Blood of Elves

Content Warning: This following section contains references to torture, wartime violence, and genocide/ethnic cleansing.

Ciri is charismatic, perceptive, and tougher than she looks. Yarpen Zigrin compares her to “a leather belt: thin, but it can’t be torn apart in your hands. And if you were to hang yourself on it, it would bear your weight, too” (175). She is the heir to the Cintrian throne, but the rest of her family died during the Nilfgaardian conquest of the kingdom—a massacre that Ciri witnessed and that left her traumatized. Orphaned as of the start of the novel, Ciri goes on to form significant Parental and Familial Relationships with Triss, Yennefer, and Geralt (the latter two serving as adoptive parents). Each of these characters offers Ciri something different; Triss, for instance, understands Ciri’s experiences as a young woman in a way that the male witchers do not, while Yennefer is unfazed by the magical abilities—e.g., visions—that confuse the witchers. Ciri’s bond with Geralt is the most enigmatic, as it began before she was born; in The Last Wish, Geralt claimed the then-unborn Ciri as his reward (via the Law of Surprise) after saving her father, and the two remain linked by fate after this.