In Sapkowski’s novels, the Wild Hunt is only perceived as spectral and undead beings, as the group magically enhanced their appearance to scare and intimidate the masses. In reality, they were among the displaced Aen Elle elves who traveled to a different world during the Conjunction of the Spheres, only to exterminate the humans and terrorize the unicorns that inhabited space. After years of unbroken rule, the elves of Aen Elle sought slaves from other worlds, precipitating the need for a menacing cavalry unit dedicated to raiding different worlds and procuring slaves. Thus, the Wild Hunt was born.
While the hunt in Sapkowski’s novels used magic to take on more menacing forms, that didn’t make them any less menacing. Eredin Bréacc Glas, King of the Wild Hunt, was known to be ruthless and uncompromising in his aims and was particularly dedicated to hunting Ciri. The group’s origins and motivations are devoutly fleshed out in “Wild Hunt”, where Eredin and his cavalry covet Ciri after their own world is on the brink of destruction – here, Ciri’s Elder Blood is a way to secure a bloodline. stable magic, the one that can save the Aen Elle people from extinction. However, the situation is more complicated than it seems, as the White Frost has now been reforged as a destructive force to engulf the world in snow, which Ciri must prevent from happening.
The Netflix adaptation, on the other hand, handles the hunt in markedly different ways: we’re treated to the group’s origins in “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” where a young Eredin (Jacob Collins-Levy) is trapped in another dimension , slowly withering into the likeness of the skeleton warrior featured in the games. How does this reveal relate to future seasons of “The Witcher?”