The universe of Netflix.
The Witcher TV series was an instant success and became one of Netflix’s most popular titles, granting it two more seasons (for now). The series approached Sapkowski’s stories differently and season 1 followed three characters in different places and points in time, with their paths converging towards the end of the season. These characters are the title witcher, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), who continued to lead The Witcher in its second season but now in a linear and easier to follow timeline. Season 2 also expanded this universe by introducing more monsters and characters, and it paid extra attention to the elves.
The Witcher’s elves had already appeared in season 1 briefly, and it was very clear that they are not this universe’s favorite race. In The Witcher season 2, the elves captured Yennefer and Fringilla (Mimî M. Khayisa), and through sca Findabair (Mecia Simson), the audience learned the many struggles the elves go through. The elves were in the process of rebuilding their community and finding a permanent home, which led sca to make a deal with Fringilla that was controversial to some, but in the end, it all fell apart and the elves went back to square one. Throughout sca’s storyline, The Witcher season 2 showed that elves are hated across the continent, mostly by humans, and the reason for that goes a long way back and is a bit complicated.
Although during Geralt’s time elves are seen as one of the most hated and undervalued races in The Witcher, there are reasons for other races to not like them, as they have a history of racism. Elves believe that they were created, unlike humans who evolved, so they consider humans to be inferior and constantly look down upon them. They arrived on the Continent from another world through a portal and colonized much of it, and while it was mostly through peaceful means, they did clash with other races. Following the Conjunction of the Spheres, humans arrived on the Continent and started pushing the elves towards the east, taking over their lands. Although a peace treaty was signed between humans and elves, the latter were attacked by Redanian forces, leading to an elven-human war. Another peace treaty was signed years later and another battle took place, and the rivalry between humans and elves continued.
While this paints elves as the oppressed ones with enough reasons to hate humans, elves also massacred and butchered humans in ways that, when Geralt’s crew saw that they did, almost made them throw up. As mentioned above, elves see humans as inferior and are quite racist, and these conflicts are just one of many mirrors of real-life in the universe of The Witcher. Elves went from an advanced society that took over a big part of the Continent to a community with nowhere to settle down, and with them now going after Ciri due to her Elder Blood, their relationship with humans, witchers, mages, and more is about to get a lot more complicated, and with all the changes Netflix’s The Witcher has already made to the source material, is to be seen if the elves will continue to be the victims or will become the villains at some point.