The Witcher has made a big splash since it dropped on Netflix last month. Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy books, it tells the story of a professional monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), who travels the Continent plying his trade and walling himself off emotionally. There’s action, politics, sorcery, and creepy-crawling monstrosities that try to claw off your face. It’s a pretty good time.
But it can also confusing. You see, there are actually three main characters: Geralt, the sorceress Yennefer, and the princess Ciri, and their stories are playing out at drastically different points in time. The issue is that the show doesn’t make that clear until about four episodes in — as magical beings, Geralt and Yennefer don’t age like normal humans — which left a lot of fans scratching their heads. Even showrunner Lauren Hissrich admitted the timelines didn’t go over as well as she’d hoped.
Happily, Netflix has now released a rather beautiful timeline, which not only clues you in to some major events only briefly mentioned on the show — apparently humans and monsters originally came to the Continent in a mysterious event called “the Conjunction of the Spheres” — but also helps you get familiar with the geography of the world. It’s worth checking out if you’re still confused about what happened when, or just want to know more about the show’s mythology.
Also, if you do the math you can pull out some interesting factoids from the timeline. Here’s what we put together:
- Stregobor, the dick-ish wizard from the premiere episode, was born in the year 786. The last time we see him is at the gathering of sorcerers and sorceresses in 1263, right before the fall of Cintra. That means he’s 477 years old by the end of the first season. Dude’s been around.
- Aretuza, the Continent’s magic school, opened in 839.
- The first witcher was created in 967.
- Geralt is born in 1160.
- Humans really started slaughtering elves of the Continent in earnest around 1187, with something called “the Great Cleansing.” That sounds bad.
- Yennefer is born in 1192.
- Jaskier is born in 1222, which means Geralt is over 60 years older than him. The two meet in 1240 when Jaskier is 18. The last time we see Jaskier is during the dragon hunt in 1262, when he’s 40. Another 11 years pass before the show ends with Geralt and Ciri meeting in 1263. So when season 2 starts, Jaskier will be 51, at least.
- Ciri is born in 1250, making her 13 when she finally runs into Geralt.
- Geralt and Yennefer meet in 1256, when Geralt is 96 and Yennefer 64.
My main takeaway from this? Joey Batey, who plays Jaskier, is going to need some serious middle-aged man makeup for season 2.
Image: The Witcher/Netflix
As for when that will happen, Hissrich expects season 2 to come along sometime in 2021. Maybe Batey can age into it.
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