#it’s zonai sonia & hylian rauru lol. just to clarify)

[emily-e-draws]

something something turntables

[avalypuff]

I have more headcanons that I don’t think I can make into detailed stand-alone posts on their own, so I’m going to compile them here.

If it wasn’t clear, I absolutely love Rauru, Mineru, and what little we know of Zonai as a whole, so these are all about them as well a few snippets of their culture. Please refer to this post for my views on hybridization with other races.

Headcanons are under the cut. Oh also, just to clarify, I’m a believer that BotW/TotK are their own separate entities totally separate from all past games including SS. Please keep that in mind if anything “doesn’t add up with the timeline” :)

Food

• Zonai are carnivorous (this I believe is more than just headcanon, going off the fact all their teeth, even their molars, are sharp). While they can eat fruits and vegetables in small portions, they can’t sustain a healthy vegetarian/vegan lifestyle and will eventually become malnourished and sick without meat.

They’re also uniquely capable of digesting monster parts, unlike Hylians who get sick even from thoroughly cooked parts. Zelda was particularly surprised/concerned to see Rauru enjoying some Octorok calamari, and the following occurred:

“You can eat that?” -Zelda

“I can. Unfortunately you cannot.” -Rauru

• Rauru loves sweet food, such as glazed meats, and brown sugar steaks, while just about the only thing Mineru enjoys enough to eat consistently is a simple dish of spicy meat skewers. Rauru himself has no tolerance for spiciness. Never had, never will.

Physiology and Culture

• Zonai men are commonly known as “bucks” and women are “does” (like deer—goats too, lol)

• Zonai shed. Particularly in spring, as the weather gets warmer. Their fur might be short, save for areas where it grows longer and scale-like, but it doesn’t go unnoticed, especially when you’re sharing sheets with one.

• The third eye doesn’t have the same type of sight that their main eyes have. It’s an organ used to focus their magic, hence why it never opens unless they’re conjuring a huge spell.

• Males grow four horns, which, if not filed regularly*, can grow up to several inches, with the lower set remaining smaller and shorter.

Females cannot grow horns at all.

In the case of trans individuals it’s not uncommon for does to choose hairstyles that would hide their horns from view, but it’s in no way frowned upon to show one’s horns or lack there of if gender doesn’t align with physical appearance. De-horning is an extremely painful procedure, and not expected, though some opt for it anyways.

*Rauru files his horns each morning as part of his personal care routine.

• Fancy headdresses that give the wearer large, ornamental horns (think the dragon armor sets Link wears) are worn by both does and bucks during ceremonies or even celebrations/parties. Everyone loves them.

• Zonai don’t really have surnames. Instead they practice naming conventions based on their fathers’ names. In Mineru and Rauru’s case, their father’s name also ended in ‘ru. This wasn’t practiced by every family, mind you, but definitely by nobility.

• They don’t really kiss. Their lips physically can’t curl outwards like that. Instead, they share affection with tender nuzzling (gentle biting and licking when things get steamy).

Rauru loves being kissed by Sonia though, and always returns her affection in a Zonai way.

• Families typically consisted of mother, father, and one or two children at most. They had slightly longer lifespans than Hylians (Think a couple decades. Nothing extreme.) but didn’t breed as often, so their numbers were already low when they began going extinct. More on that in a minute.

• The same attributes of Zonaite that made it an efficient fuel source also give off a strange and poorly-understood radiation that invokes feelings of greed in those who spend a lot of time with it. This is part of what originally lead the Zonai to the surface, then later all the way into the depths, where they built mines all throughout in their desperate search for more.

As fate would have it, the depths concealed more than just tons of Zonaite. There is an entirely different ecosystem down there, with plant life, animals, and insects unknown to the surface world, as well as less... desirable life forms. Opening up and exploring the depths, as well as putting forth massive construction efforts to build mines, exposed the Zonai explorers to the first strains of a virus that would eventually devastate their entire civilization.

It didn’t happen all at once, but gradually over time they realized people who spent time in the depths were getting sick, and for some reason it was only the Zonai who were succumbing to the illness. More Constructs were brought in to aid with mining in place of people, but the damage had already been done and the virus was making its way to the surface world as well as the sky.

Despite the best efforts of researchers and doctors, the virus was spreading and mutating too fast, and 100 years after originally digging into the depths and unleashing the sickness onto the world, almost all the Zonai were completely wiped out.

• Mineru and Rauru were born at the tail end of the pandemic/mass extinction, and by the time Mineru was a teenager and Rauru almost as well, they were the last of their kind.

Rauru and Mineru

• Rauru, while used to being revered as a god by Hylians, doesn’t exactly enjoy it. …This I feel is supported somewhat in the scene where Ganondorf is loading him up with praise. Granted Rauru’s clear discomfort could just as easily be attributed to Ganondorf’s thinly-veiled threats. I like to think it’s both, as we also learn from the Ancient Tablets side quest that part of what caused him to fall in love with Sonia was that she was unafraid to speak to him as an equal, unlike everyone else who reveres him. This headcanon is a play on the trope “it’s lonely at the top.”

• When Rauru first proposed to Sonia, with a Secret Stone no less, she rejected him. Her reasons being she didn’t want to marry out of convenience, or duty, but for love above all else. A kingdom cannot thrive without love, after all.

Also, despite her excellent judge of character, and knowing that Rauru’s intentions were pure, more than anything she wanted him to understand his own reasoning for wanting to marry her, as well as to be aware that she’s her own person, and just because he is Zonai does not mean he can have whatever he wants all the time. (Referring to the previous headcanon, he may not like being treated as a god, but he’s used to it. It’s important to remember that, even in fiction, people are complicated.)

Sad, but wishing to understand and consider Sonia’s words, Rauru was going to let her keep the Secret Stone, but she gave it back to him. Their friendship continued to grow from there, and the next time Rauru asked for her hand in marriage, having grown as a person himself, Sonia accepted.

• Rauru doesn’t enjoy being called cute. It embarrasses him a lot, actually. By adulthood he’d decided it’s a waste of time to try and protest (he’ll always be Mineru’s cute baby brother) but he tries his best to ignore those comments.

• Mineru used to call him “Ru” or “Ruru” when they were young. He absolutely hated it.

• Mineru was very small as a baby. Even as a child she remained short, and when Rauru was born she was delighted at the prospect of being a BIG sister. Her joy was relatively short-lived however, as by age 10 Rauru had already grown taller than her. Although she’s taller than any Hylian, of course, Mineru is still short by Zonai standards. It doesn’t bother her anymore.

• We know that Rauru would often sneak away to hunt in favor of his duties as King, but I like to think it was not animals he was hunting, but monsters. He loved a thrilling fight.

• Rauru’s earrings are all clip-ons. By his own admission his ears are way too sensitive to endure being pierced ten times! In fact, because Zonai ears are one of their most sensitive parts, clip-on earrings were very common for others as well.

• Mineru learned all about Zelda’s friends from their time together, but nothing could have prepared her for meeting Purah 10k+ years later. Despite Mineru knowing she didn’t have much time left after Ganondorf was defeated, she enlisted Purah’s help in building a flying machine big enough to carry everyone up to Great Sky Island. The two bonded fast—maybe even faster than Mineru bonded with Zelda. Had things been different they might have even shared a romance… alas, as she often had to remind people in the present day, “I am only a spirit.”

Purah still thinks about her often.

- - -

footnote: I left politics out of this post to keep things neutral so these could apply either way. I have my own opinions on Rauru’s leadership, but that’s for another time. :)

[tumblingdowntheway2019]

FINALLY A ZONAI/HYLIAN SWITCH FORMS!!

something something turntables