Spoiler Simplified Four Timeline Theory Reconciles TOTK

[tman]

Spoiler - Oh Boy, Here Goes; Three Timelines Create Secret Stones, Used By Fourth Timeline; Zonai Original Sin And Twili, Majora Identities Revealed

SUFFICE IT TO SAY SPOILERS ARE UNAVOIDABLE IN THIS COMPLEX DISCUSSION. DO NOT READ IF YOU FEAR SPOILERS FOR TOTK!!! I've been hammering out a theory that has grown to crazy "Unified Mega Theory" territory. I've sorted it out a bit better now and want to give the whole thing. I can't really...

zeldadungeon.net

Above is the longer form discussion, but I wanted to have a shorter more accessible presentation. I also want to thank the forum for raising questions, most recently about OOT sages and weapons in the past, that have helped me clarify the theory.

Below is the basic theory, some points to draw from it, and a visual.

1. Skyward Sword splits the timeline into the BOTW-verse and the Three Timelines/OOT verse
2. The BOTW-verse sees Ganondorf be exposed and imprisoned EARLY, as seen by the young Twinrova. OOT chronologically is a couple generations away form this founding.
3. BOTW's OOT does happen, but it's the first calamity rather than the imprisoning war. The "Ancient Hero" corresponds to Link and the OOT sages are the divine beast champions. We basically learn that this BOTW version of OOT Link was living among Gerudo and considered their "Eighth Heroine". Maybe the Gerudo replace the Kokiri in this timeline as those who raise the outsider orphan?
4. OOT represents Ganon, Zelda and Link each getting their wish from the Triforce, which causes the split into a timeline reflecting each wish. This controls the fate of the Triforce.
5. Wisdom timeline Zelda's wish gets Hyrule destroyed so no one can have that Triforce. Instead, they go to New Hyrule to get the Lokomo power where Ganon doesn't reside. The Master Sword is also sealed under the sea.
6. Courage timeline, Link wishes for true courage which transforms the Triforce into a power of pure light matched by the power of darkness.
7. Power timeline, Ganon gets the Triforce but his power weakens over time. Master Sword sleeps forever in the Lost Woods. As of AoL, the full triforce is reassembled.
8. SPECULATION: Courage Master Sword, imbued with light (and darkness?) in play at the base of the Tower of Gods (Winds?) so maybe near to Shadow Link at the end of Four Swords Adventure.
9. SPECULATION: Courage Master Sword's power of darkness (half of Courage timeline's Triforce power) taken to Ganon in the Power timeline, and the Power timeline Triforce is "spent" to wish the Power timeline Hyrule into the past, where it becomes the Depths, an idea inspired in part by Ganon's time in his "Dark World". With the dark Master Sword, Dark Link/Power Ganon become Demise. The Oocca build Hyrule on top of the Depths, perhaps copying their geography in reverse. It could be that sealing Demise was the entire purpose of creating Hyrule.
10. SPECULATION: TotK Zelda and Purah have ALL the Zonai and Sheikah tech at the end. They use these to build the Ancient Robots, and go to the past to mine the timeshift stones (someone has mentioned the minerals correspond to sage powers, but there's no mineral for time; it would be the timeshift stones and they were all mined up in the past with none leftover, to prevent Ganon from ever having them). Just as the mined Zonaite fuels the purifying light of the Zonai shrines and lightroots (maybe), the timeshift stones are refined to create a power of Time in conjunction with Hylia's grace.
11. The Timeshift power would be used to go to the Courage and Wisdom timeline to get the power of Light from the Courage timeline, and the Lokomo spirit powers from the Wisdom.
12. The Zonai masters of Owls, Dragons and Boars are given access to the Triforce in the BOTW timeline past. They convert it into secret stones. They eat the secret stones to become the Divine Dragons. They keep the Triforce safe until Ganon is totally defeated in this timeline branch
13. The Evil Spirit armor set is Phantom Ganon and it is said it came among the Zonai in ancient times. Perhaps this is the Dark Link/Ganon being (Demise) projecting itself beyond its prison.
14. SPECULATION: The Majora's tribe are the ancient Zonai who are convinced (by Phantom Ganon?) to get rid of their self-doubt, creating the fused shadow which is courage through the absence of fear, power through the absence doubt, wisdom through the absence of limitations. False power. They use this power to help Demise breach from the depths to the surface of Hyrule. This is in the barbarian era. Skyloft is created. The Zonai seal away the fused shadow in disgust for their actions.
15. In the Demise getting destroyed/crushed timeline, the Zonai come back and mine the depths to build what's needed for the secret stones.
16. In the Demise is imprisoned and needs to be defeated with the Master Sword timeline, the Zonai become the Picori out of regret.
17. The Twili are Zonai in the process of becoming Picori, who seek to regain the Fused Shadow and are punished for it.
18. The powers behind the secret stones are gathered, and will be used to defeat Ganon in the BOTW timeline.
19. The Triforce powers in the Three Timelines do not continue, and Ganon is defeated in all but one. He and the power of darkness, along with the Triforce to which he's attached, are contained in a closed time loop.
20. The secret stones are made so that Ganon's closed time loop is preserved, and meanwhile Zelda gets her own time loop in TotK that ensures Ganon's defeat. In a sense, the two Skyward Sword timelines become closed time loops, one containing darkness, and one preserving light.

This also answers a few interesting questions, raising other questions:

• The travel between timelines explain the hero's gear in the Depth from the earlier games, perhaps other timeline Zeldas and Links came into this one.
• Demise's Master Sword is the child timeline Master Sword, and Ghirahim is corrupted Fi. Demise was sealed within this Master Sword anyway. The timeline seems to transform the Triforce into the pure power of light and also its shadow, and this is also imbued into this Master Sword.
• BOTW's Master Sword would have to be created separately, probably when the secret stones are created. The SS Goddess Sword which was not made into the Master Sword in that timeline is in the possession of the goddess Hylia statue in TotK, so that specific Fi and that specific sword become a new, second Master Sword which is the one Link uses in BOTW.
• There is no temple of Light for the Light sage in TotK. Quite possibly it does exist in the unmentioned Sacred Realm. This might be the path by which the hero's were able to cross timelines. It explains why the timeline split in three, as the Triforce is eternal and the Sacred Realm spans all timelines. So, the existence of a Triforce wish in one timeline is a "hedge" against a wish in another.
• It could very well be that the second timeline of Skyward Sword was deliberately hidden and obscured, but enough clues were left to prove its real while also leaving misdirection like the bracelet. If this is so, there may be more to its story. In my view, the swallowing of secret stones made of the Triforce, to create the dragons, is what protects the BOTW timeline, or seals it from the Sacred Realm. The wills of the dragons would replace the opportunity for mortal wishes. The dragons are not entities wishing on the Triforce, but rather become animated expressions of its elemental will. In other words, you have to kill the dragons should you hope to make a wish on the Triforce. This is how this timeline is unaffected by other wishes.
• The Mogma are absent in BOTW, but the statues in the Depths might be them, associated with the Great Plateau and Central Mine. These statues odd legs seem to match (trying to confirm this) the Bargainer Statue legs. There's an image in the BOTW calamity mural on the top left which shows Depths Trees, the weird "Lomei" (half Hylian/Gerudo, half Zonai, Picori looking faces) as slaves or farmers, with what look to be Poe Collectors nearby. Also, note the similarity of the Poe Collector, bargainer statue and Wizzrobe head shape, the bargainer selling magic rods.
• If these "Lomei" are the Twili, which explains their absence and numerous other things (Typhlo ruins), then perhaps the Mogma were involved in a corruption by Gloom or Ganondorf. The absence of "Lomei" and Mogma could be related to the rumored persecutions of the Hylian royal family, and in the case of the Twili and Poe Collectors, overlaps with the infamous "Shadow" power from OOT. The "River of the Dead" is so named in the Great Plateau, below which is the Central Mine.
• The best theory is that the Mogma were persecuted and tortured for rumors of their allegiance with Ganon of the Depths, and only a sect of Poe Collecting Mogma Priests were permitted to live, to tend to the lost spirits. These then where tasked with watching over the Lomei, who in the BOTW verse weren't sent to the Twilight Realm, but rather banished to the Depths themselves. A shame which caused the royal family to forbid discussion of the Depths.

The above appears to show the Lomei pleading to the King of Hyrule who commissions the Sheikah, who then (either the Sheikah or the Poe Collectors) make the Lomei work, but the trees near their fields are Depths trees which we didn't see until game 2, so this was preplanned? Then, bottom left, the Lomei are cheering Zelda and Hylian soldiers to apparently chase off I think Sheikah.

Below is an exploration of this "Lomei" race, whom I think those shorter mural people are. I also think OOT Link had some Lomei in him, why he was able to spirit quest in MM and have the Ikana be a symbolic representation of the ancient Zonai, who were the "Majora's Tribe" and "Majora's Mask" IRL was the Fused Shadow. The Garo might be these Lomei half Gerudo, half Zonai. The idea of the Stone Tower and the Garo is the Zonai were symbolically sealing away this shameful memory, which in my theory led to them having the arrogance to help Demise breach the Depths into Hyrule before SS.