Hylia Nohansen (Total War)

"I too have seen the future, a future so terrible that I blinded myself to it. I have spent centuries in silence hoping to find a way to prevent it. I thought it was hopeless with my bloodline ended. Yet here you are, my blood in flesh. Don't you see, you are my descendant. With you I have a claim to the throne, something your people would not allow. (...) Accept me and I will destroy the Gohma here and now! Cede Hyrule and bow to me, Hylia, as your Goddess and you will all be saved this night! Abandon the Old Gods and herald my advent!"

- Hylia speaking to the armies at the Sky City ruins. Hylia Nohansen is an Akkalan empowered with the power of the Triforce against Demise's Moblin hordes.

Etymology
Hylia is the modern version of the Akkalan name Hylya. The word hy generally signifies something good, while lya translates to mother. Therefore the direct translation of Hylia is "Good Mother".

Physical Characteristics
Hylia is a female Akkalan with pale skin and long golden hair. Her bloodline is unique in that, unlike the usually crimson eyes of other Akkalans, they glow a piercing blue. Those of Hylia's descent who possess this trait also inherit her prophetic powers. Due to a combination of her immense power and constantly seeing visions of the past and future, Hylia almost always wears a blindfold over her eyes.

While on her throne, Hylia wears a plain white dress as well as a white scarf as a blindfold. She wears golden crown with the sigil of the Triforce, and is always seen with an ornate golden harp. She usually sits atop a golden throne with a relief of the three Golden Goddesses, which she levitates via magic.

When on foot and in public to her followers, she usually wears a pink skirt with a short white cape and a decorative belt with a Lanayru seashell. She retains her blindfold in this attire.

History


Ancient Age
Hylia was born as the only child of Aodin Nohansen and Media Harkinian. At some point during her early years, her father supposedly perished by the hands of Blins while out on a hunt. The death of her father affected her deeply and was the source of her growing malice towards all of Blinkin. Her uncle Baolin, now the new patriarch of House Nohansen, married his late brother's widow and formally adopted Hylia, raising her as his own daughter.

In the midst of the great civil war, the Druthulidi Demise, having become the God of the Blins, launched an invasion on the fledgling Kingdom of Akkala. Growing increasingly desperate in the face of this new threat, Baolin and his supporters chose to empower Hylia by directly linking her to the Triforce through magical means. With her new powers, Hylia easily held the Moblins at bay as the civil war raged on in the north. As the war dragged on, Baolin eventually deployed his niece to the northern front to deal with the remaining Gustaf Loyalists. Through unknown circumstances, Hylia became the ancestor of the Nohansen dynasty.

Hylia's miraculous abilities and accomplishments in the name of her family earned her the love of many. Eventually the Akkalans would revere Hylia as a deity, renaming themselves Hylians in her honor. It was not uncommon to hear the name Hylia praised above even the Golden Goddesses, the deities that created Hyrule and the Hylians. Such notions went to her head however and she started to truly believe she was a Goddess.Hylia believed that the best way to stop Demise was to cut him off from his followers in a remorseless extermination. It was thus that Hylia emptied all Hylian cities of soldiers in order to lure the Moblins from their lands which Hylia would strike at. When her armies reached the Old Moblin Kingdom, Hylia ordered them to seek out and kill every single Moblin they can find: man, woman, and child. Demise attempted to repel the Hylians and engaged in battle with Hylia, but eventually she overpowered him and incinerated the Moblin city with holy fire, killing countless Moblin citizens, and forever scarring the Moblin homeland as the Crucible of Hylia. At this point, Demise emerged from the smoldering ruins of the city, claiming that she had done far more damage against the Goddesses then he ever did by warping the Hylians into her own personal cadre of worshipers. Ashamed of her horrible actions and the pride that went to her head, Hylia withdrew from her followers into hiding. She was succeeded by her uncle and later his grandson.

While her loyal followers romanticized and glorified her disappearance as a self sacrifice needed to destroy Demise, she asked for asylum amongst the Wizzrobes who willingly granted it. In return Hylia provided the Wizzrobe with much of their modern abilities and they worked to slowly erase all trace of her from history. However, the damage has already been done: Hylian and Moblin would become bitter enemies for millennia. It has been countless centuries since Hylia was worshiped, and to this day she remains alone and in misery over her past. The Wizzrobe's magic work was thorough: there is no evidence of her existence left in any text, not even the Sheikah or the Royal Family of Hyrule have any recollection of her important involvement in Hyrule's history or her true identity.

Hylia would continue to manipulate the history of the Kingdom of Hyrule over and over again, allowing it to be nearly destroyed before saving it at the last moment.

Gerudo Wars
After Hyrule Castle falls to the Gerudo in the Gerudo Wars, Nostrum, the head of the Order of the Wizzrobe, brings a Hylian refugee boy into the inner sanctum of the Cathedral of Vigjaro and allows him to see Hylia. Nostrum explains to her he has passed his first test: he refused Nostrum's bribe of a Gold Rupee when he offered it on the condition he mustn't continue to do charity. Suspecting the boy to be a descendant of King Gustaf, Hylia interviews him and offers him to be her first knight, to which he readily agrees.

After the Kingdom of Hyrule take back Hyrule Castle from the occupying Darknut Legion and strike back at the invaders, Hylia sends Link and a partner - the Hylian girl Lana, currently training to be an acolyte - on their first mission: follow the Hylian army west, sneak into Ashinon, find the Gerudo Nabooru, and help her and Senturon free the imprisoned Sage Yaraxonal.

Second Golden Age
After the war, Hylia sends Link to the Kokiri Forest to be fostered by the Great Deku Tree. In the aftermath of the Gerudo Wars, she begins amassing a secret army of magically-enhanced Hylians, placing them in magical stasis until the opportunity to mobilize presents itself.

At some period during his training, Hylia directly challenges a teenage Link to a sword duel, easily defeating him over and over again, in an attempt to teach him that true courage is one's willingness to surrender their power in the face of uncertainty.

The Return of Sulkaris
In 125 AG Hylia works with the Sages of Hyrule to create the Master Sword - the ultimate weapon to be used by her champion Link, and abducts the spirit Ghirahim from the Sacred Realm to serve as a power source. However, Ghirahim doesn't stay bound to the sword, so Hylia discards him, seals him inside the Cathedral of Vigjaro and imprisons another spirit named Fi in his place.

During the Gohma invasion of the Kingdom of Hyrule, Hylia releases Link and her army of Hylian Wizards from stasis when Vigjaro falls under attack. A short time after the Gohma are repelled from Vigjaro, Link communicates with her via a mirror from Vigjaro Glade and shows her Princess Tetralyna Zelda V imprisoned inside a Malmord and asks her how to free the Princess. Hylia tells him to bring the Malmord to her, then, after cutting the communication, orders Carock, the son of Nostrum, to secure the Princess, put Link back into stasis, and get rid of King Kazakk and the rest of the Hylian army.

Carock later reports to her of his failure and attributes it to Princess Zelda V's apparent prophetic powers. Angry at Carock for having lost too many men and made an enemy of the King, Hylia summons him back to Vigjaro, then orders Lana to search for Link and Zelda in the Hylian countryside. Lana continues to pursue and fails in capturing Link and the Princess as they travel across Lanayru Province and Death Mountain. Meanwhile, Hylia remains in Vigjaro, remotely monitoring the escalating war between the Gohma, Oocca, and Hyrule's Mortals. She and Nostrum witness the fall of the Oocca Sky City into Hyrule Field, and she dispatches her armies to the ruins. As the surviving Hylian, Goron, Zora, and Oocca forces surround and plan to destroy Sulkaris and her Gohma once and for all, Hylia suddenly magically teleports before them with her entourage. She confronts Princess Tetralyna Zelda V, revealing that she is the ancient ancestor of the Nohansen Dynasty, and that Zelda, via her prophetic powers, his her true heir and link to claim the throne of Hyrule. Hylia declares that she will destroy Sulkaris and the Gohma if the Princess but surrenders her claim to the throne and declares Hylia the one true goddess, but the Princess refuses her offer of power. Nostrum quietly suggests to Hylia that the young Princess may be more than her blood heir, a potential successor, to which Hylia scoffs that all rulers inevitably are tempted by her promise of power, before she and her followers disappear, leaving the mortal armies to defeat the Gohma on their own.

Powers and Abilities
Hylia, in addition to already being a pureblooded Hylian mage, channels power absorbed from the Triforce itself, making her one of the most powerful entities on the face of Hyrule. She is capable of firing steams of holy fire at enemies- when focused, she is capable of destroying entire cities and nations in an inferno of Divine wrath. She also displays the ability to manipulate earth (Geomancy) on a grand scale, trapping Demise in a tornado of torn hills, walls, and other debris. Her control of these destructive power may not be absolute, as she wears a scarf over her eyes out of fear that simply casting her gaze upon a mortal may destroy them. Hylia also displays some degree of prescience or precognition, able to know events are occurring despite being hundreds of miles away of hidden underground. She very commonly displays her powers Aeromancy, almost always being seen hovering above the ground, often in her ornate golden throne.

Hylia is also an excellent swordsman, having millenia of experience. She can outmaneuver and outjockey any conventional opponent with techniques she passed on to Link.

Quotes

 * In guiding them I had led them astray. In ruling them I had left them without governance. In teaching them I had blinded them in ignorance. If only I had not given into my pride, into the praise and faith they put into me. I had inspired genocide and zeal in their hearts. I am no instrument of the Goddesses, I had usurped them. In the end, I had allowed the Hylians to elevate me above their true makers, just as Demise had done to the Moblins. In the end Demise and I were but the same: two individuals praised by a mass, and in return we shaped that mass not to what was right or wrong, but to our own ends. I had committed a great atrocity not even in the name of Din or Nayru or Farore, but in my own. This is why I have erased myself from their memory and their hearts. May Din Punish me. May Farore correct me. May Nayru forgive me for what I have done to their children. There is nothing left but shame in my soul.