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Believing she’s the queen who rules over a castle built on shards of ice, she breaks the hearts of both men she’s involved with because she’s convinced she’s incapable of being loved. “A Shard of Ice,” a short story in Sword of Destiny, introduces a rare move for a leading heroine and love interest: In the time they begin building a life together, Yennefer cheats on Geralt. This doesn’t change when she meets the love of her life, Geralt, at the end of The Last Wish. And so Yennefer never cried or showed weakness-it’s what a patriarchal world demanded of her as an expression of power, and what she demanded of herself to kill the little girl at the bottom of society’s hierarchy who wasn’t mourned by anyone.
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Tissaia de Vries, the sorceress who took Yennefer under her wing, was the first person to care about her misery, but it is as she said while bandaging her cuts: to the world, there is nothing more pathetic than a sorceress in tears. There was nobody to care about Yennefer’s heartbreak by the time she was admitted at an academy for mages. Heartbroken over her husband leaving, Yennefer’s mother began to abuse Yennefer, too. She was born a hunchback, a sin so grave to her father that he rampantly abused her until he set out and never came back for dinner. But for Yennefer, it’s been to have any semblance of power. In the Witcher world, sorceresses use magic to enhance their beauty, which they use to obtain power over easily susceptible men. She smells of lilac and gooseberries and wears lace-delicate things that contrast an interior the world has forced her to harden for survival. Since we embody Geralt in the games, we see what he’s come to see in Yennefer: a beautiful raven-haired sorceress known for her affinity in magic an assertive woman who does what she wants, regardless of the moral concern, annoyance, or anger of her lover a mother who is willing to use necromancy and inflict pain on the innocent dead to get the information she needs to find her missing daughter. As we enter a post- Game of Thrones show world and celebrate the women who ruled kingdoms, outlived their abusers and led wars, perhaps we should take a moment to appreciate Yennefer, a woman who is much more than a love interest who famously dons only black and white clothing as if in juxtaposition of all the shades of complexity within her and who is one of the most multifaceted women in not just gaming, but also fantasy stories in general. The Witcher 3 shows the person who Yennefer has become, but the experiences that shaped her are vital to understanding why she is the abrasive, divisive and cold-hearted sorceress many perceive her as. Andrzej Sapkowski published The Last Wish, the first novel of The Witcher saga, in 1993.
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However, many fans have known her for longer. Last weekend may have been most widely known as the end of Game of Thrones, but it was also the fourth anniversary of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt-which means it’s been four years since the gaming world got to know Yennefer of Vengerberg. It is the first act of love that is given to her, and for the next 90 years, it is the last. There is nothing more pathetic than a sorceress in tears,” a young girl hears as a stranger cleans the cuts on her wrists, slashes so deep they have severed her tendons. Not one is looking at us, and I’m not going to say anything to anyone. “And now…We’re here alone, without witnesses. Trigger warning: this article has mentions of self-harm and suicide.