History Main / TheWitcher

* ''TabletopGame/TheWitcher'' for the tabletop RPG based on the books (and preceding the video game)

* ''Literature/TheLastWish'' for the first book of the franchise, originally known simply as ''The Witcher''

''TheWitcher'' started off as a collection of [[CharacterOverlap loosely connected]] [[DarkFantasy Dark]] / [[LowFantasy Low]]/HeroicFantasy short stories that deconstructed classic FairyTales, before evolving into a five novel-long series with a strong MythArc. Written by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski during TheNineties, the books were translated into multiple languages (including Russian and German) and adapted into comics, LiveActionTV series and [[TabletopGame/TheWitcher tabletop RPG]]. However, the franchise first gained widespread attention in the English-speaking world with the release of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'', a video game adaptation-slash-sequel by a then-unknown Polish developer studio, CD Project RED. Since then, English translations of the original books began to appear.

The original books were:

[[index]]
* ''Literature/TheLastWish'' (originally published in 1991 as ''The Witcher''/''Wiedźmin'', it was [[ArcWelding remastered to fit into the emerging continuity better]] and published again under the new title ''Ostatnie życzenie'' in 1993; English edition: 2008)
* ''Literature/SwordOfDestiny'' (''Miecz Przeznaczenia'', 1992; not available in English)
* ''Literature/BloodOfElves'' (''Krew elfów'', 1994; English edition: 2008)
* ''Literature/TimesOfContempt'' (''Czas Pogardy'', 1995; English edition: planned for 2012)
* ''Literature/BaptismOfFire'' (''Chrzest Ognia'', 1996; not available in English)
* ''Literature/TowerOfTheSwallow'' (''Wieża jaskółki'', 1997; not available in English)
* ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake'' (''Pani jeziora'', 1998; not available in English)

* In addition to these, there were two loosely related short stories: ''Droga, z której się nie wraca'' (''Road of no return'', a prequel telling the tale of Geralt's parents) and ''Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna'' (''Something ends, something begins'', a non-canonical story of Geralt's and Yennefer's wedding). A new standalone novel set in the Witcherworld has also been confirmed, but recently denied by the author.

Video games:

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' (2007)
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'' (2011)

Tabletop game:

* ''TabletopGame/TheWitcher'' (2001)
[[/index]]

Please add installment- and character-specific examples directly to their respective pages.
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!!The world of ''The Witcher'' provides examples of:

* ActionGirl: Dozens. There are also dryads, OneGenderRace of Action Girls.
* ActiveRoyalty
* AllWomenAreLustful: If the female characters aren't propositioning Geralt for sex, they're talking about it with other characters.
** Arguably, played with. Some of them just act like that to manipulate men.
* AlternateContinuity: Sapkowski [[WordOfGod has recently stated]] that the game is not a part of the books canon.
** However, on the Enhanced Edition of the first game, an interview with Sapkowski states that they [[http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Witcher_%28computer_game%29#Inconsistencies_with_Andrzej_Sapkowski.27s_works are still canon]].
*** Technically speaking, the interview referred to the fact that [[spoiler: Geralt and Yennefer as such survived the events of the books]]. No one ever said anything about the actual games being canon.
** Sapkowski himself wrote a short story 'Something ends, Something begins' that presents an alternate happy ending where Geralt and Jennifer have married at last. The story is not canon either, therefore being an example of fan fiction by creator.
* AnachronismStew: See MedievalEuropeanFantasy below.
* AnyoneCanDie: And mostly they do [[DyingLikeAnimals like animals]].
* BlessedWithSuck / CursedWithAwesome: On one hand, Witchers have it good. Their mutations make them resistant to most poisons and diseases (which allows them to ingest normally toxic potions), they have superior strength and reflexes, and can see well in the dark, among other things. On the other hand, they're social pariahs, widely regarded as freaks and monsters by the masses, are seldom treated or even paid well and they are sterile.
** Ciri can arguably qualify. Being a princess of politically important kingdom is nothing when compared with [[spoiler: ability to travel through time and universes]]. Thanks to that she is hunted by virtually ''everyone'', for dozen different schemes.
* CerebusSyndrome: Oh so much. So ''very'' much. It started during the second war, when Sapkowski moved from just simply [[{{grimmification}} grimmifying]] [[FracturedFairyTale fairy tales]] to making a CrapsackWorld so gloom and [[DarkerAndEdgier GRIMDARK]] that it approaches the levels not unworthy of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' or ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''. It ends in a [[spoiler:TotalPartyKill, Nordlings (because I [[CrapsackWorld won't call them]] "good guys") only winning a PyrrhicVictory]], and a series of prophesied disasters getting on tracks.
** Take an example: [[spoiler:Dani was a pleasant young knight who suffered a misfortune. It is later revealed that he is [[TheEmperor Emhyr var Emreis]] and you do ''not'' dare calling him pleasant.]]
* ChurchMilitant
* CodeOfHonour: Geralt often quotes The Witcher Code as a reason why he can't accept a certain contract or why he can't get involved with whatever problems someone else wants him to resolve. [[spoiler:He made the whole thing up in order to be able to avoid accepting contracts he doesn't want to do and to protect himself from the potential backlash of refusing to help someone. It also helps with his personal rep, since people believe he is bound by the Witcher Code and therefore not going to do his own thing and muck things up because he feels he should.]]
* CorruptChurch: But it's mostly due to the [[CrapsackWorld general world's crapsackiness]]. Nenneke is definitely a good character. The rule of thumb is: male priests are corrupt.
* CrapsackWorld: Where do we begin... the world is mired in conflict, people eke out a living amongst the ruins of ancient civilizations, monsters and elven guerillas prowl the forests, FantasticRacism rules the streets, nobles oppress commoners (that is, when they're not busy backstabbing each other), kings lead armies to war in the name of hollow-sounding ideals which do little to mask the monarchs' greed and hubris, the ominous shadow of TheEmpire hangs over all, and (if that wasn't enough) the world is prophesized to soon be engulfed by an ice age which will obliterate everything... and ebola-like epidemic starts when the saga ends.
* CreatorBacklash: Let's just say that Sapkowski is ''not'' happy with the direction the games have taken the series.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Practically everyone. It's easier to list the characters who were not terribly traumatised at some point in their past.
* DarkFantasy
* DoomMagnet: Less than serious attempts to create TheChosenOne may be [[GoneHorriblyRight unexpectedly successful]], but have some drawbacks.
* TheDungAges
* DyingLikeAnimals: Just about everyone, also invoked every single time when any battle is mentioned.
* DyingRace: Elves, though it's partly their own goddamn fault.
* ElvesVsDwarves: Subverted. The Elves and Dwarves had been at war a long time ago, but are now allies against the humans who treat both as second-class-citizens at best.
** Though Elves have more at stake in this conflict, while representatives of other races will sometimes say "oh, look, ''now'' it turns out 'we are all older races'. Until humans kicked them out, Elves weren't so nice."
*** Gnomes are said to be the aboriginal species.
* TheEmpire: Nilfgaard.
* EncyclopediaExposita: ''Encyclopaedia Maxima Mundi'' by Effenberg and Talbot, which is wrong on almost every detail, either as future Nilfgaardian propaganda or simply due to FutureImperfect.
* EverybodyLives[=/=]EverybodyDies: Played with and zigzagged severely; on the EverybodyLives end, a lot of characters a WrongGenreSavvy reader might have pegged as {{Redshirt}}s walk away alive, and they're relatively safe as long as they only encounter the main cast episodically. [[spoiler:But travelling with one of them if they weren't introduced back in the short stories? Put on your MauveShirt already. Geralt himself dies in the end.]]\\
\\
It's also been said that EverybodyDies -- but ''later''. It's used in the books to establish a feeling that Geralt is no just add boiling water instant superhero, is a part of a living world, has really been doing his thing for a damn long time, and knows people everywhere. This is also PlayedForLaughs somewhat, such as when a ChekhovsGun drops the anvil 2000 pages later on some poor sod.
** A random messenger that stumbles upon Ciri and Yennefer? Dead by the end of the chapter. That female merchant who stopped to listen to Dandelion's song? Dead two books later. One of the witchers? Died near the end of the saga.
*** The later books' DarkerAndEdgier vibe carries that up to eleven. By Lady of the Lake, [[spoiler:people are DyingLikeAnimals in a war that is hammered on as being pointless. It's almost a DownerEnding if it wasn't for the EarnYourHappyEnding undertones to it all.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Played with.
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Witchers have cat-like eyes with slit pupils, as a side effect of their mutation that allows them to see in the dark.
* {{Expy}}: Geralt, an AntiHero sometimes known as the White Wolf, is more than a little similar to a certain [[TheElricSaga other]] AntiHero sometimes known as the White Wolf... And Geraldo Rivera.
* FangsAreEvil: One of the things elves use to justify their FantasticRacism. Elves have no canine teeth, so ''clearly'' they must be better than humans, who are fanged like beasts! Right?
* FantasticRacism: Takes the trope and runs with it. Everybody just hates ''everybody'', with [[HumansAreBastards humans]] being both most hating and most hated, though the other races are no slouches either.
** The protagonist himself is a victim to this because Witchers are considered mutants and often meet prejudice. Hell, he's even been [[spoiler: killed in a pogrom]].
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Skellige Islanders are shameless Viking expies. Nilfgaard seems to be some cross of AncientRome and [[NaziGermany bad side of Germany]]. The Elves seem to be inspired by ''something'', but the fandom is not sure whether it's the Celts conquered by Rome, Rome conquered by barbarians, or Native Americans conquered by White Man.
* FlowerPotDrop: Dandelion was flower-bombed by his current mistress breaking with him, after she threw all his possessions out of the window.
* FunctionalMagic + MagicAIsMagicA: It seems to operate on scientifically explorable principles, and there are several mentions of mundane magical utilities.
* GambitPileup: The final book, where it is revealed that all that crap around Geralt and his group was just a fallout from ''several'' [[GambitIndex gambits]] chewing at each other, with an additional prophecy actively trying to fulfill itself.
* GoodColorsEvilColors: Nilfgaard forces [[PuttingOnTheReich wear black]] and are firmly on the Black side of the local BlackAndGreyMorality.
** But only for Nordlings. From their own point of view, Niflgaardians consider their conquest as WhiteMansBurden of civilizing the world and all their actions are NecessarilyEvil to actually save that world. By this comparison you can really see how much Nordlings are amoral, petty and racist. In the end, [[NotSoDifferent both sides are not so different]]
* GreyAndGreyMorality: Sometimes leaning on [[BlackAndGreyMorality black-and-grey]]. There are good characters (like Nenneke), but they're few and far between.
** The best way to describe the mix of GreyAndBlackMorality and BlackAndBlackMorality TheWitcher is probably coming from ''The Lesser Of Two Evils'', where it's said that there is no lesser evil. There's only Evil and Greater Evil. And there is Greatest Evil, hiding in the shadows. And one day Greatest Evil will grab you from behind and say "I am what I am. [[SadisticChoice Choose - me or that one, lesser]]."
* {{Grimmification}}: The saga itself, but most of short stories are simply grimmer versions of classical fairy tales. To name few: Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen, Little Mermaid, Snow White and many more.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Discussed repeatedly by Geralt. He never stops dwelling on his role in society as a Witcher and killer.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Oh yes. All the time. Not that other races are particularly better. Compared to what Cirilla did witness during her trip between worlds, humans can be seen as ''nice guys''. [[CrapsackWorld Basically, humans, due to their dominant status, have the biggest potential for bastardry.]]
* TheHunter: A Witcher's job is to hunt down and destroy monsters.
* InhumanlyBeautifulRace: Elves.
** Also, the dryads are a OneGenderRace of hot {{Action Girl}}s. They can also transform human girls into one of them, which comes with a free +100 bonus to the Hotness stat.
*** And complete lack of interest with men if not for procreation.
* InvincibleHero: From all those characters, Ciri. Being Mary Sue have a lot to do with this.
* KnightInSourArmor: Pretty much every Good character.
* LineOfSightName: Sapkowski likes this trope. One character shares her name with a city in France. Another one with a mountain in Iran. Yet another one is named after a town in Ireland. Vilgefortz of Roggeveen is a more complicated case -- Roggeveen was the surname of the captain who discovered Easter Island. There's a whole long list of such "creative" names.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: And most of them [[AnyoneCanDie are dead at the end]].
* LowFantasy: Good and bad? Black and white? Screw that, there is no such thing in ''TheWitcher''.
* MagicKnight: Witchers use simple spells ("signs") in combat, and magicians often have some level of combat ability.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Subverted countless times; more specifically, the architecture, fashions, and technology in general suggests a Late Medieval-like setting, but characters talk about concepts like racism, drug addiction, and genetics.
** TwoWords: Postmodernism, satire.
** Actually, it is more a planned aversion of this trope. Sapkowski on numerous occasions commented that he tried to include things like existence of monsters and magic into the mindset of the characters. In his vision, wizards (who actually know how the world operates on a very low level) are more scientists than sages or flamboyant combat specialists.
*** In fact, responding to numerous accusations that his stories are not "period-accurate", Sapkowski has pointed out that fantasy takes place in an entirely fictional world, with a history, geography, culture etc. unlike our own. Nothing, not even individual words of a language can "realistically" be the same, as fantasy is not necessarily a recreation of anything "real" - by definition. Sapkowski has used the Polish word for "king" as an example, the word being originally derived from Charlemagne's name, and thus impossible to exist in a fantasy world where Charlemagne never lived. Yet no-one seems to complain that fantasy works use the word "king". While fantasy is often inspired by Middle Ages, Sapkowski reasons that there's no "requirement" for it to follow any real-world logic. It can be as close or as distant from the real world as desired, and there's nothing "unrealistic" about, say, a peasant girl wearing underwear in the modern sense.
* OlderThanTheyLook:
** witchers age slower than normal humans. Geralt is more than eighty years old -- Cair Muirehen was destroyed some sixty or seventy years before, and there weren't any new witchers since. Those who remained alive (including him) were out of the castle at the time of attack, which means that he already was a full-fledged witcher at the time.
** Elves live hundreds of years, and mages are effectively immortal, with a resistance to most diseases.
** Nobody's truly immortal; some are just "very" long-lived. The average Elven lifespan is stated as around 300 years in the first novel, and as for mages, one of the oldest of them is over 500 years old. Despite his power, he has the appearance and health of a 100 year old man, and looks like he could keel over any time. He eventually dies of a heart attack.
*** While we're going into individual examples, the oldest witcher, Vesemir, is said to be even older than the castle where the witchers were trained, yet despite his age, he's still in excellent physical condition and many a (human) youth would envy his health.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: The series as whole plays with traditional myths and conventions regarding monsters. Let's see:
** OurDragonsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:At least one of them, a golden dragon who actually likes humans, is a shapeshifter. Shapeshifting dragons are common in Asian mythology, but the difference is that these are Western-type dragons, not Asian ones.]]
** OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: They're also bankers.
** OurElvesAreBetter: They are long-lived, pretty, and skillful, and have developed a sophisticated culture, but they're [[NotSoDifferent not that much better]] in terms of morality. Basically, they suffered the fate of Rome, with humans playing the role of barbarians adapting their culture, or perhaps Celts ran over by the Romans (with Boudicca and all).
** OurGnomesAreWeirder: they're good craftsmen, possibly better than dwarves at certain precise and complicated tasks, or those requiring theoretical expertise. Dwarves make excellent swords, but best swords in the world were gnomish.
** OurTrollsAreDifferent: They repair bridges, love drinking, and ask for tolls from travelers who cross their bridges. They are also one of the very few monsters that humans are willing to have around, since paying the toll is cheaper than maintenance of the bridge.
** OurVampiresAreDifferent: And don't need the blood to ''survive''.
*** There is also a clear difference between the 'low' and 'high' vampires. The lowly ones are no different from monsters and basically look like giant humanoid bats, while the high ones are the more familiar vampires, who can happen to be quite nice and friendly folks [[spoiler:like Regis]]. Also, most of the 'high' vampires easily tolerate sunlight, and holy water, crucifixes, and garlic pose no threat to them. They also do not need blood to survive, although drinking it increases their strength and gets them drunk. It appears that there is some sort of middle ground, as creatures like Bruxa are intelligent, but concentrate on sucking blood.
* PsychoForHire: Several, but Leo Bonhart IS this trope.
** Although, Bonhart's lifeway includes killing wanted criminals, collecting bounties, bying new equipment from weapon smiths etc, making him look suspiciously similar to the token hero of an RPG / Heroic Fantasy book. Knowing the author, this could be an intent [[{{Deconstruction}} to show]] how these guys outside of their own P.O.V. actually look like.
* ReallyGetsAround: Geralt, other witchers, and Dandelion.
** Well, what would you do if you were immune to all human diseases, incapable of getting someone pregnant, unlikely to ever come to this village again, and considered a big damn hero for a few hours after killing the monster before you go back to being generally despised and alone? Dandelion is just Dandelion, though.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The Scoia'tael.
* RoyallyScrewedUp: ''All'' royal families in the series.
* ScarsAreForever: Happens despite regeneration and transformation magic. It's that not everyone can afford magic, and not everyone who can afford magic considers it worthwhile. In one case the scarring was so bad, healing was substituted with an extraordinarily strong illusion.
* ScrewYouElves: Present in short stories, but the saga takes it UpToEleven.
* ShoutOut: In addition to the first two books being a deconstruction of fairy tales, there are numerous references to history, geography and popular culture.
* ThunderboltIron: Every witcher carries a blade of meteorite iron.
* TwangHello: The Dryads used to be fond of this. Nowadays, they will simply shoot you.
* VainSorceress: Sorceresses in general. They use their magic to preserve their youth and beauty. [[spoiler:And sometimes to make themselves look beautiful.]] It's a matter of both professional prestige and the result of many of them being born as commoners or even cripples.
** In many cases, the girls who train to become sorceresses are the ones who have no hope of attracting suitors. Even after magic fixes their appearance, many of them [[FreudianExcuse still bear the emotional scars]] of their past as ugly people and resent the humiliation of having to wear a mask of fake beauty for the sake of their profession. The author describes them as "pseudo-pretty women with the cold, bitter eyes of ugly girls".
* VirginPower: Inverted; a virgin cannot summon magical power with any form of control.
** Or averted, since when it is mentioned, it's played as a sort of not-necessarily-true UrbanLegend.
* TheWildHunt: It's a kind of annual astronomical/celestial phenomenon happening on Midsummer. Some consider it a natural occurrence, but the others point out that people tend to disappear when it's around.
* TheWikiRule: [[http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_Wiki For both the novels and the game]].
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: The Elven sorceress Francesca Findabair.

''TheWitcher'' started off as a collection of [[CharacterOverlap loosely connected]] [[DarkFantasy Dark]] / [[LowFantasy Low]]/HeroicFantasy short stories that deconstructed classic FairyTales, before evolving into a five novel-long "Blood of the Elves Saga" with a strong MythArc. Written by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski during TheNineties, the books were translated into multiple languages (including Russian and German) and adapted into comics, LiveActionTV series and [[TabletopGame/TheWitcher tabletop RPG]]. However, the franchise first gained widespread attention in the English-speaking world with the release of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'', a video game adaptation-slash-sequel by a then-unknown Polish developer studio, CD Project RED. Since then, English translations of the original books began to appear.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Nilfgaard forces [[PuttingOnTheReich wear black]] and are firmly on the Black side of the local BlackAndGreyMorality.
** But only for Nordlings. From their own point of view, Niflgaardians consider their conquest as WhiteMansBurden of civilizing the world and all their actions are NecessarilyEvil to actually save that world. By this comparison you can really see how much Nordlings are amoral, petty and racist. In the end, [[NotSoDifferent both sides are not so different]]

* TheCode: Geralt often quotes The Witcher Code as a reason why he can't accept a certain contract or why he can't get involved with whatever problems someone else wants him to resolve. [[spoiler:He made the whole thing up in order to be able to avoid accepting contracts he doesn't want to do and to protect himself from the potential backlash of refusing to help someone. It also helps with his personal rep, since people believe he is bound by the Witcher Code and therefore not going to do his own thing and muck things up because he feels he should.]]

* MarySue: Ciri. The further the story goes, the more she turns into such character and it's really hard to decide ''which kind of Mary Sue'' she is. To sum things up: she is orphaned BrokenBird princess of fallen kingdom, trained into killing machine by witchers, user of unique, powerful magic which is part of SavingTheWorld prophecy and TakeOverTheWorld scheme [[spoiler: (with ability to travel between time and universes)]] and her mount is CoolHorse magically connected with her. She also befriends with unicorn, was part of teenage outlaws pack, wields an InfinityPlusOneSword, takes down small army of {{Mooks}} on frozen lake while ''skating in mist'' and as a cherry topping, she kills [[PsychoForHire Leo Bonhart]], who was known as being able to take down witchers without breaking a sweat. Did we mention she's around 10 when introduced and 18 or younger when the saga ends?
** And before the saga in one of short stories she was almost turned into a dryad. By itself it has nothing to do with Mary Sue, but when combined with things from saga...
** It's also not helping that ''author'' treats her as daughter he never had.

* CodeOfHonour: Geralt often quotes The Witcher Code as a reason why he can't accept a certain contract or why he can't get involved with whatever problems someone else wants him to resolve. [[spoiler:He made the whole thing up in order to be able to avoid accepting contracts he doesn't want to do and to protect himself from the potential backlash of refusing to help someone. It also helps with his personal rep, since people believe he is bound by the Witcher Code and therefore not going to do his own thing and muck things up because he feels he should.]]

* In addition to these, there were two loosely related short stories: ''Droga, z której się nie wraca'' (''Road of no return'', a prequel telling the tale of Geralt's parents) and ''Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna'' (''Something ends, something begins'', a non-canonical story of Geralt's and Yennefer's wedding). A new standalone novel set in the Witcherworld has also been confirmed.

* TheCode: Geralt often quotes The Witcher Code as a reason why he can't accept a certain contract or why he can't get involved with whatever problems someone else wants him to resolve. [[spoiler:He made the whole thing up in order to be able to avoid accepting contracts he doesn't want to do and to protect himself from the potential backlash of refusing to help someone. It also helps with his personal rep, since people believe he is bound by the Witcher Code and therefore not going to do his own thing and muck things up because he feels he should.]]

* MarySue: Ciri. The further the story goes, the more she turns into such character and it's really hard to decide ''which kind of Mary Sue'' she is. To sum things up: she is orphaned BrokenBird princess of fallen kingdom, trained into killing machine by witchers, user of unique, powerful magic which is part of SavingTheWorld prophecy and TakeOverTheWorld scheme [[spoiler: (with ability to travel between time and universes)]] and her mount is CoolHorse magically connected with her. She also befriends with unicorn, was part of teenage outlaws pack, wields an InfinityPlusOneSword, takes down small army of {{Mooks}} on frozen lake while ''skating in mist'' and as a cherry topping, she killed [[PsychoForHire Leo Bonhart]], who was known as being able to take down witchers without breaking a sweat. Did we mention she's around 10 when introduced and 18 or younger when the saga ends?

* MarySue: Ciri. The further the story goes, the more she turns into such character and it's really hard to decide ''which kind of Mary Sue'' she is. To sum things up: she is orphaned BrokenBird princess of fallen kingdom, trained into killing machine by witchers, user of unique, powerful magic which is part of SavingTheWorld prophecy and TakeOverTheWorld scheme [[spoiler: (with ability to travel between time and universes)]] and her mount is CoolHorse magically connected with her. She also befriends with unicorn, was part of teenage outlaws pack, wields an InfinityPlusOneSword, takes down small army of {{Mooks}} on frozen lake while ''skating in mist'' and as a cherry topping, she kills [[PsychoForHire Leo Bonhart]], who was known as being able to take down witchers without breaking a sweat. Did we mention she's around 10 when introduced and 18 or younger when the saga ends?