Vesemir (Netflix series)

Vesemir (b. 1095) was a witcher of the School of the Wolf, and Geralt of Rivia's mentor.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Vesemir was born into the role of a servant, like his father Bevin, and carried out duties on an Aedirnian estate to a noble family, the Wencks.^[1] However, even by 1107,^[2] he dreamed of fantasies and being rich beyond his wildest imagination. He also hung out with a fellow servant on the estate, Illyana, who he had a crush on.

The lady of the estate had started to go insane and so Vesemir and Illyana were sent to the market to buy blue gum to alleviate the madness. Wanting some honey cake but having no money to do so, the two hatched a plan to steal the herb with Vesemir causing a distraction to lure the merchant away from his stall by stealing some other goods and ran to the cake stand, only to then lay down the merchant's goods while paying for a cake and leaving. The two then met back up to enjoy their success when they were approached by Deglan, who saw what they did. However, he wasn't interested in turning them in as much as meeting the ailing noblewoman as he recognized what blue gum was for but knew it was a monster causing the madness, something a witcher was more suited to deal with and also meant a good payout.

After bringing Deglan to the estate who confirmed it was a mahr, he began to lay out traps to get rid of it and told everyone to leave the room before he started the fight. Vesemir asked to stay to watch and Deglan allowed it, but ordered him to try and capture the mahr if he was going to be in the room. Despite it being a rather intense event and failing to capture the mahr alive, Vesemir was hooked and on seeing how much money the witcher had made, asked Deglan to take him to be trained as a witcher. However Deglan refused to do so but gave Vesemir a few coins for his assistance before leaving.

The next day, as Vesemir and Illyana hung out, he brought up about wanting a better role in life than that of a servant. However, Illyana was content with her position, as they could be homeless and have no food at all, and her dreams of having a lake house were just that: a dream. Shortly after, as all the servants slept, Vesemir saw an elderly servant just returning to his cot from a long day's work and resolved to leave to try and become a witcher, leaving a cake at Illyana's cot as his goodbye as she slept.

Joining the witchers[]

Vesemir soon made his way to Kaer Morhen and was taken in and trained alongside the other boys there, like Luka and Sven. However, he soon learned most didn't choose to go there like he had, but had been given to the school as the result of being a Law of Surprise child, like Tomas. During one such trial, the boys were all sent into the Red Swamp and were quickly attacked by monsters. Many of the boys were badly injured or killed, including Tomas, but Vesemir managed to survive, albeit wounded from the ordeal. As Vesemir wandered to the tree in the great hall where all the slain boys medallions now hung, he picked one up and noticed it started to vibrate, indicating magic nearby. It eventually led him to the basement where he discovered the secret laboratories. One of the school's mages, Reidrich, introduced himself as Vesemir came across a dead crossbreed in the room before revealing to the young boy that the mages and the lab held the mutagenic secrets to creating witchers. Deglan then showed up and accosted the mage for revealing this, but the mage merely noted witchers should know where they came from. As Deglan then informed Vesemir a rider came by to drop off a letter for him, Vesemir angrily asked the witcher if he knew many of them would die during the trials, and Deglan coldly informed him "it's a numbers game", before telling him to go read the letter before he burned it up.

Vesemir then left to go read the letter to learn it was from Illyana, who wrote to inform him the estate had fallen to Kaedwen and that the Wenck family they served had been killed during the attack along with Vesemir's father. Illyana had managed to escape though and was taken in by a family in Kaedwen who treated her well, including teaching her to read, write, and paint. She then hoped Vesemir would find what he wanted in life and move on like she had. Shortly after that, Vesemir and the remaining surviving boys were given the witcher mutagens, and while more died, Vesemir survived and was transformed into a witcher.

Fateful encounter[]

When he reached adulthood, Vesemir excitedly set out on the path, quickly taking contract after contract and earning as much money as he possibly could, delighting his fellow witchers. At one point in his travels, he made friends with Filavandrel aén Fidháil.

By 1165, despite being a witcher for nearly 60 years, Vesemir had no interest in taking care of new recruits nor the inclination to train them, leaving that to other witchers to handle while he earned all the gold he could find. On one trip back to Kaer Morhen, he came across Sugo, a young boy running for his life after witnessing the rest of his family being killed in front of him by a strange monster. Vesemir soon learned it was a leshen but had abilities unlike any other he'd come across, including the ability to speak in an odd elven dialect. After killing it, and not one to take care of a monster for nothing, Vesemir went back to collect what he should have been paid off of Sugo's dead father while Sugo asked him what about helping him out. The witcher merely told him to practice his sad face and a passerby might give him a ride as well as get the alderman to recover his family's bodies to properly bury them.

Vesemir then set off to go enjoy himself at a nice tavern while he spoke to Filavandrel about the odd words the leshen spoke. The elf informed Vesemir it was a dead elven dialect, Ellylon, and translated to "beware the den of my dead." Filavandrel then noted very few knew the dialect, including incidentally a young elven mage, Kitsu, who'd gone missing four years ago. However, when Filavandrel tried to talk the witcher into helping the elf look into why young elven girls had been disappearing for the last four years, Vesemir refused to look into the matter further, as favors didn't pay for the pleasures he craved.

Arriving back at Kaer Morhen for the winter with his handsome load of coin, he rejoined his old witcher friends, Luka and Sven, remarking on how the year went for them as Sven offloaded new recruits. Meeting up with his old mentor, Deglan, Vesemir read over a pamphlet that a Tetra Gilcrest had been posting around Kaedwen, calling the witchers inhuman and that the world should purge them, having gained momentum from Vesemir's actions regarding Sugo. As Deglan asked why he couldn't have at least buried Sugo's family, Vesemir simply remarked he didn't care for children. Deglan then informed him as they were down two dozen witchers, Vesemir would have to get over it and help train fencing to the new boys.

With that, Vesemir followed the same methods Deglan had put him through when he was a recruit, informing the boys at least at Kaer Morhen they had a chance to learn and survive the waiting horrors outside the keep. Eventually came the time to put the boys through the mutations, where it became a waiting game to see which ones survived. Bored out of his mind and not wanting to just wait around, Vesemir and Luka headed off to a nearby town to have some drinks and fun. As they entertained some women about contracts they took, a knight overheard this and began to accuse the witchers of swindling people and that real men, who had virtue and honor, should assist people instead of mutants. As Luka began to make fun of the knight, the knight attacked and the two witchers ended up killing the knight and his fellow comrade in self defense. Despite this, Vesemir and Luka were thrown into jail to await sentencing.

A short time later, Vesemir was moved from his cell to another room where he found a honey cake on a table. An elderly noblewoman then appeared, remarking there was no need for them to split it like when they were younger, revealing herself to be none other than Illyana. She then informed Vesemir the family that took her in, the Zerbsts, were nice, but their son was really fond of Illyana despite her station, and the two married and had three daughters before he passed away and now she ran an orphanage at her estate. After more small talk about Vesemir's exploits, she revealed the real reason he'd been brought to the room: to secure amnesty for him and Luka, King Dagread had tasked Vesemir to hunt down and kill whatever was murdering people in the forests outside Ard Carraigh. To ensure he kept his part of the deal, Luka would remain in Illyana's care while Vesemir would be accompanied by none other than Tetra, the purist mage.

Vesemir and Tetra tracked down a Basilisk, which was being controlled by Kitsu, who had survived the mutations and faked her death to escape Kaer Morhen. Vesemir and Tetra killed Kitsu's basilisk and chased her into an abandoned fortress, where they found a makeshift lab and a pile of bodies, all of which were young elven girls who Kitsu was trying to mutate and make like her. Tetra recognized the tools in the lab as the same used in mutagenic alchemy, the same kind as what was performed in Kaer Morhen. Vesemir returned to Kaer Morhen and broke into the lab, where he learned that Deglan, along with the Mages, had been using alchemy to crossbreed and mutate monsters to keep the humans from attacking the witchers.

Vesemir and Deglan fought before being informed that Tetra had lead her mages and a group of peasants and knights to the keep. Vesemir tried to reason with Tetra, but failed. Tetra and her mages opened several portals and brought hordes of Monsters to Kaer Morhen. Vesemir alone survived the Sacking of Kaer Morhen and went on to train the surviving witcher children that had escaped, Remus, Lambert, Eskel, and Geralt

Reuniting with Geralt[]

Vesemir welcomed Geralt back to Kaer Morhen and confronted him for bringing Ciri with him. When Geralt first revealed he called the Law of Surprise, Vesemir warned him it was a big mistake, but Geralt had to save her and brought her to their home despite knowing Vesemir would call him out on it because he had no other choice. It was also easier for him to protect her within the walls, as well as watch for answers as to what she was. Vesemir reminded Geralt what happened the last time witchers got involved in the dramas of courts and kingdoms.

Vesemir joined Ciri in the armory and taught her a thing or two about witcher heritage. Klef was one of the first witchers, but he was killed by a demon who wreaked havoc on the witchers until they bound her deep in the forests. He then told her about Deglan, who was killed by men in their very halls, but not before making Vesemir a witcher and teaching him everything he knew. Vesemir, however, was more interested in Ciri's history than his own and questioned how she escaped Cintra, but Ciri deflected, simply informing Vesemir that Geralt said she'd be protected with them.

Vesemir told Geralt that he caught Ciri spying on them. They had a chat before he sent her to bed. He wondered if Geralt was ready for this. Geralt recalled being in a cell beneath the city when Cintra was sacked. He heard it all, the same sounds he heard at Kaer Morhen when he was a boy, hiding in a cellar, waiting for the humans to come for him. Vesemir was the last remaining witcher when Kaer Morhen fell. He and a batch of mutated orphans with no place else to go. Admittedly, he wasn't ready, but he taught them how to fend for themselves, which is what Geralt intended to do with Ciri, but that would have to wait as their medallions began to vibrate all at once, leading them to suspect that they may be under attack.

Vesemir and Geralt made the startling discovery that Eskel had been infected and turned into a leshy. Geralt was pinned to a wall, but he used a torch to get free of Eskel's grasp. With help from Vesemir, they were able to restrain him using hooks connected to chains. However, when Vesemir's life is nearly squeezed from him, Geralt set his sword ablaze and stabbed Eskel in the heart, killing him. Free of his graps, Vesemir took Eskel's pendant and assured Geralt that he did what was right.^[3]

Laying Eskel to rest[]

Vesemir performed an autopsy on Eskel to determine exactly how he was turned and what mutated the leshy that attacked him. However, Geralt believed that it was time to let Eskel rest. And so, the two of them carried Eskel to a cave, where they laid his body to rest. Vesemir was still trying to make sense of Eskel's death and was determined to figure what happened and what he could have possibly missed in his tests. As the wolves arrived to consume Eskel's flesh, Geralt and Vesemir made their way out of the cave.^[4]

Making more witchers[]

Vesemir headed out into the woods, where he found Feainnewedd blossoming, which was said to only grow where Elder blood had been spilled. He found it on Killer Trail and the training course where Ciri bled. Elder blood was thought to have been wiped from the Continent generations ago. It was also one of the key ingredients in the creation of the first witcher mutagens, which were destroyed in the sacking of Kaer Morhen. Not another witcher had been created since. Vesemir believed that Ciri was the key to making more witchers.^[5]

Vesemir was impressed with Ciri's efforts on the training course and told her about the Conjunction of the Spheres; when it happened, it wasn't just the elves, humans, and dwarves. Spheres of beasts collided, too. Mages weaponized monsters and tried to conquer the land with them, but that backfired. Then 300 years ago, mages weaponized man and created witchers to kill the beasts and save humanity from extinction, but they're fewer now because when Kaer Mohern was destroyed, so was the mutagen that allowed them to make new witchers, but Vesemir believed that Ciri's Elder blood could change that and with a vial of her blood, they could make more. Ciri agreed to help him so long as he tested it on her first, but he refused, as many didn't survive the trials, and he didn't want to take that chance with her. However, with the witchers slowly dying off, Ciri convinced Vesemir to agree to her terms.

With Ciri's blessing, Vesemir and Triss took a vial of her blood to test his theory and create the witcher mutagen successfully. After a bit of preparing, Ciri returned so they could begin the trials. Vesemir strapped her down to a bed and prepared to inject her with the mutagen, but Geralt arrived and stopped him.^[6]

Vesemir had admittedly been a fool for ever agreeing to Ciri's deal. Triss admitted that she too had been a fool. Whatever was running through Ciri's veins and whatever they made from it was more dangerous than they knew. As if on cue, Rience invaded the den, attacked them both, and fled with the witcher mutagen made from Ciri's blood.^[7]

Stopping Voleth Meir[]

Vesemir's throat was nearly slit whilst he slept by Voleth Meir, who had taken control of Ciri's body. While he was saved, several other witchers unfortunately met their end. Filled with rage, he intended to hunt Ciri down and kill her, but Geralt reasoned with Vesemir, explaining that killing Ciri was not the answer to his rage. Geralt reminded him that witchers didn't kill out of fear, they killed to save lives. She could be saved, Geralt assured him, but he needed Vesemir's help to do it. So, they tracked her down to the cafeteria, where she unleashed a scream so powerful that it cracked the medallion tree open and unveiled the monolith hidden inside. She then shattered the monolith and opened a portal for two basilisks to exit, forcing the witchers to defend their home, whilst Vesemir and Yrden trapped Geralt and Voleth Meir inside a barrier together.

With his men dying, Vesemir broke the barrier and went after Voleth Meir himself, and with Geralt otherwise occupied, he stabbed her, but she healed herself within seconds. Geralt then realized that their hate was the pain she needed to grow stronger. Instead of fighting, he pleaded with Ciri to hear his words and gain control, but without her hut, the Deathless Mother needed a vessel to exist within their sphere. So, Yennefer sacrificed herself, slit both her wrists, and summoned Voleth Meir, which caused the Deathless Mother to be transferred to Yennefer. Ciri then portalled the Deathless Mother back to her home sphere.^[8]

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