Dwarfen witchers...

[karl_dietrich]

Dwarfen witchers...

Does the witchers "starting race" have to be human?(Dont read the books yet and there are no hints in the game i am aware of)
Or are elven and dwarfen witchers possible?

 

[joshko]

I've only ever heard of male humans being witchers, except for this one time...

 

[GuyNwah]

Actually documented cases? I think there are none.

Spoiler

Thanks to Triss, Ciri was not put through the mutations.

Possible? I think it's unlikely. Men, women, elves, and dwarves have different physiology, if not a lot different then at least different enough that the somatic mutations are likely to have fatal or undesirable outcomes.

 

[SquallDLeonhart]

I read only first 3 books, so maybe I'm wrong, but I think that they are only human, because they were "created" to protect humans from monsters

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

That's a good question. This subject is not mentioned at all in Sapkowski's books. But nothing is said that witchers' codex forbids it as well. So this matter is not clearly explained, however as already noted above, witchers mutations can be human specific, and they can affect other races differently. So possibly there are no traditions to perform them for other races, thus witchers won't risk such a thing.

 

[GuyNwah]

Although the games are not canon, there were the more or less successful attempts by Azar Javed to revive corpses and mutate them. He had some varying success with dogs and men, but the one woman he attempted turned out sadly even though she was a fine specimen and he took great care with her.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Still, there are no indications that he worked with dwarves or elves. Also, he didn't care much about the consequences in essence producing monsters. That's may be the main reason why witchers would avoid such kind of experiments on other races. However one should wonder how early witchers managed to produce successful mutations for humans, and how many side effects they had in the process, but that's another subject.

Also, I don't think Azar Javed literally was able to animate corpses. He used alive people (even in that case, when his subject was close to death).

 

[Sirnaq]

First witchers were created by wizards and then the knowledge passed to some witcher masters but they all died in human assaults. They were first created to fight dragons and protect humans from other monsters. Over the time dragons went almost extinct and it took too much effort to hunt them. Witchers took only human male orphans for mutations.There is no witcher codex - Geralt made it up.

 

[wichat]

Well, if the mutation are only effective with a high specie like human and another low like dog, what makes it impossible for Elven (a specie with great affinity with magic) and dwarves (that traditionally do not share with magic) ?

And if anyone of you answer me that the issue is a biolgical, a genetics o a physic matter, you are confirming that human MEN are equals to DOGS. There is a very seductive deduction, right?

 

[Kodaemon5924]

They were first created to fight dragons

[citation needed]

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Well, if the mutation are only effective with a high specie like human and another low like dog, what makes it impossible for Elven (a specie with great affinity with magic) and dwarves (that traditionally do not share with magic)?

I don't think that mutations for other races are impossible. They are just probably different. So if those who are in charge of the process don't know how to achieve the same effects for other races, using human mutations on them would be evil, since it can produce anything from simply lethal results, to some monsters. That's not in character of witchers to make such experiments. The fact that something worked on dogs was the result of the experiment which perverts like Javed were ready to perform. And results were monstrous as you know.

 

[Sirnaq]

[citation needed]

Journal entry:

"Once dragons were commonplace and ruled the continent absolutely. Dragon fire was the bane of cities, and dragon appetite was a constant threat to the first colonizers. Sorcerers stood against these creatures witchers were created to fight them. Today dragons are nearly extinct. Sometimes forktails and slipzards can be seen, but compared to dragons, they are like stray cats to tigers. The beasts were exterminated by professional hunters, such as the famed Crinfrid Reavers. Alchemical components found in a dragon's body are among the most expensive on the market, and are in high demand among sorcerers. The beast's roasted tail is a real delicacy.

The legends are true: dragons like to gather hoards and have a voracious appetite that they satiate by eating all living creatures with no exceptions. Like cats, they like to lounge in places of power - they nap there, drawing energy, yet nobody knows what they use that energy for. There are five species of these great wyrms: white, black, red, green and rock. Golden dragons, extremely intelligent, gifted with the ability to assume the shape of any creature, are of course a fairy-tale for little children. Dragons are smart indeed, but they cannot speak, much less polymorph.

The best tactic when meeting a dragon is to pray to all the gods with no exceptions. Atheists should run - they can thus extend their lives for a few heartbeats. It must be stressed that any of these choices would end in death when made by an amateur. One fighting a dragon should watch out for it's fire above all else - the breath is lethal, momentarily ending the fight. The wyrms can also fly, and are excellent at maneuvering, so they use the advantage of altitude in combat. A witcher should climb high buildings to surprise the reptile flying by, and to use walls as protection. The beast's jaws are even worse than it's paws - they bring instant death. Dragons, like cats, like to toy with their prey, so they sometimes lift it to the air, and drop from height when they are bored.

Dragons are immune to poisons, unworried by oils which increase bleeding, and unaffected by traps or bombs. One would be hard pressed to find a soul brave enough to drop a dragon, unless it had been hacked to pieces with an axe first. And I wish such an outcome of the battle to all dragonslayers with all my heart."

 

[Kodaemon5924]

Oh wow, that must be one of the most "creative" journal entries from the games. Eh, at least there's the possibility of this being an unreliable source (not a first for the series).

 

[SkycladGuardian]

I read only first 3 books, so maybe I'm wrong, but I think that they are only human, because they were "created" to protect humans from monsters

I think Sqall D. Leonhart is right. Witchers were created by sorcerers after humans colonized the northern lands in the aftermath of the conjunction of spheres. As long as the wizards, and later the chief witchers, knew the secrets of mutation, it probably never occurred to them that member of other races could be witchers as well. And after the secrets were lost, no one had the knowledge to adapt the mutation process to non-humans.

 

[pomor]

The mutations would have to be re-designed from scratch, I guess.
For humans, they could mutate only the children, and even at the best times, the death rate was like 4 succesfull mutatins for every 10 tries. The fact that in witcher' world elves and dwarfs are far less fertile then humans, it is unlikely that they'd be willing to risk their young ones, for the sake of experiments.

 

[wichat]

Although the games are not canon, there were the more or less successful attempts by Azar Javed to revive corpses and mutate them. He had some varying success with dogs and men, but the one woman he attempted turned out sadly even though she was a fine specimen and he took great care with her.

Well, as long I understood the story, the witchers were the only ones who can cause the mutation in an specimen through years and when he is in full devolopment, and Javed create his spawns using thestolen good formula during... few weeks?
So, his experiments cannot be admit as a proof that mutation only works on human men. And, is there any references that witcher experiments with human women always failed and then discarded this possibility?

 

[secondchildren]

I read only first 3 books, so maybe I'm wrong, but I think that they are only human, because they were "created" to protect humans from monsters

Pretty much. Find hard to think that a dwarf\elf would defend humanity against nasty creatures

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Well, the school can train them to defend their brethren from monsters. That's not really a contradiction. But since in general relations between the races were quite tense, that's a bit hard to imagine. But witchers were always outsiders themselves, so who knows.

 

[Sirnaq]

Oh wow, that must be one of the most "creative" journal entries from the games. Eh, at least there's the possibility of this being an unreliable source (not a first for the series).

Im sure there is also some fragment in books about that but don't ask me to find it, im too lazy.

 

[GuyNwah]

Well, if the mutation are only effective with a high specie like human and another low like dog, what makes it impossible for Elven (a specie with great affinity with magic) and dwarves (that traditionally do not share with magic) ?

And if anyone of you answer me that the issue is a biolgical, a genetics o a physic matter, you are confirming that human MEN are equals to DOGS. There is a very seductive deduction, right?

The only answer can be, we just don't know, but there is adequate reason to believe that there would be unforeseen problems. (IRL, humans are physiologically more like pigs than anything else; draw from that what conclusions you will.)

I believe Azar Javed knew what he was doing with the mutagens, but did not understand fully and was under pressure to produce results quickly. Apparently he started with dogs; IRL, most medical research starts with a readily available animal species. When he moved on to humans, fallen Salamandra and Order soldiers were the most available, so those were the ones he refined his methods on.