9 Things You Don't Know About The Witcher Home Kaer Morhen In The Games
With all the hype of the Netflix show mounting and most likely taking us to the home of the Witchers at Kaer Morhen towards the opening of the second season, there's a lot about the place that still seems shrouded in mystery if you've only played the third game, or if you have even less information about it after only hearing it vaguely alluded to in the show.
There's a lot that we're privy to just playing the games (and more that you might be aware if you've read the books), but while playing the games there are some subtle hints about what's happened both in Kaer Morhen's past and while Geralt has been there throughout the franchise. Let's take a look at some of the lesser-known facts about The Witcher's Kaer Morhen!
9 The Surrounding Grounds Have Killed Young Witchers
The path that surrounds Kaer Morhen is well-known by Witchers, mostly because it's absolutely fraught with danger. Young Witchers refer to it as "The Killer" since it's so perilous, and that name isn't just an exaggeration — more than a few Witchers-in-training have lost their lives there. Not only are there a few simple obstacles set up for Witchers to casually traverse in addition to things like training dummies, but drowners are known to occasionally hang out near the river. There are also other creatures that are known to roam the grounds surrounding the castle.
8 It Was Attacked
It's no secret in the universe of The Witcher that the Witchers themselves, (and by extension, their training ground at Kaer Morhen) are not really looked upon favorably by the public. While they do their best to protect people from monsters, there's no specific reason that a Witcher has to be good or honorable other than upholding their reputation so that they have a steady supply of work. Because of this, Kaer Morhen was attacked when Vesemir was very young, a skirmish he barely made it out of with his life. It was attacked by a mob of angry townspeople who were assisted by mages in their assault.
7 The Trial That Makes Witchers Is Extremely Dangerous
Aside from the fact that Witchers are going to be spending the rest of their lives as bounty-hunting monster-killers, the process that's used to turn them into who they'll be in their later lives is dangerous enough. They're put through three distinct trials — sometimes more depending on who's overseeing the process and how many children they want to lose to it. Geralt was the only one of his class to survive the trial they put him through.
The first trial is for physical agility and knowledge, called The Choice. The second is where the mutagens are introduced, The Trial Of The Grasses, which affects the nervous system. The Trial Of The Dreams gives them their night-vision and makes them sterile. There's also The Trial Of The Mountain, which was usually only for people who couldn't go through full mutations.
6 It's Only Really Used By The Surviving Witchers
Kaer Morhen is pretty much abandoned, being mostly used by Vesemir, Lambert, Eskel, Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer. Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer all lived there with Vesemir for a little while during Ciri's youth, before the events of the third game, in which it's revealed that Ciri is being chased down by The Wild Hunt. While they don't use it much anymore, it's nice to see that in The Witcher 3, they all do their best to make sure that Kaer Morhen is kept up as well as it can be.
5 Geralt Was One Of The Last Witchers To Train There
While Geralt is one of the most famous Witchers to come out of Kaer Morhen, he's also one of the final few Witchers that was made successfully after the sacking of Kaer Morhen. At this point, putting someone else through the trials, particularly The Trial Of The Grasses, is nearly impossible since the only mages who knew how to perform the process were slaughtered.
4 Vesemir Is One Of The Only Surviving Witcher Mentors
In addition to being one of the precious few Witchers that we get to meet throughout the series, Vesemir is an incredibly useful companion for Geralt to have on his quest to find Ciri.
While he unfortunately (for better or for worse) can't create new Witchers since he's unfit to administer the trials, he does his best to make sure that all of the Witchers who are surviving are able to accomplish everything he can help them with.
3 It Was Founded By Elves
While not too much is known about the early days of Kaer Morhen or what the elves did with it while they were using it for whatever ends they required, we do know just a few things about it. Caer a'Muirehen, as it was originally known, is what the elves used to call it in Elder Speak. Aside from that, the name suggests that it used to be surrounded by water, which leads us to conjecture that it used to be a naval base of some kind, especially since it's fortified heavily. The name itself translates to "Keep Of The Elder Sea," and this name is fitting considering they've found fossils of sea animals on the premises.
2 There's Only One Way In
Since there were at any given time tons of potential threats facing Kaer Morhen, it makes sense that its caretakers would take the utmost precautions in making sure that the future protectors of society against the monsters that arrived after The Conjunction Of The Spheres would be protected themselves. As such, there's a very specific road that one must take to Kaer Morhen if such a one is even aware of its existence. The path in, however, is afforded a lot of natural protection since it's populated heavily by some very fearsome beasts and a river that can only be crossed at either of its two fords.
1 Only 2 Non-Witchers Were Ever Trained There
One of the two people included among the non-witchers who have trained at Kaer Morhen has already been widely covered in much of the Witcher series, namely the most recent game. Ciri is the focus of The Witcher 3, so she's an obvious inclusion bearing little explanation. The other person is named Leo, a refugee from war who was rescued by Vesemir.