#<- yae im making seperate tags for them for this au :) i have to. i can't help myself

[greennoobartist]

Finally! The first off to break the ice, Shadow! The menace of all the shadows be upon ye!!

He was pretty fun to design and not too complex for the start. It didn't take as long as I've been actually scared to color him. Thankfully, since I was finally able to do it digitally, my fear calmed down. He could've been done earlier if I had any opportunity to color digitally, but I'm still very proud with how he turned out. For someone who didn't do art in general and especially digital art in a long while, im really satisfied with this. He's just a little menace, that's all :)

All data & info about him in this AU will be under the cut ^^

Headcanons that have been inspired, reminded of, modelized a bit or completely Blep's (@/blupeeblep) will be marked with ✨ (there's not a lot of them but I'm still giving credit c:)

Basic information:

Full name: Shadow Link

Preferred name: Shadow

Titles: the menace of all the shadows, the master of mischief, the black swordsman, the shadow of the hero

Age: 18

Height: 5'9" or 175cm (same as Green)

Personality traits: playful, sarcastic, drama king™, friendly, prankster, reactive, expressive, emotionally fragile, easily bonds with people, easy to snap but will avoid violence until a certain mark, slightly naive, protective over loved ones (especially Vio, his best friend)

Data & Information:

- After the defeat of Vaati, he disappeared and was sent back to Shadow World. In this AU, he doesn't die and doesn't need any sort of resurrection. He stayed alive on the other side of the mirror.

- Even with betrayal and everything that happened between him and Vio, he's completely fine with it and now understands that Vio was only doing his duty. He placed it aside and decided to leave it in the past and he got over it, now seeing Vio as his best friend like the betrayal never happened. It hurts him to see that Vio is struggling to accept that he completely forgave him.

- He's still a demon, so some demonic traits slip occasionally. The canines are something he can't hide (or refuses to?). Tho other traits like claws and a snake tongue can be managed. These mostly slip when he's dealing with strong emotions like anger.

- Speaking of him being a demon, he's disguising himself as best as he can to look like a Hylian. It's sometimes just difficult to keep his Dark Magic in check so he purposely sometimes let's it secretly down a bit.

- He's not afraid of light as he was before, but he's not fully fine with it either. Kinda like 50/50. Still prefers to be in someone else's shadow if it's too bright outside. This is why he prefers slightly clouder days.

- Loves to define the gravity. Very rarely walks and mostly just floats. He does sometimes walk to see how it is for Hylians to be on the ground.

- His pronouns are he/him, but he's also fine with "it" pronoun. He thinks that since he isn't human at all that he doesn't deserve human pronouns, so "it" seems mostly inhumane to him. Vio obviously doesn't agree with his view and is trying to convince him that just because he isn't a human doesn't mean that he should treat himself like that. If you do use "it" for Shadow, in Shadow's view, you did nothing wrong.

- His hat mostly waves like smoke, but it also reflects his emotions. Rarely, since it takes him a bit more of his magic to do so, he uses it as a third longer arm. But again, it takes him more magic for that so he doesn't do that often. He sometimes even forms it like a regular hat to not draw attention, but smoke like movement is it's natural way so that's most common. It reflects his emotions which doesn't drain his magic.

- He can change his eye color at will. Scarlet color is the base.

- The scarlet highlight in his hair is purely inspired by Vio's hair highlight. It makes his eyes stand out and especially at night, since both can have a low glow at dim light. (Somehow that highlight of his hair can glow and so far it doesn't seem to take him his magic to do so)

- Can shapeshift without much issues. He does it often so it's becoming easier and easier for him to do so. Since he's still not fully fine with light, it is harder for him to shapeshift if he's directly on sunlight or any other form of light.

- Speaking of light, he's completely fine with moonlight. He says that it cools him down and that he actually loves it. It could be that moonlight even boosts his strength and Dark Magic.

- This is his basic form, tho when he's a silhouette (coming out of someone else's shadow), he mostly copies that persons look and is literally like a living shadow. Just imagine your shadow standing up on its own, that's basically it XD.

- He's a real imitator, so he can shapeshift into other people and even copy their voices. He loves to prank people with that ability but somehow it's starting to not work on the Links. They say that there's something in their voice that he can't copy so they always figure it out.

- To keep his canines in check and sharp, he has a bone in his inventory and just spawns it when he feels like chewing it. He kinda looks like a dog when doing so but he doesn't mind. He knows that he has to keep his canines healthy.

- He doesn't understand water. For some reason his hand just goes through and doesn't get wet if he drowns it underwater. He doesn't get wet when it's raining either. So with this, he's just confused about the concept of water.

- He gets along well with everyone so far. Blue easily gets annoyed by him but they're still good. Green shares his height with him and since he's the leader he includes him in everything as well, trying to prove him that he's part of the team as well. Red loves to listen to his random yapping sessions and they love to prank the rest of Links together. Shadow's also trying to learn how to cook. Results so far? Black chicken and rice and macaroni pudding. He somehow made it. And Vio? Besties forever. They get along with everything. Well, most of the time. There are some besties shenanigans.

- He's also pretty good friends with Zelda now, tho they don't talk much because they just can't find the right time to. Lately, Zelda's been really busy with kingdom duties that she's rarely free.

- He fights with his sword from the Shadow World he has, he says that he lost his Four Sword?

- He doesn't feel temperature and can't get sick like Hylians can. He can feel physical, mental and emotional pain, but some human traits like homeostasis are either completely missing or traits like responding to stimuli are very weak. He does have reflexes but are very weak and slow. He's working on improving them.

- Dark Magic allows him to do lots of things. He loves pranking the rest with it. But he can't overdo it or he'll exhaust himself. This, unfortunately, happened many times, which resulted into him collapsing and even fainting multiple times

- He might be unable to get sick, but he can get something similar. There was once a time period when he was something like sick, but no one was able to figure it out what it was. The closest the Links were able to associate it with was nauseous. It turns out that Shadow can't get human illnesses, but there are some types of shadow illnesses he can get. Thankfully he did heal from that after a while. Still unknown what it was, but it's important that he got through it.

- He doesn't really have the best memory. He very often forgets things, and if he does remember, it somehow gets "corrupted" in his mind. His memories often don't match his way of speaking and he doesn't know the reason behind this. It's a good thing to have someone approve or correct him when he's talking about something from his memory. The Links aren't sure why does this happen, but they have theories that it might be because of the disappearing at the end of the manga, but it can also be just because he's a demon and not a human.

- He's really like a Bombay cat when it comes to personality (affectionate, playful, extroverted). Bombay cats are also Velcro cats which means that they like to stick with their owner and can be a bit clingy to them. Shadow can work like Vio's Bombay cat XD ✨

- He literally had a life before the events of the manga. He was kinda glad he left the Shadow World, but after disappearing he was sent back to it, which made him both frustrated and scared. Before the events of the manga, he lived in the Shadow World as nothing more than just Vaati's servant, which was only pain and suffering. He was also bullied around by people for being the only shadow that "doesn't have it's own right and is literally a copy of someone else". This always frustrated him but also hurt him. It is why he was angry at Blue when he called him "just a shadow." It reminded him of those bad times and he spent his life trying to prove people wrong before and during the manga. Now with that he was sent back to it, he was partially afraid that he'll be bullied again. He won't have anyone to rely on for help and would be left on his own, and unfortunately he was right, he was left on his own when he came to the Shadow World. Even though Shadow World is technically his hometown, he hates it and has bad memories of it, now always trying hard just to leave it as soon as possible ✨

- For the current story of TSoW, he works as a narrator every even chapter and retells the details of the moments of being sent back to Shadow World. He retells how it was to return there and how he escaped again, since in the TSoW present time he's in the Light World. The past holds important information and details so he knows that he can't leave the reader not know what happened in the past.

- In TSoW present time, he's mostly being in Vio's shadow, rarely coming out.

Fears, phobias and disorders:

Photophobia - Sensitivity to light. It's more of a sensitivity than a phobia.

Heliophobia - fear of The Sun, sunlight, or any bright light

Thanatophobia - fear of death, but can also be associated with fear of losing loved ones due to death

Tyrannophobia - fear of dictatorship

Athazagoraphobia - fear of being forgotten or forgetting

Isolophobia - fear of being alone, isolated, abandoned, and ignored

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - ADHD

Separation anxiety disorder - causes fear and anxiety centered on separation from a close attachment figure

Post-traumatic stress disorder - a disorder in which the person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event

Feel free to ask for an explanation of a certain phobia or disorder if I have it. Some of these describe him and his experiences in the story well while some are my personal headcanons without much explanation.

Important note when it comes to Vidow in The Spirits of the Triforce AU:

Any content that you see with Vio and Shadow regarding this AU, PLEASE DO NOT tag it as Vidow or any other romantic way. In this AU i kept them as only besties and they're NOT a couple or interested in each other in any romantic way. I ask you kindly to not tag any Vio and Shadow content for this AU as Vidow or any other romantic way (Vio x Shadow, Shadow x Vio). They're both not gay so please don't tag them that way when it comes to this AU. Please don't ship them in TSoTT. If Vidow can be used as a duo name then go for it, but don't use it in a romantic way. Please and thank you.

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Shadow is definitely the most confusing and complex character of this AU, that is why this might be short and lots of data might be confusing and unexplained. Im trying to avoid major spoilers for the story so that is why if you're confused, good 👍 Everything and i mean every plot hole and gap and anything that doesn't seem to make sense will be explained by the progress of the main canon story of The Spirit of Wisdom. Nothing should be left unknown. Most of things should become more clear by Shadow's retelling and some might be by the present time of the story.

"If I listened to everythin' people around me told me, I would've committed suicide at the age of eight. I'll prove to 'em that they were wrong. Never underestimate The Shadow of The Hero. I'm not just a shadow. Ill prove it to ya!" - Shadow Link