Everything I know and more: BOTW

The Sheikah Trials- Ten Thousand Years Ago

It was a prosperous time, and the races thrived. It was a time of peace. The legend of Ganon had long faded into myth, and nobody remembered the hero Link- save the Sheikah. The wisest Sheikah came together and decided that it was inevitable that Ganon would rise again- and that he wouldn't stay trapped beneath the castle forever. They put together a team of 137 monks- most of what they had at the time, and asked them to design puzzles for the hero to complete using his wits.

Twenty of these monks chose a trial by combat- the hero would be greatly rewarded if he defeated the mechanical wonder that the monks had built. Many relatives worked on their shrines together (ex. Dah Hesho and Dah Kaso, Saas Ko'sah and Tena Ko'sah). Six other monks chose to have the hero control large floating blocks with the power of an apparatus, which is a series of rings used to control a floating structure in the air. Three monks took on the daunting task of carving a labyrinth and placing traps inside of them. There are 24 blessing shrines, with monks listed here, as I could not find a source with all of the blessing shrines documented.

Lakna Rokee

Tahno O'ah

Dagah Keek

Shai Yota

Dila Maag

Korsh O'hu

Misae Suma

Raqa Zunzo

Suma Sahma

Tho Kayu

Keeha Yoog

Maag No'rah

Shae Katha

Daag Chokah

Ketoh Wawai

Kuhn Sidajj

Maag Halan

Rona Katchta

Ritaag Zumo

Tu Ka'loh

Zuna Kai

Lanno Kooh

Qaza Tokki

To Quomo

There you are. Anyways, all those monks made their puzzles for the hero to solve once the dire conditions were met. These conditions were as follows: Ganon must be on the rise again, the Hero must be alive and ready, and lastly, the Hero must activate the Great Plateau tower and complete the rune distilling shrines before facing the other trials and finally Ganon.

With these shrines, they built 15 total Sheikah towers and one shrine of resurrection, which although technically being a shrine, does not really count, as it is not a trial. the shrine of resurrection was meant for if the hero was fatally wounded in battle and needed to be rapidly healed. Unfortunately, this technology wasn't tested before the Sheikah were all but wiped out by the Hylian army because they were getting too powerful. This caused the shrine to, instead of rapidly healing its occupant, trap it there for 100 years to fully rejuvenate its wounds. It is difficult to say if this process would have been different if the subject was less wounded, however we must consider that although this contraption saved the hero's life, it may have been a quicker- won battle if the original hero had died, causing a new Hero to be born, and having the process of defeating Ganon take a significantly shorter time.

Now, between then and the events of Breath of the Wild, the Zonai race must have completely died out. We know that they existed in the first place only because of old stone ruins found in the Faron region, and speculations about the hand holding the body of Ganondorf in the Tears of the Kingdom trailer (see the final chapter). This means that either the Zonai a) didn't breed, or b) have the least dominant gene of all the races including the Sheikah, Rito, Zora, and Gorons. This would make sense, seeing as the Sheikah were all but wiped out about 10,000 years ago, but somehow managed to not be totally annihilated. There is some speculation, however, that if a Zonai gene is to be combined with a Zora gene, the result would be a rito. This unfortunately cannot be proven or disproven by evidence in the game, and therefore remains a theory.

The royal family of Hyrule has always had a king, a queen and a princess. In any story that has been passed down, the princess has never once had a brother mentioned, except for in Zelda II, Link's Adventure. This means that the Royal Family is able to produce a Y chromosome, however most of the time, they do not mention this. There are theories that Link and Zelda are related, however these can be disproven by many factors, the first being that although Link is usually a royal swordsman, he is never mentioned to be of any relation to the Princess and her family. The second point would be that Link's power was never passed down through generations- a Hero simply rose to right the wrongs of Hyrule when the time came- whereas there is always a princess or queen named Zelda that has powers at any given point in Hyrule's history.

One final thought here would be, okay, so what exactly happened to Ganondorf's body, and what is the difference between Ganon and Ganondorf? Well, before the events of 10,000 years ago, it is thought that the Zonai trapped Ganondorf's body underneath the strongest structure that Hyrule had to offer- Hyrule Castle. This was forgotten, as only the Sheikah and Zonai knew (to protect the secret, as the Gerudo could not be trusted), and most of the Sheikah were wiped out in Hyrule's march against technological advances. To answer the second question, well, Ganondorf is a Gerudo male, the only one of his race, and his mortal form is trapped underneath Hyrule castle (keeping him alive is a surefire way to make sure that another Ganondorf is not born). Ganon is a Malice Incarnate, which means that the true soul of Ganon, mixed with the intent of Demise has manifested itself into the world once Ganondorf has gathered enough strength.

Oh yeah, Demise was there for the creation of the world too. But it had only evil plans, and grabbed hold of Din's toy of power, making it hateful towards all. Demise is sometimes mentioned in the lore of the Zelda franchise, but mostly, it can be summed up as "a bit of a serial troublemaker."

To end off the chapter: A shower thought.

If Gorons eat rocks, and their job is to mine, shouldn't we be calling them farmers instead of miners?