#Rauru is just. Rauru. he's just a guy. Link specifically is the chosen hero. he was chosen by Hylia. like. specifically

[pa-pa-plasma]

zelda blasted moldugas in the gerudo assault scene, it was a group effort between her sonia and rauru. you can see the light coming from her hand. they just channeled it through rauru bc he was/is the chosen hero from that era

I saw that as them just giving him the power to preform such a massive attack rather than Zelda herself blasting them (probably supplied by the sage stone thing which i cant remember the name of). I'd have to rewatch the scene to check (the only one I rewatched was the one where Fi's theme played) but if she seems surprised I take it as more of a "oh shit i/we have that much power??" rather than a "holy shit my attack personally killed all those moldugas" kinda thing. it was Rauru's attack, Sonia & Zelda just supplied an extra power source.

[transskywardsword]

This is me asking about what the hell is going on between the gerudo and sheikah <333 <- literally my favorite groups in all of loz

ACK THANK YALLLLLLLL!!! SO SO SO so

first, timelines. we know the Gerudo are present in totk before going AWAL for a few games, and i think that's purposeful on the gerudo's part. so, i see totk's past section as happening post SS but pre minish cap. Skyswd Link and Zelda, along with the people of skyloft, establish the first settlement of hyrule and the concept of hylians as a race, but it takes a good while for them to be diverse and large enough to establish a true kingdom. enter sonia, the first queen of hyrule and a direct decendent of link & zelda, making her part of hylia's bloodline.

(headcanon here: i think that modern Hylians are a combination of a partnership between zonai and hylians. original hylians like skyskw link & zelda are a different race than modern hylians. that's where the zonai went-- the ones who were left after the race began dying out made families with the original hylians, creating a whole new race. so, the zonai were technically still around during totk, but they were mixed race, with mineru and rauru being the last 'pure' zonai and the zonai line dying with them. i have so many head anons about early hyrule, esp the establishment of hylian religions, if yall are interested?)

so, the sheikah were originally part of the gerudo. the sheikah came first, descending from skyswd impa and her tribe (who are technically the first native group of hyrule, being present before the skyloftians were created during the rule of hylia) and while the two groups were separate ethnic groups, they mingled significantly and there was significant cultural overlap, and they lived in the desert together, building a thriving civilization in the desert. prior to totk's past section, the gerudo/sheikah flourished and had many years of peace with many chiefs, male and female, who were peaceful and brilliant leaders. the gerudo are no more destined to violence than the hylians are to peace; the hero, demise's cursed puppet, and the princess can be any race, (so long as zelda is still descended from the first bloodline of hylia in some way) and they all bare the triforce.

the first ganondorf, totk's ganon, was not actually a part of demise's curse! while he was powerful, he was not chosen by demise and did not have any connection to the triforce. he really was just Some Guy who happened to get really damn close to destroying hyrule. After he turned on the royal family, the gerudo deserted him, including the sheikah, and fought beside the sages and rauru to defeat him. they hoped that would prove their dedication to the crown and grant them pardon for what their chief did.

it did not. post past totk section, sonia, mineru, and rauru are dead with zelda dagonified-- there are no leaders in hyrule. sonia and rauru had a baby shortly before the events of totk, but she's like 1, so she's far too young to inherit the throne. the sages try to lead, but they are already the leaders of their own races and are stretched too thin, and the remaining people of hyrule, traumatized and displaced by the war, are demanding retribution. the sages need a scapegoat. they turned against the sage of lightning, more from desperation to keep the tentative new peace than genuine malice. the gerudo flee further into the desert, civilization on the verge of destruction, and become isolationists. the sheikah have the choice to join them, or ally themselves with the new hylian government.

a break now to talk about religion! so the sheikah are monotheists*. (*they follow hylia, but they also believe in guardian spirits and venerate them. so sort of monotheists?) and they are deeply, deeply religious people who have dedicated themselves to hylia. descended from skyswd impa, hylia's moral lover, they view themselves as created specifically to protect hylia and carry out her will.

(headcanon real quick-- sheik in oot isnt the only sheikah to cover their face! it is actually super common. prior to skyswd, when she served hylia, impa covered her face bc hylia's holy splendor was so great it would blind anyone who looked at it. now, more traditional and old fashion sheikah do the same as a sign of respect!)

being told to choose between the royal bloodline of hylia, who they are religiously told to protect, or the gerudo, their sister tribe, the sheikah choose the growing hyrule. the gerudo isolate themselves for decades and swear off relations with the sheikah.

minish cap and all that jazz happens, bringing us to ocarina of time. by now, the sheikah have greatly established themselves as part of the way of life for the hyrulian royal family. the leader of their tribe takes the role as the hylian princess' (and therefore, the holder of hylia's golden power, which the sheikah have vowed to protect) bodyguard, and officially swears their life to the princess. oot zelda is actually half sheikah-- their mother had an affair with the sheikah tribe leader who was sworn to protect her, and the queen and king agreed to hide that information, but not after the sheikah man was dragged to the shadow temple by his own people under the orders of the king and 'disposed' of. the queen suspected it happened, but for fear of her child, stayed silent.

shadow temple time! the shadow temple started as an actual temple to hylia built at the beginning of hyrule's golden age, but as the royal family grew more and more bloated with power, they became terrified of losing that power. they took advantage of the sheikah's devotion and ordered them to do their dirty work, starting small and getting progressively darker and bloodier over time. when a group of sheikah tried to rebel, the royal family sacked the temple, starting a long, long list of attempted and successful actions of cultural genocide, and had the temple converted to a supermax prison. the sheikah became secret police, assassins, spies, executioners, bodyguards, soldiers-- if it would keep hylians out of the army/police force, protect them from dirtying their hands, or would secure hylian power, the sheikah were forced to do it.

meanwhile, the gerudo are rebuilding. they've been growing and redeveloping their culture, under the rule of powerful women with good hearts. but this wouldn't last forever. as hyrule expanded, they encroached into gerudo land and began colonizing, leading to the expulsion of the gerudo once again from their own land. but this time, it was the sheikah doing it, because they followed the royal family, no matter what. there was an eventual mass desertion, and the gerudo welcomed the sheikah hoping to flee, leading to a massive hylian military attack that decimated gerudo numbers and showed the sheikah just what happened when they tired to fight back.

then oot happens. ganondorf tries to take the triforce; after years of the seal on demise in the master sword weakening allowing for whisps of demise to escape, demise was able to take advantage of ganondorf, poisoning his heart. ganondorf was angry and bitter. his people were being colonized, and annihilated, and he rightfully wanted justice. but demise twisted that anger, turning it into something bloody and genocidal, and the man who just wanted the triforce to secure his people's freedom was manipulated and controlled into someone who would try to kill children.

in adult timeline, ganondorf ordered the destruction of the few sheikah left, both those loyal to hyrule and rebels, nearly finishing what the royal family had started when they turned their swords on the sheikah. the sheikah go into hiding to lick their wounds, save for impa and her strange apprentice, sheik...

so im gonna stick to child timeline, as i feel that is the timeline botw is in!

ganondorf is caught, and executed, and the royal family, terrified of a repeat ganon, orders the few sheikah left, including impa, to exterminate the gerudo. impa refuses and is killed. the gerudo are almost all killed, going into hiding, and all that is left of the sheikah are the most loyal, or the most terrified of rebelling. resentment inside the sheikah grows, but those sheikah debating leaving are too scared to do so.

Twilight Princess happens, then hyrule warriors, which i like to pretend is canon, and the sheikah have begun to reestablish themselves while the gerudo numbers are finally growing again. hw zelda begins trying to mend relationships with both groups and campaigns for freeing the sheikah from hylian dominance and starting a treaty with the gerudo, including reparations.

she is assassinated meer hours before she becomes queen.

the next in line for the throne is her much, much younger brother who is easily manipulated and doesn't care much for politics. the ideas of sheikah liberation and gerudo reparations are scrapped.

the sheikah numbers and gerudo numbers continue the grow. over centuries, the gerudo go mostly unmolested by hyrule and are able to rebuild, with the sheikah using their magic to make extreme advances in technology. They successfully help seal calamity ganon, and the gerudo champion leads to the reintroduction of the gerudo as a positive force in hyrule. All is well! Except it isn't. The sheikah are beginning to discuss independence. the gerudo agrees to welcome them to the desert, and the royal family is terrified. The sheikah are high in numbers, with powerful tech, and if they wanted to leave, they absolutely could, and it would leave the hylian family defenseless. They give the sheikah an ultimatum. Return to subjugation, revoke and destroy their tech, or be labeled traitors and murdered. there is a split, with many sheikah following orders out of fear, but some sheikah go to the desert where they have been promised refugee, eventually becoming the yiga clan. They begin to venerate ganon, thinking that if ganon destroyed the royal family, they could create a sheikah nation where everyone would finally be free, refusing to acknowledge the truth that ganon would happily kill them just as fast as it would hyrule. the gerudo abandon the yiga when they realize they want to resurrect the same creature that led to so much gerudo suffering and attempt to drive them from the desert. they are unsuccessful, but the yiga go underground, biding their time for when ganon would return.

for the first time in centuries, there was tentative peace, though only because of the threat of violence. 10,000 years pass, then botw happens!

anyways this got so so so long im SO sorry i just love the sheikah so much T.T