The Witcher Season 3: False Ciri, Explained
False Ciri is an important original source character who appears in the series. But what does her appearance mean, and how does it differ from the books?
The following contains spoilers for The Witcher Season 3.
The creators of The Witcher promised fans that the third season would be as faithful as possible to the original source – the books by Andrzej Sapkowski. And it can be said that they kept their promise.
The third season introduced the fake Ciri, a famous character from the books. However, her story was slightly changed.
In the books, after wandering through the refugee camps fleeing the devastated Cintra, the girl was taken in by a cloth maker from Bruges.
She turned out to be very much like Ciri, which is why the lawyer Codringer noticed the girl and tried to use her to distract the hunters from the real Ciri.
Later, the half-elf Schirru killed Codringer and his partner Fenn, found records of the fake Ciri, and decided to make money from it: kidnap the girl and bring her to the Emperor of Nilfgaard under the guise of the real Cintrian princess.
Emhyr, of course, spotted the substitution at first glance, but did not reveal it, leaving the girl to live at court. The girl was trained in manners and court etiquette, and eventually became the ruler of Cintra and Emhyr's wife.
In the series, however, the fake Ciri became the subject of experiments by Vilgefortz, who turned out to be a traitor working for Nilfgaard.
Vilgefortz's ultimate goal is to take over Ciri's powers, so he experiments with other girls of elven descent. The disciples of Aretuza, who bore the blood of elves, were the perfect subjects for Vilgefortz's cruel experiments.
In the series, Teryn, the fake Ciri participated in Vilgefortz's experiments and was enchanted into actually believing that she was Ciri. Vilgefortz's plan is to bring the fake Ciri to Emhyr and trick him into gaining the real Ciri's powers for himself.
In the finale of the first part of the third season of The Witcher, Vilgefortz only subtly hinted that he was hiding something during a conversation with Geralt.
Only after Geralt's conversation with Yennefer at the very end of the episode 5 did he realize that Vilgefortz was a traitor.
In Time of Contempt book, however, Vilgefortz tells Geralt directly that he represents Nilfgaard and invites the witcher to join their side.