Demoko (Total War)

"I tired of chasing the sun around the sky. (...) Poorly? I chose not to play! (...) I couldn't accept it. Don't you see I could not accept my place in the Triforce. I had no say in my part to play, none of us did!"

- Demoko's dying words to Majora.

Demoko is the first of seven Sages of the Goddesses, created at the dawn of Hyrule to defend the Triforce.

Etymology
Demoko's real name predates most Hyrulean languages, and is lost to time.

His Akkalan name was Dimohcio, derived from Dimohci, meaning time. The modern version of this name is Demoko.

Physical Appearance
In the Book of Mudora, Demoko is described as "inanimate but alive, his form is that not of life but of material. He is cloaked in sky and the day and the night, the stars wrapped inside". Despite being associated with masculine pronouns, Demoko lacks an actual gender, like all Elementals. His true form, much like his Oocca servants, is that of an owl-like avian creature, with grey skin, white plumage, and blue eyes, with a long "beard" of feathers. His "body" is a large humanoid construct made of rusty verdigris metal (originally golden), similar to other Oocca machinery, with an androgynous, flexible form and accompanied by a constant clocklike ticking noise. Its hands are three-fingered metal claws capable of 360-degree rotation, while its feet resemble high-backed shoes, similar to those worn by Sulkaris. Demoko wears a sky blue cloak over this, and walks in a hunched position, leaning on his Dominion Rod as a walking stick, largely covering his body. Over his face he wears a blank metallic mask with two glowing blue triangular eyeslits.

Powers and Abilities
As Sage of Time, Demoko's primary ability is the gift of seeing across time, including the past and future. He later loses this ability as of The Return of Sulkaris, with his powers being transferred to Tetralyna Zelda V without his consent or knowledge by "that which created Hyrule." Unlike his kin such as Sulkaris, he is frail and entirely vulnerable to conventional harm.

Personality
Demoko displays a calculating, judgemental and paranoid personality, regarding mortals as ungrateful children who avoid responsibility for their own problems and viewing his Oocca servants as the pinnacle of life. With the power of his Aura and Oocca servants, he largely thinks of himself as invincible and omnipotent, but secretly is consumed by fear of his exiled sister Sulkaris, and more importantly, the revelation of his grand lie to the mortals of Hyrule. His most defining traits are inaction and inflexibility, unwilling to work with or even communicate with his fellow Sages, and so stagnating that his own body and servants have corroded from their original gleaming gold to a dull blue-grey. Despite his arrogance and rigidity, when presented with the notion of working with the Mortal races of Hyrule and destroying the Aura to stop Sulkaris, he agrees to the plan, and willingly sacrifices himself to stop Sulkaris from destroying his people.

History


Creation of Hyrule
Demoko was the first Sage to be created by the Golden Goddesses. He was created as a prototype and template for their future endeavors, and was ordered to operate and control their other inanimate creations.

Six of the seven First Sages, including Demoko himself, almost immediately forsook their duties and coveted the Triforce for themselves, waging war with each other as well as Sulkaris, the only First Sage who remained loyal to her duty. In order to deal with Sulkaris and each other, the traitorous First Sages summoned the Druthulidi to the world, only to find them uncontrollable as the Druthulidi betrayed them. Turning to the aid of Majora, they successfully defeated the previous Druthulidi as well as Sulkaris, who was stripped of her powers by the others and cast down to the surface of Hyrule.

Demoko and the rest then proceeded to forge a false version of the events and used his Oocca servants to perpetuate it. According to this myth, Sulkaris attempted to take the Triforce for herself and was stopped by Solahrasin. With Hyrule in its infancy Demoko returned to the Sacred Realm and watched over the Triforce, awaiting for the Trilith so that it may be passed on to mortals. When the Trilith awoke into Hyrule, Demoko, the other so-called 'loyal' First Sages, and the three Oracles passed the Triforce unto them and placed it in their care. Demoko explained the passage of time and taught them to use tools and construct cities. He gave the Dominion Rod to the Trilith should they need to call upon the Triforce.

After having defeated Sulkaris and made a tenuous truce with the rest of his siblings, Demoko ascended to the skies far above Hyrule and remained asleep for ages. In later ages Demoko is largely forgotten and worshiped by none in Hyrule, except for a stained glass depiction of him in Hyrule Castle.

Ancient Age
In 3000 BG, after Sulkaris took control of the Gohma, the children of the late Druthulidi Iemanis, and led them on a rampage before being stopped by the Akkalan chief Gustaf, Demoko chose the Huskus Palagard as her successor as Sage of Forests and forced the other First Sages to pick up successors as well.

When the Wind Tribe ascended to the heavens after their war with the Darknut Legion, Demoko then offered to help them ascend further as instructed by the Goddesses, transforming them into Oocca after several centuries. Unfortunately the Triforce that was left in their care had been passed unto the Hylians, and thus Demoko and the Oocca would work to guide them in their development so that they may ascend to the Heavens as well.

The Return of Sulkaris
In 126 AG, Demoko's mouth on the surface of Hyrule Liyer discovers and reports to him the existence of a hidden cult of Hylian Wizards that has somehow evaded his sight - at the same time the traitor Sulkaris is leading her Gohma on a rampage across Hyrule. Deeply concerned by how the Hylian mages could conceal themselves from him, Demoko summons Liyer to the City in the Sky and tasks her with uncovering the leader of the cult. Liyer suggests military intervention instead, but Demoko refuses, partly due to his fear of Sulkaris and partly due to his disregard of Hylians as no more than a group of spoiled, entitled children.

After Malkorbagia is killed by the traitor Sulkaris, Demoko orders an army of Oocca to land on Hyrule near Malkorbagia's residence at Greshou and charges up the Sky City's Aura. Hellbent to kill Sulkaris, Demoko orders the activation of the Aura without any concern for the Hylians or Zora still fighting the Gohma in the city, as he views them as no more than ants anyway. However, he only manages to kill the minor expendable Gohma, and a significant number of Hylians and Zora. Sulkaris herself invokes the power of Malkorbagia's Sage Medallion to shield herself from the Aura, then taunts Demoko about how he's earning the enmity of the people of Hyrule by massacring them in his mad quest to kill her. Desperate, Demoko has the Aura charged again and orders Mediator Ooccoo to continue the search for Sulkaris.

Ooccoo later finds Sulkaris on Death Mountain, fighting the Gorons, the incumbent Sages, as well as the First Sages Solahrasin, Evaleen, Kovaloo and their armies. Ooccoo is concerned that the Aura might kill Sages other than Sulkaris, but Demoko refuses to halt the Aura. After the Aura fires, killing the other First Sages including seemingly Sulkaris, Demoko orders a perimeter of bases to be established around the Death Mountain range until he's sure Sulkaris is dead, again disregarding Ooccoo's concerns that the people of Hyrule will not take kindly to the Oocca presence.

The threat of complete annihilation of the surface causes the Hylians, led by Link, to briefly ally with the Gohma against the Oocca and strike against the Oocca Mustering Base. From the base, the Gohma are able to secure portals leading into the City in the Sky and invade it. Demoko confronts Link and Liyer, but their conversation is cut short as Agitha as she ascends to the central tower. There, she mocks Demoko for his failures, and asks if not even Liyer and the Oocca are "aware of his monsters that predated them". With her speech done, she sacrifices herself to Sulkaris before Demoko's eyes, with him retreating from the scene.

He is confronted by Liyer, being asked why he is not calling for any attacks. He explains that if he were to defeat Sulkaris, he would have to cleanse the entire world with the Aura, and that "there is no victory there". His mind is changes as Link proposes a plan to destroy the Aura and fight a conventional war against the Gohma. Demoko is convinced, sending Walker Cannons with Link and Ooccoo to the perimeter ring and giving Liyer the dominion over his greatest guardian: Koloktos. Liyer successfully lures Sulkaris into Demoko's throne room, the two confronting for the first time in ages, with Sulkaris joking of this fact and mocking Demoko for losing count. With the Aura not being destroyed yet, Demoko enacts the ultimate plan to stalling Sulkaris: confessing his crimes to all of Hyrule, in exchange for allowing Lyer and the Oocca to leave in safety- unbeknownst to Sulkaris, he secretly slips Liyer his Medallion of Time. Using a scrying pool to appear to his Oocca servants in the Sky City, the incumbent Sages in the Oocca surface base, and King Kazakk Nohansen, Laruto and Aydia in Hyrule Prime, he confesses that it was the Fallen Sage who remained loyal to the Goddesses, while he and the other First Sages fought each other over the Triforce, summoned the Druthulidi to the world and allied with Majora. This buys enough time for Link to destroy the Aura with the Master Sword. With his first and only heroic act, Demoko uses his Dominion Rod to call for all Walker Cannons to destroy his palace, in a bid to slow down Sulkaris. Both Demoko and Sulkaris survive the fall of the Sky City relatively unscathed. Demoko reveals to Sulkaris he smuggled away the Medallion of Time, and that she will never obtain the Triforce, while telling her she is not herself and is under the control of the Will of Iemanis. Sulkaris rages that she will never stop until all of Hyrule is devoured, and fatally stabs him with her machete, leaving him to die.

Demoko survives to the dawn of the next day, after the allied forced and Gohma have left the ruins of the sky city. A group of Majora cultists emerge from a pool of water and allow Majora to speak through them, who mocks Demoko's failures. Demoko tells Majora he rejected his role in the cosmology of Hyrule, and laments that he had no choice in his role. Majora mocks him by saying he and the other First Sages only focused on "earth instead of heaven" and states that all beings "are not that under the masks they wear, but the masks." Demoko dies of his wounds as the cultists reenter the water, his corpse morphing into a strange tree.

Demoko is succeeded by Liyer, though this is not largely recorded by history.

Trivia

 * Demoko's name is likely derived from Daimon (Greek for smart god and in modern times demon) but also shares some roots with Dyēus Ph₂tḗr (Indo-European Sky Father and the prehistoric form of gods such as Jupiter) through the syllable de (di in Dimohcio), deriving from Indo-European di/dei ("to shine, be bright"). Demoko himself plays the role of the Sky Father archetype, with Sulkaris playing the Earth Mother.

Creator's Notes

 * As far as his actual design is concerned I wanted to go for a very darth-vader-esque appearance. The whole "more machine than man" concept suits Demoko very well. Literally.

Quotes

 * "Those of Hyrule demand my intervention? I decline. In their pride, they have lost their way. In their arrogance, they have forgotten the face of that which made them and brought them upright out of the dust. They are still but juvenile, bravely but foolishly thinking themselves elder. They sin and break the laws set in place only to label us evil. Us, moral monsters? Nothing more than spoiled, rotten children taking no responsibility for their sin, their evil, and their mess! Those of Hyrule believe that they are owed, nay, entitled the aid of us most high. The gifts we have given them are seen as rights, though in truth there are mere privileges! I deny my Dominion and aide to those below. They think of themselves so highly, now is their chance to prove their belief is not mere ego. Leave now, and do not speak on their behalf again, my Sage."

List of appearances

 * Agahnim's Descent (First mentioned) (Indirect mention only)
 * The Knight in Green (Indirect mention only)
 * A Vision of Ice and Fire (Indirect mention only)
 * Day of the Arachnids (First appearance) (First identified as Demoko)
 * To Kill a Sage
 * The Cleansing
 * Escape from Death Mountain
 * Unholy Alliance
 * Skyfall
 * Sulkaris Showdown