“Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.” ― Geralt of Rivia
The Witcher is a series of epic fantasy novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. It was later adapted into movies, TV shows, and video games, garnering attention and popularity from multiple fanbases.
The story revolves around Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with superhuman abilities, and the challenges he encounters while traveling on the witcher’s path. It also explores Geralt’s relationships with his friends, love interests, and adopted daughter.
World
The story of The Witcher takes place on an unnamed continent inhabited by several humanoid races. In the beginning, only gnomes were living on the Continent. Dwarves arrived later, followed by elves, who came to the Continent from a different world.
Conjunction of the Spheres
1500 years before the events of The Witcher, a cataclysmic event called the Conjunction of the Spheres happened. Many dimensions collided with each other, which caused creatures from all of those worlds to arrive in the world where the story takes place.
Humans arrived on The Continent after the Conjunction in an event called the First Landing. The elves underestimated the humans’ potential threat and didn’t give them much attention. This caused the elves to be taken by surprise when the humans started to expand their territory and started waging wars against elves and dwarves alike.
The humans eventually took control of the Continent, pushing the nonhumans to the mountains. The nonhumans who lived in human territories were treated like second-class citizens and were often subjugated to violence.
Magic
Magic in The Witcher is the ability to control the power of chaos and channel that power usefully. The elves taught the humans how to control chaos when they first arrived on the Continent, only for them to use that power against the elves when they started expanding.
Later, humans started building mage schools to teach that power to other humans. These schools began to hold a significant degree of prestige, and the mages and sorceresses who graduated from them started holding high government positions, mainly as advisors to kings and queens.
Witchers
300-400 years before the events of The Witcher, the northern rulers tasked their mages to find a solution to the monsters terrorizing their cities and villages. The mages decided to carry out experiments to create a superhuman warrior that would be able to wield magic and be strong and fast enough to face monsters.
When the mages succeeded in creating the first witchers, they discovered that witchers had limited magical potential. So, the mages decided that the experiments failed to produce the desired outcome and banished the witchers from the castle they were using for these experiments.
After the witchers were banished, some mages continued these experiments in the abandoned Castle Morgraig. They brought the witchers to the castle and continued experimenting on them and training them, in addition to creating more of these witchers, thus establishing the order of Witchers.
Eventually, the mages abandoned the order, and the witchers continued to hunt monsters. Later on, due to an internal conflict between the witchers, The Order of Witchers split up into five witcher schools, each with its own territory, castle, and different training practices and traditions.
Witcher Massacres
These witcher schools became very successful, and the number of monsters on The Continent diminished significantly. At the same time, people started harboring feelings of hatred and mistrust toward the witchers because of their superhuman abilities, which made them dangerous, and because they charged money for their services, which made them seem greedy. The rumor the witchers created about themselves, that they don’t have emotions didn’t help improve people’s opinions of them.
Kings started to harbor the same feelings towards the witchers, and churches began referring to them as nonhuman abominations that were too dangerous to be left unchecked. This led to groups of people attacking the witcher castles and massacring the witchers.
Only a few witchers survived the massacres. They continued doing their work, even with being treated like freaks whenever they arrived in a village or city.
Geralt was only a child when Kaer Morhen, home to the witcher school of the wolf, was sacked. He was one of the children undergoing witcher training at the time.
Story
The Witcher’s story is that of Geralt of Rivia, also known as The White Wolf, The Butcher of Blaviken, and Gwynbleidd, among other names his adventures gave him.
Geralt is the son of the sorceress Visenna, who left him with the witchers shortly after his birth. He was trained in the ways of the witchers, and when his trainers saw he had more potential than his peers, they subjected him to further mutations, making him faster and more robust than an ordinary witcher. These mutations also gave him his white hair, which he later would be known by.
In Kaer Morhen, Geralt became very close to his Mentor Vesemir and took him as a father figure. He also became close to the other witchers there, and they became his family. At the start of the book series, Geralt is in his late 30s or early 40s. Witchers age much slower than normal humans, so he’s still considered a young witcher.
On the witcher’s path, Geralt travels to different places on The Continent to see if people are having monster problems he could help with. In these travels, he constantly finds himself involved in more serious and complex situations than he signed up for.
In Geralt’s travels, he meets many friends, falls in love, and faces many complex choices that conflict with a witcher’s obligation to be neutral.
Characters
The Witcher is a story full of exciting and memorable characters I found myself caring for as if they were real people.
These are some of the characters who stood out to me:
Geralt
Geralt’s introduction in the books makes him seem like a dangerous cold-blooded killer. But as you continue to read, you get to know the real Geralt. You begin to understand his awkward personality, insecurities, and what makes him anxious.
You also learn that Geralt gets heavily attached to the people he loves but is terrible at expressing his emotions to them. The cold-blooded killer image you are introduced to is only one witchers acquire from being trained to suppress their feelings.
Geralt is an honorable, kind, and compassionate person who, with his skills, could be dangerous and cruel. Instead, he uses these skills to defend the weak and protect the people he cares about. He shows anyone who would dare harm his loved ones how dangerous he could be.
Yennefer
Yennefer is a powerful sorceress and Geralt’s main love interest. She and Geralt often bicker and split up, only to eventually get back together. She is often arrogant and selfish and doesn’t have a problem putting others in danger for her benefit.
Yennefer truly loves Geralt, however, and cares for him a lot. He is one of the few people Yennefer doesn’t willingly put in harm’s way, nor does she allow others to use or harm him.
Yennefer also becomes very attached to Cirilla, Geralt’s adopted daughter, and surprisingly shows a motherly side to her that you wouldn’t think she had when she took it upon herself to educate the young girl.
Cirilla
Geralt first comes across Cirilla in Brokilon when visiting the dryads in the forest. Ciri is lost in the forest, and she comes across Geralt, who decides to take her with him because she has no chance of surviving alone.
At first, Geralt finds her annoying, but he gradually starts to like her. As the story progresses, Geralt knows who she is and takes it upon himself to be her guardian. He later begins to think of the little girl as a daughter.
The idea that witchers and sorceresses are sterile made the relationship between Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri very special. They were a couple who couldn’t have children, and she was a child with no parents. Resulting in an unbreakable familial bond between the three of them.
Jaskier
Jaskier is a bard who meets Geralt early on in the story. Despite their considerable differences in personalities, they become close friends.
Geralt and Jaskier’s relationship is basically comprised of Jaskier getting in trouble and Geralt hurrying to the rescue, in addition to Jaskier giving Geralt unwanted relationship advice, which turns out to be the correct advice in most cases.
Jaskier is a brilliant person who, because of the way he dresses and talks, seems much dumber than he actually is. Geralt is one of the few people who sees how smart Jaskier is, even though he dismisses much of what he says.
What Stood Out to Me
What I liked most about The Witcher was the characters. There wasn’t a single character in the books or the games who didn’t pique my interest.
I couldn’t help but get attached to characters like Essi Daven from the short story A Little Sacrifice, Saskia from the video game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, or even Bea, the barmaid who helped Ciri in The Witcher 3.
The Witcher also emphasizes the value of friendship. What makes Geralt’s adventures beautiful is the bonds he builds with the people around him and how they help, protect each other, and make sacrifices for each other.
This emphasis on relationships can be seen when Geralt is at the top of the lighthouse with Triss Merigold, and she asks him, “Where do you see us in… let’s say, five years?” If you choose the first dialogue option, Geralt says he would like to keep moving from place to place and stay on the road. When Triss tells him she forgot he’s not the type to settle down, he says, “That’s true. I don’t get attached to places. just people.”
I found it disappointing how the Netflix series failed to capture how unique and exciting the characters are. The Netflix series seemed to replace actual events from the books with things that didn’t happen in the books and ruined an outstanding story with much inferior writing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I strongly recommend reading The Witcher if you’ve never done so. It is an extremely well-written story with a rich world, unique and memorable characters, and thought-provoking ideas and values.
I suggest reading the books and playing the games before watching the Netflix series. The books and games are much superior works than the series, and if you start with the series, you might turn away from The Witcher, thinking it is a poorly written story with bland characters and a very uninteresting world.
