The Witcher Character Biography – Cirilla of Cintra

This is the biography of Princess Ciri of Cintra.  It provides information for the viewers of the TV series although some of the info is gathered from books and the video game (see the Introduction & Background to the series or the series overview for more information).  This article attempts to explain how and why Ciri is motivated to so what she does in the TV series. Princess Ciri is played by the lovely Freya Allen.

Names & Heritage

Full Name: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon,
Shortname: Ciri,
Formal Name: Princess Cirilla of Cintra.

She was the only child of Pavetta and Emhyr var Emreis (aka “Duny”).  Queen Calanthe of Cintra is her grandmother.

How did Ciri become the ward of Geralt of Rivia?

Pavetta and Emhyr become indebted to Geralt of Rivia when, after saving Emhyr’s life, Geralt enacts the Law of Surprise.

In this case, Geralt asks that in return for saving his life, Emhyr gives the next born child.  Frankly, Geralt wasn’t really interested, it was more a habit of tradition. Little did he know that he was soon to be the legal guardian of a princess 9 months later.

The Law of Surprise is an ancient law for repayment for a grand deed and is usually enacted when a person has their life saved by another.  In fact, Witchers used this law to recruit newly born children to become new Witchers. It is one of the reasons that Witchers are hated in the community since a young boy destined to be a witcher is not usually strong enough to withstand their terribly harsh training and mutations’.  Having your life saved by a witcher could equally be considered a curse.

The Tragedy of Ciri

Her parents, the Princess Pavetta and Emhyr var Emreis died while Ciri was a child in a freak boating accident. Ciri was then raised as the heir to the throne of Cintra by her grandmother, Queen Calanthe.  She was very, VERY protective of Ciri and would not let Geralt anywhere near her for fear that he would take her away to become a Witcher. Despite Geralt’s assurances that he would only protect her, Calanthe did not trust him and tried to have him imprisoned.

While Ciri was a teenager, Cintra was attacked by the Nilfgaard.  The Cintra army is defeated and the capital city is subjugated.  Queen Calanthe is badly wounded and asks Ciri to look for The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia who will take care of her.  Ciri screams in distress at the seriousness of the wound suffered by her grandmother and her voice seems to show considerable power (stuff starts to rattle and vibrate spookily… that sort of thing).

Her Grandmother died shortly after and Ciri is forced to go on the run to look for Geralt. She initially ends up in a camp of refugees running from the aftermath of the attack on Cintra.  There she befriends an Elf called Dara.

The Nilfgaard Pursuit

Meanwhile, the Nilfgaard who are headed by a dude called Cahir, are desperately looking for her. Ciri hears a calling of the Brokilon Forest while she and Dara are trying to avoid Cahir and they enter the magical wood and meet a group of Dryads.

The Chief Dryad recognises some sort of power in Ciri and asks her to stay.  The Dryads believe that they could protect her in the forest. Unfortunately for Ciri, the Nilfgaardian mage, Fringilla uses forbidden magic to track Ciri’s location and a shape shifter is despatched to capture her. He takes on the image of Mousesack, the unfortunately named Mage from Cintra and Ciri is tricked into leaving with him.

Dara manages to save her from him.  However, when other Cintrans try to capture her for a reward, she defends herself my miraculously managing to invoke her own magic which is powerful enough to kill them. A friendly lady later rescues Ciri and takes her home.

The Final Meeting

By coincidence it turns out that a merchant who had helped Geralt survive a monster attack, was also the husband of the friendly lady who had come to the rescue of Ciri. While most of us are thinking that the story is too good to be true and that the friendly lady and gentleman saviours are probably despotic demons in disguise, Geralt and Ciri finally find each other and the timelines come together quite nicely.

And that is the final scene of the first season.  In the first season, Ciri can best be described as a cute but snivelling little kid.  Those of use who know the game however, will know that Ciri becomes someone much more forceful and fun – we have that to look forward to in the next season!

Role on Season 2!

The Witcher is a Czech-American fantasy drama web television series created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich for Netflix.

The Witcher characters, pictures and everything else associated with the TV show are the property of Netflix, CD Projekt Red, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Andrzej Sapkowski.

This Witcher TV Show Ciri Biography is copyright Tony Fawl and not for reproduction without permission.