if i die tomorrow - permanent hiatus

information

     Sadie and I visited town after town around Hyrule Field. In every single one there its was again, that whisper of tension. People constantly looked over their shoulders, insecurity hanging over the villages like mist. 

     Every time I stepped through a village's gates, I got the same feeling. The presence. Like I was being tracked. It made my skin crawl. If this was what the people had to put up with 24/7, I didn't know how they could stay sane and go about business as usual like they were. 

     I always left as quickly as possible and hid my face and Sadie's. Even so, I was sure they have already noticed Sadie and I and were watching us with interest.

     However, these trips were worth it because through it all, we gained, bit by bit, a clearer and clearer picture. Some information came directly from the townspeople, some by my own deduction from what I knew. Things were either -- one of the two -- starting to make more sense or becoming more confusing. 

     The Tera Government was made up of layers of executives. Each tier was named something related to numbers. I never got the full list of labels in fear of looking suspicious, but I knew it was something math. There was one person at the very top much like the monarchy of Hyrule, and nobody knew who that was and it wasn't my place to assume. They came into power about half a year ago and have already taken the majority of Hyrule under its grasp.

     But how? Hyrule was ancient. It had roots reaching down to time immemorial. How could it be overthrown so quickly?

     I was beginning to get a grasp of just how powerful the enemy was, like a sudden, violent tsunami that had suddenly crashed into my kingdom and threw everything to chaos. If I were to fight against the Tera -- and damn right I was -- I had to know I was fighting against a system that had ripped the reins right out of the Hyrulean Royalty's mighty hands and subjected an entire kingdom in less than six months. 

     Well, almost an entire kingdom.

     They have clashed with each and every race of Hyrule in long, bloody battles. The Zora. The Rito. The Gerudo. The Gorons. The Sheikah. And of course, the Hylians. They have quickly subjugated the Hylians due to their vulnerability with the downfall of the Hyrulean Army after the "death" of the Royal Family, but it wasn't so simple for the other races. 

     Somehow, somehow, the Rito were entirely free from the control of the Tera. Completely. The Rito were the Tera's blind spots, and apparently, according to several townsmen from different villages, they had absolutely no control over them. They were a dominant force in the fight against the Tera because they couldn't watch them, couldn't keep tabs on them at all. I noted that fact and planned to go pay them a visit first.

     How was that possible? Why were the Rito the only race free from the iron grip of the Tera? 

     I'd know when I visit them, I suppose. 

(Major foreshadowing. Keep this in mind.)

     The other ones were more ambiguous. 

     The Sheikah were most definitely in hiding. Nobody had heard about them for even longer than the Tera had been in power. They were never the type to take part directly in conflict, but maybe I could involve them somehow. 

     The rest were in the process of silently fighting a cold war against the Tera in the way that there were no blood battles, but they were still locked in heated conflict. The Tera rarely made themselves available to physically fight, and the people's forces were never enough to storm the Castle, which was where the Tera HQ was ironically now situated. However, they were fighting anyway.

     I've heard something about the Champions' (although that wasn't what they were called at this point) powers, but I wasn't sure about the details. I've heard about the Tera dispatching Hylians to manipulate the other races morally. The Gerudo, Zora, and Gorons were also being watched like Hylians. 

     The races had responded by stealing weapons every turn of the week, building up their defence as a show to the enemy, bolstering themselves with supplies, positioning their soldiers so that trade routes were disrupted, attacking any officer of the Tera they could. They have also been spreading any news that have come their way via secret messengers so that Hylians could stay informed when the Tera denied honest information. 

     They were also attempting to switch around the tone of dominace that the Tera have forced upon the people by speaking their mind about the way Hyrule was run, despite punishments carried out covertly. 

     I remembered the way that man we met talked, like the Tera Government was a great savior to renew Hyrule. Evidently that wasn't true now that I knew this much about them, and the Champions' races were trying to banish the Hylian's intimidation, now that their leader had fallen and they were suddenly whirled into the iron fist of the Tera. 

     They were always the more independent, never so reliant on the Hyrulean Royal Family beyond trade and alliances they never needed. I had always admired them for that, but now, they remain the only ones left fighting, left standing. They were now was the last hope of Hyrule.

     I knew exactly what I needed now that it had come to this point. I had not the foggiest clue how things had gotten this bad, and why this current situation deviated so much from history as I knew it, and it didn't matter. We were cornered and there was only one way out.

     "Okay." I said to Sadie. Almost a week had passed since we'd emerged into this timeframe, and I felt that we had all the information we needed to make our first move. "Here's what we're gonna do."

A/N: Lots of info dump this chap, which is why it's shorter than usual. Don't wanna overwhelm. I wanted you guys to get all the information that you need to make sense of what's to come. I repressed some things for now, like the Rito conundrum and more specific details about the Tera, because there will come a time and a place for that information in the future. 

When I update twice in a single day while making y'alls wait for 923847192834710 years for previous chaps:

The cold war that I mentioned between the Champion races and the Tera was somewhat inspired by the Amercan-Soviet cold war. I used a variation of propaganda and a couple small examples of political aggravation here, but that's about it. 

See y'alls and bye.