Chronological order of The Witcher

Posted by Michał ‘mina86’ Nazarewicz on 11th of December 2022

Ever since Witcher games took off the franchise skyrocketed in popularity. Books, comics, TV show, games, more comics, another TV show… The story of Geralt and his marry company has been told in so many ways that it’s becoming a wee bit hard to keep track of chronology of all the events; especially across different forms of media.

In this article I’ve collected all official Witcher works ordering them in chronological order. To avoid any confusion, let me state up front that if you’re new to the franchise or haven’t read the books yet this list might not be for you. If you’re looking for the order to read the books in, I’ve prepared a separate article which describes that.

Skip right to the chronology

Canons

This compilation includes the following works:

Books refers to the main story as written by Andrzej Sapkowski in the short stories and novels.
CDPR denotes canon of the video games released by CD Projekt Red. It’s largely consistent with the books. This category includes games, comic books published by Dark Horse and cinematics set in game’s continuum.
Netflix is continuity of the Netflix TV series and all related spin-offs.
P&P indicates Polish comic books by Bogusław Połch and Maciej Parowski. Except for a single issue (‘Zdrada’), the comics are faithful adaptations of respective short stories.
Hexer refers to the Polish TV series Wiedźmin released in 2002.

Netflix

Regarding Netflix show. The first season presents split timelines. Each episode can have up to three arcs for each of the main characters: Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer. Stories for each person are presented in chronological order throughout the season, however events between the timelines don’t line up. For example, the second episode shows Yennefer in the year 1206, Geralt in 1240 and Ciri in 1263.

The episodes of the main series are given using SnnEmm notation (indicating episode mm of season nn) rather than using their titles. Furthermore, episodes of the first season have name of the character in parenthesise indicating whose arc the entry refers to. For example, the second episode has three separate entries S01E02 (Yen), S01E02 (Geralt) and S01E02 (Ciri).

Dates of the events in Netflix show are taken from its official website.

Disclaimer

It’s important to note that dates and chronology aren’t always consistent even within a single canon. A common example is Ciri’s date of birth which can be interpreted differently based on different parts of the books.

Furthermore, because of episodic nature of some of the stories, it’s not always possible to order them in relation to other events. For example, A Grain of Truth could take place pretty much at any point in Geralt’s life.

In some cases of ambiguity regarding books and CDPR timelines, I’ve resorted to looking at Witcher fandom wiki.

Lastly, dates between canons aren’t consistent. For example, Geralt and Yennefer meet in 1248 in the books but in 1256 in the Netflix show. The compilation orders entries by ‘events’ rather than by dates.

The chronology

To distinguish different forms of media (books, games, shows etc) the following icons are used next to the titles to identify what they refer to:

📜 — short story / 📕 — novel / 🖌 — comic book
🕹 — video game / 📱 — mobile game / 🎲 — board game or TTRPG
📺 — television series / ア — animated film / 🎥 — cinematic trailer

Clicking on canon name in the table’s header allows filtering rows by canon.

Canon					Title	Year	Notes
Books	CDPR	Netflix	P&P	Hexer	Title	Year	Notes
		✓			The Witcher: Blood Origin 📺	3
	✓				GWENT: Rogue Mage 🕹	950s	Takes place ‘hundreds of years before […] witchers were roaming the Continent’. There’s also accompanying (official?) Alzur’s Story.
	✓				The Witcher: A Witcher’s Journal 🎲
	✓				Witcher: Old World 🎲
		✓			Nightmare of the Wolf ア	1107–1109	Beginning of the film takes place decades before Geralt’s birth.
?					A Road with No Return 📜		It’s arguably non-canon with the main connection being one of the main character having the same name as Geralt’s mother.
			✓		Droga bez powrotu 🖌		Adaptation of ‘A Road with No Return’ with a slightly different title.
		✓			Nightmare of the Wolf ア	1165	By the end of the film Geralt is five years old.
				✓	E01: Dzieciństwo 📺		Depicts Geralt at seven years old.
			✓		Zdrada 🖌		The story happens with Geralt still training at Kaer Morhen.
				✓	E02: Nauka 📺		Depicts Geralt’s graduation from Kaer Morhen.
				✓	E03: Człowiek – pierwsze spotkanie 📺		Takes place immediately after Geralt’s graduation. Contains minor elements of ‘The Lesser Evil’ and ‘The Voice of Reason’.
	✓				The Witcher: Crimson Trail 📱		The game takes place soon after Geralt finishes his training.
		✓			S01E02 (Yen) 📺	1206
		✓			S01E03 (Yen) 📺	1210
✓	✓				A Grain of Truth 📜🖌
✓			✓		The Lesser Evil 📜🖌
	✓				House of Glass 🖌		Geralt speaks of lack of emotions, friends or love which makes me things this happens before The Edge of the World.
		✓			S01E01 (Geralt) 📺	1231	Based on ‘The Lesser Evil’.
	?				The Price of Neutrality 🕹	1232	Part of ‘The Witcher: Enhanced Edition’. Based on ‘The Lesser Evil’. The story is told by Dandelion which may be considered unreliable narrator.
✓					The Edge of the World 📜	1248	Geralt and Jaskier meet for the first time.
		✓			S01E02 (Geralt) 📺	1240	Based on ‘The Edge of the World’.
		✓			S01E04 (Yen) 📺	1240
		✓			S01E03 (Geralt) 📺	1243	Based on ‘The Witcher’.
		✓			S01E04 (Geralt) 📺	1249	Based on ‘A Question of Price’.
✓			✓		The Last Wish 📜🖌	1248	Geralt and Yennefer meet for the first time.
		✓			S01E05 (Geralt & Yen) 📺	1256	Based on ‘The Last Wish’.
✓					Season of Storms 📕	ca. 1250	1245 according to the date in the book but that’s inconsistent in relation to other books. Note that the interlude and epilogue occur after the events of the saga.
	✓				Fox Children 🖌		Based on chapters 14–15 of Season of Storms.
✓					A Question of Price 📜	1251
✓	✓				The Witcher 📜🎥	1252
			✓		Geralt 🖌	1252	Adaptation of ‘The Witcher’ under a different title.
✓					The Voice of Reason 📜	1252
	?				Side Effects 🕹	1253	Part of ‘The Witcher: Enhanced Edition’ set one year after ‘The Witcher’ short story. The story is told by Dandelion which may be considered unreliable narrator.
✓			✓		The Bounds of Reason 📜🖌	1253
		✓			S01E06 (Geralt & Yen) 📺	1262	Based on ‘The Bounds of Reason’.
				✓	E04: Smok 📺		Based on ‘The Bounds of Reason’.
✓					A Shard of Ice 📜
				✓	E05: Okruch lodu 📺		Based on ‘A Shard of Ice’.
				✓	E06: Calanthe 📺		Based on ‘A Question of Price’.
✓					The Eternal Fire 📜
				✓	E07: Dolina Kwiatów 📺		Based on ‘The Eternal Fire’ and ‘The Edge of the World’.
✓					A Little Sacrifice 📜
✓					The Sword of Destiny 📜	1262
	✓				Reasons of State 🖌	1262	Story happens just after Geralt saves Ciri from the Brokilon dryads.
✓					Something More 📜	1264
		✓			S01E07 (Geralt) 📺	1263
		✓			S01E07 (Yen) 📺	1263
		✓			S01E01-07 (Ciri) 📺	1263	Episode 4 based on ‘The Sword of Destiny’. Episode 7 based on ‘Something More’.
		✓			S01E08 📺	1263	Based on ‘Something More’. In this episode all timelines converge.
				✓	E08: Rozdroże 📺		Based on ‘The Witcher’ with elements from ‘The Voice of Reason’ and ‘Something More’.
				✓	E09: Świątynia Melitele 📺		Contains elements of ‘The Voice of Reason’.
				✓	E10: Mniejsze zło 📺		Based on ‘The Lesser Evil’.
				✓	E11: Jaskier 📺		Contains elements of ‘The Lesser Evil’.
				✓	E12: Falwick 📺
				✓	E13: Ciri 📺		Contains elements of ‘Something More’.
		✓			S02E01 📺	1263–1264	Based on ‘A Grain of Truth’.
✓					Blood of Elves 📕	1265–1267
		✓			S02E02-08 📺	1263–1264	Based on ‘Blood of Elves’ and parts of ‘Time of Contempt’.
		✓			S03 📺	1264	Based on ‘Blood of Elves’ and ‘Time of Contempt’.
✓					Time of Contempt 📕	1267
✓					Baptism of Fire 📕	1267
✓					The Tower of the Swallow 📕	1267–1268
✓					Lady of the Lake 📕	1268
	✓				Thronebreaker: Witcher Stories 🕹	1267–1268	The game takes place concurrently to the saga. Chapters 1–2 happen concurrently to chapters 4–5 of ‘Time of Contempt’. Chapter 3 happens around chapter 3 and chapter 4 happens concurrently with chapter 7 of ‘Baptism of Fire’. Chapter 5 happens concurrently with chapters 6–8 and epilogue happens before chapter 9 of ‘Lady of the Lake’.
✗					Something Ends, Something Begins 📜		Non-canon even though written by Sapkowski.
	✓				The Witcher 🕹	1270	Dates as given in the games even though it is supposed to take place five years after the saga. To be aligned with the books, add three years.
	✓				The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 🕹	1271
	✓				The Witcher Adventure Game 🕹🎲
	✓				The Witcher Tabletop RPG 🎲
	✓				Matters of Conscience 🖌	1271	Happens after Geralt deals with Letho. Assumes Iorveth path and dragon being spared.
	✓				Killing Monsters 🖌		Happens as Geralt travels with Vesemir just before Witcher 3.
	✓				Killing Monsters 🎥
	✓				The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 🕹	1272
	✓				Hearts of Stone 🕹
	✓				Fading Memories 🖌		This could be place at any point in the timeline.
	✓				Curse of Crows 🖌		Assumes Ciri becoming a witcher and romance with Yennefer.
	✓				Of Flesh and Flame 🖌		Directly references events of Hearts of Stone.
	✓				Blood and Wine 🕹	1275
	✓				A Night to Remember 🎥		Shows the same character as one in ‘Blood and Wine’ expansion.^citation
	✓				Witch’s Lament 🖌
	✗				The Witcher: Ronin 🖌		Alternate universe inspired by Edo-period Japan.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to acbagel for providing further information on Reddit and in comments below.