• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Spoiler The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Pre-Release Spoiler Discussion Thread (Tag Story Spoilers)

Status
Not open for further replies.
I really like the idea of there being a weird merging of time periods (warping the past into the present) or being able to utilized isolated situations to switch between time periods as opposed to just flat out your typical time travel game, but how would that work realistically?
I’ve been thinking about the cause and effect of Ganondorf being sealed for 30,000 years give or take a 100 years. Specifically the Arms ability, which is pretty much a given to be Raurus’, to hold him in place for that long and what type of spell is being used to keep Ganndorf from reincarnating.

The possible cause:
We already know the arm posses the ability to stop the momentum of an innate object and return it to its original position, as well as return a static inanimate object back to its original position as seen in the trailers. There is a few seconds where time pauses before the object returns onto or back from its original path.
spiked-ball-com.jpg

Nothing new here to really discuss, except we don’t know the effect this power from the arm would have on a living being.
As I mentioned before I believe Basket Lady is either the embodiment or Goddess of the cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth and it is the combination of both Rauru and Basket Ladies power that is able to first hold Ganondorf in place, by Rauru, right at the moment where he is neither dead or alive so he cannot reincarnate by basket Lady.

ma-du-raur.jpg


She may have had to have been sacrificed willingly in order to ensure Ganondorf could not reincarnate or Ganondorf might have killed her or tried to take her spirit in an attempt to break Demises curse but Rauru managed to hold him in place instead.
basket-fall.jpg


Regardless of how it was done as this is just speculation, so what would the effect be of either gradually breaking the Arms ability to hold Ganondorf in place for 30,000 years or have it happen suddenly as if he were reincarnated?

Some possible effects out of many:
A. Upon breaking the seal from the Arms power Ganondorf or his Spirit is returned back to its original state, 30,000 years ago at the time of his sealing so Demises hatred can be reincarnated. I know this is crazy, but that is essentially what the Power of the arm does which is to return an object back to its original position.

This would explain so much of what we are seeing in the trailers. If Ganondorf has a chance to recreate history, the present world of Hyrule would or could be dramatically different. There would have never been a Calamity, therefore no Sheikah tech as we know it, The great Deku tree could be in entirely different location and a million other possible outcomes could have occurred in the past 30,000 years and we as a player are just witnessing the final result. We would have to travel back in time to different time periods to find out what happened and or stop Ganondorf along the way.
Most likely Rauru would know the future as well now, so similar to how the Sheikah monks created trials for the Champion, Rauru would have planned out this inevitable outcome and left clues along the way for Link to discover, the Glyphs or underwater temples etc. on how to defeat Ganondorf in the present.

Or perhaps Link is also transported back into time at this point along with Ganondorf because he has absorbed the energy the Arm at this exact moment.
Link-green-hand-com.jpg


B. The effect of Gannondorf waking up or breaking the seal might actually warp time itself if he is suddenly reincarnated into the present instead of the past 30,000 years ago. Kind of like a Rubber band snapping back into place after it’s been twisted or had tension put on it, for 30,000 years. Somewhat like a time loop theory, but fragmented into a combination of the past and the present all in present time at the point of Ganondorfs death and rebirth. This would be how we get all technologies of the Zonai and Sheikah at the same time but warped or infused together, why some structures look like they are new and others are still worn and a combination of both. The combination of structures and materials possibilities are endless, and we would either be fixing them or putting them back into their respective time periods or creating new combinations from them.

I think 97% of this may be way off base, but it helps me to visual a possible solution to what we are seeing in the trailers. I wanted to include a lot more ideas and examples of "effect" as pretty much anything can be explained from this example, so that is why I think we are in for something similar along these lines because it leaves the Developers completely open to do anything they want.
 
I think those are very good theories.

In a very simplified way, I would also assume that while Ganondorf is released in the present, he draws his power from some artefacts/structures/entities in the past and for him to be weakened, we need to go back in time at specific places and destroy/collect/fix something.
Like we did with the activation of the titans to weaken Calamity Ganon.

I still wonder how the sky islands would fit into all that. The signs on the map all seem to be on the groundlevel and may point to something there or underground. How are the islands integrated into the gameloop? To me they still scream 'shrines' but in the sky.
I hope they serve a bigger purpose in the story. Like reaching a big landmass very high up in the sky and there to be the final fight. But that would go against the philosophy of the first game where you can go the final boss very early in the game.

Or like I said pages ago that in the end Hyrule will be flooded and you need to prepare the sky islands to rescue all civilizations of Hyrule from drowning (maybe not the Ritos...).
 
I think those are very good theories.

In a very simplified way, I would also assume that while Ganondorf is released in the present, he draws his power from some artefacts/structures/entities in the past and for him to be weakened, we need to go back in time at specific places and destroy/collect/fix something.
Like we did with the activation of the titans to weaken Calamity Ganon.

I still wonder how the sky islands would fit into all that. The signs on the map all seem to be on the groundlevel and may point to something there or underground. How are the islands integrated into the gameloop? To me they still scream 'shrines' but in the sky.
I hope they serve a bigger purpose in the story. Like reaching a big landmass very high up in the sky and there to be the final fight. But that would go against the philosophy of the first game where you can go the final boss very early in the game.

Or like I said pages ago that in the end Hyrule will be flooded and you need to prepare the sky islands to rescue all civilizations of Hyrule from drowning (maybe not the Ritos...).
I like that idea of Ganondorf drawing power from entities in the past and you have destroy something which changes the present back somehow or fixes something in the present similar to SS But throughout different periods type thing. I’m thinking the Sky islands represent the ancient past so I’m trying to think of way for them to suddenly appear or gradually appear in the present without as much time travel involved.
I’m on board with some type of flood occurring, I have several different types of theories of possibilities that I have talked about on how this might occur either through the map room, which I still think in some way depicts the difference between a past Hyrule which is flooded and the current Hyrule which is not flooded, to how BotWs’ map is made from a subterranean level of water and strange flowing waterfalls which might make it easier to flood Hyrule at some point in the game.
 
I like that idea of Ganondorf drawing power from entities in the past and you have destroy something which changes the present back somehow or fixes something in the present similar to SS But throughout different periods type thing. I’m thinking the Sky islands represent the ancient past so I’m trying to think of way for them to suddenly appear or gradually appear in the present without as much time travel involved.
I’m on board with some type of flood occurring, I have several different types of theories of possibilities that I have talked about on how this might occur either through the map room, which I still think in some way depicts the difference between a past Hyrule which is flooded and the current Hyrule which is not flooded, to how BotWs’ map is made from a subterranean level of water and strange flowing waterfalls which might make it easier to flood Hyrule at some point in the game.
I hope Zelda is involved in that part (making the sky islands appear).

Yeah, I am curious how a flood could happen.

I think my imagination is very unlikely but I thought that Link and Zelda in the end could be out of ideas to defeat Ganondorf because he is still to strong and they decide to destroy the blood moon by crashing it onto the planet - which will cause the flood. This way, they would know in advance that the flood will happen and it would make more sense that they take precautions for all people living in Hyrule like bringing them up on these sky islands.

I think that would be a very good incentive to do a lot of side-missions.
I myself would feel really bad causing that flood and not having rescued every last civilian down there.
It could be combined with an elaborated Tarrey Town quest where you have to build homes for everyone on some bigger floating island.

But yeah, that's all way out there. Almost nothing we have seen until now (including the artbook) points into that direction... :)
 
I hope Zelda is involved in that part (making the sky islands appear).

Yeah, I am curious how a flood could happen.

I think my imagination is very unlikely but I thought that Link and Zelda in the end could be out of ideas to defeat Ganondorf because he is still to strong and they decide to destroy the blood moon by crashing it onto the planet - which will cause the flood. This way, they would know in advance that the flood will happen and it would make more sense that they take precautions for all people living in Hyrule like bringing them up on these sky islands.

I think that would be a very good incentive to do a lot of side-missions.
I myself would feel really bad causing that flood and not having rescued every last civilian down there.
It could be combined with an elaborated Tarrey Town quest where you have to build homes for everyone on some bigger floating island.

But yeah, that's all way out there. Almost nothing we have seen until now (including the artbook) points into that direction... :)
it’s not all that crazy to think or unrealistic to think that the Developers went crazy with us having to build a massive town considering how just about every players feedback has been unanimous on how the Tarry town quest was one of their favorites in BotW.
I think there is evidence from the Art book that the shrines will be in the “beaneath the water” sections of the map. Many people have pointed out in posts in this thread the similar shrines structures from BotW are featured beneath the water in the art book pictures and that the Tori gates from the sky might be the way we access them.
It also represents the more spiritual side of the story that we will be playing through at some point, so it makes sense for the shrines to be located underwater. It would also make sense that they are located underwater or are flooded at first as a way to hide their location from Ganondorf.
And yah, we are way into speculation territory, but as I always say, it probably won’t occur like we think or speculate on how it will work, but there are usually some portions of it, grains of truth, or something similar that do happen. Nintendos not telling us what’s going to happen anytime before the game releases so we might as well make up the game we want to play until then as long as we can make some reasonable justification for it occurring.😊
 
Will be interesting if the next trailer will fuel the speculation even more or will give us a more concrete idea of what the gameplay loop and purpose of all these locations/structures will be.
 
Will be interesting if the next trailer will fuel the speculation even more or will give us a more concrete idea of what the gameplay loop and purpose of all these locations/structures will be.
For sure can’t wait, but I have a feeling based on what they have shown to us so far, that it may not be the type of trailer most people are expecting. Nothing from the Marketing of this game has indicated that we will get the equivalent of the 2017 BotW trailer. It’s possible, I will remain hopeful however.

Its funny how you have made a case for elements from a Wind Waker\ Majora‘s Mask type game and I am talking about a Skyward Sword type game, If we add into the mix that the Master Sword looks like it’s been reforged in the Twilight realm, then it’s almost like Nintendo just threw all the games into a blender and said, “You want to play all the games at once, here ya go.”
 
I would love to have a longer trailer that shows cool new longer scenes of real gameplay and some new interesting locations or characters, all to a new music track - but I hope the lore and logic of the world remain a mystery until I can play the game myself. We are so close to launch already. :)

Its funny how you have made a case for elements from a Wind Waker\ Majora‘s Mask type game and I am talking about a Skyward Sword type game, If we add into the mix that the Master Sword looks like it’s been reforged in the Twilight realm, then it’s almost like Nintendo just threw all the games into a blender and said, “You want to play all the games at once, here ya go.”

And yeah, this is funny. It really feels like Nintendo incorporates a lot of past ideas into TotK and mix it to something new. Like they did with BotW already (but much was only hinted in names of ruins and so forth).

In my mind the flooding would be the end of the game. The evil defeated, everyone safe up in the sky, Hyrule drowned.
They could safe sailing with a boat between islands and the Twilight realm for a third game.
The outcry if there would be another game on the "same map". DLC all over again. 😅
 
I hope Zelda is involved in that part (making the sky islands appear).

Yeah, I am curious how a flood could happen.

I think my imagination is very unlikely but I thought that Link and Zelda in the end could be out of ideas to defeat Ganondorf because he is still to strong and they decide to destroy the blood moon by crashing it onto the planet - which will cause the flood. This way, they would know in advance that the flood will happen and it would make more sense that they take precautions for all people living in Hyrule like bringing them up on these sky islands.

I think that would be a very good incentive to do a lot of side-missions.
I myself would feel really bad causing that flood and not having rescued every last civilian down there.
It could be combined with an elaborated Tarrey Town quest where you have to build homes for everyone on some bigger floating island.

But yeah, that's all way out there. Almost nothing we have seen until now (including the artbook) points into that direction... :)

I only take small peeks at this thread cause I don’t wanna look at the artbook leaks, but damn, y’all are wildin out in here
 
I only take small peeks at this thread cause I don’t wanna look at the artbook leaks, but damn, y’all are wildin out in here
The more time we have to further examine the details of the Art book leaks and compare them to what has been shown in the trailers the more convinced I am that this game is going to be nuts to absolute bonkers. And the only way to make sense of the crazy things we are seeing is to fight crazy with crazy 😜
 
It's not a far reach to say that the sky islands look like they are man made or look like they were constructed some how. It's obvious, which many have pointed out, from the trailers and the box art cover photo based on the pattern we see. I have found it odd for Link to have a similar tattoo to this pattern as well as the bracelet seemingly being a mini representation of this pattern as well.

pattern-com.jpg


I was only going to post a combination of a seemingly boring set of photos that are linked together to form what I think is a grinding machine or a mixing bowl for raw material or ore. It wasn't until I had put the 3 photos together that I noticed the size of Link in the photo, and thought again to myself, this is a massive mining operation.

mixing-bowl-com.jpg


I have always thought that it would be fun to uncover how the Devine Beasts were actually constructed or come across a giant Ancient Sheikah factory underground with different unused parts lying around or pieces of unfinished guardians in different stages of construction. What has been bothering me is the sheer scale of how small link is compared to these structures we are seeing. I theorized in the past that this picture of a smithing operation might be evidence of weapon fabrication and the red molten liquid was pouring into a mold of some sort. We can see from the different photos that this indeed a mold because it is not present in one of the shots.

mining-mold-comp.jpg

But now based on the scale of everything we are seeing as compared to Link, it is just way over kill to simply be a mining operation. It's being done on a monumental scale, so I am now changing my thought process to thinking that what we are seeing is actually how the sky islands were constructed. The pattern of what I was calling a mold for a weapon that the molten red liquid is pouring into is actually what is being made, which looks identical to the interior structure of the sky islands. Which now has me thinking that we will actually be making some portions of the sky islands from scratch or at the very least using the same material that makes the sky islands actually float, to construct or own vehicles or what ever else we are allowed to make in this game.

Then there is the fact that link has the same pattern as a tattoo which to tells me its directly related to the sky islands themselves.
 
Last edited:
I'm thinking that the Kingdom in "Tears of the Kingdom" might not be Hyrule or the sky or underground. It's on... the moon!
YpEquWB.jpg


Tears and the moon are linked across many cultures and mythologies. In Hindu mythology pearls are teardrops from the moon. In Incan culture Mother Moon cries tears of silver. In Japanese folklore Princess Kaguya cries from her palace on the moon longing to return to the Earth.

The Zelda series is no stranger to the concept of moon's tears, of course: Moon Pearls have appeared in a few games and Majora's Mask featured a moon's tear.
yfKRCrp.jpg


One of the many things magatamas, the curved beads that serve as the inspiration for the "tears" in TotK, are believed to represent is the moon.
MqKElUt.png


Ganondorf's mysterious moon powers seem to be of importance in TotK. In the latest trailers the blood moon has been tweaked to show monsters raining down from the moon like Final Fantasy 8's Lunar Cry (another moon tear reference):


Drawing inspiration from manga/anime, One Piece has an ancient civilization that once lived on the moon but moved to the planet the series takes place on in search of resources. They currently reside on islands that float in the sky. Like the Zonai they are based on mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs:
T2Tl2m7.png


And like Rauru some of them are goat people:
7fJqGqa.png


Rauru could also be meant to resemble a rabbit as well as a goat, which many cultures associate with the moon. Most know the Eastern Asian moon rabbit, but the Aztec moon god/goddess also had a rabbit form:
HmDOIT1.png
 
Last edited:
Just one thing about the monsters and moon, they are not shown coming from the moon, it's just zoomed in on the moon as the monsters arc from below.
I suspect they they don't show more of where they came from because it would show a clear shot of the of ancient Hyrule.
 
@RagnarokX
Very Cool theory, I hadn't associated that much symbolism with the moon but it makes a lot of sense.

I was just getting ready to post about this picture again, because it reminded me of an Ancient Aztec Calendar. I had been looking at the gears more closely and noticed they are not only gears but more like dials as well. Each one has a different set of either Zonai writing on them or what looks like to be animal symbols, then I noticed after reading your post that they actually depict the Sun, Moon cycles as well with the third possibly being a combination of both these cycles or representing time in Hyrule. Possibly not a calendar for this type of game but a time mechanism for time travel based on the Moon and Sun cycles
Calendar.jpg


Calendar1-com.jpg


Aztec Calendar

Aztec-Calendar.jpg


I like your theory about the legend of Quetzalcoatl and the rabbit.

4DEJJPEX4BC3PD4S5OCJ46G2AM.jpeg

I had to do some quick research on Quetzalcoatl and again we another example of a Deity associated with Death and Resurrection
Quetzalcoatl is a deity in Aztec culture and literature. Among the Aztecs, it was related to wind, Venus, Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge
Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec feathered-serpent god. He was a creator god who brought wind and rains
He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the twin Aztec high priests.


I also found it interesting he was the inventor of books and the calendar, which reminded me of this picture from the Art book as well.
books-lib.jpg
 
Maybe the sky islands will move with some kind of solar or lunar pattern. You will have to go to certain ones at different times to unlock new areas as they connect with other islands
 

The practical side of me would say that the flower on the outside of the bottle is where we get the oil from and it’s just used as another cooking ingredient.

The biased side of me would say we will be using it to quench our freshly crafted weapons in order to harden our metal Swords and weapons.

The crazy side of me would say we will be using the bottles of oil as a Molotov cocktail to throw at enemies and make fire bombs.

Nintendo would say, “Lets make their vehicles stop working every time it rains because the gears get rusty and either have them wait it out or spend 5 minutes applying oil to all the moving parts to keep them protected.”😂
 
Last edited:
0
@RagnarokX
Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec feathered-serpent god. He was a creator god who brought wind and rains
He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the twin Aztec high priests.
Feathered-serpent god eh?



Also, user CryZe92 on Reddit managed to make this really precise 'chart' to determine the rough size of the tutorial sky islands. I'm not unfamiliar to the process they used, but can't find the name for it right now. I'd be curious if anyone else knows it.

 
Feathered-serpent god eh?



Also, user CryZe92 on Reddit managed to make this really precise 'chart' to determine the rough size of the tutorial sky islands. I'm not unfamiliar to the process they used, but can't find the name for it right now. I'd be curious if anyone else knows it.



Ok but what am I looking at? Is the section in red the approximate size of the island?
 
0
I was curious just how far the Devs could possibly take the whole mining operation theme and island construction Idea, as well as I wanted to educate myself more on underground mining operations and what they entail and came up with some very intriguing photos that I think could explain the Giant Death Stars floating at different elevations from various trailer shots we have been wondering about. But first I wanted to see some schematics of actual operations, not for educating purposes, but to see what a mining dungeon in Zelda might look like:)

Just a few mining schematics I pulled off the internet, what's pretty consistent is that most have a central tower where ore is raised to the surface as well as function like an elevator shaft for miners to get to the dig site etc.
miningf2.jpg

min-3.jpg

minec.jpg

schematic.jpg



So we have seen the Death Stars at various altitudes and we know for certain that the Zonai labyrinths can move or have moved up and down. So its not a stretch to think the Death Stars could as well. The big question is why? We have seen most of the large structures underground related to collecting the ore deposits with some evidence of initial smithing or metal urgency going on which makes sense.
But your not going to build your sky islands underground, you need some way of transporting all the raw materials, semi prefabricated parts etc. from the surface to the sky as well as a more refined manufacturing facility once you begin construction.
As I was looking at all the different mine sites online, I started see an awful lot of these domes which are used to store raw materials and conduct on-sight manufacturing. These things can be massive.
2-dom.jpg

3-dom.jpg

And yes these are only half "Death Stars" but if you needed to get all the material up into the sky so you could build your sky islands then one way you could do that would be to load up your Sphere on the surface and raise it to your building location in the sky. The Sphere would also serve as yet one more way for us to get to certain islands in the sky or they could have crazy unique bosses guarding them inside whom we have to defeat before being able to operate them.

I also found a lot of mining sites had water ponds or settling ponds for material depending on the site and the ore being mined. I noticed several of the sky islands scattered throughout the sky only have water on them, like lakes, and literally nothing else. Here are just a few that you can make out, I have spotted what looks like 3 others but its too hard to tell, the only sign is that they are completely flat with what looks like the reflective surface of water.
miningf.jpg


Flat lake sky islands - in two different locations.
flat-isls-2.jpg

game-min-pic.jpg
 
Last edited:
Feathered-serpent god eh?



Also, user CryZe92 on Reddit managed to make this really precise 'chart' to determine the rough size of the tutorial sky islands. I'm not unfamiliar to the process they used, but can't find the name for it right now. I'd be curious if anyone else knows it.


They look like they could be feathers it’s hard to tell but there is definitely something flowing around the head. Everyone has assumed it’s another dragon but it makes more sense that it’s a serpent since the 3 dragons in BotW are already associated with Din, Nayru and Farore.
 
0
Feathered-serpent god eh?



Also, user CryZe92 on Reddit managed to make this really precise 'chart' to determine the rough size of the tutorial sky islands. I'm not unfamiliar to the process they used, but can't find the name for it right now. I'd be curious if anyone else knows it.



In mythology of Andean civilizations of South America, the amaru or katari (aymara) is a mythical serpent or dragon. In Inca mythology, amaru is a huge double-headed serpent that dwells underground, at the bottom of lakes and rivers.[1] Illustrated with the heads of a bird and a puma, amaruca can be seen emerging from a central element in the center of a stepped mountain or pyramid motif in the Gateway of the Sun at Tiwanaku, Bolivia. When illustrated on religious vessels, amaruca is often seen with bird-like feet and wings,[2] so that it resembles a dragon. Amaruca is believed capable of transcending boundaries to and from the spiritual realm of the subterranean world.[2]
 
Y’all are really getting into those details because I would’ve just looked at that and assumed it was Farosh no questions asked lol
 
The dragon looks like Naydra, but with golden hairs around some parts of its body. Maybe it's not a new dragon, maybe the dragons receive some changes in their appearance for some reason(s).
 
0
Even though the developers treat the timeline as an afterthought I think it would be cool if they would find some way to merge timelines and use it as a chance to reboot the mythology, maybe Link doesn’t always have to be the chosen one, or get rid of the whole reincarnation method and a passing of the sword from one hero to the next, maybe even have a good Ganondorf and an evil Link or Zelda.

Edit: wrong Zelda thread.
 
@Skittzo "
"I assume they'll have a ton of semi-built or ruined constructs lying around where you just need to add a handful of parts to get them working. I don't think they'll want to burden you by lugging around a wagon full of parts that you'll then feel compelled to pick up constantly.

I don't doubt that you'll be able to build a vehicle to transport parts if you really want to, but I don't think there will be an existing game mechanic specifically meant to do that and hitch it to your horse, that just doesn't feel at all like something Nintendo would want to introduce in a game like this."

I'm moving my reply to you over in this thread. I was going to post this the other day, but since its more relevant to the conversation in the other thread, I will post it here. I think the basis for that leak stems from this one photo.
horset4.jpg


I was thinking about this photo the other day that this an odd way to show this attachment to this horse because we obviously are not going to be dragging a square log around on the ground behind our horse. The only conclusion I could come up with at the time was that we would be attaching it to a wagon, but that there also may be other things we attach our horse to so in the photo its left just as a concept rather being shown attached to a wagon. It still doesn't make the case, and I don't know how much fun it will be if we have to load up our wagons and move tons of material all over Hyrule. But just in my previous post above, I am actually suggesting that may be in the case as well. Not sure how I feel about it tbh, but that's what I am gleaming from this photo.
 
@Skittzo "
"I assume they'll have a ton of semi-built or ruined constructs lying around where you just need to add a handful of parts to get them working. I don't think they'll want to burden you by lugging around a wagon full of parts that you'll then feel compelled to pick up constantly.

I don't doubt that you'll be able to build a vehicle to transport parts if you really want to, but I don't think there will be an existing game mechanic specifically meant to do that and hitch it to your horse, that just doesn't feel at all like something Nintendo would want to introduce in a game like this."

I'm moving my reply to you over in this thread. I was going to post this the other day, but since its more relevant to the conversation in the other thread, I will post it here. I think the basis for that leak stems from this one photo.
horset4.jpg


I was thinking about this photo the other day that this an odd way to show this attachment to this horse because we obviously are not going to be dragging a square log around on the ground behind our horse. The only conclusion I could come up with at the time was that we would be attaching it to a wagon, but that there also may be other things we attach our horse to so in the photo its left just as a concept rather being shown attached to a wagon. It still doesn't make the case, and I don't know how much fun it will be if we have to load up our wagons and move tons of material all over Hyrule. But just in my previous post above, I am actually suggesting that may be in the case as well. Not sure how I feel about it tbh, but that's what I am gleaming from this photo.
That looks more like a farming tool, like this is a plow horse.

But yeah I hadn't seen that, if we're really attaching a wagon to the horse to lug stuff around that seems pretty boring and antithetical to open-world freedom and traversal. I wouldn't be a fan of that.
 
We now know what the Sky Islands are...
The Sacred Realm
. A bunch of text from the artbook has been translated. For those interested you can read what was released here:



Also the Reddit thread is here:

 
Last edited:
So…
If the floating islands are the Sacred Realm, could that previous leak at Reddit be true? Tbh I thought it was a compilation of speculation and theories, especially the part about explaining the name of the game.
 
So…
If the floating islands are the Sacred Realm, could that previous leak at Reddit be true? Tbh I thought it was a compilation of speculation and theories, especially the part about explaining the name of the game.

Do you have a link to that?
 
Not sure if I should even bother spoiler tagging any of this but just in case... some random thoughts of mine:

If they are bringing the Sacred Realm into the storyline then I surmise that the story in Tears of the Kingdom is going to be a BIG DEAL. BOTW has a relatively minimal story but I feel that Tears of the Kingdom may actually be going for an epic story line. I feel addressing something like the Sacred Realm can only be done in an expansive story. Especially with how important the Sacred Realm has been through the history of the franchise. To chuck it into another small story would be a disservice to fans (opinion). Add to that all the crazy Zonai stuff, hand abilities, weird characters we are seeing, a full villain, etc. It is my personal opinion that Tears of the Kingdom could be an epic story. One that could bring tears to our eyes or make us feel something.

Also makes me wonder if the Sacred Realm is basically colliding with Hyrule in some manner and also combining together. What this will mean in the end. So many unknowns and there is still a lot of "time" themed content in this game. Especially in the artbook so I do question what that will mean as well.

We may be in for some crazy fucking shit here in a few weeks...
 
Didn't a lot of people guess that the sky islands were the Sacred Realm? That reddit post seems like a summary of rumors and guesses.
Yes. I remember from the theories of the E3 2021 teaser, and the comparison with previous depictions in other games.

I also remember the part about the interpretation of the name of the game being in a Zeldatuber video, but can’t recall which one.
 
0
Didn't a lot of people guess that the sky islands were the Sacred Realm? That reddit post seems like a summary of rumors and guesses.
Yeah the rumor still feels like just a lucky guess, or at the very least it's not really saying much that wasn't speculated before

The translations lend a small amount of credence but not much imo
 
0
The Reddit rumor seems sus to me. Most of it is just stuff people can gleam or guess from the art book and doesn't go into any more detail beyond that. When given the opportunity to present brand new information like how the Zonai are incorporated into the story, they don't offer any info. Beyond the Sacred Real stuff which is a common prediction, there isn't anything beyond what people here are already guessing based on the contents of the art book.
 
Yeah the Reddit rumor doesn’t tell us anything we couldn’t piece together from the art book. And some of it doesn’t make sense, like broken weapons staying in your inventory. Wouldn’t that lead to the possibility of having your entire inventory filled with broken weapons? Maybe you could drop them but it seems very cumbersome to constantly clean out broken junk in your inventory.

What’s more likely is that you can collect parts after they break that don’t go in your weapon wheel, but are just mats to use in crafting.
 
Yeah even with the "confirmation" that the island are the Sacred Realm, I wouldn't take that leak for real.
 
Here's the Sacred Realm (or Golden Land) depicted in Link's Awakening art

sacred-realm.jpg


Zelda fans naturally connect things we see in new games with previous titles. When the sky islands were first shown in the 2nd trailer, people of course thought of Skyloft, the city in the sky from Twilight Princess, and of course this ALTTP artwork. And with the golden imagery of the vegetation, torii gates, and temples, the Sacred Realm has been a major guess for the sky islands since the beginning.

breath-of-the-wild-2.jpg


We explore the Sacred Realm in ALTTP as the Dark World but it's never made clear how the realm had changed because of Ganon's influence. There are no sky islands that we can explore or see but that can easily be explained away as Ganon drastically changing the landscape or simply because we are only exploring a small section of the Sacred Realm.

images


We briefly see the Sacred Realm in A Link Between Worlds where it doesn't have a golden motif but the presence of clouds suggest that where Triforce is located is either in the sky or very high up in some mountains

E12sspHXoAIUWKQ.jpg


The series is pretty fast and loose on how it depicts the same locations across games so I don't think the common iconography between the sky islands of Tears of the Kingdom and the depictions of the Sacred Realm in other Zelda games is definitive proof that the islands are from the Sacred Realm. Honestly, the artists were probably just told to depict the Sacred Realm as "heavenly or divine" and temples amongst the clouds is an easy way to do that. But with that said, I do the Sacred Realm is a strong contender for the source of the islands in Tears of the Kingdom and even if they are not, I do think they do have some spiritual or religious meaning to the Zelda mythos.
 
I definitely posted in this thread or the other one months ago that the sky world would be the sacred realm and the underground would be the dark realm, both somehow merged together with Hyrule's world.

Specifically my theory was that there were 5 layers to the world-

Sacred realm
Floating islands not far above Hyrule
Hyrule
Shallow underground caves
Deep underground dark realm
 
Looks like there's some debunking of the translation going on in the Reddit thread. People are questioning the Japanese translation.
 
The fact that the game's coming out in a month and a half and they still haven't gotten into proper marketing is off the chain. It's like those old jokes about HL3 being shadowdropped because everyone will buy it anyway back in 20, haha, 12. Mad props.

That being said, I miss it when Nintendo was hungry and determined and had to really try, try, try in order to deal with the Wii U aftermath.
 
I definitely posted in this thread or the other one months ago that the sky world would be the sacred realm and the underground would be the dark realm, both somehow merged together with Hyrule's world.

Specifically my theory was that there were 5 layers to the world-

Sacred realm
Floating islands not far above Hyrule
Hyrule
Shallow underground caves
Deep underground dark realm
If there'd be an entire Sacred Realm overworld on top of the lower layer of cloud islands... I would laugh hysterically.

also were still going to the moon right?
The fact that the game's coming out in a month and a half and they still haven't gotten into proper marketing is off the chain. It's like those old jokes about HL3 being shadowdropped because everyone will buy it anyway back in 20, haha, 12. Mad props.

That being said, I miss it when Nintendo was hungry and determined and had to really try, try, try in order to deal with the Wii U aftermath.
Hungry Nintendo is definitely more interesting to follow. Must've been stressful for the devs though, so it's probably better that it's not required nowadays.
 
I don't really know what to make of the information that the sky islands are part of the Sacred Realm, whether it's true or not. Feels like a kind of "so what?" reveal without knowing what the implications for the gameplay and the story are. Hyrule and the Sacred Realm (and perhaps the Dark World as well, as @Skittzo is theorizing) merging could make for some fascinating scenarios though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Staff Communication
Does your post contain any story spoilers? Please err on the side of caution and use spoiler tags before posting it. Failure to do so may result in being banned from the thread.
Last edited:


Back
Top Bottom