Hit Me Right in the Nostalgia

yeah im calling this au Weight of the Wind, which i think is pretty cool uh. st link + zelda go back to the great sea because the castle guards find a dead rito on the beach with a message in a bottle and OH BOY the great sea is in danger and "we need a descendant of the hero of winds" YOU GUESSED IT ZELDA. and link tags along because theyre both traumatized and inseparable (despite barely being able to talk throughout the ~1 year post game cause zelda had to deal with queen stuff) and yeah did i mention SHE HAS A BATTLE AXE MWHAHAHAH (im losing my mind)

what is the great sea in danger of? POLLUTION LMAO

but its not like. global warming polluion (yet) its more so "ganon's stone seal is fucking cracking and the malice leaking out of it is mutating the monsters + life + stuff" and therefore theres like an environmental crisis definitely not venting my fear of earth's climate change here and in addition Valoo (the dragon from wind waker) is sick due to this, and with the rito's fear of basically losing their entire way of life (having wings and an ancient deity to teach about their history) they were like "what the FUCK do we do" and some random guy is like "we should find whoever has the blood of the hero of winds because. he saved us once. hes dead now but surely he had kids right." and theyre like "BINGO" and so they send a messanger to go in the (general but estimated) direction of where the hero and the pirates sailed off to, (contact between the two locations was never established), and the messanger flies for a long time and gets caught in a storm. he makes it to new hyrule but he just curls up and dies. yeah. and then link and zelda go sailing and find out that over 100 years the great sea changed a huge amount due to the koroks rebuilding some land with their plant powers or smth idk.

This AU has been living in my mind for so long xD And I decided that I might as well post it now, so! Long story short, it's an AU in which every hero becomes a sword spirit of the master sword. I haven't seen anyone do this before, even though I think it could be a really cool idea! I love Linked Universe a lot, it's kind of the reason this AU exists now! And I am using Legend and Four in the way they are presented there, though I did split Spirit off of Wind since I think it works just a bit better that way! It's important to note that the SwordSpirit!Heroes AU won't play in Linked Universe, that would be just a bit too confusing for me xD It's pretty much disconnected of the happenings there

A lot of things probably won't make that much sense or allign themselves closely with canon. It's 100% self-indulgent I'm also not exactly sure how it started. In my mind, Sky would've made a sort of pact with Fi. Everytime a hero dies, their soul would become a Sword Spirit and help guide the hero that comes after them. It also would've served to strengthen the sword over the years, so that one day the cycle/curse Demise spoke of shortly before he died would be broken. I have an original Triforce Trio in plan for when that happens, though it's probably gonna take me a while to get it drawn BWHAHAH I also have plans for First in this, though I'm still a bit unsure! Anyway, I wanted to give all of them crystals that showcased how they died (through wound or similar) but I,,,low-key forgot after I did it with Warriors and Twilight BWHAHAH At least some of the markings they all have on their bodies are representative of scars they had when alive though!

Hero of the Sky - Attributes of a Loftwing - Similar markings as Sonia due to my headcanon of her being his great-granddaughter - Lightning markings due to the lightning scars acquired during the battle against Demise - Feather of his, Zelda's and Groose's Loftwing in his hair - Cloak is supposed to show similarities to a Loftwings wings, also shows several sky motifs and has an embroidery on the back that depicts the fight against Demise (at least is supposed to,,,if I ever get around to drawing that) Hero of the Minish/Foursword - Attributes of a Badger - Four arms that represent the ability to split into Four - Markings that resemble Kinstones -> Glow bright orange to reference the forge and his occupation as a smith -Picori-esque clothing -> Cape is supposed to resemble Roc's Cape Hero of Time - Attributes of a Wolf - Skullkid clothing -> Kokiri that got "lost" - Kokiri, Sheikah and Deku signs on body -> Reference to multi-cultural background, not just to him but also due to a headcanon I have regarding Kokiri and the "birth" of them - The lighter colored markings represent scars, that turned into vitiligo patches after he was sent back in time Hero of Twilight - Attributes of a Wolf - Markings and clothing that resemble Twili fashion -> Due to close connections and relationships with the Twili - Red hair -> because of the headcanon of having Gerudo roots - Crystal in chest -> stabbed and bled out due to the wound Hero of Legend - Attributes of a Rabbit - Lightning Scars -> acquired at the beginning of Link's Awakening during the thunder storm - Clothing that is similar to royal clothing -> the sibling of their Zelda, so therefore also part of the royal family -> kept simple though due to dislike of what the clothes stand for Hero of Hyrule - Attributes of a Unicorn -> Heavy Draft to symbolize the high constitution needed to live in the swamp-like lands of his Hyrule - Cloak is supposed to look like Fairy Wings -> Clothing in general is inspred by Tinker Bell Hero of the Winds - Attributes of a Seagull - Lots of jewelry -> stole quite a bit as a pirate + got jewelry gifted by Tetra - Due to Bird-nature, clothing is similar to Rito of his time -> "Earth God's Lyric" and "Wind God's Aria" on vest - Sign of the Sail on forehead Hero of Trains - Attributes of an Opossum - Train track markings all over body - Clothing similar to engineer uniform -> supposed to also look royal due to headcanon of relations to the royal family Hero of Warriors - Attributes of a Dragon -> Based on Stormfly from HTTYD - Crystal on stomach shows poison wound, crystal on Neck shows beheading - Markings on left arm represent burn scar recieved from Volvagia at the beginning of HW Hero of the Wild - Attributes of a Stag -> Supposed to look similar to Satori - Markings on right arm are supposed to reference missing/replaced arm in TOTK - Markings on left arm supposed to reference scars gotten from the guardians shortly before the shrine of resurection

PHEW, this took a while! I drew inspiration from a lot of different fanworks in Linked Universe, most Fanfiction or Fanart, so if you see anything that seems familiar, it's probably due to that!

+ More Alttp Ravio because i really like her

Clean ver.