#botw lore

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

HI, CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT THE AKKALA CITADEL?????

Yes? Wonderful. Come, friend, have a seat. I have...a lot to say lol

Eight years later and I am STILL not over how absolutely genius this fortress is, like are you kidding me????? Everything from location to design to its inside defenses is just *chef's kiss* PHENOMINAL, and so because I have no filter, I am going to barf all my thoughts I've had on it in the past many many years.

Before we begin, shoutout to the WONDERFUL video by Zeltik that touches on this a bit and gave me a wonderful basis for my brainrot in the first place. Definitely go and watch it it's fabulous NOW! Let's get into the madness shall we? First let's talk about the location cos OHHHH MY GOSH. This was, hands down, THE best place they could have possibly put a fortress of this magnitude in Hyrule and I am going to tell you why. First of all, allllllll along the northern and northwestern border of Hyrule, there's those massive canyons

Passing over that in a way that would be effective military-wise is kind of impossible, so it provides a natural defense from invaders from those directions.

If you were to come from the South, you would hit the Gerudo desert and not only have to face the might of the Gerudo military, but also cross this EXPANSIVE, scorching desert before you can even make it to Hyrule field, and by that time, the royal leader could have very easily sent an army to intercept anyone trying to attack, so that's right out.

Which leaves coming from the Faron region next which is okay??? I guess??? but that's a LOT of swamp and forest you have to cross through, AND you go right past the Great Plateau where any army would have been seen and intercepted eventually. This takes us closer to the eastern coast of Hyrule, and you would be hard pressed to try and travel through Necluda, cos just l o o k at all these mountains you'd have to cross:

Horrible. And you probably don't want to go through Zora's Domain cos that's yet another heavily fortified and well prepared city in and of itself (please ask me about this one too I beg of you I love talking about Zora's Domain)

Any military leader with a brain isn't going to go through Death Mountain for obvious reasons, so really, all that leaves is this tiiiiiinnnyyy vulnerable spot in Akkala

And where did they put the citadel??? Right at the heart of that vulnerable spot >:D Like a boss.

AND SO! if invaders came in from that coastline, they have three options: They can take the path through the Akkala Highlands, they can go through the Torin Wetlands and up to the pass it connects to, or they can take the trail up to the Sokkala Bridges. All of these are TERRIBLE OPTIONS Akkala Highlands path: If they come up this way at the start

this will work allll the way until they get about here:

once they get here though, you are now not only bottlenecking an entire army meant to invade a kingdom (so probably roughly 1,000-1,300 people), but you're also directly under the shadow of the Akkala Citadel. There are archers there to fire on you, and they had a canon post on that side to potentially fire either at the incoming soldiers or fire at the opposite canyon wall to rain debris and rocks on them.

TERRIBLE for the other army.

And even if some did manage to survive, it would be painfully easy for the infantry at Akkala Citadel to send foot soldiers down below to cut them off.

SO THERE GOES THAT OPTION (and admittedly, I think it's probably the worst of the three)

Next option is to go through the Torin Wetlands and up into that same pass by the Citadel

this is ALSO a bad idea because the Torin Wetlands are a DELIGHTFUL tactical advantage for Hyrule. Once you get to that pass, you have the same problems as option one, but now you first have to pass through this wide marshland to get there. This will immediately slow down your army, and if that wasn't bad enough it's also in clear freakin view of the citadel and so they would be able to send their entire militia of archers and potentially even cannoneers to fire on the advancing army and take a bunch of them out before they could even make it to that pass.

So a smart general may say the best option is to go around the long way.

now this eliminates the pass and also slowing down at the marsh, and you could even make it almost all the way to the citadel without hardly any losses probably BUT! The first hurdle is those bridges. Wonderful for Hyrule, terrible for the opposing army. The three Sokkala bridges are SMALL, even smaller than the pass an army would have to go through with the other two options. This military leader would basically have to send their soldiers single file unless they have a way to expand the bridges to make them wider (which, admittedly, could be possible with a bit of foresight, but for now for simplicity's sake let's just assume they didn't think that far ahead).

This brings in an EXTREMELY slowly advancing army right to the heart of the Akkala Citadel's battery.

There are three locations with canons we see in BOTW that cover pretty much the entire open area the opposing army would come in on. And when you look at the amount of space each post covered

There is not a SINGLE spot in that valley a cannoneer couldn't easily reach. And, of course they would continue to have archers to pick off individual soldiers as well.

And if SOMEHOW

BY SOME MIRACLE

enough soldiers make it through that hell to be enough of a problem, there are plenty more soldiers in the citadel to cut them off as they come up the hill AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH! there was this:

by the time we get to botw, it has been destroyed, but that is ANOTHER smaller stronghold that was probably pretty well manned in and of itself.

AND WHAT'S MORE

There's even this long cliff road with very little room to operate, so it would be extremely easy for the citadel to send over some soldiers to post up there and cut off anyone who tried to make it past. And with so little room to operate, it would not go well.

Ain't NOTHING getting past the Akkala Citadel, guys.

And that isn't even touching on the fact that the whole thing is build of solid stone??? And carved into a mountain??? The entire reason it fell in the first place was because the Guardians had enough of fire power to destroy the citadel that they had never seen before (also they could climb walls but that's a side note). This implies that no one in Hyrule or the neighbouring kingdoms had even CLOSE to that level of destructive power, so to try and raze it to the ground would have been impossible.

AND!! it was the most heavily fortified fortress in Hyrule second to the castle itself, and to most likely their military personnel would have been equal too, if not slightly more than even Hyrule Castle. That's A LOT of people!! With most likely endless support and resources from the castle and villages nearby as well.

It was placed geniously, it had impenetrable defense, it had a potentially endless supply of resources and people to use said resources, it was just

argjfbdkjgbks You guys don't understand how much I THINK about this place aghhhhhhhhhh

[science-lings]

Magic in BOTW: A Study of Elemental Weapons

Breath of the Wild is kind of vague when it comes to magic compared to other Zelda games. There’s no magic bar or characters that are mentioned to specialize in it, (aside from the dragons and maybe the champions). In fact, the magic that tends to be used the most seems to be from the Yiga. Sure, great fairy's and forest spirits like the koroks and blupees kind of have their own thing but I’m focusing on Hyrulians today. 

Rods:

Though mostly used by Wizzrobes, according to their descriptions, the monsters did not create them. Fire/ Meteor Rods are described as being ‘crafted by an ancient magician’, Ice/ Blizzard Rods are ‘crafted from refined ice found at the summit of Hebra Peak’, and Lightning/ Thunderstorm Rods have a ‘gem [that] contains electricity from the Hyrule Hills’. 

Hebra Peak is made up of special unclimbable ice that can also be found in the cavern that entombs the hebra great skeleton, this could be the refined ice that the ice rods are powered by. While ‘Hyrule Hills’ aren’t a specific place in the game, maybe that’s what Farosh Hills were called, as they’re also the hills that surround Lake Hylia which has several other similar names. (Lake Hylia, Hylia Island, Bridge of Hylia, Hylia River) Perhaps before Farosh showed up, the eastern hills had a similar name, But Hylia Hills sounded like a dirty joke so it was changed to Hyrule Hills. 

Now, what about an ancient magician? One that’s only associated with fire magic... My immediate thoughts would be Twinrova or a magically inclined Goron (which is more likely but we’ll get to that a little later), in any case, their name has been long forgotten but who’s to say we haven’t met them before? 

Also there’s definitely an aspect with using elemental powered gemstones for both the rods and the weapons. Each of their designs feature it at the end of their hilts and it just makes sense for the gemstones to either assist in the generation of elemental magic or the regulation thereof. 

Flame Weapons: 

Descriptions of the flame weapons describe that they were made in the fires/ lava/ magma of death mountain. This makes sense, this is not a new concept, I mean its the whole plot to the lord of the rings. but what really is interesting is when we get to the description of the great flameblade. 

‘by Goron smiths in an ancient age’. Now that’s Lore! So there’s magic gorons. I’m thinking this is in the ten thousand years before botw/ golden age of Hyrule unless we can attribute this to existing characters. Maybe Darunia was really into making fire weapons or something. He was the Sage of Fire, that had to count for something. 

Ice Weapons: 

Like the Ice Rods, they were made with the ancient ice from the hebra mountains, though in the great flameblade version it ‘was forged by smelting ore found in the Hebra Mountains’ permafrost’ so that’s a thing. Hebra is mostly inhabited by Rito, who aren’t known to be very magically inclined, but there are also some Hylians. The area is generally pretty desolite with not a lot of evidence of civilization so it’s hard to tell who could’ve been behind the magic in that area. There’s the Zonai labyrinth and the entrance to the ice cavern looked vaguely Zonai or ancient Hylian in origin (like the ruins around the springs and the forgotten temple and Lanayru Promenade, like sksw era ruins)

Anyway the Ice is magic, but only the Hebra ice, not like the ice around the goddess spring or the ice around the actual ice dragon, no that ice isn’t magic. The random ass ice in hebra is the special magic ice. No, I don’t get it either. 

Lightning Weapons:

Now here’s where it gets interesting. You’d expect that the magic from the electric weapons would come from the Faron region. WRONG. But that doesn’t matter. We’ll get to that.

The Hyrulean Royal family is who is behind the thunder weapons. Which is odd, the royal family isn’t generally associated with weapons or lightning. or are they? One character comes to mind when I think of both Hylian royal family and lightning (and also making weapons), and that is Skyward Sword Link. So maybe the royal family could be linked to that but it still seems weird that they are the origin of them. Perhaps they had help from the sheikah, they had to do a whole lot of stuff with electricity just for Vah Naboris. Those metal orbs do remind me of the lightning enchanted metal... 

This ball. the color is the same (but less bright) but still. Same vibes. 

Lets get back to the Hyrule Hills thing. The thunderspear description clears this one up a little. 

The lighting comes from Thundra Plateau, aka the place with the glowing balls and the eternal storm that I guess was going on for like ten thousand years, waiting for the shrine to be solved by the hero. This place is also heavily associated with the Zonai, as the ruins are the same as the ones around the spring of courage and in the dark shroud of Thyphlo.  

Arrows:

The elemental arrowheads look different than the normal elemental metals. The only context that we get for them is that they are ‘imbued with the power of [insert element here]’ and while it would make sense that the arrowheads are just the same magical metals but cut up to be smaller but I would argue against it. There is probably a finite amount of elemental arrows and weapons that can have their metal harvested to make these arrows. Most vendors of these arrows claim to ‘find’ them rather than make them, and they also only tend to sell certain types rather than the entire roster. The arrow lady in Kakariko only sells fire arrows on top of their normal basic arrows, Rito Village and Hateno sell bomb arrows, etc. Only Tarrey Town and Gerudo Town sell packs of every type of arrows. 

Anyway I’m absolutely convinced that the arrow lady in Gerudo Town is the creator of the elemental arrows. Gerudo Town is not new to enchantments, especially ones featuring gemstones, they’re also more associated with sorcery than the Rito kid who is the vendor in Tarrey Town. 

I could talk more about magic in botw (the champions powers, the magic found in nature with gemstones and plants and animals, the sheikah and yiga abilities, magic in clothing, and also minor deities featured in botw, I will talk about these things if there is any demand or if I feel the inspiration to.) So this could be a series. So please tell me if you’d be interested in that because I would love to make more random in-depth analysis’. 

[fioreofthemarch]

Does anyone else think it would be kind of cool if the Divine Beasts had actual flight decks? Like on old steam trains with levers and switches, with cogs whirring and glowy Sheikah tech pipes all through them.

I always assumed the pilots mind-melded with their beasts in some way, since there are no control surfaces on the main terminals. But also it’d be cool for the pilots need to actually operate Beasts, like some kind of enormous power armor

[mystbooks]

Kass. Kass. Kaaassss. KASS. KASS!!! I'm right here. Play the song for me. My body is ready.

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

Thinking about icon monk twins Shee Venath and Shee Vaneer

Literally those two slayed SO hard as the First Calamity dynamic duo that they put their communal brain cell together and said “Yo yano what would be REALLY funny to do to the hero???”

and then went and designed their fuckass matchy matchy shrines for link 1,000 years later.

Baddie move fr fr I love them sm

[science-lings]

Magic in BotW: Gemstones

My other magic focused botw lore posts: Elemental Weapons, Elixir Medical Study,

The thing about the precious stones in botw is that they are (mostly) imbued with mysterious elemental power. It’s not like it’s unusual for gemstones to be associated with magic, mostly through magical rings, but it’s never really explained where this power comes from. Rocks just be like that I guess. They’re well utilized as tools for magic power, I mean, Ganondorf himself has a big one glued right to his forehead. I doubt it’s just for aesthetic purposes. I think that gemstones contain magic from the creation of Hyrule, specifically from Din who is known to be the creator of earth and easily the most associated with rocks. Also it would make sense that power includes different kinds of magical enchantments. 

Gems are also a major part of clothes for the great fairies, though this seems to be specific to botw, whether that be because the previous fairies were more connected to nature and thus wanted to be covered in only leaves, or were in a toon link game and weren’t allowed to have their tits out, or they’re in twilight princess where she only wears a miniskirt and that’s it. At least in botw, precious stones adorn the great fairies and are explicitly pointed out to contain certain kinds of magic. Also it’s worth mentioning that in Age of Calamity where they’re playable characters, their weapons are their jeweled magic bracelets so I guess that’s worth mentioning. 

Now let’s get into specifics. 

Amber: ‘it has been valued as a component in decorations and crafting since ancient times’, ‘a gem that harnesses the power of the land to increase your defense’, I don’t think “the land” just means the physical earth or the ground and rocks, I think it means the innate magic in Hyrule as a whole. In Skyward Sword, carved amber relics could be collected by Link, whether they were left behind by the predecessors to Hylians or the goddess herself is unknown, though the goddess seems to leave behind things in that purple metal. The reincarnation of Hylia slept in a  prison of amber, I think there is some connection between amber and the goddess herself. It’s also the gem that you use to upgrade the hero of time outfit set (and the Hylian set) which could be interesting to think about. Perhaps amber is symbolic of being forced to sleep for a really long time. 

Opal: ’Contains the power of water’ when used in jewelry it increases swim speed. (also used to upgrade the Zora and the Hero of the Winds sets) The hero choice makes sense, he’s the little ocean guy, and he’s definitely the one most associated with water. It’s one of the few gems with an effect that can’t be replicated with elixirs, it’s water magic is only found among the Zora. Perhaps they’re the origin of the opal's magic, as the Zora lose their power, the stones absorb it. Mipha was the only Zora we see with any kind of power, so it’s assumed that at the very least their power over water has diminished over the eons. 

Luminous Stone: Now this one is really interesting! Its blue glow is said to originate from ‘the souls of the dead’ which tracks because the spirit flame is a very similar color. The game actually has contradicting information on how it makes its way onto the radiant set (the only clothes it can be used to upgrade btw), the description for the stone itself states that it can be used as a ‘base for special clothing’ while the radiant set itself says that it’s both a dye and a paint made from the crushed up glowy rocks so I thought that was funny. Now back to the idea that these stones are connected to the dead to the point where some believe that they literally contain the souls of the dead. Are the spirits simply attracted to the stone? Are they trapped in them? Is there an energy that ghosts have that changes maybe flint into this mysterious rock? Join me next week for my theories on the Hylian afterlife. Also, it seems like Zora’s domain is at least partially made out of Luminous stone, as you help make repairs with them, but the stones don’t quite match up and there is some shiny blue rock in that area that’s more likely to be the real origin but it’s hard to know for sure. When used in the Radiant set, it gives the wearer the additional effects of being a disguise against monsters and an attack bonus with bone weapons. Funnily enough, the only other set with the same effects is the Phantom Ganon outfit which also features the bone aesthetic. Spooky… 

Topaz: ‘contains the power of electricity/lighting’ This one is less interesting, there isn’t a whole lot else to go off of, it’s used to upgrade the twilight hero set (I guess it matches that game’s color scheme? The twilight liked its use of gold…) and it’s used to upgrade the rubber armor, which could just be because it has the whole shock resistance thing or we could reach for a connection with the Zonai but there really isn’t a whole lot of evidence. 

Ruby: ‘contains the power of fire’ obviously, are you guys picking up a pattern here? Not only are the heating effects of the gem used in the circlet from the Gerudo, but it’s also featured in the snowquill headpiece, which I thought was interesting. The Rito aren’t known for their magical prowess, but I guess they don’t need to use it for themselves and only for travelers who don’t have feathers. It’s also used to upgrade the Hero set, (aka the one that imitates the look from the first games, the one with the short shorts that feature a little pixilated octorok), I actually think that version of Link is least associated with fire so this information probably isn’t important at all.  Probably… 

Sapphire: Guess what? It contains the power of Ice! Who could’ve guessed! This one seems like it’s the most used in clothing, it’s featured in all parts of the Gerudo Voe set with their descriptions pointing to that being how it stays cool. I mean it has to be something magic, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go out in the desert sun wearing that much metal. I also think that the Gerudo utilize unrefined sapphires in the stonework of the town to keep it cool, it can’t all come from the spring. Sapphires could also be how they keep the ice cool in the ice house. They’re also used to upgrade set for the Hero of the Sky. Why? Who knows, there wasn’t even an ice section in Skyward Sword, maybe they just thought, ha! Blue! The sky is also blue! Brilliant! Oh, also the three elemental gems are featured at the ends of the elemental weapons, maybe they assist in powering them with elemental magic or something. I also think they have something to do with the elemental tips of the arrows. Like they have a very different effect from other elemental things in the game? The arrowheads just don’t look or act the same as other elemental magical items and it’s frustrating to me, they have the same thing as the gems where they’re mysteriously ‘imbued with’ the element but there's nothing else about them like there are for the weapons. Also, they only activate when you draw them rather than being on and empowered all the time. It troubles me… There is definitely something weird going on with the arrows, I can tell you guys that much. 

Diamond: FInally another interesting one. Diamonds utilize the power of Light to defend against guardian attacks. You need them to remake the champion's weapons and I have a feeling it’s not just because their hard and highly valuable. I think that the champion's weapons were specifically upgraded to be used against the calamity with the only thing that contains the power of light that they had access to. I wish they had expanded upon diamonds and their connection to light magic, the only things with much association with light are dlc items from past games or Zelda’s bow of light. I think a crystalline aesthetic would be cool compared to what we got. Whatever I can add diamonds to my own designs that have to do with Hylia and light stuff, so if I design a light bow made of diamonds you know what inspired that decision lol.  

[science-lings]

There are graves under the two loftwing statues on the wall of the great plateau btw. Those ones are definitely sksw link and Zelda or at least their loftwings.

[science-lings]

i think more people should aknowledge malanya and how the stables are modeled after them. like, that has so much potential in terms of lore???

I mean, Malanya is kind of a folk spirit, he's at a similar level to the great fairies where there are legends about him but people have also visited and can actually see him. Unlike the rumors of dragons who can only be seen by children and those blessed by Hylia, Malanya is more real to the people. Also stables are the most widespread part of Hyrule, they're literally everywhere (except gerudo desert but like horses can't go there anyway so there wouldn't be a point).

There's also a big thing about travelers in this world, like those little statues with alters that you see everywhere and is usually hiding a korok? those are referred to as "travelers' guardian deities", being some kind of wandering traveller is so common in this Hyrule that there are dozens of waypoints where there are beds and people to hold on to your horse and to tell you directions.

Anyway I think that the valuing of a good steed and the abundance of traveling make Malanya a really important god. Unlike Hylia or the golden three, he's tangible and provides important services and is also a silly guy. He's well known enough that there's literally a path and a bridge to get to his spring, though I do think that a lot of the information about him was lost during the calamity, so though people knew of him, they didn't know quite where to find him.

I also prescribe to the theory that there's some connection between Malanya the horse god whose ambient music is the Lon Lon Ranch theme, and Malon, the og zelda horse girl. It wouldn't make sense with Malanya's design but maybe being turned into a god for a 10,000+ years transed her gender or something.