Another Year, Another Fandom

First look

An approximation of how Storm appears when Hyrule first meets him in the lighthouse. Storm's "home wear," and his confident attitude when he's in a place he feels comfortable and safe.

sandy blonde hair, storm-cloud-blue eyes

Multiple ear piercings, something wardens tend to do when they get bored. Storm rotates his earrings regularly for both sentimental and aesthetic reasons.

Leather-and-glass goggles to protect against the weather. Side shields for sideways rain. The glass is not tinted.

I based the sock patterns on Fair Isle knitting.

Stormbreaker sigil

The official sigil of Stormbreaker Lighthouse. Sigils are used on official correspondence as well as being stamped on objects dedicated for official use. Storm wardens get a tattoo of their lighthouse's sigil applied behind one ear. This helps with identification should a warden be found incapacitated or dead. It also serves as a mark of their dedication to their duties.

Simpler versions with less linework, as well as wood-engraved and cast metal versions, of each sigil exist. The version used depends on the application, so there's some flexibility in interpretation.

Heraldic lightning designs inspired these ladder-shaped bolts.

Piercings layout

"They're made outta shells, right?"

"Lyra makes 'em for me. This one was a snail. 'N this one was a turtle shell."

A rough layout for Storm's ear piercings. He carries a little bag of earrings; some have sentimental value, some are considered charms, and some are just nice designs. Storm prefers to wear matched pairs (less decision-making involved) but sometimes he'll go asymmetrical for special occasions. He has a few pairs that use multiple holes (a bar that spans the helix-flat positions, chains that span multiple posts, etc) but usually he sticks to post/stud pieces. This sample collection of earrings accidentally favors warm colors, oops.

Flat: green sea glass stud. Most sea glass is only found in very small pieces these days, but mosaics have become popular to make use of small pieces.

Helix: gold hoop. Most metals degrade quickly in salt water, so pure gold is preferred for metal jewelry, though even "clean" gold tarnishes.

Conch: blood sea star stud. Small sea stars retain their color well when dried.

Upper lobe: striped cockle shell. Colorful shells are uncommon in the tidepools, but even plain-colored creatures may have fascinating patterns or surprising secrets.

Tragus: black ceramic stud. Fired and glazed clay holds up well against salt water, but most villages these days are only able to achieve low-temperature firing, limiting pottery development. Local black clay is mixed with powdered shell to prevent it from cracking, then sealed with a glaze. Not many villages retain skilled artisans able to make elaborate clay pieces; the art is gradually being lost.

Lobe: driftwood spiral false gauge. Spirals represent storm winds and are worn or applied as protective charms to prevent people and objects from being lost to the storms. Wind spirits and hungry ghosts get trapped by the shape of the spiral, becoming endlessly lost in its turns.

Vibe check

This is purely a "what if" design and probably will not appear in the fic. It's an attempt to capture the mood of Storm's later adventuring design.

Knit wool hat, once again using Fair Isle patterns as inspiration.

An alternate earring array, this one includes an industrial bar, lobe hoop and larger fake gauge.

Hero's Green shawl in wool. Based off a short ruana design (one I actually own lol) and also one of the ways I like to wrap mine. I picked a slightly blue-er green than I usually do for Links, since the color palette of this era leans darker and bluer, and on the assumption that the shawl would be dyed twice to get green (yellow first, then blue over top). I think this shawl would be made with a soft, fine wool, something that took extra time to prepare and weave — all the finery they could afford to dress their Hero in.

Side satchel with leather straps and minimal metal hardware. Any metal will of course get salt-ruined quickly, and rusty, so only the bare minimum is made with metal. The straps are reinforced with leather but leather, too, gets ruined by the environment, so use of it is limited. Canvas duck cloth is preferred.

Gloves I would wear, made from knit scraps (mostly sock scraps).

Fae fire lantern. This is an older, more decorative lantern design than what would be used for actual lighting purposes along the coast, but fae fire doesn't care so much about water or heat, so I can get away with the antique look.

The gold tassels were stitched onto the shawl's hem after the fact, they are not part of the warp threads. A decorative overlay.

Wool socks and boots with deep treads for climbing over tidepool rocks. The boots come up a bit to provide support against twisted ankles.

Additional notes

Other things that I thought about but did not include:

Two sketches in and I still have not tucked his pants into waders. But I totally could! Basically all of Storm's pants are either bloused like this or capri-length to keep them out of the mud.

What kinda wool is — I haven't decided, shush. I think they've mostly got sheep to work with but idk what kind, probably some goats but nothing as nice as angora or cashmere. They're definitely doing both knitting and loom-weaving but weaving might be preferred for plant-based fibers, if they have any. Most of the time they wouldn't be super-washing the wool in order to preserve the lanolin for weather-fastness.

So what material are the pants — I'll figure it out later. But these are definitely woven and without stretch.

Scars? — Yes! Some of Storm's scars have been described in the fic already, I simply did not want to mess with the details on this scale. Eventually I'll put together a scar map for him.

Tattoos? — Yes! Like piercings, wardens tend to get tattoos out of boredom. Storm has quite a few, mostly single-color linework. I did not draw any because they have mostly not been decided on yet. But the Stormbreaker sigil behind the ear is confirmed as one.

Image descriptions

[IMG 1: four sketches on a white background, outlined roughly in black pen and colored with bright markers, with no shading and few details.

a young man (Storm) lounging against something invisible, with his hands in his pants pockets. He has messy short blonde hair, fair skin, and gray-blue eyes. He is smiling and relaxed but has lowered brows. He is wearing a camel-brown baggy sweater, light brown wide pants with cuffs, and navy blue socks with white patterns. He has a pair of brown goggles around his neck.

a circular crest design in black and white, featuring a lighthouse, center, on a rocky shore. Behind the lighthouse are geometric dark clouds, high waves, and slanted rain. Splitting around the lighthouse from upper left to lower right is a lightning bolt. A pattern of waves rings the design.

a drawing of two pointed ears with multiple piercings; the piercings are mirrored. Positions and earring descriptions are found above.

Storm in a "power stance," holding a lantern in his right hand and gripping the strap of a side-slung satchel with his left. He has a serious expression and a furrow between his brows. He is wearing a navy blue hat with white patterns, a gray-blue long-sleeved shirt, green patchwork fingerless gloves, dark brown wide pants with cuffs, navy blue socks, and heavy brown hiking boots. He has an emerald green shawl wrapped around his shoulders with metallic gold tassels. The lantern has a black frame and holds a sourceless ball of pale blue flame.]