The Entire Witcher Timeline Explained

This article contains spoilers for "The Witcher" Season 3.

Netflix's "The Witcher" is a lot of fun, but it isn't always easy to follow. For one, the first season of the epic fantasy series is split into three separate timelines. Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's adventures all happen at different times — until, of course, they don't. This isn't explicitly explained by the show, either, which has led to many casual viewers getting lost. Between the various monsters, the foreign customs, the political rivalries, and all of the action, Season 1 is very busy, and things haven't gotten much better since then.

We're three seasons deep into the story now, not to mention the prequels that have come out. The world of "The Witcher" can seem daunting for those unaccustomed to the lore, but the show does offer up some clues as to its chronology for fans who are paying close attention. With a little bit of legwork, you can more or less piece the entire timeline together, which will no doubt make your viewing experience a lot more enjoyable. There are still some questions and ambiguities, but the overall picture is a lot more clear now that Season 3 is done and dusted.

From early Elven infighting to Ciri's fate, we're explaining the entire timeline of "The Witcher."

Of the three main timelines in Season 1, Yennefer's origin story comes first. Yennefer is no more than 20 years old when Tissaia buys her from her father in episode two (in fact, she could be much younger), and all of Yennefer's early days — her struggles to become a proficient mage, her love affair with Istredd, and her brutal sacrifice — happen before the rest of the main plot.

We don't know how long Yennefer spends at school, but it doesn't seem like much. Hunchback Yennefer, who should age like a normal human, doesn't show many physical changes during her studies, although both her confidence and her abilities grow in leaps and bounds. 

However, according to Hissrich, Yennefer's story in season one spans about 70 years. After ascending, Yennefer spends 30 years in the court at Aedirn, and another 10 or so kicking around as an independent sorceress before the Battle of Sodden. That leaves 30 years unaccounted for. Either Hissrich had her numbers wrong (and, to be fair, her statement leaves quite a bit of wiggle room) or Yennefer trains at Aretuza for a lot longer than it seems. Either way, it's kind of irrelevant. All you need to know is that this stuff happens first.

Yennefer and Geralt's stories in episode four, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," seem to happen at around the same time. Yennefer claims that she's been at Aedirn for three decades before the assassin's attack convinces her to strike out on her own. That's about how much time has passed for Foltest in Geralt's timeline in episode three. Further, Geralt's reputation is firmly established by the time that he first enters Queen Calanthe's court. At most, Yennefer and Geralt are a few years apart.

At any rate, unless you've been paying close attention, this is the first episode that makes it clear that we're following three separate timelines. In "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," Eist is unsuccessfully courting the queen, Nilfgaard is a joke, and Ciri's mother is newly pregnant. In the first episode, though, Calanthe and Eist are married, Ciri is 12 years old, and Nilfgaard is a mighty military force.

Everyone looks younger than the last time we saw them, too. Mousesack has less grey in his beard, and both Eist and Calanthe are much more spry. Naturally, neither Geralt nor Yennefer age, thanks to magic (Jaskier, on the other hand, simply seems to be very well-preserved).

Finally, Ciri's story begins — but, as the seventh episode, "Before a Fall," reveals, there's more going on during Cintra's collapse than the pilot lets on. In the leadup to Nilfgaard's attack, Yennefer joined the Brotherhood of Sorcerers as they debated whether or not to save the mage-averse kingdom, while Geralt went directly to Cintra to try to rescue Ciri, who he's responsible for.

In fact, Geralt was in Cintra when Calanthe rode into battle, Nilfgaardian forces breached the walls, and Ciri fled the city. He even saw Ciri just before Cintra fell, although he didn't know it — the girl was disguised as a commoner in order to play with the other kids. Unfortunately, Geralt missed out on most of the action from the first episode: Calanthe locked him in a Cintra dungeon to keep him from running off with Ciri. That didn't work out well for anyone.

At any rate, Ciri's storyline in episode one and Geralt and Yennefer's plots in episode seven happen at the same time. We're getting close to one, unified timeline, but we're not there quite yet.

By the beginning of episode eight, "Much More," all three timelines are in sync. While Yennefer and her fellow sorcerers are fighting Nilfgaard at Sodden, Geralt is fighting for his life on the back of a merchant's cart and Ciri is chilling in a cabin with the merchant's wife.

All of this happens about a week after Ciri fled the refugee camp — when Geralt first meets the merchant, the man is cleaning up the bodies the Nilfgaardian army left behind. It also takes a couple of days. The sorcerers don't head straight into battle, for example. They arrive at Sodden and prep their defenses. The ensuing battle begins at night, takes the whole day, and ends just before dawn.

In fact, it's the morning after the battle when Geralt and Ciri meet for the first time, bringing everyone together — well, almost. Yennefer disappears after using a ton of magic to channel fire at the Nilfgaardian army, but is surely not gone for good.

Kaer Mohren is a fortress for witchers to retire to during the winter months, coming together in safety. Geralt, trusting only in his fellow witchers, chooses to bring Ciri back to the stronghold to keep her safe. Unfortunately, Kaer Mohren turns out to be much less secure than Geralt had anticipated. One of his fellow witchers, Eskel, is attacked by a tree-like monster called a leshy. The wound from the leshy transforms Eskel into one of the monsters, threatening the lives of every witcher in the keep, and leads to Geralt killing his former friend in order to protect Ciri.

However, this does not deter Ciri from danger in the slightest. If anything, the incident strengthens Ciri's resolve to become a witcher herself, both to protect herself and to fit in with Geralt and the other witchers, whom she's grown quite fond of. Geralt refuses to train her, but two other witchers, Lambert and Coën, bring Ciri to their obstacle course outside. Ciri is not a natural, and is knocked down many times and injured greatly. But she keeps getting back up and eventually is able to nearly clear the course, earning her the respect of the other witchers.

Although Yennefer does not go through with her plan to deliver Ciri to Voleth Meir, the heartbreak and turmoil felt by Francesca following the murder of her child gives the Deathless Mother the ability to break free from her hut and take control of Ciri's body. Sadly, Geralt and Yennefer, who split up with Ciri in order to take on Voleth Meir, don't realize that Ciri is possessed until it is too late. Ciri returns to Kaer Mohren along with Jaskier, and during the night she goes around slashing the throats of many witchers.

The surviving witchers, along with Geralt, Yennefer, and Jaskier, are forced to battle the possessed Ciri. She uses the tree, which turns out to be a monolith, to help summon massive basilisks to fight her friends, killing many more witchers in the process. Geralt's mentor, Vesemir, believes that Ciri needs to be killed, but Geralt pushes for a better way. Yennefer agrees to take the spirit of Voleth Meir into her own body, pulling her away from Ciri, which gives Ciri the chance to send the Deathless Mother back through the monolith, though not before briefly being pulled through herself, and seeing the Wraiths of Mörhogg.

Some time has passed since the finale of Season 2 of "The Witcher" by the time that Season 3 picks up. Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer are now traveling from place to place, staying on the move in order to remain one step ahead of the Nilfgaardian forces that are looking to reclaim the young princess of Cintra. During this time, Geralt enlists Yennefer's help in teaching Ciri how to control the magical abilities she possesses. As both Geralt and Yennefer have become guardians to Ciri, and she begins to view them both as surrogate parents, it's only natural that the group would come together to form a familial bond.

However, things are not so simple. Geralt still feels a sense of betrayal over Yennefer's actions in Season 2. Although she did not go through with giving Ciri over to Voleth Meir, she still considered it, putting Ciri in danger. As such, Geralt refuses to even speak with Yennefer, forcing her to write him letters to update him on Ciri's progress. Only with time does Geralt finally break down and allow Yennefer back into his life, something that makes Ciri very happy.

In the time that she spends on the road with Geralt and Yennefer, Ciri grows increasingly fond of her new surrogate parents. She mentions several times to Geralt that the only thing that really matters to her is that whatever happens, the three of them stay together. Unfortunately, their time together is short-lived. After the deadly melee at Shaerrawedd, Geralt realizes that moving from place to place would no longer be a sufficient way to protect Ciri.

Instead, he takes up Yennefer on her recommendation to take Ciri to Aretuza to learn from her own mentor, Tissaia de Vries. Meanwhile, Geralt teams up with Jaskier to further investigate Rience's evil doings, and attempt to kill him before he can harm Ciri. Yennefer and Ciri reach out to Tissaia, but the road to Aretuza is not an easy one, and Ciri has a knack for stirring up trouble in every town they visit. When they eventually meet up with Tissaia, Ciri quickly realizes that training to be a sorceress is not for her, and runs away to reunite herself with Geralt. 

So much of Rience's dealings have been shrouded in mystery since his introduction in Season 2 of "The Witcher." While audiences are told that he is working with a woman named Lydia and that he is trying to capture Ciri, everything else about his plans, including who his true master is and what he is planning to do with Ciri, is left unknown. After splitting up with Ciri and Yennefer, Geralt and Jaskier visit the detective agency Codringher and Fenn to get some answers about Rience. They help Geralt, which ultimately costs them their lives at the hand of the fire mage.

Luckily, Geralt manages to locate the castle where Rience is residing. What he finds inside horrifies even the seasoned monster hunter. Rience, with the help of a mage inside Aretuza, had been kidnapping half-elven girls from the school and experimenting on them. He is only able to save one girl, while the others have already had their bodies melded together into a terrifying monster. The girl he did save believes that she is Ciri, having had the princess's memories implanted inside her. While Geralt discovers that Rience is trying to create a false Ciri, he has yet to determine who he is working with inside Aretuza.

Before Geralt or Yennefer can act on the information they learned about Vilgefortz, they find themselves thrust into one of the novel series' most memorable conflicts. The Thanedd Coup, which takes place during the novel "Time of Contempt," involves Sigismund Dijkstra's hostile takeover of Aretuza the night of the ball. After Geralt refuses to hand Ciri over to Dijkstra and Phillipa Eilhart, Dijkstra and his men take over Aretuza while everyone is sleeping. He accuses Vilgefortz of working with Nilfgaard and plans to put him and his allies on trial. Unfortunately, Dijkstra is unaware that Vilgefortz has an army of Nilfgaardians and elves set to invade that very morning.

The bloodshed as the three factions battle is unprecedented. Francesca's husband Filavandrel is obliterated by a destruction spell meant for Francesca herself, and many mages are killed in the fight. Geralt faces off against Vilgefortz and loses, sustaining severe and life-threatening injuries. However, as a way of taunting Geralt, Vilgefortz leaves him alive as he chases after Ciri. In the end, the mages are able to hold off the elven and Nilfgaardian forces, but Aretuza is left in ruins and few mages survive, effectively ending the famous magical school forever.

Geralt's battle with Vilgefortz leaves him in bad shape, including shattering his back. On the brink of death, Geralt is brought to Brokilon Forest, the home of the dryads, to help in his healing process. Luckily, he doesn't have to go through the ordeal alone, as Jaskier tracks Geralt down and stays with him during his long recovery. Eventually, he is joined briefly by Yennefer, but she is unable to linger, as she wishes to track down the surviving sorceresses and help to build a new group of magic wielders led by her remaining peers. However, there is one person close to Geralt who is still missing in action.

Geralt pushes himself to recover more quickly in order to leave Brokilon and return to Ciri. Their motto, which is repeated throughout the season, is "never lost, always found." No matter how many times they are split up, Geralt will always find Ciri. Although Jaskier argues for Geralt to take things slow, he is on his feet in no time, and relearns to walk and fight. The season ends with Geralt, Jaskier, and Milva, a new ally, battling their way through a group of Nilfgaardian forces and setting out to find Ciri.