Background Prologue

"Sooner or later, humans will kill off all Aen Seidhe, all dwarves and all gnomes. Then they'll start murdering each other. Your kind knows no other way, it's in your genes. You'll keep killing each other until only one remains: the strongest among you. A thousand years from now, a dim-witted human barbarian will climb to the top of a pile of bones, sit down and proclaim: 'I win!'"

— Iorveth and his view on humanity note , The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings

From the perspective of an unknown scholar that has been fed the vast but limited knowledge from a powerful seeing force, some call this man Master Mirror…

The world of the Witcher, also once known as the land of the dragons, is a earthlike planet that is inhabited by gnomes, dwarves, elfs, vraans and perhaps the most infamous and destructive of them all, humans. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, (Between 2700R to 1240BR) the Dwarven people arrived on the shores of the large body of land now known as the Continent where the northern realms are currently, and inhabited the land. The gnomes however have already colonized some regions such as Mahakam and Tir Tochlair. In the approximate years of the 2330's BR, was the time of the Age of Migration for the elves of the Aen Seide tribe. The humanoid race came to lands on their white ships. Not much is very known of the Vraans, a humanoid lizard race but it is speculated they arrived during the time of the dwarves and gnomes. Last but not least the infamous humans arrived to the continent in the time period of the 1240's BR.

Years passed and lead on and many of civilizations were growing and expanding their kingdoms and empires but during this time an unprecedented and mysterious (even to this date) cataclysm known as the conjunction of the spheres occured when the alignment of this world, this universe or some even say this dimension crossed with another or even various realities. From this event thousands, maybe even millions of openings or more famously known, portals in the fabric of space and time appeared, some gigantically wide and vast, others more small and unnoticeable. From these portals many different creatures both harmful, benign or neutral appeared and much plantlife and various other organisms came from their worlds to this one and even large pieces of land also appeared from their worlds. But two very important things came to this planet and changed everything, for better and for worse and led to the events that a hero, known as The White Wolf, Gwynbleidd in the elder speech spoken by the dwarves and elfs,Geralt of Riva but that however, is another story.

From the mysterious cataclysm arose the introduction of magic, also known as the power of the Chaos. What is magic you may wonder? As stated by the lover of Geralt, the powerful sorceress Yennefer, magic is "Art, Chaos, and Science: a blessing, a curse, and progress. It all depends on who calls upon it, and for what purpose. Magic stems from nature. It is in the earth we walk upon, in the fire burning in its heart, in the air we breathe, and in the water which brings life and which flows within us. If you happen to be gifted with the particular talent, all you need do is reach out your hand and grasp the magic all around you." To wield the power of the Chaos to its fullest force and potential, you must be born with it. During the conjunction of the spheres the presence of the power of the Chaos spread the manifestation into many creatures, entities of higher power and to the humanoid races into their very molecular structure of their D.N.A, however for some unexplained reason it affects the races differently from one another. For some it benefits them with little sign of negativity and is a fundamental part of their exsistence but for others it can cripple them, drive them insane if not taught and trained to be controlled, managed and handled. Another unknown thing is that the ability to use magic is only born with few select beings of the humanoid races making magic wielders, known as sages (for elfs of both sexes) and mages (for human males) and sorceressess (for human females). However, it is possible to wield the Chaotic power to a very limited yet practical usage (depending on the reason for using it of course) for non-born users but they cannot use it the same and efficient way that borned magic wielders can do and require physical and metaphysical instruments and items to possibly use it.

But another darker force arose from the convergence (another common name for the event), they go by multiple names, creatures of the dark, malevolent creatures, beasts but the most used name is Monsters. The monsters that hail from the event are very, very dangerous and for a time they ruled much of the land, devouring and killing any creature or humanoid that was in their path or sight regardless of their race. To combat this threat mages and sorceresses where originally employed to fight off the beasts but magic was primarily used to advance these civlizations and for what is now known as, Science. They were effective at first but many of these empires and kingdoms were giving all their effort to eliminate the overwhelming monsters but too much was too much and the more resources and soldiers (alongside the magic wielders) were employed to kill the creatures, the lesser and lesser were the kingdoms advancing and if anything were being diminshed, not to mention that wars were waged amongst each other as well. Two rouge mages, Alzur and Cosimo Malaspina experimented with alchemical substances and mutagens to create the very first monster slayers. Witchers. Over time the secrets on how to create the substances and where to extract said mutagens to mutate a human to make a witcher. A witcher in short is a proffesional monster slayer that from a young age was either adopted in, kiddnaped or taken as an orphan and brought to a witcher "School" (more like a guild) to be instensely and brutally taught and trained how to hunt and kill monsters and are taught lessons on various types of beasts and how to specifically kill each one. They go through intensive physical training and are taught how to effectively fight and how to handle a sword in case any bandits or human enemy tries to attack them. There comes a point in their training where they are strapped to a table and subjected to what is known as the trial of the grasses in which specific alchemical and magical substances are adminstered unto the witcher candidates to open up their bodies to change, once done the mutagens are injected through tubes in a extremely painful and excrucatingly proccess that only 3 out of 10 candidates survive, the rest die in agony. If one survives then from the mutagens will they gain superhuman abilities such as enhanced sight, reflexes, strength, agility, speed, mental proccessing power, immune system and overall physical conditions. Due to the mutagens they age very, very slowly and can look quite young when one could very well be just a century old. As well physical augmentation they also have the ability to use magic in the form of the simple yet effective and practical signs. Through 5 specific hand signs can they use the magic abilities that were given to them by the mutagens containing the traces of specific magic. Once wielded they are very formidable hunters and carry two deadly swords, a steel and silver sword. One for sentient enemies and a silver sword for Monsters as silver has proven to be quite effective against the dangerous creatures. Each witcher wears a medallion that represents their guild and are usually based off an animal or respected and majestic creature. Geralt for example is a witcher from the school of the wolf and as such bears a wolf head medallion. These medallions can detect magic and monsters that use magic making them quite useful and handy.

I could go day in and day out discussing what witchers are and the types of monsters they face to kill but this story isn't about them but rather a specific Witcher. Not the white wolf himself but another witcher with a tale to tell. A witcher by the name of Herminio Al-Alhim from the school of the Mantis who resides in Ofir hunting down the desert dwelling monsters that inhabit that land...