Emhyr var Emreis
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Emhyr Var Emreis |
| Occupation: | Emperor of Nilfgaard |
| Relationships: | Ciri (daughter), Pavetta (wife, deceased) |
| Fandom: | The Witcher |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Emhyr Var Emreis, Deithwen Addan yn Carn aep Morvudd (The White Flame Dancing on the Barrows of his Enemies), known for a time as Duny, the Urcheon of Erlenwald, is a character in The Witcher fandom.
He is the Emperor of Nilfgaard, an antagonist in the Witcher books and in the video games, where he is voiced by Charles Dance.
He appears in a variety of fanworks, the most well-known of which are astolat's Geralt/Emhyr fanfiction. These stories, which show Emhyr in a sympathetic light, were instrumental in shaping the wider fandom's view of the character, albeit not to every fan's liking.
Canon
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Books and Games
Emhyr's family was killed during a coup, which saw him cursed to bear the appearance of a humanoid hedgehog for a time; the cursed form is a hedgehog because in the Elder Speech of the Witcher books (which is influenced by Celtic languages), eimyr means hedgehog. He went by the name "Duny" during this time, and he was also called the Urcheon of Erlenwald, because "urcheon" in Middle English means "hedgehog".
Emhyr is the biological father of Ciri, whom protagonist Geralt of Rivia claims as his "Child of Surprise" as reward for saving "Duny".
Emhyr reclaimed his father's throne and waged many wars, expanding the Nilfgaardian empire. His quest to find Ciri again led to him clashing with Geralt on many occasions.
In the Witcher 3, depending on choices made by the player, Emhyr is either assassinated, conquers the North and wipes out all resistance, or abdicates his throne in favour of Ciri.
Netflix Show
Emhyr appeared briefly in Season 1 of the Netflix show as his Duny persona. He appears in Seasons 2 and 3 as Emperor of Nilfgaard.
Fandom
Astolat's Influence
[O]n January 2, 2017 astolat published the wildly popular “Misethere,” a fic that pairs together the characters of Geralt and Emhyr from the Witcher video game franchise. It was the first work published on AO3 to include this relationship. [...] Although the fandom for the Geralt/Emhyr pairing was nonexistent on AO3 before astolat, there are now seventy-two works devoted to the pairing, and “Misethere” has almost 46,000 hits. The first work published under Geralt/Emhyr that was written by someone other than astolat was “On the Other Side” by Misaki_kaito as a gift for astolat. [...] In turn, astolat has helped the Geralt/Emhyr fandom grow by promoting other writers’ stories and fanart of the pairing on her personal blog. If not for astolat’s work, the growing assumption in the Witcher fandom that Geralt and Emhyr make a good couple may not exist.Diana Koehm, 2018[1]
Alstolat (sic) likes the idea that Emhyr is secretly an idealist who feels it's his duty to save/protect the world, so all of her stories are based around that premise. They are extremely well-written and are great if you can suspend your disbelief enough to accept that main premise - well, that and also that it makes Geralt fall in love with Emhyr.dire-sin, 2017[2]
The voice actor for Emhyr var Emreis in Witcher 3 is Charles Dance, who played Tywin Lannister in the HBO production of Game of Thrones, and Astolat has apparently said that she ships Geralt with him basically because she adores his voice. Even though their few interactions in the game are antagonistic, and in one ending Emhyr explicitly says that he never wants to see Geralt again. As you might expect her characterization is...idiosyncratic. Which is perpetuated by people who write it hoping to catch her eye.I wouldn't mind so much if it had stayed a tiny niche pairing - e.g. Snape/Sirius never had much following other than among a small group of HP fans - but when you're a BNF you can make fetch happen, and seeing her stories topping the fandom in popularity irritates me, because they're well-written yet wrong wrong wrongity wrong. And seeing others jumping on this pairing bandwagon makes me despair.
anon, 2018[3]
Shipping
As of October 2021, ~615 stories used the Emhyr var Emreis tag on AO3, although most of them included him as a secondary character.
The most popular Emhyr ships were:
- Geralt/Emhyr: ~271 works ([1])
- Emhyr/Pavetta and Duny/Pavetta
- Emhyr/Mererid (Emhyr's chamberlain)
Tropes
- Emhyr is usually described as a highly intelligent, highly competent character. This competence might extend to his romantic/sexual skills, or stories might hinge on the contrast between ruthless conqueror and inexperienced or artless lover. The theme of loss of control also often features, in contrast to his external veneer of impassibility.
- There is often a focus on the contrast between Emhyr-as-public-figure and private!Emhyr.
- Animal transformation might feature, since Emhyr spends much of his youth as humanoid hedgehog Duny.
- He is often depicted as being/having been deeply in love with his wife Pavetta.
Example Fanworks
- Misethere by astolat (2017)
- Unintended by softestpunk (2018, Geralt/Emhyr)
- Faithful by softestpunk (2018, Emhyr/Mererid)
- Urbe Aureā series by Dira Sudis (WIP, started in 2019, Geraly/Emhyr, Geralt/Eskel, eventual Geralt/Eskel/Emhyr)
- Take My Hand, Teach Me To Dance by FrozenHearts (2020, Geralt/Jaskier, Emhyr/Pavetta)
- Seeking out his servant by Glossamyre (2020, Emhyr/Mererid)
Resources
- Emhyr va Emreis on the Witcher Fandom.com wiki
- Emhyr Var Emreis AO3 tag
- Emhyr Var Emreis Tumblr tag
References
- ^ Revision as Resistance: Fanfiction as an Empowering Community for Female and Queer Fans, (2018) Honors Scholar Theses
- ^ comment on "Can say goodbye to world of Witcher... Fanfiction?" in r/witcher, 2017
- ^ anonymous comment on "Top ten pairings for your fandom on AO3" at FFA, Jan 19, 2018