The Great Calamity: AFTERMATH - Breath of the Wild

[Music] [Music] what happened after the great calamity in the 100 years link was recovering from his injuries at the shrine of resurrection how did the people of hyrule cope with the loss of the once powerful kingdom what happened to ganon's armies and how did the various races move on and rebuild after such a cataclysmic event by the time breath of the wild's main story picks up many of the initial survivors of the great war had long since passed away and with the exception of a select few most had only heard the bone-chilling stories which were passed on from generation to generation and never witnessed any of it themselves there exists a plethora of videos and articles which detail some of the stories from post-war hyrule such as the life of robbie and his fellow scientists and their research into the ancient technology the story of cass his mentor and their quest for the ancient songs or the life of the former yiga spy dorian and the tragedy that took place after his defection from the clan and so on so in this video we'll do things a bit differently instead of focusing on individual stories most of which tie directly into the main narrative we will attempt to paint a broader picture of how hyrule and its inhabitants as a whole re-established reconnected and developed their culture in the many decades following the tragic fall of the highly inceed of power things which don't necessarily have a big impact on the main narrative but simply serve to enrich this iteration of hyrule ever so slightly with the help of breath of the wild's hidden backstories as well as its complementary book creating a champion we will move up the timeline of events to see how hyrule slowly evolved right up until the moment link wakes up and the story of breath of the wild kicks in as a side note the events of the calamity itself will not be covered in this video however i will provide sources at the very end in case you want to learn more about the finer details of the war i will also refrain from going too in-depth into individual aspects and the theories surrounding them as some of these on their own could easily take up an entire video i want to keep things moving at a reasonable pace with that said let's see what we can find out about the aftermath of the great calamity the overarching timeline of breath of the wild consists of four primary time periods the distance passed 10 000 years ago 100 years ago which is when the calamity takes place and the present day when link wakes up from his stasis and the story of the game picks up our focus will solely be on this part right here from the end of the war to the beginning of breath of the wild the instant zelda sealed ganon and herself inside the walls of hyrule castle can be considered as the moment the day of the calamity officially ended as it is here that ganon loses control over his armies and the threat of his presence is temporarily gone and as mentioned before link opening his eyes after his 100 year recovery is where the next chapter in hyrule's history starts there's only one instance where the time period between the war and the present day is specifically mentioned and even given a proper name the age of burning fields and is only spoken about by one person an old woman named uma who lives in hattano village the name's origin and implication is never really explained the war would have left the fields of central hyrule burning but obviously not for 100 years more like a few days or weeks at best so perhaps it's a reference to the time period after the flames of war faded and civilization had to rebuild from the ashes alternatively since the name is only used by one person from the hattano village area it could also only apply to this area specifically but to avoid skipping ahead too much we'll touch upon that later when we talk more about hateno instead let's start at the very beginning as stated before the moment ganon was sealed away he essentially lost control over his entire army it forced him into a vegetative state meaning any machine or monster influenced by his malice was suddenly no longer linked to ganon's consciousness which is why the attack on hyrule settlements stopped even though there were still plenty of his minions left alive when it comes to the guardians we know for a fact that some remained operational despite no longer being controlled directly by ganon robbie's memoirs make this clear as he describes himself dispatching several lone guardians while on his journey from kakariko to akula which is after the war was already over for quite a while the guardians were still corrupted by malice and thus still dangerous but no longer coordinated as an army and only attacked when approached the divine beasts were a different story however unlike the guardians who operate autonomously the beasts require a pilot in order to stay up and running after the champions were killed ganon used his four blights which are nothing more than an extension of himself to pilot them with ganon gun these manifestations of malice dissipated alongside him thus without a pilot the divine beasts fell completely dormant and wouldn't move for many decades to come as for the hordes of monsters under the influence of malice they too seemed to have stopped their advance on the people of hyrule as soon as ganon was gone the majority of them split up into groups and set off in different directions many bonded together creating small clans all over hyrule seeking shelter inside caves abandoned ruins or built their own these clans would mostly stick to themselves no longer were they marching upon settlements as an army instead basic survival such as hunting became the priority as with the guardians the many monsters still remain dangerous when approached and they will prove to be a strong competitor for future travelers although ganon's temporary defeat at the hands of the princess was a necessary and crucial victory and ultimately led to a successful rematch 100 years later the victory itself was bittersweet as the most dominant race in hyrule and the prime target of ganon's attack the hylians were by far hit the hardest central hyrule which was home to most of their settlements was left burning hyrule castle town and many other settlements leveled hyrule's one's massive army decimated even far away hylian settlements such as tabantha village lake illuminy and the shadow hamlet did not escape the carnage the first days after the calamity were likely chaotic depressing and mostly consisted of shock and grief hundreds perhaps thousands of people either lay dead or were forcibly displaced from their homes during the evacuation of central hyrule as they fled for their lives with ganon's forces right on their heels they left behind friends family their belongings even the memories of their once peaceful lives creating a champion depicts three prominent evacuation routes during the attack one from central hyrule to hateno village from gaponga to kakariko and from the east of castletown to akla citadel though the latter is described as having consisted mostly of military evacuees who prepared to make a final stand at the citadel rather than civilians meaning that most of the civilian refugees were given asylum at kakariko and tateno alone we don't know exactly how many survivors there were but when looking at this map which shows the hylian presence in hyrule before and after the calamity it becomes clear that the vast majority were not among the lucky ones in a single day a massive regional power the biggest regional power in hyrule was reduced to a handful of survivors as for the other races they were a lot more fortunate aside from the loss of their champion there are no other major casualties that we know of during the actual day of the calamity this might confuse those who played age of calamity as here we see a massive war between ganon's army and all of hyrule's races but keep in mind that this game takes place in an alternate timeline one in which the power of foresight as well as some other major plot devices allowed them to bond together resulting in a victory instead of a defeat in breath of the wild's timeline this didn't happen here everyone was caught completely off guard and no army besides the hylian army was ever even mobilized as far as we know this was devastating for the hylians but to a certain extent favorable for the other races goron city rideau village gerudo town kakariko village and zora's domain remained completely untouched by ganon's army if there were any casualties among these races these would have been limited to the few that were visiting the hylian capital that day that isn't to say that they were spared any shock or grief though the loss of their champions was in some cases enough to send their entire culture into a state of disarray they were left leaderless lost a prominent warrior or part of their royal lineage most famously of course being the loss of princess mifa which caused the entire zora race to fall into a state of anger and misery for many decades to come as the smoke cleared around centro hyrule and the bordering provinces affected by the attack the dead were honored and laid to rest the four champions were each remembered and memorialized accordingly within the traditions of their people and their favored weapons retrieved from within their own respective divine beasts to be passed on as for the hylians there wasn't a whole lot they could do central hyrule had become a dangerous wasteland with monsters and stray guardians still wandering around attempting to retrieve bodies from this area would have been a death sentence despite this it is made clear that someone took the risk to bury the deceased king of hyrul who is speculated to have made his final stand at the tempo of time atop the great plateau his grave is found atop mount hylia in the same general area there's no source which confirms who is responsible for this noble act but if we had to make a guess it was likely the shika the sheikah whose hometown was spared the destruction and now served as a refuge for the hylian evacuees were present at the great plateau the moment the war ended more specifically two sheikah warriors robbie and pura were all at the shrine of resurrection to place the mortally wounded link inside just as zelda sealed ganon inside the castle so it is likely that they were the ones responsible for the king's burial though we don't know if this happened right after they put the hero to rest or sometime in the days after and this is likely the state hyrule was left in for the coming days weeks perhaps even months a time of mourning attending the wounded and figuring out where to go from here and it would take a while before any attempts to rebuild society were made as the rest of hyrule slowly recovered from the initial shock the hylians had another problem to deal with namely where to house all these refugees which were now left homeless and stranded well as we can deduce from the game itself kakariko village was not suitable for permanent housing most chica were still alive so there would have been very little vacancy not to mention that kakuriko lies embedded within the mountains leaving no room for expansion of the village food would have also been a problem as the shika only have so much room for agriculture inside their tiny home town the only two hylian villages that were still standing at this point were hatteno and lu ellen lorelen lies secluded and was spared any damage or casualties from the war so again vacancy would have been a problem it also has its own distinct culture and almost entirely depends on fishing to survive so hateno really was the only viable option therefore in time the refugees at kakariko were relocated to hatteno and this is where the story about hateno becomes clear the woman who we mentioned before named uma states that she wasn't alive during the calamity however she did grow up during the early years of post-war hattano she explains that the village was a lot smaller back then in that agriculture was almost non-existent in this region however slowly but surely the people of ateno started cultivating the land growing more livestock building windmills and even she herself contributed to the study and budding of plants as she came of age hattano became in her words self-sufficient this would indicate that before the calamity heteno was mostly relying on trade with central hyrule which makes sense but now that the hylian capital was reduced to ash the village had to learn to take care of itself especially now that its population had increased due to other refugees this is also why i stated before that the name age of burning fields may not be a reference to the burning down of central hyrule and might not even be used as a term outside hatteno burning fields could instead refer to the cultivation of the land surrounding the village a common technique used to create fertile land is what's known as slash and burn agriculture where existing vegetation is cut down and then burned creating a nutrient-rich layer that renders the soil fertile and suitable for agriculture so perhaps this is why the period after the calamity is referred to in this manner by the people of ateno either way hateno becoming self-sufficient was likely one of the first steps in rebuilding driven by pure necessity but as we've come to find out the hylians never managed to even come close to returning to their former glory not even the nearby defense post of fort hatteno which played a vital role in keeping the village safe during the calamity was ever refurbished save for some crude wooden patchwork made out of tree trunks even after 100 years it still looks as damaged as it did right after the war creating a champion states that this is because all of hyrule's highly skilled stonemasons who were responsible for the grandeur of hyrule's former capital perished during the calamity and thus the knowledge of complex stone masonry was lost and even if that weren't the case the people in this region apparently lack the funds to make comprehensive repairs to the fort and the game actually does reflect this explanation most houses in ateno are crude and simplistic compared to those that existed back at the capitol and have little to no ornaments or fancy designs even more notably is that in the later stages of the age of burning fields the construction workers at hatteno have started developing a brand new building style which consists of a so-called form follows function simplistic easy to build and quickly to take down again if needed we can see some seemingly unoccupied prototypes of these houses at the edge of the village they are made almost entirely out of wood rather than stone these are also the same type of houses used to construct terrytown later on the time in which the hylian refugees started to settle in ateno is also when impa rabi and pura decided to part ways and live separate lives far away from each other the reason given is that in the unlikely event that kakariko would come under attack prematurely either by the yiga or because ganon broke free sooner than expected all three could potentially be killed in one fell swoop they wanted to make sure that at least one of them would still be alive by the time link would awaken so they could assist him in his quest to defeat ganon once and for all in the weeks before their departure robbie and pura had been scouting the east of hyrule in search of pockets of ancient energy which were needed to fuel their research a search which according to robbie they were lucky to survive they were successful though and managed to find two suitable locations one close to hatteno where pura would construct her laboratory and another in akula close to an old lighthouse which robbie soon called home meanwhile impal would stay behind in kakariko village the other races of hyrule never really had to rebuild since their homes remained unscathed but some did experience significant changes in particular the gorons sometime after the calamity daruk was added to their collection of important figures from their history cementing his impact on their culture as a way to honor him shortly after a new prominent figure rose up among the gorons bluto a young goron visionary who realized that the gorons could prosper if they expanded their mining operations and thus established the goron group mining company which would soon turn the mining of ore into a thriving business venture for the gorons the zora remained bitter a statue of mifa was erected at the central square of their domain and they continue to honor her death annually the council of elders blamed the hylians and in particular the fallen hero for the loss of their beloved champion the hylian's failed plan to defeat ganon which ultimately led to the death of their princess stirred up a strong anti-hylian mindset among many zora especially the elders a sentiment which would persist even to the present day as a result of this the zora isolated themselves from the rest of the world for many decades to come the history of the rito during this age is a lot less defined than others from what we can gather most of them stuck to their own kind and continue to live their lives in the tabantha region rivali's memory and stories of his skill were passed on but not memorialized like the others no statues no wall decorations or anything of swords can be found in and around their home though like the other champions his favorite weapon the great eagles bow has been preserved and passed down by dorito leadership rivalli's honor is mainly that of a warrior's tale a role model for a young aspiring rido soldiers to one day hone their skills to his level as opposed to the other races the gerudo never really got to enjoy a time of peace although the calamity was over they remained in a constant skirmish with the ganon loyalists the yiga clan they've been at war with each other since even before the calamity as both groups call the desert province home it's not clear if any significant battles have taken place between the two during this time or if it remained as a stalemate but apparently the tensions between the two never let up from this point on time crept by the gorons continued to mine the zora and rito kept it themselves the gerudo continued to defend their home the highly instructed the safety of their villages and the shika continued their research and patiently awaited the hero's return meanwhile the ruins of the once prosperous kingdom slowly started being consumed and erased by nature exposed to the elements moss and ivy covered the ornate stonework wooden houses collapsed and decayed rivers and lakes started expanding flooding buildings and even entire villages monsters made their home in and around the once prominent symbols of hylian power and a few stray guardians continued to roam around unchecked hyrule had become a dangerous place and the trauma of the calamity still lingered in the minds of hyrule's inhabitants because of this it's unlikely that there was a lot of traveling going on in the first few decades of post-war hyrule leaving the former kingdom largely barren disconnected and isolated however it wouldn't be long until a massive shift would start to take place [Music] decades after the war that changed hyrule forever a shift in mindset started to settle in especially among the hylians by this time a whole new generation had come of age people who were not alive to witness the horrors of the great war all they knew were the stories hence this new generation of hylians were much bolder and less fearful than their parents and grandparents who still remember the terror of that infamous day despite the dangers lurking across hyrule people started craving adventure they didn't want to spend the rest of their lives cowering behind walls just because of some stories about a war they never experienced consequently more and more people slowly started trying their luck out there in the wild from treasure hunters to merchants aspiring archaeologists and journalists all started to abandon their comfortable village life to explore the world left behind by their ancestors in order to make travel faster easier and more safe an old network of stables built alongside the many roads was re-established to accommodate weary travelers horses were being caught in bread old gear collected and restored new gear crafted and sold slowly but surely the hylian started to once again make their presence known across hyrule it is clear that a similar network of stables existed before the calamity the company attributed to the stables is called a pona company and creating a champion states that they are quote an established all-encompassing horse goods maker with over 150 years of experience but many of the modern day stables had to have been built or at least rebuilt after the calamity as a lot of them are found in places that were completely overrun by the guardians such as on blatchery plane on the way to gopanga right next to oculus citadel and so on so the most likely scenario is that as this new generation of hylians started venturing out into the world again they either re-established the legacy of their ancestors company or the stables which had survived the calamity started rebuilding in old and new locations to accommodate all these new travelers breathing new life into a pona company that way nevertheless most of these new adventures did seem to realize quickly that central hyrule was a no-go even decades after the war the province remained dangerous the many monster camps and especially stray guardians likely discouraged most hylians from setting foot too deep into the area and it shows say for a few stables at the very edge of the province it's rare to encounter anyone the closer you get to hyrule castle and no infrastructure or living spaces have been built on the fields themselves still a few daredevils were crazy enough to go the extra mile yes some people actually went inside hyrule castle town and even the castle itself from the vantage point of present-day hyrule this seems like an absolute death wish but we learned from various sources that hiro castle wasn't always as dangerous as it is now no doubt it was still no cakewalk but it was apparently quite common for people to snoop around hyrule castle in the decades prior to link's return there are no less than two articles inside the rumor mill which is sort of a gossip newspaper which mentions secrets that people have discovered while roaming around the abandoned hyrule castle such as the existence of king rome's secret room the location of zelda's laboratory and the discovery of weapons belonging to the royal guard who all perished during the calamity we also find an empty campsite inside the castletown ruins another hint to the presence of hylians in this area but forget news articles and old campsites we have actual first-hand accounts like this woman named parsi who states that she used to sneak into hyrule castle in search of treasure it's also from her that we learned that the castle was a lot less dangerous than it is nowadays stating quote i used to sneak in there to salvage ancient treasures but it's too dangerous to go in there now these days it's surrounded by an eerie mist and savage machine-like creatures back when it was safer i went in looking for this ultra rare equipment that belonged to the royal guard this indicates that there were barely any active guardians present at the castle in the early days after the calamity if any at all as such hyrule castle used to be a treasure trove for those brave enough to venture inside and there's another fairly important figure who is known to have entered hyrule castle after the calamity the infamous yet elusive miscode the great bandit a thief who managed to get his hands on a plethora of ancient treasures once belonging to the royal family it's unclear exactly when he managed to obtain his treasures or if he's even alive in the present day but it is yet another example that during this era one could set foot in hyrule castle without immediately being vaporized by dozens of guardian lasers these early expeditions inside hyrule castle are a true testament to the mindset of the travelers of this era none of these people had experienced the calamity heck most of them had ever even seen the ruins of hyrule's former capital with their own eyes and likely only heard about its existence from stories passed on by the village elders i can only imagine the excitement these early explorers felt when they first saw this empty decrepit megalithic structure looming over the horizon as they first set foot onto the fields of central hyrule the same place from which their ancestors had to flee for their very lives the great plateau meanwhile remained totally unexplored a complete collapse of its main entrance prevented anyone from accessing the sacred site leaving the temple of time eastern abbey as well as the recovering hero undisturbed [Music] from this moment on the ball just kind of kept rolling the first generation of travelers eventually grew old had children who would also go on their own personal journeys discovering ancient sites setting up shops hunting for treasure while others prefer to settle down inside their respective villages as for the other races with the exception of the zora they too started coming out of their shell more and more rito gorons and gerudo started visiting each other's territory again trading and even tourism became more abundant despite large parts of hyrule still remaining an abandoned ruined ghost town a shadow of its former self the landscape was slowly but surely coming to life again hyrule was in a sense reconnecting again with the exception of the zora people who actually witnessed the calamity started becoming more and more rare around this time with the passing of each generation the last survivors of the great war slowly died out for some quicker than others the rito are said to have an average lifespan of only about 50 years old so by this time they are already at least two generations ahead of everyone else making the memory of the calamity even more distant the goron's gerudo and hylians all have lifespans similar to that of real life humans bluto the entrepreneur who started the goron mining group and had since become the new chief of the gorons was born post-calamity and even the oldest of garuda women link meets in the air of the wild don't seem to have been alive during the great war the sheikah's lifespan surpasses that of the average hylian goron and gerudo but not by a huge amount averaging around 120 maybe 130 years old even so impa pura and robbie are still alive to tell the tale and there was even another shika survivor who still persisted around this time that being an unnamed poet who worked at the courts of hyrule castle pre-calamity he was likely a bit older than impapura and robbie as he didn't survive long enough to witness link's return but was still around long enough that he was able to meet the traveling rito minstrel cass and pass on the ancient songs to him this likely only happened a few years maybe a few decades before link's return as again rito usually don't live past 50 and cass still looks pretty lively and has seemingly become a father quite recently the zora are the only ones who have an absurdly long lifespan compared to the other races it's never stated exactly how old they can get but king dorafan is said to have been on the throne for at least two centuries and still going strong with the exception of the very young every zorah present at the domain has experienced the calamity prince said on being among the youngest survivors as he was only a small child at the time his generation is also a lot less stubborn when it comes to the reputation of the hylians however the elders have still insisted on keeping the hylians at a distance even after all these years the loss of mifa still remained a sensitive topic within the domain the only zoran known to have interacted with other races after the calamity is prin saidon who at some point is said to have killed a giant octarock which was plaguing lorelan village and stories about his heroics are still passed on among the people of laurellin but other than that the zora still remains secluded the only time they seem to venture outside their domain is to train at sea or catch fish at lake hylia [Music] as the age of burning fields drew to a close another big shift was about to take place in hyrule this time for the worst unbeknownst to most people the c1 ganon had gradually been weakening over time as zelda slowly started to lose grip on the demon king the seal had reached a critical point and ganon started being able to exert his influence once again as link became closer and closer to regaining consciousness so did ganon and his armies monsters grew ever more restless and their numbers increased just as they had done so right before the calamity more and more ancient machines started springing back to life and hyrule castle castle town and the surrounding fields became increasingly dangerous and even less accessible but most unnervingly the colossal divine beasts which had laid dormant for close to a century now suddenly started to reanimate as ganon started showing signs of life so did his blights within the four giants though not yet fully under his control the beasts clumsily started causing trouble in their respective provinces varudania started stomping around the base of the volcano causing eruptions of molten rock to rain down on the goron city area faruta planted itself inside east reservoir lake spouting water upwards in a torrential downpour potentially flooding the reservoir breaking the dam and washing away zora's domain in other parts of hyrule vametto took to the skies above rideau village shooting down anyone who might approach preventing easy access to the skies and vanabora started waltzing around the desert whipping up sand creating sandstorms as well as a barrage of lightning the slow revival of the demon king signaled the imminent return of the hero something the yiga had been waiting for they had been keeping tabs on the shika in the many decades since the calamity and through their spies knew that the hero was still alive and that the shika were anticipating his return now they ready themselves to serve ganon once again dispatching assassins to look for the hero after decades of rebuilding reconnecting and rediscovering the remnants of the broken kingdom a second showdown is now on the horizon meanwhile at the shrine of resurrection a familiar voice echoes through the darkness open your eyes [Music] hey there everyone thank you for watching this video if you want to learn more about the events of the calamity itself there's a few sources i can recommend first off is the complete breath of the wild timeline by nintendo black crisis which covers not only the calamity but also some of the same events we've discussed here as well as the story of the present day next are two videos by celtic about the siege on oculus citadel as well as the so-called miracle at fort hatteno which both provide detailed descriptions of two prominent battles which took place during the war and as a shameless plug for my own content i can also recommend watching my series called the heroes path of which you can find the full playlist on my channel page although this series was intended to be sort of a prediction for the story and gameplay of h of calamity if you ignore the gameplay speculations it does go into a lot of detail about specific events like the evacuations certain battles and particularly the journey each important character underwent that day and all this information is based on the game as well as creating a champion speaking of age of calamity you could play well age of calamity although the story takes place in an alternate timeline and thus isn't accurate when it comes to the outcome it is still the closest you can get to experiencing the type of chaos that went on during the attack as well as a way to see many of hyrule's famous buildings and settlements before they were turned to rubble so yeah that's about it as always a big thanks to my mods and of course my patreon supporters and channel members of which i have a couple of new names to announce thank you so much to my cousins mikey and deimos christopher sinclair brian tygy gypsy macy hylian historian thomas streamer and disaster link thank you all so much for the support it means the world to me and that is all for now this is dawn signing off and have a good one you

Channel: Monster Maze

Views: 105,160

Keywords: Breath of the Wild Documentary, Breath of the Wild, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Zelda Documentary, Breath of the Wild Theory, Zelda Theory, Breath of the Wild analysis, Breath of the Wild news, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Zelda Switch

Id: 2O2NaFWDEa0

Length: 31min 56sec (1916 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021