Ever since The Witcher 3 was released in 2015, players of CD Projekt Red’s fantasy epic have divided themselves into two camps, rallying around the two romanceable characters in the game: Team Yennefer, and Team Triss.
Now Epic Games has, perhaps unwittingly, picked a side in this eternal war by bringing only one of these characters into Fortnite — the only true measure of a pop-culture character’s cultural cachet in 2023. Cool-headed sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg was added to Fortnite on Friday, alongside Geralt’s ward, the witcher Ciri. But there’s no sign of Yennefer’s equally powerful, more impetuous rival, Triss Merigold.
The writing has perhaps been on the wall since Yennefer was given a more prominent role in Netflix’s The Witcher TV series, but Yennefer’s digital merch canonization in Fortnite must still be a blow to Triss fans. (For the record, I’m Team Yennefer, although if the game had let me, I would have been Team Keira Metz.)
As well as adding the pair as purchasable skins in Fortnite’s item shop, Epic has added island adventures themed around each character to the game: Ciri’s Escape and Yennefer’s Battleground. Each skin comes with themed back bling and pickaxe — a megascope for Yennefer, and Ciri’s sword Zireael.
Geralt himself was previously made available in Fortnite as a battle pass reward, but he can’t be purchased now.
What’s all this in aid of? The long-awaited third season of The Witcher arrives on Netflix on June 29. Hopefully Triss will get a better break in the show.
