-Matter of Gorons-

Gorons. Secondborn. Children of Din.

Gorons are a race of earthen people hailing from the mountain city of Gorondis. While the Fae are considered at once holy and ethereal due to their unnatural nature, the Gorons are ignorantly considered monsterous for theirs. More might even consider the two the same at first glance. This is due to the fact their bodies are either as hard, or literally, solid stone, metal, or bone in place of "flesh".

The easiest, and most direct way, to understand a Goron is to understand their birth. A Goron starts as a seed. The seed is planted into the ground of a selected location called a "Goron Garden". Over time, the Goron grows under the ground. During this birthing process the Goron absorbs the minerals, literally, of the earth around it. The stronger the minerals and nourishment absorbed and the longer this process is allowed, the stronger the Goron is. This moment defines their birth and the kind of Goron they are, as there are many kinds. After a time, which may be shorter or longer as the Goron choose, the Goron is dug up and released into the world immediately fully grown. Their period between birth and adulthood is defined by experiences and maturity and knowledge and community integration, rather than by any physical markers as other races.

From this already there can be recognized many differences between a Goron and 'Huma' as the Goron call Humans.

Firstly, there are no females. The Goron is an entirely male race. When any discussion is made where the word 'female' is termed, their closest relation in terminology and understanding is the earth and Din. Their sexual organs are also internal and fulfill the process up until the planting of the seed into the ground, so there is much debate and discussion on whether these creatures are 'male' or 'hermaphrodite' with an extra step. Their deep voices and masculine appearance and references to their kin as 'brother' make the general impression of them male.

Secondly, their social structure is completely different. There is no family or marriage structure as the foundation of society. A single Goron needs no other to intitiate and finish the birthing process, and once born the Goron is raised by the collective. All Goron see one another as brothers. The concept of 'parent' or 'child' is entirely alien and confusing to them. They are a society of the collective, rather than the individual, and have lead to a socialistic governmental structure.

Thirdly, this leads into a loose caste system. As stated, a Goron is defined by the minerals they absorb. This is in the most literal sense as a Goron birthed in different locations will be born as solid earth, loose earth, strong metals, weak metals, or even the legendary Dragonbone. There is even rumor there is the rarest molten Goron, birthed in the heart of volcanos. (Once there was an attempted experiment by Fae, Goron, and Zora, during a temprary peace, to form a new kind of Goron at the bottom of the ocean, but they died shortly after.) As such a Goron's strength and ability is defined by the kind of body they have. The stronger the body, the higher they are in the caste, with the exception of Dragonbone. Dragonbone is amongst the weakest, physically, but are considered sacred. Dragonbone Gorons act as the leaders and priests of the race. Dragonbone Goron are the top caste. The second, and lowest caste, is everyone else. Whether or not one joins the military is not defined by caste, but by physical prowess and ability.

Being creatures entirely earthen or metal in appearance, they have been confused as Fae shells. Do not assume. This is a long-time annoyance to them and a curse-question.

Being creatures entirely of earth and metal, it might be thought, at first glance, they lack any form of mortality. This is true, but only to a very small degree. Goron do not succumb to disease, but earthen Goron can be infested by plants or hurt by water and metal Goron can rust. Otherwise they do not truly age. Dragonbone Goron also can be considered the only ones to age as mortals do, as their ability to 'heal' is different from their kin. To compensate for most mortal issues they might be affected by, such as weather conditions, wounds, or such, a Goron will heal by eating fine metals. Just as birth strengthens them by absorbing nourshment of the earth, so does the same happen from eating metals and earth. The consumption process is amazingly human in comparison as they enjoy the taste of fine metals and absorb a food of sorts. The process takes an extended period of time. Goron have been known to digest a single bite over years if they are lazy and undamaged and the same can be said in minutes to heal from extensive wounds. Unlike earthen Goron who can eat, and enjoy, earth, and unlike metal goron who do the same with metals, a Dragonbone Goron never eats.

The sacredness of a Dragonbone Goron is defined by the close relationship Goron have with Din and dragons. They consider dragons to be brothers and kin, just as much as any Goron, and they would never eat another living Goron. (Unknown if they would eat a dead one, though a glance towards the unique process of Dragonbone Goron birth might give a hint to the mystery.) In the 'temple-city' of Ire, deep in Gorondis, lies a Goron Garden made entirely of dragonbone from the greatest of all dragons, Ire. Any Goron born from its bones are called Dragonbone Goron and have a comparible appearance complete with being a skeleton, having skeletal wings, glowing eyes, extended claws, and the ability to breath fire. Healthier Dragonbone Gorons will have the skeleton filled with other material, while keeping dragonbone as an exoskeleton, but it is not uncommon to see bipedal winged miniature dragons of pure skeleton walking about.

The combination of a Goron's ability to produce entire villages from a single Goron, and the ability to birth them as early or late as one might wish, has made the Goron's as a race particurally resilient. Perhaps the only saving grace and reason they have not outpopulated all other races is that birth is not seen as a pleasurable experience, nor do they lust, nor do they have any divine orders to populate as a goal or incentive of its own. It is seen as pure practicality. Only as many Gorons are birthed as are deemed necessary for whatever obstacles they face in one generation to the next. This is not many as Gorons have an extremely low mortality rate.

They make their homes in the mountains just above Zora and east of Zhao, as it is the deathbed of Ire, and they are at home in the mountains and deep earth. It is rumored their cities are deep and vast, but as few, if any, humans are allowed in their countries since the fall of Hyrule then it is only rumor.

Gorons are a simplistic people, at best. While a Zora will be prone to overthinking, word-play, compromise, and high peaks of emotion, a Goron is simple, direct, stubborn, and rarely emotional. They have long memories and it will take great effort to have any change in relationship with them, for good or bad. They are quick to forgive, almost unnaturally so, but when a line is crossed they cannot forgive, then there is no forgiveness, ever. They also have a black-and-white morality as they rigidly see things as right or wrong with details seen as just an effort to complicate matters unnecessarily. For example: Even after all races had forgiven the Fae for laughing at Gorons, it took the direct order from all three Goddesses, and a lot of yelling from Din, for Gorons to do the same.

Goron are also not considered the most intelligent. Being a race largely unaffected by mortal conditions, that can face any obstacle with brute strength, they have had little need to invent any form of technology. Their hands and fingers are too bulging for fine art and delicate sciences. They have never needed to make tools when their fists could do the work. They have never needed hammers or swords when a good skull-bashing would do the job. However, faced with the progress of other races, Goron have slowly learned of the necessity of technology, even if just in small measures. They will happily trade earthen-found jewels for artwork to decorate their halls and holes, and they have come to build armor to cover their bodies and shields to augment their strength. There is even rumor, as rumor is really all one can find these days beyond what the Goron are willing to provide, that there are machines of war.

-history-

Din was never known for her imagination and ability to compromise or adapt. This same mentality was what went into the creation of the Gorons. Farore had made Fae, the Firstborn, and Din, wishing to test herself, made the Goron. Goron were meant to have the same purpose as Fae, with a more intimate relationship with the earth due to it being involved in their birth, but their methods were as blunt as beating their faces on rocks, literally. With their ugly, gorilla-like form and their general lack of intelligence and their method of earth-shaping, they were seen as comical and mocked by Farore and her Fae. The Goron were saddened and fell into depression. Angered, Din made the dragons. The dragons were as older-brothers to the Goron and together were told to smite the Fae. This sparked an extended war until Naryu sat her sisters down and made them cease arguing. Naryu then formed huma.

Goron got along well with huma, loved the dragons as brothers, were constantly suspisious of Zora, but were stubborn with Fae. The Fae begged for forgiveness, the Zora saught compromise, the dragons and huma saught reason, Farore offered gifts, and Naryu also tried reason, but the Goron were stubborn. It wasn't until Din stepped in and (literally) smacked every single last one of them upside the head before they forgave the Fae.

The Goron returned to their general purpose of shaping the earth below and left the other races to their own doings. Trade flourished, but, outside trade and the occassional skirmish by some testy generation, there is little note. At one point there was a great war between dragons and huma that resulted in the death of the great dragon, Ire, which fell in the north of Hyrule. Seeking to honor the great dragon the best way they know, the Goron formed their capital in its corpse and used its bones as birthing gardens.

Goron got along fine with humans, despite the shifting of generations. They saw the humans as smart and shifty as the Zora, but not near to the same extreme degree, and just stubborn and unchanging enough to be understandable. Goron stayed outside of internal human conflicts, but watched them play out, and only offering aid on rare occassion when it was clear their Hyrulian allies were in danger from outside forces.

This changed with the fall of Hyrule. The Goron found themselves dealing with not one human kingdom, but hundreds and hundreds, and they found the whole affair too messy and stayed out of it, seeing them all suspiciously as having lost their sanity. So too did the Fae splinter, and the Zora go to war, and in all of this the Goron could only shake their heads and try to stay out of the whole thing. This non-participation too changed, as one day early in the war the Zora unleashed the tides and drowned half of Gorondis and their respective birthing gardens. For this war-crime, the Goron may never forgive, and this has brought them into the war as they bash the skulls of anything to come close. Esspecially Zora.

In the most recent generations, with the generation of King Shorlin, Goron have come to see the Hyrule of old slowly come back as larger fragments of itself as opposed to complete anarchy and insanity, and have slowly allowed relations to form again with some huma kingdoms, though cautiously.