To learn their dangerous craft, witchers are trained at special schools. But what is the deal with these witcher schools in The Witcher? Which of them is the most powerful? We have ranked all seven.
How did witchers come to be? Long before Geralt’s time, the rulers of the day had a brilliant idea: they wanted to create the perfect warrior using magic. So, mages began conducting experiments at various locations. Unfortunately, the results did not turn out as expected.
The created warriors were excellent fighters. However, they lacked the ability to feel emotions like compassion, sadness, or love. And the magical abilities of the created warriors fell short of expectations.
Since so much money had already been invested in the experiments, it was finally decided to continue creating “mutants” and training them at the respective locations. This is how the witcher schools came into existence. The term “witcher” was coined by the mages who did not want to label individuals with only limited magical abilities as “mages.”
Are witcher schools “canon”? For fans of the video games, the different witcher schools are an entirely integral part of the Witcher universe. However, it is actually different in the book source. Only in a passing mention is it stated that Geralt belongs to the “School of the Wolf.” Other schools are never mentioned.
Recently, author Andrzej Sapkowski made it clear, that he does not think highly of the additional witcher schools. He is even considering removing the aforementioned half-sentence from future book editions.
However, the developers at CD Projekt Red seem to think differently. A new school has even been announced for the upcoming “The Witcher 4,” which Ciri is likely to belong to.
What was the list based on? Since the witcher schools are not part of the books, we mainly refer to information from the video games in this list.
As many of the schools had already been destroyed by the time of the games, it is of course quite difficult to compare them. The ranking is therefore more of a loose classification, which is naturally subjective. Feel free to discuss in the comments which school you personally find the strongest.
Bonus: Lynx School
- Location: ?
- Specialization: ?
- Known members: Ciri
As a bonus, the Lynx School should be mentioned briefly, even though we currently know almost nothing about it. It is indeed the new school that Ciri will apparently belong to in the upcoming Witcher 4.
In Witcher 3, Ciri was known to us with her cat medallion, which she had taken from the assassin Leo Bonhart. It is likely that the Lynx is inspired by her old necklace. However, what exactly the Lynx School is about is still unclear.
