Rayla

Rayla
White Rayla in the original game
Details
Alias(es)	Black Rayla White Rayla
Profession	Mercenary
Gender	female
Race	human
Affiliation	Aedirn Special Forces, Order of the Flaming Rose
Location	Vengerberg
Physical Description
Hair color	black, later white
Family
Cult
Appearance(s)

Rayla, known first as Black Rayla and later as White Rayla — a natural-born soldier and a veteran of the wars with Nilfgaard. She was an officer of the special forces of king Demawend of Aedirn, and took part in the Battle of Brenna, during which she was maimed and disfigured. Rayla is used to discipline and has but one passion — she hates elves and hunts them with unwavering ruthlessness.

“

The officer wasn't embarrassed at the sight of them, and didn't blush, gape or goggle, because the officer was a woman. A tall, slender woman with a thick, black plait and a sword at her side.

”

— pg(s). 86, Time of Contempt (UK edition)

In The Witcher computer game[ | ]

The hunt for the free elves who had been resting near Murky Waters was led by White Rayla, a mercenary hired by the Order of the Flaming Rose. She had her right hand severed under sadistic torture when she was captured by the Scoia'tael trying to help villagers who were later judged to have been traitors. Her moral stance on the fate of the villagers of Murky Waters then comes as no surprise as she accuses them of being traitors for harbouring the elves.

Spoiler warning: Significant plot details follow.

She is fatally shot by Yaevinn during the battle of Old Vizima. In fact, she has the most dramatic death scene in the whole game.

Later, Salamandra find her, while apparently not completely dead, close to death and subject her to mutation. Rayla recuperates and, as a mutant, regains her strength in no time. In return for her second "more perfect" life, she presumably has to swear absolute loyalty to her new masters. It is highly unlikely that she is in any shape to make those sorts of decisions anyway, post-mutation. Her few interjections during Azar Javed's speech to Geralt suggest that her intellectual faculties did not survive the mutation unscathed. She tries to stop Geralt and he has to kill her. For good, this time.

Depending on the path Geralt chooses, White Rayla is one of three possible, but mutually exclusive, sexual conquests Geralt can have in Chapter V. He sleeps with her if he chooses the Order path. Their exchange just prior to their roll in the hay is quite amusing, making killing her, even mutated as she is, sort of sadder than it might have been.

Associated quests[ | ]

Journal entry[ | ]

The hunt for the free elves who had been resting near Murky Waters was led by White Rayla, a mercenary hired by the Order. Rayla is a natural-born soldier and a veteran of the wars with Nilfgaard, during which she was maimed and disfigured. Rayla is used to discipline and has but one passion — she hates elves and hunts them with unwavering ruthlessness.

Rayla surrounded Toruviel's elves in the village of Murky Waters, but the situation got out of control. A fight broke out between her soldiers and the elves.

I decided to help Rayla during the siege of Murky Waters, thus helping her to defeat Toruviel's elves.

White Rayla returned to Vizima. She was slain by elven arrows as non-humans and knights of the Order clashed in the burning city.

I met the mercenary again. Salamandra found her close to death and subjected her to mutation. Rayla recuperated and , as a mutant, regained her strength in no time. In return for her second life, she had to swear absolute loyalty to her new masters. She tried to stop me and I had to kill her. For good this time.

Significant plot details end here.

Differences from the novel[ | ]

After the end of the Second Nilfgaard War, White Rayla is described as heavily disfigured (with at least two large facial scars), half of her right ear is missing and she has an iron hook in place of her left hand. In the game however, none of these afflictions are present and, in fact, this even contradicts her own in-game journal entry which states that "she was maimed and disfigured". Also, her hair at that point in the book is already all white (presumably the cause for her change of alias from "Black Rayla"), whereas in the game she is portrayed as still having black hair.