The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a brutal one, filled with fearsome creatures and characters. Though it’s easy for Witchers to defeat a hostile monster, it’s much more difficult to discern between those with good intentions and those with malicious intent. This was the case with a Witcher named Kiyan.
Kiyan finished his training in the School of the Cat, one of the many schools in The Witcher 3. Geralt can learn of this Witcher’s demise by undertaking the “Scavenger Hunt: Cat School Gear” treasure hunt quest.
The Tale of the Witcher Kiyan
Witchers from the School of the Cat in The Witcher 3 are infamous for their practices. Like other Witchers, they take on monster contracts, but they also accept assassination jobs if the pay is good enough. Kiyan was no exception to this. The story begins with him taking on an assassination contract from Redanian royal, Prince Adrien.
The prince had sponsored a group of students from The Witcher 3’s Oxenfurt Academy to further their excavation project in Est Tayiar, an Elven ruin. They aimed to find the treasure hidden within. However, Prince Adrien wanted the riches for himself, so he sent Kiyan along with the students to kill them once they uncovered the treasure. Kiyan managed to acquire a portion of the treasure — valuable Elven diagrams — but the rest was lost when one of the excavators disappeared deeper into the ruins. Still, Prince Adrien was pleased with the Witcher’s work.
After splitting the treasure, Kiyan left and boarded the Flying Stag, which was headed for Bremervoord. Unknown to him, however, a mage had paid the captain to put them in the same cabin. In the events of The Witcher 3, Geralt would learn that this powerful mage was named Ireneus var Steingard. On the ship, Ireneus tailed Kiyan, studying his movements. Then, one day, he conjured up a storm to distract the crew while he opened a portal to his laboratory, taking Kiyan with him. In his notes, Ireneus writes that it took a drawn-out, powerful psionic spell to incapacitate the Witcher as he had a natural resistance to such magic.
In his laboratory, which is located underneath Temple Isle in The Witcher 3, Ireneus began experimenting on the Cat School Witcher. He first administered a large dose of medicinal opium on Kiyan to keep him in a half-conscious state. After which, he subjected the Witcher to physical torture. While the mage’s notes do not specify the nature of the torture, he does report that Kiyan broke after the second day but still showed a remarkable resistance to bodily harm.
After the physical torture, Ireneus started administering a number of harmful poisons and toxins to see how Kiyan’s body would react. Witchers are already used to toxicity in their alchemy practices, so Kiyan was able to neutralize the otherwise deadly chemicals. According to the mage’s notes in The Witcher 3, by day 26, Kiyan had been burnt, frozen, starved, and dehydrated as well. His body was still functional, but the torture had taken a toll on his mental state. Thus, he could only speak short words and phrases, like “please,” “don’t hurt,” and “stop.”
At the end of Ireneus’ laboratory notes, the mage writes that the Witcher has become an “energumen” or a being that has been possessed by a demon. This was Ireneus’ plan all along, though what he had planned to do with the energumen is unknown as Geralt doesn’t find him in his lab during The Witcher 3 side quest.
Mad Kiyan in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
When Geralt finds Ireneus’ laboratory in a cave under Temple Isle, the player will find an enemy labeled “Mad Kiyan” in the inner sanctum. He’ll be kneeling in the center of a drawn pentagram surrounded by candles. Unfortunately, he’ll turn hostile immediately, so Geralt has no choice but to kill him to progress the Witcher 3 quest.
Though Kiyan clearly isn’t in his right mind anymore, he still fights like a Witcher, making use of the Signs Aard, Igni, and Quen. He also spouts eerie lines like, “This is not the end,” and “No good. No evil. Only pain,” which show how much the torture has affected his mind. When Kiyan is finally dead, Geralt can acquire the Cat armor diagrams, which he can have crafted later.
Setting the Stage for The Witcher 4
Kiyan’s story is only one of the many from the School of the Cat. Now that CD Projekt Red has announced The Witcher 4, or rather, a new saga for the series, developers can pull from quests like his. The Witcher 4’s teaser image features a cat-like medallion half-buried in the snow. While some believe this to be a Cat School medallion, others think it’s more akin to a Lynx School medallion. Although stories surrounding the Lynx school stem from fan-fiction and not the game series, it's interesting to see how CDPR might tackle the topic.
In the fan-made story, the School of the Lynx was born from members of the Cat school, as well as Lambert and Keira Metz. The group aimed to reform the Witcher school, which ultimately led to the name change. Lambert, in particular, wanted to do this to honor his friend, Aiden, who was taught in the School of the Cat. Geralt can learn about their relationship in the quest “Following the Thread” in The Witcher 3.
Now, if The Witcher 4 does focus on the School of the Lynx, then the developers have plenty to work with from the lore of past Witcher games. As stated above, Kiyan’s case serves as an interesting template for a questline in the new Witcher saga. Perhaps Lambert and his group need to seek out the remaining Cat School Witchers, or at least gather their weapon diagrams. Alternatively, maybe they want to seek vengeance on Ireneus var Steingard for what he did to Kiyan. All in all, Kiyan’s quest in The Witcher 3, as well as the rest of the quests involving the Cat School, provide compelling starting points for new stories in the next Witcher game.
A new Witcher game is in development.