The Witcher 3 — School of the Bear

Witcher 3 School of the Bear (School of the Bear) was the first school that broke away from the Order of Witchers. It sat at Castle Haern Caduch in the Amell Mountains. It turned bears into loners who bet on endurance and heavy armor.

Overview

Witcher Arnaghad almost killed fellow witcher Rhys over a contract on a fiend. He knew the Order would punish him. He returned to Morgraig with brothers who trusted him. They lost the battle and fled to Amell. There they founded the School of the Bear and made contact with local dwarves and gnomes.

Arnaghad taught independence. The Path stood above the knightly ideals of the old order. Bears barely bonded with each other. When two met on the road, it often ended in blood. They liked taking contracts on Skellige. There were plenty of monsters and the islanders’ nature suited them. They wore heavier armor and bet on strength and endurance. Together with the cats they belong to the schools that also used a crossbow on the hunt. They supposedly had shields. After one mishap, when a witcher lost both shield and arm, they backed off from that.

Loners

Later Ivar Evil-Eye tried to overthrow Arnaghad. He knew the grandmaster would not go after the Wild Hunt. The attempt failed and Ivar’s group left. Other schools then grew out of it, but that is no longer the bears’ story.

The school fell when the bears failed a contract on a group of vampires. The surrounding villages rose up. People would rather share the mountains with monsters than with witchers. The bears had no school loyalty or brotherhood among themselves. They did not defend the keep and they split up. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt what remains of them is mainly the reputation of heavy loners and traces on the map.

Summary

With the School of the Bear it is about the Path, silence, and the fact that nobody waits for you at home. The school sets in the game are covered in the armor guide. More articles are on the Witcher 3 hub.