And here we are with timeline split 2, affectionately known by most as the Child Timeline, but probably best called the Legacy Timeline here
The Hero of Twilight - better known as 'Beast' - finished his Quest a near full year before his untimely death. Unfortunately, Hylian Nobles don't take too kindly to magics they don't understand, and the Twilight left its mark on Beast. A gentle sort, most tend to forget him until he has something to say, and as a man of few words, it is best to listen when he does. One of the Heroes not technically belonging to Hyrule, but instead to a loosely allied province. You can imagine how Ordon - and by extent, Faron and the Southern Provinces - took his death. He... would rather not think about how he died... just don't bring dogs near him until he thinks he's ready for it.
The Hero of the Four Sword - alternatively known as the Hero of Light and Shadow - would not realise his mistake in pulling the Four Sword until he goes to put it back. Some things, left to grow stronger over time, are too much for one soul to bear. The sword didn't just split the Squire into four parts of himself. It destroyed the original near completely. A son pulled a sword, and a father has no body to bury, instead four boys who think it might just be their fault. Hylia would have liked to let him be, but... she promised to let him have a full life in the next, and what better way forward than this?
The Hero of the Sands - who doesn't mind being called Sandy, and in fact, finds that thought hilarious - spent his life working to fix the mistakes of every Prince and King before him. And for that, he was deeply respected. Alas, ambitious souls filled with a hunger for power always need a victim, and someone to blame. Who better than a Gerudo child King? Never let it be said the Gerudo took such a cheap shot lying down. The castle got rebuilt for a reason, and one thing you don't do is leave a mother alive after killing her child.
The Knight of three Creeds... once a willing, and loyal knight, and then a tortured soul, he believed in his Queen's course unquestionably. Until he didn't, and what she did to force him to obey her was... not kind. But where the mother was a monster, the daughter opened the cage door. So was he the Hero of his story, or the one that needed rescue? In the end, the dragon still dances...
Son of a Hylian Ranger and a Sheikah Swordswoman, the Hero of Shadow would build the foundations of what would become one of Hyrule's most powerful, but politically fraught Eras. The Knights redefined in the centuries before would owe their freedom to a boy they were bespelled to hunt. And those lost souls who called him brother would grieve a child beside them, for who's wrong is it, really? When all is said and done, Ranger just misses the people who'd come to be his family, and the dead of Hyrule aren't always content in staying that way.
Found on a mountainside as a babe, she grew up in the wake of a horrific coup, safe in the mountains of Hebra Province. When time came to enter the world, it turns out it wasn't her who wasn't ready, but Hyrule, who could never have been prepared for the daughter of a Knight's Lord known for Having the Audacity. Linden is forever proud of who she is - except for the fact that everyone isn't quite sure who that might be. She already told them, they're just being silly about it.
They might seem like the more tragic timeline, but best you believe me, I haven't gotten to the Downfall yet! Linden knows full well she is adopted - she just doesn't care about the question people keep asking her. Like it matters??? Ranger was half Sheikah, and as the Shadow Folk, their job was to settle the dead and the spirits, which made the cult trying to take over the kingdom a little pissy that they were being foiled by some meddling kids. Drake's mr 'Mentioned and present but people don't know that' so that'll be fun. And both Squire and Beast... just wanted nothing more than to go home.
