The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

II Gerudo Legends, the Fierce War, and the King of Thieves

Thirty years, earlier.

Dry, heat, cold, moon, sun, sand, ... and wind.

In the west, lay wasteland of bare desert, and only scavengers live there: jackals, wolfos, sand worms, molduga, poes of preying spirits, ... and the Gerudo. A people of strong will, 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 people 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. And from the pure world of the Hylians, the Gerudo plundered and stole from any who journeyed their way. Women they were of tall and sender shape with hair as crimson as both dawn and dusk. Tanned from the wasteland sun stood their skin with features of golden eyes and noses as sharp as a pointed . All of them, 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.

Mystery was the 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 alternating as tribe and kingdom as a 'voe', which is to say a man, is born of them once every one hundred years. And this voe would be by right of birth to 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. A sect of Gerudo witches to whom the people respected for guidance and wisdom, and the chieftains valued their counsel as their seat was regarded high with great honor. And under the sect with influence of the wasteland's plight, the Gerudo did not look to the goddesses as did the Hylians as 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 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. With dark robes they wore with runes of old and forgotten meanings. 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 some vai 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!!"