Are Witcher's Wild Hunt Undead? Why They Look Like Skeletons
The finale of The Witcher season 2 introduced the Wild Hunt, a group of specters who are now going after Ciri too, but what are they and why do they look like skeletons? One of the most extensive and rich universes in the fantasy genre is that of The Witcher, created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which started as a series of short stories and novels and became widely known thanks to its video game adaptations. The Witcher’s popularity is now growing thanks to its TV adaptation on Netflix, which is raising a lot of questions about some of the books and video games’ biggest characters.
Netflix’s The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), whose paths converged towards the end of season 1 after following them through different places and points in time. The Witcher season 2 finally saw Geralt and Ciri together as they traveled to Kaer Morhen, where Ciri was trained, while Yennefer struggled on her own and eventually joined the witcher and the princess. The Witcher season 2 ended with a huge reveal, as it introduced the Wild Hunt, and even though they were briefly shown, it was enough to make an impact on the audience thanks to their spectral appearance.
The Wild Hunt are a group of specters galloping in the sky and described by common folk as a cavalcade of wraiths on undead horses flying across the sky and serving as an omen of war. Although the Wild Hunt have a spectral look and look like skeletons giving the idea of them being undead, they are not specters and are definitely not undead. The Wild Hunt are actually Aen Elle elves from Tir ná Lia, and the skeletons are part of their look to look more threatening, as their mission is to invade other worlds to get young humanoids to serve as their slaves.
The elves got access to the Gate of the Worlds, through which they could access all possible worlds to invade and destroy as they pleased, and so the elven king Auberon Muircetach created a cavalry unit with the purpose of invading other worlds and getting slaves. This cavalry was named Dearg Ruadhri or Red Riders, and were led by General Eredin Bréacc Glas. In order to intimidate the locals, the Riders wore skeletal armor and only rode black horses, though they sometimes also used a ship known as Naglfar, said to be able to float in the sky. The Riders also used projections to appear more spectral, making way for the legends of the Red Riders being a group of specters galloping through the sky. However, the elves lost access to the Gate and were only able to partially recover it, so their traveling methods had to change. The Riders had to enhance their spectral projections to the point where they only traveled in this form and used their corporeal form only when necessary, but they were still able to get a bunch of slaves in their spectral form.
Traveling in spectral form also made their appearance even more terrifying, and that was when the Red Riders earned a more fitting name: the Wild Hunt. Like many other characters in Netflix’s The Witcher, the Wild Hunt are now going after Ciri for her Elder Blood, which is one of the most controversial storylines in The Witcher. The Wild Hunt will be a big presence in The Witcher season 3, and unfortunately for Ciri, they won’t be the only enemies she will have to run away from, as the White Flame/Emhyr var Emreis and the elves (led by Francesca) are also looking for her.