The Witcher – Blood Origin: The Wild Hunt explained – this is how it appears in the Netflix spin-off

THE WITCHER: BLOOD ORIGIN

December 27, 2022 at 10:39 am

The mysterious Wild Hunt runs through the entire “The Witcher” franchise. We explain what the mysterious horsemen are all about and how they are related to the spin-off series “Blood Origin”.

• The Wild Hunt is a recurring enemy in The Witcher book, video game, and series franchise.
• While she doesn’t appear prominently in the Blood Origin prequel series, we still get to know her origins through the elf Eredin.
• What connection is there between them, Geralt and Ciri and our real mythology?

On December 25, The Witcher spin-off Blood Origin was released on Netflix and shows us the early days of the fantasy continent. We already know the Wild Hunt from the original series, CD Projekt Red video games and books.

Below you can read what is known about the Wild Hunt and how “Blood Origin” is trying to establish it.

Apocalyptic elf riders on manhunt

The origins of the Wild Hunt in the Witcher world lie in European mythology. There are tales of “ghostly horsemen in the sky” haunting villages and kidnapping people at night. They were also a sign and omen of wars and plagues. Similarly, and based on that, Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski also incorporated them into his novel series.

Also known as the Red Riders, the Riders of the Wild Hunt were once elven warriors from the tribe of Aen Elle who invaded and conquered an alien world inhabited by unicorns through the conjunction of the spheres. From their homeworld, they rode to other worlds to capture humanoid slaves for their native empire. This is how you will be explained and shown in the game “Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”.

For their robberies, they use a portal system on their homeworld and appear to humans as spectral, ghost-like beings in the sky. The skeletal armor and black horses added to the horsemen’s horrid appeal, giving them a terrible reputation.

The Wild Hunt in the Witcher series world

In the Netflix “The Witcher” series, the Wild Hunt has only been teased as a major threat on the horizon. They seem to have a connection with Ciri, who has menacing visions of them. Season 3 will most likely focus on her hunt for Ciri.

The Wild Hunt has a particular interest in Ciri because of her Elder Blood ancestry, a particular genetic variation in her Elven heritage. This holds monstrous magical powers that Ciri does not yet know how to use. However, the wild hunt could become overpowering and conquer countless foreign worlds.

In the Netflix Witcher world, the wild hunt is also trapped between the worlds by the conjunction of the spheres, unlike in the books. They can only enter the real world as phantom-like ghosts. Ciri’s powers could give them a way out of this existence.

Voleith Meir, witch and main antagonist of “The Witcher” season 2, is also a rider of the Wild Hunt and tried to use Ciri’s powers to free her. However, she only managed to manifest herself alongside the Wild Hunt.

The Making of the Wild Hunt in “Blood Origin”

The prequel “Blood Origin” takes place 1200 years before the events of “The Witcher”. The elves are at the peak of their power and inhabit great cities and empires. However, the conjunction of the spheres triggered by monoliths changed everything, as monsters and humans invaded this world.

While we see the different elven clans having their own military units and being led by generals, including Eredin, there was no trace of the Wild Hunt in “Blood Origin”. The origin and formation of the Wild Hunt as the elite Aen Elle cavalry unit is yet to come.

A clear indication of this is the scene at the end of the last episode, in which Eredin puts on Bréacc Glas, a skull of a deceased creature for a helmet. This is similar to the typical Wild Hunt skeletal armor we saw in the last season of The Witcher.

Eredin thus crowns himself as the leader of this cavalry force, which he forms from scattered and hopeless former soldiers of the empress. So in “Blood Origin” we only get a hint about the origins of the Wild Hunt, but it says more than you might think at first.

Revenge from a strange world

The conjunction of the spheres shown in “Blood Origin” not only brought humans and monsters to the elves’ original planet, now known as the continent, but the alder people were also scattered to foreign worlds.

Among them is Eredin, who will take the planet for his people with others of his kind through the Wild Hunt and will ride out to other worlds on manhunts. The prequel series condenses and condenses the origin of the Aen Elle Elves and the Wild Hunt. The core, however, remains that these are elves from another world, who will soon differ drastically from others of their kind in appearance and culture.

With its power, its sinister charisma and its mythical origin, the Wild Hunt will still be a great addition to the entire Witcher franchise in the future.