Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Netflix's The Witcher Season 2 and The Witcher book series.
Netflix's The Witcher season 2 introduces several key new Witchers from the franchise's rich canon to the story. From spawning six highly successful videogame installments to Netflix's animated prequel series The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, Andrzej Sapkowski's tales of monster hunters across the blood-strewn Continent have garnered a massive, dedicated fanbase. This is doubly true of The Witcher season 2, whose continued story centering on the legendary Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) surpassed a mammoth 142 million viewing hours in its first three days of release alone.
One of The Witcher season 2's key plotlines is Geralt and Ciri's (Freya Allan) time spent at the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen, where Geralt is reunited with several of his monster-hunting brethren. During Geralt and Ciri's stay at the Witcher keep, the young princess of Cintra is subjected to their ancient and intense training regimens before resolving to become a Witcher herself. Yet despite their strength in numbers and vast skillsets, Geralt and the other Witchers prove little match for the ancient evil that begins to stalk and covet Cirilla as The Witcher season 2 progresses.
Naturally, then, The Witcher season 2's plot allows audiences ample chance to see several new Witchers up close in action. Season 2 introduces legendary faces from the franchise's videogames such as Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), Geralt's Witcher mentor, while also giving screen-time to previously lesser-known Witchers such as the battle-scarred Coën. Here's every new Witcher introduced in The Witcher season 2, as well as their respective histories within The Witcher franchise canon.
Vesemir
In keeping with the character from the original Witcher books and video games, Kim Bodnia's Vesemir provides guidance and leadership for Geralt and the other Witchers in the Netflix series while presiding over their fortress of Kaer Morhen. The Witcher season 2 sees Vesemir become increasingly obsessed with creating a fresh Witcher mutagen after it becomes apparent that Ciri has Elder Blood coursing through her veins, which was a trait long thought extinct across the Continent. Vesemir realizes that a powerful strain of Witcher mutagen is too dangerous a substance to be experimenting with, but before he can destroy the vial containing the substance it is stolen by Rience (Chris Fulton) - setting up a tantalizing cat and mouse game between the surviving Witchers and Rience's mysterious employers for The Witcher season 3.
However, the Vesemir seen in Sapkowski's books and several of the Witcher videogames is a far more nuanced character than the driven, combustible elder portrayed in The Witcher season 2. While he remains deeply scarred by the School of Wolf's massacre at Kaer Morhen as portrayed in Nightmare of the Wolf, canonically Vesemir is otherwise a far more sage individual who readily accepts other Witcher's surprise children, as well as gleefully training Ciri as a Witcher during her first stay at Kaer Morhen. In Sapkowski's novels, Vesemir eventually lays down his life for Ciri (in stark contrast to his initial anger at her presence in The Witcher series) during the final battle of Kaer Morhen as he duels various members of the vicious Wild Hunt.
Eskel
Eskel (Basil Eidenbenz) makes a brief yet striking appearance in The Witcher season 2, with Geralt's closest childhood companion arriving late to the gathering of Witchers at Kaer Morhen. Eskel explains his delay is due to a six-hour battle with a forest-dwelling Leshen, whose hand he took in combat. However, as The Witcher season 2, episode 2, "Kaer Morhen," progresses, it becomes clear Eskel has also been injured by the tree-monster Leshen, with his wounds slowly turning him into the same creature he tried to destroy. The usually jovial, kindhearted Eskel is consumed by the rot growing inside him, unable to control his new murderous urges before a reluctant Geralt finally slays him.
Although Eskel's close bond with Geralt carries over from Sapkowski's original books to the Netflix Witcher series, almost every other aspect of Eskels's story has been altered from the Witcher canon. In both the game and book series, Eskel trains his own child of surprise, princess Deirdre Ademeyn, with this experience subsequently preparing him to train Ciri as a Witcher (again in stark contrast to the Netflix series). Eskel also stands as one of the only surviving Witchers by the end of Sapkowski's novels, with the level-headed warrior presiding over the Kaer Morhen castle as its new guardian following Vesemir's death in 1272.
Lambert
Another Witcher trained at the same time as Geralt and Eskel, the Lambert (Paul Bullion) seen in The Witcher season 2, is a cynical, acid-tongued warrior with a severe distrust of outsiders. A bully to Ciri from her first moments at Kaer Morhen to taking unnecessary jabs at Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer) following Rience's attack on the castle, Lambert is undoubtedly one of the more reviled Witchers to survive season 2. Despite his abrasive nature, his skill as a warrior is never in question, with Lambert one of the few Witchers to weather Voleth Meir's attack on Kaer Morhen, slaying multiple of her summoned Basilisks in the process. In contrast to his extensive screen-time in The Witcher season 2, Lambert is a relatively minor character in the rest of the Witcher canon. While he does play a minor role in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt videogame, his sullen character is primarily used as a foil for the player's moral choices towards the end of the story, with Wild Hunt offering the opportunity to save or sacrifice Lambert in one of the game's final missions.
Coën
The only other Witcher alongside Lambert, Geralt, and Vesemir to survive Voleth Meir's attack on Kaer Morhen, Coën (Yasen Atour) exists in the series as one of the more kindhearted members of the School of the Wolf. The Witcher season 2 sees several instances of Coën consoling and guiding Ciri after Lambert's incessant teasing riles her during her Witcher training, lending credence to his character's gentle nature despite his scarred appearance. Like Lambert before him, Coën receives an elevated role in Netflix's The Witcher season 2, with his character canonically dying early in the Witcher story after being stabbed with a pitchfork at the Battle of Brenna in The Witcher narrative's second Northern War.