The Witcher School, a real-life school that invited fans of Andrzej Sapkowski’s beloved fantasy series to LARP as the popular beast hunters driven to fame by characters such as Geralt of Rivia in Poland, has been forced to shut its doors after losing its license. CD PROJEKT RED terminated its contract with owner 5 Żywiołów (5 Elements) earlier this year over what has been speculated to be political concerns; a staff member named Ania Wawrzyniak, who happens to be the wife of founder Dastin Wawrzyniak, was reportedly involved “with the ultra-conservative Polish Catholic organisation Ordo Iuris, which is anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, and rejects the idea of gender equality.” 5 Żywiołów says that it is now working on its own original setting for a new LARP, one that the company hopes to launch next spring.
“In February we decided to end our cooperation with the organizers of Witcher School,” CD PROJEKT RED wrote in a statement to Eurogamer, “and now the contractual notice period of three months has ended. For more context, this cooperation was about the LARP itself, and potential merchandise tied to it. We do not provide further details on the matter.”
This involvement was brought to light by Polish media in February – in articles like this and this – and prompted 5 Żywiołów to contact CD Projekt Red with an explanation. It was then that the licence was allegedly, abruptly, terminated.
“When the situation happened, we informed CD Projekt RED about it, which in response, without asking for any explanations, terminated the licence agreement,” the more recent Facebook post read (the original February post was more emotive).
I asked CD Projekt Red for verification. It would not be drawn on particulars but vaguely mentioned different reasons for the licence termination.
Source: Eurogamer