Series / The Witcher: Blood Origin

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Jaskier:: Let me guess. A bunch of warriors join forces to fight against all odds. It has been done to death.

Seanchai: Has it? Seven estranged warriors who come together to fight an unstoppable empire, bring humans and monsters to the world via the Conjunction of Spheres, and create the very first version of a Witcher. That's been done to death?

Jaskier:[...] You're telling me the first version of a Witcher was a badass elf? *grinning* This is really gonna piss Geralt off.

The Witcher: Blood Origin is a spin-off limited series that serves as a Prequel to The Witcher. It is loosely based off Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher mythos.

Over 12 centuries before the Fall of Cintra, the Elves ruled supreme in the Continent with their three great kingdoms dividing all between them. It is a golden age for the Elves, but also a time of bloody endemic war and scarcity. When a bloody betrayal and usurpation casts down the monarchies and a Golden Empire rises in their place, seven unlikely heroes will put aside their differences and grievances to bring down its tyrannical rule, and bring freedom to the people: Fjall of the Dog Clan (Laurence O’Fuarain); Scían of the Ghost Tribe (Michelle Yeoh); Brother Death (Huw Novelli); the mages Zacaré (Lizzie Annis) and Syndril (Zach Wyatt); Meldof the Dwarves (Francesca Mills); and their leader, Éile of the Raven Clan (Sophia Brown), also known as the Lark.

Their quest to put and end to the machinations of the Golden Empress Merwyn (Mirren Mack), Chief Sage Balor (Lenny Henry) and General Eredin (Jacob Collins-Levy) will put them on a collision course with destiny, bring about the Conjunction of the Spheres, and summon the unstoppable infestation of man(kind) and monster to their world.

The series premiered on Netflix on December 25, 2022.

This series contains examples of:

• Action Girl:
  • Éile is a very skilled elven warrior woman.
  • Meldof is a dwarven woman who wields a very large hammer quite fiercely.
• Adapted Out: The Aen Elle elves and their world do not appear to exist in the backstory lore of the show, with Eredin and Avallac'h here portrayed as ordinary Aen Seidhe elves of the Continent, and there is no mention of King Auberon Muircetach existing or being part of the Elder Blood lineage, despite Lara Doren existing in the main show.
• Annoying Arrows: In Episode 4 Meldof is hit by an arrow. She simply pulls it out of her shoulder and looses it right back at the enemy like it's simply nothing. Afterward she's not shown to be impeded at all.
• The Apprentice: Fenrik is apprenticed to Balor, learning magic from him while assisting his spells too.
• Assassination Attempt: In Episode 1 Fjall saves his king Alvatir and Alvatir's sister Merwyn from assassins.
• The Atoner: Éile wanted to undergo the transformation as penance for all the bad things she did serving her king.
• Bittersweet Ending: Everything that is expected to go right goes right, and everything that can go wrong goes horrifyingly wrong. With Merwyn and Balor assassinated and the central monolith destroyed, the monarchies and militaries are truly defeated, the threat of multiversal conquest is thwarted, and elven civilization finally evolves into a nascent democracy where all of elvenkind will be treated equally... just in time for translocated humans and monsters to appear from the Conjunction of the Spheres due to the chaos of overloading the monolith, where they both start their own bloody war for control of the continent, which leaves millions dead and humans in charge of dozens of oppressive kingdoms, restoring the status quo. With the death of the Beast, Fjall is cemented into legend as the First Witcher, but succumbs to 'witcher-psychosis' and has to be put down by Éile. Their child and her lineage go on to build a bloody legend that saves the world at the cost of millions more deaths. And Eredin survives to become the Lord of the Wild Hunt, the Big Bad of the main series.
• Bodyguard Crush: Fjall was lovers with Merwyn, the princess he'd been sworn to protect.
• Bury Your Disabled: Fenrik, a deaf woman, is the only disabled character. Balor murders her to fuel a spell.
• Butch Lesbian: Meldof is a fierce, short-haired dwarven woman with a beloved wife, Gwen, who elves raped and murdered.
• Call-Forward: The song Éile sings in Episodes 3 and 4 has the same melody as "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher" (minus the chorus).
• Came Back Wrong: After their mother's death, adoptive siblings Zacaré and Syndril attempted to bring her back via magic. We're not told exactly what happened, only that "whatever we brought back to life, that thing wasn't her."
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Said verbatim by Meldof when she meets the other six, granting them shelter from the prowling beast.
• The Coup: Merwyn, Balor and Eredin pull one off in Episode 1, massacring the leadership of Xin'trea, Pryshia and Darwen, and declaring all three kingdoms united as the "Golden Empire".
• Cradling Your Kill: Éile holds Fjall in her arms after she's had to fatally stab him.
• Crapsaccharine World: For a so-called "golden age" things are pretty shitty in the Continent, what with the Thousand Year War still ongoing, the economies of the three kingdoms on the verge of collapse and outright famine looming in the horizon. To say nothing of all the Fantastic Racism and occasional intra-species genocide.
• Deal with the Devil: Balor deals with a mysterious entity credited simply as the Voice of the Light, who gives him power in return for his service and giving her human sacrifices.
• Death Wail: Éile cries out in anguish after she's had to kill Fjall, who she loves.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Éile has her hair in dreadlocks and is a very skilled fighter.
• Dressing as the Enemy: In Episode 3, the heroes dress as Xin'trean soldiers they just killed to go into the city, along with the sellswords who they recruited.
• The Empire: Once the Golden Empire unifies all three Elven Kingdoms under its rule, it wastes little time becoming quite tyrannical.
• Eternal Recurrence: It is implied that the world the Continent is in is locked into one of these, as it is revealed that 1,500 years before the events of this series, it was the Elves who came to the Continent as conquerors from somewhere else, destroyed the cities of the Dwarves and built Xin'trea and the other cities on their ruins, driving the Dwarves to the fringes and treating them as second-class citizens… exactly what the humans are shown to have done to the Elves in the parent series.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Balor is a ruthless Evil Sorcerer who's willing to sacrifice children for power. He genuinely cares for his apprentice Fenrik however, surrendering when she has been threatened by Eridan. This doesn't stop him killing her however, though he says she's like his daughter.
• Evil Sorcerer: Balor ultimately has no loyalty to anyone but himself. Everything he does is to the end of making himself the world's most powerful mage, and using his power to rule. He's even willing to murder his apprentice Fenrik, the only other person he was shown to care about, in order to gain the power of Chaos Magic.
• The Exile: Fjall was banished from Xin'trea for having sex with Princess Merwyn, whom he was sworn to protect.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. When Meldof (a dwarf) meets Éile for the first time, she remarks that she'd thought she'd be shorter.
• Eye Scream: Fjall gouges out Brother Death’s eye after he loses control.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Elves have a rigid caste system, with intermarriage between classes strictly forbidden. These restrictions are the reason why Fjall is exiled for having sex with Princess Merwyn, and they are later used as leverage by Empress Merwyn to get General Eredin to do what she wants.
• Fantastic Racism: Not only do the Elves treat the Dwarves as second class citizens, the Elves of the various kingdoms are also pretty prejudiced against each other.
• Foreshadowing: In the final episode, Avallac'h reveals to Merwyn that the Monoliths can be used to travel, not just through space, but through time. The mid-credits scene reveals that he's done just that, arriving in what is presumably the main show's present.
• Forever War: Xin'trea, Pryshia and Darwen have been fighting in the Thousand Year War when the series starts, which is realistically at last putting them all near collapse.
• Framing Device: The series is framed as a lost story being told to Jaskier by a mysterious supernatural Storyteller, who wishes for Jaskier to pass it on to the Elves and give them hope despite their desperate situation.
• Genre Savvy: The importance and effect of tropes in stories are discussed by the characters, both in the framing device and in the story itself:
  • When the Storyteller tells Jaskier what she wants from him, he tells her that stories about a bunch of warriors who join forces to fight against all odds have been done to death.
  • Balor's main concern regarding Fjall and Éile is not that they have any chance of succeeding on their own, but that the longer they are out there, the more their legend will grow. He knows that their circumstances are ripe for a great story that can cause the empire a world of trouble as a rallying point for the lowborn.
• Hand Signals: Fenrik, a deaf woman, communicates largely using sign language.
• Human Sacrifice: Balor sacrifices other people to gain and fuel his magic.
• I Call It "Vera": Meldof named her hammer after her deceased wife Gwen, whose ashes she'd mixed into the ore used in forging it, to take revenge on her murderers.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Deconstructed. While Merwyn's desire to be a legend like her childhood idol Solryth was innocent enough, it drives her to ally with Balor willingly and be complicit in the murder of her own brother and her family's protectors, the Dog Clan. Merwyn gradually becomes more ambitious and ruthless as the Empress of the newly-founded Golden Empire, determined to not let herself become a mere figurehead and seeing herself as the hero who will bring civilization to other worlds and prosperity to elfkind. By the time she offers Fjall the chance to be her consort, Merwyn has allowed her dreams to excuse her crimes, resulting in her being genuinely shocked when Fjall furiously rejects her. After she was stabbed by Éile, Merwyn drags herself onto her throne and lets herself bleed to death in front of a rebellious mob, wanting to be remembered to the very end.
• Interdimensional Travel Device: The monoliths, if activated properly with magic, can open gateways into other worlds.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Fjall and Merwyn are caught having sex in her chamber during Episode 1.
• Kill the Ones You Love:
  • Balor kills Fenrik, who he appears to see as a surrogate daughter, for his human sacrifice.
  • Éile kills Fjall, the man she loves, when he's become an uncontrolled monster.
• Last of His Kind: Éile, Fjall and Scían end up the last members of their clans with the rest all being killed.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Éile and Fjall have sex just once from what's seen. She got pregnant without intending to as a result, the epilogue reveals.
• Light Is Not Good: The Voice of the Light is a mysterious but obviously malevolent entity which appears only as a patch of purple light that Balor deals with for power.
• The Lost Lenore: Meldof, who lost her wife Gwen, still is clearly devoted to her since her death, having taken revenge on her murderers.
• Multiversal Conqueror: The goal of the leadership of the Golden Empire is to use the monoliths to lead the unified forces of Elfkind to conquer other worlds of the multiverse and "civilize" them.
• The Needs of the Many: Merwyn tries to claim all of the people she killed were simply necessary sacrifices to usher in a golden age for all elfkind. Fjall doesn’t accept this for a minute, especially since she killed all the rest of his clan after they had served her so loyally.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Destroying the Master Monolith in Xin'trea so Balor cannot use it is what ends up causing the Conjunction of the Spheres, bringing the humans and monsters responsible for the downfall of elven civilization to the Continent.
• Our Founder: Between the city walls of Xin'trea and the sea there is a colossal statue of Solryth, the Elven Empress who conquered the Continent from the Dwarves and started the first golden age of the Elves.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Meldof is a dwarf who's the smallest character, but nonetheless quite fierce while wielding her hammer.
• Portal Cut: After Syndril's portal accidentally transports the group to another world, they are forced to leave in a hurry pursued by a huge monster, which is halfway through the portal when Syndril manages to close it, cutting it in half. The carcass later proves very useful.
• Prequel in the Lost Age: The series takes place in the so-called Golden Age of the Elves, when they were absolute masters of the Continent, having taken all power from the Dwarves.
• Praetorian Guard: Each of the Elven kingdoms has a dedicated Clan of warriors whose role is to protect the monarch. They also serve as elite enforcers of the monarchs' will if need be.
• Private Military Contractors: Scían worked as a sellsword, and she gets many more into the heroes’ service in Episode 3.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: Ithlinne, a girl who sees the future, is never wrong and all that she sees comes true.
• The Puppet Cuts His Strings: Empress Merwyn is fully aware that the coalition between the military and the sages intends to get rid of her as soon as it is convenient and starts schemes of her own to retain power. She succeeds.
• Puppet King: Balor and the military intend for Empress Merwyn to be nothing more than a figurehead, and fully intend to get rid of her as soon as they feel confident that they can control the Golden Empire directly.
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • In Episode 2 Eridin turns out to be the boyfriend of another man named Brían.
  • In the same episode Meldof, a dwarven woman, reveals she’s a widow to her wife Gwen.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After Scían's fake betrayal of the others to Merwyn, the empress calls her "a disgrace to your ancestors" and orders her execution. She escapes, though.
• Rousing Speech: In Episode 4, Éile gives one to the starving lowborn people, inspiring a revolt among them against the Golden Empire. They had been primed to begin with by her song, which also advocated such a rebellion.
• Seers: Ithlinne, a girl who Éile meets, is capable of seeing the future while going into a fit.
• Skyward Scream: Éile screams to the sky after she has had to kill Fjall.
• Someone to Remember Him By: The epilogue shows Éile is expecting a baby with Fjall after she had to kill him. Also, their child is going to be the very next Witcher, continuing a lineage he started.
• Trojan Horse: Scían's master plan. First, she pretends to sell the party out, getting assigned as a captain for the regiment meant to kill them. Then she calls in every favor she has and ambushes her own regiment with a guerilla army. They don the dead regiment's armor and infiltrate the city while Scían delivers a gift-wrapped, secretly super-soldiered Fjall to the empress' palace. Once inside, the party riles up a revolution with the lowborn while Fjall and Scían mess up the palace.
• Trojan Prisoner: In Episode 3, the heroes pretend they’re bringing in Fjall as their prisoner for the bounty on him.
• Uptown Girl
  • Fjall, a commoner warrior, was lovers with Princess Merwyn (later Empress). This was considered quite unacceptable due to their class difference.
  • Eridin, a nobleman, turns out to be the lover of Brían, a commoner merchant. It’s also kept secret as a result of classism, which Merwyn sympathizes with upon discovering they’re a couple.
• We Can Rule Together: Merwyn tries this on Fjall in the final episode. He flat-out tells her she's demented.
• When Dimensions Collide: The series shows the lead up to the Conjunction of the Spheres, when gateways opened to other worlds, bringing over humans and monsters, which happens near the very end.
• Wizard Duel: Good mages Zacaré and Syndril take on the Evil Sorcerer Balor in Episode 4.
• Would Hurt a Child: In Episode 2 Balor sacrifices two children for power, though he hesitates briefly before giving them a quick, painless death.
• You Killed My Father: Meldof hunted down and killed all the men who murdered her wife Gwen.
• You Monster!: Fjall summarizes to Merwyn before Hulking Out:
  Fjall: You're a monster. I should know.