Geralt of Rivia

Geralt of Rivia
The Witcher character
Geralt as he appears in Wild Hunt
First appearance	The Witcher (1986)
Last appearance	Blood and Wine expansion pack
Created by	Andrzej Sapkowski
Portrayed by	Michał Żebrowski (film and TV series) Jacek Rozenek (Polish voice acting) Doug Cockle (English voice acting)
Information
Aliases	White Wolf Gwynbleidd Butcher of Blaviken
Gender	Male
Occupation	Witcher

Geralt of Rivia (Polish: Geralt z Rivii) is a fictional character and the protagonist of The Witcher series of short stories and novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, as well as its video game adaptations.

Geralt, the central character, is a witcher. Shortly after being born, Geralt was forced (by the law of surprise) to undergo training and, eventually, become a witcher at Kaer Morhen — the stronghold of the Wolf School Witchers. Geralt survived numerous mutations during the Trial of the Grasses (alongside the extra mutations), thanks to which he gained practically superhuman physical and mental abilities with minimal side effects. He resisted the "changes" brought on by the Trial of Grasses better than most, which encouraged his makers to perform even more dangerous experimental procedures on him, making him lose all body pigmentation. Because of his pale skin and white hair, he is also known in the Elder Speech as "Gwynbleidd", the White Wolf.

Despite his name, Geralt does not come from Rivia (although he learned how to mimic a Rivian accent): young witchers were encouraged to make up surnames for themselves by master Vesemir, to make their names sound more trustworthy. He once claimed that his first choice was Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde, but this was dismissed by Vesemir as silly and pretentious. However, it is possible that Geralt made such a claim merely to ridicule overly long names typical for nobility - specifically those of his friends Regis (whose full name is Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy) and Cahir (whose full name is Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach), who were present at that moment.

After completing his witcher training, he received his Wolf medallion (the symbol of Kaer Morhen) and embarked into the world on his horse called Płotka — (literally, "Roach"; he gave the same name to every horse he owned) to become a monster slayer for hire.

Even though Geralt did not believe in destiny, he unknowingly demanded the unborn child of princess Pavetta and her husband Duny as a reward for his services by invoking "the Law of Surprise" (a law that states that if one cannot pay for the services of a witcher, the witcher is entitled to something the debtor does not yet know they have). The child turned out to be a girl, Ciri (otherwise known as Ziri coming from the elder speech word Zireael meaning Swallow). He did not take her because women cannot be witchers. However, fate or blind chance caused Geralt and Ciri to cross their paths thrice, and after the death of her grandmother, queen Calanthe, Geralt ends up taking care of the girl and loving her as his own daughter.