The Mystery of Breath of the Wild's Forgotten Temple - Zelda Theory

[Music] breath of the wilds world is not only the biggest the series has ever seen but also the most real people run for shelter when it rains adventurers ride through the wilderness alongside travelling salesmen and the few towns which survived the apocalyptic return of the calamity ganon glow with the warmth of civilization but outside of the scattering of towns and villages lie the ruins silent memorials of the massacre a century prior ruined castles streets farms and homes which stand to remember the dead but some ruins found in breadth of the wilder even older than those caused by the calamity ruins like those of the ancient zone I try an advanced civilization who vanished suddenly leaving behind their works of intricate masonry the stories of the games ruins are never explicitly shown to us just implied through their locations designs and purposes but these remnants of an ancient world are some of the most interesting parts of the game and one of my absolute favorites lies hidden in the canyon of the tub antha frontier in the north-west The Forgotten temple one of the game's strangest mysteries The Forgotten temple is one of the most interesting places in the game a vast stone Palace half-buried seemingly built into the side of the canyon in which it lies ancient stone pillars mark the entrance to the temple though the true doorway has been buried for centuries and it's now only accessible from what was once the first floor balcony from here the true scale of the temple can be appreciated is one of the largest structures in the game perhaps second only to Hyrule Castle itself a colossal stone Hall littered with rubble foliage and crumbled stone but when you enter the Forgotten temple you're not alone the structure is filled with decayed guardians immobile but still functional burning with calamity Ganon's malice but the end of this first Hall is a stone wall with a single hole through which link in paraglide leading to a second large hall with smaller stone pillars and a colossal goddess statue with shrine Rona capture at its feet the entrance to the temple and especially this hole in the wall feels like they were made deliberately rather than eroded over time like they were made during an excavation of the ruins everything about the Forgotten temple just feels like weird releasing something this giant empty ancient structure with the largest goddess statue found in Hyrule within protected by scores of guardians is never explained we never learn the true origins of the Forgotten temple who built this colossal stone structure and why the first place to look for answers to the mystery of the Forgotten temple is what we know for sure about the abandoned sanctuary breadth of the wilds lead structural artists Manabu Takahara writes that the Forgotten temple was constructed in order to keep a record of the heroes throughout history who aided the royal family of hyrule in the countless ancient battles against Ganon who unleashed the calamity on a recovery world right away this place gets a whole lot more interesting these are the ruins of a great temple built to honor the heroes of high rules past a Great Hall complete with a goddess statue which in times long-forgotten would have been the destination of countless pilgrimages of those wishing to pay their respects to the legendary heroes and worship that goddess taki Haris quote continues to shed light on the temples origins the original concept for the temple was that it had been abandoned for so long that it had faded from people's memories at the beginning of development the canyon was so deeply tied to the royal family that it was called the valley of the royal family and as with every hour throughout Hyrule the guardians here are possessed by Ganon but rather than having invaded the temple from Hyrule Castle during the great calamity they were placed here long ago to protect the facility so already we know that this temple is likely more than ten thousand years old not only as it been abandoned long enough to fade from memory the guardians found within were placed there deliberately to protect it likely during the sheekha's age of prosperity 10 millennia prior to the great calamity the extreme age of the temple is further emphasized by Takahara comparing the structures architecture to that of Skyward Sword including the goddess Springs since it's a building that represents high rules ancient past the design incorporates construction elements from Skyward Sword in a similar way to the springs of wisdom courage and power as well as linear erode the springs found throughout breadth of the wilds are clearly the ancient decayed springs from Skyward Sword featuring the same pillars bird-like designs on the walls and goddess statues and the stone structures on the narrow promenade are likely from the same time period featuring the same cubic design resembling a harp on its stonework representing that goddess harp so like the springs The Forgotten temple dates back to before Skyward Sword making it one of the oldest structures in the entire Zelda series though it's not only ancient architecture found in the Forgotten temple we can see that broken areas of larger brick walls have since been fixed with smaller bricks and in the center of the first hole we can even find a ruin wall designed the exact same way as modern highly in buildings found all over Hyrule Field so the mystery of the Forgotten temple just gets even stranger one of the largest structures in Hyrule half buried and forgotten dating back to the era of Skyward Sword what is this place to answer the mystery of the Forgotten temple we can look at the description for the quest a gift from the monks this is the side quest given to link after completion of all 120 shrines in the game rewarding you with the wild outfit a classic green tunic designed specifically for this incarnation of link the description for this quest reads head to the Forgotten temple where the oldest statue of the goddess stands to see what they have left me there this statue found within the forgotten temple isn't just the largest of its kind in Hyrule but also the oldest it was the first of the goddess statues which populate Hyrule settlements and religious sanctuaries yet it stands here lost from memory in the great empty halls apparently built to honor high rules heroes the oldest statue of the goddess we see in the series appears in you guessed it Skyward Sword which features many statues of the goddesses though the most notable is of course the largest and probably the oldest found on Skyloft protecting the chamber of the sword and watching over the town amongst the clouds it's inside this statue that the hero of the skies the first hero in the timeline drew the goddess sword which he tempered into the iconic master sword and at the end of this game the giant statue returned to the surface when link wished for the eradication of demise upon the Triforce the Isle on which it stood descended from Skyloft crushing the demon king beneath thousands of tons of stone and returning to its original position behind the sealed temple the sealed temple is one of the most important locations in Skyward Sword it was originally built ages before the game during the age in which the goddess Haile I lived among the people on the surface known as the temple of halia but by the time of the game's events centuries or millennia later the temple of Hialeah has begun to crumble and is known as the sealed temple originally the statue of the goddess formed part of this temple but after demises first appearance it was raised along with a large slice of land to the heavens by the goddess hylia forming Skyloft but now by the time of breath of the wild we see what is apparently the oldest statue of the goddess a giant effigy found in the ruinous forgotten temple the statue found in skyward sword is colossal hundreds of feet tall tall enough for link to skydive off yet in breadth of the wild while it's by far the largest of its kind in the game what is apparently the oldest statue seems significantly smaller than the skyward sword counterpart however the sizes of all goddess statues are inconsistent it's clear that breadth of the wild Springs of power wisdom and courage are intended to be Springs from Skyward Sword but the statues found in the springs are far larger in breadth of the wild perhaps its artistic license on the part of the designers or perhaps there's a canonical reason for the statues changes in size I think it's possible that these two ancient gargantuan and goddess statues found in two ancient temples an entire timeline of parts are actually one and the same the sealed temple is a large stone building with ornate carvings and multiple statues of loft wings and of course the goddess lofty wings are extinct by the time of breath of the wild and distinct loft wing designs have found nowhere in its world except for the lanai promenade and the Forgotten temple where we can see stone statues which are clearly designed to represent the sacred birds in fact identical to these loftwing statues found in sky key the located directly below Skyloft statue of the goddess could the forgotten temple actually be the ancient sealed temple the area surrounding the Forgotten temples giant goddess statue is extremely similar to the sealed temple if we look at the walls in the statues room we can see the original walls with large stone bricks have since been built higher with smaller ones but the originals are exactly the same walls which surrounded the temple of hylia's goddess statue and the ground itself features the same pedestal onto which links sky died although now our shrine sits on it if we walk out of the small area where the goddess statue lies we walk into the main temple itself which during Skyward Sword features eight large pillars two rows of four with a small Grove to the left and an exit to the right this small Grove on the left actually plays an important role in the game the thunder dragon lanayru-- is found dead by the time of Link's adventure traveling back in time reveals that he requires fruits from the Tree of Life to survive but despite the efforts of the robots the tree won't grow in the barren linear desert instead link can take the sapling to the fertile sealed temples Grove planting it in the past upon returning to the present he'll find that a large tree has grown the Tree of Life which bears fruit able to heal the thunder dragon this isn't a regular tree it's a sacred powerful tree the fruit of which acts as a panacea a cure for all disease Impa describes its sapling in the past I sense great vitality in this sprout with any luck it will grow into a stout tree that will live on for millennia we never see this legendary tree after Skyward Sword though at the end of the game it still stands strong this great tree which was found in a grove on the left-hand side of the eight main pillars in the sealed temple eight pillars which are found within the Forgotten temple in the same location in front of the goddess statue through a door and if we turn left at these eight pillars a great tree bursting through the rubble of the left wall could this be the Tree of Life a sacred tree which is endured for millennia in the ruins of the temple in which it was once placed the vast halls of the Forgotten temple are built over the original ancient sealed temple this goddess statue found within is the oldest in Hyrule the very same which fell from Skyloft at the beginning of the Zelda timeline and surrounding this statue we can see the ancient ruins of the sealed temple one of the most important areas in Zelda's history where the true master sword was first awakened where Lincoln fiy parted where Zelda slept for centuries to maintain the seal on demise despite its importance during Lincoln's eldest quest the sealed temple is a ruin by the end of Skyward Sword with his ancient stone crumbling from centuries of neglect and the descent of part of Skyloft surrounding the ruins of the sealed temple in breadth of the wild however is a Great Hall likely built around the original temple in the years of peace after Lincoln Zelda settled on the surface after demises defeats a Great Temple to mark the birthplace of Hyrule which became a Hall to record the feats of high rules many heroes a structure that would become the Forgotten temple was constructed around the sealed temple and by the time of breath of the wild little of the original remains aside from the ancient goddess statue pillars and the resilient Tree of Life after the hero of the wild proves his courage to the ancient seeker besting all 120 shrines he's awarded his place among the legendary warriors of old with a green tunic of his own the tunic of the wild and this tunic is given to link inside the ancient ruins of the Forgotten temple a structure built in honor and reverence of the heroes of history structure built on the remains of the seal temple after proving his worth leak becomes a true hero in the halls which remember his forebears and it's fitting that this temple was built surrounding the exact location where tens of thousands of years earlier the very first hero awakened for the first time in history drawing what would become the master sword from its pedestal and embarking on a quest to vanquish evil despite the evidence for this theory there are admittedly a few issues first off is the idea that sometime after Skyward Sword rauru built the temple of time over the ruins of the original sealed temple which is noted both in Hyrule historia and by King Rome in breadth of the wild who notes that the plateaus temple was the birthplace of hyrule both sources are careful to mention that there's doubt surrounding this idea we don't know for sure the true origins of the temple of time perhaps this iconic zelda landmark was built and listed as the birthplace of the kingdom with the true beginnings lost and forgotten the second issue comes with the geography of the Forgotten temple itself found hidden in the Tanaka Canyon the sealed temple in Skyward Sword was the center of their known world yet the Forgotten temple lies in the northwest it's unclear if this actually hurts the theory though has it's been multiple tens of thousands of years since Skyward Sword and Harold's ever-shifting geography is famously inconsistent an idea that was taken into account when designing the Forgotten temple was that it might have been unearthed by shifts in the Earth's crust perhaps explaining its movement the linear promenade is also an enigma it's designed with the same skyward sword architecture as the forgotten temple in the springs and even features the giant loft wing carvings despite this it plays such a small role in the game's story even smaller than the Forgotten temple just more empty grandiose ruins the story of which is never told Lenovo road if traveled from west to east leads directly onto a pathway all the way up to Linnae room peak where the spring of wisdom is found considering the importance of the golden goddesses and the Triforce to hylians either slightly before or slightly after Skyward Sword is possible that the promenade was built with the same architecture for pilgrimages to the spring of wisdom a promenade by definition being an area for parades and walks like most things in Zelda is up to you to decide the games often only leave hints to the true origins of things rather than explicitly confirming them I'd like to believe that based on the evidence when we get the wild outfit from the monks in breadth of the wild we're doing so at the feet of the goddess statue from Skyward Sword where the hero of the skies drew the goddess sword from his pedestal but the geography and the legend of the temple of times creation means that we don't know for sure what do you guys think could the Forgotten temple be built around the ruins of the sealed temple from Skyward Sword including the goddess statue from Skyloft if you like this video please leave a like it really helps the channel out and subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda content cheers guys and i'll see you next [Music]

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 2,606,173

Keywords: Zelda, breath of the wild, botw, botw2, breath of the wild 2, sequel, trailer, analysis, theory, legend of zelda, link's awakening, zeltik, music, theme, ganondorf, smash bros ultimate, banjo kazooie, release date, nintendo switch, nintendo direct, direct, e3, 2019, forgotten temple, sealed temple, link, wind waker, skyward sword, majoras mask, twilight princess, zonai

Id: -h0h1CydP6o

Length: 17min 58sec (1078 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2019