Witcher Schools: School of The Bear - Witcher Lore - Witcher Mythology - Witcher 3 lore 

Some new Information was Released on the witcher schools, be sure to watch this updated video! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Kk4SePoGNBw.html

AKA the school of the Quen tank builds

You did miss another bear member, Junod of Belhaven. I also personally believe they are from Skellige, the concept of 'viking witchers' is really cool. In my head I'd like to think because of being Skelligers, some of them used Silver axes instead of swords.

I love the idea of making a fully fledged Witcher RPG game, where you could make your own character. Customise your appearance, school, weapon preferences, magic preferences, etc. That would be an incredible game.

If CDPR make another Witcher game it would be awesome if you could create your own character, then pick which school you played, and if each had unique bonuses and penalties. So for instance the school of the bear could do more damage with big attacks, but do less damage when using signs. With perhaps the school of the wolf being the most balanced, without any bonuses, but also no penalties.

I don’t know that you can say bears are “slow”. A bear can get running around 30 mph, which is just shy of a wolf’s top speed and faster than an especially athletic cat.

Easy way to explain it.......The School of the bear is full of Tank Fighters.

I think a witcher mmo would be pretty cool, you could make a character and choose your school, go through the trials (the tutorial) and eventually set you free in to the world to set out on the Path

Heavy weapons are useful for all those Skellige beasts like trolls and grizzly berserks, not to mention a giant...the chain mail is to compensate for the decreased mobility due to using said heavy weapons. Makes sense.

The Bear is my favorite in terms of armor and combat preference, even if not much is known. Armor is one of the most important factors to keeping your soldiers alive, let alone a knight you've been training for 5+ years. Now imagine your soldier is a super-mutant toxin infused monster that can literally blend people to bits? What's the main weakness to that? -pitchfork crazed peasant hordes come to mind...- Any stray arrow! Archery was enough to disable a limb or pierce an internal organ, any injury is a bad omen. Injuries will always lead to death, even with a healing factor and pain inhibiting potions, opponents won't stop to let you off so easily. When outnumbered, not being able to aggressively fend off the enemy is a death sentence, finding a way to prevent arrows from digging your grave was an utmost necessity in historical medieval warfare. Technically, gambeson is a lot better than it's made out to be but an English longbowman is still gonna put a hole in you, that's why everyone used shields. Witcher's don't use shields. Thus, the most logical step is either mobility to evade arrows, or armor that isn't as flexible but hardly hinders your movement yet can stop an arrow from putting any nasty holes in you. Hypothetically, if a Witcher is on their A-game they should be capable of dodging any missile headed toward them but much like the moto for all Witcher's, it's better to be prepared. For all intents and purposes, the armor is an insurance policy for any moments when they do take damage and we've seen it happen a lot interestingly enough. I wonder if the Bear school armor is rare not only because of the school's mysterious nature, but also the price needed to make the armor both mobile and tough yet retain usefulness against all manner of monsters. The Bear school armor isn't plate armor by any means, however, it seems to be thicker than normal gambeson, reinforced with chain mail and some plate for the arms. Historically and realistically speaking, this wouldn't make you impervious to arrows but it should be enough to prevent an arrow from stopping your adventuring. With the combined speed and reflexes of a Witcher, their techniques, magic, and alchemy make them a force beyond a squad of Knights in my eyes. A Witcher doesn't need plate armor to keep arrows from harming them, they can simply dodge/deflect/Aard anyway. If an arrow does happen to catch them, the armor of the Bear should be adequate in preventing major damage. In my headcanon, I'd like to believe the Bear school Witcher's used silver/steel great swords unlike the rest of their brethren. A greatsword is a magnificent battlefield weapon, increased range and cutting power combined with the strengths of a Witcher could cleave someone in half! Interestingly though, greatswords didn't weigh that much more than their slightly smaller longsword cousins because that would be impractical design, thus, they were as elegant and refined in terms of techniques and even for speed but had far more power to boot. Sure, they're not "as fast" and can be unwieldy in a far tighter environment like city alleys, but that's what hand to hand combat and knives are for. This all combines into what is my favorite Witcher school. They're the ones in the family capable of holding themselves on their own in a battlefield, being the strongest Witchers in terms of physical brawn and power. Magic, potions, petards, and overall flexibility aren't the main focus (not that they ignore it either) but their pure tenacity in swordsmanship and mobile yet protective armor is likely the best among all the schools. If anything, I think the Bear school is at least the most practical compared to the others since a battlefield weapon (like the aforementioned greatsword if they use one) is far better to use against monsters, and armor to keep you alive is far better than armor that doesn't.

Then again bears arent slow either

Haern Caduch or Bear Keep, was a seat of the witcher School of the Bear. Built on the snowy heights of the Amell Mountains, it served the Bears until they were forced to abandon it due to folk riots. The Amell mountains seperates the Northern Kingdoms from the Nilfgaardian Empire.

The Witcher school of the bear would fight with the speed and velocity of a Highlander max level in For Honor just much faster and more tactical skills the s*** those guys do is Greatsword holy f*** man

The Bear Keep was in the Amell Mountains, iirc the Bear School witchers went A LOT to Skellige because of the similar mentality the islanders and the bear witchers shared.

As a bear school build, I might even use an axe or one of those mostly unknown Touissant warhammers as a steel weapon. It just fits the bill a lot more, doesn’t it..?

The coolest looking armor set. Rule of cool. The white bear.

These videos are awesome man, I have always been very interested in the lore of the Witcher universe, but never got around to investigating things further. Great videos, and the quality is surprisingly good for someone with sub 1000 subscribers! Keep up the good work dude!

I also really want to believe that they will make an RPG set at a different time that allows you to create a character, and it's really likely because if you look at the prototype they had for the first game that's originally what it was.

Best looking armour but I never use it due to the heavy stamina regen penalty. I suppose if I used the rune wright to change it to medium armour it might be worth using.

Best. Armor. In the game. Simply put, it looks amazing and I worked a lot to find all of them.

Subbed yesterday and I'm totally hooked on your vids. I've became a fan of the witcher series after I played the wild hunt. After that I have played the witcher 2 and now I'm reading the books and playing the witcher 1. You got to keep up the good work, I really enjoy your videos.

4:30 yea, the base(1st) set of bear gear is all in skellige. but the diagrams for enhanced, superior and mastercrafted are mostly on the continent throughout velen. Also surprised you didn't talk about Junod of Belhaven, the Bear Witcher we learn about in Blood & Wine during the Grandmaster Armor quest

I'm pretty new to the witcher series/universe and started playing witcher 3 a few months back. I haven't finished the main story yet coz I'm holding back until I complete all the DLCs first then return to killing Eredin... So far, the witcher school that interests me the most is the school of the Wolf coz it's Geralt's school and being new, it made me wanna know more about it. As for the equipment though, I'm kinda running a mixed set. 3 pcs Ursine(Chest, both swords) and 3 pcs cat(boots, gloves, trousers and crossbow) for a good balance of defense and attack + the mutation I chose was Euphoria coz it buffs both sword and sign damage at the same time.

My favorite school! Nice video, keep it up! :D

”Spike-ruuuug”😂

LOVE this armor. My fav and the 1st one I completed. Love the look and fit my play stle

So far, my favorite school is the School of the Griffin for the armor that comes with it is pretty nice.

The witcher has so much m lore in the books and added into the games, they can still make more games in the future as long as they keep their bearings expanding on the story like they did in the witcher 3. Great videos!

does feel a little weird that CDPR didnt make a back story for the school of the bear, seems like a missed opportunity to me especially because they fleshed out the Svalblods which are all about turning in to bears. Good Vid

Dude I looked exactly like this in my playthrough at this exact part! Haha great minds think alike 😄👍(very beginning of video)

Interestingly enough, the Griffin armor should probably be the most durable armour given that the entire set (at least at later levels) is comprised of plate and mail. But that would lead to balancing problems, as Griffin already has some of the highest attack power.

Nice video. I always wondered if the initial part of Gerd's story is true. Whether he really sided with a usurper and committed many crimes. It may be true. But the victors write the histories. It may be that the countess was actually the usurper, leading Gerd to insult her and side with her dad, and having won the day, besmirched her father's name and sentenced the Witcher to death as a witness to her crimes. Either way it's cool, nice that we're left to wonder. Thematically it would be cool if the Bear school were from Skellige. With Gerd's story, it's hard to tell if he's from North of Redania (near Arcsea) and fled to Skellige, or if he's from the islands and went back home to flee the countess's vengeance. At least the crossbow story suggests that weapon was not common in Skellige. Though of course witchers almost certainly shared weapons and techniques between schools.

a good way to put it would be all Witchers have the same standard powers and each school specializes in a specific sub class of fighting, so bear would be heavy specialists, wolf medium, etc. Also by far the best witcher lore series on youtube thank you for taking the time to make these and actually doing them well and being clear you're already a huge leg up to other lore channels so keep up the great work

Man... It sounds like we are hearing about humans back in the day and the normal prosecution of the new and unknown 🤔 thanks for one more amazing video George 😎🤟🏻 like myself another Witcher from the school of the Griffin 💪🏻

My first and only witcher game is witcher 3. I bought it after a friend of mine told me i would like it, because i liked skyrim so much. So i have played it for a while now. Have almost 70hrs in the game and i have not even went to skellige yet:D but i have watched almost every lore video of yours and tried to learn as much as possible of the lore. And if i would have to choose a favorite school it would be wolf just because I love the armor and fightning style. And umm sorry for the long response and for all the misspelled words, english is not my native tongue! Thanks and keep up the good work!!

I feel like it would be cool to do a game where you can pick your school and train and such in there discipline

Really enjoying your videos. :) thanks for the hard work!

Awesome video mate! I seem to learn more watching these than I do actually playing the game, sometimes lol! What armour is your Geralt wearing in the video by the way? (The blue outfit in the cutscenes) thanks!

The Witcher Grandmaster Bear gear is my favorite especially tinted with the red color. Looks stylish as hell

Quen+ grandmaster bear set + euphoria + alchemy and combat skills + red mutagenics = indestructible war machine

I’m still going through these videos and lore so I don’t know about the schools themselves, but my favorite witcher gear in W3 is definitely Griffin.

Master ursine gear for me (love it) i feel like a armored truck going from school of the cat armor

when i first found these new witcher armours my first thought was that they werent exacly from different schools but that they were just custom armours for specifc members from the school we know

Also, in Norse, there are very close similarities between the words bear and beserker, which is probably how CD Projeckt Red came up with the idea.

Love this damn game story legendary site quests legendary (even when game crashes over 10 times in a couplse quests) one of the BEST games i played. Nice video btw like the story of the school of the bear like all of the schools bear, wolf, grffin, cat,viper,etc . Very nice.

Love your videos!

I'm torn between cat and viper (Wolf is cool too) but since I was born a girl, I probably wouldn't get much choice, my best (or only) option being the school of cat

bear school is a very strong combo because its also tied into quen buffs at grandmaster... with quen you can literally just go in for a heavy attack crit and take a counter attack and just fall back. its a weird playstyle but def a very very strong one for massive dmg.

Considering the bear school gear is meant to be tanky and heavy the set should have a head piece, such as a helmet which functions like the various masks. Equipable with one of side slots

Personally the school of the bear is my favorite, I model a lot of my characters in other games after them, plus the bear is my totem. Love my bear paw medallion to death even more now.

I guess you are right when it comes to witchers using heavy weapons. I guess they ought to have used larger silver swords as well as silver bladed polearms or axes.

The Bear Keep or the School of the Bear is called "Haern Caduch" and it's high atop the Amell mountains. So its in Cintra. Not Skellige.

Cant wait for the switch version 🙌🏾

a lot of the times when i watch these videos I get caught up in the contract or quest in the background and a few minutes later I'm like wait wtf is he talking about. Even after having done every one of them near 4 times, I still get immersed and never tired of it

what kind of graphic settings is that? mine is ultra but it still doesn't look that smooth.

Mine is the manticore because they use a lot of potions in their combat, they may have also witcher knowledge about golden dragons.

I am doubtful of the dragon part, just as I am with witcher George, as doing a bit of research, from both books and games, witcher George slayed a cockatrice, and the other probably slayed a draconid, as not alot of people, even witchers, distinguish the difference between dragons and draconids, same sense with TRUE higher vampires and regular vampires.

You get some of the ursine armor diagrams in velen where you find Thaler. And it sounds like Gerd is actually from Toussaint.

Liked the music in background. Is that from Disciplines 3?

I havent learned much about the other schools but I know the school of the cat were like assassins and I've always enjoyed that character archetype plus... I love cats

I always though Fort Etnir or the ruins near Yngvar’s Fang where likely spots for the Bear school.

I remember hunting down pieces of the Bear set, led me to a decrepit castle on top of a mountain in Skellige that I had to climb the mountain to get into. Eventually had to go into a couple holes in the ground leading to the bottom of the castle, got the Bear piece in the throne room down there, but I was trapped there. The only way out was to switch a lever in the back of the throne room to get out but it was like the only part of the entire game that glitched for me. The door lever didn't worked......restarted from my last save point a couple times, double checked guides online, but the door glitch always remained. Had to give up on School of the Bear at that point. No worries though, School of the Cat gear is best route anyways.

A thought occurs: as I'm building a berserker deck in gwent I realize all of the bear school witchers are under skellige heres the thing we have no clue if they were actually from there and no proof. However the simpler solution is that if they truly seek the bezerker curse intentionally where better than skellige to do that? Many bear school witchers likely traveled there as the last part of training, and as such became heavily associated with the isles.

The bear in every conceivable symbolic way is by far the most badass

School of the bear armor looks wicked, pair it with a dwarven axe ( bought all over velen/novigrad ) and you got yourself a sick look

Btw, because I didn't know at first what you meant when you said Spikeroog. I'm pretty sure it's namend after the East Frisian Spiekeroog, which is pronounced "Speaker-og" (dunno the IPA for that), so it's probably pronounced like that as well.

The fields of Ard Skellige, what a soundtrack, by far my favourite

For the next witcher game they should make it so that you can design your own witcher and choose what school they come from with different perks depending on what one and also have it be less story focused and more on just being witcher

My guess about the wolf school was that they are a compromise in speed and strength and emphasize teamwork.

Id like to point to some evidence of the bear school being from skellige is that the fist fighting tourney in skellige was founded in honour of Duns Ursus, who fought monsters with his bare hands, ursus is too similar sounding to ursine for it to be a coincidence and who else but a witcher could fight monster with there fists, the ursine armor set has pretty spiked looking gauntlets

I love the Ursine armour, it looks awesome

My problem with the ursine armour is that it barely looks "heavy". No steel plates and barely any mail, it looks like a slightly upgraded gambison. The Griffin set looks way more protective, imo it's the only witcher set that seems to be actual armour (from a historical point of view).

I'm getting excited for the next Witcher game!

My favorite school.

All of the Bear armour sets are Gorgeous looking.

You missed juhod of belhaven, he was a bear school witcher who went to toussaint to get grandmaster witcher gear, took a contract on some creatures causing houses to collapse, was vastly unprepared snd didnt know what he was up against, and died in the caves the creatures were using

Only other not mentioned member we now know of so far is Ivo of Belhaven from Thronebreaker

just reading comments and i just suddenly got this thought: why only swords? for example against golems? and maybe those gargoyles? and maybe some insectoids with thick armor that a sword would have a hard time cutting/or piercing through.....I think that maybe a warhammer/axe would be more effective for certain things, and maybe spears as well.....maybe im stretching it tho

Yo my man! Would like to see school of the griffen.

Cat is my favorite in terms of both armor aesthetics and lore thus far.

School of Bear. Power attack soooo satisfying

I love that you made the link between School of the Bear and the Vildkaarls...I did wonder about that. Didn't they use the 'barbarian castle' as their base? The dwarf in the sky cell might've been killed trying to make it in the school...kinda makes sense that way too. I love the wolf school because the armor fits my style, Griffin did Ok for me the first time, I'm currently 'exploring' the python and cat armors and weapons...Cat armor seems to me a bit too light.

Quite fond of the Griffin school myself

Pass-tense of seek is sought dude, good vid btw

I noticed that in Witcher 3, when searching for Witcher stashes for diagrams and stuff, Griffin, Wolf and Cat mark their places with a distinct animal marking to let you know you're close to one of their stashes - BUT for the Ursine diagrams there is never any marking like that, never have I seen a bear marking anywhere.

you ignored the most active and influential school : School of the sloth

Man I love pretty much every set of armor in the Witcher 3, I think I left the game with Tesham Mutna from blood and wine. Gonna have to reinstall this soon

On the PS4 you can't get the Wolf gear because the signal tower is glitched where the chest isn't lootable. Never been fixed.

Crach's armor looks like a modified version of the master ursine armor a bit. The assumption that the bear school was on Skellige is probably right.

School of bear also has close ties with the Dwarves and their homeland.

Not my favourit armor but nice vid, keep up.

My favorite school would probably be the school of the wolf, but that's probably just because I've only played the witcher 1 & 2, so I know next to nothing about the other schools aside from your videos. Also, after hearing you talk about how cheap the first witcher game is currently in a few of your videos, I was reminded of a deal CDProjektRed currently has where they'll give you the witcher 1 for free if you subscribe to the GOG newsletter. I found out about it through Gwent, which is run through GOG.

Imagine a Witcher mmo similar to the elder scrolls online that would be a cool idea people could make their own Witcher and pick their school as somewhat of a class system

CD Projekt Red needed to weave in three different playstyles (fast with light armor and an emphasis on signs as well as stamina regeneration, medium as a sort of jack-of-all trades and master-of-none, and heavy with a strong emphasis on simply ploughing through your enemies (and romances) while tanking damage) and basically needed to create a Witcher School according to each playstyle. The only Witcher Schools actually canon are the School of the Wolf and School of the Cat. All the others are either only mentioned in graphic novels or only in the games themselves.

They were in the Amell mountains, which border Toussaint. So instead of Vikings, they are more likely French inspired. Which is fascinating.

I know I’m getting to this video very late but my favourite Witcher School is the school of the bear Ps. Does anyone know what the official lore bear school medallion looks like?, I’ve seen all the schools except the bears

I’m a little late, but I’d have to pick the school of the Griffin as my favourite. I just love the idea of a school full of alchemist witchers

Geralt doesn’t tuck his hair into the grand master ursine armor, thus my departure from the school of the bear

Wooo got all the armor.

In future I wanna see a Witcher game call white wolf. And it’s 1 2 and 3 of the wither games in one. A full story of Geralt