A man saves a woman from a hungry wolf; the woman has no coin, no valuables, but saving a life is a debt that must be repaid, and how can you put a price on it? So, the man says: “You shall give me what you find at home, but did not expect”.
When she goes home, she finds her son as slain a deer for them to eat - but it goes to the man.
A man saves another from certain death, but he has been robbed and only has his horse and the clothes he’s wearing, and won’t be able to get home without either. So, his saviour says: “You shall give me the first thing that greets you once you step home.”
As the man enters his house, his dog comes barking and wagging her tail to greet him. And she goes to the man.
A witcher saves a peasant from a pack of ghouls.”However can I repay you?”
The witcher smiles. “You shall give me what you already have, but do not know.”
When he gets home, the man finds his wife has given birth to a beautiful baby boy, but he now belongs to the witcher.
Such is the Law of Surprise, a custom as old as mankind itself.
While it can be invoked by anyone, it is most associated with witchers. Whether there is truth in the fear that witchers invoke it in order to get children for their school or not, the Law has also ties with Destiny - and it’s a dangerous thing to run from it.
Most famously Zivelina, Queen of Metinna, made a deal with the gnome Rumplestelt: the crown for what ended up being her first-born child. When Rumplestelt came back to claim his child surprise, Zivelina drove him away with magic, and a few days later both mother and babe died of a plague. The price to be paid for ignoring Destiny.
The bond between the invoker of the Law and their child surprise is undeniable - but do not worry, just because Duny ended up marrying his (which is. Hm. Gross.) does not mean that this always has to be the case. A father/son relationship is, I think, the most common result of getting a child out of this Law.
In Northern legends a man named Mad Dei, victim of a curse, claimed the Law of Surprise and got a child out of it. That child then proceeded to lift the curse off him.
Contrary to what you now may believe having seen the show, being a child surprise does not grant you special powers. The ones Cirilla and Pavetta before her have exhibited, as hinted by Calanthe herself, run in the Cintran royal bloodline and will be explained later.
In short, the Law of Surprise is an ancient custom, invoked when a life debt has to be paid and coin is not sufficient, either because of a lack of it or because you can’t put a price on life. You can get pretty much anything out of it. A dog, a weapon. Something useless like a letter. Something terrible and awkward like, maybe, a tax collector and you now have to pay a debt that is not yours. Sometimes it’s a child, and that child will be bound to you by the Law, always. Ignoring it is a mistake and Destiny will, somehow, always find a way to bring you together.
areudirty
theartofmadeline
vaporwave
gummygunk
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
dededos
