The universe of The Witcher is a series of novels and short stories that became widely popular after their adaptation to video games, and after being adapted into a movie and a TV show in Poland, it got its first English language adaptation in 2019 thanks to Netflix. The Witcher TV series became an instant success, and in addition to a third season, Netflix is preparing for the release of a prequel TV series.
Netflix’s The Witcher follows the title witcher Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and princess Ciri (Freya Allan), who after the events of season 2, now have half the Continent going after them as Ciri’s blood and powers are very valuable to many people. Before the audience reunites with Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer in The Witcher season 3, it will take viewers many years in the past to learn more about the history of witchers and the Continent in the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Set 1200 years before the events of The Witcher, Blood Origin will explore the creation of the first witcher along with the events that led to the Conjunction of the Spheres and the rise and fall of the Elven civilization. Blood Origin, then, won’t feature Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, nor any other character from the original series (except for Jaskier, who is reportedly set to appear), but it can answer some of the biggest questions about the main series and its characters. Here’s every The Witcher mystery that Blood Origin can explain.
Who Created Witchers?
A witcher (also known as hexer) is a person who has undergone extensive training, ruthless mental and physical conditioning, and mysterious rituals and trials in order to become a monster hunter for hire. Geralt of Rivia is considered one of the greatest witchers in this universe, but the main series has mostly kept The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf took a brief look at this process through the story of Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir, The Witcher hasn’t revealed who is responsible for the creation of witchers, so this is the biggest mystery Blood Origin can answer.
Who Was The First Witcher?
Along with the above question is the mystery of who was the first witcher. By exploring the story of the first witcher, Blood Origin can also explain why most people in the main series' time chose not to associate with witchers even though many of them depend on these mutant monster hunters to stay safe. As mentioned above, witchers were treated as outcasts due to their skills and limited magical potential, but there surely is more to it than that. Blood Origin can also show how different the process of becoming a witcher was back then and how the first witcher worked, as now witchers struggle to find work and lead lives of wandering and collecting coins.
What Caused The Conjunction of the Spheres?
An important event in the universe of The Witcher is the Conjunction of the Spheres, which will be finally explored in The Witcher: Blood Origin. The Conjunction of the Spheres was a cataclysm that happened over a thousand years before the events of the novels, and it affected the whole multiverse. The Witcher showrunner, Lauren Hissrich, described the Conjunction of the Spheres as “a bunch of different dimensions smashing into each other”, as the event trapped many creatures in the same dimension. The Conjunction created rifts through which species from other dimensions ended up on the Continent, leading to many conflicts and battles for dominance, and this also brought a mystical force that is now known as “magic” or “chaos”. Blood Origin will be a lot closer to the Conjunction of the Spheres than The Witcher, so it can shed some light on the possible cause or causes of this massive event while also showing how the Elder Races – elves, dwarves, and gnomes – adapted to the presence of other creatures.
Why Are Humans & Elves Enemies?
The Witcher established that humans and elves don’t get along, and this was even more evident in season 2. The series showed that the elves are in the process of rebuilding their community and finding a permanent home, but after the betrayal of humans near the end of season 2, in which sca Findabair’s (Mecia Simson) baby – the first pure elven baby in years – was murdered by humans, the rivalry between elves and humans is now worse than ever. What’s known about the complicated history between elves and humans is that the former consider themselves superior to humans and colonized much of the Continent when they arrived through portals, but when humans arrived after the Conjunction, they took over the elves’ lands. Blood Origin, then, can give a deeper look at the relationship between elves and humans and how their rivalry began.
Who Are The Wild Hunt & Where Do They Come From?
Among the many groups going after Ciri in The Witcher season 3 is The Wild Hunt, who made a surprise appearance in season 2's finale. The Wild Hunt or Wraiths of Mörhogg is a group of specters who gallop through the sky on undead horses and are widely considered an omen of war. The Wild Hunt were Aen Elle elves from Tir ná Lia, who under the orders of elven King Aubereon Muircetach, formed a cavalry unit with the purpose of invading alien worlds and capturing young humanoids to use them as slaves. The group was originally named Dearg Ruadrhi or Red Riders, and they traveled through the Gate of the Worlds, and in order to look more threatening, they wore skeletal armor and used projections to give themselves a more spectral look. At one point, they lost access to the Gate and only recovered it partially, so the Riders had to change their tactics and enhanced their spectral projections, earning the name of “Wild Hunt”. Now, among the characters in The Witcher: Blood Origin is Eredin Bréacc Glas (Jacob Collins-Levy), the leader of the Wild Hunt, so the origins of the group, their vision, and purpose can be explored in the series.
