Mentioning Geralt of Rivia, the hero of The Witcher novels and video games, might conjure the image of a Herculean Adonis with ivory hair, tiger eyes, and a square jaw. The monster slayer is also known for his convoluted backstory, and like all enduring protagonists, he's more than just his looks - he's complicated. The Witcher, currently a popular Netflix series, sees Henry Cavill as Geralt, fighting creatures straight out of Polish folklore in an eight-episode story arc.
While bits and pieces of Geralt's origins can be pieced together from dialogue between the main characters, we don't get a sense of his upbringing or the backstory to his witcher training until the season finale. Episode 8 offers a glimpse of Geralt's childhood in a fever dream, but all we're able to discern is that he was abandoned by his mother and trained by an elder witcher named Vesemir. Read on for 10 things you didn't know about Geralt of Rivia's past.
HIS MOTHER WAS A DRUID
In episode 8 of the series, it's implied that Geralt's mother Visenna was able to use magic. We see her floating an apple to a young Geralt sitting on the back of a cart, and she appears to him as an adult when he's wounded and suffering a fever dream.
Visenna was a young druid who first appeared in The Road With No Return, a short story not connected to The Witcher Saga. However, she was later incorporated into it as Geralt's mother, who abandoned him at an early age to be trained as a witcher.
HIS WITCHER TRAINING WAS EXCRUCIATING
In the series, we see a lot of Yennefer's training to be a mage at Aretuza, but it's nothing compared to Geralt's training at the School of the Wolf. Beginning at an early age, he was pushed through mental and physical challenges leading up to the Trial of the Grasses, which was considered the ritual that would determine what caliber of witcher he would become.
Geralt was considered the strongest of his fellow students, and when it came time for the ritual, he proved particularly resilient to the mutagens introduced to his body. They gave him strength, stamina, and reflexes far beyond any other witcher, while also turning his hair stark white and his eyes orange.
WITCHERS WERE ALMOST GONE WHEN HE BEGAN TRAINING
After Geralt's father, the warrior Korin, was killed by vrans before he was born, his mother Visenna had difficulties raising him on her own. A freelancing mage (much like Yennefer), she left him with Vesemir and the witchers, hoping his life would have meaning since they were desperate for students.
The sacking of Kaer Morhen and the paranoid killing of witchers occurred several decades before Geralt's training, though he heard of the "glory days" of their robust number. Humans felt they were butchers and thieves, mages felt they were charlatans, and kingdoms felt they could be used as political pawns. It was during his training that he fell in with several druids, one of whom was called Mousesack (or Ermion, in the games).
HE'S NOT FROM RIVIA
Have you found yourself wondering just what sort of accent Henry Cavill is meant to be using? American? English? Something in between? In fact, he developed it himself, an approximation of what a "Rivian" accent might sound like, and to distinguish Geralt's voice from everyone around him.
Like most witchers, Geralt wasn't from the town he claimed to be. Geralt wasn't originally from Rivia, but took the title because it sounded nobler. Considering how mistrustful humans are of witchers in general, making it seem like he was an honorable warrior from a well-respected township seemed the smart thing to do.
HE WAS KNIGHTED ONCE
Early on in Geralt's career as a witcher, before his notoriety as the White Wolf had spread far and wide throughout the Continent, he roamed the land proving his worth any way he could. Eventually he and his companions stumbled across a battle being waged on either side of a bridge.
Unsure of what to do, Geralt and his friends began attacking one of the opposing sides, which turned out to be the hordes of Nilfgaard. By saving the bridge and repelling the invaders, Geralt found himself worthy of knighthood by Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia. He was ever after known as Geralt of Rivia.
HE FOUGHT A DUPLICATE OF HIMSELF
In the story "Eternal Flame," Geralt encounters a doppler similar to the one we see working as an agent of Cahir and the Nilfgaardian army. It first impersonates Dainty Biberveldt, a halfling merchant, before assuming other identities in an effort to conceal its true form.
By the time Geralt of Rivia happens upon it, the doppler has assumed its final shape: The Witcher himself. The doppler hadn't just replicated his appearance, but his physical attributes as well. It was a fairly evenly matched fight until Geralt outsmarted his duplicate.
HE BEFRIENDED A VAMPIRE
As the series often shows, Geralt is a man of conviction. He may kill monsters for humans, but he often sympathizes with them far more than his employers, who often treat him with suspicion and hostility for being genetically altered. In one notable encounter, Geralt befriends a doctor named Regis, who reveals himself to be a Higher Vampire.
Just as he has been known to show compassion and empathy with Elves, so too did he demonstrate himself to be an ally to the vampire. Not only did Geralt refuse to kill Regis, but the two also become friends. Regis would prove to be Geralt's most trusted adviser on many further escapades.
HE MADE UP THE WITCHER CODE
To the untrained, Geralt's declarations of what a witcher does or doesn't do might sound like gospel (and enough to fool Jaskier), but in actuality, it's all completely fabricated. Every witcher lives their life based on the direction of their own moral compass and their own set of ideologies.
The Witcher Code was first developed by witchers who didn't want to get involved with a particular situation. Be it because the coin offered was too insignificant, or because they didn't like the politics of it, they could simply explain it violated the Code and be on to bigger and better-paying gigs.
HE ONCE KILLED ANOTHER WITCHER
In Season of Storms, a prequel to the first Witcher novel, Geralt does battle with Letho, a witcher from the Cat School of Brehen. Known to have slaughtered an entire village, Geralt's mentor Vesemir forbid Letho from joining the School of the Wolf.
Geralt's enforcement of Vesemir's oath could prove much more violent in the games. It's possible to break "The Witcher Code" and kill Letho, as well as other witchers who prove to be just as dangerous. In many ways, it only proved to further add to the White Wolf's notorious reputation.
HIS SWORD WAS INSCRIBED WITH SPECIAL RUNES
Witcher swords are made in Mahakam, constructed to be the finest blades in the Continent. Geralt's sword isn't completely made of silver, despite the fact that silver is often a powerful alloy against monsters and supernatural beasts that are repelled by it.
His sword, like those of his fellow witchers, is inscribed with runes to give it power. Sometimes the smith will etch a crude joke, but Geralt's sword is translated from Elder Speech and reads, "My gleam penetrates the darkness, my brightness disperses the gloom."