Since the release of The Witcher back in 2007, CD Projekt Red has received praise for creating a series of games that both celebrate and expand upon the world created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Each game in the series is filled with compelling characters, twisted tales, and a frankly staggering amount of history and world building, all without ever feeling overbloated or inconsequential. Creating and filling this immense world of conflict and chaos was no easy feat, and at times understanding what exactly is going on isn’t quite so simple as well. We’re here to help, with a complete timeline of a series as dark and complicated as its protagonist.

So the first thing to know about the timeline of The Witcher is that it’s divided into two parts: before and after resurrection. However, despite the importance of that distinction, what the “resurrection” refers to exactly is still unknown. While the earliest event the games mention is the Conjunction of the Spheres—which occurred around 230 BR (Before Resurrection)—there are a few canon events to touch upon before we dive in.

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Image via Hachette Book Group

Settling of the Elder Races (2700-300s BR)

  • The Elder Races refer to the races that inhabited The Continent long before human colonization.
  • The Gnomes are implied to be the first of these races to create settlements, though when they are established is not specified.
  • In 2700 BR, the Dwarves arrive and begin to establish colonies.
  • Depending upon if the arrival of humans refers to The Conjunction of the Spheres or The First Landing, in either the 2230s or 1240s, the Age of Migration begins. This refers to the arrival of the Aen Seidhe elves on their white ships and their subsequent conflicts with the existing Dwarven colonies.

Conjunction of the Spheres (230s BR)

  • The Conjunction of the Spheres was the cataclysmic event in which the many universes that exist in The Witcher collided into one another, creating multidimensional rifts.
  • From these rifts emerged a whole manner of supernatural creatures, such as ghouls, vampires, and other beasts.
  • In addition, these rifts released a mystical force known as magic or chaos into the world--a force inhabitants would later learn to interact with and control.
  • This event, primarily told and documented by the Elven race, plunged the world into a time of darkness and uncertainty.
  • Around the same time as The Conjunction, the first humans arrived in The Continent after losing their homeland to the aforementioned darkness. These humans were divided into two distinct cultures, the Dauk and the Wozgor. While both groups were decidedly human, they differed greatly from the Nordlings we will come to know, and are rumored to have gone extinct.

The First Landing (760s)

  • Between the 760-830 AR, the first Nordlings (humans as we know them in The Witcher series) arrive and begin to settle The Continent. While originally not seen as a threat, the Elder Races only realize once it’s too late the destructive power of these colonizers.
  • The Nordlings go on to establish the four major Northern Kingdoms: Temeria, Kaedwen, Redania, and Aedirn.

The Order of Witchers (900s)

  • To help rid the world of its evils and the supernatural, various kings and mages banded together to create an order of knights, known as Witchers, to exterminate these threats.
  • After unsuccessful attempts at turning men into Witchers, the order decided that using children would be most effective and established a school to train and raise them. However, the first trials yielded death and poor results.
  • Disappointed with the school’s outcome, the mages involved with the program were banned from the land. However, a select few carried on with the experiments in hopes of perfecting the process.
  • While The Order eventually found success and created several Witchers that would go on to serve and protect the Nordlings, tensions rose between them, resulting in one Witcher killing another. This event caused the order to splinter, and several schools were established.

Shortly Before Geralt Was Born...

  • In 1173, Yennefer was born to a common family in Belletyn. Due to her various physical birth defects, such as her hunchback, she suffered intense abuse as a child before discovering her magical potential and being accepted into the Aretuza school for sorceresses.
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Image via Dark Horse Comics

The Birth of Geralt & Becoming “The Witcher” (1174-1200s)

  • In 1174, Geralt was born to the sorceress Visenna and the warrior Korin.
  • When he was a young boy, Visenna abandoned Geralt at Kaer Morhen, where he joined the School of the Wolf and began training to be a Witcher under the tutelage of Vesemir.
  • As part of his training, Geralt undertook the Trial of the Grasses, a process in which Witchers-in-training ingest a series of alchemical ingredients. The trial is known to be excruciatingly painful, with only 3 out of every 10 boys surviving the process.
  • After Geralt passed the Trial of the Grasses with relative ease, he was further experimented upon. Geralt became the only boy to survive this series of further experimentation, and after the trials turned his hair that iconic, silvery white, he was given the title “White Wolf.”
  • Geralt’s final trial before setting out upon The Path (the term used to refer to the Witcher’s lifestyle of purging The Continent of its supernatural abominations) was The Trial of the Medallion, in which he earned his signature pendant and his title as Witcher.

During “The Path” (1200s-1270)

  • Most of the content in both the books and Netflix series takes place between these years.
  • By 1210, Yennefer has graduated from Aretuza Academy and has undergone her transformation into the beautiful and fearsome sorceress we come to know her as.
  • In 1229, Dandelion, bard and sometimes-companion to Geralt, is born.
  • In 1235, Triss Merigold, sorceress and love interest to Geralt, is born.
  • During this time, Geralt earns the moniker “the butcher of Blaviken'' after trying to save a town from being massacred by a powerful princess named Renfri, who is seeking out revenge on a sorcerer named Stregobor who wronged her. While Renfri is initially friendly with Geralt, after he denies her request to help her kill Stregobor, she grows cold and states she intends to command her troops to kill innocent lives in the marketplace of Blaviken until Stregobor leaves his tower to confront her. Unable to stand by idly while Renfri takes innocent lives, Geralt goes to the marketplace and ultimately slaughters both Renfri’s troops as well as Renfri herself. However, despite his good intentions, the villagers of Blaviken fail to understand their lives were at stake and believe Geralt to be a senseless murderer. After this incident, Geralt becomes significantly more jaded, and vows to interfere less in the affairs of mortals.
  • Geralt meets Yennefer after seeking her out to cure Dandelion from his genie-inflicted injury. Geralt subsequently binds both them and their futures to one another, an action that will be important throughout the entirety of the series.
  • In 1250, Geralt saves a commoner, Duny, from the wrath of Queen Calanthe, the ruler of Cintra. Duny is attacked by Calanthe and her forces when he arrives at Calanthe’s daughter’s wedding and begs her to choose him instead of her betrothed. You see, unbeknownst to Calanthe, her daughter Pavetta and Duny have been engaging in a secret relationship and have fallen deeply in love. However, due to both Duny’s commoner status as well as a curse that makes him appear as something akin to a boar-meets-hedgehog type creature from dawn until dusk, Calanthe is revolted at the thought and wishes him dead. Geralt protects Duny from Calanthe and her forces, and Calanthe reluctantly has a change of heart. Feeling eternally indebted to Geralt, Duny then invokes the “law of surprise,” a custom found throughout The Continent that states that when the person indebted comes across a good fortune they’ve yet to even fathom, their savior is entitled to it. In the case for Duny, this would come to be his and Pavetta’s unborn daughter, Princess Cirilla.
  • In 1251, Princess Cirilla (or Ciri) is born to Duny and Pavetta.
  • Sometime in the 1250s, Geralt cures King Foltest’s (ruler of Temeria) daughter of the curse that caused her to become a striga at birth. The curse was placed upon his daughter, Adda, either by Foltest’s mother or a man who was in love with Adda’s mother after discovering Foltest was engaging in an incestuous relationship with his sister.
  • In 1263, Cintra is attacked by the Nilfgaardian Empire. The castle is quickly taken over by Nilfgaard and the Kingdom of Cintra effectively collapses. However, prior to their defeat, Queen Calanthe smuggles her granddaughter away from the castle in hopes she will return and reclaim the throne. Ciri is intended to seek out and live with Geralt, who is entitled to custody over her due to the “law of surprise.” Once Ciri is safe, Calanthe orders those living in the castle to commit suicide by poison rather than die by enemy hands before jumping to her death.
  • In 1268, the Rivian Pogrom occurs in the marketplace of Rivia after an incident involving a racist merchant and Dwarves spirals completely out of control. During the riot, Geralt is fatally wounded and Yennefer quickly falls as well while tending to his wounds. Ciri ultimately ends up finding their seemingly lifeless bodies and, using her supernatural abilities, sends them to an alternate dimension in the hope that they will heal and either rest or live in peace.
  • However, in 1269, Geralt and Yennefer, who are both very much alive, are found by the Wild Hunt, a group of malevolent multi-dimensional spectres who kidnap Yennefer in hopes of drawing out Ciri, who has grown incredibly powerful. Geralt follows them back to the primary dimension, crossing the boundary between worlds through sheer might. Geralt eventually finds the Wild Hunt and Yennefer, and offers to take her place. The hunt accepts his terms and lets Yennefer go. After some time with the Hunt, Ciri finds and rescues Geralt from them. Geralt is then left half-naked in the forests outside his former school, Kaer Morhen, with every memory of his life thus far completely gone.
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Image via CD Projekt Red

The Witcher (1270)

  • Shortly after the presumed dead Geralt comes to, Kaer Morhen is attacked by Salamandrian bandits led by a man named Azar Javed and an assassin named Professor. Despite Geralt, the sorceress Triss Merigold, and the school’s best efforts, the bandits ultimately succeed in murdering Vesemir’s newest pupil, Leo, and escape with both the mutagens and secrets of the school. After the incident occurs, Geralt sets off in search of the bandits in order to retrieve the secrets and exact revenge.
  • Geralt’s search leads him to outside Vizima, where he meets up with Triss once again as well as a medic named Shani and a boy with unusual magical abilities named Alvin.
  • Once inside Vizima, Geralt watches as tensions rise between the Order of the Flaming Rose and the elves known as the Scoia'tael.
  • After uncovering more about the Salamandrian bandits, Geralt invades their base with either the help of the Order or the Scoia'tael. However, while escaping from this encounter, Geralt finds himself suddenly surrounded by royal guards when Princess Adda, daughter of King Foltest of Termeria, tries to kill Geralt to disguise her treasonous behavior of working with the bandits.
  • Triss then quickly teleports Geralt to a village on the other side of the lake, where he meets up with the bard Dandelion. The two care for Alvin before setting sail back to Vizima to wipe out the bandits for good.
  • Once back in Vizima, Geralt finds King Foltest has returned and Adda’s striga curse has as well. In addition, a civil war has broken out between the Scoia'tael and Order, causing Geralt to choose a side once and for all. During all of this, Alvin seemingly disappears.
  • After taking care of Adda’s curse, King Foltest reveals Azar Javed’s location to Geralt, who sets off to take care of him once and for all.
  • Geralt and his allies find Azar’s base and kill him, but not before discovering the Grand Master of the Order of the Flaming Rose is behind the theft of the Witcher mutagens. King Foltest then orders Geralt to find and deal with the Grand Master.
  • Geralt finally confronts the Grand Master, who tries to make Geralt understand the actions he’s taking are to prevent an icy, world-ending catastrophe--which is some major foreshadowing. Geralt then kills the Grand Master, and, after noticing his amulet, discovers he was Alvin the whole time.
Image via CD Projekt Red

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (1271)

  • Immediately following the events of The Witcher, Geralt agrees to accompany King Foltest to his siege of La Valette Castle. However, after successfully taking over the castle, an assassin sneaks into the palace and kills King Foltest.
  • This event occurs while the king and Geralt were suspected to be alone together, leaving Geralt to be accused of regicide and ultimately imprisoned. After hearing Geralt’s story, the leader of Foltest’s special forces, Veron Roche, agrees to help Geralt escape in order to find the true kingslayer. Roche and Geralt then sneak out of the castle and meet up with Triss, who is also here to help them on their quest.
  • The trio ends up in the town of Flotsam, where Geralt saves his longtime friend Dandelion from execution.
  • During his stay, Geralt watches as tensions rise between the Temerian Special Forces and the Scoia’tael. Ultimately, Geralt is forced to either side with Roche and Temeria or Iorveth, a rebel elf. Regardless of his choice, Geralt also finds out more about the kingslayer, a Witcher named Letho, who kidnaps Triss at the end of chapter one.
  • From this point on, your choices greatly impact how the story, and subsequent wars, unfold. Geralt plays a role heavily determined by the player in the rebellion against King Henselt before arriving at Loc Muinne, where The Continent’s mages and rulers have called a meeting to establish an order known as The Conclave. Events unfold during this meeting when treason is detected, and ultimately Nilfgaardian forces commanded by the kingslayer Letho show up to kill the Northern leaders and destabilize the realm.
  • Geralt finally confronts Letho, and after hearing his side of things can either execute him or let him go.
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Image via Atari

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (1272)

  • At the start of the game, Geralt is reunited with his love Yennefer who informs him that he has been summoned to Vizima by Emperor Emhyr. Once there, Emhyr entrusts Geralt with the task of finding Ciri.
  • Geralt’s quest leads him first to Crow’s Perch, a fort in Velen run by The Bloody Baron. The Baron refuses to give Geralt information, but Geralt ultimately discovers Ciri was captured by crones to give to the Wild Hunt before escaping their clutches and heading to Novigrad.
  • At Novigrad, Geralt reunites with Triss and once again, rescues Dandelion. He then discovers Ciri has teleported to the Skellige archipelago.
  • In Skellige, Geralt finds Yennefer investigating a magical explosion caused by Ciri. They then begin to track Ciri together, discover she has gone on to Lofoten, and find the town has been attacked by the Wild Hunt. They then turn their sights to a cursed creature named Uma, who has deeper knowledge of Ciri’s whereabouts, and cure him of his curse. Uma tells the pair that Ciri has teleported to the Isle of Mists.
  • Geralt visit the Isle of Mists where he finds Ciri in a deathlike trance. After rousing her, Ciri reveals the motivations of the Wild Hunt to Geralt, explaining that the homeworld of Eredin, the King of the Wild Hunt, is being destroyed by a force called the White Frost. Eredin therefore wants Ciri’s power in order to take over The Continent and create a new home for his people here.
  • Ciri and Geralt then teleport to Kaer Morhen, followed by the Wild Hunt. At Kaer Morhen, Geralt is reunited with Yennefer, Triss, and his mentor Vesemir before the Wild Hunt arrives. Vesemir is ultimately killed while protecting Ciri from the Hunt, and her guilt over his death causes her to unleash her massively destructive Elder power. After witnessing her strength and fury, Eredin and the Hunt quickly retreat.
  • After the battle, Ciri and Geralt head to Novigrad to meet up with Triss and Yennefer who wish to reform the Lodge of Sorceresses. They also discover how to lure out and kill Eredin, and stop the Wild Hunt for good by using the Sunstone.
  • Geralt and all his companions set up for battle in Skellige, where they summon Eredin and the Hunt for a final battle. Geralt successfully slays Eredin, however the White Frost has now begun to consume The Continent. Ciri then creates a portal to confront the Frost and put an end to its destruction. What happens next depends upon your choices throughout the game...

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