Yaraxonal (Total War)



Yaraxonal is the second Sage of Spirits and Winds of Hyrule, high priestess of the Darknut Legion and eventually their first Queen.

Etymology
Yaraxonal's name is Cliff Lord tongue for she who shines in the sun.

Physical Appearance
Yaraxonal is a very tall, slender, and lean female Darknut. She is characterized by dark black fur and red eyes.

Powers and Abilities
Yaraxonal was given the ability to control and manipulate the wind, as well as guide spirits of the dead. She could summon forth cyclones and other powerful natural forces with the wind. She is also very skilled with scythes and chained sickles in combat.

Personality
During ancient times Yaraxonal was described as a kind and generous individual, to the point where she was stepped on and taken advantage of by her people. After being imprisoned for several thousand years she becomes an angry and violent individual with nothing but retribution on her mind.

History


Ancient Age
Yaraxonal was made the Sage of Spirits and Winds near the foundation of the Darknut Legion and worked with Zalunbar to end the civil wars that had nearly destroyed their people. Zalunbar made Yaraxonal his chief adviser after he was crowned king of the Darknuts, but he was soon after approached by Vaati in secret. Zalunbar, Vaati, and her husband Senturon worked together to trap Yaraxonal so that they could use her powers to claim Godship over the Legion. The plan worked, and Vaati was able to assume power over the winds while Zalunbar gained her ability to cease aging. Together Zalunbar and Vaati took over the Legion for several thousand years, leaving Yaraxonal sealed deep underneath the Cathedral of Ontheon.

The Gerudo Wars
Yaraxonal uses her Sage powers to begin calling out to all corners of the Gerudo Desert, desperately trying to make someone aware of her existence. She eventually makes contact with the young Nabooru in her dreams, though Nabooru could never understand what she was trying to say for most of her life. During the Gerudo Wars Yaraxonal inspires Nabooru to rebel against Ganondorf and take command of the Gerudo armies in her dreams, convincing her of his diabolical behavior and wrongful invasion of Hyrule. When hints of her actions come to Twinrova they swiftly brainwash Nabooru and force her to fight against the Hylians. Aware of her actions but unable to control herself, Nabooru begins a long battle of wills until Yaraxonal helps her overcome Twinrova's influence. During the joint Hylian-Goron assault on Ontheon following the fall of Ashinon, Yaraxonal is freed from her prison by Nabooru, Senturon, Link and Lana.

Yaraxonal then ascends from Ontheon and confronts Vaati, nearly ripping apart his Minish host. She forms a short pact with the Hylians and aids them in assaulting Ontheon.

Yaraxonal encounters Vaati again in his chamber, now disposed of his Minish host and in his true, monstrous Druthulidi form. Vaati desperately convinces Yaraxonal that Majora is going to rise from Termina, and that only Vaati himself can know what to do against Majora, but Yaraxonal pays him no heed and kills him nonetheless.

The God King Zalunbar is then seized by Yaraxonal and put on death row. Terrified of his incoming fate, Zalunbar pleads to Yaraxonal to give her half of the Darknut Legion to her. Yaraxonal, on the other hand, ignores Zalunbar and only laughs at his offer before throwing him off the walls of Ontheon.

Yaraxonal and Senturon both take the throne of the Legion after their victory, declaring war on the Gerudo and enslaving the remainder of their people and putting their leaders on trial. Many Gerudo leaders are executed, but Ganondorf is spared and imprisoned after Nabooru pleaded for his life.

Second Golden Age
After receiving a summons from the Goddess Hylia, Yaraxonal arrives at the Sacred Realm with the rest of the Sages and aid Hylia in crafting the Master Sword. Sometime later, she gives over her title to Nabooru.

Apocrypha
While the annals of Darknut history become vague after the Gerudo Wars, it is almost certain Yaraxonal replaced Zalunbar as the Empress of the Legion, toppling down his and Vaati's cults and reinstating herself as the patron deity of her people. There are not any sources on how the downfall of Vaati and Zalunbar affected the religious situation and whether idolatry even survived. The Gerudo people were ceded to Yaraxonal, and in a cruel twist of the knife, were treated quite harshly, essentially becoming slave labor.

Documents allege to Yaraxonal and Senturon having participated in the War of the Two Swords, though these accounts are quite fragmented at best. The Gerudo people, led by a freed Ganondorf, apparently struck back against the Darknuts, though the conclusion of this conflict is uncertain. The latest chronological description of the two rulers is when they faced off against the newly awakened Ikanian horde, and they are commonly presumed by historians to have met their fate there.

Trivia

 * It is possible that Mineru's design and backstory were loosely inspired by the character of Yaraxonal from the fan Zelda games Hyrule Total War and Hyrule Conquest. Besides their very similar appearance, they are both thousands of years old Sages of Spirit who were sealed in stone (a stone golem in Mineru's case), have a familial relation to another ancient character that lives within the Temple of Time (Rauru in the case of Mineru, Senturon in the case of Yaraxonal), share a color scheme of black, orange and gold, and their height of about double that of Hylians. An Interview with Takizawa suggests that the dev team may have taken some small inspiration from fan works during the development of Tears of the Kingdom that were sent to them.
 * Yaraxonal is tied with Impa for having killed the most named antagonists: Vaati and Zalunbar.
 * Interestingly, both were killed in the same mission.