#the depths are such a massive part of this verse. and between the upheaval and her seeing naydra again will be its own arc in the verse

[dawnedon]

Gloom Wreathed - TOTK

BOTW Verse

With the Calamity having been eradicated, and the scourge of Hyrule Castle successfully banished by the Hero and the Princess, peace prevailed in the kingdom for some time. Quelled the beast was, though it was not ousted from Dawn's body. The malice, the Calamity, the whispers of Demise himself still entwined itself in Dawn's very being. A great evil and great hatred remained within her psyche, using her as its home.

The great upheaval ushered in by Ganondorf's untimely return shattered the sanctity of Hyrule once again - a being that had once been sealed at the cost of the first King, Rauru's, life.

Dawn, in her time of laying low in Hyrule, had been trying to find ways to separate the festering malice from herself. Though it made the monsters of Hyrule docile towards her, the denizens of the land would only whisper when she drew near. Avoiding her gaze, avoiding too much conversation than what was necessary.

The wilderness was her home, the wheeling stars overhead keeping her company. Whenever she felt too lonely, she'd scale Mount Lanaryu, kept safeguarded from the frigid weather thanks to the power Naydra had gifted her years prior.

She was making her way down the mountain, crossing the Naydra Snowfield, when the Upheaval took place. A great thunderous roar, that made all of Hyrule feel as if it would shake apart. Though Dawn couldn't see the castle from where she was, something deep within her heart understood what was happening. The shattered pieces of the Calamity that had lived within her for a century stirred, the scar on her chest burning. The agony was so mind-numbing, that she had to stop walking immediately. The voice of the Calamity had never been so loud.

Before the pain could knock her unconscious, the ground beneath her would tear open. A new substance, gloom, lined the walls, glowing in time with her rapid heartbeat. With nothing beneath her so suddenly, Dawn would fall. The gloom almost seemed to reach out to her, but was unable to reach her as she tumbled into Hyrule's Depths.

It was a landing that, by all rights, should have killed her. If she wasn't tainted by the Calamity, touched by Malice, and imbued with the unshakable will of Demise, Dawn would have very well died. Immortality was one, of many things, she'd learned she had in the past few years.

Her fall was not without injury, however. In a pile of gloom was where she'd land, the substance immediately rushing to meet her. It was much like the malice a century prior in Castle Town - it moved to her side without hesitation. This time, however, the gloom moved into the shape of hands, with a glowing, single eye in each palm.

It lift her gently, like a broken doll, and whisked her away. Similar to the malice, the gloom would heal and mend her. The gloom, too, would find a place within her as the malice had before, coexisting as they both were spawns of Ganon. Dawn's necklace, imbued with Sheikah technology, would keep the worst of the effects at bay. The loss of strength and sick feeling that most reported did not affect her. If anything, the gloom made her feel stronger, much better than the malice ever had.

The Depths became a welcome respite for Dawn, believing them to be wholly empty and uninhabited besides the gloom-covered monsters that dwelt in various pockets. Later, she would come to learn that the infamous Yiga operated from the Depths. This revelation was one she made sure didn't sour this new place for her. Fanatical as they were over her, she managed to lay low and avoid making her presence known to them. Perhaps their leader wasn't dead like she had thought, as their hideouts and encampments were too fortified, and too vast for them to have ended up here at the same time she did.

With seemingly no way up and out of the Depths, the chasms that opened across Hyrule too far up and out of reach, Dawn initially resigned herself to this fate. While she wasn't monstrous nor evil despite her soul being touched by darkness, the people of Hyrule weren't warm to her. The Depths were a place she could live freely, without the stares of ire digging into her back, and without feeling like an outcast despite having done nothing wrong. The monsters left her alone, and the hands of gloom would come to greet her, gifting her various things they'd found scouring the Depths.

Dawn would soon come to utilize a new sword for herself, with the Eightfold Blade she previously used having been rotted by the gloom around her. This new sword was a weapon from the gloom itself. An ominous looking one-handed blade: the Gloom Sword. The toll of using such a sword on a normal wielder was similar to being around the gloom itself. A feeling of sickness, of the wielder's life slowly being worn away, however... Dawn did not have such ailments. It was a sword she could keep on her person, or summon from the gloom to avoid being seen with such a blade. She practiced on spindly, unnatural trees first, then sparred with the hands, before finally working her way up to sparring against a Lynel in order to hone her proficiency further. A rigorous, arduous routine of training that she committed herself to each and every day.

It wasn't until, one fateful day, she saw a familiar sight in the form of Naydra that her resolve broke - how much time had passed since she fell, she wondered? Hyrule's own dragons taking a plunge into the Depths surprised her. Seeing Naydra was more than a punch in the gut, Dawn soon realizing that the dragon had no idea what had actually happened to her. It was a much needed reunion, and Dawn wasted no time in climbing onto her back as the ice dragon soon lift to the air, taking Dawn around the Depths from a higher vantage point.

In a way, it was like catching up with an old friend. Dawn was able to recount her time to Naydra, the dragon listening to her patiently. In turn, Dawn got to learn what was happening on the surface. Great islands in the sky also came with the endless chasms, and the weaponry that the people of Hyrule utilized aged and decayed.

With Dawn's permission, Naydra took them up and out of the same chasm Dawn had fallen in initially. If Dawn ever wished to return back, all she needed was to ask and Naydra would take her both down and back up. Now back in Hyrule, Dawn deals with an internal battle of the self. She's lived with the malice, and now the gloom, for so long. Part of her wanted to still try to rid herself of it, while another part was fine with simply basking in it. Perhaps there was some way to use this power for good, to benefit someone or to be of help. Surely, an answer was out there for her somewhere. There was a vast amount of Hyrule she hadn't explored yet, as well as the islands that dotted the endless skies above.

For the first time in a while, she felt hope.