‘The Witcher’ Season 2: How Istredd’s Theory About the Monoliths and Spheres Tie Back to Ciri
The Witcher Season 2 has done a seemingly good job so far of explaining how Ciri is at the center of all the chaos that is going on in the Continent. While the origin of Ciri’s powers has been explored and answered, there is still the mystery of how far they go. Geralt enlists the help of Istredd to investigate the monolith Ciri destroyed in The Witcher Season 1.
Istredd theorizes the monoliths, the convergence, and the spheres are all connected due to one power source. The finale of The Witcher Season 2 proves Istredd’s theory is accurate.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Witcher Season 2.]
What caused Ciri to destroy a monolith in ‘The Witcher’ Season 1?
When Cintra is infiltrated by Nilfgaard in season 1 of the series, Ciri tries t escape with one of her grandmother’s loyal knights. But Cahir kills him and takes Ciri. As they leave toward the forest, Ciri sees a burning Cintra. Filled with rage, tension, fear, and more, Ciri uses a powerful scream to escape. Her scream causes the monolith to break and the earth to split open.
The event is never again explained or looked into for the rest of the season. The truth of its importance is revealed in The Witcher Season 2. In episode 4, Triss performs an exam to see if the monster Geralt killed was a mutation.
The test instead shows something bizarre, stellacite. Geralt becomes intrigued since stellacite comes from a monolith and was found inside the Leshy that killed Eskel. Ciri tries to explain what happened at Cintra and gets a vision of an unknown terrain with a monolith when she touches the stellacite.
When she wakes up, she tells Geralt and Triss she toppled the monolith. But Triss explains it impossible and Geralt ventures out to find the answer.
Istredd believes the monoliths are a gateway in ‘The Witcher’ Season 2
To help Geralt find the answers, Triss sends him to Istredd. Istredd is an expert on monoliths and explains the one outside of Cintra is the oldest in existence. According to The Witcher’s official Netflix site, “Monoliths are an “inexplicable phenomenon” – enormous pillars of obsidian stone scattered across the continent. Scholars study them, but don’t yet know who created them.”
Geralt explains to Istredd it fell and his theory of a subspecies of monsters living in the subterranean and are now free. Visiting the site of the event, Istredd has a new theory.
Monoliths were believed to be points of impact during the Conjunction and were leftover. But Istredd now thinks differently. Monsters only existed on the Continent after the separate spheres converged into one. Istredd believes in order for an event to occur, it needs a conduit and a power surge.
His theory is that the monoliths are not points of impact but conduits or a gateway. His theory about the monoliths is proven true in The Witcher Season 2 finale with Ciri.
Ciri shows the extent of her powers in the season finale
By the final episode of The Witcher Season 2, Ciri has been possessed by The Deathless Mother, AKA Voleth Meir. Seeing as Ciri holds immense power, Voleth Meir uses Ciri’s scream to conjure a monolith in the main hall at Kaer Morhen.
From the monolith opens a portal to another world and two subspecies monsters emerge. Istredd’s theory is true. Ciri’s scream is a power surge while the monoliths are the gateway to another sphere. It explains why Ciri broke the monolith in the first season and why new monsters emerged from the crack.
When Yennefer traps Voleth Meir in her body, Ciri transports them to an unknown realm. The same realm Ciri saw in her vision when she touched the stellacite. Ciri’s powers have the ability to enter the other spheres.
