The definition of the word "complexion" is pretty clear in that setting, even most settings.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/complexion

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complexion

There literally is no other way of interpreting that sentence. Unless one suggests that the character who observed Ciri in that scene could somehow see her emotional nature or her body's complexities involving liquids, heat and other measures.

Asking where it says that someone is white, based on the description "ashen-white complexion" is like asking how a car is blue based on "the azure paint reflected the sun". 

Hahaha,exactly.Gods of Egypt was all fine and dandy because "it's fiction so the cast can be anyone".As soon as whites are replaced in any movie,there's an out roar.It's fantasy Ciri could be blue for all I care.

How dare they look for a non white actor? Those fricking SJW's. I want all the cast to be white.

Well shitty side characters can be black.

i think it would be cool if they made her transgender or pansexual or at least non-binary

Theres this thing called being true to source material. Witcher books are based on Slavic mythologies and societies, which had exactly 0 contact with black/African societies. African/black people already have way, waaay more representation in media than any slavic group that arent Russian bad guys.

Also, Ciri's background is extremely important to her story, since she is a daughter of an emperor and a woman who's ancestor is Lara Doren. If you make her non-white, you'd have to also make any of these people non-white which would be beyond ridiculous.

Also, ''people of colour'' are actually vastly OVERrepresented in the US media, given that they are only 13% of the population. If the representation were to be ''fair'' only one in 9.5 actors/musicians/athletes would be black, but theres way more of them than that

More like ''the creator of the Witcher universe wanted all the characters to be white, since its all based on Polish folklore and slavic mythology'' Not everything has to be ruined by American identity politics

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/13/gods-of-egypt-posters-anger-whitewashed-cast-twitter-exodus

So let's not pretend there wasn't backlash against Gods of Egypt

Yeah, it's not like if the word "whitewashing" had been specifically invented to complain about white casts...

I see a lot of people saying that it isn't so much an issue that a minority may be playing this role, but instead that white actors were excluded.

Could the reason for this be to improve readability between races and geographic areas? I'm not overly familiar with Witcher lore, but fantasy stories typically ascribe physical differences to the different races to create visual diversity and allow for greater readability (meaning, the viewer is less likely to start mixing up races and lore). If a story is to have several different groups, it can start to get confusing if all of them are represented the same way physically. Utilizing natural divisions between people is one of the simplest and most intuitive ways of doing this.

Weird path society is taking if this is such a huge issue. Let creators make the movies that want to make, if you don't want to view something due to hue of someone's skin, its your prerogative. Can't force everyone to have the same narrow-minded viewpoints