The Conjunction of Spheres trapped elves and other fantastic beings in The Witcher's historical time. Before it, legendary, pre-rational elves moved freely between story-worlds. Elder Blood preserves this power. And Ithlinne's prophecy is the elves' map back into eternity.
Why is Ciri so powerful? Can Ciri time travel in The Witcher books? With Elder Blood, the Lady of the Lake accesses Mythic Time where past, present, and future exist simultaneously. Sapkowski writes fantasy about fantasy, showing a fairy tale unfolding endlessly.
Andrzej Sapkowski wrote Ciri as the Holy Grail. Drawing from Celtic mythology and Arthurian scholarship, The Witcher and The Hussite Trilogy explore the Triple Goddess, Wiccan theology, female sovereignty, and love as the Grail's power. The Grail is a Woman.
Why is there an elven Tower, Tor Gval'cha, on Skellige? What is Ragh nar Roog really? Why are the Aen Elle taller than the Aen Seidhe? The Witcher 3's cut content tells of Freyja the elf, Alderwalk, Leib-Olmai, the white ships, and even the cult of the Eternal Fire - created as a joke.
Who created the Wild Hunt? Why did Eredin and Avallac'h fight? Who will be the new king of the Aen Elle? The Witcher 3's cut content digs into the 'family drama' behind elven politics.
In the Witcher games, Eredin is a template death knight. In game-fanon, he is frequently a BDSM, ultra-top/dom, plotting maniac. In the Witcher books though, Eredin is a reckless but loyal servant of the Aen Elle, disillusioned, haunted by the prospect of failure, and resolved to do what’s needed.
In The Witcher 3, we discover that UMA - the Ugliest Man Alive - is actually Avallac'h, transformed by a curse. Cut content reveals how CDPR used the Curse of Inversion to transform Avallac'h from the books' antagonist into Ciri's mentor.
The loneliness and alienation, the Waste Land of the human heart, is a recurrent motif in The Witcher. Re-reading "Pirog, or There’s No Gold in the Gray Mountains" by Andrzej Sapkowski I get stuck on how he analyses Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle.
Between every reality in The Witcher lies a mirror-like barrier. As Ciri travels through time and space, we discover how the Gate of Worlds functions. Ard Gaeth, for example, seems but one special manifestation of interdimensional travel. And what about the elven towers? Let's see.
Three meditations on Ciri in The Witcher 4: from trauma's narrative potential to bodily autonomy, exploring how CDPR's vision aligns with A. Sapkowski's character.
In The Witcher, elven women get the chance to have children only a handful of times. But when human colonizers arrive, biology becomes destiny. In Tolkien, elves control their fertility through divine will. In Sapkowski, fertility controls the elves through inconvenient timing.
The Witcher often presents us with shadow doubles – like Auberon Muircetach & Emhyr var Emreis. Both pursue the greater good at the expense of decency & their own (un)humanity. A greater good to be achieved by begetting a prophesised child through incest with Cirilla, their descendant.