School of the Cat - Women can be Witchers

[Wolfman-RIP]

The Trial of the Grasses, also known as the Trial of the Herbs, was an incredibly painful ordeal to which young witcher apprentices were subjected. It required the consumption of special alchemical ingredients known as "the grasses," which affected the physiology of the subjects.

Reportedly, only three in ten boys survived the standard trial. In the case of women, with the experimental mutation formula developed by the School of the Cat, only one in ten survived.

School of the Cat

The School of the Cat pursued further experimentation with mutagens during the Trial of the Grasses to dull emotions, believing that suppressing emotions would make witchers more efficient and less susceptible to fear, doubt, or remorse. However, this approach often led to erratic behavior and heightened emotions among its members when the experimentation backfired, resulting in a corrupted version of the original formula. When the school was refounded in the Dyn Marv Caravan, this corrupted formula became the new standard.

To increase their numbers more rapidly, the mages of the School of the Cat in Stygga continued their experimentation and developed a formula to mutate women. Despite their efforts to improve it, the survival rate remained low, with only one in ten women surviving the process.

---

Now we may have a Witcher game that may explore this lore.

[Хела]

Ciri is no mutant. Never went through the Trial of the Grasses. Had a few enhancements & sword training. But nothing out of the ordinary.

School of the Manticore perfected the formula to make female witchers, but they were inherently weaker than male ones. And they got even less chances of surviving the Trial.

Andrzej original idea was men become witchers, women become witches. But then it changed.

[sere]

I want to play as Ciri. She looks more compelling than she was in W3. The Witcher games diverge from book canon so whether official or fanfiction, it's merely influence and not the final say for how the video games operate.

[LupisVolk]

Originally posted by SGT R Lee Ermey:

Uninteresting character

Tell me you have't played the game without saying you haven't played it.

[Cupcakeunleashed]

Originally posted by stmpunk:

Originally posted by Roundabout:

1: Ciri is considered a Witcher by the author, Andrzej Sapkowski

2: Ciri can become a Witcher in the games

3: Ciri is considered a Witcher by the other characters in the story

4: Ciri's entire arc is she has spent years training to become a Witcher & has wanted this above all else

5: It's likely been 10 years or more since the Witcher and Ciri that can pass through time & space to go get school of the cats formula for mutating women.

1: Andrzej doesn't give a single F about anything as long as there's cash sliding into his pockets - probably because he got too dispirited due to previews attempts at pushing his lore into other media in the very distant past. His consideration of her being a "witcher" comes from a "symbolical" perspective, but not a practical one. She cannot drink potions until passes the trial of the grasses, which, as far as I know, had no females in the books capable of surviving it.

2: She can't, there's a lot of lore behind it, but her case's special due to Elder Blood. She could, however, become something far superior to a witcher if she learned more about magic and started experimenting.

3: symbolically but not in a practical sense. To be a witcher one must be a mutant, she isn't.

4: No, by the end of the official lore she was quite happy living in the Arthurian universe, and had completely abandoned the entire "wanna be witcher" thing, that was her childhood dream, much like we want to be astronauts / firemen / whatever TF when we are kids.

5: That makes for really weak writing, using off-pov (can be narrative, 1st person pov, screen, anything) "mystery box" to explain away lore inconsistencies' a maneuver only really used by the most incompetent writers, could be that they do it, but I can't see how without obliterating the entirety of the rules from Andrzej's World Building. - Again, he will approve it because $, he really doesn't give a single F what others do with his work ever since the first TW video-game, possibly even when the first Polish TV series on the Witcher was made...

so what youre saying is that the games are their own canon and the story is continuing from there.
Gotcha.

[Duke H. Vytantis]

Those who cry how women can't be witchers come across extremely ignorant of the fact that our beloved Ciri is no ordinary woman..

[Simbolic]

What odds of it being the one School that is known for being conniving and never really playing by the rules.

[ShadowSplit]

Originally posted by LupisVolk:

Originally posted by SGT R Lee Ermey:

Uninteresting character

Tell me you have't played the game without saying you haven't played it.

She isn't exactly interesting, honestly. I, for example, enjoyed her bits in TW3. Do I want to play Ciri a witcher? No. A game with Ciri that is separate from TW, with her powers and not being a witcher? Yes, would be interesting.

Geralt is the true hero of the saga. Ciri is just a cause.

[Flinsberg]

"Trust me, bro" isn't a reliable source.

Where does it say that women can be witchers? Links? Proof? Sauce? Anything more than "just cuz I said so"?

[Banelord]

Originally posted by SPACEWAVER:

"Trust me, bro" isn't a reliable source.

Where does it say that women can be witchers? Links? Proof? Sauce?

School of the Cat does accept women and non humans. But that isnt the point.

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/School_of_the_Cat

[Flinsberg]

Originally posted by Banelord:

School of the Cat does accept women and non humans. But that isnt the point.

1 - "they are known to have betrayed the Wolf School"
Okay so they're traitors, nice.

2 - "according to the Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni RPG, they were the only witcher school to admit women"
An irrelevant pen-and-paper game is the only one to mention such a thing. Hardly an evidence and more like an opinion. Last time I checked, Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni wasn't canon.

[Banelord]

Originally posted by SPACEWAVER:

Originally posted by Banelord:

School of the Cat does accept women and non humans. But that isnt the point.

1 - "they are known to have betrayed the Wolf School"
Okay so they're traitors, nice.

2 - "according to the Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni RPG, they were the only witcher school to admit women"
An irrelevant pen-and-paper game is the only one to mention that. Hardly an evidence and more like an opinion.

Yes its very non canonical, but it can be used as a narrative and be canonized for sure.

[Namethatworks]

Originally posted by SPACEWAVER:

Originally posted by Banelord:

School of the Cat does accept women and non humans. But that isnt the point.

1 - "they are known to have betrayed the Wolf School"
Okay so they're traitors, nice.

2 - "according to the Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni RPG, they were the only witcher school to admit women"
An irrelevant pen-and-paper game is the only one to mention that. Hardly an evidence and more like an opinion.

The table top game also isn't cannon...

[Flinsberg]

Originally posted by Banelord:

Yes its very non canonical, but it can be used as a narrative and be canonized for sure.

Knowing the current state of CDPR - I'm sure they will.

[Flinsberg]

Originally posted by Namethatworks:

The table top game also isn't cannon...

Yup.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by jared boll:

I still don't want to play as Ciri

Lucky you, nobody stands behind you with a gun and forces you to buy the game!
Amazing is it not?