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Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, also known as the Lion Cub of Cintra, is a fictional character in The Witcher series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Born to Pavetta, the Princess of Cintra, and Duny, the Urcheon of Erlenwald, she was inadvertently adopted before birth by the witcher Geralt of Rivia.

Ciri also appears as a central character in CD Projekt Red‘s series of video games based on The Witcher. She was portrayed by Marta Bitner in The Hexer film and television series, and Freya Allan in The Witcher Netflix series.^[1]

Geralt first encountered Ciri’s parents in the short story A Question of Price (Polish: Kwestia ceny), published in Fantastyka in 1990. Accepting a contract from Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Cintra, Geralt attended the maiden banquet of the queen’s only daughter, Princess Pavetta Fiona Elen. After saving the life of Duny, the Urcheon of Erlenwald and the princess’s lover, Geralt invoked the “Law of Surprise” as his payment. This ancient custom, by which a debtor owes their saviour a boon whose nature remains unknown to either party, bound the life of Duny and Pavetta’s unexpected child to the witcher. Ciri was born in the Skellige Isles the following year during the Belleteyn festival. Pavetta and Duny perished in a shipwreck as they sailed back to the mainland, leaving the newly orphaned princess to be raised by her grandmother at the Cintrian royal court. When Geralt returned to look upon the child, Calanthe hid Ciri from him, unwilling to lose her last descendant.

Several years later, Ciri ran away from an arranged betrothal to Kistrin, the sole prince of Verden. Finding herself lost and alone in the forests of Brokilon, she met Geralt for the first time, as well as a group of dryads, who compelled her to drink their Waters of Oblivion. Geralt, at first unaware that Ciri was the child promised to him, succeeded in guiding her back to her grandmother’s councillors, but ultimately refused to take her as his ward and novice. Shortly after, the neighbouring Nilfgaardian Empire attacked and conquered Cintra. Forced to flee the burning capital, Ciri was pursued and briefly captured by Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach, an agent of the emperor, before escaping him that night. Thereafter, Ciri wandered from place to place before being taken in by the kindly Goldencheeks, whose absent husband, Yurga, worked the trade caravans. When Yurga’s wagon came under attack by necrophages, it was the witcher Geralt who saved the merchant’s life. Geralt invoked the Law of Surprise as his payment once more, telling the merchant to give him: “That what you find at home, yet don’t expect”. The child Yurga had not expected was revealed to be Ciri, and, bowing to destiny, Geralt embraced Ciri and vowed to train and love her as his own daughter.

Following the short stories, the novels unfold as Geralt and Ciri arrive at the witcher’s fortress of Kaer Morhen, where Ciri can be hidden from the emperor’s forces. Plagued by nightmares of Cintra’s fall, she trains and studies under the supervision of the witchers, who grow increasingly concerned as she begins lapsing into trances. With the help of the witch Triss Merigold, they come to discover Ciri’s immense magical potential, and the nascent power hidden in her blood.

• Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, Agnieszka (15 February 2024). “The Witcher and Ciri of Cintra as the Heroic Final Girl”. Heroic Girls as Figures of Resistance and Futurity in Popular Culture. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003197775-19. ISBN 978-1-003-19777-5.
• Vega, Emily; Barta, Walter (5 November 2024). “Ciri’s Agency and Autonomy: Princess, Sorceress, and Witcher Girl”. The Witcher and Philosophy. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781394168767.ch11. ISBN 978-1-394-16873-6. Retrieved 11 February 2026.