Is Fjall the First Witcher, or Is He a Hybrid? (& Why Did He Become a Monster?)

When The Witcher: Blood Origin was announced, one of the things that we learned was that the series was going to explore the events that helped shape the future of the Continent 1,200 years ago when the elves were still the dominant beings living in this world. We also learned that the series was going to explore the creation of the first Witcher, and that was what we saw when Fjall was turned into a hybrid between an elf and a monster so that they could fight Balor’s beast. But was Fjall really the first Witcher?

Fjall was more of a prototype than an actual Witcher. That’s because, while he did have some of the qualities of a Witcher, he was more beast than anything else. As such, the process used to transform him was probably perfected by humans years later to create the first Witchers.

Of course, Fjall did show qualities that allowed us to see why he was said to be the first Witcher, but he was not a Witcher as far as we know when we look at the likes of Geralt and Vesemir. In many ways, he was more likely the first mutant that was strong enough to take on a beast. As such, it was most likely his transformation that allowed humans to create the true first Witcher years later.

Was Fjall The First Witcher?

One of the things that we learned when we heard that there was going to be a prequel story to The Witcher that was set to be released was that this storyline was going to tell the origin of the Witcher, among all of the other things that it told. Entitled The Witcher: Blood Origin, the series focused on the events surrounding the Continent 1,200 years before the mainline story of The Witcher. And while there were a lot of things that happened in that story, Blood Origin allowed us to see the creation of what is said to be the first Witcher.

What happened was that Fjall Stoneheart, the mightiest warrior of the Dog Clan, decided to become the guinea pig of what was an experiment that would have allowed him to have the strength and physical capabilities to match the power of Balor’s beast, which was what the Seven feared the most. In that regard, Syndril and Zacaré worked together to use the heart of a beast that they found in a separate dimension as a way for them to concoct an elixir that was meant to make Fjall a hybrid between an elf and a monster so that he would have the strength necessary to fight another monster.

Of course, while the results were successful, the thing is that the product was sort of different from what we are used to in the mainline events of The Witcher, the books, or even the video games. Instead, Fjall did indeed become a hybrid of an elf and an otherworldly beast that allowed him to have increased strength, speed, and better senses. The term “Witcher” was never used to describe him, but he did show qualities that were similar to a Witcher. Still, there was something different from him.

The first thing that made him different was the fact that he was able to increase his body mass to essentially become a Hulked-out version of an Elf, as Fjall became strong enough to defeat Balor’s monster and even rip an entire man apart. We’ve seen Geralt and the other Witchers display increased strength and physical attributes, but they were never strong enough to perform what Fjall did.

On top of that, one of the things that we know about the Witchers is that, aside from their enhanced physical attributes and senses, they have limited magical capabilities that allow them to become combinations of man, monster, and mage. That is why they are called mutants, as they have to take Mutagens that transform them into Witchers during a process called the Trial of the Grasses.

But Fjall had no magical capabilities whatsoever, as he was more of a beast than a warrior. He lost all of the skills that he had before he became this hybrid entity, as he was more of a wild animal that killed everything he saw. On top of that, he even lost control over his own emotions and instincts—something that we’ve never seen from Geralt.

In that regard, what we do believe is that Fjall’s version might be “the first Witcher” as far as attempts to create a hybrid are concerned. But he isn’t a Witcher when it comes to the strict sense of what a Witcher is, especially when compared to the likes of Geralt and Vesemir. We do believe that Fjall’s transformation was more of a prototype than anything else because it allowed the world to see that it was indeed possible to create a hybrid between a man and a monster.

Why Did Fjall Turn Into A Monster?

Of course, as mentioned, one of the things that made Fjall different from a normal Witcher was the fact that he became a monster that Hulked out and started killing everything he saw. This was never something we saw from Geralt or any of the other Witchers. So, why did Fjall turn into a monster?

It is possible that Fjall turned into a monster because the process that was used to create him involved using the heart of an otherworldly monster. Of course, when you fuse a person with the heart and essence of a monster, then there’s no reason to believe why that person has no chance of becoming a monster as well. And we also saw that the process that allowed Fjall to turn into a hybrid was different from the one that Vesemir wanted to perform on Ciri in season 2 of The Witcher.

Back in season 2, Vesemir realized that Ciri’s blood had the ingredient that would have allowed him to create a new Mutagen that could be used to create more Witchers, as the process of creating Witchers was lost to them years ago during the events of Nightmare of the Wolf. In that regard, the key ingredient here is Elder Blood. On the other hand, the key ingredient used in Blood Origin was a monster’s heart.

Because Elder Blood contains magic, it is easy to see why the Witchers are capable of performing magic as well. On the other hand, because a monster’s heart was used to turn Fjall into a hybrid, he had the ability to turn into a monster instead.

How is Fjall Relevant To The Witchers?

At this point, we are leaning toward the possibility that Fjall was never meant to be a true Witcher in the strict sense of what a Witcher is. But we do believe that his existence and transformation are the blueprints that allowed the world to see that it was possible to give the attributes of a monster or another being to an elf or a human. And the death of Syndril in Blood Origin could mean that the process was lost to the elves until humans found it after they conquered the elves on the Continent.

What we are saying here is that it might have been possible that the same process was used, but different ingredients were utilized to create a Witcher, and that’s why none of the Witchers turned out to be similar to what Fjall became. The human mages that probably came across Syndril’s research saw the potential to use the process to create something that wasn’t entirely monstrous but had the strength and magical capabilities that allowed them to fight monsters on par.

As such, Fjall’s transformation was more likely a prototype, albeit a different and failed one, that allowed mages to see that creating a hybrid was possible. And that was what most likely led to the experiments of human mages to create the true first Witcher.