The Witcher: Curse of The Black Sun Explained In Detail
In the Witcher books, a Curse of The Black Sun is talked about, which can afflict many characters in the Witcher World.
The Witcher Series, released on Netflix, has become quite a popular topic for discussion. Two of its season has been released, and the third is on its way. The Witcher franchise is expanding, and not only another season but a spin-off prequel and an animation film are given the green light. The fans’ levels of excitement are increasing day by day with new updates from the franchise.
It started with a few stories and novels about a character, Geralt of Rivia, who is a monster hunter. Given birth by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish author, the witcher books are still in demand. The video games and card games were created for the world, as for some of them, the books weren’t enough. And now, an English version of the book is released via series on Netflix by Lauren S. Hissrich.
In the witcher books and video games, a curse of the Black Sun is mentioned at a great length, which talks about a particular eclipse that can be responsible for the end of the Witcher World. Till now, the only apocalypse that can hurt the Continent is the fulfillment of Ithlinne’s Prophecy, but there is another legendary Curse, which might get included in the future seasons of The Witcher Series.
The Black Sun Curse states that any girl who is born during the solar eclipse would turn into a cruel creature. A powerful and legendary mage, Eltibald prophesized that sixty girls born during Black Sun’ eclipse’ would turn into cruel creatures and end human civilization. The transformation of the girl into a cruel creature would bring the return of the goddess Lilit and end the world.
If you remember, in the Witcher Season 1, released in December 2019, Geralt, the Witcher, met a girl named Renfri, who later mentions that she was born during the Black Sun. The wizard, Stregobor, then called Geralt to kill that girl as she was a cruel creature. However, Geralt doesn’t understand the need to kill Renfri, but she dies anyway at the hands of Geralt.
The Witcher: The Ravings of Mage Eltibald
The Curse of Black Sun is also called the Mania of Mad Eltibald, as the mage Eltibald was the one to prophesize this event. As the legend goes, Eltibald was researching the ancient traditions and mythologies of old races which have walked the Witcher Continent before. After a lot of investigation, the mage came to a conclusion that when the time of the solar eclipse, sixty girls were born and transformed; these girls would be called ‘contaminated’ as they definitely would end the whole world.
The transformation of sixty girls into cruel creatures would lead to the return of the goddess Lilit, who is a powerful demon still worshiped by the people living in the East. The first book, The Last Wish, by Sapkowski, mentioned that those sixty young girls would make way for a demon goddess. It is said that “sixty women wearing gold crowns, who would fill the river valleys with blood.” So what Stregobor did, was a way for people to protect themselves from these cursed creatures or the fulfillment of the curse.
Of Towers, Damsels, And Self-fulfilling Prophecies
In Witcher Season 1, one man who took any kind of action against this curse is a wizard named Stregobor. In the Witcher, his reputation was that of a powerful mage and an illusionist; however, he enjoyed the pleasures of the reason for a particular curse, Black Sun. Stregobor was a true believer of Eltibald’s prophecy and took considerable actions to not make it true.
Stregobor, at that time, was a member of The Brotherhood of Sorcerers, so he asked his fellow mages to capture these young cursed girls. As a result, many of the young girls were taken away from their families and imprisoned in the towers. Because of Stregobor’s inclination toward research on this topic, he used to experiment on the captured girls. Many of them died because of Stregobor’s harsh testing methods, but he could find any evidence pointing to the legitimacy of the Black Sun Curse.
Renfri Form The Witcher Books
The harsh environment of Stregobor wasn’t quite secure, as some of those girls managed to escape their own. Due to the cruel experiments done on those young girls, when they managed to escape did cruel things to others. One of the young girls was Renfri, a character shown on Netflix in the Witcher Season 1.
In the Witcher book, The Last Wish, the character, Renfri, was introduced as a daughter of a kind king. The family she was born into treated her with plenty of love and care, but the new stepmother stated that Renfri was dangerous. The mother sent Stregobor to investigate, and it turned out she was born during the Black Sun.
The mage, Stregobor, wanted to experiment on her, but the mother immediately hired a thug to kill Renfri. Instead of killing her, the thug robbed and abused Renfri, but she managed to kill him instead. When she escaped, her stepmother sent assassins to kill her. Eventually, Renfri crossed paths with Stregobor and vowed to kill him. At that time, she met Geralt, who was called by Stregobor to kill Renfri. However, Geralt chose lesser evil and killed her because she was killing the people of that town one by one.
Sylvia Anna of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Another character born under the Black Sun, mentioned in the Witcher books and video-game is Sylvia Anna. Also known as Syanna, she is the Duchess of Toussaint’s older sister. Syanna and Anarietta used to play pranks on the people of Toussaint, but only Syanna was considered a bad apple. One day a prank of theirs went too far, and when it came to punishment, Syanna was penalized, and Anarietta didn’t say a word.
As Syanna’s punishment, her title and birthright were taken away, and a group of knights was given orders to take her to the outskirts of Toussaint. However, the knights did more by insulting her, denying her food, and abusing her. In the end, they left Syanna in the wilderness without a coin to her name, and she was in ragged clothes. Syanna swore that she would never forget the way knights treated her, which led up to the events of The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC.
Both of the young girls’ stories mentioned above, Renfri and Syanna, are self-fulfilling prophecies, as they could’ve grown to be kind people, but by being treated so horribly, they transformed into cruel creatures. As in Syanna’s exact words, “You wanted a monster? Then a monster you shall get.”
