geralt, the central character, is a witcher. shortly after being born, geralt's mother, visenna, gave him away to undergo training and, eventually, become a witcher at kaer morhen—the stronghold of the witcher school of the wolf. geralt survived numerous mutations during the trial of the grasses, thanks to which he gained practically superhuman physical and mental abilities with minimal side effects. from the arduous training of witchers, he learned the handling of many weapons and became ambidextrous. he resisted the "changes" brought on by the trial of grasses better than most, which encouraged his makers to perform even more dangerous experimental procedures on him, making him lose all body pigmentation. because of his pale skin and white hair, he is also known in the elder speech as "gwynbleidd" (close to the welsh translation "blaidd gwyn"), the white wolf.