Der Einzelgänger
["People," Geralt turned his head, "like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live." ]
~The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Geralt of Rivia and Triss
~by remoraz
How shit happens:
I believe I've heard of the Witcher as a novel series many years ago, but it's only when AnalAlex mentioned this series as a RPG in TFF did I start paying attention. Albeit it's possible that I might have stumbled across The Witcher II during one of my random window shopping spree at Comics Connection during my ITE/NSF era. Interestingly enough, the internet has more of Geralt than Elric.
Houston, we've got a problem here...
One interesting little info gleaned from the internet years ago concerned a certain spat between Moorcock and Sapkowski. In fact I can't even decided whether this was really a spat or some dark humor coming from Moorcock himself. What I do know so far is this-Moorcock doesn't seem to be utterly impressed with the term "White Wolf" being used by a 3rd party individual. Whether this opened the opportunity for Games Workshop, however, remains to be seen. That is unless GW managed to say something about these blokes alrdy...
The cold hard truth about loners
When we talk about loners, many a romantic picture comes to mind. For every Uzumaki Naruto, there will always be a Go Dok-Mi. This is romantic idealism, NOT the reality of all things social exile. I've been through 10+ years of such experience, I have no problem identifying w/idealism. However, realism tend to prevail 9 times out of 10, some might even call this a victory dedicated to cynicism. Because I want to be a cynical dick, I decide to list down the difference in details.
Two lone wolves, plenty(?) of common territory
The Witchers are basically surplus existence by time Geralt made his anti-heroic appearance. You see, the Witchers's greatest problem lies in not being able to adapt. Not towards whatever social norms, but rather the ever changing world. From renowned demon hunters, they have degenerated into sellswords for hire.
While I'm not gonna spoil anything where the True Apostles are concerned, it must also be noted that Aeranath doesn't have much skills in socializing. Or rather none at all. The only thing he's good at is basically summed up by good ol'Geralt himself:
"Power, sex. Sex, Power. They both come down to one thing - ****ing others."
On an interesting side-note, this is also something Jaime Lannister would gladly do.
Morality(?) vs Morality(?)
One thing I admire about Geralt is the fact that he really believes in moral crusaders. Not ideology wise, but rather recognizing their existence. In a world where everybody is living a fantasy world parallel to the Book of Judges, Geralt is nowhere better. The only problem he has? The understanding that every individual is born to be a jerk. Ditto goes for Aeranath also.
Yet, it must also be noted that Geralt does have a sense of humanity left inside. More accurately speaking, he actually knows it and embraces it, no matter how much others view him as a monster of sorts. His moral compass has already gone beyond the black and white divide, however. Instead, his moral standard hinges on an absolute grey territory (interesting enough, the big bad wolf we all know so well is the Canis lupus, i.e. the grey wolf).
[“Only Evil and Greater Evil exist and beyond them, in the shadows, lurks True Evil. True Evil, Geralt, is something you can barely imagine, even if you believe nothing can still surprise you. And sometimes True Evil seizes you by the throat and demands that you choose between it and another, slightly lesser, Evil.”]
~The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Aeranath? Well, it's fairly accurate to say that his moral standard is nothing short of chaotic. The only way which I can explain this to you is shown below:
Oops, sallah. Should be this correct anjing-gila
So where will the similarities take Aera?
To be honest, I dunno. Yes, I do have a skeleton stashed somewhere in my creative closet, but srsly everything would still amount to shit unless I manage to do/add things along the way. Can you believe A Sea of Arms and Craft ain't even 10% done?
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