Protagonists | The Northern Kingdoms | The Sorcerers | The Nilfgaardian Empire | Witchers | The Elves | Creatures and Supernatural Entities | Independent Characters
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The Elves / Aen Seidhe
Contemporaries of Geralt of Rivia
Filavandrel aén Fidháil
Filavandrel aén Fidháil
Portrayed by: Tom Canton Dubbed by:
Formerly a king whose realm had been conquered by humans, who continues to lead the elves in hopes of a better future for their race.
- Adaptational Heroism: In his introductory episode he is a lot more reasonable than in the equivalent incident in the books, deciding to let Geralt and Jaskier leave of his own volition, instead of being ordered to do so by a deity.
- Battle Couple: With Francesca. They both work together leading the elves in hopes of a better future for their race, fight together when in the battlefield and overall seem to be quite emotionally open and tender with each other in their down time.
- Big Brother Mentor: Seems to develop this relationship with Dara in Season 2, after he takes him on as a ward. He trains him to fight and acts protective, when Cahir tries to call Dara out; offering the young elf gentle encouragement and even drawing a knife on Cahir when he downs Dara.
- Death by Adaptation: Alive and well by the time the book series ends, in the Netflix series he's killed during The Thanedd Coup when he takes the bullet for Francesca.
- Demoted to Dragon: Had been portrayed as the leader of the Elves in season 1 but has since been replaced by Francesca due to his "failures" and now serves as her advisor and consort.
- Doting Parent: He is shown to be very affectionate towards his newborn daughter with Francesca, which makes his heartbroken reaction all the more tragic when she is murdered by humans.
- Ludicrous Gibs: His death by Taking the Bullet is accompanied by an explosion of blood and gore.
- Odd Friendship: Nightmare of the Wolf shows us that once upon a time, he was in fact more than passing acquaintances with Vesemir, and they have shared moments philosophizing about the Continental society that distrusts the both of them.
- Only Sane Man: He seeks to temper Francesca's harsher decisions and frequently reminds her that their people need food and a real place to stay during her apparently fruitless search for a sign from their prophet, Ithlinne.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Francesca mentions that she's lost babies before but it's not specified that Filavandrel was their father. He is specifically shown to be the father of the baby she does carry to term though and sadly, that baby is murdered on the White Flame's orders.
- Promoted to Love Interest: His relationship with Francesca in the novel series is purely platonic, serving as an Honest Advisor to her at most and not being particularly close to her until she becomes queen of Dol Blathanna. Here, they are lovers.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He is among the most collected and reasonable elven leaders and while he is not above fighting for Nilfgaard if it means a future for his people, he is shown to prefer peace with the humans if possible.
- Taking the Bullet: He dies protecting Francesca from a powerful spell cast by Tissaia.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Though he was initially the most peace-loving elven leader introduced in the show, to the point where he was even willing to give the captured humans Yennefer and Fringilla a chance to prove their innocence, he is the first to order Istredd's death in the Season 2 finale after human assassins ended up murdering his newborn daughter.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: After his daughter's birth, he is among the first elves who wish to lay down their arms and stop fighting in favor of building a new future for their race. As one of their leaders and father to the first elven child to be born in decades, his refusal to fight for Nilfgaard undoubtedly has a huge effect on the other elves. This refusal is the main reason why Emperor Emhyr orders the death of the child, which is something Filavandrel couldn't have possibly predicted by the time he made his decision.
Francesca Findabair
Francesca Findabair
Portrayed by: Mecia Simson
One of the last elven mages alive and a spiritual leader of her people, whose visions lead to the elves' alliance with Nilfgaard.
- The Archmage: Among the Elves, at least. Even when utterly catatonic due to being covered in the blood of the man she loves, she's powerful enough to cast a spell that brings down the floating ring of Aretuza down on everyone and almost ends the battle right there and then. While Tissaia de Vries does prove to be considerably more powerful than her, among the elves seen in the series Francesca is the most powerful by a wide amount.
- Battle Couple: With Filavandrel. They both work together leading the elves in hopes of a better future for their race, fight together when in the battlefield and overall seem to be quite emotionally open and tender with each other in thier down time.
- Big Sister Instinct: When Gage is killed by Geralt for trying to capture Ciri, she has to be forcibly held down by Filavandrel so she does not rush Geralt and kill herself in her absolute and visceral grief and her guttural howl of grief can be heard even with Filavandrel holding her back. Later on she's seen personally giving her brother his funeral rights.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: During most of The Thanedd Coup. And what's more horrifying and tragic at the same time? The blood belongs to Filavandrel, the love of her life who died very messily protecting her. It's no wonder she briefly becomes utterly catatonic.
- Can't Argue with Elves: Francesca despises humans and considers them beneath her and the other elves. The one exception seems to be Fringilla - she warms up to her after their shared experience with Voleth Meir.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After her daughter is murdered, Francesca magically kills every newborn human in Redania in return, despite even Gage, who is otherwise very fanatically anti-human, feeling uncomfortable and trying to stop her. Later, she makes clear that she doesn't just want revenge, but wants justice for the loss and pain elves have suffered through humans for more than 1,000 years.
- Et Tu, Brute?: She both looks utterly destroyed and absolutely and viscerally sick to her stomach when she learns from Fringilla than not only Emhyr was the one who had her child killed, but that Fringilla herself was complicit, however indirectly, in the action. Her absolutely betrayed anguished is hard to see and makes it clear that this is a woman who has essentially lost everything to her goal and in the end not even one of the very few people she could trust was telling her the full truth.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Calling her outright evil is very difficult considering the morality of the Witcher-Verse, but she's one of the most recurring antagonistic forces in the series for our main heroes. This does not change the fact that her absolutely visceral and shrieking horror at Filavandrel's death is incredibly painful to watch. She utterly looses herself in her consuming grief, falls borderline catatonic and it's stongly implied that she spell she used to accelerate the destruction of Aretuza was meant to kill her off as well until Fringilla re-awakens her will to live.
- Heroic RRoD: She's not a heroic character in the traditional sense of the word, but to her credit she is immensely devoted to the health of her people, to the point that she does not hesitate to essentially work herself to the bone and complete exhaustion in order to heal her people and is more than willing to push herself forward. Filavandrel himself has to gently intervene in order to stop her from killing herself out of exhaustion, and even then she implies that she's willing to literally work herself to death for her people.
- Fantastic Racism: From the moment we meet her, Francesca would rather kill humans than negotiate or interact with them, turning her justified suspicion of the people who persecuted and murdered the elves for centuries into something much more virulent. She holds back during the alliance with Nilfgaard, but once her child is dead, she needs little proof to turn around and start murdering human newborns in retribution. Her interest in Ciri is based purely on her potentially being the savior of the elves (and with that the destroyer of humans) from Ithlinne's prophecy.
- The Fundamentalist: Francesca is convinced her magical search for answers will lead her people into a new golden age, leading her to brushing away Filavandrel's more mundane concerns about food and shelter. She also realizes that her visions of the white-robed woman are not of Ithlinne, but completely ignores the possibility that it could mean her gifts are not trustworthy.
- Misplaced Retribution: She kills every Redanian newborn as revenge for her own dead child. Her daughter was murdered on the orders of Emhyr, her sponsor.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: She betrayed North, got tangled into the wrong side of the Thanedd coup and even willingly became a pawn for Nilfgaard, all so Dol Blathanna can be established as a country for elves.
- No True Scotsman: When Yennefer brings up her elven heritage, which is notably strong enough for some members of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to look down upon her as an elf, Francesca dismisses her on account of her never having tried to belong to the elven race before and never having suffered alongside them.
- Odd Friendship: She develops one with Fringilla after their mutual visions of the Deathless Mother, making Fringilla one of the few - if not the only - human Francesca genuinely trusts and cares about.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She mentions having been pregnant more than once in the past but never carried to term until her daughter is born during the second season. The baby is then murdered on Emhyr's orders.
- The Quisling: She allied with Nilfgaard and betrayed the Northern mages in order to be granted rule of Dol Blathanna.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After her baby is murdered she takes revenge by magically killing every human baby in Redania simultaneously.
- Self-Made Orphan: Her father tried to kill her for her magic powers, so she, with the help of her brother Gage, killed him first.
- Trauma Conga Line: Between late season 2 and 3, her baby gets murdered, she loses her brother and husband in combat and as a cherry on top, afterwards finds out that it was the emperor she fought these costly battles for who had her child assassinated in the first place.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Most of the actions she takes in the series are done in order to give her fellow elves a place where they can safely belong and live free from persecution and hatred.
- Would Hurt a Child: She murders every baby in Redania. The spell she uses is shown to first cause the babies pain similar to burning.
Gage
Gage
Portrayed by: Kaine Zajaz
Francesca's brother and right-hand man.
- Canon Foreigner: Gage is completely original to the show and no brother of Francesca is mentioned in the books.
- Character Death: At the Battle On the ruins of Shaerrawedd, Gage actually manages to very briefly get a hold of Ciri, which end up being a death sentence when Geralt impales him with his sword.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's no fan of humans but he still disapproves of Francesca murdering the babies in Redania as revenge for her own child's death.
- Fantastic Racism: He hates humans like his sister, but in contrast to her, he draws the line at wholesale slaughter - though this might be caused by worry about Francesca's wellbeing much more than a grown appreciation for humans.
- Self-Made Orphan: Like Francesca, he had a part in their father's death, in his case he held him down while she cut his throat.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Contrasting Filavandrel's development, Gage softens notably over the course of the season. He is initially dismissive of the innocently imprisoned Yennefer and Fringilla and would have been perfectly fine with their deaths, but ends up protesting against Francesca's murder of the Redanian infants and afterwards even advocates for peace now that they got their revenge.
Dara
Dara
Portrayed by: Wilson Mbomio
A young elf from Cintra who has lost most of his family to Queen Calanthe's genocidal campaign against the Cintran elves. He encounters Ciri after the Fall of Cintra and accompanies her during her escape.
- Ascended Extra: Gaining more of his own arc following his departure from Ciri.
- Character Development: Went from just trying to survive and concealing his own heritage in order to do so, to being openly elf and attempting to fight for something larger by joining Francesca and Filavandrel's cause.
- Child Soldier: Being about Ciri's age, he is on the road to becoming this.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Experienced terrible things as an elf from Cintra, which resulted in him fleeing and trying to cover up his own species. By the time he met Ciri, he appears to have had no family left.
- Happily Adopted: He is taken under the wing of Filavandrel as his ward.
- Harmful to Minors: He cites awareness of elven babies being murdered by Calanthe's men.
- The Mole: Enters Cintra as a spy working for Dijkstra but after the birth of Filavandrel and Francesca's daughter, the first full-blood elf born in a long time, he decides to stop spying out of loyalty to his people. After the baby is murdered, he admits the truth to Filavandrel and Francesca who don't blame him, as he was just trying to survive, and allow him to join the rest of the Elves as they leave Cintra.
- Odd Friendship: Briefly had this with Ciri, a princess and granddaughter of specifically Calanthe, who comitted genocide on elves.
- Properly Paranoid: Does not hesitate to call Cahir a liar when the other man states that Gallatin tried to pull a coup against Francesca. Considering that Cahir killed Gallatin under Emhyr's order to order to avoid a schism between the Elves serving Nilfgaard, he's right on the money to be distrustful of Nilfgaard's agenda in this regard.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He initially helps Ciri while she's on the run and is willing to stick by her for a while but eventually gets sick of the trouble that's drawn to her and the way she treats him. When she tries to get him to kill the Doppler assassin he decides he's had enough and abandons her. As Jaskier finds out, Dara also completely abandoned Francesca and Filavandrel when it became clear that they where perfectly willing to participate in the Thanned Coup, wanting nothing to do with said actions.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: By the end of Season 3, he wants nothing to do with the Scoia'tael's violent fight for freedom, which is why he abandoned Francesca and Filavandrel when it became clear that they where perfectly willing to participate in the Thanned Coup. As he states to Jaskier, all that fighting did nothing but slowly drain him of anything positive inside of himself and in the end he began feeling emptier and emptier, so he decided to take a much more peaceful route for Elven-Human cooperation, much to the approval on Geralt. He even makes it clear that despite how unfavorable thier friendship was when he last saw her, he has forgiving Ciri for her action to him and ask Geralt to pass along said forgiveness.
Gallatin
Gallatin
Portrayed by: Robbie Amell
A Scoia'tael fighter and leader, helping to lead the group to fight on behalf of Nilfgaard.
- Agent Scully: A self-described believer of facts, he holds Francesca fervent belief in the prophecy of The Elder Blood scoff-worthy and as "nonsense".
- Brutal Honesty: Absolutely rakes Francesca Findabair and Filavandrel through the coals with a very poignant "The Reason You Suck" Speech without any ounce of hesitation or fear, calling them out for not directly helping Scoia'tael and their cause and doing, in his eyes, the bare minimum to aid them while focusing all their strength in their "secret mission."
- Canon Foreigner: Gallatin is completely original to the show.
- A Father to His Men: Makes it abundantly clear from his first scene that the life and safety of his fellow Scoia'tael are his first priority and points out that serving under Nilfgaard means that all elves in the end will be free. This is actually one of the main reasons why he clashes with Francesca Findabair, as he believed she was too focused on her personal goals and not in the good of the elves as a whole. When we see him interacting with his men, he's making sure all of them eat in order to regain thier strength for future battles and its noticeable that he's serving them first before he takes his own share of the food. He's absolutely furious after the Battle Of Shaerrawedd when it becomes clear that Francesca had her own agenda and said agenda lead to the death of several dozen elves at the hands of Geralt.
- Odd Friendship: With Cahir. Gallatin calls him an "old friend" and despite their mutual snark at each other and the fact that normally an Elf and a Human would be a strange friendship in the Witcher World, they deeply respect the other and have immense trust and regard in each other, to the point that Cahir outright offered Gallatin to be the commander of the Elves fighting for Nilfgaard. This, however does not save him from being killed by Cahir himself under the implied orders of Emhyr, tragically enough.
- Rebel Leader: A Scoia'tael commander, and seemingly high enough in the ranks that he not only leads a rather large group of them but he's able to openly disagree with Francesca Findabair without any repercussion.
Historical Figures
Lara Dorren
Lara Dorren
Portrayed by: Niamh McCormack
A very ancient Elf, revealed to be the progenitor of the lines of people with Elder Blood.
- Dying Curse: Lamenting that she once hoped that her hybrid human-Elf child would be the foundation of unity between their peoples, she exhales, with her dying breath, that those with Elder Blood shall be the ones to destroy the world of humans.
- Foreshadowing: Nivellen tells Ciri of a tale of an Elven woman and a human man who fell in love and who died because of it. This seemingly-innocuous piece of folklore turns out to be the key explanation to her vague powers.
- Posthumous Character: She is long dead in the show's present time and only appears in flashbacks.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: What little known of her tale is that she fell in love with a human but was persecuted and died for it. What most do not know is that she was able to give birth to her child and through that child became the ancestors of people with Elven Blood, Cirilla included.From the Books
