What if there was no Link?

King Harkinian stood looking at the memorial statue, the realization of the depths of the betrayal was finally bearing down on him after… Thirty, forty years in the making? The Witches from Gurudo had come as ambassadors from the that land of women, and when the head ambassador’s son was ten years old, she call the rest of her coven to come, pretending to be visiting healers…

“I am so sorry,” Harkinian addressed the statue of the Hylean woman crying over her dead son, “I should have seen it coming…”

The plague they unleashed had poisoned every man in Hyrule, it killed weak old men, the sick and infirmed men, many of the sons and all of the boys less than five years old. It had nearly sparked a war… Only the Queen of the Gurudo ordering her own army to gather all the witches to be turn them over to Harkinian’s royal guard had kept the boarders from erupting into bloodshed. What trust had been built in the previous generations was dead, and would stay dead and buried for a time to come, no matter what the women of Gurudo did. That was seventeen years ago, and the effects of the plague were felt for three more long years and many graves filled since.

“Father?” Zelda spoke up, putting her hand gently on her father’s shoulder, “Impa has news from the scouts…”

“More Stapho risen at that monster’s command?” Harkinian asked.

“No, Octorocks from the ocean have begun assaulting our fishing villages,” Zelda muttered sheepishly.

“Why would Impa’s scouts…” Harkinian started to ask.

“There were no survivors father,” Zelda looked down.

“Damn that bastard Gurudo Son!” Harkinian snapped storming off.

“Goddess, please send a hero to us…” Zelda said.

It was said that each generation a hero would emerge from the sons of Hyrule to save them in their time of need, but all of the sons for this generation were buried…