"The Witcher" Season 1 shows the perspectives of the three main heroes across various timelines. The earliest of those timelines is Yennefer's, who grows up in an abusive environment due to her elvish heritage and physical appearance. When her magical abilities become apparent, Yennefer is taken to the school of Aretuza to study under the strict tutelage of Tissaia de Vries (MyAnna Buring). Though Yennefer struggles to control the balance of Chaos in her initial lessons, she soon proves that she has the potential to become a powerful sorceress.
Undergoing an intense transformation through powerful dark magic, Yennefer becomes the official sorceress of King Demavend of Aedirn. After years of service, and narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, Yennefer decides she has had enough of politics and strikes out on her own. However, none of these details are in "The Witcher" novels.
The first time the reader meets Yennefer in the books is also the first time Geralt meets her. In Sapkowski's short story, "The Last Wish," Geralt is directed to a sorceress in Rinde to help cure Dandelion, aka Jaskier (Joey Batey), from a genie's wish gone awry. The books give very little information about Yennefer prior to meeting Geralt, only alluding to the fact that she used to have a curved spine and was once a student at Aretuza. "The Witcher" showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, once spoke with TV Guide about diving into Yennefer's origin story. "I really wanted to get in and just dig into her past," said Hissrich. "I wanted to have a much fuller idea of who she was."
