(1/11/20): The official Witcher series site now has a detailed map of The Continent as well as a scroll-able timeline featuring notable world events and character moments from the show!



A quick crash course in the multiple timelines of The Witcher. #TheWitcher pic.twitter.com/qdBVq7ih7R — NX (@NXOnNetflix) January 7, 2020

Every Monster in Season 1 of Netflix's The Witcher 12 IMAGES

1160: 103 Years Before Cintra Falls: Geralt Born

1206: 57 Years Before the Fall of Cintra: Yennefer Goes to School

1231: 32 Years Before Cintra Falls: The Butcher of Blaviken

1243: 20 Years Before Cintra Falls: The Striga Curse

1249: 14 Years Before Cintra Falls: Geralt's Child of Surprise

1256: 7 Years Before Cintra Falls: The Last Wish

1262: One Year Before Cintra Falls: The Golden Dragon

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The Witcher Year 1263: Cintra Falls

Two Weeks After Cintra's Fall: Ciri's Survival

Two Weeks After the Fall of Cintra: The Battle of Sodden Hill

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The dates below have been updated to reflect the timeline given on this site.(1/7/20): NX On Netflix, which is Netflix's official "home of everything super, sci-fi, the fantastic, and beyond," has posted an official guide to The Witcher's timeline. Check it out...The dates below have been updated to reflect the timeline given on this infographic.: With only eight episodes in its first season, Netflix's The Witcher still managed to twist up the narrative in an interesting way we haven't really seen happen too often. With many attempting to compare the series to Game of Thrones -- because of its fantasy elements, politics, and sprawling storyline -- The Witcher flipped the script and embraced its magical elements whole-heartedly when it came to the lifespan of its supernatural characters.For the majority of Season 1, we watched three separate stories unfold - those of witcher Geralt (Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and princess Ciri (Freya Allan). It wasn't until Episode 4, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," however, that we came to realize these stories were not happening at the same time. Ciri's was playing out more closely confined, in the "present," while Geralt and Yennefer's arcs were happening decades in the past.Basically, Ciri is 12 years old. Geralt, at the start of the show, in the pilot, is "almost 100." And Yennefer is, well, also pretty old -- probably older than Geralt, even. By how much, though, is unknown.We pulled these rough estimates of years based on dates loosely established in the Andrzej Sapkowski Witcher novels and how they play out in the show. These aren't scientific numbers, but around when the timeline seems to be falling into place.As seen in episode 8's flashback scenes , Geralt's mother, Visenna, gives Geralt to the witchers for agonizing indoctrination when he's a young boy. (Yes, this happened nearly century ago because of how old Geralt is supposed to be in the first episode - since witchers don't age at the same rate as normal humans).Given how obscenely long magic-wielders live on The Continent, all of Yennefer's backstory - getting cruelly sold to Tissaia de Vries (MyAnna Buring), her affair with Istredd (Royce Pierreson), her painful transformation, and assignment to the kingdom of Aedirn -- happened about 70 years before Cintra falling and the Battle of Sodden Hill, according to showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich This time frame is an estimate, but this time takes place in between the Striga curse and well before Geralt meets Yennefer, as he is haunted by what happens with Renfri for many years. In the premiere episode, in "The End's Beginning," Geralt gets caught in a conflict between the sorcerer, Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen), and a princess, Renfri, who Stregobor thinks will bring doom upon the land. This adventure, plus the Striga arc, feeds into Geralt's mistrust of humanity.There's a quick tell in the episode too which notes the different timelines. Ciri points out to Queen Calanthe that when Calanthe was Ciri's age she'd already won her first big battle. Then in the Geralt story, Renfri mentions that Queen Calanthe has just won her first major battle.It was possible that Geralt's story with Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer) and the Striga in Episode 3, "Betrayer Moon," happened before the other Geralt adventures we witness because it happens first in the books. Also, in the premiere episode, "The End's Beginning," the young girl in Blaviken, Marilka, asks Geralt if he's ever killed a Striga and he's mum on the subject. Which she takes as a "yes."But Episode 3 directly references Geralt's time with Renfri. It also opens with Geralt's prostitute singing one of the songs Jaskier's written about Geralt since Episode 2.So the Striga story does, in fact, happen afterwards. That means, basically, his quests in "The End's Beginning," "Four Marks," "Betrayer Moon," and "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials" happen in succession, thank goodness. In Episode 4, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," Geralt has been already palling around with Jaskier, whom he met in Episode 2 ("Four Marks), for a spell. Jaskier asks Geralt to protect him at betrothal feast of Princess Pavetta - Ciri's mother. This is when most fans realized that Geralt's story was not in sync with Ciri's as Queen Calanthe, and Pavetta (who was long dead before the first episode's Ciri scenes), was still alive.It all ends with Geralt Geralt taking the "Law of Surprise" as his reward for saving Duny's life, not knowing that he was inadvertently laying claim to Pavetta's unborn daughter. We're guessing 13 years here since Ciri is supposed to be 12 during her story. Episode 5, "Bottled Appetites," definitely happens after the Geralt and Yennefer events (but not the Ciri events) of the first four episodes, as Geralt makes his last wish that forever ties him to Yennefer . It occurs several years after "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," as Geralt and Jaskier hadn't seen each other in a very long time. It marks the first time Geralt and Yennefer meet, as well as the show's fun nod to "Bathtub Geralt." For Episode 6, "Rare Species," we catch up with Geralt, Yennefer, and Jaskier about five years later still (Yennefer remarks at Jaskier's "crow's feet"), in a story that pays off the Djinn arc from "Bottled Appetites" and splinters the trio. It suggests that Geralt and Yennefer have "trysted" several times since Episode 5, as their paths have fortuitously crossed over the years. By the end though, Yennefer breaks it off with Geralt, believing that their fates were magically bound because of the wish, while Geralt takes his resentment out on Jaskier, chasing him off. Episode 7, "Before a Fall," brings us right up to the events Cintra's fall from Geralt's POV, which we also see in Episode 1 from Ciri's perspective. Geralt heads to Cintra, to make good on his "law of surprise" duty to protect Ciri after having been shamed by Yennefer in Episode 6 (and also having seen Nilfgaardian forces approaching the city).For the first time on the show, all the timelines converge and Ciri's story, which we've been following separately since Episode 1, officially kicks off as Cintra gets overrun, Queen Calanthe dies, and the young (powerful) princess goes on the run.Now we get into Ciri's saga as she escapes Cintra, meets her elf-comrade Dara (Wilson Radjou-Pujalte), journeys into the Brokilon forest, clashes with the doppelgänger ("Doppler") of Mousesack, etcetera. All of this happens over the course of two weeks before the season finale, "Much More," which is the episode (aside from the flashbacks) that all takes place entirely in the same timeline.In "Much More," Geralt stumbles upon the decimated ruins of the refugee camp where Ciri stayed in Episode 2, "Four Marks." After being bitten by an undead beast (a rotfiend, perhaps?) and poisoned, Geralt is saved by the husband of a woman who'd rescued Ciri after her own childhood friends had tried to attack and rob her. Geralt and Ciri's fates finally converge, just as Renfri (Emma Appleton) told him back in "The End's Beginning." At the same time that Ciri and Geralt's stories finally converge, Yennefer and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers make their final stand at the Battle of Sodden Hill to stop the invading Nilfgaardian forces. After the destruction of Cintra, nothing really is stopping Nilfgaard from taking over the rest of The Continent except these magic-users. Yennefer manages to wipe out all of them by the end of "Much More," but her fate remains unknown by the end of the series. (Don't worry, she'll be back in Season 2 .)Check out our guide to the monsters of The Witcher , some recommended reading to prepare you for the series (or to peruse afterward), a breakdown of all the important Witcher characters , and all our individual episode reviews

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler