The Zelda Diarist

I spent a couple of hours today rewriting some old sections of the chapter I'm writing, so have this snippet guys:

The Kingdom of the Depths by @justbecause13

Romance Fantasy | Mature | AO3 | Complete

Synopsis: 500 years ago, the Demon King was exiled to the Depths. His story and his monsters have become nothing but a legend, a story told to children to frighten them. One day, Zelda finds herself trapped in the Depths. Instead of just monsters and darkness, she is met with a man who holds too many contradictions to make sense and a past that makes him wonder if she is a curse sent to him from the Goddesses themselves. Zelda has a Kingdom to reclaim. Ganondorf has a bet to win. They may just be able to break free from the prison that holds them, if only they can manage to work together.

Content Warnings: Explicit sexual content

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Youth meets antiquity in a twisting of fate that will make both stronger together than they would be apart. Zelda is forced into the depths, whereupon Ganondorf discovers her and, despite his better judgement, helps her recover. A sweet tales reminiscent of the Hades and Persephone story with a happy ending. - Folodu

A disempowered Princess Zelda finds herself trapped in the depths and meets the fearsome Demon King Ganondorf who had been exiled there long ago. This fic was such a sweet love story, with lots of other interesting elements too: Zelda coming into her powers and fighting to reclaim her kingdom from her uncle, uncovering the mystery of how Ganondorf was exiled, and fighting against the enigmatic void which has been infecting people who stray too far from the lightroots. The side fics that are part of this series are also very sweet. - imagineaspen

As Zelda falls into the Depths, she finds herself in a new world beneath the surface and only Ganondorf as a lifeline against the Void. Now these two must heal from the past behind them as they seek to escape the darkness together. I'm very excited about the worldbuilding in this one and the fate of the eldritch force this pair is up against. - amelias-hart

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You can find @justbecause13 at AO3.

having museums full of reproductions would be even cooler than having museums full of sacred artifacts because when modern craftspeople are able to replicate those artifacts, it’s usually because they still make the same items the same way today

this means that you could have description tags emphasizing that such-and-such item has been made by these people in almost the same way for hundreds of years

a long while ago i began a midzel comic for valentine's day, and unfortunately got quite busy and never had the chance to finish the whole thing. i planned it all out but i was only able to complete the first two pages

still, the script (though very short!) was written with my whole heart, and i still look back on this work very fondly. if you would like to read it you can now do so right here!

*ahem*

They could be wlw. They could be mlm. They could be gender swapped. They can be completely your own ocs. The answer is always yes.

Zelink has that magic to it that you can change it around so much, have them in different character and story roles and they still work so much. You can have sooo many different flavors to pick from, even in canon; shink, telink, marink (if you're big brained) construct/zelda, ravio/hilda - each game having different chemistry you can use you imagination for and I love that about the ship. No matter what they will always find each other, no matter how hard the conflict, they will find and support the other in every lifetime. They don't - and usually are not aware - of their previous lifetimes fighting together but they don't have to and do it anyway because it's the right thing to do.

Against this cruel, cruel, cruel destiny they will at least have each other.

Happy Pride!

Community Challenge - Cross-Legends Bonds

Expanding Hyrule is excited to announce the return of our summer event: Cross-Legends! We're opening up the rules this year too, not to mention we've got a brand new prompt list. Team up with other Original Legends creators for all kinds of trouble.

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Rules

This post begins the prep period for this challenge. Posting will start August 2nd, 2026. Posts can go out for a prompt at any point after that prompt week starts. You do not need to participate in all prompts to be included. See the prompt list below for dates.

This is a collaborative prompt challenge! All entries should have at least two creators involved. Partners can be:

BYOB (Bring your own Buddy): If you have someone you already know you want to collaborate with, feel free to get started.

Form Sign Up: You can sign up via this form and our mod team will partner you with matching participants.

All mediums are welcome, how you coordinate that collab is up to you!

As this is an Expanding Hyrule challenge, all entries need to be about Original Legends works (see the definition on our pinned post if you are unfamiliar). This could be a Links Meets, a brand new Original Legend, or anything in between!

When you post: If you post to Tumblr, be sure to tag @expanding-hyrule and use the tag #Cross-Legends so we can reblog it here. If it's on AO3, add it to the AO3 collection here, or tag us in your post about it and we will bookmark it.

Works that use AI in any form will NOT be included in this challenge.

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Prompts

Aug 2 - Memory/Past Relationships

Aug 9 - Trust/Building Relationships

Aug 16 - Parallel/Foils

Aug 23 - Pathway/Future Relationships

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Master List:

Memory/Past Relationships

Pending

Trust/Building Relationships

Pending

Parallel/Foils

Pending

Pathway/Future Relationships

Pending

Dream machine

Fictional small town in the middle of nowhere in real country: par for the course in any genre

Fictional major city in real country: standard fair, but it's usually clearly based on a real city

Fictional suburb of real major city in real country: strange but I can see the application