The world ofTheWitcheris home to many schools that train professional monster hunters. While Geralt hails from the School of the Wolf, there are other types of Witcher schools, all going under different names. The most notorious one, for example, is the School of the Cat. This Witcher school trains people to be both professional monster killersandcutthroat mercenaries. Additionally, feline Witchers don’t distance themselves from political assassination jobs, so long as they paid enough. This is unlike the other Witcher schools, which value a Witcher’s neutrality in such matters.
InThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt can come across multiple Witchers from the School of the Cat, and there are even more in the rest of theWitcherworld. Each has their own distinct personality, but their actions clearly distinguish them as feline Witchers.
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Gezras of Leyda — Leader of the New Cat School
Though the player doesn’t meetthe Witcher Gezras inThe Witcher 3, he’s an important figure in the history of the School of the Cat. The original founders of the Witcher school had established their base at Stygga Castle, where Gezras was trained at a very young age. He was also painfully experimented on by the mages who were to perfect the Cat School’s Witcher mutations. This pushed Gezras to escape from Stygga Castle.
Much later, Gezras snuck back into the Cat School and killed all of the sorcerers in their sleep. Not long after, local armies stormed the fortress to finish off the old feline Witchers as they were displeased with how the Witchers meddled in their political affairs. This markedthe end of the old School of the Catand the beginning of a new one under Gezras’ leadership.
Gezras decided that the new School of the Cat should be mobile and established the Dyn Marv Caravan. This mobile Witcher school then started accepting outcasts, badly mutated Witchers, and even non-humans. That said, theCat School was still infamous in theWitcherworld as they still accepted mercenary contracts and political assassination jobs. However, under Gezras’ command, the Witcher school managed to evade public scrutiny as they never stayed in one place for too long.
Geralt can meet the Witcher Kiyan during their search for Cat School Gear. During thistreasure hunt quest inThe Witcher 3, the player can trace back the feline Witcher’s story — from his past actions to his unfortunate fate. Sadly, not much is known beyond that. What the player can find out is that Kiyan had taken a job to kill a group of academics digging around for treasure in an elven ruin. He was to take the treasure from them and split it with his contractor.
After completing the job, Kiyan was captured bya powerful mage inThe Witcher 3named Ireneus var Steingrad. This mage then took Kiyan to his laboratory and conducted brutal experiments on him, torturing him to test the limits of his mutated body. By the time Geralt finds the feline Witcher, he’s gone completely mad, and the player has to defeat him in order to progress the quest.
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Geralt can encounter Jad Karadin inThe Witcher 3quest “Following the Thread”with Lambert. He’s since changed his name to Roland Treugger and is a respected merchant in the city of Novigrad. Having amassed a sizable fortune, the retired feline Witcher now lives with his wife and two adopted children. He also donates to Marabella’s School for Tots, a primary school in The Bits, and Novigrads’ Widows’ and Orphans’ Relief Fund.
However, before becoming a philanthropistinThe Witcher 3’s Novigrad, Karadin was the leader of a band of assassins. Not much is known about the jobs they’d taken in the past, but they were guilty of killing Aiden — another feline Witcher and Lambert’s friend. This is why Lambert wants to find him and kill him. Still, the retired Witcher tries to placate him by explaining how Aiden died.
Aiden had apparently taken ona contract to lift a cursefrom a duke’s daughter. He accepted the coin but failed the job, then left as soon as the girl died. The duke then hired Karadin’s group to get his coin back. The assassins tracked Aiden down and asked that they give his swords as payment. Things got heated, resulting in one of Karadin’s teammates — the positioned sniper — to loose a shot that killed Aiden. At this point, the player must choose between killing or sparing Karadin.
Gaetan — The Beast of Honorton
Lastly is Gaetan — the only feline Witcher still active on this list. Geralt can meet him when undertakingtheWitcher 3monster contract“The Beast of Honorton.” Gaetan had accepted a leshen contract from the people of Honorton for a measly 12 coins. However, when he returned to get his payment, the peasant folk tried to kill him. The feline Witcher was enraged by this, and he ended up massacring the entire town, save for one little girl.
Should Geralt spare Gaetan, the feline Witcher will disclose the location of his hideout, saying that Geralt can take whatever valuables he wants as a reward. Once there,the player can find the steel swordTeigr, some coins, as well as a letter signed by a man named Joël. The letter reveals that the Cat School caravan has been taken over by soldiers and that some feline Witchers — Axel and Cedric — are now dead. Meanwhile, Schrödinger’s whereabouts are unknown and there are bounties on both Joël and Gaetan’s heads. It would seem that the Cat School, like the School of the Wolf, is on the decline — one it might not recover from.
Given the state of the School of the Cat, it’s no surprise that the feline Witchers are either laying low or changing career paths. As one of the more notorious Witcher schools, it isn’t as easy for them to find work, at least when compared to the likes of Geralt or Lambert. What will happen to the Cat School still remains to be seen —perhaps in the upcomingWitchersaga.
The Witcher 3: Wild Huntis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
