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merimaatelegiac · 4 years

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“The Hero of Men” Notes Pt. 2

The Prophecy of the Hero of Time - Like I mentioned in part 1, this prophecy is very important both in the series themselves, and for If Time Healed Wounds’ background. In Ocarina of Time, Sheik speaks of both this and the prophecy of the game’s seven temples. I wanted to put out there my theory on how they came to exist. Since they are temples, we can assume that they used to be places of worship before being corrupted by Ganondorf, and from some (such as the Shadow and Spirit temples) we actually learn a little of what they were used for, though nothing too specific. Now, thanks to the games that “canonically” go before OoT in terms of the chronology, it was very easy to take advantage of the fact that the Master Sword is not used again after the events of Skyward Sword. There’s also the fact that, even though those previous games have pretty serious events hidden in the background (such as the apparent genocide of the Wind Tribe---another post that will be!), they are still minor threats compared to all the sh*itshow going on leading to, during, and after the events in OoT. The Civil War, Hyrule finally being conquered by the bad guy and gone to waste (or semi-waste, considering the actual waste that is Hyrule in BotW), the timeline splitting up... All of that is, imo, much worse than anything that’s happened since the time of SS, even more so than the interlopers going wild. From all of these things I gave form and purpose to both prophecies.

And, insert here GoW Kratos’ voice saying “BOY”. All the bits and pieces I still had to make sense of for the Reader character’s story, put themselves into place once I had these events explained in my mind.

The thanking ceremony - When I was little, the Temple of Time creeped me out in a very weird way. I used to find it extremely weird that they’d built such an enormous building only to have it empty literally all the time. As I grew up I understood that the game’s capacity probably didn’t allow the devs to give more life to OoT’s Hyrule, but I was always left with that awkward feeling. Then, as I thought about all of those bits of lore that would be so fresh in the days of the Minish’ arrival from the time of the war against Demise, I figured that there’d be, necessarily, different holidays in Hyrule, one of which had to be some sort of celebration around his defeat. And what better place to hold it than the Temple of Time?? Let’s not forget that the Sealed Temple, placed on top of Demise’s original tomb, used to be where the Temple of Time now stands. I honestly loved the idea, and it’s even given me a different way of experiencing it when I replay any game where it appears. Which are, like, two xD.

I had so much fun thinking of the little details on how the ceremony would be performed. I actually created the prayer recited by Princess Aryn based on an ancient Templar prayer that they used when they started being persecuted by the Church.

Also, remember how it is mentioned that something about that prayer makes the princess feel calm and secure? Well, it is dedicated to the Hero, after all. It works!

A little on the Geography of Hyrule, according to Reliable Me - This honestly deserves its own post, and I might just do that in the future. But I do want to touch some of that here. Naturally, the main map I was using as reference for the vast majority of the chapter was that from The Minish Cap. The one major change I made was the denomination of the Minish Woods, which in the story was refered to as the Southern Forests (continuing the naming pattern in TMC, with names such as Eastern Hills, Western Wood and North/South Hyrule Field). Naturally, the Minish Woods would be named as such after these events. Now, Lake Hylia does not appear in TMC, but it does in Four Swords, which, canonically, would go after TMC. In FS, Lake Hylia is more or less where the Zora Domain is located in Ocarina of Time. So! In my headcanon that is the original Lake Floria, which then was named Lake Hylia, until the Zora arrived. Then, with the years and the expansion of the Kingdom of Hyrule, the lake to the southeast was named as Lake Hylia instead. In my mind, Hyrule was not very big in these early years, and I think its very plausible that all of the areas in the center of TMC’s map are the middle areas in OoT’s map, including Castor Wilds, right east of the natural barrier of the hills leading to Gerudo Valley. I have a whole explanation of how the area of Mt. Crenel turned into the frozen wasteland that we see in Twilight Princess, along with a detailed outlining of the entirety of Hyrule’s western desert...

... But I’ll leave that for its own post. :D

The Minish and the Guardian Spirits... - Again, as is usual in the series, the origins of the Minish are left extremely vague. So, I filled some of those gaps, while not getting into too much detail. I made them the origins of the guardian spirits that we encounter in Ocarina of Time (the Great Deku Tree, Lord Jabu-Jabu, and, you guessed it! -?-, Volvagia ---yes, I like the theory of Volvagia being the Spiritual Guardian of Fire before being corrupted by Ganondorf---), along with a fourth, the Spiritual Guardian of Wind (who might it be? Perhaps the Wind Fish?? Who knows!!), whose fate we don’t know anything about, after the Wind Tribe was massacred. As years passed, I like the idea of the Hylians starting to call the Minish with the name of the sword they made, with only the Royal Family remembering their original name, for the average Hylian villager didn’t really know the details of that whole story. In contrast, as is usually the case with locations, the Minish Woods would retain that name.

As to what happened to them... let’s leave it open for speculation, like Nintendo did.

The Wind Tribe - These guys fascinate me so much. I think there’s a lot of potential for their origins and lore in general, and I tried to exploit that. I unfortunately took the easy route and assumed that all red-haired tribes in Hyrule come from the same peoples (so goddamned brilliant of me, I know), based also on the fact that most of them have origins in the west of Hyrule. My reasoning is that the original Dark Tribe developed the red hair trait, which remained after they were reinstated into Hylian society and during their rift, half of them becoming the Wind Tribe, the others what would be known as the Dark Interlopers. Now, we know that after the events of The Minish Cap, there came another Hero with a unique adventure, separate to that of the Four Sword Hero. In those times,Vaati is said to kidnap beautiful women and take them to his Palace in the sky. Since the Wind Tribe is never heard of again, many theorize that Vaati might have killed them after he escaped his first imprisonment, thus taking over their home from then on. I personally go for this theory as well in my headcanon, but I don’t think all of them were destroyed.

In TMC, the Ocarina of Winds works with music. That alone was my cue to link them to the Song of Healing (it makes more sense int he chapter, haha) as was implied in the chapter :D And if at this point you’re thinking something about the Happy Mask Salesman, you’re probably right. But more on this in another post!

I think that covers all general topics in the story. As I said in part one, I’ll make separate posts for the other, more complicated ones. Ask me for any doubts you have in regards to these!

Thanks for reading!

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merimaatelegiac · 4 years

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The Hero of Men Notes Pt. 1

I obviously could not claim this mini-story to be a Legend of Zelda tale if it didn’t start with the Hero waking up at the beginning! A sham, that’s what it’d be!! Anyways, I’ll be covering some of my thoughts and the creative process through which I made the latest chapter, “The Hero of Men”, from my Zelda fanfiction, If Time Healed Wounds. I’m gonna arrange it into different topics:

The Setting - This being the tale of the Hero known to us as “the Hero of Men”, briefly mentioned in The Minish Cap, I figured that, from an in-world perspective, the traditions and stories of those times had to be closer and more accurate to the events from Skyward Sword and everything in-between it and TMC. Also, we know that the creation of the Temple of Time, the apparition of the Sages and the Interloper War (as the event is known amongst theorists) all had to happen during that time. As such, I’m pretty sure that the importance of the Royal Family being descended from Hylia (and let’s be honest, most likely the Hero as well), would not have been forgotten or obviated yet, both by themselves and the normal people. The story of Demise’s curse would have been passed down as well.

All of these things are super important to the franchise’s lore as a whole, and yet are deliberately left vague by good ol’ Nintendo. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. I’m personally passionate about creators leaving an open note in their lore for fans to fill in with their own theories and assumptions, because it means that there is no established canon in regards to those topics, and everyone’s ideas and theories are equally valid.

(This is something that the creators behind The Elders Scrolls series have done masterfully, imho. I’m a huge fan of the way they’ve managed that principle, making the community a part of the “canon”---which is considered non-existent in the series, due to everyone’s headcanon being as valid as Bethesda’s---along with the concept of the Unreliable Narrator; but that’s a rant for some other time.)

Princess Aryn - Being that the story of the Hero of Men has never been told in detail by Nintendo, we get a LOT of stuff to theorize on and fill in. I got the idea of making her a girl originally merely because the HoM’s hair was the longest of all the Heroes’ before BotW Link came along, haha (as we do get a glimpse of---I assume--- him in the stained glass shown during The Minish Cap’s intro), and also because, for the sake of the story, it fit so much better to have her be a female, like our Reader Character is. I don’t suppose there’ll be a fuss about a “Link” being a girl :D It’s really not a big deal. Also, I like that making her Zelda’s sister gave the excuse for Aryn to care so much for her in the style of Zelda’s traditional Hero-Zelda connection. I genuinely hadn’t planned that bit and it worked so well! I’m so happy with the result. I tried to stress out a lot the issue with her being so young, for most Links always tend to be in the series, and, realistically speaking, the repercussions of something like that are extremely interesting to me. As for her name, I was hesitant for a long time whether I should’ve given her one, or just leave it open for the readers to fill in, using the same “(y/n)” format I use for the OC protagonist, but! in the end I thought that it would make people confused, making them believe that they are the same person, which is not the case. So there’s that.

If she ended up being annoying to some, just know that she was annoying to me too -lol-. It was the intention.

I might change it in the future to a more “Link-ish” name, though, or maybe leaving it simply as (y/n), I don’t know... If you have any suggestions, let me know :D

Princess Zelda - Let me begin by saying that I am so proud of her character, if I may say so myself. I remember that, being a kid, I never liked Princess Zelda before, in any game. She seemed an annoyance to me everytime... Up until I played Twilight Princess. Even though she was still a damsel-in-distress trapped in a tower (despite the choice of remaining there being hers alone), she had a less sparkly-pink princess personality (if that makes any sense), which was what I used to dislike about her before. She was a more mature character, she did not have the big, cute, anime character eyes anymore... I just loved her design. In time I came to appreaciate all incarnations of her, but TP Zelda always remained my favorite. So, that’s what I aimed for here. A mature Zelda, heavily inspired too by Hyrule Warriors‘ Zelda, being a warrior herself and all. I have to point out here though: Her annoyance at having a Hero appear in this story is not based or inspired by BotW’s Zelda. In the game it is a matter of proving herself capable without the aid of a Hero, whereas in this story she is worried because of the prophecy of the Hero of Time, not her own value or capabilities being put into question if there was a Hero.

For more on what I did in regards to that prophecy, check out the second part of these Notes!

The Sheikah - Impa has always been the traditional caretaker of Princess Zelda’s in most games where she has an appearance, and then there are the Sheikah following the King of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild. I think that the concept of having the important members of the royalty being assigned a Sheikah protector since they were born was an interesting aspect I could take advantage on. The Sheikah have always been the guardians not only of the Royal Family but also of their secrets, and as an extension, those of the inner workings of the entire Kingdom. That’s why the Sheikah scouts that first discovered the Stone Tower are able to recognize the black speech of Mordor used by the Dark Tribe; they have been taught these things since forever, they have always been the lore-keepers of Hyrule. This is also why I felt it appropriate to credit them with the prophecy of the Hero of Time, since it is Sheik who mentions it in Ocarina of Time, most likely taught in turn by Impa (or at the very least, I like that theory).

Which leads us to two of the most important topics in the chapter: Majora, the Dark Tribe, and the land of Termina. But I will write about those in a separate post, to make these shorter :D

The mirrors created by the Dark Tribe - In the series we are introduced to various mirrors. The first is the Mirror Shield, first introduced in A Link To The Past, continuing appearances in later games. These shields vary in shape and form, but have one thing in common: they always reflect light, either literally like in Majora’s Mask, Ocarina of Time or The Wind Waker, or light in different presentations, such as the beams shot by some enemies; then there’s the Dark Mirror, introduced in Four Swords Adventures, which reflects the Darkness inside living beings, creating evil copies of them. This is how Dark Link is created in FSA; and lastly, there’s the Mirror of Twilight, from Twilight Princess, which in the game is merely the portal to the Twilight Realm, not the reason for the creation of the twilight in Hyrule, like I use it in the fic. Still, all of these seemed curious similarities to me. Since Light in The Legend of Zelda has always been treated like the embodiment of goodness, it struck me like odd that the Mirror Shield would be created for the purpose of reflecting it, defending its user from it. The Dark Mirror does not reflect the Light inside creatures, merely the Darkness, thus being in a manner similar to the Mirror Shield in that both deflect Light. That’s why I find it possible, even though it’s just as likely that I’m wrong, that both were created by the same people, and since we are told in FSA that the Dark Tribe created the Dark Mirror, then they’d also created the Mirror Shield. At the very least THE Mirror Shield I speak of in ITHW. In regards to the Mirror of Twilight, this was more of a creative freedom I gave myself in the writing process. In Twilight Princess it is suggested that the twilight was first created when the Twilight Realm came to be, as punishment for the dark interlopers, not that they created it themselves.

For the sake of making connections, I assigned all of these creations to the Dark Tribe.

The Fused Shadows - Remember that in Twilight Princess the Light Spirits tell Link that the Fused Shadows bring the worst in people? It is in a way, similar to what the Dark Mirror does, detecting the Darkness within a person and exploiting it, although in different ways. It is, after all, what causes the horrible mutations in the first three bosses of the game. When in the chapter I speak of the dark interlopers using it to bring out the evil in people and force them to fight amongst themselves, it’s quite literal, just like Lanayru showed Link in-game after he returns the Light to that province.

Having used the Fused Shadows to corrupt its victims and turn them into evil, the dark interlopers could use the Dark Mirror to reflect that Darkness more easily, thus creating their doppelgangers.

The Sages and the Temple of Time - In Hyrule Historia, we are told that Rauru, the Sage of Light, was a part of the Royal Family, but it is not stated whether he was a king at some point, or not. That might’ve been left open on purpose, but I still think that something so important would have been specified (maybe?). Then I thought, why not? And I just decided to give him a brother, who would become the first King of Hyrule during this time. And, idk, I thought it would be fun to give Rauru a more specific “origin story”; the reason why he is a Sage, the reason why he can’t appear in Hyrule with a more physical form like the other Sages (since he actually died), the reason why the Sages were created as a whole to begin with---and it offered the PERFECT opportunity to link them to the prophecy of the Hero of Time (again!) whose specifics have haunted me since I first played Ocarina of Time... and which I needed to have in place for our Reader Character’s backstory.

Not to mention that it gave me the excuse I needed to explain the disappearance of the Goddess Statue from Hyrule, which had also bothered me since Skyward Sword.

(Continues in Part 2!)

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merimaatelegiac · 4 years

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Yes. I would have loved to do that, too.

But, oh, man. I have gone through several scenarios in my head that could prevent him from doing what he did in the end (I wanna avoid spoilers in case someone hasn’t read The Silmarillion or The Children of Húrin), and everytime I think the only way he would not would be for all the awful things that happened to not have happened in the first place.

Really, his personality and all the events up to that point just piled up for that tragic ending. I don’t think that even knowing that his father was still alive and to have actually met him would have stopped him. I’m pretty sure that just knowing he had witnessed all of what his children had done and gone through would have filled him with shame and horror (his father was a STRONG guideline in his mind; I bet the one person, along with his mom, that would be capable of making great-and-proud Túrin feel shame is Húrin).

The same goes for the supposed scenario where he would find out he had a cousin (Tuor) that I’ve seen some people speak about. I honestly think he would have liked the idea, but would not care; his concerns at the end of his tale have nothing to do with whether he had family or not. His mother’s people were still around, after all, he HAD relatives.

With some friends we’ve played with the idea that maybe the only thing that would have stopped him would be if he had had a child (NOT the child he was going to have with Níniel, for they would most likely be one more reason for his desperation, as it was already with the idea of having her pregnant in the first place). If he had managed to keep the child’s identity hidden so that they would not be known by the Enemy, thus somehow escaping Morgoth’s curse, then maybe he would have some hope because his line would not be broken, but... I’m not so sure.

Story-wise, even leaving aside the when and the how would he have a child at any point in the story, considering he was clearly not interested in a romantic relationship before meeting Níniel, nor a “one-night encounter” with someone as a whole. Even leaving that aside, I think that not even a child would stop him. The horror of the realization of what has happened is so great he is not thinking clearly at all.

SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH!! - Don’t quote me on this one, but I read that, from a psychological perspective, there are “different types” in the way people commit suicide. There are those who want to be saved, who still want to find a reason to live (they might be unaware of that fact, though). These people seek ways to kill themselves in a way that takes time, that gives time for them to be found before they die. Then there are those who have made up their mind, who have planned not just the suicide carefully, but their lives, too. These people tend to leave all of their pending matters resolved beforehand, they make sure to, say, settle inheritance matters, pay their debts, both literally and in a manner of speaking, and so on. They then choose ways of doing it that are quick and, in a gruesome way of saying it for us but practical for them, to the point. This is why when older people commit suicide it is common for them to do it this way. Then there are those who are caught in such an intense and horrifying moment of desperation, as is the case with Túrin, that they kill themselves in the act. Historically, even though there have been lots of women who commit suicide this way, this is something common to men. When they are fired and can’t provide to their family anymore; when a person has killed someone by accident and can’t deal with the guilt, etcetera. This is the case with Túrin. He killed himself in a fit of extreme hopelessness and desperation, and thus any rational reason that might have been enough to stop him had he given it a deeper thought, would not have worked.

END OF SPOILERS - So, there’s that. I do have a personal story where Túrin has a child, though, I must say (though Túrin still has the same tragic end to his story for the reasons stated above), that I made for my character in The Lord of the Rings Online, for the Laurelin RP server. But that’s a story for another time!

#túrin turambar #túrin #silmarillion #tolkien #lotr #thelordofthering #the lord of the rings #tolkienoc #tolkien oc #lotr oc #lotro rp

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