This article is about who dies in The Witcher: Blood Origin, and so will contain major plot spoilers for all four episodes.
Set 1200 years before the events depicted in The Witcher season 1 and season 2, both streaming on Netflix along with another spin-off, the animated feature The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, The Witcher: Blood Origin is a four-part limited series that isn’t adapted directly from Andrzej Sapkowski’s books or CD Projekt Red’s games, and doesn’t feature the series’ protagonist, Geralt of Rivia. As a result of all these things it isn’t very good, but it does provide a hasty explanation for some of the key events in the franchise’s lore, including The Conjunction of the Spheres – the multi-versal cataclysm that introduced humans and monsters to The Continent – and the origins of the Witchers themselves, mutated monster-hunters given superhuman powers by an alchemical process known as The Trial of the Grasses, though admittedly known here in Blood Origin as “absolutely winging it”.
But little of this is important to us here (if you’re interested, you can check out our detailed recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4, which go over all this stuff). Instead, we’re getting a bit bloodthirsty and taking a look at which of the major characters survived the adventure, who got killed, and who – inadvertently or otherwise – ended up in a completely different corner of the continuity.
Note: This isn’t going to include minor characters like the soldiers and assassins that get chopped down by the Seven, or incidental deaths. We’re talking heroes and villains and important tertiary characters only here.
Who dies in The Witcher: Blood Origin?
The entire peace delegations for Xin’trea, Darwen, and Pryshia
This is admittedly a bit of a catch-all, but several named characters bite the bullet here, and the event, which occurs in the premiere, is the catalyst for the entire series. So, when the ad-hoc alliance of Chief Sage Balor, Merwyn, and Eredin creates a new Golden Empire by attacking a peace delegation with a giant winged monster, many important people die.
Among them is King Alvitir of Xin’Trea, who is Merwyn’s brother, King Midir of Pryshia, who we know Alvitir was planning to marry Merwyn off to, and Fjall’s sister, whose throat is slashed by Merwyn personally.
Fenrik
Balor’s apprentice is sacrificed by him as a way to transform himself with chaos magic. He had already tried a couple of human sacrifices before this, but it seems like he had to murder someone he was legitimately close to in order for the gesture to count.
Merwyn
In the final episode, Eile catches up with now-Empress Merwyn and stabs her in the gut with a dagger. She gives her a simple choice of leaving the blade embedded and potentially being saved, though having to face the consequences of what she did, or pulling it out and dying as a coward. She chooses that one.
Uthrok One-Nut and Brother Death
I’m including these two together since they both die within seconds of each other and are killed by the same person – Fjall, whose transformation into the first Witcher quickly becomes a transformation into an outright monster after he completely loses himself. He rips Uthrok clean in half and pimp-slaps Brother Death with such force that he caves his skull in.
Fjall
After being bound to the heart of a monster, it was only a matter of time for Fjall, and the final episode plays out like a race against time – can he kill Balor’s beast before he succumbs to his own transformation? As it turns out, he can, but only just, and then he very much becomes a beast himself.
After the events described above with Uthrok and Brother Death, Fjall is about to round on the rest of his allies, but Eile calms him down with her song. At his request, she fatally stabs him.
Syndril and Balor
Another twofer here, since Syndril and Balor both die at the same time during the Conjunction of the Spheres, which is caused when Syndril touches the monolith while combining his power with Balor’s. This shatters the obelisk, presumably killing them both.
What happened to Eredin?
A bonus entry, here, since Eredin doesn’t actually die, but his fate is very important to the overarching mythos of the franchise. At one point, Eredin, being blackmailed by Merwyn, teams up with the Empress to betray Balor and take control of the monoliths. However, they still need Balor to activate them. This leads to an uneasy truce and, when Balor gets an opportunity, he banishes Eredin and his men to another realm. It’s a barren place, and Eredin discovers a skeletal helm there, which he dons – the first step in becoming the leader of the Wild Hunt and the primary antagonist for the entire series.
So, that’s everyone who dies in The Witcher: Blood Origin. Did we miss anyone important? Let us know in the comments below.
