The Witcher’s true villain is finally unmasked at the end of Season 3. After countless misdirects and subtle hints, Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu) is revealed to have been sowing discord across the Continent. In Season 4, Vilgefortz’s misdeeds continue, and his dark power only grows. “He wants to be the one controlling the magic,” showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich tells Tudum. “He wants to be the one controlling the magic,” showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich tells Tudum. “He wants to become the strongest sorcerer  so that he can rule magic on this Continent, and beyond.”

While his villainous ways were finally exposed last season, which ended with him seemingly aligned with Nilfgaard’s emperor Emhyr (Bart Edwards), the extent of Vilgefortz’s treachery and evil ambitions is explored throughout The Witcher Season 4. Let’s dig into everything there is to know about this mysterious and manipulative mage.

Who is Vilgefortz?

The official Witcher guide provides a comprehensive description of the character: 

Handsome, tall, and mysterious, Vilgefortz is a charismatic mage with a military history. Vilgefortz looks young for a mage of his ability, honed from years spent as a mercenary. But the fact that he chose the life of a soldier despite having innate magical powers was held against him constantly by certain members of the Chapter. The Battle of Sodden Hill — a battle that might never have happened without Vilgefortz’s influence — gave him a chance to redeem himself and prove his worth. There, he was seemingly beaten in a one-to-one battle with Cahir, a soldier with no magical abilities — a feat that leads us to believe that there’s more going on than we realize.

In the aftermath of Sodden, Vilgefortz knew he had to strike while the iron was hot. So employing his talent for politics, he used the mages’ grief and anger at Nilfgaard to make a play for control. Together with Tissaia, his partner in love and politics, he is trying to steer the Brotherhood in a new direction — but he faces plenty of opposition among the old guard led by Stregobor and Artorius.

How do Geralt and Yennefer figure out Vilgefortz is the villain in Season 3? 

As Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) recall their night at the Conclave Ball in Season 3, Episode 5, they identify two important loose ends. First, Tissaia (MyAnna Buring) drops her scarlet ammonite bracelet in Stregobor’s (Lars Mikkelsen) room after the big showdown — and scarlet ammonite is only mined near the castle where Geralt finds Teryn (Frances Pooley) in Season 3, Episode 2. (And as the audience knows, Vilgefortz gave Tissaia this romantic gift.) Second, the dark magic that interfered with Yen’s portal from Redania in Season 3, Episode 4, brought her to a location depicted in a painting, “The Ship of Outcasts,” that Geralt spots in Aretuza’s Gallery of Glory — and Vilgefortz says it’s one of his favorites.

Chalotra, however, thinks Yennefer might’ve had a gut feeling about Vilgefortz’s motives all along. “I’ve always been looking at him quite odd,” Chalotra told Tudum. 

Regardless, Yen and Geralt must now reckon with Vilgefortz’s true nature — and fight back against his evil plan. “What I really want at the end of Volume 1 is to say, ‘Great, we know who our baddie is. We know no one else knows,’ ” says Schmidt Hissrich. “And what are Geralt and Yen going to do about it? How are they going to proceed?”

PHOTO BY SUSIE ALLNUTT

What happens with Vilgefortz at Aretuza in Season 3? 

First, our heroes have to deal with the battle at hand when the Redanian ships arrive in the harbor at Aretuza. Tissaia, now aware that her lover is a traitor, frees the captured mages, and they begin fighting each other. Vilgefortz opens a portal to let Francesca (Mecia Simson), Filavandrel (Tom Canton), Cahir (Eamon Farren), and a small squadron of Scoia’tael fighters into Aretuza. He also shoves Istredd through a random portal. 

Finally, Vilgefortz faces off with Geralt. The mage proves to be a fearsome competitor and leaves our hero beaten and bloody in the sand. With Geralt incapacitated, Vilgefortz chases after the powerful Ciri (Freya Allan), who is transported via a mysterious portal to the middle of a barren desert.

In the aftermath of the battle, Triss (Anna Shaffer) takes Geralt to heal in the Brokilon forest, while Tissaia feels so guilty about her relationship with Vilgefortz that she takes her own life. The remaining sorceresses — Yennefer, Triss, Sabrina (Therica Wilson-Read), Margarita (Rochelle Rose), and Keira (Safiyya Ingar) — vow to protect their magical legacy and defeat Vilgefortz once and for all, with Yen stepping into Tissaia’s role as the leader at Aretuza. 

How does Vilgefortz control the portals in Season 4, and why does it matter?

In Season 4, Episode 2, Vilgefortz creates an illusion of Yennefer that tricks Istredd (Royce Pierreson) into decoding how to block portals using elven magic from the Book of Monoliths. The mages use portals to travel through time and space; by cutting off their access, Vilgefortz controls an important part of the mages’ magical abilities, bringing him closer to being the “strongest sorcerer on the Continent,” as Schmidt Hissrich puts it. 

Vilgefortz has commandeered the portals with a specially designed room inside Stygga Castle, which houses a pool encircled by monoliths. Rogue mages, held captive by Vilgefortz, are forced to stand within the circle, where their chaos magic — their life force — is drained to power the portal network, making Vilgefortz even more powerful. As the season progresses, Vilgefortz becomes increasingly brutal, murdering his followers when they fail him, and his body shows damage from the magic he wields.

The portals are restored in Episode 6, when Fringilla (Mimî M. Khayisa), secretly working against Vilgefortz from within his ranks, and Istredd band together to undermine Vilgefortz’s control during the Battle of Montecalvo. Sacrificing himself by reciting a little-known but powerful spell from the Book of Monoliths, Istredd decimates the portal room — but not before he makes Fringilla promise to destroy the Book of Monoliths so Vilgefortz can’t exploit its secrets.

What happens at the Battle of Montecalvo?

To combat Vilgefortz’s growing power, Yen teams up with the other mages, including Philippa (Cassie Clare), with whom she’s never been aligned before. The group convenes at Montecalvo, the mountaintop castle Philippa calls home. After torturing Fringilla for the group’s location, Vilgefortz penetrates the citadel using the portals now under his control. Fringilla musters the strength to warn Yennefer, Philippa, Triss, and the others, and they prepare for a fight to defend magic. 

Hissrich calls the battle that ensues “a complete rebirth for our characters,” and Khayisa says it feels like one of the most emotional battles we’ve seen so far in The Witcher — because of the tragedy Vilgefortz has already wrought and because of what’s at stake. “In the battle we had last year, we lost our rectoress, [Tissaia]. She was killed [in] the aftermath of what happened with Vilgefortz,” Khayisa explains. “All of us sorceresses are just out for blood. … He wants Yen, so it’s about us coming together for that cause.”

After breaking through the shield held by the novices, Vilgefortz and his army of rogue mages enter Montecalvo. He goes head-to-head with Yennefer, who distracts him with a magical image of Tissaia as a magical ruse to distract him. Thinking he has bested Yen, Vilgefortz reveals his plan to burn down Montecalvo with forbidden fire magic, which gives Philippa a chance to reach the old water tower and open the valve. The mages put Vilgefortz’s flame out, and Yennefer keeps his attack at bay until Istredd restores the portals, and the witches begin using them in their fight against Vilgefortz. Though wounded, his network shattered, Vilgefortz escapes Montecalvo and remains a threat.

PHOTO BY SUSIE ALLNUTT

Why is Vilgefortz so obsessed with Ciri?

As established in Season 2, Ciri is of Elder Blood, which means she’s especially powerful. Because Vilgefortz wants to be the most powerful mage on the Continent, he wants Ciri’s magic. So he  provides Emhyr with Teryn, a novice mage magically turned Ciri decoy, allowing Vilgefortz to pursue the real Ciri in secret.

In Season 4, Episode 3, after discovering that Vilgefortz’s “Ciri” isn’t really his daughter, Emhyr confronts the mage, and Vilgefortz tells him, “Cirilla is far greater than you. Power like hers could never be yours. She will, however, be mine.” Emhyr responds that because Ciri is his family, she belongs with him, and he’ll protect her from “those who would use her to secure their own fortunes.” But the mage snaps back, “And you would not?” and points out that he has given Emhyr all he needs to expand his rule across the Continent, but clearly, Emhyr still desires control over its most powerful magic, which lies with Ciri.

Then, in Episode 5, Cahir tells Geralt how he first came to work for Emhyr: “Years ago, Vilgefortz convinced Emhyr that his destiny rests on the fulfillment of Ithlinne’s prophecy.” Through this tale, Geralt learns that Emhyr is Ciri’s biological father and is now trying to marry her and have a child. 

After Vilgefortz divulges his intentions to burn down Montecalvo during the epic battle in Episode 6, Yennefer knocks him unconscious with a spell. As he lies on the floor, she infiltrates his mind to find out what exactly he wants with her daughter. Delving into Vilgefortz’s mind, Yen sees a screaming Ciri in stirrups, blood pouring from between her legs. The image then flashes to the gruesome scene from The Witcher Season 1, Episode 3, in which Yennefer gives up her ability to bear children to address her physical deformities. This vision acts as a magical defense, weaponizing Yennefer’s trauma to force her out of Vilgefortz’s mind. However, it also reveals his plan — to steal Ciri’s powers through a similarly brutal ritual. Despite Yennefer’s intervention, Vilgefortz vanishes into the shadows, a chilling reminder that the danger to Ciri, and to all magic, is growing.

Watch the next chapter unfold. All four seasons of The Witcher are streaming now, only on Netflix.

Additional reporting by Ariana Romero and Olivia Harrison.