‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ind. pri. sel. SHEIK from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarine of Time. AU based & heavily headcanon divergent.

ᴀ ꜱᴛᴜᴅʏ ɪɴ; child soldiers, the things we are forced to do rather than what we want to do. what is the right thing for everyone versus what is the right thing for one person. do the actions you are forced to make define who you really are, or do the ones you wish you had taken?

HERE IS GATHERED HYRULE'S BLOODY HISTORY OF GREED AND HATRED.

dead dove ; do not eat. this blog will contain 18+ content | minors DNI. there will be mentions of blood gore trauma religious study and general dark themes. if any of this makes you uncomfortable do not follow.

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ carrd (rules & about) | headcanons masterpost meme tag | promo | spotify playlist

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤaffiliated with: @sapientiiae | @luzofstars | @dutifulsilence

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤEST. 02/2023 PENNED BY INU 25+ EST ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤㅤ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤblog roll: @truearchangel

Sheikah weddings.

   As a group of very religious people who strongly worship Hylia, the Golden Three and of course their own ancestors, the Sheikah have very traditional and spiritual weddings. In the event that one of them does actually get married, even to outsiders (Hylians / Gerudo / humans), in their own eyes they do not see themselves married unless they do it by their own laws. And they have a very specific way of marrying someone. 

   While Sheikah weddings tend to be grand and momentous occasions with plenty of food (but no alcohol), they’re also quiet and respectful. The Sheikah use it as a day to connect their ancestral heritage with the ancestors of the people they’re marrying, joining the two families as one. For this occasion, they often light incense and candles, introduce their partner to their family and the family that is long gone, and ask for their blessing unifying the two households. 

   This also includes leaving offerings for their ancestors and of course Hylia. Decorating one of Hylia’s statues together is one of the things they take time to do, weaving flowers together and laying them across the statue of her in a grand way. 

   The actual wedding is officiated by the Tribe Leader or an elder in the face of it being the Tribe Leader getting married. They do a form of handfasting that they believe ties their soul to their partners, connecting their fate and destiny together so that in the next life, when it comes, they can easily find them regardless of how their life turns out. Sheikah are heavy believers in fate and destiny (if this is how it happens it must be what Hylia intends) and tying their fate to the others will ensure their heart remembers and finds them. 

   After the ceremony they have their partner sign the family registry that tracks the bloodlines and heirs throughout their entire lives. The books are passed down through the generations and kept in the Sheikah archives, with the rest of their records of history. 

   The Sheikah are already not heavy drinkers, they’re probably very light weight for this reason, but since weddings for them are considered practically religious events and a very big part of their lives they don’t believe in consuming alcohol during them. Though food is prepared and usually grand on most occasions. They typically hold these gatherings outside, the entire village participates in them, including the children who spend most of the day picking flowers and decorating the town with them. 

   In the time periods where there are not any Sheikah left–

The more upset, flustered, angry Sheik gets; the more Sheikah he'll speak. The angrier he is, he'll switch mid speech between Sheikah and Hylian. He'll also curse in Sheikah, but he won't curse in Hylian. He finds it undignified. It's just different if no one can understand him when he does it.

He views his part in Link's journey as very cowardly, and he gets upset/defensive easily when the Hero of Time is brought into conversation. He doesn't have much of a temper, and the one he has has the longest fuse ever, but he'll be quick to anger if the conversation is about him and Link or their journey in a negative way.

In that same regard, Link is not an easy conversation topic for him. Though he talks more openly about it in the Sage of Shadows verse, because he uses it as a lesson for the Heroes that follow his, you won't get much out of him about it in any other verse.

As a Sheikah he has sensitive hearing, he can hear better than most people and definitely better than a Hylian. If a pin drops in another room, he can pick it up.

In the same regard, he's sensitive to drastic changes in temperature. He gets colder easier and tires / overheats quicker in overly humid climates.

Their eyes, true to their name as the eye of truth, can see things that other's can't. This is espeically true in the Shadow Temple, but anything that's hidden to normal eyes, disguised or illusioned, he can see through. If it goes bump in the night, he can see it.

His Shadow Magic, the root of the Sheikah's abilities, is controlled with his harp. However, it used to go a lot deeper than that. Inside the Shadow Temple or places of extreme darkness, he can actually bend it to his will and merge with it. It only works in places that are extremely dark, otherwise he controls it with the harp. He never learned to properly use it without the harp, limiting his control over it without the instrument.

hc lying/truths send me  ‘ hc ‘  + a word and i’ll write a headcanon about it regarding my character.

There's a couple HC's about how the Sheikah hate being lied to because of what the Eye of Truth stands for, those who seek the truth, so we'll take this in a more personal level for Sheik.

Sheik as a Sheikah does hate being lied to. Sheik on a personal level will be so offended if you lie to him, you can bet that trust if there is any, will be broken. Sheik makes a point not to lie, and has said directly to people, "I will never lie to you. If I can't tell you the truth, I simply won't answer you at all." He does stretch the definition of truth a bit, he does not count half-truths. This is shown in one of his threads where he says I don't know where Link is, when in truth he has a general idea of where he is. But since he can't give an exact location, he doesn't consider it a lie.

He does hold other people to this as well. If what you say is a truth, even in part, you're fine. But if he asks you something, and you give him a full faced lie he's going to be pissed off. It doesn't matter if he learns the truth hours, day, weeks later the fact it was a lie at all will be held against you.

Lies told for his own sake are not any better either, this will actually get worse. If someone lies to protect him, to comfort him, he's going to be even unhappier.

Anonymous asked: What did you do while Link was saving the world then?

Valid question. One he doesn't even tell the details of to either of them. The Hero or the Princess.

   “I served under Ganondorf, as one of his pawns.” It’s a title he realizes he has, but tries not to claim. Servant of Ganondorf and then eventually traitor. Yet, it’s still all the same. He had done both and under the Evil King, in his hands, Sheik had done horrible things. Things he can never take back, can never undo, can never fix. He doesn’t care how many times they redo history, how many times they rewind the world. It does not erase the things you did. It doesn’t clean the blood from his hands. 

   “Everyone at this point is aware of the Bottom of the Well, correct?” It’s no longer a secret, to those that matter. Normal Hylians, perhaps, but to the rest of them–well, those that need to know do he supposed. “The Bottom of the Well is only part of a network. We call it the Sheikah Catacombs, they’re a series of networks underneath Hyrule that the Sheikah used to get around during the Great War. They all connect to what is called the Bottom of the Well, where the Sheikah imprisoned Hyrule’s enemies and tortured them, like the Shadow Temple.” All parts of one big story. 

   A bloody story. 

   “When Impa escaped with Princess Zelda she hid with her inside the Sheikah Catacombs. There’s an entrance in Impa’s house, it was hidden by Coco the Cow during that time and the second entrance, the Well, was filled with water.” Burying the two of them, protecting them from Ganondorf. It was all one big plan that failed miserably when Link had to drain the well and Ganondorf started paying a bit more attention to Sheik. Everything literally went up in flames.

   A breath. “When they went into hiding, I went to the Castle. There was a chance he would have killed me on the spot. Instead, he proposed a test.” A slight incline of his head, voice emotionless–but his heart was constricting tightly in his chest. “When darkness plagues the land, do you know what corpses become? They’re the Monsters we have given the title redeads to. The change is–fast… I think. It feels much slower at the moment.” 

   The darkness, the shadows, the curse on the land seeps into their bodies. It twists and it consumes, drains whatever remains of life was in them. They turn into hollow husks of what they once were, and then they get back up. 

failing to catch Princess Zelda @sapientiiae out of a tree. Sheik & Impa. Different kinds of love.

  “I fell.” Technically, not specific. Granny was looking at him with that expression that said she didn’t entirely believe him either. Which is ridiculous, Sheikah don’t lie. Sheik doesn’t lie. Unless it’s to himself, apparently. He shifted a little bit in place and sunk down onto the ground, watching Granny turn back to her cauldron and begin working on the potion to patch him up. She was kind, always picking him up if he stumbled in here. Taking care of his injuries with only some light scolding. 

HC + Sheikah Stone send me  ‘ hc ‘  + a word and i’ll write a headcanon about it regarding my character.

   We’re going to get weird with the Sheikah facts here. 

   So, the gossip stones as they are in the game, are a bit weird. They’re basically alive, they talk to Link, but they’re obviously not technology. Not yet, not in the way we have Ancient Sheikah Tech in BOTW. So, personally I do think they’re very much filled with the Sheikah tribes magic and the less Sheikah there are to handle the upkeep of them (there’s only Sheik and Impa left and then only one of them), they continue to decline rapidly from lack of care. However, before that, I believe they were created by the Sheikah for the Royal Family to monitor Hyrule during the Great War. The information it gives Link is useless at most, but if an actual Sheikah talked to it–they probably passed war details and information from other Sheikah Tribe members to them. In a time of war, they’d be incredibly useful. 

   The Enchanted Gossip Stones came into existence during Wind Waker, but the way they’re described in the game implies they’ve been in function for a while. Which makes me think they were created during Sheik’s time and I imagine it was Impa that created them. A couple of them, based off of the magic that was used for the Gossip Stones themselves. The upkeep of them probably got to be too much, but as a war strategist she couldn’t deny the usefulness of them. Especially what having them during Ganondorf’s reign would have. 

   However, she didn’t finish them in time before Sheik had to leave and just continued to work on them during her time hiding away with Zelda, perhaps even getting her help in crafting them a bit more, including them with her light magic and making them far stronger than they she would have managed on her own. The glow they give off is much more bright than what a Sheikah would have managed to just do with shadow magic. 

   It’s also how the Royal Family ends up with them during the reset, bits and fragments of the things they’ve done surviving. Such a powerful, small object with the magic of two sages in them would undoubtedly survive the reset. Zelda would cherish them quite a bit and Sheik would let her keep them since it isn’t as if they would do him any good now, and he can clearly see how important they would be to Zelda. The Enchanted Gossip Stones are useful only in very specific situations and Sheik doesn’t think the Princess really needs him carrying them around, much less on stealth missions. 

hc + ⏳ for a time-themed headcanon Thematic Headcanons.

   There is, possibly, no word that Sheik has such complicated and mixed feelings over. Time is subjective and as he tells Link, the flow of it is different for each person. Sheik spent seven years waiting for the Hero of Time to wake up, and within those slow moving seven years, he was trapped serving under a cruel man who had him do things he would have never wanted to if he had a choice. Time at that point seemed slow moving, suffocating, trapping him in an endless cycle of trying to make choices that wouldn’t break him while hoping for the seven years to finally reach their end. That Link really would wake up and bring Hyrule back into the light. Seven years, where each day the only thing you have to look forward to, was maybe coming out at the end of each day someone held together, can feel like centuries. 

   When Link finally did wake up, they were stuck on their journey attempting to save Hyrule, each day spent trying to keep the Hero ahead of Ganondorf, the Evil King’s eyes off of Link, and the word time falling from his mouth far too much to the Hero. It was a bit like a record stuttering, moving forward but jerking back to continue the same words over and over. Link could go forward and backwards along time’s river, change the path and adjust the future. He could fall in the past and stutter in the future. He could chase fleeting memories of his younger days and desperately clutch at the remains of his current time, each tick of the clock seeming to chip away at him. 

   Sheik watched the Hero get beat down by time, over and over, the hands of the clock turning and continuing despite the hardships Link endured. For it stops for no one, it doesn’t care if you’re suffering or not. 

   Then when all of it was ripped away, the entirety of Hyrule thrown into the past, Sheik’s entire world turned back on itself with the threat of his memories being stolen from him–time seemed to curse him.

    Forced to relive his childhood over, forced to accept that everyone he had, everything he knew, the world he became familiar with was gone and he was alone. Impa was the Sage, Impa was gone, Princess Zelda had a kingdom to run. He was the last Sheikah, in a village where the people he knew barely knew him anymore. A child again, far too old mentally, and stuck raising himself. The clock would keep moving, but he felt trapped in his own body and in a past he had never asked for. 

   And it came down to the same thing it always did.

   The flow of time would continue to run, he would have to be alright, and he would have to keep moving. Because there was no other choice. He would have to be what Impa told him he had to be, the shadow and the Sheikah Warrior. 

   For a while, he really did try. He fought with himself (he fought with the Castle soldiers mostly), he took the role that Impa once occupied at Princess Zelda’s side and he existed. He was the shadow, the protector of the Royal Family, the guide of Princess Zelda, and he let the clock move. Slowly again, but for an entirely different reason this time. It was drowning, pretending that everything was fine, that the memories weren’t choking him, that he felt like he didn’t have a purpose anymore. 

   So he sought a purpose. 

   He ended up in the Shadow Temple and time stopped having any meaning. 

   Sages don’t age, even though time continues to move. They’re stuck in time, expected to pray endlessly to protect the Sacred Realm. To keep the balance together and defend the entire world. He did what was expected of him even as the Hero of Time moved on from the world, replaced by the Hero of Twilight and eventually the Hero of the Wild. 

   It’s almost a numbing feeling. Knowing everything is gone and then seeing it actually faded from existence. Leaving only footprints on the memories and hearts of the people around them. 

   Time is cruel. 

   Everything that the Hero of Time fought for was taken away when Princess Zelda rewound the world on them. Only three of them and a tree remembering what wasn’t meant to be. Not even the history books recorded what Link did, other than the one forged by Impa and Sheik to try and remember what had once been. What Link sacrificed for them. Books that would eventually be destroyed with the fall of the Sheikah Tribe, left to rot like the clan itself. 

sleeping.

   Sheik has a terrible habit of simply not doing this. That isn't to say he never sleeps, of course he has to, but if he's out / on an adventure / working / even at home; he will push himself to the very limits of his body to continue to work and feel safe. This is most prominent during his travels with Link when he was guiding him. At that point, no where was safe other than Impa's house and considering Princess Zelda and Impa were hiding beneath it, in the Sheikah Catacombs, he tried to stay away from that place even as much as possible. 

As a result, and especially to keep up with everything he was doing (and tracking Link to meet him on time), Sheik was often very much on no sleep or a handful of hours at most (a habit that continues). He's gotten used to resting in trees, closing his eyes for a few minutes or even just meditating to rest his body. There are days where he full out passed out in Fairy Fountains. But he would push himself, to the absolute limits to meet every deadline he had. Because then everything was a time limit. 

Later, in any of his other verses, it's the nightmares or the constant feeling of being on edge / in danger that keeps him from sleeping properly. Everywhere is a threat when you're in the wild / an unknown location and you're most vulnerable when you close your eyes. 

However, Sheik actually does sleep better behind closed doors even if it's not enough. Places he is comfortable. Places he knows are safe. His house, for example, is a place he'll actually managed to get some decent rest. He's that person who sleeps with his back to the wall, facing the only entrances in the house, and with several weapons tucked in safe places. But he'll actually sleep, so long as the nightmares don't disrupt him. 

He likes to sleep on his side, he doesn't toss or turn, he barely moves and he wakes at the slightest sound or disturbance in the room. If there is another person in the bed with him, he is very much a clinger. 

Anonymous asked: What is the shadow temple like?

ʜᴇʀᴇ ɪꜱ ɢᴀᴛʜᴇʀᴇᴅ ʜʏʀᴜʟᴇ'ꜱ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅʏ ʜɪꜱᴛᴏʀʏ ᴏꜰ ɢʀᴇᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀᴛʀᴇᴅ.

That sign can be found at the entrance of the Shadow Temple, beside the door Link opens with Dins Fire, carved into the wall as a stiff reminder from the Sheikah to those that come after them. The Shadow Temple was not always a Temple. Before the Great Betrayal, the Sheikah would imprison Hyrule's enemies inside it and torture them for information. They did this for several generations, years, primarily during the Hyrulean Civil War.

After the Great Betrayal where the Royal Family turned on the Sheikah, the remaining survivors repurposed the prison into the Shadow Temple and buried their dead in there to keep them out of the hands of the Royal Family. To keep what happened to Bongo Bongo from happening to them. used and repurposed.

The Shadow Temple, being built by the Sheikah, is full of traps that only their eyes can see. Every layer of that place is bathed in their magic, in the darkness, the shadows and as a result a lot of the monsters born in that place cannot be seen. The horros that the Shadow Temple hold hides themselves. The Hero in his journey can see some of it with the Lens of Truth, the true secrets yield only to the eye of truth.

For Sheik specifically, Impa had sent him in there young as a training exercise. He never made it to the sanctum as the shadows got inside his head and played with him. He holds a deep fear of being in that place, of having his most intimate and weakest thoughts twisted and used against him.

When he becomes the Sage of Shadows the Temple and him are practically one.

If asked, Sheik will always answer this about the Shadow Temple.