LoZ HC: GERUDO GERUDO GERUDO

 I had an influx of questions regarding my headcanon on Gerudo over on my tumblr, one of which being what a Gerudo could look like depending on their parentage. So I did this! A whole bunch of Gerudo ladies showing off the common physical traits they have based on their parentage. This makes a whole lot more sense if you know the headcanon behind it though, so I'll use this opportunity to go into depth. Here we go! (PS: take a shot for every time you see the word "gerudo". ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

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-The Gerudo are a nearly all-female race of tall, strong, almost amazonian like women. Men do occur in their race but they are so vastly outnumbered by women in ratio that they barely make up 2% of their population. That said, they are more common in my headcanon than they are in the canon games, and the whole "one male every 100 years" thing doesn't occur. The whole "king of the Gerudo" thing doesn't occur either: their culture revolves around the leadership of a chief, a rank that is earned either through birthright or defeating the current chief in a fight for the title.

-Gerudo have the ability to reproduce with any sapient race in Hyrule, however it's only the women who ever produce Gerudo children. Men, unless they have kids with a Gerudo woman, will not produce Gerudo children and the kids they father will always be the race of the mother.

-Gerudo women have developed in a way that allows them to mate and have children with any race of any gender. What allows them to do so is a unique method of parthenogenesis: It doesn’t require sex to be successful but it does require a partner. The rough translation of the event in the common tongue is “Unity”, so outside of the Gerudo language it’s often called “the union”. I’m operating under the belief that every race of Hyrule, regardless of their actual magic prowess, have magic naturally (and deeply) ingrained in their very beings, their aura if you will. When participating in The Union, the Gerudo will meld their aura with their partner’s, in which “2 become 1″ for a brief moment of time. When the process is over, the essence the union creates is what is used as a framework for the Gerudo to induce a pregnancy in themselves.

I’d imagine the process is considered highly intimate and delicate in nature, thus it is practiced with the utmost of privacy so the pair isn’t disturbed. If the Union is jarringly interrupted prematurely it could prove to be traumatic to both parties. If you know Mass Effect, you can liken them to the Asari in this aspect.

-Despite the resulting child always being a Gerudo, if that child has a non-Gerudo parent they tend to pick up traits of that race to a degree. The above chart details this.

-Rule of thumb 1: Gerudo men are almost always half-blood.

Rule of thumb 2: The chances of having a daughter among the Gerudo vastly outweighs the chances of having a son.

It’s why Gerudo men aren’t as common: a Gerudo, regardless of their gender, is more likely to have a daughter than they are a son. To break it down to more simple terms, it roughly works like this:

-Gerudo woman + Gerudo man = Gerudo daughter (like 98% of the time. it’s really rare for a Gerudo pair to have a son)

-Gerudo woman + Gerudo woman = Gerudo daughter 100%

-Gerudo woman + non-Gerudo woman = Gerudo daughter 100%

-Gerudo woman + non-Gerudo man = 65% chance at having a Gerudo daughter vs 35% chance of having a son

-Gerudo man + non-gerudo woman = 50/50 chance of having a daughter or son, but they won’t be Gerudo

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I had a whole loads of fun with this headcanon, especially getting to draw the variations; of the ones up there my favorite is probably the Zora/Gerudo one. Which is yours? O:

But anyway, I hope ya'll like the headcanon and the art! <: