Darunia

[Omni]

[float=right][/float]Location/Role: Darunia is the patriarch of the Goron’s who once lived at the base of Death Mountain. He is a tough ruler and came often come off as rude toward travelers or visitors. This rough exterior is a natural outgrowth of his large responsibilities with watching over the tribe. Those who earn his respect will make a powerful ally. With Death Mountain and the Goron Village destroyed in the Battle of Death Mountain, Darunia and the survivors left the smoldering remains of their former home. While Darunia was glad to have helped in the defeat of Volvagia, he still resents the outsiders.

Story: The gorons a hardy, rock-eating race of hulking humanoids who dwell in and atop mountains. Despite their size and appearance, most gorons are gentle, intelligent creatures. In their native Hyrule, they have lived in the mountains for an unknown period and are one of the oldest species.

Darunia’s youth and early reign as chief were without anything of note. One day, however, a gerudo mystic arrived and demanded that Darunia hand over the Goron Ruby, a precious and powerful artifact. When Darunia refused, seeing something malicious within the traveler’s eyes, the mystic collapsed a cavern that led to the goron’s richest food supply. Darunia sealed himself and the ruby away in the throne room.

Instead of being awoken back in his throne room, Darunia awoke in the Omniverse. Angry and confused, Darunia would travel for several weeks as he tried to adjust to the new world. Eventually, he found an area that reminded him a little of his old home—the Ashen Steppes. Traveling across the landscape to the tallest mountain chain, Darunia summoned the first goron settlement. Together the new population called the area ‘Death Mountain’ as an homage to their old home.

The situation remained idyllic, even as war consumed the rest of the Omniverse. Just as they had in Hyrule, the gorons enjoyed their lifestyle until one day they were attacked by fire drakes. Darunia and several of the elders fought back the creature and chased them up Death Mountain. The further they traveled the denser the population of fire dragons became. Despite protestations of the danger, Darunia pushed on to the top.

When the group arrived at the magma chamber near the summit of Death Mountain, they were horrified by what they found inside the enormous cavern—Volvagia. In Hyrule’s distant past, Volvagia had been a rampaging monster who had feasted upon gorons and Hyrulians alike. Realizing now that nothing had been a coincidence since his arrival in the Omniverse, Darunia returned to the Goron Village with renewed vigor and purpose. He had been brought here to defeat the dragon, much like the Hero of the Gorons, but without the Megaton Hammer, Darunia is committed to the role of bulwark, ensuring that Volvagia’s spawn do not get past Death Mountain and to the rest of the Ashen Steppes.

After years of 'peace,' Volvagia was awakened from its sleep by the Institute as part of a plan to remove the slumbering threat. Although gorons accompanied the Institute, Darunia did not approve of the scheme. Ultimately, the initial attacks fell short, and the dragon rampaged down the mountain. It laid waste to the Goron Village, until Darunia, Nealaphh, and the surviving villagers and members of the Institute put a stop to it. The dragon was banished, but the village and even the mountain itself had been catastrophically destroyed. Darunia took the remaining survivors out into the Ashen Steppes, where they now live a nomadic existence as the Goron Tribe.