The Path of Darkness: The story of Gannondorf
An: this is more of an introspective for gannondorf. it was a writing excersie that i tried and it prolly sucks but since i haven't posted anything in ages i figured i'd put this up just to get something out. Like it, hate it, don't care tell me either way. PO is messed up but that's always a problem with my work.
Prolouge
The hot scortching wind blew fiercly upon the desert village. As twilight faded into darkness, the rumble of horse hoves echoed through the oasis town. A young Gerdo boy woke with a start, fear blossoming within him. His father had warned him that the wars between the races had become much worse and that even the harsh, abrasive winds of the desert would not deter the Hylians from coming to conqure their land.
As he finished getting dressed and sheathed his sword, Fadona entered his chamber.
"Your father has ordered me to take you to the safety of the deep desert."
Gannondorf was outraged by this. "I am not some feable child that must hide from my enemies. I will fight these imputant Hylians at my father's side. Do not try to stop me! You may be my attandant but, if forced to, I will kill you should you stand in my way. I am destined to be king one day and I will not be known as a coward among my people!"
Fadona sighed in annoyance, Gannondorf, or Gannon as he was called amongst those who knew him best, could be very stubborn when it came to doing as he was told. She was not hurt or angered by his words, the Gerdo were a feirce warrior race and threats of death were traded amongst friends just as easily as it was enemies. The Gerdo knew that to hide from conflict and strife would only cause one to become weak. However, a warrior also knows the value of patience. You can not ultimately win against an opponent when you take foolish risks. Discretion is, after all, the better part of valor. Unfortunately, Gannon had yet to learn this.
"Your father has demanded that you be kept safe should the worst come to pass. I do not fear your blade nearly as much as his and you can not rule if you wind up gutted on the field of battle. I know you are concerned about your father's safety but he would be in more danger if he had to watch out for you as well as himself. I'm sorry."
As she spoke her last, she threw down a deku nut, stunning the boy long enough to knock him out with the flat of her blade. She would no doubt have to fight him later during his tantrum but she was still more skilled than him with a blade and it might remind him that he still has much to learn before he can become king.
CHAPTER 1:
Three years had passed since that fateful night. The mighty king of the Gerdo fell but not without taking a good chunk of the enemy legions with him. The Hylian army retreated, having suffered many casualties. Though they failed to take the village, they delivered a crushing blow to the Gerdo by killing their king. Still, even without their exhalted leader, the Gerdo would not surrender and would fight to the last child if the campeign continued.
The king of Hyrule decided that the desert lands were not worth wasting legions of soldiers on. He decreed that any Gerdo who entered Hyrule was to be closely watched. If they stepped so much as a toe out of line, they would be killed on site. He would not ban their women from entering the kindom, though. After all, some the most skilled prostitues his kindom held were of that race and it would be quite a pity to deprive his people of their fun.
Gannondorf took the death of his father hard. He vowed one day he would get vengance for his fathers demise. Fadona had watched as the warrior flame burned in his eyes. Those eyes had become blazing red rubies, like the fires of hell itself burned within their depths. Gannon trained every day with passion he had never before shown when his father was alive. However, Fadona knew all too well that this was not healthy, even for a Gerdo. The lessons of her own mentor echoed in her mind as she pondered over her charge.
"In battle, brethern and kin will one day meet their better. Become strong and avenge them if you so desire but be wary, for vengence is a fire of the soul. When controlled, it is a might force that can burn your enemies to cinders. But if the fire controlls you, your very soul will be consumed, leaving behind nothing but a living zombie. You will forever hunger and want, but no power nor blood of enemies will satisfy your greed and lust. Should such fire consume you, it would be better to die by your enemies hand that to be enslaved to the hellfire of your burning soul."
She could see the fire consuming her charge but no matter how hard she tried, she could not cool the flames within him. He despised her with almost as much passion as the Hylians who killed his father. It was only the need to learn the finer points of the battle arts that kept him from killing her. She did not fear the day that he would surpass her in skill, for she had always known that she would one day die by his hand.
Attendants of the royal line were chosen by the prowess of their sword and when they could be defeated by their pupils the king to be would then be ready to assume the throne. The attendant would not have sacrifice their life for nothing. Their family would become very wealthy in return for the sacrifice and the attendant would always be remebered in the highest honor among the Gerdo. However, she couldn't help but feel as if she failed in her duty and did not deserve the honor that would be bestowed up her in death.
Chapter 2: Contemplation
The godess of the sands stood in her silent vigil over the sacred sands of the spirit temple. The stone statue stood as a silent witness to centuries of history and had seen the sands shift ever onward on the hot winds breath. Gannon had found this place a year after his forced imprisonment in the desert palace to the west. It had become his sanctuary away from Fadona and her constant lectures. The statue of the sand godess was a powerful symbol of strength, and perceverance amongst his tribe and he came here often in hopes of drawing those strengths into his own being.
He sneered as he thought of the woman who was his captor. She was strong, yes, but she would not lord her skill over him for much longer. He would soon surpass her in skill and when he did she would pay dearly for parting him from his father that dark night 5 years ago. He admitted that he could finally see the truth in her reasoning. However, it was of little comfort to him. All the reason in the world would not bring back his father and this knowledge burned in his heart like a cinder. He might not be able to bring his father back but he would avenge his father not just with the blood of the king of Hyrule but with the blood of the whole Hylian race!
Still even with the power he would inherit as king of the Gerdo, he knew that his power alone would not be enough to guarentee victory. Though he was fast approching the zenith of his skill with a blade, blade alone could not hope to bring the Hylians to their knees.
The Gerdos were powerful race of warriors but long ago they had shunned magic. The Gerdo claimed that magic was a crutch for those who's bodies were too weak to weild a blade with any skill. Magic was a tool for those who weren't strong enough to handle real combat. After all, it was easy to send a curse to kill one's enemies but you are denied the the moment of triumph. The feel of the blade as it entered the body of an enemie, the metalic tang of their blood scent filling the air, and the dark inebriating power of their eyes as they empty of life. The all-consuming power of blood lust sadated. These were the things the Gerdo sang of in their battle mantras. Magic, was the tools of the weak who could not stomach holding such power over their enemies. Magic was for those who would otherwise not have the ability to kill.
Gannon considered magic for a moment. He knew the views his people took about it but on the other hand, it was power not to be overlooked. After all, the Gerdo also believe that their was no such thing as a fair fight. Victory gained through almost any other means was honored amongst them and cunning was rewarded, so why would his ancestors have shunned such power.
Perhaps they feared that it truly would erase the will and abilities of their desendents to mold their bodies and skills as a warrior. However, he believed that idea was simply ludicrus. One could not hope to live in the desert on magic alone. Those who are weak in body perish in the harsh sands, no magic can starve off the eternal desert heat and winds for long. The bones that are scattered amongst the dunes are testament to that. He found enough old wizard gear in his travels from the temple to the palace alone to open a shop.
But magic could be a powerful aid to him, so long as he remembered what magic was. Magic is a tool, like an axe, dagger, or any other weapon. A tool is useless without the strength to weild it and trying to use one tool for a job where another is better suited is foolhardy and dangerous. But using any weapon without proper training could be just as dangerous. It would be difficult but he would have to find someone who would train him in the art. He had a pretty good idea of who to find but that would have to wait. He would need to master the final skill that that bitch of an attendant had taught him. Her time was coming soon though, and once she was dead he would be free to contact the two people all those wizards had died trying to reach.
One year later
Gannon stood over the body of his attendant in triumph. Finally he had bested her in combat and won his birth right. But before he returned to the main palace he had an idea to pursue. He had not forgotten about his plans to learn the forbidden magic arts. In fact, the more he had pondered it, the more he relised how useful such a tool would be to fulfilling his desires. Quietly, he packed his things and mounted his loyal black stallion, Keshi, and departed for the mysterious two witches who dwelled in the deep desert.
-------------------------
It had taken three long and agonizing years of training with the witch sisters to become adept in the art of battle magic but he knew they would never teach him all of their secrets. In the end he had been forced to make a pact with them. He promised that he would help them gain true immortality. The witches became his first allies in his quest for power but by no means the last. During his training with them, he had come across an ancient tome that spoke of the power of gold. Legends of the Triforce had always exsisted but to most people, it was a merely myth; others believed that the triforce had been destroyed long ago by the gods themselves. For the gods would surely never leave such power in the hands of mere men, would they?
Gannon however, knew the truth. In the ancient Wars of Gold, the gods did not destroy the Triforce. They seal it's power in a realm separate from the world of man, a realm guarded by the guardian spirits of each land and race. Only one who could assemble these artifacts could open the dimensional gate to the realm where it sleeps. But unfortunately, the keys he sought were in the hands of his enemies. If he were to go to war with them now, he had no doubt that they'd be smuggled away and hidden from him. His vengence would have to wait. But he had become more patient over the years and he knew that once he aquired the Triforce his vengence would be complete. Who would dare challenge a god, after all? With that kind of power he could do much worse that simply kill the king. He could make him endure everlasting pain, turn his precious kingdom into a burning waste land, curse his bloodline but these ideas were discarded as soon as a more sinister idea began to emerge.
His thirst for venegence would not be sedated with the king's death. He wanted, no needed, him to suffer for his crimes. And not just for a short while but for all of eternity. Gannon wanted his father's murder to be broken not just in body and mind but to his very soul. He knew how he would achieve this ambition against the king. Body and mind were easily crushed but to break a man's spirit took finese and an intimate knowledge of what that man treasures most. That would require him to become close to the king, gaining his trust. Doing so would also help him in obtaining the keys to the sacred realm and once he had aquired the powers of the godesses…well nothing would be able to save the king and Hyrule from his vengence.
A year later….
It took a great amount of patience and planning but he was finally in position to begin his plans. He had offered an alliance of sorts with the king and through the talks he managed to charm the king so much that he was now a regular in the castle. Most of the kings advisors were also taken in by his seemly calm and personable demeanor but there was minor trouble with the princess. She never spoke openly of her suspicions but in her eyes he detected much doubt and sceptisizm of his intentions.
He was not concerned by this, at first, after all the girl had told her father of her silly little dreams but the king was too taken by his persona to take her seriously. She was not much of a threat to him. The Sheika woman was the one he was wary of. Even amongst the Gerdo, the Skieka tribe were renowned for their ruthlessness and devious nature in battle and the only race that the Gerdo people respected as equals. This woman was dangerous but she had little power as an attendant. He would not underestimate her though.
He had located the resting places of the relics but unfortuatley he wasn't able to just take them from the beast creatures and fairy brats, as was his original goal. The three stones were protected by powerful magic that even the witch sisters could not nullify. The stones could not be taken against the will of the guardian race. The artifact must be given of free-will. However, the cursed protection did not prevent him from making them do so under duress. He had visited the three guardians and used his magic in an attempt to bend their will but they had stubbornly refused. If they did not yeild soon he would have to find another way since it had taken a great deal of man-power to keep those pesky messengers from reaching the castle and notifying the king of his deeds.
The answer to his problems came to him one afternoon when he noticed the princess talking with a strange boy in green. He had used magic to listen in on their conversation and realized that he could use their pathetic attempt to out-manouver him to his advantage. After all, why go through all the work of obtaining the relics when he could simply let them do all the work and lead him right to the sacred realm. Once the boy opened the gate to the realm he would simply dispose of him and gain the power that he so needed to complete his revenge.
--------------Just after Link gains the third stone------------
Gannondorf had grown impatient. He was tired of playing nice with the royal family and he could not hold back the cold fury at the king of Hyrule. His magic would have to be enough to take the castle but after studying the Hylians he was confidant that taking the castle would not be all that difficult.
Unfortunatley, despite his best laid plans he did not completely succeed. Yes, he captured the castle and seal the king within a glass sphere of dark magic but that blasted brat and her Shieka attentant escaped his grasp! As if that wasn't bad enough, she had taken the last relic he would need to open the gate to the sacred realm! He would have to aleart his demonic spies to keep a close eye on that foolish young boy. After all, if he planned to open the sacred realm he would have to meet up with the princess again to get the final relic.
-----The Sacred Realm after Link pulls the Master Sword-----
Finally, after years of training and deception he was close to reaching his goal. It was so simple! The boy had been sealed away by the sword and he figured that even the master sword would not harm him once he touched the golden triforce. The power of the gods would now be his!
Slowly, he ascended the golden pyramid where the triforce lay. 'There's nothing that could stop me now,' he thought as his hand touched the triforce. But to his dismay, the relic he sought so feircely broke; two fragments sped away from him in a shower of blue and green light. Damn it! But where is the third shard? He smiled when he felt the pulse of power throbbing in his hand. He looked to find the mark of the triforce on his hand and laughed. It seems that at least one of the parts rests within me. There is still a chance of fufilling my desire after all.
The part he held would give him the strength he would need to bend all of Hyrule to his will. He would seek the other parts, for the powers of Farore and Nayru were not to be underestimated and should they fall in to the hands of those that would defy him they could threaten his rule. He would not rest until he had completely secured his place as a god.
------1 year before Link awakens-----
Gannon sat upon his dark throne, deep in thought. So far his plans for the conquest of Hyrule were running smoothly. The twin sister witches had proved to be powerful allies and had no problem crushing any resistence that might have come from his own tribe. The most vocal of his dissentors had been bewitched to not only accept his rule but to aide him in ruling over the desert bandits. Truly, those twins were very clever but he made sure to keep a close eye on them. He was well aware that they maybe just bidding their time until they could find a way to gain the power of the triforce for themselves. That is why he did not chose them to help seek the missing pieces. He would not risk them gaining the others and attempting to over throw him.
He did not know for sure, but he suspected that the tri-force of wisdom rested in the hands of that spoiled princess Zelda. He had yet to find out where she is hiding but he would not rest until he did. Even if she did not possess the triforce, there was always the prospect of using her for his own pleasure. He knew this, above all else would destroy what little morale the king had managed to keep. Brutalizing his daughter in front of the man's eyes, with him powerless to protect her, would break the king's spirit completely.
He tried not to dwell on that tempting thought for too long though since he had to find her first. As for her little green clad lackey, he had still not managed to break into the prison the sword had sent him to, but he had decided not to waste the energy to break it, just to kill him. He would wait and hopefully when the boy emerged, he would be able to be used again to lure out Zelda.
Most of the races had attempted to resist his power but he had crushed them under his will. The gorgons were being kept busy with his loyal monster Volvagaina(sp?) and most of them had retreated deep into the mountain caves. He would try to starve them out but if they did not break soon he would have to send some troops to deal with them. Perhaps sacrificing them one by one to his pet might serve as an example to any other races that would attemp to oppose him.
The Zora were weak and easy to subdue. With a simple water freezing curse he had trapped all of them in ice where they would remain forever in sleep. He could have just killed them but he realized that if he could break their will and mold them into loyal followers they would have plenty of uses. After all, their aquatic abilities made them idea for searching for underwater treasure. Power was great and all but armies weren't cheap, not even magically conjured ones were without their price.
The Shieka that survived had hiddens themselves well among the refugees from castle town. The village should have fallen but there was a strange power that was keeping the monster at bay. He had debated over breaking the seal that held it captive but decided not too. He would allow those pathetic people their illusion of safety for now and perhaps it would give his spies time to figure out the where abouts of that attendant bitch that had cast it. Finding her would lead him one steph closer to fining the princess and if he could break the sheika woman to follow his regiem she would be a valuable asset.
The last place he had to subdue was the faerie forest. He had saved this place for last for two simple reasons. They would not be hard to subdue since he knew that the race was just a bunch of children. They no longer had a guardian either which made it even less difficult. Quite frankly, it wouldn't be much of a challenge at all to take the forest and he wanted his army to have the more difficult races subdued before allowing them the treat of an easy slaughter.
More importantly, however, he didn't want to give the fairy boy a reason to break free from the sword's prison until his power had been secured in the land. Link may have been a fool-hardy child with a hell of a lot of bravado, but so had he when he was that young. Perhaps that why he hated the boy so much, Link was boy he used to be before his father fell to the Hylians.
------------------------------- After the Forest Temple boss battle------------------------------
The boy had bested his shadow minion but he was not too worried yet. He would need to handle the boy very carefully. He couldn't just kill him outright because he need him to lure out the princess.
He had watched him from a far and despite his loathing of the brats attempt to thwart his plans, he couldn't deny a grudging respect for his perseverance. The young man had become a mirrior of what could have been. This did nothing to ease his loathing and perhaps jealousy.
Yes, he was jealous of the lad. He was jealous of the inner strength and will the young man possed. He had realized what his attendant had been trying to tell him all those years ago about the dangers of vengence but he had already gone too far to turn back now. His soul would forever burn and he'd take the world with him. He may be evil but he was only what this cruel world had forced him to become. He was the instrument of it's demise, and instrument and soon to be equal to the Gods. His task was to purify the land that had become over run with fools and the weak. He took to this task with great delight.
-------------------------After Zelda is Captured-------------------
I have severely underestimated that darn boy! The release of the sages will make securing Hyrule that much more difficult but they will be able to do nothing once the triforce is mine and whole once more. I had been right in my assumtion of Zelda's role but it took me by surprise that the ever elusive triforce of courage had been hidden within that meddling brat! Though, on reflection, I should have put the clues together. After all, how else could he have systematically bested every one of his beasts and even his allies the sisters twinrova. It should have been obvious that he could not have without the aid of a triforce piece.
As he played his song of power, the dark tones centered his mind and allowed him to focus his hate into one powerful desire. It was old magic he had discovered in the notes of a Sheika composer. The man may have taken his greatest research to the grave but his other notes had proved useful to him anyway. He had used it to make what is known in the art as a soul song. (Credit to dannondorf for the idea of a soul song)
The texts that he had consulted and aquired over the years of his reign had shed great light upon his course of action. It was these that had told him why he had not aquired the true force that day and since then he had returned to them frequently to divine how he could finally realize his ambition. According to all accounts, the only way for one to claim the true force after it has separated is to gather the choosen ones in one place. Once they resonate with each other, the powers that they grant would be rendered ineffective, reducing all three to there previous levels of power. This would last until two had been defeated in "honorable combat."
He despised this term more so than the temporary loss of the powers granted by the triforce. The text goes on to state that should the rules of honor be viloated that the triforce would be lost to all three chosen and be lost once again for a thousand years. As much as he dearly wanted to, he could not risk losing the triforce by violating the rules.
He would have to play fair for a change but that didn't mean he had lost yet. After all, he was still much more powerful than Link or Zelda without the triforce. Defeating Zelda wouldn't be much of a problem but he would not make the mistake of underestimating Link this time. This was why he was calling upon his soul song, he must be in top form for the battle to come.
------------Sealed in the dark realm-----------
He still did not know how he had been bested by such a weak and pathetic brat! But he would not give in yet. They may have salled him for a time but as long as the triforce of power remained within him no prison would hold him for long. He could be very patient when the situation called for it and the powers that held him here would wan soon. He still had the sould of the king and he could take great delight in tormenting him while he waited and built back his stength. Yes they may have thwarted him for now but the fire of his hate is much to strong to be extingushed by anything short of death. And thanks to the power of the triforce and the darkest magics he had learned, death would not befall him so easily. Time would not be his exicutioner only a power much greater than his own would stop him and there is no power greater. The other parts of the triforce could only equal him never best him. Muahahahahahaha!