Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist of the collection and the only character to appear in every chapter. Geralt is a hard, stoic man who often relishes his outsider status. However, as the collection progresses, a softer, kinder version of Geralt emerges, one who insists on doing the right thing even if he can’t always be certain what that is.

Geralt is a witcher—a freelance hunter paid by people to rid their towns of monsters. Geralt also has some monstrous qualities—his senses and abilities are superhuman because to become a witcher, one must be born into it through fate, survive a series of brutal tests at an early age, and go through a lifetime of training. Because of this, Geralt, like all witchers, is simultaneously necessary and reviled—brought in to face mortal danger, then sent away as soon as possible (sometimes without even receiving payment). Yet, despite how humans treat him, the novel hints that Geralt wishes he could be one of them.

Witchers cannot have children, and the two most poignant stories address Geralt’s roundabout ways of bypassing this restriction. In one, he claims the right to take a couple’s child through the Law of Surprise—the way he himself was taken from his family.