"No, it's some kind of... Holy... Time thing. She's been stuck, paused, with Ganon the whole time. I think. I'm gonna free her, I just have to be ready for that fight first."

"And then catch her up on a hundred years of politics and demographic change, huh?"

"That'll be a doozy. And her whole family is dead, so there's that." Sigh. "Be more of a 'rebuilding' thing, really. But there's hope."

"It looked like Zora's Domain was governing itself without a problem. Do you think they'll object to having foreign rulers again?"

"The Zora particularly, I don't predict any problems. They have long lives, King Dorephan knows Zelda. Some of the other places might. I'm not really sure. That's Zelda's kind of thing."

"What's it like with everywhere all... fragmented like this? We don't really have multiple polities at home."

Shrug. "Not sure what you mean. I do think this is a more wild land than your world."

"I mean... have you had any wars between people that used to be part of the same country? Have you had groups of people trying to take each other's defensible land or resources?"

"Oh, there used to be raiders from the Sea People to the east... I don't know too much about that. And there was almost a war between the Kingdom of Hyrule and the Rito, once. And the Gerudo are very... Themselves, from what I've read."

"Even with Hyrule unified you have more than one country? That sounds terrifying."

"It's not like we're going to go around conquering everyone, that'd be evil."

"How? Wouldn't conquering everyone make people happier? Or at least safer?"

"I mean, maybe in the very long run, but in the short run it'd mean a lot of fighting and dying and hate. And Ganon would probably help the weaker side in a war just to make everyone suffer more."

"Is he why Hyrule hasn't been conquered since the Calamity?"

"Maybe. I don't think the other kingdoms are doing all that well either, to be honest. And they were all mostly pretty far away, I think."

"Do they have the same species of people as Hyrule?"

"At least Hylians, yes. It's kind of weird how we call everyone shaped like me Hylians even though Hyrule is only one kingdom, now that I think about it..."

"Do they call themselves that in the other kingdoms?"

"I don't know! I've never actually been to any other kingdoms!"

"I guess you wouldn't have worldwide instantaneous communications here. Or safe travel to anywhere in a day. You know what, when Hyrule's saved we can figure out how to get you that."

"Magic, I'm guessing. It does sound useful. The stables are a good system for us - about one reasonable day's walk and half a day's horse ride apart on major roads. They're inns, horse-carers, and usually places for traveling merchants too. We can find some if we continue past Kakariko Village."

"How do they stay safe?"

"Not totally sure. I guess they're built in places known to be reasonably monster free. Some of them have guards. And on major routes - adventurer and soldier types pass through often enough and it's considered a public service to clean out any monsters too near major roads."

"Why aren't there any between Kakariko and Zora's Domain?"

"Because of the river, maybe? I think Zora's Domain is relatively more isolated than other parts of Hyrule, maybe because of the terrain." Shrug.