#(how will they keep from going mad with endless reincarnations the way the bright queen slowly is?)

[nellasbookplanet]

While I have Many Thoughts on the plan to convince the gods to go mortal, most of which others have already addressed at length (mainly how the fuck is this going to work in practice in both the long and short run, and also really cool idea but could’ve been set up better), I haven’t seen anyone bring up how this particular solution may actually bring a chance at change and growth for the gods that has so far been withheld from them.

Because, until now, the pantheon as a whole has been sort of - stuck. They went from beings of endless possibility in Tengar to being distillied and calcified through trauma into a single trait, the domains of which they became gods. The primes and betrayers aren't different sides of a war but a family locked in a struggle that will never be resolved because neither side will ever relent, nor are they either truly willing or capable of (being immortal) killing each other. They seem incapable of truly changing, and several of them (notably the Arch Heart and the Raven Queen) have expressed simply being tired. They don’t necessarily want to die, but they recognize a need for change, just that they themselves can't be the instigators of it.

The god debate hasn’t really taken this into account, though the overhanging shadow of it has been growing heavier since downfall. The kill-all-gods side obviously has no reason to care whether the gods are locked in endless misery (other than using it as an additional excuse for murder), but the save-all-gods side isn't any more helpful when it comes to this particular issue. Saving the gods won’t heal them.

Maybe becoming mortal (however many, many issues that brings with it) could actually allow them to become whole as people the way mortals are, no longer as strictly tied to their domains. Now that the entirety of Exandria no longer rests on them playing nice, maybe they can find a way to resolve their family feud (through blood or reconciliation). Perhaps, as mortals, they can even eventually even find a way to live a full, final life and find rest at the end of it.

[all-pacas]

so the thing that’s struck me from egtw is how fragile the kryn dynasty really is. they don’t appear that way: they’re all about certainty and the moral and religious Right: they alone have the  true secrets to the universe and the wisdom borne of lives and centuries. but it’s built on sand, and the book makes clear that it is absolutely unsustainable: the mighty nein are witnessing the end of the dynasty and not the dynasty’s moment of triumph.

let’s look at the empire, just for contrast. the empire doesn’t even pretend to be morally superior or anything other than cynical, but that has ended up kind of… working? religious cults cause trouble, so let’s ban those religions, not because dwendal particularly cares about the threat of the wildmother but because he cares about keeping an uprising from happening. ally yourself with a group of powerful mages who you absolutely don’t trust and know want to screw you over, because at least now they have to pretend to listen to you. dwendal’s actions are cynical and self serving and not “good,” but also due to his paranoia and isolationist tendencies, have served to make him hyper aware of threats and reactive in trying to prevent them.

the dynasty? 

there’s no mention of any other religion even existing in the kryn dynasty. it doesn’t appear that it’s been outlawed as much as completely overpowered and ignored, just as the nomadic tribes are ignored, just as the monster races were ignored until very recently — the skysibil was born as a goblin this time around and pushed for that acceptance, but given goblin lifespans this is probably a very recent thing. she appears to be elderly, so say she’s around 30. by elf standards, by endless reincarnation standards, that’s nothing. the dynasty is stagnant. 

but that’s not really the problem. the real problem is leylas kryn. the book makes clear: she is the luxon, she is the pope, she is in a real way their jesus: she found the beacons and discovered their power and the entire religion is based around her, her life and her powers. dwendal is the current king in a long line; he has a son and presumably extended family. the kryn have no one. leylas has no children. she has no heirs, because she can simply reincarnate. (that math, too, is odd: the first beacon was found “a millennium” ago, but drow can live up to 750 years, but leylas is on her ninth life.) there was no founder: she is the founder. there is no replacement: she is her own replacement. the culture is stagnant and slow to react and change: in a thousand years they’ve found four beacons. in a few years, the empire has uncovered one on their own. (luck, maybe, but you gotta wonder.) they promote consecution and reincarnation and the luxon, and literally kill anyone who shows signs of madness from the process and hide that this madness even exists: cynical, yes, but necessary, because if people knew the cornerstone of your only religion and government and lifestyle was going to drive you mad, people would question it, and if they questioned the beacons they would be committing treason, because the beacons are the state and are the bright queen. there is no separating them. you can’t do what dwendal did and go “well, this religion  is bad and so we’re not doing it anymore.” the three are inexorably intertwined. lose one, and you lose it all. if leylas’s madness is revealed? if leylas is killed and not reborn? there’s nothing. there’s no fallback plan. the kryn dynasty doesn’t exist without her, because she founded it and created the religion and created the cult of the beacons and their worship.

(how often are people consecuted? if the first beacon was found a thousand years ago, that’s only two generations by elf standards. but leylas has been reborn eight times, and her partner five. and sure, 750 years is the ideal — i personally might live to 114 but probably won’t — but that’s a lot of drastically shortened lives. and the kryn have ritual suicide/rebirth as a religious rite — and the madness borne of consecution, leading to the quiet removal of the mad — how often does the average person consecute? are they urged to? is it exalted? are the kryn, unintentionally, hastening their own demise?)

(and what happens if you do opt out? if you, drow jones, just aren’t in a hurry to be reborn because you like how you are now? essek has hinted that you’re scorned for not taking part, which now makes a lot of sense: if your entire nation is a cult of personality and religion based on the life and choices of one woman, you can’t opt out. to be areligious is the same as being treasonous; to defy the government is the same as rejecting the religion; to question one is to question it all.)

(that isn’t to excuse essek’s actions, because he was not a noble patriot acting to uncover the truth, and if what he did was ‘right’ or ‘important’ it was clearly accidentally so — in fact, if anything he only served to hasten the fall of the dynasty, because if you question or learn one thing — the madness, the source of the beacon’s power, the source of the beacons — it is going to cause the whole system to fall apart. the kryn cannot survive without leylas, or the beacons, or the story of the two of them. the moment one flaw is revealed, it is all going to break apart.)

[brownkamm]

The ‘Failed’ Sacrifice 

~ Ooooiii, hows it going fairies? I've been recently doing research & thought about BOTW 2 and the small cutscenes we get to see. And, of course, lots of theories have come out to figure out just WHAT exactly happened to Ganondorf & why he's dried out like a prune under Hyrule Castle 🏰 So join me in this semi-long theory of what I think happened to not only Ganondorf, but the Zonai Tribe as well... Also, your free to have your agreements & disagreements in the comments. Just...don't get harmful 😅 Alright, let's talk about the Zonai Tribe. Who were they and how did NEARLY their entire race mysteriously disappear? I say NEARLY because I believe their people still live, but I'll get to that a bit later. As we know, the Zonai were Ancient Warlike People during their time in Hyrule, though it seemed their people were pretty hidden from if not all, but most of those in Hyrule before Calamity Ganon struck. We also know that, thanks to the Barbarian Armor you can acquire in the game, that they were a strong Tribe and clearly from the 3 Labyrinths you can find in Gerudo Desert, Herbra Plains & behind Robbie's lab, they were clearly WAY more advanced than most Hylians, kinda like the Sheikah Clan, but... the real question is: if they were such a great and strong tribe...how did they go extinct (or to me, NEARLY extinct) ∆∇∆ - here's my main points I want to stick with: ONE: The Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connection to one another. TWO: They "mysteriously" disappeared all at once because of a great sacrifice they made to keep Ganondorf locked away. THREE: The mysterious blue/green hand we see on Ganondorf heart before grabbing Link to help Zelda & him up was a way to stop Demise's cycle. Because...no reincarnation. No curse. FOUR: Someone, moreover the Sheikah, was close to the Royal Family who could have possibly tricked Ganondorf into going under the castle to "have the upper hand" on Hyrule. [C]∆∇∆ Okay, so let's start with the first. I believe the Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connections with one another, though it seemed the tribe were seemingly standoffish to most of Hyrule. I say this because if you enter in any of labyrinths, what's the first thing you see? Specifically, in the air. [IMG=C8H] [CIU]Guardian Skywatchers. And I think we can all agree that sometimes these things can be annoying to shoot down, especially if you have terrible aim like me 🙂, but that's not the point. Now I know most may say: "Those could have been placed there AFTER The Zonai disappeared" And that could be true, which is why I'm not 100% sold on them working together, BUT, say for instance if that wasn't the case. Say if someone was so convincing to the tribe that they could help them achieve the one goal they had in mind: Stopping Ganondorf. Now, I say it may have been the Sheikah who leaned onto the Zonai because it was clear 100 years ago that Zelda's Triforce wasn't awaking & without a Royal Psychic ( which is usually ONE of the women in the Royal Family, possible Zelda's mother ) they were desperate for a way to get more time so Zelda could awaken her power since her mother couldn't teach her. Now, I say Zelda's mother could have been the one with the psychic ability because it's said that some females in the Hyrule Family have this magic stood upon them & pass down their knowledge of the next generation shows signs, meaning that not ALL princesses & queens of Hyrule have this ability. As we know, Zelda's mother died when she was only 6 from a mysterious illness & she didn't have a chance to learn her teachings. Some even theorize that she was poisoned by someone close to the Royal Family who could have been a Yiga Spy, but I don't know. It's not impossible considering the time era Legend of Zelda takes place in for if you were someone with such HIGH standard, you would have a lot of enemies & needed to watch who you kept close to you... Now without Zelda's mother's ability, the Sheikah were at a standstill. Their Clan was already split into two: The Sheikah and The Yiga Clan from their technology being thrown away because the Royal Family feared of them overthrowing them, so without their greatest inventions of this time era, they needed something that could assist Zelda while she searched for that THING to help unlock her power...which leads me to the Zonai. It's clear the Zonai were around before and during The Great Calamity, but not after..or so it's said. I believe that the Sheikah, without telling the King Rhoam or Zelda of their plan, went to the Ancient Tribe and realized they had the same idea of getting rid of Ganondorf once and for all to stop the endless cycle of this curse. Now, I can't fully say WHAT the labyrinths were for. Maybe a test for Link, but they feared others would go near it and enter themselves? (Which I think might have been possible because if you interact with anyone who notices the Sheikah Slate on Link's hip after awaking, they always say something along the lines of "That's A Sheikah Slate" And never really "THE Sheikah Slate". If there was only ONE in existence, wouldn't they say THE instead of A? Idk) Maybe they just wanted to keep outsiders out & insured that with a long & complicated maze? Or maybe they were doing their Ancient Art Magic in each area to see if it were a good place to hold the King of The Desert? ( and yes, I know, from one of Link's memories that Zelda tried to enter, but didn't have access. Could it possible that the shrines were only made for Link? Or maybe that particular Sheikah Slate is like the Master Sword and only responds to him because it only has one task: assisting the hero.) Regardless of what the labyrinths were for, it's clear that the Sheikah have left their mark on these ancient artifacts and knew of more knowledge on this tribe than anyone else.Now remember, the Zonai worshiped the Water Dragon, AKA Farosh 🐉 so they were clearly those who trusted somewhat in The Golden Goddesses...maybe. ∆∇∆ Now onto my second point. They mysteriously disappeared without a trace, which is strange considering they were clearly in a LOT of areas of Hyrule. From the sandy beaches in Lurelin to the hot desert all the way to the colder regions of the Hebra..it was clear their tribe might have been bigger than most expected....either that or they were just really sneaky. I like to say that their "mysterious death" was really a noble sacrifice. Remember that if this is true, it isn't the first time someone else, other than Zelda and Link, stepped in and tried to stop the Demon King. In Twilight Princess, the ones know as the Six Sages also took matters into their own hands & attempted to stop Ganondorf by stabbing him in the chest with The Sword of The Six Sages... But they failed miserably, even thinking that the gods were playing a cruel joke when seeing Ganondorf had The Triforce of Power on his left hand, leading to the king breaking free & killing one of the six Sages before they used The Mirror of Twilight to send him away and think of their actions. Which...if were being honest...the goddesses have some things messed up about them, but that's a different rant for another time. Now I say they had a noble sacrifice because one of things we see in the short cutscene of BOTW 2 is the famous Lumious Stone that can found just about everywhere in Hyrule, but specifically underground there's A LOT OF IT. And if we read the description of the material, it's clear that some of Hyrule like to theorize it glows so bright because their are souls trapped inside. Now, clearly, there's a LOT of lumious stone in this one area, and if my theory is right tat the Zonai were one of the people who used their ancient magic to try and seal away Ganondorf, I feel it would have taken A GREAT AMOUNT of magic to do so considering we know how strong not only Ganondorf is, but the Triforce of Power. Hell..it stopped him from dying by a goddess forged weapon! YOU TELLIN ME THAT AINT STRONG!? I believe that possible not only the Zonai, but some of the Sheikah Clan, died doing a noble cause of holding Ganondorf back, or at least his body, to keep him from a new reincarnation. Alright...I know this is a lot. Take a breather. Get some snacks and a drink because here's POINT 3: This caught everyone's attention. The Hand. Off the back, we can tell this clearly Ganondorf's newly found prison & a terrible and dark one at that. I mean, cmon, I personally wouldn't want to be mummified and have my heart grabbed at by a hand, but that's just me Now from this hand we can tell it's the same color as the ones that reside around Lumious Stone, The Fallen Champions, & The Monks when taking their Spirit Orbs to give to the Hylia Statues when exchanging it during prayer...kinda like Link is the key to setting their soul free for doing their deed for Hylia. I believe a lot of spirits were brought together in sealing away Ganondorf....a lot of ANGRY spirits, but as we see in BOTW 2 cutscenes that it's clear the hand not only moved itself (or the spirits moved themselves) to help Link and Zelda when they almost fell to their doom. And, even though this is a different game, I make the comparison of a lot of souls in ONE BODY to Noob Cybot from Mortal Kombat. Even though he appears as one person, there are lot of souls stood inside of him and one of his quotes are "We are many. You are one". The power of the hand, now given to Link, could be the spirits last attempt at helping Link and Zelda seal away Ganondorf considering it seems The Master Sword isn't as strong as it use to be ten to thousands of years ago. But in doing so, they released the seal that held Ganondorf captive for those past 100-10,000 years. I'm sure the only freedom Ganondorf had was The Malice that leaves his body (which is just a mixture of rage and hate..and honestly I'd be mad too if my only escape was a spirit form of myself) and his mind, if it wasn't already gone by then. Because of the seal now being broken, our beautiful demon king was up from his long nap 😅 I mean...cmon now...theorized to be bad or not, Ganondorf is FIIIIINNNNEEEE 😍 and I would give myself to him, but we're not here for my girly fantasies. And now was prepared to release havoc on Hyrule once more. Now, I say that this was a attempted by the Zonai and Sheikah to hold Ganondorf back because even though it's clear Ganondorf can still attack in spirit forms and smaller, puppet forms, as we see with the BLIGHTS, Ganondorf can't reincarnate if the DOESN'T HAVE A BODY FOR IT. Clearly when Ganondorf dies in his physical, Gerudo form, it takes Eons later for him to reform and be born into the world again, but...his body was still under Hyrule....and it could be possible, just like the Monks, that he was still alive, but had no ability to move, leading him to release so much hate in the world that it created Blights and Calamity Ganon, along with Dark Beast Ganon And now with that seal gone and nothing holding him back, the Demon King was Awaken once more, but...my final question is...how did he get down there in the first place? ∆∇∆ I'll try making this last part short considering this was longer than I expected. Also, no more pictures passed this point. I've already reached the MAX if you couldn't tell 😅 Now this is my own thought. I believe someone in the Sheikah Clan who served the Royal Family set Ganondorf up. I say this because I can't think of any other reason why Ganondorf would be hiding below the castle and not strike. There's also my thought that Ganondorf was either led there or possible kidnapped and brought to the sacrificial grounds below Hyrule castle. And I know some might say: "Ganondorf...kidnapped? That's impossible" But we have no clue HOW STRONG the Zonai's magic really was. Even in Twilight Princess, those who wielded a very strong and ancient magic had power great enough to take over Hyrule for their terrible desires, leading them to living in the Twilight Realm, so it's not as if it's not possible that this power was equally as great, but used for a different cause. Whose to say the similar green color of the Twilight Magic isn't being used once again, but this time for good and not selfish greed for the power of the Triforce? I believe that if Ganondorf was led to this area, he was clearly betrayed. Now, in many incidents  in past time eras, Ganondorf has been betrayed by many and his power was turned against him, which I hate, but this isn't about my personal feelings on the king. I have TWO ideas of how it could have happened: Say if the "spy" for Ganondorf was actually working for the Royal Family and tricked him to believe that they were getting as much intel as possible to keep from him being killed by Zelda and Link. What if the spy had been discovered by a fellow Sheikah member and eliminated them to keep things as they should have been? What if they gained so much of Ganondorf trust to the point where he thought they were a ally that they gave him the idea of going under Hyrule Castle, hiding for a certain period of time and was ambushed by the power of the Zonai and The Sheikah Clan? The other idea is that someone was ONCE loyal to the Royal Family, but betrayed them and went to Ganondorf instead. I think this is possible because it's clear the Royal Family has dumped the Sheikah Clan many times and doesn't trust them fully (which is understandable in that day in age, but still) and a few banded together to betray the Royal Family. Telling Ganondorf of the technology they created and how they were planning on using it against him, leading to him creating the Blights and attacking all 4 divine beast and the champions, but they were figured out, forced to reveal where Ganondorf was hiding OR someone followed them and found out the truth and set them up under the castle, but maybe not all, and this birthed The Yiga Clan in secret. It could have been possible that Master Kohga could have been there as well, or heard information of it, considering the Sheikah can live up to 100 years plus as we see with Impa, Robbie and Purah, along with the monks, but idk if it was Master Kohga in particular considering how goofy he is, but some like to theorize that he's a descendent of Zant because he mentions something of his great great grandfather's magic that was once sealed away was taught to him. Not to mention, they have similar personalities and fighting styles. So it could be possible...that the power of the Twili tried so hard to get rid of ten to thousands of years ago...still lives on, but now, used for good instead of evil by the Zonai. I could go on and on about this, but I clearly need more information on the whole thing. That and this is getting way too long. These are just my theories of what may be in the story line of BOTW 2. I hope you fairies liked this one 🧚‍♀️ PS: if you didn't notice, the same symbol that's on the walls in the cutscene of the SWIRL that can found on other works of the Zonai are the SAME as the symbol of Lurelin. This is what I meant when I said that it's possible that their people are still alive, but either the people of Lurelin don't know of their history considering most of their tribe died or was lost OR they know, hold some power, but keep it secret from outsiders of the village and disguise themselves as "noble fishermen" . I also think it's strange that Lurelin wasn't effected by the Calamity considering it was BEHIND that great defense wall where Zelda awakens her power & Link nearly dies. I say it's strange because I feel like Lurelins people & the Zonai have a very strong connection, but that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY ‼️

[all-pacas]

So about the soulmate thing! (I'm super interested.) What happens to your mark (not the person) if your soulmate dies? How does messing with the mark affect your soulmate's - like if Trent did figure out a way to fully remove one? In the case of reincarnation (i.e. Bright Queen's court), would your soulmate change each time you were reborn or would you keep the same one - especially if they did not get to be reincarnated?

the mark doesn’t fade or go away if the soulmate dies, and there are a lot of stories about people going mad with grief and the reminder, mutulating their flesh, etc. in reality, it’s very difficult for the person — probably harder than if a non-soulmate died — but you can recover in time. you never quite “get over” them, but there are plenty of people who live a long time without their soulmate. remarriage is rare, for romantic soulmates, however. (keyleth is probably in this situation. she might have other romances, but only one Great Romance. that doesn’t mean she’s crippled by sorrow forever.)

“removed” marks do happen. the way trent did it is unusually severe, but a sort of ritual “strikeout” isn’t unheard of. it’s generally understood that it’s a symbolic gesture more than anything: it’s a physical manifestation of a deep, existential truth, and so erasing the mark doesn’t change reality. especially if, like caleb in this story, you still remember the name. i suppose theoretically it’s possible trent could have removed a mark and erased all memory of it from caleb, but magic is very rarely without a limit, and i think trent would have wanted to show his power/superiority by letting caleb remember that trent could control his destiny in that way. (i guess wish could do it, but it’s a rare enough spell...)

soulmates don’t change. in the case of endless reincarnation, as long as you are still the same person/soul, you will retain it through lifetimes. the name will not update, so there probably are cases in xhorhas — and researchers for exactly this situation — where you have a hundreds year old name (‘wulfric? what?’) and don’t know who the current reincarnation is.

obviously names overlap, and there are definitely stories about someone marrying someone with the name of her soulmate only to be mistaken. but that’s unusual, because there is usually such a strong sense that This Person Matters Most — if you did marry the wrong wulfric, you would realize as soon as you met the right one. (if you did at all!) but there have probably been cases of political marriage where the heir has wulfric on his arm, and so his parents arrange for their preferred match to change his name so they can go, hey! found him!)

there absolutely are people who just never meet their soulmates. some just marry and have normal lives. others spend years searching. some ritually remove their marks and claim themselves above destiny, objecting on moral grounds even if they meet their soulmate despite themselves.