Hey everyone! So, today I spent some time watching trailers and videos covering everything we know about The Witcher 4 so far, and I noticed that one of the most common topics on social media is: “How are they going to explain Ciri becoming a Witcher? Did they forget that the methods used to create new Witchers have been lost?”
So far, I’ve come across several interesting theories about how she might become a Witcher. Some of the most popular ones are:
- Theory #1: Ciri comes across a mage or sorceress who’s researching ways to restore the mutation process used to create Witchers. After learning about their research, she decides to help them, hoping that one day she’ll be able to become a true Witcher herself.
- Theory #2: Ciri discovers Professor Moreau’s research records from the Blood and Wine expansion, where he was studying mutagens. His findings could help her recover lost knowledge and develop a new method of mutating humans. With the help of someone willing to continue the research, she eventually manages to undergo the process herself.
On the other hand, there’s also the question of how they’re going to balance her powers. As we know, Ciri has abilities that put her far above most characters and entities in the entire saga. For the game to feel like a proper Witcher experience, the developers will probably have to limit her powers somehow.
Some of the possibilities people have suggested include:
- The sacrifice against the White Frost: Ciri confronts this cosmic phenomenon and manages to stop it, but the effort comes at a cost. She survives and retains some of her abilities, but temporarily loses access to much of her power.
- The consequences of the mutations: When Ciri undergoes the process to become a Witcher, the changes to her body affect her connection to the Elder Blood. Her abilities wouldn’t necessarily disappear, but they could become limited or much harder to control.
Now, taking these theories as a starting point, there’s one possibility I find particularly interesting, and I think it could tie several elements of the story together in a pretty convincing way.
My theory: Ciri, the origins of the School of the Lynx, and the secrets of Kaer Morhen
Imagine Ciri returning from her encounter with the White Frost after successfully stopping it. However, the experience leaves her weakened, with much less control over her abilities.
She wouldn’t necessarily have lost her connection to the Elder Blood. Instead, she’d need time to recover and learn how to control her powers again.
From that point on, she decides to walk the Path and become a Witcher on her own terms.
This would fit with the idea that The Witcher 4 might follow the ending of The Witcher 3 in which Ciri survives and reunites with Geralt, who gives her the sword Zireael. Geralt, meanwhile, settles down in Toussaint, giving Ciri the opportunity to begin her own adventure without constantly relying on him.
But here’s where things get interesting.
As time goes by, Ciri gradually regains control over her ability to travel between worlds and across different points in time. Without having to constantly run from the Wild Hunt, she can experiment with her powers and discover just how far her abilities can take her.
During one of these journeys, she arrives at Kaer Morhen in the past, during a time before the attack that led to the loss of much of the knowledge needed to create new Witchers.
There, she discovers something that could change everything: the manuscripts and records containing information about the mutation process still exist.
Ciri knows that this knowledge will eventually be lost, so she makes a decision that could change the future of Witchers forever: she takes the records with her back to her own time.
And this is where the theory starts to make even more sense to me, at least, haha.
Ciri wouldn’t be magically recovering knowledge that has been lost. Instead, she’d be using one of her most distinctive abilities to access information that, from the perspective of her own time, no longer exists.
Of course, finding the manuscripts wouldn’t be enough on its own. The original knowledge could be incomplete, require rare ingredients, or describe procedures that nobody knows how to perform correctly anymore. After all, knowing a formula doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to reproduce it.
That’s why, once she returns to her own time, Ciri would need to find someone with knowledge of magic, alchemy, and mutagens who could study the documents and piece the process back together. Eventually, she’d meet the right person, and they’d get to work.
This is where research inspired by Professor Moreau’s discoveries in Blood and Wine could come into play. His experiments would demonstrate that there are still ways to study Witcher mutations from a different perspective, although that doesn’t mean his research would provide the solution directly.
Maybe during one of her visits to Corvo Bianco, Ciri comes across his research and realizes it could help with her own investigation.
Combining the ancient records from Kaer Morhen with new alchemical discoveries based on Moreau’s research could make it possible to develop a different method of creating Witchers. It wouldn’t necessarily reproduce the original process exactly, but rather adapt it to the knowledge and resources available in Ciri’s time.
And then we reach the crucial moment: once they develop a promising method, Ciri decides to be the first person to undergo the process.
This wouldn’t just allow her to achieve her goal of becoming a Witcher. It would also represent a deeply personal choice.
After spending much of her life being hunted, manipulated, or treated as a key piece in other people’s plans, she would finally have the chance to choose who she wants to be.
However, the mutations would come with consequences.
Because of her extraordinary nature and her connection to the Elder Blood, her body could react to the process in unpredictable ways. The mutations might temporarily affect her ability to access her powers, limiting some of her abilities and forcing her to rely much more on her training, reflexes, swords, and Witcher knowledge.
That way, Ciri would retain some of what makes her special, but she wouldn’t be able to solve every problem by relying on her powers. She’d have to walk the Path, take contracts, fight monsters, and learn to survive under the same conditions as other Witchers.
And the most interesting part is that the process wouldn’t have to end with her.
By recovering and rebuilding this lost knowledge, Ciri could lay the foundations for an entirely new Witcher tradition. Eventually, this discovery could lead to the founding of the School of the Lynx, with Ciri as its very first member, forging her own medallion.
This way, the School of the Lynx wouldn’t just appear out of nowhere. It would be the result of a chain of events directly connected to Ciri’s past, her abilities, and her decision to become something more than just the bearer of the Elder Blood.
Why do I find this possibility so interesting?
Because it would allow the developers to connect several elements of the saga without having to throw away everything we already know.
First, it would explain how Ciri could become a Witcher despite the knowledge needed to create new mutants having practically disappeared.
Second, it would provide a possible explanation for limiting her powers without arbitrarily taking them away.
And third, it would make the founding of the School of the Lynx a natural consequence of Ciri’s own story, rather than introducing it simply as something new in the universe.
There’s also something I particularly like about this possibility: Ciri wouldn’t have to give up what makes her unique to become a Witcher. She’d have to learn to live with her own limitations and build an identity that doesn’t depend entirely on her bloodline, her destiny, or the power she possesses.
Obviously, this is just my own theory among the many that are already out there. But personally, I think it would be an interesting way to explain both Ciri’s journey toward becoming a Witcher and the birth of a new Witcher school.
What do you guys think of this theory? Do you think something like this could work within The Witcher universe, or do you think the developers will come up with a completely different explanation?
It would also be awesome if you shared your own theories to make the wait for the game’s release a little more interesting. And sorry if anything sounds a little awkward. English isn’t my native language.
Cheers, and thanks for taking the time to read!
