Pre-Reading: The Witcher

The first set of stories in the Witcher series.

I've been a fan of The Witcher series since I decided to take a chance on a game I had never heard of. Having played both games, I decided to look into the source materials for the games, the series of short stories by Andrzej Sapkowsi.  I am working my way through them and learning many new details about the complicated world players traverse as Geralt of Rivia.

From reading a few of the books, I have learned that the world of the Northern Kingdoms is an extremely complicated landscape of alliances, intrigues, and power struggles.  Contained within this landscape you have a vast array of characters with their own motivations or ambitions.  The elves...the former rulers of the lands of the Northern Kingdoms whose fortunes have fallen so much that they are the targets of brutal pogroms and constant fighting between their factions and the humans.  The sorceresses with their many spells and charms that allow them to make themselves beautiful and live extremely long life spans.  They claim a mastery of magic that only women can posses and scheme and plot to manipulate the politics in the many kingdoms in which they serve as advisors to kings.  The dwarves who, like the elves, are also treated as outcasts, but have managed to use their business acumen to navigate into positions of some power.  Theses are just a few of the many diverse groups that populate the world that has been portrayed in the games.

One major character from the books that hasn't featured in the games yet is the so-called "child of fate," the princess Cirilla from Cintra.  Ciri and Geralt have a strange bond that seems to draw them together, but then pull them apart.  There is a very strange father/mentor relationship between them.  Geralt briefly attempted to train Ciri as a witcher before he realized that she had vast magical powers.  After that a series of different sorceresses attempted to train Ciri and as a result she got mixed up in the middle of the unending plots.  She has some of the impressive sword skills of a witcher as well as the magical knowledge she attained undrer the tutelage of the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg.

Ciri looks to make an appearance in the upcoming Witcher game and I am interested to see how they incorporate her into the story.  I think I read that she will be a playable character.

If you're a fan of The Witcher games and enjoy reading, I would recommend checking out the original stories.  They do shed some light on the characters and world portrayed in the games.