Vesemir

The oldest witcher of the Wolf School, Geralt’s mentor and the closest thing he ever had to a father.

Vesemir is the oldest witcher of the School of the Wolf and the last master of Kaer Morhen. Old enough to remember the fortress in its prime, he survived the pogrom that nearly wiped out the witchers and stayed on to train the few boys who were left, among them Geralt, Eskel and Lambert. He was a hard, demanding teacher, and over the years he became the closest thing the Wolf witchers ever had to a father. He grumbles about his aching bones, has seen more monsters than all his students put together and has no intention of retiring.

Vesemir in The Witcher 3
The game opens with Vesemir riding at Geralt’s side on Yennefer’s trail. He is the one who notices that her letter smells of lilac and gooseberries, the scent that gives the first quest its name, Lilac and Gooseberries. In White Orchard the two witchers fight a royal griffin at the ford, where Vesemir takes a deep claw wound to the shoulder, and then hunt it down together in The Beast of White Orchard. When Yennefer turns up with a Nilfgaardian escort to take Geralt to Emperor Emhyr, Vesemir heads north to Kaer Morhen.

Geralt finds him again at the keep, repairing crumbling walls with Eskel and Lambert. Vesemir looks after the cursed Uma during Ugly Baby and helps with the Trial of the Grasses that breaks the curse and reveals Avallac’h. It is Vesemir who suggests bringing Ciri to Kaer Morhen to make a stand against the Wild Hunt.

What happens to Vesemir?
Vesemir dies in The Battle of Kaer Morhen. When Eredin freezes the defenders, only Vesemir and Ciri can still move. The old witcher fights off the Hunt’s general Imlerith to protect her and stabs him with a hidden dagger, and Imlerith breaks his neck. His death unleashes Ciri’s power and drives the Hunt back. He is burned on a funeral pyre at the keep, and Ciri keeps his wolf medallion. His death cannot be prevented, whatever choices you make.

In the earlier games
In the first Witcher game, Vesemir is one of the first people to greet an amnesiac Geralt at Kaer Morhen and guides him through the prologue, including the Salamandra attack in which the young trainee Leo is killed.

In the books
In Blood of Elves, Vesemir spends the winter at Kaer Morhen while the witchers train Ciri. He teaches her about monsters and herbs and leaves the sword training to the younger witchers. When they realise Ciri is a Source, it is Vesemir’s supposedly aching bones that serve as the excuse to call Triss Merigold to the keep.

Across the games

Vesemir appears in the Prologue at Kaer Morhen. During Defending Kaer Morhen, Geralt, who has lost his memory, follows him as the oldest and wisest of the witchers. Vesemir tells him to go along the walls to the tower to reach the Upper Courtyard gate, and later gives him a potion to drink before he checks the inside of the fortress.

When Triss is wounded, Vesemir sets up A Potion for Triss, asking Geralt to make a potion for her. He sends him to find the frightener‘s carcass in the courtyard and is the one Geralt must find before meditating to brew it.

After Salamandra steals the witchers’ secrets, the task Vesemir gave Geralt is to get them back. That job is only finished in the Epilogue, in Frozen Reflections, when Geralt recovers the stolen secrets.