EMBARGO: The Witcher Season 2 premieres Dec. 17
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Witcher, currently available for streaming on Netflix.
The Witcher is back with Season 2, bringing with it more than just Geralt of Rivia, Ciri and Yennefer of Vengerberg. The Netflix series brings a variety of new faces -- like the witchers of Kaer Morhen -- and, more importantly to some, the multitude of new monsters they'll face, inspired both by Andrzej Sapkowski's novels and CD Projekt Red's video games. Of course, all of them feature a wholly unique design, created specifically for the hugely-successful fantasy show.
For all of those interested in some of the lore behind these creatures, which stories they feature in and how they might have been changed, we're going to go through all of the vicious monsters left behind by the Conjunction of the Spheres that feature in Season 2 of The Witcher, running through some of their most important characteristics and how closely they adhere to the creatures many might have read about in the books or faced themselves in the games. There are monsters of all kinds here: leshy, vampires, insectoids and more.
NIVELLEN
Season 2 of The Witcher adapts the short story "A Grain of Truth" from The Last Wish in the first episode. In it, Geralt encounters the cursed owner of a mysterious estate in the woods of Redania. The novel describes Nivellen as possessing a bear-like head with teeth protruding from his lower jaws, like tusks.
Nivellen was cursed to become a beast by a priestess of the Lionheaded Spider cult, until he found someone to love him truly. Aside from the fact that the Netflix series depicts Nivellen as an old friend of Geralt's, the show adapts him quite faithfully, depicting him -- like in the novels -- as a monster in more ways than one.
BRUXA
Lurking about Nivellen's estate is the vampire. The bruxa, Vereena, is a mysterious character introduced in "A Grain of Truth." She is the first vampire Geralt faces in the novels and she proves to be a formidable opponent-- possessing a powerful scream, as well as the ability to morph into a bat-like creature.
These powers and more feature prominently in Season 2 of The Witcher. The bruxa can be seen creeping around the manor in the episode "A Grain of Truth," and battling Geralt in order to keep Nivellen all to herself forever. Her connection to Nivellen, as well as the ambiguity of her past, is depicted faithfully in the Netflix series.
LESHY
While the leshen was mentioned in passing in The Last Wish, Geralt never encounters one in the novels. Season 2 of The Witcher instead appears to take inspiration from CD Projekt Red's depiction of the leshen in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, at least in appearance.
The leshen is a woodland spirit often accompanied by murders of crows and packs of wolves, as it controls fauna as well as flora. Geralt fights a leshen twice in the series, but only a control over its own roots is ever displayed. Moreover, the leshen he appears to fight is mutated, which is not something Geralt encounters elsewhere in the franchise.
MYRIAPOD
This sizeable, centipede-like monster is radically different from anything Geralt and Ciri encounter in the novels. Geralt does face a myriapod, or at least a close relative, in Sword of Destiny, when he rescues Ciri in the forest of Brokilon.
Season 2 of The Witcher takes many creative liberties with the creature. As seen in the third episode, "What is Lost," the show adds a blade-like raptorial foreleg and humanoid hands to the upper-section of the myriapod. Additionally, the head possesses two mouths, both filled with razor-sharp teeth-- a far cry from the monstrous insectoid introduced elsewhere.
ZEUGL
The tentacled, sewer-dwelling zeugl was introduced in "A Shard of Ice" in Sword of Destiny. Geralt slays one in the sewers of the small town of Aedd Gynvael. These creatures possess bulbous bodies, sharp teeth and four tentacles. The Season 2 episode "Redanian Intelligence" features a Zeugl attacking Yennefer and Cahir, as well as their elven company.
However, despite the intense attack and its consequences, the show never reveals the Zeugl, save for one brief scene showing a part of its fish-like body swimming through the murky waters of Oxenfurt's sewers. But during the attack, only its tentacles are visible, which is more or less accurate when it comes to its novel depiction.
CHERNOBOG
Unlike many of the monsters this season, the chernobog is not a monster that appears in the novels, though it is referenced in the video games in the form of the Chernobog runes. However, that is not a monster, but a deity based on Slavic folklore.
The Chernobog appears in both the fifth and sixth episodes of Season 2, "Turn Your Back" and "Dear Friend." The creature was evidently born from the mysterious stellacite-- material left from the obelisk destroyed outside Cintra. The creature possesses an almost humanoid appearance, as well as demonic wings. It is slain by Geralt with Ciri's aid, not far from Kaer Morhen.
BASILISK
Basilisks are some of the most commonly mentioned monsters throughout the Witcher novels and CD Projekt Red's video games. The monster is a draconid, but doesn't appear in the novels. At least not alive. Geralt appears in the short story "The Bounds of Reason" in Sword of Destiny, having just slain a basilisk in the region of Barefield.
Not one but three basilisks appear in Season 2 of The Witcher, slightly more akin to a cross between a bird and a snake than to a dragon, with feathers as well as reptilian scales. They possess feathered, raptor-like arms and the like, but all around it possesses a unique appearance-- distinct from what readers and even gamers might be familiar with. It's something even the witchers of Kaer Morhen suggest are against the norm.
See all of these monsters in action in Season 2 of The Witcher, now streaming on Netflix.