One of the most important places in the universe of The Witcher is Kaer Morhen, the keep where Geralt of Rivia and many others were trained, and which has a dark history as it was sacked many years ago and many witchers died during that attack – but why was Kaer Morhen sacked and who was responsible for it? The Witcher is a series of novels and short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which gained popularity when it was adapted to video games. The Witcher’s fanbase was expanded when in 2019 it got its first English language adaptation thanks to Netflix, becoming one of the platform’s most popular and successful TV shows.
Netflix’s The Witcher introduced the audience to Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), the three main characters of the series whose paths converged towards the end of season 1. Although Yennefer and Ciri’s backstories were shown in season 1, Geralt’s continues to be mostly a mystery, but the prequel movie, Nightmare of the Wolf, offered a very brief look at his childhood. Nightmare of the Wolf is set many years before the events of The Witcher season 1 and focuses on the story of Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor, and showed a key moment in The Witcher’s history: the attack on Kaer Morhen.
Nightmare of the Wolf showed how Vesemir ended up becoming a witcher and his inner struggles during and after his transformation, going from a conceited and selfish monster hunter to a real mentor to the young survivors of the sacking of Kaer Morhen. The witchers’ keep is known for being the training place of the School of the Wolf and the place that saw the creation of witchers like Geralt, Eskel, and Lambert, but it’s also known for the attack it went through in which most of the witchers living in it died. The sacking of Kaer Morhen was shown in Nightmare of the Wolf, and it was led by sorceress Tetra (voiced by Lara Pulver), who had a personal vendetta against witchers.
At one point in Nightmare of the Wolf, Tetra told Vesemir the story of a young sorceress wrongfully killed by a witcher as part of a con, and she was later revealed to be her mother. Tetra resented all witchers as she grew up and supported their eradication, but it got worse years later when she learned that Deglan (Graham MacTavish), Vesemir’s mentor and master of the School of the Wolf at the time, had been creating monsters in order to protect the witchers’ way of life. When one of those creatures, named Kitsu, a crossbreed with magic too strong, escaped Kaer Morhen and killed many local humans and elves, Tetra seized the situation and manipulated the monster into bringing other monsters from the Red Swamp to attack Kaer Morhen and kill all the witchers. Tetra then went after Kaer Morhen’s mages, but Kitsu put Vesemir under an illusion and had him kill the mages himself. Tetra was killed by Deglan as she tried to kill Vesemir, and Deglan succumbed to his injuries not long after.
The only witchers to survive the sacking of Kaer Morhen were Vesemir and four young apprentices, among those Geralt, who carried on with the legacy of the School of the Wolf. However, in The Witcher season 2, more witchers were seen around Kaer Morhen, so there’s some explaining to do as Vesemir was supposedly left without the potions to turn more trainees into witchers, yet there were around 11 witchers during season 2. Kaer Morhen will continue to be a key setting in The Witcher, and even though the story of the attack has now been told, there are still some questions the TV series or its spinoffs have to answer.