Uma

Uma, nicknamed the Ugliest Man Alive, is a small, misshapen creature that the Bloody Baron’s men at Crow’s Perch keep around for entertainment, a sort of court jester in Geralt’s eyes. He babbles in no language anyone understands, eats very little and seems to live in a world all his own. What nobody at the castle realises is that Uma is not a monster at all but the victim of a powerful curse, and that he is tied directly to Ciri’s disappearance.

Uma in The Witcher 3
Uma’s trail is a long one. He was first seen on Skellige by Skjall, after the boat Ciri had fled in came back with only this strange passenger aboard. Jarl Donar an Hindar took him in for a time, then sold him to a merchant who was sure a royal court on the Continent would love him as a jester. In Novigrad the merchant lost game after game of gwent to Phillip Strenger, the Bloody Baron, and finally wagered Uma himself. The Baron won, took the creature home to Velen and let him stay, since he ate little and caused no trouble.

Geralt first sees Uma when he bursts into the Baron’s room at the end of Family Matters, with Sergeant Ardal hot on his heels. Once Geralt has followed Ciri’s trail through Velen, Novigrad and Skellige, he realises Uma is the key to finding her. In Ugly Baby he collects Uma from Crow’s Perch, is detoured to Vizima to present him to a thoroughly unimpressed Emhyr, and finally brings him to Kaer Morhen.

What happens to Uma?
At the keep, Yennefer wants to put Uma through the first stage of the Trial of the Grasses, which angers the witchers. Vesemir first tries a safer, traditional witcher method in the mountains at midnight. It fails, but it confirms that Uma’s body is a magical prison with someone else trapped inside. In Va Fail, Elaine Uma is restrained and given the Decoctions of the Grasses while Yennefer holds a stabilising spell over him for a whole day. The ritual works: the curse is caught in a phylactery and Uma turns back into Avallac’h, the elven Sage who had been protecting Ciri.

The curse was Eredin’s work. He ambushed Avallac’h and Ciri on Ard Skellig and chose to humiliate the Sage rather than kill him. The spell took time to take hold, and sensing it coming, Avallac’h hid Ciri on the Isle of Mists, while Ciri carried the broken phylactery to Novigrad in the hope of undoing it. Once free, Avallac’h gives Geralt a magic firefly to lead him to her.