Wait … How Does ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ Connect To ‘The Witcher’ Again?
Tensions were high in the writer’s room for The Witcher, and there’s already been quite a stir concerning Henry Cavill’s departure from the series. In spite of it all, Season 3 is still coming out. And I will still be watching. It’s my civic duty. After all, how is Geralt gonna kill all those monsters without me yelling “look out behind you!” through a mouthful of popcorn?
Obviously the franchise has been doing something right despite all the drama, as a spin-off series is usually a sign of success. Let’s just hope that this series is better than the nauseatingly violent Nightmare Of The Wolf. That witcher training sequence in the swamp still haunts my dreams. But what is The Witcher: Blood Origin about? The answer: lore. Like the world of a certain throne and dragon themed fantasy show, The Witcher has a ton of lore, and a lot of it happened a long time ago.
So what’s the deal with blood origin?
Set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, the series will likely be an origin story for the first witcher. In case you forget, witchers aren’t “born.” More accurately, they were “invented” through a series of magical experiments and extensive training regimens. Blood Origin will trace the witcher lineage back to the creation of the very first witcher! This is especially exciting because the original Witcher novels don’t go into very much details about this period of time, so this will be the first time we get an in depth look at the “beginning of things.”
So what else happened back then?
It was a pretty wild time in the Witcherverse. The most significant event that occurred was the “Conjunction of The Spheres,” an apocalyptic event where the different realms of the witcher universe collided. The Witcher universe is similar to Norse mythology in many regards, as elves and dwarves are said to have come from different realms outside of the realm of humans. It’s never explained what actually caused the Conjunction, and it’s probably something so scientifically advanced that the races of the Witcherverse couldn’t even comprehend it if they tried!
The Conjunction also led to the introduction of the forces of chaos (also known as magic) into the world, which is a a double edged sword. On the upside, everyone can do magic now! On the downside, some kinds of magic are better left alone. The Conjunction of the Spheres not only caused the separate races of the multiverse to converge, but also introduced some nasty magical creatures into worlds that had no idea how to defend against them. The Conjunction introduced undead horrors like ghouls, graveirs, and vampires into the dimension that the Witcher takes place in, much to the chagrin of that dimension’s populace. But the greatest villains of all are not the creatures that go bump in the night, but rather the ones that go bump in the day.
I speak of humans, of course.
Related: The Witcher: Blood Origin Is a Bloody Mess on The Escapist
Wait, humans? What did we do wrong?
Oh, what DIDN’T we do wrong? If the human condition is to lust for power and control, the apple sure didn’t fall far from the interdimensional tree. After the Conjunction of the Spheres, humans beings saw their original realm destroyed, and they were transported to the realm of the elves. Needless to say, the humans were pretty freaked out. To compete against the Elder Races (elves and dwarves and the like), ancient humans threw themselves into the study of magic. They got really good at doing magic. So good that the first human wizards were born during this era. Coupled with their ability to breed extremely quickly, primitive early humans became a serious threat to the then rulers of the world: the elves.
Okay, so how does this relate to blood origin?
BE PATIENT, I’M GETTING THERE. Because the humans were so adept at harnessing magic, the elves began scrambling for a solution in the magical arms race they found themselves in. It appeared that humans had a sort of genetic advantage over elves when it came to learning magic, so the elves focused their efforts on breeding children that would prove to be capable mages. This lead to the creation of the “elder blood,” an elven bloodline that was able to produce some of the most powerful mages in existence. “Blood Origin” is likely a reference to this original bloodline. The power of this bloodline still affects the modern world of The Witcher, as Ciri and her mother Pavetta are descended from it. That’s why they’re so damn good at using magic, in case you were wondering.
What else might happen in blood origin?
It’s likely that we’ll get some sweet, sweet romance in the series! A powerful elder blooded sorceress named Lara Dorren notably fell in love with a human mage named Cregennan of Lod after the Conjunction of The Spheres. The elves and the humans were revolted by their union, and neither race approved of the pair. However, the descendants of Cregennan and Lara are the some of the few carriers of the elder blood left. Lara Dorren died without producing any children with an elf, ending the the full-elven lineage of the elder blood. It’s also likely that we’ll see human mages develop the chemical compounds responsible for creating witchers, namely “The Trial of The Grasses.”
We may even discover that the creation of the witchers began in response to the elven elder blood breeding process. Perhaps witchers weren’t created to fight monsters at all? Perhaps they were created to fight elves! Who knows? I’m sure the first witcher will be able to tell us. Odds are, we’re gonna meet them. I’m not exactly sure I want to, though. The creation of a witcher is nasty, brutal business. I’m sure that it was even worse back in the past. Needless to say, the first witcher is likely going to have some issues. I wouldn’t want to be around when Number #1 decides to work out their kinks with a sword.
(Featured Image: Netflix)
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