The day has finally arrived: Netflix’s original series The Witcher is available for you to binge in its entirety just in time for the weekend. The series stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, the titular Witcher (more on that in a sec) at the heart of this new, action-packed fantasy series.
Based on the fantasy stories and novels of author Andrzej Sapkowski, Netflix’s The Witcher follows Geralt on his adventures through a medieval-adjacent land known as the Continent, a place where monsters and magical creatures living alongside humans. Soon, Geralt discovers his fate is entwined with two other important characters: Princess Ciri of Cintra (Freya Allan) and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra).
If you’ve already started watching The Witcher or you want to make sure you’re fully prepped before you watch, make sure you keep reading to find out as much as possible about Geralt of Rivia. There is so much more to know about this character that will help make your Witcher binge all the more fun to watch.
What Is a Witcher?
Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes / Netflix
Being a Witcher is deeply integral to Geralt’s identity in the world of The Witcher (the series is literally named after him, folks). It seems like Geralt was always destined to become a Witcher, as he’s the son of a powerful sorceress, Visenna, and a warrior named Korin. Geralt’s mother left young Geralt at the School of the Wolf at a place known as Kaer Morhen.
The process of becoming a Witcher is incredibly rigorous — to the point it can be life-threatening — with trainees put through physical, mental, spiritual, and magical trials. Future Witchers drinking alchemical compounds and mutagens to enhance various aspects of their physical and mental being and going through combat training — physical and magical — in order to become strong enough to battle the various monsters inhabiting the Continent.
Witchers emerge from their training bearing both physical trademarks of their kind, like white hair, as well as new abilities including increased speed, strength, longer life, quick reflexes and healing, and increased resistance to disease.
Geralt’s Entire Life Has Been Dedicated to Becoming a Witcher
Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes / Netflix
Geralt’s mother, Visenna, left him at the School of the Wolf when he was a child. He showed a preternatural ability for connecting to magic and nonhuman creatures, excelling at a variety of trials early on in his training while aided by these abilities.
As a young boy, Geralt proved himself worthy of being pushed to his limits to when he succeeded in the Trial of Forest Eyes. There, Geralt was blindfolded, tied to a tree, and ordered to return to the School of the Wolf by the next morning. Geralt succeeded and he was able to get help from a forest elf during the trial. His success earned him notice and he was put through extra trials to encourage mutations and push him to his training limits because, in part, the Trial of Forest Eyes showed he had the seeds of a potentially great Witcher.
Since leaving the School of the Wolf, Geralt has become a renowned bounty hunter and monster hunter because of his heightened abilities gained through taking in alchemical potions and mutagens and surviving them when other Witchers likely wouldn’t have.
He’s Known by a Sinister Nickname: The Butcher of Blaviken
Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes / Netflix
Even if Geralt is a bit of a softie on the inside, he’s extremely tough on the outside. Over the course of his life, he’s earned his reputation as a fierce killer and skilled warrior. Thanks to Sapkowski’s books, we become more and more familiar with Geralt as a Witcher because many stories are dedicated to the different missions he goes on.
One particularly notable event which has followed Geralt throughout his life is the one which happened in the village of Blaviken, where the Witcher emerged with the moniker “The Butcher of Blaviken.”
Geralt earned the nickname after arriving in the town of Blaviken and finding himself quickly pulled into a dispute between an exiled princess-turned-criminal named Renfri and a sorcerer named Stregobor. When Geralt learned of Renfri’s plan to have her gang members murder the Blaviken townsfolk in order to provoke Stregobor into a fight, Geralt intervened and killed Renfri’s gang himself before anyone was harmed.
The citizens of Blaviken never learned of the specifics of the incident and instead only saw Geralt emerge from his well-intentioned killing spree believing him to just be a wanton murderer. Even though the name “The Butcher of Blaviken” does, in part, speak to Geralt’s fierce warrior side, it also represents his softer, humanitarian side, too.
Geralt Has Complicated Relationships With Ciri and Yennefer
Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes / Netflix
Oh boy, Geralt’s respective relationships with the two main female characters in the Witcher saga, Ciri and Yennefer, are complex AF.
In the case of Ciri, Geralt was always destined to assume a father figure/adoptive father role to the young princess of Cintra. Before Ciri was born, Geralt saved her father, Duny, from harm. After the incident, Geralt invoked what is known in The Witcher as the Law of Surprise, which essentially promises something deeply important from one man to another if the former is saved by the latter.
In many cases — and in the case of Geralt and Ciri — this means one man’s firstborn is promised to another. For Geralt and Ciri, this isn’t romantic, but rather proves to be a fruitful pseudo-familial relationship where Ciri finds Geralt after losing her family and ends up being trained and protected by Geralt.
As for Yennefer, well, Geralt has a supremely complex and intense relationship with the all-powerful sorceress. Yennefer is one of the most powerful women in The Witcher and, as such, finds herself entwined with Geralt throughout the novels and the Witcher video games.
The two have a relationship best characterized as “on-again, off-again.” The pair first met while Geralt was traveling with a bard named Dandelion and the two men encountered a djinn (a.k.a. genie). Yennefer intervened but initially threw magic at Geralt believing he was an enemy. Eventually, she realized this wasn’t so and they began a romantic relationship.
There Are Some Mystical Aspects to Geralt
Photo Credit: James Minchin / Netflix
Geralt’s relationship to the mystical runs deep and it makes him all the more enigmatic. It’s not just his white hair or the fact that he’s nearly 100 years old (two physical elements manifested through the magical work of Witchers), but also his many nicknames.
While humans have nicknamed him based on some of his more grim exploits (see above), Geralt also has mythical names related to his upbringing. With nonhumans and other beings he encounters, Geralt is referred to as “Gwynbleidd” or “White Wolf.”
In the world of The Witcher, the nickname comes from the language of the fictional Aen Seidhe elves. However, if you have an eye (or ear) for languages, you may notice “Gwynbleidd” looks like Welsh — and you’re not wrong. As it happens, the Welsh phrasing for “white wolf” is “Blaidd Gwyn.”
The Witcher Season 1 is now available to watch on Netflix.
More on Geek.com:
- 11 European Fantasy Novels to Read If You Love the Witcher
- 5 Essential Things to Know Before Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ Premieres
- ‘The Witcher’ Final Trailer Teases Magic, War, and an Eerie Quest
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