The Queen Of Space

The theme is paperwork bc its what loosely connects these three unrelated drawings lol. Can you tell I wasn't very focused today.

Pic 1: The cut content from the army branches/ranks post, was supposed to show Rivan wearing his Lieutenant badge, but I got distracted by the opportunity to draw Bazz's office.

Rivan being lieutenant is very convenient for Bazz, since there’s very few people he trusts more, and he needs someone capable of taking over whenever he's away. Despite his goofy sunshine personality, Rivan is actually one of the more competent guards with lots of field experience, and people tend to listen to him just because he's too damn likeable.

He is completely hopeless at dealing with anything management or politics related though, so he can't be left in charge for too long. Maybe when the times are calmer.

Pic 2: What even is all this paperwork that Bazz keeps complaining about? Most of it is just really, really boring reports. Every Guard intervention in the city, monster patrol, suspicious activity, it all had to be diligently reported, and then Bazz takes the reports, cringes at all the typos, and then summarizes them into one big daily/weekly/monthly report that he will present at the Council meeting. Then there's also training regimens, guard rotations for the week, inventory, reassignments, budgeting...

There's also of course the matter of actually being the -City- Guard - a concerned/hurt civilian is supposed to turn to them for immediate help, and then it's decided if the case needs to be elevated or not.

Given the sheer volume of things that need to be written down, Zora actually do use paper quite a lot, since it is by far the most convenient medium for daily use. Anything deemed worthy enough for long-term storage (in Guard's case e.g. monthly reports, yearly budgets, more significant legal cases) is sent to a scriptorium to be transferred to stone tablets.

Bazz is actually quite well liked by the scribes for being very succinct in his documentation. There's a dartboard with Sidon's face on it.

Haven't seen you in a while, Torfeau! She's the one who most often handles Bazz's paperwork delivery bc she's a good egg who doesn't read important correspondence.

Also an end-of-day Bazz's desk looks almost clean, wow.

+as a bonus, I recorded a timelapse of the bazz&rivan pic! its a mess bc I kept forgetting things and then its not even for the final version bc I remembered that cast shadows are a thing like. next day.

Pic 3: While the required Guard paperwork seems overwhelming, it's pretty manageable once you get the hang of it and is not actually the case of Bazz's chronic lack of sleep. That would be snooping around in old government archives and making personal copies of anything that looks interesting, or is off-limits (which makes it automatically interesting). He just likes knowing stuff, okay???? No other particular reason >:U

Gaddison is the only person (to Bazz's knowledge) who knows the full extent of this operation, and she kinda begrudgingly respects it, just on the account of the audacity. Sidon has Suspicions, but something tells him to not look too closely.

Before I get into more character-specific lore, this picture is a good ilustration of Zora in various moments of their childhood (which I will talk about in detail later, once I'm done wrangling the contents of Rivan's photo album).

Link is around 11 here, so he still hasn't pulled the Master Sword and thus is free to mess around with his Domain friends. This would make Bazz 29yo, Rivan 25yo and Gaddison 23yo - a Zora equivalent of an older child to a preteen. Bazz's height doesn't actually have that much to do with the fact that he's older, he just happened to hit an early growth spurt.

(Wait, who gave this kid a real sword????)

Then we have Mipha at 57yo (something like a 14-15yo teenager, very short for her age, she should be at least a full head taller at this point) and a slightly younger Kodah, who is in her 40s.

Sidon should actually be like, barely hatched and still bopping around in a pool as a tadpole if we followed the proper canon, but I stretched the timeline a bit for the sake of having a cute group picture. He's therefore in his 6yo, freshly-figured-out-this-legs-business toddler form.

Now, our beloved Big Bad Bazz Brigade (A+ for naming, Bazz, really).

(Did you know that in Japanese it's called ちびっ子スババ団 (Chibikko Subaba Dan) which would translate to something like "Little Bazz Gang"? Japanese Bazz gets the gold star for being Slightly Less Cringe I guess.

Bazz came up with the Brigade in his late teens (so as something like a 6/7yo), to make his and Rivan's escapades sound more serious, Gaddison joined shortly after, impressing the boys with her confidence and strength.

As a kid, Bazz was an absolute terror to both adults and other children. He wouldn't do anything that made him look uncool, he talked back to grown-ups he considered lower status, and then bullied kids who wouldn't accept his perceived superiority during games.

(I mean, he was rich, with important parents, and also pretty big and strong for his age. No wonder it went to his head. Also can't forget all the parental neglect.)

The Brigade only worked if he was the leader and if it was also named for him, of course. Rivan already had some special treatment from Bazz, being his oldest friend (also his parents were basically raising Bazz at this point). Gaddison found him obnoxious, but putting him a chokehold a few times seemed to grant her some amount of respect. And was easier than like, actually talking to people.

Other kids weren't very interested, needless to say.

Early Brigade days consisted mostly of catching frogs and whacking reeds with sticks. Bazz turned out to be a pretty good leader, coming up with activities, organizing heists and then (usually) weaseling them out of any consequences. It was little more than Messing Around But With A Name though.

Then 4yo Link arrives in the Domain and suddenly the Brigade business becomes much more serious. As soon as he realizes how valuable the tiny Hylian child is, Bazz immediately gets him to join his club and is later a bit disappointed about being stopped from sparring with a literal four year old.

For roughly six years Link travels back and forth between Hateno and the Domain, usually spending at least one season in a year with the Zora. He mostly hangs out with the Brigade, as they always seem to get in the most exciting predicaments. As they teach him how to swim and fish and handspeak, he becomes more Zora than Hylian in their eyes.

When Link's around 10yo, he and Bazz start practicing with swords. Rivan and Gaddison are a bit dejected, as they're too small to join, and Bazz seems to care about little else at this point. The Brigade is in shambles.

After a 12yo Link pulls out the Master Sword, his visits suddenly stop and the Brigade is now left completely aimless. They try to go back to pre-Link times, but it doesn't really work. After around two years Link starts appearing in the Domain again, though for much shorter periods and he usually just hangs out with Mipha.

At 16, Link is now officially a knight and somehow this results in him visiting the Domain a bit more regularly. In the meantime Bazz got another growth spurt, putting him roughly at Link's height, which means they can train proper swords now. This seems to catch Link's interest, enough that they are kinda hanging out again. Bazz still has to share him with Mipha though, which makes him quietly furious (she already took his dad! when will she have enough!).

Rivan and Gaddison come over for post-training lunches sometimes. Kodah tries to join the Brigade, but is denied (we all know you just want to be around Link, Kodah).

Around this time 4yo Sidon is finally allowed outside the palace, and seeing how the Mipha-Link-Bazz connection makes the Brigade hover in his periphery, he also wants to join. Is denied on the being-a-baby grounds. Bazz feels really smug about telling "no" to a Prince (who is a literal baby).

Then Link becomes Zelda's knight and his Domain visits stop for good. The Brigade sees him once or twice on official Hylian Royal Business, but he pretends he doesn't know them. It sucks. The group loses momentum again while Bazz, being tall enough to hold an adult size spear, starts getting trained by Seggin.

After that the Calamity strikes and well, childhood clubs stop mattering for a very, very long time. With how important Link became for the Brigade, it can't really go on after his death. It's dissolved without anyone really saying anything and Bazz, Rivan and Gaddison each deal with the war and its aftermath separately.

5,6. The age from 3 to 6 is very important. Once a Zora is comfortable with air, they can learn how to crawl and then walk, and also start working on basic speech. Handling them is a major chore though, since most of them really would rather return to water and also they're Very Hungry. All the time.

For once in my life I'm going completely anachronistic and giving Rivan access to a camera. The idea of a Proud Dad photo album was just too fun not to take advantage of.

I won't elaborate much on exact circumstances of Dunma's birth and upbringing, this is just a Baby Zora Growing Up kinda thing.

1 .Egg. Smaller than you'd expect (every time Zora women hear about Hylian pregnancies they shoot a grateful prayer to Nayru) and pretty durable. Needs very specific water conditions (clean, cold but not too much, oxygenated) to develop correctly, which takes around 6 months.

2. If everything goes right, the egg hatches into a tadpole. The tadpoles are much more fragile than the eggs and can die very easily if the water conditions aren't right or they get too little/too much/wrong kind of food. They don't really do anything besides eating, pooping and trying to get themselves killed. Because of this, baby Zora only get named on their first birthday, when they're deemed strong enough to probably make it through.

3. Until around 3yo the baby Zora will remain in the water, working hard on getting fat and sprouting limbs. They start demanding more protein-rich food - if two or more tadpoles survived, they should be separated, or they'll quickly become just one (but very round).

The baby still needs more or less constant care, as it will bite on things it shouldn't or jump out. They can start interacting with other family members, becoming more resistant to infections.

4. At around 3, the baby is ready to be introduced to the concept of using their lungs. They tend to not like it very much and it does take a while.

7. A zora usually gets their first neck brace and accompanying adornments around 6/7 years old, when it's deemed to be safe (as in, their necks are long enough that they probably won't choke).

8. The Zora toddler years last until around 10/15. They can run around (if a bit clumsily) and communicate (more or less coherently). Can start eating foods that are not algae or raw fish. Finally can be left to its own devices for short periods of time, moves to more communal care (parents with kids of similar ages often share care responsibilities).

9. 15-25 is an early childhood stage, the child Zora can do most everything that an adult can, just with a lesser degree of motor control. They're still very small, but mostly independent, curiously exploring the world. They start learning how to read and write.

11. Once the Zora is grown enough (within like 1 head of height to being adult size, usually around their 40s) they're expected to start helping out at some easier jobs (though with no compensation). Usually it's fishing, gardening or some menial Guild tasks (if they're from a Guild-adjacent family). They're still very much treated like young kids and have few civil rights.

10. 25-40 is Zora equivalent of early teenage years. Most of their essential education happens during this time (it varies a lot between commoners and nobility). Zora grow in spurts, which depend on an individual and are not consistent at all. You can have a friend group where everybody is roughly the same age and the tallest has two full heads on the shortest.

At this age the Zora are encouraged to explore the Domain and start building connections with the community.

12. The age of 50/60 is the biological adulthood barrier, though of course it varies between individuals. A Zora usually reaches their final height until then (though for some it might take until their 80s) and could technically start having children of their own (it's preferred they wait a bit more on that). Those who can, finally start their career paths as Guild apprentices or guard recruits. They gain some actual rights and are treated as their own legal people (for some more serious stuff they'll need to wait a bit more, one becomes a full citizen only at 100).

I actually don't have that much to add, Dunma was a pretty normal kid in terms of development, despite the extremely chaotic start (Rivan became a dad at 70, which is most definitely -not- a proper child having age,,, not to mention Dunma's mom went to the store to get shrimp and never came back).

Gaddison was helping out since the beginning but Bazz was a different story, which drew a major wedge in his and Rivan's friendship. The man was terrified of finally meeting her for many reasons, some more justifiable than others. When he finally did, he almost got his fin chomped off multiple times, which ironically made it a bit easier for Rivan to forgive his crimes. He ended up adoring her (he keeps some of her baby drawings on his office wall) and she kinda idolizes him in turn. Rivan is unsure what to think about it.