When it comes to “The Witcher” franchise, I am guessing that Netflix has adopted the model where they’ll release a season of the show that takes place in the ongoing timeline. Then they’ll make a prequel before the release of the latest season. Once the latest season is out, they’ll give us a prequel again, and so on and so forth. Hence, we got Season 1, “The Nightmare of the Wolf,” Season 2, and “Blood Origin.” The third season of the series is probably going to be released during the summer of 2023. So, let’s take a look at “Blood Origin,” how it connects to the story taking place in the present, and how it gives us some additional context about the plot before getting into Season 3.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Where Is Jaskier?
If you were dumbfounded upon seeing Jaskier in a full-blown battle during the opening of “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” don’t blame yourself because it wasn’t just confusing for us but for the actor who plays him, Joey Batey, as well. The last time that we saw him was in Season 2, where he was helping Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri battle the Deathless Mother in Kaer Morhen. Dijkstra asked Philippa to bring Jaskier to him, and that’s about it. Now, as per Joey Batey, Jaskier is in the middle of a battle that takes place around 6 months before “The Witcher” Season 3. He’s attacked by the Temerians (one of the northern kingdoms) and saved by the Scoia’tael (a group of non-humans who partake in guerilla warfare). And the reason why Batey was confused was that this scene was meant to take place between Season 1 and Season 2. But I am guessing that with the introduction of Minnie Driver’s Seanchai (a shape-shifting storyteller who can travel through time), it was reshot and placed ahead of Season 3. The latest season of “The Witcher” is supposed to deal with Ciri’s conversion into a witcher, the revival of the elven culture, and a deeper look into the Conjunction of the Spheres due to the monoliths. So, it makes sense to load all that information into Jaskier because he’ll surely pass it on to Geralt.
Ithlinne
If my memory serves me right, the first time that we heard about Ithlinne was in the second season of “The Witcher,” when Francesca said that she was being guided by the sacred elven prophet’s spirit. She said that, in one of her many visions, she was lost in a maze made of elven dead bodies. But apparently, Ithlinne guided her through it and helped her see the sunrise on a new chapter of elven history. We saw Ithlinne’s physical form when the Deathless Mother tried to trick her. In “Blood Origin,” we get to see her in the flesh, working as a barmaid in the elven village of Inis Dubh. She is known to have fits, which allow her to have visions. She makes a prophecy about Éile’s fate (which is essentially the plot of the miniseries), which turns out to be true. During the concluding moments of the miniseries, she makes yet another prediction about Éile’s bloodline and the Aen Seidhe, and it’s pretty vague. That said, my assumption is that Éile is Calanthe, Pavetta, and Ciri’s ancestor because Istredd did find out that the former queen has kept her elven bloodline hidden. Since Ciri is capable of making or breaking the continent, I think this part of the prophecy applies to her. As for the Aen Seidhe, it’s the category of elves that Francesca, Filavandrel, etc. belong to. This means that Francesca isn’t entirely wrong about Ithlinne appearing in her visions and helping her regain the elves’ former glory after its downfall in “Blood Origin.”
Xin’trea
Xin’trea is what Cintra used to be known as when it was under Elven rule. In “Blood Origin,” we see King Alvitir ruling over the kingdom. He was betrayed and killed by Merwyn, who brought the kingdom to its knees during her short reign because she was obsessed with the concept of the Golden Elven Empire and extracting all kinds of supplies and riches from a realm that Chief Sage Balor had access to via the monoliths. Of course, Balor knew that the realm was barren, and he was only using it to master the ability to perform Chaos magic. When the monoliths broke, and the Conjunction of the Spheres happened, the humans came into this realm and eventually took over Xin’trea and renamed it Cintra. In Season 1 of “The Witcher,” we saw it during Queen Calanthe’s rule. It was taken over by the Nilfgaardians. In Season 2, we saw the elves (or Aen Seidhe) returning to Cintra because of their alliance with the Nilfgaardians, where they’ll hopefully start to grow and prosper again.
Fjall, The First Prototype Witcher
So, the big reveal of “Blood Origin” was that Fjall, an elf, was the first witcher ever. The process was conducted by Syndril and Zacaré, and it was a little crude. Because they made Fjall drink a bunch of potions and then connected the heart of a monster (from a totally different realm) to him. And that somehow turned him into a monster, i.e., a witcher. The only problem was that, after staying in the witcher mode for a prolonged period of time, he physically transformed into something demonic and lost all his humanity. Therefore, he had to be killed. In “The Nightmare of the Wolf,” we saw Reidrich perform a similarly painful procedure. But it didn’t involve hooking up the recruits to the heart of a monster. They were given various kinds of potions and physically demanding tasks. The one who survived it all became a witcher. So, I am guessing that since Zacaré survived the Conjunction of the Spheres, she was the one who perfected the process or at least passed it on until it reached Reidrich. That said, after the battle in Kaer Morhen, Reidrich’s death meant the end of witcher creation because he was the one who knew the correct mutagenic alchemy. That made Geralt and his group, as well as his mentor Vesemir, the last of the witchers. In Season 2, it was revealed that Ciri has elder blood (because she’s probably a descendant of Fjall and Éile), and it can be used to make witchers again.
The Battle Of Brokilon
When Éile and Fjall were trapped in prison in Inis Dubh, Éile mentioned that Fjall had taken out her cousin’s eye in the Battle of Brokilon. That particular location showed up in “The Witcher” Season 1 when Ciri ventured in there and was confronted by the dryads (nymphs of the woods). They temporarily sheltered Ciri and her elven friend Dara until they were taken away by a doppler. I am not sure which war Éile was referring to. But since Brokilon was mentioned in passing, I don’t think it’s going to be an integral part of the franchise going forward unless the showrunners decide to focus on dryads and hamadryads.
The Monoliths And Chaos Magic
The second season of “The Witcher” focused heavily on stellacite, which is the material that these black pillars, called monoliths, are made of. One of them was found in Cintra, which was broken by Ciri. Another was found inside the witcher medallion tree in Kaer Morhen. While performing Dol Durza, Ciri accidentally accessed the desert-like realm that we see Balor go into in “Blood Origin,” and a chernobog appeared out of it. A huge chunk of Season 2 involved Yennefer trying to get her powers back. When the Deathless Mother took over Ciri’s body and accessed the monolith in Kaer Morhen to wreak all kinds of havoc, Yennefer summoned the Deathless Mother into her body and then transferred it into that desert-like realm. Since Yennefer accessed a high amount of Chaos magic, her powers came back. But what we need to notice here is that the disembodied voice that Balor talked to in “Blood Origin” sounded very much like the Deathless Mother. So, it’s quite possible that Balor’s antics allowed her to escape until she was bound to that hut-like thing by the witchers. Talking about Chaos magic, Season 2 showed us that using fire-based magic was practically forbidden. “Blood Origin” showed us that the reason behind it is that doing fire magic essentially requires the sacrifice of the user’s loved ones. And since magic shouldn’t come at such a deadly cost, it was banned by mages of all kinds. That said, in “The Witcher” Season 2, not only has fire magic made a return, thanks to Rience, but the buried and broken monoliths have been found as well. So, you can expect to see a lot of them in Season 3.
The Conjunction of the Spheres
In Season 2 of “The Witcher,” the Conjunction of the Spheres was explained by Vesemir as a catastrophic event that took place 1500 years ago and impacted the entire multiverse. Because it converged ghouls, vampires, gnomes, dwarves, elves, humans, and many other species to exist in this one realm. And in order to fight anything remotely dangerous, witchers were created. In “Blood Origin,” we saw it happen due to the destruction of the monoliths caused by Syndril. He was attempting to stop Balor from accessing the barren realm and thereby stopping the entry of Chaos magic into his realm. But he inadvertently caused this cataclysmic occurrence, which involved the literal merging of every realm in the known universe and causing them to drop into the world where “The Witcher” takes place.
Eredin and the Wild Hunt
Unless you were super interested in Eredin’s journey in “Blood Origin,” the reveal that he is one of the first members of the Wild Hunt probably won’t excite you. But it’s a piece of information that’s out there now, and you’ve got to deal with it. Eredin didn’t have any intention of becoming a horse-riding ghoul who lives in a kind of netherrealm. He was doing Merwyn’s bidding, and he helped Balor into that place. However, Balor killed his men and left Eredin there to die. Since both Balor and Syndril died at the end of the miniseries, he evidently stayed there for all eternity. He began his journey there by first donning the skull helmet. I don’t know where he got the horse, the rest of his army, or the idea to name themselves the Wild Hunt. Because in Season 2 of “The Witcher,” Ciri saw them riding like wraiths and asking her to join them. I am guessing that the Deathless Mother was the one who assembled the team by sending potential members to that realm from the outside. Now that she has been reunited with Eredin and the rest of the pack, I think she’s going to use them to attack anyone trying to access their realm via the monoliths. Going by the lore, it’s possible that Eredin will try to use Ciri for his own nefarious purposes. As to why Eredin isn’t dead when he shows up in “The Witcher” Season 2, well, it’s possible that time works differently in that realm, thereby slowing down his aging. Or it’s possible that he has Chaos magic coursing through his body, which is preventing him from withering away.
Time travel, Avallac’h, and The Futures of Scian, Éile, Zacaré, Callan, and Meldof
The biggest plot device that “Blood Origin” has introduced is time travel. Traveling between realms and geographical locations had already hinted at this because if you can travel through space, you can do the same with time. But when Avallac’h used the monolith to travel all the way to the first season of “The Witcher” and snooped on Ciri playing on the streets of Cintra, it was confirmed that time travel is possible in this franchise. I am assuming, again, that as an elf himself, Avallac’h has been monitoring Ciri’s activities (because she’s the future of the elves) and will be revealing himself to her and Geralt in Season 3 as an ally or maybe as an enemy. The possibilities are quite binary in nature. In addition to that, time travel kind of answers if “Blood Origin” is a one-and-done story for Scian, Éile, Zacaré, Callan, and Meldof. I don’t know how elves age. So, if they can avoid aging for 1200 years, I think they can show up in “The Witcher” Season 3 to fight for Aen Seidhe. If that is not possible, I guess Zacaré is going to figure out how to travel ahead of time. I mean, if Avallac’h can do it, what’s stopping Zacaré from some time travel shenanigans? Also, it’ll give us the opportunity to witness Henry Cavill acting opposite Michelle Yeoh. However, I’ll request that you keep your expectations in check because the crossover between “Blood Origin” and the present-day “The Witcher” timeline can also happen when Liam Hemsworth takes over the role of Geralt.
