#i saw all this in my inbox and was like JACKPOT. i can yap for HOURS with this

[noirandchocolate]

I haven't been following for long so I know jack shit about your Kohga but! I'll gladly ask things because I love comparing headcanons and getting to know people's visions on characters (especially kohga I love him)

Biggest things first that I'm always curious about - his age! Is he immortal for some reason, if not what's his relationship with his family? Is he the same guy in botw and aoc??? (I know they're two different timelines but like. ykwim)

Who taught him his magic?

Does he know about the monks in the shrines?

Why even worship Ganon? Does he believe that he'll be left alive when the world is destroyed, or is he so consumed by revenge/indoctrination he wants to see it destroyed, no matter if it's him along with it?

Does he have free time for hobbies? If so, what does he like to do?

Does he have a favourite animal/creature? Why?

How did he survive the fall into the Depths? Did he survive the rocket, too?

Did he dye his hair?

You mentioned embarrassing childhood/teenager stories. PLEASE give those I'm so invested in this guy's humanity (lowkey feel like it's almost required for every single yiga member to cartoonishly slip on a banana peel at least once)

Did he have any childhood friends? Who are the people he holds closest nowadays? (Excluding Sooga)

Speaking of Sooga though, what's his most treasured memory about him? What's been the most memorable gift given, the most impactful moment shared?

How does Kohga celebrate his own birthday? Separate from the clan? Or is the clan's adoration enough?

Why does he live in the desert actually like why is the yiga clan there

Has he ever been on the brink of death outside of any canon events? What happened?

Any interesting scar stories?

What's a memory he'd rather forget?

What's a memory he'd rather forget not because it was traumatic but because he just feels embarrassed about it?

And the opposite - what's a memory he would permanently engrave in his brain if he could?

Anything he's personally done that is genuinely very fucked up and morally wrong? I imagine he's killed on more than several occasions but is there anything worse?

Weirdest/most interesting rule he's made in the yiga clan? And what's the story behind it?

Has he ever modified existing rules? If so, why?

How much does he leave the hideout? What makes him go outside?

If he was anything other than a cult leader, if he just lived in some random village as a regular guy, what would he want his job to be?

I want to ask so much more but my brain is erroring, might come back to your askbox if I manage to untangle my thoughts (and if I don't forget due to adhd)

Wowww awesome you sent me a whole banana bunch's worth! I think I'll break up my answers across multiple posts and save some for another time if you don't mind because a lot of these are REALLY good and I want to do them justice! <3 (Seriously thank you for your curiosity! I want to write a lot!)

My particular Master Kohga is AoC-timeline exclusively. He's just turned 52 years old today and is not currently immortal! I do think that in the BotW timeline, Master Kohga was alive at the time of the Calamity and I think it's still the same dude wanting to kill Link 100 years later. My personal headcanon is that BotW Kohga was a regular-aged, non-immortal dude at the time of the Calamity and then figured out de-aging or age-freezing within that intervening 100 years. MY Kohga, in AoC timeline, who only just lived through the Calamity, hasn't done that (yet?). He's in his prime! His Foxy Fifties! He's doin' just fiiiiine!

Kohga learned a lot of his most powerful magical techniques from his Nana, while he was a child! And he got basic stuff that all Yiga learn (teleportation, seeing through a wooden mask, illusions/disguise) in part from her, in part from his father, and in part from the Clan's teachers. He's also come up with a bunch of stuff himself!

Oh Kohga and the Clan know plenty about the Sheikah monks. They probably have more ancient records than the Kakariko Sheikah do, since they're descended from those among the Ancient Sheikah who didn't abandon their tech, weapons, and lots of their heritage. Actually, I may eventually be writing fanfic about Kohga getting to speak with a monk, to whom he has a particular connection he wasn't aware of... But for now, I'll say the Yiga know that their original Master Kohga, 10,000 years ago, was the grandson of Monk Mogg Latan on Satori Mountain!

On the subject of worshipping Ganon, this is a very ymmv topic and I don't mind other people's headcanons, but my headcanon is that the Yiga don't worship Ganon or the Calamity! It's not a religion, and there's no indoctrination per se. The Yiga grow up learning their history and the Clan's goals, sure, but there's no like. Brainwashing involved, in my hcs. (Any more so than one would say the Kakariko Sheikah and Hylians are 'brainwashed' to fear and dislike the Yiga.) Personally I think their hatred is only fair, given the persecution of their ancestors. Anyway, it's not worship, for Kohga, it's respect. Why respect the Calamity? Because it's akin to a force of nature, capable of sweeping clean the unjust slate. The Yiga have wanted the justice of revenge for their fallen kin and the betrayal of their ancestors' loyalty for 10,000 years. Kohga, the latest in a line of Masters Kohga before him, had no reason to question that an entity embodying hatred for the Royal Family would be able to achieve that revenge. And yes. He thought the Clan would be special. That he would be special. That after all that time, he was going to be the Master who actually assisted the Calamity. He thought they'd be spared. He was wrong. He has to live with that. It's...hard. He struggles sometimes. But...he has to live with it.

Hobbies include!! Playing and composing for the shamisen! Renku-style poetry circles at parties! Messing around with ancient tech! Disguising himself to go to Gerudo Town and be a cute menace! And of course. Napping. <3

Kohga doesn't really have a favorite animal and if you asked him this question he'd say 'boar' without thinking too hard and then be like 'Oh. You don't mean to eat.' He likes various animals--he thinks bright little birds are fun to watch, he's getting along well with the Clan's new dogs, he has a Yiga's common penchant for frogs, and foxes make him think of his mama--but there's no critter that he points to and thinks 'that's my best guy' about.

Hair dye, huh? You see my Yiga are very strict about who can see their real appearance (I'll just link to a post explaining instead of doing it again). But! One small thing. That I will tell you. Because Kohga isn't really secretive about this. Is that his hair isn't dyed. It is beautiful inky black coils naturally~~ <3 <3 <3 He takes incredibly good care of it.

Gonna skip a few here 'cause I want to do longer answers for them when I have more time.

BIRTHDAY TIME!! A Master's birthday is a Clan-wide celebration! It's not as formal of a thing as Ascension Day, of course, but everybody who's home at the Karusa Complex on the day is treated to a BIG meal and the Clan's usual-style party out by the chasm (season permitting). Kohga loves his birthdaaaay because unlike with Ascension Day where the celebration is just as much about the office of Master as it is about him as an individual, his BIRTHDAY is HIS day ALONE. He gets tons of presents (many of them bananas and art projects from children). Everybody pays even more attention to him than usual (which is saying something)! He gets all his favorite food at dinner! And he just loves a good party no matter what it's for. This year is his first birthday as a married man, too, so he's having extraspecial fun with Sooga, too. Many kisses and such, ehehe.

The Clan's in the desert because Karusa Valley is naturally protected and was the best place the fleeing, persecuted Sheikah who would become the Yiga could find to shelter themselves from pursuing Hylians. With punishing, trackless desert to the south and the brutal, sheer cliffs of the Highlands to the north, it was a perfect hideaway 10,000 years ago, especially after gates with magical/tech wards were built to hide the Valley's southern entrance. (Kakariko Village wasn't the only 'hidden settlement of the Sheikah' following the genocide.) Finding an even more ancient Gerudo site to start with was pure serendipity, but the Clan has in the millennia since excavated more and more of the Highlands' insides to link up caves and build their own, creating a Complex that's highly defensible and quite cozy if one doesn't mind a complete lack of windows in one's home...

Kohga's never been actually injured so badly that he almost died, but one accidental near-death experience he had as a young man was something he now laughs about with hindsight. When Kohga was about...I want to say 21, 22? He and another Footsoldier were assigned by Daddy Kohga to go scout out a group of Hylians on Koukot Plateau, above Gerudo Canyon. Reports had been made that this group seemed to be amassing lumber there, and Kohga's father wanted to know what they were doing. So Kohga and his buddy, disguised as burly Hylian dudes to fit in, stole a pack donkey from some Gerudo merchant and wandered into these guys' camp. They found out what was going on, that the group was going to build a temporary camp there while doing some stone-quarrying, but would be leaving after a couple seasons. But that's not what's important. What's important is that while getting this info, as well as personal info on and descriptions of everyone present like a good little spy should do, Kohga also got actually drunk with them instead of just pretending to be, and uh... One thing led to another with a bunch of escalating macho tests of strength and physical dares, and Kohga literally fell into the Canyon. And was drunk enough that. He momentarily forgot he can float and teleport. And he broke his leg pretty bad hitting an outcropping on the way down before realizing. And letting himself land softer on the ground. This scared the CRAP out of the Hylian stonemasons--because Kohga literally should have been dead and somehow wasn't--AND Kohga's partner--because oh sweet stars and ancestors above that was the Heir, the Heir just FELL OFF A CLIFF. Luckily the dudes were also drunk enough that Kohga's buddy convinced them they should just like, forget about it, don't tell anybody or they might get in trouble, and he'd just, go down via this nice scaffolding here and get his friend onto the donkey and uhhh, they'd go home... And Kohga was a huge baby about recovering with his stupid broken leg after his goofy shenanigans, and now he tells this story like it's the funniest damn thing ever.

With that I have run out of time to answer things for today but! Thank you sooooo so much for asking so many and I will answer more of them another time, promise!!