By The Witcher: Blood Origin was the first live-action spinoff set in Netflix’s fantasy world inspired by Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, and its release on Netflix in December of 2022 wasn’t very smooth.
One of the things that has been discussed quite a bit at the time was Ciri’s ancestry, due to the prophecy that was included in the finale. However, The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich clarifies the theory in an interview with EW.
Of Ciri and her ancestry
In this interview with EW, Hissrich was asked about two key reveals at the end of Blood Origin that seemed to be building up toward future events in the main Witcher series. The first is the prophecy of the time-traveling storyteller Seanchai and the elven prophet Ithlinne, at the very end of Blood Origin: “The Lark’s seed will carry forth, the first note in a song that ends all times, and one of her blood shall sing the last.“
For those who have not watched Blood Origin or do not remember it, The Lark was the nickname of the main character in the show: Éile. By the end of the series, Eile is pregnant with the child of the first proto-witcher, Fjall, and this lineage will eventually lead to the prophecy.
Many assumed that this prophecy was referring to Princess Ciri, who’s Elder Blood has been a key theme in the main series, and who is the subject of another one of Ithlinne’s prophecies.
At the time, this was reinforced by an Lauren Hissrich interview with Naekranie.pl where she said:
“Eile’s pregnant at the end and we know that’s part of Ithlinne’s prophecy that there is a seed in her that will eventually lead to someone important in The Witcher world. So as someone who on The Witcher side follows Ciri and the origin of her genes and her blood, it’s like I kinda wanna know where that character’s gonna go, I wanna know if those things are gonna crash into each other at some point.“
Now the Witcher showrunner has debunked this theory: “The prophecy I actually think is not as clear cut as many people think,” Hissrich told EW. “It does seem to immediately say Ciri is related to Éile, and that is not the case. So we can dispel that rumor right now. That is a little hidden gem for us, and we have other things brewing with that.“
So who is this prophecy referring to if not Ciri? There are a couple of immediate candidates if we were to speculate. The fact that Eile is a bard and that the prophecy specifically mentions a song may indeed point to the bard Jaskier belonging to Eile and Fjall’s lineage.
What that would mean about Jaskier’s future is anyone’s guess, but apparently, his song could end all times if it is indeed him. Another possibility is Geralt, who may have inherited some of his skills and Witcher abilities from Fjall. Of course, it could also be Yennefer or an entirely different character. Perhaps even Dara!
But if you’re hoping for an answer to this question in Season 3, you may yet be disappointed, as the showrunner has told EW that these questions “don’t have to necessarily be answered right then for our viewers and our audience.”
Hissrich asks for fans to be patient: “You have to trust that if we made a decision at a certain point that we did it for a reason, that you’re gonna find out later.“
The Witcher Season 3 is available on Netflix with The Rats prequel in post-production and The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime by Studio Mir is far in production. Stay tuned to Redanian Intelligence and do pop into our Discord server to join in on The Witcher conversation.
