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[willnotchoose]

Player Information

Name: KaOS
Age: 32
Contact details: orderfromka0s on plurk, alphamikefoxtrot#9890 on discord
Other characters: none

Character Information

Name: Geralt of Rivia
Canon: The Witcher (2020, Netflix)
Canon Point: end of season 1, after (reluctantly) accepting his Child of Surprise as A Thing
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: ou
Age: almost 100 chronologically, physically late 30s/early 40s

World Information: standard high fantasy fare; elves and dwarves and all the rest, feudal societies, warring factions, and magical laws that hold sway, destinies shaped by outside forces. The one main difference is the Witchers, a particular sect of humans created through alchemy and magic and intense training to create mutated humans especially trained to hunt monsters. Their last stronghold was overrun and destroyed when Geralt was much younger, so the methods have been lost, but a few of them still exist here and there acting as monster hunters for hire, another kind of monster feared by most for their strange mix of magic, martial abilities, and potions, not to mention their unusual appearance, superhuman abilities, and alleged lack of emotions.

Personal History: an episode by episode overview can be found here

Personality: Witchers, allegedly, are emotionless creatures. Unfeeling, all but inhuman to hear most tell it, and under most circumstances Geralt wouldn't argue otherwise. Because it's not entirely inaccurate; he was made, forged through alchemy and magic and intensive training to be a weapon of man. He was only a child when the process started, a fate he had no say in, and without normal rearing, with the emphasis on ability and strength rather than empathy or morality, it's honestly a wonder he came out as well-adjusted as he has.

For a given value, anyway.

Geralt sees himself through the lens of others more than his own. He's grown resigned to his particular existence over the years, but it's generally taken the shape of bitterness for what could have been and a general heartfelt belief that the universe operates on randomness and selfishness rather than by any greater power. He exists to kill monsters, his worth measured in his ability to kill monsters and stay alive, and that alone, because that's the only lesson he's ever learned in that regard. Before Yennefer he only ever paid for sex, and Yennefer ended in misery because emotions got in the way. ...well. Emotions, moral disagreements, and a djinn wish, but that's all details.

Because despite what the rumor is, he's not wholly emotionless, only extremely stunted. He either stuffs them down or gives into them at the worst moments, a bull in a china shop hurting everyone in his vicinity because he's never learned tact, lashing out at friends with cruel words when his own feelings are hurt, whether or not they're deserved or even the right target. He's blunt and reserved in most instances, but holds his true feelings close to his chest because they're more fragile than he likes to let on. When he ultimately makes friends they're friends to his last breath even if he won't say the word out loud, his own life risked for theirs over and over because he has very little regard for his own. Geralt lets others think he has no emotions, but the reality is he feels deeply, he just doesn't always know what to do with them, or how to articulate, and continually puts himself last because he's only a tool. A weapon. An instrument to be used, no more and no less. Most days it's highly debatable whether he even still sees himself as human or not.

But despite all that, and despite the particular flavor of his training, he's still managed to form his own kind of code. He won't kill sentient monsters, or those that aren't a threat so much as in a bad position of their own. He never takes more than what is owed him, and only ever reneges on a deal if it was found to have a false pretense at the start. He won't abandon a friend, and acts to try to mitigate loss of life on all sides if he can, preferring to find a less violent solution if he can, even going so far as to negotiate his and Jaskier's freedom by reasoning with elves rather than the more violent bent the bard was trying to advocate for.

Even with his sort-of-code, however, it's not without its own rocky edges. Due to his upbringing, or more accurately the fact he had no choice in any of it, he has a rather tempestuous relationship with the idea of Fate and Destiny, choosing to fight it every step of the way and give it the metaphorical middle finger whenever possible. Even when it bites him in the ass to do so. He feels trapped in his own life since it's based upon the choices of others with no escape he can see, so he rails against The Inevitable, to the point where he abandoned a child he'd inadvertently claimed, only more recently finally accepting his responsibility in that.

CRAU developments: n/a

Key themes: man vs monster, found family, destiny vs forging your own path

Main Motivation: Geralt has spent a vast majority of his life trying to fill a void inside himself he doesn't know how to fill. He's resigned to never having a family of his own, and the fear most regard him with; he's a weapon to be used, nothing more or less, worth only the value others ascribe to him, and consequently his main motivation amounts to keeping busy and staying Useful until he eventually grows too slow and is killed, since trying to fill an unknowable void hasn't exactly gone well.

Skills: simple battle magics, swordfighting, horseback riding, survival skills, combat of various kinds, monster hunting, trapping, basic first aid (in his setting, so not necessarily recognizable to more modern characters).

In terms of inherent physical abilities, due to repeated mutagen ingestion during his training Geralt has highly heightened reflexes, strength, endurance, and durability, even past that of most other witchers (which comes of extra experimentation that killed all the others in the trial), and ages at a much slower rate than humans. The process gave him his white hair, extremely pale skin, slightly sharper canines, and strange eyes, which are much more sensitive to changes in light and grant him a certain degree of night vision. He's immune to most poisons, and those he isn't he'll eventually recover from, and so long as he has his medallion on he's got a certain degree of immunity to various magics, though largely illusion-based since he's still been affected by various higher level spells anyway. The tradeoff to all the mutagen ingestion is he's sterile, but honestly he wouldn't want to get anybody pregnant anyway.

Item: his witcher's medallion

Sample: here

Notes: