Characters / The Witcher (2019) - Protagonists

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Main Characters

Geralt

Geralt of Rivia

"I thought the world needed me too."

Monikers: The White Wolf, The Butcher of Blaviken

Portrayed by: Henry Cavill (Seasons 1-3), Liam Hemsworth (Season 4), Tristan Ruggeri (as a child) ^{Dubbed by:} Adrien Antoine (European French), Alexander Doering (German), Hiroki Tochi (Japanese), José Gilberto Vilchis (Latin American Spanish), Daniel Sjöberg (Swedish)

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a mutated human who's been trained to hunt monsters, and does so for coin. One day, he becomes the protector of Princess Cirilla, as both of them are linked by destiny.

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• Adaptation Amalgamation: Contains elements of the character from both the books and the games. His appearance is more faithful to the books, while his speech patterns (in Season 1 at least) are closer to the games' less talkative version of the character.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Flashbacks in the series show that as a young boy, he had brown hair. When he appears in Nightmare of the Wolf, he's a blond.
• Adaptation Name Change: A weird case. His name is Geralt in both the books and the series, but in the books it’s stated to be his birth name. Here, his birth name is unknown, but he says Vesemir named him Geralt, not his mother Visenna.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Just like the previous series and the games, Geralt is more classically handsome than his book counterpart. He notably lacks the facial scarring of his book and game counterparts.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed, but Geralt in the series is still noticeably more cynical than in the books. E.g. in The Last Wish he intentionally invokes the Law of Surprise in the hope of acquiring a child because the number of witchers is decreasing and he genuinely believes that destiny may have given him this opportunity. In the same scene in the series, he does it more out of annoyance when Duny insists that he name a reward and he is far from pleased with the result.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the books Geralt is early on a bit of a racist jerk, which is completely excised in the series. Not in that he considers nonhumans inherently inferior, but he settles for accepting that them becoming a minority in human-dominant world and losing their cultural identity is just how it goes, and he doesn't see the point in trying to fight it. This is most notable at the end of "Four Marks": He tells the elves they should go live among humans, the elves counter that they would have to throw aside their culture to do that. In the books Geralt's response is to tell them to do that anyway. In the series, he has no rebuttal.

• Baritone of Strength: Henry Cavill gives Geralt a considerably deeper tone than his regular speaking voice, which matches the character's intimidation.
• Battle Couple: Briefly with Yennefer, when the two are defending a dragon egg from a group of bounty hunters.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Unbeknownst to Geralt, his first wish from the djinn he just freed is to get some peace. The djinn interprets this as magically swelling up Jaskier's throat to make him shut up, as at that moment he was having an argument with Geralt.
• Brutal Honesty: As rarely as he speaks, what he says is usually nothing but the harsh truth.
  • In "Betrayer Moon", he first gets King Foltest riled up when he describes what happened to Princess Adda's daughter who became a striga, then when Foltest starts trusting Geralt, Geralt admits that he doesn't know if he can cure Foltest's daughter. When Foltest asks what happened to the other princess-turned-monster that Geralt faced (Renfri), Geralt sadly expresses that he had to kill her. Geralt's honesty causes Foltest to open up about his incestuous relationship with his sister.
  • Subverted in "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials". When Calanthe asks Geralt which tale-telling lord really killed a manticore, Geralt responds that neither did, but backs out when the situation is about to escalate. Then it's played straight when Calanthe asks Geralt about how he killed the elves at the edge of the world, only for Geralt to admit that they beat him up and King Filavandrel spared him.
  • Played for Laughs in "Bottled Appetites" when Jaskier keeps getting on his nerves, Geralt admits that he thinks Jaskier's singing sucks.
• The Butcher: Gets the title of "the Butcher of Blaviken" after slighting Stregobor the wizard while surrounded by brigand corpses he slew in the middle of the town. Stregobor tells the rest of the town he went on a rampage.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: He calls his mother Visenna by name probably because he resents her for abandoning him.
• Character Catchphrase: "...Fuck." Geralt's understated Precision F-Strike anytime something happens that throws his plans out the window might as well be the catchphrase for the whole series.
• Charm Person: The Axii sign allows Geralt to influence people's minds, though when he tries it on Renfri, she proves to be resistant to it.
• The Comically Serious: Especially together with Jaskier, Geralt is usually the straight man, who is unfazed by anything they encounter.
• Covered with Scars: His whole body is covered in scars and Every Scar Has a Story.
• Cradling Your Kill: He cradles Renfri in his arm after fatally stabbing her.
• Dance Battler: First showcased in the series when he kills Renfri and her thugs, Geralt skillfully dodges and attacks his enemies like he's dancing.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dresses all in black leather, and looks definitely intimidating. Once you get past that, you see someone who will try to help those in need.
• Deadpan Snarker: When he talks to someone he doesn't like (or Jaskier), he usually makes a snark or two.
  Stregobor: According to the wise mage, Eltibald, Lilit's path was to be prepared by sixty women wearing gold crowns, who'd fill the river valleys with blood.
  Geralt: Hm. Doesn't rhyme. All good predictions rhyme.
• Decomposite Character: Geralt is actually pretty interested in once again filling up the ranks of Witchers in the books. This concern seems to have been transferred (a bit more reasonably) to Vesemir in Season 2 instead.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": It's not his birth name that gets him riled up, and it's only Visenna that makes him angry.
  Visenna: Stop it, Geralt.
  Geralt: You don't get to use that name! Vesemir gave me that name.

• Experienced Protagonist: Geralt is older than he looks, and is over a century old by the time he meets Ciri.
• Famed In-Story: Over the decades, Geralt's exploits, both good and bad, become known across several countries.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Geralt has experienced magic firsthand since he was a child and probably in greater quantities than anyone in the Continent who isn't a sorcerer. And yet, for most of his life he refuses to accept Destiny as anything else other than a self-delusion people made up to make the world make sense.
• Friendship Denial: Geralt constantly denies Jaskier being his friend, yet he wandered the Continent with the latter for more than two decades.
  Jaskier: It is one night bodyguarding your very best friend in the whole wide world. How hard could that be?
  Geralt: I'm not your friend.
  Jaskier: Oh, really. You usually just let strangers rub chamomile onto your lovely bottom?
• Genius Bruiser: As part of his witcher training, he is also a walking bestiary and borderline One-Man Army. He also has deductive skills that would belong to the Great Detective of a classic mystery story, which are needed to figure out details that will help solve more complicated jobs like curses or obscure monsters.
• Genre Savvy: Unlike most fantasy protagonists, Geralt knows his way enough around most of the Continent's legends, myths, and folklore to know what to do (and what not to) in certain situations. Justifiably, it's the only way he's survived for so long.
• Has a Type: So far, Geralt has been shown being attracted only to brunettes. Over the course of the show, he slept with Renfri, a prostitute and Yen.
• Healing Factor: Has a minor one that can help him recover from serious injuries, but ultimately healing potions and proper treatment are way more effective. Because of this he's also resistant to poisons and allows him to use potions to enhance his abilities whereas most people would die from consuming them.
• Heroic Neutral: Geralt will try to stay neutral as long as possible and will only hunt monsters for coin, but if he sees an injustice happening in front of his eyes, he will act.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He's a witcher, for one, and has the title "The Butcher of Blaviken". Jaskier attempts to repair his reputation with his ballads.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: His studded leather cuirass. And his very tight leather pants.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Often proclaims that he is strictly a professional monster hunter, only in it for the money, hates the common folk who ostracize him, and has no emotions. All the innocent people he refuses to let die (sometimes without pay) and constantly putting up with Jaskier strongly suggest otherwise.
  • Geralt also avoids killing monsters if he can help it, like the hirikka.
  • He opts to try to cure the striga rather than kill her.
  • He tells Nivellen's father that Nivellen killed the first wyvern so that he would be proud of the boy.
  • It's implied that he was willing to let Verenna live, had she not killed an entire village, despite having an unlimited food source at her disposal.
• Humble Hero: Geralt isn't one to brag about his feats, as Jaskier complains that he is too stingy with details. When asked about his stories, he will also not lie that Jaskier's songs are vastly exaggerated and he is personally annoyed by "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher". After saving the life of a man, he asks for nothing in return. Unfortunately, in the latter's case, he eventually gives in and calls for the Law of Surprise as reward, unintentionally earning him Ciri.
• Hunk: Courtesy of Henry Cavill's Heroic Build.
• Hunter of Monsters: The profession witchers specialise in is hunting monsters.
• Hyper-Awareness: Due to his heightened senses and his keen observation skills, there are few things he doesn't notice around him.
  • In "Betrayer Moon", Geralt notices King Foltest's reactions when Geralt brings up Princess Adda's lover as the potential murderer and curser of her child. Using this information, he tries to get another reaction out of Foltest by describing bluntly and in minute detail what happened to Adda's daughter. When he and Triss investigate Princess Adda's room in the abandoned castle, he immediately recognizes the smell on her bedsheets, which later leads to the conviction of the culprit.
  • When Geralt meets with Mousesack to take Ciri as his child of surprise to safety, he hears during their conversation the assassins Queen Calanthe has sent to kill Geralt. When she later apparently concedes and lets "Ciri" go, he notices that something is off and sees that the "Ciri" he just met is an imposter and the real Ciri was disguised as a commoner, playing with her friends.
• Hypocrite:
  • Is called out by Yennefer that he really has no right to lecture her about her irresponsible wish for motherhood, when he has a child of surprise that he isn't taking care of.
  • He also goes off on Jaskier, blaming him for getting caught up with a child surprise and losing Yennefer. Geralt and Yennefer never would have met had it not been for Jaskier, and Geralt will soon come to genuinely love Ciri as a daughter.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Geralt does what he does and doesn't take any pleasure in it, nor does he try to romanticize it in any way.
• Immune to Mind Control: To a degree. In "Bottled Appetites" he No Sells Yennefer's charm spell, but later is put to sleep and forced to do her bidding, which leads to his imprisonment by the town guards.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: In the first fight of the series, he parries a crossbow bolt with his blade and kills seven armed thugs.
• Invincible Hero: Very much downplayed. Despite being an experienced witcher, not all of Geralt's fights with monsters go his way (the fight with the striga and the necrophages most notably). His survival owes as much to his pulling all the stops when fighting (like consuming potions and preparing the battleground) as to trying to avoid head-on, protracted fights in the first place. That said, throwing him in a battle with humans (even experienced knights) usually ends as a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He is supposed to be Only in It for the Money, but as much as he wishes to deny it, despite his gruff, rude and uncompromising exterior, he is still the kind of person who will most likely do something to save the most people, even at great cost to himself.
• Ladykiller in Love: Geralt already has a coloured romantic track record and yet it is only when he finally encounters Yennefer that he begins to experience much of the emotional uncertainties and frustrations of caring for someone, much to his confusion and irritation.
• Last of His Kind: Not completely, but he makes it clear that there are very few witchers left after their stronghold, Kaer Morhen, was sacked by a mob and anyone who knew how to turn people into witchers was killed.
• Lightning Bruiser: Because of his genetic enhancement, he has increased speed and stamina. This allows him to perform swift movements in combat, such as parrying crossbow bolts and cutting down multiple opponents in seconds.
• Magic Knight: He's a talented swordfighter, as well as able to use a handful of petty magic "signs" to create telekinetic blasts, hypnotize the weak-minded, seal doorways with electric barriers, et cetera. Due to his heritage, he could have become a sorcerer in fact, however he has not chosen to persue any serious magical training.
• Make a Wish: In "Bottled Appetites", he frees a djinn who grants three wishes to its master. While the first two wishes are relatively minor, the third one is used to save Yennefer's life and seemingly links Geralt's destiny to hers.
• Master Swordsman: He is routinely seen fighting and besting multiple opponents in swordfights, to the point that Renfri stands out by being able to match him.
• Meaningful Rename: His dialogue with Visenna reveals that "Geralt" was an adopted alias after he was left at Kaer Morhen as a child.
  Geralt: You don't get to use that name! Vesemir gave me that name!
• Momma's Boy: Flashbacks suggest that before he was turned into a witcher, Geralt was quite a sweet boy with dreams of knighthood, following his mother Visenna (who unbeknownst to him was a sorceress) all the way. Her abandoning him serves as the first example of the trauma he'll be undergoing for the rest of his life. Indeed, when he finally meets her again when she tries to heal his near-fatal injuries, it's the first thing he upbraids her about.
• Mr. Fanservice: Henry Cavill's certainly easier on the eyes than Book Geralt, as the tight leather and shirtless scenes love to remind you.

• Neutral No Longer: Unless you force his hand, Geralt will try to stay neutral.
  • When presented two times with the choice of "the lesser evil" — to kill either the sorcerer, Stregobor, or the supposed evil mutant and bandit, Renfri — either choice saving innocent people, he'd rather not choose at all. However, with Renfri taking the people of Blaviken hostage to force Stregobor out and setting an ultimatum for Geralt, he is forced to kill her and her people.
  • When Queen Calanthe tries to have Duny killed, so she doesn't have to honor the Law of Surprise and let him marry her daughter, Geralt interferes and defends Duny.
  • Geralt vehemently refuses to join the hunt for a dragon, as they are not a threat to humans, only joining Borch's team because Yennefer is also participating. When he learns that the wanted dragon, Myrgtabrakke, was trying to protect her egg, he helps Villentretenmerth and his companions defend the egg.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Due to misunderstandings, Geralt's good actions are often met with disdain. Despite saving the people of Blaviken from Renfri and her bandits, they threw stones at him, chased him out of town and started calling him "The Butcher of Blaviken" for supposedly killing innocent people.
• The Nose Knows: Has a keen sense of smell, which he demonstrates in Temeria to convict King Foltest's courtier of cursing Princess Adda.
• Not So Stoic: Despite the reputation that the mutations supposedly rob witchers of their emotions, Geralt shows a wide range of emotions on many occasions.
• Odd Friendship:
  • The gruff and stoic Geralt is somehow friends with the boisterous and outspoken bard, Jaskier. They are constantly mocking each other, but while Geralt would never admit it, he actually cares a lot about Jaskier.
  • The same could also be said of his relationship with Mousesack: he, an itinerant witcher with a very cynical view of Destiny compared to Mousesack's highly-placed, worldly, destiny-believing and more affable druid. What clearly links them is their mutual acknowledgment of each other's sense of honor and morals.
• Older Than They Look: It's made apparent that he ages very slowly, as the show covers several decades of his career without any visible changes in his appearance. According to the show's official timeline, 32 years separate the Butchering of Blaviken (at which point he's already 71) and the Fall of Cintra.
• Parental Abandonment: Geralt's mother apparently raised him alone and eventually abandoned him on the road.
• Parental Substitute: To Ciri, once he stops running from their destiny and accepts her as his Child Surprise. He gives her emotional as well as practical support in his own gruff way, and eventually she outright calls him the father she never had.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Most of his crueler acts are at the expense of people who deserve it, like leaving Ostrit to be butchered by the striga he created.
• Papa Wolf: After he has taken on Ciri, Geralt is shown to be very protective and contrasting to his apathy for most of season one quite set on fulfilling his “duty” as her protector and literal guardian. It even becomes an Invoked Trope several times during season two.
  • When one prostitute jokingly suggests that Ciri join a brothel, she laughs at Geralt's menacing expression, commenting, "And he claims he's not a father..."
• Perpetual Frowner: Constantly is seen with a grim look on his face, to the point that his friends make fun of him.
• Perpetual Poverty: Justified, because in Geralt's time, his monster-slaying services are no longer much needed. In "Betrayer Moon" it gets to a point where he has to pawn his horse to the inn keeper and goes to Temeria to kill the wanted vukodlak so he can pay off his debt.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Geralt and Jaskier are beaten up by the elves and are left to Filavandrel's mercy, he asks the elves to leave Jaskier alone and let him go, because he's not a threat to them.
  • He tries his best to cure Princess Adda from her striga curse and refrains from using his sword to kill her. In case he doesn't make it out alive but succeeds, he gives King Foltest Renfri's brooch as a gift for Foltest's daughter.
  • When Jaskier is invited to Princess Pavetta's birthday and betrothal feast in Cintra, Geralt declares that he wouldn't accompany Jaskier because he doesn't want to get involved in the "petty squabbles of men", which Jaskier comments is far from the truth. As expected, Geralt ends up helping his friend. He earns a mocking from Queen Calanthe because he doesn't get paid for this.
• Punch-Clock Hero: Killing monsters is Geralt's job, and he will only engage in it if paid and only as far as the agreed upon terms.
• Rage Breaking Point: The fallout of his relationship with Yennefer (especially after their mutual reproachment of their perceived hypocrisies with each other) leads him to lash out at Jaskier — who, quite noticeably, was involved with every moment/bad incident that brought them together.
• Really Gets Around: He beds no less than three remarkably attractive women (Renfri, a prostitute and Yennefer) throughout Season 1. And if his conversation with the prostitute was any indication, he has had so many liaisons that their names all begin to sound the same to him.
• Red Baron: The "White Wolf", which Jaskier coins when beginning to tag along with him. Less flattering to him is "The Butcher of Blaviken".
• Screw Destiny: In a setting where everybody seems to regard destiny as an active and potent force, Geralt stands out for his utter contempt of the concept, to the point that he actively refuses to get involved in Ciri's early life out of sheer contrariness, because their destinies are supposedly linked. However, as much as he denies it's existence, it seems to be a real power, as Geralt eventually does become tied to Ciri.
  Geralt: Fear not, Your Majesty. If I'm seen in your kingdom again, it'll be to kill a real monster, not lay claim to a crop or a new pup. Destiny can go fu—.
  (Pavetta throws up because of morning sickness)
  Geralt: Fuck.
• Seen It All: His age and his profession means that it takes a lot to faze Geralt — so when something does (like most things related to Ciri) you know more than shit's about to hit the fan.
  Geralt: I've lived through a whole Dark Age and three supposed End of Days. It's all horseshit.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Geralt's uber-masculine no-nonsense personality contrasts heavily with Jaskier's artistic personality.
• Shrouded in Myth: Thanks to Jaskier.
  Geralt: That’s not how it happened. Where’s your newfound respect?
  Jaskier: Respect doesn't make history.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He's very fond of the Precision F-Strike to memetic levels.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: How Geralt and Yennefer's relationship can be summed up. At the end of their first meeting in Rinde, after a heated argument, the two of them engage in sex.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Comes with being a witcher, as it was one of the physiological changes he was subjected to during his training, to give him better eyesight. Notably, he doesn't have the slit pupils that also come with the golden irises in the book and game series. A directorial choice this time around.
• Supporting Protagonist: Geralt is the protagonist and has biggest screen time, but the story revolves around Ciri, who is the center of many prophecies, being hunted down by different factions. Geralt was always meant to become Ciri's guardian, which was something hinted from the pilot, when Renfri told Geralt "she is your destiny".
• Super-Reflexes: Fast enough to deflect a crossbow bolt and fight a striga (although the effort on the second nearly killed him).
• Super-Senses: The mutations a witcher goes through enhance all of their senses, like their eyesight and sense of smell — the latter of which surprises Adda's Stalker with a Crush.
• Telekinesis: The spell that is most prominently shown by Geralt is the Aard sign.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Geralt's Cynicism Catalyst was his rescue of a man and his daughter from bandits who tried to rape the girl. After killing the would-be rapist, the girl vomited and lost consciousness due to being covered entirely in the bandit's blood. It's supposed to illustrate his mentor Vesemir's point that witchers should not see themselves as Knight Errant, only Punch-Clock Hero at best (which, considering Geralt's own childhood dreams, had to be a hard thing to let go of).
• Took a Level in Kindness: After decades of being a curt and cynical monster hunter who wants to be left alone, his relationship with Yennefer changed him, to the point that, after they break up, he grew to change his mind about claiming his Child Surprise (and when he learns that said child is in danger, he goes out of his way to find the child). Subsequently, he’s never anything but supportive to Ciri, even if he’s often blunt and grumpy, not even in cases where one might expect Anger Born of Worry, and it seems fatherhood really agrees with him. He talks more^note This was Henry Cavill’s idea, as he wanted Geralt to be more in-line with the book version’s poetic and philosophical characterisation and is generally more social. This is especially seen when he reunites with Yenn and Jaskier, the former he immediately begins reconnecting with despite being able to tell she’s hiding something, and the latter he outright hugs and admits he missed him, too.
• Tragic Keepsake: He has kept Renfri's brooch with him, after he was tragically forced to kill her, and eventually attaches it to the hilt of his steel sword.

• Vitriolic Best Buds: Geralt and Jaskier do not look like typical friends, but beneath Geralt's gruff demeanour and irritated treatment of Jaskier, he shows several times that he cares about the bard. When they reunite in Season 2, they embrace without shame.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: If the "monster" he is hired to kill turns out to be an intelligent being, he will try to reason with them for a non-violent solution. If the monstrosity is due to an affliction, he will try to find a cure instead of killing.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Zigzagged. When potentially causing a violent escalation, Geralt will resort to lies to appease people, but when it comes to his own failures, he will not mince words and admit that he is not as great as in the songs Jaskier sings about him.
  Queen Calanthe: Perhaps our esteemed guest would like to entertain us with how he slayed the elves at the edge of the world?
  Geralt: There was no slaying. I had my arse kicked by a ragged band of elves. I was about to have my throat cut, when Filavandrel let me go.
• Worf Effect: Until season 3, Geralt was never defeated, if indeed seriously wounded. Vilgevortz is the one who does the honors, by deadly stabbing and cutting Geralt, and destroying his sword. Geralt stood no chance the whole battle, and didn't even get to land a hit on him.

Yennefer

Yennefer of Vengerberg

"Even if you do everything right... that's still no guarantee you'll get what you want."

Portrayed by: Anya Chalotra ^{Dubbed by:} Léopoldine Serre (European French), Maria Hönig (German), Ayumi Tsunematsu (Japanese), Alejandra Delint (Latin American Spanish), Carla Abrahamsen (Swedish)

A woman with a facial deformity and hunchback who worked on a pig farm, hailing from the capital city of Aedirn, Vengerberg. After her talent in magic was discovered, Yennefer was taken to the Brotherhood of Sorcerers where she was trained to become a sorceress. After her ascension (which also healed her from her deformities) and working as an adviser and guard for royal families for decades, she eventually abandons the Brotherhood and crosses paths with the witcher Geralt of Rivia.

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• The Ace: Vilgefortz informes Yennefer that Tissaia considers her the best student she ever had, despite the rocky start. He also genuinely considers Yennefer a talented mage and an asset.
• Action Fashionista: She has a dress for every occasion, including war. Oddly, she's not wearing her iconic necklace from the books - the star on a velvet ribbon.
• Action Girl: Yennefer is a talented sorceress quite proficient at hand-to-hand combat and handling swords.
• Action Survivor: For most of season two, where she has lost her magic, Yennefer barely escapes from most of the dangerous situations she is put in and is much less capable than she was previously having to rely on other people to save her.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, her transformation from a hunchback girl to a great beauty still left her with some deformities like a slightly receded chin, irregular eyebrows, and uneven shoulders. Show Yennefer has normal proportions.
• Adaptational Badass: While in the books and games she was an extremely powerful sorceress, she was at a disadvantage when caught in close combat, at one point even being overpowered and tied up by the Reavers. In the Netflix series, Yennefer is also a highly skilled swordswoman, able to fight side by side with Geralt and more than hold her own.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Yennefer is depicted with long wavy hair; while it has a bit of curl, it's nowhere near as curly as Yennefer's hair is described as being in the books. In the show, Yen's hair utilizes Anya Chalotra's natural hair, which is quite straight and would probably require extensive styling to match Yen's hair from the books. It also looks a lot like Yen's hair from the video game adaptations (which are more widely-known than the books).
• Adaptational Villainy: She is introduced to Geralt via a magically-enforced orgy, rather than simply being a hungover mess like she is in the book. She also nearly sells Ciri to a demon in order to get her magical powers back in Season 2.
• Affectionate Nickname: Both of her lovers give her one: she is affectionately called "Yen" by Geralt and "Yenna" by Istredd.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Yennefer's life before being picked up by Tissaia was full of abuse from both her family and the villagers, due to her deformity and hunchback, leaving her with insecurities long after having fixed her physical problems.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: An attractive raven-haired woman who tends to act snobbish and aloof.
• Anti-Hero: Yen is more on the "anti" side of this trope for most of time, being self-centered and temperamental; it takes a lot to bring to the surface her inner hero, like dear ones being in danger or noble causes.
• Attempted Rape: Yennefer is introduced in the story by being attacked by a young couple for being a "crooked girl". Their words of choice, wanting to teach Yennefer about kissing, imply they meant raping her.
• Battle Couple: Briefly with Geralt, when the two are defending a dragon egg from a group of bounty hunters.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: It is during the battle of Sodden Hill. Yennefer is wounded, covered with blood, filth and sweat in the battle.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: She sacrificed her womb to fix her deformity and become beautiful, so she could become the Court Mage of Aedirn, but eventually comes to regret it. Furthermore, Borch argues that, had she gone to Nilfgaard as the Chapter had planned, rather than taking Fringilla's intended assignment to Aedirn — forcing the Chapter to switch their assignments — she might have been able to prevent the Nilfgaardians from turning imperialist, thus preventing Cintra's conquest and sparing her having to fight the Battle of Sodden Hill.
• Berserk Button: Her climactic confrontation with Geralt in Episode 5 suggests hers is being subjected to any form of pity, patronizing or someone else determining what they think she needs. To quote her directly, as long as she thinks someone is simply "permitting [her] success so long as [they] command it", she will try to sabotage it and rebel — even as it blows up in her own face. When she realizes Geralt's last wish is for their fates to be bound together, she assumes the worst of his intentions and storms out of his life. It's not unreasonable to assume that a lot of these are rooted in her massive self-esteem issues.
• Big Entrance: After her painful transformation, Yennefer goes to the Aretuzan ball. Her presence is so empowered that everyone felt her approaching. And just to make the impression even bigger, Yennefer proceeds to open the great doors with her magic, in a room full of dignitaries. Most of those present are left speechless by her beauty.
• Brainy Brunette: She was one of the best students of Aretuza and a strong contender for being the next rectoress.
• Broken Ace: Yennefer is beautiful and talented when it comes to magic, but in the long run she realizes that she wasted herself on insignificant political conflicts. Not to mention despite her body having healed and become beautiful, the psychological scars of her past bullying, abuse and insecurities have yet to heal. Taken further in season two after she loses her magic and begins to lose her sense of identity.
• Broken Bird: The nature of her birth and childhood has left her with a lot of crippling self-esteem issues. After serving for three decades at the court of Aedirn, the death of Queen Kalis's baby girl turns Yennefer into a jaded and bitter woman, bordering on Villain Protagonist.
• Bungled Suicide: The fact that for her father she was worth less than half a pig and was immediately sold to the Brotherhood without much protest makes her feel useless and drives her to cut her wrists. Yennefer would have died if Tissaia hadn't healed her.
• Byronic Heroine: Much like her book and game counterpart, Yennefer is a woman full of passion, with a gothic aura around her, has an immense distaste for anything the medieval society she lives in tries to impose on her and her arc is mostly about seeking a place to belong to at any cost, in a very self-destructive manner. She is not evil, but is relentlessly ambitious and rebellious even when not necessary, which means that she can walk on any grayish morality area, up to being an Anti-Villain. In terms of personality, she went from being an abused ingenue, to a cynical, emotionally conflicted woman. She is also impossibly beautiful, intelligent, determined and insightful, yet so impulsive, self-centered, jerkish, and borderline misanthropic in the same time.
• Casting a Shadow: When confronting the Ronin Mage, Yennefer was shown capable of wielding some sort of dark energy as defense against the assassin.
• Character Development: Yennefer is a very volatile character who goes through a number of psychological transformations over the course of the series.
  • In Season 1, she goes from a shy, helpless hunchback girl, to developing quite a fiery temper on time she spent in Aretuza that becomes her main personality trait. She also shifts alignments several times, going from a virginal ingenue girl, to an ambitious Femme Fatale, to Anti-Villain Protagonist by the time she meets Geralt, then becomes more selfless turning into something of an Anti-Hero trying to stop the Nifgaard invasion of the Northern Kingdoms. She changes her goals several times too, from wanting to "repair" herself to become a beautiful woman, to wanting to leave behind a legacy by having a child, and doing anything to achieve it, to finally understanding that she cannot reverse her infertility and letting go to this goal by the end of the season.
  • Season 2 sees her lose her magic thanks to spending so much at Sodden, desperately wanting to get it back, and resisting the temptation to make a Deal with the Devil to do so. Then finally gives in to that deal, before reconnecting with Geralt, finding Ciri is the one she needs to complete her deal, manipulating Ciri into coming along, then realizing she can't go through with it. In between, she has to decide to execute Cahir to prove her loyalty to the Brotherhood or reveal to them that she lost her magic and is therefore not a threat, and taking the third option of freeing Cahir and going on the run from the Brotherhood. Ultimately, while she does get her magic back, that her mistakes nearly cost Ciri her life (and got several Witchers killed) makes her something of the The Atoner, while realizing that because of what she's done, getting back in Geralt's good books might now be impossible.
• Charm Person: She charms the citizens of Rinde into having an orgy.
• Court Mage: Served as one for the kingdom of Aedirn for many years, until she got fed up with it and left.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She had been bullied, ridiculed and abused for her deformities since birth despite her attempts to fit in by being kind and hardworking. After learning magic, being groomed as a pawn for the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, and being betrayed by her first love, Yennefer becomes determined to never be hurt, helpless or ridiculed again. As a result, she becomes extremely selfish, callous and power-hungry, pushing away those who genuinely care for her while stubbornly pursuing her personal goals, regardless of the costs to herself and those around her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She wears mostly black outfits, but is also one of the sympathetic characters.
• Deadpan Snarker: Yennefer handles the "chaotic" events she witnesses by quipping at every opportunity.
  Beau Berrant, mayor of Rinde: Are you familiar with who I am?
  Yennefer: Well, won't you end this rather melodramatic suspense and tell me?
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She spends most of Season 1 being antagonistic to almost everyone she meets. She mellows down after meeting Geralt.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: She became disillusioned with being a sorceress, and for years Yennefer spent her time looking for a way to become a mother and leave a legacy.
• Deuteragonist: The show explores her Character Development from hunchbacked outcast to powerful and rebellious witch just as much as Geralt's adventures, with her backstory showed from the very start of the story.
• Dude Magnet: Many will turn their heads after her without any sorcery. King Virfuril of Aedirn immediately favors her over Fringilla and especially Geralt is drawn to her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Her mentor Tissaia calls her "Piglet", because she used to work on a pig farm. It's clearly meant to provoke Yennefer, whom Tissaia has recognized as very similar to herself.
• Emotional Powers: Part of Yennefer's strength is tied to her emotions. At first unable to control her emotions and her magic, she was taught to suppress them, but Tissaia eventually asks Yennefer to let them loose in the Battle at Sodden Hill.
• Even the Girls Want Her: One of the newest students of Aretuza is very impressed by Yennefer's beauty and called her pretty. Granted, she was also high from herbs.
• Everybody Has Standards:
  • At the end of her dragon hunt she ends up defending said dragon when she learns that the dragon protected her baby.
  • She is fairly disgusted by the fact she and her kin had to help rapists and corrupt rulers keep their crowns.
• Fanservice Pack: In the third episode, she endures a harrowing magical surgery to remove her deformities and emerges as stunningly attractive in both looks and attitude, instantly charming the king of Aedirn away from Fringilla. From then on, she's capable of seducing men by the dozen and often wears revealing clothing that accentuates her beauty (interestingly enough, though, the first sex scene she was in was before her surgery, as Istredd liked Yennefer even when she had deformities).
• Fetal Position Rebirth: Her Magic Plastic Surgery is treated like a rebirth and ends with her covered in blood and in a fetal position.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Yennefer starts out as a hunchback farm girl abused to the point of suicide. Over the years, she becomes one of the most powerful mages in the world, strong enough to annihilate an entire army all by herself.
• Girly Bruiser: Elegant, composed and a terrifying opponent in battle.
• Good Girl Gone Bad: At the beginning of her story arc, Yennefer is a shy, unconfident but otherwise sweet-natured girl who has only ever wanted to be important to someone. After a lifetime of being shunned, abused and manipulated, though, she finally has enough and embraces a pursuit of power, becoming an arrogant, selfish and sometimes ruthless sorceress who does whatever she wants and pushes everyone away. However, Yen's not all bad and does occasionally show compassion to others; by the end of the first season, she's risking her own life to help stop (or at least slow down) Nilfgaard's invasion.
• Good Is Not Nice: Yen is definitely a good person, most of the time, but she can be a bit of a jerk.
• Goth: Yennefer loves to wear black fancy dresses, wears smoky make up, is a very reclusive person and has a taste in dark things.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: A Lady of Black Magic with gothic aesthetics.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Her biological father was half elven, which is supposedly the reason for her disability at the beginning.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Her time as a court mage left her incredibly cynical and caused her to start using her power for selfish and evil uses, all in the pursuit of gaining more power so she could reverse her infertility. However, encountering Geralt caused her to have brief moments of heroism, eventually leading her to reunite with the other Mages to fight off Nilfgaard.
• Hot-Blooded: Yen can get "pissed off" or agitated very quickly from little things and has a temper to match for.
• Hot Witch: Quoting Jaskier: "Leave the very sexy but insane witch to her inevitable demise."
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: When Yennefer tries to open up to Queen Kalis about her disappointments brought by being a court mage, she mockingly calls herself a 'glorified royal arse wiper'.
• I Am Very British: Anya Chalotra has a very posh Midlands accent that gets even thicker whenever Yennefer becomes snappy.
• I Hate Past Me: Yen tells to Istredd that she is ashamed of the scared girl she once was, unaware of her power and that she'd rather not be her again.
• I Just Want to Be Beautiful: During her early life, Yennefer's disabilities (and the disfiguration along with it) understandably became the source of most of her insecurities. Not even her training as a mage nor Istredd's affections were enough to dampen this — and the fallout of her initial assignment to Nilfgaard emphasized to her that her elven heritage (and the disfigurations it brought her) continue to keep her weak and a pawn of Chapter politics. In her view, disposing of this (hence her undergoing the Painful Transformation) would be the first step towards her gaining independence and agency.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Later on in her life, after her Painful Transformation, despite being a well-placed Court Mage and having had a reputation as a fearsome mage herself, Yennefer realizes no one really likes her for who she is — only what she can do for other people. This, in her insecure view, is no different from being vulnerable when she was weak and useless. As demonstrated by the assassination of Queen Kalis (with her being injured as collateral damage), the moment people deem her value/usefulness is gone, they will leave, abandon, betray or hurt her again. This also continues to feed her Berserk Button above.
• Interspecies Romance: She is a one-quarter elven mage who falls in love with a witcher.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As a result of her Dark and Troubled Past above, Yen, at her worst, is callous, bitterly sardonic, and self-destructive. This being said, she really tried to save Queen Kalis's daughter and cries when the newborn dies, chooses to save the dragon and its baby over her desire to get her womb back, is genuinely disgusted with how decadent the royal courts and Aretuza have become, and she truly cares about Tissaia.
  Vilgefortz: You're a talented mage. An asset, to be sure. Despite being a...
  Yennefer: An incovenient arsehole?
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her beautiful dresses don't slow her down in the slightest when in a fight.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Yennefer is deeply bitter and self-destructive, likely as a result of her not-so-happy childhood and the years she lost for nothing serving the king of Aedirn. That being said, she is capable of genuine acts of kindness.
• Lady of Black Magic: She's cold, aloof, and a graceful fighter. While capable of physical combat herself, Yennefer prefers to use her offensive magic.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: After giving up her ability to have children in exchange for losing her disabilities, Yennefer becomes intent on restoring it. She explains that it's not so much she's intent on having children, but wants to have the choice.
• Magic Knight: She's a powerful and formidable sorceress, and handy with a sword as well. She has much stronger magical prowess than swordsmanship, however.
• Mama Bear: It takes a little while to get there, but she is just as protective of Ciri as Geralt is.
• Manipulative Bitch: She is accused by her ex-lover Istredd of being one, after he learns that she patronized him with her thoughts. When she returns decades later and offers to go away together like he proposed to back in Aretuza, he refuses, seeing how destructive his love for her was.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Her most striking feature are her purple eyes, even before undergoing her transformation at Aretuza, marking her as particularly magical. Preparing for the transformation, she specifically instructs the sorcerer doing the procedure to leave her eyes, which may have been the only one of her features she liked, unchanged.
• Meaningful Appearance: Many of Yennefer's Pimped-Out Dresses feature a motif of rope, cord, straps, or another design evocative of at least one of those things. Even her very first amazing gown has the bracelet on her left wrist attached to the dress with a long cord. Signifying that, as violently as she fights for what she perceives as freedom, she's trapped in bondage of her own making. Her freedom is elusive because she's tied to the one thing she can never be free of: herself.
• Mentor Archetype: Teaches Ciri to start using her magical gifts.
• Ms. Fanservice: Mostly in Season 1. It's shown that people can cast magic while wearing clothes, but Yennefer does seem to have to lose hers a lot to cast stronger spells. Also, she has multiple sex scenes, where she's naked or half-naked. Even with the special effects making her look unattractive in the beginning, it's obvious the makeup team was struggling to downplay the actress's natural beauty.
• Mysterious Purple: Yennefer is the only character in the show with vivid purple eyes, and she is a Byronic Heroine who is sophisticated and mysterious, and definitely prone to shifting alignments.
• Older Than They Look: Like most sorcerers and sorceresses, she looks far younger than she actually is. Yennefer looks like she is in her twenties, but throughout the first season alone, several decades pass.
• Operation: Jealousy: She joins Eyck of Denesle on the Dragon Hunt Trip, and spends her time trying to make Geralt jealous. It works.
• Parental Substitute: Ends up becoming a mother-figure to Cirilla, to the point that she outright refers to Ciri as her daughter in the third season.
• Playing with Fire: When Tissaia finally recommends that she "let her chaos explode", Yennefer unleashes a conflagration that disables the majority of the Nilfgaardian army assaulting Sodden, causing them to lose a battle they were comfortably winning beforehand.
• Pretty in Mink: She wears a long coat trimmed with grey fur during the Dragon hunt trip.
• Race Lift: She's described in the books as having pale skin, but is played here by the Anglo-Indian actress Anya Chalotra.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Over the years, the relationship between Tissaia and Yen became quite tense, mostly because of Yen's disregard of herself.
• Rape by Proxy: Yennefer used magic to make a number of people in the town where she's living have an orgy, just for amusement.
• Rebellious Spirit: Yennefer really hates being patronized, or even worse, being told what to do. Trying to make her comply or just giving her advice, will just make her even more stubborn and unreasonable. She prefers to follow her own set of rules, if she has one.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Combined with slight Adaptational Backstory Change in the case of her father. In the books, Yennefer was raised by both her biological parents and gained her quarter-elf heritage through her mother. In the series, Yennefer reveals the man who raised her was her stepfather; her biological father was a half-elf who was killed during the Great Cleansing and it's from him rather than her mother that she gets her elf heritage. In both cases Yenn's father figures treated her poorly and she disowns them (book Yen's father beat her and abandoned her; show Yen's stepfather also abuses her and sells her off for less than a pig, declaring she's no daughter of his).
• Scars Are Forever: An invoked version. The scars from her suicide attempt are one of the only things, aside from her purple eyes, that she asks to keep before undergoing her transformation.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem getting naked.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: How Geralt and Yennefer's relationship can be summed up. At the end of their first meeting in Rinde, after Geralt saved Yennefer's life and a heated argument, the two of them engage in sex.
• The Snark Knight: She has no problem insulting others when making snide remarks about them. And sometimes, she doesn't even bother to spare at least herself.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: On the surface, Yennefer appears a sassy confident, mighty witch who needs no one. Beneath, she is an emotionally vulnerable woman who desperately tries to find someone that love her unconditionally.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Thanks to her attachment issues, often joined by her "Don't tell me what to do" attitude, has Yen revolving around only two moods: loving and/or spiteful.
• There Is No Cure: She gives up her reproductive organs to be transformed into a beautiful woman. Later she wants to have a child and seeks a cure for her infertility, but she is informed by Borch Three Jackdaws that she will never regain her fertility.
• Thinking Up Portals: While most ascended sorcerers display this ability, Yennefer is notable because she was noticed by Tissaia when she subconsciously portalled herself to Aretuza. She also immediately manages to create a genuine portal on her first try after eating a feainnewedd flower.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Yennefer goes through magical surgery to be reborn and fix her deformities at the cost of becoming sterile.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Losing her magical powers temporarily and being taken as a hostage humbled Yennefer a lot. Instead of being the angry Tsundere, she becomes much calmer and friendlier. Yennefer has none of her hostile disposition anymore, going as far as hugging Jaskier and using Insult of Endearment on him, instead of her usual malicious insults.
• Troll: Yen can have a twisted sense of humor at times. She charmed citizens of Rinde into having an orgy just because, chases Jaskier around her room, all silent, with a knife in her hand, just to force him make a wish; and then there is the whole "Make Geralt jealous" operation.
• Tsundere: Strongly the harsh type.
  • She acts very callous and hostile towards Geralt because she is actually in love with him. She shows her sweet side to him whenever they are intimate.
  • The same can be said about her relationship with Tissaia. She may have treated her former mentor coldly for years, but Yennefer loves Tissaia in her own way.
• Uneven Hybrid: One-quarter elf, which allows her to perform some exceptional magic.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When we first meet her, it's clear she has a great deal of raw magical power. However, she initially struggles with control and is outpaced by many other students, before she gets a hang of things. Probably best exemplified when she tries to catch lightning in a bottle; she fails, but instead absorbs and redirects the lightning in an emotional outburst, forcing Tissaia to deflect it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If only Yennefer hadn't forced her way into the Aedirn assignment, Nilfgaard would have never raised to power leading to Cintra's and other southern kingdoms' fall; as Fringilla and her uncle point out:
  Fringilla: To be fair, Yennefer of Vengerberg is the one I have to thank for my posting. If she had taken it, I wouldn't be where I am today. Neither would Nilfgaard.
  Artorius Vigo: If only Yennefer had gone to Nilfgaard. With her at the helm, they'd still be a shitty backwater.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Had striking purple eyes even before her transformation. When they meet again, Istredd muses that he's glad she kept her eyes.
• Wild Card: Yenn will remain only as long as it benefits her, then move on. Then return again, screwing up even more. All of this emerges from her being unsatisfied with her own life, and her need to be loved for who she is. Geralt calls her out on this self-destructive behaviour:
  Geralt: ...you flit about like a tornado, wreaking havoc, and for what? So you can have a baby? A child is no way to boost your fragile ego, Yen.
  • And yet, this is exactly what Vilgefortz and Tissaia need against Nilfgaard: a rash, umpredictable, and dangerous Yennefer.

Ciri

Princess Cirilla "Ciri" Fiona Elen Riannon

"It's the same as every other place."

Portrayed by: Freya Allan ^{Dubbed by:} Clara Quilichini (European French), Yui Kondo (Japanese), Erika Ugalde (Latin American Spanish), Lea Heed (Swedish)

The granddaughter and heir of Queen Calanthe of Cintra. After Nilfgaard invades Cintra, she is forced to flee, desperate to follow her grandmother's final words. Her destiny is linked to that of the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, who becomes her protector.

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• Action Girl: Begins developing into this during season two, after training in Kaer Morhen and having numerous more encounters where she’s faced danger.
• Action Survivor: After the fall of Cintra, Ciri finds herself relying on other people, but also on her own wits.
  • She escapes Cahir by shouting until a stone monolith collapses, creating a chasm between them, allowing her to escape.
  • In an attempt to obscure her appearance, she uses mud to darken her hair.
  • When she finds a refugee camp, she goes by 'Fiona', to avoid repercussions.
  • When Ciri follows the fake Mousesack she listens to Dara and grows suspicious of him, and begins to bring up related memories about Skellige, asking him if he missed the cold as well. The imposter answers he feel homesick, but Ciri angrily responds that the real Mousesack has arthritis and considers Cintra his real home. She goes as far as stabbing the imposter, when Dara refuses to.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Ciri has ashen hair in the books, but green eyes and silver hair in the games, whereas here, she has grey-blue eyes and light-blonde hair. Season 2 changes this with her now having distinctive green eyes and her hair becoming lighter.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her name, Cirilla, is shortened to "Ciri" by those she trusts.
• Age Lift: She ages faster than she did in the books, as the show’s official timeline confirms she’s at least 15 by the events of season 2. It makes it easier for Freya Allan, who was 17 when the show started filming.
• Ambiguously Bi: Ciri is rather openly attracted to Triss, with her immediately perking up once they meet and her trying to look pretty the next day. It's not yet explicitly shown as romantic or sexual attraction, though in the books and games she's shown to be attracted to men or women, and her losing her virginity to the woman that then ended up her first and only long-time partner.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Her prophecied role during the end of the world could make her this at least for humans (the elves on the other hand believe she will be their saviour). In one of her "genetic memories", her father worries about her getting killed if people found out about it (and given that they lived in Cintra, one of the most virulently elf-hating countries in the setting, he was likely right).
• The Baby of the Bunch: She is the youngest main character. This is more pronounced when she joins the Witchers, as she's a fraction of their ages.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished:
  • Played pretty straight in Season 1: Despite being on the run in the woods for a while, her long, wavy blonde hair remains more or less intact. She even deliberately puts some dirt on it for camouflage just for the dirt to disappear in the next scene. Her clothes aren't damaged either.
  • Averted, to some extent, during Season 2, whenever she is training and on the Trail (especially when she was undergoing the training machine of Kaer Morhen): every blow that lands on her actually leaves marks, bruises and cuts. The wounds she accumulates (and the blood she sheds) even becomes very important later on.
  • Very much averted in Season 3, as when she is thrown off into an unknown desert trying to survive on sparse water and wild lizards, she is visibly bruised, sunburnt, sandblasted and falling apart mentally—especially when she is confronted by purported ghosts of her mother Pavetta and grandmother Calanthe.
• Break the Cutie: Ciri goes through so much horrible stuff from the very first episode, starting with the fall of Cintra and the death of her family. The last episodes of Season 3 are even worse for her, believe it or not. Ciri is nearly captured by multiple people during the Thanedd Coup, is forced to draw blood for the first time, ends up stranded in a desert where she is forced to eat bugs and drink mud to stave off starvation and dehydration, loses the unicorn she befriended over the course of that ordeal, is captured, hog-tied by a band of brigands, only to be rescued by another band of brigands. It's no surprise Ciri's last scene has her look utterly broken.
• Brought Down to Normal: Near the end of Season 3, Ciri relinquishes her potential to become a godlike sorceress and effectively depowers herself as the means of resolving The Final Temptation preformed by Falka's specter.
• Cynicism Catalyst: To her credit, she has taken to being on the run with a very level head. It was not until she personally experienced betrayal from the fake "Mousesack" and her former Cintran playmates (plus being abandoned by Dara) that she began closing up emotionally. Thankfully, she was united with Geralt not long after, and slowly begins to trust him and his fellow witchers over the course of Season 2.
• Doom Magnet: Unfortunately for Ciri, her concern about people suffering and dying everywhere because of her are very much founded. In Season 1 it was the fall of Cintra, then in Season 2 it only gets worse for her. The chasm she accidentally created to escape Cahir in Season 1? In Season 2, it's discovered it housed a sort of portal for more monsters that were drawn to her. Then, there is the "fire fucker" (Rience) who kidnaps and tortures Jaskier for information about Ciri's whereabouts. He also burned alive several of the Goddess Melitele's followers and Zola's entire family. The witchers from Kaer Morhen are also affected by this, from Eskel, who is possessed by a leshy and has to be killed, to Voleth Meir, who possesses Ciri in the Season 2 finale, and settles some old scores with the witchers, killing several of them.
• Dye or Die: She tries to disguise her blonde hair by rubbing dirt on it.
• Emotional Powers: Her powers initially come out at moments of high stress.
• Eye Colour Change: Outside her between-series change from S1 (blue) to S2 (green), her eyes also begin to glow neon green (plus gaining Tainted Veins around them) while she is possessed by the Deathless Mother.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Ciri is the Tomboy Princess to Pavetta's Princess Classic despite their uncanny resemblance.
• Fallen Princess: The fall of Cintra forces her to become a refugee. When out alone, she heavily relies on the people she encounters on her way to survive.
• Generation Xerox: Maybe not physically, but in Dara's eyes, Ciri is exactly like Calanthe, in that she brings terror and death wherever she is.
• Gold and White Are Divine: In episode 2x01, Ciri is gifted with a regal white dress with golden appliqué, that she clearly enjoys wearing, despite her Tomboy Princess status.
• Hero-Worshipper: Ciri adores and idolises her grandmother. When she learns of her grandmother's not-so-proud achievements, like the slaughter of the elves, she at first denies it.
• The Ingenue: At the beginning Ciri is pretty much an innocent young girl, if a little bit shallow. This gets deconstructed, as her naivety is a result of Calanthe's over protectiveness, leaving her totally unprepared for the harsh realities she faces on the run. With no battle skills or any real knowledge of the outside world, she survives mostly out of sheer luck, improvising on the spot or relying on strangers' kindness. She is also shocked to learn that her grandmother is not as noble as she thought, as Calanthe ordered the slaughter of elves.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Ciri sports a pair of wide blue eyes, symbolizing her sheltered life. As of Season 2, they are green.
• In the Hood: Ciri sports a navy-blue hooded cloak to hide her identity in Season 1.
• King Incognito: Occasionally disguised herself as a commoner to play with the kids on the streets, although it's later revealed that her friends seemed to be in the know, as the girl who was supposed to pretend to be Ciri went out of her way to say goodbye to Ciri while she was disguised, and another boy mentions that they had to let Ciri win to avoid repercussions.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: Ciri looks like a younger tomboyish version of Pavetta, inheriting her screaming powers, and both are children of surprise.
• Living MacGuffin: Ciri's tremendous power and rich heritage causes several competing factions to chase her in Season 2. Nilfgaard wants her because she's the Emperor's daughter, the witchers want her Elder Blood to make more witchers, Redania wants her to marry her to King Vizimir and absorb Cintra into their kingdom, Rience and Lydia's backer wants her for a thus far unknown reason, Voleth Meir sees her as the means by which she can return to her home dimension and exploits Yennefer to get her, because the latter wants to use Ciri to restore her magic, and the Wild Hunt demand she join them because due to her Elder Blood she is supposedly part of them. Istredd, meanwhile, has an academic interest in how her bloodline is connected to the Conjunction, and finally, the elves believe she is Hen Ichaer, the saviour of the elves prophecied by Ithlinne.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: When under extreme stress, her screams can shake her surroundings or even rend the ground into chasms.
• Meaningful Name: In the books, Cirilla is a corruption of "Zirael," the word for swallow in the Elder Speech. While the show doesn't outright mention this, it plays homage to this in the sigil that serves as the series' logo. Alongside the wolf from Geralt's medallion and the star from Yennefer's pendant is a symbol of a swallow.
• Middle Name Basis: To anyone she doesn't trust, she will give one of her other names, like Fiona, when asked.
• Mystical Waif: Ciri is so significant to Geralt's story that he is prophesied to meet her decades before she is even born, and when she is actually born, she becomes his child of surprise. To go further, she is a teen princess with mysterious magical powers of unknown origins, whose home was invaded and destroyed, forcing her to run away and search for Geralt. What's even worse, she is the reason why Nilfgaard invades Cintra and kills her grandparents - because their leader is her long-lost father.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: When she confronts Cahir during The Thanedd Coup she mentions that she used to be terrified of him because of his role in the fall of Cintra, even having nightmares about him. But now she was more than ready to face him and take revenge on him. Said plans hit a snag when Cahir reveals that he not only is fully aware he was in the wrong that time, but he has chosen to die at her hands to make amends.
• Overly Long Name: As befits royalty, she has so many given names that she has no problem using some of the extras as aliases when she doesn't want to identify herself as the Princess of Cintra.
• Parental Abandonment: Her parents died when she was just a baby, leaving it to her grandparents to raise her.
• Phlebotinum Girl: Ciri is a teenage girl who was born with strong magical potential that she doesn't yet know how to harness, just like her mother. It is heavily implied Nilfgaard's invasion of Cintra is as much about capturing her as it is destroying a competing imperial power, and when Cintra falls, she is forced to go on the run.
• Princess Protagonist: The youngest and most fragile of the series' three protagonists, and fittingly the sheltered princess of a recently-invaded kingdom (at least at the beginning).
• Raised by Dudes: All the Witchers at Kaer Morhen are men, and while they all come to like Ciri, they treat her quite roughly, and forget that a growing young woman might have some different needs than a young man. They show some remorse after Triss calls them out on it.
• Raised by Grandparents: Her parents died shortly after she was born, and so she was raised by her grandmother and step-grandfather.
• Rebellious Princess: She shows some shades of this; Ciri often sneaks out of the castle, poses as a boy and plays with common children, much to her grandmother's annoyance.
• Riches to Rags: One night, she still enjoys a feast with her people, the next she is on the run with no food, no proper shoes, and later on tries to resort to stealing and has to sell what jewelry she has left to buy some gloves.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: While Eist was in favor of mentoring Ciri as Cintra's heir, her grandmother's fear for Ciri's safety left Ciri without much awareness of things outside of the castle or any useful skills to survive alone. Ciri never learned of the brutality of her grandmother's rule, like the fact that her grandmother systematically hunted down all elves in Cintra after Filavandrel's uprising. This is lampshaded by Lambert and Vesemir in season two, as she decides to begin training to become a witcher despite her privileged and sheltered background.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Several minor characters express their frustration with Ciri's grandmother Calanthe upon learning that Ciri is the princess of Cintra.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Ciri looks very similar to her mother, enough so both of them could be mistaken as each other, with several people noting the fact.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: When Ciri is out playing with her friends as a commoner, she dresses like a boy.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She’s a Tomboy Princess who likes to play Knuckle Bones with commoner kids and really takes a shine to her Witcher training, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like pretty dresses and flowers in her hair. Lambert and Coen tease her about this, and it hurts her feelings to be made to feel like she can’t enjoy both.
• Tomboy Princess: Though Calanthe had tried to keep her a Sheltered Aristocrat, she still displays shades of this. Ciri enjoys playing knucklebones with commoner boys, expressed a desire to learn how to fight and lead, and even her regal clothing is rather tomboyish. In Season 2 this gets to One of the Guys levels when training with the witchers, to the point where they tease her over dressing up (lightly) feminine again for a guest. She consciously dials it back a bit after that incident.
• Thinking Up Portals: During Season 2 after being taught by Yennefer, which is the first proper controlled magic she performs. Also when she is possessed by Voleth Meir in the Season 2 finale, her scream is shown to be what causes the monolith to turn into a portal.
• Tragic Keepsake: She tries to steal a pair of gloves, but the seller calls to her and she has no choice but to hand over a ring that once belonged to her mother as payment, clearly looking heartbroken.
• Training from Hell: A self-imposed example, where Ciri wants to train constantly, in order to take revenge for her family. but also to prove herself to the other witchers who make light of her princess status. She tries the most dangerous Deadly Training Area.
• Trauma Conga Line: The showrunners waste no time to make Ciri suffer from the first episode; the fall of Cintra, the death of her loved ones, multiple betrayals and killing attempts. It's almost a miracle that she stayed level-headed through all this mess.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: The first time she displays her latent magical power, it's after she is ordered to leave her dying grandmother. She displays her powers again, now even more powerful than earlier, when she sees Cintra sacked and burned.
• Tritagonist: Is the most focused and followed character after Geralt's Protagonist and Yennefer's Deuteragonist.
• Unstable Powered Woman: In the season 2 finale, Ciri — a waifish teen with mysterious powers — gets possessed by Voleth Meir, a being from another dimension, unleashing chaos and monsters upon Kaer Morhen and resulting in the deaths of several witchers. Vesemir wants to kill her but Geralt staves him off enough to bargain with Voleth Meir.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Her and Lambert seem to be developing this, as he starts off as an overly cruel Big Brother Bully type towards her compared to the other Witchers, but is also one of the first to join Geralt in trying to save her from Demonic Possession rather than simply kill her to end the threat. Ciri meanwhile insults him twice but is seen helping him stand and the two laughing together.
  • We first see Lambert warming to Ciri after he goads her into running the Witchers' gauntlet. He starts out mocking and belittling her, telling her she doesn't belong at Kaer Morhen after she's knocked from the gauntlet and winded. But she wins his respect by refusing to give up, and by the time Geralt arrives to watch, Lambert is actively coaching her through the course (albeit in a pretty impatient, no-nonsense way).

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