The secret to Ciri becoming a Witcher in The Witcher 4 lies in her new medallion

Ciri was always the obvious choice for the protagonist in The Witcher 4. Geralt had well and truly hung up his steel and silver swords in the Blood & Wine DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and if you got the good ending for the base game, you'd know he trained Ciri as his protégé shortly after the story concludes.

Or, more accurately, Geralt continued the training he gave Ciri in Kaer Morhen in the books. Not only does Ciri want to follow in her adoptive father's footsteps in the game, but from the original Sapkowski works, it's clear being a Witcher is her ambition. So, even though there was a bit of controversy to the choice of Ciri at the premiere of The Witcher 4 trailer, pretty much anyone who's actually played the games understands that this is the logical route for CD Projekt Red to go in. That is, besides one small hurdle.

As we know, only men can become Witchers in the universe, as only boys can survive the Trials of the Grasses. That means, that even with her powers of bending time and space, Ciri theoretically shouldn't have the animalistic eyes and signs that we see in the trailer. However, CD Projekt Red has told us they already know exactly how Ciri becomes a Witcher to get over this small hurdle, and I think that it all has to do with the medallion.

Well, duh? Of course it's the medallion, that's the symbol she's a Witcher. Yes, I know, but I'm more talking about what the medallion means. Specifically, the fact that Ciri no longer wears the School of the Cat medallion around her neck, but instead the School of the Lynx medallion. The School of the Lynx is not a canon school, but it was created before The Witcher 4 in fan-fiction. So far as the story goes, the School of the Lynx is founded by Lambert, Keira Metz, and a few other members of the former School of the Cat. Essentially, the School of the Lynx is just the School of the Cat rebranded, with heavy reforms by Lambert and Keira.

How does this relate to Ciri? Well, as mentioned, she was already wearing a School of the Cat medallion, and she's familiar with Lambert, so it's more than possible with Geralt retired and the School of the Wolf pretty much abandoned following Vesemir's death, she sought out the School of the Lynx to make herself a Witcher in full. This explanation would also help us get over the hurdle of women not being Witchers, as research from the School of the Manticore allowed women to succeed the Trials of the Grasses, and the School of the Lynx was the second school to allow women to become Witchers.

Put two and two together and it starts to make sense how the lore can quite easily explain Ciri's path to becoming a Witcher. Now, it might not be the case that CD Projekt Red would use this fanon in its entirety, but from the appearance of the School of the Lynx it's clear there is an inspiration. In any case, as this is the start of Ciri's journey as a Witcher, it's likely we won't be thrust into the point where she's mastered every aspect of being a monster slayer. Moreover, in the same fan-fiction that the School of the Lynx comes from, we see a second Conjunction of the Spheres (much bigger than the one at the end of The Witcher 3), which calls for plenty of new Witchers to help slay the abundance of monsters in the world. Therefore, again it makes sense why a new, female Witcher such as Ciri isn't just going to be shoe-horned in, but will feel like a natural solution to one of the Witcher world's new problems.

The Witcher games are just fan-fiction themselves at the end of the day, but they are very good fan-fiction, which show immense amounts of respect for the source material most of the time. So, if you're fearful about CD Projekt Red ditching the lore entirely for the sake of making Ciri a Witcher, calm your fears, as there are a multitude of ways in which this can work in-universe. Personally, if I were Ciri, I wouldn't want to go through all the pains of the Trials of the Grasses and would stick with my awesome space and time powers. We all saw what the modified version of the Trials did to UMA, after all.