So, to get started, let’s point out that the Gerudo race is entirely female except for the one male born every one hundred years.  This point I’ll discuss later on, but for now, the focus is how Gerudos reproduce when they’re all female.  Asexual reproduction can be ruled out, as they have bellybuttons, a trait of live birth, which in itself is a trait of mammals, and I’ve yet to hear of the mammal that can reproduce by asexual means.  It’s pretty safe to assume that Gerudos reproduce very much like humans; this, of course, means that they need males to impregnate them.  A Gossip Stone within Ocarina of Time (one of the four outside the Temple of Time) solves this problem nicely:  “They say that Gerudos sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends.”  However, the circumstances in which these men become the Gerudos “boyfriends” isn’t what I want to discuss, but rather the purity of their offspring.  I have not seen the Gerudo who had traces of Hylian blood flowing in her veins.  (Well, there is the Oracle Din, but I suspect her tanned skin is more from spending much of her time outside.)  How can the Gerudos remain pure Gerudos if they’re always taking on Hylian lovers?  I can only suspect that their goddess (who we’ll assume for this discussion to not be the Goddess of Power) had long ago imbued a magic in their blood to keep their lines purely Gerudo.  Suppose you wanted a half-Gerudo, though?  Well, I would think that it would be quite possible for a Gerudo to give birth to a girl with Hylian traits if the mother denounces her race, therefore breaking the ancient magic running through her blood.

Now then, to get back to the “one male every one hundred years” rule.  I hate it.  Supposing the Gerudos don’t maintain racial purity when breeding with other races, it’s counterintuitive to the survival of their race.  I like to think that it’s much more likely that one out of every four Gerudo births result in a male child.  There is still that imbalance between the sexes, but it is much more manageable and realistic than only one male being born once a century.  This three to one female to male ratio does raise the issue of if Gerudos can afford to fall in love.  I suppose it depends on if they believe in open marriages and polygamy, but I prefer to think of them as aromantic; that is, incapable of romantic feelings.  We could go further in the discussion of Gerudo reproductive habits, but that would be going into R Rated territory and I don’t feel like pushing my luck (which I already am, considering I was asked not to contradict established canon).  So let’s move on to other aspects of Gerudo culture.

From this point on, everything I discuss assumes that Gerudos do give birth to males more often than once a century and that all, or nearly all, Gerudos are aromantic, and I once again remind you that you don’t have to accept this alternative fanon.

The first thing we should probably explore is how Gerudos rule each other.  Their society is without a doubt matriarchal; after all, the women do outnumber the men.  And given that Zelda is a fantasy setting with medieval (and I suspect Celtic) influences, it seems natural that Gerudo rule would be in the form of a monarchy, especially considering that Ganondorf was their king in Ocarina of Time.  I doubt that they all live in one settlement, so the Gerudos would have to spread out into the desert, perhaps in nomadic tribes, and even into other deserts.  The Gerudo queen would rule over all of these tribes, but each tribe would have their own leader; after all, you can’t expect one queen to rule each individual tribe.  Rule would be kept within the family, with any prince merely being more of a figurehead, though I see no reason why he shouldn’t be given any royal duties.  And supposing that the queen and any princesses die, leaving only the prince, the prince would then become king; of course, with only the females raising the children, this would mean that the king would have no heir.  The best he could do would be to select potential candidates for a new queen and appoint one before he died.

Another aspect of the established Zelda canon I don’t like is that all Gerudos are thieves; it’s a tad bit unfair to label every single race of the member as such.  But if they’re all not thieves, then what do they do?  Well, obviously, some of them would have to take up a career harvesting drinkable water; they do live in the desert.  Others will, of course, have to take to guarding their borders and any criminals they capture (after all, it can’t be expected for no Gerudo to take up a life of crime).  While they might not have a school system as sophisticated as the Hylians, Gerudos would still need teachers.  Then there are food gathers and hunters, and undoubtedly a slew of other jobs necessary for desert survival.

Given the harsh environment of the desert, as well as the sneaking suspicion that the desert surely must hold dangers other than the heat, I would think that all Gerudos are required to learn at least basic fighting skills.  Their weapons of choice are obvious to those who played Ocarina of Time:  a broad-bladed spear, properly called a naginata; dual-wielded scimitars; and, judging by the fact that they have a horseback archery range, the bow.  Magic, on the other hand….I like to think of the Gerudo as a non-magical race with the odd witch being born every now and then.  However, they would be distrustful of magic, especially if it comes from one of their own; and this is quite understandable, considering that three of the worst sorcerers in Hyrule were Ganondorf, Koume, and Kotake, all three of them Gerudo.

Well, now, it’s time to end the article for this month.  For November, I will once again head back into the more mysterious parts of the Zelda-verse, tackling the Garo of Majora’s Mask.