The Witcher season 2 will take viewers to Kaer Morhen, a very special place in the stories of Geralt and Ciri – here’s why. Based on the book series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher made its debut on Netflix in December 2019 and was so well-received by critics and viewers that it might be the streaming giant’s biggest first TV season ever. Netflix was well-aware of the success and popularity of The Witcher books and video games and renewed the series for a second season before the first one was out.
Netflix’s The Witcher approached Sapkowski’s characters differently than in the source material, and instead of just following the title witcher, it focused on three characters in different places and points in time, whose paths converged towards the end of the season. These characters are Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), an enhanced monster hunter known as a “witcher”; Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), a powerful sorceress with a tragic past; and Ciri (Freya Allan), the crown princess of Cintra who was in the process of discovering her powers. Geralt and Ciri are bound by the Law of Surprise, and they finally found each other right at the end of season 1, and the next season will take them to a very important place in The Witcher’s universe: Kaer Morhen.
Kaer Morhen is an old keep where the witchers of the School of the Wolf were trained. This fortress can only be reached by “The Witchers Trail”, which young witchers nicknamed “The Killer” as it’s a very dangerous road in which a few Witchers-to-be have died. The place was attacked by an enraged mob led by mages and priests who saw witchers as abominations and killed most of the teachers and students living there, and this is known as the “Sacking of Kaer Morhen”, an event mentioned in season 1. One of the few survivors of this massacre was Vesemir (to be played by Kim Bodnia), who some time later met Visenna, a sorceress who gave her child, Geralt, to train as a witcher. Kaer Morhen, then, saw the training of witchers like Vesemir, Geralt, Eskel (Basil Eidenbenz), and Lambert (Paul Bullion), these last two set to appear in The Witcher season 2.
Now, set photos, along with the addition of Eskel and Lambert, all point at season 2 seeing the arrival of Geralt and Ciri to Kaer Morhen, which will now also have an important role in Ciri’s arc. In the books, Geralt took Ciri to Kaer Morhen to be trained, with Vesemir teaching her about monsters and herbs, Lambert and Eskel training her in the art of combat, and Coën (Yasen Atour) training her in sword combat. It’s also in Kaer Morhen where Ciri entered into a trance after accidentally drinking white seagull (an alcoholic beverage drank by witchers) and later foretold the deaths of some of the witchers she knew. Although she was trained by Vesemir, Geralt, Lambert, Eskel, and Coën in the legendary fortress of Kaer Morhen, Ciri isn’t a witcher as she didn’t go through the same process as them, especially all the mutations, so she’s only considered as a trainee and an affiliate of the School of the Wolf.
Kaer Morhen, then, is not only a very important place to Geralt but also in Ciri’s story, and with the arrival of Vesemir, Eskel, Lambert, and Coën in The Witcher season 2, it was inevitable for the series to take viewers to the fortress. How long they will stay there and if the series will explore the story of Kaer Morhen or not remains to be seen, but what’s going to be really interesting to see is Ciri’s training in different disciplines.