What is The Witcher's Wild Hunt? | MojoPlays

The Wild Hunt Explained Welcome to Mojoplays, Let’s face it… The Witcher franchise is everywhere right now; and, so, chances are you’ve at least heard of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” and the books it’s based on. For those who love this fantasy-based franchise, the game is one of the best of its generation, the books are as good (or better) than “Game of Thrones,” and the Netflix adaptation was the best thing to happen to the streaming service in a long time. But, for those who don’t know much about The Witcher outside that it’s always being praised on the Internet, trying to jump into its story can be really overwhelming due to all the characters, factions and lore. Heck, even the title of the game can be confusing for those not in the know: The Wild Hunt? Who or what the hell is that?! Well, don’t worry Witcher noobs... We got you covered. Today we’re going to tell you just what “The Wild Hunt” actually is. In brief, The Wild Hunt is one of the many, many factions in “The Witcher 3.” It is an elite cavalry of soldiers that raids foreign worlds searching for human slaves to serve their race – the Aen Elle elves (also known as The Alder Folk) – in their capital of Tir na Lia. And, by the time we pick up its story at the beginning of “The Witcher 3,” The Hunt is actively searching for young Ciri to gain the power of her bloodline – The Elder Blood. Now, that’s the short explanation, of course; but, as you’ve probably guessed, there’s much more to this group than the few details just mentioned. So, let’s take a closer look. To really understand The Wild Hunt, we have to go way back in The Witcher timeline to the monumental Conjunction of the Spheres – an event where human and non-human worlds combined through rifts in the universe. During this time, a group of elves left their own world of Aen Seidhe and came to a new one where they wiped out its human inhabitants and created their own civilization, calling themselves the Aen Elle. This elven civilization soon thrived to the point where it needed a servant underclass to help progress society forward; and, since the elves had eliminated all the humans in this world and only unicorns remained, they were forced to explore other realms for human slaves. Therefore, the ruler at the time, King Auberon, put together a small group of soldiers for this exact purpose, led by the ruthless solider and magician General Eredin. This group was dubbed the Red Riders in their homeland due to the red capes they wore on slaving raids, and they came to be feared wherever they went, further dressed in frightening skeleton armor and using the power of projection to appear more spectral-like to terrify their prey into submission. In order to travel to far off worlds, the Red Riders used the Gate of the Worlds – a large portal to other realms – that they took from the unicorns after first establishing Aen Elle. But, the unicorns soon reclaimed this gate, and the Riders were forced to use the power of special mages called Navigators in order to travel to foreign worlds. The Navigators’ power, however, was limited in opening portals compared to the Gate of the Worlds, and thus – to maximize efficiency – the Red Riders were forced to travel to other worlds mainly in their projected, spectral form from this point onward. And, thus, the Red Riders of Aen Elle came to be known as The Wild Hunt to folks of the Continent and Northern Kingdoms because of their ghostly appearance, supernatural abilities and slaver mentality. As mentioned, The Hunt eventually turned their sights from slaving to trying to kidnap young Ciri due to the fact that she possesses The Elder Blood; but, what, you may ask, is the Elder Blood all about? Well, in an attempt to cram a lot of history into a short space, Ciri is the direct descendant of Lara Dorren. Dorren was a powerful elven sorceress whose union with a human mage created unimaginably powerful magical abilities in their offspring and descendants. She was also the daughter of King Auberon of the Aen Elle; but, over many generations, her special bloodline died off in the Elven world, and now its people want it returned by any means necessary. And, to do so, they plan on capturing Cirilla with the help of The Wild Hunt and having her mate with King Auberon to produce children who possess the Elder Blood. With this powerful bloodline returned to the Aen Elle, the elves will be able to take back the Gate of the Worlds from the unicorns and travel the universe freely once more. But… and there’s always a BUT isn’t there… With Ciri captured, and this devious plan set to unfold, King Auberon wasn’t able to mate with Ciri due to his deeply ingrained hatred for human beings. General Eredin, hearing this, concocted an aphrodisiac for the King; but, secretly wanting to be king himself, he poisoned Auberon instead – and, you guessed it – all hail Eredin, new King of the Aen Elle! Before he can mate with Ciri, however, she escapes to another world with the help of the unicorns. Wow (sigh)… that’s a lot of history! But, if you thought Eredin would just let Ciri go after becoming king, you haven’t been paying attention this whole time. Instead, he appoints a ruler in his stead, and once again leads The Wild Hunt on its search for Ciri, but this time as King of the Wild Hunt and not just a General. During this time, Eredin also appoints his two most feared generals in Imlerith and Caranthir who ride with him on this quest. Back in Aen Elle, however, a dreaded White Frost begins freezing the world and regular magic cannot stop its advance, threatening the entire Elven civilization. Therefore, the need to capture Ciri and gain access to the Elder Blood’s magic is more important than ever for the Aen Elle. The Wild Hunt figure out that the fastest way to capture Ciri is to use her guardians (in Geralt and Yennefer) as bait to lure young Cirilla into a trap, so this is exactly what they do, capturing Yennefer first. Before Ciri can get involved, however, Geralt agrees to give himself up to The Wild Hunt in order to free Yennefer, and he actually becomes a member of The Hunt for a brief period of time (under a spell of course). Yep! Geralt was actually a member of The Wild Hunt! Wild…. Eh?? But, in the end, Ciri – with her incredible magical abilities – manages to save Geralt from the Hunt’s grasp (leaving him with a severe case of amnesia in the process) before escaping to another world and leaving The Wild Hunt empty handed once again. And, this is basically where the start of “The Witcher 3” picks up, and we’ll avoid spoilers by proceeding any farther. Take a deep breath! You’ve made it to the end… And that’s the story of The Wild Hunt in a nutshell. Not complicated at all, right?! Riiiiight… So, yeah, The Witcher franchise may not be the easiest piece of entertainment to just jump into and enjoy, seeing as there are a lot of factions like The Wild Hunt with their own immense history to learn. But, it may just be one of the most rewarding stories in popular culture right now, once you dive in and learn the local flora and fauna… and history, and politics, and so on. The Wild Hunt’s history is an especially complicated one to nail down, but understanding their drives and motivations is a must for understanding the events of “The Witcher 3.” You can play through the entire game and still not know what the Wild Hunt is or what their purpose is, so we hope this video helps clarify the badass Red Riders of Aen Elle (better known as The Wild Hunt) for your next play through. And there’s no better time to start this epic game again than right now… Get at it!