Demerin

**Demerin of Kovir** is a novice Witcher of the Griffin School. He was trained by the infamous George of Kagen at Kaer Seren, undergoing the Trial of the Grasses and eventually setting off on the Path in 1169.

## Law of Surprise

Demerin was born in the city of Pont Vanis, in the kingdom of Kovir, as the son of a blacksmith and a royal attendant. His father’s work was renowned throughout the Northern Realms, coveted by lords and soldiers of fortune alike. Rumor had it that he had even forged blades and armor for the Witchers that lived in their nearby keep, though such rumors were unhealthy for business. Sometime before Demerin’s birth, Kasmir was traveling back home from Vizima, where he had attended a festival as a guest of one of his lordly patrons. The festival featured goods crafted from all across The Continent, and Kasmir was requested to forge a special blade for presentation. The work won him a heavy purse of coin, and the lord bade him to keep the blade as a trophy of his triumph.

The long road between Vizima and Pont Vanis had always been fraught with danger, and Kasmir was swiftly waylaid by a group of bandits. Though a craftsman of some skill, he hardly knew how to wield a blade in his own defense. As fortune would have it, however, he shared the road with another traveler who came from the opposite direction, just in time to see the altercation and intervene. Blasts of fire, force, and the flashing of blades ended the conflict quickly, and Kasmir came face to face with his savior: a Witcher.

Not just any Witcher, but George of Kagen himself. Kasmir immediately offered the sack of gold to the Witcher, knowing that such folk never worked for free. But George of Kagen was not like other Witchers and refused the gold. Instead, he asked for something simple, and in doing so involved the Law of Surprise. “When you return home, you shall find something unexpected which will bring you either much joy or much sorrow. I will come to your home to retrieve it.” A vague ask, seemingly nothing to the blacksmith. He insisted that George take something else as well, something to remember him by... in case that which he found at home was not to the Witcher’s liking. George took the prize-winning blade, and continued on the Path.

When Kasmir returned to his home, he found his wife ready to greet him at the door with tears in her eyes. He thought of the Witcher’s words, wondering what horrible thing had happened while he was away... and instead, she announced that they were to have a son. A son that was now promised to the Witchers of the Griffin.

## Fort of the Stars, Home of the Griffin

George of Kagen came as promised, riding down the road on a blistering white steed. They had prepared for his arrival for five years, and still they were not prepared to let their son go. Ishanna wept and cried and screamed and cursed the Witcher with her every breath, but her husband had no choice but to fulfill his promise. It was, after all, a Law of the universe. Young Demerin could not understand what was happening, why his parents were letting some stranger take him away from his home, and George spoke little to the boy as they set out on the long road to Kaer Seren. “Where are we going?” He asked to no avail. “Who are you?”, “Where are my mum and dad?”, “Where are you taking me?”... all unanswered. At last, the boy asked one question that George could not refuse. “Why are your eyes funny?” Such a simple question amused the Witcher, to which he replied. “I am a Witcher... and soon, you will be too.”

The first signs of Kaer Seren appeared as the traveling Witcher and his new protege crested a steep peak. Seated deftly upon a cliffside, the ancient keep of the Griffin brought the young boy into a state of awe, for not even all the wonders of Pont Vanis and Lan Exeter could prepare him for the sheer majesty of it. Gentle winter snows fluttered over the towers and parapets, and a set of massive gates opened to greet them. George had arrived early for the coming winter in the keep, with only a small few members of the school there awaiting his arrival, as well as the Sorceress Carla Demetia Crest. Demerin was welcomed with open arms and the great interest of those who would oversee his training, his upbringing, and if things went ill at the Trial of the Grasses, his burial.

Drills began the next day, at the rising of the sun. The boy ended that day bloody, bruised, and beaten. The Witchers had no mercy for children who were to become one of them, and Demerin spent many nights in his quarters sobbing into a pillow and missing home. There was no turning back now, as fate itself has apparently ascribed that he be a Witcher. At the end of the third week, George himself came to Demerin's chambers and spoke with the boy. He reassured him, comforted him as a grandfather may have done, and then gave the boy a token to soothe his sickness for home: the sword that Kasmir had bequeathed to George those few years ago when the bargain had been made. The kind words and patience of the Master Witcher were the first step in Demerin's acclimation to the life of a studious Witcher. The days were still arduous, and he still fell into his bed each night with aches and pains... but he was happy. He much preferred his lessons with the Sorceress, where he set aside the blades of steel and silver and instead learned the secrets of the Signs that Witchers could wield alongside their weapons, and the greater magical arts that only those of the Griffin were given without the steep price of a formal education.

## Trial of the Grasses

Four other boys found themselves brought to Kaer Seren over the next few months, plunged into the same regimen of training as Demerin had. And for a solid year and a half, every day was harder than the previous. The Witchers of the Griffin were sussing out the potential of their recruits, hardening their bodies and expanding their minds, and preparing them for the test which was to come. While the most intimate details of the Trial are a secret only known to Witchers birthed from it and the mages who orchestrate the change, many know that the odds of success are extremely low.

From their group of five, it was quite a miracle that two of the youths managed to survive even the initial phase of consuming 'the grasses', after which their bodies were molded and changed, mutated into a superior form. It warped their physiology beyond recognition, tearing apart their insides and rebuilding them to facilitate the task of slaying otherworldly beasts that could easily tear the average human into ribbons. Demerin spent three weeks in an intense coma, constant nosebleeds and muscle spasms wracking his bad as his mind lay empty and silent. The other boy, Kerek, immediately began vomiting up stomach acid and blood, and screamed throughout the first night until subsequently going temporarily brain dead. Both of them eventually recovered, and when they opened their eyes for the first time afterward... they were those of a viper. They were Witchers, for good or for ill.

Once they could stand on their own two feet again, the pair would discover that all their training up until the Trial had been child's play. Before, they had only the strengths and faculties of a mere human child. Now that the change had taken them, they had not only the full fury of their instructors to contend with but the unpredictability of their new bodies as well. Limbs moved too fast for calculation, causing slips, failed parries, and wild attacks. Reflexes several times faster than the average person, they sometimes reacted too quickly ad caused further injury. And now that their bodies were capable of resisting that much more, Carla's lessons on spellwork pushed them to the end of their wits, forcing every last ounce of magical ability out of them until they moved well beyond the simplistic signs of most Witchers and began dabbling into beginner-level magic.

Beyond the rigorous training that came with being a Witcher, George of Kagen taught his new proteges the true aspect that set the Griffins apart from the other Schools of monster hunters. Carrying with them the traditions of the original Order of Witchers, Witchers of the Griffin School were known to be honorable men, pledged to protect folk big and small from otherworldly horrors that stalked the Continent. And though they worked for coin as all Witchers do, it was expected of them to go out of their way to protect those that could not protect themselves and to ensure that gold never took precedence over innocent lives.