Believe it or not, there is actually a school in Poland that was licensed by CD Projekt Red (CDPR) several years back, where fans of the Geralt and the Witcher series could undergo training as “real-life Witchers”. We used the word “was”, because CDPR recently made the decision to rescind its license from the school.
5 Żywiołów, Polish for the 5 Elements, is the name of the company behind the supposed school, alleges that CDPR pulled its license for the Witcher name, for reasons unclear. One possible reason behind CDPR’s decision is said to be due to the school’s link with Ordo Iuris, an ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, known in Poland for its stance towards abortion, the LGBTQ+ community, and its rejection of gender equality.
It all allegedly started after the wife of 5 Żywiołów founder, Dastin Wawrzyniak, was called into work as a lawyer for the company back in 2017. Sometime later, she was commissioned by Ordo Iuris, with one of the legal mechanisms that she was asked to help draft some “legal mechanisms” that would give the group broad power in forcing its members to be fully vaccinated – for COVID-19, by the sounds of it – but it was the request to draft that would allow Ordo Iuris to penalise “illegal abortions” that set off alarms.
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It didn’t take long for the Polish media to catch wind of 5 Żywiołów and Ordo Iuris’ involvement with each other. Then, when 5 Żywiołów contacted CDPR to explain its situation, only to be told, without explanation and abruptly, that the studio would be terminating its license with the company.
From the standpoint of CDPR, the studio says that its decision to terminate its partnership with 5 Żywiołów was made premeditated back in February this year and that the termination of the license was about the LARPing and potential merchandise tied to the partnership.
In light of this, 5 Żywiołów sent out an email to all attendees of the Witcher School, informing them that it was working on its own original content for a new LARP, one that it hopes to launch in the spring of 2023.
(Source: Eurogamer)
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