History WMG / TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom

[[WMG: Trial of the Sword will return in ToTK]]
Or at least something similar to it. Since this game allows and encourages much more creativity BoTW did, it’d be interesting to limit that creativity by only giving you so many materials (and taking away Autobuild), seeing what you could craft with the Ultrahand or fuse with only a select few materials in different scenarios.

* Jossed. We only hear her ping voice.

* Talking to Impa after the final dragon tear while she's in the Forgotten Temple actually explains [[spoiler:that the geoglyphs were made by an ancient people who were able to see the visions from the tears and record them, an ability that she speculates that they were more attuned to in the past than the present. A grave, on the other hand, can be seen in the sage ceremony area surrounded by three Sundelions.]]

Then she imbued statues with her
essence so they could assist her and Link's future incarnations in their fight against Calamity Ganon. She also sealed away The Horned Demon during this time. This would explain why Zelda's sacred power is said to come from her Goddess Blood.

* Let me being up a counterpoint here: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom could be so far in the future of the timeline that the events of the prior games had been forgotten - the Imprisoning War seen in Tears being the second one, but just being called the Imprisoning War because no-one remembers the original one. As for the Zonai coming from the sky, I defer that to other [=WMGs=].

** [[spoiler: Jossed. The woman is Queen Sonia, one of Zelda's ancestors and the first queen of Hyrule 10,000 years go.]]

[[folder:Post-release Wild Mass Guesses]]

[[WMG: Penn will be the star of one of the DLC's]]
After completing his quest line and finding him again, Penn will tell you that he's following in the footsteps of a famous bard (clearly Kass) to gather inspiration, and says that some day he'll be back in action one day with you. He also mutters "Someday..." to himself when near him. Since Kass was the focus of one of [=BotW=]'s [=DLCs=], and Penn plans to follow in his footsteps, along with promising to work with Link again, this seems to hint that Penn could receive more focus in an upcoming DLC.

[[WMG: A DLC quest will let Link do something about Wabbin and Hudson's situations with their daughters]]
It seems rather strange for the game to repeatedly present these sad scenarios that come about from a Gerudo tradition that serves no apparent purpose (Wabbin is stuck in jail for the whole game simply because he wanted to see his daughter), and indeed seems to contradict Gerudo reasoning from the previous game (namely no men are allowed in Gerudo town to encourage Gerudo to leave the town, yet in this game we find out Gerudo are required to live in the town from early childhood to young adulthood) and yet Link is not able to do anything to help or even criticize the situations.

[[WMG: The DLC will end up being a huge callback to all the UrbanLegendOfZelda from way back in the days of Ocarina of Time]]
Back in Ocarina of Time, we had five dungeons centered around saving one of the Seven Sages each, with the final dungeon in a way serving as the Sage of Time dungeon. The one Sage that ended up having no dungeon at all was the Light Sage, which joined you automatically. This caused a lot of playground rumours to be passed around about a secret Temple of Light, some of which even gained notoriety on the early internet days. Flash forward to Tears of the Kingdom, and a very similar situation is happening again. We have seven Sages, five of which have dungeons of their own, and the final dungeon (Hyrule Castle, with Ganondorf serving as its boss) doubling as the Sage of Time dungeon (the game even gives you a Time icon on loading screens after you've beaten the game, reinforcing this idea). And once again, the Sage of Light is left out. Except this time, we can expect DLC, and like in Breath of the Wild, it's possible that it'll add a new dungeon into the game. And, just like Breath of the Wild added a new Divine Beast for a Champion that was already in the game, it's likely that Tears of the Kingdom will add a new Temple for a Sage that is already in the game, Rauru, the Sage of Light. Extra points if they decide to be self-aware about what they're doing, and include the Triforce as an element in this game's story through that dungeon, as that was often the big prize the old Ocarina playground rumours had at the end of the "secret" dungeon.
* Actually, Hyrule Castle is not the final dungeon. It's what's ''beneath the Castle deep in the Depths'' that serves as the final dungeon. And because the first King and Queen were Sages of Light and Time, it could count as both in a sense.
* There is already the Temple of Time right at the start where Link finds a Secret Stone and recieves a vision from an ancient sage (in this case Zelda), even if it isn't a dungeon, so the area beneath Hyrule Castle is just its own thing and not supposed to tbe the Temple of Time. That does make the absence of a Temple of Light even more conspicuous though.
** Perhaps the Forgotten Temple is supposed to be the Light Temple? It even has what appears to be a Chamber of Sages (behind a door only Rauru could open), and the resistance against Ganondorf seemed to be using it as a headquarters.
** Alternatively, the Zonai Temple of Time will be revealed to contain a Temple of Light dungeon inside it somehow, a la the Shrine of Resurrection housing the DLC dungeon in the previous game. This would further reference the Time/Light pairing and more specifically, how the ''Ocarina'' Temple of Time is left over from a scrapped Temple of Light, and the ''Twilight Princess'' Temple of Time having Light Medallion imagery inside it.

[[WMG:BOTW and TOTK take place in the Adult Timeline]]
TOTK gives a new story about the founding of Hyrule that flatly contradicts everything about the old games. The only way for it to make sense if this is Hyrule being ''re''founded after the Great Ocean finally recedes, revealing a lost world about which only legends have been spoken. What happened to New Hyrule from Spirit Tracks? Maybe it's still there somewhere, but the primitive look of the Hylians in the flashbacks might suggest that some calamity befell them and forced them back to their ancestral homeland. The Master Sword is clearly no longer attatched to the old Ganondorf, meaning it must have been retreived at some point, which would have likely released the Curse of Demise to reincarnate as the new Ganondorf seen in TOTK. As for what happened to the Great Ocean, perhaps the Zonai were the ones to remove it, perhaps looking for the Triforce (as above), only for them to fail and leave, with only Rauru and Mineru staying behind.

[[WMG:[=BotW=] has been retroactively made the start of a SoftReboot that [=TotK=] is now cementing]]
While it's not impossible for the pre-[=BotW=] games to still work, even after a ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' Style merging of timelines, there are some issues.

Hence why I believe a SoftReboot has occurred between the release of the ''Guardian of Remembrance'' DLC for ''[[VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity Age of Calamity]]'' and that of ''Tears of the Kingdom''.

1. [[blue:'''Zelda called the conflict on the murals the "Imprisoning War" instead of the "first Great Calamity" as implied by ''Breath of the Wild''.''']] It's implied that the Imprisoning War is the same event as a certain incident ten thousand years before the Era Of The Wilds. Where did Link and Zelda find Ganondorf? Beneath Hyrule Castle, which is where Calamity Ganon was supposed to have been sealed. When was that, again? That's right, ten thousand years ago. Why is this an issue? We already have an Imprisoning War in the form of the conflict with the victorious Ganondorf in the unseen third ending of ''Ocarina of Time'', that leads to the Downfall Timeline and ''A Link to the Past''.

2. [[blue:'''The Imprisoning War takes place not long after the Founding Of Hyrule.''']] Furthermore, Rauru and Sonia are stated to be Hyrule's first rulers. Despite the civil war going on when [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime the Hero Of Time]] was born, the Kingdom of Hyrule had been around for a long time before even that, as evidenced by ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap The Minish Cap]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords Four Swords]]''. As stated in Point #1, the Imprisoning War is supposed to have taken place just after ''Ocarina of Time'' in the Downfall Timeline, centuries after Hyrule was allegedly founded.

3. [[blue:'''The Imprisoning War is Ganondorf's debut.''']] I will be the first to admit this one is slightly shaky due to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'' and Ganondorf reincarnating there, but see Point #2 on why I think that's is not in play here. It's an issue because Ganondorf made his debut, both onscreen[[labelnote:*]](Though he was first mentioned in [=ALttP=].)[[/labelnote]] and chronologically, in ''Ocarina of Time''.

4. [[blue:'''There is no mention of a hero who rose up to oppose Ganondorf, and died trying, nor do Rauru and Sonia seem to have a daughter, regardless of what her name may be.''']] In ''A Link to the Past'', by the continued existence of the Royal Family after the Hero Of Time's defeat, it's implied the Princess Of Destiny survived the battle despite losing the Triforce Of Wisdom to Ganondorf. As for why the alleged hero would have to die, think about it. Rauru had to seal Ganondorf beneath Hyrule Castle for things to play out as they have. If this hero had successfully defeated Ganondorf, that wouldn't be necessary.

[[gold:'''Conclusion from Points 1 — 4: ''Ocarina Of Time'' cannot have happened in this implied new continuity.''']]

This is also why I said the decision for the SoftReboot had to have been made after ''Age of Calamity'' stopped updating.

5. [[blue:'''The Zonai are stated to have descended from the sky and helped found Hyrule.''']] This could only work with the previous continuity if the Zonai co-existed with the Hylians during [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword the Sky Era]] and came down with them when the Cloud Barrier was dispelled. But they didn't, and to those who would say they did, [[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry I've one thing to say]]. [[red:Knox's 8th. It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that have not been presented.]] [[OccamsRazor Until it's shown that they did, it's more likely that they didn't.]]

[[gold:'''Conclusion from Point 5: ''Skyward Sword'' cannot have happened in this implied new continuity.''']]

Both ''Ocarina of Time'' and ''Skyward Sword'' are the lynchpins of the Zelda Timeline as we knew it as recently as ''Encyclopedia''[[labelnote:*]](for all my opinions on that one compared to ''Hyrule Historia''...)[[/labelnote]] and the Past Era sections of ''Tears of the Kingdom'' outright contradict them.

Have they been [[{{Retcon}} retconned]]? I'm not sure. After all, the map is full of references to past games. They need some source we haven't seen.

* Let me being up a counterpoint here: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom could be so far in the future of the timeline that the events of the prior games had been forgotten - the Imprisoning War seen in Tears being the second one, but just being called the Imprisoning War because no-one remembers the original one. As for the Zonai coming from the sky, I defer that to other [=WMGs=].

[[WMG:A potential Tears of the Kingdom sequel]]
Unless Nintendo comes out and says that Tears of the Kingdom will be the final main game in the Wild Era of Zelda, the possibility for a sequel is still in the air. But right now, many questions are raised about what parts of Tears of the Kingdom could be expanded upon.
* The Antagonist: With Calamity Ganon dispelled and [[spoiler: Ganondorf destroyed]], it's hard to pick who could be the next major antagonist of the Wild Era in this potential sequel to [=TotK=]...except we can uncover several non-Ganondorf antagonists from the series' past and implement it in the sequel as inspirations. The most likely to be the antagonist of this game is [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora]], who seems to be a logical next step in the series beyond Ganondorf. As for the bosses for the Divine Beasts/Temples of the game, I believe they would be apostles of Majora based on previous antagonists of the series: a sword demon like Ghirahim, a Twili like Zant, a Dark Hylian like Vaati and a demonic wizard like Aghanim.
* Expanding the map: With all the insane things that make Hyrule significantly bigger than it was in Breath of the Wild, it's hard to imagine how we could go from there...except there ''is'' one way: by introducing Termina from Majora's Mask, with its own Sky Island equivalent and its own Depths. The game would start in a remote region of Termina, far away from Hyrule, and once you manage to complete the tutorial you can use the Towers of the game to either shoot you upwards into the Sky Islands or to launch you from Termina all the way to Hyrule or vice versa.
** In particular, since neither Breath nor Tears explores that massive continent across the giant chasm north/northwest of Hyrule, it's as good a location as any for a sequel. We don't know if there's anything across the sea to the south and east of Hyrule, so that continent is a more likely bet. This does have the hitch that Hyrule is ''the'' world of pretty much all Zelda games, but hey.
* Shrines: Shrines seem to be an essential part of the Wild Era, with Sheikah Shrines scattering Hyrule in Breath of the Wild and Zonai Shrines doing the same in Tears of the Kingdom. If Majora is our next main antagonist, then perhaps the premise to these Shrines are that instead of using light to cleanse evil like in Tears of the Kingdom, we instead have to absorb evil energy to ensure Majora doesn't regain his power.
[[WMG:The Rauru from the Era of the Hero of Time is simply another form taken by King Rauru]]
* Apparently, the humanoid Rauru was present during or before Hyrule’s founding, having made the Temple of Time, and it’s been confirmed he took the form of a certain owl, so he can change shape. Assuming this isn’t a reboot, perhaps the two are one and the same? Though this theory may have holes, of course, such as whether his seal with Ganon prevents him from manifesting elsewhere.

[[WMG: DLC will show the unmasked ancient Sages and address the royal bloodline by revealing Rauru and Sonia's child or children.]]
It seems rather conspicuous that the Sages aren't seen unmasked, and exploring them more would be a good chance to reveal their faces and make them more meaningful. Meanwhile, Rauru and Sonia had heirs if they had descendants, but the base game never acknowledges this-- telling the story of their child or children could be a narrative angle to focus on and remove a notable ambiguity.

[[WMG: DLC armor guesses]]
* The Zonai-crafted green helms worn by the Ancient Sages
* The Gerudo vai set
* A Cece-designed costume to complete the hat
* The Well-Worn set from the previous game
* The Nintendo Switch shirt from the previous game
* A Light Dragon-themed armor in the same way that the Ember, Frostbite, and Charged armors are themed after the other dragons. Possible effect would be increasing damage at full health, thematically and mechanically tying it to both the Master Sword's sword beams and the healing powers of the Light Dragon parts.

[[WMG: DLC may explore the connection between Calamity Ganon and [[spoiler: Ganondorf]]]]
DLC may address a connection between the two, specifically that maybe Rauru sundered Ganon's spirit and body, and while his spirit still existed as a malevolent entity in an endless cycle of awakening and being sealed away, finally giving up resurrection to defeat Link in the first game allowed his spirit to return to to his body, priming him for reawakening. He may or may not have known that this how it work, and it's unlikely he would have memories of his time as Calamity Ganon.
* At the bottom of the staircase leading to the Royal Family's secret passage -- which was presumably originally the entrance to the Zonai ruins Link and Zelda were exploring in the prologue -- there's a plaque warning that the sealed Demon-King's hatred and malice could escape if the Royal Family is not diligent in ensuring the kingdom's peaceful prosperity, which seems to point to the origins of Calamity Ganon.

[[WMG: The next game in the series will still follow through with this world and versions of Link, Zelda and Ganondorf]]
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom together are a huge turning point for the series in terms of sales and popularity, making it likely that Nintendo will want to preserve these versions of the characters for as long as possible, instead of making new iterations after a couple of games like they usually do. As such, we can expect the next bug Zelda game to not just follow the same formula, but use the same world again. Just like Breath of the Wild had its format inspired by the original Legend of Zelda and Tears of the Kingdom had its plot inspired by A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, the third game will take clues from Adventure of Link. This game's story will finally introduce the Triforce into this era, maybe as an artifact that had been hidden away since even further in the past than the founding of Hyrule. The villain in the present will be a Ganon who got resurrected by his minions (maybe even involving a sacrifice of Link's vitality, justifying yet another BagOfSpilling), in a form closer to the traditional humanoid pig, not a mindless mass of Malice like Calamity Ganon, nor the human-turned-demon Ganondorf. Explorarion will feature a brand new alternate world in the Sacred Realm/Dark World, with puzzles potentially involving phasing in and out of this world in real time, showcasing how Nintendo's next console can do stuff that was impossible on the Switch.

[[WMG: Addison is posting signs everywhere because he's a terrible construction worker, but Hudson is too nice to fire him.]]
Addision is clearly not good at building things. After putting up dozens of signs, he still hasn't grasped the idea of securing the signpost ''before'' putting the sign up, he hasn't taken the hint from Link that you can prop up the sign, and when he ''does'' secure the sign, it's a kludged-together mess of boards and ropes. It's obvious that if his job at Hudson and Sons actually involves building things, he's not going to have that job for long, because if he can't manage to even put up a signpost properly he has no buisiness building, say, a house. However, Hudson is a nice guy, and given that Addison clearly idolizes him, he couldn't bring himself to fire Addison outright. So instead, he puts Addison in charge of advertising, knowing that his dedication will be put to good use.

[[WMG: Everything has been set up for a third game that's a full-blown outer-space fantasy.]]
The games have displayed progressively advanced technology, and our Zelda is defined by being a scholar and a researcher first and foremost, almost like the games are trying to get the player to accept a harder sci-fi shift, at least for the end of a trilogy. ''Tears of the Kingdom'' has introduced floating landmasses, low gravity, launching towers, and vehicular locomotion to this gameplay, which could prove vital structurally for a map outright set in space, the Zonai could quite plausibly be revealed to have alien origins, and Kohga's defeat this time sees him rocketing up out of the Depths to who knows where, implying his next location will be somewhere very high up. If the next game continues in this universe, a stunning finale in space would be the perfect kind of spectacular yet surprisingly not baseless ending for two games that ramp up the tech and fantastical topography. And the Blood Moon could remain as the reset mechanic given that it's a bizarre lunar phenomenon! Alternatively, a space map could be the setting of a large DLC expansion with a new Skyview Tower being added and launching the player even higher up to reach a fourth map layer.

[[WMG: Alternatively, Kohga's defeat is a setup for sky islands that will debut in DLC.]]
While the use of Zonai rockets could connote a journey to space, it could simply see him returning within this game in DLC, where he has landed on some newly-appeared sky islands and will serve as a boss akin to Maz Koshia and have his character's fate fully resolved this time after his defeat.

[[WMG: Any DLC shrines will be located exclusively in the sky.]]
Not only would it help expand the sky map, but it would prevent any confusion from shrines being added to the Surface that would necessarily lack corresponding Lightroots in the Depths.

[[WMG: Rauru will be the final boss of the DLC]]
Since there are no shrine monks, there's no other candidate for the equivalent to Maz Koshia other than the spirit of Rauru. As the Sage of Light who gave Link most of his toolkit, Rauru's spirit would be able to weaponize Ultrahand and Fuse (and maybe Recall because why not) in a FinalExamBoss friendly duel that tests all of your ingenuity and strength and proves to the player [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership exactly why he was the first King of Hyrule]]. He could even start controlling constructs similar to (and optimally countered by) his sister Mineru.

[[WMG: A new incarnation of Twinrova will be the final boss of the DLC]]
The names of Koume and Kotake can be seen on the sashes of two Gerudo in the Dragon Tear cutscenes, which have similar Gerudo lettering and color schemes to the sashes worn by the witches in ''Ocarina of Time''. They also have very distinct models compared to other NPC Gerudo with their gold masks and the same green skin as Ganondorf. Assuming they survive into the present-day Hyrule (which given Ganondorf's power is highly-possible), they could easily be the main antagonists of whatever new side-adventure the DLC offers.

** The Gerudo of the past have very distinct designs and multiple variants for what are currently background characters. While they could be holdovers from a previous version of the game, I get the strong feeling that Twinrova will be the villain of the D.L.C with her forces being Gerudo carrying the designs from the flashbacks.
** Since Koume and Kotake were originally the surrogate mothers of Ganondorf in ''Ocarina of Time'', it raises the question on why they look so young in ''Tears of the Kingdom''. While Ganondorf has noticeable wrinkles on his face, those two look just as young as any other Gerudo soldier apart from their green skin, outfit and haircut. Unless the masks are magical or just meant to hide their age, it's possible that they're descendants of Twinrova. Though regardless of their identity, it seems to be a reversal of what occurred in ''Ocarina of Time'' where instead of old witches merging to create a beautiful sorceress - the witches are already "pretty" here and a DLC fight will likely result in knocking off their masks to reveal something hideous underneath.
** It's possible that we'll get a twist about their age. Sure, they look young in the cutscenes (maybe in this version they're supposed to be Ganondorf's sisters rather than mothers), but if we meet them in the present, they would be ''impossibly'' old. Ganondorf had Rauru's seal to keep him young, and even then he was pretty much mummified until he had time to use his Demon King powers to restore his body to its prime form, there's no reason to believe they got the same privilege. Maybe we will find them as old witches, and only by fusing together they'll go back to a form resembling their younger self.

[[WMG: Hylian DNA is dominant over Zonai DNA]]
Given that Zelda is explicitly stated to be the descendant of Rauru and Sonia, that means she is part Zonai. However, she looks completely Hylian. This suggests that over time, the descendants of Zonai/Hylian couples appear more and more Hylian as the generations pass. This also could mean that instead of supposedly dying off or going extinct, the Zonai simply intermarried with the Hylians, and their descendants are now indistinguishable from normal Hylians. (While Rauru and Mineru are stated to be the last Zonai, this could alternatively mean they are simply the last of the ''Pure-Blooded'' Zonai.)
** This would hardly require Zonai genes to be dominant. Over a long enough timeline (and we're talking at least tens of thousands of years over here), Hylians marrying into the Royal Family over and over again with no new Zonai input would inevitably erase all Zonai traces.
** Plus, one could expand the idea to say that one trait has survived. Both Rauru and Mineru have (at least mostly in Rauru's case) silver/white hair. The Sheikah ''do'' have a symbol that notably echoes the eye and facepaint sported by both Rauru and Mineru.
** If you're trying to imply that the Sheikah are the descendants of the Zonai, there's a slight problem with that: Zelda would be one, rather than a Hylian like she's established to be.
*** I was thinking more like an extended mixing of bloodlines, rather than the singular Zonai ancestor we know Zelda has in Rauru. Like if, say, before most of the Zonai structures went up to the sky, Kakariko was, or was near, their equivalent of Rito Village, Goron City, or Gerudo Town.

[[WMG: Added gameplay mechanics/Quality of Life features/purchase rewards in DLC]]
* Zonai capsules to pick up loose or deployed devices
* Increased dream home customization (more rooms, color changes, etc.)
* A one-piece summonable vehicle akin to the Master Cycle Zero (or major upgrades to the Sage of Spirit construct, which is kind of that idea in this game)
* Updates to the Sage powers (upgrades for their special elemental effects and/or a change in activation controls)
* Return of the Ancient Saddle or an equivalent horse-teleport saddle
* Yiga Earthwake upgrade
* Another stage and/or another subject type you can make sculptures for in Tarrey Town, or a place on Link's house plot maybe? Also, maybe the option to have sculptures that look more statue-like and monochrome if they can become Link's decor.
* A Korok budddy physics object to summon and play around with so the player will never run out of Koroks to torture

[[WMG: The next Zelda game will have a "Back to Basics" approach.]]
The next Zelda game will likely be a simple classic 2D top-down approach. This could even be a remake of a similar game (The ''Oracle'' games, ''Minish Cap'', ''Four Swords'' games). The true spiritual 3D sequel for ''Tears of the Kingdom'' would be released later.

[[WMG: Nintendo will reboot the Zelda series again after ''Tears of the Kingdom'']]
Nintendo will choose to end the "Wild Trilogy" and reboot the series with a new creative style and approach for the games.
* It's not really a trilogy yet without a third main game. ''Age of Calamity'' isn't part of the same timeline as the other two, and might not be considered canon. But if there is a third main game following up on ''TotK'', that could definitely be a cap on this era of the storytelling and lead to another reboot.

[[WMG:Kass will return for the DLC side quest story, which will feature King Rauru, Queen Sonia, and the original Sages]]
Much similar to the Champions Ballad DLC, Kass will return to Hyrule to give Link another story side quest. This quest will focus on how Rauru and Sonia met. And how they later founded Hyrule. It will also focus on the other 5 original sages and how each member contributed to the founding of Hyrule.

[[WMG: In the DLC, a final rune power will be added...]]
...in the center of the power wheel, which looks like it's completely filled and unable to fit another ability, but could actually fit something in the middle.

[[WMG: The Divine Beasts have been sunk into the sea.]]
It’s the one place you could put them where we wouldn’t be able to find them. Possibly this was done to prevent them being subverted again in another Calamity, and to prevent them being misguidedly excavated the way Hyrule did 100 years ago.
* Except that they'd still be very accessible to pretty much any zora.
* And how exactly would they have moved them out to sea in the first place?

[[WMG:DLC will add a fourth layer of the map, below the Depths]]
It seems odd to me that the Depths and the Surface are clear parallels to each other, but the Sky doesn't have a counterpart. Why not completely mirror both the ground and air of Hyrule with another section that goes even lower than the Depths? Probably called the "Abyss" or something along those lines, it could be a set of ruins floating along an endless black void or an ocean of Gloom. It would also play up the horror to the point of making the Depths look like a nice and cozy vacation home in comparison, with things like [[BorderPatrol colossal monsters that eat Link if he falls below the floating structures]]. Of course, it would have 32 Lightroots that correspond to the sky Shrines, and most/all of its landmarks will be roughly below a sky structure.
** Or it could be the Hyrule equivalent of Subrosia with oceans of lava.

* They may be the first King and Queen of (this instance of) Hyrule, but that’s not to say they didn’t come from already royal or royal-like status. After all, it seems likely that Sonia is descended from Skyward Sword Zelda at least, putting her firmly in the Bloodline of The Goddess referred to in Skyward Sword. On the other hand, Rauru seems like he’s more used to the idea of actually ruling. Maybe he and Mineru belong to some kind of Zonai royalty, and he and Sonia were initially brought together as a way to bring the Zonai and Hylian peoples together, creating Hyrule itself.

** While it is not confirmed or outright jossed, Tulin is confirmed to be a descendant [[spoiler:of the Sage of Wind]] instead.

[[A descendant of Rauru and Sonia and reincarnation of Zelda reascended to Godhood, revitalizing worship of Hylia.]]
Then she imbued statues with her essence so they could assist her and Link's future incarnations in their fight against Calamity Ganon. She also sealed away The Horned Demon during this time. This would explain why Zelda's sacred power is said to come from her Goddess Blood.

*** I was thinking more like an extended mixing of bloodlines, rather than the singular Zonai ancestor we know Zelda has in Rauru.

The next Zelda game will likely be a simple classic 2D top-down approach. This could even be a remake of a similar game (The ''Oracle'' games, ''Minish Cap'', ''Four Swords'' games). The true spiritual 3D sequel for Tears of the Kingdom'', would be released later.

Admittedly, this WMG is based off the "Guardian of Remembrance" DLC for VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity. As noted earlier, while Sidon and Riju are "new" champions from BotW returning from that game, Teba seems to have been replaced by Tulin, and it follows that Tulin's backstory will be explored more in depth. We saw that Tulin was working on his own version of Revali's Gale in AoC, and while it was still very novice, it was still more than what we've seen any Rito not named Revali accomplish. If it turns out that the ability to create this updraft is hereditary (not unlike Yunobo's protection ability from his ancestor Daruk), and we have no record of Teba accomplishing this feat, then this means that Tulin would have had to receive the ability through his mother.

* Let me being up a counterpoint here: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom could be so far in the future of the timeline that the events of the prior games had been forgotten - the Imprisoning War seen in Tears being the second one, but just being called the Imprisoning War because no-one remembers the original one. As for the Zonai coming from the sky, I defer that to other WMGs.

We know Rauru and Mineru were the last Zonai. With Rauru gone and Mineru stuck as a spirit, the percentage of Rauru DNA will dwindle in their bloodline. With this in mind, here are some sub-WMGs.

[[WMG: Added gameplay mechanics/ QoL features/purchase rewards in DLC]]