Love It When Half Awake Thoughts Are Actually Pretty Cool Ideas

love it when half awake thoughts are actually pretty cool ideas

so in a lot of legend of zelda fanworks and aus i've found, the creator has link speaking in sign language which is pretty cool in my opinion

But that's got me thinking; what about the other denizens of Hyrule? Not all languages on earth use a universal sign language, so i imagine with such exaggerated diversity (completely different species) in Hyrule, they wouldn't either. Therefore I have come up with some vague-ish ideas of what the other peoples of Hyrule might use as a method of nonverbal communication. I'm using Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom as the base for this.

also note I'm not versed in sign language at all, so there will be mistakes.

I'll start simple, Gerudo.

The Gerudo people are most similar to Hylians in appearance, both are basically humans though they are treated as a different 'species' as far as I can tell. But it still makes sense to me that their sign would be most similar to Hylian sign, just some words might get a bit lost in translation.

Next up, Gorons.

Due to their bulkier appearance and larger hands, their sign might include their arms more prominently. Certain motions and swings might be dangerous for the other species, but other Gorons would be able to take an accidental hit. They do still use their hands and fingers, but less so than the more human-like species, and the motions would be more like a game of charades.

My favorite, Rito.

Due to their fingers also being feathers, Rito use their feet by tapping their claws, clenching toes, or stomping. For more complicated words they lower their wings so their feather-fingers are in view of the person already looking down and combine motions alongside their feet. Rito sign isn't very common however due to the difficulty of standing, signing, and focusing on what they're even trying to say without stumbling. It's even more difficult to understand while in the air. Only those with impeccable balance even bother unless necessary.

And finally, Zora.

If you look at the Zora's design, their gills are along/near the latissimus dorsi, an easy place to see both on land and in water. Due to this and how water can get extremely dark the further you dive, I imagine it would be pretty cool if the Zora could activate some sort of bioluminescence in their gills to flash in sequences similar to morse code. This would make it easy to see even underwater, and the ability to essentially shut the light off would keep them safe from underwater threats. This idea also comes from how I think it would be difficult to verbally communicate underwater and while swimming at fast speeds.

Like I said, I've limited this to botw/totk for simplicity's sake, but I know there's all sorts of different species in the other games, so it might be cool to explore their nonverbality one day.