A Bloodmoon Rises - A BOTW/Bloodborne AU

Mipha, for my Bloodborne AU! Can you tell she’s my favorite character?

My problem with my redesign from almost 2 years ago now is that it was too… simple? Plain looking? She’s the princess of the Zora, even in Bloodborne’s subdued art style, her costume should have more colors. Another thing is that she is really hard to draw and so getting to the point where I could even design her outfit was hard.

Anyway, I’m going to design Sidon next. Also, I should make her monster form.

So, this is a Bloodborne and Breath of the Wild AU, in a “what if botw was more like Bloodborne?” kind of way, not a Zelda characters go through the exact beats of the Bloodborne story kind of way. I think I’m going to talk about my ideas for the goddesses and Ganon.

(DISCLAIMER: I have only played BOTW and TP when it comes to Zelda games, so my interpretations of the lore is very limited. Sorry in advance for any hardcore Zelda fans!)

Ganon/Demise, the Calamity, sort of takes the role of the blood in Bloodborne for my au. He’s an ancient dead great one, whose blood is the malice, and through that malice, he causes the Zelda version of the Yharnam beast plague. The plague is different every time it appears, with its latest incarnation capable of corrupting the machines that were once created to destroy him. The Yiga Clan, being Ganon worshippers, are foolish mortals who believe, like whatever equivalent to the Pthumerians I choose to put in this world (probably the Zonai), that they can control this power. They are wrong, and become transformed for it, like everyone in Yharnam.

So Ganon/Demise represents Oedon, in a way. Mostly formless, the cause of the beast plague/calamity, and seemingly very powerful and otherworldly. He also represents the Moon Presence, in a way, as he is the true final boss. He also is the cause of the bloodmoon.

Hylia (and this interpretation is the one I think will piss off the most people) is sort of like the Christian trinity in this? She is the triforce, Din, Nayru, and Faroe, and she is also Hylia. She exists as aspects, which appear as dragons to those with enough insight, while her full form is as the goddess Hylia. She also takes Flora’s role in this, as she is what allows Link and Zelda to resurrect time and time again, and she seeks to slay the other Great Ones, namely Demise/Ganon.

She is the most powerful great one, but she cannot leave her realm. She relies on mortals to go and do the slaying of the other great ones for her, treating them as not only her champions, but as favored mortals. It is not a coincidence that she chooses the same kind of persons every time to be her champions. She has a favorite kind of mortal.

So Link and Zelda are the only ones who can rebirth in this, unlike how every hunter can be reborn in Bloodborne. This is because the malice, outside of Ganon worshippers, isn’t being used as a cure all also as alcohol like it is in Bloodborne. People are still changed, but this is through more direct influence from Ganon, not through imbibing the malice (usually). That is why the champions remain who they are for so long. Ganon slowly corrupts their forms, which Link and Zelda watch slowly as they are killed and reborn time and time again.

I liked a lot of his original gear from when I did this a year ago, so I kept that. Otherwise, his outfit has been completely updated to fit better in a Bloodborne like world, taking inspiration from the Royal Guard set. I think it makes sense. He’s Zelda’s personal knight/bodyguard, it’s set in a more Victorian-esque era, and I like how it looks. We also have some things pulled over from Bloodborne, namely the darker colors and the belt tied around the right leg. It was believed beasthood crept up the right leg, so old hunter would tie a belt around the thigh to block the flow of blood.

Mipha’s my favorite, so I did her first. Like all the characters in this project, I will be doing a lot to change her costuming, but her actual character will remain pretty similar.

Link was next. I like how his gear looks, but his character design has changed pretty drastically. Will probably keep the gear design. (Also, this was back when water-lillies were a thing that I was doing something with)

This took me so long to make, and I’m not even really done, but I’m posting it anyway!

The Zora Set in BOTW is one of my favorites in the game, for a number of reasons (emotionally, aesthetically, functionally). In the original universe, it seems like only the chest piece is made by the Zora princess as a gift for her love, but in this one, the entire armor set will be made by her. So Mipha is an armorsmith in this universe, on top of everything else she can do :D

To transfer the Zora Armor into Bloodborne… it was interesting to say the least. Most of Bloodborne takes aesthetic inspiration from the 19th century, but it really is all over the place. Gothic architecture, early to late 1800s attire, Cainhurst being in its own time entirely… I decided that the Zora, being old lived, would take a more Medieval aesthetic, like Cainhurst, which will be more apparent when I redesign the equipment.

Actually designing the armor was quite interesting. I drew inspiration from the twilight princess version, the botw version, as well as gothic plate armor (although some random parts of the armor are based on Japanese samurai armor, or even cowboys). I liked how the Zora make everything out of silver, because it doesn’t rust, but in this world (Bloodborne) silver weapons get their own “holy” buff against… well, Cainhurst, but it also fits the idea of it being useful against the werewolf-like beasts everywhere. So, Mipha’s armor for Link is ultimately made to protect him, much like the original story in Botw of how the Zora Armor originally came to be.

I also designed it, color and material wise, after the Loch Shield. It’s weak against physical damage, but incredibly effective against elemental damage.

When I finish the design, I’ll add some more personal touches. I like how in the original story, the Queen’s scale is what protected the king, so I want to try to incorporate that in some way. Also, I ship Mipha and Link. It’s like, the only ship I care about in all of fiction, and so I want to incorporate little things that show that. Early designs (as in, what I did a year ago) had Link and Mipha have water lillies in both of their costumes. I think I’ll continue that.

Still not entirely sure what I want Link to look like (I plan to combine his Twlight Princess and Botw/Totk look for the AU), but I did do the outfit redesign. Part of why I love Bloodborne so much is the attire in the game. Long coats, sturdy fabric, cool masks, pyramid head, whatever. I also love Botw’s outfits and armor. I felt it made sense to start with Link’s champion’s tunic and the hylian set, as that’s going to be one of the main designs for him in this Bloodborne AU (i plan to do Zora Armor next 😈).

One of the biggest differences between the two games is their aesthetics. Botw is set in vaguely medieval Europe, while Bloodborne is set in vaguely early 19th century England and Germany, with some 15th and 16th century aesthetics thrown in for Cainhurst and the gothic architecture. Bloodborne is also much less colorful, leading me to using Twilight Princess as a secondary Zelda reference, given its darker color scheme.

Anyway, with the Champion’s Tunic (now Champion’s Coat), i wanted it to look sturdier than it did in Botw. I still kept a lot of the lack of armor; after all, Bloodborne also doesn’t have armor. The beasts are too powerful, so hunters rely more on agility and endurance, rather than blocking damage. Champion’s Coat is lighter, and is colored blue to reflect the game, but also because blue was a very expensive color for a long time. It’s a royal color, made from Lapis Lazuli. Also, I put the triforce on the little vambrace/bracer thing, and I like it. I like how the Champion’s Tunic turned out, but much like in Botw, I imagine I would wear other armor sets that I find more visually appealing.

The Hylian set turned out VERY good, imo. I like how steampunk it looks, and the red reminds me of Dante or Edward Elric… or any of the other red coat characters (looking at you, Trigun… and Helsing… my point is, there’s a lot). I also wanted to maintain the leather armor and study adventuring look, while maintaining the darker colors found in Bloodborne. If I were to ever fully render it, I would put a little more detail into it, but right now, I think it works. If anything, i’d just change the color of the hood to be less blue.

I guess this doesn’t really belong here… anyway, I redesigned the elemental weapons from Botw. Redesigns are something that, for me, is never about “I’m going to make this better” (unless the original was truly atrocious). I tend to take them as creative challenges. The original fit well in the world it was made for; if i made that, how would I do it differently? Which is kind of a major part of this whole project I’m doing. I like these characters and items and stories, but how would I do it, if I put Botw under the aesthetics of Bloodborne. These weapons aren’t really for Bloodborne. If they *were* trick weapons, they’d be like the Tonitrus, where they gain a small elemental boost, which considering this is a Zelda fanfic and they don’t have Bloodborne weapons, I think that fits pretty well, actually.

The Fire ones, the Flameblade, Flamespear, and Great Flameblade, I put a flamberge shape into their blades. I wanted to maintain the spiked look of the original, while making them appear a little more functional, if made in the real world. We don’t know why people put the wavy-flame shape in blades; it could be for a number of reasons, from religious to functional. The wavy pattern does make them work better in the bind and it makes it harder to grab the blade or half-sword, which I actually quite like for a “fire sword”. I don’t remember exactly what I based the spear off of. I think it was a ranseur? I just made a flamberge ranseur. Ye.

The Frost ones, the Frostblade, Frostspear, and Great Frostblade… I think they’re my favorites of the redesigns. Part of the challenges i faced while making these was keeping the original vibes while making the blades much more functional looking. With the frost blades, I couldn’t just put “flame wave pattern” and have it work. Instead, I went off the vibes of each weapon individually. Every “Greatblade” in this list is inspired by the Montante and Zweihander, but with the Frost Greatblade, I also took inspiration from Executioner swords (the holes in the top, can’t stab) and the Ikakalaka sword (the curved tip with the spikes). I don’t really know how functional that would be, but I really like how it turned out. The shorter sword was based more on Rapier and Smallsword, as I always thought the one from the base game looked like it would be great at stabbing. I based the spear on a Japanese weapon, but it’s basically just a ranseur again. It’s based on a 十文字槍 (Jūmonji yari”, letter ten spear).

The thunderblades are the ones I’m least proud of and would probably redesign again. They have such a unique vibe from the original game, and I feel as though I failed to transfer that vibe onto their new designs.

So, I’m honestly not sure exactly how i want this AU thing to go. I know I’m going to piss off a lot of Zelda and Bloodborne fans with my interpretation of the lore, so fuck it. Zora, in this AU, are kinds like the fish people in the hunter’s nightmare, except they aren’t inherently violent towards you. They lived in close proximity with a Great One of the sea and were transformed into Zora, but still maintained some of their human/hylian traits. I don’t have much other lore thought out yet, but I’ll get there

OKAY! time for the meat and potatoes of this. In Bloodborne, the yharnamites found the blood of a great one in the pthumerian tombs. In this AU, Hylians found malice in the sheikah ruins. I still have to think up the specifics of it, but the malice corrupts and transforms, much like the blood does in Bloodborne. I don’t know if I’ll have people drinking and injecting malice, but I’ll figure something out. This corruption will act like a plague that infects tech and life alike, leading to abominations and causing the tech they intended to fight Ganon turn against them. I liked the idea of this malice transforming the champions, instead of having blights.