Link, Chosen of Hylia

Character Information
Character Name: Link
Canon: The Legend of Zelda
Canon Point: Skyward Sword prequel-right when he's preparing to send his people into the sky, shortly before his death
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive, but in rough shape. He will probably be brought back from brink of death on arrival but his physical condition will still be generally poor (more on that in "weaknesses" subsection).
History:

http://zeldawiki.org/Hylia%27s_Chosen_Hero
http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Skyward_Sword_%28manga%29

For the sake of the reader's sanity-

• Hylian-A subrace of human born with long, pointed ears and magical abilities. They're like elves but aren't elves.


• Hylia-The ancient name for the land that would eventually become Hyrule


• Hylia-Also the name of the White Goddess who looks over said land

(NOTE: Whether or not the prequel manga is canon is a topic of some debate and there is reasonable evidence to support either side. This particular story is included in the otherwise canonical Hyrule Historia and was requested by the series director. Let's pretend it is absolute canon for the sake of RP and put the above articles in context and explain how it can all fit in with the events of Skyward Sword.)

(The Legend of the Goddess as told by the spirit Fi to Link's reincarnation, and as understood by the Hylian people during the Sky Era. Not a necessary view to understand the rest of the app but it sets the stage quite well)

Imagine Hyrule.

It is a vast, ancient land inhabited by many different kinds of people. There are tribes of creatures made of rock, and fish-like people who swim in the rivers, lakes and seas. There are farmers, soldiers, builders, merchants, shamans and they all enjoy different pastimes. Some fish, some read, some are collectors, some go hiking into the woods but above all the people of Hyrule enjoy telling stories.

The Goddesses and local light spirits (or, sometimes, dragons) and sages are all very real to the people of Hyrule. They do not speak of their faith as if it were something abstract. They believe the gods can be seen, spoken to, even touched if one is special enough to encounter them. They even believe the guardian Goddess of Hyrule, Hylia, is reincarnated through the female line of the royal families. The stories surrounding this are the most ancient stories in their culture. Scholars call them the Legends of Zelda.

Traditionally these legends started in Skyloft, home to the Hylian people thousands of years before the Kingdom of Hyrule was ever an idea. However, even the Skyloftians spoke of a hero that had led them into the sky, under the direction of the Goddess. This hero lived in the darkest days of recorded Hylian history. His name was Link.

Ancient Hyrule (at the time called Hylia) was home mostly to wandering tribes of people. While it is never directly stated, it seems the Hylians themselves were an exception to this. They had a mighty kingdom, advanced weaponry, sturdy fortresses, and the belief that they were the favored of the gods. They thought themselves immortal. When Link, an honorable knight, started to suffer from visions of slaughter they did not take it very well. Dagianis, one of the Lords of the region betrayed Link, framing him for a crime he did not commit and landing him in prison for four years. People forgot about the knight after that. After all, what need did the mighty Hylians really have for a hero?

During this time the demons led by Demise attacked, seeking an ancient power left behind by the old gods known as the Triforce. Forests were burned to the ground, rivers were seared and the world was scarred. The Hylians fell beneath the onslaught. Desperate, they freed Link from the dungeons and asked their decorated war hero to save them once again. Link held some bitterness in his heart towards his own people but his love for his world and those he considered friends was enough for him to lead an army against Demise. The Goddess Hylia appeared before him alongside her Loftwing, giving him her sword so that he could reforge it with his own hands. With it, he could create a pillar between Heaven and earth so that his people could escape into the sky. He did reforge it, pouring his own pain and suffering into the blade, tempering it along with his spirit, and turning it into the Master Sword.

Sadly, the armies of Hylians and the other tribes lost the battle. Demise knocked Link down with a single blow, unimpressed. Before he could be killed, Link was carried off by Hylia's mount, the Loftwing, who had been watching from afar. The Loftwing carried Link into the sky asking the brave warrior to be his rider for the rest of time. Link promised, as long as the Loftwing could lead his surviving people to safety, could lead them skyward. The Goddess picked up the Master Sword and with one swing tore up the earth then threw the blade to Link. With the blade, Link created a column of magic and the Hylians rose up on the ground torn free by the Goddess. They would remain in the sky for aeons along with the Triforce.

At this point the Legends say Link went skyward too and was given a special "sailcloth" by the Goddess so that he could always return to the ground. Tragically, this is not what happened. Later generations of Hylians would indeed have sailcloths as part of their national lore but Link did not live long enough to ever use one himself. Instead Link watched his people disappear above the clouds then, gravely wounded, he passed away. Hylia used her power to seal Demise and gathered the fallen warrior into her arms. She promised that she would shed her divinity and be reborn to stand beside him as a mortal and together they would return to the world whenever it needed them. Sometime after laying Link to rest and before dying herself, Hylia reverted the Master Sword to its original divine form and sealed it into a statue that had risen skyward with the Hylian people to protect it. She created a spirit named Fi to inhabit the blade and gave her the task of seeking out the Hero who could reawaken the sword.

It would take Fi thousands of years to finally find and reach out to the mind of the hero reborn. It would be this reincarnation (also named Link, if the Legends are to be believed) who would take up the sword again, again temper it, and use it to defeat Demise for good, thus allowing his people to descend back to the surface of the world and found the Kingdom of Hyrule. Sadly for Link and Zelda (Hylia's mortal form) Demise did not go without cursing them. As he fell he promised that his hatred would live on and hunt down the blood of the Goddess and the spirit of the Hero "dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time". From this point forward Hylians speak of these entities as embodiments of the ancient Triforce. They thought of Link as Courage, Zelda as Wisdom, and Demise's lingering essence as Power. These three are eternally bound to one another and Link's lives will never be easy or peaceful. Thanks to the curse he will never live a life of non-violence.

Personality:

(NOTE: The manga is brief but does give a good deal of information in a small space. Still, to flesh him out a bit I draw upon the many personality traits that are common to the other Links. Each Link is unique and has his own life circumstances, experiences, and world views but there are characteristics that-ahem-link them together. I like to use these where appropriate instead of relying on headcanon. The other Links are this one reincarnate after all.)

Gods… humans… both of you seek the same answers from me.
Truly, you use me whenever it suits you.
But, right now it goes without saying...I will always stand with my friends!

Ask anyone from Ancient Hylia about Link and they'd either sing his praises or roll their eyes with a sigh and say the world doesn't really need the guy. He has a way of influencing people. Few of his peers have neutral opinions of him.

To most he is an ideal knight. He is strong, courageous, loyal, fiercely determined and always ready to fight for his people. If something goes wrong you better believe Link will be on the front lines to protect everybody. He cares deeply for his people and for the local children. He loves his land and has a passionate sense of justice. He is confident in his ability, often smirking while cutting his way through legions of enemies, but is humbly reticent outside of combat. Just being near him, they say, has a way of boosting morale. There is a reason he is referred to as "Link the Hero".

People who refer to him as a hero tend to not know him very well. Link takes his own personal failures very hard and feels that his honor was tarnished through his years of imprisonment. If anyone mentions the name of someone he was unable to save he winces and looks away. "Hero" is a word other people use to describe him, not something he ever calls himself. He thinks he is undeserving of that title. In many ways he finds the job of being a hero emotionally exhausting and horribly thankless. When he was freed from his cell and asked to fight again he exhibited some resentment, saying that he'd thought he'd be able to finally sleep had he stayed locked up. It was his own people that turned on him and locked him away to begin with, and this angers him. He feels like he is used as little more than a living weapon, something that can be pointed at enemies in troubling times but otherwise forgotten. A lifetime of being treated this way has left him bitter when it comes to other Hylians and even Hylian deities and he feels somewhat guilty and ashamed about having these feelings. But he can't help it. If he were to refuse anyone's cry for help, if he allowed anyone to be hurt when he knew he could intervene, he'd never forgive himself.

That last quality is part of what made him the warrior chosen by the gods. True, he has a big heart, when he loves he loves deeply, true he is very kind, true he has an unbreakable spirit, skill with a blade and steadfast courage... but he is also easy to predict. Even knowing that people use him he cannot say "no" to anyone in need. The White Goddess Hylia knew this when she offered him her sword. "Link, do you intend to take revenge on the kingdom that held you in contempt or will you save it?" She called attention to the fact that he had been betrayed and was still being asked to fight. Link's response was a humorless grin as he took the sword. She knew his answer before she even asked the question and he knew it. He sighs out loud about this but he is not the sort of person to lament his lot in life. He accepts it, even if it gives him pain. This would tragically become a running theme across his lifetimes. The Goddess knows how to manipulate him; it is not particularly difficult. Put someone in danger and he will leap into action. It's in his nature.

Link loves his people and his land enough that he willingly dies for them. Hylia herself even admires his gentle spirit and big heart. A gentle spirit and a big heart does not make him a pacifist, however. As the old trope goes "Good is Not Soft". He's a soldier and like any other soldier he is capable of unleashing unspeakable violence. He prefers not to start a fight but he will always finish one. Once engaged with an enemy he won't back down unless he's killed or feels he needs to focus his attention elsewhere to prevent an even bigger disaster. His temper can be fiery and takes the form of almost boyish indignation at best or explosive rage at worst. He has very little tolerance for anyone who speaks down to him or his people or pushes people around. Since his life involves a lot of being pushed around by forces outside his control he is frequently upset. He tries to vent these frustrations into fighting instead of uncorking emotional bottles of pressurized angst into unsuspecting people. When confronted with those who are unapologetically sinister and willing to hurt others his anger is immediate and intense. These are the people Link will kill without hesitation or remorse. He can be a lethal pragmatist when fighting evil like this, or when fighting demons and monsters in general. If they have no honor, Link is willing to fight dirty and resort to underhanded tactics to win. Anything that will rid the world of such wickedness is fine with him.

Link's life has been an arduous one, filled with pain and suffering. According to Hylia his hardships were willed by the Heavens to temper his spirit and make him strong enough to wield the sacred sword of the Gods. This sort of existence, along with him being part of an active military, has left him with little time to make friends. As a whole he loves his people intensely but outside of pressure cooker situations he prefers his own company. He'd much rather spend time out in nature than in the cities. In fact, when he lay dying what he regretted leaving the most were the mountains and streams, not individuals. This detachment is visible in how he communicates with people. In most social situations he can come across as a bit awkward. He can give a passionate call-to-arms speech but isn't the greatest conversationalist in the world. He is more comfortable with letting other people do most of the talking and his attempts at humor-which usually take the form of sarcasm-often fall flat. He is always honest but doesn't always know how to lace his honesty with tact (this is a man who has talked back to a god and shouted angrily at a divine bird). His brain and body were conditioned for combat more than anything else. He can find his way around the battlefield and solve difficult problems as he moves. He is quick to see the small details that can get him to where he needs to be. Sadly, the sort of cunning that can help him slay monsters far bigger than himself does not translate to interpersonal relationships very well. He is hardly stupid but he is far from being the most clever man alive either. Sometimes people have to repeat themselves to him, due to his tendency to zone out when spoken to. He gets confused fairly easily but does not let that slow him down if he feels people need him, which means he can be reckless. All of this potentially contributes to the reasons his own people think of him almost more as a weapon than as a person. He is strong, honorable and good but not someone anyone tends to see at social gatherings. In fact when things aren't going horribly wrong he is rarely seen at all. In his better moods he does at least try to be sociable sometimes. He'll smile, laugh and let his more playfully mischievous side show. Usually, however, he prefers solitude and the company of nature. The people he gets emotionally close to enough to consider true friends are few and far between but once someone has made a friend in him they've made a friend for life. Threatening his friends can cause him to go off half-cocked.

As much as he enjoys his time to himself he could never truly live in actual isolation. He thinks of his life as one lived for his people, even if he is angry about being used constantly. If he were separated from his world and this life he would (and in game likely will) develop some slight separation anxiety from it. Helping people is what he knows and in some ways he thrives on being selfless because then he doesn't have to think about his own problems. He is not inwardly focused.

Despite a hard, military life Link generally thinks the best of people and can be too trusting of them. It is easy for those close to him to hurt him and he will usually forgive them for doing so, or at least he won't bear a grudge, even if he probably should. If he is wronged, he shrugs it off. If a friend is wronged that's when he gets angry. It's not that he lacks a sense of self. In fact, he is well aware of the landscape of his own heart. He just does not have much of a sense of self worth.

So who is Link, really? Just a man, a flawed man like anyone else, who didn't so much seek greatness as he did have greatness forced on him. He enjoys solitude but loves his land and his people enough that he dies for them. He has a big heart but a quick temper. His courage is without match but his intelligence is only average. He probably would have had a more enjoyable life had he been born a farmer but that was not the path the gods had in mind for him. When he died he died a tool of the Heavens and Hylia promised that he would be reborn whenever the world needed a great hero. The tragedy of that situation is, had Link been alive to hear that promise, he probably would have agreed to it. He is the sort of person who would accept the duty of reincarnation for eternity, even if he was already craving sleep in his first lifetime.

Items on your character at canon point:

His clothing, consisting of spaulders, gauntlets and a chainmail tunic, a scabbard and the Master Sword AKA The Blade of Evil's Bane-a magical blade tempered by his spirit that can only be wielded by his hands. No evil can touch it. His Master Sword is still unblessed and not yet the True Master Sword.

...He also has a floppy green hat.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:

Abilities: Link has limited psychic ability that can give him visions and the power to communicate telepathically. This is an ability possessed by Hylians in general and is not unique to him. In fact, his skill with it is underdeveloped. He has never shown any signs of being able to reach out to other minds, he can only receive messages. The reason he alone had visions of Demise is because he alone was chosen by the gods. This telepathy is considered by Hylians to be "whispers of the gods" and they believe they evolved to have long, pointed ears so as to hear these whispers more clearly. Outside his home world, Link's psychic visions are bound to be much more scattered and less accurate than before if he even has them at all. Here he does not have the gods around to put pictures in his head. Those ears are good for more than telepathic messages, however. Hylians also have incredibly good hearing. They can detect even the faintest sounds around them. Link, too, possesses this trait.

Strengths: He is a highly skilled warrior when at his peak physical condition. He is most accustomed to the sword but is able to use a wide variety of weapons with reasonable skill and is quick to learn new ones. His fighting style relies on quick footwork, acrobatic tumbles and smooth swordplay punctuated with slow, powerful strikes. It works well in his experience but it also means he tends to telegraph his own attacks. This works against him if he is fighting someone of equal skill. The Master Sword, being attuned to his immortal soul, grants him a new set of abilities when he has it on hand, most notable of which is the ability to fire shots of energy from the blade (the other abilities generally involve adding magical damage to his more standard attacks). This ability is even more telegraphed than his usual attacks as he has to hold the sword aloft and let it charge before unleashing the bolts.

He is also extremely courageous and won't back down even if faced with overwhelming odds. His spirit is "unbreakable" both in terms of him not giving up and in a more literal sense. This spirit is what he passes on to later "Heroes", said in the Legends to be his reincarnations. It is what truly threads them all together. Curses, shadow dimensions, demons or other effects that are supposed to warp the spirit and soul do not have the intended effect on Link. As an example, when one of his later incarnations is taken to a shadow world instead of becoming a lost soul he turns into a wolf (Another incarnation turns into a pink bunny in a similar situation so the effects of an unbreakable spirit aren't always that "badass"). Sometimes the Legends say this trait is due to him possessing the Triforce of Courage which is also bound to his spirit when he is in his homeworld. In the case of this Link an unbreakable spirit is what allows him to fight on the front lines despite suffering from muscular atrophy. He pushes onward because he feels he has to. This is also what ends up killing him.

Weaknesses: Unfortunately he is not currently in good health. Being chained to a wall for four years does not do a body good. As he himself points out, he is barely able to run. All that keeps him going is his will and even that does not last him long back home. His inability to dodge a blow from Demise causes him to take fatal damage. In game he will be training and exercising wherever he can to get his strength back up. He'll get there eventually but it won't happen immediately. Getting back into combat ready shape will likely take months.

He also has weaknesses in his personality. As explained above he has a hard time turning down anyone who needs him and he tends to prioritize the needs of others high above his own so he harbors some unspoken anger and resentment towards the world. It would be better for his mental health if he took care of his own emotional needs once in a while but he doesn't. His tendency to leap immediately into the fray to protect his people and his friends makes him predictable. Monsters coming? Link will be there, even if he's not in fighting condition. Sure as the sun rises. Though he thinks on his feet quite easily and is very receptive to learning new things he is not at all likely to ever be the smartest or most learned man in the room either. What he knows comes more from a place of instinct than it does an education.

Link is Hylian down to his marrow. What he knows is Hylia, his understanding of himself is rooted in Hylia. Being taken from his home will initially leave him culture shocked in a severe way. Obviously, he is not a Hero-Chosen-By-The-Gods outside his home world either. Any reputation he gains in game, be it positive, negative or neutral, he will have to earn. This is all to say nothing of his complete lack of familiarity with modern technology.

It is also worth mentioning that him being courageous does not mean he never feels fear. Courage and fearlessness are different things.

In terms of what can kill him-Link is completely mortal. A bullet to the head will take him out as quickly as it would anyone else.