School of the Panther

Gaeten

Brehen

Aiden

Jad Karridan

The **School of the Panther**, Once Known as The **School of The Cat** is one of the witcher schools.

## Background

The Cats (or Felines) were Witchers who developed fighting styles focusing on speed, precision, and agility. As a result, Cat school Witchers as well as their equipment do not deal a lot of raw damage, but can inflict deadly critical hits. By extension, their gear was designed to maximise flexibility and provide the greatest possible range of motion.

Unfortunately, members of the Cat school proved as flexible in terms of morals and politics as their armour. Over time, they became pariahs even among their fellow Witchers, due to taking contracts on humans as well as monsters. Geralt of Rivia states repeatedly in novels that Witchers don't accept money for killing people, as they were made to combat monsters. One of the possible reasons for that was the mutation process, which tended to create an abnormal number of psychotic Witchers. Regardless of the reasons, they are known to have betrayed the Wolf School and led to the massacre during the tournament.

Geralt encountered Brehen, a witcher of the school, while Bonhart slew another. The fallen witcher's medallion was claimed by Ciri at Stygga.

Curiously, it appears the Cats were the only school to accept women as Witcher candidates. There are also speculations that the school was founded by member of elven culture group Aen Seidhe, but the truth is that founders were originally abortively-mutated, fallen Witchers who had been banished from Kaer Morhen. Ironically the Last Cat Witchers reside in Kaer Morhen.

Currently the School of the Cat has been Reformed by Artur of Nilfgaard into the School of the Panther. The School of the Panther has adopted various New Methods to Counteract the Cats Bad Reputation.

## Training Methods

### Combat

Originally True to their Fearsome Reputation The Cat School Witchers employ Brutal Training Regimens in their pursuit of training New Members. They would frequently beat their apprentices in their younger years, seeking to numb their kinder emotions and increase resistance to pain before the Trials began. They also had a focus on using quick and stealthy fighting styles similar to those of the Scoie'tel, as each skills combat style had a number of Characteristics related to their Medallion's Animal. They Shared this Preference with the School of the Viper.

However Following the Schools Reformation into the School of the Panther, The Training Methods were Altered to include the Techniques of the Other Schools. The Witchers of the School of the Panther were known to train in Ofieri Techniques as well, their traditional methods Varied between Instructors, as Artur had Recruited Fellow Witchers Eskel, Gaetan, Letho, and Lambert. Letho had been a member of the School of the Viper, and Gaetan was a Fellow Former Cat. Eskel and Lambert were Trained at the School of the Cat.

### Magic

Contrary to The Typical Magic Taught by the Witchers in General, Panther School Witchers were Taught Advanced Magic's, to assist them in their investigations. Amongst those that were taught were Hydromancy, Oneiromancy, and Pyromancy, Ceraunoscopy, and Cleromancy. The Witchers of the School of the Panther made use of various Potions that would Supercharge their Signs Intensity.

As A Result of Their Advanced Abilities In Magic Their Armour Though Light and Flexible is Forged with Magical Assistance to increase Sign Intensity, Effectiveness, and The General Durability of the Armour itself.