Editing The Witcher (section)

==Cast==
*'''[[Geralt of Rivia]]''' - Our main protagonist and one of the last Witchers, a race of alchemically augmented [[gish|mage-warriors]]. He's a fairly no-nonsense guy though he's very much struggling to keep the inhumanly impassive perspective in check.

*'''Ciri''' - Geralt's sorta-adopted daughter, proclaimed his Destiny because of a tradition called the "Rule of Surprise" (A tradition in which one person does a service for another, and the recipient must repay this favor through a means that satisfies intentionally-vague criteria). [[JUST AS PLANNED|She turns out to be the result of generations-long selective breeding by both Elves and Mages, in an attempt to breed someone with the power to jump through dimensions and alternate-realities]], Rick and Morty-style. Of course, [[Not As Planned|Geralt's actions and invoking the Rule of Surprise pretty much upends everyone's plans]] because the Rule of Surprise is so primal, <s>Tzeentch</s> Destiny rewrites her fate to be tied with his. After her parents died at sea and few years later her grandmother killed herself rather than surrender to Nilfgaardians knocking to the Cintran gates, Ciri still managed to wander into Geralt's life, and so he decides to raise her...as a mini-him. This is quickly stopped and she's sent to a proper school to learn. It's pretty clear that she's far more important than she seems as her unnatural height and uncontrolled bouts of magical power indicate that she might have some inhuman blood insider her. You’ll probably start to dislike her in the later books for being a huge fucking Mary Sue, with as many new skills and abilities as the moment requires. According to the games, she’s also been to the world of [[Cyberpunk 2020|Cyberpunk]] while trying to escape pursuers (made possible by the act that CD Projekt RED works on both franchises).
**When we say Mary Sue, we really do mean it, but that's also the point of the entire series. The games and the tv show doesn't do it justice, but the entire point of the books is that Ciri isn't just some "Child of Surprise," but is literally the child of '''Destiny.''' As mentioned above, ''Fate'' is a big theme in the series, and the more you try to fight your fate, or try to avoid it, the more drastic the steps the Universe takes to "correct" it. She has literal plot armor, and everyone knows it. And yet everyone, from Cirri's grandmother to the Emperor to Cirri herself, tries to change Cirri's destiny, or use her powers for their own gain, literally trying to subvert fate for their own ends. This ends with disastrous results for pretty much anyone who gets involved. 

*'''Dandelion''' - Traveling [[Bard|bard]] and one of Geralt's few genuine friends. He's something of a complete idiot and a coward, but he's also the friendliest folks around and is always looking for material for his ballads. He's something of a nuisance, but he's also one of the most well-traveled people around.

*'''Yennefer of Vengerberg''' - The closest thing Geralt has to a formal relationship and the closest thing that Ciri has to a mother, though she's totally a bitch at times. She's a [[sorcerer|sorceress]] who's manipulative but also very much despises her condition of infertility (a result of becoming a sorcerer) and this is one of the great points of contention between the two of them.
**Probably the most fucked up character in the TV show, where they make her a selfish bitch who wants nothing more than to gain her powers back (which she never lost in the books), even if she has to sell Cirri to do so. In the books, Yen starts out hating Cirri, because she assumed Geralt was raising Cirri to "replace" her, which is kinda fucked up (but this is, after all, fantasy!Europe). This gets sorted out when Mother Nenneke, Priestess, teacher, and the closest-thing Geralt has to a Mom, calls her out on her jealous bullshit and forces her to acknowledge Cirri as Geralt's daughter. Cue training montage, and she eventually grows to accept Cirri as her daughter, as well. 

*'''Triss Merigold''' - Sorceress with a teenage-like romantic obsession for Geralt that he doesn't share. She doesn't have too much presence as a character in the books, then she jumps to being a main character in the videogames when she takes advantage of Geralt's amnesia and Yennefer's absence to fulfill her fantasy of being the witcher's main lover. She may remain as such even when he recovers his memory. Aside from that dick move, she is very kind and light-hearted, and remarkably, she is one of the few sorceresses that doesn't continuously behave like a bitch.

*'''Emhyr var Emhreis'''- the Emperor of Nilfgaard, which is essentially a superpower based mostly off of Rome, though their aesthetic is more medieval German (as far as "evil empires" go, though, it's rather morally grey). He is known for being a cold, ruthless and pragmatic son of a bitch who will stop at nothing until the continent knows only the glory of Nilfgaard and all other kingdoms and states are subjected underneath the Golden Sun (at least, on paper, but more on that later). Ciri is his biological daughter, [[/d/|and he desires her to continue his line]], as he's head of a prophecy that states that her bloodline will eventually control the world. Has a series of long-winded titles, including the <s>ridiculous</s>AWESOME title of "The White Flame who dances on the graves of his foes", because when he regained his title, he had all of his enemies dug up, excommunicated, and then had their gravestones used to pave his ballroom. Petty? Yes. Historically accurate? Some popes have put literal corpses of their predecessors on trial. 
**Emhyr shows a lot of genre-savviness for an "Evil Emperor" character. As mentioned, he lost his throne before scheming his way back to the top. While all Nilfgaardians are, on paper, loyal to the Emperor and the Empire, there are still quite a few factions with their own agendas, like old War Hawks desperate for glory, Young officers looking to replace said Hawks and are true Nilfgaardian <s>supremacists</s> idealists, Merchants wanting to expand their influence, and the many vassal states who are only loyal on paper. Over the course of the books, we learn that the Nilfgaardian invasion was less of an actual war, but a convenient way for Emhyr to rid himself off troublesome factions, cause enough chaos to smoke Ciri out, and to cripple the Northern economy and make them reliant on Nilfgaardian goods. Not only does the invasion cost him ''nothing'', but he also knows when to cut his losses and realize when some plans are not worth pursuing. 
**His plan to fuck his own daughter is something he has been plotting to do for decades, and was obvious enough about it to tip off Ciri's mother/his wife. Thing is, he's not the sickest fuck in the series, that goes to....

* '''Vilgefortz of Roggeveen''' - one of the most prominent sorcerers in the North and the main bad guy from the books. He is the mastermind behind grand majority of the plot happening, either by direct action or manipulating various parties to do his biddings - including emperor Emhyr, who's drive for conquest and capture of Ciri came from Vilgefortz talking non-stop about the prophecy to him. Also, he's extremely vain and sadistic motherfucker, who won't be pleased until everyone venerates him like a God, with the capital G. Once his grand scheme backfires, he's reduced to be a caricatural evil lord struck in a ruin castle, but the cards he dealt to everyone remain in play for next three books and he doesn't stop being any less dangerous for Geralt and Ciri personally.
**Vilgefortz's main hideout is the Continent-equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, a badass castle that drags ships to their destruction being based on the Witcher's equivalent of ley lines. [[Daemonculaba|His plans for Cirri make Emhyr's look tame and would make Honsou proud]].

* '''Leo Bonhart''' - probably the most colourful Heavy from all of the books. A fabled bounty hunter and a mercenary, who despite getting in years and looking like starving to death is one of the most dangerous, yet regular people present in the books. How dangerous? He killed three witchers throughout his life, all from different schools, too, so you know this guy gets around. His main drive is the fun he has from killing. The running joke is that the character is your high-level murderhobo, but as seen from perspective of people in-universe.

*'''Eredin'''- the elven [[Orion|King of the Wild Hunt]] (a group of supertall and buff elves in scary black armor from another plane, the ''Aen Elle,''), and widely considered to be THE main antagonist of the games. He lead a genocide of the human population of his home planet, poisoned his old king with a spiked aphrodisiac, and when a mystical force known as the White Frost (either an encroaching Ice Age or the heat death of the universe) began to threaten his world, he started to hunt Ciri in order to use her to invade her world.

*'''Vesemir'''- Geralt's mentor and the closest thing he has to a father. He is a witcher with roughly four centuries of experience under his belt and was the sole survivor of an assault on the Witcher stronghold at Kaer Morhen. (Geralt and the few other witchers were away on contracts when this happened)

*'''Nenneke'''- the head priestess in the temple of Melitele in Ellander. If Vesemir is father figure to Geralt, she's the mother. Which makes her complete absence in the games weird, to say the least. One of the few religious figures in the entire verse that seems to be a genuinely good person, with no strings attatched.

*'''Radovid'''- Literal nobody in the books, introduced in one of the final pages of the last one, but turned into ever increasing evil force in the games thanks to how he is introduced. At first Prince and then King of Redania, the Poland-Lithuania-style country. Stylized as Radovid V the Stern, he starts off as alright-ish and eventually becomes a real fucking prick by the point of the third game, ordering the extermination of all magic-users due to Philipa and her Lodge of Sorceresses backstabbing him and murdering his father, as well as ordering the suppression of non-humans. Despite his ruthlessness and "madness", he is also shown to be a very clever tactician and strategist.

*'''Sigismund Dijkstra'''- Think Winston Churchill if he was a medieval Polish intelligence official. Gruff, fairly obese, and intensely patriotic to Redania, he believes in using methods other than war to achieve the state's aim, but he won't hesitate to bash in a motherfucker's skull if it means Redania remains safe. Had to flee his country when Philipa sent assassins after him and ended up becoming the head of a gang in the free city of Novigrad, while still secretly retaining his loyalty to his homeland.
**They made him a ripped old man in the TV series, which is an absolute shame for fa/tg/uy representation everywhere. Who tf gives a shit about half-indian Yenn when they replaced fatman Dijkstra with grandpa fuccboi

*'''Philipa Eilhart'''- the "Jewel of Tretegor", and probably the biggest reason why sorceresses and mages are seen in a negative light in the Northern Kingdoms. She is the head of the Lodge, the magical advisor to Redania's king, and a complete and utter cunt. Even Yennefer hates what a stone-cold bitch she is, noting that she is manipulative, power-hungry, cold, and ambitious. Radovid eventually tires of her bullshit and ends up exiling her, but not before putting out her eyes.

*'''Crach an Craite'''- the Jarl of Ard Skellig, which is part of the Skellige Isles (essentially comprised of a people who are more or less Gaelic-Norse in culture). He is a steady ally of Geralt's, and noted for being an exceptionally brave and fearsome warrior, even giving witchers pause when facing him. He is a just and fair ruler to the people on his island, and a terrifying opponent to face in a raid, to the point where Nilfgaardian and Northern naval vessels steer far away from the isle, lest they suffer the wrath of the "Wild Sea Boar". Was one of Yenn's many lovers, and assisted her when she washed up on their shores.

*'''Isengrim Faoiltiarna''' - The most badass of the Aen Seidhe hippies, his name literally means "Iron Wolf." He was one of the leaders of the Elven Viet Cong, and [[Burning of Prospero|participated in the coup that eliminated most of the sorcerors on Thanedd]]. He later joins the Nilfgaardian Army under the promise that they would allow the Elves independence in their sacred homeland of Dol Blathana. As part of this agreement, he headed the Vrihedd Brigade, an army of Elven "freedom fighters" who just so happened to have [[Nazi|Triple, S-shaped silver lightning bolts]] insignias. Whenever the Nilfgaardians needed some light sprinkling of war crimes done, they'd send in the Iron Wolf and his Elves, which also meant they could keep their hands clean and conveniently places the blame on the elves. After the war, he and the rest of the Squirrel's high command are sentenced to death by the Northern Kingdoms for all their war crimes and are given up by both the Elves of Dol Blathana and Nilfgaard. Isengrim, being too much of a badass to die by rope, escapes and flees to Zerikania to start a new life, where he ends up meeting Dijkstra and one of Cirri's pursuers. 

*'''Yarpen Zigrin''' - Dwarf. Caravaner. Dragon Slayer. Geralt first met Yarpen in the story The Bounds of Reason, where they're on the hunt for a Dragon, with Yarpen claiming to have slain another Dragon once before, though that in itself wasn't much of a feat because the Dragon was a million years old and had dementia. The dragon hunt doesn't go as planned, and Geralt and Yarpen end up on different sides. Blood is shed, and the Dragon, being a level-minded fellow, lets Yarpen and some of the would-be slayers go in exchange for letting him retrieve his young. Yarpen and Geralt meet later on in the main series just before the beginning of the Second Northern War, where the two decide to travel together for a bit. Yarpen, under the employ of the King of Kaedwen, is tasked with delivering supplies to an allied kingdom incognito. That turns out to be a fucking lie, since the King mistrusts all non-humans and so has his men tip-off the <s>Elven Viet Cong</s> Scoia'tael, who proceed to ambush Yarpen to make an example of the humie-lovers, which rightfully pisses everyone off; [[DERP|because it totally makes sense to test your suspected Viet Cong informant by informing the Viet Cong]]. In spite of the King's betrayal, Yarpen later joins the Mahakam Volunteers, a regiment of right hard bastards that join the Northern Kingdoms in spite of all the human prejudice and the dwarf king telling them not to.

*'''Zoltan Chivay''' - The ''other'' dwarf Caravaner that Geralt meets in his travels. Zoltan and his company are first seen escorting a group of human refugees, mostly women and children, to safety. Not that any of the ungrateful fucks care enough to treat their protectors with respect, or even thank them once they find their husbands. Geralt and Zoltan hit it off, though, and after some totally no homo traveling through the country, Zoltan gifts Geralt his magical gwyhyr ''Sihil'' as a token of friendship. He later joins the Mahakam Volunteers, and the unit distinguishes itself in the final battle by [[Cadia|holding the line]] while the rest of the human army routs: the Mahakam Volunteers, being all dwarves, were placed on the muddy, riverside flank, where the Nilfgaardian cavalry would be bogged down, but the Dwarves wouldn't be able to flee, either. It was Zoltan and his men that killed the Nilfgaardian General, though they had no clue who it was they were shooting at. After the war, the Mahakam Volunteers, along with the rest of the victorious Nordlings, participate in a victory parade, [[Grimdark|where the people they saved immediately start laughing and throwing shit at them]]. And even after all the shit the dwarves had done for Humans, it was during a drinking session with Zoltan in a Dwarven pub that Geralt gets acquainted with the business-end of a pitchfork after some humans decide it'd be a nice day for a pogrom.  
**The Mahakam volunteers were ''very aware'' that the humans were planning on using them as bait. One of the side characters, a young scribe that Ciri met while at the temple, becomes a friend of the Dwarfs and asks if he can join and fight alongside the Mahakam Volunteers. Zoltan turns him down, because they know that they're going to be placed in the most danger, and it would be a shame if the [[This guy|young man would lose his life]] fighting with the dorfs.  
*'''Regis''' - A hermit and apothecary, who also just so happens to be a ''high vampire'', he joins Geralt and crew for the fun of it. As a higher vampire, he is pretty much immortal, with none of the weaknesses of lesser vamps, and being able to recover from pretty much anything. Geralt himself doesn't even realize he's a vampire until much later, because not even his Witcher Medallion can detect his presence. Regis is a teetotaler, drinking neither blood nor alcohol, due to an incident of him "flying under the influence", getting ganked by angry villagers, and having to spend the next half-century thinking about what he's done. Because he's pretty much immortal, and no one except other Vampires can permakill him, Geralt was a bit uneasy on how to deal with Regis once he found out. All of that hyped-up invulnerability means jack shit, however, because during the climactic battle with the big bad, he gets melted down like a candle, which the evil wizard and Geralt both thought is pretty much overkill...but then the games came out, and he reveals [[Meme|that he got better]].