Thread by @netflixwitcher

The season 2 trailer shows a monolith at the heart of Cintra, but what are monoliths and magnaliths? Here's everything you need to know about their importance ahead of #TheWitcher2:

Monoliths are an "inexplicable phenomenon" – enormous pillars of obsidian stone. Scholars study them, but don't know who made them. The monoliths "might still hold valuable information about the ancient civilisations that preceded the human race and possibly even the elves"

Cities and civilizations have been built on and around monoliths, as seen in the image of Cintra, and in this concept art of Blaviken by Andrew Laws

We see Istredd studying what seems to be a huge monolith, but he says the runes pointing to where it could be found and excavated described it as a "magnalith"

The Hen Linge on one of the magnalith stones being examined by Istredd refers to Geralt/Yen/Ciri: "And to orphans, earth's destiny belongs, for they are the keepers of the lion's scion"

Istredd tells us: "Every glyph has a clue to something across the Continent, from a time before the Conjunction. Most are history, but some might be more. The prophecy, the future, I want to explore all of it"

In one chapter of Blood of Elves, Yennefer gives her famous "magic is chaos, art and science" speech as she puts her hand on a monolith – and Ciri has a vision when she does the same

The first monolith we see is the same one that appears prominently in the S2 trailer, in the middle of Cintra

As Cahir is fleeing with Ciri, she looks back to her burning city – and its monolith. She then begins screaming, activating another monolith outside the city that falls and obstructs the Nilfgaardian

In the S2 trailer, we see the scar left on the land by that monolith falling

The dragon-hunting party passes a monolith in E6

Ciri, Dara and the doppler pass a monolith in E6

And finally, there's the magnalith in E7 being examined by Istredd