Ocarina of Time How Are Gerudo Born if Only One Male is Born Every 100 Years?

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

You all now the story right? Every 100 years a new male is born amoung the gerudo. So how is that possible if there is no male left to get women pregnant? There is no way one male lives to be a hundred, at least not in the desert. I don't know if Hyrule Historia clears it up but is the 100 years thing true or not? I find it hard to believe that a male just gets born, but we are talking about a video game here. Still I can only think of two theories, here they are.

My first theory is a theory around the 100 years thing, as crazy as it sounds maybe its true. Maybe a male gets born, he becomes king, helps to mutiply the tribe, and dies. Then a male is just born as some sort of divine gift from their god or gods. Its crazy but the inspiration for such a thing is there, maybe from the New Testament in the Bible, the same concept is used to explain the birth of Jesus. Jesus' mom, Mary was a virgin but she just got pregnant. So such an idea has its roots - it can't be disregarded.

My second theory is a more logical look at it all. Maybe the 100 years thing is a myth. See if a king has to help to mutiply the tribe since he is the only male he is going to have alot of kids. Out of all those kids females are the only gender that live. Males probably are born but they are probably killed right when they are born, its not right but that's probably how its done. Maybe when the king gets kind of old one of those males doesn't get killed and becomes the succesor to the throne. The 100 years thing is probably something the Hylians came up with because they don't see a new king for such a long period of time it probably feels like a hundred years. That saying probably got spread around and eventually people actually started be living it.

That's the only explanations I can come up with. Like I said earlier I'm not sure if Hyrule Historia clears this all up, but the video games don't go in dept with the topic. So which one could be the answer? In truth we may never know. So I'm going to ask all you which do you think is the answer?

 

[Farore's Chosen]

One of the gossip stones said that Gerudo women sometimes come into Hyrule to look for boyfriends. Dunno if that tidbit was in the original or not. Maybe they've got some super secret magic spell/potion that controls what the gender of the child is gonna be and in the hundredth year they don't cast spell/take the potion? Or since they're totally sexist maybe they asked the Goddesses to make it so that someone would only bear a male child once every hundred years but in return the Goddesses said that the child had to be a ruler as punishment/compensation? It could be even darker then that BUT I won't bring that up here.

 

[ihateghirahim]

To survive as a race while looking the same. . . not easy to answer. Mating with Hylians would cause their appearance to change over time. Perhaps Sheikah women have eternal youth, and only the men age? It would explain how the Gerudo can maintain their appearace for ages. The men must be conceived by some curse or something, and they are not given eternal youth. The men must then die.

Or is it that Gerudo women simply live a long time, and this man born every century is responsible for allowing the gerudos to have children; a royal harem for the king, if you will. This would give this man a purpose within Gerudo society, and his important role of impregnating the women would grant him the significance required for the important status of king. The sheikah stone is likely just a rumor or example of rebellious women seeking a mate because Ganondorf was too busy plotting to rule the world to fulfill his royal duties. It's an interesting idea that seems to make sense of everything we were told.

This would make an interesting episode of Game Theory.

 

[Heroine of Time]

Like Farore's Chosen said, there's a Gossip Stone in Ocarina of Time that directly addresses this:

They say that Gerudos sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends.

There you have it. It's actually not that complicated or gross at all, haha. They just use men from other races.

ihateghirahim brings up a good point, I suppose, that their race would slowly change appearance over time, though. Maybe that's why we don't see any Gerudo in future games, hmm? Or it could just be that the same force that makes all of their children female makes all of them look like Gerudo as well.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I don't think we can solely rely on that one quote; for all we know it could be just to please their relationship desires. The quote, mentioned by the Gossip Stone, doesn't refer to any male being born, In fact--if you analyse it closely--it doesn't really fall in line with one male being born every hundred years. First off it says "sometimes", which seems kind of random to me. It doesn't seem like any special birth, but just that they occasionally find partners in Hyrule. Also notice the plural: "boyfriends". The fact that they search for multiple doesn't seem like any special one off birth to me.

Anyway here is another quite which refers to a male being born:

Nabooru: A kid like you may not know this, but the Gerudo race consists only of women. Only one man is born every hundred years... Even though our laws say that lone male Gerudo must become King of the Gerudo, I'll never bow to such an evil man!

Ok so I think it's pretty well established now that only one male can be born every century and this seems to be subject of some sort of law they have adopted.

Here's another quote and a slightly more detailed one:

Nabooru: Once every 100 years, a special child is born unto my people. That child is destined to be the mighty guardian of the Gerudo and the desert. But this child, its heart grew twisted with every passing year. The child became a man who hungered for power at any price.

Look at some of the wording used here: "special", "destiny", "guardian" - these words all seem to imply that this birth isn't exactly a natural birth by a Gerudo mating with a Hylian. Nabooru also says that this male child is "born unto my people" as if it is a gift and not just any old child being born.

Finally I guess we could also look at the one male Gerudo we actually know of, Ganondorf. Look at him, he doesn't seem to resemble the typical Gerudo and he definitely doesn't resemble a Hylian. All signs point at an extra-ordinary child which fits the description of a special, destined child being born. Also, where is Ganondorf's actual mother? Why would he need to be adopted by his surrogate mothers, Kotake and Koume? Sure I guess there could be an explanation but all this doesn't add up. I just can't imagine a special birth coming from random visit to Hyrule from the Gerudo woman, it seems too informal. A mighty guardian born into monarchy seems like a special occasion. I guess I could reference what little I know of the Bible here. Jesus was in some ways born to lead and it was completely fabricated by a greater being which isn't beyond what happens in Hyrule mythos that's for sure.

Overall we don't know for sure what exactly happens so most of my theory is speculation based on small details; however I think it's slightly more fitting for a special birth than the whole male Hylian kidnap theory.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Yeah, see I think maybe Ganondorf was just a special birth, like I said a sort of divine gift maybe. I knew about the gossip stone but the idea is sketchy, if a Hylian male was suduced than the child born would be half Hylian and half gerudo, the child would look different.

 

[Fig]

While the concept of only one male being born every 100 years within the Gerudo race, I do believe it is quite possible. There have been many theories as to how the Gerudo women try to get impregnated and the Gossip Stone does in fact state that they sometimes go to Hyrule Castle Town in search of boyfriends. With that stated, what if they only can do this every certain amount of years? To use an example, what if the Gerudo women are only allowed to go to Hyrule Castle Town to find a mate every so X years. It sorta makes sense considering how strict the Gerudo are back in their hideout.

Another theory that might explain to why the Gerudo can only produce one male every 100 years is because that one Gerudo woman has to be selected from higher beings, in this case possibly the Desert Colossus/Goddess of the Sand. As for Koume and Kotake, the surrogate mothers of Ganondorf, what if they have more powers beyond fire and ice? What if as Twinrova throughout the course of 100 years time they inspect every Gerudo woman to see who is the perfect candidate to give birth to Ganondorf. This theory might be a bit of a stretch but it could be quite possible.

 

[Marysia]

In nature, there are certain animals that reproduce in really weird ways. For example there is a species of all-female ant that reproduces by cloning, and a species of lizard that technically has males, but most often the females reproduce by cloning as well. Then there are some species of tropical fish that hatch all-female out of the eggs, and when they mature one of them becomes a sequential hermaphrodite, changing into a male and servicing the entire "harem." I find this very fascinating. How does this happen? Why does it happen to only one fish, and how does that fish choose or respond to selective pressure from the environment if the choice is involuntary?

So yeah, between cloning themselves, venturing into Hyrule to find boyfriends, sequential hermaphroditism and long-term virility of their rare males, I'd say the Gerudo chances of survival aren't that bad.

 

[Beauts]

Well the females mate with Hylians. Maybe Gerudo genes are just way more dominant than Hyrulian?