Yennefer: A Witcher Character Guide

Here is what you need to know about it. Everyone, including Geralt, believes that she is dead when the season begins. In reality, she has been captured by the sorceress Fringilla Vigo and the remaining Nilfgaardian soldiers. She later learns that she has lost her connection to Chaos after performing fire magic at the Battle of Sodden Hill. Only when Yennefer meets Ciri and sees that Geralt is with her, she realizes that the young princess is his Child Surprise. When the fire mage Rience comes seeking Ciri, Yennefer teaches her how to create a portal and leaves with her, betraying Geralt. She convinces the younger woman to go to Cintra, but as they travel, she discovers that Ciri considers Geralt the father she never had. Their relationship begins to change as well, as Yennefer realizes how precious and remarkable Ciri is. Yennefer sacrifices herself to draw the demon into her own body, showing Geralt the extent she is prepared to go to protect the girl.

As the season ends, Yennefer becomes a mother figure for Ciri. In the Netflix series, the sorceresses undergo a process during the initiation stage in which they are turned into living works of art by an enchanter. Circumstances prevent Yennefer from attending her initiation ceremony, but she later convinces the enchanter to transform her anyway. She asks the enchanter not to remove her purple eyes, a sign of her Elven heritage, and her scars. By denying her what she desperately wants and needs, they keep her hungry for power. It is a compelling emotional manipulation that helps turn Yennefer into a powerful mage. In the novels, Yennefer's mother is a half-elf. In the Netflix adaptation, Yennefer has a biological father who was half-elf. Her hunchback is blamed on her elfin blood, and, in a cruel twist of fate, that deformity is the reason her half-elf father doesn't accept her as his child. At Aretuza, when they are arranging appointments at court for the graduating mages, her elfin ancestry is the root cause of her being treated with disdain.

This eventually keeps her from receiving her appointment. This treatment is a symptom of the contempt humans feel for elves. In the show, we learn this part of Yennefer's story when she confides in Istredd her first love how her father was a half-elf and how he died during The Great Cleansing. She tells him about this in the Danambei temple ruins, a place of great magical power made of elf bones. Yennefer's elf ancestry explains why some of her magic is especially powerful, despite her struggle to control it. She seems to have a natural connection to the chaos that fuels the magic that other students at Aretuza lack. In Netflix's adaptation of "The Witcher," Yennefer literally trades her uterus to undergo a magical transformation that eliminates her hunchback. It is a gruesome scene when we witness how singularly focused Yennefer has become in her quest for power and beauty. She will do anything to achieve these goals, even giving up the possibility of ever having children.

Why is Yennefer of Vengerberg so different in Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’?

This is a decision that her romantic partner Istredd resent her because in the world of "The Witcher," infertility is a common side effect of practicing magic, not a trade you make to attain power. Using magic slowly makes people infertile, which may explain why elves themselves can only bear children when they are very young, despite their long lifespans. In Netflix's version of "The Witcher," there is a transactional nature to her decision. She pays with a pound of flesh to become powerful, beautiful, and ageless. This is something Yennefer and Geralt could bond over, or fight about, as they do on their dragon hunt in Episode 6 of Season 1. The mutations that the long-lived Witchers undergo make them infertile as well. It seems that to be human and attain powerful magic, one must give up something that, for many, is central to our humanity. After decades of serving as the royal advisor to Demavend of Aedirn, Yennefer leaves his employ after he sends an assassin warlock to kill the young Queen under Yennefer's protection.

This Queen has given Demavend yet another girl child, and it appears she has run out of time to give him a male heir. After both the Queen and the child die, Yennefer must come to terms with the reality that she regrets the trade she made for her power and beauty. She has become dissatisfied with a life that feels empty and lonely. This might seem like a surprising reaction to the situation, considering how little value the Queen's life appears to have, but one can never guess how the trauma of being hunted will make you feel. After this experience, Yennefer takes charge of her own life, setting up shop as a freelance mage. Once she is on her own, Yennefer devotes her time to finding a cure for her infertility and giving love potions to couples suffering from poor performance between the sheets. She now has a singular devotion to procreation and physical intimacy. In the Netflix adaptation, Yennefer not only hunts a dragon hoping to find a cure for her infertility, but she also attempts to trap a djinn, hoping it will cure her with a wish.

In the books, Yennefer also travels to the Temple of Melitele searching for a cure. As all of us who have watched the Netflix adaptation of "The Witcher" know, Geralt and Yennefer meet because of a nasty djinn. The djinn injures Jaskier known as Dandelion in the books , and Yennefer is the healer Geralt brings him to. Yennefer agrees to help Jaskier because she has her sights set on capturing the djinn and forcing it to cure her infertility. Despite being tricked, Geralt doesn't want Yennefer to be harmed. In the literature, Geralt's third wish is for his fate to be tied to Yennefer's. He does this to save her from the djinn's malice. In the mythos of the djinn, they cannot harm their master. If Geralt and Yennefer are bound, the djinn, by default, cannot harm Yennefer.

Does Yennefer Have a Child in The Witcher? Why Can't Yennefer Have Kids?

In the book, Yennefer hears Geralt's third wish and is emotionally moved, as she is surprised he would do something so foolish to save her. In the books, she tells him he has damned himself. In the Netflix series, Yennefer is suspicious that Geralt uses his wish to link their destinies. Her belief that her feelings for Geralt aren't real and are only a magical illusion hits Yennefer very hard, leading her to become dissatisfied with the merits of magic. Yennefer yearns for something real and desires a true family. Yennefer draws power from the fires the Nilfgaard army has set, using this fire to fuel her brutal attack on the enemy. As you might remember, Fringilla and Yennefer train at Arteuza together and cease being friendly when Yennefer usurps Fringilla's appointment to the court of Aedirn, where Yennefer remains as an unofficial advisor for decades after leaving Aretuza. After Aretuza, Fringilla is deployed to Nilfgaard, where she helps develop the kingdom's power.

After the Battle of Sodden Hill, Yennefer becomes the youngest member of The Council of Wizards because of her bravery and display of power in the battle. The Council of Wizards magically restores her eyesight, but the trauma of the conflict remains with her. At some point in the Netflix series, Geralt will ask Yennefer to train Ciri after learning Ciri is a Source , as he does in the books. Yennefer is the only mage powerful enough to train Ciri, so she will be trained by Yennefer in magical arts at the Temple of Melitele. In the books, Yennefer and Ciri initially don't get along very well, as they have a bit of a power struggle and some weird jealousy over Geralt. This conflict exists even though Ciri's relationship with him is more like a father-daughter bond, while Yennefer's relationship with Geralt is more mature and intimate. After training together, Yennefer and Ciri develop a mother-daughter bond. Yennefer acts as a mother figure for Ciri, giving both women something they need.

All three characters, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, are orphans in their own way.

Yennefer was sold to Arteuza

They are three exceptional people who fear they might be monsters. While they have spent most of their time alone in the world, they come together into a family unit, finding solidarity and safety together, at least for a while. In the books, after Ciri vanishes through a portal at the Thanedd coup, Yennefer is trapped in a jade figurine in the Lodge of Sorceresses for over a month. When she is released from the figurine she is invited to join the Lodge. However, she ultimately declines the offer after learning they want to arrange a marriage between Ciri and Tankred Thyssen of Kovir in order to create a northern kingdom to oppose Nilfgaard.