#riannon

The Witcher  ⟫ Hen Ichaer / Elder Blood (Known Carriers)

Inspired by Disney's sleeping beauty, I drew Riannon two years ago.

Geralt: “I’d be interested to hear about Lara.”

Yaevinn: “Lara Dorren aep Shiadhal was an elven sorceress, called Aen Saevherne, a Knowing One. She carried Hen Ichaer, Elder Blood, which puzzles even us elves. As fate would have it, Lara fell in love with a human sorcerer, Cregenan of Lod. Other humans could not bear it and began persecuting them. No pleas would soften the stone hearts of the cruel and merciless dh'oine. When Lara, begging for her unborn child, grabbed the door of the royal carriage, a man-at-arms lashed out with his cutlass, chopping her fingers off. When the nighttime frosts came, Lara languished on a forest hill. She gave birth to a daughter whom she protected with what warmth remained in her waning body. Though through the night a blizzard had raged, spring suddenly appeared on that hill and feainnewedd bloomed. To this day those flowers grow only in Dol Blathanna and on the land where Lara breathed her last. You must understand the importance of her artifacts. She was exceptional to us, someone whose loss defies words, no matter the language...”

So I am gearing up for a fantastic genetics post for anyone interested in that sort of thing so I figured I should briefly post what canon says about how Elder Blood is inherited genetically 

The following passage is from Baptism of Fire Chapter 6: 

'Calanthe was the first carrier after Riannon,’ Sheala de Tancarville said, suddenly joining the discussion. ‘You made a mistake, Francesca. There were two genes. One, the true gene, was latent, quiescent. You were beguiled by Amavet’s powerful, distinct gene. However, what Amavet had wasn’t a gene, but an activator. Mistress Assire is right. The activator travelling down the male line was so faint in Adalia you didn’t identify it at all. Adalia was Muriel’s first child; her later-born definitely didn’t have even a trace of the activator. Fiona’s latent gene would probably also have vanished in her male descendants at most in the third generation. But it didn’t, and I know why.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Yennefer hissed through her teeth.

‘I’m lost,’ Sabrina Glevissig declared. ‘In this tangle of genetics and genealogy.’ Francesca drew a fruit bowl towards herself, held out a hand and murmured a spell.

‘I apologise for this vulgar display of psychokinesis,’ she said with a smile, making a red apple rise high above the table. ‘But the fruit will help me demonstrate your mistake. Red apples are the Lara gene, the Elder Blood. Green apples represent the latent gene. Pomegranates are the pseudo-gene, the activator. Let us begin. This is Riannon, the red apple. Her son, Amavet, is the pomegranate. Amavet’s daughter, Muriel, and his granddaughter, Adalia, are still pomegranates, the last of which is very faint. And here is Fiona’s line, Riannon’s daughter: a green apple. Her son, Corbett, the King of Cintra, is green. Dagorad, Corbett and Elen of Kaedwen’s son, is green too. As you have observed, in two successive generations there are exclusively male descendants. The gene is very weak, and vanishes. So at the very bottom, here, we finish with a pomegranate and a green apple; Adalia, the Princess of Maribor, and Dagorad, the King of Cintra. And the couple’s daughter was Calanthe. A red apple. The revived, powerful Lara gene.

So basically from canon we know there are stated to be an activator gene, a latent gene and when combined they form the Lara “gene”.