Evils of the Continent Week 2 — The Myriapod
Welcome back to Evils of the Continent, a weekly blog where we’ll take a closer look at some of the monsters teased, and in this case, just revealed for Season 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher
Thanksgiving morning brought fans an exciting treat with a previously unseen look at a new monster slated for Season 2 — The Myriapod. See Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia face-off against this giant centipede-like creature in the clip below.
Meet The Myriapod
Myriapods are non-sentient monsters found in both the Witcher books and games. They appear as gigantic centipedes and come equipped with various offensive and defensive tools, making them formidable beasts to conquer.
Abilities
Armored Shell — The Myriapod wears a segmented chitinous shell along its back capable of glancing even the most powerful sword blows.
Talons and Mandibles — Rows of hooked feet protrude from the Myriapod’s shell, granting the ability to run at incredible speeds. Two sword-like mandibles around the monster’s maw stab, poison, and consume prey.
Burrow — Myriapods detect tremors in the ground and can rapidly burrow underneath travelers for a surprise attack. They use their ability to quickly burrow underground to out-maneuver their prey and strike when it’s most advantageous.
Acid Spit — Myriapods excrete projectile poison to stun and harm their prey.
Weaknesses
While a well-timed sword or well-placed arrow can penetrate minor separations between the Myriapods shell, attacks to the Myriapod’s unprotected belly are most effective. The Myriapod exposes this weakness whenever it surfaces from a burrow.
Significance of a Myriapod in Season 2
Myriapods don’t have a bundle of folklore supporting their existence, but their relationship with Geralt and the reasons as to why they would appear in Season 2 are pretty significant.
Geralt’s first encounter with Ciri (Book Lore)
In Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story, Sword of Destiny — Geralt, and the Dryad Braenn are walking through Brokilon Forest when they encounter a young girl under attack by a giant Myriapod.
Geralt quickly closes the distance to engage the giant centipede but is disarmed and nearly dismembered. Braenn rescues Geralt with a few precision arrows to the Myriapod’s weak spots. Once the beast is dead, Geralt pulls the young girl out of the bushes to figure out who, or what, she is.
“But by the devil, who are you then?” Geralt repeated, staring at her. “What are you doing in… in this forest? How did you get here?”
The little girl bowed her head, sniffing.
“Are you deaf? Who are you? I’m asking you. What’s your name?”
“Ciri,” she confessed in a sniff.
— Sword of Destiny
It’s the first of several times Geralt meets Ciri before taking her on as his ward. Following the battle with the Myriapod, Geralt and Ciri meet Eithné, the Dryad leader from Season 1.
Geralt learns A LOT about who Ciri is and her Elder Blood powers when the pair visit Brokilon. But while Ciri’s time with the Dryads was translated into Season 1, Geralt’s role in the story didn’t make the director’s cut.
Seeing a Myriapod attack Geralt on the road could be a revisiting of this critical part of the story where Geralt learns just how special Ciri is, or as a moment to introduce us to some of Geralt’s powerful allies like Breanne.
References to Nightmare of the Wolf
In August of 2021, Netflix released Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated movie focused on the origin story of Geralt’s mentor and father-figure, Vesimer. The film revealed information regarding the creation of new Witchers and a scandal within the School of the Wolf —the breeding of new monsters through mutations.
The story is an adaptation of Witcher lore pieced together from some of the earliest Witcher short stories never published in English, and the collectible books found throughout the games. In this extended mythology, a mage named Alzur wields powerful magic and decoctions to create the first Witchers. Similar to Riedrich from Nightmare of the Wolf, Alzur also had a fetish for creating mutated monsters. His most diabolical creation is Viy of Maribor, an abnormally large Myriapod that destroys half of the city of Maribor, ultimately killing Alzur in the process.
Wrapping Up
While I could go on about Geralt’s glowing sword and the use of signs in the latest clip, these posts are about the monsters we’ll see in Season 2, and not Witcher weaponry (although I’ve penciled that in as a new content idea). Regardless, it all looks incredible, and I can’t wait to uncover the real reasons a Myriapod attacks Geralt in the woods and who it changes its attention to in the last few seconds of the clip (my guess is Ciri).
Thanks for participating in another edition of Evils of the Continent. Check-in next week for background information on some of the eeriest monsters in the Witcher world teased for Season 2 — The Crones of Crookback Bog.
