Dampé

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Dampé'
Species	Hylian
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Dampé is a recurring character in the Legend of Zelda series. He is usually depicted with the same appearance and occupation, as a hunchbacked gravedigger.

Background

Early Appearances

He first appeared in Ocarina of Time, where he took care of the Kakariko Village Graveyard. He only came out at night. That was when he ran his Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour, where he could be paid to dig up individual patches of the ground. This could potentially reveal Rupees or Pieces of Heart, if anything at all. He once dug up a hookshot and kept it as his personal treasure. Dampé died at some point during the seven years of Link's slumber. His ghost continued to live in the catacombs below the graveyard, and he brought the Hookshot with him. After Link woke up, he could race Dampé's ghost through his maze-like tomb in order to win the Hookshot.

The Terminan version of Dampé appeared in Majora's Mask and worked at the Ikana Graveyard. Unike other versions, this one was deftly afraid of ghosts. Dampé was constantly searching for an ancient Ikanan treasure that was said to be hidden in his basement, but he needed Link's fairy to see in the dark while he dug up holes. In the end, the treasure turned out to be a bottle, which he allowed Link to keep.

Dampé has also shown up working at the graveyard near the swamp in Four Swords Adventures. He was kept from his work by the local outbreak of monsters, but he told the Links about the Forest of Light's corruption and the Dark Mirror. In The Minish Cap, he worked at the Royal Valley. He could communicate with the dead and often dug up Kinstones that he traded with the various ghosts. He gave Link the graveyard key after Link claimed to have been summoned to the graveyard by the ghost of King Gustav. Dampé believed him and claimed that that he had also seen the former king's ghost.

A Link Between Worlds

In A Link Between Worlds, he tended to the graveyard located by the Sanctuary. He prided himself on being more observant of his surroundings than others assumed, which caused him to be aware of the behaviors of the various people who frequented the Sanctuary. He also saw signs of trouble brewing in Hyrule. He was surprised one day when Link came to visit early and then started to panic when he saw that someone locked the Sanctuary's doors, as he had no key. He did tell Link about a secret passage that he had heard about and advised him to use the captain's sword that he had been delivering to defend himself. The door was eventually opened, but the priest's daughter Seres had gone missing, and the captain of the guard had been turned into a painting. Dampé worried for them, and he was later relieved when he learned that Seres was safe. He decided to stay by the graveyard and protect it as the troubles in Hyrule escalated.

Dampé also had a counterpart who appeared in Lorule, in an alternate version of Sanctuary's graveyard. This version had a purplish skin tone and was implied to be undead. The graves had been replaced by columns, so Dampé had no graves to look after, and he forgot whatever the graves were supposed to be protecting (which was a secret passage leading to a chunk of Master Ore stored in the Sanctuary). When Link met him, he was surprised that Link could see him, as no one had apparently talked to him for a long time. He also joked about the perks of Link joining him "on the other side", saying that monsters no longer bothered him.

Link's Awakening

Dampé was added to the Switch remake of Link's Awakening, where he ran the new chamber dungeons feature. He was an inhabitant of Koholint Island who lived in a shack near King Moblin's lair. His job was apparently to dig up interesting stuff around the island. In his shack, he had a special slab that could be used to create entire dungeons by placing chambers (individual rooms) within it. Dampé was interested in testing it out, but he had no talent for either designing dungeons or adventuring through them.

He observed that Link had adventured through the island's ruins and saw potential in him. After Link completed the first two dungeons, Dampé would invite him to his shack and propose that Link help him to create dungeons. Every time that Link completed a new dungeon, Dampé would listen to his stories about the dungeon and create chambers to replicate rooms of the dungeon. Link could also find chamber stones that Dampé could turn into dungeons. Dampé tasked Link with designing dungeons to match the criteria of a series of challenges that he devised and then adventuring through them. He would also give Link rewards for every success, including Pieces of Heart, a whole Heart Container, Secret Seashells, Rupees and more Chamber Stones. There were four sets of challenges altogether.

As he was an inhabitant of Koholint Island, this version of Dampé was presumably also part of the Wind Fish's dream. If so, he most likely ceased to exist with the rest of the island after the Wind Fish woke up.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• He makes a minor appearance in Cadence of Hyrule, where he watches over Kakariko's graveyard.

Trivia

• In Ocarina of Time, one child idolizes Dampé and tries to imitate him during the daytime. This leads him to buy the Spooky Mask from Link in order to appear more frightening like Dampé.
• The version of Dampé in Majora's Mask mentions having a wife.
• In A Link Between Worlds, both versions of Dampé have a habit of referring to themselves in the third person.
• In the Switch version of Link's Awakening, his shack replaces the Camera Shop from the DX version of the game.
• The version of Dampé in Link's Awakening is his only incarnation who is not a gravedigger.