What Happened to the Dekus and the Gerudos?

[Mikau38]

The Dekus and Gerudos were in OoT and MM (although in MM they were "female pirates" but whatever). they aren't in any other zelda game. were they just exterminated by the zoras, gorons, and humans? i liked the Dekus. they were shrubbery people. (lol MP & tHG reference) what do you think happened to them?

 

[Megamannt125]

Realistic answer: Nintendo was lazy and didn't really a see a point in adding all the uneeded races.
Theorist answer: The dekus died out over time, as for Gerudo, in TP, they could easily be in another part of the desert. As for WW, one could interpret that they became pirates who lived in the Forsaken Fortress before Ganon returned (based off of what Tetra says in the game about pirates once living there).

 

[Djinn]

We gain a little more information in FSA on just where the Deku Scrubs come from, they apparently are products of the curse of the Lost woods just as the Stalfos and Skull Kids are in OoT. This does match the Skull Kids of OoT and MM somewhat as they also appear to have bodies made of wood.

"The Lost Woods is our birthplace! If you wander lost here for too long, you too can become a Deku Scrub!" — Deku Scrub

While a Scrub encountered later in the game will tell Link that they wish for the Lost Woods to grow larger so they can roam freely. This implies that they cannot easily leave the Lost Woods similar to the Kokiri not leaving the Kokiri Forest in OoT.

"Soon, Lord Ganon's power will change all of Hyrule's forests into Lost Woods! Once that happens, we'll be able to travel freely!" — Deku Scrub

Noow Link in TP never actually enters the Lost Woods, he only reaches the Sacred Forest Meadow. It could be possible that Scrubs are present in Hyrule during the time of TP, just Link never actually encounters them. The scrubs encountered in Termina lived in the Southern Swamp which also had a similar area to the Lost Woods named Woods of Mystery. Which also had a similar enchantment on it that constantly led the player back to the entrance if they went in a wrong direction.

The Gerudo might have been either hunted down or escaped Hylian authority after the events of OoT. The story told to Link by the Sages stated he was captured and sentenced to be executed.

"His name is...Ganondorf. He was the leader of a band of thieves who invaded Hyrule in the hopes of establishing dominion over the Sacred Realm. He was known as a demon thief, an evil-magic wielder renowned for his ruthlessness...But he was blind...In all of his fury and might, he was blind to any danger, and thus was he exposed, subdued, and brought to justice." — Sages

Now we learn in OoT that the Ganondorf was the destined ruler of all the Gerudo and that they worship him like a god.

"They say that Gerudos worship Ganondorf almost like a god." — Gossip Stone

So a tribe of thieves fiercely loyal to Ganondorf would not likely go back to the desert and live their lives as normal, especially since the second in command Nabooru, who was not loyal to Ganondorf, is gone. The Hylians probably captured the rest of the Gerudo when they captured Ganondorf or they were later hunted down and chased out of the desert after Ganondorf's defeat. Either way they were broken as a tribe after Ganondorf, Nabooru, and Twinrova were all defeated and gone.

 

[navi_the_fairy]

In MM Kaepora Gaebora speaks about how the dekus won't last much longer as a race right before you go to the Woodfall Temple. I'm not entirely sure if he's not just referring to the moon being about to destroy them though. Since he doesn't do this with any other race, my guess is he knows something we don't. During his little speech, he also said the dekus lost their diety. I'm not really sure about what happened to the gerudo though.

 

[tecknokid900]

Well the Gurudo tribe could be like you said above, or the rulers of Hyrule decided to eliminate them after Gannon's fall. They probably saw that if there was to be another evil dark lord, it would come from that thieving tribe. As for the deku scrubs, they probably saw that the Hyleans would pollute their water and invade their home so they probably left for a new home.

 

[Djinn]

In MM Kaepora Gaebora speaks about how the dekus won't last much longer as a race right before you go to the Woodfall Temple. I'm not entirely sure if he's not just referring to the moon being about to destroy them though. Since he doesn't do this with any other race, my guess is he knows something we don't. During his little speech, he also said the dekus lost their diety. I'm not really sure about what happened to the gerudo though.

Kaepora Gaebora does lets some very interesting information slip on occasion. It is unknown if he meant the Giant of the south or Odolwa, maybe even someone completely different.

This swamp you are in has lost its guardian deity. But it was destined to fade anyway. Hoo-hoot...And that destiny is not solely limited to this swamp...

Whomever the guardian deity is, they might be the Terminian counterpart to the Deku Tree of Hyrule. But the loss of the guardian deity meant the loss of Woodfall, and if Woodfall fades then so would the Deku Kingdom. It could be possible that the Deku also live under the guardianship of some deity like the Rito to Valoo or Zora to Jabu Jabu. And if the Guardian has left then the Deku faded. The Deku of FSA were worshiping Ganon believing that he would help them by increasing the forest so that they could prosper. It could be possible that they were fading away at that time and were looking to anyone, even Ganon.

 

[navi_the_fairy]

I definitely think you're onto something, Djinn. I was playing through MM again and I've been wondering what he could have meant by that. I'm glad someone else noticed it too:-)

 

[TheGermanLegend]

I'm not sure but didn't one of the dekus in OoT mention that the skull mask looks exactly like their deity???

 

[DuckNoises]

I've thrown around a large number of theories about the gradual fading away of the Gerudo, and I'll bring some of them out again as they appear to be becoming a topic of interest again. Many of mine are tied in with questioning the feasibility of multiple Ganons.

Here is a little literary tangent I took (perhaps too far) a long way back, putting a different spin on Ganondorf's speech at the end of TWWL

Warning! TWW Spoilers

When the sun rose into the sky, a burning
wind punished my lands, searing the world.
And when the moon climbed into the dark
of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes.
No matter when it came, the wind carried
the same thing... Death.

Although I'm pretty sure now that he could just be referring to the suffering of the Gerudo people in general, I must have subconsciously associated the word death, in reference to his homeland, to the death of the Gerudo. I thought he was using the word "wind" in reference to fate, as in the phrase "the wind carried," which follows the wind imagery set in place by the rest of the game. I naturally assumed that, in addition to emphasizing the harsh climate, that this was a metaphor for the death of the Gerudo, or a foreshadowing of it. He doesn't outright state that the Gerudo died out, but it definitely seems implied due to the narrative that he was taking with that speech.
Not to mention that a valley is a terrible place to be when a flood hits. I think this does a nice job of contrasting how the other peoples of Hyrule fled to the mountaintops to survive the flood, where the Gerudo have no mountains to climb atop, which further fits in with Ganondorf's whole narrative of the Gerudo being impoverished and overburdened.

I may not be taking his speech as entirely literal, but I don't think that's the way it's meant to be interpreted. In my opinion, it seems too profound and eloquent to mean only what he says. I may be giving the story too much credit, and I'm perfectly vulnerable to the "it's just a video game" argument as a counter, but I think this is a rare exception.

Again, the flood isn't specifically mentioned, but it seems fitting, granted that there have been only two or three Gerudo-like characters in games confirmed to follow TWW on the time line. Again, even if it was not the flood that killed the Gerudo, they cannot reproduce within their society, because Ganondorf was the only remaining male, and he is killed or at least incapacitated at the end of TWW.

What's supplementary to this is the fact that we don't see any "confirmed" Gerudo after OoT/MM, only remnants of their civilization (with the exception of FSA).

I'm aware of that, my point is that Ganondorf has always been part of the royal line of Gerudo, and for there to be another male king of the Gerudo, he would have had to be part of that same royal line. What I'm trying to get at here is that if Ganondorf died at the end of TWW (as most people believe), how could FSA feature a new Ganondorf if there was no way that the royal line could be preserved? This is assuming that the Gerudo never changed their societal structure, of course. What's more is that if the Gerudo began to recognize an "illegitimate" royal line, they would no longer be following Gerudo culture, and then the Gerudo as a society would cease to exist. There are still those of Gerudo ancestry, but if Gerudo society has dissolved before FSA, the Gerudo could not have been Gerudo "proper" after TWW. This is to say that FSA wouldn't make much sense (in my opinion) coming on the AT.

TWW Spoilers End Here

If a male Gerudo is only born once every 100 years, and he is of the royal Gerudo line (i.e both of his parents were Gerudo), there isn't much of an opportunity for another Ganondorf to be born. Judging by the events of OoT, I'd say Ganondorf was born roughly 30 years before the events of the game, and was sealed in the Sacred Realm during the next centennial period in which the next Gerudo king was to be born. This is likely the reason why Ganondorf is the only Gerudo King ever mentioned in any of the games, because there cannot be another one if he is absent during the centennial period in which the next king is conceived. This isn't to say that there can't be anymore people of Gerudo ancestry, but there can no longer be any Gerudo of royal lineage, namely, another Ganondorf.

In regards to Gerudo society:
Ganondorf always has some sort of regal title in his name -- King of Thieves, King of the Gerudo, King of Evil or Darkness; this seems to heavily imply that he has always been of royal blood. The Gerudo government is a monarchy, like most other systems of government in Hyrule. Only those belonging to the Gerudo royal family can become heir to the throne, and in this case, only males. It's a very archaic way of thinking, in which they assume that the members of the royal family are superior to all others. It's what's known as "Divine Right;" they were chosen by God (in this case, Goddesses) to rule because they are under the belief that they are superior. It seems fitting for Ganondorf, does it not? Continuing their thought process with the monarchy, they assume that the best way to obtain a superior ruler is to ensure that they are born of "superior" and "Godly" ancestry. Monarchies are impractical for this very reason.

I figured he was fathered by a previous, (and so far) nameless Gerudo King and Koume/Kotake. I figured that's how he came about, because it doesn't mention anywhere that he is the first king of the Gerudo.
I suspect his father isn't some arbitrary person as the Gossip Stone implies, because the context seemed to imply that Gerudo going to Castle Town to look for boyfriends was frowned upon by Gerudo society because it was not in their tradition. I suspect this is the case, seeing as it isn't mentioned by any of the Gerudo directly. I'd expect that they would be more particular if they were conceiving a king, as Ganondorf would probably have to be biologically related to the former monarch, as is the norm with most monarchies.
The specifics aren't important, really. The only thing relevant I was trying to bring to the table with this argument is that in order for a second Ganondorf to exist as a second Gerudo King, then the first Ganondorf would have had to have been related to the second Ganondorf, which isn't mentioned in any of the games. I think this is why it would be different than the multiple iterations of Link. This was just an additional argument against the multiple Ganondorf theory, by suggesting it was biologically improbable.

Because of these reasons, I think that the Gerudo gradually fade away from prominence, mostly due to being deprived of Ganondorf.

 

[startimer]

I'm not sure but didn't one of the dekus in OoT mention that the skull mask looks exactly like their deity???

Hm... I believe you are refering to this quote:

All of the young Deku Scrub brothers agree...you look exactly like our sacred forest totem! As an offering from us, please accept these Deku Sticks. We will also enhance your carrying skills! Abracadabra! Alakazaaaam!

 

[ZoraDeadpool]

Realistic answer: Nintendo was lazy and didn't really a see a point in adding all the uneeded races.
Theorist answer: The dekus died out over time, as for Gerudo, in TP, they could easily be in another part of the desert. As for WW, one could interpret that they became pirates who lived in the Forsaken Fortress before Ganon returned (based off of what Tetra says in the game about pirates once living there).

Telma was a Gerudo, look at her she has all the same features a Gerudo would have, Ganondorf has a Gerudo appearence onto him as well

 

[DuckNoises]

Telma was a Gerudo, look at her she has all the same features a Gerudo would have, Ganondorf has a Gerudo appearence onto him as well

Telma is not a Gerudo; there is some credibility behind her being of Sheikah ancestry, but I'm not exactly sure where I stand on that matter. I don't see much of a resemblance to a Gerudo in her; what features were you referring to?
As for Ganondorf, you are spot on; not only is Ganondorf a Gerudo, he is the King of the Gerudo. However, to the best of our knowledge, the Gerudo have disappeared or moved elsewhere, as they are nowhere to be seen in TP. It is quite possible that their society has largely disintegrated without the presence of Ganondorf due to his absence.

 

[Ronald74]

I would go as far as saying I believe Telma was a Gerudo. She looks more Gerudo than Sheikiah.

 

[ZoraDeadpool]

Telma is not a Gerudo; there is some credibility behind her being of Sheikah ancestry, but I'm not exactly sure where I stand on that matter. I don't see much of a resemblance to a Gerudo in her; what features were you referring to?
As for Ganondorf, you are spot on; not only is Ganondorf a Gerudo, he is the King of the Gerudo. However, to the best of our knowledge, the Gerudo have disappeared or moved elsewhere, as they are nowhere to be seen in TP. It is quite possible that their society has largely disintegrated without the presence of Ganondorf due to his absence.

Telma has fairly dark skin like a Gerudo and the red hair that al Gerudos seem to have

 

[WW IsDa Bombchu]

Dekus were probably killed in the flood in WW, while gerudos did the same thing Ganon did. Who knows what that is.