#Sidon will be involved

[dmin7cadenza]

I started writing a fanfiction of Tears of the Kingdom where Link goes to the Forgotten Temple to investigate the geoglyphs, but finds a secret room filled with hundreds of feet of murals depicting his last lives. He starts to remember them, not as heroic exploits, but as lives filled with pain and failure, and has an absolute mental breakdown. His first words in years are him begging and pleading with Hylia to set him free from the cycle, but she can’t do anything about it. I’m about three and a half pages in, and it might become the best thing I’ve ever written. I’m writing it because I do strongly resonate with my perception of this incarnation of Link; he’s very quiet, showing very little emotion for anything except cooking food. Of course, he’s a blank slate for the player to project onto, so I do that a lot. I am writing this emotional experience in the hopes that, if I make him cry, maybe I’ll feel something as well. Let me know if you’d like to see it on ao3 in the future. This is my first creative writing project that isn’t for a class.

[demiboydemon]

Trick or treat! He heard he could get some candies:

I would LOVE to give him some candy! Unfortunately all I have are these raisins 😔

[thedivinedweeb]

LOOK AT IT

LOOK

OMG

LOOOOOOOK

WHAT

IM SO EXCITED

[avionvadion]

Me: “We won’t see Zora’s Domain again until after the duo are done with Gerudo!”

*Link gets badly injured in his side. Ilia gets shot in the back several times. Yiga Hideout happens. The duo’s stitches get ripped open. Can’t get treatment in Gerudo because Link’s identity as a voe will be revealed. Riju is concerned. Link and Ilia are super tired/hungry after being awake for two days straight and surviving off of Hydromelons*

Me:

Sidon:

Me: “Wait, no, I had a plan look at my notes-!”

Sidon, backflipping his way into the next two chapters like the lovable fish prince he is:

[have-kake]

found and old BotW fic I was writing back in 2021

the first chapter is literally 15.5k words long 😭

[dutifulsilence]

Maybe he'll just... stay away from Zora's Domain for a while...

[spicyicymeloncat]

I don’t think it’s a retcon since there’s other zora kingdoms in different countries, such as the Zora Royal Family from the Zora Seas in Labrynna (neighbouring country to Hyrule) from Oracle of Ages. And in botw/totk, zora’s domain is right next to the sea.

(Also I was going to put this as a tag but this needs to be said aloud (spoilers for the end of the Zora’s domain’s quest): if Nintendo’s goal was to discourage sidlink and gay pairings, then they’re doing it badly, Sidon literally got on one knee for the man)

Actually, does Yona even…. have a place she comes from? At all? She mentioned recently coming to the Zora domain I know, but like…she doesn’t say from where, right? Did they seriously slap her in as a ‘not gay!!!!’ wife SO fast that they didn’t even have time to make up a kingdom name? 

Actually. There aren’t even multiple Zora domains at all, are there. Did they bother even retconning things to say ‘yes there are now ok’ at least??? Or is homegirl SERIOUSLY standing there hailing from the far-off land of ‘the writers room when people are worried about homophobic fanboy backlash’??

[babybatss-blog]

BETTER THAN THIS

Link(totk) x reader, 1900 words

summary: you are Zelda’s personal assistant. Link is Zelda’s bodyguard. You’ve always hated each other, but what if that isn’t the complete truth?

cw: lots suggestive content, enemies to lovers fic with a wild amount of horniness and angst. Intoxication and random person is overly touchy with reader.

Who would’ve thought that you and the hero Link would be together tonight, in a passionate embrace underneath the Zora Kingdom party, your breath intertwined and lips colliding frantically? Certainly not you, who hated Link with every fibre of your being due to his uptight personality and constantly anxious demeanour.

You’re Princess Zelda’s personal assistant, organising her events and facilitating the revival of the castle after Calamity Ganon’s attack. Honestly, Link got on your nerves. He never left you and Zelda alone, was always worried about safety issues and didn’t answer your questions, as if he’s some sort of better person than you. And it was no secret that he didn’t like you too, divulging to Zelda that you’re taking the modernization of the castle too far or that your schedule is too much for her. Therefore, Zelda became your strange little message carrier, conveying messages between the two of you and trying to keep the peace. Sometimes she would try and complement him to you, saying statements such as “he was so kind the other day” or “He definitely worried about you when you left last night.”

She tries desperately to repair this illogical feud between you, but to no avail. That is until today, when the three of you are sitting in a wagon together on the way to the Zora domain. Sidon’s inauguration is tonight, and the princess is expected to attend for her blessing. This involves a party, grand feast and hours of boring speeches, but it’s for the best to have a prospering society in Hyrule.

“I’ve always loved this area so much. Don’t you?” Zelda asks, bewilderment in her eyes as she looks around the area. It is beautiful here, and Link seems to agree due to the twinkling look in his eyes. “Definitely. We’re planned to stay here for three days, but I may elongate the stay so we can do some sightseeing. I hear that they have built a Mipha memorial nearby.” Link stiffens at your words, having some sort of impact on him that you don’t quite understand. “I’m not looking at a statue of my dead friend.” He mutters, loud enough for you to hear but not Zelda, who is sitting opposite the two of you. You wonder whether you should speak up, telling him that Sidon put hard work into it but ultimately don’t stir the pot. Afterall, you don’t want to ruin the ride with your bickering once more.

The wagon enters the gates of Zora’s Domain, illustrating a wide runway with blues and aquas, like an underwater sanctuary out of a fairytale. Zora children and adults crowd the sides, waving enthusiastically at you as they cheer. Zelda smile’s back at them in that same way she looked at the views from earlier: grateful and ecstatic.

When a child runs over to the wagon and follows it through tripping steps and teary eyes, she holds up a ragged teddy bear to Link. “Link! Link! I love you!” He timidly takes it, an embarrassed blush quickly turning his face into a resemblance of a tomato. You laugh, finding his nerves shocking as he is the hero of Hyrule after all. “He said thank you!” You call out to the child as she stops following the wagon, noticing the despondent look on her face that he never responded. “Thanks…” He grumbles, avoiding your eye contact as he places the bear in his bag. “No problem. But maybe we need to get you into some of Zelda’s etiquette classes if you’re going to act like that every time a fan interacts with you.” Link just merely rolls his eyes.

You arrive, and as Zelda and Link already reunite with their old friends you set off to work. Those two may be able to have fun, but you don’t, rushing around to ensure everything is perfect for the princess. She certainly isn’t posh or judgmental, but Zelda does have certain things that she likes to have in her living situations. It is your responsibility to ensure that her journal is in her room, bags are unpacked and clothes are prepped for the next day, as well as checking that all the appropriate safety precautions are made.

After a while you collapse on a chair, watching Sidon’s attendees scatter around to prepare for the crowning. It’s tough work, and even tougher when you watch Link joke around with Sidon instead of helping. Isn’t he supposed to be Zelda’s bodyguard? So why is it your responsibility to update the guards on your arrival and suspected leave date and not his? Lost in your frustration about this and the other many things he does (like why is his hair always so silky??) you suddenly have someone sit down next to you, their toned bicep leaning on the back of the chair and an exhausted huff leaving their mouth. 

“Zelda told me to take a rest while she goes for a walk with Yona. Mind if I join you?” Asks Link, his eyebrows furrowed as if he just did something preposterous. You turn to him bluntly, eyes scanning his body. Who does he think he is, just suddenly acting like he’s your friend? But you don’t want him to get any satisfaction out of your shock, so you merely reply “Yeah that’s alright” before turning back away from him.

As much as you would love to uphold a confident, unbothered quality in this moment, the air is soon filled with and uneasy silence you yearn to break. But why? You never want to speak to Link, and certainly not with trivial small talk.

“This looks nice. The coronation is going to be beautiful.” He states. “Yeah, definitely. But they’re also so… long.” He laughs at your annoyance; in a beautiful rumble you don’t think you’ve ever heard before. You continue to talk, trying to conceal that pit in your stomach. “But Zelda loves them, and I know Dorephan is thrilled to pass on the throne to his son.” Link nods thoughtfully, pondering your words. “That’s true. I know this was a big day for Zelda, regardless of if she ever actually had a coronation or wanted one. It’s a nerve-wracking yet important step for any royalty, and culturally unique in every way.” Once he finishes your mind is fried, having never heard him speak remotely more than a sentence in the past. But he knows much more than you do, and his insight is intriguing to say the least.

The conversation is left there, after a cook runs up to you asking about the princesses’ dietary requirements. Before you know it, it’s well into the night and you feel like you haven’t breathed once. During the speeches you were ensuring Zelda was prepared for hers, during the crowning you were helping the chefs prepare the food and during the idle chatter you were having meetings with members of the community to see what the royal family could do to help them.

You find Zelda on the middle of the dance floor with the new king of the Zora, doing some sort of traditional jig and giggling like a schoolgirl. You told her not to have any wine tonight, but it seems she didn’t listen. “My dear, will you not dance with us?” asks an intoxicated and overtly touchy older Rito man. “Oh, thank you but I don’t know the dance.” “Well that’s fine, I don’t know it either! You just copy the person next to you! Here, follow me!” Without further warning he grabs your arm and pulls you onto the floor, twirling you despite how you almost fall over. The dance is complicated and fast, but with this random man’s lead you manage just fine. That is until it’s time to switch partners, and your viciously thrown into Links arms.

“Link?!” The two of you look at each other with the shock of seeing someone come back from the dead, even though you knew you were both at the party. “You didn’t strike me as a dancer” He says, and you scoff. “Neither did you. What are you doing?” “I don’t know, guess the wine got to me.” He answers honestly. Your hands intertwine and you clumsily follow the movements, as he does the same in a somehow even worse way. He twirls you, and you swear you see his eyes drift down to your ass, but they jump back up to your eyes with an intense glare. Just to spite him, you pull him in close, seeing his confident stare falter. “Having a nice night?” You smirk, hand clasping his shoulder. He’s warm but muscled. It feels good on your dainty hand. “Could be better. Want to get out of here?”

Did he just, say what you think he did? You stop dancing, despite being jostled by the people next to you. Wordlessly you nod, unable to get the words out as you fear that perhaps you’re dreaming this. But why would you? You don’t care what he thinks, or about spending time with him. Still holding your hand, he leads you down the stairs to the pools, leaning on the railing which overlooks the water and you join him, reluctantly dropping his hand.

“So, what’s your deal?” He asks, not even bothering to turn and look at you. “What do you mean?” “I mean why are you here? Being a personal assistant, following Zelda and I around. You seem… Better equipped for something more fulfilling.” You blush, surprised at his complement. “I don’t know. I guess it was just what was expected for me. Apparently my ancestors worked at the castle, and so when Zelda was hiring my parents were thrilled. They thought I was perfect for it, as it’s in my blood and all. But I… Wanted to adventure. Go to the wildest plains of Hyrule, climb the tallest mountains and meet the furthest civilisations. But I can still do that with you two!” A silence lingers between the two of you, an uncomfortable one that makes the hair on your neck stand up. Finally, he turns to you and straightens up. The creases on his forehead display true concern, one you haven’t had directed towards you since you were a kid scraping your knee after a tumble.

“No. You go and do that, Zelda and I don’t need you. This is your life, not your parents, not anybody else’s. Yours.” He seems truly angry when his says this, and it makes your heart flutter. When he says his next words he closes the gap between you, lips almost touching yours but showing the tiniest restraint to not. “You’re better than just some personal assistant. Trust me, I know it.”

That’s when you can’t take anymore, and you kiss him. If you were in any sort of right mind, you’d think you were insane for doing this, your fervour causing him to stumble back and grab your waist for support. But he kisses you back, tongue sliding hungrily into your mouth and grazing your white teeth. You moan, and he digs his nails into your ass.

You needed this, and so did he. Whether you knew it or not.

[hystericstar]

maybe a headcanon or two for each link + sidon and how they do aftercare? I know it's not explicit but is still nsfw related, right? ;w;

Yeah, in my book it is! Just very soft :)

! MDNI !

𐂅 Twilight princess link 𐂅

9/10 times you’re gonna end up really sore, so he remedies that for you by giving the best massages you’ve ever had

Rough, calloused hands rubbing your back was something you never knew you needed till now

has a whole conversation with you

asking about your day, if you felt okay, etc.

goes into golden retriever mode as if you don’t limp when you walk

“ I couldn’t be happier your day went well darlin’. As for me, just your smile makes me forget anything else even exists.”

༆ Skyward sword link ༆

bath time!!!

Carries you to the bathroom and has you sit in the warm water while he changes the soiled bedsheets

he joins you when he’s done and y’all bathe together

his favorite thing is to brush your hair while humming

your’e always out like a light within minutes

idk why I just feel like he has the voice of an angel

“ Are you comfy enough? Let me know if I pull too hard on your hair, okay? Is there anything in particular you want me to sing for you dove?”

ᘏ Botw/Totk link ᘎ

Cleans you up, leaves, and then comes back with a tray full of munchies

you guys spend like half an hour praising each other

and then another half is just you happily listening to him tell stories of his chaotic adventures

a tickle fight may or may not be involved

“no matter how hard the battle was, it’d do it all again if it meant I’d get to have you look in my direction.”

𝄞 Ocarina of time link 𝄞

Gently holds you and takes a moment to just press his forehead against yours, admiring every aspect of you

starts gently making out with you cause he just loves you so much he physically can’t contain it

he’ll hold you for as long as you let him, face buried in your neck the whole time

holds your hand too cause he’s soft and if you disagree then you’re wrong

“you are my sun, sky, and earth. I am nothing without you.”

➳ Hyrule warriors link ➳

“I want you to breathe in and out for me, kay?”

bro performs a whole wellness check

“ I wasn’t too rough on you, was I?”

”thank you for allowing me the honor to pleasure you m’lady.”

don’t ask me why but I feel like he calls you that

actually it’s cannon Zelda just told me herself

anyways-

gentlemanly but can’t help tease you for that blissed out look in your eye

teaches you stretches to ease any kind of pain and exercises to help you catch your breath

ᖫ The fierce deity ᖭ

Asks you if you enjoyed it

wants to know if you did or didn’t like anything he did in particular

after all, he vowed he would serve you the moment he laid eyes on you

what kind of deity would he be if he couldn’t make his darling little human feel good?

“ I will do everything in my power to grant your every wish. I’d forge you jewelry made of the stars should you say the word.”

🜲 Sidon 🜲

Yk how I said twi would have golden retriever energy after?

yeah, scratch that

he is nothing compared to fish man

immediately sprints outside to get you some fresh zora spring water

don’t worry, he purified it like 5 times so that water is clean

you swear you can almost see the fin on his head wagging-

“are you hungry? Comfortable? Cold?”

eventually, he asks if you want to go for a swim

takes you to a private pond and lets ride on his back, or, if you’d prefer, you lay on his chest while he just floats along.

~《☆♡•°•°♡☆》~

done 😩

it was so fun adding in little text lines for them. Writing lines for characters is so fun istg

thank you for requesting!

[archi-pelago]

more zonai au

wanted to doodle the god of time for this au, meet "Ordona" aka the Fierce Deity of Time

Link is an ancestor of his and he's extremely hands off, usually passing shit onto Hylia or Demise or the three goddesses bc he's not invested in basically anything. when he is, its only when time and space is at risk, which isn't very often, but if he gets involved he's got a worse temper than Demise

Link bullies an Ocarina of Time out of him! here's a size comparison. Considering Zonai!Link is about the same size as Sidon, this dude's a bit toll. He also didn't used to be a god of time until he defeated Majora a long time ago through his music, when he was still very very young

it was a sad affair, and one of the reasons he doesn't participate in wars between the gods anymore. Majora nearly decimated the Zonai population and they never really recovered, even after Ordona took the helm. (as a result he's THRILLED that Link turned into a Zonai. hell yes my sonboy. furry upon thee!!)

[dmin7cadenza]

I’m not that good of a writer 😭 maybe I’ll post the first part as a chapter on ao3 while I work on more of it

[mask131]

About Tanit

I recently posted about how people should be looking more into other gods outside of the Greco-Roman pantheons. If you follow me for quite some times, you will also have noted I posted a bunch of loose translation from the French Dictionary of literary myths (which is truly a great reference). Well, I wanted to share with you today a loose translation – well, more of an info-mining at this point – of an article about a goddess that people often ignore the existence of, despite being located right next to Ancient Greece and Rome, and being involved in the history of the Roman Empire. And this goddess is Tanit.

Written by Ildiko Lorinszky, the article is organized in two – at first it takes a look and analysis at the mythological Tanit, at who and what she likely was, how her cult was organized all that. The second part, since it is a Dictionary of LITERARY myths, takes a look at the most prominent and famous depiction of Tanit in French literature – that is to say Flaubert’s famous Salammbô. (If you recalled, a long time ago I posted about how a journalist theorized in an article how Flaubert’s Salammbô was basically an “epic fantasy” novel a la Moorcock or Tolkien long before “fantasy” was even a genre)

Part 1: Tanit in mythology and archeology

Tanit was the patron-goddess of the city of Carthage. Considered to be one of the avatars o the Phoenician goddess Astarte, Tanit’s title, as found on several Punic engravings, was “The Face of Baal” – a qualification very close to how Astarte was called in Sidon and Ugarit “The Name of Baal”. These titles seem to indicate that these two goddesses acted as mediators or intermediaries between humanity and Baal.

Tanit is as such associated with Baal, the vegetation god, but sometimes she is his wife, other times she is simply his paredra (companion/female counterpart). She seems to be the female power accompanying the personification of masculinity that is Baal, and as such their relationship can evoke the one between Isis and Osiris: the youthful sap of the lunar goddess regularly regenerates the power of the god. This “nursing” or “nourishing” function of Tanit seems to have been highlighted by the title she received during the Roman era: the Ops, or the Nutrix, the ���Nurse of Saturn”. Goddess of the strengthened earth, Tanit is deeply tied to agrarian rituals: her hierogamy with Baal reproduces in heaven the birth of seeds on earth. Within the sanctuaries of Tanit, men and women devoted to the goddess practiced a sacred prostitution in order to favorize the fecundity of nature. The women tied to the temple were called “nubile girls”, while the men working there were called “dogs” to highlight how completely enslaved they were to the goddess. We know that the prostitutes of both sexes brought important incomes to the temple/

The etymology of Tanit (whose name can also be called Tannit or Tinnit) is obscure. The most probable hypothesis is that the Phoenico-Punic theonym “Tnt” is tied to the verb “tny”, which was used in the Bible to mean “lamenting”, “wailing”, “crying”. According to this interpretation, the “tannît” is originally a “crier”, a “wailer”, and the full name of Tanit means “She who cries before Baal”. As such, the Carthaginian goddess might come from a same tradition as the “Venus lugens”.

According to some mythographers, Tanit (or Astarte) was the supreme goddess of Carthage, and might have been identical to the figures of Dido and Elissa. As in, Dido was in truth the celestial goddess, considered as the founder of the city and its first queen. According to this hypothesis, the suicide of Dido on a pyre was a pure invention of Virgil, who took this motif from various celebrations hosted at Carthage. During these feasts-days, images and depictions of the goddess were burned The word Anna would simply mean “clement”, “mild”, “merciful” – the famous Anna, sister of Dido, is thought to have been another Punic goddess, whose cult was brought from Carthage to Rome, and who there was confused with the roman Anna Perenna, a goddess similar to Venus. Varro claimed that it was not Dido that burned on the pyre, but Anna, and according to this angle, Anna appears as a double of Dido – and like her, she would be another manifestation of the goddess Tanit. Anna’s very name reminds of the name “Nanaia”/”Aine”, which was a title given to Mylitta, yet another manifestation of Tanit.

The sign known as the “sign” or “symbol of Tanit” seems to be a simplified depiction of the goddess with her arms open: it is a triangle (reduced to a trapezoid as the top of the triangle is cut) with an horizontal line at its top, an a disc above the horizontal line. This symbol appears throughout the Punic world on monuments, steles, ceramics and clay figurines.

Part 2: The literary Tanit of Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô is probably where the goddess reappears with the most splendor in literature. While her essence is shown being omnipresent throughout the Punic world, Tanit, as the soul of the city, truly dwells within the town’s sanctuary, which keeps her sacred cloak. The veil of the goddess, desired by many, stolen then regained throughout the plot, plays a key role within the structure of this very enigmatic text, which presents itself as a “veiled narrative”.

The town and its lands are filled with the soul of the ���Carthaginian Venus”. The countryside, for example, is filled with an erotic subtext, sometimes seducing, sometimes frightening – reflecting the ambiguity of the goddess. The landscape is all curves, softness, roundness, evoking the shapes of a female body – and the architecture of both the city-buildings and countryside-buildings are described in carnal ways. Within Salammbô, Flaubert describes a world where the spirit and the flesh are intertwined – the female world of Carthage is oppressed by an aura mixing lust with mysticism; and through the erotic nature creeps both a frightening sacred and an attractive morbidity. For death and destruction is coming upon Carthage.

The contradictory nature of the goddess appears as early as the very first scene of the novel, when the gardens of Hamilcar are described. The novel opens on a life-filled landscape: the gardens of the palace are a true Land of Eden, with an abundant vegetation filled with fertility symbols. The plants that are listed are not mere exotic ornaments: they all bear symbolic and mythological connotations. The fig-tree, symbol of abundance and fecundity ; the sycamore, “living body of Hathor”, the tree of the Egyptian moon-goddess ; the grenade, symbol of fertility due to its multiple seeds ; the pine tree, linked to Attis the lover of Cybele ; the cypress, Artemis’ tree ; the lily, which whose perfume was said to be an aphrodisiac ; the vine-grapes and the rose… All those plants are linked to the moon, that the Carthaginian religion associated with Tanit. Most of these symbols, however, have a macabre touch reflecting the dark side of the goddess. The cypress, the “tree of life”, is also a funeral tree linked to the underworld ; the coral is said to be the same red as blood, and was supposedly born from the blood-drops of Medusa ; the lily symbolizes temptation and the unavoidable attraction of the world of the dead ; the fig-tree just like the grenade have a negative side tied to sterility… The flora of this passage, mixing benevolent and malevolent attributes, already depict a world of coexisting and yet opposed principles: fertility cannot exist without sterility, and death is always followed by a renewal. The garden’s description introduces in the text the very cycles of nature, while also bringing up the first signs of the ambivalence that dominates the story.

The same union of opposites is found within the mysterious persona of Tanit. The prayer of Salammbô (which was designed to evoke Lucius’ lamentations to Isis within Apuleius’ Metamorphosis) first describes a benevolent goddess of the moon, who fecundates the world : “How you turn, slowly, supported by the impalpable ether! It polishes itself around you, and it is the movement of your agitation that distributes the winds and the fecund dews. It is as you grow and decrease that the eyes of the cats and the spots of the panthers lengthen or shrink. The wives scream your name in the pains of labor! You inflate the sea-shells! You make the wines boil! […] And all seeds, o goddess, ferment within the dark depths of your humidity.” As a goddess presiding to the process of fermentation, Tanit is also tied to the principle of death – because it is her that makes corpses rot.

The Carthaginian Venus appears sometimes as an hermaphrodite divinity, but with a prevalence and dominance of her feminine aspect. Other times, she appears as just one of two distinct divinity, the female manifestation in couple with a male principle. Tanit synthetizes within her the main aspects of all the great moon-goddesses: Hathor, Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Anaitis... All are supposed to have an omnipotence when it comes to the vegetal life. Mistress of the elements, Tanit can be linked to the Mother-Earth : for the character of Salammbô, the cloak of the goddess will appear as the veil of nature. The daughter of Hamilcar is linked in a quite mysterious way to Tanit – for she is both a frightened follower of the goddess, and the deity’s incarnation. Described as “pale” and “light” as the moon, she is said to be influenced by the celestial body: in the third chapter, it is explained that Salammbô weakened every time the moon waned, and that while she was languishing during the day, she strengthened herself by nightfall – with an additional mention that she almost died during an eclipse. Flaubert ties together his heroine’s traits with the very name “Salammbô”, which is a reminiscence of the funeral love of Astarte: “Astarte cries for Adonis, an immense grief weighs upon her. She searches. Salmmbô has a vague and mournful love”. According to Michelet’s explanations, “Salambo”, the “love name” of Astarte, is meant to evoke a “mad, dismal and furious flute, which was played during burials”.

As a character embodying Tanit, Salammbô is associated with the two animals that were sacred to the goddess: the holy fishes, and the python snake, also called “the house-spirit”. Upon the “day of the vengeance”, when Mâtho, the scape-goat, is charged with all the crimes of the mercenaries, she appears under the identity of Dercéto, the “fish-woman”. The very detailed costumes of Salammbô contain motifs borrowed to other goddesses that are avatars of Tanit. By using other goddesses, Flaubert widens the range of shapes the lunar goddess can appear with, while also bringing several mythical tales, whose scattered fragments infiltrate themselves within the novel. When she welcomes her father, Salammbô wears around her neck “two small quadrangular plates of gold depicting a woman between two lions ; and her costume reproduced fully the outfit of the goddess”. The goddess depicted here is Cybele, the passionate lover of Attis, the young Phrygian shepherd. This love story that ends in mutilations bears several analogies with the fatal love between Salammbô and the Lybian leader. And the motif of the mutilation is one of the key-images of the novel.

A fish-woman, like Dercéto, Salmmbô is also a dove-woman, reminding of Semiramis ; but more so, she is a snake-woman, linked mysteriously to the python. Before uniting herself with Mâtho (who is identified to Moloch), Salammbô unites herself with the snake that incarnates the lunar goddess in her hermaphroditic shape. It is the python that initiates Salammbô to the mysteries, revealing to Hamilcar’s daughter the unbreakable bond between eroticism and holiness. In the first drafts of the novel, Salammbô was a priestess of Tanit, but in the final story, Flaubert chose to have her father denying her access to the priesthood. So, she rather becomes a priestess under Mathô’s tent: using the zaïmph, she practices a sacred prostitution. The union of Hamilcar’s daughter and of the leader of the mercenaries reproduces the hierogamy of Tanit and Moloch.

Salammbô, confused with Tanit, is also victim of the jealous Rabbet. Obsessed with discovering the face of the goddess hidden under the veil, she joins the ranks of all those female characters who curiosity leads to the transgression of a divine rule (Eve, Pandora, Psyche, Semele). And, in a way, the story of Mathô and Salammbô reproduces this same story: the desire to see, the desire for knowledge, always leads to an ineluctable death.

[demilypyro]

TRUE there was SO MUCH art of Link and Sidon and nobody bats an eye but anything involving Zelda and people complained. Let women be horny

[greenokapi]

I still don't entirely know how to go about posting fanfics on here bcs of the rating on them but for now I'll post the chapter art here since it's not explicit and a link to the fic on ao3 I guess?

That said, summary:

Not long after waking up from his 100 year slumber, still lacking his memories, Link runs into a vaguely familiar creature, but something about it is different from everything else he's also forgotten...

Chapter 1

This is a BOTW/Skyward Sword AU fic involving Link and Ghirahim, there'll be shipping between them and Sidon's gonna be there too so just be aware of that and also please make sure to heed the tags and rating of the fic, (and stay away if you are a minor), thank you~

[dwellordream]

On the Black Death in Africa and Asia, and the interconnected Middle Ages, by Eleanor Janega

“…See, the thing is that one of the weird myths I have to deal with all the time is that the Black Death was somehow a European experience, as opposed to an Afro-Eurasian one, and that Europeans were uniquely attacked by it because of something stupid/gross/superstitious that they did that everyone else avoided. Sometimes that’s people saying Europeans killed all their cats and so rats proliferated. Sometimes its people saying that Europeans didn’t bathe and therefore germs spread. (Of course, that’s beside the point anyway, because last time I checked fleas, which are what spreads plague, DGAF about how clean you are, but OK! Europeans still bathed! I am so tired!)

Sometimes, it’s people saying that Europeans’ backwards medical ideas involving the humoral system is to blame. (The entire Arabic world also believed in the humoral system! The only thing that works to treat the plague is antibiotics! No one in the entire world had medicine that could fight this until the nineteenth century!) Sometimes its people saying that Europeans threw sewage in the streets. (They didn’t, but I’ll have to talk about that another time. And also! Plague comes from fleas! Which do not live in human excrement anyway! So that’s really beside the point! And even when it’s pneumonic not bubonic it spreads via droplets! Which are in your breath! Not excrement! Oh my god!)

But here’s the thing, if any of that were true, (and it isn’t) that would mean that the theoretically smarter rest-of-the-world wouldn’t be affected by the Black Death at all because they were having a bath with their cat next to a fully piped sewage system while not believing in humoral theory or something.

Fun fact! No.

Now we might not have a lot of sources from the totally collapsed Silk Road cities, etc., but we do have a lot from our friends in the Middle East. And they are here to tell you that everyone was having a hard time, and they had a pretty clear idea of how the plague spread.

The historian Ibn al-Wardī (c.1291 – 1349), writing in Aleppo described the onslaught of the plague thusly:

“The plague frightened and killed. It began in the land of darkness [Northern Asia]. Oh what a visitor! It has been current for fifteen years. China was not preserved from it, nor could the strongest fortress hinder it. The plague afflicted the Indians in India. It weighed upon the Sind. It seized with it’s hand and ensnared even the lands of the Uzbeks. How many backs did it break in what is Transoxiana! The plague increased and spread further. It attacked the Persians, extended its steps toward the land of the Khitai, and gnawed away at the Crimea. It pelted Rum with live coals and led the outrage to Cyprus and the islands. The plague destroyed mankind in Cairo. Its eye was cast upon Egypt, and behold, the people were wide-awake.”

“… Oh Alexandria, this plague is like a lion which extends its arm to you. Have patience with the fate of the plague, which leaves of seventy men only seven. … The plague attacked Gaza, and it shook ‘Asqalan severyly. The plague oppressed Acre. The scourge came to Jerusalem … It overtook those people who fled to the al-‘Aqsa Mosque, which stands beside the Dome of the Rock. If the door of mercy had not been opened, the end of the world would have occurred in a moment. It, then, hastened its pace and attacked the entire maritime plain. The plague trapped Sidon and descended unexpectedly upon Beirut, cunningly. Next, it directed the shooting of its arrows to Damascus. There the plague sat like a king on a throne and swayed with power, killing daily one thousand or more and decimating the population.”[6]

He died of the plague.

Later, writing in Algeria, the historian Ibn Khaldûn (1332-1406) said of the pestilence that “It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out. It overtook dynasties at the time of their senility, when they had reached the limit of their duration. It lessened their power and curtailed their influence. It weakened their authority. Their situation approached the point of annihilation and dissolution. Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings were laid waste, roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world changed. The East, it seems, was similarly visited, though in accordance with and in proportion to (its more affluent) civilization. It was as if the voice of existence in the world had called out for oblivion and restriction, and the world had responded to its call. God inherits the earth and all who dwell upon it. … it is as if the entire creation had changed and the whole world been altered”.[7]

So, this is all very depressing, but I think it’s important that I lay this all out here for everyone’s perusal. Because the thing is until we begin to approach the medieval world as an interconnected place, weird myths are going to persist. As a Europeanist I am as guilty as anyone of aiding those who want to create a world where the Black Death is a phenomenon that happened on one continent to a group of uniquely stupid people. If no one sees the sources where our friends in Asia and Africa discuss the horrors around them, then of course they are going to continue to believe that the Black Death is something that happens when the Pope takes a disliking to cats. Or something.

I’m not writing this, however, just to defend Europe. I checked, these people are all dead and probably fine. I’m writing it because persisting with the myth that everywhere other than Europe was actually an enlightened paradise does a major disservice to those histories as well. Whole communities collapsed. Death was everywhere. The historians who wanted you to understand the chaos and pain happening all around them died of that plague and if we don’t witness that, then it’s for nothing.

Further, to pretend that only idiots couldn’t figure out that this pestilence was spread by germs in fleas is actually calling all our friends in Africa and Asia stupid as well. Because they also didn’t have germ theory, and they also died in huge numbers. This does not make them foolish.

We can’t go back in time and save the hundreds of millions of people who died of the Black Death in Afro-Eurasia. What we can do from our safe distance of almost seven hundred years, behind a wall of antibiotics, is to at least do them the service of acknowledging their experience and not calling them stupid. These were real people who lived in a complex world and were doing their best in it. Frankly, if you chose to ignore their suffering and their own testaments to it, then you are the one who is ignorant.

Societies are not a hierarchy, and we don’t need to impose one. We certainly don’t need to go back in time to do that either. Ideas of a divided medieval world where people from different continents were all separate and doing totally different things do nothing but serve to uphold outdated and racist ideas of the pre-modern world. Don’t do that in a rush to condemn Europe for its modern problems.”

[frost-link]

Any Headcanons for sidon x reader who is a mermaid/siren (she/her)

(What a lovely idea! I would love to! Since you had also requested a different one, asking how they met; I'll combine them in this one!)

Sidon With a Fem!Mermaid S/O

How you met:

Sidon had first spotted you when he was at Tarm Point. What he had initially thought was a hylian in the water, turned out to be something else. For he had seen your face for a moment, before you dove into the water, revealing your vibrant scales and fins. He was completely shocked at the sight of you. He had never witnessed someone like that before. It felt like a dream to him, surreal. However, it was only for a moment.

He thought that he would be able to shrug it off, however he was wrong. He was consumed by your being in his sleep. You were in his dreams, appearing as a radiant, yet mysterious blur.

This went on for a week before he decided to return to Tarm Point only to find that you weren't there. Throughout the following weeks he kept coming back, however you still were nowhere to be seen.

He had given up on looking for you until there were rumours in the Domain. Multiple had claimed to see something at Lanayru Bay.

Many of the Zora made comments.

"I thought it was a hylian at first, before I saw her having the lower half of some kind of sea creature!"

"Maybe it's a Zora-Hylian hybrid?"

"I originally thought she was potentially a threat, however the way she was washed up on the bay, I didn't think so."

This had completely alarmed Sidon, he was quick to go to Lanayru Bay just to see you, and make sure that you were okay.

He finally saw you after weeks of thinking about you. He was quick to return you to Zora's Domain; to the infirmary. Zora Healers had taken care of you immediately. After a couple of days, you finally woke up.

Turns out you had spotted him too with the same feelings. You wanted to see him more closely. Which is how you wound up on Lanayru Bay, away from the ocean.

Over the next few weeks, you both got to know each other. You both shared personal stories, about your lives, and how it was different living in the ocean v.s. the domain.

Sidon was the first to confess to you. He first found himself falling in love by how he would stare at your (f/c) scales. How you gently swayed your tail fins in the water. When you gently touch his fins, comparing it to your own. It was the small things that really lured him to you.

Headcanons:

Sidon absolutely loves to go swimming at the Reservoir with you. He likes doing different tricks in the water for you to watch, vice versa.

If Sidon playfully splashes you... Oh man is he in for something. You use your tail fin and absolutely send a giant splash back, the power you have in it SCARES him.

Sidon will find himself staring at you when the rays from the sun hits your scales and glistens in the light. He can't help but find himself lost in your vibrant beauty.

He's fairly embarrassed by this, however you absolutely enjoy teasing him about it. The first few times when he spoke with you, he would forget that you didn't have "legs". He would usually just see you from the waist up in the infirmary's water. He would think you're a hylian for a hot minute.

"Aren't you coming, (Y/n)?"

"Do you think I can just walk out of the water?"

"..."

Whenever you go somewhere with him that involves leaving the water, he always picks you up bridal style and holds you close.

At night, when he's stressed from his duties, you will sing him lullabies to help him sleep. Sometimes you would also just tell him stories about your home in the ocean. The different kinds of fish, coral, etc. This always puts him at ease.

Sidon absolutely loves it when you wrap your tailfin around him. It never fails to make him feel flustered.