Zelda: Age of Calamity Full Story Explained (SPOILERS)

[Music] hyrule warrior's age of calamity takes place during the titular event the great calamity one of the darkest most extreme events in the history of the series when ganon returned from deep below hyrule castle and laid siege to the kingdom this war as we know it led to utter ruin nearly everything and everyone was lost in the ensuing battle as the beast turned the sheikah weapons against that which they were designed to protect however age of calamity's telling of this war is a little different all owing to a small egg-shaped guardian it goes without saying that this video contains full spoilers for age of calamity so if you haven't beaten the game's story yet and don't want to be spoiled come back later otherwise let's get into it [Music] age of calamity begins during hyrule's darkest hour the climax of the great calamity guardians swarmed through castletown laying waste to everything in sight their systems flooded with gallons malice which has bound them to his will malice is of course a thick purple ooze concentrated evil inextricably tied to the calamity nowhere was hit harder by the cataclysm than hyrule castle which crumbles and burns as guardian lasers sear through the air tearing through stone like it was paper inside the citadel itself in the western wing lies zelda's study filled with books notes and chica artifacts the object of the princess's research the battle outside shakes the tower which knocks a small wooden box off of the highest shelf a box containing terraco a tiny guardian it's revealed later on in the story that tereko was almost a sort of pet belonging to princess zelda when she was a child the princess activated the guardian by inserting a small glowing screw-like piece into the machine or perhaps even built it in its entirety however later on after the death of zelda's mother and the prophecy of calamity ganon's return king rome confiscated the diminutive guardian believing it to be merely a distraction for the princess who needed to focus on training to awaken the sacred power latent within her and years later here it is still intact found in a wooden box in zelda's study despite falling from its shelf it remains dormant that is until a miracle happens elsewhere in hyrule across the kingdom near fought herteno in the nicuda region zelda and link were engaged in a fierce conflict a hopeless struggle against a seemingly endless number of corrupted guardians though the hero fought valiantly his legendary strength finally failed him and he fell resting his weight upon his damaged blade in this moment when all hope seemed lost something stirred within zelda her sacred powers finally awakened triggered by the prospect of link's demise as well as extinguishing ganon's malice from the nearby guardians saving fort hattano and link's life this sacred power had another effect somehow back in her study zelda's power awakened tereko who shone with the same golden lights before sparking into life seeing the kingdom burn from zelda's window tereko knew what it must do the guardian played a short song and suddenly a portal opened before it a blue maelstrom in the air this portal featured sheikah text translating to open gate of time a doorway to another era but before terraco could jump into the rift the door of zelda's study was blown open with a massive force by a guardian the machine smoldered with ganon's malice and without hesitation began aiming its laser at tereco who leapt into the portal narrowly avoiding the blast and so the miniature guardian left the time of the great calamity but it was not alone seconds before the portal closed something followed it malice somehow perhaps by a conscious decision of ganons or perhaps even by an unfortunate accident malice bled out from the guardian in the doorway large tendrils leaping forth as if being sucked into the rift with that the portion of age of calamity set during the timeline we're familiar with ends terraco and the malice travel into the past to a time shortly before the great calamity even without anything that follows this creates a separate timeline in one the one in which breath of the wild eventually takes place tereko lay dormant until zelda's powers awakened but in this new timeline a terracote from the future alongside tendrils of malice appeared from the time portal long before calamity ganon had even resurfaced fittingly the very first time we see terraco in the past he's surrounded by butterflies a nod to the butterfly effect that something as small as the flap of a butterfly's wings can lead to a chain of sequences resulting in massive changes often used as an example of how large an impact changing anything using time travel can have terraco a tiny diminutive guardian enters the past which sets off a chain reaction of events eventually leading to an entirely different outcome in this new timeline in which terraco is present and active before the calamity we now have two versions of the miniature guardian present at the same time one is of course the future tereko who does not belong in this time but there is still this timeline's actual terraco who of course is still dormant within the box on zelda's shelf except it isn't as our main group along with future terrico enter the royal tech lab a small guardian enters the frame on the left though it burns a violent purple when the malice followed future terrico back through time it latched on to the deactivated tereko found on the shelf in zelda's study corrupting it with ganon's dark magic this malice brought the little guardian to life though it was now fueled with the beast's hatred because it was possessed by a sliver of ganon from the future it knew the future and was able to control guardians and monsters this corrupted terraco the terracot which actually belongs in age of calamity's timeline is the reason behind the guardian mysteriously becoming corrupted as the group made their way to the ancient lab a wave of malice hits the machine as if from nowhere but as we see later on corrupted terraco was following the group at this time a machine able to control guardians with its malice at the ancient lab robbie and pura were able to extract data from terraco harrowing images showing hyrule during the great calamity this vision of the future accelerated zelda's plans to prepare the kingdom for war and the princess travelled alongside link to recruit four champions to pilot the divine beasts but elsewhere the corrupted terraco was busy it had made its way somehow to the gerudo desert where it found the yiga clan and more importantly astor a prophet devoted to calamity gannon again as the only difference in this timeline is the presence of future terrico and the malice which corrupted the current terrico astor must have existed during breath of the wild's great calamity though he would have had nowhere near as large an impact on the events as he did here as he was without the miniature guardian a machine which the prophet calls his harbinger this harbinger the corrupted current era terraco is poisoned by malice from the future this malice is from the calamity ganon we're familiar with the ganon who brought hyrule to ruin prior to breath of the wild so even though the calamity has yet to happen in this timeline a ganon is still present in some form able to influence a different timeline with his malice this means that when the calamity finally occurs in age of calamity's timeline we have two separate ganons in different forms malice from breath of the wild calamity ganon and the actual calamity ganon of this timeline this is why astor is able to infest the korok forest with malice even though the calamity has yet to occur he has access to the powers of a different ganon entirely through the harbinger this is likely also why age of calamities gallons seems far far stronger able to create powerful foes like malice lionels or electric guardians as well as conjure blight ganons which are far stronger than their breath of the wild counterparts it's because not only is there this timeline's great calamity at play an already monstrous terrifying power there's the harbinger too which is able to influence and control guardians and monsters with its malice before long age of calamity's timeline begins to catch up with where the original timeline was during the prologue the calamity awakens just as terraco escapes an attack from the yiga bringing zelda the sheikah slate the skies darken as ganon finally breaks free of his ancient seal the prophecy has come true link and zelda narrowly escaped the castle due to king rome sacrificing himself to distract a group of guardians roma points link as zelda's personal knight before apparently meeting his demise after the great calamity strikes the game's story takes another massive turn away from the story we're familiar with in a moment of utter despair convinced that hyrule will fall due to her failure princess zelda breaks down and a tear falls onto terrico this somehow activates a similar protocol to that which opened the original time portal a great beam shoots into the sky coupled with the same chica text as the original rift it's this new portal that brings more individuals from the future back into age of calamity's alternate timeline this time it's the four successes to hyrule's champions said on inobo riju and taba at this point during the calamity in the original timeline the four champions fell to the blight gallons extensions of the calamity itself which led to the divine beasts falling under its control but with the aid of the arrivals from the future the champions were able to survive longer instead of the divine beasts falling nearly instantly the teams of two were able to put up a fight seeing varmeado's lights flickering a promising blue hope was kindled in the princess and the group moved out to rescue the champions but even the reinforcements were not enough to turn the tide against these new more powerful blights though the teams fought bravely the behemoths were relentless in their assault showing no sign of weakness but the time travelers had bought enough time for the hero to reach the beasts link arrived in time to save each champion from their fate reclaiming the four divine beasts each a monumental asset to hyrule's forces colossal powers no longer in the hands of the enemy during breath of the wild's great calamity one of the most devastating losses for the kingdom of hyrule was at accola citadel the mountain fortress the castle was said to be impregnable and for the most part it was and it was where the hyrulean army made their last stand against the calamity however their bravery in facing ganon's forces was in vain the siege of akula citadel was an absolute defeat and the hylians were wiped out to the last man obliterated by scorching energy blasts or crushed under the shunting legs of corrupted sheikah automata however age of calamity's siege of akula citadel plays out differently in no small parts due to the presence of divine beast farruta piloted by mifa and said on despite ganon's armies being even more numerous and even more powerful this time around with foes like the formidable malice guardian and electric hynox joining the calamity's ranks hyrule stood defiant an akula citadel held hyrule would not fall not this time astor the prophet of doom was still at large concerned by hyrule's resistance to the calamity but not deterred he employed a new strategy he began to harvest the souls of the yiga clan using their blood to resurrect the blight ganons who hung like limp puppets behind him horrified by the slaughter of their people yiga masters koga and suga refused to be the final sacrifices and instead defied astor defecting from the side of the calamity and joining the fight to oppose it elsewhere link and zelda moved to join the defense of fort hoteno a small outpost in the nocludo region this is where link fell in the original timeline and where zelda's latent powers finally awakened though this time due to the harbinger's malice the onslaught dwarfed even the original augmented guardians and lionels were among the ranks of the enemy monstrously powerful foes that threatened to take the fort despite the help of lincoln zelda just as the tide of battle began to turn in favor of the defenders astor finally joined the fray bringing with him the four resurrected blight ganons bent on one goal bringing an end to the princess impa grabbed zelda and ran while link took on all four blights at once his skills were inhuman he moved with unbelievable speed and swung the master sword with incredible force and accuracy but the fight was four to one and surely he began to show signs of exhaustion overwhelmed by a paralyzing fear of losing him zelda broke free of impasse grasp and ran towards link holding out her hand and a golden light shone forth the malice was torn from nearby guardians the blights were stunned and astor recoiled in horror zelda's powers had awakened together with link zelda pushed back the blights securing fort titano in the nakuda region and dealing the calamity another massive defeat with ganon now seemingly on the back foot zelda took command of the hyrulian forces finally stepping into her role as the kingdom's princess together with master koga who was now fully on their side the armies of hyrule successfully defended the great plateau and with it they rescued someone they thought dead king rome the king had been entirely surrounded by corrupted guardians a situation which meant certain death however he had with him zelda's chica artifact a small disc shaped object which the king had confiscated from the princess earlier in order for her to focus solely on her training as the guardians readied their attack the disc began to glow and as they fired it activated projecting an energy field that reflected their beams back at them the object was a guardian shield a powerful tool created by the ancient sheikha proof that zelda's research into their technology could save lives the king was rescued the divine beasts saved the great citadel of acula fortress was defended as was the crucial fort hattano if there was a time to strike it was now poorer from atopashika tower activated the teleportation feature she'd been working on and hyrule's armies were transported to a single location in front of hyrule castle legions of zora gorons rito and garudo all stood behind zelda as did the divine beasts and their pilots both the champions and the travelers from across time even master koga and the yiga clan readied themselves for the final battle to get revenge for those whose souls had been used to fuel ganon's power with a nod of approval king rome gave command of hyrule's armies to princess zelda who rallied the forces of the world into one final assault [Music] though ganon's forces were numerous and among them stood terrifying beasts such as lionels augmented by malice the hyrulian forces pushed forward backed by the sacred might of the divine beasts even by surging its power into a blood moon resurrecting slain foes ganon failed to stop the attack on the castle and the calamity continued to give ground until finally the army reached the castle itself as it was in breath of the wild hyrule castle was the site of the final battle against the calamity the citadel was choked with malice suffocated in a thick red mist and infested with nightmarish foes and at the gate stood two familiar adversaries astor and the harbinger this timeline's terraco corrupted with malice from breath of the wild's calamity suddenly the harbinger opened up revealing itself to have been twisted into a form resembling a blight ganon it had three long guardian-like legs multiple arms each tipped with powerful sheikah blades and of course a single burning red eye it's likely that the harbinger here is a sort of blight the blight ganons were created by the calamity to seize the divine beasts their horrific splices of sheikah technology and malice cobbled together into tools of destruction the malice that corrupted this timeline's terraco could well be a similar form of malice to that which the calamities to create the blights making the harbinger effectively a fifth blight ganon sent not to claim a divine beast but to claim victory in another time in addition to this judging by what we see later on it's likely the age of calamity's ganon was now also housed within this harbinger alongside the shard of breath of the wild ganon upon resurrection the calamity does not have a physical form it's purely malice breath of the wild's calamity ganon was forced to splice together a ramshackle physical body from malice and sheikah parts attempting to regenerate a vessel from within a cocoon harbinger ganon and astor are of course the two penultimate bosses before the game's climax forting gatehouses in hyrule castle though augmented by massive amounts of powerful malice the villains are ultimately bested by the heroes with drawing to face them one final time together out in the open astor stood in front of the harbinger and called upon ganon to eradicate his enemies but just as sugar warned the prophet much earlier ganon is no ones to control astor was merely a pawn a tool used by the calamity to further its own dark goal and now that the pawns role was fulfilled it was of no use the prophet was slowly and painfully consumed by malice staring into the burning red eye of the harbinger as his physical body was consumed by the calamity with astor absorbed the harbinger now took on a terrifying new form a towering humanoid complete with burning red hair calamity ganon hatred and malice incarnate this form of ganon is very different to the form calamity ganon took at the end of breath of the wild though both are composed mainly of sheikah technology we know that breath of the wild ganon is the result of the calamity's attempt to regenerate a physical body done by cobbling together sheika tech and malice much in the same way as the creation of the blights but it was incomplete link reached the sanctum before its form was ready in age of calamity however not only are there effectively two ganons at play the full calamity from the present time and malice from the future but ganon's vessel the harbinger is able to absorb a human astor this gives it the final piece it needs to create a physical body resulting in this new form of the calamity whether this body is truly complete or not is unclear but regardless it's a more complete vessel for ganon than what we fought during breath of the wild with calamity ganon born from the harbinger and astor the story takes another dark turn the beast lunges at terraco with tendrils of malice just like those which had followed it through the time portal though this time the guardian does not escape the malice landed and although tereko desperately fights to suppress its influence it turned faced with this heartbreaking new threat link was forced to fight terrico a short battle which ended of course with the guardian shattered and broken distraught zelda steeled herself ready for the final battle the showdown with the calamity takes place in the sanctum of hyrule castle much like it does in breath of the wild though this time link is not alone all of hyrule's greatest warriors stand against the new incarnation of the darkness in one final desperate attempt to free the kingdom except no matter how much force the group brings to bear against the beast it does not recoil perhaps due to the influence of harbinger's malice from the future or the combined powers of ganon and astor the calamity appears invulnerable even the full might of the master sword is naught against it with a surge of power ganon caved in the ceiling sending a great chunk of concrete hurtling towards the princess which links somehow parries with unimaginable strength zelda returns the favor as the calamity moves towards the hero she steps out in front of him unleashing her sacred power across the castle just like it had done during the prologue in another era zelda's divine power triggered something within the broken remains of terraco and the guardian sparked once more into life determined to save its princess the machine got to its feet and without hesitation began sprinting towards the sanctum zelda's holy power was holding the calamity at bay but her strength was failing she couldn't continue to repress ganon's might sprinting on tiny legs tereko entered the throne room and hurled itself towards the calamity shattering completely on impact with the beast leaving behind only the screw-like device which the princess had inserted years earlier to bring the machine to life tereko's sacrifice was not in vain the detonation had rendered ganon vulnerable the group was able to fight calamity ganon brought its full might to bear against the heroes malice and sheikah weapons seared across the room and great swings of feral claws were narrowly avoided the group fell into the laboratory deep below the sanctum as the battle raged on but ultimately with a great swing of the master sword and a torrent of the princess's sacred power the calamity was defeated and ganon was sealed once more the war for hyrule was over and the calamity had been averted as the group stepped out into a free hyrule a land broken but not defeated terrico's screw began to glow as did the four travelers from the future the group had been brought to this time from a different era transported through time by terraco to turn the tide of the war but the calamity was over and thus the travelers were returned to their own time the final shot is of zelda holding terrico's screw before the game cuts to credits but there's another secret ending of sorts after completion of the story it's possible to collect broken remnants of terrico shards likely scattered across the kingdom during its detonation after collecting 50 of these we can see an extra final cut scene the guardian reactivates surrounded by its friends the machine that traveled through time to avert the calamity was restored reunited with its princess age of calamity comes to a close the actions of tariko caused the timeline split in a similar way to when princess zelda sent link back through time at the end of ocarina of time this timeline runs parallel to that of breath of the wild though in this reality there is no century of ruin hyrule unites together and is able to defeat even a more powerful iteration of the calamity thanks largely to the divine beasts remaining on the kingdom's side again the symbolism of the butterflies surrounding tereko when he first enters the past is that this event has a butterfly effect a tiny guardian changes the entire course of history the story of this calamity is one of a victory for hyrule just like the battle ten thousand years ago when the sheikah guardians and divine beasts fought alongside an ancient hero and princess to seal the beast and just like that battle age of calamity's war is commemorated with a tapestry shown at the very beginning of the game complete with two pilots per divine beast one from the future and one from the present and of course tereco being in this alternate timeline means the age of calamity's story has almost no implications on the world of breath of the wild and its upcoming sequel terrico always jumped back through time during the calamity that's canon to breath of the wild's timeline but all of the events that happened once it landed in the past moved forward in a different direction a different reality the only true link between the world we're familiar with and this new more optimistic timeline is that said on riju tabor and yanobo will be aware of it now that they've been returned to the main timeline they'll still have the memory of traveling to an alternate world and averting the calamity alongside their heroes whether this is something we'll see referenced or explored in breath of the wild's upcoming sequel or not is unclear i'd personally love to see perhaps a small reference to it but wouldn't like the story of age of calamity to affect breath of the wild's timeline other than that the story of breath of the wild is dark hyrule lost all hope lost everything in a complete catastrophic defeat and only through the sheer will of the princess and the hero was the calamity eventually sealed a century later the world is still absolutely shattered scattered settlements living in the broken ruins of the old world and with the game's upcoming sequel things aren't looking to get any better for this hyrule age of calamity is an unapologetically cliched what-if universe and it absolutely knocks that out of the park we're able to see alternate versions of the most decisive battles and events of the calamity a cataclysm which ultimately we're able to prevent thanks for watching this video this took a massive amount of work to get done soon after i finished the game's story so if there's anyone that you think would appreciate this video please share it with them it would help me out a ton if you liked it consider leaving a like or subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda content cheers guys and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 963,384

Keywords: Zelda

Id: 1v_RjEmFKGI

Length: 29min 25sec (1765 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020