#vaagan

In a world where magical heroes stand as a barrier between common folk and the evil, corrupting demons who would destroy them, the one-eyed Wind Demon is the most powerful of all, second only to the Demon King himself. A master of the dark arcana, his signature moves include dominion over bats and the ability to drain his enemies of their very life force. A lesser-known ability, he's also an incredibly gifted shape-shifter

In his civilian life, Vaati is the owner of a shop for holistic medicine and spiritual healing

May I remind you, Vaati has actual magic. He could sell actual magic shit at his shop, but chooses not to. He chooses to sell woo-woo nonsense that may or may not work on purpose. He says it's to maintain his cover, but come on

Out of all Vaati's customers, the most infamous is Ganon. AKA the Demon King - not that Vaati realizes it!

Ganon comes in every single week, despite not believing in any of this stuff, because his mothers said they'd only let him take them to their doctor's appointments if he "compromised" by picking up their herbal tinctures. And so, once a week, the mortal incarnation of the Demon King, devourer of worlds, greatest threat to the Color Guardians and their menagerie of allies, is forced to brave his local woo-woo store

What makes it worse, is they snipe at each other

Vaati: Ah, if it isn't my favorite customer. How's your mother's hip? :)

Ganon: 😡 How's your scam business?

Vaati, already preparing the usual: Charming as ever. I'm doing great, thank you for asking, spreading peace & joy & namaste

Ganon: You are scamming people

Vaati, plopping the bag in Ganon's hands: And you're buying it 😊

Later on, somehow or another, Ganon finds out the Wind Demon's identity:

Ganon: You're that hack from the crystal shop??!

That said: Shadow is more of a real knight than FS Link/his colors, as well as technically a prince, and I will never be able to let that go.

A knight has several ingredients:

enough wealth to afford training and equipment, so usually that means land and a title

the oath of fealty (perhaps dubiously followed, but better than a mercenary!)

a horse (chevalier means horseman)

FSA Link, depending on how people write him, is either an apprentice smith or the son of the captain of the guard. Maybe he has bloodline clout, but it's rarely touched on. He probably has the oath of fealty, since Zelda trusts him to save the world. He definitely does NOT have a horse, or land of his own.

Shadow, meanwhile, is technically the son of the King of Demons. Boom, land and a title. Ganon might never intend to step down, but long lived kings are an established problem in monarchies anyway, and a prince is still a prince. Oath of fealty? Until Vio comes along with his sweet nothings, Shadow is arguably Ganon's most loyal little soldier. Sure there's his complete disregard for Vaati, but that's just demonic political intrigue enrichment. A little backstabbing is good for him. A horse?

Shadow has a DRAGON.

Vio obtains land and a title by dating allying with Shadow. Lord of the Tower of Flames. It's heavily implied that gave him the authority to order around minions and such. From a medieval standpoint it absolutely looks like Shadow and Vio eloped.

To round the whole thing off: Vaati has land and a title too, sort of. Mage isn't an official rank of anything, but he's got a magical tower full of minions he can order around, so I think it counts. He was a king once, and he tried to eat the power of a god. Vaati and Ganon's relationship is incredibly vague- coworkers? Actual allies? Marriage of convenience?- but honestly I'd love to explore the idea of Ganon making a power play by trying to woo Vaati. There's an alarming lack of courtship trope in this fandom and something should be done about it.

presenting an au that came to me in a matter of seconds yesterday but i have yet to really elaborate on it sooo here’s some surface level details:

trans Vaas because of course it is

he refused to follow Hoyt’s rules so he got sold off to Kyrat and forced to separate from his family

Pagan bought him and a bunch of other islanders for reasons of Shanath, and he ended up being the last standing fighter in the arena which impressed Pagan. (not that pagan planned to watch-- but noore told him about "the little girl who managed to kill everybody in the ring" and before Noore could even TRY to snatch the kid away, Pagan took him in)

Vaas was basically treated as a spoiled pet. Not quite like a child, because Pagan never saw it that way, but Vaas always sought out his attention hereon afterwards because it was the only source of safety he could get. Not only that, but he was trained to be part of the army and even Yuma decidedly helped him in terms of improving his combat. Both Pagan and Yuma essentially co-parented him, Vaas lived in the palace and he was basically Pagan's doll to care for. At least it was in Yuma's words-- she'd always tell him that he'll one day throw him away when he's bored with him.

at this point, Vaas had only experienced Citra's abuse but not Hoyt's following neglect, so the fact he has this in mind scares him completely. He wants to be everything to Pagan because he was stripped of it when he was taken away, and he'll do practically anything for this emotionally drained and distant man to love him.

he also takes after the both of them in terms of style-- Pagan dresses him up, feeds him, sleeps with him as a way of registering that power. Even though Vaas was never a baby when Pagan saw him, Pagan's attachment to him is clear enough to see that he was making a make-shift version of his dead daughter. A replica. A toy. And Vaas is too afraid to know what that entails if he doesn't follow that image.

Shadow and Octavo as brothers.

Shadow, the seemingly perfect Demon Prince from a world where their parents were able to raise him. Powerful, malicious, burning down villages on the back of a dragon. Conquering Hyrule Castle on his first try, sending all the knights to the Dark World and puppeting their armors for his own dark purposes. More than happy to follow in his fathers' footsteps, right up until his fathers trip and fall, so he can swoop in and take their empire from them

And then he falls in love - with a hero - with that weird, brilliant guy he found in the woods and would totally die for - and it slowly hits him - maybe he doesn't need to take over the world and rule with an iron fist? Maybe he can be warm and loving instead??

Octavo, the prodigal necromancer from a world where the hero fell, and so shortly did the Demon King before the seven Sages. Orphaned, left with the Wind Demon's cult to be trained by the best and brightest of dark wizards. So bright is he, that it circles back to being warm; loving; with all that distance from his true status and parentage, he is allowed to just be

Potential - that's what his tutors all say. He has the potential to be the greatest necromancer of his age. And then he gives it all up to become a bard

Shadow, left alone with Vaati for five minutes:

Vaati: uhh... soooo I become an evil demon, right?

Shadow: yeah

Vaati: so... so when do I get to hurt people?