Here's Fay! He's a little anxious to interact with so many other heroes but will join the first Chain with the definite Legend and Neptune
Profile under cut
Age: 17
transmasc (he/him), heteroromantic, ace
latest adventure: Zelda II: Adventure of Link (1 year ago)
has severe hearing loss, can only hear pretty loud sounds, signs a little but mostly makes gestures or stays silent
his mother was the last great fairy, making him half-fairy, and the followers of Ganon are after his great fairy blood to revive Ganon
has iridescent fairy wings he is self-conscious about around hylians, hides them under a magic cape borrowed from Legend
when fairy-sized he can use healing magic and fly around, he can fly for only a few seconds when hylian-sized because he isn't good at regulating his magic
his laugh sounds like jingling bell chimes (like Tinker Bell)
is pretty distrusting of others, prefers to avoid towns, is constantly on the move (though the Zeldas have a room for him in the palace whenever he visits)
likes: sweets, shiny trinkets, small bodies of water
dislikes: large crowds, dishonesty, bottles
weapon(s): magical sword, magical shield, hammer
fighting style: slower but smart/deliberate with attacks, make every stab count, avoids unnecessary or overly reckless danger in fairy form (fairies can't magically heal themselves)
specializes in fairy magic and culture, detecting lies, and healing/reviving others
(a tiny bit of worldbuilding, mostly for Fay's era)
Fairies are magical creatures that can easily grant health recovery and life. It’s wise for those who go into battle or often get injured to employ the services of a fairy by bottling them up whenever they find one for emergency use. Fairies, however, detested such a crude method. Thus, hyrulean people (especially hylians) would build fountains all over Hyrule to honor the fairies and give thanks for their blessings. It would give fairies safe havens to fly around freely while giving soldiers reliable places to heal serious wounds without bottles. Fairies that grow in strength and magic take on larger forms and can become great fairies, gaining domain over their own fountains and can grant magical blessings or items to those they deem worthy.
OOT: It became something of a tradition for small children to leave small gifts or trinkets in the fountains or leave bowls of sugar water by gardens or flowerbeds. Fairies became especially fond of Kokiri children and many would bond together with them.
LOZ1: In Fay’s time, Hyrule experienced a downfall since the Era of Decline: monsters roam freely, population has dwindled, and most of the fairy fountains dried up. There’s a bit of an ‘every man for himself’ mentality, many people learn to defend themselves and can make tentative alliances or even friendships in towns. However, ‘weaker’ creatures like fairies were sought after by hylians and monsters alike, threatening and taking advantage of their healing services without anything in return.
Thus, fairies of Fay's time have developed a crafty, distrusting lifestyle with special rules and defense mechanisms in place to protect themselves from those who may take advantage of them. Think fairytale fae rules like “never make a deal with the fae” but it’s not quite the same rules:
Fay's Fairy Culture
Water: Without fairy fountains, fairies usually take residence in small ponds or other protected bodies of water. It can refresh the fairies and provide a place to rest or relax. These bodies of water act as very small pockets of reality that fairies can enter (not a full parallel realm but only fragments of one). People can only enter if fairies grant them access and can be trapped there if a fairy doesn’t grant them leave. Great fairies can have dominion over a fairy pond but get too cramped in tiny bodies of water, either revoking their “great” status to return to their original size or taking on a human form to hopelessly find a large enough body of water. Fairies can grow weak when they cannot find a fairy pond to rest and even settle for really damp caves.
Deals: Fairies used to give their healing freely but have since become more protective of their magic. Fairies thus began binding people to magic contracts or deals. The fairies could heal someone and leave the person in debt to the fairy and this debt can be alleviated by compensating or rewarding the fairy. This compensation can come in the form of rupees, sugar water, small trinkets, protection from enemies, not being trapped in bottles, or whatever the fairy chooses. The compensation has to fit the healing, larger injuries require larger rewards in exchange. Fairies learned to infuse magic into their words to make these special deals; one cannot break a fairy deal without receiving double their injury back or in some cases death. This is especially helpful when monsters try to grab fairies and threaten them to heal their injuries. Some especially keen fairies go out of their way to find random injured people and heal them unprompted before manipulating their words of gratitude into an implied debt to receive supplies or simply to play tricks. Most fairies participate in this practice to protect themselves, treating healing as a forced business transaction, but few like Fay choose not to make deals (though Fay has gotten himself out of a nasty situation or two by forcing an injured monster or follower of Ganon into a fairy deal)
Conversation: Never speak disrespectfully to a fairy. As previously mentioned, fairies learned to infuse magic into their words to elicit debt from others. To trick uncooperative people into agreeing to these deals, they’d hide the terms of the agreement behind fancy, overly-polite words. This type of fanciful conversation became the norm between fairies. Fairies hide behind their words and wield them like a weapon, even demanding people to speak fancifully to them back when making these deals and asking for healing. Most fairies refuse to heal others or make deals if they feel the asker spoke disrespectfully or insulted the fairy. Fairies became very perceptive to how words are specifically spoken and developed an ability to discern whether or not someone is dishonest with them. (Fay’s sign language abides by fairy rules of conversation)
Names: Never give your true name to a fairy. Fairies became distrustful and tricky, and because of this they don’t normally give out their true names to strangers. Names are seen as too personal or revealing of one’s identity and implies a bond between both parties: only close friends use each others’ real names and only in closed quarters. Those that give out their true names to fairies are viewed as gullible or overly friendly (possibly hoping to lure the fairy into false security and offer their real name to pretend to be friends). Fairies don’t make friends often and healing is more of a business transaction to them, using random fake names when dealing with people.
Tricks: Fairies cannot directly kill hylians (excluding broken deals) but they can play tricks on them. Using their magic, fairies can make the terms of their deals anything so long as it fits the size of the injury at least. Sometimes if a fairy wishes, they can play tricks on people and make the reward something silly like making the recipient play a game or speak in tongues. Some especially strong and spiteful fairies will trick people into giving them larger rewards if the person agrees to it, even stealing things like the person’s name (if 'given' freely) or a small memory.
Firstborn: Fairies don’t steal or eat people’s firstborn children or anything crazy but they can passively sense if someone is a firstborn child and if someone has siblings. It’s not quite magical, there’s just something very subtle about the way they speak or carry themselves that clues fairies in about their firstborn status. For instance, Fay can sense Legend has an older half-sister or Neptune is the firstborn and has a younger sister.
Food: Don’t accept food from a fairy. This isn’t a dangerous thing, they just make their food wayyyyy too tooth-rottingly sweet (Fay included!)
