Varun Patel
Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ has impressed viewers with its non-stereotypical and non-simplified approach to Sapkowski’s fantasy story. There is no narration or extra-long introduction at the beginning of the series to spoon-feed the viewers with information about the fictional world. Moreover, bits of information are also not given to the readers by way of explanatory and unnatural dialogues. Instead, the series shows its story rather than telling it and the writers have done a brilliant job in not making it overly confusing while maintaining interest at the same time. Although, one of the things that viewers must have thought about is the age of Geralt of Rivia.
There is no direct way of answering that since Henry Cavill can easily pass off as a middle-aged man, a man in his twenties or just a really good-looking older man as well. The fact that his hair has no pigment and is completely white as a result of his mutation does not help the case either. While the story jumps back and forth in time considerably, Geralt seems to remain exactly the same physically.
Most of his monster-killing adventures take place before the fall of Cintra while the larger narrative involving Ciri takes place after the kingdom’s loss to the Nilfgaardian army. In both the narrative arcs, Geralt does not seem to have aged at all. So, how old is he really? Well, there is no clear or definitive answer to that. But we can place a reasonable guess based on the books and the video-games which are adapted from the same source material. But we must first take a look at the aging of Witchers in general.
How long do Witchers live?
Witchers are depicted to be super-skilled and mutated human beings with superhuman skills and abilities that help them in their profession. All of them undergo a severe training regime to become who they are. One of the procedures of this training includes the infamous Trial of Grasses, where only 3 out of 10 prospective Witchers survive. Under this procedure, they undergo high levels of mutation and their rates of metabolism are considerably enhanced to accommodate their abilities. They gain impeccable vision, immunity, reflexes, strength, agility and endurance.
Their aging process slows down considerably, too. The books mention how Witchers live slightly longer than humans due to their slower aging process. Moreover, they are more immune to diseases and injuries as well. This helps them fight deadly monsters better than their human counterparts. However, there is no information regarding their maximum lifespan. This is because no Witcher has ever died out of natural causes. All of them have been slain in combat. Hence, we do not know what age they can live up to naturally without any external force causing their death.
Unveiling Geralt of Rivia’s Age: A Witcher Mystery
Many fan theories have pointed out that Geralt is anywhere between 80 to 90 years old at the end of Sapkowski’s stories. This is not really a definitive answer backed by explicitly stated facts mentioned in the original source material. However, if we are to take this logic, we can probably speculate Geralt’s age at the start of the series to be anywhere between 50-60 years since Ciri is depicted to be in her twenties at the end of Sapkowski’s stories.
It must be noted that we are referring to Geralt’s adventures before the fall of Cintra when we refer to the “start of the series.” We made the educated guess above since Geralt’s adventures with Jaskier are depicted to have occurred not too long before the fall of Cintra in the Netflix series. Moreover, it is during this timeline that he goes to Cintra during Pavetta’s betrothal. This is the time when he discovers that Pavetta is pregnant with Ciri, and her baby is his child’s surprise. Then, at the end of the season, Ciri is shown to be in her pre-teens. Thus, by that logic, we can say that Geralt is anywhere between 50 and 60 years old, “at the start of the series.” But again, that is just speculation, and we might never get an exact answer to it.
Read More: How Are Witchers Made, Explained
