The Rats in The Witcher are the teenage outlaw gang that Ciri joins after the Korath Desert. The leader is Giselher.
He stands out in the group, and his charisma, brutality, and confidence make him the one the others follow.
Giselher leads the Rats in both the books and Netflix’s adaptation. His role matters because he shapes the gang that Ciri joins during one of the darkest stretches of her story.
The Direct Answer: Giselher Leads The Rats
Giselher acts as the Rats’ leader, or at least the one who functions as their ringleader in practice. In Screen Rant’s breakdown of the group, writers describe him as charismatic, cunning, and dangerous, which is exactly the mix that keeps a violent gang together.
Why Giselher Is The Group’s Leader
Giselher earns authority through force of personality as much as through skill. He is a deserter, a survivor, and a fighter.
The other Rats accept his lead because he gives shape to their chaos. His confidence also makes him dangerous.
The same arrogance that helps him hold the group together contributes to their collapse, especially once Leo Bonhart enters the picture.
How The Netflix Series Presents Him
Netflix shows Giselher as part of the teen outlaw world surrounding Ciri. Ben Radcliffe plays the character.
The show frames him as the most visibly commanding member of the gang. This helps viewers identify him quickly as the leader among the Rats.
That presentation matches the books, where he is the unofficial head of the group. He is one of the key reasons the Rats feel like a real band of outlaws rather than a random collection of thieves.
How Giselher Fits Into Ciri’s Story
Ciri’s path to the Rats begins after her ordeal in the Korath Desert. Her time with them marks a major shift in identity and survival.
The name Falka becomes part of that shift. It ties her to anger, reinvention, and the dangerous freedom of the road.
Ciri’s Arrival After The Korath Desert
After the Korath Desert, Ciri is broken, hunted, and far from the life she once knew. The Rats give her shelter, but they also pull her into a world of theft, violence, and emotional damage.
Why She Takes The Name Falka
Ciri adopts the name Falka as a kind of mask. It lets her step away from Ciri of Cintra and move closer to the hardened, reckless version of herself that the Rats encourage.
The Rats As A War-Born Outlaw Gang
The Rats are not a clean-cut band of thieves. They form a crime ring out of war, loss, and revenge.
Their members come from very different backgrounds. Their pain gives them a shared language.
Who The Other Members Are
Alongside Giselher, the core group includes Iskra, Kayleigh, Mistle, Reef, and Asse. In related continuity threads, figures connected to their wider outlaw world appear, such as Nilfgaardian victims and deserters.
Each one brings a different wound to the gang, which is part of why they fit together so easily.
How Nilfgaard Shaped Their Origins
Nilfgaard’s wars and occupations create the conditions that produce the Rats. As Screen Rant’s character guide notes, several members are directly shaped by Nilfgaardian violence, whether through military abandonment, rebellion, or the destruction of their homes.
Shared Trauma, Violence, And Group Loyalty
Their loyalty grows from shared damage rather than trust. They steal, fight, and sometimes kill for pleasure.
They also cling to one another because the world outside the group has treated them even worse. That mix makes them feel less like simple villains and more like survivors who have turned predatory.
Books And Adaptations
Andrzej Sapkowski gives the Rats a sharp, tragic arc in the books. Adaptation projects keep returning to that material because it matters to Ciri’s future.
Netflix has already expanded the group’s role through spin-off storytelling and season tie-ins.
How Andrzej Sapkowski Wrote The Rats
In Sapkowski’s work, the Rats act as a brutal mirror for Ciri’s own pain. Their bond grows from survival, and their leader Giselher gives the group a shape that makes their brief rise feel real before it all falls apart.
Leo Bonhart And The Group’s Fate
Leo Bonhart, one of the most feared killers in the saga, ends the group. He destroys the Rats with brutal efficiency, which closes the chapter on their outlaw life and deepens Ciri’s trauma.
Where The Rats Connect To Netflix Spinoffs And Future Seasons
Netflix has already explored the group in The Witcher: Blood Origin. The main Rats material connects more directly to The Witcher itself and the later The Rats: A Witcher Tale project.
The wider franchise keeps building around titles like Nightmare of the Wolf, Season of Storms, and Crossroads of Ravens as related conversation points in the fandom.
Casting for the broader live-action world, including figures such as Dolph Lundgren, Liam Hemsworth, Brehen, Geralt of Rivia, and Yennefer of Vengerberg, keeps the universe moving forward.
Actors like Christelle Elwin, Aggy K. Adams, Fabian McCallum, Juliette Alexandra, and Connor Crawford help define the newer screen era.
