What is the Wild Hunt in ‘The Witcher?’ The Wild Hunt origin and backstory, explained

In retrospect, there are so many compelling villains in The Witcher saga that the Wild Hunt can seem almost inconsequential, but just like CD Projekt Red chose to continue their story in the game trilogy, so has Netflix decided to paint them in a much more prominent light for its live-action adaptation of Geralt’s story. 

The Wild Hunt first appeared in the second season, when Ciri traveled to an alternate reality and saw a vision of her ancestor Lara Dorren cradling her child Riannon on that fateful hilltop. We’ve already explained the true history behind Ciri and her Elder Blood, but what does the Wild Hunt have to do with this cursed inheritance? 

Here’s everything you need to know about the Wild Hunt and its meta significance in the Witcher world and Scandanavian folklore.

What is the Wild Hunt and what does it want with Ciri?

The Wild Hunt are of a group of spectral riders who appear in numerous northern European folklores. According to the stories, they pop out of nowhere and pursue their target — usually a mythological figure — across the sky, but their arrival is also an ill omen, heralding a catastrophe for the person witnessing it or for their community at large.

It is only fitting that if The Witcher was to include the Wild Hunt from folklore, their sole prey would be Princess Cirilla, the Child of the Elder Blood, who is the most powerful being in the entire universe. The other thing that sets them apart from the different iterations of the real-life mythology is the fact that Andrzej Sapkowski details their backstory and intentions in his book.

When the Conjunction of the Spheres took place, some of the Aen Seidhe elves left their kin for another world inhabited by humans and unicorns. The elves waged war against the humans and eradicated them completely, founding a new kingdom and calling themselves the Aen Elle, which translates to the Alder Folks. After a while, the Aen Elle realized that they needed slaves to serve them in this new realm, so the king, Auberon Muircetach, created an elite cavalry unit called Dearg Ruadhri in the Elder Speech, literally meaning “Red Riders.”

The suqadron was given the task of invading other worlds and capturing slaves to serve the Aen Elle, and they used the power of the unicorns to create a rift in reality and move to the Continent. For hundreds of years, the Dearg Ruadhri general Eredin Bréacc Glas led his soldiers in raids against human settlements and villages, thus embellishing the horrific legend of the Wild Hunt in people’s minds.

After a while, the unicorns found a way to retake the Gate from the Aen Elle, which limited their capacity for travel. They still used navigator mages to take a small number of soldiers into the Continent from time to time, but they already knew this would mark the end of their golden age.

This is when Eredin shifted his attention to Ciri, a child of the Elder Blood, who could potentially move through time and space at a whim. The Aen Elle know that Ciri’s children will all bear Elder Blood in their veins, so they plan to lie with her and infuse their race with this powerful magic.

Ciri’s potent magic is something that almost every person of power or influence will covet. In fact, as seen in the final episode of season 2, every ruler and their mage advisors are hatching plans of their own to get their hands on Ciri. So, between the Northern Kingdoms, Emhyr’s Nilfgaard, the elves of the Aen Elle, and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers at Aretuza, there’s not a single person who doesn’t want to saddle Ciri with their own causes and ambitions.

Whether they’ll be successful in this hunt is a question that Netflix’s The Witcher will answer as it continues to chronicle the epic tale of the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, and their company as they fight off the entire world to save Ciri from this cruel fate.

As for the Wild Hunt, video game fans already know how their tale will end. But since The Witcher series doesn’t share continuity with those titles, the writers might opt to take Eredin and his spectral riders down a different path, one that determines their final fate even if Sapkowski himself left it ambiguous.