Riju

Riju
Species	Gerudo
Affiliation	Sages
Hair color	Red
Eye color	Green
Age	12 (BotW) ~16-18 (TotK)
Relatives	Urbosa (ancestor) Ancient Sage of Lightning (ancestor)
Voiced by	Elizabeth Maxwell
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Riju (referred to in her diary as Makeela Riju, which may be her full name) is a young Gerudo chief who was featured as a supporting character in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, becoming a Sage of Lightning in the second game. With her sand seal Patricia, she also appeared as a playable fighter in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Background

Riju was descended from the royal line of Gerudo chiefs who presided over Gerudo Town, including the deceased Gerudo Champion Urbosa. She had a love of sand seals and owned her own sand seal named Patricia, which she rode around often. Riju's mother died when she was still a child, and she was appointed the new chief despite her youth. Riju was saddened by the loss of her mother and noticed that everyone around town was acting nicer to her, but she still sometimes saw that they were worried as well. Riju began to feel insecure about her ability as a chief compared to her mother.

Breath of the Wild

When Vah Naboris awoke, Riju attempted to investigate with Patricia, only to be was driven back by the sandstorm and the lightning blasts generated by the Divine Beast, and Riju was knocked out when Patricia was startled by a monster. They were saved by Buliara, the captain of the guard, who kept a vigilant watch on her afterwards. In addition to that, the royal family's valuable heirloom, the Thunder Helm had been stolen by their enemies in the Yiga Clan. With Van Naboris ravaging the desert and the valuable heirloom missing, Riju continued to doubt her abilities as a chief, and she prayed to her mother and Lady Urbosa for guidance.

Riju and Buliara were later confronted by a mysterious traveler named Link. As they questioned him, Riju recognized that he had a Sheikah relic, and they came to realize that he was the ancient Hylian Champion was well and a man disguised as a woman. Men were normally forbidden from Gerudo Town by law, and Riju excused Link only because Link he was a Champion and a former friend of Urbosa's. She was ready to entrust him with the task of liberating Vah Naboris, but Buliara instead convinced her to assign him to retrieve the Thunder Helm as a test of his ability. Link was successful in completing the task, and she decided to use it to strike at Vah Naboris. She donned the Thunder Helm (despite it being too large for her head) and rode Patricia with Link out in pursuit of Vah Naboris. She provided Link with Bomb Arrows and information on how to battle Naboris. She called upon Urbosa and her other ancestors for power and protection during this task, and she later claimed to have heard Urbosa's voice.

Vah Naboris was ultimately liberated by Link and reclaimed by Urbosa's spirit. Riju returned to Gerudo Town and thanked Link by offering him some of Urbosa's old equipment, which were considered priceless treasures by the Gerudo. Specifically, it was the Scimatar of the Seven and the Daybreaker shield. Riju also kept the Thunder Helm nearby and contemplated giving that to Link as well, but she would only do so if Link gained the trust of her people, due to the helm being considered to be a cultural treasure. After Link solved the problems of various Gerudo around the town in the form of side quests, Riju thanked him for helping her people to feel happy again. She entrusted the Thunder Helm to him and considered him to be a true friend of the Gerudo.

She also played a role during the "The Champions' Ballad" DLC sidequests. The remnants of the Yiga Clan had struck again and stolen an Ancient Orb. Once again, Link was able to help them in retrieving it.

Tears of the Kingdom

Several years passed, during which Riju continued to grow in her role as a leader. She also forged a close friendship with Princess Zelda, who inspired her to give her soldiers a new training regimen. Shortly before the events of Tears of the Kingdom, she developed her own ability to call down lightning, similar to that of Urbosa, but she had trouble accurately aiming this new power.In the aftermath of the Upheaval, a sand shroud appeared throughout the desert covering Gerudo Town, which made traveling through the desert nearly impossible. On top of that, mysterious new monsters called Gibdos appeared. They were invulnerable to most attacks, with the only weakness they discovered being Riju's lightning. She still had trouble with the accuracy of her power, so she was not able to take down many Gibdos. The monsters not only impeded the Gerudo people's efforts to investigate the source of the sand shroud, but they eventually overran Gerudo Town, forcing all of the Gerudo to retreat to a shelter located underneath the palace. Riju held herself responsible for this and left Buliara in charge of the shelter while she left for the North Gerudo Ruins, where she tried to train her ability on practice dummies.

Riju made little progress in her training until Link arrived. She was able to focus her power with Link's help, by having him fire arrows and then calling down her lightning where the arrow struck. Working together like this, the two of them were able to drive back Gibdo attacks at Kara Kara Bazaar and Gerudo Town. Riju also started to be contacted of a mysterious voice, which reminded her of an ancient mural found within the shelter. Link was able to solve the mystery of the mural, and Riju's power was able to raise the Lightning Temple, which contained the source of the Gibdo attack. Together, the two of them were able to destroy the Queen Gibdo and discovered a Zonai secret stone that was kept within the temple. This caused Riju to experience a vision in which she met the spirit of her ancestor, the Sage of Lightning, whose voice was the voice that Riju had been hearing calling out to her. Riju's ancestor showed her a vision communicating the threat of Ganondorf which caused the sages to originally come together and the need for a new group of sages to rise up to help Link. This caused Riju to awaken as the Sage of Lightning, and she made a vow to Link to seal the pact. Riju gained the ability to create an avatar of herself, a ghostly copy that could accompany Link when she was unable to. With the Queen Gibdo's destruction, the sand shroud cleared away, and most of the Gibdos were gone, so the Gerudo were able to leave the shelter and reoccupy the town. Riju returned to her place on the throne and oversaw the resumption of Gerudo Town's normal activities while also seeking out information that could help Link.

After four of the sages were awakened, they appeared at Hyrule Castle in time to save Link from an attack by Ganondorf. Ganondorf plagued the sages with a vision of the monster-ridden world that he would create in an attempt to intimidate them. It was Riju who helped the group with their spirits afterwards, as she pointed out that if Ganondorf was doing that instead of actually attacking them, he must not be at full power yet and thus must be vulnerable. The sages regrouped at Lookout Landing, and from there they returned to their respective homes to seek information about the fifth sage. After the fifth sage was found, the sages appeared again to help Link within the Depths beneath Hyrule Castle to fight off Ganondorf's forces. After beating those monsters, Ganondorf summoned the boss monsters to keep them busy, and the sages stayed behind to fight them while Link went on ahead, with Riju taking on Queen Gibdo by herself. The sages dealt with them and caught up with Link in time to join in on the battle against Demon King Ganondorf, although they were ultimately knocked out during the battle. Link was still able to ultimately defeat Ganondorf and restore peace to Hyrule. In the aftermath, the sages gathered at the Great Sky Island, where they bade farewell to Mineru's spirit and swore an oath to protect Princess Zelda.

In Other Zelda Games

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Terrako traveled through the time to the time period leading up to Calamity Ganon's return, which created an alternate timeline. During the attack on the Champions in Chapter 5, Terrako created additional portals within each of the Divine Beasts to pull each Champion's respective successor from the future to save them. Riju was pulled through the portal in Vah Naboris, with Patricia in tow. She arrived in time to save Urbosa from being killed by Thunderblight Ganon. With the help of one of the other warriors, they were able to successfully slay Thunderblight Ganon. Riju and Urbosa later piloted Vah Naboris together to eliminate monsters in Chapter 6. Ultimately, everyone's combined forces was enough to defeat Calamity Ganon and avert the tragedies of the other timeline. Riju and the others were then returned to their original time, but there was enough time to say a farewell to Urbosa. Urbosa expressed her faith in Riju as a leader of the Gerudo people.

Trivia

• Her name seems to be a play on her Japanese name, which translates to "Rouge", which is French for the color red.
• She has a diary located in her bedroom, referred to as the Chief's Diary.
• Patricia was a gift from Riju's late mother, and apparently was the only gift that she gave her before dying.
• At night in Breath of the Wild, she could be seen excitedly talking to the stuffed animals in the room. She then becomes embarrassed and complains to Link when noticing him.
• She and her ancient ancestor mark the first sages in the series with the title of Sage of Lightning, which was the only new sage title introduced in Tears of the Kingdom.