In the Netflix series, The Witcher, one of the tragic moments was to witness, our favorite sorceress, Yennefer, losing her power.
Until season 1, we had observed Yennefer casting the Fire Magic in the war against Nilfgaard to protect Sodden Hill. As a consequence of which, her friends assumed her dead as they could find her nowhere.
Thankfully, in season 2 we could find her alive but she had lost her magical power. What might be the reason she lost her power? Did she gain her magic back? If yes, how?
You will find out as you read till the end.
Yennefer, a brave sorceress
Yennefer was not the ordinary sorceress. Her wit, bravery, and willful nature made her stand out among other sorceresses. She may be selfish sometime and she valued her freedom above everything.
She valued respect so much that once she even sacrificed her ability to become a mother just to be powerful, beautiful, and also to be respected.
Yennefer was the sorceress who awakened her abilities as the sources, which means she was gifted with magic abilities since her birth, as she had the connection of the elf in her family.
Connection with the elf! What kind of connection? Let’s discuss…
It was Yennefer’s mother who connected to her the elf blood. Her mother was Half-Elf and she married the human as portrayed in the series The Witcher
This made Yennefer Quarter-Elf with the presence of elf blood in her veins.
Early Life of Yennefer
Jennifer, born in Belletyne, spent her childhood in Vengerberg. She had a twisted spine resulting in hunchback and due to this distorted look, she was often insulted by her stepdad and also other villagers.
Her father sold her to rectress, Tissaia de Vries at a less price than a pig. Then, she was bought to Aretuza to study magic.
Thus, this act by her father deeply hurt Yennefer and she even tried to cut her wrist. Thankfully, the suicide attempt failed due to Tissaia’s intervention.
Yennefer’s journey to becoming one of the finest sorceresses hence began.
Magical power of Yennefer
Yennefer was born with the ability to conduct chaos. She can harness the magical power of universe without the modification. She is called the conduit of chaos.
When did Yennefer fist time discover her magical power?
Yennefer once came across a couple who insulted her and assault her. When she screamed to stop, she unintentionally reached a different place where she found a boy name Istredd.
Istredd told her she must have created a portal from her place to that place named Tower of Gull of Aretuza (Academy of Magic). Yennefer was perplexed listening to these things as she was unknown about all these magical things at that time.
Istredd also made the portal back to her home and told her to go back as soon as possible as Trissaia might come looking for Yennefer the moment she knew Yennefer can conjure a portal.
This was the reason Tissaia bought Yennefer from her father as talked about, earlier.
How did Yennefer lose her magical Power?
In season 1, we come across the battle of Sodden Hill that took place between the soldiers and sorceresses of Nilfguard and Sodden Hill.
Yennefer was fighting against the Nilfgaard. She wanted to stop Nilfguard from mercilessly capturing the parts of the continents
Nilfguardian’s army was much more in number than that of the Sodden Hill. Hence, Nilfguardians were dominating the army of Sodden Hill and coming across to victory.
Tissaia encouraged Yennefer that she was the one who could save the continent. Tissaia also convinced her to believe in the ultimate power she had.
Hence, Yennefer absorbed the fire of Sodden Hill then combined the fire with her source magic and threw it to Nilfguardian. She controlled the fire in such a way that it only burn NIlfguardians.
No doubt, Yennefer was one of the most powerful sorceresses as the fire magic was difficult and only the great sorceress could perform it.
In season 2 we were revealed that Yennefer lost her power as the fire magic she had used was a forbidden type of magic.
Now, the question arises why fire magic was forbidden. We all know, that other energy such as air, water, and earth are creative as well as destructive. Fire energy is only the kind of energy that is destructive in all ways.
Hence, it was forbidden due to its all-consuming nature. It destroys all the surroundings and no other universal elements work when one uses fire magic.
It was stated very earlier in the series that every magic requires some sacrifice. It is just something like “To gain something you need to lose something.”
Thus, fire magic being the great magic also requires great sacrifice. Considering this fact, Yennefer’s friends including Tissaia were worried that they might have lost Yennefer as they failed to find her.
Thankfully, she was only kidnapped by Fringilla, a sorceress of Nelfgaard.
So, how did she get her power back?
Yennefer was shown without her magic power almost all the time in season 2. She only gained her magical power at the end of the season but how did it become possible to regain her power back? Now, finally, let’s talk about the story behind this.
After losing power, Yennefer was broken as she had to live like normal humans. We come across the part where she got the opportunity to get her power back. It was Voleth Meir, the Deathless Mother who offered her this deal in return for which Yennefer had to hand Ciri to her.
Voleth Meir is the demon that takes the form of an elderly lady but can transform into anyone according to her will. Her power increases as she feeds on pain. Later in the series, it is shown that she is a dark elf and part of the sphere named Wild Hunt.
Coming back to Yennefer, she stole Ciri from Gerald to hand over to the Deathless Mother. As soon as she realized her love for Ciri, she told all the truth to Ciri through telepathy. Ciri got angry with Yennefer as Yennefer broke her trust.
Eventually, it was shown the Deathless mother got the ultimate power as she fed upon the pain caused by the death of Francesca’s child. She possessed the physical body of Ciri. She sent her mind to the dream back to the wonderful time at Cintra palace.
Gerald and Yennefer tried many pieces of stuff to wake Ciri and bring her back into her physical body but failed.
Then, Yennefer slit her wrist as she realized Deathless Mother needed a vessel to leave Ciri’s body. Eventually, Ciri came back to her physical body resulting in Deathless Mother going into Yennefer’s body.
As suggested by Gerald, Ciri yelled to open the portal to send Yennefer to the place where the monster previously had come from. Not only Yennefer, Gerald, and Ciri too reached the sphere called Wild Hunt.
The Deathless Mother left the body of Yennefer there.
Along with that all of them encountered some fire skeleton soldiers coming toward Ciri.
Ciri quickly held the hands of both, Gerald and Yennefer and portaled back to her world.
After returning from the portal, Yennefer was surprisingly happy to discover her magical power back. Hence, Yennefer gained her power back due to the selfless sacrifice she made for Ciri.
Why did Yennefer save Ciri?
As we know already, how badly Yennefer wanted to get her power back. She was told she would get her magical power back if she handed Ciri to Deathless Mother.
Despite this, she is the one who was ready to sacrifice herself to save Ciri, why?
Yennefer gradually started to feel affection toward Ciri. She understood how valuable or how destructive she could be to this world. Hence, it is very important that she remained in safe hands.
Hence, keeping her benefits beside she protected Ciri against Voleith Meir.
Why is Ciri so special?
Ciri is the heir of Cintra. She possesses the elder blood which was once possessed by the special Elf who had great magical power. Now, this blood is very rare, hence many people are searching for Ciri. She, having the elder blood has a very special power. She can have control over dimensions. She can open the portal to the different spheres.
Hence, the monster along the different worlds also are searching for Ciri so that they could use her as the medium to open the portal and to come to this world to feed on humans.
At the end of season 2, we could observe, Gerald, requesting Yennefer to train Ciri as she hasn’t learned to control her magic. It will be Ciri who will bind Gerald and Yennefer in the upcoming seasons. So, are you excited about the upcoming seasons?
Final words,
The word sacrifice carries much power. Sorceresses have to sacrifice something to make their magic happen.
When Yennefer cast the fire magic to save Sodden Woods. Although she carried good intentions, still she broke the rule. So, she unintentionally had to sacrifice her magical power
And again, it was her selfless act of sacrifice to save Ciri, that brought her magical power back.
