Sylvia Anna, also known as Syanna, is the main antagonist of the Witcher 3 Expansion Blood and Wine. She is the older sister of Duchess Anna Henrietta of Toussaint but was banished from the duchy.
History
Past
Syanna was born during a total eclipse and was thought to be under the 'Curse of the Black Sun'. Due to the way everyone behaved around her, Syanna became bitter and played cruel tricks on other people. These tricks eventually became fully evil - marking their peak when Syanna told a young nobleman that she could dream the future. She told the man that she had seen that the man's brother would kill him. To save himself, the man killed his brother and has been emotionally scarred ever since.
In a book found by Geralt, a servant details story's about Syanna's childhood. At one point, the littly Syanna gave the woman a present, a self-drawn picture. The picture depicted corpses. When asked about the picture, Syanna told the woman that she had nightmare since she could remember. The woman writes that Syanna indeed woke each night crying, except when she was sleeping next to her sister.
On another occasion, both sisters fought. Anna Henrietta started the fight and Syanna fought back, causing Annarietta to lose two teeth. Although it was her sister who started the fight, their father punished Syanna for it. Annarietta attempted to change her father's mind, but to no avail. Syanna was also examined by magic healers. When the curse of the Black Sun was diagnosed, her father was horrified.
The woman also taught the children, attempting to teach them Nilfgaardian. Although Syanna tried, she had a hard time learning. Annarietta was far better.
In the book, the woman eventually reveals that she and Syanna often visited a illusion created by the royal mage. The hallucination was a fantasy world in which persons from fairy tales were real.
Eventually, Syanna was banished from Toussaint. She was escorted out of the country by four knights who, despite their vows of chivalry, abused her, beat her and mocked her on their way out of the country. After the knights left her, Syanna vowed revenge on them as well as on her sister who she wanted to see dead for her cold-heartedness.
After exiling from the duchy, the knights left her at the wilderness of Caed Dhu, without warm clothing or something to eat. Syanna believes that they expected her to starve or to be killed by some beast. Syanna lived, walking through the woods for weeks and eating bark in order to survive. Eventually, she stumbled upon a campfire where bandits were sitting. Although Syanna expected them to rape or kill her, the bandits took her in instead. With them, she travelled to Nazair and eventually became the leader of the group.
At some point Syanna remembered Toussaint and decided that if the people wanted a monster, a monster is what they would get. She then deviced a plan to get revenge on the knights and on her sister. Although she did not blame Anarietta for her exile (as Annarietta had no part in that), she blamed her for forgetting her own sister. When she was selling some of her loot in Mettina, Syanna met the higher vampire Dettlaff and followed him. Dettlaff detected her and lured her into a dead end. There, he ambushed her but Syanna was not afraid. She started dating Dettlaff. At first, she enjoyed it but then realised that she could not love him. Knowing that he would not understand why she left him, Syanna decided to simply disappear. Much later, she realised that he could be useful for her plans.
Blood and Wine
In order to achieve her goal, Syanna took on the alias Rhena and seduced the higher vampire Dettlaff van der Eretein. After Dettlaff fell in love with her, she staged her own abduction and sent a forged letter to Dettlaff, claiming that she would be killed by kidnappers should Dettlaff not kill five people of Toussaint who had each broken a different part of the chivalry code. She then sent cards to Dettlaff, each card containing the name of the target and the way the target had to be killed (which was mocking the chivalry code the person broke). After Dettlaff had commited four murders, Geralt, who tried to free Rhena from her kidnappers, found out that Rhena and Syanna were the same person and that Syanna had used Dettlaff to kill the knights who abused her during her way to exile - the chivalry code only being a pretext to hide her true motives.
When Dettlaff finds out, he furiously demands that Syanna explains herself to him, otherwise he would destroy Beauclair. When Syanna, who is imprisoned at the palace, is not handed out to him, Dettlaff attacks the city with a horde of vampires.
'Bad' ending
Depending on Geralt's choices, Syanna can either be brought to a meeting with Dettlaff or kept imprisoned while Geralt battles and slays Dettlaff. In the latter case, the trial for Syanna follows soon. During the trial, Annariette reveals that she still loves her sister despite all she did. Faking forgiveness, Syanna embraces her sister but then stabs Annarietta in the back with a hair pin - killing her. Syanna is immediately shot by Annarietta's guard captain with a crossbow to the throat.
Together with her sister, Syanna is buried in the royal crypts.
Detlaff Kills Syanna ending
Depending on Geralt's choices, Syanna can be brought to Detlaff. If she does not have the ribbon, she will die. Regardless of whether or not Geralt chooses to kill Detlaff after, Geralt will go to prison. Syanna will be buried in the ducal crypt after, and Anna Henrietta will give him an earful.
Fairytale ending
Should Geralt decide to bring Syanna to the meeting with Dettlaff, he has to sneak her out of the castle first, where Annarietta has imprisoned her somewhere. After finding the book the maid wrote, Geralt realises that Annarietta has imprisoned her sister in the illusion. Geralt steps into the fable world himself to retreive Syanna. He finds Syanna arguing with an evil witch who has thrown someone in her oven. Geralt has to battle the witch before he can talk to Syanna.
After the witch is slain, Syanna frees Jack from the oven. She wants his magic beans but he tells her that he does not have them anymore. He reveals that Anarietta ordered them to be brought away so that Syanna could not escape. The boy then runs off and Geralt is able to talk to Syanna. He offers her to help her out of the illusion but Syanna claims that she will save herself. Geralt convinces her that they have the same goals and Syanna realises that innocent people are dying, which concerns her as she did only want those dead who wronged her. The two decice to go on together. Geralt is surprised to see that Syanna has obtained a sword. She claims that she has it from Prince Charming, who she says won't need it anymore. Syanna tells Geralt that they can only use one exit from this realm and that said exit is in the clouds. She plans to use Jack's beans to escape and the two attempt to find the beans.
Venturing on, the two find a pair of Unicorns which they use as horses. Syanna is riding the pink unicorn. They find another boy, who is almost ripped apart by wolves. Ironically, it is the boy who alway cried wolf. They interrogate him, carefully as they are aware that he's always lying and that the opposite of what he says is true. Eventually, Syanna is fed up with the boy always crying about wolves and threatens to kill him should he scream once more. After listening to the boy, Syanna decides that they should visit more fairytales in order to understand what the boy was talking about.
To obtain one of the beans, Syanna is forced to act as Red Riding Hood. After taking the cloak from Red Riding Hood, who had been killed by the wolf ages ago, Syanna and Geralt return. She and the wolf perform the play and Geralt (who is portraying the huntsman) joins Syanna in the battle against the wolf. Remembering the boy's words, Syanna orders Geralt to cut the wolf open and they find one of the beans in his stomach.
When Geralt (more or less accidentally) steps on Thumbelina, Syanna is annoyed because that was her favourite fairytale. She says that the reason for this is that it was not about a princess.
When Geralt and Syanna meet the girl who sells flint (who now sells all kinds of stuff) Syanna sees that the girl is also selling a ribbon that belonged to Syanna. Syanna wants it back, as it was given her by the mage who created the illusion and he told her that it will protect her from harm. Despite this, Syanna mainly wants it back because it reminds her of her childhood and she doesn't have many happy memories from that time. Geralt can decide to buy the ribbon for Syanna or to play gwent for it. Syanna is grateful when Geralt obtains the ribbon for her.
When the two find the corpse of Goldilocks, who has been ripped apart by the three bears, Syanna claims that she deserved it because she never asked before she took something. When the two later approach Rapunzel's tower, Syanna stays outside while Geralt climbs the tower. After leaving Rapunzel's tower, he returns to Syanna who tells him how she met Dettlaff.
After all three beans are obtained, Syanna and Dettlaff plant them into the earth. After the rank has sprouted, the pair starts climbing. After reaching the castle in the clouds, the two fall to the ground exhausted. However, they are forced to fight the giant protecting the castle. After killing the beast, Syanna attempts to seduce Geralt, calling it her 'last wish'. The player can either accept or refuse. In both cases, the two ultimately return to the real world.
The two join up with Regis and head to Tesham Mutna where Dettlaff turns up as well. Furiously, he demands to know whether Syanna truly feigned her feelings for him. Syanna claims that it is more complicated than that but Dettlaff claims that it is not complicated at all - she either deceived him or not. Realizing that Syanna really only used him for his own purposes, he attempts to kill her. If Geralt gave Syanna the ribbon, the spell inside it is activated and she is teleported back into the fairytale worlds moments before Dettlaff can kill her. If Geralt did not get her the ribbon, Syanna is killed by Dettlaff.
Should Syanna be returned to the fairytale, Dettlaff considers himself cheated once more and attacks Regis and Geralt in his anger. The two are forced to kill him.
Syanna is then returned from the fairytale and imprisoned somewhere else in the castle. As in the first ending, Geralt is present when Syanna is brought to her trial. Depending on the dialog options the player chooses, Syanna can kill Annarietta again (and, like in the other ending, is killed by Damien Delatour in return). However, if the right choices are made Syanna bitterly accuses her sister of betraying her and leaving her alone, claiming that it was Annarietta's lack of empathy that hurt the most. However, in the end Syanna indeed forgives her sister.
Journal entry
- Sylvia Anna ... A lovely name, don't you think? This beauty should come as no surprise, given it's the name of the daughter of a duke and sister of a duchess. Yet the fate Syanna (as her intimates called her) met was not so beautiful as might have been suspected for one so well-born - though, as it turns out, she had in truth been born eahter inopportunely. She came into this world during an eclipse and thus fell victim to the panic surrounding the Curse of the Black Sun, which was said to affect young girls from ruling families birthed in similar circumstances. Though Geralt had serious doubts whether this curse truly existed, many claimed it caused horrible mutations which filled its victims with cruelty and a desire to kill.
- Syanna's parents certainly seemd to be among the believers in the curse, for they deemed her too dangerous to be allowed to remain at court and forced her into exile. Syanna then fleed to Nazair and soon, for all intents and purposes, dropped off the face of the planet.
- Anna Henrietta, full sisterly love and compassion, spent years mourning the absence of Syanna, who had officially been declared missing and presumed dead. When she surfaced again, however, their reunion was not one of familial joy. Syanna despised Anna Henrietta and did not wish even to speak to her.
- This reluctance might have had something to do with the fact that, moments earlier, Syanna had been unmasked as a murderer ...
- Geralt's journey to the Land of the Thousand Fables bore more fruit than he had expected. His conversations with Syanna shed light on a few matters: she made no secret of the fact that her elaborate murder plot was about getting revenge on the people who had forced her into exile. Vengeance is one of the oldest motives in the world and has brought many doom and few relief. It was to bring Syanna face to face with a higher vampire who was simultaneously a serial killer, her slighted beau and, it seemed, a beeing still deeply in love with her ...
- When Geralt brought Syanna to the meeting with Dettlaff, he never expected this story would end with sich a final. Though several days had passed since their last meeting, Dettlaf had not managed to rein in the wrath he felt toward Syanna.
Trivia
- Syanna is the cousin of Niilfgardian emperor Emhyr var Emreis.
 Villains
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Novels The Witcher The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Hearts of Stone Blood and Wine Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Netflix TV series Nightmare of the Wolf | ||