#loosely inspired by Accidental Warlord and His Pack by inexplicifics

[witcheress-of-toussaint]

New Witcher Order AU

After the Day of Fire in 1146, the surviving Manticores head west to seek safety with the School of the Wolf rather than remain in Zerrikania and dissolve their School.

The Wolves are the traditionalists out of all the schools and the last to form from the original Order, so Manticore leader Imad figures they might be willing to see value in their mutual past.

The Wolves are at least more likely to help than the the others, even if only for a short while. The Griffins would turn them away and the Cats, Bears, and Vipers would kill them. So, to Kaer Morhen it is.

The Manticore school consists of only a handful of full-fledge witchers and less than a half dozen of trainees, or, as they call them, fledglings.

No trainees that hadn't undergone the Grasses were killed during the Day of Fire. When the royal family shunned the Manticores, nearly all of the young, non-grassed trainees were allowed to return to their families. Only one was rejected, his family fearing his association with the witchers was too much of a stain on the family's reputation, and forced to remain with what was left of the school.

The Manticores, from their attempts to turn Zerrikanian warrior women into witchers, did learn how to make female witchers with their Grasses.

One of the teenage girl trainees is a relative of the Zerrikanian queen, but has been disowned with her school.

The Manticores reach the Blue Mountains early in the spring of the next year. Imad Asem, the head of the school, rides to Kaer Morhen with Merten and a third witcher while the remaining wait at the bottom of the Killer.

Rennes and the Wolves agree to allow them to stay at Kaer Morhen and all the Manticores soon arrive at the keep.

The schools stay separate for training for the most part, but pool their resources and knowledge over time.

The Manticore school provides the Wolves with their knowledge on the Grasses, mutations, and horsemanship.

Several Zerrikanian mares and a pair of studs were gifted to the Wolf School when they arrived as payment.

The Wolf School shares their tracking, hunting, and herbal knowledge.

The Manticore fledglings eventually integrate in with the Wolf pups for trainings that overlap between the schools.

Word that the Manticores have joined the Wolves eventually reaches the other schools, but so does knowledge of the Manticores great losses and how easily they loss favor with their royal supporters.

After a coupe years, a few Cats find their way to Kaer Morhen after separating from the main group of their school and manage to convince the Wolves to allow them to take shelter in Kaer Morhen in exchange for abiding by the Wolves' rules, such not taking contracts on humans and dragons.

The Cats rarely reside in the Keep itself, preferring to build structures further in the Valley and down the path at advantageous look out points. It's impossible to come near Kaer Morhen without one of the swift-footed Cats spotting you and alerting the other witchers of a threat.

The small group of Cats win the trust of the Wolves and Manticores over time and are trusted guards. They lack knowledge about the Cats' Grasses so they can't make witchers with their traits at Kaer Morhen, but they're eventually allow to teach some of the Cat School's skills to suitable Manticore and Wolf trainees.

When the keep of the School of the Bear is destroyed about a decade after the near destruction of the Manticores, they too seek shelter among the Wolves at Kaer Morhen.

The Bears are loners and only live in the main keep briefly. In the valley, they dig into the mountain and build more structures and towers. They find more access points to the mountain hot springs.

The Bears use their strength, endurance, and building knowledge to expand the main keep and improve its walls. New rooms constructed to house the growing population of the witcher schools.

The presence of several witcher schools and so many witchers in one place garners more attention than the Wolves would have alone. Kaedwen is getting nervous with having so many witchers within its borders.

The mob that attacks Kaer Morhen is larger and stronger than it was in another world, but Kaer Morhen was more prepared to repel the attack.

The mob was spotted early by the Cats along the trail. The trainees were hidden deep in the reenforced keep. The Wolves, Manticores, and Bears managed to defeat the mob with only a few losses on their side.

The schools manage to prevent what would have been a massacre that would started the downfall of the Wolf School.

The witcher schools know what this attack means for them. The leaders of the Wolf, Manticore, and Bear schools hold a council and decide to form a new proper Witcher Order.