Thirty years, earlier.

Dry, hot, cold, moon, sun, sand, … and wind.

In the west lied a wasteland of bare desert, and only scavengers lived there including jackals, wolfos, sand worms, molduga, poes of preying spirits, … and the Gerudo. A people of strong will were the Gerudo. They were disciplined and hardened to be trained for every means of survival. Like any scavenger, they sought opportunity whereby they lived by what they could take. Therefore, they are a community of thieves who abide in a fortress of stone and wood. And as nothing remained of desert to reap for life, they abode in a valley that stood in pass of the great mountains steep and tall, the Gerudo Highlands, giving them reach to the vibrant and rich lands of Hyrule. Then from the pure world of the Hylians, the Gerudo plundered and stole from any who crossed their path. Women they were of tall and slender shape with hair of crimson as both dawn and dusk. Tanned from the wasteland sun stood their skin with features of golden eyes and noses sharp as a pointed stake. All of Gerudo were women, or rather that is to say ‘vai’, who attain production by the men they steal and take. Under more soft hearted chieftains, these men were permitted to return to their natural lives, but under the hard hearted, their lives were taken.

Mysterious was the history of the Gerudo, a people who existed in ill fate as if to battle the creation of the goddesses itself, to steal the very life of it if necessary to sustain their own. A mystery that became legend among the people of legends, and among those legends was how they ruled themselves in civilization alternating as tribe and kingdom. For when a ‘voe’, which is to say a man, is born of them once every one hundred years, that voe would by right of birth rule as king.

How did it all begin? None know, save a certain sect of the tribe, as that history was long lost. And that sect kept to its secrets. It was a sect of Gerudo witches to whom the Gerudo people looked to in respect for guidance and wisdom. The chieftains valued their counsel as their seat was regarded in high honor. And under the sect who exploited the influence of the wasteland’s plight, the Gerudo did not look to the goddesses as the Hylians did. Rather they looked to a temple of their own, built in a lone rock of the wasteland’s depth. So, they worshipped a false goddess, the goddess of the sands, as ‘she’ would provide for them against the world of the goddesses. And she was proclaimed by the sect to thrive on the spirits of the dead and even the spirit of the world itself.

Now there remained but a few of the fading sect, the Rova sisters, being the highest of their order. Regularly, the witches attended at the Spirit Temple and made sacrifice according to the tradition of their rituals.

Three were the Rova sisters as they approached the temple built in a great lonely stone of a mount. They were fair with bright faces identical each, for they were triplets. And the sand reflected their gleam as like unto the sun’s searing light. Dark robes they wore with runes of old and forgotten meaning. Moreover, their hair was crimson as all Gerudo were. Behind them followed the sect with their grinning faces as broad as a moon’s crescent, and yet behind them some vai of the Gerudo thieves carried ten Hylians, bound in rawhide, who were way worn from the treatment of both the Gerudo and the harsh reality of the desert.

As they entered, the sisters walked up a short stairs until they turned standing before the doorway upon the higher floor as all entered before them in standing together in reverence before the sisters, and the vai kneeled with the Hylians betwixt them in their hands. And the sisters commenced their words of order.

“Your offering today is honorable and well satisfying.” Announced Koume, the third sister.

 “You bring spirit, you bring life.” Added Kotake, the second.

“None are closer to the world of the goddesses in essence than the Hylians of Hyrule, and their spirit will be the gain to the Goddess of Sands!” Exclaimed Konvilla, the first, as she then followed with commanding them, “Now go! And give their spirits to the goddess!!”

In proceeding with Konvilla’s command, the sisters stepped back from the stairs as the vai immediately took up the Hylians to climb the stairs in making their way through the eastern causeway, and the sect followed. But the sisters, however, did not follow as rather they approached a pedestal of a moon’s crescent which then ascended in taking them to the second floor.

“Hylians, indeed are the closest in life to Hyrule, and Gerudo are proven to be stronger than ever!” Exclaimed Kotake.

“Yes, but we must take care.” Warned Koume with concern, “If any of the people hunger knowledge to question, they can prove a great threat. Already, there are those who doubt the face of the Sand Goddess that we have used in our front, and they grow among us with softer hearts than what can withstand our cursed wasteland.”

“That doubt will die...” Konvilla countered, “For war will come soon. And when the people taste the death of the Hylians and taste the world of life, their doubts will wash away as sand is cleansed from a blowing wind.” But then she went on in reprimand. “But we have come too far to falter in fear such as this.”

Their ascent upon the elevated shaft halted, allowing them to continue their walk as they came into the great hall of the Sand Goddess. Torches were lit revealing a ceiling of a hundred feet, and standing to the back was the colossal statue of the goddess of sand sitting with legs crossed and arms set out as though she were meditating as a monk. About her collar weaved the figure of a great serpent with the head of a king cobra come up behind her neck and rested upon her brow as though it was her crown. Before her on pedestal betwixt torches, the Hylians were taken, one by one, where the vai and the sect would slay them, each in a unique manner. The sisters, however, stood above in catwalk as they looked on for but a minute before moving onward with stairs ascending even higher into darker chambers where the light became dim and the torch light became brighter.    

Konvilla continued, “We are close, my sisters. As the spirit of Hylians are drained, the darkness of Demise grows closer. For seven hundred years, we have harvested the Hylians, and when his darkness returns, it will dominate the world. And as children of the darkness, we will rule over the Hylians in life over waste just as they have lived above us.”

But Koume countered again as they came to their quarters of darkness, magnificent carpets of fine and broidered works, and books upon books on many shelves. “While some of soft hearts, among the vai, may grow harder when the taste of war comes, others will only soften more. And if their questions ever investigate to learn of our true function as we have devoted our entire history as people of the sect to the dark arts in the lore of the demon king, they will learn that it was because of us that the Gerudo are reduced to a dying waste of people, doomed to fade without means of producing their own blood. They will learn how the legends of the Gerudo are our curse. And when they learn it, as their hearts are emboldened, no hardness of war nor witchcraft will tame the fire of their wrath.”

“Koume!!” Kotake shouted, “Why must you vex us to be downfallen so!?!”

But Konvilla soothed, “Koume is within reason to be concerned. But again, I will say this, once the darkness of Demise is awakened in his malice, there will be nothing to fear. Not the soft hearts, not the Hylians, not the royal family of Hyrule, not Hylia, nor even the goddesses of Hyrule.”

And Konvilla ceased as she seemed quite confident in her state of mind.

Yet, Koume pushed further to enquire, “If we are to awaken the darkness… what is to ensure that it will recognize us as friend from foe? For a darkness as ruthless as we regard, will we be able to find place before it in good faith?”

Then Konvilla sighed, “There is a way.” And then she strode to their great cauldron while grasping a certain dark text from off the shelf as she explained, “The darkness of Demise’s hate is given to whom he hates the most?” And when none answered, she gave answer. “The goddesses, against whom we share a foe in common. We will collect token spirits of the children of Farore as we will take thereof in revealing ourselves in the likeness of the goddesses incarnate in power and beauty upon earth. And in such mockery, we will complete the awakening of the darkness as Hylian blood has at last been given in full. Now!...” She splashed mixtures of many elements into the cauldron. “We are ready to take on our divine roles and pledge ourselves in the rising darkness against the goddesses of plight!!!”

And the cauldron flashed a great color of white lightning.

The others mulled in thought before pressing inquiry, “Token spirits of the children of Farore?” Their heads cocked with furrowed brows, “What tokens?”

And then Konvilla opened the door with sinister bright countenance, speaking in command to the vai without the door. “Bring them!” Then in a short while, the vai returned in company bringing captives bound. “You may leave.” She again commanded.

The three sisters observed. “These are captives of the children of Farore..." Konvilla went on to say. "...which our greatest hunters have trapped and pursued from the three provinces of the peoples bearing with the three strongest elements of fire, water, and forest, representing the goddesses in their creation: Eldin, Nayru, and Faron.”

Standing before them was a Goron, a Zora, and of all things, a Kokiri child who looked very lost and felt very very small.

“How on earth did you obtain a Kokiri?!” Cried Kotake with excitement.

And Koume wondered, “Is not a Kokiri child incapable of living beyond the realm of the forest? And aren’t the mysterious lost woods impenetrable? For none there are who can find their way in that wild abode.”

“This one…” Konvilla answered, “wandered through the mysterious woods on his own accord only to become lost and thus eventually found his way to the outside world and to my hunters. … And as you can see, he is not dead. Though the eternal youth is beginning to fade in absence of the power of the father of the forest.” Then Konvilla went on to explain with bright countenance as she was quite proud of herself. “The Goron folk of the mountain, among the children of Farore, are the people of Fire. The Zora of the river are the people of Water. And the Kokiri are the people of the Forest. Combined of our power and their spirits, we have what we need to complete our task.”

And so the Rova sisters were consent in agreement.

Alas, what was then done there was too cruel for any tale to utter word. Thus, as the three were slain, the cauldron bore in essence the power of the Rova sisters and the spirits of the children of Farore. And in pledge to Demise against the goddesses, the sisters sought to take on, in intended mockery, the forms in the likeness of the goddesses themselves. Koume and Kotake took on the likeness of Din and Nayru, and Konvilla took on the likeness of Farore.

In a moment, they were exceedingly fair to behold throughout the world with their red, blue, and green hair. It was as if the goddesses had descended upon the earth incarnate…but then something happened! The cauldron shook with strange and unknown colors, and the earth of the desert about the temple shook in a violent tremor. Konvilla screeched in agony as she immediately withered to death. And she was only found to remain a dissipating green smoke. Koume and Kotake remained, but in repugnant form, disfigured as aged hags. Koume’s red hair became as that of fiery flame, and Kotake’s blue hair became as frozen sickles of ice. With great squeals, they rushed out of the room downstairs to find that the sect had perished, leaving themselves as the final two to remain.

As they fled back to the fortress, they would explain how it was Konvilla’s blame for displeasing the Sand Goddess in bringing ruin to the sect. But when they returned, another thing happened. The night grew immensely dark and the winds howled with the company of many poes and jackals howling in the night. And there was a wailing of a vai in great pain, so much so that the whole of the tribe was alert in prayer for her. The Rova sisters attended to find that it was Albura of the then chieftain’s chief counsel, and she was with child to be birthed that night. For hours she lasted until at last the babe came forth, and it seemed as if its coming life stole away her breath. In looking upon the child with her last breath, she uttered only one word. “Dragmire” she whispered coarsely in her last moment before death, meaning “Death Greeter”

The babe was tanned much darker than the common Gerudo, and he was a ‘Voe’. Upon this realization, all present made kneel and bowed. And his coming was announced with many voices calling into the night as the howls silenced. “Alas! A King is Born!!!”

A vai wrapped the babe, and a circlet was brought for him that bore a jewel. Now all Gerudo are by custom adorned with a jewel upon their brow in signifying their nation as a people. But this was a Garrohan, the Gerudo ruby to be adorned only by a king. Then the vai took to nurse him in the abode to rest for the night. And the Rova sisters went to their own abode as they would discuss this turn of events that would be the commotion of the town throughout the night. For they understood that the darkness of Demise they had called forth…had wakened at last.

On the next day, the chieftess’ counsel was held to decide upon the raising of the newborn king. Sunlight beamed through great windows, a fire was burning at hearth upon the northern wall, and Oboorusa, the chief, sat upon her high seat. Furthermore, the counselors attended in both sitting and standing about the room to one side or the other. Among the counsel, the Rova sisters attended, and they first gave their account of Konvilla’s faults toward the Sand Goddess and the doom of the sect.

In following came the business of the king. And it was noted how Albura had not been with a voe for conception to take place which indeed was a marvel. Then Koume and Kotake took occasion to speak on the floor again.

“This is no ordinary king, my chieftess and mistresses.” Spoke Kotake.

“A child born in the stirring winds of the night without sire.” Koume added.

Then Kotake reasoned, “This is no other than the Mejes, the Chosen Son of the Sand Goddess”

And the commotion of the counsel arose as the sisters spoke of a prophecy that stood in legend of the Gerudo. For in the legend of the Gerudo it was said that a voe is given to be king once every hundred years to be as a gift to save the people from perils of the sands, and that one day, one will be born without sire to become the Mejes, and he will be given for the salvation of their race.

Thus, the sisters offered their service in raising the child in their wisdom, assuring that the rising king will be well suited for his task as ruler, and they concluded that as the task is done, it will serve to redeeming the sect in the eyes of the Sand Goddess. This the chieftess consented to gladly, and so the Rova sisters were tasked to be the babe’s surrogate mothers.

“What shall we call him?” Asked one of the counsel.

“‘Dragmire’ is what Albura uttered in her last.” Added another member.

“While it is respect to honor his mother,” Koume started, “Another name will be needed more fitting for a king to be called by.”

“Let us call him, ‘Ganondorf’, ‘King of Power’” Kotake named him.

Then the chieftess raised her hand with a final nod, “Then let his name so be called.”

Time passed as the child wielded power unknown to the Gerudo, and the witches took delight in him with great hope. So they raised him in their guidance of the ways of Demise, in the dark arts. He loved his people as he burned with a desire to aid them as far as his power as king could allow. Often he would walk alone upon the sands day and night. The world seemed an enemy to him where only death stood about him in the sand. The sun, the moon, and the wind. Yes, the wind blew threw his crimson hair as the sunlight seared him or moonlight froze him. And the wind brought storms of sand and lightening giving breath to death. But then he looked eastward where there stood stars over a world of life with rich and vibrant growth. The wind there gave gentle ease with comfort. The same wind that brought Hyrule life brought searing death to the Gerudo desert, and Ganondorf coveted that wind. He was always angry, and as his desire grew, his hatred grew. Yet what bothered him the most was how natural that hate seemed to grow in him.

The day came when he was twenty, that he petitioned the chief go to war with Hyrule.

“We abide in the valley as we take from the Hylians," Answered the chieftess. "... and we find ourselves quite capable of living as we are.” 

But Ganodorf only stood firm. “That is not enough. I will that we take the life of Hyrule.”

“You have grown and matured much, young voe, but you are not king yet.” Oboorusa reminded, “While I would love nothing more than to see Hyrule on its knees with their beloved grass beneath our feet, war is too great a price to pay. … We are thieves, not murderers.”

“Yet what is it then to take life?” Koume contributed, “To steal. Yes?”

And Kotake added. “And what does it mean to invade?... To steal their land.” Then she went on to say, “To war is to live the Gerudo way. Let us invade and Take their land.”

The Chieftess was not willing to go to war. However, the counsel conceded to the motion, and the people crowded in thirst for it as soon there stood chant in the commotion outside. “To War! Let us go to War!!” And to this, the chieftess conceded.

The Gerudo marched and invaded Hyrule for what was to become the Fierce War. And while the Gerudo were not soldiers nor knights, they were fierce warriors. So, the war waxed hot between the Gerudo and the Hylians ruled by King Nohansen Hyrule.

As for Ganondorf, he was a cunning warrior as he relished the heat of battle. But there was always a part of him that hated himself for it, yet that part was ever overshadowed in both fear and a swift wrath reborn. It was almost as if he were two people. His flesh simply desired to fulfil one’s duty and it would occasionally bear fruits of remorse, but in contrary, his spirit ever waxed hot as a furnace that always burned in a searing malice. Then as time passed, his spirit grew stronger and his heart of flesh had lessened. In flesh, he was Gerudo, but it became apparent that his spirit was something else. Concerning this, Ganondorf listened more earnestly to the Gerudo’s legends and the prophecy, and he remembered the teachings of the witches.

Ganondorf became himself a legend among the Gerudo. And the Gerudo hailed him in great honor. His darkness; however, became more forthcoming in showing fierce malice that would sometimes burn even towards his own people in matters as trivial as a lack of diligence of one’s part. They looked on him in fear, a fear that never went away. But they also came to love him as they succumbed to his darkness, believing that such was the cost to rise out of the waste’s condemnation. They were convinced that he would save them by the darkness.

Others, such as Nabooru, the chieftess’ heir, resented him and his ways, and they would try to sway his counsel if they could. Nabooru, of such position, carried more weight in counsel of those discussions, sometimes managing to lighten the darkness and slacken its burden, if only a little. They were thieves, and dishonestly so, if only to survive. Nabooru and the others could accept that, but they could not accept the act of taking wrath on the innocent needlessly even for sake of power. They hated the war.

As the Gerudo invasion pressed into Hyrule, the Shiekah proved to be the greatest threat as their skill far surpassed the Gerudo; however, they were a small host and few in number as they were themselves not an army. For the Shiekah assisted and guided the Hylians. Ganondorf took note of this and turned his attention to Kakariko village, and the Rova sisters joined his company in the raid.

The Shiekah were exhausted in that battle, and the Gerudo rounded them up. So, Ganondorf gathered the Shiekah, leaving empty houses torn and pillaged. And the one standing wind mill stood still and quiet as no wind gave breeze that day. He questioned the agents of Hylia as he sought what they knew of the ways of the Hylian city and Hyrule Castle. After much toil against many unbreakable spirits, one certain fellow was brought to his attention as the witches came in contact with him. For Bongo Yok was a Shiekah master, and as the witches consulted with him, they learned that Yok and his followers among the Shiekah lived secret lives as they bonded a fellowship of their own, calling themselves the Yiga. And the Rova sisters learned how they sought after the dark arts and that Bongo had turned to rather serve the memory of Demise, the demon king of old. Wherefore, Bongo Yok was only glad to betray the Shiekah to the thieves. And so he showed Ganondorf the archives of the Shiekah in the Shadow Temple which laid in store behind the cemetery. The cemetery was sacred as the Royal Family of Hyrule were laid to rest there, and in a secret cave behind it, there descended in the darkness of the earth the Shadow Temple. There the Shiekah were buried in their customs. Moreover, it is where they held their ceremonies and their counsels of the order. So, Ganondorf was shown the records of everything that the Shiekah had contained of the history of Hyrule and the established kingdom.

Ganondorf learned much in study. And he took great interest in all of the lore of Hyrule so that he spared even the pages of trivial customs from burning. He poured himself through the words page after page, and then he found it, the history of the Triforce and the lore after it. This newfound knowledge of the Triforce burned him into a desire of flesh and spirit, exclaiming aloud to himself in thought, “Here! Here is the answer!! This is the salvation that we have sought!!!” He mulled over it greatly, and his hunger burned to the point that he was convinced that he would attain it no matter what cost, even through darkness, so that he might wrest the world from the goddesses to a more “noble” answer. So entranced he was in his study of it that he would become a scholar of the subject on the lore of the Triforce and Hyrule’s history.

Amidst the studies, the witches read in comparing greater histories with their own dark articles that stood yet deeper than Ganondorf’s lessons of his youth. And the Rova sisters then realized something that Ganondorf did not. For sure enough, before them stood an incarnation of Demise’s malice. Ganondorf was Gerudo in flesh, but the devil’s malice thrived in his spirit. They were One. And then with this knowledge, the witches flustered with spiteful delight as they believed that their revenge on the goddesses took shape before them.

Ganondorf yielded the Shiekah prisoners to the charge of Bongo Yok as Kakariko Village was left to the Yiga. And Bongo Yok was a madman of ruthless rule. The Yiga perveted the resting places of the Shiekah into a place of horror and malicious spirits, for they called on the darkness and the temple was changed from coffins to instruments of torture among both the living and the dead. Thus the Shiekah were wiped out, and Bongo Yok had changed himself in dealing with the spirits of the dead in that he conformed to the shadows in a shape renewed.

But sometime after the Gerudo left Kakariko back to their campaign in Hyrule, there came a company of Hyrule’s knights at the lead of Impa, and they retook Kakariko where the Yiga were condemned for their crimes.

As for Ganondorf, he took respite from the labor of his campaign to return to the valley. And there he furthered his studies while his spirit ever burned in him as an untamed fire erupting a great furnace. In flesh, Ganondorf simply desired some hope, even if wrath and murder were to give it. Yet, he ever felt a sense of remorse however faint it be. But in spirit, he desired death, pillage, and the destruction of all of his enemies who oppose his will with sheer dominance. Thus, in heart, he was unbalanced and both parts of him believed in the essence of power most to be the greatest virtue achieved.

When Ganondorf grew in stature and became king of the Gerudo, he called for a lay of arms to withdraw from the war in suit for peace. His first action as king. So, he would feign to be honorable and pledge allegiance to the crown of Hyrule, and the actions of the former Gerudo legion were forgiven. Ganondorf would find a way to steal the sacred treasure of Hyrule, the Triforce.

For after all, Ganondorf is a legend, and he is the King of Thieves.