#restorationage

Rules: Make a list of every creative project you'd like to tackle next year! It can be anything, from updating a story to starting a new story entirely. Fanart ideas. Wrapping up old projects. Literally any creative endeavor that comes to mind! It doesn't have to be super extensive either. Just whatever you think you'd reasonably like to tackle in the coming year.

Tagged on my main, moving to my fic side blog. Thank you for the tag @mistresslrigtar and @abbyzwrites!

My goals for 2026:

Finish Mark of Hero. I am half way through the first arc of book 8, which leaves it, book 9, and the prequel to finish. At current pace, this is looking to happen in June-July, but still realistic even if I need to slow down for the year as a whole.

Return to Restoration Age. I won't be overly ambitious and say finish it too, though at my current pace, that's not off the table. We'll see there the year takes us, but I'm very excited for the planning I've been starting on this one.

More collabs! I am so excited for Cross-legends again this summer. I think I will do smaller projects, but hopefully with more creators!

Restoration Age by @amelias-calamity-quintet

Modern | Teen | AO3 | Ongoing

Synopsis: Hyrule has grown. The fairy tale kingdom that has endured for eons is no more. And while historians argue over what history needs to be preserved, Hyrule endures and thrives in the modern age. With the proverbial guide book gone, where will the kingdom go now? And what would a Hero mean for a country that no longer needs a Hero?

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A modern Hyrule is hiding a big secret that Link and his best friend, Dwarf uncover while exploring some ancient ruins. The exposition sets the stage and introduces a broad range of interesting characters. A mega-computer, reminiscent of H.A.L. from 2001 Space Odyssey, seems hell-bent on reimagining the world as they know it. I’ll be interested to see how Link and Zelda work together to, not only save Dwarf, but all of Hyrule, as well. - Mistress Lrigtar

A fresh and fun take on a modern Zelda AU, where all of Hyrule's progress and its advances are threatened to be reset and restored to days of yore. This genre of Zelda fic isn't usually something I'm into, but RA's been very fun and enjoyable to read, and it's only the beginning of their adventure. The stakes are high but also personal for Link. And Zelda's personality shines through even in the few chapters we've seen her in so far. Very excited to see more of how Amelia handles modern Hyrule as a setting and to see where this adventure takes us! - doubtfulloser

I love this modern AU so far! This Hyrule feels very close to home… for now. Link gets thrown into old timey adventure mode pretty quickly, and has thoughts about it all which are a hoot to read. Really like what we’ve seen of Link’s best friend Dwarf so far, and Link’s family. The author shows once again her skill in creating full lived in worlds populated with all kinds of interesting people, and I’m looking forward to delving into this one more. - Karama9

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You can find @amelias-hart at AO3, Bluesky, and Wattpad.

🎮 If your OL was a game, what unique game mechanics would it have or genre would it be?

✌ What's your general approach to making an OC for fanworks?

❤ Favorite trope(s)

Thank you for the ask @tnc-n3cl! I actually have several OLs, so I'll probably going to project hop a little on answering these.

🤔 Are there parts of canon you wanted to pull from in your OL?

Considering I start writing my first fic, Goddess of Secrecy, in response to the official timeline getting released and wanting to remerge it, I think it's safe to say I like doing timeline faff. But that's developed more broadly in recent years. After BOTW came out, I really didn't like the 10k time skip thing. It's something I have beef with in fiction in general because it's something a lot of creators do without actually thinking about the scope of that time. Considering that I was already doing a timeline convergence theory as the basis of GoS, this very quickly led into my overarching metanarrative project that I call the Calamity Quintet (hence where my Zelda side blog's name comes from, @amelias-calamity-quintet) in which I've connected five distinct legends together to tell a story on the decay of history. It's a completely optional layer to my stories for people who like ARGs, because while I think the timeline should never be required for Zelda as a series, I do think it can be a fun additional layer to a narrative. I think ARG level stuff like the timeline helps encourage people to hunt and analyze the text for wider connecting themes, and even if it's all crack theories for fandom, that's positive engagement with media.

Other than that, let's see. Mark of a Hero pulls on a lot of relics, both new and old, to make an absolutely unbalanceable adventuring party. Restoration Age was wanting to explore the Sheikah tech in its prime and thinking about themes of how modernity affects our perception of "advanced" technology (there's a lot of retrofuturism in RA). Cinders of Life, I wanted to work on honing the idea of Zelda's central themes in hope in contrast to a setting in ruin. Day After Destiny specifically was meant to tie in the BOTW tapestry at that point. That's a very brief summary of them, but they all are also in on that big timeline faff business, so they pull broadly from the series in general.

And then A Taste for Adventure, I wanted to write a silly one like Triforce Heroes. I think all of my OLs have aspects of silly in them, but aTfA specifically is all silly (the number of people who have started it to think something terrible will happen immediately has me worried 😅 this one's the evil food wizard story, not my dystopian, haha)

And all of my works feature classic puzzle dungeons with mini bosses and bosses. It's actually one of the things I get complimented on a lot, so I'm going to take that as a statistical sign folks like them.

🎮 If your OL was a game, what unique game mechanics would it have or genre would it be?

Oh, it would vary per work!

GoS would probably be the most classic 3D adventure, close to OoT. Its main mechanic is that it would be co-op or at the very least all of the companion characters are summonable much like the Champions ended up being. I designed the dungeon order a lot like ALBW, where the first five dungeons are fixed in order and then the last eight are rotateable. There was originally a table somewhere where the relics for each of the Sage Temples (that second set) would one shot a different Sage Temple's mini boss. It's unfortunately been lost, but I suppose that's the costs of working on a project for over 13 years. Maybe I'll remake it as I'm working on second pass of edits to finalize the thing.

MoaH would probably need to be a JRPG if it had any hope of fitting on a Nintendo console. But that also fits into its primary mechanics in Link having companions and a lot of the combat for the work are designed around setting up team combos with relics and general skill sets. So something maybe Chrono Trigger like, though I'm partial to more of an aRPG combat style myself.

RA has Link and Zelda traveling together, so it would definitely be co-op but in a It's Takes Two kind of way in that each character has their own unique skill set, and combining of the two allows for unique puzzle solution. This one is modern, so Zelda is actually a bit of a hacker and would be able to recode the magi-tech that makes up the dungeons where as Link is more of a scrapper and would use that tech for traps and stuff. Both of them would have combat abilities though.

CoL also has Link and Zelda traveling together, though I think its gameplay would end up being somewhere between Pikimin and Dishonored. They both have their own skill set with Link as a plant wizard and Zelda as a hard light mage, and the plot has them moving through the main cities to regrow parts of them, both to restore the area, but also growing certain plants in certain places allows for progression in the dungeons beneath. As far as the Pikimin part of it, CoL would have a time limit for each of the cities until it's restored.

DAD would be a strategy game, in the vein of Fire Emblem, XCOM, or possibly in a more action combat style like older Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles. This work is about a second quest given to a war veteran Link and Zelda, plus the commander of their army, so having a lot of the game play on tactics of both outmaneuvering the enemy while also solving puzzles seems like a great blend of the unique playstyle with Zelda.

And aTfA would be a farming sim closer in the style of Rune Factory, in that there would be combat and full dungeons while also having a farming element. Link's family being included in the work is actually the novelization of a mechanic there in it of itself. While farming might be relaxing in a farming game, waiting on a farm to grow in a book would slow down the plot, so Link's family was added in as to explain the background passive farming he'll be able to return to throughout the work to pick up ingredients before he heads to his next dungeon.

✌ What's your general approach to making an OC for fanworks?

I personally love making OCs for Zelda works. I think OCs for OLs makes the most sense in a thematic analysis of Zelda, since we don't generally see repeats for cast. There are some, but the majority of characters in a game will be original to (even if there are some reoccuring themes).

My approach to making them though is to pick a race and then two or three character traits. One of those should make them standout from their environment. A princess Moblin, a race organizer who rides an ostrich, a talking gourmand "sheep." If the traits of those characters get to be interesting enough, then sometimes I pick them up to make them more prominent characters with the addition of fuller motivations and character arcs.

I also try to lean into using the Zelda races since they're there to use. While humans and Hylians are very common of course, having a diverse population helps the whole thing feel like Zelda as much as the more bombastic traits can.

❤ Favorite trope(s)

I am a known sucker for the cheerful/snarky/serious trio for any party, I will repeat it over and over again, I'm sure. Jokingly, I will say slow burn, but only in that I don't write romance as a main plot (how's 180 chapters to get to that first GoS kiss doing me?). I do like a good mentor character, and a mundane origin story for a Hero. Uh, that's all I can think of right now.

So I've been told that my work list looks daunting. I think a lot of people see the Calamity Quintet+++ series and think they need to read the whole thing but this is not the case! While some of my works share connected timeline business for the Calamity Quintet's overarching story, all of my Original Legends are standalone! Hopefully this chart helps you pick one to start with!

Beyond that, the commonalities are that all of these works are "Classic Quest" Original Legends, they chiefly feature Zelink (though a few have some other additional romances like Triforce Trio in RA, the all Sages polycule in SotS, and Zelimpa for TotG), they all aim to generally fit Nintendo's style and tone, and they are all long.

Alt text and links under the read more.

It's been two years since I joined AO3! What a ride! And that means now's a great time to step back and look at how far we've come. I think a lot of people get caught up in the moment of numbers, but sometimes it's good to take a step back and look at actually how much things have changed on a bigger scale. And a lot has changed over the last year, particularly considering I'm no longer importing in works, so this is all newly posted alone.

In any case, if you missed it last year, I did a review of my first year. So here it is for this year! And thank you all for joining me this past year, very literally would not be here without you!

Links and image text below the read more.

*Account created 25 June 2024

**Several works are backdated for recordkeeping

Having wrapped up writing MoaH, I'm now headed on to my next active writing project. As promised, this was RA and Restoration Age has finished edits and is now my active longfic project! Updates will return August 31st.

Two things: One, if you've already read RA, I would recommend a reread before the new chapters. Edits added some 20k to the project, including new scenes, characters, mechanics, and set up for this work now being Zelganlink.

Two, if you are interested in reading one of my projects from the start, here is a great place to mention that the Calamity Quintet layer of things is an optional ARG. If you do not care about timeline faff, you can pick up RA without having read GoS or MoaH. I would not be simul-posting MoaH and RA if they were necessary reading.

Get caught up now on AO3!

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Restoration Age (Updates on Mondays & Thursdays, Starting August 31st)

Almost a year ago I shared this milestone in the @expanding-hyrule Discord:

And I'm super thrilled to say that I've hit another major one before the end of this year:

What an absolutely amazing accomplishment! This will be by the end of the year over four books! To include the longest three of the series! I feel so incredibly accomplished and I would not have gotten this far without the support of not just my readers, but the amazing and outstanding support I've gotten over this year for Expanding Hyrule.

But we should be totally clear. I didn't write over 2,000,000 words in MoaH.

I also:

Finished editing the last 100,000 of Goddess of Secrecy and began its second pass of edits, reaching close to 35,000 words added to the work so far

Edited Restoration Age, Cinders of Life, and Day After Destiny to include cuts, revisions, edits, and whole new chapters to tide over their remaining hiatus (Which I should be back to RA before the end of next year)

Wrote the intro chapters to A Taste for Adventure

Wrote all of On Your Mark

Wrote three full prompt collabs for Cross-legends with the very talented @doubtfulloser, @karama9, and @doomed-era

So much behind the scenes from running EH this year from blog posts to coordinating events!

Read and reviewed 69 works in the EH archives and counting! (Nice)

Built the whole EH website which we're getting very close to launching fully, to include just teaching myself css scripting (we're still learning, be patient)

A dozen other ones shots, storyboarding, and personal projects I didn't share

And then I wrote over 2,000,000 words in MoaH

Goddess of Secrecy

Link (17) is a nameless, an outcast by virtue of not having a family name, for no crime of his own. He spent his life in Eveningale Village, a helpful hand and a secret swordsman even if the favor would never be returned.

One day, Link is visited in a dream by the Drex, Endeavor Westwind, and tasked with becoming the Hero of his era. Guided by this mysterious visitor and their hawk, Link plunges into the forests for Deku Fortress, the first of many, many dungeons to come.

Through his quest, Link must first prove himself a Hero to the Golden Goddesses, all four of them this time, to draw the Master Sword. After that, with the help of Endeavor, the tenacious Zelda, the stalwart Impa, and many more companions, he must find each of the eight Sages before Ganondorf and his general Zeal can plunge Hyrule into ruin.

Mark of a Hero

Link Sayre (27) is a Marksman, a mercenary and a monster hunter in a Hyrule with a surplus of magic. One day, at the request of his former mentor, Ambrose, he and his guildmate, Saddiqah El Amin, agree to break into the Temple of Time to stop an evil wizard. Only to find himself blackmailed by the eldest princess of Hyrule into pretending to be the Hero.

Tasked with the new "Hero act," Link and his companions must travel all over Hyrule to reopen the path into the Temple of Time, from Deku's Shelf with its seedy Korok crime lord to Laketown and its haunted guardian and on to Goron City and its treacherous heights. Until finally, they return to the Temple of Inverted Time to open the way to Princess Zelda's rumored power and our pretender finds more truth to the tale.

Having drawn the Master Sword, Link is now tasked to seek out the Sacred Sealing Stones, one gifted to each of Hyrule's neighbors, to reopen the Sealed Door and the power sealed behind it. But between him and his goal is Ganondorf and his many generals, none of which are going to go down easily. The road is long ahead, but the party is determined to see it through to the end.

Restoration Age

Link Sayre (21) is a college student and part time equestrian. After four years of college and no degree to show for it, his life is starting to feel rather listless. One day, his best friend Dwarf suggests they go visit a site from their childhood--an abandoned temple outside of town.

The trip turns surprisingly sour as Link and Dwarf's arrival awakens a magi-tech computer that mistakenly takes them as the Hero and the Enemy, absconding with Dwarf and throwing Link into a dungeon. After Link manages to prove himself through the dungeon's trials, he's released to track down the next temple on his "quest," only to find a lot of reporters waiting for him.

After a brief run-in with law enforcement, Link is snuck out of custody by Princess Zelda. Each of them with their own goals, the two set out to take on the Restoration and hopefully keep it from sending Hyrule back to the dark ages!

Cinders of Life

Link Sayre (10) is an adventurous young kid living in a Hyrule Ganon has succeeded in taking over. The country is in shambles but that's not going to stop Link and his friend Feya from doing their best to put a little greenery back in Castle Town.

Their days of gardening go awry when Feya is caught using magic by the city guards. To keep them from continuing to hunt his friend, Link reveals he too can use magic and is taken off to Hyrule Castle where he meets the King and Queen himself. There the wheel of fate starts to turn again.

Alongside a mute Zelda, Link is tasked with freeing the Great Fairies from the mounds they buried themselves in to bring life back to Hyrule. Between them is King Ganon, whose humanity is all but lost, alongside his arcanely crafted children, the Mahjul. The journey is a dangerous one, and it'll be no small feat for these two to restore Hyrule to what it once was.

Day After Destiny

Link Sayre (42) is a war veteran of the Ash Uprisings and, as of the day our story begins on, to be crowned king alongside his wife, Zelda. Hyrule still shows the scars of the war not even twenty years prior, but with the royal family five heirs strong, there is hope for a future in Hyrule.

Tragedy strikes the night of Link and Zelda's coronation. A masked Kargaroc rider steals their children in the middle of a surprise monster assault on Castle Town. A new war now looms on the horizon of the kingdom.

With no idea where their kids have been taken, Link and Zelda, along with their commander Jacques, set out to reclaim their titles of Hero and Princess a second time to save their kids. So many unknowns between the risk of a new Enemy and old wounds bound to reopen, there's no time to lose!

A Taste for Adventure

Link Sayre (15) is a farmer, quite content with his life in rural Hyrule on his family's farm. That all changes when he and his siblings happen upon a pair of Deku Scrubs corrupted by a strange magic. They say their states were inflicted on them after they ate some badly tasting food.

After saving the Deku Scrubs, and sharing a meal together, Link crashes into an underground cave where he stumbles upon the "sheep," Yaftan. Revitalized with a scavenged meal, Yaftan insists that she must return to Princess Zelda.

Flying back to Link's farm, Link tells his family he plans to escort Princess Zelda's "sheep" back to Castle Town. He's given supplies for the road, before waved off on his adventure to trials unknown!

Song of the Sages

Link Sayre (17) is an aspiring bard--storyteller and fighter extraordinaire! She has spent her life in Haven, training for the day she will head off on a life of adventure with her mom.

Those plans are suddenly expedited with Princess Zelda herself appears in Haven's temple, having snuck out Hyrule Castle on a quest of her own. Zelda believes an Enemy is soon to appear and is going to find the Hero herself to prevent disaster from arising.