#botw 2 may fuck this timeline over hardcore but that's okay because i can't read!

[ultimate-quartz]

four swords au rambling pls don’t mind me

warning, this is long!

The World, and our Heroes

The land of Hyrule has been rebuilt after the calamity. Two hundred years have passed, one hundred since the hero Link revived to cast away Calamity Ganon. Civilization has returned to most reaches of the land, with Hyrule reclaiming its kingdom. Sheikah technology has been repurposed and advanced in everyday life, and historians travelling the land make a good living scouring ancient relics. New issues are trivial, economic and political skirmishes along tribes who for a hundred years had isolated themselves and run independently from each other, and now find themselves once more ruled under one crown. 

The map has several residential townships: Hyrule castle town and its subsidiaries, Kakariko Village, Hateno Village, Gerudo Town, Goron City, Zora’s Domain, and Rito Village. Smaller are Tarrey Town, Lurelin Village, Karakara Bazaar and other stables and marketplaces. Korok Forest is known, but remains sealed as a historic site. The Plateau is still being reclaimed, and remains the center of disputes between historians who wish to preserve the site and Hylian developers who see a new possibility for a highly protected fortress zone.

 Kakariko continues to be home to the Sheikah, and prides itself on being a beacon of tradition and preservation. Red resides here and has grown up under the care of the new elder Sheikah, Inua, after being left as a prophesied offering on the steps of the temple home. They grew up as a free spirit, sheltered within the boundaries of the town. They can be described as a sweet troublemaker.

Hateno Village has become a balanced hub of agriculture and technology, with both ancient tech labs combining to create a large facility upon the hill above town. Children here grow up with vast expanses of land to play in and harvest, as well as the looming tech site to stimulate their wild imaginations. Vio was born and grew up here, and found his calling in ancient research while exploring the tech labs as a child. He left town in his early teens to explore the land’s various dig sites. 

Hyrule Castle Town is the most populated district in Hyrule Kingdom, as the hub of urbanization and commerce. A grand marketplace is central to the town, surrounded by residential districts and various businesses. The castle itself is heavily fortressed, and boasts a large and experienced force of knights to both protect the perimeter and serve as protectors for the rest of the kingdom. The entire Kingdom remains on edge, fearing a resurgence of the calamity. Green and Blue both reside in castle town, and find themselves in training to become elite knights for the Hyrule forces. Brought up from different walks of life, they’re unlikely friends and rivals. 

In the ruins of the Temple of Time, a destroyed relic of past devotions, looming above on the Great Plateau, a portal is opened. The calamity may have gone, but the final battle has unknowingly left a rift between the world of light and shadow. A lone traveler from the mirror realm of darkness, going by the name Shadow, finds themself accidentally passing through the portal and into the world of light. They attach themself to Vio, who is trespassing in the ruins, on the hunt for more information on a prophecy he heard from the Rito tribe. The pair becomes an unlikely duo, as the prophecy and the emergence of the portal lead them to an adventure bigger than themselves. 

To bring adventurers together, there must be some form of relationship between everyone. Blue and Green have known each other since school days, building a bond of trust and friendship. Blue and Vio are distant cousins, and reconnect when Vio arrives at castle town with news of an unearthed prophecy. The group meets Red when passing through Kakariko, and discover that Vio’s prophecy may be intertwined with the Sheikah legend that caused Red to be dropped off at the temple steps. Red insists on joining the group, and is quickly recognized by the adventurers as an asset in both practical and intuitive ways. Green, Blue, and Red become a tightly knit trio, while Vio keeps a degree of separation, preferring to confide in Shadow in the darkness of night. Shadow hides himself away in the daylight, and attempts to keep himself secret from the other three for fear of being labelled a monster. 

The Prophecy

The Rito have unearthed a partial scroll, hidden in the caverns below Rito Village, which depicts a mass of darkness, assumed by many to be a reference to the previous calamity; however, Vio notes four symbols depicted in the light beside the darkness, which he doesn’t recognize from any of the histories capturing the tragedy. There is faded scripture which, when translated, mentions a “temple in the sky.” Hoping to be the first to solve this mystery himself, Vio goes under the cover of night and tresspasses beyond the walled off boundaries of the plateau. This is where he uncovers another piece of the scroll, and unknowingly is bound to Shadow. This scroll describes a journey, and four hidden relics of great power.

The Sheikah’s piece of the prophecy surrounds the origins of the four heroes meant to wield this ancient power. Inua has been told that four, born under a golden harvest moon on the hundredth anniversary of the calamity’s demise, would be sent by the goddesses to ward off a coming evil. Red was brought to Inua’s door sixteen years prior, and has been hidden away ever since, learning as much as they can about the prophecy within Kakariko. The Sheikah kept quiet about their known prophecy to keep the fears of evil at bay, and as a result relied on a chance encounter for the four heroes to meet. Blue is skeptical, but Green is enthralled at the chance to be a hero, as he was raised on the stories of Link, the sealer of darkness. 

With both of these foundational pieces of the puzzle, the group sets off to find out whatever they can about these four relics, while working to find more clues about the coming evil, and battling against time as the hour of darkness crawls closer and closer.