#tnc-n3cl rambles

[tnc-n3cl]

On a Resident Evil bender right now and boy oh boy does Leon S. Kennedy go through a lot of jackets! I'd imagine he has one of those big walk-in closets just chock full of them. He probably spends like half his paycheck on bulk orders of cool jackets.

[tnc-n3cl]

The Depths revision concept

So for quite some time I've been thinking bout making some not-so-slight changes to TotK's The Depths for my LoZ fanfic, The Realm Walker. I present to you here Phase 2 of a rough concept map of those changes. Now this is a rather large image and Tumblr's not the best place for such things, but oh well...

I will admit that I traced (multiple) screenshots of TotK's map for this. The orange lines are from the Surface Map and they're here as a guide for future thoughts, as The Depths will likely extend at least a little bit into the neighboring countries seen in my HUGE AF "Hyrule and Surrounding Lands" map. (Not necessarily the entire continent, but at least a little ways into Xilipi and Holoryna, cause Subrosia from the Oracle games is under Holoryna, which is Holodrum and Labrynna united.)

The purple and pink lines are outlines of the roads on the surface. I'll probably get rid of most of the stuff around where Castletown is on the surface. I did this cause quite frankly The Depths as seen in TotK are a little too empty for my liking and there should have been more signs of civilization down there IMO.

These may not all be roads, might through some waterways in Lanayru, maybe some mine cart tracks in Eldin... In fact, I'll probably be putting more buildings/ruins in Eldin, so there's actually (the ruins of) a city down there instead of just the Fire Temple...

Yellow dots are chasms, and yeah I left a few off of here, for reasons. Oh and you may notice a few things standing out in the Gerudo Depths, that needs to cook a little longer...

I messed up in Phase 1 by not marking down landmarks in the bottom half of the map... Given the fact that I'm marking the roads, I'll probably end up having to hunt down all the canyon mines as well (to link them to the road system). Phase 3 will be overlaying the Ancient Sheikah Shrines and Towers from BotW onto this map. Why you ask? Cause I feel like it! I'll be shuffling the Lightroots around to match with the BotW shrines, the Ancient Sheikah built their shrines on top of/around the Zonai shrines, powering them with the Lightroots.

Also I'm chopping the Depths into regions and I thought it would be fun if the names were the reverse of the Surface regions.

[tnc-n3cl]

I beat Echoes of Wisdom a week (or two?) ago. Great game, I loved that it had actual dungeons and that they weren't overly complicated like some of them have been. Not once did I feel the need to look up a walkthrough for any of them. (I did look up one for the smoothies cause I got tired of making unfortunate ones, and for one of the sidequests.)

It's funny, cause in the lead up to EoW's release I was thinking about incorporating stuff from it into my BotW/TotK/WW/TP AU fic, but upon playing it I realized that, I kinda can't incorporate it/don't feel the need to...

(Or rather I don't think I can just give BotW/TotK Zelda the Tri Rod and have her use echoes/don't feel the need to give her that. Maybe the Dominion Rod from TP could do Bind/Reverse Bond? And maybe off-hand mention some of the lore. Use River Zora and Deku Scrubs, maybe have automatons, and bring in some of the smoothie ingredients.)

Which is the exact opposite of how I felt going into Tears of the Kingdom. Early on I was going to just seal off the cave where Mummydorf was which would have effectively skipped the events TotK, but then I got the game and started thinking, "Okay maybe I can add some of the ingredients?" Or, "What the monsters in the lands outside Hyrule have the new horn designs?" Or, "Maybe Ildia travels to the Depths at some point?" "Add a few caves?" Until eventually I figured out a way to work in elements of TotK's story (such that it is) but make it fit with my vision.

Maybe it's because EoW has a more developed story/plot/lore than TotK? Maybe it's some desire to fix TotK's failings?

Anywho, I hope future Zelda games take more inspiration from EoW than TotK.

[tnc-n3cl]

Just figured I'd give ya'll a treat, here's (almost) every weapon I've drawn for The Realm Walker in one image!

They're ranked in order of size, shortest to longest. I've included a few early WIPs as well.

A. Chiampa Short Sword [Xilipian weapon refined from Ancient Sheikah Tech]

B. Tyto Axe (Standard) [Rito 1H Axe, Used by Rito who live outside Hyrule's borders]

C. Dahkal's Razor [Custom built sword, an OC's weapon]

D. Harpy Macuahuitl [Rito weapon, remaining details classified]

E. Egret Spear [Ancient Rito 1H Spear, circa 20 years after the events of Wind Waker]

F. Ildia's Sword [Twili replica of the Master Sword, mostly]

G. An early WIP of a rapier for Zelda, post-BotW. Mostly just need to change the guard.

H. Yona's Sword (Golden Saber?) TotK robbed us of badass swordswoman Yona so that's something else for me to try and fix in my fic... WIP, need to tweek the guard some and settle on a hook shape for the tip.

I. Condor Axe [Ancient Rito 2H Axe, personal weapon of Champion Mirna, first pilot of Vah Medoh] Check out this awesome art @stellercherry did of Mirna!

J. Hawk Spear [Rito Spear, Custom made, 20-years post-BotW] This is the art piece that started the whole The Realm Walker saga! The earliest version I can find on my hard drive was last saved 5-10-21, while the version in the link was uploaded 6-21-21. This weapon is the personal weapon of Medah, Revali's daughter. I've got a long way to go to get here story wise, but I"m going to do it dammit!

K. Heron Spear [Ancient Rito Spear, same era as Egret Spear]

L. What's this fancy spear?! It's a secret to everybody!

M. Yiga Spear (Demon Spear? Oniyari?) [Yiga Clan] TotK denied us the ability to put a Demon Carver on a stick, so I made my own damn demon spear! It's a WIP, one major detail needs to be added...

N. Twili Halberd [Twili]

Not Pictured: Wizal (Toucan Rito/WW Wizzrobes) Rods {Cause they're short enough to not show up well on this image}, and Sidon's Sword (Silver Saber) {Cause I made no attempt to draw it to scale, it's just a shape extrapolation based on what little we can see of the hilt, handle, and scabbard on Sidon's model in BotW and HWAoC.}

[tnc-n3cl]

Zora's Domain Headcanons & Rambles

So this particular post will be focused on Zora's Domain, particularly what I refer to as Zoakora (Zo-ah-ko-ra), which is what we see in BotW and TotK but in my fanfic The Realm Walker was the Zora capital city pre-Great Calamity. (A future post will talk about Zora biology headcanons.) Zora's Domain technically refers to most of the Lanaryu Region and there were once settlements all over. Goponga Village was a mostly Hylian settelment, but there were also a number of Zora living there.

I'm going to go ahead and say that all of my screenshots (and the first video I've taken!) are from TotK and may contain mild spoilers. So if you don't want to see said spoilers, stop reading now...

First up some of the local flora. The trees in the area are Lanayru Pines. This plant...

...Is called the Rose Gorgia, and while the Lanayru Pines are related to various other evergreen trees found around Hyrule, the Rose Gorgia and its cousin...

...the Cerulean Gorgia can only be found in the area around Zoakora. I'll point out that Gaddison has a guitar that is made from Lanaryu pine, accented with Rose and Cerulean Gorgia and the strings are made from seaweed. Also the pink elements of Mipha's Lightscale Trident were made with Rose Gorgia (perhaps using the sap as a stain?)

If your wondering where the name comes from, it's from a type of coral. (Also got the idea for the strings on Gaddison's guitar from a research rabbit hole, there's a kind of seaweed called catgut and since early instruments used catgut I figured it would be a fun twist.)

Now on to architecture...

BotW has a sidequest where we give a guy Luminous Stones to repair the domain after the damaged caused by Vah Ruta. Obviously these make up the various glowing elements. The whiter light is a more purified variant of Luminous Stones while the green lights are from adding things to the Luminous Stones. But TotK introduces a new component!

Blue stones! There's a guy who asks you for these in order to make repairs. They're in one of the new caves around the East Reservoir Lake, and you pretty much have to build a boat to bring him some.

I'll call this Azurelith, and it makes up a significant percentage of Zoakora. But wait there's more!

The stone tablets scattered around the Domain have a special feature, stand by one and you'll notice that it shimmers.

And there just so happen to be these shimmering rocks all around the Domain...

This is Aqualith, a unique mineral found only in the mountains surrounding the Domain.

Now for the Water Temple!

Very different from the modern day Zora's Domain isn't it!

Now this could be the result of thousands of years of refinement of Zora stonemasonry techniques, or just influences from the Zonai, or perhaps the discovery of new materials. In the Water Temple, I like the irregularly shaped blue sections, reminds me of river stones and some of the textures in ALttP's water dungeon and underground pools (particularly the shallow pools).

We know that the Sky Islands were apparently all on the ground at one point, especially the Great Sky Island as the Temple of Time was once on the Great Plateau. So perhaps the Water Temple was once sitting on top of what is now the East Reservoir Lake, maybe even connected to the Ancient Zora Waterworks?

The water bubble generators in the Water Temple, some Zonai tech with Zora flare.

A screenshot of the debris around the fish shaped Sky Island. Some magically charged green stones? Lets the island float or is it generating the reduced gravity? (Honestly don't remember if this particular are had reduced gravity...)

[tnc-n3cl]

I had an idea for my LoZ fic "The Realm Walker" the other day, that kind of doubles as a Tears of the Kingdom what if. Namely, what if the Ancient Sheikah Towers went all the way down to the Depths? It's entirely possible the Gerudo Tower may have, but what if they were all built on top of Zonai Ruins?

The idea here would be the Ancient Sheikah Towers would then give map updates for the Depths, Lightroots would make things brighter/clear gloom, and the Skyview Towers provide Surface/Sky map updates.

I did some scouting in game and found that:

Faron Tower: Would be in a tunnel/valley above the Spirit Temple, near a cairn and right on top of a bomb fruit harvest location.

Lake Tower: In a deep canyon, almost completely surrounded by gloom, just a little west of a giant root (and near a monster camp).

Gerudo Tower: There's a pool of water at the bottom of the chasm, near a spot where you can find vehicle building materials.

Wasteland Tower: In a cave of sorts on a lake.

Tabantha Tower: Nero Hill is oddly not a canyon, but part of a large flat area where you can fight a Frox. (The tower location would be far enough out of the Frox's range that you could climb it without alerting the creature, maybe...)

Akkala Tower: Well it would be on top of Zonai Ruins, specifically the Ancient Underground Fortress, which is absolutely crawling with monsters.

Central Tower: The location now hosts the Susuyai Shrine/Iayusus Lightroot, it's near one of the statues that point the way to the Abandon Central Mine.

Dueling Peaks Tower: Inaccessible since water = wall of rock.

Woodland Tower: Also inaccessible.

Ridgeland Tower: You guessed it, inaccessible.

Great Plateau Tower: More or less on top of a gloom root a little northeast of the Great Abandoned Central Mine.

Hateno Tower: Pretty much on a lake, possibly on the little strip of land on top of a gloom root.

Hebra Tower: In a field, near a Frox. Directly opposite of the ascend tower that will lead you to the geoglyph south of Tabantha Village Ruins.

Eldin Tower: What do you know, another field with a Frox...

Lanayru Tower: Another lake, not that far from Sekioam Lightroot.

So I could do this, but I'd have to make some changes to the map of the Depths. But then again... TotK invalidates my continental map cause there's no room for Xilipi (Sy-lie-pie) (the Gerudo Desert just ends at the ocean in game). Which means I'm fully willing to redo the Depths map, mentally at least. Attempting to draw it is another matter entirely...

[tnc-n3cl]

Godon & Lanara's House (WIP)

In my LoZ fanfic, The Realm Walker, I've expanded Hateno Village by adding a new house and residents. Specifically Godon and Lanara, and their house is located on the hill beside Link's House.

Okay, yes, these are screenshots from TotK and my fic is (still) in BotW times (except for the post-Wind Waker one...). IDK, I think they may have built up this area some, I don't remember it being this hilly in BotW... Whatever, revising the area...

So if you head up the path up the hill by the tree next to the cooking pot at Link's House, the first thing you'd see when you get to Godon and Lanara's house is Godon's smithy. He's the village blacksmith and is described simply as a "burly, brown haired Hylian man with green eyes and a short beard". (More or less I'm kinda picturing the blacksmith guy from Age of Calamity but more serious looking). Also he's 47 years old and the second best blacksmith in Hyrule (the best is Rohan in Goron City).

Lanara is a witch, she's Godon's wife, and she's not Hylian. She's from a group of humans known as the Xhona (Sho-na) Tribe from the nation of Xilipi (Sy-lie-pie) which is west of Gerudo Desert. She has dark skin, round ears, purple irises, and raven colored hair, which she usually braids with colorful ribbons not unlike the Rito do. Oh and she's 70 years old, but given the lifespan of the Xhona Tribe, she's roughly 45 in "Hylian Years".

As far as everyone in Hyrule knows, there's no other lands out there, so Lanara keeps her true past hidden. She and Godon met when her parent's camp in Deya Village Ruins was evacuated after a Stone Talus showed up 25 years ago. Her parents came to Hyrule to keep an eye on things after Vah Naboris attacked Xilipi in the aftermath of the Great Calamity. (Fortunately for the Xilipians, they kept and refined the Ancient Sheikah Technology developed during the days of the Hyrulian Alliance and were able to relatively easily repel Vah Naboris.)

Godon and Lanara first appear in Chapter 6 of The Amnesiac Hero's Quest, and appear several times in the other fics in The Realm Walker.

Ignore the modern furniture... The bathtub is also used to wash clothes. The wall next to the forge is thicker to help dampen the noise.

Dahkal is their son, he's 23, and he's off adventuring in Hyrule. He appears for the first time in Chapter 6 The Ballad of Kass, (what a coincidence...), but will appear later in Shifting Tides of Fate.

A couple more images, angled so you can see the doorways better.

Closeup of the garden area, Lanara grows food crops in one side and ingredients for her potions and such. As a lot of the plants are super toxic, she has warning labels around the fence.

So, fun fact, the Ancient Sheikah Shrine in BotW was turned into the Hateno Village South Well. I was planing on having Lanara and Godon's Well sub for Zelda's Secret Well but since I'm leaving the Ancient Sheikah Shrines intact, the southern well is now this well here...

This is still a WIP but it shows the basic layout of the house which was my goal when starting. Of course, the inner hallway and storage have no access to ground level windows, so I'll probably add something of a second floor with windows letting in light to those areas. Don't know when I'll get to that though.

(Also another fun fact, the chimney on Link's House appears to be completely aesthetic. There's no fireplace or anything on the inside of the house lining up with the chimney on the outside.)

Also bonus fact...

So in BotW, this shed attached to Link's House is inaccessible. In my fic it's not, and Link has filled this tiny space with as much crap as he can fit in it (mostly weapons), he's a little gremlin hoarder...

[tnc-n3cl]

For the title game: project 47 👀

@zeawesomebirdie come on down! You're the next contestant for the WIP game! [Legally safe knockoff version of music from a certain game show plays]

So I generally have a hard time naming things, so "Project 47" is pretty much a codename for a scif/fantasy hybrid original universe that spun off from a Final Fantasy/LoZ crossover. I say scifi/fantasy hybrid because while it's a near-future setting with an intersystem capable spacecraft, magic exists and in fact the spacecraft (technically an aerospace ship) runs on magitek (pretty much it's a fantasy themed airship, running off fantasy tech, with conventional rockets attached so it can reach orbit.)

I've talked about this project a bit before: here and here. So this time I'm going to ramble some about one of the major characters, Miras. Miras is an Avestren (a bird alien), the name was chosen back with "Project 47" was a FF/LoZ crossover and she was originally a Rito. Now this was back in the Wind Waker days and I had already decided to retcon the Rito as full birbs but kept the arms turning into wings thing. (Fun fact, Teba's appearance is actually pretty close to how I was picturing female Rito: raptor beaks, white feathers, dark wingtips. Cause well, *points at Medli*)

Miras started development as a fresh soldier having just graduated from an elite military academy (at some point I used the recurring "Red Wings" name from the Final Fantasy franchise) on her first assignment. Find the wielder of a legendary magic weapon who would save the world.

Eventually, I purged the LoZ elements from the project so it was purely Final Fantasy. At this point, Miras was no longer a Rito, but an unnamed bird race that fit the typical six limbed (arms, legs, wings) anthro bird mold.

After deciding to cut out the obvious Final Fantasy material (races, lore, etc.) and turning Project 47 into its own thing, Miras changed. She is now a Gunnery Sergeant in the Takara Alliance Defense Forces, Husark Corps, she's in 30-40's, has a mate and several children.

Normally Avestrens are flightless, their wings evolved/devolved back into arms. The fossil record for their people is broken so when and how this happened is unclear, but if you ask the clergy of a religious group known as the Children of Korus they'll say that Korus punished them by taking their wings for some unspecified sin. Miras however is a member of the Husark Corps, and elite military unit whose members have undergone surgery to install cybernetic devices.

These devices are mostly internal, however there are a series of semi-retractable "spikes" on the spine. These "spikes" provide a mind-to-machine interface with a flightpack that contains a fantasy based thrust engine and swarms of nanites. The nanites coalesce and harden to form wings, which are used for gliding and flight control. They can also be used defensively or offensively while on the ground. Basically it's my way of having flying bird people with arms and avoiding the logistical problems of six limbs and wings in the way.

Some basic information first, Miras is 2.05 m tall, weighs 47.6 kg, has light green eyes, and like typical female Avestrens has grey and white plumage (grey on back, white on underside). Avestrens have unique color stripes around their eyes and down the sides of their neck, and hers are dark red. In addition every Avestren has unique banding marks. Miras has a necklace pattern, bare chest, and broken stripes on her belly.

Avestren names are complicated, with a very long formal name that combines the individual's first name and family name. Avestrens do not marry in the human sense, so an individual would chose the family name of one of their parents (traditionally chosen along gender lines). Miras is her common name, "Mir" derived from her first name and "as" from her father's family name.

Miras mother is a member of the Children of Korus' clergy, and her father is a sapientologist (what Star Trek would call a xenoanthropologist, in universe an anthropologist would study specifically human cultures). As is tradition with members of the Children of Korus' clergy, Miras was trained to follow in her mother's footsteps. However, when Miras came of age (around 15) and gained her adult plumage a dark secret was revealed. She had a necklace pattern, and her siblings and parents did not. The only way to have that pattern is if one of your parents has it.

Long story short, the tesal (an Avestren word for adult male) Miras thought was her father was in fact not her biological father. This scandal became a crisis of faith for her and she instead decided to follow in the footsteps of tesal who raised her. Thus she chose his family name.

Unfortunately for her, fate had other plans. After the end of her freshman year in college she and her human BFF went to a government building to pick up some passports. (The human BFF was going on a overseas family trip over the break.) While they were exiting the building, a man bumped into Miras and she was about to tell him off. The man looked at her like she was a monster and that threw her off, he half-ass apologized and walked off. Miras and her friend went back to the car and when they got there the friend realized she left her cellphone at the security checkpoint.

As she makes her way back, the building explodes...

The friend dies, the man from before turns out to be a human supremacist and was gunning down survivors of the explosion, Miras is forced to fight and kill him, is wounded in the process and barely survives.

This incident triggers a global war (the human supremacist group had received assistance from another nation), Miras eventually joins the military. (But not before getting together with her mate and having her first brood, for reasons that are similar to Harth's reasoning in @unmaskedcardinal's Rito Chronicles in one scene, maybe in Age of Intolerance?). The war ends rather abruptly when an entire continent on another world freezes over in an instant, and a nation that had remained neutral in the war confronts the opposing airfleets with vastly superior technology and basically demands they stop fighting, while also giving them scientific evidence that the gods are real and are in fact energy beings on another plane of existence, and bring up prophecies of a Second Celestial War.

Miras remains in the military, a cold war starts between the Takara Alliance and its enemies, proxy wars cause no one wants to break the treaty and piss off the Pazran Coalition. She eventfully has a second brood, joins the Husark Corps (her mother didn't like that very much, but they still have a good relationship), and by the time the story proper would have started, she's become a drill instructor and had gone back to school to finish getting a degree in sapientology (a Master's IIRC). It's then that an Admiral from the Takara Alliance Air Defense Force approaches her with an opportunity, put that degree to work on the Korus and join the ground survey team on the world with the frozen continent.

Whew... Okay that's enough for now, though I'll happily ramble more later. *wink*

Thanks for the ask!

WIP game

[tnc-n3cl]

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Thanks for the ask @unmaskedcardinal !

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

Well, I've been a huge Trekkie since like '93 or so and actually wrote a few stories in high school that were deep into my Trek fanfic idea (I'll explain more in a moment). So these were your typical short stories, and I edited them a lot over the years and worked on the lore stuff. Then 2005 rolls around and Star Trek: Enterprise got canceled, and I read a few script based "virtual series".

These were basically a group of fans writing and editing stories and making some art (and even a few videos with some of them) in script format and trying to release one episode every week as if they were doing a TV show. So I got it in my head to try that and started working on my Star Trek fic.

I had this plan for a long saga: Frontlines (10 years after VOY, "mini-series" lasting roughly a year), New Frontiers (12 years after Frontlines, another "mini-series"), Dark Frontiers (picks up right after New Frontiers), First Line & An unnamed series (full length series running concurrently, like 30 years or so after Dark Frontiers, don't have the exact date on hand) and finally Redemption to wrap everything up.

Those stories I wrote in high school were set during First Line, the first one actually intended for use as a season finale. Frontlines revolved around a galaxy wide conflict against the Borg, each episode focusing on two different fleets (after a couple episodes that bounce around a LOT). For example, "Battle Has Begun" focuses on the U.S.S. Archer (an Akira-class ship) assisting the Xindi in repelling the Borg (said ship's tactical officer is one Lt. Comm. Jack Archer while the XO is Comm. Tuvok) as the A Plot, while the B Plot revolves around a new Klingon ship (with Ambassador Worf aboard) helping out a Nebula-class U.S.S. Einstein who eventually aid Picard aboard the Enterprise who's working with a Romulan taskforce lead by Sela.

More or less this conflict with the Borg is to get most of the major powers of the Milky Way working together. The Borg were receiving help from Borg from an alternate quantum reality (not the Mirror Universe). Blowing up the Borg Transuniversal Gateway leads to the formation of an anomaly that Lenara Kahn does science on to form a stable wormhole to another galaxy. This is where New Frontiers picks up.

Jack Archer's captain of the Enterprise-F now and heads to this new Galaxy (the Mura Galaxy) and gets an assignment to find out what happened to a Klingon survey team, which leads to an encounter with a race that get named the Dinozons who are velociraptors that were moved off Earth by some mysterious race for mysterious reasons. Their evolution was tampered with via self-replicating nanomachines that are passed down from parent to child and effectively deactivate the humanoid program from TNG's "The Chase".

So they still look like velociraptors, and things just get weirder from there cause there were dolphin aliens, wolf aliens, and raptor (bird) aliens all fitting this mold. Oh, and they all know they're originally from Earth. They were all in this big alliance 1,000 years ago until this big galaxy wide war ripped apart the Mura Galaxy and they all drifted apart in the aftermath. Archer gets ordered to make first contact with them all, conspiracies happen, the bad guys from the war 1,000 years ago return and seal the wormhole stranding the Milky Way people in the Mura Galaxy.

That's where Dark Frontiers comes in, dealing with that whole mess. So by First Line, the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, etc. survivors had all formed an Alliance with the weird aliens and one of these Alliance ships (Excalibur) was the hero ship for the stories that I wrote in high school.

Then I drew a Stargate ship that lead to me writing Stargate: Crusade, then LoZ brain weasels started burrowing and now I've got The Realm Walker...

TL;DR I got into writing fanfiction as a coping mechanism of sorts for the cancellation of ENT. Or at the very least that's what made me really buckle down and write down the ideas that had been floating around in my brain for a decade or so.

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

I have to pick a favorite?! Oh man... Um... *spins wheel* How bout this BotW themed Midna?

Well first off I love Midna so anything with her is more or less guarantied to be a fave. Love the blue glow of the Ancient Sheikah tech added to the Fused Shadow. In general I really love this artist's style (check out this kinda scary Kass or this Teba).

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Hmm... I guess an untagged kink I'm not into? Or maybe a really bad take on a character?

Writer Truth & Dare Ask Game

[tnc-n3cl]

The Realm Walker Rito Cheat Sheet

Here's some details on all the Rito characters in my LoZ fanfic, The Realm Walker. First a screenshot of the table I use to keep track of names I've already used.

So yeah that's a lotta Rito! You may noticed the one name not in one of the neat columns. Gizli is genderfluid, any pronouns (though prefers they/them).

Now before I go any further, I'm going to link to some older posts of mine. This one about Rito Tribes. And this second one expanding on the first one with new information from TotK. You may be wondering what I'm talking about with "Rito Tribes", put simply the Rito are a collection of closely related species. For example most of the Rito NPC's in BotW/TotK fall under the Orni Tribe, while Kass belongs to the Arini Tribe, and Teba the Accipi Tribe.

Now for the next part, Family Trees! You may notice that one "canon adjacent" name in green... Well...

LoZ: The Wind Waker! Komali's father the Rito Chieftain is never named, so I gave him a name! The Tale of the Realm Walker takes place 20 years after WW, so by this time Komali is Chieftain and has married Medli and they have two kids.

Now I'm retconing the WW Rito into full birbs, BUT keeping the "arms transforming into wings" aspect. So for funzies Komali is an owl-like Rito (like Kaneli, the Bubo Tribe), while Medli is Orni Tribe. They're kids are both owl like (with their son Nass inheriting his mother's white plumage so he looks like a little snowy owl).

Rinal here is the main Rito character of TTotRW, he's a member of the Cristatta (Cris-tat-ta) Tribe, which is Revali's Tribe. (Which coincidentally make's Quill's hairdo into a floofy crest.)

Tasin and Salli are two more TTotRW OC's. Tasin is the Healer and is Accipi Tribe, while Salli is the Loresinger and is Arini Tribe (mostly based on a scarlet macaw). Now because Accipi traits (eagle/hawk beak) are passed down by the man's line while Arini traits (parrot face) are passed down by the woman's line, their kids randomly look like either parent. (For example Kuli looks like his father, but does have an Arini like crest, while Kalini takes after her mother.)

[I will point out that Kass' daughters will eventually have larger than usual chests, as they've inherited stronger flight muscles from him, even though they'll otherwise look like their mother. Arini Rito constantly flap their wings in flight, that's why his chest is so big by the way.]

Mirna was the 1st Rito Champion/Original Pilot of Vah Medoh, she was an Accipi Rito based on a Harpy Eagle. She was 7ft tall (taller than Teba BTW) and wielded a 6ft long, single edged battleaxe. Her husband Tulini was at least a foot shorter than her and an engineer who worked on Vah Medoh. Her sister was a healer. Their son Kalin became a Warrior (like his mother) and their daughter became a healer like her aunt. (We'll get to Yuli in a minute.)

Revali's family, his mother Miida was Loresinger and his father Rivel was a Warrior. Revali gets his darker plumage from his mother as well as the red spots on his face. (He had lighter spots as a fledgling, then lost them as a juvenile, the gained red ones as an adult. He's 20 by the time he becomes Champion, Link is 18.) Rivel's plumage color is close to Kass'.

Yuli is Accipi Tribe, based on an ornate hawk-eagle, his wife Mai (Falco Tribe) is based on both color morphs of the red-necked falcon. Now we have to talk a bit about Rito reproduction... Rito females are fertile during set periods throughout the year (varies with individual, no mating season or heat/estrus cycles) and during this time if they mate they'll lay an egg. For a limited window after laying an egg they will still be fertile and if they mate again, they'll lay another egg (after a day or so). [This idea comes from the Wikipedia page on Barn Owls, I read it and had a revelation on Kass' family...]

So in this case, Yuli and Mai had two kids in their first brood and the remaining broods were all one egg each. And you can tell that Yuli is descended from Mirna because of his brown eyes (very, very rare for Rito).

Revali's family and Yuli's family will be brought up in future stories.

Oh boy, here's the big one. [UB = Unnamed Brother, US = Unnamed Sister, and UE = Unhatched Egg] Kass' father Kazli is even more blue and gold macaw than he is (and by that I mean that he's got a green patch on his forehead.) Valini is a darker shade of blue (back) while her underside is a lighter shade of blue, the white around her eyes is slightly yellow, and she's got some green on the tips of her wings. Kalia also has the green forehead patch BTW.

Little fun fact about the Arini Tribe, they've got this custom where they mark their faces with circles and lines. The circles represent one's career (Kazli and Kalia have bright red circles cause they're warriors, Valini's circle is green cause she makes pottery). The lines are alternating black and white and represent: one's self, one's spouse, and their children listed by age. So looking at this, you can imagine that Kazli and Valini's lines are about the circle completely around their eyes. (That's right I said it, Kass' markings are facepaint.) [They're not gonna add lines until the eggs hatch BTW.]

So Kalia is eldest child cause she hatched first (by a couple minutes). Also Kass and Kalia are rare examples of Rito "twins" when a woman lays two eggs at a time instead of just one. It's tradition in Kass' hometown of Takandi Village that the eldest children follow in their parent's wingbeats. However he had no interest in becoming a warrior and Kalia had no desire to make pottery. (Their parents were fine with it, other villagers not so much. But they wouldn't dare say anything in front of Kazli...)

I lumped Kass' daughters together cause A) I was out of room, and B) they were all in the same brood. (I shan't explain the implications, but I will say that Cree and Kheel were "twins".)

Virli is Kalia's consort, like Kalia she's a warrior (although she's an archer while Kalia is a spearfighter like her father). She's a member of the Cristatta Tribe, but as a woman of the Tribe she lacks Revali's cheek tuffs and her crest is half as short (she also doesn't have the side loop braids, or any side braids). Her plumage is red-orange, and she typically braids her pluma ("hair") into a single braid that branches into four at the end like a fancy birb's tail feathers, earning her the pet name "my little phoenix" from Kalia. She's also very fond of butterflies and Great Valoo help you if you try to use one in an elixir! (She's part of a Rito religious group known as the Viskin, who basically worship dragons.)

[Kalia's parents don't know she's with Virli yet, it's a source of tension between the two of them. It doesn't help that they're also in a long distance relationship.]

So Rinili was just a little puffball when Harli found him stuffed in a barrel at an abandoned Rito lumber camp, his parent's bodies ripped apart by beasts... She and her wife Milini adopted him. He calls Harli "Ma" and Milini "Mum". Harli used to be First Warrior of Kariki Village, until an injury left her unable to fight. (She took an arrow in the wing, it got infected and now she can't fire a bow or wield a blade properly. She wears a leather brace on her right wing.)

Taslin is one of the couriers for Kariki Village, and he's the biological father of Harli and Milini's daughters. (Yes Rinili views them as his sisters...)

Aside from Rinili's biological parents and Rinili himself, they're all Orni Tribe. Rinili's plumage is mostly midnight blue, finger/wingtips are powder blue, white, then midnight blue. His legs and belly are also powder blue with several white bands on his legs (like Saki). Also like Saki, he has a bright yellow patch on his breast. Below his ribs and wrapping around to his back is a zigzagged silvery-gray line pointing down at the front and back and up at the sides. There's also silvery-gray arrow head shaped mottling on his back.

He has a pluma like Harth's comb over but braided (green ribbons, yellow beads) and lacking the part on the back of his head. He's got a crest like peafowl. The braids on the side of his head have red beads with grey crescent moon ornaments at the tip. His armor more or less looks like the Rito Captains in HWAoC. But his most distinguishing feature are the four long, thin ornamental tail feathers with wide tips, complete with eye spots. (Tail feathers are based loosely on the marvelous spatuletail, they curve up so they don't drag the ground and it takes a lot of concentration to keep them from flailing all over the place.)

He's a warrior, specifically Ryski (Rye-ski) Brigade [might rename that second bit], which is more or less a Rito Special Ops type deal. The term is poorly translated into "scout" in Hylian, but scouting is only part of what they do. They're primarily stealth fighters, which is why there are a lot of Bubo Rito in the Ryski ranks. [This is where I point out that Kalia is the reverse, a Karikos (Ka-re-kos) often poorly translated to "footsoldier" it's more like a knight really, or maybe comparable to mounted cavalry given the Rito's mobility? (but without the mounts?). There's a lot of poor translation of Rito words going on BTW.] Oh and he also has green eyes, but not the same shade as Revali's or Harth's (I compare them to emeralds and so Rinili would be jade green.)

[tnc-n3cl]

Was there a particular moment in TotK when you thought "this needs to go into my fanfic hopper" or "this can't go unacknowledged"? Or a particular part that set the fanfic brainworms free?

Oh man... I'm not sure at this point what exactly made me decide that I had to incorporate TotK into my fic. At first I was thinking I could just skip TotK's events by sealing the cave that leads to Ganondorf. Then I was thinking about what kind of new ingredients I could fit in, and if I could bring in the new powers. I decided that the new monster horn designs could be used for regional differences for the monsters outside of Hyrule.

Then I wanted to include the Depths for Ildia's story arc, and then decided that the Silver Bokoblin Horns with their glowy bauble would be good for Depths Bokoblins, which then extended to all Depths monsters having bioluminescent traits...

I think eventually I just got attached to Rauru and Mineru (or just the Zonai design in general) or got far enough into the story that I started trying to incorporate more meaningful things in. And eventually figured out a way to incorporate elements of the Imprisoning War with The First Calamity (i.e. the event that made Ganondorf into Calamity Ganon).

I won't give away too many spoilers for the crazier things, but I did have an epiphany on one of the things that was bugging me on the way to work one day. Also I will say that in a way TotK ended up doing things that I was planing on doing, just very differently...

But I don't think it was any one part or particular moment that made the brainworms go brrr.

What about you?

[tnc-n3cl]

More Rito Headcanons!

Something of an expansion of my "Rito Biology 101" post, but I'm not going to bother with the in-universe POV and talking about a couple different things here so...

Here's the original. Now that TotK is out, we got some new info so I'm going to go over things. (Namely a new Tribe for Penn and some thoughts on the aged up kiddos.) There my be some minor spoilers in the images, so I'm going to put them below the read more line.

Minor edit: 7/30/23, realized that one of the new NPC's mentioned something I forgot to talk about!

New Rito Guy! Penn is a reporter who you team up with for a few sidequests. Clearly he's some kind of pelican, so a quick search on Wikipedia and... Pelca Tribe (from Pelecanus the genus that contains all living pelicans)

So a couple things here. One: the triangles on his little sash reminds me of Kass' scarf. (What did you do to Kass Nintendo?!) Two: his outfit appears to be made of some kind of blue leather. I'm assuming that all Rito wear leather armor basically (except Saki and the little ones). Interestingly, I had drawn an axe that had talon grip handles in the axe head that are sometimes made out of leather sourced from blue monster hides. Doubt that's the case here since he's not a warrior but still...

His catchphrase... You can see they did the little hook on his beak! Is that yellow on his chest part of his clothes? Hm...

Including this because, A: this is quite possibly my favorite quote from him and B: you can see he has webbed feets! (Still say they should have given the Rito four toes but whatever...)

Look at his tiny pen and notebook! (The dangles on his hood are shaped like pens!)

Okay, that's enough Penn for now... In other news, new color morphs just dropped ya'll!

So the first guy looks like he might be a shade or two lighter than Huck, but the second guy is a new color altogether. We gots purple Orni Tribe Ritos now! Really don't have much to say about these two, but more variety is nice.

EDIT: Actually I do have something to say about Ornest. He mentions that all Rito have the ability to manipulate the wind, something I was theorizing to be the case. So, headcanon confirmed!

Moving on to the kiddos!

Kotts! Again her headband makes me think of her father's scarf and I miss him so much!

Here's BotW Kotts for comparison. As you can see, the white on her face is starting to fade, and she's lost her "bangs", and her head is starting to be more bird shaped. Rough estimation is that TotK is around 5 years after BotW and I'm assuming that she's 5 during BotW so that would make her 10 in TotK. (I'm going with Rito living around 80 years on average BTW).

She's almost as tall as Link! Also that dialog speaks to me on like, a molecular level. (She gets up at 10AM BTW) Also note her Saki-like clothing.

BotW Molli

TotK Molli

I, uh, don't think she grew at all...

She wants to make cool arrows so her dad will use them with his bows... (Why's there no emoji/emoticon button?! I need a big eyed sad face here!)

Speaking of her dad... Here enjoy this totally unrelated to anything I'm talking about shot of Harth actually standing! He gets to do stuff in this game guys! (Can you believe I almost forgot he existed when I went from BotW to Age of Calamity? How could I forget this unique bird?!)

Last but not least, Bird Son himself...

Tulin!!!! Look at this adorable little guy! LOOK AT HIM!!!!

I like to think he admires the hell out of Link and so he's mimicking Link's pose as much as he can. Speaking of which... Get that guy a cowboy outfit and a giant belt buckle!

Look at him some more!

So I don't know if that's eyeliner or just natural markings but he's doing his mom's thing and I can't even you guys!

I am SO normal about these birds...

*regains composure*

Okay, so what have we learned from this? Rito start off with blue sclera (the whites of the eye) when they're little. Around 10 or so the sclera becomes white and the irises are blue. Given that neither Kass nor Amali have blue eyes, I'm going to assume at some point their daughters will develop yellow eyes like them. Tulin... Let's just say his eyes stay blue.

Fluffy white baby feathers on the face slowly fade over the years until they their faces are solid colors (Orni Tribe at least). Tulin's little bun, is this like his mom's "hair" or more like his dad's floof? His he tying it back? You can make out something around the base of it in that second image of him so I think so... What if he ends up with a braid like the Ancient Wind Sage? (Why couldn't you just name them Nintendo? You could have just used the Divine Beasts' names and it would have been fine!)

None of the kids have proper tail feathers yet, so I hesitate to call them juveniles... Give them a few more years and they'll probably start growing them.

I like Penn, and pelican/waterfowl Rito fit in with ideas I was having for my fanfic so... Just gotta find a way to fit him in...

I made it so that different Rito settlements have different symbols. Normally these would be found on the cloth around their waist. However, Penn has this unique symbol on his chestpiece... Granted there's some similar symbols around the village but...

[tnc-n3cl]

For the ask game!! <3

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Thanks for the ask @zeawesomebirdie !

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

Well, long story short, I had a bunch of Trek ideas, even wrote some of them in high school English classes for assignments, bouncing around my head for a decade or so when ENT got canceled. So that got me into writing fic as a coping mechanism I guess? Or at least gave me the motivation to sit down and write out the ideas.

If you want the long version of the story, here's a link to my response to @unmaskedcardinal 's ask on this game.

🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis

I have no idea how to make emojis on desktop... And have limited knowledge of emoticons, so...

*Laughing face* *Sobbing face* *People hugging* *Explosion* *Crossed Swords*

(This could fit most of my fics, but The Tale of the Realm Walker was the one I had in mind.)

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

Hm... I guess I'll go with Revali is an adult.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Alchemical symbols and Astronomical symbols for my Castlevania fanfic. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon features a magic system called the Dual Set-Up System (or DSS) which revolved around a combination of two of 20 cards, 10 for attributes and 10 for actions. Attributes are effectively elements and were named after various mythological creatures (salamander for fire and griffin for wind for example), while the action cards were named after Roman gods, (for example Mercury combined with Salamander would give you a flaming whip, while Mars + Salamander would change your whip into a flaming sword, but Neptune + Salamander would heal you when you take fire damage)

So I had the idea to incorporate this as magic gems for one character, Alexander (Alucard's son) uses a replica of the Crissaegrim from Lords of Shadow 2. The hilt of the sword is shaped like a wolf's head (with the blade emerging from the wolf's mouth) so offensive gems are inserted into the eyes while defensive gems are inserted into part of his armor.

This was all to get symbols to draw into the gems if I ever got around to drawing them. (Astronomical symbols for the gods and elemental symbols for the attributes.)

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

[tnc-n3cl]

TNC-N3Cl's Directory

Hi, I'm TNC-N3Cl, and this is my blog! I'm a fanfic author and 3D artist (weapons, spaceships, and whatnot), although I'm unsure if I'll go back to posting art here. My current long-term project is The Realm Walker, a LoZ fanfic mostly set in a BotW AU where the Champions were possessed by Calamity Ganon instead of killed (although there are heavy references to the rest of the franchise, especially Wind Waker and Twilight Princess).

I was going to talk about that mostly when starting this blog, but since I reblog so much stuff, I figured I'd make this directory post to make it easier to find things related to my projects. So here goes! (I'll be making changes to this post for any updates...)

Places you can find me.

Pillowfort: Where I'm posting most of my newer art these days.

Cara

DeviantArt: Not actively posting here anymore, though I do frequent it some. Keeping it for archival reasons.

AO3: Where I post my fics! Note that it is locked so you'll need an account to view my fics.

The Realm Walker Lore posts

The Realm Walker Announcement Thread (Not really lore, but whatever...)

A Guide to Rito Village (Torikirika) in The Realm Walker

Rito Settlements in The Realm Walker

More "reference" than "lore" I suppose but, here's a bunch of screenshots I took of the Stormwind Ark in TotK.

Rito Headcanons: Tribes (the Rito are multiple closely related species), Expanding the Tribes and Lifecycle Thoughts based on TotK, Sensory perception, List of Rito characters in The Realm Walker with some headcanons and family trees.

Some musings on Rito connections to the Zonai that were made before TotK was released. (Placed here cause the fact that a symbol engraved on Revali's armor shows up in Shadow of the Tomb Raider haunts me.)

Angry Rito (Screenshots of Kass and Harth glaring at me for pointing a bow at them in BotW. Ahem... for research... (They do the same thing if you wear OoT Ganondorf's outfit, or the Phantom Armor, etc. But the bow lets you really zoom in on their faces...)

A Calendar System for The Realm Walker (Reblog contains a history of what went down in the aftermath of the Great Calamity)

Musings on Changes to the Depths

Zora Headcanons: Thoughts on Zora's Domain (architecture, geology, flora), Thoughts on Zora Biology (Tribes, why Zora rulers are so big)

Castlevania Fic Ideas

Rambles 1: Geography of the game world vs. the animated series world.

Rambles 2: Possible location of the Belmont Hold/UNSIB HQ.

An early snippet of the fic idea.

My Art on Tumblr

Ildia's Swords

Sidon's Sword

Dahkal's Razor

Rito Settlement Symbols (Each Rito Settlement has a symbol associated with it, you can find Rito Village's symbol on the Snowquill Set, specifically the red sash (it's also scattered around the boardwalk in the village)

Wizal (Toucan Rito/Wizzrobes from Wind Waker) magic rods (Regular & Advanced)

Tyto Axe

Yiga Spear (Demon Spear?)

The Depths Revision Map WIP

Godon & Lanara's House WIP

Chiampa Short Sword

Harpy Maquahuitl

Collection of multiple weapons together, listed by size

The ancient spear from TBoK Ch 18

[tnc-n3cl]

Fic Author Interview

Thanks for the tag @unmaskedcardinal!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Five although one of them is really a rough draft of another fic.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

264,548! (There's way more on the way though...)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Amnesiac Hero's Quest (T, BotW AU covering when Link leaves the Great Plateau until just after freeing Vah Ruta (and Mipha), 14 chapters, only finished fic so far) 50 kudos.

Link's Story: Finding Hateno Village (T, BotW AU, pretty much what it says on the tin, Link leaves Kakariko going towards Mt. Lanaryu by mistake and tries to find his way to Hateno Village. This is the one that spawned TAHQ, oneshot, the first thing I posted on AO3.) 21 kudos.

Shifting Tides of Fate (M, BotW AU picking up where TAHQ leaves off, Link and Mipha head to Rito Village to save Revali and free Vah Medoh, 6 chapters posted, WIP) 11 kudos.

The Ballad of Kass (M (originally T), BotW AU starting a week or two before the start of TAHQ, Kass sets out to find Link to fulfil his promise to his teacher, and his sister Kalia tags along. Second thing I posted, kind of the backbone to the whole The Realm Walker saga at this point [cause it intersects with the other stories so I have to time things out carefully], 15 chapters posted, WIP) 8 kudos.

The Tale of the Realm Walker (M, Wind Waker & Twilight Princess sequel with a ton of nods to the rest of the franchise (a LOT of ALttP). Chronologically the first story in TRW Saga, but I'm effectively telling it as an in-universe tale in BotW times, and it's the most recently posted fic of mine on AO3, only 2 chapters posted so far, WIP) 2 kudos.

The first two fics for sure got hit by the kudos bug a while ago. Kudos Georg I guess... Given that they've been up the longest I can see why they've got more than the others.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! If someone took the time to comment on my fics then I'm going to say something back. I'm am very much here for the community aspect. Even though I may not always comment on something I've read (or art I've looked at).

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Well the only one with an ending so far is TAHQ and it's fairly happy. Hm... How to not spoil plans? If it was finished then The Tale of the Realm Walker would be the answer. I'll uh... leave it at that...

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

See above, The Amnesiac Hero's Quest.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not anymore, I had some batcrap insane hypothetical video game ideas that were crossovers, but those have all mostly been tossed. Though I did salvage plenty of ideas from them. The Realm Walker Saga itself came from a LoZ/Final Fantasy crossover, "Project 47" as well. Untitled Castelvania Fanfic Project... Untitled Front Mission Fanfic Project...

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that'd be pretty cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but one of the stories in my Trek fanfic got an editor. Went by the username of USS Da Vinci (IIRC) on Subspace Comms Network (SCN, a now defunct Star Trek and Sci-Fi forum I was on).

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I guess Revalink. Or Picard/Crusher?

14. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

At this point I've more or less made my peace with the death of my Trek and Stargate fics. Do I think about them still? Yes. (I'd give my aliens with the space whale ships Discovery style spore drives... Maybe throw in a Kelpian character or two...) (Had a blast rewatching most of the Ori arc of SG-1 not that long ago...)

15. What are your writing strengths?

Action scenes, quirky humor (I make myself laugh at least), describing what characters are doing in a scene.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Scenery porn. I so rarely mention time of day or anything. I have to really sit down and focus on all that, so lately I've just been hammering out an arc and then going back and fluffing all that up in edits. (Although I am particularly proud of a few scenes in The Ballad of Kass and Shifting Tides of Fate.)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I actually tried this with a little teaser for my Castlevania fic idea. The scene takes place in Austria so I decided to have the opening few lines be in German then switch to English, cause while I did take a couple classes in college, I don't know nearly enough to write a whole dialog chain. So throughout the little snippet there'd be a German line or two. Used Google translate for things I didn't know, but it was giving me something weird for "My name is..." [Also stared at Google Maps of Graz for HOURS picking locations, even though the fic is set 1,071 years in the future after a society ruining cataclysm... I must have some accuracy!]

I have made up words for fics. I've got 11 whole alphabets for the Avestrens (bird people) in "Project 47" and a handful of words. A handful of Rito words. Back in my Trek fic days I was writing in script format and would just put things like [Cardassian curse] rather than trying to come up with something.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Star Trek, it was script based and set 10 years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. Multiple spinoffs were planed spanning a period of 50 years. (I had started writing the sequel before finishing the first fic, and wrote a little bit of some of the other spinoffs.)

19. What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I can't really think of anything. I'd like to do something with my Castlevania or Final Fantasy ideas but I'd need the right mood or inspiration to get anywhere. I'm not much of a shipper to be honest, at least with canon characters I guess? I like making my OC's kiss...

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Oh that's hard! The initial version of The Tale of the Realm Walker has a special place in my heart, but gods it's all walls of text! How did I ever keep track of everything?! The Ballad of Kass is a place for me to go nuts with Rito headcanons and have fun with the birbs until I can get the Revali centric fics really going. I'm proud of actually finishing The Amnesiac Hero's Quest (I love moment where Link finally meets Purah and is convinced that there's something in the water in Hateno that makes everyone a weirdo and she put it there. He's getting his red string and nails ready...).

I guess just for semantics sake, since "written" is past tense, I'll go with TAHQ as my final answer (this time around) since it's finished.

No Pressure Tags: @critical-birb, @zeawesomebirdie, @readwritebeawesome

[tnc-n3cl]

1) Compliment your writing! 21) What do you do when you get writer's block? 33) Which of your fic titles is your favorite? (and why?)

Thanks for the ask @unmaskedcardinal

1) Compliment your writing!

Let's see... I've got some intense action scenes, some funny narration and/or dialog, and I've made myself cry writing one scene in particular (cause it was sad not cause writing was frustrating me)! [Okay maybe two...] Bonus, the big sad scene was making me tear up in a different fic that was referencing it before even writing it (so of course I had to go and write that fic first...).

21) What do you do when you get writer's block?

Stare blankly at the Word document for hours. :P Okay maybe a little bit, but usually I'll either work on something else, maybe doodle something related to the project, or do a little research on something related. Or I'll take a break from writing for a bit and do something else.

I have gotten into a bit of a cycle where an arc idea or inspiration will come to me and I'll speed through it and when I get to the end of it and be like "okay now what?" and have to take a little break for a while. (Which is perhaps the reverse of what was going on when wrote the first version of Tale of the Realm Walker. I would just be kinda winging it for a bit, only having a vague idea of the scene and then I would have an epiphany and everything would fall into place.)

33) Which of your fic titles is your favorite? (and why?)

Shifting Tides of Fate. Why is this my favorite title? The layers... It starts from Mipha's POV as she and Link set out to Rito Village to free Revali and Vah Medoh. Tides => Water => Zora... But also the tides of fate have indeed shifted, the Champions weren't murdered but possessed and are still alive, Link just has to save them. But also, by the time I started writing this, things had gone off the rails. Not just in the sense of Champions Alive AU, but also many of my original plans got tossed out the window.

See I was originally just going to do a series of oneshots freeing the Divine Beasts, maybe only really diving deep with a Revali-centric fic. But then "Link's Story: Finding Hateno Village" ballooned into The Amnesiac Hero's Quest which made a bunch of things happen that made me have to adjust scenes in The Ballad of Kass. And then stuff that changed in TBoK means things are a little different in SToF than what I planned.

It just works on so many levels and I usually struggle with titles. Like most of my other projects are just "Untitled [Franchise] Fanfic Project" or a codename like "Project 47". But The Realm Walker has just been really generous so far. (Also The Realm Walker is a perfect! Very much a titular character title like Twilight Princess... Even though I haven't posted anything from the Realm Walker herself's POV...) [Side Note: I had originally posted The Ballad of Kass under the name of "Kass' Story" but at some point the inspiration hit and I changed it.]

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