#botw lore

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

HI, CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT THE AKKALA CITADEL?????

Yes? Wonderful. Come, friend, have a seat. I have...a lot to say lol

Eight years later and I am STILL not over how absolutely genius this fortress is, like are you kidding me????? Everything from location to design to its inside defenses is just *chef's kiss* PHENOMINAL, and so because I have no filter, I am going to barf all my thoughts I've had on it in the past many many years.

Before we begin, shoutout to the WONDERFUL video by Zeltik that touches on this a bit and gave me a wonderful basis for my brainrot in the first place. Definitely go and watch it it's fabulous NOW! Let's get into the madness shall we? First let's talk about the location cos OHHHH MY GOSH. This was, hands down, THE best place they could have possibly put a fortress of this magnitude in Hyrule and I am going to tell you why. First of all, allllllll along the northern and northwestern border of Hyrule, there's those massive canyons

Passing over that in a way that would be effective military-wise is kind of impossible, so it provides a natural defense from invaders from those directions.

If you were to come from the South, you would hit the Gerudo desert and not only have to face the might of the Gerudo military, but also cross this EXPANSIVE, scorching desert before you can even make it to Hyrule field, and by that time, the royal leader could have very easily sent an army to intercept anyone trying to attack, so that's right out.

Which leaves coming from the Faron region next which is okay??? I guess??? but that's a LOT of swamp and forest you have to cross through, AND you go right past the Great Plateau where any army would have been seen and intercepted eventually. This takes us closer to the eastern coast of Hyrule, and you would be hard pressed to try and travel through Necluda, cos just l o o k at all these mountains you'd have to cross:

Horrible. And you probably don't want to go through Zora's Domain cos that's yet another heavily fortified and well prepared city in and of itself (please ask me about this one too I beg of you I love talking about Zora's Domain)

Any military leader with a brain isn't going to go through Death Mountain for obvious reasons, so really, all that leaves is this tiiiiiinnnyyy vulnerable spot in Akkala

And where did they put the citadel??? Right at the heart of that vulnerable spot >:D Like a boss.

AND SO! if invaders came in from that coastline, they have three options: They can take the path through the Akkala Highlands, they can go through the Torin Wetlands and up to the pass it connects to, or they can take the trail up to the Sokkala Bridges. All of these are TERRIBLE OPTIONS Akkala Highlands path: If they come up this way at the start

this will work allll the way until they get about here:

once they get here though, you are now not only bottlenecking an entire army meant to invade a kingdom (so probably roughly 1,000-1,300 people), but you're also directly under the shadow of the Akkala Citadel. There are archers there to fire on you, and they had a canon post on that side to potentially fire either at the incoming soldiers or fire at the opposite canyon wall to rain debris and rocks on them.

TERRIBLE for the other army.

And even if some did manage to survive, it would be painfully easy for the infantry at Akkala Citadel to send foot soldiers down below to cut them off.

SO THERE GOES THAT OPTION (and admittedly, I think it's probably the worst of the three)

Next option is to go through the Torin Wetlands and up into that same pass by the Citadel

this is ALSO a bad idea because the Torin Wetlands are a DELIGHTFUL tactical advantage for Hyrule. Once you get to that pass, you have the same problems as option one, but now you first have to pass through this wide marshland to get there. This will immediately slow down your army, and if that wasn't bad enough it's also in clear freakin view of the citadel and so they would be able to send their entire militia of archers and potentially even cannoneers to fire on the advancing army and take a bunch of them out before they could even make it to that pass.

So a smart general may say the best option is to go around the long way.

now this eliminates the pass and also slowing down at the marsh, and you could even make it almost all the way to the citadel without hardly any losses probably BUT! The first hurdle is those bridges. Wonderful for Hyrule, terrible for the opposing army. The three Sokkala bridges are SMALL, even smaller than the pass an army would have to go through with the other two options. This military leader would basically have to send their soldiers single file unless they have a way to expand the bridges to make them wider (which, admittedly, could be possible with a bit of foresight, but for now for simplicity's sake let's just assume they didn't think that far ahead).

This brings in an EXTREMELY slowly advancing army right to the heart of the Akkala Citadel's battery.

There are three locations with canons we see in BOTW that cover pretty much the entire open area the opposing army would come in on. And when you look at the amount of space each post covered

There is not a SINGLE spot in that valley a cannoneer couldn't easily reach. And, of course they would continue to have archers to pick off individual soldiers as well.

And if SOMEHOW

BY SOME MIRACLE

enough soldiers make it through that hell to be enough of a problem, there are plenty more soldiers in the citadel to cut them off as they come up the hill AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH! there was this:

by the time we get to botw, it has been destroyed, but that is ANOTHER smaller stronghold that was probably pretty well manned in and of itself.

AND WHAT'S MORE

There's even this long cliff road with very little room to operate, so it would be extremely easy for the citadel to send over some soldiers to post up there and cut off anyone who tried to make it past. And with so little room to operate, it would not go well.

Ain't NOTHING getting past the Akkala Citadel, guys.

And that isn't even touching on the fact that the whole thing is build of solid stone??? And carved into a mountain??? The entire reason it fell in the first place was because the Guardians had enough of fire power to destroy the citadel that they had never seen before (also they could climb walls but that's a side note). This implies that no one in Hyrule or the neighbouring kingdoms had even CLOSE to that level of destructive power, so to try and raze it to the ground would have been impossible.

AND!! it was the most heavily fortified fortress in Hyrule second to the castle itself, and to most likely their military personnel would have been equal too, if not slightly more than even Hyrule Castle. That's A LOT of people!! With most likely endless support and resources from the castle and villages nearby as well.

It was placed geniously, it had impenetrable defense, it had a potentially endless supply of resources and people to use said resources, it was just

argjfbdkjgbks You guys don't understand how much I THINK about this place aghhhhhhhhhh

[proxycrit]

LINKTOBER DAY 19! East Reservoir Lake

The Zora siblings gets that self sacrificing from somewhere, what can I say.

Anyways, the duo absconded with the crown prince. (Alchemist Yona, you’re going to stop them, right? RIGHT??)

This is a Totk au called Familiar Familiar, and it all started when Zelda didn’t get sent to the shadow realm (and everything fell apart from there). Here’s the masterlist!

Patreon here if you like my crimes and want to feed me a treat!

[shellshooked]

lotr x zelda au content? in our Lords year of 2025? more likely than u think

[stealingpotatoes]

Do you like any other video games? If so, do you like Zelda and whats ur favourite game?

i like LOTS of games!! i’ve only played a bit of BOTW but i got bored once i’d fully upgraded my house in that village and never defeated any of the divine beasts

[stxss-art]

More Zelda sketches for my au to heal my inner horror fantasy junkie 🫶

[demiboydemon]

CRYING CRYING CRYING THEY NEVER MOVED IT BECAUSE SHE NEVER CAME HOME 😭 but then in TotK it’s in a different but just as prominent place to represent her duty being completed but still never coming home crying crying crying

[lunarblazes]

“Are you… an elf?” Gem prompts, not bothering to hide her curiosity.

Grian’s head snaps up to stare at his teammate. It’s been about an hour since they started the new game. Time’s still twisting and settling, impatient, but frozen for the moment. Grian almost doesn’t remember what she means.

He reaches up, somewhat self-conscious, and puts a hand on the tips of his ears. Pointed and long. It’s been a long time since he’s occupied this form.

“Maybe,” he says defensively. “Why?”

“Maybe?” she repeats, voice cracking slightly. “What do you mean, maybe? Shouldn’t you know what you are?”

“No,” Grian replies nonchalantly. “I stole this body. From a hero, if you must know.”

“What?”

He forgets how young she is sometimes. Not much younger than him, but still. Young enough. He sighs dramatically.

“Things are more malleable in beta,” he explains, tugging on his long ears. “It was pretty common for people to copy the forms of heroes. Y’know, legends. People we thought were cool. Before we really settled on being ourselves.”

Gem tilts her head, scrutinizing his look. Despite the answer he gave Gem, he does actually know he’s not an elf. He knows the ancient race he studied. He knows their deities and abilities. He knows the fate of the hero he chose. But it’d probably confuse her further, so he leaves it at that.

“Huh,” she says. “And Pearl…?”

“That one’s all her,” Grian snorts. “She’s quite proud of the simpler look.”

“I think it’s nice,” Gem says carefully, surreptitiously glancing around to make sure Pearl’s not in earshot. “What’s up with Joel?”

Grian barks a laugh. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

[gabelew]

It's been a while since I last drew Bazz's fancy captain getup...

[ghost-of-tk]

made this awhile ago but have since made several amendments.

[agent0tter]

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

But what happens if my world is falling to their doom?

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

Thinking about icon monk twins Shee Venath and Shee Vaneer

Literally those two slayed SO hard as the First Calamity dynamic duo that they put their communal brain cell together and said “Yo yano what would be REALLY funny to do to the hero???”

and then went and designed their fuckass matchy matchy shrines for link 1,000 years later.

Baddie move fr fr I love them sm

[verflares]

say, what do you think ever happened to that boy from the forest? you think he ever found what he was looking for?

[shellshooked]

they say that the world was built for two

[critical-birb]

Okay maybe I forgot to log onto this account for....a hot minute.

But quick post about some of my favourite random things in the new Zelda voice files.

-Revali canonically taking zelda to the hotsprings on his back (using the excuse he could only take one person as a reason to leave Link behind) and acting as her guard all day because she was too stressed and he wanted to help her relax???? This is so fucking wholesome what.

-Vah Medoh being the hardest Divine Beast to control out of all of them but Revali picking it up really quickly and Zelda commenting that it's because he trains harder than anyone she's ever met and has an incredible work ethic.

-Zelda also talking about how Revali's gale is amazing and he's the only one who can do it - but saying that it's not even the reason why he's so incredible.

-The Rito are master woodworkers! They make near everything out of wood and apparently are extremely impressive in how they transport lumber in the air.

-The Rito also make the most high quality fabrics and garments in the land and they're popular everywhere. Zelda's coat was her mothers and was brought in Rito Village.

-Rito fight in the air in groups in a way no other race does, they're very communal fighters for the most part.

-Vah Medoh is apparently suprisingly lightweight. Zelda worries that it will crush Vah Medoh's perch but apparently that's not a realistic concern because it doesn't weigh all too much. It's also implied that the spire was Vah Medoh's perch ten thousand years ago too - it's not just a coincidence that it's shaped that way.

-Daruk asked Zelda to remove an entire stable. It's implied it's because that's where all the unhomed working dogs live.

-Daruk is too modest/shy to talk about the giant stone carving of his head in Goron City.

-Alongside rocks, Gorons really enjoy eating boiled eggs?

-The Gorons also gathered a lifetime suply of lizards for Zelda when she ran out of fire-proof elixer which is so wholesome.

-Vah Ruta lowered it's trunk in greeting the first time it met Mipha as if she were an old friend.

-The Hylians and the Zora have a long history of cultural exchange dating back LONGER than ten thousand years ago!

-King Dorophan fights with his fins rather than a weapon because he's so powerful.

-Zora's domain is home to extremely talented metal workers. Mipha's statue is made of metal, and she was extremely embaressed by it being in the center of the Domain and kept asking her dad to move it somewhere out of the way lakjshdfhjk. Omg that's why they moved it up to the mountain help. It's what she wanted.

-The Zora make everything out of a water-resistant ore - even their books so they can be read in the water!!

-The Zora also have super uncomfortable Hylian beds in their inn because they sleep in the water and have no idea what it is that Hylians want out of a bed.

-The mountain was a super popular place for young Zora to show off their bravery by jumping off it before the Lynel moved in. The only Zora willing to go up there was baby Sidon who Mipha kept telling to stay away from it but he'd get an excited glint in his eye like he was gonna do it anyway.

-Zelda's mother was sickly and prone to illness yet made the perilous trek to Gerudo Town frequently dispite the wild and life-threatening tempreture changes and dangers of the desert. Wonder why that was?

-Karakara Bizaare was created specifically to trade with male travelers, since they're not permitted within the town. It used to be extremely crowded.

-Sand seals evolved from aquatic creatures. Also Urbosa trained Zelda to ride one!

-The Gerudo are master jewelry makers and beleive the precious stones to absorb sunlight and energy and to repel evil. Because of this they wear as much jewelry as possible.

-Urbosa's shield and scimitar were made by a jewler rather than a blacksmith.

-Urbosa also requested a stable be built on the borders of the desert so that the young Gerudo leaving home for the first time have somewhere to stop and prepare for the rest of their travels.

-The warm doubtlet you get from the king at the start of BoTW was Zelda's.

-In Luralin, they beleive the Goddess statue to be the Goddess of fishing.

-Link wouldn't let Zelda climb the mountain to the matchmaking lake because he said it was 'too steep' and she notes that it's suspiciously overcautious of him.

-Zelda brought the five scarves she made for the Champions and Link to be dyed at the dye shop in Hataeno Village, and they were dyed using silent princess flowers to get the royal blue colour.

-It's suggested that malice forms in places that harbor negative energy,

-The Sheika were banished from Hyrule, that's why they moved to Kakariko Village hidden in the vally.

-The Sheika beleive frogs to be good luck.

[mochiobonio]

As the land continued to be ravaged by countless battles, the ground reeks of blood, the clashes of swords soon came to a halt, one thought came to Triton's mind; "

My lust for the spilling of blood has dwindled over the years, what then would bring joy to my dull existence?"