They're outcasts in HUMAN society, but both races do have societies of their own.Stryker577 said:Elves and Dwarves are already outcasts in society. Becoming witchers would hardly earn them any brownie points.
You have a really good point, you know. In the books, there are only human witchers. And in my opinion, if slaying monsters doesn't include hand wreslting, dice poker and drinking, the dwarves won't give a hell about monster slaying. And the elves... Well, the elves seem to never complain about monsters. They have been dumped in the forests for about 100 years. I'm sure they have adapted, and don't need specialy trained monster slayers. And who knows, maybe mutations only work on human bodies!
So far, the impression I've gotten, is that the main reason there aren't Witchers from the other species is because Witchers are despised and not trusted but! The most important fact is that Witchers are sterilized. Therefore, being a Witcher is not really a viable career option for races where fertility is low? You usually want your offspring to have children of their own, or else the race is going to go extinct. Which seems a little hysterical, I mean there's not a single fucking dwarf or elven or whatever Witcher! That seems quite implausible. Possible, but not really plausible.
But the thing that gets me is this
EXACTLY! My point exactly! If the monsters, that crossed the plains of reality to the one Geralt and the rest inhabit, would only target humans, then it would make sense. In fact, then I'd expect dwarves and elves to actually help the monsters kill of as many humans as possible! But that's not the case here. The monsters target everyone (um unless I've missed something :S) and it doesn't make any god damn sense that the elves and dwarves wouldn't try to combat the monsters, at least they could fight in their own way!?
Perhaps there just isn't a specialized order, warband, legion or cult that's dedicated to fighting monsters exclusively like the Witchers do (Witchers don't only kill monsters anymore, which an awesome conversation with Zoltan in TW1 proved but we'll exclude that for arguments sake). But surely they still fight monsters, in their own way? Why would they ignore monsters since monsters don't ignore them.
And of course, the most obvious fallacy here, since the dwarves and elves have lower fertility rates, apparently, then why in billy blue fuck do they not make an effort to protect their children from monsters? Surely there should be an abundance of elven and dwarven Witchers, to ensure their children survive. Something's awry here. And what drives me mad is that I can't really put my finger on it!
PS. Apologies if this topic has been done, I was gonna search for a thread but I was just so excited to find out the answer!
But the thing that gets me is this
Gilrond said:
EXACTLY! My point exactly! If the monsters, that crossed the plains of reality to the one Geralt and the rest inhabit, would only target humans, then it would make sense. In fact, then I'd expect dwarves and elves to actually help the monsters kill of as many humans as possible! But that's not the case here. The monsters target everyone (um unless I've missed something :S) and it doesn't make any god damn sense that the elves and dwarves wouldn't try to combat the monsters, at least they could fight in their own way!?
Perhaps there just isn't a specialized order, warband, legion or cult that's dedicated to fighting monsters exclusively like the Witchers do (Witchers don't only kill monsters anymore, which an awesome conversation with Zoltan in TW1 proved but we'll exclude that for arguments sake). But surely they still fight monsters, in their own way? Why would they ignore monsters since monsters don't ignore them.
And of course, the most obvious fallacy here, since the dwarves and elves have lower fertility rates, apparently, then why in billy blue fuck do they not make an effort to protect their children from monsters? Surely there should be an abundance of elven and dwarven Witchers, to ensure their children survive. Something's awry here. And what drives me mad is that I can't really put my finger on it!
PS. Apologies if this topic has been done, I was gonna search for a thread but I was just so excited to find out the answer!
Witchers were basically created as humanity's expendable shock troopers after the Conjunction of the Spheres. At first they were quite useful to have around since they killed monsters and, presumably, took a bit of pressure off the male population since any given generation tends to have more men than women. Usually the "excess" males die off before maturity or whatever, so having them go out in a somewhat useful fashion was probably kind of win-win.
By the time we get to Geralt's generation, they've gone a long way towards putting themselves out of a job; there aren't anywhere near as many dangerous monsters around, and the ones that do exist can usually be handled by getting a mage or piling on enough soldiers. Humanity has expanded to such numbers that they don't need to worry so much about their society collapsing, either. Geralt, Vesemir, Eskell, Lambert, and Coen are it for the Wolf School after the Kaer Morhen uprising, though the first game adds Berengar. The existence of other schools (Griffin and Cat) is spoken of in the books since Leo Bonhart has medallions from them, but this may also mean that he killed the last representatives of those schools and the Wolves and Vipers of TW2 are all that remains.
The games do kind of mess with this by having monsters pop up every time you turn around, though. But since the point of that is making sure you have something to do, well...
Prior to the Conjunction of the Spheres, the Elves seem to have been in harmony with the world. They may have had to kill the odd dangerous monster, but odds are they would have just sent the best mage(s) or warrior(s) they had rather than having a dedicated monster-hunting order. Dwarves seem to be a fairly belligerent sort, and would also probably have just had their military to deal with anything that got out of hand. Gnomes, Vran, and the rest are pretty much a mystery at best any way.
By the time we get to Geralt's generation, they've gone a long way towards putting themselves out of a job; there aren't anywhere near as many dangerous monsters around, and the ones that do exist can usually be handled by getting a mage or piling on enough soldiers. Humanity has expanded to such numbers that they don't need to worry so much about their society collapsing, either. Geralt, Vesemir, Eskell, Lambert, and Coen are it for the Wolf School after the Kaer Morhen uprising, though the first game adds Berengar. The existence of other schools (Griffin and Cat) is spoken of in the books since Leo Bonhart has medallions from them, but this may also mean that he killed the last representatives of those schools and the Wolves and Vipers of TW2 are all that remains.
The games do kind of mess with this by having monsters pop up every time you turn around, though. But since the point of that is making sure you have something to do, well...
Prior to the Conjunction of the Spheres, the Elves seem to have been in harmony with the world. They may have had to kill the odd dangerous monster, but odds are they would have just sent the best mage(s) or warrior(s) they had rather than having a dedicated monster-hunting order. Dwarves seem to be a fairly belligerent sort, and would also probably have just had their military to deal with anything that got out of hand. Gnomes, Vran, and the rest are pretty much a mystery at best any way.
I think each race coped with the problem of conjunction differently. Humans, as always chose the hardcore way - creating witchers. Humans were always about adaptation, pushing boundries, entropy being their natural state ;] A feature so alien to other races. Humans are most diverse of the bunch.
Gilrond said:
As said on the first page, I my opinion this is the most logical explanation for the fact that there aren't any Dwarven or Elven Witchers.
Even though I'd love to see Dwarven witchers, They would be so epic!