchers except to his students, who then shared it to their students and so on. however, enough massacres and pogroms happened that gaps in knowledge grew and it's impossible and impractical even to try to make more witchers

[hannibard]

GERALT AND JASKIER ARE BACK BABY!!!!!!!

[0dde11eth]

Jaskier: you can smell that?

Lambert: i'm a witcher I can smell everything

Jaskier: Cool!

Lambert: *sniffs jaskier* You smell like a bitch

Jaskier: *offended gasps and stabs Lambert in the thigh*

Lambert: I stand corrected

Jaskier: technically you're lying. in a puddle of blood, so who's the bitch now?

Lambert: geralt i love your bard

[tooboredtothinkofaname]

Courage doesn't make you a good person. But how many good people have you seen in your life who were cowards? Courage is the quality that makes a person willing to stand up to the majority. Regardless of the consequences.

[fandom-junk-drawer]

This is canon, and you can't convince me otherwise!

its technically a little late now for my weird headcanon wednesday, but im not quite done.

Witchers are basically immortal until killed, right? (just let me have this one) Thats a long time and can get lonely, so they get one vial each of a life increasing potion. It’s intended for pets, so Geralt and Eskel used theirs on Roach and Lil Bleater respectively then forgot all about it.

Lambert looked at his and said “how can i cause the most drama with this” so he waited. 

Then Geralt brought home a bard. 

Lambert gives him the potion and Jaskier, once it’s explained, is happy to be a lab rat and source of drama.

It’s been fifteen years but Lambert is sure Geralt will figure it out any day now.

…

(Vesemir used his on a battered and ugly old tom cat that wanders the halls. He says he hates it and wants it gone but on afternoons he can be found fast asleep in his chair in front of the fire with the cat curled up on his chest. He calls it Oy. As in “Oy, you! Don’t do that!”)

[dirbenaffleck]

HENRY CAVILL asGERALT OF RIVIA Netflix’s The Witcher ‧ Family

[supercupcakecollector-love]

In The Witcher, I'm pretty sure it`s implied that Cats are post-conjunction creatures. Apart from dragons, cats are the only creatures known to absorb magical energy, They are also instantly able to recognize witchers and exhibit an obvious disdain for them, they can also see through invisibility.

Also this bit that made me laugh from the wiki

[perseruna]

i see a veil i draw yennefer in it

[0dde11eth]

Oh my gosh this analysis is amazing! Great catch!

That was not 'that' funny

One thing that I appreciate with Jaskier is that he brings both light and a f.cking knife in my heart at the same time. Because he is funny but the layer under the mask is so emotional.

I remember theorising in one of my "am i analysing too much" post that the little "funny" line "too many squirrels" when Yennefer wakes him up in Kaer Morhen wasn't maybe funny but referencing the elven resistance "The Squirrel". I have seen this take in some other posts too.

And retrospectively, I believe that's the case. Because of BO.

Of course BO happens after S2 but his role as the Sandpiper surely had him in contact with the Squirrels more than once, or to see their raids.

So in that sleepy moment, he wasn't having a good dream.

And we go from that cute reference (that could have been also as the guy has that kind of energy 😅)

To probably those kind of memories

I need the chronicles of the Sandpiper. How f.up his experience was ? Maybe I should try to write it 🤔.

[alpaca-clouds]

High Fantasy Conundrums: The Diversity Paradox

I have some thoughts on High Fantasy and the way it currently is shifting in terms of the mainstream depictions. Meaning: No, this is not about books that much. It is more about the big franchises. The stuff with money behind it. Because those have stuff in common right now. I am talking about Dungeons & Dragons, The Witcher, Dragon Age, The Rings of Power and other more budget heavy fantasy.

Many words have been written, said, and screamed into the void of the internet about how these days you will usually see diversity in those. Most notably people that are not white.

And the self-proclaimed "conservatives" (who are actually white supremacists) will cry about how those are "medieval European worlds" and that hence there should not be Black or Asian people run around in them. Ignoring, of course, how there were Black and Asian people running around in medieval Europe.

And there will be leftists, that will defend any decision in this regard, on pure principle.

I will count myself among the second kind no doubt. I think it is good and important to see non-white characters in those big franchises. And frankly, I couldn't give less of a fuck whether or not whatever writer originally wrote a book that stuff was based on did imagine the world to be inhabited by people who did not have cheese-skin. I really don't.

Especially as the entire "realism" and "historically accurate" argument falls apart rather quickly if you consider one very important fact: There were no elves in medieval Europe. There were no dragons in medieval Europe. And there sure as hell was no actual magic in medieval Europe. So... Yeah, somehow I actually do think that Black and Asian characters inhabiting those fantasy worlds is less of an issue, when it comes to stuff being "historically accurate".

And yet...

There is something about this, that still very much irks me. Especially when it comes to some recent franchise stuff, like most of what Wizards of the Coasts did in regards of Dungeons & Dragons 5e in terms of lore - and something I am starting to expect from Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

And that is the lack of any actually non-white cultures within the world - and the lack of worldbuilding in this regard.

See... High Fantasy has generally speaking one big struggle in regards of the worldbuilding. A struggle that can be found in high fantasy world after high fantasy world: For the most part, the cultural worldbuilding is often lacking. While humans are often allowed to have a couple of different cultures, everyone else is usually treated like this: "This is dwarven culture", "this is elven culture", and "this is halfling culture". There is no variation in it. The dwarves in the high north have still the same culture, as the dwarves living in the south of the continent. And while humans do have a bit more in terms of different cultures, it usually also goes in broad strokes. Like: "This is the horse culture, this is the very noble culture, and this is the peasant culture". Am I saying I am blaming Tolkien? Yeah, maybe a bit.

This is one of the reasons I fell so in love with Dungeon Meshi. Because Dungeon Meshi literally is the first time I have seen that someone actually came up with differences between different elven and half-foot cultures and stuff. And I love it.

But Kui is the one writer I can think of, that really did that.

So... Let me talk about DnD, because I know my DnD Lore and I can tell you a bit of why this is bothering me here.

See: Dungeons & Dragons has this whole ass world in the Forgotten Realms as the main setting: Toril. Toril has a variety of continents. Just as you can see:

Now, originally half of those continents did not exist, I might add. Most of them were added during 2e and 3e. Especailly 3e and 3.5e did some worldbuilding in regards of those other continents. Even though, yes, if we are honest those continents are very much: Fantasy Asia, Fantasy North America, Fantasy Middle America, Fantasy Africa, Fantasy Arabia, and Fantasy Australia (about which, I might note, we know next to nothing).

But while 3e and 4e did make some use of those other settings, 5e did something else. 5e very much reverted back to focusing on Faerûn and the Sword Coast once more. But because by the time 5e released it was 2014 in the real world, they knew they could not make Faerûn this super white world. So Faerûn became diverse. There are Black and Asian and Brown people living there now. But... culturally it stay in the "generic fantasy Europe" sphere.

And that is my issue: The lack of different cultures.

I will talk a bit more about the issues with the High Fantasy "Medieval Europe" culture tomorrow, but today let me say this: Even these days, when non-white characters will be included into those fantasy worlds, they still will only be allowed to exist within a supposedly white cultural context. They are not allowed to have a non-white culture.

While this makes some sense in prescribed worlds - so worlds based on books that never had any intent on depicting anything but their "white" pseudo-European culture (like Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time with their respective Amazon Prime adaptions), this is less the truth for worlds that are designed around whatever they represent today.

Wizards of the Coast absolutely could put some effort into creating those other continents as good, lived in settings - and allow folks from those other continents who live in Faerûn to bring parts of their own culture with them. They could pay some PoC to actually do that worldbuilding Own Voice style. You know?

And the same is true with Bioware and Dragon Age. While I am by far not as familiar with the worldbuilding of DA, as I am with the worldbuilding of DnD, I am under the impression that there is not a lot going on in terms of non-white cultures from other continents. There are non-white people hanging around in the main plot and what not, but it does not seem as if there is a lot going on in terms of them having cultures of origin. Correct me if I am wrong. Some of those cultures seem to have names, but that is where the worldbuilding ends.

And that... You know, that is an issue. Because diversity, especially ethical diversity, is not just about the skin color. It is about culture. And somehow the culture aspect of it gets ignored a lot. Doesn't it?

[0dde11eth]

So adorable!

A little idea where Vesemir and Jaskier are friends and basically Penpals over the periods where Jaskier and Geralt have to split for a) A tough hunt, his brothers need help or b) Jaskier has a bardic comp and or is summoned to a court... and well they just talk and share their frustrations about their Witchers and their idiocies.

Jaskier shares his exasperations and sends basically a novel to Vesemir about his lack self-care when it comes to hunts and what comes after. How Jaskier has to force him in a river when they're out, or actually out of the bath when they're at an inn... will also send him hidden messages about all the foods Jaskier has managed to get GEralt to eat to substitute stale bread and plain meats on the road.

He also sends in notes to Vesemir when he runs into other Witchers. Be they of the Wolf or not.

And Vesemir couldnt be more thankful that this human is looking after his boys and those who were left. That he has updates on them when they're out on the Path and it eases him, in return he sends letters detailing ingredients for balms and things that will aid the Bard on the path that wouldn't be deadly for him to make, he will also send exasperated stories of the boys and the chaos they cast over the winter that sends Vesemir crazy.

Those two bond and none of the others know until Jaskier is brought to Kaer Morhen and Jaskier's first words are.

"Ves! Now you have me to help you wrangle the pups!"

[0dde11eth]

Witchers always seem so unfazed no matter what they see or experience on the path. It's what leads people to believe they emotionless.

That's not true. They've just suffered so much worse, and seen unspeakable horrors already in their childhood, so they aren't shocked.

I put examples under the cut, but they are potentially triggering

Seeing a dead bloody body? 7 out of 10 boys don't survive the trials. Many of them were their friends.

Being attacked by bandits or angry farmers? Part of training was to be able to fight off several opponents, and they did not show mercy or hesitation no matter how young the trainee was

Eating disgusting food thats been served to him? At least they aren't fighting off another (also starving) boy for these scraps.

Verbal insults? Do you honestly think the trainers were gentle? Please be more creative with your insults

Being forced to sleep in the barn with the animals? Warmer than a cave atop a mountain where you are trying to survive a trial so you can earn your medallion