Season one of Netflix’s The Witcher series follows Geralt of Rivia, the titular witcher. Witchers
are once normal humans who were ruthlessly conditioned and experimented on to create
perfect monster slaying hunters. Witchers possess many heightened abilities like enhanced senses,
speed, and strength, and can perform minor magical spells. Throughout season one, Geralt,
alongside his trusty steed Roach, is traveling the Continent and using his witcher skills to take up
various bounties and quests. Along his journeys, he crosses paths with several notable figures,
like the mage Triss Merigold and Jaskier the bard, who, much to Geralt’s annoyance,
accompanies the witcher on several quests and even writes a song about him.
When Geralt and Jaskier attend a feast for Princess Pavetta, the daughter of Queen Calanthe
of Cintra, things get a bit complicated. A cursed knight named Duny arrives to ask for
Pavetta’s hand in marriage. With his lowly status and cursed, hedgehog-like features,
Queen Calanthe turns him away despite Pavetta’s profession of love. When a fight ensues and
Pavetta unleashes her magical abilities in anger, Geralt steps in to resolve the situation.
A reluctant Calanthe agrees to allow Pavetta and Duny to marry, and as thanks, Duny offers Geralt
the Law of Surprise, which would grant Geralt something Duny owns, but does not yet know about.
And that’s when it was revealed that Pavetta was pregnant with Duny’s child. That child,
to be named Ciri, was now forever entwined with Geralt’s destiny, whether he liked it or not.
Geralt leaves Cintra, assuring the royal family he wanted nothing to
do with claiming the new princess, and continues on his witching ways.
Meanwhile, season one also follows the story of Yennefer, a young woman with severe physical
deformities who is an outcast of both her village and her family. Her father sells her to the
mage Tissaia de Vries who takes Yennefer to her school in Aretuza to train her to become a mage.
As Yennefer grows more powerful in her magic, she also gains more confidence in herself and even
secretly begins a love affair with the sorcerer Istredd. Upon the initiates’ graduation day,
the new mages are to be assigned to separate kingdoms to advise the ruler. When Yennefer is
assigned Nilfgaard instead of her home in Aedirn, Yennefer refuses to attend
initiation and discovers she was assigned Nilfgaard due to being a quarter elf,
a secret she had only told Istredd. Elves are a persecuted race throughout the kingdom that
have nearly gone extinct due to genocide. Upon confronting Istredd over his betrayal,
he confesses that he had told the mischievous mage Stregobor about Yennefer’s lineage, who
in turn persuaded the Mage Chapter to assign her to Nilfgaard. Istredd promises to do everything
in his power to right his wrong, but it is too late. Yennefer has missed her initiation. And so,
Yennefer pays a visit to the enchanter, who uses magic to make her beautiful, but at the
cost of her fertility. The now reborn Yennefer crashes the Aretuzan ball and charms the Aedirn
king into making her his mage. And so, Tissaia sends the mage Fringilla to Nilfgaard instead.
As the years pass, Yennefer shirks her mage duties and grows bitter
over having her fertility taken from her. She desperately searches for a way to have a child,
and that’s when she first crosses paths with Geralt and Jaskier.
When Geralt and Jaskier stumble upon a Djinn, a genie-like creature that grants its master
three wishes, Yennefer intervenes and wants the wishes for herself to wish for her fertility back.
Geralt realizes the Djinn will kill Yennefer and intervenes, making his own secret wish and
causing the Djinn to leave. Yennefer is upset, but finds comfort in Geralt, and the two enter
into a romance. But when it’s later revealed that Geralt’s wish bound his and Yennefer’s fates,
she begins to doubt whether her feelings for him were real or magic and chooses to leave him.
This causes a hurt Geralt to lash out at Jaskier, telling the bard he never wanted to see him again.
By this point, years have passed and Princess Pavetta and Duny have been lost at sea,
leaving the now teenage Princess Ciri to be raised by her grandmother,
Calanthe. The political power of Cintra has become dire, and the kingdom of Nilfgaard is sending an
army to invade. Fearing for Ciri’s life, Geralt returns to Cintra to invoke the Law of Surprise,
begging Queen Calanthe to allow him to protect the princess. Calanthe refuses and has Geralt
imprisoned. And that’s when the Nilfgaardian army attacks Cintra, who are no match for
invading forces. Geralt escapes from his cell as Cintra devolves into chaos. Queen Calanthe and
her husband Eist are killed, but before succumbing to her wounds, Calanthe tells Ciri to find Geralt.
And so, the young Ciri flees from her home in the search of Geralt of Rivia. In pursuit of
Ciri are the Nilfgardian commander Cahir and the sorceress Fringilla. On Ciri’s journey,
she befriends an elven boy named Dara and the dryad people of Brokilon forest.
Yennefer returns to Aretuza where the Mage Brotherhood are holding a vote to
determine whether or not they should intervene in Nilfgaard’s invasion,
fearing that once they capture Cintra they would move on to all of the other Northern
Kingdoms. Stregobor leads the majority into voting for the Brotherhood to remain neutral,
but Yennefer joins a small faction of mages that includes Tissaia, Triss Merigold,
and Vilgefortz in traveling to Cintra to push back the Nilfgaardian army.
It appears that the mages’ attempts to hold off the Nilfgaardian army are futile,
and Vilgefortz even reveals himself to be a traitor, but just as all hope seems lost,
Yennefer unleashes the full breadth of the chaos magic inside her,
incinerating the invading forces with a giant blast of fire before mysteriously vanishing.
With the battle seemingly over, but a war very much beginning, an injured Geralt stumbles
through the forest and at long last finds Ciri, their fates finally bringing them together.
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In season 2 of The Witcher, Geralt brings his new ward Ciri to the witcher fortress Kaer Morhen.
While there, Geralt reunites with his fellow witchers, including his old mentor Vesemir,
and begins training Ciri in the ways of the witcher so she will be better prepared to protect
herself. And this proves to be very necessary, as many new dangerous monsters begin to appear.
During their training, Geralt discovers that Ciri may have inherited some of her mother’s
magical abilities, and invites the sorceress Triss Merigold to Kaer Morhen to train Ciri in
magic. Geralt then meets with Yennefer’s former lover, Istredd, who explains that the rise in new
monsters throughout the Continent can be linked to mysterious monoliths erected throughout the world.
Meanwhile, Vesemir discovers that Ciri has Elder blood, a long extinct ingredient in mutagens used
to create witchers. Ciri agrees to allow Vesemir to use her blood to create more witchers as long
as he makes her a witcher first. Geralt returns from his visit with Istredd and denies Ciri’s
transformation into a witcher. With Triss’ help, they discover that Ciri’s ancestor Ithlinne was
an elf who prophesied a descendant with Elder blood that would bring about the end of the
world. Fearing for Ciri’s fate, Geralt takes her from Kaer Morhen to deliver her to the Temple of
Melitele, where he hopes she will learn to control her powers and avoid the prophecy. Along the way,
Geralt and Ciri are attacked by a monster, which kills Geralt’s trusty steed, Roach.
Meanwhile, though she is presumed dead by her closest allies, Yennefer has lost her magic and
is taken captive by Fringilla and the retreating Nilfgardians. But, it’s only a matter of time
before both sorceresses are taken captive by a group of elves. Led by an elven sorceress
named Francesca, the elves hope that Yennefer and Fringilla can be used to help them regain power
throughout the continent. The three sorceresses then visit the mysterious Deathless Mother,
who promises to grant each of them what they most desire. Fringilla and Francesca then travel to
Cintra and forge an alliance between the elves and Nilfgard to once again declare war on the
Northern Kingdoms. The Deathless Mother grants Francesca’s greatest desire, resulting in her
giving birth to the first full-blooded elf in years. Yennefer distrusts the Deathless Mother
and abandons her companions, instead returning to Aretuza. There, she reunites with Tissaia, but
is put on trial by Stregobor and the Brotherhood who falsely accuse her of working with Nilfgard.
To prove her loyalty, Yennefer is ordered to execute the captured Nilfgardian soldier
Cahir. Feeling betrayed by her fellow sorcerers, Yennefer instead frees Cahir and goes on the run.
In Yennefer’s absence, Tissaia has begun a relationship with Vilgefortz. Unaware
that he had betrayed the mages in the battle against Nilfgard,
Tissaia confides in him that Triss has confirmed Ciri’s possession of Elder blood.
Cahir then returns to Cintra, where the alliance between the Nilfgardians and the
elves is already faltering. As Fringilla begins to lose clout amongst her fellow Nilfgardians,
she decides to murder several generals and force Cahir to support her with the Nilfgardian Emperor
Emhyr in an effort to elevate her standing. Following the birth of Francesca’s baby,
the elves begin to prioritize rebuilding their people over joining Nilfgard in
battle. This concerns the Nilfgardians, as the Northern Kingdom of Redania,
led by King Vizimir and his spymaster Dijkstra, are plotting to take back Cintra. In turn,
the Nilfgardians assassinate Francesca’s baby. Thinking the Northern Kingdoms were responsible,
Francesca and the elves rejoin the Nilfgardian cause and attack Redania.
Meanwhile, a mysterious and villainous fire mage named Rience is tasked with capturing
Ciri. Knowing she was last seen with Geralt, Rience begins hunting the witcher’s old friend,
Jaskier, for information. Rience also teleports to Kaer Morhen to steal the witcher mutagen for
himself. Jaskier gets some help from Yennefer in evading Rience, but the sorceress knows she
is of little use without her magic. And so, she returns to the Deathless Mother,
who reveals that Yennefer can restore her magical abilities by bringing Ciri to a monolith.
Yennefer tracks Ciri to the temple, unaware that the child she sought was in the care of
her former love, Geralt. As the two reunite, Rience arrives and attacks the temple. While
Geralt faces off against the fire mage and his men, Yennefer takes Ciri and flees.
Geralt is distraught over Yennefer betraying him and taking Ciri, and seeks out Jaskier for
help. The witcher apologizes to his annoying bard friend for his previous cruel behavior,
and together they race to stop Yennefer. When Jaskier tells Geralt that Yennefer has lost her
magic, the witcher realizes that she is doing the bidding of the Deathless Mother, an ancient demon
known as Voleth Meir that feeds on pain that the witchers had imprisoned thousands of years ago.
As Yennefer and Ciri travel to the monolith, the women bond and Yennefer
begins to regret using the child just to gain her powers back. As they reach the monolith,
Yennefer decides to not betray Ciri, although that’s exactly when Geralt
arrives to confront his former lover. As Jaskier takes Ciri back to Kaer Morhen,
Geralt and Yennefer go to confront Voleth Meir. Unfortunately, they discover that the demon has
fed on Francesca’s grief, giving it enough power to escape its imprisonment and possess Ciri.
At Kaer Morhen, the possessed Ciri opens a portal and begins summoning monsters from another world.
Geralt and Yennefer arrive and join the witchers in defeating the monsters and saving the fortress.
Yennefer, regretting her past misdeeds, agrees to sacrifice herself and save Ciri by becoming
the demon’s new host. Ciri then uses her powers to transport herself, Geralt, and the possessed
Yennefer to Voleth Meir’s homeworld. There, the demon leaves Yennefer and recreates its original
body, joining an army known as the Wild Hunt who seek to harness Ciri’s elder blood. Ciri,
Geralt, and Yennefer then teleport back to Kaer Morhen to escape the Wild Hunt. Yennefer
discovers that she has regained her magic, and decides to join Geralt in protecting Ciri.
But it’s not only the Wild Hunt that wants to capture Ciri. The Northern Kingdom wants her
dead for being the heir to Cintra’s throne. The Brotherhood of Sorcerers want her dead to
avert the apocalyptic prophecy. Francesca and the elves want to capture her to ensure the
prophecy happens in an act of vengeance against humans. And then there’s the Nilfgardians,
whose Emperor Emhyr finally arrives in Cintra. As the season comes to a close, Emhyr is revealed
to be Ciri’s long missing father, Duny, now a villainous ruler hellbent on finding his daughter.