🪷Discovering Connections Across Hyrule🪷

Theories and connections for The Legend Of Zelda series ⚡️🪼TW: Zonai True Founding/End of Downfall for my Wilds Era Placement 🪼⚡️ 🌬 🌬 🌬

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

If Refounding Theory is so "confirmed", then why are so many people so worried about the Zelda devs including any Zonai lore or references in the Ocarina of Time remake?

Its not that the developers are "wrong and don't care".

I think it could be because the new lore doesn't confirm everyone's long held headcanons. People genuinely forget how vague Oot is about some important details in it's story.

Maybe there is some anxiety about those vague details being more fleshed out in the remake because those blank spaces are where we made our own conclusions and imagined whole plot points for how Hyrule ended up like that before OoT. There is also the idea that Ocarina's events set the stage for every entry after it in the timeline so NOTHING is more important to Zelda lore than Ocarina of Time so every entry's lore is judged based on how relevant it is to what happened in Oot.

I think that mentality created the corner the writers are stuck in. For example: Because of Oot, the land suffers a Great Flood in ONE timeline. This gave the devs creativity to create the Rito for ease of sea travel/ story reasons, and Koroks to show what happened to the Kokiri. But because this is the timeline where Hyrule is completely destroyed, these functionally useful and interesting designs and ideas may "NEVER" be used outside it's "correct timeline" or it will cause confusion and ire. Imma be so real, thats what the devs were probably referring to about how series conventions restrict creativity. The Rito and Koroks are too awesome and interesting to never be utilized in Hyrule properly. Birds and trees dont care much for trains so the refounding group invented the destruction New Hyrule to keep what OoT set up for Windwaker, while completely missing Windwaker's whole point.

New lore creating a bunch of "contradictions" to decades long held headcanons can feel like a careless retcon or a personal betrayal to some fans. The extreme reactions convinced me that N64 nostalgia created a version of Hyrule that can never meaningfully change, grow, or properly explain itself or else some mob dutifully assembles to tell the creators they're wrong and messy.

[loruleanhistorian]

🧵: The Zonai & Hyrule’s Founding

[loruleanhistorian]

Updated the timeline graphic to include flow lines and breaks—gaps of time in the given chronology.

I've also created a companion piece detailing the definition of "Calamity Ganon".

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

The Highlands are shaped like a massive Heroine Statue...

The eighth heroine's missing sword is placed on the "head" of this massive heroine silhouette...

Hmm...

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

It would be wild for the remake to imply oot Ganondorf's soul got summoned into the bloodline of Gerudo Royalty by witches and that being the reason for his birthright to the throne.

If lightning powers are passed down by Gerudo royalty, and oot Ganondorf / Agahnim have lightning powers, then perhaps Urbosa had the information that the Calamity took the form of a Gerudo because it has stained the history of her own ancestral lightning powers.

Perhaps the Thunder Helm was created for new Gerudo royals who weren't a part of this bloodline after the disaster of oot Ganondorf. Because they believe the strongest should rule, they needed a safeguard against the lightning powers of the "calamity descendents" to protect the new chieftain's right to the throne for a while.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

One of my predictions for the remake is that Redeads will be confirmed to be made of bones and clay and work similarly to puppets. Most of us are familiar with the trophies in Smash Bros that states something like that:

"Seven years after Ganondorf took control of Hyrule, ReDeads roamed the ruins of castle town, moaning. Link was shocked at the state of the town, and the apparent lack of survivors. He later learned that the townsfolks had evacuated to safety, and the ReDeads were magic animated into hideous humanoid shapes."

"These creatures may look like zombies, but ReDeads weren't human to begin with. They appear to be clay monsters fashioned in the shape of humans. They attack Link when he gets too close, the spine-chilling sound they emit difficult to describe. Don't bother--just get rid of them!"

While Ocarina of Time doesn't confirm this, it is still present in the series itself with Triforce Heroes depicting them to be made of clay.

The most recent reference to this phenomenon is in Masterworks 2 for Tears of the Kingdom:

"It’s said that the Gerudo tribe of the ancient past had the skill to use things like dubious animal bones and earth to control evil spirits. They would make something like a clay doll, and instil it with an evil spirit to become a puppet. Princess Zelda ridiculed the imitation of herself as Ganondorf’s ‘puppet’, and she was certainly correct. From the many acts of the ancient Gerudo tribe, they may have seen through this secret technique. Demon King Ganondorf may have used this technique in present day, while trying his best to control the consumption of his own dark power, perhaps he used it for reconnaissance."

Although this passage is directly referring to the Zelda Puppets, I couldn't help but see the clay and dark magic connection. Perhaps the ability to create Redeads comes from the Gerudo Tribe being able to manipulate spirits into a semi autonomous clay doll? Maybe the Redeads in Castle Town are for surveillance purposes as well?

I don't think this practice began with dark magic though. Perhaps it was once a practice rooted in ancestor veneration until the witch cults hijacked the technique and filled the dolls with cursed spirits/ Shades instead of protector spirits like the Seven Heroines for example. Maybe this is also why the Gerudo Tribe produced a Sage of Spirit in the first place?

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

And this is a taotie mask, a perfectly valid mask in Midna's opinion...

Hmm...

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Hmm.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Isn't this archaeologist some kind of evidence that there absolutely was a "History of Destruction" before the founding of Rauru's kingdom? Isn't that why he visited the many mysterious ruins?? Wasn't Gorko stunned by meeting a sky person with magical powers and "keys" to the ruins???

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Made a True founding post on r/truezelda a few weeks ago that ended up with 25 upvotes. The trick is to not say it's a true founding post lol.

People generally agree that the Shades from Age of Imprisonment is the same dark magic that got sealed away in the Interloper war.

This means that the only main timeline game that should feature Shades is Twilight Princess, because of the Shadow Invasion and shards of the mirror/ helmet releasing the sealed shadow magic.

The "Zonai barbarians" are confirmed to be Hylian and worshipped the Zonai's powers. These Hylians must have caused the interloper conflict shortly after the founding of the kingdom like the official timeline says. Because these barbarians created architecture that looks like proto Twili architecture some time after King Rauru, it would be nonsense to imply a refounding scenario. That would be like saying the Twili suddenly came back to influence the kingdom's founding and built Shang Dynasty style architecture around Hyrule after Midna cut ties with the Light World permanently.

It just makes more sense to say the Shades disappeared because the interloper conflict happened some time after Rauru's Sacrifice. Rather than the other way around.

[loruleanhistorian]

[loruleanhistorian]

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

All these interview quotes and Refounders cling to just one... tragic.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Since we know that the eye symbol that becomes the shiekah eye is based on the Zonai third eye, what if all the major eye symbols across the series come from the Zonai as well?

What if, going forward in remasters and remakes, any time an eye symbol is used by a culture of people, it will reflect where they are from at a glance?

For example, if the eye is looking upwards to the heavens, it was used as a crest to represent Sky civilizations that branched from the Zonai.

An eye depicted looking straight ahead would represent Surface civilizations that branched off from ancient Zonai.

And eyes looking downward representing civilizations built in the Depths.

Of course the design team and developers did not have anything like this in mind when they made past games. But perhaps this could be used as a hint regarding future releases and remasters.

I believe while the Ancient Zonai were acending and descending their capital for a long time, that separate civilizations would later evolve from the settlements established in the sky, surface, and depths with different cultures due to the nature and strengths of the locations.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

The Mysterious Hyrulean Civil War

It's interesting how much headcanon surrounding this event gets repeated as facts.

Fans have been making theories and headcanons for it for well over 20 years so I completely understand attachments to long held headcanons. Its hard to change your mind on beliefs that have been held for decades.

The only things we solidly know about the Hyrulean Civil War is

● that the conflict lasted for ages

● baby Link and his mother were caught up in the bloodshed so she delivered her baby to the Deku Tree before perishing

● that the entire land was unified by the King after the war.

It is NOT outright confirmed which nations actually fought in this conflict. But it is strongly implied that the Shiekah, Hylians and the Gerudo might have fought in it. The Shadow Temples existence implies the Shiekah involvement. The fact that a gravely injured Hylian woman delivered her baby to safety through the dangerous Lost Woods into the care of the Great Deku Tree, because nowhere else seemed safe for a Hylian baby in the fires of war suggests that all Hylian settlements were active warzones.

We don't know the extent of the participation of the other nations except that it is heavily implied that the (likely brainwashed) Gerudo who followed Ganondorf had fought against Hyrule Kingdom for a while, given the hostility on the border between the nations. With the caveat that Ganondorf had made himself seem trustworthy enough to the King to swear fealty at least once that we seen and possibly another time off screen before the game. So im going with the (Age of Imprisonment) interpretation that Ganondorf had fall guys to throw under the bus to make himself look trustworthy to the King.

Another implication that some Gerudo probably participated in the war is that it's very possible that Ganondorf has male followers recruited by Gerudo women. Although it isn't outright confirmed, the men fighting alongside the Gerudo against the Kingdom may be Hylian. The militant Gerudo have interest in recruiting Hylian men evidenced by the Carpenters ditching their work to attempt to join the Gerudo Thieves. The carpenters were deemed too weak to join the ranks so they were captured instead. It wouldn't make sense to drop everything and betray the kingdom if there wasn't already a precedence of other Hylians joining the thieves successfully.

The Zora, Kokiri, and Gorons are implied to already have the trust of the royal family based on them possessing the Spiritual Stones in an effort to help the Kingdom guard the entrance to the Sacred Realm. That trust is implied to go waaay back because the current leaders have no knowledge of what these stones original purpose was by the time of the game.

This may mean that the other nations already have been allied with Hyrule Kingdom during the conflict. It is not canon to the game that the Zora and Gorons fought against the Kingdom.

Ganondorf curses the other nations for not bending to his will and giving him the stones. It's possible that he gave them the opportunity to join his side before they refused and ended up suffering for it. If any of these nations were fighting with the kingdom, perhaps they would have joined him to save their own kin from his cruelty and join the stronger side? Their independence from one another and the kingdom seems to suggest that they didn't want to get involved in the Hylian's warzones.

The short era of peace was probably after the King ordered the Shiekah to kidnap rebel Hylians to the Shadow Temple. The rebel Hylians fought back against the Shiekah and the dwindling numbers on both sides may be the final throes of the war. Once the traitors were eliminated, the king could finally claim peace and unity within the Kingdom among the remaining Hylians. Perhaps Kakariko Village was built as a Hylian settlement in order to weed out traitors. The best example of a covert traitor Hylian is the soldier that becomes the Poe Collector, who is loyal to Ganondorf after the timeskip. Long before those 7 years, this soldier can be heard complaining about how boring peace is and how much he wishes there were "more troubles in the world" and expects Link to keep these conversations secret.

Since A Link to the Past follows Ocarina, I have reason to believe the Hylians were searching for and fighting over the Triforce for generations until Ganondorf claimed it. Some Castle Town citizens in Ocarina can be heard gossiping about the entrance to the Sacred Realm. It only makes sense for them to speculate about it if it's existence was discovered and searched for sometime before OoT.

I think its very interesting that the Hylians, Shiekah, and Gerudo were the likely participants of the war. Especially if all three share Zonai ancestry evidenced by their capability of having long ears.

All these headcanons of mine aside, no further details are actually confirmed about the Hyrulean Civil War except those three bullet points. Im just suggesting an alternative explanation to the common assumption that the Gorons, Zora and Kokiri were not unified with Hyrule Kingdom until just before Ocarina of Time. Nothing implies that they were ever at war with the King of Hyrule. But there are suggestions that some members of these groups don't always trust Hylians.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Hmm...

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

The Zonai are likely the progenitors of the 3 "human" cultures

The Zonai share traits with the 3 human cultures of Hylian, Gerudo, and Shiekah.

Hylian: connected by belief in the Goddess Hylia. Hylia Worship originates from Zonai culture. Long ears are passed down from Zonai to spiritually attuned Hylians.

Shiekah: Zonai have a secret writing system that appears when casting magic using jutsu-like techniques, a trait which we see carry on in the Shiekah and Yiga populations.

Gerudo: it is said that the Ancient Gerudo had a secret technique to bind spirits into creations like clay dolls made with remains. They referred to the creations as puppets in Rauru's era. Puppet magic is not very different from creating constructs. Its like a low tech, less durable version of construct creation. Perhaps the first concept for constructs originated from the possibility of creating more durable puppets after Zonaite was discovered.

The Gerudo are said to follow funerary rites that honor and value the spirits of their ancestors, believing that a well respected spirit could protect their living descendants in the mortal realm. Perhaps this belief among pre-Gerudo Zonai is where such a skill originates?

Descendants desperately calling upon their ancestor's spirits into physical form to protect them from manifestations of evil or disaster.... kind of reminds me of how the Ancient Hero's Aspect, Fierce Deity, and Transformation Masks function. The Legends say their souls returned from the dead to save their kin.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Hmm...

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

If Gods cannot use the Triforce,

And Ganon wished for godlike influence and power over the whole realm,

Would the Triforce technically not be able to grant such a wish since becoming godlike would negate your eligibility to wish? How could the Triforce interpret a wish that goes against it's design?

Is this why Ganon was given influence over the Dark World separately? Granting a realm in which he could fully rule a mirror of the Kingdom with his malice without going against the Triforce rules and possibly destroying the seal on Null? Technically his wish was granted but not as he intended. Because he ascended to god of the Dark World, perhaps he can no longer use the Triforce even to escape the Sage's seal?

At the peak of Ganon's power, he accidentally got trapped with an all powerful artifact he can no longer use once the entrance was sealed by the Sages.

Because the Triforce is essentially the glue that holds the land of Hyrule together... and it's under Ganon's influence... would this mean that Ganon would periodically influence the land of Hyrule as well? Say, his malice courses through the land like veins, bit by bit for a long time. Eventually, that malice builds up and grows into natural disasters and begins Calamities. Perhaps when Ganondorf broke into the Sacred Realm and stole the Triforce in oot, he had an opportunity to corrupt the huge Sacred Tree at the heart of the land with his Malice?

Whether the corruption of the Sacred Tree was planned or automatic with a Triforce wish is anyone's guess, but it very likely isn't corrupted in Rauru's time as he fought his final battle in the advantageous Temple of Light, implying that a great amount light energy flowed from this location in his era due to the tree. But in Wilds Era we learn that Calamities come from Malice (not Gloom) building up deep under the castle, where we also learn the tree is located and coincidentally the very first place mummydorf went to regain power assuming he sensed the power of the Dark Tree created by the Calamity.

Mummydorf claimed the Dark Tree and replaced the Malice of the Calamity with the Gloom of the Demon King, likely causing the upheaval and activating Zelda's plans. Its a reasonable assumption that Zelda planned for the sky islands to descend and break the sky barrier when Hyrule overflows with Gloom specifically. This would be the reason why Calamities didn't effect the descent of the sky islands or cause the upheaval prematurely.

Tldr: oot Ganondorf probably claimed the Triforce and Light Tree in the Sacred realm, corrupted it into a Malice Tree that caused the Calamities in Hyrule for many millenia, mummydorf resurrects and feels the dark power of the Malice Tree and is immediately drawn to it as a beacon of his power and uses it to regenerate, then causes the upheavel by turning it into a Gloom Tree. The massive amount of Gloom would signal for Zelda's plans to activate and reveal the Sky Islands.

[tatlstalesofthekingdom]

Legends say the dark sorcerer Agahnim appeared like a comet and quickly put an end to calamities that plagued the land of Hyrule. His power was so great he was thought to be a reincarnated Sage.

I wonder if that event looked anything like this:

Except Agahnim is manipulative as hell and pretends to save everyone from this. He acts like he's Rauru and gains the King's favor only to overthrow the kingdom from the inside out again.