The Witcher Main Characters / Characters

Leading characters

These are the primary protagonists of The Witcher saga: the unlikely family of witcher Geralt, sorceress Yennefer, their adopted child Ciri and narrator Dandelion.

open/close all folders

Ciri

Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon

"What can you know of saving the world, silly?"

Voiced by: Jo Wyatt (English), Anna Cieślak (Polish)^{additional VAs}

"'I have already seen a war, I do not want to see another. Never. I do not want to be alone again. I do not want to be frightened. I do not want to lose everything again. I do not want to lose Geralt... and you, Lady Yennefer. I do not want to lose you. I want to stay with you. And him. Always."

A Cintran princess, the Unexpected Child, Child of Elder Blood, and Geralt's adopted daughter, Ciri is an unassuming girl who has notable royal nerve, yet even more notable political and dynastic claims, and is the last descendant of a unique legacy. She appears first in the short stories, but becomes a co-protagonist in the Saga. She's but a child during her first appearance, but the events of the Saga lead (and force) her to grow up fast.

Action Girl: Due to the witcher training she receives. She's not really modified or augmented, just trained and given some drug courses, but it still made her more than an equal match to most of the fighters in the series. She is slashing through wolves, griffins, werewolves, and more with impunity. All with a steel sword at that. When fighting foes for which her steel is more applicable, she cuts an even more bloody swath, like she did through Whoreson Junior's mooks. Bonus points for being an actual playable character at certain points in the third game, during which fights often end up being of the Curb-Stomp Battle variety.
Adaptational Attractiveness: The scar she got from Skellen is described as very gruesome and disfiguring in the books. In the game, it's not much more than your average Rugged Scar (and is made to look similar to Geralt's). The difference is actually noted in the game; Geralt comments at one point that the scar had healed well.
Adaptational Heroism: She was a Nominal Hero in the books. In the third game, however, she developed into a saviour of the universe.
Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Her decision to get matching Intimate Marks with Mistle was partially inspired by the Rats being drunk and high on fisstech at the time.
Ambiguously Bi:
- Early in the books, she flirts with a boy and openly thinks about going to bed with a man, but she later has a not entirely consensual in the beginning relationship with Mistle, a lesbian brigand. However, given the sheer amount of trauma and abuse she had experienced short beforehand (and that Mistle pretty much raped her), that entire relationship might have been a choice of survival, Stockholm syndrome type of deal. Some time later she prepares to have sex with a man because she's "curious", but he's killed mid-foreplay.
- It's up to the player of Wild Hunt if Ciri reciprocates the affections of a Skelliger youth Skjall, informs his sister Astrid that she prefers the company of women, or does some combination of both.
And the Adventure Continues: During the "Witcher Ciri" ending of the third game, she suggests breaking in the new Silver Sword Geralt just got her.
Anti-Hero: She evolves into a very ruthless Nominal Hero over the course of the books. She grows out of it, though, and is a far more heroic figure in the third game. Going out of her way to save a child (Gretka) who has seemingly been sent out to die in the woods, even leaving her an emerald when forced to move on.
Apocalypse Maiden: What she can be in the wrong hands.
Audience Surrogate: In the third game, demonstrating things (for the sake of her tutelage) is the In-Universe justification for the tutorial.
Badass Adorable: Little Ciri is acrobatic, cute, and brings out the grumpy old dad in Geralt.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In the third game, adult Ciri is physically attractive, despite her violent lifestyle. Even her facial scar is not that disfiguring and, unlike Geralt, her body is not as noticeably covered with scars either (not that she doesn't have any; they're just not as widespread, as is made evident during the Ms. Fanservice-heavy quest which she can optionally spend much of walking around in her underwear). Related to the game exercising Adaptational Attractiveness. That said, she probably just hasn't had time to get as many — by the third game she's in her twenties, while Geralt is well into his second hundred.
Benevolent Mage Ruler: If she chooses to become Empress of Nilfgaard at the end of The Witcher 3 and assuming she develops her powers sufficiently.
Blemished Beauty: She is a beautiful girl until her face is very messily scarred by Stefan Skellen's throwing star in Tower of the Swallow and has serious self-image issues as a result. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has scaled down the degree of her disfigurement to a stylish Rugged Scar, however.
Blessed with Suck: Although she is the prophesied Chosen One with the power of the Elder Blood, the same prophesy also states that her descendants will rule the world. This means she's the target of multiple third parties and conspirators who all have a vested interest in controlling Ciri's bloodline. The number of people who don't see her as a threat or a Baby Factory are few and far in between.
Bratty Half-Pint: Acts like this when Geralt first meets her in Brokilon. She's less than ten and acts like the most spoiled princess you can imagine.
Break the Cutie: An orphan and Princess in Rags being hunted, who is forced to leave her foster parents when things seemed to improve. Her newly-found True Companions eventually get a Total Party Kill while she is brutalized by a psycho.
Changed My Mind, Kid: Downplayed. The saga concludes with her deciding to leave her world behind and try her luck elsewhere, but treating it more like a badly-needed break rather than leaving for good. She's back in the third game, still on the run from the Wild Hunt and trying to stop the oncoming White Frost with the help of Avallac'h.
Cheerful Child: Was this during Sword of Destiny and Blood of Elves, being a chipper, overall upbeat young girl who is easily excited by the things around her, even despite the hardships she faces.
The Chosen One:
- She's supposed to be the one to prevent The End of the World as We Know It. Ironically, it's heavily implied that she failed because her father backed off from the squickiest moment in the whole series.
- There was what could have been a second, marginally more appealing chance (basically she'd be a valued pawn with potential rise in status), but she turned it down (roughly) on her own.
- In a different way, witchers intentionally tried to invoke the forces of Destiny to this end, believing that such a child might become their equal even without putting her through the Trials.
Covered in Scars: Though nowhere near as scar-ridden as Geralt, young adult Ciri in the third game has had the reality of being an action heroine start to ensue upon her body.
Cuddle Bug: In the third game, Ciri takes every opportunity she can to hug Geralt.
Daddy's Girl: While she and Geralt are not related, they share a very close bond to one another that persists straight to adulthood; one that both mutually consider to be father/daugher-like. The same can most definitely not be said of her biological father.
Deuteragonist: While The Witcher franchise mostly follows Geralt's perspective, Ciri is the one who it's really about. Every antagonist needs to use her to further their schemes, and only she can avert The End of the World as We Know It. Acknowledged at the end of the third game, she will even tell Geralt: "This is my story, not yours. You must let me finish telling it." Interestingly, while Geralt is a Witcher, and probably the most famous among them, the story is ultimately about Ciri's journey to become one too, so in essence, it's entirely possible to interpret the title to be a reference to her rather than him.
Dimensional Traveler: Becomes able to travel between worlds at will towards the end of the novels. Or rather - finally learns how to control the ability at all, since she always had it.
Disney Death: Happens twice in the third game. First she seems to have died a death à la Snow White on the Isle of Mists but reawakens as soon as Geralt finds her. Then in the good ending where she becomes a witcher, we are let to believe she died in her final battle but it's all a ruse to dupe her father. That is, her biological father. Geralt helps her fake her death.
Distaff Counterpart: Her abilities are very different, but by the time she's grown to adulthood, she's visually became a female Geralt of Rivia, as seen when she appears in the third game. This could be taken as a design choice by the creative team, but her scar and white hair are caused by traumas detailed in the books.
Doom Magnet: Even if it's just a side effect of her MacGuffin-ness, by the end of the Saga, she begins to believe it's fate.
Dreaming of Things to Come: Usually in the form of Catapult Nightmare. And with minimal prodding, she enters trances, in which she's prophesying future events.
Dude Magnet: As she matures, Ciri is often having to beat boys her own age off with a stick with how much attention she gets from them. This becomes Played for Drama as time goes on though, as she ends up having to literally beat some men away who don’t take no for an answer, while some of the attention she curries is less due to her looks and more her genetics.
Eager Rookie: She is being trained at Kahr Mohren to be a Witcher. She's very anxious to get out on The Path and irritated that neither Geralt nor Vesemir consider her ready. However, it's because she's a) still a kid, and b) doesn't have the mutations that make a Witcher very hard to kill, so she needs to be as prepared as they can humanly make her.
Embarrassing Nickname: Yennefer is fond of calling her "my ugly one", probably because she's aware that Ciri is envious of her looks, and that she has absolutely no need to be.
Embarrassing Tattoo: Is not particularly proud of the Intimate Marks she got with Mistle while high on fisstech. Especially when it marks her as a 'criminal' when she's rescued by a physician.
Everyone Went to School Together: She knows a great deal of people from Skellige, as she used to spend winters during her childhood there, while Cintra had a royal union with the isles.
Faking the Dead: In the third game's "Witcher Ciri" ending, Geralt tells her father she died saving the world from the White Frost, before heading off to go meet Ciri in a tavern. They speculate he might be aware of their deception, especially since her epilogue makes it clear she goes on to be as Famed In-Story as Geralt is.
Flash Step: Her mainstay power in combat. She can bypass several enemies' guards in a heartbeat, making mincemeat of them with her sword.
Follow in My Footsteps: If she survives the events of the third game, then she will emulate one of her two fathers, becoming either the Empress of Nilfgaard or a witcher.
Forced into Their Sunday Best:
- Geralt meets her for the first time as a little kid lost in Brokilon. The girl is absolutely furious about the fancy dress she was forced into, but redirects her anger on the witcher when he makes fun of her.
- The painting◊ of her as a child where she looks totally unhappy dressed up as a princess.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: She gets a large scar on her left cheek, which she is initially very insecure about. In the third game, it looks a lot like the one Geralt has over his eye, which gives her a similarly hardened and badass appearance. He even mentions that it healed better than his, more ragged one.
The Good Queen: In the ending where she chooses to become Empress, it's implied she will become this due to inheriting a combination of her father's political instincts and Geralt's human decency.
Happily Adopted: Geralt and Yennefer are not her biological parents (neither of them are even capable of having children), but she loves them all the same; the feeling is mutual.
The Heart: Geralt and his friends don't always see eye to eye, but Ciri is the one thing they'll all set their differences aside for.
Heroic BSoD: She hits this toward the end of The Time of Contempt: stranded in the middle of a sweltering desert, on the verge of death from (in turn) sunstroke, thirst, exposure, and a fight with a giant antlion, she then has a terrifying vision where her ancestor Falka exhorts her to take revenge for her troubles on the entire world. She's so shattered by this sequence of events that she literally lays down to die, not even reacting when she's found and turned over to a Nilfgaardian knight.
Hiding the Handicap: For a while, she wore her hair in such a way that her bangs covered part of her face. This was done to hide the scar on her face.
The High Queen: Should she become Empress of Nilfgaard, Dandelion will describe her as having "an empress' political instincts" and "a sense of simple, human decency," and further goes on to say few monarchs boast both traits.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Ciri often expresses frustration for how It Sucks to Be the Chosen One and yearns for a life where she could just do what she wants without everyone after her for her powers. And even before her powers comes to play, she's just as unhappy about being a princess.
Intimate Marks: A rose on her upper thigh, placed in memory of Mistle, her lover.
Irony: As a child, she got a minor knee abrasion magically healed by Triss, to prevent a chance of ending up with a tiny scar that wouldn't be even visible. As a teen, she has her face cut open and the only medical care she can get is a well-meaning, but badly under-equipped hermit that has to simply sew her together. She even brings it up herself by the finale of the saga.
It's All My Fault: Thinks this after Vesemir died defending her life.
Kick the Dog: At one point, lost and deprived of her surrogate parents, she joins a band of highwaymen and lets off the frustration by dog kicking. Lots and lots of dog kicking. And random killings, too.
Last of Her Kind: Double — as a last of the royal house of Cintra, and as a descendant of a long line of Elven eugenic experiments, designed to open the pathways between the worlds.
Little Miss Badass: She is somewhere between fourteen and sixteen at the end of the books. Which doesn't prevent her from being part of a highwaymen gang and later cutting through an outfit of Elite Mooks send to capture her, while skating around them. Oh, and she cuts Bonhart open in the very finale, getting over her fear of him.
Living MacGuffin: Due to her aforementioned legal, prophesied, and genetic status, she is a critical part of at least two or three long-running schemes.
Loud of War: Her superpower involve a loud scream that disables enemies as seen during her Traumatic Superpower Awakening at Kaer Morhen.
Magnetic Hero: Just like her adopted father, Ciri has a knack for gathering friends about her. In the third game, she's on the run from the Wild Hunt, and on the way collects an eclectic assortment of friends: a baron, a barmaid, a circus troupe...
Mars Needs Women: As a result of her genetic background, at least two people explicitly need her for breeding purposes. The third one needs just her placenta.
Meaningful Name:
- Cirilla is a corruption of "Zireael", Elven for "the Swallow". Swallows symbolize spring and rejuvenation, which is also why the standard go-to healing potion that witchers use is also called "Swallow". In the final game, many characters allude to this meaning, with Avallac'h calling her Zireael, and Zoltan calling her "little swallow". Geralt's dream when he had an oneiromancy seance to get on Ciri's trail involved a dream where she was quite obviously symbolized by a swallow.
- In the third game, the "Witcher Ciri" ending has Geralt helping Ciri finishing her Witcher training and presenting her with "Zireael," her own silver sword—which gives her the certification of being a Witcher.
Mistaken for Romance:
- Zigzagged. Geralt seems pretty convinced that the pretty barmaid at the Golden Sturgeon is a flame of Ciri's. Her response is to neither confirm nor deny.
- During Geralt's hunt for her, his relationship with Ciri is mistaken for romance by a few characters; he flatly ends any such speculation on behalf of the Crones of Crookback Bog.
Moment Killer:
- The man she was preparing to have sex with dies on top of her in the middle of the foreplay.
- Ciri's bartender friend will pick up on an opportunity to rather shamelessly flirt with Geralt after he and Ciri chase out some goons harassing her, at which time Ciri will scold her for doing so and inform her that the "charming companion" of Ciri's she's trying to pick up is Geralt. This does not actually stop her until Ciri scolds her again using I'm Standing Right Here.
Ms. Fanservice: In the sauna flashback sequence, the player has the option of having her walking around without a towel, leaving her wearing tiny underwear and bandages and exposing a rather intimately located tattoo that generates some discussion. Despite this, she's the only female character in the sequence to not be topless.
Mystical White Hair: Ashen blond turning on white.
Near-Rape Experience: Happens at the end of The Time of Contempt. After falling in with a group of brigands, Ciri wakes in the night to find one of the men (the one she helped rescue, no less) preparing to rape her. She's so petrified that she can't resist, but a woman from the group shows up and runs him off... then proceeds to lie down with Ciri and molest her, at which point Ciri gives up and just lets it happen. To make it all the more complicated, they later became lovers, in a very weird and most definitely unhealthy, but still genuine relationship.
New Parent Nomenclature Problem: Played with. Ciri only ever calls Geralt by his name, not by any paternal term (although she does describe him to others as her father). In contrast, on several occasions she has visions of Yennefer in danger or pain, and each of these always leads to Ciri panicking and referring to the sorceress as "Mummy".
New Powers as the Plot Demands:
- Initially not much more than a potential magician with a penchant for visions of the future, the circumstances force her to resort to various dormant powers granted by her genetic background: at first simple magic, then telepathy, culminating in the ability to move between times and places and, just possibly, to see and/or control ghosts of the dead. Since nobody could have trained her in them, How Do I Shot Web? is a recurring problem. By the third game, she does have some grasp on her powers, but doesn't use them because the Wild Hunt can track her magical signature.
- All of this can be at least hand-waved as slowly grasping the powers she always had thanks to being a result of an ancient eugenics experiment that got out of control. But in Tower of the Swallow she suddenly always was a master ice-skater, solely to provide readers with an epic skirmish over a frozen lake. It's very blatant and comes out of nowhere.
Not Afraid of You Anymore: She spends two books worth of coving in fear of Bonhart, only to finally get over it and face the bounty hunter in the finale. He invokes this trope, too.
Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Ciri's adventures in other times and worlds, including six months spent in a futuristic city where people "have metal in their heads" and another inhabited by giant dark-skinned individuals.
One-Man Army: Trained by Witchers and born with the Elder Blood means Ciri can be incredibly deadly. By the end of the third game, she's reached the point that she readily slaughtered dozens of Whoreson Junior's men during the escape on Temple Isle and can chop Wild Hunt riders in half with a single blow from a steel sword.
One of the Boys: Ciri tends to come off as someone who gets along better with blokes. As a child, she’s described playing with older boys as something of a Tag Along Kid, and by the time Triss finds her in Kaer Morhen, she’s firmly being Raised by Dudes. When she stays at the Temple of Melitle, she finds herself often quarrelling with the other girls (who all appear to be of the Alpha Bitch variety) whereas her only friend is the awkward young scholar Jarra, and subsequently Ciri appears to find it easier to befriend boys. By the third game, she’s shown easily befriending soldiers and thugs, such as the Bloody Baron and his men, who despite their chauvinistic boasting are quick to praise her hunting ability.
Oracular Urchin: Like her mother, she's given to the periodical bouts of prophesying. This is the most notorious of her abilities — falling into a trance and predicting death sure does break up the mood at parties.
Parent with New Paramour: Although she tries to be happy for Geralt if he ends up with Triss in the third game, her expressions during those conversations can be best described as "child who had always hoped her divorced parents would someday get back together, but is slowly coming to the painful realization that it will never happen."
Parental Abandonment:
- Initially more like parental death, but we later get to know that all of it was the Evil Plan of her father, The Emperor of Nilfgaard, to outmaneuver his enemies and advance his Wife Husbandry plan. Her mother really dies, though.
- In Time of Contempt, she briefly begins to feel this way towards Geralt and Yennefer, as they had more-or-less been planning to leave her in the care of Aratuza right before everything went to shit and she got lost in the desert. It's one of the factors that contribute to her staying with the Rats, as she feels so desperately alone now that she's been abandoned by her adopted family.
Parental Sexuality Squick: She doesn't like watching Geralt flirt with people, especially her friends, like Bea (who was flirting back). In the third game, she ushers along the conversation when it turns even slightly lewd. Afterwards, she and Geralt have this conversation, and Ciri sounds both embarrassed of her adoptive dad but trying not to laugh.
Geralt: Your friend, she seems nice.
Ciri: Geralt, you're terrible.
Geralt: What did I say?
Person of Mass Destruction: As a side note, the Sources often end up this way sooner or later, which is one of the reasons why wizards look out for them. In the third game, in her anguish over seeing Vesemir get himself killed to remove himself as a hostage against her, Ciri lets loose an uncontrolled burst of dimension-warping energy, flooring several Wild Hunters trying to grab her, and even repulsing King Eredin himself before completely losing control, and starts tearing apart Kaer Morhen itself.
Pimped-Out Dress:
- When Geralt stumbles on her in the Sword of Destiny titular story, she is wearing one of those, while being lost in Brokilon forest. She's both unhappy about how unpractical it is and that it got dirty.
- In the third game, her birth father has a portrait of her as a young girl. She's wearing a white poofy dress covered with pink bows and ribbons. She does not look happy wearing it either.
The Pollyanna: In the third game, Ciri has apparently settled on this, as she is depicted as overall being a pretty chipper and upbeat young woman, even though she's spent the last few years on the run from the Wild Hunt, unable to make long-term friends, never mind the events that happen in the game itself or the traumas she experienced in the books.
- She already was like this from the end of The Time of Contempt onward, realising that everything worst that could happen to her already did. While she's wrong, she keeps the attitude.
Powerful and Helpless: Oh yes. Ciri never crosses it into Damsel in Distress, but routinely her skills and abilities are no good against the hazards she's facing during the saga...
- When stuck in a middle of a desert without any supplies or way out, out of desperation she unleashes powerful magic. One that she can summon, but can't control and which instantly starts to toy with her. Ultimately, it doesn't save her in any way and just leaves Ciri comatose after the ordeal, but also openly rejecting her magical heritage out of fear and disgust.
- She might be an absurdly good fencer, especially for just a regular, non-augmented human teen, killing on pure reflexes alone... but that doesn't mean she has the willpower to stand up against Bonhart after he kidnaps her and makes her his amusing pet. She's so traumatised by their initial confrontation, he even replaces the black knight in her nightmares. It takes the rest of the saga for her to finally snap out of it.
- Later, when she ends up in the hands of Aen Elle, she might come from a powerful bloodline with unique magical capacity and a hardened killer, but she has no weapons to defend herself and no control over said magic, being at a complete mercy of her captors.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I remember everything". Ciri spits this at Bonhart as he bleeds to death from a throat slashed open by Ciri's sword.
Princess in Rags: After Cintra gets conquered and her grandmother, Queen Calanthe, commits suicide, she has to run off into the wild. She is filthy after a couple days of fleeing. When she lives at Kaer Morhen, her wardrobe is described as being poorly sewn together rags. She then spends most of the saga as a vagabound and a brigand, and ultimately settles for the life of a (trans-dimensional) nomad without anything but the clothes on her back to her name.
Princess Protagonist: A main character, princess of the border kingdom of Cintra, and daughter of the Emperor of Nilfgaard.
Red Baron: 'The Lady of Space and Time', or 'The Lady of the Worlds'. Also: 'The Lion Cub of Cintra' and 'Child of the Elder Blood'.
Remember the New Guy?: Zig-Zagged. Ciri and Yennefer are both major characters in the books and have been the focus of at least two short stories each prior to saga proper, while the girl ascends into being a Deuteragonist halfway through the saga. However to people who have only played the games, they seem to be appear out of nowhere in the third game. Not helping matters is that Geralt literally doesn't remember them until near the end of the second game.
Royal Brat: As a child, she had quite a mouth on her and a bad attitude to go with it, and being a princess, that meant threatening to execute anyone who annoyed her even slightly.
Rule of Three: She encounters Geralt (knowingly or unknowingly) three times. Once as a child, when he only sees her at a distance; once when she's slightly older and he saves her from dying in Brokilon forest; and once after the fall of Cintra, which is when they join up permanently.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the books, it's implied that she left the world behind to its inevitable doom after her adoptive parents were supposedly killed. In the games, she eventually returns to handle said doom, the White Frost, while on the run from the Wild Hunt.
Sequel Hook: In the third game's "Witcher Ciri" ending, Geralt retires while Ciri is said to go on to become a 'Witcheress' as famous as he is, indicating she might star in her own adventure.
She's All Grown Up: The third game has her as, according to many fans, amazingly hot. Lampshaded by Yennefer when she returns to Kaer Morhen, noting that Ciri's "grown beautiful."
Super Mode: In the final play sequence with Ciri in Wild Hunt, she is finally tired of running and cuts loose with her Elder Blood powers; her whole body is aglow with her reality-warping power, amplifying every swing of her blade, cutting through now-inconsequential Red Riders and Wild Hunt hounds, and every other step seems a Flash Step.
Tangled Family Tree: See the entry above about Elven genetic experiments. You'll need a fair bit of paper for notes to trace her basic lineage from the explanation by a knowledgeable background character in one of the books. You actually get to see it near the end of the third game.
Tattooed Crook: On her last night with the Rats they waylay a tattoo artist and get various tattoos. Ciri gets hers to match Mistle's.
This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The White Frost is an existential threat that only Ciri can fight, and the third game ends with her leaving Geralt behind to face it head on.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the girly girl to Mistle's tomboy. Despite the fact that she is better with the sword than her, Mistle's behavior is just a lot more masculine than the former princess.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Ciri enjoys swordplay and the general rough-and-tumble lifestyle of a Witcher. But she does take an interest in applying makeup as well, and she doesn't mind (briefly) acting like a princess if it'll get her what she wants. She used to be the exact reverse as a child, but given the sort of upbringing she ended up ultimately receiving, it's not hard to see why things turned out the way they did for Ciri.
Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of the series, she gradually evolves from an naïve, helpless child to a One-Man Army capable of bending time and space to her will.
Took a Level in Jerkass: During her time with the Rats, she adopts a malicious disposition and becomes an enthusiastic participant in their crimes.
Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Happens few times to her:
- When the dryads try to brain-wash her with the Water of Brokilon, she instead enters the state of a trance and acts like a medium, being the very first indication something is very off about the girl.
- When she's stranded in the desert and dying due to dehydration by the end of The Time of Contempt, she decides to invoke the power of fire. However, when the magic force does shows up, she panics and instead repress her own magic powers, apparently for good.
- The climax of Tower of the Swallow has Kenna, one of the mercenaries send after her, probing Ciri's mind to make sure they've got the right girl. Instead, she reawakens all her powers, which leads to a complete slaughter of majority of the outfit on Ciri's back.
- In the third game, she has an uncontrollable magical outburst during the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
Try to Fit That on a Business Card: By the time she's an adult she is the Queen of Cintra, Princess of Brugge and Duchess of Sodden, heiress to Inis Ard Skellig and Inis An Skellig, and suzeraine of Attre and Abb Yarra — and those are just Cintrian titles that by default go with the crown, along with being Skellige claimant. She can potentially end up as the Empress of Nilfgaard on top of all that, which brings about ten times as many royal and ducal titles. Even all of that doesn't include nicknames that don't involve actual rulership, such as the "The Lion Cub of Cintra" or "Unexpected Child" or "Lady of Time and Space".
Unskilled, but Strong: She's technically still in training as of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but she far exceeds Geralt in sheer power.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While testing her dimension hopping abilities, she inadvertently brings a diseased flea back with her from one era. The flea ends up piggybacking onto a rat on board a barge named the Catriona. The plague ends up bearing the barge's name and kills thousands across the Northern Kingdoms.
Vague Age: A rather weird example. The games put her birthyear as 1251, where the books seemingly have her birthyear as 1253. Fan estimates on her age range from 19 to 22 years old. And even before that, the only thing that can be said for sure about her age in the end of the saga is "late teens", with no exact age, either.
Virgin Power: Inverted; during her magical training as an acolyte of Melitele and under Yennefer, Ciri frets that she'll never be a mage because she's heard the other novices claim that virgins can't use magic. Yennefer quickly tires of hearing this and advises Ciri to find a boy to have sex with if she's really so worried about it.
Waif-Fu:
- Geralt arranged her (heavily modified) Witcher's training around her size, and it pays off.
- She hasn't received any of the heavy magical or chemical modifications required for full Witchers, just the physical training, the special diet, and the odd accidental indulgence of White Gull. Mainly because the Witchers lacked the skills needed for that, and it was probably a good thing, too, as a) these modifications were designed for boys, not for girls, and b) survival rate was about 10% even with the skilled operator and care.
Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Regarding her fencing and acrobatics skills. She receives a (significantly toned-down) witcher training as a child and in her early teens, but never had a real chance to put that training into any practical use. As a result, when she eventually ends up in combat situations, she acts and even kills on pure, trained reflex, rather than anything resembling a conscious act. She's also easily subdued by Bonhart, who has few times more years of experience than she's alive when they meet for the first time. And obviously, as the saga goes, she slowly gains experience to match her training.
Wife Husbandry:
- No, not by Geralt. It was her own father, the Emperor. He backed off from it, though.
- Although in the third game, the Crones of the Velen No Man's Land do suggest that Geralt unwillingly did this. His reaction is one of pure visceral disgust.
- Several characters in the books and games, mostly those who don't know Geralt and Ciri's dynamic intimately, seem to make similar assumptions, much to Geralt's annoyance. In fairness, the Law of Surprise has often been used in this manner in the past (in fact, it was how Ciri's own parents came to be; Emhyr saved the life of Ciri's grandfather and invoked the Law of Surprise, resulting in Pavetta being promised to him), and the fact Geralt instead treated his child surprise as a daughter instead of this is really a reflection of his character.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: During the desert incident. She was warned not to draw upon the unstable element of fire. However, that was due to the inherently unpredictable nature of fire magic acting as a conduit for the spirit of Falka to nearly possess her, and her other powers did not have an impact on her psyche.
You Are Too Late: Ciri arrives far too late to save The Rats from Leo Bonhart. Though given how easily he took them (and her) out, it's unlikely she would have been much help.
Youthful Freckles: The third game gives her a freckled complexion as a child. They're still vaguely visible in her older self.

Yennefer of Vengerberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yennefer_tw3.png

"I would like to ask you not to hurt my daughter. I do not want to die with the notion that she is crying."

Voiced by: Denise Gough (English), Beata Jewiarz (Polish)^{additional VAs}

Ciri: What is there between you and Geralt, Lady Yennefer?
Ciri almost fainted, horrified at her own impertinence, chilled by the silence which followed the question.
The enchantress slowly approached her, placed her hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eyes from up close – and deeply.
Yennefer: Desire. Regret. Hope. And fear. Yes, I don't think I have omitted anything. Well, now we can get on with the tests, you little green-eyed viper.

A powerful sorceress who dotes on Ciri as the daughter she can never have and the love of Geralt's life. They met each other long ago, and afterwards had a truly legendary string of breakups and makeups, as befitting a moody killer and a strong-willed sorceress. Though they are in separation at the beginning of the Saga, at Triss' advice Geralt asks her to help with Ciri's training, and so she becomes an adoptive mother to Ciri.

Action Girl: A beautiful and deadly woman in combat with her magical powers who is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Starts the opening cinematic as a One-Man Army sorceress. Notably, she's caught in the middle of a battle and easily dispatches both armies.
Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, she's stated to be extremely attractive but not in the classical way, having some strange proportions that slightly unnerve people. In the games, she is nothing short of beautiful, mainly due to her face being originally based on Polish model Klaudia Wróbel.
Adaptational Hairstyle Change: She has long wavy hair rather than the riot of curls she's described as having in novels, although said curls can be seen in the above promotional image. This is likely because hair is already difficult to render in CGI and curly hair is even more challenging, so Yen's hair being straighter made things much simpler.
Anti-Hero: She can be very cold, self-centered, temperamental, and willing to do most anything to get what she wants, which includes helping those she cares about. One character describes her as a good person at her core, but one who's also without scruples and totally ruthless.
Appeal to Force: Makes a scene in "Wild Hunt" — at Kaer Morhen, Geralt can confront Yennefer on her behavior and lack of manners with him and the other Witchers. If he broke up with her before this, she will REALLY lay into him and give him a piece of her mind. If Geralt continues admonishing her, she will teleport him far from Kaer Morhen and into a lake. If he comes back and doesn't apologize, she'll threaten to teleport him again, but at a height that he wouldn't survive.
Be Careful What You Wish For: In the third video game, Yennefer can have this happen to her during "The Last Wish." She's determined to have a djinn break the magical bond between her and Geralt to find out if their feelings for each other are true or not. After the bond is broken, she realizes she still has feelings for him. Geralt, however, can inform her that he no longer loves her and points out that the djinn granted her wish.
Berserk Button: Do not touch Ciri or Geralt. She will kill - and have killed - anyone who tries.
Betty and Veronica:
- She has this sort of dilemna in Shard of Ice, where Istredd, an intellectual, reputable and "safe" sorcerer is Betty while brooding and broke, but adventureus Geralt is Veronica. She picks neither.
- In the third game, she is the Veronica to Triss' Betty. In the early books, she's even a bit paranoid about Ciri becoming romantically entangled with Geralt after she grows up until Nenneke verbally slaps her in the face by pointing out that Ciri is a child, and "not your rival."
But Not Too Foreign: She's 1/4 elf. It affects absolutely nothing and even her looks are more of result of a magical enhancement (she was a hunchback as a child) than her origins.
Byronic Hero: A rare female example. Yennefer has most of the traits that go with the archetype that cause no shortage of conflict for her and others. She's sophisticated, intelligent, determined, and overall disdainful of the politics of nations and her fellow sorcerers alike, but she's also selfish, impulsive, prone to moodiness, unwilling to accept responsibility for her failings, controlling, difficult to like and understand, and uncompromising in getting what she wants. Despite her development and insight in the books, she promptly reverts fully back to this after the amnesia she was inflicted with by the Wild Hunt.
Letho of Gulet: "Well, the woman turned out to be quite a character. Throwing temper tantrums, trying to seduce Auckes, trying to drive a wedge between us. After you so nobly sacrificed yourself, we thought it'd be dumb just to leave her somewhere. She wouldn't've survived more than a month. The whims and vigor of a duchess, but she was just a sorceress with no memory."
Cannot Spit It Out: One of the reasons for her and Geralt's frequent break-ups was their inability to admit to their feelings, and their inability to accept the vulnerability that such feelings wrought in them. At one point, she slept with another sorcerer while in a casual sex relationship with Geralt (in "A Shard of Ice"). In that same story, it was revealed that after Geralt left her with a note and flowers after staying with her for a year in Vengerburg, she spent the next four years in a relationship with the sorcerer Istredd. It was hinted that she intends to break up with Istredd in "A Shard of Ice" before he proposed to her, thereby making her even more uncertain of her real feelings, thereby sleeping with her. In that same story, it was further hinted that she would have dropped Istredd if only Geralt would admit to his feelings for her. It was when she was shown that Geralt was still unable to admit to his feelings, using his Witcher lifestyle as an excuse, that she created another kestrel and broke up with the two of them. In Time of Contempt, Geralt and Yennefer finally admit and declared their feelings for each other, Yennefer remained faithful to him, rejecting any and all romantic advances from her ex-lover, Crach an Craite.
Dark Is Not Evil: Has long black hair and always dresses in black. While she is often quite cold and haughty as well as manipulative to others and capable of great ruthlessness, there is much more to her than meets the eye for most people that she keeps hidden away beneath the surface. As Geralt and Ciri know well, Yennefer is fully capable of incredible compassion, care and concern for her friends and people in danger.
Deadpan Snarker: She'll always have a biting remark at the ready. Her interactions with Geralt often amount to Snark-to-Snark Combat.
Defrosting Ice Queen: In the third game she initially acts aloof to everyone in general, including Geralt despite their history together. She warms up once Ciri enters the picture again, and especially if Geralt chooses to rekindle his relationship with her.
Didn't Think This Through: In the third game, she worries that the feelings she and Geralt have for one another are false due to the wish that binds them together. After she successfully has a djinn sever the spell, she realizes that she's still in love with Geralt. However, if Geralt rejects her at the end of the quest, this trope comes into effect since it's either proof that Geralt's feelings were always false, or Yennefer inadvertently erased his feelings for her entirely. Her expression at this revelation says it all.
Dysfunctional Family:
- She had a rather abusive father or stepfather.
- Her own relationships (including the one with Geralt) tended to be less than smooth too.
The Friend Nobody Likes: She is pretty much considered this to the Wolf School witchers of Kaer Morhen who aren't Geralt by the time of Wild Hunt. Lambert mocks her relentlessly for her arrogant attitude as well as Geralt for letting her walk all over him with Yennefer bickering with him a fair bit, while Vesemir is clearly quite displeased by her trying to take command of the witchers he is the leader of, having to remind her who really runs the place firmly. Even Eskel, while cordial and polite towards her as ever, if for Geralt's sake more than hers, makes it clear to Geralt he doesn't appreciate her barging into Kaer Morhen and trying to order him around, that they are better off getting help from Triss, and that he has always watched her treating his brother witcher poorly.
Happily Married: In a non-canon Alternate Universe short story. In the third game, she and Geralt can potentially retire this way.
Informed Flaw:
- More than a dozen characters in the third game call Yennefer untrustworthy, manipulative, or abusive towards Geralt, often implying that their low opinion of her is due to past actions before the video game canon. However, readers of the books will know that her and Geralt's previous relationship issues are about equally their fault, and that she's by far the most trustworthy and honest of the sorceresses (and, given the nature of the Witcher world, of virtually everyone Geralt encounters). In the game itself while she does many morally questionable things, she has Undying Loyalty to both Geralt and Ciri, and her greatest faults when interacting with her (many) critics are her secretiveness, controlling manner and sharp tongue - not anything more. To take is step further, some of the people talking bad about her have personal reasons to dislike her after the events of the saga, making them a case of Unreliable Expositors.
- That said, their criticisms of her seem to come from what they have directly seen and experienced and heard of her negative personality and behavior from their own limited points of view, obviously not having seen everything about her that the book readers have, and ties into their own personal biases. A solid example of this would be Eskel and his understandable anti-Sorceress bias from his traumatic experiences with Sabrina Glevissig in The Price of Neutrality, with Yennefer strongly reminding him of Sabrina in her manner, his journal entry noting what happened to Deidre Ademeyn probably lies at the center of his dislike for her. Not helping matters, Yennefer rarely does much or cares enough to mitigate said negative perceptions of herself by altering her unlikable manner for the better, clearly not being out to endear herself to anyone, but rather to do what she thinks she must.
Interrupted Suicide: In her youth. After she was admitted to Aretuza for study but before Tissaia de Vries ordered her deformities corrected, she slit her wrists with full intent to bleed to death. She was found before she bled out, and mending her hand tendons was added to the list of magically medical ministrations intended for her.
I Was Quite a Looker: Inverted. She's a looker right now, even without magical enhancement, and has been ever since becoming a sorceress. Before, she had a hunchback, but healing deformities of their adepts is a matter of professional prestige among the wizards. Geralt figures this out when he puts his hands on her shoulders and realizes they aren't even. Discovering this doesn't change Geralt's feelings for her.
It's All About Me:
- Yennefer has a habit of placing her own feelings, impulses, and wants above other peoples' usually because she thinks she knows what's best. The third game demonstrates this repeatedly, as she steals, manipulates, lies, or flat out ruins other peoples' lives or sacred beliefs. She justifies it by saying it's for the sake of Ciri and defeating the Wild Hunt, but several people (including Geralt) state that she goes too far and that she flat out ignores how much harm she does to others. Several characters also call out for her poor treatment of Geralt repeatedly in the third game, such as Lambert to her face, with Keira outright comparing it to her treating him like a dog and even Eskel points it out to Geralt twice.
- However, the criticisms levelled her way by these characters can also fall into Informed Wrongness for readers of the books, or even players who notice that she doesn't seem to do anything to earn all this ire besides being prickly and bossy.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's not easy to gain her good will, but there is almost nothing she will not do to protect those she loves.
Knight Templar Parent: In the third game, she will break any rule and commit any immorality to find and protect Ciri. She ruthlessly uses flat out torturous Necromancy to communicate with a young man's soul, as well as an Artifact of Doom that could have potentially destroyed the Skellige Isles simply because it was the fastest way to get information about her.
Lady of Black Magic: Portrayed as this in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, where she has no qualms about using black magic, in contrast to Triss, who refrains from it. If that's what it takes, she gladly employs forbidden magics to find and help Ciri, collateral damage and personal cost be damned. Triss, in contrast, is willing to perform quite destructive acts with her sorcery, but explicitly refuses to partake in the darker shades of magic.
Law of Inverse Fertility: Most magicians are infertile, but Yennefer qualifies by being really dissatisfied with this fact and goes out of her way to attempt to reverse it. May or may not come from constantly hearing Tissaia de Vries, her patron, going on about her rather... unique views about mages and whether or not they can or should sire children.
Lost in Translation: Her eyes are described as "fiołkowe" ("violet", but after the flowers) in the original Polish. Which, at least in Polish, simply means a very specific shade of blue. This gets notoriously mistranslated as "violet" (the colour) or even "purple". The third game somewhat tried to alleviate that, but she ended up with Uncanny Valley irises as a result, which are neither blue nor purple.
Magic Knight: She's been known to make use of a dagger from time to time, especially early in Blood Of Elves. Her Netflix series counterpart is a fairly adept swordfighter as well.
Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Including ruins of an inn just torn apart by a genie, Zero-G Spot and on the back of a stuffed unicorn. As revealed in the third game, she still has the unicorn.
Mama Bear: Adores her adoptive daughter and would go to great measures for her. She crossed the whole Lodge, and that's before the more headstrong actions. As for video games, she will risk using an Artifact of Doom, defile a sacred garden, and torment a deceased corpse to find and protect Ciri.
The Masochism Tango: Her relationship with Geralt is stormy at best, right down to Slap-Slap-Kiss and both her and Geralt finding other partners while still technically in their relationship. It is also often taking very emotionally toxic and destructive turns, which can include abruptly teleporting him to drop into a lake. Geralt can even say in 3 that he is tired of all the constant fighting.
Mind over Manners: This is quite common among wizards; in this case, she tends to let her telepathy loose after orgasm.
Ms. Fanservice: She has sex scenes with Geralt, especially in the third game.
Never My Fault: Yennefer has a hard time accepting blame for anything or receiving criticism for others. In private, she is harshly critical of herself but doesn't dwell on mistakes, instead planning her next move almost immediately.
Not in This for Your Revolution: She couldn't care any less about the grand politics of the world and, for that matter, Lodge's plans. The only reason she plays along is because she is quite literally dragged into it, but once gaining access to the intel she needs to locate Ciri, she ditches the other sorceresses almost instantly. Same happens in the third game - she just doesn't give a damn about the ongoing war, just wants to find her beloved ones.
Not So Above It All: If Geralt chooses to help Ciri destroy Avallac'h's lab, Yen watches them both with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Then she draws a crude mustache and beard on a portrait of Avallac'h.
One True Love: Both Geralt and Yennefer have many lovers, but the saga makes it clear they are this towards each other.
Precision F-Strike: In the third game, if Geralt states that she's acting more hostile than usual towards him (especially in Kaer Morhen), Yennefer will state that she won't mince words, and then very slowly and very bluntly explains to him that she's not happy being in the place where he fucked her best friend for up to a year. (Takes on added meaning if Geralt has chosen to romance Triss by this point.)
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Compared in Season of Storms to a December morning. Being 1/4 elf certainly helps in this regard.
The Red Mage: In addition to offensive spells and black magic, she's also been known to employ healing magic, notably attempting to heal a dying Geralt in Rivia.
Remember the New Guy?: Ciri and Yennefer are both major characters in the books and have been the focus of at least two story each. Not to mention she's the definitive, if stormy, One True Love with Geralt. However to people who have only played the games, they seem to be appear out of nowhere in the third game. Not helping matters is that Geralt literally doesn't remember them until near the end of the second game.
Selective Obliviousness: In the Witcher III. Yennefer has an interesting view when it comes to channeling necromantic spirits. She denies that a spirit she summons back into a corpse is a person, just rotting meat, despite clearly seeing that said spirit is in deep pain upon being forcefully questioned by her. Take note, Geralt routinely deals with ghosts as a regular part of his job. A fact that leaves him upset at the seeming callousness, but it is quite clear that Yen is only telling herself this and does regret the necessity of the anguish she causes Skjall's ghost.
Shock and Awe: When it comes to inflicting direct harm with magic in Wild Hunt, Yennefer shows an affinity for lightning.
Taking the Heat: Yen's determination to find Ciri no matter what leads to her performing several very morally questionable actions in Ard Skellige. She's assisted in part by Geralt but she nonetheless takes the full blame when confronted, even at one point lying and claiming that Geralt tried to stop her.
Tsundere: Yennefer's breakups and makeups with Geralt were legendary in the North, and the rumor was that Geralt survived only due to being a witcher. In addition, despite her show of indifference, Yennefer was actively keeping tracks of Geralt throughout the series, buying his stolen swords up for him in an auction (and not revealing to him that it was her), padding his contracts with her own money to give him enough to survive on — her care for Geralt was even known to her banker, Molnar, who cancelled a debt owed by Geralt on her behalf.
Uneven Hybrid: She's one-quarter elf.
The Unfettered: Can become this in an instant depending on what's at stake, such as her actions when it came to finding Ciri in Wild Hunt.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In Assassins Of Kings, after Geralt has traded himself for Yennefer to the Wild Hunt. Returned to the Continent in a weakened, sick and amnesiac state, Letho of Gulet and his fellow Viper School Witchers decide to look after and take her along with them, aiding and helping protect her in Nilfgaardian territory, which is quite severe towards unstable magic users. She proves to be difficult, with the Vipers having to keep bailing her out from her temperamental amnesia induced antics, throwing fits and getting into trouble wherever they went, with her trying to sow division among the witchers as well. She ends up drawing too much attention from Emperor Emhyr's Imperial Secret Police, leading to the entire group being captured, and the Vipers soon after coerced and manipulated into becoming the Kingslayers who go on to sow chaos and war for Emhyr in the Northern Realms. Setting a number of the disastrous events of Assassins Of Kings and Wild Hunt into motion.
Uptown Girl: The relationship between Yennefer (wealthy, influential sorceress) with the legendary but broke Geralt.
Vain Sorceress: Even though she's moral, she's still a sorceress, y'know. For one, she uses magic to bolster her already good looks to stunning level.
Woman Scorned:
- Implied to be her motivation for hooking up with Istredd in Shard of Ice. It's complicated.
- If Geralt broke up with her permanently before going back to Kaer Morhen, and then tells the other Witchers about it, they will state this as the reason she's in such an unpleasant mood.
Your Favorite: How she met with Geralt. He needed a sorcerer to help Dandelion, injured by a djinn, but stopped to bring her apple juice to help with her hangover.

Dandelion

Julian Alfred "Dandelion" Pankratz, the Viscount de Lettenhove

"Geralt, you have no sense of poetry. There's the truth of time and the truth of legend."

Voiced by: Tim Beckmann (English, The Witcher), John Schwab (English, Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt), Jacek Kopczyński (Polish)^{additional VAs}

"My love poems! Some bastard stole them recently. Probably wanted to show off to a young lass smelling of sheepskins. I really missed this book. It was like being in a brothel with no balls. I owe you one, Geralt, though I don't know quite how I'll repay you. No... Actually, I do know. Up for a shot on vodka? It's on me."

A world-famous bard and Geralt's good friend. He was a character introduced back in the short stories, and appears in the Saga as well, following the witcher in his quest despite cowardly tendencies and a lack of combat abilities.

Adaptation Dye-Job: He is brunette in the games, while he has been described as blond in the short stories and saga. And the games aren't the first time he was given dark hair.
Camp Straight: Just look at him! He's wearing purple, and poofy pants, and looks like a dandy.
Cowardly Lion: Unwaveringly loyal to Geralt, though, even through torture and in the face of certain death.
[In the The Edge of the World Geralt is trying to reason with the leader of wild elves to at least spare Dandelion, pointing out the bard has countless connections and his celebrity status alone can affect general public; the elf is slowly being swayed by the argument]
Filavandrel: But if he survives thanks to you [Geralt], he'll undoubtedly feel obliged to avenge you.
Dandelion: You can be sure of that! — Dandelion was pale as death — You can be sure, you son-of-a-bitch. Kill me too, because I promise otherwise I'll set the world against you. You'll see what lice from a fur coat can do! We'll finish you off even if we have to level those mountains of yours to the ground!
The Dandy: Which is only natural in his line of work, bard and part time spy. His nickname in English was probably chosen so that various characters could call him "Dandy".
The Casanova: He is spending much of his time in a lady's pleasurable company.
Distressed Dude: He's always getting into trouble, and it's always up to Geralt (and likely others) to save him.
Dub Name Change: His original Polish nickname is "Jaskier", the word for Buttercup.^note
Everyone Went to School Together: Unsurprisingly, as Oxenfurt Academy was the best and most prestigious university in the North, so it's only natural that many significant characters studied here, including him. He's also a visiting professor there, teaching poetry and rhetorics.
Genius Ditz: Seriously, he comes off as potentially too incompetent to operate a blanket, but is a genuinely talented and enormously popular poet and performer.
A Girl in Every Port: One quest in Wild Hunt has Geralt running around Novigrad trying to find his friend Dandelion by talking to his various ladyfriends. The DLC "Blood and Wine" has him reunited with Duchess Anna Henrietta in the far-South country of Toussaint, who denies caring if Dandelion has spoken of her. The novels contain even more examples of Dandelion's sexual exploits, in each corner of the map.
Handsome Lech: A chronic skirt-chaser who's dripping with charm and always has a woman on his arm or in his bed whenever Geralt finds him.
The Heart: A male variant (appropriately, his original Polish nickname is the word for Buttercup). In this field most of the female examples he manages to stand out: he is the only one in the group who can't fight to save his life, contributes usually by screaming in more dangerous situations, and half of the time actually causes the danger and has to be rescued from it — usually by not knowing when to shut up or by bedding the wrong women.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: Vitriolic Best Buds though they may be, he and Geralt remain thick as thieves.
Horny Bard: He uses his fame and popularity as a Wandering Minstrel to meet women in all walks of life, with ''extensive' success.
Informed Ability: In a stark contrast to the books, where Dandelion is constantly singing and performing, as well as practicing and coming up with new rhymes, the games barely ever give him a chance to demonstrate his craft and what little they do comes off as very sub-par for the world's greatest bard.
Knowledge Broker: Not above a little light spying on the side to augment his troubadour income.
Lady Killer In Love: The third game, only. Dandelion seems to fall in love for the first time with a female bard named Priscilla. Geralt remains skeptical until Zoltan explains she's Dandelion's Distaff Counterpart.
Zoltan: What does Dandelion love most in this world?
Geralt: (in tones of epiphany) ...Himself.
Lemony Narrator: Both in (as implied by characters discussing his autobiography) and out of universe. In the games, the quest and character biographies are all written from Dandelion's point of view. As such, they tend to be laced with a lot of jokes, sarcasm, lampshading, and the occasional What the Hell, Hero? moment.
The Load: Dandelion is of pretty much no use to the party until Toussaint. On the occasions his connections or talents could help, they don't by external circumstances or the problem is solved in a different way anyway.
Lovable Coward: He's constantly getting captured and his general reaction to actual combat is either panic or riding away screaming. He's also an extremely devoted and loyal friend.
A Man Is Always Eager: In Assassins of Kings, he'll help Geralt lure out a succubus accused of murdering villagers, and can either go back to Geralt... or decide to follow her down to her lair, having never been with a succubus before.
Narrator All Along: One of the pre-load narrations in the third game states that Dandelion is the orator of those segments.
Nice Guy: To the point that Zoltan mentions that he spent three days unable to sleep from the guilt of forgetting to pay for a bottle of wine.
Non-Action Guy: He's not so much a coward but he lacks any kind of combat skill. In many occasions, he's fully willing to follow Geralt into danger, only to back down because Geralt tells him to.
Odd Friendship: He and Geralt have very little in common. Besides really getting around, that is, but it's hardly a bonding activity and Geralt often finds Dandelion's style ridiculous or ill-advised.
Older Than They Look: About forty despite looking like he's in his late twenties. By the third game, he's in his mid-forties.
Dijkstra: You are almost forty, look like almost thirty, think you're twenty, and behave like you're not even ten.
Only Known by Their Nickname: He's always called Dandelion, even after his friends learn his real name Julian Alfred Pankratz, the Viscount de Lettenhove in the final book of the saga. Although they have their doubts and think that the name and title are fake. It's not.
Really Gets Around:
- He has a reputation for sexual exploits in the games (and in the novels, too). Whether he's as... prolific... as Geralt is unknown. However, Geralt at least does not cause that many scandals. At one point, you're forced to track him down by interviewing his romantic prospects. The list of his recent lovers is two pages long. Becomes even more impressive with the fact most of them are quite willing to take him back, especially since one of the ladies on the list is Vespula, the woman from the Eternal Flame short story.
- In the saga, he almost got executed over it, as he only treated his relationship with duchess Anna Henrietta 99% serious, while she was expecting full devotion.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: Geralt's stoicism contrasted with Dandelion's unending antics almost plays out like a comedy duo.
Tagalong Chronicler: Except that, him being himself, Dandelion is writing his own autobiography along the way.
Team Chef: Cooking is the task he manages to shine at within the hanse.
Undying Loyalty: Say what you want about him, but he'd never abandon his friends.
- How loyal? He, without question, robs the vault of a Crime Lord and former Spymaster to pay another crime lord in order to help the Daughter of his friend.
- A few times in the saga, he outright demands to be killed with Geralt rather than get released, often to the chagrin of the witcher.
- The moment from the books that defines this is when he rides into Brokilon, all alone, simply because Geralt is in there somewhere — and he's fully aware that he's sooner to meet a dryad arrow than his friend.
Vitriolic Best Buds: His conversations with Geralt can usually be summed up by the latter angrily telling an annoying Dandelion to shut up already. They still formed an unwavering bond of friendship.
Wandering Minstrel: Hey, he's the Bard in their world, easily the most popular and famous poet, musician, and writer of his time — and beyond.

Characters / The Witcher Main Characters

Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon

Yennefer of Vengerberg

Julian Alfred "Dandelion" Pankratz, the Viscount de Lettenhove

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / The Witcher Main Characters

Edit Locked

Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon

Yennefer of Vengerberg

Julian Alfred "Dandelion" Pankratz, the Viscount de Lettenhove

Previous

Index

Next