It really blows my mind how the snow dungeon in twilight princess has armor that matches the body shape of rauru and zonai. Really cool how TP was the big main beginning of real zonai evidence.
I have a little theory on the origin of the Zonai: they're from the moon. It would explain "coming from the sky", Zelda has flirted with aliens before in MM and an early concept for BotW, and the Zonai have large, almost rabbit-like ears, and Japanese folklore famously has rabbits on the moon
Interesting theory worth considering but how would you explain the physical "dimorphism" between Rauru's more goat-like appereance, Mineru's more dog-like form and the Ancient Hero's more jackal Anubis-like design. I myself believe the Zonai might be a physically _diverse_ race of beings with each member looking strikingly different to the other depending on their bloodline and special powers which is represented by their unique body shape. Rauru had Light related powers hence he looked like a goat while Mineru had spiritual powers which is why she looked more dog-like. The Ancient Hero's power might have been _Courage_ as the Hero of Legend which is why he looks more jackal-like instead of a goat or dog which explains his own unique appereance. Food for conversation.
Both are interesting thoughts! The entire story of Zonai is kind of reminiscent of alien stories, with them descending from the sky and being literally alien to the land of Hyrule. I looked at both Rauru and Mineru side by side to compare their outward appearance and idk, they don't look that far apart from each other. Mineru has a slightly smaller nose and shorter snout but I don't really see the dog resemblance. Imo this is either just a normal range of variance in appearance or sexual dimorphism. Still, it doesn't quite exclude the possibility of Zonai being physically diverse, given that we've only ever seen two of them and they are *siblings*. That tail and legs on Ancient Hero had to have come from somewhere.
@@Drakenwild Haha you're right as to Mineru and Rauru's shapes been only slightly different to each other. Truth be told i was been a little overly especulative for the sake of adding to the theory regarding Zonai dimorphism across the tribe so you are right in that Mineru doesn't have enough distinctive dog-like features that seperate her from Rauru's own appereance. When i came up with the idea of her face been similar to a dog's i was mostly basing it on the likeness of a chihuaha who's tall and upward rabbit-like ears do seem rather similar to those sported by Mineru. Since Rauru's ears are more "stretched" to the sides rather than upwards i assumed that meant they both represented a specific animal fitting of their own unique abilities. As to the question regarding the nature behind the Ancient Hero's tail and feet i've come to believe that the reason for this "Link's" unique appereance and body has something to do with the existence of the Depths and it's relation to the Bargainer Statues and Poes which linger within the many caverns almost as if trapped in a form of "purgatory" awaiting for _someone_ to find them amidst the darkness and send them to eternal peace in the Afterlife. I feel you may have realized what i'm suggesting after i mentioned Anubis in my previous comment as i described the Ancient Hero as been "jackal-like". It is my belief that the previous Hero might have been a Zonai who fulfilled the role of a "God of the Underworld" helping the spirits of those lost in the Depths reach everlasting peace during the times of the Great Calamity 10.000 years ago which is why he ressembles the egyptian god of the Underworld (Anubis) as a hint of his specific purpose during the events of the first Calamity. Given that in Tears of the Kingdom Link seems to be the _only_ character able to deliver Poes to the Bargainer Statues it gave me the impression that the current Link is continuing the work left by his predecessor by becoming the new God of the Underworld who sends the souls of the dead into Paradise. I'm probably very off with this "theory" of mine but ever since i noticed how "egyptian" he seemed to look with jewerly around his neck, cloth tunic as his only attire and his animal feet and tail i couldn't but assume he was a striking reference to Anubis and his role as the egyptian God of the Underworld. Anyway haha i'm sorry for this long comment thread. I hope we could all get something out of it as we continue to discover more secrets surrounding this apparently alien race of goat animal people known as the Zonai. Thanks for the response!
My personal theory about the light roots is that the shrines are connected to the light roots in order to use the light they produce, and refine it into a type that could deal with the monsters and make blessings of light. Either that or the light roots grew from the shrines. I like the former idea since the mechanisms at the end of the shrines resemble the forge used to make new battery cells, so the idea that the shrines are refining something would make sense to me.
As for the armors, I wonder if not all of them would fit Link in a perfect world that is not trying to be a game and give you lots of cool armor sets. It's safer to reconsider the barbarian armor for everything else but its size I'd say, as you did mention.
On one hand, yes. On the other, BotW did go out of its way to justify why armor sets from Rito and Zora can be worn by a Hylian (the Rito armor is made specifically to cater to Hylians and Zora armor was made by Mipha for Link) and that's setting a precedent. So, I expect the same logic to be applicable here, too.
Lol, sorry. That disclaimer was added later on basically to warn everyone that this will be focused just on TotK and BotW. I have pretty strong views on the state of the Zelda timeline by now.
This was a really well put together timeline. You mentioned a lot of things about the architecture I hadn’t noticed (or heard anyone else mention) before! It’s amazing how much care the Zelda team put into their world building for this game, usually Zelda games tend to just give exposition dumps on ancient cultures/historical events, sort of like they were only really plot elements added to the narrative after the game design was done, but with BotW and TotK there’s very little exposition and instead the ancient history is embedded in the world design with so much intention to each little detail (it’s not a computer generated landscape like in a lot of open world games). The discovery process of this history/culture for players of the game is so similar to how we discover, research and are left to piece together ancient history in the real world, big props to the Zelda team because I’m sure that has to have been an intentional design/narrative choice. Consequently all theory videos now have a striking similarity to ancient history/archeological documentaries 🤭 I can only hope there’s DLC or another game in the future that gives us more details on ancient Zonai history, it’s so fascinating and with so many questions left unanswered. Tho I definitely think you did a great job at piecing together and explaining the information we do currently have! 😊
Thank you! And yea, before I started making videos myself I was always impressed with archeology-like quality of work of other Zelda-tubers, NintendoBlackCrisis especially. His work on Zonai tribe with BotW information was excellent
About the erasure idea you brought up, I had assumed that it was done at the same time as the raising of the great sky island as a way to protect it and the light dragon from ganon's interfearence so it could be safe for link to access tens of thousands of years in the future. This might conflict with the idea you bring up about the sky islands being in use post-imprisoning war though. There's certainly still a lot thats uncertain about the timeline of events, but this video was an awesome overview and a pretty solid take on it all, even if I still feel like some of it isnt a sure-thing. Keep up the awesome work, you earned a sub🎉🎉
Nothing is a sure thing until officially confirmed (which might never happen, lol) but I feel pretty good about it all ^^ And thank you, glad you enjoyed! :D
I imagine the history of the Zonai was hidden because it'd eventually lead to Ganondorf and they wouldn't want him resurrected. Presumably the Sheikah did this, based on the chamber Ganondorf is in.
The spirit temple's title of "souls resting place" seems to imply its a mausoleum/burial site, which then makes the owl statues even more fitting cause iirc owls were considered messengers of the underworld or something similar to the classical mayans and probably earlier too This begs the question, considering Rauru and Mineru have owl necklace/headdress while the sets based on the other dragons have dragon necklaces; the siblings power over spirit and light (I believe in japanese its just 'force'? Which is probably inspired by the concept of qi/ki). Were they a family of doctors, morticians, etc.?
I think Rauru was some sort of a priest based on his clothes, no clue about Mineru, but it is possible that their parents were doctors. We don't know. Either way, the Spirit Temple is now a construct warehouse, if you look at the walls surrounding the ring where you fought the boss, there's spaces for construct storage everywhere. I do wonder if "soul's resting place" isn't actually strictly referring to that and Mineru's ability to posess inanimate objects. Not sure though. It's very mysterious.
@@Drakenwild Rauru formerly being a priest could mean that he assisted in (or conducted) the burial rites of deceased Zonai. And Mineru being the Sage of Spirit could mean that she had something to do with the spirits of the deceased getting to the afterlife. Was she a psychopomp? Did she set up her base of operations in The Depths specifically to be closer to the Bargainers, who also transport souls to the afterlife?
I appreciate how you took a holistic view at all the evidence and crafted the timeline from there. Lots of theories these days are done the other way around… I'm not entirely sure but this is definitely the most solid theoretical timeline I've seen. One thing I'm uncertain of is that Mineru is solely responsible for the creation of the constructs. This is based on the Ancient Tablets, and while your translation is excellent it is still subject to some interpretation even afterwards. If you talk to Rauru's spirit around the Great Sky Island he describes the creation of the constructs and their use in Zonai society as if they had been around for a while and were created as a collective endeavor. Additionally looking at the Japanese version of that tablet, it seems like it refers specifically to Mineru creating a construct for her soul, but not about her creating them in general or for other purposes. Nonetheless, Rauru himself makes it sound as though the constructs _were_ created during his reign, or at least while he was alive, so the placement generally stays the same.
Truth be told, I completely forgot to talk to Rauru while researching for this video ^^' But if Constructs were created during his reign but collectively rather than just by Mineru, then that would mean Mineru has received a significant input from Hylians, which then got re-labled as Zonai. She and Rauru were the last of their kind and it seems like it has been this way for a while. It's either that, or Zonai had some failed experiments in robotics beforehand and then Mineru took that and managed to finish, thus creating Constructs within Rauru's time but with a collective effort of her and Zonai of old.
Honestly, I got the total opposite idea from the shape of the Miner's Mask. That thing looks like it is completely _not_ shaped for a Hylian face (that front part sticks out _way_ too much), but instead looks like it would have fit more comfortably on a Zonai's snout, looking at Rauru.
Now, I’m finished with the video. Gosh, this raises a whole lot of questions: •The most interesting and frustrating. The Dusk Claymore being found in the Typhlo Ruins. I am not sure why most haven’t spoken of this, but the Sage Temple Ruins in Central Hyrule has a cave leading to Zonai ruins that housed a Rusted Claymore (not important) and a plaque stating the Dusk Claymore was moved to the Typhlo Ruins. The timeline ramifications….this either means Hylians we’re using Zonai tech in secret after Twilight Princess to store the sword the Sages used at TP Ganondorf’s execution…..or that Twilight Princess takes place before Rauru’s age and this weapon was at some point found and placed in the Zonai Ruins after someone realized what it was. •The Tarrey Town Mining Facility……can we trust the maps text at all? Tarrey Town was named by Hudson. So, does that mean the names locations are something fabricated and named by Link’s own mind? Or is Link seeing it on the Purah Pad, thus denoting that Zelda may have put that name there to relay to Link as he traveled the Depths? •What is the Gleeok Den? Is it really a mere roosting ground for the Gleeok since its creation (I find this unlikely, but some evidence could suggest, given the existence of the Colosseums). Or did it appear after Ganondorf’s appearance and thus, this is once more a fabrication of either Link’s or Zelda’s?
Pretty sure no one has focused on any of those artifacts in particular yet largely because this game is full of such timeline ramifications and messes with many established concepts. It is difficult to talk about Zelda Timeline details while not having a concrete idea of what is even happening with it anymore, let alone a community-wide consensus. And regarding the names of locations... in BotW I always assumed that all location names which appear when getting a map are downloaded from the Sheikah Tower, and all the rest that requires reaching the spot is probably input by Link. I think same principle works for TotK, too. So, yeah, nothing in the Depths could have been in the Skyview Tower's database and Link has no other sources to go on when naming the things because Rauru left and Mineru isn't very talkative, apparently, since she never helps with any ancient translations either.
I personally love the idea that the first calamity of 10,000 years ago was a result of an assault on Rauru's seal, allowing a piece of Ganon's malice to escape. The sheikah, now the most powerful force in Hyrule, attempt to prevent any further attacks by erasing that part of history, building over the old zonai relics, sealing away the sky islands with the light dragon, and allowing the zonai descendants to vanish from Hyrule.
27:14 What do you mean? The trousers for the charged and frostbite sets are very specifically well above links ankles and at least the charged shirt could easily fit a Zonai, although I'm not entirely certain that the ember set would.Same thing with the barbarian set. The shirt could easily fit anyone, as it is just a little jacket, and the skirt looks like it is much wider but tightened by a belt to fit Link. As for the skull, it has the perfect little pocket for their enormous ears just behind the horns. Other than that, great video! And I like your avatar, very cute!
Thank you! With the Forstbite and Charged sets, I think the pants are meant to be this length as like, a fashion choice. You can see it on Rauru's variant of the set, his pants are of different length than Link's, proportionate to his legs. Plus, in Frostbite there is also the top piece which is definitely not long enough. Honestly, I only really pointed these things out because BotW set up a precedence with going out of its way to explain why Link can wear certain sets, like the Zora and the Rito set.
@Drakenwild I think that's mostly because of the time it likely took to get ultrahand working, let alone all the caves. So, hopefully, little things like that will return in the next game.
Im sticking to a weird theory that the third eye of the two Zonai we see is a mechanical addition to their body. It opens oddly and is made of the same coppery Zonaite as a lot of weapons in the game. Also, I think the eye symbol seen on a lot of their designs is based on the Frox, mostly because of the fangs and strong lower eyelid often seen with it. Awesome video btw, love it. Totally agree with your timeline of events
Thank you! And it to be an interesting theory, I haven't considered it. Still, eye symbol is very clearly important, regardless if it's based on Frox or not. But yeah, Frox are worth investigating down the line for their ties to Zonai culture.
This video is 🔥. So well written and structured. I’ve been trying to make sense of what we do/don’t know about Zonai and I had hit a wall. This makes so much sense!
Here something no one mentions when talking about Zonia magic considering the Zonia before TOTK where known to be strong magic users is: Ganondorf says you attempt to steal my magic when he is being imprisoned and says do you know what it will cost. My questions are: Was his magic actually stolen and if so how was Ganondorfs magic used? Or was it held somewhere known or unknown. Was is used to imprison Ganondorf or was it to raise the Sky Islands and prepare for Zelda's Hero Link's appearance and the blow he would receive from Ganondorf in the future? Even though Tears of the Kingdom and it's story was so amazing, I still feel so many questions remain unanswered.
I think what happens in this scene is that Rauru is syphoning away Ganondorf's magic and either keeping it within himself or safely dispersing it, causing his body to crumble and slowly turn to ash. Given that the spiral emerging from his back is the same as on the Shrines, it is likely a similar technique as was used to get rid of monsters in early Hyrule. As for the Sky Islands, Zonai already had hover technology in hover stones so the mechanism keeping them afloat is likely based on that and if so, then it has to be Zonaite powered. One has to wonder though, since they were abandoned so long ago, when will fuel reserves kick in?
I am very interested in that Barbarian armor. I am presuming these were probably who Ganondorf was comparing Rauru’s Hylians to. An era where monsters ran rampant, which required survival through barbaric methods. The strong were the protectors, so emphasis on fighting will breed very violent people. The fact that the armor has a skull of red hair is eye-brow raising as well. Early Gerudo? But there are horns there and they are far too small to be any sort of monster we see in either games. What were they? God, it’s so fascinating! Edit: Nevermind, got to the point in the video where monsters were created. Did not see that coming.
Hah, fair! I came to quite different conclusions regarding the Timeline than the rest of the community ^^' Idk, it goes directly against everything we knew from Skyward Sword but honestly, TotK does very strongly imply there were no monsters before Ganondorf. Also, re the Barbarian Helm, red hair appears outside of Gerudo too and I'm not even entirely sure if the thing attached to the skull is actually real hair to begin with. It very well might not be. A bit hard to tell with the abstracted graphics.
@@DrakenwildWait, but the game says there were monsters before Ganondorf. On one of the royal chamberlain’s tablets, she says Rauru and Sonia created the Shrines of Light to seal monsters that were plaguing the kingdom. Whether they were the same monsters as Ganondorf’s is another debate, but there definitely were monsters.
@@stwbmc98 yes, and I directly reference that in the video. The tablet says monsters were a problem in early days since Hyrule's founding, which I take to mean that they were explicitly not a problem before then. If so, something must have caused them to appear and the only figure we know of capable of creating them is Ganondorf. That's the rationale.
It's hard to believe Mineru created the whole ecosystem of Constructs, as that would mean the Zonai had their greatest mind in their last survivor. Ofc Mineru probably just "manned" every possible location with a construct, as there were no more Zonai around to dig, participate on courage tests, operate giant furnaces and the like. We can only imagine the depths' colosseums full of Zonai after a long (permanent night) day of work in the mines.
Sky tablets very clearly suggest it being the case. Constructs did not exist before Mineru, she made them by building upon technological achievements of her ancestors. However, it doesn't necessarily mean that every construct seen in the game has been built while she was still alive. She has certainly set up systems for mass production of them but given that nowadays the Construct Factory is expecting shipments from Dragonhead Island specifically and that things like flight and dive ceremonies were manned by servant constructs suggests that they kept being produced after she was gone, too. Now that I think about it, Soldier Constructs might have been created by some other unknown scientist much later as none are seen within Zelda's memories.
@@Drakenwild Good point about the soldiers, but since we see them in the Shrines, that story might be a bit different, unless people kept creating challenges inside the shrines in the name of Rauru and Sonia, which is totally plausible. Considering we did not see a descendant from Sonia and Rauru, this period of time after the last Zonai was gone is quite mysterious indeed. For instance, were the courage tests made for Zonai in the distant past, or after Mineru, for whoever made it to the skies during that peaceful period?
@@Aladato Fair point, I have not considered their presence in the Shrines! And imo, as said in the video, people undertaking those tests of courage were ones who lived in the sky after the Imprisoning War.
@@Drakenwild Sorry about the last part, I wasn't able to watch the whole video in one go but wanted to comment as I went lol. I don't remember if the constructs in the courage/valor/bravery tests mention Zonais or just "people". I had a hard time considering every sky object over Hyrule was sent there during and after Mineru's presence (how long do they live btw?), but if we consider the Zonai might have come from other skies, it would make more sense.
@@Aladato skydiving constructs explicitly say Zonai, yes. And not every sky object was sent by Mineru or immediately after she inhabited the Purah Pad. Lomei Labirynths were sent up much later and both the Water Temple and the Stormwind Ark much earlier.
I'm tired af, still had a billion things to do, it's getting late, gotta eat something. I literally stoped everything I was doing for I saw Moxie recommended this. Don't forget to thank her for your new sub Big love, keep up the good work
Haven’t watched the full video yet, so apologies if you already talked about this. But something that’s worth mentioning is that the bigger guardians from Skyward Swords silent realm trials wear almost the exact same clothes as Rauru. The flying guardians also seem to wear clothing similar to what Mineru wears.
I am specifically avoiding referencing past Zelda games in this discussion because the way I see the state of the continuity after TotK is that all past games are literally legends within this new Hyrule setting. And if that's the case, using them for proof in analysies like this should be done very cautiously. Having that said, you're right, there is a bit of similarity, more so with land guardian and Rauru.
Actually I don't think the Ancient Hero is a Zonai-hylian hybrid, rather I think he's a species of Zonai that evolved in the Depths This is mostly bc the Ancient Hero has traits that aren't hyrulean or Zonai, particularly his dark green skin and animalistic legs, something we know neither race possesses However there are statues in the depths that depict a race we haven't seen before, a race with animalistic legs similar to the Ancient Hero's So heres my theory: groups of Zonai went down to explore/live/mine in the depths, somehow though, they weren't able/didn't want to return to the surface, leaving Rauru and Mineru to assume that they are the last living Zonai These Zonai are down in the depths for so long that they eventually evolve to better survive in the depths, growing animalistic legs that make it easier for them to traverse the depths and shrinking to the height of a Hylian (explaining why many Zonai outifits fit Link and why the Ancient Hero is the same height as Link) Then eventually these Zonai came to the surface (bc yk, the Ancient Hero defeated Ganon at some point) and these Zonai left behind their outfits on the surface, the sky islands, and the depths This would explain a lot like how the Zonai suddenly became an endangered species by the time Rauru became king, how the Ancient Hero could exsit years after the "two last living Zonai" died, and why the diving outfit can fit Link despite the Constructs never mentioning that Hylians also particpatied in these rituals This could also explain why, in Impa's tapestry, the ancient princess looks the exact same as our modern, hylian Zelda (despite the fact that the ancient princess is a descendant of Zonai) while the Ancient Hero doesn't look like hylian Link at all (he has long red hair and a longer snout than the ancient princess) Its bc the royal Zonai-Hylian descendents started to look more Hylian earlier than we thought while there was still a species of Zonai (like the Ancient Hero) that still looked more Zonai in comparison
That's an interesting theory! Tbh, I went with the hybrid idea assuming that these new traits were some sort of a recessive gene on the side of the Zonai that got brought out by inbreeding and a pinch of mutation on top. Tbh, with the information we currently have available to us, I think both ideas are more or less equally possible.
Truth be told, that was my first idea and it is still a valid one. Gossip Geist did a fantastic job recently proving some of the changes to Hyrule to be impossible without the present being altered by Zelda's actions.
Great video and very comprehensive!! There's several things you touched upon that make sense all connected together. One thing i just wanted to add, is that often times, as cultures progress irl, pre-existing buildings and rituals are "reworked" to fit the changed/changing culture of the region where they're located; so while i find the theory of a great erasure interesting and possible, i personally prefer to think that the pre-existing zonai buildings, being now unaccessible to the hylians/other races that descended from the ancient ones, have just been repurposed to fit the "current" culture of the inhabitants of the lands. That could explain why we can now find the boar imagery alongside the owls n the dragons, as it probably came in use either after the calamity or after the sealing of ganon. Just thought I'd share!!
I wouldn't jump to that theory if it was just about covering up of old buildings with new coat of paint... but the fact that the Geoglyphs, Sky Islands and the Light Dragon were also meticulously hidden suggests that there is something bigger going on. Hence, the grand erasure theory. But it is also possible that you're right and the hiding of those things is unrelated from renovating old buildings in the new style!
The excavation sites are most likely named for their appearance as excavations by the Zonai Survey Team, rather than excavations made by the Zonai in ancient times.
There's an account with regards to the Stormwind Ark that refer to sky islands very high up in the sky, from whence their “god” fell from. A god who had mysterious power to build things with materials with a light from their hand… They were a Zonai.
I have ideas I want your opinion on. The Hyrule of old from the previous games was utterly annihilated by some sort of disaster, perhaps even the first Calamity Ganon, the Zonai being the servants of the Gods steeped in to stop the cataclysm but their numbers where greatly reduced. To the point where the species as a whole was doomed to extinction. Perhaps this is what motivated 3 of the Zonai to become dragons as a means of survival through immortality but the cost ended up being too great. So instead the remaining few Zonai dedicated themselves to rebuilding society and saving as many as they could. The Sheikah took over the Zonai’s technology, perhaps even against the Zonai’s wishes, and the weapons they developed ended up being so powerful and dangerous that they were immediately ordered by the King of Hyrule to abandon and bury it all so that it wouldn’t be misused or corrupted. It would be understandable that all Zonai architecture and technology would also be hidden both to preserve it and to avoid any temptation to use it again. I will point out that I don’t have any evidence for this. I just think it makes sense for a story perspective.
Calamity Ganon comes directly from Ganondorf who did not exist before Rauru, so Zonai of old could not have been wiped out by that. It also does seem like Sheikah have not been a thing at the time of Imprisoning War, they seem to have split off from Hylians later on.
I’m of the opinion that the devs backed themselves into a corner with the timeline and decided to “restart” the timeline so I like to think that the timeline just cycled over like a true Orobourus
They absolutely did back themselves into a corner by making the timeline official, yes, but also they seem to not care very much about it in the first place. Even before TotK came out and made a mess, I had a feeling this version of Hyrule doesn't belong in the timeline. Playing TotK was like getting hit over your head with that message.
@@Drakenwild fair point and thank you for replying! It’s just hard to see them throw it away because I loved the timeline and actually liked SS before the switch port because it played into the timeline and now… it just hurts a little
@@skullkid2129 personally I've felt pretty ambivalent about the timeline but I get ya. It's sad to see such an important piece of fan works in theory space go.
@@skullkid2129 ¿Didn't both Aonuma and the book _Creating a Champion_ state the Era of the Wild takes place thousands of years _after_ all the previous games in the timeline took place? Considering the myriad of references and callbacks to past games across the Hyrule of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom such as Zelda referencing Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess during her blessing ceremony with Link not to mention the explicit reference to Fi with her iconic jingle playing at the end of Tears of the Kingdom i'm pretty sure that all past games in the series are _still_ canon even if the lattest 2 games do not directly tie to any previous game in the timeline. I feel we should wait for at least the next DLC/sequel before jumping to the conclusion that Aonuma and Nintendo have in fact rebooted the Zelda franchise with the introduction of the Era of the Wild.
@@javiervasquez625 I agree I think that they are still canon but so far away in time that it doesn’t really matter anymore. I mean the first calamity might not have been 10,000 years ago. It could have been even longer and it would explain why the sheikah built the guardians and the divine beasts. Especially after the bombshell that was monsters are not natural occurrences and line up with the demon king or Ganondorfs revival or birth. Sorry I got off track a bit but in short I agree they are still canon but so much time has passed that they don’t really matter but at the same time they do. What I want to know is what exactly is the depths. My first instinct based off the architecture is that it was where the Twili lived before their banishment. But why and how does it mirror the over world especially after all the mining below and excavating up top. Also final part of this random string of words. What if the Twili (a group of different species being oppressed and forced to live underground as far from the heavens as possible) lived in the depths until they tried revolting and taking back the surface but then their greed got the better of them and they fought for the triforce. I also think that the triforce was intentionally hidden from memory so that people would stop fighting over it and it’s gotten to the point that not even Zelda knows about it. Maybe impa knows about it. Seems like a secret she would be charged with keeping.
Now onto Zonai biology: What do you think their reproductive processes and gender roles would be like? Since they are mammals, I'd assume theirs would be exactly the same as those of the Hylians and Sheikah. On the other hand, I remember someone saying that the Zonai have draconian traits; if that's the case, then what if the Zonai are egg-layers instead of live-birthers? Edit: I forgot that Rauru was married to a Hylian (Sonia) and most likely crossbred with her; that would probably debunk my theory on them being egg-layers, since I doubt that crossbreeding can be done between creatures with different reproductive processes.
No clue. We only ever see two Zonai, both of whom were related and both are dead. There is not enough information to draw conclusions about their culture and how they have functioned.
@@DrakenwildI have this headcanon in my mind of demythologizing so much of Zelda using Botw and Totk, where the Zonai are actually Humans modified by the 3 Dragons (who are themselves deities, which are ascended spirits, which then are consciousness that’re saturated in magic energy, which originates from a Triforce that was never created by any goddesses, merely crashing into a colliding Theia and Earth billions of years ago to be at the center of the inner core)
Zora lay eggs, and we have a lot of proof that Ruto had children with a Hylian, with a Hylian maiden being her descendant in LttP, and Rutella having what looks like hair in TP.
You do realize the Zonai Ruins are loosely based on real world ruins that were build by Stone Age civilizations, right? The Mayans and the Aztec. Your argument that people who would have worn the barbarian armor couldn’t have built the ruins doesn’t hold up. Now that we know who the Zonai are, we know better unless they used slave labor, but still.
i've been saying FOR SO LONG that the barbarians are not zonai because only people with a pure heart can see dragons. Barbarians do not have pure heart
You could maybe still find an individual with a pure heart in such a community but still, there is a terrible mismatch between the armor and the ruins. There ain't no way people wearing leather and bone would be capable of such masonry.
i dont agree that all the zonai ruins from botw are created after the imprisoning war. i think calip has some dialogue where he mentions those ruins being older, and even if im misremembering that i think that the ruins in thyphlo couldve just been repurposed as a monument to rauru. also i think that instead of all of the faron zonai ruins being fake maybe all of the things made for minerus questline were just covered up with those shells and all the other ruins were already there
I don't remember that dialogue but even if he did say it, he can be wrong. Material evidence all points to every single ruin from BotW being built after the Imprisoning War. They are all in single style and between the plaque and older ruins showing beneath that style is clearly dated after the fall of Zonai. That said, it is entirely possible that Typhlo has been built over preexisting structure, we just don't have any proof of that happening. Equally, it is also possible that complex around Dracozu has been only partly built over older structures and the rest is genuine statues and buildings, not just shells. But, given how much Zonai enjoyed symmetry, I doubt they decided to erect only a few scattered dragons along the river - the giant dragon at the jaw of the river and walls around Spring might be new, but I'd wager that everything along the river is built overvold structures.
I absolutely love this video. I love speculation but it's really valuable for lore, especially zelda lore, to have a breakdown that focuses on observable facts and their logical implications while neither missing important observations nor mixing up logical implications with speculation and theory. That said, have my speculation and theories: Based on the shape, is it likely that the protective mask of the miner set is either a universal design used by both Hylians and Zonai or a modification of the design for Zonai? Are there any Hylians with red hair? The striking red hair of the Ancient Hero seems otherwise fairly unique to the Gerudo. If the Ancient Hero were technically gerudo (which does require the logical leap that the Gerudo can have children with some races without Gerudo genes being entirely dominant) it could be an indication that the Gerudo reconciled with Hyrule at some point during or before the hero's life. Given that Rauru and Sonia were the very first King and Queen and almost certainly held great status before the founding of Hyrule it makes sense that they would likely have stuck to the attire symbolizing their prior status rather than immediately adopting the wearing of a fabric design that likely came about during their reign. Perhaps the sages were the very first to wear it. The design could well have been taken up by their immediate successors and/or might have held similar significance to the light blue used by the champions. I am somewhat uncertain about the idea that all of the constructs encountered are entirely Mineru's work without entirely discounting it. I don't know what the untranslated tablets read like in the Japanese version of the game but if what we're dealing with is obfuscated, archaic-sounding Japanese translated into obfuscated, archaic-sounding English before your own translation into modern English (which seems accurate and lines up with my own partial translations) that leaves a lot of room for loss of meaning. None of the three construct bodies seen in the game appear to have been completed before Mineru left her body. Implying that she completed the work quite late in her life (granted we do not know how long she was around after Zelda's draconification). I don't recall seeing any constructs in the flashbacks however they must have existed given Rauru indicates prior knowledge of them to Link. Regardless of whether Mineru was responsible for ALL constructs I do think it is likely she was responsible for the most intelligent constructs (the ones that Rauru specifically mentions as having exceeded the ability of their Zonai creators in the mastery of their particular crafts). I think it is possible that the Zonai lived in sky islands above Hyrule before descending with their original islands either having been lowered to the surface or destroyed at some point. One possible source of this theoretical destruction which I believe fits in your timeline would be the ancient dragons. Theoretical sky islands aside, if the one or more ancient dragons wrought destruction that heavily impacted Zonai civilization, possibly including many deaths, that could have been a catalyst for the ban on draconification as well as massive social and cultural changes that brought Zonai and Hyrulians closer together and led to the founding of Hyrule.
I was thinking along the lines of plague doctor masks, where the "snout" portion of it was used to hold materials filtering dust from the air. Given Naboris' location, I feel like it was implied that Hyrule has reconciled at least with parts of Gerudo by that point in time, yes. That's an interesting idea! Sounds quite probable to me to be honest. In Japanese, the tablets are written with archaisms but are otherwise completely legible to an average reader. It's the same in every language except English - we were done dirty by localization team. There are servant constructs in the flashbacks. The earliest one we see is in the first memory Mineru appears in. In this same memory she also already has the head of her construct body done. It's not impossible. Personally I like the idea of them arriving from somewhere far away better because we know lands outside of Hyrule exist and that way we don't need to rely on additional explanations for what happened with the original islands, but either way the only thing we know for sure is that they flew down on Wings. Possibly. Dueling Peaks was supposedly split by a dragon, so that could connect with this idea. I like it!
People keep saying that the Zonai were around 10,000 years ago which really annoys me since no one seems to remember that that was when the shiekah were at their height of technological progress. In the first game they said that the Sheikah were the ones that took down calamity Ganon which was an aborition of Ganon and not the demon king himself. Not to mention that in one of the first memories of TOTK they said that the Purah Pad (which was made from sheikah technology) was definitely not from this era implying that they've never seen any technology similar to that. I don't know why people are just forgetting that the sheikah were at their height 10,000 years ago and that the Zonai likely were already dead by then. Or perhaps I am just missing something. I don't know. At the time of writing this I haven't finished I just started the video.
I guess it depends on a given conversation, but I feel like people often just kinda use the 10k years as a shorthand because that length of time is already absurdly long ago and the original Zonai are even older than that. Assuming Calamity cycles take 10k years each (which we don't know if they do) that's 20k years at minimum... but really, it's probably been more cycles and it is highly likely that they were only getting *shorter* with the passage of time, due to Rauru's seal weakening, so even assuming that only two calamities took place, we are looking at way more than 20k years. And that's just between present day and Rauru, who knows how long ago it was when the first Zonai colonized Hyrule and how long their reign was before they all died out.
Best video I’ve seen about the zonai. Not many people have noticed that the ruins were coved up. I like the idea of using the armor outfits to date some of the events but I don’t completely agree with your timeline. I started looking at the outfits myself, noticed that Rauru in his character profile is wearing the charged attack set, minus the horn of Farosh. It seems they were part of one of the tribes but after draconafacation became forbidden.
I believe I did point out that Rauru is wearing a charged set minus the horn and with an owl shaped brooch rather than dragon, indicating a connection between him and dragon worshippers (and likely evolution in religion).
I believe you said that the dragon phase of the charged set, stopped long before rauru but I think rauru and his older sister are the ones to transition the owl phase he is wearing. Maybe because they met Sonia and the hylian tribe or because there were enough creative forces from the three dragons. We don’t know if the three zonai tribes got along. They say a dragon split dealing peaks and maybe that was after a territorial dispute, who really knows why dragons do things? We know from the typhoon ruins that the hylians are the ones to cover the clean white zonai ruins with that darker stone that gets mossy. It also would explain a hylian goddess statue in front of the zonai vault in the forgotten temple for the purpose of hiding history. Not sure if Zelda left behind instructions or the sheikah hid the zonai ruins to copy the tech. Among things hidden there is tobios hallow chasm which I think is an official chasm the zonai used but also the last one they used. @@Drakenwild
Two things: 1) Your voice is awesome and soothing. Just a huge fan. 2) I liked someone else's theory of the "Lomei" being a descendant race of the Zonai, thus those labyrinths being different, however, the 5th creature in the depths also looks more like Mogmas from Skyward Sword evolved/modified, and the mining outfits look like them. I personally like the theory that they are the race that created the ancient hero, but bred out into standard Hylians as time passed because they couldn't return to the depths after the history was hidden. Of course, this assumes an entire extra race of creatures that existed but only has records in 1 set of armor and some statues in the depths, so it's a more flimsy one, but one I cling to nontheless, as the ancient hero's aspect with the tail and the feet doesn't quite make sense to me as modifications/mergers of Zonai and Hylian DNA. Also, if the creatures depicted in the mining gear were a slave race, only recognized as proper people after the constructs were made or treated as heretics for worshipping the bargainer statues in the depths, it would explain how they have significantly less of a presence in the historical record.
Metger of Zonai and Hylians was the best I could do given the limited information. To be fair, with sample size of 2 Zonai we have very little idea about them and their biology. For all we know, they could have had people with tails or no tails and the presence of the tail would be tied to a specific set of genes... it's grasping though. Your idea is interesting, too!
i dont actually think its entirely ruled out that the barbarian armor couldve been worn by the zonai. the rito also have very different bodies than hylains but link can wear the armor sold at their shops. also plenty of other zonai armor does fit link such as the the glide set, the ember set, the charged set, and the frostbite set. this set does also share some traits with the zonaite armor and the ancient heros aspect so it could've been worn by an ancient hylian tribe who tried to recreate the creations of the zonai a short time after they arrived
I was under the impression that Rito Set caters very specifically to Hylians, even in universe, so it's no wonder that it fits. I applied the same principle to other Zonai armors as well, talked about later on in the video.
Who created monsters though? We can see shrines during Ganon's first attack with Moldugas, so "natural" monsters were already a thing, but not evil ones? To be honest, the function of the shrines is not completely clear to me, as to what were they purifying if there were no monsters prior to Ganondorf using the secret stone. Maybe they purified something from the depths as the roots extend all the way there, or are they sending purifying sunlight to the depths only?
Secret Stones amplify the power of the wielder. Ganondorf already had the capability to create monsters before he stole the Stone - just at a much smaller scale. But, with enough persistence and time, he likely could have created enough monsters to pose a threat to people of Hyrule. So what I'm saying is - he likely was working in the background even in early stages of Hyrule's history, testing Rauru and the kingdom's defences. Monsters became a nuisance, so Rauru and Sonia made Shrines of Light to deal with them but likely remained in the dark about the source of the problem. Then the plot happened and upon obtaining a Secret Stone, Ganondorf started mass creating monsters again, which this time weren't sealed, hence we have monsters in modern day Hyrule.
@@Drakenwild Perfect. The whole point of the secret stones enhancing someone's power is key to solving many questions. And also the reason they were kept a secret, as anyone can use them. We can add Koume and Kotake as powerful allies to Ganondorf's exploits before he got the secret stone and escalated the whole situation.
@@M2DaZi honestly man, no clue. When juggling editing with fulltime work and other irl responsibilities it's easy to lose count. If I had to guess though, I'd say about 60 hours. I'm still figuring out how to be efficient.
With this timeline of the Zonai in place here, what would it mean for the rest of the games in the canon, and more specifically, the Forgotten Temple’s resemblance to the Sealed Temple in Skyward Sword?
Something worth noting is that the mining set seems like it would match the body of the ancient hero better than normal hylians or zonai, considering the shape of the mask being like his snout. Not sure what that could mean necessarily and i could be wrong but i figure its worth bringing up
It completely mismatches at legs though. Imo the mask is a little bit like plague doctor's beak, it's elongated to put *something* in there. If the idea about the dust being harmful is correct, it could be air filters.
If you look at the mining helm it almost looks to be made for a snouted being, almost the same shape as the "ancient hero" head or say a "Lesser-Zonai". Also think lightroots were made by Zonai to take the depths and displace the "monsters" causing them to flee to the surface and attack it's people... This in turn would cause the fall of the Zonai Empire and the reason why Rauru married the priestess Sonia to form the "first" Hylian Kingdom... Also think the Zonai made the three human tribes from the barbarians they "enlightened" and then were worshiped by (or ruled over...) Hylians were Rauru's cult and Sheikah were Mineru's cult, while Gerudo would be either exiles or those who refused Zonai rule and escaped to the desert. So when the Zonai took over the depths and the "monsters" attacked the surface, Gannon and many Gerudo blamed the Zonai and in turn their Hylians...
@@Drakenwild We don't know what they 'exclusively' wore from one outfit. Bear in mind that your ability and willingness to invest in fabric is dependent on the feasibility of raising wool bearing animals, or plant fiber production. The zonai we do see fully dressed are royalty.
1 year late, but ever wonder if the King's decree for the Sheikah tech to be dismantled to be the *same* one that is pushed to hide all Zonai tech as well?
I think there is a problem with your theory on the placements of some of the timeline. To me I think I should swap the Zonaite and the Ancient Heroes Aspect placements. Ganondorf Dragmire said that Rauru and Mineru were the Last of the Zonai so I think he meant the "Pure Blooded Zonai". While they are the Zonai-Hylian Descendants and the more the descendants get with Hylians they go more Hylain looking to the Zonaite Armor. So the Zonai-Hylian descendants could have scales and the hair of the Zonai but the more they get with Hylian they look more and more like the Ancient Heroes Aspect then to the Zonaite look. I like the theory that Rauru and Sonia are the ancestors of Hylia. So during the Time of Raurus reign I would think there would be a lot of Hybrids but they live away from where he is. Think the Ember Armor Set Clan locations are where the hottest places are and where Din is. Examples are Surface: Death Mountain, Spring of Power, and Gerudo Desert During the Day. Depths: Goflam's Lavafalls, Sherfin's Lavafalls Sturnida Lava Fall and Yikot Lightroot area. Sky: Zonaite Forge Island and Eldin sky Archipelago's. Frostbite Armor Set Clan locations Cold and Nayru. Surface Hebra and Tabantha regions, Lanayru, Gerudo Highlands, and Gerudo Desert during the Night. Depths: same as the Surface. Sky: Same as the Surface, Charged Armor Set Locations Possibly just about anywhere and where Farore is. Surface: Faron Region, Hyrule Ridge, Thyphlo Ruins, Central Hyrule, and Necluda. Depths: Same as Surface. Sky: Same as the Surface. There are possibly other clans as well like one for every sage. The King/Queen of the Zonai is the one that is the Light Clan. The children of the King and/or Queen who have the Ability for Light are the one who inherits the Crown. So I don't think Rauru was just a priest he just was one to get to know his people. Before he inherited the crown Example is Lief of the Deltora Book series and Martin Septim of The Elder Scrolls Series. They were a Blacksmith and Cultist to Priest respectively. Just my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom. What do you think?
The problem with swapping Ancient Hero and Zonaite set is that Ancient Hero is borderline confirmed to have been the person from BotW tapestry, which also means that by this point Sheikah have already taken over as tech specialists and inventors, which then implies Zonai tech was mostly retired by that point. The thought was that while Ancient Hero does indeed wear Zonaite armor, he existed at the twilight of Zonai culture and his clothing was more of an exception than a rule by that point. I also don't think Zonai-Hylian hybrids existed at the point of Hyrule's founding, at least not commonly, because if they did, the union between Rauru and Sonia wouldn't be seen as special.
@@Drakenwild I know but think what if Ancient Heros Aspect (what it symbolizes as the union of Zonai and Hylian) and the Zonaite Armor set were earlier in the Timeline. As for the Zonai-Hylian Hybrids. I could think the reason they are not seen, is that back then they were in the time before a lot of Zonai technological advancements. It takes a lot to get to point A to point B.With the Zonai being possibly Long lived at the time they could just take their time getting from A to B. But To the Hylians they Don't have much time to get to A to B so they have to be quick to get there. So there could be Hybrids at that point in time Also think it could be that even they are seen not as often. Well that is my theory
I feel like the barbarian Zonai were a hybrid of Zonai and hylians that chose to be barbarians and were the interlopers that were sent to the twilight realm
I'm not convinced that the hero's aspect isn't a full Zonai. It wouldn't be the first race in this game series that contained different individuals with very different looks, even down to having strong resemblances to different animals (the Rito and the Zora). The only real examples of Zonai we get are Rauru and Mineru, and they are siblings, so it makes sense that they resemble each other even if other Zonai could look more like other mammals. Maybe some just looked a bit like goat-jackals and others looked more like humanoid big cats.
Maybe! I'm not going just off of his looks though, also the fact that the hero appeared long after the last two Zonai were lost but, as it is implied, left behind mixed-race offspring. That doesn't rule out Zonai from outside Hyrule arriving later but that's head-cannon territory and I tried to stay within logical implications with these things.
Considering that according to Japanese Dialogues of Ganondorf and also the anchient Zonai Inscriptions of one of the Royal Servants I think that before the Zonai arrived that Hyrule fell into anarchy at some point. everyone was fighting for themselves, not only against other groups but also against demons Because Hyrule was apparently also overrun by them Ganon referred to that the World in the Past was filled with Violence and War, everyone was fighting, but then the Furry Gods came down and brought their Disgusting Peace and Order in his eyes and Rauru and Sonia even both went on journeys to imprison the Demons in the Shrines of Light so that they may not respawn and violate everything.
@@International愚民のDIAURA ah! I took screenshots of things I wanted to put on there, threw them all into a site that generates DnD tokens and then manipulated them all individually along a line. The line itself is a cropped color generator.
@@International愚民のDIAURA idk, I work with DaVinci xD but even if Premiere doesn't have color generators you can just make a transparent png of a straight line in gimp or something and work with that instead, so it should be doable.
That is a very interesting choice of a word. Though I don't think it ever functioned as a conventional castle, cause... I mean, look at it. It's a maze.
draken you have a very nice voice. I found your channel through the pirate friend of yours and you are just as good as him! only you don't sound as similar to technoblade as he does... R.I.P techno. (P.S. I love that you use moonlighter music in your vids I play that game and the music fits very well with your vids!)
@@Drakenwild you are very welcome! oh and do you personally play moonlighter or just listen to the ost? I think that a moonlighter lore breakdown vid would be the bomb
I wonder if the Zonai lived on sky islands of other lands that were not Hyrule, and then arrived on their zonai wings and found a bunch of tribal people on the soon to be Hyrule.
On one hand, they could. On the other, why would they? I mean, if in the place where they are from floating landmasses are a natural occurrence, sure, but if they aren't then why would Zonai need to invent them?
@@Drakenwild Right now I can only think of lost knowledge, as it seems to happen time and time again among all races. Just like people considered the Zonai as gods due to "coming from the skies", the Zonai before Mineru could consider sky islands as their homeland, not knowing their ancestors raised those landmasses to the sky, but this is just speculation ofc. Mineru on the other hand could have figured out their ancient homeland was made with technology and created her own version, including the magicnology(?) to hide the sky islands from the surface.
@@Aladato it could be but that doesn't answer the question of why these supposed older islands were made in the first place. That said, the two sky dungeons were brought to my attention so I must admit, the technology was certainly there as both of them predate the Imprisoning War and, more thanlikely, founding of Hyrule itself.
@@Drakenwild The reason could have been lost over time, in case they lived on artificial islands. In either case, Mineru could just recreate the result with new technology. Just to be sure, you consider the Zonai only came flying from other lands, correct? If so, I don't disagree, I just didn't believe that in case they came from the actual skies, that it was Hyrulean skies. But now you made me think of something else when you question the reason. Didn't Zelda suggest sending the temple to the sky to help Link when she never got to see anything related to the sky islands? I wonder if it was her Hylia instincts just like she did on the SS timeline.
What language do you speak that's not English? I've never heard an accent that rolls every single R like that. (I'm only familiar with Western central/south American accents.) I went and looked through your other videos, and it seems like this wasn't as prevalent as it is in you more recent videos. Very curious.
I'm Polish! And this may have been caused by recording conditions. I usually record at night, to limit background noise, but that also means I need to limit volume because people are sleeping. This video I managed to record during the day, so I could go louder. (Plus I might be a bit bolder on the mic than I used to in general, lol)
That's not a quote, that's an in universe way of saying "we know this from cutscenes" ^^' My bad for not clarifying better that that's what is happening.
All of the ruins you mentioned are in the New Zonai style, so they are from Age of the Sky. Zonai themselves were of The Old Zonai Era, as the deaths of the last two of their kind mark the end of it.
@@DrakenwildIn the cases of the ruins I mentioned, were they built over pre-existing Rauru-style architecture like in Tobio’s Hollow and Dracozu River or built on there own? What’s the main feature New Zonai architecture has? Does it involve more Mesoamerican influence like what we saw in BOTW?
@@xuanluu4873 They all seem to have been built on their own. Typhlo and Thundra have closed off sections that retain the style of upstairs, something that isn't true for Dracozu and Tobio's ruins, and Palmorae's columns are broken and show no unique stonework underneath. The New Zonai style is everything we considered to be Zonai architecture back in BotW, yes. So it involves use of a very specific kind of stone that can be differentiated by the shade, the dragon and column carvings in the stone with the Mesoamerican influence, the spirals with a tick NintendoBlackCrisis was pointing out a lot back when he was making the documentaries, all that good stuff.
You say that people wouldn't build structures like the stone snake dragon area and be dressed like that but I would like to point to two well know cultures that did exactly that. Myan of the Yucatan peninsula and the Inca of south amarica. Just saying. Thats not even pointing all the other stone age tribes in south and centeral amarica, just saying.
i literally cant understand half of what she is saying.. and its frustrating because i want to watch this as she is the only channel covering this lore info
You say that people wouldn't build structures like the stone snake dragon area and be dressed like that but I would like to point to two well know cultures that did exactly that. Myan of the Yucatan peninsula and the Inca of south amarica. Just saying. Thats not even pointing all the other stone age tribes in south and centeral amarica, just saying.
Okay, I'm not opposed to learning new things. Can you give me specific examples of complex structures that are definitely older than production of textiles? I did a cursory google on Mayans and from it found out that they figured out textiles during the pre-classic era, while most of their most known structures came later, in the classic era. They did build impressive things in the pre-classic era as well but from what I've seen, these cities and statues are dated either within the timeframe estimated for when they started using textile clothing or the rough estimates for the age of stone structures has great overlap with one for textiles - which is the entire point I was making. Clothing and stone masonry tended to develop at roughly the same time, cause both are associated with people who have settled for an agrarian lifestyle rather than hunter gatherer one. Meanwhile the stonework of the Zonai suggests a society that is highly developed already (like classic era Mayans), so they would likely be past the point of figuring out how to make fabric.
It really blows my mind how the snow dungeon in twilight princess has armor that matches the body shape of rauru and zonai. Really cool how TP was the big main beginning of real zonai evidence.
Zonai seem to pull bits and pieces from TP, yes. Though if I recall correctly, the armor you are speaking of was rather long legged.
What armor? Can you help me find a picture? I tried googling but idk
I have a little theory on the origin of the Zonai: they're from the moon. It would explain "coming from the sky", Zelda has flirted with aliens before in MM and an early concept for BotW, and the Zonai have large, almost rabbit-like ears, and Japanese folklore famously has rabbits on the moon
Interesting theory worth considering but how would you explain the physical "dimorphism" between Rauru's more goat-like appereance, Mineru's more dog-like form and the Ancient Hero's more jackal Anubis-like design. I myself believe the Zonai might be a physically _diverse_ race of beings with each member looking strikingly different to the other depending on their bloodline and special powers which is represented by their unique body shape. Rauru had Light related powers hence he looked like a goat while Mineru had spiritual powers which is why she looked more dog-like. The Ancient Hero's power might have been _Courage_ as the Hero of Legend which is why he looks more jackal-like instead of a goat or dog which explains his own unique appereance. Food for conversation.
Both are interesting thoughts! The entire story of Zonai is kind of reminiscent of alien stories, with them descending from the sky and being literally alien to the land of Hyrule.
I looked at both Rauru and Mineru side by side to compare their outward appearance and idk, they don't look that far apart from each other. Mineru has a slightly smaller nose and shorter snout but I don't really see the dog resemblance. Imo this is either just a normal range of variance in appearance or sexual dimorphism. Still, it doesn't quite exclude the possibility of Zonai being physically diverse, given that we've only ever seen two of them and they are *siblings*. That tail and legs on Ancient Hero had to have come from somewhere.
@@Drakenwild Haha you're right as to Mineru and Rauru's shapes been only slightly different to each other. Truth be told i was been a little overly especulative for the sake of adding to the theory regarding Zonai dimorphism across the tribe so you are right in that Mineru doesn't have enough distinctive dog-like features that seperate her from Rauru's own appereance. When i came up with the idea of her face been similar to a dog's i was mostly basing it on the likeness of a chihuaha who's tall and upward rabbit-like ears do seem rather similar to those sported by Mineru. Since Rauru's ears are more "stretched" to the sides rather than upwards i assumed that meant they both represented a specific animal fitting of their own unique abilities.
As to the question regarding the nature behind the Ancient Hero's tail and feet i've come to believe that the reason for this "Link's" unique appereance and body has something to do with the existence of the Depths and it's relation to the Bargainer Statues and Poes which linger within the many caverns almost as if trapped in a form of "purgatory" awaiting for _someone_ to find them amidst the darkness and send them to eternal peace in the Afterlife. I feel you may have realized what i'm suggesting after i mentioned Anubis in my previous comment as i described the Ancient Hero as been "jackal-like". It is my belief that the previous Hero might have been a Zonai who fulfilled the role of a "God of the Underworld" helping the spirits of those lost in the Depths reach everlasting peace during the times of the Great Calamity 10.000 years ago which is why he ressembles the egyptian god of the Underworld (Anubis) as a hint of his specific purpose during the events of the first Calamity. Given that in Tears of the Kingdom Link seems to be the _only_ character able to deliver Poes to the Bargainer Statues it gave me the impression that the current Link is continuing the work left by his predecessor by becoming the new God of the Underworld who sends the souls of the dead into Paradise. I'm probably very off with this "theory" of mine but ever since i noticed how "egyptian" he seemed to look with jewerly around his neck, cloth tunic as his only attire and his animal feet and tail i couldn't but assume he was a striking reference to Anubis and his role as the egyptian God of the Underworld.
Anyway haha i'm sorry for this long comment thread. I hope we could all get something out of it as we continue to discover more secrets surrounding this apparently alien race of goat animal people known as the Zonai. Thanks for the response!
My personal theory about the light roots is that the shrines are connected to the light roots in order to use the light they produce, and refine it into a type that could deal with the monsters and make blessings of light. Either that or the light roots grew from the shrines. I like the former idea since the mechanisms at the end of the shrines resemble the forge used to make new battery cells, so the idea that the shrines are refining something would make sense to me.
I haven't thought of that! That's super on point, thanks for sharing! :D
As for the armors, I wonder if not all of them would fit Link in a perfect world that is not trying to be a game and give you lots of cool armor sets.
It's safer to reconsider the barbarian armor for everything else but its size I'd say, as you did mention.
On one hand, yes. On the other, BotW did go out of its way to justify why armor sets from Rito and Zora can be worn by a Hylian (the Rito armor is made specifically to cater to Hylians and Zora armor was made by Mipha for Link) and that's setting a precedent. So, I expect the same logic to be applicable here, too.
Going from "there will not be any speculation whatsoever in this video" to "Skyward Sword never happened" was a hell of a whiplash lol
Lol, sorry. That disclaimer was added later on basically to warn everyone that this will be focused just on TotK and BotW. I have pretty strong views on the state of the Zelda timeline by now.
This was a really well put together timeline. You mentioned a lot of things about the architecture I hadn’t noticed (or heard anyone else mention) before!
It’s amazing how much care the Zelda team put into their world building for this game, usually Zelda games tend to just give exposition dumps on ancient cultures/historical events, sort of like they were only really plot elements added to the narrative after the game design was done, but with BotW and TotK there’s very little exposition and instead the ancient history is embedded in the world design with so much intention to each little detail (it’s not a computer generated landscape like in a lot of open world games).
The discovery process of this history/culture for players of the game is so similar to how we discover, research and are left to piece together ancient history in the real world, big props to the Zelda team because I’m sure that has to have been an intentional design/narrative choice. Consequently all theory videos now have a striking similarity to ancient history/archeological documentaries 🤭
I can only hope there’s DLC or another game in the future that gives us more details on ancient Zonai history, it’s so fascinating and with so many questions left unanswered. Tho I definitely think you did a great job at piecing together and explaining the information we do currently have! 😊
Thank you! And yea, before I started making videos myself I was always impressed with archeology-like quality of work of other Zelda-tubers, NintendoBlackCrisis especially. His work on Zonai tribe with BotW information was excellent
About the erasure idea you brought up, I had assumed that it was done at the same time as the raising of the great sky island as a way to protect it and the light dragon from ganon's interfearence so it could be safe for link to access tens of thousands of years in the future. This might conflict with the idea you bring up about the sky islands being in use post-imprisoning war though.
There's certainly still a lot thats uncertain about the timeline of events, but this video was an awesome overview and a pretty solid take on it all, even if I still feel like some of it isnt a sure-thing. Keep up the awesome work, you earned a sub🎉🎉
Nothing is a sure thing until officially confirmed (which might never happen, lol) but I feel pretty good about it all ^^ And thank you, glad you enjoyed! :D
I love the idea that the barbarians were a tribe of hylians, who were brought together by the Zonai
Hah, thanks! :D
I imagine the history of the Zonai was hidden because it'd eventually lead to Ganondorf and they wouldn't want him resurrected. Presumably the Sheikah did this, based on the chamber Ganondorf is in.
Sheikah do like their secrets so yeah, it is possible they are the ones behind this.
The spirit temple's title of "souls resting place" seems to imply its a mausoleum/burial site, which then makes the owl statues even more fitting cause iirc owls were considered messengers of the underworld or something similar to the classical mayans and probably earlier too
This begs the question, considering Rauru and Mineru have owl necklace/headdress while the sets based on the other dragons have dragon necklaces; the siblings power over spirit and light (I believe in japanese its just 'force'? Which is probably inspired by the concept of qi/ki). Were they a family of doctors, morticians, etc.?
I think Rauru was some sort of a priest based on his clothes, no clue about Mineru, but it is possible that their parents were doctors. We don't know. Either way, the Spirit Temple is now a construct warehouse, if you look at the walls surrounding the ring where you fought the boss, there's spaces for construct storage everywhere. I do wonder if "soul's resting place" isn't actually strictly referring to that and Mineru's ability to posess inanimate objects. Not sure though. It's very mysterious.
@@Drakenwild Rauru formerly being a priest could mean that he assisted in (or conducted) the burial rites of deceased Zonai. And Mineru being the Sage of Spirit could mean that she had something to do with the spirits of the deceased getting to the afterlife. Was she a psychopomp? Did she set up her base of operations in The Depths specifically to be closer to the Bargainers, who also transport souls to the afterlife?
@@Sarah_H that's a fair point! I haven't considered that.
I appreciate how you took a holistic view at all the evidence and crafted the timeline from there. Lots of theories these days are done the other way around… I'm not entirely sure but this is definitely the most solid theoretical timeline I've seen.
One thing I'm uncertain of is that Mineru is solely responsible for the creation of the constructs. This is based on the Ancient Tablets, and while your translation is excellent it is still subject to some interpretation even afterwards. If you talk to Rauru's spirit around the Great Sky Island he describes the creation of the constructs and their use in Zonai society as if they had been around for a while and were created as a collective endeavor. Additionally looking at the Japanese version of that tablet, it seems like it refers specifically to Mineru creating a construct for her soul, but not about her creating them in general or for other purposes. Nonetheless, Rauru himself makes it sound as though the constructs _were_ created during his reign, or at least while he was alive, so the placement generally stays the same.
Truth be told, I completely forgot to talk to Rauru while researching for this video ^^' But if Constructs were created during his reign but collectively rather than just by Mineru, then that would mean Mineru has received a significant input from Hylians, which then got re-labled as Zonai. She and Rauru were the last of their kind and it seems like it has been this way for a while.
It's either that, or Zonai had some failed experiments in robotics beforehand and then Mineru took that and managed to finish, thus creating Constructs within Rauru's time but with a collective effort of her and Zonai of old.
Not sure if this was your intention but your voice is legit super relaxing to listen to.
Thank you! :D I've got two supercuts of older videos if you ever feel like listening for relaxation purposes ^^
Honestly, I got the total opposite idea from the shape of the Miner's Mask. That thing looks like it is completely _not_ shaped for a Hylian face (that front part sticks out _way_ too much), but instead looks like it would have fit more comfortably on a Zonai's snout, looking at Rauru.
Now, I’m finished with the video. Gosh, this raises a whole lot of questions:
•The most interesting and frustrating. The Dusk Claymore being found in the Typhlo Ruins. I am not sure why most haven’t spoken of this, but the Sage Temple Ruins in Central Hyrule has a cave leading to Zonai ruins that housed a Rusted Claymore (not important) and a plaque stating the Dusk Claymore was moved to the Typhlo Ruins. The timeline ramifications….this either means Hylians we’re using Zonai tech in secret after Twilight Princess to store the sword the Sages used at TP Ganondorf’s execution…..or that Twilight Princess takes place before Rauru’s age and this weapon was at some point found and placed in the Zonai Ruins after someone realized what it was.
•The Tarrey Town Mining Facility……can we trust the maps text at all? Tarrey Town was named by Hudson. So, does that mean the names locations are something fabricated and named by Link’s own mind? Or is Link seeing it on the Purah Pad, thus denoting that Zelda may have put that name there to relay to Link as he traveled the Depths?
•What is the Gleeok Den? Is it really a mere roosting ground for the Gleeok since its creation (I find this unlikely, but some evidence could suggest, given the existence of the Colosseums). Or did it appear after Ganondorf’s appearance and thus, this is once more a fabrication of either Link’s or Zelda’s?
Pretty sure no one has focused on any of those artifacts in particular yet largely because this game is full of such timeline ramifications and messes with many established concepts. It is difficult to talk about Zelda Timeline details while not having a concrete idea of what is even happening with it anymore, let alone a community-wide consensus.
And regarding the names of locations... in BotW I always assumed that all location names which appear when getting a map are downloaded from the Sheikah Tower, and all the rest that requires reaching the spot is probably input by Link. I think same principle works for TotK, too. So, yeah, nothing in the Depths could have been in the Skyview Tower's database and Link has no other sources to go on when naming the things because Rauru left and Mineru isn't very talkative, apparently, since she never helps with any ancient translations either.
I can’t even imagine how many hours of research went into this behemoth of a video! Incredible work Draken, this was a great watch
Thanks Captain! I'm glad you liked it :D
I personally love the idea that the first calamity of 10,000 years ago was a result of an assault on Rauru's seal, allowing a piece of Ganon's malice to escape. The sheikah, now the most powerful force in Hyrule, attempt to prevent any further attacks by erasing that part of history, building over the old zonai relics, sealing away the sky islands with the light dragon, and allowing the zonai descendants to vanish from Hyrule.
Ye
27:14 What do you mean? The trousers for the charged and frostbite sets are very specifically well above links ankles and at least the charged shirt could easily fit a Zonai, although I'm not entirely certain that the ember set would.Same thing with the barbarian set. The shirt could easily fit anyone, as it is just a little jacket, and the skirt looks like it is much wider but tightened by a belt to fit Link. As for the skull, it has the perfect little pocket for their enormous ears just behind the horns. Other than that, great video! And I like your avatar, very cute!
Thank you! With the Forstbite and Charged sets, I think the pants are meant to be this length as like, a fashion choice. You can see it on Rauru's variant of the set, his pants are of different length than Link's, proportionate to his legs. Plus, in Frostbite there is also the top piece which is definitely not long enough.
Honestly, I only really pointed these things out because BotW set up a precedence with going out of its way to explain why Link can wear certain sets, like the Zora and the Rito set.
@Drakenwild Yeah, I think they just gave up on doing that in totk.
@@EPadraigM they gave up on a lot of world building details they previously had, as unfortunate as it is.
@Drakenwild I think that's mostly because of the time it likely took to get ultrahand working, let alone all the caves. So, hopefully, little things like that will return in the next game.
Im sticking to a weird theory that the third eye of the two Zonai we see is a mechanical addition to their body. It opens oddly and is made of the same coppery Zonaite as a lot of weapons in the game. Also, I think the eye symbol seen on a lot of their designs is based on the Frox, mostly because of the fangs and strong lower eyelid often seen with it. Awesome video btw, love it. Totally agree with your timeline of events
Thank you! And it to be an interesting theory, I haven't considered it. Still, eye symbol is very clearly important, regardless if it's based on Frox or not. But yeah, Frox are worth investigating down the line for their ties to Zonai culture.
This video is 🔥. So well written and structured. I’ve been trying to make sense of what we do/don’t know about Zonai and I had hit a wall. This makes so much sense!
Thanks! It's awesome that I could help you ^^
Here something no one mentions when talking about Zonia magic considering the Zonia before TOTK where known to be strong magic users is: Ganondorf says you attempt to steal my magic when he is being imprisoned and says do you know what it will cost. My questions are: Was his magic actually stolen and if so how was Ganondorfs magic used? Or was it held somewhere known or unknown. Was is used to imprison Ganondorf or was it to raise the Sky Islands and prepare for Zelda's Hero Link's appearance and the blow he would receive from Ganondorf in the future? Even though Tears of the Kingdom and it's story was so amazing, I still feel so many questions remain unanswered.
I think what happens in this scene is that Rauru is syphoning away Ganondorf's magic and either keeping it within himself or safely dispersing it, causing his body to crumble and slowly turn to ash. Given that the spiral emerging from his back is the same as on the Shrines, it is likely a similar technique as was used to get rid of monsters in early Hyrule.
As for the Sky Islands, Zonai already had hover technology in hover stones so the mechanism keeping them afloat is likely based on that and if so, then it has to be Zonaite powered. One has to wonder though, since they were abandoned so long ago, when will fuel reserves kick in?
WOW moment with Zonai arch. in Faron...my mind mind has been changed. What an amazing detail!
The worldbuilding in these games is extraordinary.
I am very interested in that Barbarian armor. I am presuming these were probably who Ganondorf was comparing Rauru’s Hylians to. An era where monsters ran rampant, which required survival through barbaric methods. The strong were the protectors, so emphasis on fighting will breed very violent people.
The fact that the armor has a skull of red hair is eye-brow raising as well. Early Gerudo? But there are horns there and they are far too small to be any sort of monster we see in either games. What were they? God, it’s so fascinating!
Edit: Nevermind, got to the point in the video where monsters were created. Did not see that coming.
Hah, fair! I came to quite different conclusions regarding the Timeline than the rest of the community ^^' Idk, it goes directly against everything we knew from Skyward Sword but honestly, TotK does very strongly imply there were no monsters before Ganondorf.
Also, re the Barbarian Helm, red hair appears outside of Gerudo too and I'm not even entirely sure if the thing attached to the skull is actually real hair to begin with. It very well might not be. A bit hard to tell with the abstracted graphics.
@@DrakenwildWait, but the game says there were monsters before Ganondorf. On one of the royal chamberlain’s tablets, she says Rauru and Sonia created the Shrines of Light to seal monsters that were plaguing the kingdom. Whether they were the same monsters as Ganondorf’s is another debate, but there definitely were monsters.
@@stwbmc98 yes, and I directly reference that in the video. The tablet says monsters were a problem in early days since Hyrule's founding, which I take to mean that they were explicitly not a problem before then. If so, something must have caused them to appear and the only figure we know of capable of creating them is Ganondorf. That's the rationale.
@@Drakenwild Oh sorry, I haven’t gotten to finish the video yet because I’m at work. I’ve committed the classic RUclips sin lol
@@stwbmc98 no worries, happens to the best of us!
It's hard to believe Mineru created the whole ecosystem of Constructs, as that would mean the Zonai had their greatest mind in their last survivor.
Ofc Mineru probably just "manned" every possible location with a construct, as there were no more Zonai around to dig, participate on courage tests, operate giant furnaces and the like.
We can only imagine the depths' colosseums full of Zonai after a long (permanent night) day of work in the mines.
Sky tablets very clearly suggest it being the case. Constructs did not exist before Mineru, she made them by building upon technological achievements of her ancestors. However, it doesn't necessarily mean that every construct seen in the game has been built while she was still alive. She has certainly set up systems for mass production of them but given that nowadays the Construct Factory is expecting shipments from Dragonhead Island specifically and that things like flight and dive ceremonies were manned by servant constructs suggests that they kept being produced after she was gone, too. Now that I think about it, Soldier Constructs might have been created by some other unknown scientist much later as none are seen within Zelda's memories.
@@Drakenwild Good point about the soldiers, but since we see them in the Shrines, that story might be a bit different, unless people kept creating challenges inside the shrines in the name of Rauru and Sonia, which is totally plausible.
Considering we did not see a descendant from Sonia and Rauru, this period of time after the last Zonai was gone is quite mysterious indeed.
For instance, were the courage tests made for Zonai in the distant past, or after Mineru, for whoever made it to the skies during that peaceful period?
@@Aladato Fair point, I have not considered their presence in the Shrines!
And imo, as said in the video, people undertaking those tests of courage were ones who lived in the sky after the Imprisoning War.
@@Drakenwild Sorry about the last part, I wasn't able to watch the whole video in one go but wanted to comment as I went lol.
I don't remember if the constructs in the courage/valor/bravery tests mention Zonais or just "people".
I had a hard time considering every sky object over Hyrule was sent there during and after Mineru's presence (how long do they live btw?), but if we consider the Zonai might have come from other skies, it would make more sense.
@@Aladato skydiving constructs explicitly say Zonai, yes.
And not every sky object was sent by Mineru or immediately after she inhabited the Purah Pad. Lomei Labirynths were sent up much later and both the Water Temple and the Stormwind Ark much earlier.
I'm tired af, still had a billion things to do, it's getting late, gotta eat something. I literally stoped everything I was doing for I saw Moxie recommended this.
Don't forget to thank her for your new sub
Big love, keep up the good work
Honestly man, by this point she's done so much for this channel that she's owed eternal gratitude.
Haven’t watched the full video yet, so apologies if you already talked about this. But something that’s worth mentioning is that the bigger guardians from Skyward Swords silent realm trials wear almost the exact same clothes as Rauru. The flying guardians also seem to wear clothing similar to what Mineru wears.
I am specifically avoiding referencing past Zelda games in this discussion because the way I see the state of the continuity after TotK is that all past games are literally legends within this new Hyrule setting. And if that's the case, using them for proof in analysies like this should be done very cautiously.
Having that said, you're right, there is a bit of similarity, more so with land guardian and Rauru.
Actually I don't think the Ancient Hero is a Zonai-hylian hybrid, rather I think he's a species of Zonai that evolved in the Depths
This is mostly bc the Ancient Hero has traits that aren't hyrulean or Zonai, particularly his dark green skin and animalistic legs, something we know neither race possesses
However there are statues in the depths that depict a race we haven't seen before, a race with animalistic legs similar to the Ancient Hero's
So heres my theory: groups of Zonai went down to explore/live/mine in the depths, somehow though, they weren't able/didn't want to return to the surface, leaving Rauru and Mineru to assume that they are the last living Zonai
These Zonai are down in the depths for so long that they eventually evolve to better survive in the depths, growing animalistic legs that make it easier for them to traverse the depths and shrinking to the height of a Hylian (explaining why many Zonai outifits fit Link and why the Ancient Hero is the same height as Link)
Then eventually these Zonai came to the surface (bc yk, the Ancient Hero defeated Ganon at some point) and these Zonai left behind their outfits on the surface, the sky islands, and the depths
This would explain a lot like how the Zonai suddenly became an endangered species by the time Rauru became king, how the Ancient Hero could exsit years after the "two last living Zonai" died, and why the diving outfit can fit Link despite the Constructs never mentioning that Hylians also particpatied in these rituals
This could also explain why, in Impa's tapestry, the ancient princess looks the exact same as our modern, hylian Zelda (despite the fact that the ancient princess is a descendant of Zonai) while the Ancient Hero doesn't look like hylian Link at all (he has long red hair and a longer snout than the ancient princess)
Its bc the royal Zonai-Hylian descendents started to look more Hylian earlier than we thought while there was still a species of Zonai (like the Ancient Hero) that still looked more Zonai in comparison
That's an interesting theory! Tbh, I went with the hybrid idea assuming that these new traits were some sort of a recessive gene on the side of the Zonai that got brought out by inbreeding and a pinch of mutation on top. Tbh, with the information we currently have available to us, I think both ideas are more or less equally possible.
the geoglyphs and tears were not obscured by anything, they are a time paradoxon that appeared when Zelda traveled back in time and became a dragon
Truth be told, that was my first idea and it is still a valid one. Gossip Geist did a fantastic job recently proving some of the changes to Hyrule to be impossible without the present being altered by Zelda's actions.
Great video and very comprehensive!! There's several things you touched upon that make sense all connected together. One thing i just wanted to add, is that often times, as cultures progress irl, pre-existing buildings and rituals are "reworked" to fit the changed/changing culture of the region where they're located; so while i find the theory of a great erasure interesting and possible, i personally prefer to think that the pre-existing zonai buildings, being now unaccessible to the hylians/other races that descended from the ancient ones, have just been repurposed to fit the "current" culture of the inhabitants of the lands. That could explain why we can now find the boar imagery alongside the owls n the dragons, as it probably came in use either after the calamity or after the sealing of ganon. Just thought I'd share!!
I wouldn't jump to that theory if it was just about covering up of old buildings with new coat of paint... but the fact that the Geoglyphs, Sky Islands and the Light Dragon were also meticulously hidden suggests that there is something bigger going on. Hence, the grand erasure theory. But it is also possible that you're right and the hiding of those things is unrelated from renovating old buildings in the new style!
Your amazing narration was the main event. The Zelda subject was just a bonus. And the surprise Pokemon track was greatly appreciated!
:D Happy you enjoyed!
Thank you for making such a comprehensive summary of the timeline. Very insightful and truly fascinating.
No worries! Glad you enjoyed ^^
Babe wake up, new drakenwild video just dropped
:D
What an awesome breakdown. It was very well thought out, and it makes me want to go back and check the ruins again. Great video, thank you!
My pleasure! :D
Congrats for the 1k subscribers!!! Amazing video as always
Thank you!!! :D
The excavation sites are most likely named for their appearance as excavations by the Zonai Survey Team, rather than excavations made by the Zonai in ancient times.
We also do not see the Map Chamber at all in Zelda's memories. Which strongly suggests that it was built after the Imprisoning War.
There's an account with regards to the Stormwind Ark that refer to sky islands very high up in the sky, from whence their “god” fell from. A god who had mysterious power to build things with materials with a light from their hand… They were a Zonai.
I have ideas I want your opinion on. The Hyrule of old from the previous games was utterly annihilated by some sort of disaster, perhaps even the first Calamity Ganon, the Zonai being the servants of the Gods steeped in to stop the cataclysm but their numbers where greatly reduced. To the point where the species as a whole was doomed to extinction. Perhaps this is what motivated 3 of the Zonai to become dragons as a means of survival through immortality but the cost ended up being too great.
So instead the remaining few Zonai dedicated themselves to rebuilding society and saving as many as they could. The Sheikah took over the Zonai’s technology, perhaps even against the Zonai’s wishes, and the weapons they developed ended up being so powerful and dangerous that they were immediately ordered by the King of Hyrule to abandon and bury it all so that it wouldn’t be misused or corrupted. It would be understandable that all Zonai architecture and technology would also be hidden both to preserve it and to avoid any temptation to use it again.
I will point out that I don’t have any evidence for this. I just think it makes sense for a story perspective.
Calamity Ganon comes directly from Ganondorf who did not exist before Rauru, so Zonai of old could not have been wiped out by that. It also does seem like Sheikah have not been a thing at the time of Imprisoning War, they seem to have split off from Hylians later on.
I’m of the opinion that the devs backed themselves into a corner with the timeline and decided to “restart” the timeline so I like to think that the timeline just cycled over like a true Orobourus
They absolutely did back themselves into a corner by making the timeline official, yes, but also they seem to not care very much about it in the first place.
Even before TotK came out and made a mess, I had a feeling this version of Hyrule doesn't belong in the timeline. Playing TotK was like getting hit over your head with that message.
@@Drakenwild fair point and thank you for replying! It’s just hard to see them throw it away because I loved the timeline and actually liked SS before the switch port because it played into the timeline and now… it just hurts a little
@@skullkid2129 personally I've felt pretty ambivalent about the timeline but I get ya. It's sad to see such an important piece of fan works in theory space go.
@@skullkid2129 ¿Didn't both Aonuma and the book _Creating a Champion_ state the Era of the Wild takes place thousands of years _after_ all the previous games in the timeline took place? Considering the myriad of references and callbacks to past games across the Hyrule of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom such as Zelda referencing Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess during her blessing ceremony with Link not to mention the explicit reference to Fi with her iconic jingle playing at the end of Tears of the Kingdom i'm pretty sure that all past games in the series are _still_ canon even if the lattest 2 games do not directly tie to any previous game in the timeline.
I feel we should wait for at least the next DLC/sequel before jumping to the conclusion that Aonuma and Nintendo have in fact rebooted the Zelda franchise with the introduction of the Era of the Wild.
@@javiervasquez625 I agree I think that they are still canon but so far away in time that it doesn’t really matter anymore. I mean the first calamity might not have been 10,000 years ago. It could have been even longer and it would explain why the sheikah built the guardians and the divine beasts. Especially after the bombshell that was monsters are not natural occurrences and line up with the demon king or Ganondorfs revival or birth.
Sorry I got off track a bit but in short I agree they are still canon but so much time has passed that they don’t really matter but at the same time they do.
What I want to know is what exactly is the depths. My first instinct based off the architecture is that it was where the Twili lived before their banishment. But why and how does it mirror the over world especially after all the mining below and excavating up top.
Also final part of this random string of words. What if the Twili (a group of different species being oppressed and forced to live underground as far from the heavens as possible) lived in the depths until they tried revolting and taking back the surface but then their greed got the better of them and they fought for the triforce. I also think that the triforce was intentionally hidden from memory so that people would stop fighting over it and it’s gotten to the point that not even Zelda knows about it. Maybe impa knows about it. Seems like a secret she would be charged with keeping.
Now onto Zonai biology: What do you think their reproductive processes and gender roles would be like? Since they are mammals, I'd assume theirs would be exactly the same as those of the Hylians and Sheikah. On the other hand, I remember someone saying that the Zonai have draconian traits; if that's the case, then what if the Zonai are egg-layers instead of live-birthers?
Edit: I forgot that Rauru was married to a Hylian (Sonia) and most likely crossbred with her; that would probably debunk my theory on them being egg-layers, since I doubt that crossbreeding can be done between creatures with different reproductive processes.
No clue. We only ever see two Zonai, both of whom were related and both are dead. There is not enough information to draw conclusions about their culture and how they have functioned.
@@DrakenwildI have this headcanon in my mind of demythologizing so much of Zelda using Botw and Totk, where the Zonai are actually Humans modified by the 3 Dragons (who are themselves deities, which are ascended spirits, which then are consciousness that’re saturated in magic energy, which originates from a Triforce that was never created by any goddesses, merely crashing into a colliding Theia and Earth billions of years ago to be at the center of the inner core)
Zora lay eggs, and we have a lot of proof that Ruto had children with a Hylian, with a Hylian maiden being her descendant in LttP, and Rutella having what looks like hair in TP.
You do realize the Zonai Ruins are loosely based on real world ruins that were build by Stone Age civilizations, right? The Mayans and the Aztec. Your argument that people who would have worn the barbarian armor couldn’t have built the ruins doesn’t hold up. Now that we know who the Zonai are, we know better unless they used slave labor, but still.
... both of which are known to have worn textile clothing rather than skin and bone?
i've been saying FOR SO LONG that the barbarians are not zonai because only people with a pure heart can see dragons. Barbarians do not have pure heart
You could maybe still find an individual with a pure heart in such a community but still, there is a terrible mismatch between the armor and the ruins. There ain't no way people wearing leather and bone would be capable of such masonry.
i dont agree that all the zonai ruins from botw are created after the imprisoning war. i think calip has some dialogue where he mentions those ruins being older, and even if im misremembering that i think that the ruins in thyphlo couldve just been repurposed as a monument to rauru. also i think that instead of all of the faron zonai ruins being fake maybe all of the things made for minerus questline were just covered up with those shells and all the other ruins were already there
I don't remember that dialogue but even if he did say it, he can be wrong. Material evidence all points to every single ruin from BotW being built after the Imprisoning War. They are all in single style and between the plaque and older ruins showing beneath that style is clearly dated after the fall of Zonai. That said, it is entirely possible that Typhlo has been built over preexisting structure, we just don't have any proof of that happening. Equally, it is also possible that complex around Dracozu has been only partly built over older structures and the rest is genuine statues and buildings, not just shells. But, given how much Zonai enjoyed symmetry, I doubt they decided to erect only a few scattered dragons along the river - the giant dragon at the jaw of the river and walls around Spring might be new, but I'd wager that everything along the river is built overvold structures.
I absolutely love this video. I love speculation but it's really valuable for lore, especially zelda lore, to have a breakdown that focuses on observable facts and their logical implications while neither missing important observations nor mixing up logical implications with speculation and theory. That said, have my speculation and theories:
Based on the shape, is it likely that the protective mask of the miner set is either a universal design used by both Hylians and Zonai or a modification of the design for Zonai?
Are there any Hylians with red hair? The striking red hair of the Ancient Hero seems otherwise fairly unique to the Gerudo. If the Ancient Hero were technically gerudo (which does require the logical leap that the Gerudo can have children with some races without Gerudo genes being entirely dominant) it could be an indication that the Gerudo reconciled with Hyrule at some point during or before the hero's life.
Given that Rauru and Sonia were the very first King and Queen and almost certainly held great status before the founding of Hyrule it makes sense that they would likely have stuck to the attire symbolizing their prior status rather than immediately adopting the wearing of a fabric design that likely came about during their reign. Perhaps the sages were the very first to wear it. The design could well have been taken up by their immediate successors and/or might have held similar significance to the light blue used by the champions.
I am somewhat uncertain about the idea that all of the constructs encountered are entirely Mineru's work without entirely discounting it. I don't know what the untranslated tablets read like in the Japanese version of the game but if what we're dealing with is obfuscated, archaic-sounding Japanese translated into obfuscated, archaic-sounding English before your own translation into modern English (which seems accurate and lines up with my own partial translations) that leaves a lot of room for loss of meaning.
None of the three construct bodies seen in the game appear to have been completed before Mineru left her body. Implying that she completed the work quite late in her life (granted we do not know how long she was around after Zelda's draconification). I don't recall seeing any constructs in the flashbacks however they must have existed given Rauru indicates prior knowledge of them to Link.
Regardless of whether Mineru was responsible for ALL constructs I do think it is likely she was responsible for the most intelligent constructs (the ones that Rauru specifically mentions as having exceeded the ability of their Zonai creators in the mastery of their particular crafts).
I think it is possible that the Zonai lived in sky islands above Hyrule before descending with their original islands either having been lowered to the surface or destroyed at some point. One possible source of this theoretical destruction which I believe fits in your timeline would be the ancient dragons.
Theoretical sky islands aside, if the one or more ancient dragons wrought destruction that heavily impacted Zonai civilization, possibly including many deaths, that could have been a catalyst for the ban on draconification as well as massive social and cultural changes that brought Zonai and Hyrulians closer together and led to the founding of Hyrule.
I was thinking along the lines of plague doctor masks, where the "snout" portion of it was used to hold materials filtering dust from the air.
Given Naboris' location, I feel like it was implied that Hyrule has reconciled at least with parts of Gerudo by that point in time, yes.
That's an interesting idea! Sounds quite probable to me to be honest.
In Japanese, the tablets are written with archaisms but are otherwise completely legible to an average reader. It's the same in every language except English - we were done dirty by localization team. There are servant constructs in the flashbacks. The earliest one we see is in the first memory Mineru appears in. In this same memory she also already has the head of her construct body done.
It's not impossible. Personally I like the idea of them arriving from somewhere far away better because we know lands outside of Hyrule exist and that way we don't need to rely on additional explanations for what happened with the original islands, but either way the only thing we know for sure is that they flew down on Wings.
Possibly. Dueling Peaks was supposedly split by a dragon, so that could connect with this idea. I like it!
Thanks for clearing up the lore of the Zonai from BOTW to TOFK!
No problem, it is my pleasure :D
@@Drakenwild will there be collaboration with LoruleanHistorian in the near future?
@@willisrose9756 in the near future, no. I have very concrete plans for the next few months. Down the line, maybe.
@@Drakenwild I gotcha
I like the collabs with moxie and the channel :)
I like them, too! ^^
People keep saying that the Zonai were around 10,000 years ago which really annoys me since no one seems to remember that that was when the shiekah were at their height of technological progress. In the first game they said that the Sheikah were the ones that took down calamity Ganon which was an aborition of Ganon and not the demon king himself. Not to mention that in one of the first memories of TOTK they said that the Purah Pad (which was made from sheikah technology) was definitely not from this era implying that they've never seen any technology similar to that. I don't know why people are just forgetting that the sheikah were at their height 10,000 years ago and that the Zonai likely were already dead by then. Or perhaps I am just missing something. I don't know. At the time of writing this I haven't finished I just started the video.
I guess it depends on a given conversation, but I feel like people often just kinda use the 10k years as a shorthand because that length of time is already absurdly long ago and the original Zonai are even older than that. Assuming Calamity cycles take 10k years each (which we don't know if they do) that's 20k years at minimum... but really, it's probably been more cycles and it is highly likely that they were only getting *shorter* with the passage of time, due to Rauru's seal weakening, so even assuming that only two calamities took place, we are looking at way more than 20k years. And that's just between present day and Rauru, who knows how long ago it was when the first Zonai colonized Hyrule and how long their reign was before they all died out.
@@Drakenwild Ty for clarifying
Best video I’ve seen about the zonai. Not many people have noticed that the ruins were coved up. I like the idea of using the armor outfits to date some of the events but I don’t completely agree with your timeline. I started looking at the outfits myself, noticed that Rauru in his character profile is wearing the charged attack set, minus the horn of Farosh. It seems they were part of one of the tribes but after draconafacation became forbidden.
I believe I did point out that Rauru is wearing a charged set minus the horn and with an owl shaped brooch rather than dragon, indicating a connection between him and dragon worshippers (and likely evolution in religion).
I believe you said that the dragon phase of the charged set, stopped long before rauru but I think rauru and his older sister are the ones to transition the owl phase he is wearing. Maybe because they met Sonia and the hylian tribe or because there were enough creative forces from the three dragons. We don’t know if the three zonai tribes got along. They say a dragon split dealing peaks and maybe that was after a territorial dispute, who really knows why dragons do things? We know from the typhoon ruins that the hylians are the ones to cover the clean white zonai ruins with that darker stone that gets mossy. It also would explain a hylian goddess statue in front of the zonai vault in the forgotten temple for the purpose of hiding history. Not sure if Zelda left behind instructions or the sheikah hid the zonai ruins to copy the tech. Among things hidden there is tobios hallow chasm which I think is an official chasm the zonai used but also the last one they used. @@Drakenwild
Two things: 1) Your voice is awesome and soothing. Just a huge fan. 2) I liked someone else's theory of the "Lomei" being a descendant race of the Zonai, thus those labyrinths being different, however, the 5th creature in the depths also looks more like Mogmas from Skyward Sword evolved/modified, and the mining outfits look like them. I personally like the theory that they are the race that created the ancient hero, but bred out into standard Hylians as time passed because they couldn't return to the depths after the history was hidden. Of course, this assumes an entire extra race of creatures that existed but only has records in 1 set of armor and some statues in the depths, so it's a more flimsy one, but one I cling to nontheless, as the ancient hero's aspect with the tail and the feet doesn't quite make sense to me as modifications/mergers of Zonai and Hylian DNA. Also, if the creatures depicted in the mining gear were a slave race, only recognized as proper people after the constructs were made or treated as heretics for worshipping the bargainer statues in the depths, it would explain how they have significantly less of a presence in the historical record.
Metger of Zonai and Hylians was the best I could do given the limited information. To be fair, with sample size of 2 Zonai we have very little idea about them and their biology. For all we know, they could have had people with tails or no tails and the presence of the tail would be tied to a specific set of genes... it's grasping though.
Your idea is interesting, too!
Fantastic video! So much effort and care :) THE Mox sent me
Thanks! :D
i dont actually think its entirely ruled out that the barbarian armor couldve been worn by the zonai. the rito also have very different bodies than hylains but link can wear the armor sold at their shops. also plenty of other zonai armor does fit link such as the the glide set, the ember set, the charged set, and the frostbite set. this set does also share some traits with the zonaite armor and the ancient heros aspect so it could've been worn by an ancient hylian tribe who tried to recreate the creations of the zonai a short time after they arrived
I was under the impression that Rito Set caters very specifically to Hylians, even in universe, so it's no wonder that it fits. I applied the same principle to other Zonai armors as well, talked about later on in the video.
Every single new connection made blew my mind 🤯
:) ngl, I am very proud of myself for this one, lol
Who created monsters though? We can see shrines during Ganon's first attack with Moldugas, so "natural" monsters were already a thing, but not evil ones?
To be honest, the function of the shrines is not completely clear to me, as to what were they purifying if there were no monsters prior to Ganondorf using the secret stone.
Maybe they purified something from the depths as the roots extend all the way there, or are they sending purifying sunlight to the depths only?
Secret Stones amplify the power of the wielder. Ganondorf already had the capability to create monsters before he stole the Stone - just at a much smaller scale. But, with enough persistence and time, he likely could have created enough monsters to pose a threat to people of Hyrule. So what I'm saying is - he likely was working in the background even in early stages of Hyrule's history, testing Rauru and the kingdom's defences. Monsters became a nuisance, so Rauru and Sonia made Shrines of Light to deal with them but likely remained in the dark about the source of the problem. Then the plot happened and upon obtaining a Secret Stone, Ganondorf started mass creating monsters again, which this time weren't sealed, hence we have monsters in modern day Hyrule.
@@Drakenwild Perfect. The whole point of the secret stones enhancing someone's power is key to solving many questions.
And also the reason they were kept a secret, as anyone can use them.
We can add Koume and Kotake as powerful allies to Ganondorf's exploits before he got the secret stone and escalated the whole situation.
@@Aladato exactly!
Maybe they were created by a previous demon king, like Demise, or, if this Hyrule really is a refounding, another Ganondorf.
I never even noticed that Raurus legs were that short. Good catch!
First time I noticed it I had to double take because he looks absurd xD Such weird proportions. They really made sure to have Zonai look alien.
I like your voice and your little Avatar and really everything it's just cozy
🥰 Happy you enjoy it!
10/10 amazing video
we really should have known about the barbarian armor XDDD
we really should have xD honestly, why did we ever assume otherwise xD
I love your accent so much. It’s so soothing, it reminds me of my Nana ❤
@@chris5410 awwww, thank you!
Super exciting waking up to this!!
It took. So. Long. xD
This seems like it took like 40~ hours just to edit?
Coming from a fellow editor x
@@M2DaZi honestly man, no clue. When juggling editing with fulltime work and other irl responsibilities it's easy to lose count. If I had to guess though, I'd say about 60 hours. I'm still figuring out how to be efficient.
@Drakenwild
That tracks! Honestly super impressed that you're juggling a lot and still getting this done.
You can see the love you put in this~
@@M2DaZi thanks man! I appreciate it ^^
With this timeline of the Zonai in place here, what would it mean for the rest of the games in the canon, and more specifically, the Forgotten Temple’s resemblance to the Sealed Temple in Skyward Sword?
I will be a making a video about that soon-ish to explain my idea of what is going on with the timeline, so hold on tight till then!
Something worth noting is that the mining set seems like it would match the body of the ancient hero better than normal hylians or zonai, considering the shape of the mask being like his snout. Not sure what that could mean necessarily and i could be wrong but i figure its worth bringing up
It completely mismatches at legs though. Imo the mask is a little bit like plague doctor's beak, it's elongated to put *something* in there. If the idea about the dust being harmful is correct, it could be air filters.
@@Drakenwild that's fair, I hadn't noticed that bit
If you look at the mining helm it almost looks to be made for a snouted being, almost the same shape as the "ancient hero" head or say a "Lesser-Zonai".
Also think lightroots were made by Zonai to take the depths and displace the "monsters" causing them to flee to the surface and attack it's people...
This in turn would cause the fall of the Zonai Empire and the reason why Rauru married the priestess Sonia to form the "first" Hylian Kingdom...
Also think the Zonai made the three human tribes from the barbarians they "enlightened" and then were worshiped by (or ruled over...)
Hylians were Rauru's cult and Sheikah were Mineru's cult, while Gerudo would be either exiles or those who refused Zonai rule and escaped to the desert.
So when the Zonai took over the depths and the "monsters" attacked the surface, Gannon and many Gerudo blamed the Zonai and in turn their Hylians...
Wait what was the forgotten temple called before it was forgotten?
No clue. It has been forgotten.
Welp
I dont think theres any conflict between building elaborate structures and wearing, like, skulls? The Zonai architecture is very Aztec to me.
Aztecs wore fabric. To me, wearing exclusively skulls, fur and leathers screams of a society that has yet to figure out fabrics.
@@Drakenwild We don't know what they 'exclusively' wore from one outfit. Bear in mind that your ability and willingness to invest in fabric is dependent on the feasibility of raising wool bearing animals, or plant fiber production. The zonai we do see fully dressed are royalty.
1 year late, but ever wonder if the King's decree for the Sheikah tech to be dismantled to be the *same* one that is pushed to hide all Zonai tech as well?
I didn't actually but it would line up, if I recall my own Zonai timeline correctly. It was indeed a year, lol
I think there is a problem with your theory on the placements of some of the timeline. To me I think I should swap the Zonaite and the Ancient Heroes Aspect placements. Ganondorf Dragmire said that Rauru and Mineru were the Last of the Zonai so I think he meant the "Pure Blooded Zonai". While they are the Zonai-Hylian Descendants and the more the descendants get with Hylians they go more Hylain looking to the Zonaite Armor. So the Zonai-Hylian descendants could have scales and the hair of the Zonai but the more they get with Hylian they look more and more like the Ancient Heroes Aspect then to the Zonaite look. I like the theory that Rauru and Sonia are the ancestors of Hylia. So during the Time of Raurus reign I would think there would be a lot of Hybrids but they live away from where he is. Think the Ember Armor Set Clan locations are where the hottest places are and where Din is. Examples are Surface: Death Mountain, Spring of Power, and Gerudo Desert During the Day. Depths: Goflam's Lavafalls, Sherfin's Lavafalls Sturnida Lava Fall and Yikot Lightroot area. Sky: Zonaite Forge Island and Eldin sky Archipelago's. Frostbite Armor Set Clan locations Cold and Nayru. Surface Hebra and Tabantha regions, Lanayru, Gerudo Highlands, and Gerudo Desert during the Night. Depths: same as the Surface. Sky: Same as the Surface, Charged Armor Set Locations Possibly just about anywhere and where Farore is. Surface: Faron Region, Hyrule Ridge, Thyphlo Ruins, Central Hyrule, and Necluda. Depths: Same as Surface. Sky: Same as the Surface. There are possibly other clans as well like one for every sage. The King/Queen of the Zonai is the one that is the Light Clan. The children of the King and/or Queen who have the Ability for Light are the one who inherits the Crown. So I don't think Rauru was just a priest he just was one to get to know his people. Before he inherited the crown Example is Lief of the Deltora Book series and Martin Septim of The Elder Scrolls Series. They were a Blacksmith and Cultist to Priest respectively.
Just my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom. What do you think?
The problem with swapping Ancient Hero and Zonaite set is that Ancient Hero is borderline confirmed to have been the person from BotW tapestry, which also means that by this point Sheikah have already taken over as tech specialists and inventors, which then implies Zonai tech was mostly retired by that point. The thought was that while Ancient Hero does indeed wear Zonaite armor, he existed at the twilight of Zonai culture and his clothing was more of an exception than a rule by that point.
I also don't think Zonai-Hylian hybrids existed at the point of Hyrule's founding, at least not commonly, because if they did, the union between Rauru and Sonia wouldn't be seen as special.
@@Drakenwild I know but think what if Ancient Heros Aspect (what it symbolizes as the union of Zonai and Hylian) and the Zonaite Armor set were earlier in the Timeline.
As for the Zonai-Hylian Hybrids. I could think the reason they are not seen, is that back then they were in the time before a lot of Zonai technological advancements. It takes a lot to get to point A to point B.With the Zonai being possibly Long lived at the time they could just take their time getting from A to B. But To the Hylians they Don't have much time to get to A to B so they have to be quick to get there. So there could be Hybrids at that point in time Also think it could be that even they are seen not as often.
Well that is my theory
Ganondorf Dragmire is classic Ganondorf, not TotK Ganondorf.
Great video
Thank you! :D
I feel like the barbarian Zonai were a hybrid of Zonai and hylians that chose to be barbarians and were the interlopers that were sent to the twilight realm
15:39 Oh I know this soundtrack. It's from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. X3 Very nice choice Drakenwild.
Thank you!
What about the Poo, since some of Zonatie's locations are built around them.
Even though we know less of their history.
I'm not convinced that the hero's aspect isn't a full Zonai. It wouldn't be the first race in this game series that contained different individuals with very different looks, even down to having strong resemblances to different animals (the Rito and the Zora). The only real examples of Zonai we get are Rauru and Mineru, and they are siblings, so it makes sense that they resemble each other even if other Zonai could look more like other mammals. Maybe some just looked a bit like goat-jackals and others looked more like humanoid big cats.
Maybe! I'm not going just off of his looks though, also the fact that the hero appeared long after the last two Zonai were lost but, as it is implied, left behind mixed-race offspring.
That doesn't rule out Zonai from outside Hyrule arriving later but that's head-cannon territory and I tried to stay within logical implications with these things.
Considering that according to Japanese Dialogues of Ganondorf and also the anchient Zonai Inscriptions of one of the Royal Servants I think that before the Zonai arrived that Hyrule fell into anarchy at some point.
everyone was fighting for themselves, not only against other groups but also against demons Because Hyrule was apparently also overrun by them
Ganon referred to that the World in the Past was filled with Violence and War, everyone was fighting, but then the Furry Gods came down and brought their Disgusting Peace and Order in his eyes and Rauru and Sonia even both went on journeys to imprison the Demons in the Shrines of Light so that they may not respawn and violate everything.
interesting video
new subscriber to the channel
only 1 technical question, how did u do this thing at 1:24 min??
Thank you! Do you mean the hand with pointed finger? I just keyframed it to move between three points on x axis.
@@Drakenwild ooh not only that i mean the timeline with the circles
@@International愚民のDIAURA ah! I took screenshots of things I wanted to put on there, threw them all into a site that generates DnD tokens and then manipulated them all individually along a line. The line itself is a cropped color generator.
@@Drakenwild ooh and is possible to create the timeline with Premiere?
@@International愚民のDIAURA idk, I work with DaVinci xD but even if Premiere doesn't have color generators you can just make a transparent png of a straight line in gimp or something and work with that instead, so it should be doable.
I noticed somthing very interesting. Two of the sky labyrinths are called North/South Lomei CASTLE top floor. Possible lore?
That is a very interesting choice of a word. Though I don't think it ever functioned as a conventional castle, cause... I mean, look at it. It's a maze.
The owl means wisdom. The boar means power. And the dragon means courage
They could have gained that meaning later on, when all three were in use, but both owl and the dragon have a traceable source in Zonai history.
11:15, amazing recap of events, but it where is this and how have i’ve never found this 😅
It's one of Zonai mining sites in Faron. There is a few, mostly located in the part of the woods that isn't jungle yet.
Im curious, whats the character you have in your video? It reminds me of the pokemon ninetales, and i really like it
It's a dragon! There's a fullbody picture of it at the end ^^
@@Drakenwildoooh, it looks wonderful
draken you have a very nice voice. I found your channel through the pirate friend of yours and you are just as good as him! only you don't sound as similar to technoblade as he does... R.I.P techno. (P.S. I love that you use moonlighter music in your vids I play that game and the music fits very well with your vids!)
Thank you! :D
@@Drakenwild you are very welcome! oh and do you personally play moonlighter or just listen to the ost? I think that a moonlighter lore breakdown vid would be the bomb
@@oliverbicknell3427 I listen to the ost! I want to play it sometime, just haven't gotten around to it.
@@Drakenwild I would reccomend it! it is a very good game with very good lore! perfect for a certain draconic scholars examination maybe?
Sheikah Slate based on Purah Pad based on Sheikah Slate.
It's Song of Storms all over again.
Yep.
And the entirety of Rolling Ridge from Oracle of Ages. All story quests there involve time loops.
I wonder if the Zonai lived on sky islands of other lands that were not Hyrule, and then arrived on their zonai wings and found a bunch of tribal people on the soon to be Hyrule.
On one hand, they could. On the other, why would they? I mean, if in the place where they are from floating landmasses are a natural occurrence, sure, but if they aren't then why would Zonai need to invent them?
@@Drakenwild Right now I can only think of lost knowledge, as it seems to happen time and time again among all races.
Just like people considered the Zonai as gods due to "coming from the skies", the Zonai before Mineru could consider sky islands as their homeland, not knowing their ancestors raised those landmasses to the sky, but this is just speculation ofc.
Mineru on the other hand could have figured out their ancient homeland was made with technology and created her own version, including the magicnology(?) to hide the sky islands from the surface.
@@Aladato it could be but that doesn't answer the question of why these supposed older islands were made in the first place.
That said, the two sky dungeons were brought to my attention so I must admit, the technology was certainly there as both of them predate the Imprisoning War and, more thanlikely, founding of Hyrule itself.
@@Drakenwild The reason could have been lost over time, in case they lived on artificial islands. In either case, Mineru could just recreate the result with new technology.
Just to be sure, you consider the Zonai only came flying from other lands, correct?
If so, I don't disagree, I just didn't believe that in case they came from the actual skies, that it was Hyrulean skies.
But now you made me think of something else when you question the reason.
Didn't Zelda suggest sending the temple to the sky to help Link when she never got to see anything related to the sky islands?
I wonder if it was her Hylia instincts just like she did on the SS timeline.
@@Aladato I think Fi told Zelda. She had a brief conversation with the sword when she got it.
What language do you speak that's not English? I've never heard an accent that rolls every single R like that. (I'm only familiar with Western central/south American accents.)
I went and looked through your other videos, and it seems like this wasn't as prevalent as it is in you more recent videos.
Very curious.
I'm Polish! And this may have been caused by recording conditions. I usually record at night, to limit background noise, but that also means I need to limit volume because people are sleeping. This video I managed to record during the day, so I could go louder. (Plus I might be a bit bolder on the mic than I used to in general, lol)
40:10 where does zelda say this? I dont remember it, I must have missed something lol
That's not a quote, that's an in universe way of saying "we know this from cutscenes" ^^' My bad for not clarifying better that that's what is happening.
Is that the Moonlighter theme I'm hearing?
Yep! :D
Which era would the Zonai, Thyphlo, Thundra, and Palmorae Ruins be in? The Old Zonai era or Age of the Sky?
All of the ruins you mentioned are in the New Zonai style, so they are from Age of the Sky. Zonai themselves were of The Old Zonai Era, as the deaths of the last two of their kind mark the end of it.
@@DrakenwildIn the cases of the ruins I mentioned, were they built over pre-existing Rauru-style architecture like in Tobio’s Hollow and Dracozu River or built on there own? What’s the main feature New Zonai architecture has? Does it involve more Mesoamerican influence like what we saw in BOTW?
@@xuanluu4873 They all seem to have been built on their own. Typhlo and Thundra have closed off sections that retain the style of upstairs, something that isn't true for Dracozu and Tobio's ruins, and Palmorae's columns are broken and show no unique stonework underneath.
The New Zonai style is everything we considered to be Zonai architecture back in BotW, yes. So it involves use of a very specific kind of stone that can be differentiated by the shade, the dragon and column carvings in the stone with the Mesoamerican influence, the spirals with a tick NintendoBlackCrisis was pointing out a lot back when he was making the documentaries, all that good stuff.
You say that people wouldn't build structures like the stone snake dragon area and be dressed like that but I would like to point to two well know cultures that did exactly that. Myan of the Yucatan peninsula and the Inca of south amarica. Just saying. Thats not even pointing all the other stone age tribes in south and centeral amarica, just saying.
Love the accent 😊
Thank you kindly!
Zonai
Zonai
i literally cant understand half of what she is saying.. and its frustrating because i want to watch this as she is the only channel covering this lore info
@@Only_Some captions to the rescue! This is the exact reason I caption everything regardless of the length.
@@Drakenwild Omg ty I keep forgetting about them
I don't know why you purr your "Rs" but it's pretty hot ._.
Hah, thanks! It just kinda happens on it's own ^^
Hoho bonjor
Bonjour!
Siuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
You say that people wouldn't build structures like the stone snake dragon area and be dressed like that but I would like to point to two well know cultures that did exactly that. Myan of the Yucatan peninsula and the Inca of south amarica. Just saying. Thats not even pointing all the other stone age tribes in south and centeral amarica, just saying.
Okay, I'm not opposed to learning new things. Can you give me specific examples of complex structures that are definitely older than production of textiles? I did a cursory google on Mayans and from it found out that they figured out textiles during the pre-classic era, while most of their most known structures came later, in the classic era. They did build impressive things in the pre-classic era as well but from what I've seen, these cities and statues are dated either within the timeframe estimated for when they started using textile clothing or the rough estimates for the age of stone structures has great overlap with one for textiles - which is the entire point I was making. Clothing and stone masonry tended to develop at roughly the same time, cause both are associated with people who have settled for an agrarian lifestyle rather than hunter gatherer one. Meanwhile the stonework of the Zonai suggests a society that is highly developed already (like classic era Mayans), so they would likely be past the point of figuring out how to make fabric.