Geralt of Rivia

Geralt was born as the son of the sorceress Visenna and presumably, the warrior Korin. Shortly after his birth, his mother left him with the School of the Wolf at the stronghold of Kaer Morhen. There, Geralt was made and trained to become a Witcher.

As a child, he was subjected to the Trial of The Grasses. He managed to survive the many blistering mutations required to grant Witchers their abilities. After displaying unusual tolerance, Geralt was selected for further experimental mutations which granted him considerably greater strength, speed, endurance, resilience, healing, senses, complete immunity to diseases and conventional poisons, and extreme resistance to pain. This resulted in his hair turning white, and he received the nickname "White Wolf".

Geralt was trained by his mentor Vesemir, whom he came to regard as a father figure. He soon met his fellow classmate Eskel, and the two became good friends and as close as brothers. One time, they captured a large forest bumblebee and tied it to a jug. The pair laughed at its antics until they were discovered by Vesemir who punished them with a leather strap.

During his training at the witcher school, he made friends with several students, such as Gweld and Eskel, and was trained by Vesemir in harsh conditions, one of which resulted in a student dying.

Geralt was eventually put through the Trial of Forest Eyes, where he was left tied up in the woods and blindfolded and needed to return to the keep by the morning or he would fail. He was helped out of his binds by the elf Aideen, and they went to look at the non-human reservation to find the camp had been attacked by vrans. They then left and came across some Cat School witchers training and wrestling. Aideen then unbound Geralt and left him to return to his master.

Later on, the Wolf School and the Cat School had a tournament between them, organized by King Radowit II, who secretly plotted with the Cat School to kill the witchers from the Wolf School. In the first round, Geralt and Gweld faced off, slowly realizing while they were fighting that the whole tournament was a ruse. As they came to that realization, however, a druid put a mind control spell upon Gweld which made him violently attack Geralt, forcing Geralt to kill his friend with a sword through the chest. Right after this, soldiers under Radowit's command surrounded the witchers and started to kill them all, but Geralt was able to escape on horseback, causing Radowit to put a bounty on his head.

Geralt then came across Aideen again in the woods, who persuaded him not to kill the soldiers who slaughtered his fellow witchers, though he did kill one of Radowit's men that he saw along his trip back to Hertch, where he warned the elders about Radowit and the Cat School's betrayal.

Due to his brilliant success in training, Geralt was selected for additional mutation experiments. He was the only witcher to have survived these experiments, his stark white hair being a side effect of these additional mutations. He also spent time training with Mother Nenneke at the Temple of Melitele in Ellander, and studied at Oxenfurt Academy, where he attended some lectures including astronomy. After completing his witcher training, Geralt set off into the world on a horse named Roach, a name he would bestow upon every one of his later horses. Thus, he became a monster slayer for hire.

Originally, Geralt was convicted and enthusiastic, holding faith that he was needed in a world full of monsters and beasts to protect the innocent, although Vesemir greatly advised him not to play at being a knight errant or uphold the law. After travelling about 50 miles after leaving Kaer Morhen, Geralt was anxious to kill his first monster. He encountered a bald man with rotten teeth, who stopped a peasant's cart and pulled out a young girl whilst his companions held down her father as the bald man tore off her dress yelling it was time for her to meet a real man and attempted to rape her. Geralt rode up and told him the time had come for him to meet one too. The thug released the girl and charged at him with an axe. Geralt managed to strike him twice with his blade and killed him. The young witcher turned, expecting gratitude, but the father fled with the attackers, and the girl, who was drenched in the man's blood, vomited, became hysterical, and then fainted in fear when Geralt approached her. This event caused Geralt to rarely interfere with such matters.

Over the years, Geralt traveled across the continent. He visited towns and fortresses looking for proclamations nailed to the posts at crossroads with the words 'Witcher urgently needed'. His adventures led him to sacred sites, dungeons, necropolis, ruins, forest ravines, and hidden grottos in the mountains. Throughout his career he killed a manticore, wyvern, fogler, aeschna, ilyocoris, chimera, leshy, vampire, ghoul, graveir, werewolf, giant scorpion, striga, black annis, kikimore, and several other creatures.

Most of the time, he could be apathetic, cynical, and threatening. Despite his outwardly cold nature, Dandelion noted that behind his exterior was hiding a fiercely loyal friend, and a man of good humour and as someone not indifferent to suffering. Geralt had many good friends all over the Northern Realms, such as Caldemeyn of Blaviken, Zoltan Chivay, and of course Dandelion. He was also very protective of and loyal to his friends and companions, and was willing to go to great lengths for those who mattered to him. He could be kind-hearted and caring to the people he loved.

Geralt was also shown to be extremely adept at allaying intense, and at times bleak, situations and as a man who would much sooner have everyone return home than draw their swords. His lifespan made him a world-weary man, often expressing disdain and circuitous insults to those he considered cruel, foolish, etc. He may have risked Temeria's future to save Triss Merigold from the Nilfgaardians. He also was shown requesting Scoia'tael to spare Dandelion and kill only him.

Geralt frequently showed remorse and had revelations in his life. Other times he had complete emotional breakdowns, even giving up being a witcher in general and dropping his morals at one point.

Geralt traveled to Gulet on witcher business, where he met Dandelion, a poet who later became his best friend, at a fête. Later Dandelion slept with a woman under the musicians' podium, who had four large brothers. Dandelion fled from the city with Geralt and started to build a friendship with him on their way southeast to Dol Blathanna.

After Gulet, Geralt and Dandelion stopped in Upper Posada to look for work, however the only "monster troubles" the people could come up with were tall tales and creatures that didn't actually exist, so the two soon left to find another place for work. However, on the road, they were soon approached by Nettly, who'd seen them in Upper Posada, and explained he did have business for the witcher, who accepted.

Geralt and Dandelion ate supper at the man's house where the group was joined by Dhun, the elder of Lower Posada, who eventually discussed a "deovel" named Torque, who had been somewhat helpful, when not occasionally pulling pranks on the villagers. These pranks were getting out of hand though and they needed something to get rid of Torque, but not kill him.

Agreeing to check it out, the witcher and bard went into the nearby hemp field where the "deovel" was known to stay and found "offerings" set up for the creature. As they looked around, Torque appeared but as Geralt tried to talk with the sylvan, Dandelion started to make jokes at Torque to the point the sylvan began to pelt small, iron balls at the two, making them run off.

After the attack, the two went back to Lower Posada where they met with Dhun and Nettly, who admitted that they had tried to outwit the "deovel" in the past, including trying to trick him into eating the iron pellets he'd thrown at the pair. Eventually, they brought out an old woman and her apprentice, Lille, along with an ancient book. While the old woman, a Wise One, couldn't read the book, she'd memorized it by heart from knowledge passed down to each wise woman, eventually revealing Torque was a sylvan and the reason they just wanted to drive him away was that Lille didn't want him killed.

With this in mind, the next day Geralt found Torque and, after a quick game of riddles, the witcher threw an iron ball which hit Torque in the forehead. This surprise attack gave Geralt the opportunity to capture Torque and signal to Dandelion, but a horse appeared and hit him, rendering the witcher unconscious.

Shortly after, Geralt woke up to find himself tied up along with Dandelion, with Torque giving Galarr, an elf from the Blue Mountains, three sacks of corn, revealing that Torque had been stealing the food to help the starving elves, as well as passing along agricultural tips he learned from the villagers as the elves didn't know how to farm the land. Noticing the awake prisoners, one of the elves, Toruviel, began to antagonize Geralt before kicking him and smashing Dandelion's lute. Angry at this latter act, Geralt managed to headbutt the elf and another moved to kill the witcher despite Torque's protests that Filavandrel aén Fidháil forbade killing, when Filavandrel himself showed up to stop everything.

However, it was clear that the leader planned to have the witcher and bard killed, as they were witnesses to what Torque had been doing, though during this Filavandrel and Geralt conversed, with Geralt noting the elf was filled with hatred towards humans and was, despite how his people were starving, too proud to try and cohabit with those he deemed "inferior". As the elves moved to shoot Geralt and Dandelion though, Torque stood in front of the pair, fruitlessly trying to defend anyone from being killed and ignoring Geralt's remark to stand aside. Feeling it was necessary, Filavandrel started to give the order to kill the three when Lille suddenly appeared, but in the form of the goddess Dana Meadbh. After silently communicating with the elves, she sent them riding back to the Blue Mountains, but not before Toruviel gave Dandelion her priceless lute for destroying his. Filavandrel then bade farewell to them, remarking Geralt was right about his earlier comments. Later that night, Geralt, Dandelion, and Torque made camp, with Geralt reading over the ancient book he'd collected as his prize for getting rid of Torque, who was moving on from Lower Posada.

In 1249, Geralt and Dandelion traveled to a village where they went fishing but the line snapped and their meal escaped. The two started to fight about who was at fault and started to leave before Dandelion realized the line had caught an old jar that he thought might contain a djinn. On realizing there was a mage's seal on the jar, Geralt tried to warn the bard not to touch it but in their scuffle, the seal came off and the djinn appeared. As Geralt grabbed his swords, Dandelion began to make wishes, which only angered the djinn and it grabbed Dandelion's throat. With his weapons doing little damage, Geralt grabbed the seal out of desperation and used the words of an exorcism a priestess had taught him and miraculously the djinn ran off.

However, the bard was badly injured so Geralt hastily made for Rinde in hopes of finding someone to help. Despite Dandelion's severe injuries, anyone of low stature wasn't allowed to enter after sunset so all they could do was wait it out with the others there, including Chireadan, Errdil, and Vratimir. Eventually, the group revealed there was only one known mage in town who could help: Yennefer of Vengerberg who, despite King Heribert's orders that no magic users could stay in Redania, was staying with the honorary Novigrad ambassador, Beau Berrant, thus giving her asylum while she stayed with him.

As soon as sunrise hit, Geralt made his way to the ambassador's home, knocking out the doorman, Cerberus, in the process. While he searched the home for the sorceress, he ran into a drunk and naked Berrant, who mentioned a woman wanting juice before he passed out. Geralt got the apple juice, then made his way up to the sorceress' room and gave her the drink, who didn't notice at first that he was not Berrant as she was under the bed covers. However, once she appeared naked from under them, she quickly realized the situation and demanded answers from Geralt, who answered sarcastically, causing her to immediately cast a spell at him which Geralt tried to counter with Heliotrop. Desperate for her help, Geralt changed to a respectful tone, explaining why he'd intruded on her sleep, before eventually revealing the djinn and the exorcism statement he made. However, Yennefer remarked it wasn't an exorcism, just a witty, indecent comment before asking what drove the djinn away and the seal that'd been on the bottle. While Geralt noted it probably went to do one of Dandelion's wishes, he hid the truth about the seal, pretending Dandelion had it. The two then traveled by portal to Errdil's inn so that Yennefer could help the injured bard.

As Yennefer worked on healing Dandelion, Geralt and Chireadan discussed the sorceress, with the two men both revealing in their own ways they found her attractive, though the elf noted that Geralt should be wary of Yennefer, as she didn't do things to help others unless she was also getting something out of it. After some time, Yennefer then called the witcher up to the room to see Dandelion only to then release a magical trap on Geralt and reveal she knew he had the seal. After some back-and-forth comments, Geralt gave it to her as a gesture of goodwill that he'd pay her for her help, however, this was fruitless as Yennefer had something else in mind and Geralt quickly deduced she wanted to use Dandelion, who had a connection to the djinn, to try and lure it back to capture it for herself. The witcher adamantly refused to put Dandelion in danger again, but by then Yennefer's other spells took hold, paralyzing the witcher and obscuring the room in a magical shield so nobody could interfere. With that, she then told Geralt he was going to pay for her help by settling some of her accounts in Rinde before violently kissing him, which placed a hypnotic spell on the witcher before he soon lost consciousness.

Geralt woke to find himself in the city's dungeons with Chireadan, who revealed in his mind-controlled state that Geralt had beat up the local pawnbroker and his apprentice, spanked the local apothecary Laurelnose, took out a group of guards, then made his way to the temple while insulting the priest, Krepp, as all 3 were on the town council and had voted to kick Yennefer out of Rinde while also spreading vulgar gossip about her. However, before Geralt could make it to the temple he fainted and the guards threw him into the dungeons, with Chireadan having been caught in the chaos and thrown in as well. Just then, several guards sent by Laurelnose came in and began to beat up Geralt, but when the one throwing the punches asked if the witcher had any wishes, Geralt stated he just had one: that the guard would burst and, before another punch could be thrown, the guard's body literally burst, killing him instantly.

With that, Geralt and Chireadan were brought before the mayor, Neville, with Krepp also in attendance, with the latter noting it must have been the sorceress' work as neither the witcher nor elf had control of the force to do so. After revealing almost the entire story to the mayor and priest, Krepp then concluded Yennefer wanted the djinn as it would give the sorceress a great deal of power and when the conversation turned to what Geralt said that made the genie run off, Geralt repeated the supposed exorcism only for Krepp to become insulted by it. Before more could be asked on this, Dandelion suddenly fell into the room through a portal, proclaiming Geralt was innocent and that Yennefer had ordered him to state before the mayor his wish was for them to believe the witcher wasn't guilty. Krepp quickly deduced it was the sorceress' way of using the last wish to free the genie so she could capture it when the group heard a thunderous noise outside of the building and looked out to see the djinn flying above Errdil's tavern, having been magically lassoed by Yennefer. However, the djinn wasn't going down without a fight and was destroying all the nearby buildings as it tried to break free.

Wishing to save Yennefer, Geralt got Krepp to cast a spell to re-open the portal Dandelion had come through but not before asking what the words of the exorcism he said earlier meant, to which Krepp paraphrased that it meant "get out of here and go fuck yourself!". With that, Geralt entered the portal and landed in Errdil's tavern where Yennefer was still trying to capture the genie while her powers waned. Seeing Geralt, she opened a portal to send him away as the djinn entered the tavern through its own portal to kill the sorceress, but Geralt threw himself between the two, shielding Yennefer. Shockingly, the genie didn't attack the witcher, but appeared to roar in an unknown language at him. Trying to get Yennefer away from it, Geralt pulled the sorceress through the portal she'd opened, though she yelled and threw punches at the witcher, claiming she almost had the genie, before rushing back through the portal with Geralt trying to grab her once more. As they crashed back in the tavern, Yennefer managed to cast a spell to pin the witcher down, but Geralt, trying to save her, informed her of the truth: he was the one making the wishes as he'd been the one holding the seal when he made his first wish (the "exorcism") and had one wish left.

As a weakened Yennefer demanded Geralt make his last wish so she could hopelessly try to capture the genie, Geralt finally realized what he wanted and that would also save Yennefer from the genie's wrath and wished their fates be tied, thus freeing the genie while preventing it from killing the sorceress. With that, the genie escaped back to its realm, and Geralt and Yennefer proceeded to make love in the destroyed tavern.