Vesemir of Kaer Morhen

Vesemir was the oldest and most experienced witcher at Kaer Morhen in the 13th century and acted as a father figure to Geralt and the other witchers. Like many of the other witchers, he spent each winter in the fortress and set out on the path when spring arrived.
He was one of the few members of the School of the Wolf to survive the assault on Kaer Morhen. By the 1260s, he was the sole old witcher remaining; however, as he was only a fencing instructor, he didn't possess the knowledge necessary to create new mutagens in order to mutate more disciples into witchers.
== Biography ==
Considered among the oldest witchers remaining, Vesemir was born early enough to witness the construction of Kaer Morhen in the 11th century. His mentor and tutor was Barmin.
In the second half of the 12th century, Kaer Morhen was attacked by an enraged mob led by group of mages and priests. Vesemir survived, either not present in the keep during the pogrom or mistaken as dead by the mob as he lay unconscious among the corpses of his fellows. While the pogrom was condemned, the school never regained its full functionality.
After the massacre, the school was run by Grandmaster Rennes, with Vesemir as second in command: a fencing instructor and precept for the witcher trainees, replacing Varin. At some point, he met Visenna outside Kaer Morhen, a sorceress who decided to give her child, a young boy named Geralt, to train as a witcher. Vesemir became a father figure to Geralt, but treated all young witchers with harsh affection. Apart from participating in the school's life, Vesemir also took some witcher contracts. One of his famous deeds involved disenchanting the curse afflicting the "Swan of Poviss".
In 1217, during the celebration of Saovine, village of Fox Hollow in Toussaint was attacked by a horde of vampires led by Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, a higher vampire. Along with the villagers led by Germain, Vesemir managed to kick the vampires out of the village. The witcher however, knew that their victory was only temporary and that the vampires would strike again once they healed their wounds. He commanded the peasants to the castle of Tesham Mutna, where Regis took shelter.
Although Vesemir was injured in the clash, the peasants managed to capture the vampire. After chopping Regis into pieces, they buried his remains as deep as possible. While the treatment was insufficient to kill the higher vampire, it was more than enough to convince Regis to stop drinking blood and attacking the villagers.
For some time, the School of the Wolf was funded by the monarchs of Kaedwen alongside the School of the Cat. Vesemir had to reluctantly cooperate with Guxart, the fencing master of the Cats. Originally not liking each other, the two grew to understand one another. The cooperation between the schools unfortunately had to cease, as the Cat Grandmaster Treyse and a group of students had secretly conspired with King Radowit II and the mage Astrogarus against the Wolves. A week before the planned tournament between the schools Vesemir and Guxart were put under arrest by king's men, thus spared from the massacre that occurred. During the tournament, King Radowit betrayed both Cats and Wolves ordering his soldiers to shoot them all, resolving both his budget problems and imagined threats to his power in a simple but effective way.
Both masters – or, technically, acting grandmasters since Treyse's and Rennes' deaths – were released some time later and allowed to rebuild the schools, on the condition that the royal money would be never given to them again and that the schools must operate alone and unfunded. The schools declined slowly, and the deaths of mage assistants and veteran witchers put a definite end to the Wolf School by the late 1230s or early 1240s, as children were no longer trained there after then.
During the winter of 1234, while fulfilling a contract in Oxenfurt, Vesemir briefly dated young lady Mignole. After noticing each other from afar, Vesemir received a secret letter from the woman inviting him. The two had a tryst, which was unfortunately interrupted by Mignole's father who'd learned of the affair. Vesemir fled, leaving his gambeson behind in the process, and had an arrest warrant for him put out by the father.
Even though the school ceased to function, Vesemir and other witchers used to spend winters at Kaer Morhen. He allowed some non-Wolf witchers such as Coën, but forbade the entrance for the renegades, as in case of Brehen, whose massacre at Iello was exceptional even amongst the other Cats.
Likely around 1242, Vesemir hosted Eskel's Surprise Child, Deidre Ademeyn, at the keep, which prompted a diplomatic conflict with her brother and King Henselt's vassal, Merwin Ademeyn: Deidre was first in line to the throne, which did not suit her brother well. Ultimately the princess left the castle, however not without leaving a disfiguring scar at Eskel's face.
=== Training Ciri ===
Decades later, in or around 1265, Geralt brought his surprise child, Cirilla, princess of Cintra, to be trained as a witcher. Vesemir taught her about the different monsters and herbs, leaving the physical training to Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, and Coën. However, the witchers soon found out that Ciri was a source, as she entered into a trance when she accidentally drank white seagull. The third time, Ciri foretold the deaths of Geralt and Coën. The witchers then decided to summon an old friend, the sorceress Triss Merigold, to help Ciri, under the pretext that Vesemir's bones ached. Triss posed some conditions to the witchers as she made them see the errors in their ways of treating Ciri, and Vesemir accepted the conditions despite the initial protests of some of the witchers.
Category:Characters
Category:Witcher