Werfner, Priest of the Blood and High Priest of Dahak, was a character on Xena: Warrior Princess. He was a leader of the followers of Dahak.
As the Head Priest of Dahak, Werfner tried to sacrifice Seraphin to Hope, the daughter of Dahak and Gabrielle (who happens to to be a childhood friend of Seraphin's), as she is the "chosen one", whose blood has the power to release Hope onto the Earth. Xena and Gabrielle interrupt the sacrificial ceremony, as well as learn about Dahak, Hope and their attempt to unleash evil onto the Earth. Meanwhile, Callisto begins to protect a cocooned Hope, feeding her Janiclea, who was from the same cult as Werfner. She kidnaps Werfner in order to feed him to Hope, but he tells her that his blood will not release Hope, only Seraphin's ("the chosen one") blood will do that. He tells Callisto that he can talk to Hope for her if she wants. She uses him to ask her if she'll kill her, once she has helped her be released from the cocoon. Werfner travels to the Halls of War, where Ares has taken Hope for safe keeping. He waits for Seraphin to follow Hope's callings and once again attempts to kill her and retrieve her blood to release Hope, but Xena once again prevents him. But Seraphin stabs herself, collects her blood and wipes it on the cocoon.
Hope is released and after trying to kill both Xena and Gabrielle, she and Callisto escape from the Halls of War. Werfner takes the followers of Dahak to villages, where they ransack and kidnap people for sacrifices to Dahak. He takes them to Dahak, where they are prepared for sacrifice - Joxer amongst them, who has managed to sneak in the Hind's Blood Dagger for Xena.
Xena doesn't manage to kill Hope, but events play out and Werfner's fate remains unknown once Hope is killed by her own child.But he might have die possibly along with Seraphin when the temple collapses.
He was played by Stephen Ure.
Background Information
- Werfner was based apparently based on Gollum from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series of books. Many of the Xenaverse cast and crew will later take part in making the three feature films based on the books.