Yennefer of Vengerberg (born on Belleteyn of the year 1173) was a sorceress who lived in Vengerberg, the capital city of Aedirn. She was the youngest member of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers and later the Lodge of Sorceresses attempted to recruit her. She was Geralt of Rivia's true love and a mother figure to Ciri, a former royal advisor to king Demavend of Aedirn, and a close friend of Triss Merigold.
The lady of Vengerberg was famous for her beauty, even though during the events of The Tower of the Swallow she was 94 years old. Yennefer had locks of curly, raven black hair fragrant with lilac and gooseberry perfume, falling in a cascade of curls on her shapely shoulders. Her face was very pale, triangular in shape with a slightly receded chin. Her eyes were cold and sparkling with a remarkable violet penetrating gaze, in anger blazing with livid, blue-gray fire. Those very eyes also concealed wisdom and imperiousness. Yennefer's nose was slightly long, mouth was pale with thin and slightly crooked, soft, sweet with lipstick, proud lips. On her long and slender neck hung a black marigold with a star made of obsidian sparkling with a multitude of tiny diamonds embedded in it.
Yen had pronounced cheekbones, natural, slightly irregular eyebrows trimmed by hand and emphasized with charcoal, long eyelashes, and petite hands. Even in high-heeled shoes she wasn't tall, was beautiful but threatening, having incredibly thin and slender waist and slender legs. Yennefer's skin was as delicate as a sixteen-year-old girl. Her breasts were rounded and delicate, with nipples so pale that they were apparent only by their prominence.
She always dressed in black and white, at times wore stockings, wore frilled panties but never wore trivialities with underwire, she didn't need to. Her voice was resonant and mildly derisive. Her overall feminine shape was one of a twenty-year-old girl and she moved with a natural, unforced grace. She was a quadroon (meaning she had ¼ of elven blood, in her case on her mother's side).
During the Battle of Sodden Hill she was blinded by Fringilla Vigo, a Nilfgaardian sorceress. Her sight was later magically restored but she still bore the emotional scars.
Like most sorceresses, she was sterile. She secretly sought a way of restoring her fertility. She gave her motherly love to Ciri - the child destined for Geralt by the Law of Surprise - teaching her about magic while in Ellander, at the Temple of Melitele under the watchful eye of Nenneke.
Yennefer first appeared in the short story The Last Wish (in The Last Wish short story collection). She later appeared in several more "canon" short stories, including The Bounds of Reason, A Shard of Ice, and Something More, and one "non-canon" short story, Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna. She also appears in all the novels in the Witcher saga.
It is implied in the story The Last Wish that her attractive looks were a product of magic and had been acquired during her training, as with most other sorceresses. Geralt notes how her shoulders are slightly lopsided and by the end of the story realizes that Yennefer used to be a hunchback. Nevertheless, his love for her does not diminish.