5 storylines to remember before The Witcher season 3

3. The secret identity of Emperor Emhyr var Emries of Nilfgaard

In season 2, the sorceress Fringilla Vigo tried to persuade the elves into an uneasy alliance with the expanding empire of Nilfgaard. Things get complicated when the son of the elven leader Francesca Findabair is murdered; it is exceedingly rare for Elves to have children, so this hits the elves very hard.

Fringilla and Cahir pin the blame for the murder on the nation of Redania, hoping the elves will go on a bloody path of retribution. But in the season finale, we discover the truth: Emperor Emhyr of Nilfgaard ordered the child killed in order to help in his ultimate goal of finding Ciri. Even more surprising, we finally get a look at Emhyr’s face…and realize we’d seen him before.

Emhyr var Emries, Emperor of Nilgaard, is none other than Ciri’s biological father. We saw the fateful meeting between Ciri’s mother Pavetta and Emhyr back during the season 1 episode “Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials.” During that episode we met a young Emhyr, who went by the name Duny and was cursed to live out his days looking like a porcupine person. After Geralt helps him break the curse, he goes on to marry Ciri’s mother, Pavetta.

We still don’t know what set Emhyr on the violent path he now walks. The revelation of his identity is one of the biggest twists in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher books, and we only learn it right at the end. But the show puts it right up front, likely for logistical reasons since keeping a character’s identity secret when we’ve already seen the actor is very difficult.

We now have a much better idea of why Emperor Emhyr and Nilfgaard are so dead set on capturing Ciri. She’s Emhyr’s long-lost daughter and the heir to his empire.