Female Witchers

## Female Witcher

**Female Witchers** (Elder Speech: *Vatt'ghern*), or **Witcheresses**, are female humanoids which have successfully undergone the mutation process used to create their traditionally male counterparts. The name ‘witcheress’ is a colloquialism primarily utilized in the North, alongside others such as **witcher lass** and **she-witcher**. In Zerrikania they share the same title as their male counterparts **Alqatil** (Zerrikani Dialect: *Slayer*), and in Nilfgaard there is likewise no distinction between male or female Witchers, both being refered to as Vedymin.

Female Witchers were thought to be a myth until after the Second Conjunction, when the Manticore School’s sorceress Nasira perfected the Cat School’s formulae and devised a selection process by which the chances of survivability were improved exponentially. Prior to the Second Conjunction, however, the number of female witchers was less than a handful, with even fewer of those individuals having known names.

## History

### Alzur’s Experiments

The mage Alzur claimed 38 orphan children to serve as the basis for his experiments, the surviving members of which would go on to become the first Witchers. Among them, an unknown number of girls were chosen, all of whom died, and it was determined that the alchemical mutagens used to transform humans into Witchers responded better to the endocrine system of pre-pubescent males. As greater and greater success with male children continued to propagate the practice of utilizing girls quickly fell out of favor.

### The Cat School

Later, after the schism The Cat School, with its incomplete and erratic formulae, went against tradition and began to accept female students. At first, the girls taken by the Cat School were only trained in the way of a witcher and not subjected to mutation. However, in a bid to bolster numbers for their school, the Cat School sorcerer began to experiment with their erratic formula. Of the dozens of girls who would undergo this new iteration of mutagenic alchemy one would eventually survive the trials. At first it appeared that the transformation had been complete and that the first female witcher had successfully been made. The girl, whose name has been lost to history, survived for 3 weeks in seemingly perfect health. Unfortunately, like the many girls before her, she eventually deteriorated in both mind and body, dying soon after.

This did not stop the Cat School’s mages from continuing their research. An autopsy of the girl’s corpse revealed a unique trait thought to have been non-existent in previous female subjects. A close examination of the girl’s internal reproductive system revealed an anomaly which was determined to have caused cystic growths in the ovaries, as well as the beginnings of what appeared to be endometrial tissues growing outside of the uterus. It was believed that this may have contributed to the girl’s survival, but to what extent was only fully understood after The Second Conjunction.

#### The First Female Witchers

While the girl’s name was lost to history, word of her short-lived survival as the first fully mutated female produced by a witcher school lead to the eventual theft of the Cat School’s formula by another grandmaster and later the distribution of the formula to the other Schools. Some, like the Bear School, outright rejected the practice on the basis that Cat School’s formula was bound to produce, in Arnaghad’s own words “weak, crazed little bitches who served only as lesser imitations of true witchers”, while others like the Viper School, believed it was far too costly an endeavor to attempt to make their own female witchers.

Further disagreements on the moral and ethical nature of mutating young girls resulted in further splintering. Some Schools disavowed the practice openly, but went on to continue the experiments irrespective of the largely sexist dissenters.

The results of these secret experiments were the first female witchers, estimated in number at less than a handful in the three centuries that would see the rise and fall of the Order of the Witchers. Among them, only two were named and confirmed to have actually existed; Adela and Dragonfly.

### The Manticore School

When Imad Assem formally founded the Manticore School, a bargain between he and the Royal family of Zerrikania was struck; that he and his guild would, in addition to serving the crown directly, apply their restored mutagenic formula to willing volunteers from the local steppe clans. At the time, Imad did not have access to the original formula from which he and his peers were made and so the Zerrikanian Queen appointed her own court mage to the Manticore School. Together Imad and Nasira recreated the original Witcher formula, which was later combined with that of the the Cat School, and applied this hybrid formula to a wide range of female volunteers.

Initially, the results were very much the same. Girls who underwent mutation died in the process, and only 1 in every 10 boys survived it themselves. Nasira did not give up hope and continued to push on, beginning to select from a wider range of girls, even including grown women. Through this process she discovered that in contrast to their male counterparts, marginally older female subjects were much more amenable to the changes induced by the mutagens, but no one individual proved viable. The repeated experimentation gave way to several theories, many of which resulted in further more promising experimentations, but never in fully mutated female witchers. This remained true all the way to the formal disbanding of the Manticore School by the Royal Family of Zerrikania.

Without the backing of the crown, volunteers became few and far between, and Nasira’s as of yet inconclusive efforts remained so.

### The Second Conjunction

When the Second Conjunction of Spheres brought forth a new wave of monsters, the once dying trade of the witcher saw an unprecedented spike in demand. To compensate for this, the practice of experimenting on girls was revived, spearheaded by the Zerrikanian sorceress Nasira.

Despite previous results having been deemed inconclusive, Nasira had not given up her attempts. Rather, she had spent much of the last century following the threads of her previous experimentations’ theories. This lead her into researching hormonal anomalies and endocrine disorders among women and girls amid the vast populations of Zerrikania and the Korath. Given the female forward nature of these respective cultures, information on the subject of female reproductive anomalies was readily available in detail. What she learned during these travels is what lead to the eventual breakthrough that would more readily permit female mutation.

After yet another lengthy trial period Nasira found success. It was discovered that the key to a successful mutation in girls was a carefully cultivated combination of endocrine and reproductive disorders that through which the resulting hormonal imbalance, when allowed to persist over the course of several years, alongside a specialized diet, facilitated a dramatic increase in survival rate and mutation response. The reason for this lay in the effect these disorders had on the female body; primarily that when allowed to persist into pubescence the overall testosterone level of girls afflicted rose to levels comparable to that of prepubescent boys. It was determined that this specific combination of disorders only developed naturally in 6 of every 10,000 women and girls, but that with a bit of magical intervention Nasira could induce the proper combination in young girls who exhibited signs of at least one of these anomalies.

Through repeated successes and very careful selection, screening, and magical tempering, Nasira eventually crafted a formula that allowed 1 in every 4 girls selected to successfully and fully become mutated Witchers. The first to survive these trials was a girl named Zhira, and she became the first of the female Manticores, as well as the first successful female witcher made after the Second Conjunction.

## Physiology and Distinctions

* **Sterility:** Exactly like their male counterparts, female Witchers become infertile as a result of their mutations. All female Witchers are unable to become pregnant or even ovulate. Like with sorceresses, the mutation process atrophies the internal reproductive organs, resulting in ovaries that no longer produce ova, but are still present and capable of producing small amounts of estrogen. Their bodies then rely on other organs, directed by the pituitary glands to compensate and keep their hormonal profile balanced.
* **Libido:** While the belief that women experience sexual desire to a lesser extent than males is false, it should be noted that in comparison to their human counterparts, female Witchers exhibit a libido that would be considered comparable to what is socially acceptable of the average human male. This is largely the result of the elimination of risk factors that would otherwise prove detrimental to ordinary human women; pregnancy, venereal disease, and loss of social or financial status. In some female Witchers, the increased production of testosterone as a result of their reproductive anomalies can also provide a boost in sexual desire, but to a far lesser extant than the aforementioned factors.
* **Feline Eyes:** that grant very acute nightvision - witchers can constrict their pupils to see in blinding light or open them to see in near pitch darkness. This nightvision can be further enhanced with the cat potion, but in general, it is good enough by itself to not require further enhancement. Their entire sensory system is overall enhanced, allowing them to identify the species of animal from the scent of their blood, and detect nearby beings even when out of sight.
* **Disease Resistance:** In most cases functioning as complete immunity, and a boosted immune system, allows female witchers to resist the effects of monster-born infections, diseases, and even viruses. This also means that they are largely immune to human sicknesses as well, and will not suffer from infected wounds as severely as their male counterparts might.
* **Exceptional Strength, Speed, Reflexes, and Endurance:** All witchers possess combat prowess that is far beyond any normal or well-trained human, which allows them to swiftly end fights with minimal effort, and perform physical feats non-witchers couldn't hope to match. A witcher's physical abilities are sufficient to defeat most monsters single-handedly when combined with extensive training and proper weaponry, whereas regular men could only hope to accomplish this in large groups. Witchers have also been known to shrug off hits that would render normal men unconscious, and survive the strikes of powerful monsters, such as giants or other beings possessing herculean strength, that would otherwise kill humans with a single blow.
* **Signs and Magical Sense:** All witchers exhibit higher magical potential than the average human, which gives them the ability to perform simple yet incredibly versatile combat magic in the form of signs. They also develop a sixth sense that allows them to "feel" things around them, be it items of importance or people's immediate intentions. This explains their uncanny ability to track and hunt people and monsters. Like their male counterparts, the amount of actual magical potential female witchers possess is nowhere near that of trained mages.
* **Accelerated Healing:** Female witchers share the ability to heal quickly from wounds, including near-fatal blows that would otherwise have killed ordinary men.
* **Prolonged Lifespan:** Dragonfly and Adela, the only two named female witchers from before the Second Conjunction are both presumed to be well into their second, or even third centuries and have retained their vigor. Nasira’s improved formulae kept this enhancement, providing female witchers with the ability to retain their physical prime well beyond natural human lifespans.

#### Distinctions to Male Counterparts

*After the Second Conjunction, the female witchers being produced by the Schools using Nasira’s perfected formula began to exhibit certain physiological constants. Most of these traits are universal among female witchers, but not all, and there are even some who exhibit a unique trait of their own.*

##### *Increased Survivability*

Prior to the second conjunction most girls who underwent the trials did not survive. After the Second Conjunction, the sorceress Nasira perfected the Cat School’s formula and developed a selection process catered to singling out girls whose reproductive anomalies facilitated an increased rate of survival, the rate at which girls passed the trials increased to 1 in 4. This means, that on average, when selected for these specific pre-requisites, female initiates are nearly twice as likely to survive as their male counterparts.

##### *Average Trial Age*

Because of their unique pre-requisite, female Witchers would more readily undergo their trials at later ages, ranging between 13 and 15 years of age. This did not bar them from undergoing physical training at their respective Witcher schools, and in fact it was determined that this extra training, in combination with a specialized diet, improved their chances of survival in the later Trials.

##### *Advanced Smell and Taste*

Female Witchers have been recorded as having a more acute sense of smell and taste, as compared to their male counterparts. This manifests in the field as better, more accurate tracking and the ability to determine based on taste the chemical composition of certain bodily fluids; blood, primarily.

##### *Physical Endurance*

Female Witchers have consistently shown that muscular endurance was significantly increased versus their male counterparts and that at a similar degree of fatigue, female witchers showed less of an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Female witchers, irrespective of physical build and individual strength, consistently outlasted their targets, marking them as the Continent’s deadliest persistence hunters.

##### *Poison Immunity*

Because of the side-effects of their unique mutations, female witchers often find themselves suffering from chronic pain, which they manage by self-medicating using a specialized potion. This has promoted an overall increase in tolerance to toxins and poisons, akin to the tolerance found in male Manticore witchers. However, because of their near daily intake, most female witchers are purported to have boosted this natural tolerance to total immunity, allowing them to drink and make use of even more potent potions as well as resist the deadliest known poisons.

##### *Variable Stature*

Where the build and statures of each male witcher may vary slightly, female witchers show a far greater variation in overall build and bodily composition. This is because, while every girl who successfully undergoes the trials does possess the same combination of reproductive and hormonal anomalies, the degree to which each girl suffers from each of them independently differs from subject to subject. It is this factor combined with mutagenic alchemy that results in tremendous potential for physical variation. Some female Witchers exhibit no physical changes to their stature and build, remaining lithe and typically feminine, others end up stunted, retaining the slight builds of young girls, while yet others see a marked increase in both height and muscle mass to such extremes as to appear androgynous or even wholly masculine.

## Notable Female Witchers

Below is a list of all of the known female witchers created both before and after the Second Conjunction. They are divided into the categories First Conjunction and Second Conjunction.

### First Conjunction

* Dragonfly
* Adela
* Freyja of Kaedwen

### Second Conjunction

* Zhira of Zerrikania
* Christa

## Notes

* This is a **FAN-MADE Expansion** of the lore on Witchers, as described in Andrzej Sapkowski's works, and of the lore on The Manticore School, as described in CDPR's Witcher game series, the Gwent stand-alone, and R. Talsorian's Zerrikanian DLC for the Witcher TRPG.
* This Fanon is available for collaboration and expansion but is **not** to be edited by anyone other the original author.
* The term 'witcher lass' was coined by artist BS\_Artsss (Banished\_Potato) and has been colloquially utilized by other artists for their female witcher characters.
	+ Most of the artwork featured in this article will be sourced from her work, but are not to be utilized for personal OCs here or anywhere else. **This means you cannot use her art/characters as the faceclaims of yours.**
	+ The artwork is being used within the guidelines set forth by the artist. For further information please check her personal twitter account.
* This article exists in the primary Fanon, **but is in no way intended to be THE sole origin of female witchers**. No one is beholden to the lore of this article. If you have a female witcher character that you would like to have exist without any of the prerequisites outlined in this article, you are more than free to do so.
	+ Users may also use parts of this proposed lore as suits them and at their own discretion.
	+ With that said, the joint authors of this article tried to leave as much open to possibility as possible within the constraints of established canon, popular fan theories, and lore appropriate/in-universe cultural differences.

## Trivia

* The reproductive disorders, which for the sake of immersion have gone unnamed in the article, are based in real reproductive and hormonal disorders such as poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, primary ovarian insufficiency, and others.
	+ These disorders cause hormonal imbalances in women that often result in increased testosterone and can cause fertility issues if left untreated.
	+ Because it is heavily implied that the original witcher formulae reacted specifically with the male endocrine system and specifically with testosterone, it was decided that these disorders could, in the world of the witcher, provide a small chance of successful mutation if applied to girls who had already been suffering from them.
* It was decided that in contrast to the patriarchal Northern Kingdoms, and the pseudo-egalitarian culture of the Nilfgaardian Empire, Zerrikania as a whole would have a much greater and culturally driven interest in studying and treating female-specific diseases, disorders, and general ailments.