~PROLOGUE~
Victon
I am sitting down in my cabin, thinking. I left Hyrule, boarding the good ship Chrysanthemum about a month ago, and only now do I realize that my journey ended the moment I watched Hyrule fade away in the distance, as I made my way to the seas with a few friends. Hyrule is now at peace, but at what cost? How many bodies are littered across its surface? How many families have been separated?
My own family fell into ruins. The noble and ancient House of Dephesen grew from its roots, towering above anything else, like the tallest tree in a forest. But then disaster happened. The forest caught on fire. Our own tree burned, from tip to root, and my siblings and I swore revenge. We took our enemies to war, and then the country turned to ashes and a mountain of corpses. But we won. From the ashes that burned down the forest came a single seed. I left, but my siblings planted it. They will grow the House of Dephesen back to its former glory.
The decision to leave Hyrule was one that I thought about for only a few hours. What was left for me there? When my brother, King Landon, sat on his rightful throne, I realized that my own part in the story was done. My calling was elsewhere - Landon now rules the greatest empire in the world, and I left in the hopes that I can do something equally great. Aboard Uncle's boat, I left for exotic cities built upon gold and promise, like Ginsha or the Most Divine City of Salkenhana. The next chapter of my life will continue there.
I am somewhat apprehensive of what will become of me when I reach there. Will I ever return to Hyrule? Should I turn back now? When I told Zelda that I will leave by the morrow, I also told her not to fill her mind with sorrow; "I will return home with stories and riches," I said. Is she worried about me?
I must leave behind everything of my past. That is the only way to press forward. But at the same time, I must not forget what happened to Hyrule. My people's story must be immortalized. That is why I have created this: a chronicle of the events that took place, from not only my own eyes, but the eyes of many other heroes. Link. Zelda. Colin. Celia. Landon. Victon. Ashei. You will see the devastation that unfolded through our perspectives.
This chronicle does not follow everybody in equal measure, however. A large portion of the chapters will be told from Link's view. You might interpret him as the hero of the story, but remember this: everybody who resisted the darkness that swept over Hyrule is a hero. Link was only a young man, about my age, yet I greatly admire him. In our darkest hour, with all of Hyrule poised against us, Link was the only one willing to fight, and true to his word, he fought. Link possessed a certain courage that makes his more than a hero in my eyes. In a land where people were almost as powerful as the Goddesses, Link was only mortal, but he seemed to be more like that.
Zelda loved him. By the Goddesses, she loved him, and he loved her back. He was what kept her hoping for a brighter future. Before our enemies stormed Hyrule Castle, I remember Zelda appearing to be perpetually depressed, as though something was missing from her life. Then she found Link, in a twist of fate, and the void that haunted Zelda was enamoured by him.
As much as I admire Link, I also despise him. He left Zelda. Actually, he left all of us. Link was our symbol of hope, and he left just as quickly as he appeared. He may not have had a choice regarding the matter; he had to leave regardless, but moments before he left us, it was almost as though he lost the will to fight. He turned into a coward. Our symbol of hope was nothing but a mummer's farce in the end.
I will try to write Link's story through how he would see the world (I never got to ask him how he saw the world, as he left before I could do so). I implore you, the reader, to judge him for yourself, not based on his own chapters, but on the chapters of other people. From his own eyes, he thinks of himself to be an ordinary man. But he was something more than that to everybody else. Even the Half-Gods looked up to him.
I left Hyrule so quickly that I never asked anybody else specifically about their own adventures - I pieced it together myself, based on what information was present. But there are gaps in the storyline that make no sense. I decided that I will fill in those gaps with my own interpretation, even if I am wrong. And if I am wrong, so what? The magic of any story is the reliance on the reader to stretch their own mind, and to broaden their horizons. But here are the facts: Hyrule is saved, our enemies vanquished, an ancient civilization fell to ruins, magic exists in some humans, two crystals hold unearthly powers, and Hyrule hangs in a precarious balance decided by one man's courage. Everything else is up to your own interpretation.
The stories of the other people (aside from myself) will most likely be riddled with errors, such as character relationships being different then how they actually were. And I apologize for that, but factuality on that front is beyond my control.
Link was one character that I wish to heavily emphasize on. Another one is Dragmire, or if you have had past knowledge of these events, then you likely know him as Ganondorf. Like Link, I hate him and admire him, but for entirely different reasons. He was the one responsible for the destruction. He mobilized our enemy and was the one who took the first strike. He was our greatest enemy. I cannot help but despise him for what he did.
But I also respect Ganondorf for his strength. I cannot imagine anybody else who is willing to persist even after he lost his family and everything he had ever known (even I had Zelda, Landon, and other supporters with me - Ganondorf was truly alone). That is why I will write chapters about him, but the chapters about him will be told during his childhood, which takes place in a different time then the rest of the story. When he was a little boy, he kept the name Dragmire, and therefore, keep in mind that his chapters will be flashbacks of his youth.
The story spans almost exactly a year. That is why I am splitting this chronicle into four parts: Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Summer is when everything is at its best. Autumn is where, like the leaves on trees, our lives began to fall part. Winter is when the worst happens. Spring is where we rebuilt.
On a final note, many people die over the course of this story, and I will not spare you any details. I hope you will grow to admire the people who fought the war, as I have, and I intend for you to become emotionally distraught as they begin to die like flies, as I did. Nobody is safe (aside from Landon, Zelda, and I, as I already revealed that we are all okay).
And so I welcome you to my world. This is a story of darkness, of humanity's worst, and of its best as well. There are no true villains, only people who have conflicting ideas, and I hope to bring that to your attention as the story progresses. Looking back at Ganondorf, I realize that he himself turned out alright at the end. It was what happened to him that turned him into such a cruel, monstrous man. But he was a just man. However, I will let you decide that for yourself.
Sitting down, with a quill in hand, I think about how this story should start. It needs to begin with Link's chapter, I realize, but before that...
Before I let you read what the world looks like through Link's eyes, I wish to capture who he is in a few immortal words. The quill glides across the paper, and I write:
A being of divine courageousness: a god among men; a keeper of all that is right; mortality personified; the grand source of exaltation and hope. An awakening of what the world is, and its beauties, and a realization of what humanity is, and its complexity; he is an alignment of what is right and wrong in the universe, magnificence and maliciousness are the two sides of the same coin, and that coin describes who he is.
I pause. What lesson did he teach me? Why is he so important that I describe him like I would describe a god? A line below, I write:
A being that need not to preach his wisdom, but his knowledge passed on regardless; his soul curtains the truth: reality is naught but perception.
~END PROLOGUE~
Author's Notes
Hope you enjoyed this prologue. This work means a lot to me, as I've spent months crafting it in such a way that it feels truly unique, as though you've never read anything like it. If I'm to be blunt, I've grown tired of the generic hero-saves-the-world-story, and decided to build around it, so that the plot feels different. I've worked on defining the characters to make them feel both unique and lifelike.
This story has a happy ending, as you might have guessed. This prologue is written by Zelda's younger brother, Victon, and he already reveals that he, Landon (Zelda's older brother), and Zelda are safe. But do not misinterpret that as a sign that absolutely everything will turn out well. Major characters will die.
Perspective is a large part of this story, and I did not want to build Link as the prototypical hero. In this story, he is a man with doubts about himself, and he does not always wish well for other people, or do the right thing. Likewise, I do not want Ganondorf to be a regular villain who simply wants to destroy the world. He is fighting for something deeper, more righteous then that, and I very well can imagine that you will sympathize with him, or even support him.
If you're interested in the prospect of this story, then by all means, show your support by favouriting or alerting it. If you have any comments, whether positive or negative, then feel free to leave a review or Private Message me. Your words are always appreciated :) .
Lastly, thanks for reading this story. If you choose to stick with it, then that means a lot for me. The reason I ask for reviews is because I like to know what other people think of this, and where I can improve.
