The Zora siblings gets that self sacrificing from somewhere, what can I say.
Anyways, the duo absconded with the crown prince. (Alchemist Yona, you’re going to stop them, right? RIGHT??)
This is a Totk au called Familiar Familiar, and it all started when Zelda didn’t get sent to the shadow realm (and everything fell apart from there). Here’s the masterlist!
Patreon here if you like my crimes and want to feed me a treat!
Continuing the fashion theme, let's look at the royals and the non-Hyrule native Zora! And finally have some Sidons, he's been kinda sparse in the loreposting until now.
part 1 - commoners & nobility
part 1.5 - Seggin's outfit history
Read more for fancy fish outfits~~
Let's start with the non-Hyrule Zora! Represented here by Dorephan, Muzu, Yona and Khira, who were all born a fair distance away from Hyrule mainland, in the Necluda Sea Domain.
(I will elaborate on the Sea Zora and other Domains later, let's not make this thing any longer than it absolutely needs to be).
The Necluda Domain is close enough to Hyrule that their jewelry follows more or less similar design conventions (the outfits become less and less familiar the further east you go). The main difference is the metal used (copper and bronze) and common stone colors (purples and reds are common, contrary to Hyrule's blues and greens). Their outfits tend to feature more elements (such as rings, fin tips adornments and torso pieces) and no fabrics.
Family crests exist, but their designs are not gendered, and the practice of combining them is less common. Usually the partner who's lower in status just takes their new spouse's crest as is.
Another crest-related practice is royal servants taking on the crests of the family they serve.
In general, the Necluda Sea jewelry tends to feature more elaborate, intricate designs than Hyrule's and puts more emphasis on extensive chest adornments. The dangling torso pieces are decorated with plates of solid metal to flaunt wealth (metal is much harder to come by in Sea Domains than in Hyrule).
We never see any commoner Zora from this Domain (they don't really travel outside in the first place), which is a shame because their outfits are very different from the upper class. They wear barely any solid metal (only on the neck, if at all, it is really expensive) and their adornments are made from coral, shell and wire.
A guest can go around the Domain in their own adornments (although it's advisable that they remove any royal-coded stuff, such as headwear or pauldrons). If they choose to stay however, they will be asked to dress appropriately as to not stand out. For the Necluda folk this means throwing out basically everything, since even the metal is no longer appropriate.
Dorephan (a Necluda Sea Prince) got a whole new outfit upon his marriage to the Hyrule Domain's Zora Princess. His chest piece was swapped for the decorative engagement armor and an elaborate fabric ensemble on top. He had to lose the rings and the torso plates (Elder Council deemed them "too confusing") but managed to keep the little clips on the tips of his fins and Necluda-typical footwear (though in appropriate silver of course).
He also took on the Hyrule Domain's Royal Crest in its entirety (while Hyrule Zora noble families merge their crests, for the royals it's just the one that remains unchanging).
For Muzu, the new outfit was mostly whatever he was wearing before but in silver. The tail ornament, while purely decorative in Necluda Domain, conveniently fit his new position on the Council, so he could keep it without much trouble. He was also allowed the fin clips, seeing how Dorephan kept his.
The most drastic change was the chest piece, which became just a bit of silk rope denoting his "attendant" role. He really wanted to keep Dorephan's old crest on his neck, but was forced to go back to his family one (which got modified to be more male-coded, and thus appropriate for the Hyrule Domain nobility standards).
(If he was a servant of anyone else the situation would be different, it's just that the Hyrule Zora Council didn't want to have a citizen display allegiance to a whole another foreign power).
Yona's situation is mostly the same as Dorephan's, she has to take a new crest, lose the "weird" parts, wrap herself in silks and swap bronze for silver. She uses Dorephan's precedence to keep the fin clips.
Even her engagement jewelry (the tail ornament) got plated silver to match.
For Khira the required changes were least extreme, she just had to swap her set for a silver one with some minor redesign to fit in better (the damn gendered belts). Just like in Muzu's case, her torso adornment became an "attendant" rope detail. She also returned to her old family crest.
The Mipha illustration is to showcase how big of a deal fabrics are in the Domain! They're extremely expensive (made from fleet-lotus silk which is difficult to harvest and requires ages to spin and process) and limited to royalty and some highest-rank positions in the court (such as High Priests, top military commanders, guild leaders, Elders).
Mipha was quite shocked upon receiving her Champion outfit, it was more fabric than even she (a literal princess) has ever held in her life.
Sidon has multiple jewelry sets and then often forgoes some more annoying armor bits when he feels like he can get away with it (the Council is not amused). In private he basically just wears his neck brace with the royal crest (and the whistle, always the whistle) and a simple belt + arm brace + anklets set. The little feathered aigrette is usually the first to go (the way it attaches makes his forehead itch).
He also has a bunch alternate sets that don't follow his everyday outfit design, usually meant to be worn at casual gatherings or in private.
Back when he was younger and starting to pick up some royal duties he was really self conscious about being taken seriously and one of the ways he tried to remedy this was More Jewelry. In practice it made him feel even less confident and didn't seem to have any effect on the Council's attitude (if they found it pitiful at least they had the decency to not say anything).
The last illustration is mostly to show how different royal wear is from your normal Zora outfit. Bazz is, arguably, a guy with some really expensive taste in jewelry, and even he looks underdressed next to Sidon.
One big difference is the neck brace - both common and nobility Zora both use the same simple design, while the royals wear this big, elaborate construction that lets bits of their (pure, unblemished) neck skin show through (haha).
The exclusivity of fabrics was mentioned already, but it's the same with any headwear (tiaras, headbands, fin ornaments) or armor-inspired shoulder adornments, which are strictly royalty-only in casual wear. Similarly, only royalty is permitted to carry weapons without being dressed in full armor.
Royal belts, arm- and leg braces are of course really big and intricately detailed, but in this regard some nobles aren't that far off with the fanciness of their pieces (Bazz's arm braces are very comparable to Sidon's).
The royals can also wear any number of clip on accessories without any regard for their significance.
For public appearances, it's expected that a royal will wear a full set (neck, royal crest, belt, arms, legs), a fabric ensemble on top, some kind of shoulder wear and a designated headpiece. Ideally one or two more ornaments should be added for more impressive overall effect.
