#I actually have a lot of thoughts on faovarian society and world building especially in how their religion ties into hylian religion that

[wutheringmights]

Do you have any random ctb lore that you couldn’t fit into the story for any of the characters/plotlines?

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a short one-shot about Icarius and Nephus's backstory in the style of STP, just to explore their fucked-up dynamic. Neither of them are really main characters, so I can't really derail the whole story to go into more detail than I have already provided.

Here's a few scattered ideas involving them:

Icarius is probably 2-3 years older than Nephus, which meant that Icarius was Nephus's caretaker and much more the one in charge of Nephus than he should have been

Nephus's friends and family refer to him as Vas (I think this is in the story somewhere, actually)

Nephus is the youngest son in a huge family, which basically meant that he had a lot of money growing up but no responsibility to go along with it-- because all of his siblings were so much older than him, he really clung to Icarius as a peer

Nephus's fascination with Hyrule began when he read a book of myths about the various Heroes of Hyrule

Everything Icarius learned was so that Nephus would have a partner/assistant for all of his activities, which includes education (like learning Hylian) and sports (Icarius ended up being much better at boxing and wrestling than Nephus)

That being said, Icarius has always had a smart mouth that has gotten him in trouble. Nephus always had to bail him out

They both have always been a little possessive of the other. Icarius was jealous of Nephus's friends and flings while Nephus was suspicious that anyone who was nice to Icarius would try to take him away

Icarius was very isolated from the rest of the thralls; like Nephus, any other thrall of his station would have been much older than him and those who were his age saw him as narc

Icarius did have a family though: mom, dad, grandparents, and siblings

Nephus's mentor in school was his father's political enemy. That relationship ended up saving him. When a house is sentenced, it's traditional to leave a member alive so that it doesn't die out completely. This mentor advocated for Nephus to be spared both because he was perceived as harmless and because he could be controlled.

Icarius was almost executed with his family-- he was yanked out of the execution line at the last minute because he was deemed Nephus's property

After he was spared, Nephus and Icarius made a bloodpact to exact revenge and rehaul Faovaria in their image-- this of course meant Nephus got his shit together and grew the fuck up

(dialogue that should have happened:

warriors: fuck faovaira! foavaria sucks!

nephus & icarius: we know that and we want to destroy it too)

Nephus's power nowadays comes from that mentor who spared him

Because Faovaria is a military state, Nephus and Icarius joined the military in order to gain more social power

Nephus's campaign in Hyrule is literally just a stepping stone for gathering enough power in Faovaria-- conquer the unconquerable Hyrule and bring back a weapon that no one has seen yet

Oh, remember when Ganondorf said that Nephus had sent a woman to ask if he could look at the library? That was Icarius in drag

Nephus and Icarius saw a lot of places in Hyrule on their travels, including Castle Town, the Zora's Domain, and the town surrounding the Knight's Citadel. They were smart enough to not ping Lincoln's attention, but they definitely attended a sermon at the same temple Warriors went to that one time

Icarius did not tell Nephus who Link was until they were hundreds of miles away from Kakariko, and only because he knew it would piss Nephus off

(Nephus, trying to flirt: aren't you glad you didn't run away with that Hylian loser?

Icarius, who has been a little pissed off all day: oh, you mean the Hero of Hyrule?

Nephus: the

Nephus: the WHAT?????)

Nephus's worsening treatment towards Icarius was a gradual change; like boiling water, Icarius didn't really realize that things were getting dangerous for him until it was too late

The day Icarius realized that Nephus wasn't different from any other Faovarian, that Nephus's feelings for him weren't anything as dynamic or complicated as his own-- that Nephus didn't see him as anything other than an object to possess... it genuinely destroyed his whole world

Philo was literally this orphan Faovarian kid they found on the streets; Icarius was the one who insisted they take him home. It took a while for Nephus to warm up to him.

Icarius could tell his relationship with Nephus was falling apart, and taking in Philo was a way for him to fix things. Like getting pregnant to fix a broken marriage.

That was a terrible analogy. Basically, if Nephus wouldn't value him then Icarius wanted someone who will

As you can probably guess, their dynamic greatly resembled the Brothers' at first. Icarius cared and doted on Philo, and Philo relied on him for love while seeking Nephus's approval. Meanwhile, Nephus was just annoyed that there's this brat ruining his life. Things changed when he realized Philo was a dark magic prodigy. Icarius didn't want Philo to get involved in the fighting while Philo wanted to be useful, and add that Nephus's treatment towards Icarius was always worsening...

Philo witnessed Icarius getting his tongue chopped out. Philo did not take it well, and he tries to rationalize it as being something Icarius deserved

The thing is that nothing special triggered it. Icarius was being his usual smartass self when Nephus just snapped

Philo clings to Nephus as much as he does because if he doesn't make Nephus happy, then Nephus might do the same to him

Meanwhile, Philo has picked up on how Nephus and others treat Icarius; so while Philo had previously regarded Icarius like a brother, he often treats Icarius like he is below him now

And poor Icarius is more isolated than ever: he can't talk, he's all alone, he can't trust Nephus, and Philo won't listen to him

Nephus waffles between knowing he's irrevocably fucked up and believing he was 100% right-- either way, he bulldozes through Icarius's feelings to continue acting like everything is normal and it's still them against the rest of Faovaria, and they only need each other

He does not know he is exactly the thing he hates

It's all a big mess