Triss Merigold

A warm, brave Temerian sorceress, Geralt’s longtime friend and possible lover, and a heroine of the Battle of Sodden Hill.

Triss Merigold of Maribor is a Temerian sorceress, a former royal advisor to King Foltest and one of Geralt’s oldest friends. She studied at Aretuza, where she grew close to Yennefer, and specialises in healing potions, which is a little ironic, since she is allergic to magical ones herself. Kind, clever and braver than she looks, she has spent most of her life in politics, and her feelings for Geralt never quite went away.

Triss in The Witcher 3
After Loc Muinne, Triss moved to Novigrad, thinking it a safe haven for mages, only to watch the Church of the Eternal Fire start burning them. Geralt finds her in Pyres of Novigrad, hiding under the protection of Francis Bedlam, the King of Beggars, while she saves up to smuggle her fellow mages out of the city. To help find Ciri, she lets the witch hunters capture and torture her so Geralt can learn where Dandelion is held, then kills her torturers and Caleb Menge himself. In Now or Never she leads the mages through the sewers to a ship bound for Kovir.

The romance can be rekindled step by step: a kiss in the Vegelbud garden during A Matter of Life and Death, then, if Geralt asks her to stay at the harbour, a night together at the lighthouse. Try to romance her and Yennefer at the same time and you get It Takes Three to Tango. Triss also fights at Kaer Morhen, giving Ciri a magical stone for protection, and later helps Geralt track down Philippa Eilhart.

What happens to Triss?
Triss survives in every ending, and she always turns up at Kaer Morhen. If you skip her quest, she simply says Yennefer invited her. If you romance her, the epilogue sees her and Geralt settle in Kovir, where King Tankred has made her his advisor, and in Blood and Wine she can surprise Geralt at Corvo Bianco. Our Witcher 3 endings guide covers the romance outcomes.

In the earlier games
In the first game she nurses Geralt after his fight with Azar Javed, and she can become his lover. The Witcher 2 opens with them together, but Letho kidnaps her and she ends up a prisoner of Nilfgaard.

In the books
Triss was wrongly counted among the dead at the Battle of Sodden Hill, which earned her the name Fourteenth of the Hill. In Blood of Elves she comes to Kaer Morhen to help with Ciri, who soon sees her as an older sister. She was also a founding member of the Lodge of Sorceresses.

Across the games

Triss is at Kaer Morhen in the Prologue when bandits attack the fortress, and she is one of the defenders in Defending Kaer Morhen, the opening of the Witchers’ Secrets storyline. She is wounded in the fighting, and in A Potion for Triss, Vesemir has Geralt brew a remedy for her with Lambert‘s help, then carry it up to her room in the tower.

She returns in Act III in the Trade Quarter. She gives Geralt a letter of safe conduct (All the King’s Men) and talks him into going to Leuvaarden’s reception in A Posh Reception, where she wants him to relax and mingle. In Lock and Key she helps with a magic stone. In The Source she studies magical anomalies she blames for the extra monsters in Vizima and wants the child from the hospital brought to her. In The Unforgiven she needs his help with the anomalies and with Alvin. In Identity she senses something is wrong with his mind and admits her magic cannot bring back his memory.

In the Epilogue, during Her Highness the Striga, she is one of the three counselors King Foltest leaves Geralt to consult about Princess Adda.