Renfri, known as the Shrike, was a princess of Creyden who lost everything when her stepmother tried to have her killed. Left with nothing, she gathered a band of hardened followers and became a bandit leader in the wilds. She is sharp, unpredictable and deeply bitter, and the story treats her as a tragic figure rather than a simple villain.

Her importance to the saga comes from The Lesser Evil, the story set in Blaviken. Renfri arrives in town for the mage Stregobor, and Geralt is caught between protecting a man he dislikes and stopping a massacre by her gang. The result is one of the defining moments of his life: he kills Renfri and her followers, and the town, instead of thanking him, names him the Butcher of Blaviken.