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0:00"The Witcher" nods to The Conjunction
of the Spheres, Ithlinne's prophecy,
0:04and where Witchers come from, but doesn't
explain any of it. The new prequel series
0:09"Blood Origin" answers many of those questions
and raises more. Warning: Spoilers ahead.
0:14In the time of "The Witcher," the Continent
is a hodgepodge of social, political,
0:19and religious groups, subject to an endless cycle
of war and racial conflict. Much of that strife
0:25comes as a result of human machinations, as the
many human nations of the Continent are prone to
0:31infighting just as often as they are to prejudice
against Elves, Dwarves, and the like. One of the
0:36setting's most enduring and poignant features is
the abundance of Elven ruins and artifacts across
0:42the land, over which humanity builds their empires
and attempts to recreate old Elvish magics.
0:48"My elders worked with humans,
and got robbed of all they had.
0:54And when they fought back, they were slaughtered."
0:57Yet in "The Witcher: Blood Origin," humanity has
yet to arrive on the Continent, and in its place,
1:03the Elven empires prove themselves every bit as
bloodthirsty as their eventual human successors.
1:09The series begins with three major
Elven kingdoms uniting under one banner,
1:14with Xin'trea as its capital city. The
unification is no feat of diplomacy,
1:19but rather the act of a few scheming,
power-mad individuals, specifically,
1:24Balor and Eredin. The new, unified empire
is built on a shaky foundation as a result.
1:29This period is known in canon as a golden age in
Elven history, and yet even then it was a violent,
1:36tenuous time. By the series' end, the death of an
empress, the shattering of dimensional barriers,
1:42and a peasant uprising all bring the
so-called golden age to an ugly end.
1:48Though they've yet to properly arrive in "The
Witcher" to hound Ciri and plague Geralt's dreams,
1:53the Wild Hunt is one of the greatest threats
in the Witcher canon and is likely to end up
1:58as the series' overarching villains.
In the Sapkowski novels, video games,
2:03and other media, the Wild Hunt is one of the
primary groups responsible for Ciri's constant
2:09pursuit and nomadic lifestyle. They want Ciri's
unique power that comes from her Elder Blood,
2:14a power that is prophesied to
either end the world or save it.
2:18All of their efforts begin in the final
moments of "The Witcher: Blood Origin."
2:22When Balor betrays Eredin and casts
him out into an unknown dimension,
2:27the Elf seems doomed to a slow demise on a
dead, alien world. But it's precisely that
2:33exile that causes Eredin, alongside his band
of loyal soldiers, to begin transforming into
2:38the fearsome Wild Hunt. Eredin's singular
determination allows him to survive exile,
2:44discover the secrets to interdimensional travel,
and return to the Continent as the King of the
2:50Wild Hunt. Using advanced magic found only on
other worlds, Eredin and his band evolve into
2:56something more than simple raiders. Wielding
frost magic and commanding elemental beasts,
3:02they become terrifying figures who haunt the
dreams of folk from the Continent and beyond.
3:07"The Witcher: Blood Origin" establishes the origin
for several major moments in the franchise's lore,
3:13the biggest and most important are the Conjunction
and the creation of the first Witcher. But
3:19the series also finds time to sprinkle in the
origins of smaller characters that are destined,
3:24as more hardcore fans will undoubtedly know, to
become central figures in Witcher lore. One such
3:30figure is Ithlinne, who appears in the series for
just a few short scenes as a poor little girl who
3:36happens to have psychic visions. As it turns out,
that little girl eventually grows into the most
3:42famous seer in history whose most famous prophecy
points to Ciri as the cause of Armageddon.
3:47In the final moments of
the series, Ithlinne offers
3:51Éile the Lark a prophecy regarding her child
and its descendants. As ominous as its sounds,
3:56it's nothing compared to what she'll predict just
a few years later. Unlike so many other oracles,
4:02an alarming amount of Ithlinne's prophecies end
up coming true, and so her writings become almost
4:08sacred texts in the world of the Witcher. Many
of the major decisions made by kings, queens,
4:15and mages in the time of Geralt come as a result
of Ithlinne's words and their ever-present doom.
4:21Another minor character in "The Witcher: Blood
Origin" who closes out the series in an impactful
4:26way is Avallac'h. For the vast majority of
the series, the young Elf is merely a simple
4:31mage's apprentice, a stuttering lackey with
no discernible importance beyond his meager
4:36station. His surprising rise to prominence
comes after saving Empress Merwyn from a
4:42would-be assassin. Merwyn has no idea what
events she's setting in motion by promoting
4:47Avallac'h and granting him access
to higher-level magical research,
4:51nor how he will one day play a major
part in the story of Geralt and Ciri.
4:56"I need you to learn how to
open gateways to new worlds."
4:59"This is insane. I'm going to die."
5:02As fans of the novels and video games will
know, Avallac'h is an ancient Elven mage with
5:08an unparalleled knowledge of interdimensional
travel who eventually becomes Ciri's mentor and
5:13bodyguard. In the game, "The Witcher III,"
it's thanks to Avallac'h that Ciri is able
5:18to evade the Wild Hunt for so long, and it's
only through him that she's able to understand
5:22the truth of her powers and finally master
them. By awakening Avallac'h's potential,
5:27Empress Merwyn unknowingly sets in motion
a series of events that culminate in Ciri's
5:32survival and therefore enable Ciri to play
whatever cataclysmic role she's meant to.
5:38The world of "The Witcher: Blood Origin" seems
harsh and violent enough for the series' first
5:43few episodes, but its finale takes everything
to an extreme new level by ushering in the
5:48Conjunction of the Spheres. The Conjunction
is perhaps the single most important event
5:53in the Witcher canon, and even when shown in
the series, its full importance goes untold.
5:58The finale shows the Conjunction's first moments,
describing it as a shattering of space and time,
6:04a tearing of the veils between worlds, but even
that grandiose narration doesn't begin to cover
6:09it. Almost instantly, the Conjunction transforms
the Continent from a place of relative uniformity
6:15and stability into a terrifying, savage land
where dozens to hundreds of different species
6:21of monsters, humans and elves included,
war with each other for supremacy. Gone
6:26are the days when a peasant's greatest
concerns were taxes and blight. Instead,
6:31they are replaced with the existential terror of
vampires, basilisks, kikimores, and leshys. The
6:38establishment of the various Witcher schools is a
direct response to this sudden influx of monstrous
6:44beasts and without the Conjunction, there would
be no Witchers around which to build a franchise.
6:49As any longtime fan of the "Witcher" franchise
can tell you, the real monsters aren't the beings
6:54with sharp claws, stingers, and rotting
flesh, they're the very people around us,
6:59the regular citizens who suddenly resort to
ghoulish acts of violence and selfishness.
7:04That humanity is the real monster, is one of
the central themes that guide every aspect of
7:09"The Witcher" franchise. In a clever stroke of
world-building, Sapkowski chose to introduce
7:15humans to the Continent at the same time as the
more obvious monsters, making the creation of
7:20the Witchers a dual necessity. In the latter
half of "The Witcher: Blood Origin" finale,
7:25the Conjunction of the Spheres brings humanity
to the Continent, forever changing its landscape.
7:31In the finale, an Elven fisherman stumbles
upon a shipwreck whose passengers speak no
7:37Elvish and bear smooth, rounded ears. Those
first human settlers, though unintentionally,
7:43start a process on the Continent that in many ways
resembles an infection, spreading from nation to
7:49nation, tearing them down to continue
feeding and increasing their numbers.
7:53One of the more curious new additions to the
Witcher lore in Netflix's "The Witcher" is the
7:59presence of the monoliths, strange, black pillars
of stone that harbor deep secrets relating to
8:04magic and the Conjunction of the Spheres. The
video games have their own monoliths which seem
8:09unrelated, and the books have no mention of them
at all, making them a novel invention for the
8:14Netflix series. They pop up again and again in
"The Witcher," forming the basis of Istredd's
8:20research, interfering with Ciri's power, and
even summoning several entirely new species of
8:25monsters. The mysterious structures return in "The
Witcher: Blood Origin," and like other important
8:31facets of the universe, their true nature and
origin are revealed more fully in the series.
8:36It turns out that the monoliths are Dwarven
creations, only controlled by the Elves because of
8:42their conquest of the Dwarves and their territory.
Their magic is ancient, predating even Elvish
8:48magic, and is intrinsically tied to the land and
the underlying properties of the dimension itself.
8:53Just as the monoliths withstood the magical
experimentation of the Elves and endured until
8:59the time of humanity, they also endured throughout
the days of Dwarven dominion and Elvish conquest,
9:04making them some of the only unchanging
features of the Continent's landscape.
9:09The world of the Witcher is chock full
of fascinating characters, creatures,
9:14coalitions, and conflicts that make for excellent
story material, but at the end of the day,
9:19the reason we're here is the Witcher himself,
Geralt of Rivia. He and his fellow cat-eyed,
9:25sword-slinging brethren give the franchise its
namesake and are Sapkowski's primary invention.
9:30"The Witcher: Blood Origin" is fully aware
of this fact, which is why much of its story
9:35is dedicated to the creation, and eventual
destruction, of the Continent's first Witcher.
9:40The first Witcher wasn't created by any
organization in response to encroaching
9:44monsters, and it even predates the
Conjunction of the Spheres. Instead,
9:48the first Witcher is made for killing one
single monster. Although the process of mutating
9:53young boys into Witchers eventually becomes
standardized, the first attempt is anything
9:58but. Fjall is laid on the dirt floor of a cave,
given a mix of herbs, and infused with the blood
10:04of the most convenient monster. The transformation
ultimately consumes him and leads to his death,
10:10and how the process was revived and
eventually streamlined is still unknown.
10:15Bookending "The Witcher: Blood Origin"
are prophecies from the young Ithlinne.
10:19The first prophecy centers around the Lark
and her quest, but the second prophecy,
10:24the one that comes at the tail end of the
finale, seems tailor-made for Geralt and
10:28Ciri. In particular, one invocation
of a seed bears a great portent.
10:33"Carry forth the first note of
a song that ends all times."
10:40This is almost certainly a direct
reference to Ciri's Elder Blood
10:43and her eventual role in the ending of the world.
10:46This final prophecy of the series echoes the most
famous of Ithlinne's predictions in the books and
10:51games. Known in Geralt's time as simply Ithlinne's
Prophecy, it foretells the ending of the world,
10:57all centered around Elder Blood. Elder
Blood flows through Ciri, which makes
11:02the girl perhaps the greatest asset to anyone
in the Spheres who has a stake in Armageddon.
11:07Like Ithlinne's Prophecy, this prediction from
the "Blood Origin" is likely what will set in
11:12motion the series of events that lead to future
generations' fear of those with Elder Blood.
11:18As "The Witcher: Blood Origin" concludes,
Seanchaí implores Jaskier to "sing the Song
11:24of the Seven," referring to the tale of Fjall,
the Lark, and their five companions. She wants
11:30the famous bard to spread the tale far and
wide, rekindling the fire of hope among
11:34Elvendom that the Lark and company first
breathed to life over a millennium ago.
11:39Tasked by the mysterious and godlike
Seanchaí to sing the Song of the Seven
11:44across the Continent, Jaskier emerges
from the series with a new purpose,
11:48one meant to tip the scales of power
toward the side of Elves. Seanchaí's
11:53nature and ultimate motivations are unclear,
so it's difficult to determine exactly why
11:58she brought this tale back to life or
what will come from it, but regardless,
12:02it will certainly mean more for Jaskier,
the sect of elves known as the Scoia'tael,
12:06and therefore the state of the world for Geralt
and Ciri, in future seasons of "The Witcher."
12:12Although the majority of "The Witcher:
Blood Origin" is set long before the time
12:16of Geralt and Ciri, there are two
brief sequences set in their era,
12:20one at the series' very start and one at
its end. In those few moments, we're able
12:25to learn a little about the current state of
the Continent and its warring inhabitants.
12:30For one thing, we know that the wars in
the Northern Continent have for some reason
12:34attracted attention from extra-dimensional
beings, hence Seanchaí's involvement. It's
12:40also confirmed that Seanchaí will be in more
"Witcher" projects going forward. Both she and
12:45the Song of the Seven are likely to appear in
"The Witcher" in future seasons. In addition,
12:50the scene in which we first find Jaskier says
a lot about the current state of things. He
12:55is apparently regarded as a folk hero,
the noble Sandpiper, Rescuer of Elves,
13:00and is even beloved enough to warrant his
rescue from human capture by an entire
13:05company of Scoia'tael. It seems since we last
left Jaskier and the rest of our heroes in "The
13:11Witcher" Season 2, the Continent has moved
forward, elevating Jaskier along with it.
