a few years ago when I was really REALLY in to Twilight Princess and none of the newer ones had come out yet, and I had planned to write some Very Intense Fanfiction, I decided that I would make it a worldbuilding thing. Like, a cultural phenomenon in Hyrule where people go out of their way to hide rupees all over the place– along roadways and streams, in grass, under rocks, in old pots no one has used in years, or in old shoes, under fallen logs, under big honking rocks that no one has any reason to move. Originally, it was meant to be a sign of goodwill to travelers and those down on their luck, of community generosity and goodwill. Anyone can go out, comb a bit, and scrounge up enough for a meal. Or kids can run around having fun playing their seeking games and find enough for a sling shot, or a sweet. Parents teach their kids not to take more than they really need, to put some back, to keep the chain going. They make a game of it. Who can find the best hiding place? Who can climb to the highest branch, or swim to the bottom of the pond.
They tend to end up heavily clustered in the grass and under rocks along the main roads and paths. People leave out their old, well loved pots and butter churns and tipped over tubs, collect pretty rocks and bits of crystal, grow their herbs and bushes just a bit that wild out front– all to make an attractive place to maybe tuck a green or a red under. For some it’s a point of pride; for all, it tells you a bit about the person who lives there. It’s even practical, when you think of it! We all sometimes end up a little short, but there’s always some from the community to find, or something to tuck for yourself int he future when you realize you’re a bit skint. And when you’ve got a bit extra, well, it’s just NORMAL to go and find a little place to tuck it away and imagine who might find it. Maybe soon. Maybe in a few weeks or months. Maybe years, or decades. Don’t we all get a little big of excitement from the thought?
Communities don’t have really deep poverty that you can’t climb out of, not in Hyrule. There’s no embarrassment to have to pop out and look around a bit to afford a bit of milk or if you’ve forgot your wallet. If someone’s a bit too old or can’t see too well, there’s no shame in hinting, “Under the flower pot, grandma,” or, “Tomla, run out and fetch Mr. Tinkins a few rupees, there’s a love, always good at finding the odd ones out, that girl.”
Sometimes you find shiny rupees that weren’t hidden too well (maybe by that ferociously sweet village kid who keeps hiding them as quick as he’s finding them, bless him, just not very well). Maybe they hadn’t been there long. The contrast is huge when you find dusty, dirt-encrusted things that you think must be at least a few decades old. And then, sometimes you go digging back, adventuring down into the deep places and the old places where no one has traveled in centuries and you turn over a pot or open a little chest no bigger than a bottle and feel a little shiver to think of how long ago someone put this here. A little thankfulness to an ancestor, a little appreciation, a little shock because a silver rupee? Really??! How rich had they been, how powerful the empire, now all in ruins…
Sometimes in his travels, Link comes upon an old, dusty rupee tucked under an ancient discarded shield or a particularly handsome but impossible to move boulder that only a little magic or magical strength can budge. He grabs up the rupee under and feels a little shiver of familiarity… :)
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