Manticore is a giant beast with the body of a lion, bat wings and scorpion tail. As a young witcher, Geralt fought a manticore. He also killed one during the Nilfgaard War, near the town of Dorian.
They are said to somehow use the poison of the Bohun Upas.
“
I looked for the words "Witcher urgently needed". And then there'd be a sacred site, a dungeon, necropolis or ruins, forest ravine or grotto hidden in the mountains, full of bones and stinking carcasses. Some creatures which lived to kill, out of hunger, for pleasure, or invoked by some sick will. A manticore, wyvern, fogler, aeschna, ilyocoris, chimera, leshy, vampire, ghoul, graveir, were-wolf, giant scorpion, striga, black annis, kikimora, vypper... so many I've killed.
”
— pg(s). 116, "The Voice of Reason 4", in the collection The Last Wish (UK edition)
— pg(s). 148, "The Voice of Reason 4", in the collection The Last Wish (US edition)
— pg(s). 148, "The Voice of Reason 4", in the collection The Last Wish (US edition)
“
There's a cruel man-eater in these parts, laddie. He fell on a knight riding along the road with nowt but a boy for company. They say the monster rent the knight's head right off — helmet and all — and split the horse's gizzards.
[...]
'A dragon?'
'Nay, it's no dragon,' said the one in the straw hat. ''Tis said to be a manticore, or some such. The boy said 'tis a flying beast, awful huge. And vicious! We reckon he would devour the knight and fly away, but no! They say he settled on the road, the whoreson, and was sat there hissing and baring its fangs...”
— pg(s). 10 – 11, Time of Contempt (UK edition)
“
...he saw the great tawny body being lifted up by the soldiers. The monster's bat-like wings and scorpion tail dragged inertly along the ground.
”
— pg(s). 11, Time of Contempt (UK edition)
In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings[]
In The Witcher 2, Geralt recalls that he fought an imperial manticore in one of his flashbacks, while pursuing the Wild Hunt.
In The Witcher computer game[]
Siegfried relates the story of how his father, Eyck of Denesle, died fighting a manticore when he first meets Geralt in the sewers.
Notes[]
- Manticore is a mythologic beast, with the body of a lion and the tail of a dragon or a scorpion. It can throw venomous spines to paralyze its prey.
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