Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for The Witcher season 3 and the source materialThe Witcher season 3 revolves around the widespread hunt for Ciri across the Continent, and there’s one magic user that appears to pose more of a threat than the overbearing Nilfgaard army.
One of the main mysteries unraveling during season 3, part 1, is who Rience’s master is and why he is pulling the strings behind the hunt for Ciri. Well, it’s something Geralt and Yennefer are trying to get to the bottom of. Here’s everything you need to know about Rience.
Who Is Rience In The Witcher Season 3?
Rience (Chris Fulton) was first introduced during The Witcher season 2, episode 4, titled Turn Your Back, alongside Lydia (Aisha Fabienne Ross), revealed to be the fire mage from the previous episode and hellbent on tracking down Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan) through torturing Jaskier (Joey Batey).
We found out that Rience had been imprisoned by Queen Calanthe of Cintra (Jodhi May) for ten years in Cintran prison before the fall of Cintra and the Queen’s demise. Despite his sentence remaining under the ruling of Nilfgaard, Rience was approached by Lydia with an offer to find and capture Ciri to get him out of prison.
This leads the fire mage to target the bard Jaskier and torture him using magic, saved only by Yennefer’s prompt arrival. Rience then earns his facial scar after teasing Yennefer with a fire attack, not expecting her to spit alcohol in his face causing his attack to backfire.
Rience later used a portal to gain entry into Kaer Morhen, where he attacked Vesemir (Kim Bodnia) and Triss (Anna Shaffer) before making off with a mutagen containing Ciri’s blood. Rience was then given a crew, including the Mitchell Brothers, by Lydia in order to capture Ciri from the Temple of Melitele, but Geralt bested them before Rience escaped through a portal and reported back to Lydia.
In season 3, Rience (Sam Woolf) used the Jackapace monster in order to locate Ciri during the Belleteyn Festival, designed to track her scent through the vial of blood stolen from Kaer Morhen. After their encounter, Geralt focuses his efforts on finding out who Rience’s master is, while the fire mage meets with Codringher (Simon Callow) and Fenn (Liz Carr) to kill them for knowing his master’s identity, but this act is also witnessed by Philippa, unbeknownst to Rience.
From the first part of this season, we also learn that Rience and Lydia are working with Nilfgaard through their master, which the fire mage is unhappy about, even though Lydia assures him it’s part of the plan. Geralt and Yennefer soon believe Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen) is Rience’s master, but it’s later revealed that he’s actually working for the mage Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu).
Rience In The Source Material
In the source material, Rience’s master is also Vilgefortz, and it was the mage who got him out of prison by paying off the debts he accumulated under Queen Calanthe before instructing him to find Ciri on his behalf. This also led to the show’s accurate adaptation of Jaskier’s (Dandelion in the books) torture and his disfigurement, thanks to Yennefer’s counterattack.
Gracing five of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books from the series and only being mentioned in CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game, Rience later entered into a game of cat and mouse with Geralt, with the former hiring the Michelet brothers to kill Geralt, and the latter setting traps for him, leading to a battle at Myhrman’s place around 1267.
Codringher and Fenn also make an appearance in the source material as the investigation firm hired by Geralt, who was later assassinated by Rience’s forces before the fire mage made his way to Thanedd Island to capture Ciri during the coup. After another failed attempt to capture the princess, Rience later united forces with Leo Bonhart and Stefan Skellen to pursue Ciri from Dun Dare to Mil Trachta.
During this encounter, Ciri unleashed a number of attacks on the party, aided by the bad weather, and used the ice to skate in among her attackers, causing cracked ice to send Rience plummeting into the freezing water of Tarn Mira. Clinging onto the edge, Ciri returned to sever his fingers by skating over them, which resulted in the mage drowning.
Meet Sam Woolf, Rience’s Actor
Chris Fulton previously portrayed Rience during season 2 of The Witcher. However, the Outlaw King actor was recast after scheduling conflicts with Outlander forced his exit and welcomed the new addition of Sam Woolf.
Woolf has had a short-lived career since his first role as Artie in the television series, Humans, back in 2016, which was shortly followed by a role in the movie The Winter’s Tale. The actor’s career picked up speed in 2020 when he played Dr. Benedict Walters in Call the Midwife, followed by his role as Prince Edward in Netflix’s The Crown in 2022. Other features that Woolf has been involved in include 2022’s Strike and 2023’s The Power series.
In addition to acting, Woolf has also lent his vocal talents to the Ubisoft video game Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, where he played Birstan in 2020, and he also played Thidias in the National Theatre performance of Antony & Cleopatra.
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