Kaedwen is a cold, rugged kingdom in the north of the Continent, with its capital at Ard Carraigh. Its people have a reputation for toughness, its kings for ambition, and its army for solving diplomatic problems with siege engines. The kingdom is also home to the academy of Ban Ard, where young men are trained as mages, in the same way girls are trained at Aretuza.
Kaedwen in The Witcher 2
Kaedwen’s big moment in the games comes in The Witcher 2. King Henselt wants Upper Aedirn for himself and leads his army against the free town of Vergen, which is defended by humans, elves and dwarves under Saskia the Dragonslayer. If you follow Vernon Roche, you spend chapter two in the Kaedweni military camp, a muddy, paranoid place where the king’s patience runs out fast. Roche and his Blue Stripes learn the hard way how little Henselt’s alliance is worth. If you side with Iorveth instead, you see the same army from the other side of Vergen’s walls.
Kaedwen in the books
In the saga, Henselt is one of the Northern kings who meet to plan the war against Nilfgaard, and he is the kind of ally who keeps one eye on the enemy and the other on his neighbours’ land. The kingdom’s academy at Ban Ard sits alongside Aretuza as one of the two great schools of magic in the North, until the events on Thanedd turn the world of mages upside down.
Good to know: Kaedwen is the kingdom most witcher fans associate with the mountains around Kaer Morhen, the old keep of the School of the Wolf.