[INTRO PLAYS] Hey folks! The Kingdom of Hyrule has been around for
a very long time. Hundreds, to thousands to tens of thousands
of years of rich history, lore and untold tales we haven't heard. This Kingdom is the primary setting of Zelda
Games and we've seen it appear several times and in all sorts of different shapes, sizes
and conditions. Sometimes it's bustly and full of life. Others it's flooded deep below a great sea. And lately it's been post-apocalyptic and
in a phase of recovery. However there are many parts of Hyrule's history
that we haven't seen. Gaps in the timeline where there isn't a game
to tell those tales. Or points in time which are only mentioned
but never seen. In the latest instalment Tears of The Kingdom
we're formally introduced to the Zonai and their ancient but yet magnificent work. Unfortunately we don't get to see what their
life was like in it's prime. Despite Princess Zelda going back in time
to when Hyrule was ruled by a Zonai King, this was still a bit ahead of prime Zonai
Life as it was only King Rauru and his sister Mineru left for the Zonai. We don't know why the rest of them died out
or disappeared, that's for another day. However we do see a lot of locations from
their time and in today's video we're going to investigate the most intriguing and mysterious
ones. This is the Unseen Life of Ancient Hyrule. Alright folks be sure to go and grab yourself
a snack or drink and send them in to get featured right here and let's take a trip back in time
to Hyrule's Past. To clarify first and foremost, some of these
locations might not have been in use or been as active in the exact timeframe Princess
Zelda experienced. However they are all at least that far back,
if not further back to the prime of the Zonai. With that said, the first location I'd like
to investigate is the Ancient Throne Room, and as an extension to that the Ancient Castle
before the iconic Hyrule Castle we know was built. The throne room is the setting of memory seven,
a Show of Fealty. Ganondorf is seen to accept King Rauru’s
invitation and swears Fealty to The first King of Hyrule. However this parallels Ganondorf's intentions
in Ocarina of Time as this was all false allegiance. Part of his plan to take over. The room itself is one long hall. It takes on the very nice Zonai Architecture
style. Suited with many Hylian Guards in their Zonai
gear. Zonai patterns on the banners and even some
very beautiful glass art on the head window. Speaking of Windows, if we take a look outside
of this side window we can actually see the top of Temple of Time when it was grounded. Meaning, this Throne Room isn't far from here. In a different memory focused on Princess
Zelda we can see a building not too far from the Temple of Time. I believe this is where the Throne Room is. Thus making the building we see itself, the
original Zonai Castle. Or whatever you wanna call it. Old Hyrule Castle I guess. Or at least something of that importance. A cool detail to note is that it does look
similar to this Geoglyph depicting a Castle like building so it all adds up. And the memory attached to this Glyph is Princess
Zelda standing just outside where the Shrine of Resurrection would eventually be built. Which is right over towards this building. And the fact that Queen Sonia herself says
"Why not come back with us to the castle?" This is all something I didn't pick up when
first playing through the game and it wasn't until I started rewatching memories and breaking
them down for this video that I put this together. It seems as though the heart of the Kingdom
back in the day of the Zonai was the Great Plateau. Which makes ever more sense as the Spiritual
King of Hyrule in Breath of The Wild tells us that the Great Plateau is the birthplace
of Hyrule. So there you have it, the Throne room in this
memory whilst incredibly cool in itself has a lot more to it when you start looking around. We'll be returning to this area shortly but
for now let's move onto our next location. The Duelling Peaks as we know it are two mountain
peaks which meet towards the top. Old Legends that we were first told in Breath
of The Wild say that a very long time ago a Dragon split what was once just one mountain
into two. Giving the Duelling Peaks it's fitting name. Now prior to Tears of The Kingdom this was
harder to believe or prove. However not only does Tears of The Kingdom
contain tons of Dragon lore but it actually gives us a look and proof that the Duelling
Peaks was once a single mountain. Firstly we can see on the Ancient Map of Hyrule
found in the Forgotten Temple that the singular peak here is exactly where the Duelling Peaks
lies today. Confirming that it was split at some point. We even go on to see it in one of Zelda's
memories. As she looks over Hyrule as she's never seen
it before the camera pans around and ends with the not duelling peaks but just the peak
in the background. It kind of blends in if you're not thinking
about it as it obviously doesn't have it's distinctive split down the middle. It's not the most mind blowing thing about
Ancient Life in Hyrule but it's cool to think about when the Zonai were at their peak and
even at this point in time, the mountain was nothing like how we know it. Geographical changes to the world over timeare
pretty neat, I must admit. A very notable operation that took place in
the prime or Zonai Life was the Construct Factory Operation. A grand factory found in the Depths that once
produced the highly advanced constructs. In Tears of The Kingdom we visit the still
standing factory as a part of Mineru's questline. It's a quiet shell of what it once would have
been. Only inhabited now by a lonely construct at
the top and through this construct we can learn a little more about how this site operated. It’ll tell us that the depots are where
the parts would come from. And this main structure was the assembly area. Even more interesting it mentions that the
finished product would then be shipped to DragonHead Island. The massive chain Island that forms the shape
of a dragon was a part of this operation and I find that really cool to know. I imagine back in the day this place was very
busy and active. It’s honestly quite sad that this lonely
construct stays waiting up here, as whilst it recognizes the operation has stopped, it’s
basically waiting here in case it ever starts up again. I’m sorry buddy. Somewhere I didn't think I'd be talking about
when I first start writing this video was the Gerudo Desert. When I knew I wanted to make a video about
Ancient Hyrule and its life, the barren Desert didn't really scream to me. However it's for that reason I want to bring
it up. In Tears of The Kingdom whilst it has took
on changes due to the upheaval, they are mostly geographical. Such as this large rip into the land or the
sinkholes opening up. But there isn't much Zonai work here and that
makes sense given the relationship status we saw between Hyrule and the Gerudo in the
ancient past Zelda was sent to. We've seen this sort of disconnect and tension
before in Ocarina of Time. That game also tells us of a time where the
Gerudo Desert was sort of cut off from the Kingdom of Hyrule. In Ancient Times the Desert was likely barren
and not too different to how it is now. However what's interesting is that there is
one large Sky Island above the Desert now. It hosts a menacing battle against the fearsome
King Gleeok but as for why it's here, I'm stumped. The Zonai clearly did make some stuff in this
area at some point as there is of course Ancient Zonai Shrines here but whilst it likely was
just as barren and harsh as it is now, the idea of exploring the Desert in Ancient Times
really intrigues me. And I promise that has nothing to do with
the absolute baddie Gerudo warriors. Absolutely nothing. Going back to an indoor location, another
place in Ancient Hyrule video intrigues me is Minerus Study. We see it in two different memories of Princess
Zelda’s. Firstly right after that previous memory we
looked at and once again towards the end of Zelda's time in the past. We can safely assume that this room is somewhere
within the Castle we previously discussed. Firstly because Zelda headed straight there
from the previous memory but more visually speaking, it shares the exact same architecture
inside. The room is filled with books. I can only begin to image the sorts of knowledge
and wisdom these contain and who wrote them. Books about Zonai history, culture and famous
figures from their prime. Probably books about Zonai technology and
how it all works thanks to Zonaite mined deep below. And probably a fan fiction or too. We also see the usage of fans on the wall. I'm no genius but my Zelda Theory brain is
telling me that this, is air conditioning. The Zonai had air conditioning. If that doesn't scream highly advanced civilization
then I don't know what does. We also see some Zonai equipment such as this
ladder used to reach books. It's the same design wise as ladders seen
in the Shrines. Despite the Zonai as a people having nearly
died out at this point in time, their work and culture is still very prominent in life. Mineru seems to be the one keeping hold of
a lot of history in this study. She even has her own construct assistant which
is pretty cool. As far as this building which we can assume
is the Castle goes, we can safely assume it is where both the Throne Room and Mineru's
study are found. There very well might be more rooms of significance
but for now let's move on to somewhere else. Before moving to the final location of the
video, I want to give a mention to the random Sky Islands dotted around the map. Some of them would have served small but still
worthwhile purposes back in the day. Something we see all over the Sky Map is mining
faculties or equipment. Some are extremely small, others a bit bigger. Many of these do feature one or two small
buildings as well. Now given they are just dotted around and
not really in much concentration, we can assume that back in the day the land featured many
small mining villages or stations. Probably home to just anybody who worked or
operated there. Some of these small buildings might not have
even been proper homes, more just facilities. For all we know, it was constructs that used
them but it's still cool to know. Another random Sky Island or rather Islands
that I’d like to mention are the three Dive Ceremony Islands. These sites were a big part of Zonai culture
back in their day. You can learn this by speaking to one of the
Constructs beside the large structures. They explain that “The dive ceremony is
a trial for Zonai youths to show their courage and enter into adulthood." This is really interesting to me as it’s
one of the very few pieces of information detailing the life of a Zonai youth and it's
just more culture in general about the Zonai. Now for the final place on the list. And before getting into can I quickly ask
that if you're enjoying the video thus far then consider subscribing to the channel for
more fabulous and cozy Zelda content. With that said, the most exciting part of
Ancient Hyrule's life in my opinion would have to be the life itself. Towns, villages and settlements that we never
saw. The architecture. The regions they were all set in. It's all incredibly fascinating yet mysterious. There isn't really one specific place in mind
but rather just checking out some of the more settlement-like ruins. Starting off on the Great Sky Island, we find
many building ruins. All mostly small buildings but definitely
enough room for a bed and some storage. The Temple of Time which is found here was
found on the Great Plateau back when it was on the surface long ago. We can assume all of these ruins were nearby,
if not near one for one surrounding. Regardless this was potentially the largest
settlement area of peak Zonai times. We know Hyrule Castle wasn't built until after
Ganondorf was sealed by King Rauru and in that timeframe the Zonai were down to just
two individuals. Meaning Castle Town as we've known it over
the years wasn't built yet. Wether it's in the sky or on the ground with
the knowledge of the Throne room and such being on the Great Plateau already, it's a
relatively safe guess to make that these buildings made up the Zonai equivalent of Castle Town
and was their largest settlement back in the day. It has the rough layout of a town. Different areas for different purposes. Nature dense parts and of course still being
compact enough to create a community. We see some areas that are more dense with
multiple buildings and a vareity of shapes. These were likely people living next to each
other. We don’t really see this in the memories
however, at least on the Great Plateau with the angles we got and Rauru tells us nothing
really when we're going around the Great Sky Island. Another location which likely had a settlement
of sorts is Dragonhead Island. This stunning location was once a part of
the Construct Factory Operation and if you explore the large Island chain in full, you’ll
find a good few building ruins. It’s more speculative than others I must
admit but like the smaller mining villages I mentioned earlier, perhaps some people did
live here whilst on the job. And that wraps things up more or less. The Ancient Life of Hyrule is very likely
to remain a big mystery. I am by no means an expect, just a fan who
loves the games. We can investigate, speculate and theorize
which is what I enjoy doing. But will we ever truly know what it was like
back when the Zonai were in their prime. I really do wish we could have explored or
even just seen more of what life was like back in this era. We might never know as the next mainline Zelda
game is very likely to be moving on from the Wilds era. But at the same time not knowing every detail
is a part of what makes it all interesting. So I'm not too bothered. What is your favourite location of Ancient
Hyrule that you'd like to explore or learn more about? Let me know in the comments and if there's
some I missed maybe I'll make another video on this. Big thanks to my channel supporters as always
for the kind support in helping make my videos all the more possible. Join today and gain instant access to Behind
The Scenes content as well as a shoutout upon joining and your name on screen right now. My socials and Discord server are linked below
and that's about it for today's video. Thanks for watching, I hope you all have an
amazing day or night and until the next time I’ve been Hyrule Gamer. [OUTRO PLAYS]
