Goron

Gorons are a race of peaceful, mountain-dwelling rock-eaters who appear in Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, The Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass. The name "Goron" probably originates from the phrase "goron, goron", a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a rolling rock.

Goron culture apparently revolves around brotherhood and strength. In Ocarina of Time, Darunia refers to both the King of Hyrule and Link as "Sworn Brothers" and "Brothers", and in Twilight Princess, Gorons often call many other characters "Brother". Gorons show high regard for individuals who display great strength, and particularly enjoy matching their strength with others in sumo wrestling matches (as seen in Twilight Princess). By beating an elder, Gor Coron, in a sumo wrestling contest (using the Iron Boots to even the playing field), Link demonstrates his strength and garners enough Goron respect to gain access to their mines.

While not all the games which feature Gorons include full tribes, those that do depict Goron polity as headed by a single patriarch, sometimes aided by one or more Goron Elders, who assume leadership of the tribe when the patriarch cannot. This suggests that Goron tribes are a gerontocracy.

At leisure, Gorons enjoy music and dance, rolling/racing, games , sumo wrestling, and bathing in hot springs. However, by the time of Twilight Princess, sumo wrestling is losing its popularity with younger Gorons. .

Gorons have been known to take on a wide range of occupations, including craftsmithing, blacksmithing, sculpting, demolition, and merchantry. In The Wind Waker, there are three wandering merchant characters who are quite clearly Gorons, although it is never explicitly made clear, and In Twilight Princess, several Gorons set up shop in Kakariko Village and Hyrule Castle Town. The Gorons in Twilight Princess also have a regular trade with Kakariko Village, though this trade is suspended during the incident with Darbus and the Fused Shadow. They have also constructed a large mining complex within Death Mountain, the Goron Mines, so as to accumulate goods for this trade. The complexity of the mine suggests that Gorons have excellent knowledge of mechanics, for it contains both elevators and magnetic cranes.

In basic appearance, Gorons are humanoids of a generally beige hue, whose long arms, short legs, hulking shoulders, and virtually undetectable necks produce gorilla-like silhouettes. Gorons seen in the games have round, purple eyes as well as prominent, rotund bellies. Unlike humans, Gorons lack any observable form of external hearing organs; like reptiles, Gorons’ ears are simply holes at the sides of their heads. By adulthood, Gorons appear to gain rock-like protrusions on their backs as well as, apparently, in the place of where human hair would be on both their faces and, in Twilight Princess, their arms. However, certain Goron patriarchs and elders seem to have actual hair growing on their faces and heads which, along with their nipples and bellybuttons, suggests that Gorons are mammalian.

Size is variable in the Goron world; while most Gorons are a bit larger than the average human in stature and mass, it is apparent that a few grow to exaggeratedly huge sizes, as seen in the case of Biggoron, who was several hundred times larger than others of his species, and his younger brother Medigoron, who was smaller but still gigantic. Conversely, the Goron Elder Gor Amoto is exceptionally small for his race.

Due to their enormous density, Gorons sink to the bottom of bodies of water and are thus helpless in such an environment. However, it is shown in Twilight Princess that while Gorons do breathe, the act is not a necessity and therefore they cannot drown. Gorons are exceptionally resistant to heat, to the point of being able to walk through shallow lava. This is a valuable ability when searching for food inside mountains. Not surprisingly, they are uncomfortable under frigorific conditions.

Gorons maintain a strict diet of rocks and iron,. It is mentioned in Twilight Princess that Gorons are in fact living rocks, which could explain most of their characteristics as well as Gibdos' lack of interest in them (as shown by Goron Link in Majora's Mask).

The Goron ability to enter the fetal position appears to have assortment of purposes: resting, crushing obstacles, assaulting enemies, as well as transportation, for they can roll in this position and accelerate to great speeds. Gorons who are endowed with fairy magic can grow stone spikes while rolling, though this ability is evidenced only by Terminian Gorons and Goron Link. This curled-up position also creates a strong impression of a rock; therefore, it may also serve as Goron form of camouflage.

Gorons are obviously capable of reproduction as Darunia produces an offspring in Ocarina of Time, but how this comes about is unclear. Since Gorons referred to in the third person in in-game dialogues are mentioned through masculine pronouns, it is safe to assume that all Gorons are either male or androgynous (and simply being referred to by the dominant gender pronoun). In Twilight Princess, a Goron elder refers to a young woman as "brother", although still using feminine pronouns to refer to her, which demonstrates that while Gorons recognize fraternity in other races without regard to sex, they can distinguish gender nonetheless. Therefore, notions of sexual Goron reproduction are probably unlikely, unless they are hermaphroditic. Feminine-looking Gorons have been known to appear in The Legend of Zelda manga, but the manga are considered non-canonical.