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there. Hey<br />
you're reading this then you're either one of my players<br />
If<br />
someone who found this on Reddit or wherever. If you're<br />
or<br />
former then you can just skip ahead, if you're the latter<br />
the<br />
some context might be in order.<br />
then<br />
put together this document to be a more impressive and<br />
I<br />
presented version of a previous setting document I<br />
better<br />
for a dungeons and dragons fifth edition in... 2017, I<br />
made<br />
Lemme check.<br />
think.<br />
July 2017. I made it for a campaign I started<br />
Yeah,<br />
then. At the time of writing this paragraph, July<br />
running<br />
it's still ongoing (although about to end). It was a<br />
2019,<br />
fun time, for me at least, and I got a lot of really fond<br />
great<br />
out of it. The lore in this document, the original<br />
memories<br />
and connective tissue, built up over that time.<br />
stuff<br />
main reason I'm giving this context is because... I<br />
The<br />
People can be weird.<br />
dunno.<br />
goal of this document and the headcanon I had for<br />
The<br />
setting was to produce a coherent and largely<br />
the<br />
universe to play tabletop games in. In a<br />
comprehensive<br />
you can skip over plot details and just not<br />
videogame<br />
questions. Tabletop games make that much harder.<br />
answer<br />
such there had to be more connective tissue, and since<br />
As<br />
the kidn of DM that over-prepares that meant that there<br />
I'm<br />
to be a lot of connective tissue.<br />
had<br />
possible I've stayed close to canon. I've used<br />
Whenever<br />
names, characters and places whenever possible,<br />
canon<br />
haven't omitted or changed many major canon events-<br />
and<br />
is not, for example, comparable to the Hyrule<br />
this<br />
setting where iconic elements are taken and<br />
Conquest<br />
to create a largely original universe (although I did<br />
used<br />
a lot of elements from Undying Nephalim's wonderful<br />
steal<br />
because the man is a genius in many ways).<br />
ideas<br />
original ideas were needed I've tried to stick<br />
Whenever<br />
things which were at least implied or which didn't take<br />
to<br />
leaps in logic (... mostly). For those "original" ideas (in<br />
vast<br />
throbbing quotation marks) the main sources of<br />
big<br />
have probably been Dragon Age (specifically the<br />
inspiration<br />
Hyrule Conquest (most predominantly the darknuts),<br />
Fade),<br />
honestly Warhammer Fantasy (I like big ol' wars and<br />
and<br />
where everyone dies. They're fun.)<br />
battles<br />
this goes against your headcanon... sorry, I suppose. I<br />
If<br />
some popular theories I liked and dumped ones I<br />
picked<br />
Termina isn't an afterlife, etc. Hopefully you can still<br />
didn't-<br />
it. enjoy<br />
I'm not an artist and none of the art in here is<br />
Oh!<br />
I made this without saving artist names so I'll try<br />
original.<br />
source what I can when I'm done. If you see something<br />
and<br />
yours you want me to take out, tell me.<br />
of<br />
enjoy the thing.<br />
Anyway,<br />
Welcome to Hyrule!<br />
Or more realistically welcome to the<br />
document.<br />
Prior
year is 1554, the one hundredth year of the Age of Twilight, the second age of the Shaded Era, the fifth era of man. The<br />
The<br />
of Light reigns as king regent of Hyrule, the first and greatest of the world’s kingdoms. Yet though his rule is just the<br />
Hero<br />
is far from at peace. It is a time of change and uncertainty. Since the beginning of the last age, the Age of Men, the<br />
world<br />
kingdoms have been fractured and contentious. National lines have been drawn and redrawn in anger, and even Hyrule<br />
mortal<br />
has been wounded by these wars of greed and pride. Worse still, the last hundred years have seen the return of that<br />
herself<br />
grave of threats. From beyond the veil of the world, arcane dangers have returned from their aeons of exile and sealing.<br />
most<br />
has fallen twice in two generations to the forces of darkness, recovering only through the strength of great men.<br />
Hyrule<br />
the people may spend their days as they always have, those with the knowledge are aware of how precarious the<br />
Though<br />
ancient terrors rise up, ancient secrets are brought to bear against them. When wrathful men march to take what is not<br />
When<br />
bright hearts stand in serried lines. For every torch that splutters and dies, a new light is born in the dark. Sometimes<br />
theirs,<br />
lights are pale candles only just holding out against the shadows, and other times they burn blinding white, a<br />
these<br />
flare that scythes back the dark and roars its crackling laughter at the night which seeks to send it scurrying.<br />
phosphorescent<br />
the coming years will bring the last twilight of Hyrule, or maybe its new sunrise is just over the horizon, waiting to<br />
Perhaps<br />
dawn.<br />
world's peace is.<br />
But there is always hope.
The Nature of Things<br />
Being a quick summation of the reality of the world today.
is the centre of the world, the greatest kingdom of mortals. It is a feudal kingdom and an absolute monarchy, ruled by a<br />
Hyrule<br />
It was founded approximately one and a half millennia ago, and since then has endured countless disasters and<br />
queen.<br />
untold glories.<br />
achieved<br />
the jewel of the world, Hyrule is the favoured land of the Goddesses, and by all means the home of civilisation. Hyrule is<br />
As<br />
and its queen is also the head of its religion, which venerates three high deities known as the Golden Goddesses,<br />
theocratic,<br />
Nayru and Farore, three impossibly powerful and distant deities of creation and preservation. Below those three are the<br />
Din,<br />
who is the fourth goddess, Hylia. Level with the queen are three other deities- the Great Deku Tree who is the patron<br />
queen,<br />
of humanity, the Infernal Dragon who is the patron of the gorons, and the Prime Leviathan who is the patron of the zora,<br />
deity<br />
of which are beings of great power who reside in and on the mortal world. From this solid bedrock of faith a government<br />
all<br />
stable and strong, at least on its face, against the troubles which the world brings.<br />
springs,<br />
eight hundred miles from north to south, Hyrule has a temporate climate with weather which varies quite strongly<br />
Around<br />
its four seasons. Most of its landscape is farmland, with the remainder being forests. Mines dot its hills. It has a<br />
through<br />
of around twenty million, of whom around ten percent live in its cities. In the north the country is warmer and<br />
population<br />
until it eventually reaches the Snowpeak and Eldin mountain ranges, and in the south the country becomes cooler and<br />
rockier<br />
until it borders the Faron woods. Its east coast is dominated by the Lanayru sea, which brings rain and trade, and on its<br />
wetter<br />
the country is hemmed in by the gerudo desert and the area known as the green frontier.<br />
west<br />
largest city of Hyrule is Acre Nova, its capital since the destruction of the old Castle Town in the Nihil War. Tolemac,<br />
The<br />
Akkala and Kakariko are also major cities, each the seat of power of a major duke or duchess who wields power<br />
Necluda,<br />
continent Hyrule sits on is generally known as Deis, and comprises the entirety of what is conventionally considered to be<br />
The<br />
known world.<br />
the<br />
north of the continent merges with the great mountain ranges of the Eldin volcanoes, snowpeak mountains and Tal Tal<br />
The<br />
The east borders the vast and uncrossable World Sea, through which one must pass to reach the distant colonies of<br />
heights.<br />
and Labrynna. The south is hedged by the seemingly infinite Faron Woods, a forest so vast it passes into the land<br />
Holodrum<br />
winter never ends and which no man has found the edge. The west ends in the areas known as the Green Frontier and<br />
where<br />
Desert, the very edge of where Hyrulean civilisation expanded to in its early golden era. The centre of the continent is<br />
Gerudo<br />
by the Lanayru Sea, a great inland body of saltwater plyed endlessly by the world’s traders.<br />
dominated<br />
and a half millennia ago Deis was the heartland of a vast empire known as the Empire of Faron, or the human empire.<br />
Two<br />
hundred years ago Hyrule ruled over all the kingdoms of Deis, and its nations were provinces in its magnificent realm.<br />
Three<br />
those days are past Hyrule remains the most powerful kingdom on the continent, but now Deis is a fractured land of<br />
Although<br />
fighting and trading with one another. This is the reality of the time.<br />
nations<br />
the world needs a name it is called Hlofa, generally considered to be a corruption of the goron word for blood. Beyond<br />
When<br />
the world is largely a mystery, with modern records being scant to non-existent and imperial records being lost and<br />
Deis<br />
As such most of any map of Hlofa is based on second hand accounts, hypothetical suppositions, and outright<br />
corrupted.<br />
falsehoods.<br />
include lands like the Xin (a rich and powerful empire in the distant north about which little is known, worshipping<br />
These<br />
Golden Goddesses like Hyrule but holding their own emperor as another deific figure) the Yind kingdoms of the far west<br />
the<br />
only for the fact that they trade wth Hyrule across the gerudo desert, exchanging spices and dyes for glass and iron.<br />
(known<br />
are said to revere Farore alone of the Golden Sisters, but hold a multitude of lesser gods) and the Transvin kingdoms (a<br />
They<br />
assembly of perpetually warring minor states on the far side of the desert, about whom little is known to be constant)<br />
motley<br />
and a half millennia ago the Faron Empire ruled much of the world, but was brought low by an invasion of demons<br />
Two<br />
also crippled the Xin and Yind. This was a dark time known as the Great Invasion, and has dictated much of the history<br />
which<br />
follow it.<br />
to<br />
The Nature of the Land<br />
The Kingdom- Hyrule<br />
second only to the Queen.<br />
The Continent- Deis<br />
The World- Hlofa
is a land of significant variety, especially amongst its<br />
Hyrule<br />
populations. From the zora, a short-lived race of<br />
intelligent<br />
humanoids to the gorons, biologically immortal<br />
piscine<br />
behemoths, there is, at first glance, little rhyme or<br />
stone<br />
to the peoples who inhabit Hyrule. Some are<br />
reason<br />
and equal across all of the kingdom- to kill them<br />
respected<br />
murder, to rob them is theft- and others are considered<br />
is<br />
of the land and all that is good- to kill them is war,<br />
enemies<br />
as stated there are a great many sentient species in<br />
Though<br />
the vast majority of its people are of species listed<br />
Hyrule<br />
live in Hyrule’s lakes and rivers, and have their own<br />
They<br />
in the frozen mountains. They have shorter<br />
country<br />
have their own country in the volcanic regions north<br />
They<br />
Hyrule. They live for many centuries, and have no<br />
of<br />
exactly like normal humans from other worlds, and<br />
look<br />
generally considered practical if slow. Human as a term<br />
are<br />
also refer collectively to all true humans, sheikah,<br />
can<br />
and gerudo.<br />
hylians<br />
Hylians are very similar to true humans, but longer<br />
•<br />
and with pointed ears. Most Hyrulian nobles- and<br />
lived<br />
most of the population of Hyrule- are hylians,<br />
indeed<br />
they are less common in other countries<br />
although<br />
aren’t many sheikah in Hyrule, in the order of a few<br />
There<br />
They speak their own secret language and have a<br />
thousand.<br />
and are generally disliked in Hyrule. They have<br />
humans<br />
own nation to the west. A gerudo whose blood has<br />
their<br />
diluted from interbreeding with other types of<br />
become<br />
in their ancestry is instead known as a hegrud.<br />
human<br />
to the nomadic bulblin and the towering<br />
miniblin<br />
They are widely despised all over the world.<br />
megablin.<br />
• Zola or river zora are aquatic crocodilian people prone<br />
raiding merchant shipping up and down Hyrule’s<br />
to<br />
and off its shores. They are generally<br />
waterways<br />
in Hyrule, and have a particularly vicious<br />
unwelcome<br />
with the zola, who they despise above all others.<br />
emnity<br />
Alifos are reptilian humanoids divided into two main<br />
•<br />
There are the militant alifos- a group of violent,<br />
groups.<br />
creatures which includes the dinolfos, geru,<br />
nasty<br />
and sordes races- and the peaceful alifos- a<br />
rampholeon<br />
obssessed with their way of life, whatever that may<br />
people<br />
which includes the industrious zuna, the subterranean<br />
be,<br />
and the hedonistic tokay. Peaceful alifos are<br />
subrosians,<br />
welcome in Hyrule, but militant ones are not.<br />
usually<br />
They make their normal home in the depths of<br />
disposition.<br />
desert, in thirteen vast stone citadels beyond the lands<br />
the<br />
the gerudo. They have a rigid code of warfare, with those<br />
of<br />
break these rules becoming the exiled Goriya<br />
who<br />
Watarara are avian humanoids distantly derived from<br />
•<br />
zora. They are very rare in Hyrule, except for once a<br />
the<br />
when they arrrive as a great migratory flock tens of<br />
year<br />
strong.<br />
thousands<br />
Undead, particularly those who retain their<br />
•<br />
are exceptionally uncommon in Hyrule. They<br />
intelligence,<br />
distrusted, and generally encouraged to finish whatever<br />
are<br />
brought them into existence as quickly as possible<br />
business<br />
Oocca, Picori and Kokiri are also found in Hyrule,<br />
Maku,<br />
in extremely small numbers or secluded from daily life.<br />
but<br />
most of Hyrule the peoples of the world can be divided<br />
To<br />
into civilised and non-civilised. Mostly. A civilised<br />
neatly<br />
is one with a Domus, a single individual who rules<br />
species<br />
their people with the authority of the crown, as<br />
over<br />
by the queen. Any manner of behaviour is<br />
appointed<br />
from a Domus by law, but a cruel or corrupt<br />
permitted<br />
would swiftly find their title rescinded.<br />
Domus<br />
species with a Domus can generally expect to be<br />
A<br />
well and fairly in Hyrule, with a few exceptions.<br />
treated<br />
without a Domus are generally considered savage<br />
Species<br />
dangerous, and strictly speaking have no rights in<br />
and<br />
Hyrule.<br />
peoples include the humans, zora, and gorons,<br />
Civilised<br />
course, but also other groups. Darknuts, subrosians and<br />
of<br />
have Domus to represent them, as do the eldritch<br />
zuna<br />
like the oocca, fairies, maku, leviathans and dragons.<br />
races<br />
zola and lizalfos on the other hand are<br />
Goblins,<br />
to be barbarous people, and have no rights in<br />
considered<br />
to the Golden Faith, the chief religion of Hyrule,<br />
According<br />
Golden Goddesses chose three races as their Chosen<br />
the<br />
These were the gorons, the zora, and the humans.<br />
People.<br />
are the divinely appointed inheritors and owners of all<br />
They<br />
world, and are inherently separate from all others.<br />
the<br />
races friendly with the chosen, such as the peaceful<br />
Other<br />
and many arcane races, are considered Lesser<br />
alifos<br />
and afforded many holy rights which are<br />
Chosen,<br />
solely the purview of the chosen.<br />
otherwise<br />
barbarous peoples of the world are, by and large,<br />
The<br />
as the Unchosen, a term often used (incorrectly)<br />
marked<br />
with Nihil, the mortal people who betrayed<br />
interchangably<br />
world to the demonic forces of the Great Invasion.<br />
the<br />
Unchosen, such as the wosu, are just about accepted<br />
Some<br />
Hyrule. Most, including the goblins and zola, are not,<br />
within<br />
are considered active threats to civilisation.<br />
and<br />
The Nature of The People<br />
Sentience Abounds<br />
Darknuts, or Wosu in their own tongue, are large, dogheaded<br />
•<br />
humanoids possessed of an incredibly militaristic<br />
and to rob them is plunder.<br />
below.<br />
Zora are wise and graceful fish-like aquatic humanoids.<br />
•<br />
as to cease perverting the laws of nature.<br />
so<br />
Arcane races, such as the Dragons, Leviathans,<br />
•<br />
than humans.<br />
lifespans<br />
Gorons are strong and stoic rotund stone humanoids.<br />
•<br />
Civilisation and Barbary<br />
or family structure.<br />
genders<br />
True humans, also known as round eared humans,<br />
•<br />
to true humans.<br />
compared<br />
Sheikah are rare, secretive hylians with red eyes.<br />
•<br />
religion unique to their people.<br />
clandestine<br />
Gerudo are an all female race of desert dwelling<br />
•<br />
Goblins are a widely varied race of tribal raiders, with<br />
•<br />
subraces from the warlike moblins and tiny, vicious<br />
many<br />
the kingdom.<br />
The Chosen
is everywhere. It suffuses every part of existence,<br />
Magic<br />
thing that lives and dies or stands or falls contains<br />
every<br />
The world runs on magic, it is sustained by magic.<br />
magic.<br />
the world also runs on rules, on law and science and<br />
But<br />
systems. In the daily lives of most people magic is<br />
reliable<br />
In times past, in the Imperial and Nubian and even<br />
rare.<br />
Royal Eras magic may have been common, but now<br />
maybe<br />
most certainly is not. A peasant who tills the fields of<br />
it<br />
can go their whole life without seeing irrefutable<br />
Hyrule<br />
activity. Only the more senior or otherwise<br />
magical<br />
priests can control an inkling of magic, and<br />
exceptional<br />
and sorcerors of any note are uncommon outside<br />
wizards<br />
largest cities. For most people magic is strange and<br />
the<br />
and often quite scary.<br />
otherworldly,<br />
the rarity of magic the field still has its scholars, its<br />
Despite<br />
and studiers. The first thing these individuals<br />
practitioners<br />
is of the elements of magic.<br />
learn<br />
are seven elements. Six of these are the imperfect<br />
There<br />
of which four are impure and two are pure.<br />
elements,<br />
imperfect elements are arranged like the spokes of a<br />
These<br />
around the seventh, perfect element, and each<br />
wheel<br />
the seventh is opposed by its opposite. Each<br />
except<br />
flows through the realms of the universe, in a<br />
element<br />
sense at least, creating and being created by<br />
metaphysical<br />
existing mundane forms of that element in a selfsustaining<br />
the<br />
loop.<br />
element has its uses to magicians and is expressed<br />
Each<br />
a differing way, although all can be used for direct<br />
in<br />
attacks. Each of the Imperfect elements has a<br />
destructive<br />
an immortal and often unreachable guide to its flow,<br />
Sage,<br />
a Maiden, a mortal but reachable guide. Sages are<br />
and<br />
the most powerful manipulators of magic in the<br />
amongst<br />
Yellow Element, Diamond Magic, Luxormancy<br />
The<br />
is an Imperfect, High, Transorganic and Pure<br />
Light<br />
It is the element of the Goddesses and has<br />
element.<br />
over the Impure High elements. It is used to<br />
dominion<br />
and bathe the soul, removing and abjuring foul<br />
protect<br />
It burns where it touches evil. Its symbol, the Three<br />
forces.<br />
three, represents the Goddesses and their people<br />
over<br />
them.<br />
below<br />
Sage of Light is the ancient Sage Rauru Gaepora, a<br />
The<br />
man elevated to the position more than one and a<br />
Hylian<br />
millenia ago and the founder of the order of Sages. He<br />
half<br />
in the Sacred Realm of the Goddesses.<br />
dwells<br />
Green Element, Emerald Magic, Vitomancy<br />
The<br />
is an Imperfect, High, Organic and Impure element.<br />
Life<br />
is the element of the forests and the trees, and is also the<br />
It<br />
of lightning and air. It is used to restore flesh by<br />
element<br />
the energies of life, and to perform great<br />
manipulating<br />
such as teleportations with the energies of air.<br />
movements<br />
symbol, the Four Curling, is representative of the evermoving<br />
Its<br />
flow of life in the world.<br />
Sage of Life is the Sage Saria, a kokiri girl given the<br />
The<br />
after the Nihil War when her predecessor, the<br />
position<br />
Sage Bucha, was killed. She lives in a great cryptic<br />
Ancient<br />
deep in the Lost Woods.<br />
mansion<br />
Red Element, Ruby Magic, Pyromancy<br />
The<br />
is an Imperfect, Low, Inorganic and Impure<br />
Fire<br />
It is the element of all heat, especially open fire<br />
element.<br />
also molten metal and stone. It is used to destroy,<br />
but<br />
when that destruction facilitates further creation,<br />
especially<br />
the smelting of ore. Its symbol, the Three Overcoming,<br />
like<br />
the creep of destruction over all things which<br />
represents<br />
or have existed.<br />
exist<br />
Sage of Fire is the ancient Sage Gorko, a goron<br />
The<br />
for the position by Rauru Gaepora shortly after the<br />
chosen<br />
of Hyrule. He resides in the great temple of fire in<br />
founding<br />
creater of death mountain.<br />
the<br />
Purple Element, Amethyst Magic, Obscuromancy<br />
The<br />
is an Imperfect, Low, Transorganic and Pure<br />
Shadow<br />
It is the element of dark forces, especially the<br />
element.<br />
It is used to decieve others and taint souls with<br />
demonic.<br />
It cannot survive the presence of light. Its symbol,<br />
curses.<br />
Three Surrounded, does not mean what you think it<br />
the<br />
not matter what that may be.<br />
does,<br />
Sage of Shadow is the ancient Sage Purah Lysane, a<br />
The<br />
woman who took the title on behalf of her whole<br />
Sheikah<br />
Her Hermitage is deep below Kakariko, in the<br />
people.<br />
Orange Element, Amber Magic, Necromancy<br />
The<br />
is an Imperfect, Low, Organic and Impure<br />
Death<br />
It is also known as the element of Spirit or of<br />
element.<br />
It is the element used to raise the dead, or to cause<br />
Earth.<br />
and infirmity. It is not an element to use lightly. Its<br />
sickness<br />
the Two Entwined, represents the permanent and<br />
symbol,<br />
cycle of life and death.<br />
unstoppable<br />
Sage of Death is the Sage Aaliyah Dragmire, the<br />
The<br />
of Ganondorf Dragmire the Dark Shah, who<br />
daughter<br />
her temple in the depths of the western deserts.<br />
holds<br />
Blue Element, Sapphire Magic, Glaciomancy<br />
The<br />
also known as Ice, is an Imperfect, Low, Inorganic<br />
Water,<br />
Impure element. It is an element used for creation and<br />
and<br />
of all types. Its symbol, the Six Emerging,<br />
protection<br />
creation and formation from nothing.<br />
represents<br />
Sage of Water is the Sage Ruto Nalis, a zora<br />
The<br />
of many centuries ago who makes her home in the<br />
princess<br />
beneath Lake Hylia.<br />
caverns<br />
White Element, Infinity Magic, Chronomancy<br />
The<br />
seventh element, Time, is beyond the grasp of<br />
The<br />
or so it is believed. Time is Perfect, and has no<br />
mortals,<br />
other than the Goddess of Time, Hylia. It is not an<br />
Sage<br />
to be trifled with by any means, and is studied only<br />
element<br />
a furtive few.<br />
by<br />
The Nature of Magic<br />
The Rarity of the Arcane<br />
Fire<br />
The Seven Elements<br />
Shadow<br />
of caves in which the sheikah test themselves.<br />
warren<br />
Death<br />
world and dwell in Hermitages far from civilisation.<br />
known<br />
Light<br />
Water<br />
Life<br />
Time
Hyrule there are a great many gods, deities by the score.<br />
In<br />
people has a god of its own, and the nature of their<br />
Every<br />
varies with the nature of these people. Some gods<br />
worship<br />
organised churches, heirarchies, and holy books.<br />
have<br />
are informal arrangements of offerings and oral<br />
Others<br />
tradition.<br />
Hyrulian scholars a god is any entity which can grant<br />
To<br />
to a mortal supplicant. This is generally a broad<br />
powers<br />
which many laypeople would disagree with, for it<br />
definition<br />
in its number (amongst others) the fey, the pagan<br />
includes<br />
and the hated demonic forces beneath the world.<br />
deities,<br />
to this there is the further definition of High and<br />
Due<br />
gods. High gods are those who dwell beyond the<br />
Low<br />
while Low gods are present in physical forms or<br />
world,<br />
reliable contact with their worshippers. High gods<br />
make<br />
vastly more powerful than Low gods, but have vastly<br />
are<br />
official faith of Hyrule, the Golden Faith holds that the<br />
The<br />
Goddesses created the world before departing. It<br />
Golden<br />
holds that the Goddesses raised up four lesser gods to<br />
also<br />
the world during their absence and relay the prayers<br />
watch<br />
eldest of the golden goddesses, the goddess of power,<br />
The<br />
creator of the world, the goddess of strength and fire,<br />
the<br />
by gorons and dragons, as well as warriors and<br />
beloved<br />
High God, Chaotic Good<br />
labourers.<br />
middle of the golden goddesses, the goddess of<br />
The<br />
writer of laws and forger of magic, the goddess<br />
wisdom,the<br />
knowledge and water, the deity of zora and leviathans, as<br />
of<br />
as scholars and artisans. High God, Lawful Good<br />
well<br />
youngest of the golden goddesses,the goddess of<br />
The<br />
the creator of all life, the goddess of virtue and<br />
courage,<br />
the deity of humans and maku, as well as the<br />
wind,<br />
folk and most druids. High God, Neutral Good<br />
common<br />
hereditary title passed matrilineally between the queens<br />
A<br />
Hyrule, the goddess of time. Many Hylias are dormant,<br />
of<br />
title passed between great dragons who nominate<br />
A<br />
to bathe in the Spring of Power. Patron deity of<br />
successors<br />
title passed between the wisest of the Leviathans who<br />
A<br />
successors to bathe in the spring of Wisdom.<br />
nominate<br />
hereditary title passed along a line of maku trees, from a<br />
A<br />
originally bathed in the Spring of Courage. Patron<br />
seed<br />
Old Faiths, the Pagan Faiths, are religions which were<br />
The<br />
in one way or another before the arrival of the<br />
followed<br />
They are looked down on in Hyrule, and are<br />
Goddesses.<br />
forbidden if they start to cause trouble or approach<br />
often<br />
is the head of the Jovian faith, a strict monotheistic<br />
Jove<br />
focused on philosophy and way of living. His faith<br />
religion<br />
expressly allowed in Hyrule, and is popular amongst the<br />
is<br />
High God, Neutral Good.<br />
poor.<br />
the guardian of the gates of death, is an ancient<br />
Gomess,<br />
deity whose followers revere as the guardian and<br />
pagan<br />
golden wolf, Arbitrax, is the judger of the guilty in the<br />
The<br />
life, and the final punishment of all monsters, or so it<br />
next<br />
jackal-headed god of the Wosu, Seth was an angry and<br />
The<br />
god of warfare, who wished for violence across the<br />
vicious<br />
He is now departed from this earth, but remains<br />
world.<br />
by his people. Low God, Chaotic Evil<br />
venerated<br />
great leviathan of the oceans and the pagan god of<br />
The<br />
fishermen, and those who live on the coast, Oshus<br />
sailors,<br />
supposedly sequestered himself in a distant plane of<br />
has<br />
Low God, Chaotic Neutral.<br />
existence.<br />
popular in the land which would become the Faron<br />
Once<br />
(and later Hyrule), fae cults worshipping the fairies<br />
Empire<br />
maku trees above or instead of the Goddesses are now<br />
and<br />
but by no means nonexistant. Low Gods,<br />
uncommon,<br />
deity of the gerudo, the desert mother Bagamanah is<br />
The<br />
unknown entity who seems utterly capricious,<br />
an<br />
between decrees of extreme good and terrible<br />
oscillating<br />
High God, Chaotic Neutral<br />
evil.<br />
the coming of Farore the most popular deities<br />
Before<br />
many humans, particularly famers, were the<br />
amongst<br />
Kings, reptilian creatures who could control the<br />
Storm<br />
and give terrible rains or parching droughts if<br />
weather<br />
They had a wide and sprawling family pantheon,<br />
angered.<br />
forgotten in modern time. Low Gods, Varying<br />
largely<br />
the arrival of the goddesses there were a thousand<br />
Before<br />
faiths which persist on the periphery of civilisation to<br />
tiny<br />
day, especially amongst goblins. They may be entirely<br />
this<br />
or worship demons, fae, or far stranger entities.<br />
false,<br />
The Nature of The Divine<br />
The Servants of the Divine<br />
The Old Faiths<br />
power of the Golden Faith.<br />
the<br />
Jove<br />
Gomess<br />
day-to-day impact on the world due to their absence.<br />
less<br />
The Golden Faith<br />
of the dead. Low God, True Neutral<br />
shepherd<br />
Arbitrax<br />
believed. High God, Lawful Neutral.<br />
is<br />
Seth<br />
their chosen people to the golden goddesses.<br />
of<br />
Din<br />
Oshus<br />
Nayru<br />
Fairies<br />
Farore<br />
Chaotic Good<br />
Bagamanah<br />
Hylia<br />
little active power. Low God, Neutral Good<br />
with<br />
The Infernal Dragon<br />
Storm Kings<br />
gorons. Low God, Lawful Good<br />
the<br />
The Abyssal Leviathan<br />
Alignment<br />
Small Faiths<br />
deity of the zora. Low God, Chaotic Good<br />
Patron<br />
The Deku Tree<br />
Varying Status, Varying Alignment<br />
deity of humanity. Low God, Neutral Good
A GOD SPLASH ART GOES HERE
to theologians and arcanists the universe can be<br />
According<br />
into three Realms - the Sacred Realm above all<br />
divided<br />
the Material Realm of mortals, and the Dark Realm<br />
things,<br />
demons. Each is undeniably and absolutely separated<br />
of<br />
the other two, and can only be accessed by extremely<br />
from<br />
magic.<br />
powerful<br />
one enters the Sacred or Dark realms they enter<br />
When<br />
surface, that layer closest to the material realm. As they<br />
the<br />
deeper into the Realm they come closer to its great<br />
pass<br />
the Golden Goddesses or the Calamity<br />
authority-<br />
This will tax their body and soul, until their<br />
respectively.<br />
form is burned away and only their spirit remains.<br />
physical<br />
Sacred Realm is the realm of the Golden Goddesses,<br />
The<br />
to the Golden Faith at least. It is a perfect,<br />
according<br />
place which reflects the hearts of its inhabitants.<br />
glorious<br />
natives are said to be the angels, perfect, benevolent<br />
Its<br />
who serve Jove or the Golden Goddesses,<br />
beings<br />
on who is asked. It is the location of the Castle<br />
depending<br />
Sages, the great Hermitage of Rauru Gaepora. the Sage<br />
of<br />
Light, and is also the land in which the first Infernal<br />
of<br />
Dinraal resides after his brutal maiming at the<br />
Dragon,<br />
of the Dark Dragon Onox the Black. In times past-<br />
hands<br />
between the Scrambling and the Nihil War, the<br />
specifically<br />
was kept here in its entirety. According to the<br />
Triforce<br />
Faith the souls of mortals are judged by the<br />
Golden<br />
with the virtuous being taken to an eternal<br />
Goddesses,<br />
in the Sacred Realm and the despicable being<br />
paradise<br />
into the endless nothingness beyond the Realms.<br />
cast<br />
neither virtuous nor despicable are reborn as<br />
Those<br />
once again, with the hope that they will achieve<br />
mortals<br />
Dark Realm is the realm of demons. It is a shadowy<br />
The<br />
filled with malign intelligences who want<br />
nothingness<br />
more than to destroy the material world. It is a<br />
nothing<br />
of insubstantial emotion, with dark clouds eternally<br />
place<br />
and unforming horrifying, twisted shapes of<br />
forming<br />
design. There is nothing solid save for what is<br />
monstrous<br />
and nothing can ever last. Though the Realms are<br />
brought,<br />
by the eternal expanse of the Void, which<br />
separated<br />
powerful magic to cross, the nature of demons<br />
requires<br />
they are constantly striving to breach the Void, and<br />
means<br />
the Dark Realm can be comparatively easily accessed<br />
so<br />
the Material Realm. In the depths of the Dark Realm<br />
from<br />
the Calamity, the great opponent of the Goddesses.<br />
lies<br />
save the Everking have ever seen its face and lived to<br />
None<br />
Material Realm is the home of man and other mortals.<br />
The<br />
is a world that functions by laws and reason, rather than<br />
It<br />
reflection and emotional flux. Time flows<br />
metaphysical<br />
and sensibly, and the principles of physics and<br />
linearly<br />
make it, to a certain perspective, utterly<br />
chemistry<br />
and sensible.<br />
predictable<br />
is a place of life and death and order and chaos and<br />
It<br />
and ice and a thousand other dualities. It has the<br />
fire<br />
to be whatever its inhabitants wish, however good<br />
potential<br />
evil that may be.<br />
or<br />
the Three Realms there are many other smaller<br />
Beyond<br />
orbiting and passing through the infinite void of<br />
realms,<br />
These are small, self-contained existences which<br />
Nothing.<br />
separate intermediary points between the Material<br />
form<br />
and its neighbours. They can be created by powerful<br />
Realm<br />
or occur naturally.<br />
magics,<br />
Twilight realm lies between the Material and Dark<br />
The<br />
It is a dark, dying place, with little life or light but<br />
Realms.<br />
some permanency. It is the place to which the traitors<br />
still<br />
the Scrambling were banished nearly one thousand<br />
of<br />
ago, and the place from which the Twili emerged one<br />
years<br />
ago during the Twilight Invasion. It is only<br />
century<br />
through three mirrors, of which two are<br />
accessible<br />
and one is hidden.<br />
destroyed<br />
Dreaming realm lies between the Material and Sacred<br />
The<br />
It is a reflection of the past of its few real<br />
Realms.<br />
taking samples and pieces from their history<br />
inhabitants,<br />
imagination and with them forming a prison of space<br />
and<br />
time, a reflection of those they have met and the places<br />
and<br />
have been.<br />
they<br />
homeland of the picori is a small, parasitic realm<br />
The<br />
drifts through the cosmos. It is largely material and<br />
which<br />
in nature, but everything inside it is sized for its<br />
reliable<br />
with the tallest mountains barely the size of<br />
inhabitants,<br />
and the greatest rivers barely wetting a man's knee<br />
hills<br />
he stands in them. The picori realm can only be<br />
when<br />
Antiplace is a realm parallel to the Material Realm and<br />
The<br />
appearances a reflection of it, inverted and changed. It is<br />
by<br />
favourite hideaway for the most powerful wizards of<br />
a<br />
and has a small native population.<br />
history,<br />
King's Sea is an elemental plane of water, containing<br />
The<br />
a vast ocean which stretches to every horizon, dotted<br />
only<br />
occasionally with islands on which the few natives live.<br />
only<br />
is supposedly the home of the great leviathan Oshus, the<br />
It<br />
of his race and the pagan god of the sea. The only<br />
father<br />
to enter the King's Sea is by following a mythical<br />
way<br />
through choking fogs in the furthest reaches of the<br />
current<br />
ocean- none have ever successfully made the passage<br />
open<br />
The Nature of the Realms<br />
Above and Below<br />
Beside and Beyond<br />
The Sacred Realm<br />
The Twilight Realm<br />
The Dreaming Land<br />
virtue with time.<br />
The Dark Realm<br />
The Picori Realm<br />
from Hyrule once every hundred years.<br />
accessed<br />
The Antiplace<br />
The King's Sea<br />
speak of it.<br />
The Material Realm<br />
and returned.
The Years Since Gone<br />
If a man does not know where he has been then he cannot find his path onward.
Timeline page
of time-3000 PF)<br />
(Dawn<br />
years before the arrival of the goddesses were cold and dark. Almost nothing is known of these years, which stretch<br />
The<br />
into the dawn of time.<br />
long<br />
is known, or at least believed in Hyrule, is that the goddesses wrought the world from the Nothing, with Din giving it<br />
What<br />
Nayru giving it law, and Farore giving it life. They then departed to watch their world develop and grow over uncounted<br />
form,<br />
years.<br />
can say what truly occurred during these years. The wosu, those hound-headed men who the Hyrulians call darknuts,<br />
None<br />
that their god Seth lived among them and they created a glorious civilisation of uncounted Citadels in his name. The<br />
maintain<br />
call the Mythic Era the time of the Glory World, the utopian years in which they lived in a glorious state of war or labour<br />
alifos<br />
craft (the exact nature of the time varies depending on which alifos is asked) until the Allfathers sent them to the modern<br />
or<br />
in great arks. The Jovians call it instead the First World, that long-distant time when the Warlord and the Son and the<br />
time<br />
walked the mortal realms in physical form. The gorons sing and dance their legends of the Iron Dawn War, that<br />
Shepherd<br />
conflict which finally earned them Din’s praise, and the zora speak of their first empire, the greatest civilisation to ever<br />
endless<br />
stand.<br />
thousand contradicting stories remain of the Mythic Era. What is important to Hyrule however is how it ended- with the<br />
A<br />
returning to the world to grant their favour to humanity, the zora and the gorons, bringing the Imperial Era and the<br />
Goddesses<br />
The Mythic Era<br />
time of greatness that came with it.
PF-1000 PF)<br />
(3000<br />
and a half millennia ago the Goddesses appeared to their chosen people and gave unto them the divine favour. The<br />
Four<br />
goron, Eldin, the wisest zora, Lanayru and the bravest human, Faron. Each took up the holy praise on behalf of his<br />
strongest<br />
and with this praise unified his race to produce one of the three empires- the empire of the zora who ruled the oceans,<br />
people<br />
empire of the gorons who ruled the mountains, and the empire of humanity who ruled the lands.<br />
the<br />
are few reliable, historic records of the Imperial Era. It is a time so very separated from the modern day, with untold<br />
There<br />
and calamities serving to destroy remaining knowledge. What is known for certain is that the empires were advanced<br />
years<br />
the understanding of the modern day, with sciences and magics which can no longer be replicated. The world<br />
beyond<br />
under the watchful eye of the Patron Deities. Soaring towers stretched into the sky and great edifices to the power<br />
prospered<br />
glory of the goddesses were created to sprawl across the land. There was, according to the scriptures, “peace and milk<br />
and<br />
honey for two thousand years”.<br />
and<br />
Book of Mudora, the holy bible of the Golden Faith, paints the Imperial Era as ideal in every way, a perfect and pious<br />
The<br />
where there was no war or strife or disease or famine. This is likely a fiction. The empires were not necessarily utopian,<br />
land<br />
they were certainly greater than the kingdoms which followed them.<br />
but<br />
the early days it was said that the Goddesses walked the world of the Empires. A very different force walked that same<br />
In<br />
when the Empires ended. The Empires had been raised by benevolence and light and order, by the Goddesses' will.<br />
world<br />
The Imperial Era<br />
They would fall to malice and darkness and chaos, the will of demons.
PF)<br />
(c.1000<br />
Imperial Era ended in an instant.<br />
The<br />
Goddesses had long departed for the Sacred Realm, and left the Patron Deities and Hylia to rule the spirituality of the<br />
The<br />
in their stead. The mortals of the world had grown fat and content with peace, and magic itself was considered a minor<br />
world<br />
In time it became a myth, and mundanity spread across the world.<br />
triviality.<br />
without warning or reason, the very earth tore asunder. From fissures in the ground rose monsters, demons. Hordes<br />
Then,<br />
horrifying abominations and infernal lords of war spread over the land. The otherworldly invaders were unexpected and<br />
of<br />
unknown to the ancient humans- they brought ruin to the world on an unprecedented scale, and changed the<br />
completely<br />
of history forever by razing the three empires to the ground over the course of three decades of warfare.<br />
course<br />
golden ages of the world were over, and the age of struggle had begun.<br />
The<br />
of the time are fragmentary and direct sources of information are practically non-existent- almost all knowledge of<br />
Records<br />
Great Invasion comes from oral tradition, the tales of various peoples who speak of the time the world burned and man’s<br />
this<br />
crumbled down to the earth. What is known is that the world was pushed to the absolute brink of survival. The<br />
monuments<br />
Deku Tree was slain and burned, the Infernal Dragon Dinraal was crippled, the entirety of the zora population who<br />
Great<br />
within the open sea- approximately ninety percent of the race- perished. In all perhaps two thirds of all life was<br />
dwelt<br />
Demise, Malladus, Majora, Bellum, Yuga, Ghirahim, Cholerin, Onox, Veran. These are names which echo with<br />
destroyed.<br />
in all of the known world to this day for their actions in the Great Invasion.<br />
infamy<br />
the world was not undefended in this time. At first the Archdemons ran rampant across the world, carrying out the<br />
But<br />
will of their master, the Calamity who sprang from the Nothing. But soon they found themselves opposed by the<br />
destructive<br />
of the mortal world and, eventually, even by the deities of the land themselves. Legends sprout like weeds from the time<br />
forces<br />
the Great Invasion, incredible heroes and impossible battles burned deep into the racial memory. The Father of Snakes, the<br />
of<br />
of all sheikah, gained the power he would pass to his ancestors in this war, as did the Thunder and Deluge dragons,<br />
ancestor<br />
Divine Beasts, the minish progenitors and a thousand others, and above all these stood the Prime Hylia and the Everking.<br />
the<br />
Hylia of the time, known as the Prime Hylia, was a woman of staggering drive and power. In all things she was<br />
The<br />
by the first Great Hero, the legendary Everking, the second chosen of Farore after Faron two millennia ago.<br />
accompanied<br />
they led the mortal world in a war that lasted through unimaginable strife and loss, but which ultimately saw the<br />
Together<br />
of the mortals over the demonic forces.<br />
victory<br />
world was scarred, the losses had been unimaginable, but the world still stood, and the mortals of the world had<br />
The<br />
The Great Invasion<br />
survived.
PF-0 PF)<br />
(c.1000<br />
Great Invasion had scarred the world like nothing before it. All three of the empires had fallen to dust, and victory had<br />
The<br />
come at unimaginable cost. The zora were practically extinct, and the other races of the world fared little better. The land<br />
only<br />
was sick, choking with ash and darkness, the fallout of the demonic incursion.<br />
itself<br />
Archdemons were dead, but they were not destroyed. Demise was imprisoned in the very place from which Farore had<br />
The<br />
to proclaim her love for Faron, locked behind a sacred seal which the Father of Snakes and his followers swore to<br />
emerged<br />
over forever. Malladus was barely defeated, and would need to be restrained with chains that spanned a continent. Both<br />
watch<br />
return with time, this was inevitable, and humanity would still be sick and recovering.<br />
would<br />
was as the Everking prepared himself to become the final link in those great binding chains that Hylia made her decision.<br />
It<br />
had in her possession a relic of impossible power, a gift from the Goddesses themselves, the Triforce. Three golden<br />
She<br />
representing Power, Wisdom and Courage, the three great virtues. Nothing was beyond the grasp of the Triforce, but<br />
triangles<br />
greater the request the more the requester would need to be in absolute balance between its three aspects. Hylia could not<br />
the<br />
the Triforce to restore the world, but she could use it to escape the sickened land.<br />
use<br />
the world, beneath the feet of mankind, the ground split and reformed once again. High into the sky soared great<br />
Across<br />
of rock and soil, forming the sky lands. Beyond the reach of demons, mankind would be safe, to prosper and recover,<br />
islands<br />
what it had lost.<br />
rebuild<br />
such was the intention. The result was different. Mutation came to humanity, a gradual change of form which gave rise to<br />
Or<br />
two races- those around Hylia becoming profound, slender and long-lived, and those around the Everking's sons becoming<br />
the<br />
stout and of short lifespans. With this disparity came division and with division came resentment. The sky became<br />
practical,<br />
fractured as the land had been in the times before the empire, politicking nations bickering and fighting.<br />
as<br />
time there came a new war, between the Purple Kingdom headed by the Everking’s sons and the White Empire, headed<br />
In<br />
Hylia. Loosely divided along these lines of race, the willowy followers of Hylia took the name hylians, while the followers of<br />
by<br />
Everking’s son maintained the name humans. These people pursued a war against each other for centuries, until the once<br />
the<br />
sky became wracked with terrible dark storms, and on the world below the Demon King Demise began to stir.<br />
calm<br />
The Nubian Era<br />
The FINISH WRITING THIS BIT I HATE THIS FUCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
PF-1127 AF)<br />
(0<br />
the death of Demise the last of the darknesses plaguing the surface was destroyed, and the Hylia of the time knew it<br />
With<br />
time for humanity to return to the land. All over the world the floating islands on which mankind had made its homes, the<br />
was<br />
which had seen the birth of the Purple Kingdom and the White Empire, descended slowly but unstoppably to the<br />
islands<br />
With the exception of a few stubborn holdouts of the old ways the cities in the sky returned to the earth.<br />
ground.<br />
the descents the people found themselves in an untamed new world, untouched by civilisation for more than a<br />
Following<br />
The people chose their elders and leaders, and these notables met in a great conclave with the Hylia, who explained<br />
millennia.<br />
actions and decisions, as well as what had just occurred. She was joined in this by her father the high knight Rauru<br />
her<br />
her closest friend the Hero of the World, and the sheikah matriarch, Purah Lysane. Overcome with gratitude and<br />
Gaepora,<br />
the elders pledged their love and support to Hylia and declared her their leader, the Queen of all the land. Thus it<br />
admiration<br />
that these settlers in this strange new land found themselves unifying under one banner, the nascent kingdom of Hyrule.<br />
was<br />
the years passed the kingdom grew, spreading the power of civilisation across the land. Everywhere settlers went they<br />
As<br />
the scars of the Great Invasion, the long overgrown ruins and ancient temples of the Imperial Era. It was to this land<br />
found<br />
they brought a new hope and a new life, and a glorious new prosperity. This time, and the times of great troubles which<br />
that<br />
The Royal Era<br />
followed it, are the Royal Era, the times when Hyrule ruled all it surveyed as the lone kingdom of man.
PF-562 AF)<br />
(0<br />
first age of the Royal Era was the Age of Prosperity, that wonderful golden time when plenty and happiness lay over<br />
The<br />
horizon. The kingdom of Hyrule’s borders spread ever outwards for more than five centuries, constantly learning and<br />
every<br />
New laws were penned to direct and guide the people of the kingdom, many being revivals of the old Imperial<br />
expanding.<br />
The prominent men and women of the age became the nobility of the day, and the Hyrulian feudal system was<br />
ways.<br />
Castles were built to secure the new land and around them grew the homes of settlers, who found the blessing of<br />
established.<br />
Maku Trees to cut back the old dark forest to produce plentiful farmland.<br />
the<br />
church became entrenched in daily life. The Book of Mudora was codified and finalised. The Sages were established,<br />
The<br />
far and wide to find and establish their Hermitages. The fey were found in the depths of nature and returned to the<br />
travelling<br />
fold. New cities were built on the bones of old, and in them settlers found knowledge long since lost which was used to<br />
divine<br />
the basis for new philosophy. The almost mythical oocca established their cities on the few aerial islands which<br />
provide<br />
and resumed their eternal watch over the world. The zora were reborn, returned from their time as the parella race<br />
remained<br />
the magic of the Leviathans.<br />
by<br />
was the golden age, the greatest years which Hyrule would ever produce, all overseen by the watchful and caring eye of<br />
This<br />
steady succession of Gaeporan queens and their attendant kings. It must have seemed like these days of glory would not<br />
a<br />
could not end while the favour of the Goddesses was with them.<br />
end,<br />
The Age of Prosperity<br />
But of course this was not the case.
AF-826 AF)<br />
(563<br />
Age of Chaos saw the end of Hyrule's early glory days, its rapid expansion ended by a series of four interconnected<br />
The<br />
For a little under three centuries Hyrule was beset by wooes and disaster, beginning with the calamitous<br />
calamities.<br />
and ending with the Second Coming of Vaati, an otherwise meagre attack on what was by then a haggard and<br />
Scrambling<br />
world.<br />
weary<br />
Scrambling (563 AF)<br />
The<br />
Age of Chaos began, as the Royal Era had, with a dream. A shared dream, in the sleep of all mortal peoples. A dream of<br />
The<br />
Triforce, and the infinite possibilities it offered. Whispers of the world which could be created accompanied a vision of<br />
the<br />
power in every mind across the world, and the greedy and the soulless and the mad were tempted into betrayal. This<br />
ultimate<br />
The Scrambling of 563, and it would be the first conflict to beset the kingdom of Hyrule.<br />
was<br />
these days the Triforce was largely unprotected, held in a vault in the mortal world behind great stone doors beneath<br />
In<br />
would later become the Temple of Time. All that would be needed to take it was sufficient martial or arcane force. When<br />
what<br />
knowledge escaped there were many traitors vying for the ultimate power, banded together into fragile, fractious alliances.<br />
this<br />
and lizalfos were of course amongst their number, but they were also accompanied by humans and gorons and zora of<br />
Goblins<br />
types. Even more worrying were the supposedly divine peoples who attempted to seize the Triforce- fey and oocca and<br />
all<br />
and leviathans.<br />
dragons<br />
greatest alliance, calling themselves the Interlopers, came the closest to securing the Triforce, making pacts with<br />
The<br />
and eldritch entities for greater power and becoming Archtraitors, the first since the Great Invasion one and a half<br />
demons<br />
ago. They rampaged across the world and brought great pain and suffering- slaying the Great Deku Tree and the<br />
millennia<br />
Dragon Volvagia, besieging the Oocca Sky City and summoning untold numbers of demons. However despite their<br />
Infernal<br />
efforts in time they were beaten along with all others, defeated and humbled by the newly emerged Light Spirits<br />
despicable<br />
by the Sage Rauru.<br />
created<br />
traitors were of such vast numbers that following their surrender they could not be executed in good conscience. It was<br />
The<br />
decided that they be imprisoned in a world between the mortal world and the Dark Realm, sealed behind three portals<br />
instead<br />
a shadowy world of twilight forever. These portals were the Twilight Mirrors- the Ashen, Rotten, and Frostbitten mirrorsdisks<br />
in<br />
of silvered steel forged by the greatest of picori artisans. The traitors would be banished through them and would be<br />
beyond the sight of man forever, hopefully bringing peace to Hyrule by preventing the Archtraitors from emerging<br />
hidden<br />
Their locations, designs, and even existence would be kept a secret, to keep the traitors from ever returning.<br />
again.<br />
The Age of Chaos
War of the Bound Chest (626 AF)<br />
The<br />
the Mirrors were successful in keeping the Archtraitors hidden the woes of Hyrule were not over. Hyrule had less<br />
Whilst<br />
a century to rebuild before a new threat came, an invasion of Shades and monsters of incredible size, led by the Demon<br />
than<br />
Majora who was thought to have been the architect of the dreams which inspired the Scrambling. This was to be<br />
Prince<br />
later as the War of the Bound Chest.<br />
known<br />
detailed records survive of this time, but it is known that the world was saved by the intervention of the picori and the<br />
Few<br />
Great Hero, the Hero of Men, a golden child who wielded a sword forged by the picori against Majora. Though the Demon<br />
fifth<br />
could not be killed he could be defeated, sealed away inside an artefact the nature of which goes unrecorded. His<br />
Prince<br />
in turn were imprisoned within another device, a chest made of maku wood and bound with bands of iron and silver.<br />
Shades<br />
First Coming of Vaati (726 AF)<br />
The<br />
War of the Bound Chest had once again strained Hyrule. The Gustaf dynasty, a royal lineage raised to replace the<br />
The<br />
who were destroyed in the Scrambling, was in turn destroyed by Majora’s followers and replaced with the Daltus<br />
Gaeporans<br />
Eldin, who had resumed his title of Infernal Dragon following Volvagia’s death in the Scrambling, was also dead. Hyrule<br />
family.<br />
time and space to heal, but it would not receive it.<br />
needed<br />
hundred years later in 726 the world was beset again. A picori archtraitor and peerless Wind Sorcerer, Vaati, released<br />
One<br />
Shades from their imprisonment and laid the kingdom low. Once again the picori came to the aid of mankind, aiding the<br />
the<br />
of the Unseen against the turncoat and allowing him to destroy the demonic minish sorcerer. For this he was rewarded<br />
Hero<br />
marriage to the heir of the time, Zelda Daltus, reuniting the bloodlines of the Great Hero and the Goddess Hylia for the<br />
with<br />
time in seven hundred years.<br />
first<br />
there had been suffering during Vaati’s brief reign, as there always is when a dark overlord rules, it was undone<br />
Though<br />
his fall. An artefact of great power, a wish-granting device crafted by the minish smith Ezlo, was employed to restore the<br />
after<br />
to its unharmed state. The artefact was destroyed in the process, and has since proved impossible to replicate.<br />
world<br />
Second Coming of Vaati (826 AF)<br />
The<br />
expected a disaster to return following another hundred years of peace, and they were not disappointed. When the<br />
Many<br />
to the world of the picori opened once again- as it did every century- some vestigial magic flooded through and allowed<br />
door<br />
to restore his body, with little of his old mind but retaining his vast well of power. Though the picori Archtraitor<br />
Vaati<br />
and slew to the best of his ability he was defeated by another Great Hero, the Hero of Four, and sealed away to<br />
marauded<br />
his return once again.<br />
prevent<br />
this seemingly final defeat of Vaati the world returned to peace, and though many expected another disaster in the<br />
With<br />
century they were to be pleasantly surprised- 926 passed without incident, and the peace was maintained. The Age<br />
following<br />
of Chaos was, seemingly, over.
AF-1210 AF)<br />
(1206<br />
was a year of great celebration across Hyrule. The Civil War, that decade long conflict which had pitted brother<br />
1206<br />
brother and daughter against mother was over. Concessions had been made by both sides in open and fair negotiation.<br />
against<br />
had been found in the public life for wide and sweeping changes to be implemented, and the ringleaders of all factions<br />
Room<br />
had managed to agree on a future they all found acceptable. There were pains remaining for certain- an<br />
concerned<br />
sickness had claimed the life of the Great Deku Tree, and the Sage of Forest Bucha was not responding to<br />
unidentifiable<br />
for his aid, but these were problems which would surely resolve themselves with time.<br />
entreaties<br />
future was bright and promising and at the centre of all this hope was one heroic figure, the great Ganondorf Dragmire,<br />
The<br />
of Shahs, the man who had brought peace to Hyrule on Hylia’s behalf through assassination or subdual of all prominent<br />
Shah<br />
supporters, a man to be crowned Duke of the Deserts and who promised to bring his kingdom back under the control of<br />
war<br />
Queen- to-be, Princess Zelda Daltus. There were even talks of royal union, of a marriage between Zelda’s elder brother and<br />
the<br />
of Ganondorf’s favoured daughters, the bewitching priestess Aaliyah Dragmire. In military circles there was a mustering<br />
one<br />
a new war, thousands of men making their way to the Shahdom to take the fight to the Wosu in a coalition of Hyrule and<br />
for<br />
Shahdom never seen before.<br />
the<br />
this changed at the ceremony in which Dragmire was to be crowned duke. At the apex of the day the proceedings were<br />
All<br />
by a boy dressed all in green, who stormed into the Chapel of Three moments before the crown was placed on<br />
interrupted<br />
head in a shocking and surprisingly competent attempt to kill the Shah. The boy was arrested, proceedings were<br />
Dargmire’s<br />
for the day, and the Shah left the capital to return to his own people, outraged.<br />
halted<br />
night the king of Hyrule, Martin Daltus, went to see the boy. The words they exchanged are unrecorded, but when<br />
That<br />
emerged he proclaimed that the boy was a Great Hero, the Hero of Time, and that the Shah was not to be trusted. The<br />
Martin<br />
ordered the Shah's immediate arrest, and geared the war-weary country to fight once again.<br />
king<br />
war that followed was the Nihil war, a disastrous conflict more costly than any which had preceded it, save perhaps for<br />
The<br />
Scrambling. The Shah had long planned for this day, and the armies he mustered covered the horizon as a thousand plots<br />
the<br />
secret alliances came to fruition. This vast force called itself the Nihil alliance and marched beneath a new banner- not<br />
and<br />
golden banner of the Shahdom, but a jet black banner with a single blood red eye, the banner of the ancient demon<br />
the<br />
hordes.<br />
demons marched with the alliance, percolating out of the air. Devils and daemons and gorgons and fiends and shades<br />
Indeed<br />
the score. Powers not seen in the world for centuries returned in force- Onox the Black walked the world for the first time<br />
by<br />
the Scrambling, accompanied by his progeny and the possessed body of Volvagia the Incendiary. The demon witch<br />
since<br />
was seen directing the forces of the Nihil with elemental power rarely seen on the world. It seemed like the end of<br />
Twinrova<br />
once again.<br />
days<br />
retaliation the kingdom of Hyrule opened every vault it possessed. Dora Dora returned from his self-imposed exile. The<br />
In<br />
and the Sages lent their full power. The child in green was dubbed a Great Hero, the Hero of Time, and used as a focus for<br />
fey<br />
hope of the people. There was little left unutilised, save for the impossible power of the Triforce, but the siege of the Great<br />
the<br />
changed even that.<br />
Castle<br />
the apex of the siege the Hero of Time, against the urgings of the Sage Rauru, attempted to use the unified Triforce, to<br />
At<br />
the Nihil with a single wish. He failed, and the ancient artefact shattered into its constituent parts. Hope seemed lost<br />
destroy<br />
battle was joined, and it was revealed that though the Hero's heart had not been in balance he was of sufficient virtue to<br />
until<br />
a piece of the Triforce, the fragment of Courage. Against all offs and aided by the princess herself the hero successfully<br />
retain<br />
Ganondorf in a duel, the boy striking the Shah in the stomach with a footman's sword.<br />
broke<br />
The Nihil War
AF-1554 AF, the Modern Day)<br />
(1210<br />
Ganondorf's defeat the Nihil alliance collapsed within hours. The goblins returned to the forests, the wosu marched<br />
With<br />
to their citadels, and the zola melted back into the waterways. Victory had been achieved, but it had not been without<br />
back<br />
cost.<br />
as the Shah was taken for execution by the Sages he knew he had dealt a deathblow to Hyrule. The golden years were<br />
Even<br />
and the continent-spanning kingdom had been crippled by two vast wars. The dominance of the goddesses' faithful had<br />
over,<br />
to a close, and the years that would follow would be ever harder. The World Tree and the Infernal Dragon were dead.<br />
come<br />
capital was razed to the point it would be abandoned altogether, and the royal family had been all slain, save for the<br />
The<br />
herself. The people were starving from sixteen years of poor wartime harvests, and the watch and army were so<br />
princess<br />
that the kingdom could not hope to protect itself.<br />
undermanned<br />
Hero of Time was not celebrated for his victories, but reviled for his failure. He travelled into the furthest reaches of the<br />
The<br />
Woods, never to be seen again. In his absenc, and the absence of other great heroes, the world spiralled into a pit of<br />
Lost<br />
and strife as men fought each other and the monstrous peoples grew ever bolder.<br />
bickering<br />
was to be the Shaded Era.<br />
This<br />
The Shaded Era
AF -1454 AF)<br />
(1210<br />
Nihil war had wounded Hyrule, and crippled her ability to rule herself. The kingdom was too large, too depopulated,<br />
The<br />
constantly beset by troubles. The queen had the holy right to rule over all of humanity, but that was simply no longer<br />
and<br />
feasible.<br />
solution to these problems was found to be the Writ of Dissolution. The provinces of Hyrule would be made into<br />
The<br />
states, with only the Lanayru, Eldin, and Faron provinces- the true heartland- remaining with the kingdom. Six<br />
independent<br />
states were created; Ordona, Arcadia, Calatia, Gamelon, Signum, and Teddin. These states, plus Hyrule, would form the<br />
new<br />
seven independent nations of Deis, and would maintain a peace amongst themselves with each nation being ultimately<br />
first<br />
to the Queen of Hyrule.<br />
subservient<br />
system collapsed almost immediately. Few of the newly independent rulers recognised the distant ruler of Hyrule as<br />
This<br />
their Sovereign. Others within the new states were not content to be ruled by one who ultimately was not a deity in the<br />
being<br />
the Queen was. They fell to bickering within a matter of months, followed by war- not with Hyrule, never with Hyrule, but<br />
way<br />
and within themselves.<br />
between<br />
split peacably along the Corda river, forming Ordona and Sarios. Signum split following a devastating civil war of its<br />
Ordona<br />
into Signum, Morias and Trajo. Calatia suffered from ever-increasing strife until the Talan Amber dynasty of dragons<br />
own<br />
to bring order and shattered the country into Calatia, Raal, and Unstis. Gamelon let the island of Koridai become<br />
descended<br />
through neglect. Of the original seven states only Arcadia and Teddin remained as they had been designated, with<br />
independent<br />
latter becoming impossibly proud and renaming itself to Hytopia.<br />
the<br />
Writ had chnged the world. Before the Queen had retained at least theoretical sovereignty over all of humanity. Now<br />
The<br />
divine right was, to an extent, dead. This was not an age of divinity versus the demonic, or of heroes and monsters. It was<br />
that<br />
Gamelon War (1444 AF-1451 AF)<br />
The<br />
Age of Men, that long and terrible time when mortals forgot their true enemies, came to a head in 1444, when Hyrule<br />
The<br />
was invaded by those who in theory owed her everything.<br />
herself<br />
reasons for the war were, as all things, infinitely complex. However a brief version would be thus: The Princess of the<br />
The<br />
Kohm Harkinian, fell for the young and capable patrician Dandolus Onkled, the head of the Onkled house and a great<br />
age,<br />
in Gamelon politics. Buoyed by the wealth which would come his way in the near future when he became king of Hyrule<br />
figure<br />
financed his way to becoming serene Doge of the city-state, and was poised to become both the most powerful and<br />
Onkled<br />
wealthy man in the world.<br />
most<br />
then, as she traveled to Gamelon to wed her beloved, Kohm died in a shipwreck.<br />
And<br />
mantle of Hylia passed to Kohm's younger sister, Lucretia. When Onkled realised his fiance was dead, that he would not<br />
The<br />
king, and that he was ruined, he requested that he marry Lucretia when she came of age. Then, as the situation in Gamelon<br />
be<br />
worse, he began to demand it.<br />
became<br />
this lead to war. Using a small horde of mercenaries Dandolus took advantage of a simultaneous upswing in<br />
Ultimately<br />
activity and did the unthinkable. He marched on Hyrule, attacking the new capital of Acre Nova, the city which had<br />
goblin<br />
the city of Great Castle following the Nihil war. He beseieged first the city and then the citadel at its heart,<br />
replaced<br />
his supposedly rightful bride.<br />
demanding<br />
response to this and seeing no true options, Lucretia cast herself from the tallest tower of the castle. The army of Onkled,<br />
In<br />
what they had done and what horrors they had been a part of, promptly turned on him and cut the Doge down.<br />
realising<br />
there were other methods of resolution, but none were apparent. The Harkinian line ended, and the mantle of<br />
Perhaps<br />
passed to a nun named Zelda Boone. Hyrule's divinity, its position as the celestial kingdom of man, had been tested, and<br />
Hylia<br />
The Age of Men<br />
of men, fighting one another.<br />
it had barely survived that test.
AF-1554 AF)<br />
(1454<br />
Twilight Invasion (1454 AF)<br />
The<br />
Age of Twilight began, appropriately, at the close of day.<br />
The<br />
the sun set on the distant horizon the world shifted. The Ashen Twilight Mirror moved unbidden, and it opened tears in<br />
As<br />
opened across the world's surface, gaping rents through the sky, tunnels through space glowing unearthly green. From<br />
space<br />
rents poured hordes of monsters, a ravening tide of jet-black monstrosities. This was the Twilight Invasion, and it<br />
these<br />
with it something far more insidious than mere monsters.<br />
brought<br />
epic magics still not fully understood the tyrant king Zant began to subsume all of Hyrule into his home plane, the<br />
Using<br />
of twilight. The people of the land wasted away to spirits under the corrupting influence of the realms power, while<br />
realm<br />
who accepted the darkness inside themselves became horrifying beasts of darkness and stone.<br />
those<br />
was the descendant of those terrible traitors of the Scrambling, and he was excercising a terrible revenge over Hyrule.<br />
Zant<br />
seemed there was no hope, that all the world would be consumed by the Twilight, but Hyrule's champion returned again.<br />
It<br />
eighth Great Hero, the Hero of Twilight, came from Ordona to destroy the dark king, Aided by the rightful ruler of the<br />
The<br />
the mischievous imp Midna, the hero's exploits are known to every child. The saviour of the zora, the man who<br />
Twilight,<br />
gorons and rediscovered the ancient oocca, and most importantly the slayer of Zant and liberator of the kingdom.<br />
wrestled<br />
Hero of Twilight restored Hyrule's faith in the Great Heroes, and his actions changed history.<br />
The<br />
after the defeat of Zant the Hero was wed to his childhood love, a farm girl named Ilia. Together they attended the<br />
Shortly<br />
of Queen Zelda Boone, who in turn married the brother of the late princess Lucretia and took his name to become<br />
coronation<br />
VIII Harkinian.<br />
Zelda<br />
generation passed, and another began. For fifty years Hyrule enjoyed growth and prosperity. A mining boom in Kakariko<br />
A<br />
the city from the ground up. The oocca prime Sky City descended to remain several hundred yards above Lake Hylia.<br />
rebuilt<br />
realm was at peace, but this peace was far from universal. The threat of the arcane, of demons and monsters and utter<br />
The<br />
The Age of Twilight<br />
annihilation, had returned.
Pretender Ganon and the Gerudo Civil War (1498 AF)<br />
The<br />
Hyrule was recovering the gerudo were embroiled in civil war between the armies of Shah Hashem and the<br />
Whilst<br />
Shah Bahrom. In 1501 the forces of Bahrom were victorious and Shah Hashem was deposed, forced to flee alone<br />
prospective<br />
escape execution.<br />
to<br />
know to whom Hashem fled, but the events that followed are well chronicled. Somehow, most likely with significant<br />
None<br />
Hashem managed to take the Trident of Power, the former weapon of the Jackal-Headed god Seth, from where the wosu<br />
aid,<br />
secreted it in the furthest depths of the desert. With the power this artefact provided flowing through him Hashem grew<br />
had<br />
vengeful, and dangerous. He declared himself Ganon, the rebirth of Ganondorf Dragmire who had died at the close of<br />
proud,<br />
Nihil war.<br />
the<br />
entered the Lost Woods and, once again using knowledge and means of source unknown, found the Rotted Mirror of<br />
He<br />
at the location in which the previous Sage of Forest Bucha had hidden it nearly a millennia prior. With it he opened a<br />
Twilight<br />
bringing Dark Simulacra servants of Zant’s old regime into the mortal world. He used these as servants, freeing the<br />
portal,<br />
mage Vaati from the prison he had been trapped in for seven hundred years and took the heir to the throne and<br />
wind<br />
of Zelda Boone, Princess Zelda Harkinian, captive.<br />
granddaughter<br />
them the Pretender Ganon and the picori Archtraitor wielded impossible power. An endless unseasonal winter<br />
Between<br />
Hyrule with monsters uncounted lurking in the blizzards. Dark clouds gathered over the world to spit a deathly rain on<br />
beset<br />
Hero of Light and the Long Cold Winter (1504 AF)<br />
The<br />
Hero of Twilight was a great man, but like all great men he was mortal. History records him as a quiet, reserved man,<br />
The<br />
of the kind of calm only found in those who know exactly how bestial their own anger can be.<br />
possessed<br />
the coronation of Zelda Harkinian VIII the Hero of Twilight returned to Ordona, spending the rest of his days as a<br />
After<br />
and goatherd as far from the circles of nobility or magic as he could possibly be. In time he had a son, who he named<br />
farmer<br />
after the Hero’s own adoptive father and who he raised to live a simple life on the frontiers of civilisation.<br />
Rusl<br />
the ways of children are unpredictable, and Rusl was raised on stories from his mother about his father’s heroics. As<br />
But<br />
as he could Rusl became a knight, achieved great glory, married a countess, and had his own children born straight into<br />
soon<br />
affairs of nobility.<br />
the<br />
Jaichen was the son of Rusl Jaichen, and grandson of the Hero of Twilight. Though his father died when Link was but a<br />
Link<br />
he remained with his mother in Acre Nova and grew up a friend of Princess Zelda. When Vaati escaped his seal and took<br />
child<br />
away he found a great measure of courage within him- he could and would not see her suffer at the hands of the<br />
Zelda<br />
and an Archtraitor.<br />
Pretender<br />
the tender age of twelve Link Jaichen took up the Four Sword as his distant ancestor had before him and became the<br />
At<br />
Great Hero, the Hero of Light. Travelling as the Hero, the Warrior, the Mage and the Demon he overcame every<br />
tenth<br />
and defeated every opponent. He reunited the seven maidens, the distant successors of those seven women who<br />
challenge<br />
maintained Vaati’s seal for so many years. He fought simulacra and ghosts and Frozen Watchers and monsters too<br />
had<br />
to comprehend. It was by his hand that Vaati was slain finally after centuries of plaguing Hyrule, and it was thanks to<br />
terrible<br />
efforts that the Pretender Ganon was defeated and sealed away in the prison which had formerly held the wind mage.<br />
his<br />
Hero of Light returned to Acre Nova and became ever closer to his princess. Hyrule had suffered, but not nearly as<br />
The<br />
the earth, an omen of the demons who would surely come. A hero was needed, and one was found.<br />
much as it had in previous incidents. The world was still shaded, but the future was brighter.
AF) (1554<br />
Hero of Light married his princess and became king<br />
The<br />
Hyrule. The princess became queen, and ruled fairly and<br />
of<br />
for twelve years until her death in 1540. In this time<br />
well<br />
bore five children. Rusl, the heir to the mantle of Great<br />
she<br />
and a boy who vanished into self-imposed exile as<br />
Hero<br />
as he could. Torald, who married a Sarion duchess<br />
soon<br />
lives happily and well. Yosef, who became a preacher in<br />
and<br />
Green Frontier. Rindovus, who trained with all gusto<br />
the<br />
became the leader of the elite Kingsguard. Zelda, the<br />
and<br />
and only daughter, who waits to become old<br />
youngest<br />
to take her mother's throne.<br />
enough<br />
Hyrule is a country of mixed fortunes. The King-<br />
Modern<br />
has ruled for fourteen years, but his health is failing<br />
Regent<br />
his staggering personal power that has kept the lords<br />
and<br />
Hyrule in line for so long is dwindling. Princess Zelda<br />
of<br />
on the cusp of adulthood, and will have to choose<br />
stands<br />
king at last, which will finally end the careful political<br />
her<br />
her father has been performing. Many whisper that<br />
dance<br />
is too headstrong for her position, swayed by her<br />
she<br />
brother towards nationalism. Will such a queen<br />
youngest<br />
unwilling to sign the Writ? Can Hyrule afford the<br />
prove<br />
that would follow?<br />
wars<br />
threats remain constant. The Pretender Ganon<br />
Arcane<br />
at his prison. Vaati’s return is expected by many, and<br />
rails<br />
inevitable by the pessimistically inclined. More<br />
considered<br />
of twilight, unbreakable without the tear of their<br />
mirrors<br />
undoubtedly remain. Eldritch mists touch the<br />
queen,<br />
of the Great Bay, and peasants whisper of Ghost<br />
shores<br />
plying the moonlit waves. The dragons bark and<br />
Ships<br />
at one another and plan another civil war of their<br />
snarl<br />
The psychically inclined dream of staring yellow eyes<br />
own.<br />
the situation is no better. Signum, Morias and Trajo<br />
Abroad<br />
against each other and seek to expand themselves<br />
plot<br />
new wars. Even these plotters are not safe, for<br />
through<br />
the lords of a southern coast kingdom meet each is<br />
when<br />
to undo the other and take what he has. On the<br />
seeking<br />
border of Hyrule the Shah grows ever older, and<br />
opposite<br />
old followers of Hashem doubt him even as they<br />
the<br />
for his successor. Further afield the tribes of the<br />
prepare<br />
Frontier struggle against goblins and zola to<br />
Green<br />
lands of their own, and beyond the great desert<br />
establish<br />
Xin remain mired in their eternal struggle to pursue the<br />
the<br />
of the Golden Sisters, beset as always by the beasts<br />
wishes<br />
the Howling Wastes.<br />
of<br />
wosu prepare, as always, for war. Another year of<br />
The<br />
is coming for them, and their neighbours must be<br />
battle<br />
Goblins and zola and lizalfos make raids in the dead<br />
ready.<br />
night or ambush in the day, descending silhouetted by<br />
of<br />
noonday sun and screeching their ferocious roars.<br />
the<br />
demon lords as ever make their moves against the<br />
The<br />
Dethl maintains the eternal nightmare of<br />
world.<br />
Bellum makes designs on the lands of Oshus.<br />
Tamaranch.<br />
rebuilds following his devastating defeat. Yuga<br />
Majora<br />
his way into the nobility of the Antiplace. The<br />
insinuates<br />
of Demise stir and plot revenge. Malladus strains<br />
ashes<br />
the chains that bind him to a continent. Onox and<br />
against<br />
other twelve dark dragons stand ready to do the bidding<br />
the<br />
the Calamity, and the Calamity itself... does as it wills.<br />
of<br />
plumb tombs for lost powers. Knights travel the<br />
Delvers<br />
saving the innocent and crushing the villainous.<br />
land,<br />
follow and slay beasts that prey upon men. Hyrule<br />
Hunters<br />
towards tomorrow on the labour of a thousand<br />
spins<br />
virtuous men and women. Now, as ever, Hyrule<br />
thousand<br />
The Present Day<br />
needs heroes.<br />
and deep, cackling laughter.
The Peoples Abundant<br />
Those who walk the lands of Hyrule, the inheritors of the Goddesses, both intended<br />
and non
The Chosen<br />
And the Goddesses looked upon them and said: "You are the chosen. You are the<br />
Courageous, the Brave and the Powerful and you will inherit All Things."
RODE ALONG THE SERRIED<br />
CYLLA<br />
the queen's long black hair trailing<br />
ranks,<br />
her as she passed. In the face of each<br />
behind<br />
she saw the same expression- absolute<br />
man<br />
a desire to do right by her, their homes<br />
resolve,<br />
the Goddesses. Her heart began to stir in<br />
and<br />
chest as she pulled her horse around to<br />
her<br />
them.<br />
address<br />
of Hyrule!" She called out. "This is our war! This is<br />
"Men<br />
time! We are here to bring the light of Hyrule, my light,<br />
our<br />
light, to these dark times and dark lands. We have all<br />
your<br />
much, and I look on each of you and I see these<br />
suffered<br />
few terrible years, but today the course of history<br />
last<br />
back into our favour!"<br />
changes,<br />
drew her sword, and a little sorcerous talent made<br />
Scylla<br />
shine from the leading edge as she held it aloft. “We<br />
light<br />
the heroes! We are the kings and the warriors and the<br />
are<br />
of the goddesses! There is no good above us on this<br />
chosen<br />
and no evil beyond our grasp.”<br />
earth,<br />
cheer was deafening.<br />
The<br />
are the the most common race in the kingdom of<br />
Hylians<br />
A variant of humanity formed during the Nubian<br />
Hyrule.<br />
in the core of the White Empire, Hylians are<br />
Era<br />
by their slender forms, quick minds, and<br />
characterised<br />
pointed ears, through which the Golden Faith claims<br />
long,<br />
can hear the voices of the goddesses. They are a<br />
they<br />
gifted people, arcane in thought and deed, and<br />
magically<br />
naturally talented leaders and scholars. Hylians have<br />
make<br />
an extremely prominent role in history. The great hero<br />
had<br />
a hylian bloodline, as is the incarnation of the goddess<br />
is<br />
from which the race takes its name. The kingdom of<br />
Hylia,<br />
was founded by and primarily for hylians, and<br />
Hyrule<br />
make up most of its population, especially its<br />
hylians<br />
and clergy. There is nowhere in the civilised world<br />
nobility<br />
hylians cannot be found or where they are not<br />
where<br />
welcome.<br />
.<br />
Hylians<br />
S
first Hylians were born of the ancient humans in the<br />
The<br />
Nubian Era. These new children were shorter and<br />
early<br />
than their parents had been, and possessed of<br />
slighter<br />
ears. Their very blood was affected by their<br />
pointed<br />
by the vast magic which had been weaved by<br />
circumstance,<br />
goddess Hylia to bring the survivors of the Great<br />
the<br />
into the sky. This alteration- benign and pleasant<br />
Invasion<br />
it was- had been brought about by continual exposure to<br />
as<br />
goddess and her magics, and gave them their name of<br />
the<br />
literally those of the goddess Hylia.<br />
"Hylians",<br />
the years passed it emerged that the hylians<br />
As<br />
a number of advantages over the previous<br />
possessed<br />
They were faster and wiser than their parents,<br />
generation.<br />
just as stong and resilient. They were also more<br />
and<br />
connected to the magic of the world- by no<br />
inherently<br />
mighty spellcasters, but with a much deeper link to<br />
means<br />
divine, to Hylia and through her to the three Golden<br />
the<br />
Their traits bred true, with hylian mothers<br />
Goddesses.<br />
birthing hylian children- they were a people,<br />
always<br />
and self-replenishing. The hylians considered<br />
continuous<br />
the chosen of their goddess thanks to these<br />
themselves<br />
gifts, and grew haughty with time.<br />
new<br />
was this arrogance which would eventually pit them<br />
It<br />
those humans who had been more seperated from<br />
against<br />
Goddess. Forming the nation of the White Empire<br />
the<br />
their harp banner the hylians made skyborne war<br />
beneath<br />
the Purple Kingdom of the humans... but that is a<br />
against<br />
for another time.<br />
story<br />
the Descent the old islands of the White Empire<br />
After<br />
what is now the heartland of Hyrule. The first<br />
formed<br />
to crown Hylia as queeen of Hyrule were held<br />
conclaves<br />
the old imperial nobles and officers, and they<br />
between<br />
the core of the old nobility. They became the<br />
became<br />
gentry, the officers of the army, the new clergy. This<br />
landed<br />
a tradition which has held through the generations of<br />
is<br />
and which has become ingrained in the Hyrulian<br />
Hyrule,<br />
culture.<br />
are considered formal and cerebral, if not<br />
Hylians<br />
practical. There are things which are not<br />
particularly<br />
for hylians to do, too mucky or too physical, and<br />
appropriate<br />
not appropriate for them to act. Though there are<br />
ways<br />
hylian peasants they are decidedly different to<br />
certainly<br />
types of human- or at least that's how things are<br />
other<br />
percieved.<br />
truth of the matter is that hylians live largely the same<br />
The<br />
humans. They make up the majority of Hyrule's<br />
as<br />
perhaps seventy percent of it, and must turn<br />
population,<br />
hands to practical pursuits ultimately.<br />
their<br />
opinions of humans on this issue is.... complex. Most<br />
The<br />
are content to be ruled by those who are at least<br />
humans<br />
the same as they are, and consider the hylians<br />
mostly<br />
rulers. It would not, however, be wise for a hylian<br />
capable<br />
to push their luck regarding their supposed divine<br />
ruler<br />
providence.<br />
divine magic in hylian blood gives them a number of<br />
The<br />
over other peoples, which are detailed below.<br />
advantages<br />
Score Increase: Your ability scores all increase<br />
Ability<br />
one, except for two of your choice which increase by<br />
by<br />
two.<br />
Hylians mature and age at around the same rate as<br />
Age:<br />
humans, but it is unusual for them to die of old age<br />
normal<br />
the age of one hundred.<br />
before<br />
Alignment: Hylians have completely free will,<br />
Typical<br />
have no strong alignment tendencies.<br />
and<br />
Hylians are slightly shorter and slighter than<br />
Size:<br />
typically being between five and five and a half<br />
humans,<br />
tall and weighing eighty pounds. Your size Medium.<br />
feet<br />
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
of the Goddesses: You know one clerical cantrip<br />
Favour<br />
addition to any other spells you may or may not know.<br />
in<br />
is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip.<br />
Wisdom<br />
the Divine: Hylians have advantage on<br />
Hear<br />
Born of the Divine Sky<br />
Hylian Traits<br />
The Founders of the Kingdom<br />
wisdom(perception) checks based on sound.
they're just humans. Illiterate peasants and salt of<br />
"But<br />
earth farmers. They won't understand the campaign,<br />
the<br />
fathom the reasons we're out here."<br />
won't<br />
that everything you said was ridiculous, it<br />
"Ignoring<br />
matter. They're strong, brave, determined, and you<br />
wouldn't<br />
need decorum to chop off a goblin's head. I'd rather<br />
don't<br />
a dozen humans on my side than a score of hylians or<br />
have<br />
gerudo."<br />
that ever-present umbrella that encompasses all<br />
Humans,<br />
humanity, are the world’s dominant race. Humans are<br />
of<br />
tilling their fields, fighting their wars, raising<br />
everywhere,<br />
children. True humans are, globally, the most<br />
their<br />
subtype of this race, although they are not a<br />
common<br />
in Hyrule itself.<br />
majority<br />
and broader than hylians, and notably shorter<br />
Taller<br />
humans live hard, full lives, most commonly as<br />
lived,<br />
or merchants. They make poor philosophers, but<br />
peasants<br />
are fine farmers and cobblers, and while a nation can<br />
they<br />
for many decades without revolutionary new<br />
survive<br />
it needs a steady supply of food and shoes or it<br />
thoughts<br />
Humans<br />
MAN IS NO OBSTACLE,<br />
but a hundred is a militia, a<br />
thousand is an army, and ten<br />
thousand is a legion. Give me a<br />
legion of humans and I will crush<br />
“ONE<br />
anything you put in front of me.”<br />
will collapse under its own weight in a matter of days.
the days of the Mythic era the ancient humans were<br />
In<br />
and contentious, always fighting amongst<br />
splintered<br />
with no unifying presence to speak of. They<br />
themselves<br />
for gods, for wealth and for safety, but whenever<br />
fought<br />
fought they were brave. They feared little, and what<br />
they<br />
did fear they sought to defeat.<br />
they<br />
was this bravery whichearned humanity the<br />
It<br />
of Farore, the Golden Goddess of Courage and<br />
admiration<br />
progenitor of all life. She appeared to the greatest and<br />
the<br />
courageous human of all, a man named Faron, and<br />
most<br />
to all of humanity saying that they were her chosen<br />
spoke<br />
and Faron was her prophet. With this divine<br />
people<br />
Faron forged the first great human nation, the<br />
mandate<br />
Empire or the Empire of Faron.<br />
Emerald<br />
Emerald Empire of humanity, the Sapphire Empire<br />
The<br />
the zora and the Ruby Empire of the gorons met and<br />
of<br />
up the world- all things below the waterline would<br />
divided<br />
to the zora, all things above the treeline would<br />
belong<br />
to the gorons, and all things between these<br />
belong<br />
would belong to humanity.<br />
extremes<br />
agreement held, and the Emerald empire achieved<br />
This<br />
things with its new allies. There was peace for<br />
great<br />
Imperial Era could not last forever, and met its death<br />
The<br />
the fires of the Great Invasion. For decades humanity<br />
in<br />
to preserve the world, and upon its victory they were<br />
fought<br />
to the heavens, to live safely among the clouds<br />
transported<br />
demon hordes ravaged the earth.<br />
while<br />
was in this new state that the ancient humans began<br />
It<br />
alterations. The children born to them were<br />
experiencing<br />
by the great magics Hylia had wrought to bring the<br />
affected<br />
people to the skies, and were born with subtle<br />
entire<br />
The new children had completely rounded ears,<br />
changes.<br />
the slight points of the ancient humans or the<br />
unlike<br />
points of the then also newly born hylians.<br />
extreme<br />
this was strange and new it was no cause for<br />
Although<br />
and the people accepted it as part of their new<br />
concern,<br />
lives.<br />
the years passed further changes became apparent-<br />
As<br />
new children were taller than their parents had been,<br />
the<br />
also stronger and more resilient. These benefits were<br />
and<br />
offset by a more troubling revelation- the new<br />
eventually<br />
were also shorter lived than previous ones,<br />
generations<br />
a matter of decades earlier. Even humans raised in<br />
dying<br />
healthy environments could rarely expect to exceed<br />
happy,<br />
ninetieth year, and most died of old age before their<br />
their<br />
The new humans became humble and pious and<br />
eightieth.<br />
their old names of humans, seeing themselves as at<br />
kept<br />
merely the continuation of the old empire.<br />
best<br />
the humans learned to travel the sky they<br />
When<br />
the hylians, and were dismayed to find that<br />
encountered<br />
long-eared counterparts had recieved the opposite<br />
their<br />
they were longer-lived, and had become arrogant<br />
changes-<br />
humans had become humble. War came shortly<br />
where<br />
and it was harsh.<br />
afterwards,<br />
that war ended more than a millenium ago, old<br />
Though<br />
between the two main children of the empire do<br />
tensions<br />
flare from time to time, and those flares can and have<br />
still<br />
raging infernos.<br />
become<br />
the Descent came the human-dominant islands<br />
When<br />
on the peripheries of what is now Hyrule. Though<br />
landed<br />
first laws of the new kingdom forbade anyone to see<br />
the<br />
as different or lesser the absence of any humans<br />
humans<br />
the first conclaves also kept them from the first<br />
from<br />
of power.<br />
positions<br />
to this day humans remain something of a peasant<br />
Even<br />
This is not to be derided- they are practical, earthy,<br />
people.<br />
capable, but they are not poets or mages, and certainly<br />
and<br />
nobles.<br />
not<br />
humans accept this position. They live in closeknit<br />
Broadly<br />
but extended families, and work hard at their tasks.<br />
have short lives but make the most of them, and<br />
They<br />
great feats in their limited time. They favour<br />
accomplish<br />
other than Hylia, especially Farore, with much of<br />
deities<br />
population preferring to worship the Great Deku Tree<br />
the<br />
all others. Most Jovians within Hyrule are also human,<br />
over<br />
they have a stronger tendency towards fringe folk<br />
and<br />
biology and upbringing of humans have noted affects<br />
The<br />
their lives, no matter their paths. Humans recieve the<br />
on<br />
Score Increase: Two ability scores of your choice<br />
Ability<br />
by one, and your Charisma, Dexterity,<br />
increase<br />
and Strength scores also increase by one.<br />
Constitution<br />
Humans can walk by the age of three and are<br />
Age:<br />
fully matured in their late teens. They can<br />
considered<br />
to live for around eighty years before their bodies<br />
expect<br />
functioning, although few will reach that age.<br />
cease<br />
Alignment: Humans have completely free will,<br />
Typical<br />
tend towards moderation. Strongly good and evil<br />
but<br />
are rare.<br />
humans<br />
Humans stand at around five and a half to six and a<br />
Size:<br />
feet tall, and weigh around one hundred and twenty<br />
half<br />
Your size is medium.<br />
pounds.<br />
Your walking speed is 30 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Humans may choose one feat at character<br />
Practical:<br />
creation.<br />
The Chosen of Farore<br />
Practical Problems<br />
than any other people.<br />
religions<br />
Human Traits<br />
thousands of years, and all was well.<br />
The Birth of the New Humans<br />
following benefits.
STRETCHED HIS ARM AS FAR<br />
AIR<br />
he could towards the gem below. He<br />
AS<br />
as the blood rushing to his head<br />
winced<br />
to build up to uncomfortable<br />
started<br />
he had been hanging here upside<br />
levelsfor<br />
nearly half an hour. One arm in<br />
down<br />
of and below him, reaching for the<br />
front<br />
and the other went down his front, between his legs<br />
rupee,<br />
grasping the chain that hung from the ceiling, from the<br />
and<br />
series of gears that was gradually moving<br />
slowly-winding<br />
around the room. They'd been carrying him for the last<br />
him<br />
minutes, over the noxious and lethal cloud that<br />
thirty<br />
the floor of the chamber, and now the glittering<br />
covered<br />
rupee was nearly in his grasp.<br />
silver<br />
on, COME ON!<br />
Come<br />
felt himself slip. He snatched outwards, flailing<br />
Nair<br />
for the crystal. His hand closed around its smooth<br />
blindly<br />
He smiled as he fell to the ground, the fog<br />
surface.<br />
Whatever happened next didn't matter. he was<br />
dissipating.<br />
man now.<br />
a<br />
most of the world the sheikah are a completely<br />
To<br />
quantity. Despite appearing identical to hylians<br />
unknown<br />
for their blood-red irises, sheikah live in their own<br />
save<br />
communities, follow their own strange ways, and<br />
little<br />
they are entirely cooperative with outsiders they<br />
while<br />
ever reveal their secrets. They speak their own<br />
never,<br />
preserved amidst the broader culture of<br />
language,<br />
they settle. They live in the cities of others, but<br />
wherever<br />
as little as possible. They are known to be an<br />
mingle<br />
culture, one that follows the Golden Faith in some<br />
ancient<br />
but all details are obscured by deliberate mists of<br />
way,<br />
secrecy.<br />
those mists is the truth of the sheikah. Each and<br />
Behind<br />
member of the people is sworn to the Hyrulian<br />
every<br />
an ancestral pact more than one and a half millenia<br />
throne,<br />
Every sheikah is trained in secretive ways- a spy, a<br />
old.<br />
an assassin. They form a network beneath their<br />
soldier,<br />
church of darkness, a spreading lattice of agents and<br />
own<br />
beneath the ever-watching Sage of Shadow.<br />
contacts<br />
sheikah are more than a people. They are an order.<br />
The<br />
.<br />
Sheikah<br />
N
worship of the six Sages as intermediaries to the<br />
The<br />
Goddesses is not uncommon in Hyrule- many<br />
Golden<br />
for example add prayers to Saria into their normal<br />
humans<br />
routine, and the veneration of Gorko by the<br />
religious<br />
as a living ancestor borders on fanatical. The<br />
gorons<br />
however are different. All sheikah, everywhere, are<br />
sheikah<br />
by the same culture, the same ways and traditions.<br />
bound<br />
by the sage of shadows, whoever that may be, the<br />
Headed<br />
worship their ancestors and through their<br />
sheikah<br />
their single, distant progenitor, the Father of<br />
ancestors<br />
Seeking his approval they subject themselves to<br />
Snakes.<br />
trials, through which they may become greater.<br />
terrible<br />
only the most rudimentary knowledge of their<br />
Taught<br />
faith as children, all sheikah must travel to the city of<br />
own<br />
at some point in their lives, to undertake one of<br />
Kakariko<br />
seven deadly trials that can be found in the secret<br />
the<br />
beneath that city. Each trial is more dangerous<br />
warrens<br />
the last, each after the first is increasingly lethal, and<br />
than<br />
reveals another fresh truth about the red eyed people.<br />
each<br />
the first trial a sheikah can consider themselves an<br />
After<br />
and may fight and drink and act as any grown<br />
adult,<br />
may. After the second they may marry and have<br />
sheikah<br />
having proved their worth to the Sage of Shadow<br />
children,<br />
through her, their ancient ancestor. It is here that most<br />
and,<br />
end their dalliance with subterfuge, returning to<br />
sheikah<br />
which may be mundane or fantastical, but which could<br />
lives<br />
lived by anyone who has not passed the further tests.<br />
be<br />
may be smiths or merchants or soldiers and grow old<br />
They<br />
ever again visiting those terrible catacombs,<br />
without<br />
ever again putting their life on the line to earn the<br />
without<br />
sheikah do return to the trials. They take the further<br />
Other<br />
and become fully inducted into the Church of<br />
tests,<br />
as members of its travelling clergy, a clergy with<br />
Serpents<br />
churches or fixed abode beyond the tunnels of Kakariko.<br />
no<br />
they pass each trial they ascend in the ranks of their<br />
As<br />
from acolyte to Arch-Shadow. Each rank brings with<br />
faith,<br />
new knowledge, secrets long hidden from the wider<br />
it<br />
these secrets bring magical power, either<br />
world,and<br />
from the knowledge or taught by those higher in<br />
gleaned<br />
faith. It is with this knowledge and this magical<br />
the<br />
the clergymen travel Hyrule, guiding their kin<br />
powercthat<br />
the ways of the red-eyed faith.<br />
in<br />
is rare for a non-sheikah to know of the trials or the<br />
It<br />
in anything other than the absolutely broadest terms,<br />
faith<br />
no sheikah would dream of speaking of them or<br />
and<br />
their tongue to a non-sheikah on pain of death or<br />
teaching<br />
The few who know the secrets of the sheikah are<br />
exile.<br />
such as the queen of Hyrule or have extracted the<br />
notables<br />
reason for the extreme measures of the sheikah is<br />
The<br />
and based in a pair of oaths and a deep betrayal,<br />
complex,<br />
the Great Invasion two and a half millenia past, when<br />
In<br />
ground ruptured and horrific demons crawled from the<br />
the<br />
to tear down the kingdoms of man, there was a<br />
depths<br />
human warrior who stood against them. This man's<br />
great<br />
is long forgotten, but he is remembered by his<br />
name<br />
the Father of Snakes, and he was a peerless<br />
honorific,<br />
In time the Father assembled a following of many<br />
assassin.<br />
and women who wished to fight with him, and<br />
men<br />
these followers delved deep into dark, dangerous<br />
together<br />
in order to enhance their abilities. These magics<br />
magics<br />
the blood of these shadow warriors, turning their<br />
tainted<br />
white and their eyes red. Their children bore the same<br />
hair<br />
stigmata, and so did their childrens' children. Thus<br />
arcane<br />
Father of Snakes became the ancestor of all sheikah.<br />
the<br />
Hylia lifted the mortals of the world to the sky it<br />
When<br />
the Father of Snakes and his followers who swore to<br />
was<br />
the seal on the Demon King Demise, and that<br />
maintain<br />
children and grandchildren would uphold this oath.<br />
their<br />
a millenium they held true to their word, never once<br />
For<br />
in their vigil until at last the Hero of the World<br />
wavering<br />
the new Hylia descended from theheavens and slew<br />
and<br />
great evil which the sheikah had been guarding. In<br />
the<br />
the ancient sheikah swore a new oath, a promise of<br />
thanks<br />
to the Hero and his Queen, an oath which they hold<br />
loyalty<br />
to today. The modern sheikah honour, serve,<br />
themselves<br />
protect the royal family, above all things. This is their<br />
and<br />
which all must take.<br />
vow,<br />
has been but one breaking of that oath. At some<br />
There<br />
in Hyrule's early history the sheikah committed a<br />
point<br />
sin which lead to untold death and suffering. Its exact<br />
grave<br />
is not known to any, save the Archshadows and the<br />
nature<br />
herself, but its existence reminds the sheikah to<br />
Sage<br />
themselves and each other, to uphold their promise<br />
watch<br />
any cost.<br />
at<br />
The Binding Trials<br />
favour of the Sage of Shadow.<br />
The Shadowed Clergy<br />
information through less than voluntary means.<br />
Oath Eternal and Shame Forever<br />
all in the distant past.
sheikah are a friendly enough folk, and nobody could<br />
The<br />
them of being unkind as a people, but their<br />
accuse<br />
is something many find suspicious. The sheikah<br />
seperation<br />
be people like any other, but not all appreciate their<br />
may<br />
presence.<br />
Hyrulians distrust the sheikah, making their own<br />
Many<br />
signs when they see the red-eyed humans scuttling<br />
warding<br />
their cities. Few could argue that they are any real<br />
through<br />
sheikah can be relied on absolutely, and they are<br />
threatfollowers<br />
of the royal family for sure- but there is<br />
loyal<br />
that niggling doubt.<br />
always<br />
Hyrule the fate of sheikah can be much worse.<br />
Beyond<br />
no real loyalty to foreign crowns, crowns which<br />
With<br />
oaths say must be disobeyed if they ever go against<br />
sheikah<br />
sheikah can be considered treacherous and often<br />
Hyrule,<br />
unpopular. Their population beyond Hyrule remains<br />
deeply<br />
as a result, and they are unwelcome in many cities<br />
small<br />
towns beyond Hyrule's borders.<br />
and<br />
have every reason any mortal has to become an<br />
Sheikah<br />
money, fame, an escape from a dull life or an<br />
adventurer-<br />
of rebellion against another. On top of this all sheikah<br />
act<br />
trained as elusive spies and assassins, skills which will<br />
are<br />
any adventurer well on their travels.<br />
serve<br />
make fine warriors and magicians of all stripes.<br />
Sheikah<br />
may serve in any faith, although they must also<br />
Sheikah<br />
true to their own ways, and may be clerics for any<br />
remain<br />
The Church of Snakes also has its own clergy, of<br />
deity.<br />
but many of its members would be best expressed<br />
course,<br />
paladins, or even warlocks should Purah see fit to grant<br />
as<br />
some of the power she has available from her<br />
them<br />
magics in the sheikah bloodlines and the training they<br />
The<br />
in order to pass their trials set them up well for the<br />
recieve<br />
of an adventurer. All sheikah characters recieve the<br />
life<br />
adjustments to their profile.<br />
following<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases<br />
Ability<br />
two and your Intelligence score increases by one.<br />
by<br />
Sheikah age identically to Humans, but can live for<br />
Age:<br />
and a half centuries before death.<br />
one<br />
Alignment: Sheikah have completely free will,<br />
Typical<br />
tend towards the extremes of good and evil. Evil<br />
but<br />
are rare, but often exceptionally dangerous.<br />
sheikah<br />
Sheikah are built identically to hylians. Your size is<br />
Size:<br />
medium.<br />
Your walking speed is 35 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Trials: Sheikah characters gain proficiency in<br />
The<br />
blowpipes, shortswords and hand crossbows, as<br />
daggers,<br />
as the dexterity skills of stealth, acrobatics, and sleight<br />
well<br />
hand. of<br />
Sheikah have darkvision to a range of sixty feet.<br />
Senses:<br />
You can speak, read and write Hyrulian and<br />
Languages:<br />
Darkness Breeds Suspicion<br />
Roaming Darkness<br />
Sagehood.<br />
Sheikah Traits<br />
Serpentine.
all the world there is no place quite like the Shahdom,<br />
In<br />
no people quite like the gerudo. Superficially<br />
and<br />
similar to hylians save for their vividly golden<br />
appearing<br />
the gerudo are an all-female race of humans hailing<br />
eyes,<br />
the deserts west of Hyrule of Hyrule, bound by an<br />
from<br />
curse born from their ancestors' treachery. They<br />
ancient<br />
in an incredibly strict caste system, in which the<br />
live<br />
of your birth determines your entire life. It is a<br />
manner<br />
where people can be sold like cattle, and witchcraftthe<br />
place<br />
act of liaising with demons for power- is commonplace.<br />
gerudo are all women, with one exception being born<br />
The<br />
every one hundred years. The one man is crowned<br />
roughly<br />
once he comes of age, and every gerudo woman at<br />
king<br />
time is considered his wife. The gerudo society is<br />
that<br />
stratified into castes based on the distance of their<br />
strictly<br />
to the king.<br />
relations<br />
daughters of a king- any king- are the highest cate,<br />
The<br />
priestesses. They are caste of scholars and mages and,<br />
the<br />
clergywomen. They are the governors of the<br />
indeed,<br />
and its leaders, who direct the nation in all<br />
Shahdom,<br />
Gerudo<br />
Ten Thousand Daughters<br />
things.
daughters of priestesses are high warriors, the elite<br />
The<br />
and generals of the shahdom, and their daughters<br />
forces<br />
in turn the low warriors, the soldiers of the nation. The<br />
are<br />
castes provide security and law in times of peace<br />
warrior<br />
are the only ones who may possess weapons when the<br />
and<br />
is not directly at war.<br />
Shahdom<br />
children of low warriors are, unless they are<br />
The<br />
of the priestess class through having the King as<br />
members<br />
father, no longer gerudo. Instead they are hegrud, halfgerudo,<br />
their<br />
and form a caste of artisans and other skilled<br />
The hegrud lack the golden eyes of gerudo in<br />
workers.<br />
(but not all) cases, and the children of hegrud are<br />
most<br />
to also be hegrud. Hegrud can be male or<br />
considered<br />
but males are considered lesser and can never<br />
female,<br />
women.<br />
command<br />
there are the slaves, the untouchables, the lowest<br />
Finally<br />
of society. Slaves have no gerudo blood by their very<br />
caste<br />
and no rights beyond those their mistresses<br />
definition<br />
to give them. Some gerudo treat their slaves<br />
choose<br />
well, as household slaves in the old imperial<br />
comparatively<br />
but others own hordes of undesirables in a form of<br />
way,<br />
slavery, mining or farming until death. The worst<br />
chattel<br />
to await slaves and captives however is that of mindcutting,<br />
fate<br />
also known as Cleaving, using witchcraft to open<br />
slave's brain, mind and soul in order to remove<br />
the<br />
aspects of all three and making obedient, tireless<br />
unwanted<br />
Cleaving is frowned upon by many, but as with<br />
servants.<br />
activities of the Priestess caste it is not explicitly<br />
most<br />
gerudo Shahdom- named for the Shah, the title of the<br />
The<br />
who rules it- is an extremely wealthy nation<br />
man<br />
its comparatively low population. The gerudo<br />
considering<br />
is the overland pass to many distant lands almost<br />
desert<br />
in Hyrule. The Transvin kingdoms, the Yindus<br />
mythical<br />
and the mighty Xin empire can all be reached<br />
peninsular,<br />
a sandship which wishes to brave the deep desert. The<br />
by<br />
is the gateway to and from these places, and it<br />
Shahdom<br />
a constant and lucrative trade, exchanging the goods<br />
does<br />
Hyrule and its neighbouring kingdoms for those of<br />
of<br />
lands. Spices, silk and tea flow one way, and in<br />
distant<br />
flows tallow and iron and worked glass, all meeting<br />
return<br />
the markets of the Shahdom which buzz with a hundred<br />
in<br />
languages.<br />
clamouring<br />
Shahdom also grows rich from raiding, although<br />
The<br />
this is far from sanctioned. Gerudo pirates<br />
officially<br />
sporadic outposts on the west coast of lake Hylia<br />
maintain<br />
their own eastern border, and periodically send raiding<br />
and<br />
across the borders of Sarios, Arcadia and Hyrule<br />
parties<br />
The outer territoties of the darknut citadels and the<br />
itself.<br />
of the Green Frontier also often find themselves<br />
kingdoms<br />
attack, masked women on horseback striking farms<br />
under<br />
the dead of night before vanishing into the dark<br />
in<br />
times of peace the Shahdom is a hub of culture and<br />
In<br />
producing some of the world's most beautiful<br />
artistry,<br />
and works, as well as being at the forefront of<br />
structures<br />
arcane fields- demonology is not forbidden in the<br />
many<br />
meaning that the gerudo are one of the few<br />
Shahdom,<br />
who truly appreciate the nature of the monsters<br />
peoples<br />
lie below the world. It is also a land with a deep<br />
which<br />
with many ancient and vast structures of the<br />
history,<br />
and mythic era rising from the sands of the desert.<br />
imperial<br />
Shahdom is both a great partner and terrible rival to<br />
The<br />
The two nations have a difficult but working<br />
Hyrule.<br />
and the future between them is always<br />
relationship,<br />
suspect.<br />
hundred years ago the Sage of Spirit, Gerus, took<br />
Fifteen<br />
family and followers deep into the desert to the west of<br />
his<br />
This clan of followers grew and grew, developing a<br />
Hyrule.<br />
presence and culture of its own in the depths of the<br />
unique<br />
Over time the name of the tribe changed, corrupting<br />
desert.<br />
contracting to become "gerudo", meaning children of<br />
and<br />
in an extremely roundabout way.<br />
Gerus<br />
gerudo's seperation from Hyrule only grew over the<br />
The<br />
This came to a head when, five centuries after Gerus<br />
years.<br />
for the desert, Hyrule was split by a great civil war<br />
left<br />
as the Scrambling. This was a titanic, truly tragic<br />
known<br />
which would have impacts throughout the rest of<br />
conflict<br />
in which dozens of independent factions vied to<br />
history,<br />
the omnipotent power of the Triforce. The mortal<br />
seize<br />
of the Gerus tribe saw this as an opportunity, and on<br />
king<br />
orders a pair of twin witches were used to form a<br />
his<br />
with an eldritch entity known only as Bagamanah.<br />
covenant<br />
covenant of witchcraft would be formed on behalf of<br />
This<br />
entire tribe, and the entity gave the tribe great power in<br />
the<br />
for its worship.<br />
exchange<br />
the Sage of Spirit heard of this he returned to his<br />
When<br />
to dissuade them from their dark path, but he<br />
descendants<br />
ignored and eventually slain by the twin witches, once<br />
was<br />
on the order of the king. The gerudo went on to<br />
again<br />
in the scrambling, and though they fought fiercely<br />
compete<br />
were ultimately unsuccessful in claiming the Triforce.<br />
they<br />
to their desert to lick their wounds the gerudo<br />
Returning<br />
accused Bagamanah of failing the gerudo. This sent<br />
king<br />
sand goddes into a terribe rage, causing her to place<br />
the<br />
blood curse of the gerudo. This curse meant that the<br />
the<br />
a people obsessed with their lineage and birthrightwould<br />
gerudoonly<br />
have one man born to them every century, and<br />
through the will of Bagamanah would he be born at all.<br />
only<br />
this way Bagamanah ensured the future subservience<br />
In<br />
the gerudo, a subservience which continues to this day.<br />
of<br />
modern gerudo faith may be bizarre to outsiders,<br />
The<br />
as it does around scraps of old religions and the<br />
revolving<br />
faith, but it is still a religion venerating Bagamanah<br />
Jovian<br />
The Blood Curse<br />
illegal.<br />
The Jewel of the Desert<br />
at its core.
have a tendency towards distant, elegant-sounding<br />
Gerudo<br />
Obviously all gerudo names are female. The names<br />
names.<br />
hegrud are usually the same as the names of gerudo but<br />
of<br />
a hard consonant (such as an d or k) affixed to the end<br />
with<br />
denote masculinity.<br />
to<br />
female names: Alina, Anahita, Ariana, Atusa,<br />
Gerudo<br />
Bita, Daria, Fariba, Farzaneh, Fereshteh, Hana,<br />
Azadeh,<br />
Khorshid, Kira, Mahd-i, Mahnoosh, Mahshid,<br />
Hayat,<br />
Maryam, Marzieh, Mozhgan, Nadia, Nargess,<br />
Mahtab,<br />
Nazanin, Negar, Negin, Nika, Niloufar, Nina, Parisa,<br />
Nasrin,<br />
Roya, Rudaba, Sanaz, Sareh, Sepideh, Setareh,<br />
Roshanak,<br />
Shantia, Shohreh, Sima, Simin, Sindukht, Soraya,<br />
Shai,<br />
Tahmina, Tala, Taraneh, Ulya, Wafaa, Yasmin,<br />
Susan,<br />
Zohreh<br />
innate magic and living conditions of the gerudo have<br />
The<br />
them to deviate markedly from other hylians. These<br />
caused<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity and Charisma<br />
Ability<br />
increase by one.<br />
scores<br />
Gerudo age identically to hylians, although male<br />
Age:<br />
remain in good health until the day they die.<br />
gerudo<br />
Alignment: Gerudo are free willed and<br />
Typical<br />
but their society in which slaves are common<br />
intelligent,<br />
them towards evil. More senior gerudo tend to be<br />
tends<br />
chaotically inclined.<br />
more<br />
Gerudo are built identically to hylians. Your size is<br />
Size:<br />
medium.<br />
Your base walking speed is 40 feet (if a Warrior<br />
Speed:<br />
gerudo) or 35 feet (if a hegrud or Priestess Caste<br />
Caste<br />
gerudo).<br />
to One: Gerudo have advantage on saving<br />
Cursed<br />
and skill checks to resist mental effects (such as<br />
throws<br />
charms and fear, but not paralysing effects) and<br />
sleep,<br />
illusions, unless the effects or illusions are being<br />
discern<br />
by the power of Bagamanah.<br />
produced<br />
Score Increase: Your Charisma score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
one.<br />
Scholars: You know one warlock cantrip in<br />
Arcane<br />
to any other spells you may or may not know.<br />
addition<br />
is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip. You<br />
Charisma<br />
not choose the Eldritch Blast cantrip with this feature.<br />
may<br />
and Wisdom: You have proficiency in the<br />
Guidance<br />
(History) and (Arcana) skills.<br />
Intelligence(Religion),<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
one.<br />
Training: You are proficient with light armour,<br />
Warrior<br />
bows and crossbows, slings, daggers, shortswords,<br />
all<br />
and the scimitar.<br />
glaives,<br />
You have proficiency in the<br />
Cavalrywoman:<br />
Score Increase: Two different ability scores of your<br />
Ability<br />
other than Charisma or Dexterity, increase by one.<br />
choice,<br />
of the Curse: Hegrud receive a +1 modifier<br />
Remnants<br />
saving throws and skill checks to resist mental effects<br />
on<br />
as sleep. charm and fear, but not paralysing effects)<br />
(such<br />
discern illusions, and increase their passive perception<br />
and<br />
one point for this purpose. They do not benefit from<br />
by<br />
to One.<br />
Cursed<br />
Caste: You gain proficiency with any one type of<br />
Artisan<br />
tools, and any two skills or tools.<br />
artisans’<br />
Names<br />
Warrior Caste<br />
Handling) skill.<br />
Wisdom(Animal<br />
Hegrud<br />
Expies make life easier.<br />
When in doubt, gerudo names and titles should<br />
be persian, preferably ancient. Cultural affects<br />
from the area also work well.<br />
Bagamanah and her religion are deliberately<br />
vague and entirely up to the DM, as all things are.<br />
However it would be most fitting to base her off<br />
Ahura Mazda, the deity of the Zoroastrian faith.<br />
She is not intended to be islamic in nature- that<br />
is instead the purview of Jovianism.<br />
Gerudo Traits<br />
traits affect gerudo characters, and are detailed here.<br />
A note on Half-Breeds<br />
Although there are a great many sentient races in<br />
Hyrule almost none are interfertile. No race can<br />
have children with another- a zora and human<br />
cannot ever concieve a child no matter the love<br />
they feel any more than a bear could mate with a<br />
shark. Different types of goblin also cannot<br />
interbreed, and nor can zora and zola.<br />
The only case of interfertility is the various<br />
clades of humanity, who are fully interfertile.<br />
Gerudo, hylians, sheikah and humans can all<br />
interbreed easily, with the child produced being<br />
wholly of the same race as its mother.<br />
The hegrud are a s;oght alteration to this rule.<br />
The child of a low warrior gerudo will always be a<br />
hegrud. After this hiccup normalcy reasserts<br />
itself- the children of female hegrud will in turn<br />
also be hegrud, and the children of male hegrud<br />
will inherit the race of their mother.<br />
The only exception to these rules is that the<br />
child of a male gerudo will always be a full<br />
gerudo of the priestess caste. The king renews<br />
the curse, bringing the touch of bagamanah to<br />
the child and completely dictating the child's<br />
nature.<br />
You must pick one of the subraces below.<br />
Subrace:<br />
Priestess Caste
is nothing quite like a goron. Not fish nor fowl nor<br />
There<br />
red herring, a goron is a rocky humanoid, eight foot<br />
good<br />
and nearly as wide. His flesh made of stone and his<br />
tall<br />
of crystal. He eats rocks instead of meat and plants,<br />
eyes<br />
doesn’t require air or water. He wades through lava<br />
and<br />
like a man might swim a river, but sinks in water like<br />
floes<br />
stone he is. He lives an odd life, without family ties or<br />
the<br />
of his own, being but a cog in a vast<br />
possessions<br />
of brothers, eking out a living from the harsh<br />
community<br />
mountains of his homeland.<br />
volcanic<br />
and often even beloved in Hyrule, the<br />
Accepted<br />
strong gorons have been close allies of<br />
impossibly<br />
for millenia, for all their strange little quirks.<br />
humanity<br />
are friends to most, and there is nowhere they are not<br />
They<br />
.<br />
Gorons<br />
G<br />
Quote Goes Here<br />
oron<br />
welcome.
stated, gorons do not have anything resembling a<br />
As<br />
anatomy. There are no female gorons, nor<br />
conventional<br />
ones. The rocky spines that sprout from a goron’s<br />
male<br />
grow over its life until they fall to the ground, burrow<br />
back<br />
the bedrock, and begin the long progress of digesting it<br />
into<br />
form a new goron.<br />
to<br />
do not see the world conventionally either- their<br />
Gorons<br />
receive sound and impact from the world around<br />
eyes<br />
letting them see without even the tiniest slivers of<br />
them,<br />
They can drink lava as sport, but grow slow and<br />
light.<br />
in cold weather. Their teeth are impervious<br />
sedentary<br />
and can grind even solid granite into dust for<br />
crystal,<br />
Their skin is stone, their nerves are silicon,<br />
consumption.<br />
their blood is a thick, grainy gel.<br />
and<br />
rocks as they do and having no real biology a<br />
Eating<br />
would recognise, gorons are incredibly resilient.<br />
human<br />
cannot be harmed with mere heat, and do not<br />
They<br />
with age, only grow. As he ends his first century of<br />
degrade<br />
a goron will be considered an adult, and stand a little<br />
life<br />
than a human. At the end of his fifth century he will<br />
taller<br />
more than twice this height, and have accrued a wealth<br />
be<br />
experience he will use to guide his kin. He will also grow<br />
of<br />
more lethargic, until he reaches around a millenium of<br />
ever<br />
At this point he will be as tall and broad as a castle,<br />
age.<br />
barely willing to move, instead content to sit and wait<br />
and<br />
merge with the very rock itself, returning to one-ness<br />
to<br />
the bones of the world.<br />
with<br />
is for these reasons that gorons have historically<br />
It<br />
been friends of humanity- once one surmounts their<br />
always<br />
fear of such physically imposing creature one finds<br />
natural<br />
to recommend about gorons. They do not compete<br />
much<br />
humans for land or food, and make strong, tireless<br />
with<br />
Without a traditional family structure gorons form<br />
workers.<br />
bonds easily, making them loyal friends and staunch<br />
strong<br />
Cynics and the generally impious have long noted<br />
allies.<br />
perhaps it is no coincidence that the “chosen” races of<br />
that<br />
and zora have long cooperated so well with<br />
gorons<br />
and question whether the choice truly predated<br />
humanity,<br />
cooperation as opposed to just being a justification of<br />
that<br />
it.<br />
the modern day the gorons possess a bare fraction of<br />
In<br />
former strength, but are still a formidable and<br />
their<br />
people. In the craggy heights and cavernous<br />
memorable<br />
of the volcanic Eldin range north of Hyrule the<br />
depths<br />
have carved their own kingdom, a communal<br />
gorons<br />
in a truly inhospitable place. It is a place in which<br />
society<br />
are welcome but few other than the gorons would ever<br />
all<br />
to stay, where smoke fills the scorching air and little<br />
want<br />
could ever hope to grow.<br />
nature<br />
travel often into the lowlands to work as miners<br />
Gorons<br />
farmers or traders, and can be found throughout the<br />
or<br />
and uncivilised world. There are few places a<br />
civilised<br />
is not welcome- even goblins and zola feel little ill<br />
goron<br />
towards the gorons, as the gorons are very difficult to<br />
will<br />
or rob- and the stone men of Din take full advantage of<br />
eat<br />
fact, making their way across the world to any home<br />
this<br />
the gorons, history begins many millennia before the<br />
To<br />
of humanity. The gorons believe they arose from the<br />
rise<br />
magma that flowed across the world and slowly<br />
primordial<br />
their own civilisation, the only creatures on the<br />
built<br />
surface. Their songs tell of how the world cooled,<br />
world’s<br />
how plants and animals arose across the world.<br />
and<br />
millennia upon millennia the gorons bore the weight<br />
For<br />
sentience alone, the sole intelligent race in existence.<br />
of<br />
grew lazy and fat in their luxurious world, and so the<br />
They<br />
Goddess of Power and Fire, Din, sent them a test.<br />
Golden<br />
gorons were beset by terrifying new creatures for ten<br />
The<br />
years- a war against goron-hunting monstrosities,<br />
thousand<br />
dodongos and nejiron and worse. This was the Iron<br />
against<br />
war, and it was fought for the very survival of the<br />
Dawn<br />
as a people.<br />
gorons<br />
the end the gorons were triumphant, and Din<br />
In<br />
to Eldin, the strongest of their people, to reward<br />
appeared<br />
with her favour. With her love binding them the gorons<br />
him<br />
a glorious empire, unifying themselves under Eldin’s<br />
forged<br />
They discovered other intelligent creatures- first the<br />
flag.<br />
dragons, but later they were blessed by the<br />
mighty<br />
of the zora and eventually humanity.<br />
appearance<br />
gorons led the world in the ways of artifice and<br />
The<br />
enjoying millennia of peace with their new<br />
civilisation,<br />
until eventually war came to them once again. First a<br />
allies<br />
with the zora came to divide them, and then the Great<br />
war<br />
of demons laid the world low. Although the gorons<br />
Invasion<br />
much of their great civilisation they fought without<br />
lost<br />
or retreat, and were rewarded with their<br />
compromise<br />
once again.<br />
survival<br />
Men of Stone<br />
Chosen of Din<br />
Communes of Fire<br />
that will accept them.
utterly alien as they are there are many aspects to a<br />
Being<br />
which would be worth noting for an adventurer.<br />
goron<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength and Constitution<br />
Ability<br />
increase by two.<br />
scores<br />
Gorons are “born” aware and intelligent. As they<br />
Age:<br />
gorons get larger, slower, and more lethargic. They are<br />
age<br />
physically capable and coordinated by the end<br />
considered<br />
their first century, and it is at this age thatt most gorons<br />
of<br />
to experience the world. After five centuries they will<br />
seek<br />
considered "fathers", the largest and most powerful<br />
be<br />
gorons. A goron ending their first millennia will still<br />
active<br />
alive and healthy, but almost completely nonresponsive<br />
be<br />
will soon simply choose to stop moving.<br />
and<br />
Alignment: Gorons tend to be staid, communal<br />
Typical<br />
traditional, and so tend towards a lawful alignment.<br />
and<br />
Your walking speed is 20 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Gorons are made of stone, and do not need<br />
Monolithic:<br />
sleep (and cannot be forced to), breathe, or drink. They<br />
to<br />
however need to eat rocks as other races eat food, and<br />
do<br />
fatuigue as normal.<br />
accrue<br />
Biology: Gorons are immune to poison<br />
Lithovoric<br />
and the poisoned condition. A goron's AC is<br />
damage<br />
increased by one at all times.<br />
permanently<br />
Gorons gain fatigue at half the normal<br />
Endothermic:<br />
in warm environments (such as volcanic reaches and<br />
rate<br />
but twice the normal rate in cold environments<br />
deserts)<br />
as tundra or mountaintops). Gorons who choose to<br />
(such<br />
immune to cold damage at character creation have this<br />
be<br />
reversed.<br />
trait<br />
Most gorons are made of stone with<br />
Fireborn/Iceborn:<br />
of gelatinous sand, but some few are of a more<br />
blood<br />
frosty nature. Gorons are immune to either fire<br />
crystalline,<br />
cold damage, but vulnerable to the other damage type.<br />
or<br />
Gorons see through refracted sound. They have<br />
Senses:<br />
normal sight, accurate blindsight to a range of thirty<br />
no<br />
and perceive the world beyond this range only as a<br />
feet,<br />
of dim, indistinct shapes, which should frequently<br />
series<br />
disadvantage to many types of rolls. If a goron is<br />
give<br />
it is also blinded, and they cannot see through<br />
deafened<br />
silence.<br />
magical<br />
of Arm: Gorons have double the normal<br />
Strong<br />
capacity.<br />
carrying<br />
Group: Pick one of the growth groups<br />
Growth<br />
to repesent your age.<br />
below<br />
Sons are the youngest fully mobile gorons, and are<br />
Size:<br />
between three and six feet tall. You weigh around<br />
anywhere<br />
Brothers are generally anywhere between six and ten<br />
Size:<br />
tall, and roughly as broad. You weigh around 700<br />
feet<br />
and your size is large.<br />
pounds,<br />
You have disadvantage on all dexterity saving<br />
Oaf:<br />
Fathers are the oldest gorons still active, generally<br />
Size:<br />
to fifteen feet tall, and roughly as broad. You weigh<br />
ten<br />
6,000 pounds, and your size is huge.<br />
around<br />
Curse of Lethargy: You have automatically fail all<br />
The<br />
saving throws and skill rolls, and go last in the<br />
dexterity<br />
order. Your AC is permanently decreased by two<br />
initiative<br />
points.<br />
Skin: You may take the Tough feat for free.<br />
Thickened<br />
Goron Traits<br />
Growth Groups<br />
Son<br />
pounds and your size is medium.<br />
400<br />
Brother<br />
These aspects are detailed here.<br />
and skill rolls, including initiative rolls.<br />
throws<br />
Father<br />
The Price of Eternity<br />
Gorons are long-lived to the point of functional<br />
immortality, but their lethargy eventually proves<br />
lethal as they merge with the ground around<br />
them. This fate can be avoided by repeatedly<br />
removing a goron’s outer layers to keep it small<br />
and responsive, but this has disastrous effects on<br />
the goron’s physical ability.
audience, his fins bristling and gills<br />
the<br />
in excitement as he recited his<br />
trembling<br />
His voice was clear and bright, and<br />
verse.<br />
out across the amphitheatre and<br />
rang<br />
to the surface above. "For where is<br />
stretched<br />
heart in the body? The core of the body,<br />
the<br />
the lungs? A foolish notion says I, for it cannot be<br />
betwixt<br />
such a great component of my soul has such earthly<br />
that<br />
form.<br />
our hearts are ethereal, ephemeral, the core of<br />
""Instead<br />
soul and beyond. They are our virtue and our hopes.<br />
the<br />
it not Lanayru himself who said, 'the heart is the seed<br />
Was<br />
which the spirit grows eternally, an absolute core<br />
from<br />
which all reality springs..."<br />
from<br />
soliloquy went on for nearly ten minutes, but the<br />
The<br />
ovation nearly matched it.<br />
standing<br />
the surface of Hyrule’s many waters swim the<br />
Beneath<br />
A more graceful and wise people you could never<br />
zora.<br />
to meet, but also possessed of an indefinable sadness<br />
hope<br />
sense of loss. To many in Hyrule the zora are cursed to<br />
and<br />
fortune- certainly this would explain the many disasters<br />
ill<br />
have befallen them as a people.<br />
that<br />
are an odd people, seperate from the surface<br />
They<br />
but not completely apart from them, a piscine race<br />
dwellers<br />
a mammalian world. They have their own customs, land,<br />
in<br />
bizarre biological processes, but while many find the<br />
and<br />
strange and unnerving they are still ultimately people,<br />
zora<br />
possess every quirk and flaw that any people do.<br />
and<br />
and lithe, there is something unspeakably alluring<br />
Tall<br />
the zora. Humanoid for certain with finely scaled<br />
about<br />
that nearly glows from within, perhaps with an<br />
skin<br />
shimmer or a soft pastel hue. Hairless by nature,<br />
iridescent<br />
tails or tendrils falling from their scalp in an<br />
with<br />
of the appearance of other races.<br />
emulation<br />
eyes vary wildly in design, from unusually colourful<br />
Their<br />
eyes to solid black orbs from which no pupils can<br />
human<br />
discerned. On their limbs grow fins and on their necks<br />
be<br />
allowing them to swim at incredible speeds beneath<br />
gills,<br />
water’s surface.<br />
the<br />
are a beautiful and serene people, and one never<br />
They<br />
Zora<br />
TSULITS CAST AN ARM OUT TOWARD<br />
People of the Second Sphere<br />
truly gets accustomed to their presence.
zora can be found in moderate numbers across<br />
Although<br />
and the world the majority of the race lives in The<br />
Hyrule<br />
a small, semi-independent nation in the Snowpeak<br />
Domain,<br />
northwest of Hyrule. A series of interconnected<br />
mountains<br />
rivers and glaciers, the Domain’s location gives the<br />
lakes,<br />
both a tremendous power and a great responsibility-<br />
zora<br />
of the water in Hyrule flows from its lakes, and if it<br />
most<br />
to fall to an invading force the results could be<br />
were<br />
disastrous.<br />
zora are ruled by a king or queen, a position passed<br />
The<br />
by the judgment of the ruler. A zora monarch is rarely a<br />
on<br />
of their predecessor, and is instead chosen<br />
descendant<br />
the population based on their skills in crucial fields of<br />
from<br />
governance such as poetry, sculpture and their<br />
national<br />
of classical zora philosophy. In theory these<br />
knowledge<br />
are completely independent of Hyrule- in<br />
monarchs<br />
the depth of the alliance the two nations share and<br />
practice<br />
level of power disparity between them means that the<br />
the<br />
rarely refuse the requests of the Hyrulian crown. It is<br />
zora<br />
likely that they would be unable to resist even if they<br />
also<br />
to their own legends the zora arose in the deep<br />
According<br />
many years before humanity, a naturally formed<br />
oceans<br />
watched and fostered by the Golden Goddess of<br />
race<br />
and water, Nayru. In them she nurtured<br />
wisdom<br />
which culminated in the creation of a beautiful<br />
intelligence,<br />
by the primitive zora, something so complex and<br />
artwork<br />
that it could not be remembered or explained.<br />
wonderful<br />
with pride and awe, Nayru chose the zora as<br />
Overcome<br />
favoured people, appearing to the wisest of them all, the<br />
her<br />
artist Lanayru. Bound by Lanayru’s vision the<br />
venerable<br />
united beneath him, praising Nayru as their deity<br />
zora<br />
all others. This utopia lasted for several centuries<br />
above<br />
what is known as the deep war.<br />
until<br />
day, without warning or reason, the ground of the<br />
One<br />
floor cracked asunder. From the trenches beneath<br />
ocean<br />
waves came the zola, a horrifying abomination of the<br />
the<br />
who tore the zora empire to dust. For millenia the<br />
zora,<br />
struggled as primitive savages until Nayru sent them<br />
zora<br />
greatest gift- the Leviathans. Colossal aquatic creatures<br />
her<br />
staggering intelligence, the leviathans forced the zola<br />
of<br />
and allowed the zora to rebuild their former glory.<br />
back<br />
time the zola were driven out of the ocean and into<br />
In<br />
and onto the land, and the zora declared their<br />
freshwater<br />
empire, venerating the Leviathans alongside Nayru<br />
new<br />
Although it was beset by many woes, not least a<br />
herself.<br />
apocalyptic war with the gorons, the new zora<br />
seemingly<br />
lasted for centuries until being torn once again in<br />
empire<br />
Great Invasion.<br />
the<br />
Invasion was hard on the Sapphire Empire of<br />
The<br />
Much of the zora race was slain as their empire<br />
Lanayru.<br />
and indeed they suffered worse than any others at the<br />
fell,<br />
of the demons. Even today the zora hate the demon<br />
hands<br />
Bellum above all other things, and his existence<br />
prince<br />
the strongest base for their current divide with the<br />
forms<br />
zola.<br />
zora have never recovered their old glory. The Deep<br />
The<br />
the Stone War, the Great Invasion, the Scrambling,<br />
War,<br />
Civil War, the Nihil War- each of these hit the zora hard,<br />
the<br />
they remain weakened. Nevertheless the zora retain a<br />
and<br />
belief in their own qualities, and hope for what the<br />
great<br />
race of fish people is strange, even in Hyrule, and this<br />
A<br />
translates into changes which would be<br />
strangeness<br />
Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
and your Charisma score increases by one.<br />
two,<br />
Zoras mature rapidly but strangely- they are born as<br />
Age:<br />
which can swim from the moment they hatch, and<br />
tadpoles<br />
the age of three have undergone a kind of<br />
by<br />
to produce legs. They are considered<br />
metamorphosis<br />
by eight, and venerable by fifty, but can live in this<br />
mature<br />
state well into their second century, during which<br />
venerable<br />
grow rotund and slovenly.<br />
they<br />
Alignment: Zora tend to be free- willed and<br />
Typical<br />
if poorly organised and disparate, and so tend<br />
independent,<br />
chaotic alignments.<br />
towards<br />
Zora are tall and humanoid, but very slight and<br />
Size:<br />
typically being between six and six and a half feet<br />
slender,<br />
and weighing eighty pounds. Your size Medium.<br />
tall<br />
Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Your base<br />
Speed:<br />
speed is sixty feet.<br />
swimming<br />
Zora can be frozen solid with no ill effects,<br />
Cryostasis:<br />
are still vulnerable to snap freezing. Zora are resistant<br />
but<br />
cold damage, and become sapped for one hour whenever<br />
to<br />
take cold damage or are exposed to cold weather.<br />
they<br />
sapped a zora is immune to cold damage and the<br />
While<br />
of cold weather, and can be frozen alive without<br />
effects<br />
Their dexterity is also reduced by two points for<br />
penalty.<br />
duration.<br />
the<br />
Zora have a natural ability to produce<br />
Bioelectricity:<br />
Zora are resistant to lightning damage. As an<br />
electricity.<br />
they can discharge their bioelectric pouches- all<br />
action<br />
within ten feet (or twenty feet if you and they are<br />
creatures<br />
must pass a dexterity save, with a DC equal to<br />
underwater)<br />
plus your proficiency bonus plus your Constitution<br />
eight<br />
or take d6 lightning damage. This ability’s damage<br />
bonus,<br />
by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level<br />
increases<br />
and 17th level (4d6).<br />
(3d6),<br />
Zora can breathe underwater. They must drink<br />
Aquatic:<br />
as much as a land based creature and cannot benefit<br />
twice<br />
a long rest without access to enough water to wash<br />
from<br />
themselves.<br />
of the sea folk...: Zora are vulnerable to fire<br />
Each<br />
but resistant to lightning damage.<br />
damage,<br />
The Domain<br />
Zora Traits<br />
experienced by zora characters.<br />
to, although history has many notable exceptions.<br />
wished<br />
Legacy of Loss<br />
future will bring.
The Barbarous<br />
The fire of life burns in us, bright even when unbidden by you and yours, beyond the<br />
sight of law and order and regimented life. There, on the edges of the world, you will<br />
find us, waiting.
the dawn of time the goblin tribes have been the<br />
Since<br />
rivals of humanity. Since aeons immemorial they<br />
greatest<br />
contested mankind's control of the land, raiding<br />
have<br />
settlements and taking whatever can be found.<br />
human<br />
are a slightly animalistic people, possessed of a<br />
Goblins<br />
culture with an intricate heirarchy of peoples.<br />
complex<br />
speak their own language, and worship their own<br />
They<br />
Long since pushed to the edges of the habitable<br />
gods.<br />
goblins strike back whenever they can, and the<br />
world,<br />
people are all entirely aware of this.<br />
civilised<br />
is little to unify the goblins as a people beyond a<br />
There<br />
opposition to humanity. Their sizes differ wildly, as<br />
shared<br />
their stances, builds, and facial appearances. Their<br />
do<br />
are different too, and with different minds come<br />
minds<br />
different dispositions.<br />
wildly<br />
are the most commonly encountered goblins,<br />
Moblins<br />
arguably the greatest constant threat to Hyrule. Tall,<br />
and<br />
heavily muscled, reasonably intelligent, extremely<br />
broad,<br />
and highly militaristic, moblins peer out at the world<br />
brave<br />
small piggy eyes over an equally porcine snout. Their<br />
from<br />
coats are usually a mottled red to better blend into the<br />
fur<br />
in their forested hunting grounds, but other<br />
undergrowth<br />
are known to exist.<br />
colours<br />
can be found anywhere their mounts can take<br />
Bulblins<br />
Wiry and short, with round faces, short snouts,<br />
them.<br />
green fur and very red eyes, bulblin are quick<br />
dappled<br />
but not especially intelligent- their thoughts are<br />
thinkers,<br />
but small. They eke out a nomadic existence, always<br />
rapid<br />
the move, arriving as vast bands of ululating beast riders<br />
on<br />
firing a hundred arrows.<br />
and<br />
live in the deep forests, where they war<br />
Bokoblins<br />
with the deku tribes. Around the height of a<br />
constantly<br />
but rangy and potbellied with ugly, stretched faces,<br />
man,<br />
are masters of the undergrowth, moving with stealth<br />
they<br />
belies their pale purple and blue fur. Guerillas without<br />
that<br />
actions to oust them from their homes with<br />
compare,<br />
short of vastly overwhelming force is inevitably<br />
anything<br />
to failure, to the point where they sometimes form<br />
doomed<br />
Goblins<br />
Goblin Quote<br />
The Measure of a Goblin<br />
an additional ring of protection for the forests.
are small, vicious creatures that make their<br />
Miniblins<br />
in and around the camps of the tribes of other,<br />
homes<br />
goblins. The size of a child, their faces are wide and<br />
larger<br />
mouths filled with fangs that protrude even when<br />
their<br />
mouths are closed. Their fur comes in all colours,<br />
their<br />
specked with black. Their weapons are as vicious<br />
usually<br />
they are, barbed spears and tridents which make the<br />
as<br />
stab the least of a victim's worries.<br />
initial<br />
are the largest sentient creatures on the face<br />
Megablins<br />
the planet, excepting gorons and the deeply arcane races<br />
of<br />
dragons and leviathans. They are enormous,<br />
like<br />
muscled, and bandy-legged, with a dim-witted<br />
grotesquely<br />
that stays hunched below their shoulders, and faces<br />
head<br />
of the more ugly kinds of hound. Most are a<br />
reminiscent<br />
bluish-grey in colour. Hinoxes are a rare mutation<br />
mottled<br />
megablin, born with only one eye for reasons unknown<br />
of<br />
science, which is as apatthetic on the subject as the<br />
to<br />
themselves are.<br />
hinoxes<br />
goblins themselves have no written history, and<br />
The<br />
have no fathoming of where they may have come<br />
humans<br />
Goblins are recorded as having been in constant<br />
from.<br />
with humanity- and later the zora- since the<br />
conflict<br />
era, and likely the mythic times. There is no real<br />
imperial<br />
for this enmity- it has simply always been.<br />
origin<br />
goblins hold that they were the creations of<br />
Some<br />
Others hold that they came from othersources,<br />
demons.<br />
as the allfathers of the alifos. The Golden Faith itself<br />
such<br />
that the goblins are the goddesses' mistake, and that<br />
says<br />
calamity harvested their weakness to birth the first<br />
the<br />
Most goblins don’t particularly care either way<br />
demons.<br />
they came from. Their religions instead focus<br />
where<br />
the here and now- around local spirits who will<br />
around<br />
their path, around small gods who will give them the<br />
guide<br />
they need to achieve victory, around the strongest<br />
strength<br />
brightest of their tribe who they hold will lead them to<br />
and<br />
prosperity.<br />
hunt and gather for their food, and farm little.<br />
Goblins<br />
to all of these options however is theft- humans<br />
Preferable<br />
taken all the best land for themselves, and grow fat on<br />
have<br />
they produce on land bought with violence. As such<br />
what<br />
raid civilisation whenever possible, and are a<br />
goblins<br />
threat that must be watched for. Caravans are a<br />
constant<br />
prey, but more confident goblins may attack<br />
preferred<br />
farmsteads or even villages.<br />
isolated<br />
prefer to attack on foot, usually armed with<br />
Moblins<br />
Bulblin arrive on the backs of bulbos, enormous<br />
glaives.<br />
of vile temperament and smell, firing as they come.<br />
boars<br />
often resort to waterborne piracy, sailing from<br />
Miniblin<br />
coves along the Hyral sea. Wherever one goes, one<br />
hidden<br />
find goblins there ready to attack.<br />
can<br />
Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
one.<br />
Goblins age at different rates.<br />
Age:<br />
mature at roughly twice the human rate, but<br />
Moblins<br />
age twice again as fast, with bulblins and<br />
miniblins<br />
forming a rough middle ground. Megablins age<br />
bokoblins<br />
to humans.<br />
similarly<br />
Alignment: Goblins are very bad at accepting<br />
Typical<br />
authority and very poorly organised - they are usually<br />
any<br />
chaotic.<br />
Goblins have a walking speed of 30 feet, except<br />
Speed:<br />
miniblins who have a walking speed of 25 feet.<br />
for<br />
and Fanged: Goblins can use their unarmed<br />
Clawed<br />
as a versatile weapon. If they do so then their attack<br />
attack<br />
1(d6) damage instead. This ability’s damage increases<br />
does<br />
dice size when you reach 5th level to 1(d8), 11th level 10<br />
a<br />
and 17th level 1(d12).<br />
1(d10),<br />
Sense of Smell: Goblins have advantage on<br />
Keen<br />
checks based on smell.<br />
wisdom(perception)<br />
You must choose one of the following<br />
Subraces:<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
two.<br />
Moblins are tall and broad and muscular- they<br />
Size:<br />
at around seven feet tall and weigh one hundred and<br />
stand<br />
pounds. Your size is medium.<br />
fifty<br />
You are proficient with shields, light and<br />
Militarised:<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity and Wisdom<br />
Ability<br />
increase by one.<br />
scores<br />
Bulblins are short and rangy- they stand at around<br />
Size:<br />
and a half to five feet tall and weigh seventy pounds.<br />
four<br />
size is medium. Beastmasters: You are proficient with<br />
Your<br />
Wisdom(animal handling) skill. If you have interacted<br />
the<br />
the animal in question for a day or more you instead<br />
with<br />
expertise.<br />
have<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
two.<br />
Bokoblins are wiry in the limbs but stout in the<br />
Size:<br />
they stand around five and a half feet tall and weigh<br />
belly,<br />
hundred pounds. Your size is medium.<br />
one<br />
Hunters: You can try to hide when lightly<br />
Woodland<br />
by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and<br />
obscured<br />
natural phenomena. You also have proficiency in the<br />
other<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
two.<br />
Miniblin are small and slight, around three feet tall<br />
Size:<br />
weighing around twenty pounds. Your size is small.<br />
and<br />
You can re-roll any rolls when rolling damage<br />
Vicious:<br />
a critical hit.<br />
for<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
Size: Megablin are around twelve feet tall and around<br />
two.<br />
broad at the shoulders, weighing around one thousand<br />
as<br />
Your size is large.<br />
pounds.<br />
The Intelligence and Wisdom scores of a<br />
Imbeciles:<br />
cannot be raised above ten without external<br />
megablin<br />
such as magic. Megablins also have<br />
assistance<br />
on all wisdom, intelligence and charisma<br />
disadvantage<br />
subraces.<br />
Moblin<br />
No Past, No Memories<br />
armor, and all reach weapons.<br />
medium<br />
Bulblin<br />
Bokoblin<br />
To the Strongest<br />
skill.<br />
Wisdom(survival)<br />
Miniblin<br />
Megablin;<br />
Goblin Traits.<br />
saves, as well as all initiative rolls.
humanoids with long fangs and sharp claws, the<br />
Saurian<br />
are a people with a clear and stark divide. On one<br />
alifos<br />
of this are the militant alifos- bestial, violent creatures<br />
side<br />
dwell in tribes in the hot, humid places of the world<br />
who<br />
strike at civilisation when they can. On the other side<br />
and<br />
the peaceful alifos, obsessive reptilian creatures who<br />
are<br />
militant alifos (sometimes known collectively as<br />
The<br />
are, like the zola, obsessed with violence. Some<br />
lizalfos)<br />
more organised than their aquatic counterparts, but<br />
are<br />
could be said to be collected or regimented. The<br />
none<br />
of you enemies- whoever you choose for that to be- is<br />
defeat<br />
to a lizalfos, and comes before all other things.<br />
paramount<br />
Geru, and Daira are the largest of the militant<br />
Dinolfos,<br />
Tall and strong, with jaws that can crush a man’s<br />
alifos.<br />
like an eggshell, they are naturally built for intensive<br />
head<br />
The physical distinctions between the three<br />
combat.<br />
are difficult to discern, being based largely around<br />
peoples<br />
differences in build and the pattern of their scales,<br />
minute<br />
their habits are notably different. Dinolfos tend towards<br />
but<br />
fighting while daira and geru prefer larger, more<br />
collectivist<br />
weapons and individual combat, habits which are<br />
powerful<br />
in every facet of their lives. The dinolfos are<br />
reflected<br />
more regimented, more organised, and better<br />
always<br />
while the daira and geru possess a greater<br />
equipped,<br />
skill and far more low cunning.<br />
individual<br />
common are aerial and chameleonic lizalfos, or<br />
Less<br />
and rampholeon as scholars know them.<br />
sordes<br />
are slightly smaller than lizalfos, and notably<br />
Rampholeon<br />
They do however possess a startling level of<br />
weaker.<br />
cunning and the ability to completely alter the<br />
animalistic<br />
of their skin in order to deceive their foes,<br />
pigmentation<br />
practically invisible while they wait in ambush.<br />
turning<br />
Alifos<br />
Lizalfos quote goes here<br />
Cold-Blooded Slaughter<br />
value their particular field above all else in life.
meanwhile are the smallest and weakest of the<br />
Sordes<br />
but possess large wings that sprout from their<br />
lizalfos,<br />
and allow them to maneuver in the air, often (but<br />
shoulders<br />
always) extending to full flight.<br />
not<br />
alifos are very different to their militant brothers.<br />
Peaceful<br />
have much shorter snouts and smaller builds. They<br />
They<br />
generally considerably more intelligent on top of this,<br />
are<br />
have proven capable of constructing civilisations of<br />
and<br />
own. their<br />
most commonly seen of the peaceful alifos are the<br />
The<br />
Spindly and slight, they are found primarily in the<br />
zuna.<br />
deserts, often around the darknut citadels. The zuna<br />
deep<br />
craftsmen without compare in this world. Their smiths<br />
are<br />
the best armour and weapons, including the<br />
produce<br />
of the darknut legions.<br />
armaments<br />
on the other hand are rarely seen above<br />
Subrosians<br />
and when they are they are tilling the fields of other<br />
ground,<br />
they are labourers above all else, and consider sloth<br />
races-<br />
ultimate failing. Short and broad, they can work for<br />
the<br />
on end with only the slightest rests, and will work for<br />
days<br />
with little reward. They will perform any labour, but<br />
anyone<br />
mining above all other things. When underground<br />
prefer<br />
gather their valuable heat from magma pools, an act<br />
they<br />
would be dangerous if it weren’t for their absolute<br />
that<br />
to extreme heat.<br />
immunity<br />
last of the peaceful alifos are the tokay. Short and<br />
The<br />
and simple, the tokay live hedonistic lives and<br />
potbellied<br />
concern themselves with the rest of the world. The<br />
rarely<br />
are also the only alifos who do not follow the beliefs<br />
tokay<br />
all their kind- that in some distant time they lived in a<br />
of<br />
of glorious war, artifice or labour, watched over by<br />
land<br />
benevolent lords the allfathers, before being sent in<br />
their<br />
All alifos mature by the age of five and can live long<br />
Age:<br />
their third century.<br />
into<br />
Alignment: Alifos are more likely to be lawful<br />
Typical<br />
any other uncivilised race, particularly the somewhat<br />
than<br />
and sane dinolfos, but are still usually chaotic.<br />
organised<br />
Your move speed is 35 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Militant alifos are all roughly the same size.<br />
Size:<br />
Geru and Daira are all around seven feet tall with<br />
Dinolfos,<br />
minor distinctions from one another, weighing around<br />
only<br />
hundred and seventy pounds. Chameleonic alifos are<br />
one<br />
and hunched, being around six and a half feet tall<br />
smaller<br />
weighing one hundred and thirty pounds. Aerial alifos<br />
and<br />
a great deal of strength for the ability to swoop,<br />
sacrifice<br />
are around five and a half feet tall, weighing around<br />
and<br />
pounds. All are medium sized.<br />
ninety<br />
Blooded: Alifos rely on external sources of heat to<br />
Cold<br />
If they are in a cold environment such as a tundra,<br />
survive.<br />
or deep cave, they gain two levels of<br />
mountaintop,<br />
whenever they would normally gain one.<br />
exhaustion<br />
if they are in a warm environment such as a<br />
However<br />
jungle, or volcanic crater they only gain one level of<br />
desert,<br />
for every two they would normally gain.<br />
exhaustion<br />
and Fanged: Alifos can use their unarmed<br />
Clawed<br />
as a versatile weapon. If they do so then their attack<br />
attack<br />
1(d6) damage instead. This ability’s damage increases<br />
does<br />
dice size when you reach 5th level to 1(d8), 11th level 10<br />
a<br />
and 17th level 1(d12).<br />
1(d10),<br />
You must pick one of the following subraces.<br />
Subrace:<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
and your Constitution score increases by one.<br />
two<br />
Pick a damage type: slashing (daira)<br />
Slaughtermasters:<br />
bludgeoning (geru). You are proficient with all melee<br />
or<br />
which deal this damage type. Alternatively you<br />
weapons<br />
be proficient in all melee weapons which can be<br />
can<br />
in one hand (dinolfos). No matter your choice you<br />
wielded<br />
also proficient with shields, light and medium armor,<br />
are<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength, Wisdom, and<br />
Ability<br />
scores all increase by one.<br />
Constitution<br />
skin: You have proficiency in the<br />
Shifting<br />
skill. As long as you are stationary you<br />
dexterity(stealth)<br />
Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
one.<br />
You have a fly speed of fifty feet, but must end<br />
Swoop:<br />
turn in contact with the ground or fall all the way<br />
your<br />
While you can move you are immune to falling<br />
down.<br />
not brought about by this rule.<br />
damage<br />
At level 6 and above you no longer benefit from<br />
Flight:<br />
Instead you gain a flying speed of fifty feet, and are<br />
Swoop.<br />
Lizalfos (Dinolfos/Geru/Daira)<br />
Reptilian Genius<br />
and all bows (but not crossbows).<br />
Chameleonic (Rampholeon);<br />
advantage on all dexterity(stealth) rolls.<br />
have<br />
Aerial (Sordes);<br />
immune to falling damage while you can move.<br />
great arks of stone to the present day.<br />
Alifos (Militant) Traits
peaceful alifos think, act, and live very differently to<br />
The<br />
warlike brothers.<br />
their<br />
All alifos mature by the age of five and can live long<br />
Age:<br />
their third century.<br />
into<br />
Alignment: Peaceful alifos are generally more<br />
Typical<br />
than their militant counterparts and conform<br />
intelligent<br />
to lawful alignments, except for Tokay who<br />
overwhelmingly<br />
too simple for such concepts.<br />
are<br />
Your move speed is 25 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Blooded: Alifos rely on external sources of heat to<br />
Cold<br />
If they are in a cold environment such as a tundra,<br />
survive.<br />
or deep cave, they gain two levels of<br />
mountaintop,<br />
whenever they would normally gain one.<br />
exhaustion<br />
if they are in a warm environment such as a<br />
However<br />
jungle, or volcanic crater they only gain one level of<br />
desert,<br />
for every two they would normally gain.<br />
exhaustion<br />
and Fanged: Alifos can use their unarmed<br />
Clawed<br />
as a versatile weapon. If they do so then their attack<br />
attack<br />
1d6 damage instead. This ability’s damage increases a<br />
does<br />
size when you reach 5th level (1d8), 11th level (1d10),<br />
dice<br />
17th level (d12).<br />
and<br />
You must pick one of the following subraces.<br />
Subrace:<br />
Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases<br />
Ability<br />
three. by<br />
Subrosians are small but very broad, like short<br />
Size:<br />
reptilian boulders. They tend to be around three or<br />
round<br />
feet tall and weigh around one hundred and twenty<br />
four<br />
Your size is small.<br />
pounds.<br />
Workers: Subrosians accrue one level of<br />
Tireless<br />
for every two they would normally gain (and thus<br />
fatigue<br />
one level of fatigue for every four levels they would<br />
gain<br />
gain when in warm environments). Subrosians<br />
normally<br />
one level of fatigue on completing a short rest, and all<br />
lose<br />
on completing a long rest. They do not sleep and<br />
levels<br />
be forced to.<br />
cannot<br />
Through Lava: Subrosians are immune to fire<br />
Mine<br />
Score Increase: Your Wisdom, Dexterity, and<br />
Ability<br />
scores all increase by one.<br />
Intelligence<br />
Zuna are frail and spindly, with delicate limbs and<br />
Size:<br />
They tend to stand around four feet tall and weigh<br />
features.<br />
seventy pounds. Your size is small.<br />
approximately<br />
Artisans: You are considered proficient<br />
Incomparable<br />
Score Increase: Your Charisma score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
and your Constitution score increases by one.<br />
two,<br />
Tokay are potbellied and plump, but short, and<br />
Size:<br />
in the limbs. They stand at around four feet tall and<br />
spindly<br />
around ninety pounds. Your size is small.<br />
weigh<br />
Tokay are resistant to poison and psychic<br />
Hedonists:<br />
and have advantage on all saving throws to resist<br />
damage,<br />
charmed. If a creature immune to being charmed is<br />
being<br />
to an effect that is meant to affect a tokay then roll<br />
immune<br />
d2- on a roll of 2 it also does not affect the tokay for the<br />
a<br />
month. Tokay are also immune to all fear-based<br />
next<br />
effects.<br />
Alifos (Peaceful) Traits<br />
Subrosian<br />
damage.<br />
Zuna<br />
all artisans’ tools, as well as all crossbows.<br />
with<br />
Tokay
flowing beneath the hull of the ship.<br />
LAZILY<br />
Breath of Jabun parted the water with the<br />
The<br />
of wash, leaving a pleasant enough<br />
gentlest<br />
which slowly made its way to the banks<br />
wake<br />
it spread behind the trading vessel. The<br />
as<br />
beneath the water stirred and waved in<br />
weeds<br />
current, rippling with the motion of the craft. The young<br />
the<br />
laughed as a fish jumped from the water behind the<br />
boy<br />
glinting silver and white in the sunlight before<br />
Breath,<br />
back down. It leapt repeatedly, struggling further<br />
splashing<br />
the air each time. Eventually it was joined by others, all<br />
into<br />
to be free of the river.<br />
striving<br />
come look at the-"<br />
"Mummy,<br />
water parted with explosive force and something<br />
The<br />
larger than a fish broke the surface. It had teeth and<br />
much<br />
and bright blue scales and staring, mad yellow eyes,<br />
fins<br />
the last thing Saul thought was that perhaps he should<br />
and<br />
considered what a fish would be trying to escape<br />
have<br />
zola are a widely despised race, considered ugly and<br />
The<br />
and violent. This is because they are. Zola are broad,<br />
crude<br />
imposing creatures. They are strong, brutish,<br />
physically<br />
unthinking. They prize physical strength and proensity<br />
and<br />
violence above all else, and can fight almost from the<br />
for<br />
they can walk. A combination of crocodilian and<br />
moment<br />
in appearance, they stand hunched and coiled,<br />
shark-like<br />
ready to spring for the throat of their enemies. They<br />
always<br />
in anarchic subaquatic tribes in which little to nothing<br />
live<br />
ever certain. A zola is always prepared to fight, even for<br />
is<br />
zola, sometimes called river zora, are most easily<br />
The<br />
to somebody who has not met one by what they<br />
described<br />
not. With the exception of their sub aquatic traits,<br />
are<br />
the zora prize the zola lack, and everything the<br />
everything<br />
lack the zola possess in spades. Perhaps it is<br />
zora<br />
then that the zola and zora despise each other<br />
unsurprising<br />
an incredible degree, and each takes pride in the fall of<br />
to<br />
other. the<br />
zola live in tribal structures, scattered throughout<br />
The<br />
and the broader continent. They have a habit of<br />
Hyrule<br />
dificult to reach areas- remote marshlands and<br />
infesting<br />
depths of the largest lakes. They also live in large<br />
the<br />
above the snowline, finding refuge in mountain<br />
numbers<br />
where their metabolism slows to a crawl and they can<br />
lairs<br />
freely both on the slopes of the mountains and down<br />
hunt<br />
the valleys below.<br />
in<br />
tribes of zola are always shifting, never static. They<br />
The<br />
with conquest and split due to infighting. Their<br />
merge<br />
are ever-changing as challengers rise and<br />
chieftains<br />
the rulers or die trying, executed and eaten for<br />
supplant<br />
insolence. This constant anarchy makes it hard for<br />
their<br />
real cohesion to form- zola do not create, they do not<br />
any<br />
Zola do not marry, and their mating is better left<br />
build.<br />
of. They are a vicious people, without compare in<br />
unspoken<br />
Zola<br />
SAUL WATCHED THE RIVER BELOW,<br />
Fangs Beneath the Waves<br />
below the surface.<br />
the mortal realm.<br />
the most trivial things in life.
one constant in the tribes is the gyorg, the predatory<br />
The<br />
who accompany the zola. Gyorg are enormous,<br />
fish<br />
and shockingly intelligent despite their bestial<br />
powerful,<br />
The gyorg exist above and beside the normal<br />
ferocity.<br />
tribal organisation as priests and shamans, guiding<br />
feuding<br />
zola in their worship of their deities. Though the gyorg<br />
the<br />
not be chieftains they are the power behind the throne,<br />
may<br />
no zola could call himself a ruler without the consent<br />
and<br />
the demonic aquatic monstrosities which watch over<br />
of<br />
them.<br />
zola have two religions. Their local, old gods are the<br />
The<br />
and least, consulted for luck and guidance when<br />
first<br />
or migrating. The true divine power however is<br />
raiding<br />
the Demon Prince of Anger. In the Great Invasion<br />
Bellum,<br />
appearing most frequently as a cephalopod of<br />
Bellum,<br />
scale, led the zola to many victories over the<br />
incomparable<br />
empire. Even today he is with them, appearing as an<br />
zora<br />
at times of great importance or sending his gorgons<br />
avatar<br />
aid the tribes who exalt him.<br />
to<br />
zola worship of him forms their deepest divide with<br />
The<br />
zora, humanity, and even other uncivilised people such<br />
the<br />
the goblins. Nobody who worships demons openly can<br />
as<br />
trusted. In truth, the zola do not care- the world is to be<br />
be<br />
and taken.<br />
fought<br />
are powerful beings who lead hard lives, and this<br />
Zola<br />
traits which should be applied to a zola player<br />
creates<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
and your Constitution score increases by one.<br />
two,<br />
Zolas hatch able to swim and walk. They do not die<br />
Age:<br />
old age until well into their second century.<br />
of<br />
Alignment: Zola are rebellious and violent, and<br />
Typical<br />
tend towards chaotic evil.<br />
so<br />
Zola are barely humanoid, hunched and broad.<br />
Size:<br />
stand at around seven feet tall and weigh around one<br />
They<br />
and eighty pounds. Your size Medium.<br />
hundred<br />
Your walking speed is 30 feet, and your<br />
Speed:<br />
speed is 45 feet.<br />
swimming<br />
Zola can be frozen solid with no ill effects,<br />
Cryostasis:<br />
are still vulnerable to snap freezing. Zola are resistant<br />
but<br />
cold damage, and become sapped for one hour whenever<br />
to<br />
take cold damage or are exposed to cold weather.<br />
they<br />
sapped a zola is immune to cold damage and the<br />
While<br />
of cold weather, and can be frozen alive without<br />
effects<br />
Their dexterity is also reduced by two points for<br />
penalty.<br />
duration.<br />
the<br />
Bile: Zola have a natural ability to produce a<br />
Flame<br />
bile which burns even underwater, boiling the<br />
flaming<br />
around it. Zola are resistant to fire damage. They are<br />
space<br />
always equipped with the weapon below, which they<br />
also<br />
from their mouths.<br />
spit<br />
If the target of this weapon is underwater then<br />
Boiling:<br />
rolls to hit it with this weapon have advantage.<br />
attack<br />
This ability’s damage increases a dice size<br />
Internalised:<br />
on the wielder's level, increasing when you<br />
depending<br />
5th level (1d8), 11th level (1d10), and 17th level<br />
reach<br />
Zola cannot run out of ammunition for their flame<br />
(1d12).<br />
attack, and cannot be disarmed of it without invasive<br />
bile<br />
surgery.<br />
Zora can breathe underwater. They must drink<br />
Aquatic:<br />
as much as a land based creature and cannot benefit<br />
twice<br />
a long rest without access to enough water to wash<br />
from<br />
themselves.<br />
Is the bane of the other: Zola are resistant to fire<br />
...<br />
and vulnerable to lightning damage.<br />
damage<br />
The Prince of Fury<br />
Zola Traits<br />
character,<br />
Name Damage Rules<br />
Flame<br />
Bile<br />
1d6 fire<br />
thrown (range 30/120), boiling,<br />
internalised
The Rare<br />
A world of millions will always have... another. Another exception, another example,<br />
another outlier. You could no more hope to count them or account for them than you<br />
could the stars in the sky.
sun on the far side of his<br />
SCORCHING<br />
even through the padding, even<br />
helmet,<br />
the cooling wind produced as he<br />
over<br />
The rebonack licked his nose<br />
rode.<br />
his long canine tongue darting<br />
reflexively,<br />
behind the armoured mouthguard to<br />
out<br />
himself down.<br />
cool<br />
horse clattered onwards, utterly fearless beneath its<br />
His<br />
rider. Nedjem kept his eyes focused forwards on<br />
darknut<br />
enemy, praying to Seth for the resolve to bring the<br />
the<br />
home. His grip tightened on his lance, bringing it<br />
charge<br />
a couch as he rode down towards the small horde of<br />
into<br />
The goblins were jeering, their spears levelled,<br />
moblins.<br />
they could receive the charge comfortably.<br />
sure<br />
could not. Nedjem hit the goblins first, followed by<br />
They<br />
rest of his wing. Each rebonack - horse, armour, and<br />
the<br />
included - weighed the best part of half a ton, and<br />
darknut<br />
the goblins at around forty miles an hour.<br />
hit<br />
darknut- or wosu as they call themselves- stands head<br />
A<br />
shoulders above a human. From the neck down their<br />
and<br />
appear normal, if slightly oversized and over<br />
bodies<br />
and covered in a fine fur, usually brown or black.<br />
muscled,<br />
heads however are entirely canine, with the<br />
Their<br />
senses that come with that. They are rare in<br />
increased<br />
and this is a good thing- Darknuts are possessed of<br />
Hyrule,<br />
love of warfare and violence beyond that of all but the<br />
a<br />
maniacal humans. In their own lands far to the west<br />
most<br />
live in great citadels and train endlessly for war, both<br />
they<br />
external forces and each other, using slaves for their<br />
with<br />
needs. Though not all wosu are evil they follow a dark<br />
daily<br />
of chaos and war, and act in his image. There is only<br />
god<br />
and the blade to the Wosu, and anyone who<br />
strength<br />
darknuts have a written history that allegedly stretches<br />
The<br />
to before the first humans harnessed fire. They have<br />
back<br />
myths, only factual history, a history which is only an<br />
few<br />
of brutal warfare.<br />
account<br />
Darknuts<br />
NEDJEM COULD FEEL THE<br />
disagrees is weak and insane.<br />
The Children of the Ma'at<br />
The word Nedjem would use later was 'liquified'.
to the wosu they are the children of a great being<br />
According<br />
Seth, a being they revere as a god. Seth and his<br />
named<br />
Wra and Toth fell from the skies above the world,<br />
brothers<br />
and plummeting into the deserts to the west of the<br />
burning<br />
where the darknuts now live. Wounded and<br />
Shahdom<br />
the three brothers were beset by three families<br />
vulnerable,<br />
dragons, who they fought for thirteen years in constant<br />
of<br />
Seth slew dragons until he stood on a heap of their<br />
battle.<br />
as tall as the highest mountain. Seeing his glory the<br />
bodies<br />
of one family knelt before him before turning and<br />
remnants<br />
against their own kind. In this they were led by<br />
battling<br />
patriarch, the great dragon named Onox the Black.<br />
their<br />
was the first to swear his loyalty to Seth and his<br />
Onox<br />
and it was thanks to Onox that Seth's victory was<br />
brothers,<br />
assured.<br />
and Toth then made the races of the world. Humans<br />
Seth<br />
goblins and zora and gorons, each of them<br />
and<br />
Some were exterminated, some were cast<br />
unsatisfactory.<br />
and some were kept as slaves for when the perfect<br />
out,<br />
were finally created. Last of all Seth made the wosu,<br />
people<br />
were perfect. To them he taught strength and integrity<br />
who<br />
the correct manners in which to live, and they grew<br />
and<br />
powerful.<br />
darknuts raised up hundreds of mighty castles<br />
The<br />
they named citadels, each the size of a small city.<br />
which<br />
on Seth’s instructions, they made war. For the first<br />
Then,<br />
they fought each other. Then as their own<br />
millennia<br />
dwindled they fought tribes of savages, of humans<br />
numbers<br />
goblins and alifos. Then they fought the new empires<br />
and<br />
humanity and the other “chosen” races. Always the<br />
of<br />
were fighting, and always they won. Even as Toth<br />
darknuts<br />
to places unknown the darknuts were still<br />
vanished<br />
by Seth, his rule enforced by his own strength and<br />
watched<br />
obedience of his mighty dark dragons.<br />
the<br />
time Seth grew more reserved, speaking and<br />
Over<br />
less to the wosu, until eventually he vanished<br />
appearing<br />
Fearful and bereaved the darknuts fought ever<br />
altogether.<br />
and many more citadels fell in these desperate<br />
harder,<br />
leaving a power vacuum into which the Empires of<br />
wars,<br />
Eldin and Lanayru grew, until it looked as if the<br />
Faron,<br />
might consume themselves in their violence and<br />
wosu<br />
the world over to the lesser peoples.<br />
hand<br />
the Great Invasion shook the world Seth returned,<br />
When<br />
led his children as a unified people for the first time in<br />
and<br />
The darknuts fought against the demons with all<br />
millennia.<br />
strength until, eventually, those otherworldly monsters<br />
their<br />
destroyed.<br />
were<br />
cost had been great. Many citadels had fallen. The<br />
The<br />
dragons had betrayed Seth and joined the demons.<br />
dark<br />
darknuts lay in ruins, but Seth was proud of them. He<br />
The<br />
the world forever, his leadership in the Invasion<br />
left<br />
the wosu the correct path, his last act saving them<br />
showing<br />
themselves. None could deny what they had achieved<br />
from<br />
their fighting.<br />
in<br />
country cannot be of warriors alone. Around the citadels<br />
A<br />
cities of lesser peoples, slaves and serfs, the majority<br />
grow<br />
which are subrosians and zuna. The former produce the<br />
of<br />
materials the darknuts consume- ore for their weapons<br />
raw<br />
food for their bellies. The latter craft the arms and<br />
and<br />
of the legions, endlessly producing swords and<br />
armour<br />
mail of incredible quality- zuna craftsmanship is<br />
plate<br />
in Hyrule and beyond, on par with that of the gorons,<br />
prized<br />
few outside the citadels can afford or find even a dagger<br />
but<br />
by the reptilian artisans, and those who can are<br />
produced<br />
proud of their possessions.<br />
understandably<br />
remaining slaves are of a variety of species, many of<br />
The<br />
unique to the citadels. The leonine lynel, a humanoid<br />
them<br />
rising from the neck of a horse with a lion's head in<br />
body<br />
of its own, fight as the legions' skirmish cavalry and<br />
place<br />
its most valuable mounts. The mazura, horse-<br />
occasionally<br />
eight foot tall giants, labour to construct the<br />
headed<br />
of the citadels. The fokka, flightless but incredibly<br />
buildings<br />
avian humanoids, work as scouts and messenders.<br />
fast<br />
and hundreds of other species are the grease in<br />
These<br />
gears which keep the citadel machine turning, and are<br />
the<br />
the few Hyrulians who reach the citadels are often<br />
why<br />
by the sheer variety of the slave races, and many<br />
staggered<br />
if there’s truth in what the wosu say of Seth.<br />
wonder<br />
military of a citadel is a professional one, with every<br />
The<br />
training or fighting constantly throughout their life.<br />
soldier<br />
does however have strict rules, a code of marshal honour<br />
It<br />
by Seth tens of millennia ago. A soldier must<br />
dictated<br />
attempt to prove themselves- duelling is always<br />
always<br />
to massed combat, and massed combat is<br />
preferable<br />
preferable to a siege. It is also absolutely<br />
always<br />
shameful to fight from a distance- archery and<br />
disgustingly<br />
use of siege weapons are only to be used when the<br />
the<br />
enemy flees or hides behind his walls. At all other<br />
cowardly<br />
darknuts are expected to fight in their supremely<br />
times<br />
armour- chainmail if they have yet to prove<br />
heavy<br />
plate once they are considered adult- and<br />
themselves,<br />
their enemy with sword, mace and axe.<br />
engage<br />
is frowned upon- any use of beasts of burden is<br />
Cavalry<br />
an admission of personal weakness and<br />
considered<br />
to either carry your own burdens or force a slave<br />
inability<br />
do it- but not forbidden. The mounted forces of the wosu,<br />
to<br />
as rebonacks, tend towards irreverence and<br />
known<br />
as a result as they are already living on the<br />
rebelliousness<br />
The Invasion<br />
Slaves and Scum<br />
The Dogs of War<br />
Then the Demons came.<br />
fringes of acceptable morality.
last thing forbidden, hated by Seth above all others, is<br />
The<br />
All magic is weakness, save for that which He gives<br />
magic.<br />
as a reward for diligence and service. Even today, two<br />
out<br />
a half millennia after his leaving, Seth's magic arrives<br />
and<br />
the wosu through unknown means, a secret to all but the<br />
to<br />
themselves. Darknuts know their mages as<br />
mages<br />
and there are never more than thirteen in a<br />
Jermafensers,<br />
each a source of immense pride.<br />
citadel,<br />
there is a law there will be those who break it,<br />
Wherever<br />
there is an inviolable code of honour there will<br />
whenever<br />
those who seek to violate it. The wosu have a strict code<br />
be<br />
demonstrate their strength, but there are of course those<br />
to<br />
would break that code.<br />
who<br />
break the code of Seth is to label yourself a goriya-<br />
To<br />
worthless in the eyes of society and the great<br />
essentially<br />
A lucky goriya may escape, and make their home<br />
god.<br />
the lands of the citadels. An unlucky goriya will face<br />
beyond<br />
usually by trial of combat (with the combat of course<br />
death,<br />
forced into terms acceptable to the code).<br />
being<br />
escaped goriya must be careful. A goriya who is too<br />
Even<br />
too open in their actions or even in their existence,<br />
brazen,<br />
face a hunt and ensuing destruction at the hands of<br />
will<br />
violent and strong as they are, have unique traits<br />
Darknuts,<br />
all darknut characters possess.<br />
which<br />
Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by<br />
Ability<br />
and your Constitution score increases by one.<br />
two,<br />
Darknuts are considered mature in their early teens<br />
Age:<br />
live for around sixty years, although they maintain good<br />
and<br />
for most of their lifespan.<br />
health<br />
Alignment: Darknuts are either organised and<br />
Typical<br />
or unbridled and religious. They tend towards<br />
militarised<br />
strongly lawful or chaotic alignments. Many darknuts<br />
either<br />
Darknuts are tall humanoids, solidly built and wellmuscled.<br />
Size:<br />
They stand at around seven and a half feet tall and<br />
around two hundred pounds. Your size is medium.<br />
weigh<br />
Your walking speed is 30 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Martial Training: Darknuts are proficient with<br />
Darknut<br />
simple and martial melee weapons, except for reach<br />
all<br />
as well as all armor. In addition they always use<br />
weapons,<br />
improved damage dice when wielding versatile<br />
the<br />
weapons.<br />
As Standard: Even before they fully prove<br />
Equipped<br />
darknuts are equipped by their citadels for war.<br />
themselves<br />
matter their class’ starting equipment darknuts can<br />
No<br />
choose to start with a longsword and a suit of chain<br />
always<br />
instead of one of their weapons and the suit of armour<br />
mail<br />
available to them (if the class does not normally<br />
normally<br />
with armour then a darknut may still choose to start<br />
start<br />
a suit of chain mail).<br />
with<br />
Warriors: Darknuts who reach level five without<br />
Proven<br />
declared goriya can request a longsword, a suit of<br />
being<br />
armour and a shield for free from any sufficiently<br />
plate<br />
member of their own people- the citadels will<br />
wealthy<br />
the provider later. Darknuts who start at level 5<br />
reimburse<br />
choose plate armour instead of the chain mail provided<br />
can<br />
Equipped As Standard.<br />
by<br />
Sense of Smell: Darknuts have advantage on<br />
Keen<br />
checks based on smell.<br />
wisdom(perception)<br />
Darknuts can speak Setian, Hyrulian, and<br />
Languages:<br />
other language, most likely vordic.<br />
one<br />
The Fate of the Defiant<br />
wosu, lest their disgusting ways spread further.<br />
other<br />
Darknut Traits<br />
Expies Make Life Easier<br />
When in doubt, copy it out. Darknut names work<br />
well when modelled off the ancient egyptians,<br />
and their military structure is very similar to that<br />
of ancient Rome.<br />
It's not possible for Darknuts to be too<br />
militaristic or too focused on violence. That's<br />
just kind of who they are and what they do.<br />
are evil, although not all are.
ago, when humanity abandoned a world ravaged by<br />
Long<br />
Great Invasion to seek refuge above the clouds, the<br />
the<br />
were faced with a great crisis. The waters of the world<br />
zora<br />
polluted and dried by fifty years of constant war, with<br />
were<br />
a few refuges left where they could make their home.<br />
only<br />
these refuges were, in truth, unsuitable- the zora<br />
Even<br />
in flowing waters and open spaces, and simply<br />
thrived<br />
not live in these separated lagoons.<br />
could<br />
solution was found. The prime leviathan of the age,<br />
A<br />
used the malleable properties of the zora<br />
Tamaranch,<br />
to transform them on an enormous scale. Half of<br />
biology<br />
race became the parella, scyphozoan creatures that<br />
the<br />
dwell in the lagoons. The other half would become<br />
would<br />
watarara, avian humanoids who would migrate across<br />
the<br />
land in search of food and homes. This act of great<br />
the<br />
sent Tamaranch into a deep slumber from which he<br />
magic<br />
not be woken, but he gave this sacrifice gladly for his<br />
could<br />
people.<br />
was two and a half millenia ago, one thousand<br />
That<br />
before the start of the Royal Era. The parella<br />
years<br />
to their old forms when the kingdom of Hyrule<br />
returned<br />
founded, becoming the modern zora population, but<br />
was<br />
migrating flock of bird-men, the watarara are seen in<br />
A<br />
but once a year, but arrive in enormous numbers<br />
Hyrule<br />
their month comes. They are treated as exotic objects<br />
when<br />
most of Hyrule, but are also often considered something<br />
by<br />
their flocks descend on cities they spend wildly on<br />
When<br />
and accommodation, occupying the traders and<br />
food<br />
and roosting on rooftops, for weeks on end. They<br />
streets<br />
civilised and sensible, living in large families within<br />
are<br />
flocks, and though they have no tongue of their own<br />
their<br />
tend to be educated and wise in their own way.<br />
they<br />
Watarara gain the following abilities to represent their<br />
All<br />
racial traits.<br />
innate<br />
Score Increase: Your Wisdom, Dexterity and<br />
Ability<br />
scores all increase by one.<br />
Intelligence<br />
Watarara can fly within days of hatching, have<br />
Age:<br />
around the age of ten, and die old by the age of<br />
children<br />
or so. fifty<br />
Alignment: Watarara tend to be entirely<br />
Typical<br />
and the only authority they accept is that of<br />
meritocratic,<br />
flight leader. They tend to be chaotic.<br />
their<br />
Watarara are short and slender, with long arms<br />
Size:<br />
double as wings. They tend to be around five feet tall<br />
which<br />
weigh a mere seventy or eighty pounds.<br />
but<br />
Your walking speed is 30 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Hunters: Watarara have proficiency in the<br />
Eagle-eyed<br />
skill, advantage on wisdom(perception)<br />
wisdom(survival)<br />
to discern things over three hundred feet away.<br />
checks<br />
You have a fly speed of fifty feet, but must end<br />
Swoop:<br />
turn in contact with the ground or fall all the way<br />
your<br />
While you can move you are immune to falling<br />
down.<br />
not brought about by this rule.<br />
damage<br />
At level 6 and above you no longer benefit from<br />
Flight:<br />
Instead you gain a flying speed of fifty feet, and are<br />
Swoop.<br />
to falling damage while you can move.<br />
immune<br />
Watarara<br />
quote goes here, going to try and fit Watarara<br />
guys on one page.<br />
these<br />
Fins to Feathers<br />
Watarara Traits<br />
watarara never surrendered their new wings.<br />
the<br />
Flocking Together<br />
A Bird By Any Other Name<br />
Watarara are based on a noncanon race from the<br />
Ocarina of Time manga, but are primarily included<br />
to allow a player to play a rito in a timeline where<br />
they don't exist. I think. It's all a bit weird.<br />
of a pest.
light plummeting from the sky.<br />
emerald<br />
her Mido, a kokiri - her kokiri - was on<br />
Below<br />
ground, yelling in pain as a pair of<br />
the<br />
fell on him with blades and fangs.<br />
lizalfos<br />
on! Hold<br />
struck mido in the small of the back,<br />
Teal<br />
him into the ground hard enough for him to bounce<br />
forcing<br />
up. Mist billowed from the entry point and obscured<br />
back<br />
pair. Teal felt herself spreading throughout Mido's body,<br />
the<br />
crystal merging with his flesh and bone, a union of soul<br />
her<br />
form so familiar to them both. The plants and ground<br />
and<br />
the forest twisted around them, and there was a strange<br />
of<br />
cracking, organic sound.<br />
creaking,<br />
stood up had crystalline fangs the length of a man's<br />
What<br />
and arms and legs made of trunks. It towered over the<br />
arm<br />
reptilian creatures, and Teal could feel the glint in<br />
two<br />
look like children, almost. On the surface they<br />
Kokiri<br />
as normal hylian youths of between six and twelve<br />
appear<br />
old, with pointed ears and brightly-hued eyes, but the<br />
years<br />
one looks the more discrepancies one finds.<br />
longer<br />
don't blink enough, their hair moves in wind which<br />
They<br />
there. Even in bright sunshine their skin and clothes<br />
isn't<br />
dappled with shade, and the air around them smells<br />
are<br />
cut grass and peat bogs.<br />
like<br />
lack basic<br />
They<br />
about daily life<br />
knowledge<br />
know things no child<br />
but<br />
about the secret parts<br />
should,<br />
the world and the<br />
of<br />
of gods. Their<br />
mechanisms<br />
of time is skewedthey<br />
perception<br />
react to questions about their<br />
with confusion, recall seasons<br />
age<br />
since past but cannot<br />
long<br />
the ills of yesteryear, and<br />
remember<br />
they wear normal enough<br />
though<br />
they believe that things<br />
clothes<br />
leather last no time at all<br />
like<br />
they rot away.<br />
before<br />
of a great arboreal god, there are two forms of<br />
Servants<br />
each with their purpose. The friendly, personable<br />
kokiri,<br />
Children (as most are known) are the envoys of that<br />
Glade<br />
and generally normal enough, after a fashion. On the<br />
god,<br />
hand there are the lost ones, the Skull Children. The<br />
other<br />
may be eerie, but the Skull Children fade out of the<br />
kokiri<br />
with wide smiles and wooden skin, playing songs<br />
darkness<br />
Kokiri<br />
TEAL FELL LIKE A COMET, A BLAZING<br />
Mido's eyes as he looked down on them.<br />
which seep into your bones.<br />
Skull Children are terrifying.<br />
And we don't talk about the puppets.
have always been spirits in the lost woods. They live<br />
There<br />
the deepest glade where the arboreal magic waxes<br />
in<br />
where few outside peoples have ever trod,<br />
strongest,<br />
around the roots of the Great Deku Tree. In long<br />
gathering<br />
times there were the kaddi- crystalline and tall,<br />
gone<br />
in sharp thorns and nearly fey in appearance. After<br />
covered<br />
Invasion they vanished and were replaced by the kikwismall,<br />
the<br />
mammalian and unassuming creatures which<br />
for berries in the dirt. When the darkness of the<br />
foraged<br />
and the disasters to follow beset Hyrule the<br />
Scrambling<br />
vanished in turn, and in their place came the Kallevast<br />
kikwi<br />
and incredibly powerful plant-based entities, a fusion<br />
flora and fauna which could tear down a village.<br />
of<br />
the prevalent spirits are the kokiri. Childlike and<br />
Now<br />
the kokiri spend their days playing in the deep<br />
whimsical,<br />
in the winter they fight in the snow. In spring they<br />
forests-<br />
flowers, in summer they swim in the rivers and in<br />
pick<br />
they eat apples from the trees. Always they are<br />
autumn<br />
by their fairies, each kokiri having their own<br />
accompanied<br />
flitting companion.<br />
little<br />
with the symbiotic relationship the kokiri seem to<br />
Along<br />
with their fae friends- and by extension the great<br />
have<br />
of the wilds- the forest children revere the Great<br />
fairies<br />
Tree as their father and god, and follow his leadership<br />
Deku<br />
all things. Despite their apparent youth and<br />
on<br />
all kokiri possess magic of varying strengths,<br />
helplessness<br />
some cases being extremely powerful manipulators of<br />
in<br />
flows of life and wind magic.<br />
the<br />
this strength however it is rare for a kokiri<br />
Despite<br />
venture outside of their glade, an act which they<br />
to<br />
extremely dangerous. Usually leaving is<br />
consider<br />
forbidden by the Great Deku Tree, but<br />
expressly<br />
rare occasions the Tree has a task which<br />
on<br />
only be accomplished by a direct agent, and<br />
can<br />
a kokiri is sent into the world. Most often<br />
so<br />
is an act of reward, a kokiri appearing<br />
this<br />
weave some magic over a pious village or<br />
to<br />
escpecially a newborn child, but<br />
person,<br />
the Deku Tree is the patron of humanity he can<br />
Though<br />
tolerate so much desctruction of nature, and those<br />
only<br />
take from the forests or the land too quickly or<br />
who<br />
may be visited by a Glade Child requesting they<br />
greedily<br />
for a time. The kokiri will implore that those they<br />
stop<br />
with stop their actions, turn back their paths. The<br />
speak<br />
does this because they know the alternative, and so<br />
kokiri<br />
wish to avoid it. No Glade Child wants the Skull<br />
dearly<br />
the Glade Child's words are ignored, the alternative<br />
When<br />
Nobody knows exactly from where the Skull<br />
arrives.<br />
come- to some they are hylian and human<br />
Children<br />
who were lost in the deepest forests. To others<br />
children<br />
are a dark reflection of the kokiri, twisted and inverted<br />
they<br />
with a deeper connection to the forests than even the<br />
and<br />
Children. No matter their origin, their appearance is<br />
Glade<br />
as is their method.<br />
known,<br />
in rags and leaves, with their wooden faces split<br />
Clad<br />
by toothy grins and sunken eyes of shimmering ruby<br />
wide<br />
give them their name, the Skull Children emerge<br />
which<br />
the forests around the logging camp or fade out of the<br />
from<br />
depths of the mines playing their eldritch songs.<br />
darkest<br />
follows changes depending on the situation and who<br />
What<br />
telling the story. An avalanche of ferocious wildlife fils<br />
is<br />
tunnels. The lumberjacks put down their axes and<br />
the<br />
a merry jig after the children. Every man listening<br />
dance<br />
falls to the floor dead, or has his flesh vanish<br />
spontaneously<br />
a puff of smoke revealing a grinning skeleton who will<br />
in<br />
the site for centuries to come.<br />
haunt<br />
there are the puppets which march at the behest of<br />
Then<br />
Skull Children. Those wooden automatons which fall<br />
the<br />
the sky on strings connected to nothingness, their<br />
from<br />
unfolding to reveal fingers glinting with blades and<br />
limbs<br />
teeth sharp like stakes, moving soundlessly except for<br />
their<br />
click and clack of their wildly flailing arms...<br />
the<br />
Children to be needed.<br />
The Skull Children.<br />
Forest Spirits<br />
We don't talk about the puppets.<br />
it is also often a warning.
eadily become adventurers by their very naturethey<br />
Kokiri<br />
fear little in the glade, and by the time they have<br />
to fear they have also learned to be brave. Kokiri<br />
learned<br />
have the natural adventurous spirit of children, and<br />
usually<br />
pair this with enough arcane power to back up their<br />
most<br />
and keep them safe. This means that the world<br />
ambitions<br />
to reward their curiosity, and since they want for little<br />
tends<br />
in the glade they have plenty of opportunities to<br />
back<br />
this curiosity.<br />
indulge<br />
addition the Deku Tree is more than capable of<br />
In<br />
at least an impression of the future, and can and<br />
foretelling<br />
send Glade and Skull Children on journeys of<br />
will<br />
to change or ensure that future. If there is a<br />
importance<br />
adventure of great import it is entirely reasonable for<br />
fated<br />
Tree to send a kokiri He considers capable of<br />
the<br />
to whatever group may be undertaking it. An<br />
contributing<br />
party that finds itself accompanied by a forest<br />
adventuring<br />
may be fated for greater things than it knows.<br />
spirit<br />
names are very simple- they are names which sound<br />
Kokiri<br />
or pretty or neat. They tend to use hylian names, if<br />
cool<br />
a little, and so won't be detailed here. Fairy<br />
simplified<br />
on the other hand tend to follow a strict pattern-<br />
names<br />
are four letters, two consonants and two vowels.<br />
they<br />
names: Aeth, Aren, Biki, Bolo, Croo, Deir, Diol,<br />
Fairy<br />
Faor, Hine, Julo, Lora, Midi, Navi, Nour, Nule, Oort,<br />
Eren,<br />
Rale, Seti, Tael, Tatl, Teal, Vili, Zien<br />
Pado,<br />
inherently eldritch beings, kokiri have many traits<br />
Being<br />
are not found in other creatures and are conferred to<br />
which<br />
Score Increase: Your Charisma score increases<br />
Ability<br />
two. by<br />
Kokiri do not seem to age.<br />
Age:<br />
Alignment: Kokiri tend towards whimsy and<br />
Typical<br />
and are usually chaotic good, but other good and<br />
kindness<br />
aligned kokiri do exist. On the other hand, although<br />
neutral<br />
kokiri may be petty or selfish or cruel there are most<br />
some<br />
no evil kokiri, as the Tree would not tolerate them<br />
definitely<br />
continue as they were.<br />
to<br />
Children also have a whimsical tendency, but not<br />
Skull<br />
the kokiri understand their motives. Perhaps some<br />
even<br />
what they do, perhaps not. Skull Children tend<br />
relish<br />
chaotic neutral, but it is far from inconcievable for<br />
towards<br />
to be evil or good.<br />
them<br />
Glade Children appear to be slightly fey hylian<br />
Size:<br />
Skull Children are similar, but their exposed skin<br />
children.<br />
like teak. They are both around three feet tall and weigh<br />
is<br />
thirty pounds, with both having a size of small.<br />
around<br />
Your walking speed is 20 feet.<br />
Speed:<br />
Gaze: Kokiri can re-roll attack rolls and<br />
Yggdrasil’s<br />
throw results of one.<br />
saving<br />
You can try to hide when lightly obscured by<br />
Arboreal:<br />
heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural<br />
foliage,<br />
You are also vulnerable to fire damage.<br />
phenomena.<br />
Companion: You are permanently accompanied by<br />
Fey<br />
fairy, your closest and dearest friend. This fairy is<br />
a<br />
by the DM but has an initial personality,<br />
controlled<br />
name and disposition set by you. Its profile is<br />
appearance,<br />
If your fairy is killed then it dissipates, returning to<br />
below.<br />
as close as possible to you at the end of your next<br />
existence<br />
or long rest. If you die then your fairy is destroyed<br />
short<br />
such a time as you return to life, at which point it also<br />
until<br />
and Scare: You have proficiency in the charisma<br />
Lure<br />
of performance and intimidation.<br />
skills<br />
to Kill: If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and<br />
Hard<br />
are in your original form (for example are not<br />
you<br />
or subject to the spells polymorph, true<br />
wildshaped<br />
or shapechange) you may make a Constitution<br />
polymorph<br />
throw with a DC of half the damage taken or ten<br />
saving<br />
is higher) unless the damage is fire or from a<br />
(whichever<br />
hit. On a success, you drop to 1 hit point instead.<br />
critical<br />
Whenever you use a spell or item which<br />
Puppetmaster:<br />
a creature or a number of creatures you may<br />
summons<br />
summon Skull Puppets. Your spell still functions as<br />
instead<br />
except any limitations on creature type or specific<br />
normal,<br />
are ignored. For example a spell that lets you<br />
creature<br />
a bear would let you summon a Skull Puppet, and<br />
summon<br />
spell which lets you summon 100 hitpoints worth of<br />
a<br />
would let you summon 100 hitpoints worth of skull<br />
beasts<br />
You may also raise Skull Puppets instead of<br />
puppets.<br />
skeletons or zombies from a corpse when using<br />
raising<br />
undead. Skull Puppets follow you unconditionally,<br />
create<br />
no motivations beyond those you choose to give them,<br />
have<br />
only obey you, regardless of what magic may be<br />
and<br />
The Wide World<br />
Glade Child<br />
as close as possible to you.<br />
reappears<br />
Skull Child<br />
Kokiri Names<br />
Kokiri Traits<br />
employed to change their minds.<br />
Playing a Kokiri<br />
Regardless of subrace, the presence of a kokiri is<br />
A Big Deal. Your presence in the party will be<br />
notable, even moreso than other rare peoples,<br />
and this may not be something your DM wants.<br />
Whether or not the kokiri are available as a PC<br />
race is absolutely up to your DM, even moreso<br />
than with other races.<br />
It's also worth mentioning that the background<br />
of the kokiri is deliberately vague. Although<br />
suggestions of your true nature will be available<br />
to your DM, this is your DM's Hyrule and it works<br />
how your DM wants. Being a kokiri means by<br />
definition not knowing everything about your<br />
nature or past, and possibly having elements of<br />
your character dictated to you, including secrets<br />
about yourself which you may not have been<br />
aware of and may not be positive. If this does not<br />
appeal to you or you do not trust your DM to<br />
make decisions you will like then do not play a<br />
kokiri.<br />
kokiri characters.<br />
Subrace: you must pick one of the following subraces.
Skull Puppet<br />
Medium Construct, Nonaligned<br />
Armor Class 8<br />
Hit Points 22(3d8+9)<br />
Speed 0ft., fly 20ft. (hover)<br />
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA<br />
13 (+1) 6 (-2) 16 (+3) 8 (-1) 12 (+1) 5 (-3)<br />
Damage Immunities poison, psychic<br />
Damage Vulnerabilities fire<br />
Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned,<br />
stunned, frightened<br />
Senses passive Perception 11, blindsight to 30ft.<br />
but cannot otherwise see<br />
Languages understands Fey but can't speak<br />
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)<br />
Constructed: If damage reduces the puppet to 0<br />
hit points, it must make a Constitution saving<br />
throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless<br />
the damage is fire or from a critical hit. On a<br />
success, the puppet drops to 1 hit point instead.<br />
Tools of the Skull Children: Puppets cannot be<br />
convinced or forced to knowingly disobey the<br />
Skull Child who summoned them through any<br />
means, including magical.<br />
Actions<br />
Slash. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft.,<br />
one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) slashing damage.<br />
Fairy<br />
Tiny Fey, Any Alignment<br />
Armor Class 15<br />
Hit Points 2(1d4)<br />
Speed 10ft., fly 40ft<br />
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA<br />
3 (-4) 18 (+4) 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 11 (+0)<br />
Damage Immunities poison<br />
Damage Vulnerabilities thunder<br />
Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned<br />
Senses passive Perception 11<br />
Languages Those of the kokiri it is bonded to.<br />
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)<br />
A Fragment of Soul: A fairy's abilities, actions and<br />
statistics change as its kokiri levels up, as detailed<br />
below. When a level is stated, assume this is the<br />
level of the kokiri the fairy is bonded to.<br />
Fragmentary Build: At level 4 a fairy becomes<br />
around one foot tall. At level 8 it is around the<br />
height of its kokiri and its size becomes small.<br />
Fragmentary Vanishing: A fairy can cast invisibility<br />
as a bonus action at will. At level 4 this instead<br />
becomes greater invisibility. Both of these spells<br />
can only target the fairy and no other creatures.<br />
Fragmentary Traits: At level 4 the fairy's Dexterity<br />
score increases to 20(+5), its Constitution<br />
increases to 13(+1), and its Charisma increases<br />
to 16(+3). At level 16 these increase again to a<br />
Constitution of 14(+2), and an Intelligence of<br />
16(+3).<br />
Fragmentary Resilience: At level 4 the fairy's<br />
maximum hitpoints increases to 14(4d4+4). At<br />
level 16 it increases again to 40(9d4+18).<br />
Fragmentary Speed: At level 4 the fairy's flying<br />
speed increases to 60 ft.<br />
Fragmentary Spellcasting: The fairy's innate<br />
spellcasting ability is Charisma. It can innately<br />
cast a number of spells, requiring no material<br />
components. As the fairy's kokiri gains levels it<br />
gains additional spells, as detailed below. A fairy<br />
does not lose spells as its kokiri levels, and<br />
retains all spells it has previously unlocked.<br />
Level 4:<br />
1/day each: dancing lights, mage hand, minor<br />
illusion, color cpray, mirror image.<br />
Level 8:<br />
1/day each: major image, hallucinatory terrain,<br />
polymorph<br />
Level 16:<br />
at will: mage hand<br />
1st level (3 slots): magic missile, shield<br />
2nd level (2 slots): blur, flaming sphere<br />
3rd level (1 slot): fireball<br />
Actions<br />
Stab. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft.,<br />
one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.<br />
Fey Beam: Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit,<br />
range 40/160 ft., one target. Hit: 1 radiant<br />
damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 10<br />
Constitution saving throw or become poisoned<br />
for l minute. If its saving throw result is 5 or<br />
lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious for<br />
the same duration, or until it takes damage or<br />
another creature takes an action to shake it<br />
awake.<br />
Fairy Dust (level 4+ only): The fairy blows a puff of<br />
scintillating dust at one creature within 5 feet of<br />
it. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom<br />
saving throw, or for 1 minute, the target can't<br />
take reactions and must roll a d6 at the start of<br />
each of its turns to determine its behavior during<br />
the turn:<br />
1-4. The target takes no action or bonus action<br />
and uses all of its movement to move in a<br />
random direction.<br />
5-6. The target doesn't move, and the only thing<br />
it can do on its turn is make a DC 11 Wisdom<br />
saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a<br />
success.<br />
Major Fey Beam (level 16+ only): The fairy<br />
performs the following Ranged Weapon Attack<br />
twice: +5 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 10<br />
(3d6) radiant damage.