Sulkaris (Total War)

Sulkaris (pronounced Sul-care-is) is one of the first seven sages of the Goddesses, created at the dawn of Hyrule to defend the Triforce and later becomes the will of the Gohma.

Etymology
Sulkaris' name predates many Hyrulean languages. It is possible the Ancient Hylian words sulkon (seeds, life) and aris (gardener, grower, caretaker) are derived from her name.

Physical Characteristics
In the Book of Mudora, Sulkaris is described as "cloaked in the green of life, she stood tall, proud, and most beautiful in the eyes of the Goddesses. It was thus that woman was separate of man, and Sulkaris assumed such a vessel." Despite her female apearance, Sulkaris is inherently genderless like the rest of her Elemental kin. Sulkaris' appearance is that of a gargantuan Hylian woman, with dark green hair and glowing green-yellow eyes. She wore armor forged like stylized leaves, composed of a helmet, twin clawed gauntlets, and a plackart stylized to appear like angelic wings. Originally, this armor was bright green and gold, but after millennia had corroded to a dull dark green, with a ragged cloak covering it. In battle she fought with a massive two-handed blade weapon similar to a curved Machete.

Prior to her destruction, she had abandoned her original humanoid form, assuming a hideous vaguely-humanoid Gohma form with six arms and a crown of feathery feelers, vaguely mimicking her Sage appearance, with two two red humanoid eyes as well as a single Gohma one.

Powers and Abilities
Sulkaris was given the ability to control the growth and transition of life. However, like the other First Sages, she could only alter life, not create it, and requires exisiting biomatter to perform tasks such as forming a new body for herself. She also has an inherent ability to smell the Bloodline of any living thing. When killed by King Gustaf, Sulkaris was severed from the Forest Medallion, cutting off most of her powers, but also her link to the other Sages. Even in her diminished state, Sulkaris displays incredible strength and resilience, being impervious to any form of conventional weaponry and strong enough to destroy buildings simply by running into them. In combat she can project waves of force capable of sending entire enemy battalions flying. She is also capable of performing Spin Attacks with her blade.

Perhaps Sulkaris' most terrifying ability is her near-unkillable nature: Sulkaris fundamentally is the Will of the Gohma, with a backup of her mind ingrained in every single Gohma organism. So long as the species survives, she survives. This also allows her mind to operate any Gohma organism like a limb, as well as telepathically communicate with anyone under the influence of the Will of the Gohma.

After killing each of the other First Sages, Sulkaris acquires their Sage Medallions, usurping control over the powers of the corresponding First Sage and cutting off the incumbent Sages from their Sage powers.

Personality
At the dawn of time and shortly into its history, Sulkaris alone remains loyal to the Golden Goddesses and attempts to defend the Triforce from the warring First Sages. During their conflicts, her kin would enlist the Druthulidi and eventually Majora. The First Sages would eventually overthrow her, and banish her from the Sacred Realm, telling her she could not be killed. This however, as she would discover after her first death, was a lie, told to preserve the myth of Elemental immortality. The Oocca would spread the lie that Sulkaris displays a very single-minded focus and is driven largely by her ego and ambition. She considers herself greater than the task that was given to her at the dawn of time and holds little value for other individuals. Being an immortal sage since birth, it is possible she has no concept of pain and thus feels no empathy for the suffering of others, leading to her utter disregard for all life. In reality, her anger and disregard for life stems from the betrayal of her kin, who would lead the people of Hyrule in false idol worship.

History


Creation of Hyrule
Sulkaris was the third Sage to be created by the Golden Goddesses after Demoko and Solahrasin. As the Sage of Forests, her duty was to nurture and shape Hyrule's lifeforms.

Post Creation
With Hyrule in its infancy, Sulkaris returned to the Sacred Realm and watched over the Triforce, awaiting for the Trilith so that it may be passed on to mortals. However, the other six First Sages almost immediately forsook their duty and declared war against each other, covetting the Triforce. Sulkaris was the only First Sage to remain loyal to the Goddesses and her task to protect the Triforce from outside forces. After containing the Druthulidi they had released into the world, the First Sages united and defeated Sulkaris, but rather destroy her, they exiled her to Hyrule, fearing that her death would reveal their own mortality to the races of Hyrule.

Ancient Age
Sulkaris wandered the surface of Hyrule alone for an untold number of years until she stumbled upon the Gohma, still wandering aimlessly as she was after the destruction of their creator, Iemanis. Seeing potential in the collective species as the perfect, unquestioning servants, she granted them higher intelligence and physically shaped the species to suit her needs. Sometime around 3000 BG, she set the Gohma loose on a rampage and they began eating everyone in their path before being defeated by the Akkalans and the Huskus under command of King Gustaf in the region that would become Ordona Province. During this battle Sulkaris was slain by Gustaf by a light arrow. It was then that Sulkaris realized that the supposed immortality of the First Sages was a myth, and she was subsequently reborn within the Gohma Hive Mind.

Trapped in a spirit form, she swore revenge on the other First Sages, beginning a millennia-long plot to expose their crimes to the mortals of Hyrule then kill them. She planned to then seize the Triforce for herself and establish her dominion over Hyrule. When the information of the Gohma's rampage reached his ears, Demoko chose the Huskus Palagard as Sulkaris' successor as Sage of Forests and forced the other First Sages to choose their own successors as well.

Gerudo Wars
Around 99 AG, just before the Gerudo Wars, the spirit of Sulkaris, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Gerudo Wars, travels to the Kokiri Forest planning to identify and capture or kill the current Sage of Forests, when she comes upon Mido. Mido converses with Sulkaris and is entertained by the idea of ruling over the entirety of the forests. Mido works with Sulkaris to set up an invasion of the Deku Tree's Grove. It is the plan of Sulkaris to incapacitate the current Sage of Forest, the Great Deku Tree, and absorb her Sage powers from him. The attack is unsuccessful and the Kokiri manage to hold the Gohma off, though Saria is killed during the battle and made into the next Sage of Forest. For his treachery Mido is banished from the Kokiri Forest.

Sulkaris then opts to outright invade the Kokiri Forest with the entirety of her Gohma forces and absorb the new Sage's powers herself. When asked who the new Sage of Forest is, Mido lies to Sulkaris and tells her that the Great Deku Tree named Mirora and not Saria the new Sage. During her invasion Sulkaris kills and absorbs Mirora, reconstructing her body and becoming alive again. However, she quickly realizes that she has not regained her Sage powers, and is overpowered by the Great Deku Tree and imprisoned in Virid Crystal by Saria. Sulkaris is then sealed away in Palagard's Sanctuary, the city of the Huskus, where she is kept under watch by her successor, Palagard.

The Return of Sulkaris
In 126 AG, the Gohma under Mido and Agitha, with the help of Hyruleans traitors Akazoo and Azrily, launch an assault from the Misery Mire through the Kingdom of Hyrule to the Kokiri Forest. The Gohma first take over Kanokiri, a town near the western border of the forest, killing the Great Deku Tree and capturing Saria, before heading to the prison of Sulkaris at Palagard's Sanctuary. After Palagard is killed defending the city, Mido and Agitha bring Saria to the chamber where Sulkaris is held and coerce her into releasing the Fallen Sage. Immediately after being freed, Sulkaris places Saria back into the emerald crystal, who warns her that Link will stop her, to which Sulkaris scoffs, saying no Kokiri can kill her.

Agitha then kneels in front of Sulkaris and offers to vouch for Mido, though Sulkaris pays her no heed and heads straight to the throne room, where the Huskus Empress Tamako is making her last stand. Sulkaris taunts her and her dying Imperium, saying Valadeku would be disappointed, but Tamako remains defiant demanding Sulkaris remember the Huskus as a legend when she claims dominion over the world. Sulkaris responds by saying that the name Huskus will be remembered by no one in her new world, before breaking Tamako's neck.Deciding the newly-established Lanayru Province to be the biggest threat to Gohma expansion, Sulkaris leads an attack on Airu to end the only threat facing the Gohma. She manages to kill Queen Rutela, but the rest of important Lanayru personnel all manages to survive. As the Gohma take over the rest of Lanayru, Sulkaris discovers the location of the First Sage of Water Malkorbagia from local Zora cultists: under the library of Greshou. When Mido asks her to do something about Agitha, who is in the custody of the Hylians, Sulkaris ignores his request, saying Agitha has done her job.

After a clash between the Gohma, the Hylians and their unexpected allies, Sulkaris receives a warning from Liyer, the mouth of fellow First Sage Demoko, that he'll intervene to stop her. However, she correctly deduces that Liyer is only bluffing, declares to her and the Hylians that she'll force Demoko to intervene, and immediately sets out to do so by heading to Greshou Library and killing Malkorbagia by boiling her alive with Armagohma beams.

Demoko falls for her gambit and attempts to contain and destroy her in Greshou with his Aura superweapon, but Sulkaris recovers Malkorbagia's Sage Medallion from the pool of the library and uses it to survive by shielding herself with the ocean.

After Malkorbagia is killed, the rest of the First Sages are alerted to her invasion. She travels to Death Mountain and confronts Maphaeus, revealing that she discovered the Sages were never immortal by being killed by Gustaf, and comes to the realization her exile was merely to conceal their own vulnerability. Sulkaris commands her Gohma to create a fog in the magma chamber, and uses the Water Medallion to freeze the surrounding area, causing Maphaeus to cool to stone, to be shattered by Sulkaris' sword. She then retrieves the Fire Medallion from Maphaeus' corpse.

Sulkaris then waits, accurately predicting that the armies of Solahrasin, Kovaloo, and Evaleen have arrived to kill her, and revels in the vicious battle of Sages, taunting Demoko to personally come and kill her.

Demoko, gripped by fear and hatred of Sulkaris, sacrifices his remaining kin to kill her, destroying much of Death Mountain with the Aura and killing the three other First Sages. With her rivals dead, Sulkaris stands for the incoming aura and lets it destroy her body.

Sulkaris sends Mido to rescue Agitha from the dungeons under Hyrule Castle. Being disembodied for the moment, she uses Agitha as her mouth to convince the Hylians, Zora and Gorons that Demoko will destroy them all, suggesting an alliance to destroy the Oocca's presence on the ground. After securing an Oocca surface base, Sulkaris has the Gohma ascend to the City in the Sky to confront Demoko and secure the Aura, which she plans to use to scour Hyrule clean of all life aside from her Gohma servants.

On the top of the tower in the City in the Sky, Agitha activates the Forest Medallion to use her own flesh as biomass to remake Sulkaris' body, who proclaims that she is the Gohma, and she cannot be killed as long as the Gohma live. She then proceeds to start consuming the city.

Sulkaris makes her way to Demoko's throne, destroying Demoko's greatest guardian Koloktos along the way and confronting her hated brother in his room. Unexpectedly, Demoko offers to confess his crimes to the rest of the world, as long as the Oocca are allowed to live. Sulkaris accepts, and as Demoko finishes telling the story of how he and the rest of the First Sages brought the Druthulidi to the world and framed Sulkaris for taking the Triforce, his palace comes under fire from Oocca Walker Cannons. Sulkaris desperately tries to finish off Demoko with her machete but finds herself staggered and unable to strike before the palace falls down to the surface and violently explodes in a blue mushroom cloud.

Despite this, Sulkaris emerges from the rubble relatively unscathed, taunting Demoko that he sacrificed all his power simply to slow her down. She attempts to claim his Medallion of Time but realizes he has given it to Liyer, as Demoko tells Sulkaris she has lost herself to the Will of Iemanis. In her rage, fatally stabs an already-injured Demoko, leaving him to die as she and her Gohma regroup, building a hive around the ruins of the Sky City. Desperate to claim the last Sage Medallion, she is lured away from her swarms by the Successor Sages to Hyrule Prime while the surviving allied forces attack the growing Gohma nest. By daybreak she reaches the gates of Hyrule Prime, rampaging through the streets and defeating the Sages and Hylian defenders as she relentlessly pursues Liyer to the Temple of Time. She injures and corner's Liyer, but realizes she has given the Medallion to Princess Zelda V, and screams in fury. She is confronted by Link in the Temple of Time, fruitlessly attempting to breach the entrance to the chamber containing the Triforce. She briefly admits her envy for mortals and challenges Link to live up to the legacy of his ancestor, King Gustaf. The two engage in a duel, ending in Sulkaris throwing him through a wall, where he is rescued by Saria. She manages to distract Sulkaris while Link aims at her with Saria's Fairy Bow, as the other Sages arrive and continue to battle the Fallen Sage. She batters them away and manages to catch an arrow fired by Link, mocking his aim, but realizes he has tied his last bomb to it, which explodes, destroying the right half of her body, and Link summarily decapitates her, parading her shattered mask through Castle Town.

With Sulkaris' latest body destroyed and the Gohma in retreat, the Matriarch and surviving Gohma utilize the Forest Medallion to construct her a new body.

Trivia

 * Sulkaris dies a total of four times in Hyrule Historia - first, shot through the head with a Light arrow by King Gustaf; second, destroyed by Demoko's Aura on Death Mountain; third, broken down and crippled with a bomb before being decapitated by Link and the Sages (the end of her humanoid form); and finally, slayed in Misery Mire in her Gohma form.


 * Sulkaris' stained glass window is one of the two that do not feature the three halos of the Goddesses, the other being Lord Dakkon's, per the false narrative that she betrayed the goddesses.
 * Alongside Midna and Majora, Sulkaris is one of the few voiced characters in Hyrule Conquest, speaking via whispering telepathy during her dialogue.
 * Sulkaris' initial design was inspired by Warcraft III's Night Elf Warden.
 * Sulkaris' resurrection in the Sky City is a homage to the 1985 film Lifeforce.
 * Sulkaris' line to Demoko in Sulkaris Showdown is a reference to Glutko from the Zelda CDI games.

Quotes
''And soon they will no longer be able to hide. Soon their hand will be forced. Soon their lie will be exposed to all of Hyrule... and there will be a rift and a tearing of civilizations the likes of which have never been seen since the dawn of time. At long last justice thousands of years in waiting will be dealt. No more idols, the pedestals shall fall."''
 * All of us have the ability to take what we desire. There is nothing wrong with it. You just have to prove yourself better and destroy those that oppose you.
 * You cannot kill one such as I for I was crafted eternal, not in flesh as you, but in mind and spirit. I have endured the ravages of this world, I have knowledge the likes you could not hope to peer into with twice the time you shall walk on this world. I have seen the face of that which created me and witnessed the birth of this land that you so cling to. I am, I have endured, and I shall not end. You may slay my body a thousand times and accomplish naught, for the Gohma are more than mere vessels. They are a concept, an idea, something deeper than you would credit them. The Gohma are inevitable, there is no escape. I am Sulkaris, and I am the Gohma. What hope do you possibly have, knight clad in green, to stand against a force that has outlasted cosmic terrors and the very Gods you worship?
 * That the Great Deku Tree would form such an insult in my likeness more than justifies his execution by my will. Where a glorious figure of imposing might would master and shape the land, he would have a child, innocent and harmless and symbiotic of the earth! I will take back my mantle and undo the damage the Sages have wrought on this land, starting with your death, Forest Sage!
 * "They have long kept the biggest lie in all of history a secret. They are willing to enforce the word of the Goddesses, and utterly eradicate all trace of Majora to conceal the truth. They have deceived, manipulated, and directed the course of countless nations for thousands of years without their knowledge and consent. They may be a legend to many. They may be revered, idolized, and outright worshiped by many. But they are liars. They are cowards. Their deception is so great, no justice could be dealt to them but by the horrifying verdict of Majora himself.
 * Whatever I see, I shall devour!