The Truth of the Shadow Temple

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

As I'm sure everyone here has played OoT, I'm sure you will also remember the Shadow Temple.

The Shadow Temple in OoT is the respective temple of the Sheikah, and Impa's chief designated temple. Entry is only afforded to the Sheikah, and those they deem worthy of entering: in OoT's case, this being the Hero of Time via the Nocturne of Shadow.

It's overall design leads further and further into the depths of the ground, bringing with it a host of dark and forboding imagery... You start off at the beginning in a series of a catacombs, never knowing what's around the corner; than progress further along to find blood-stained torture posts, terrifying death traps, monsters where you least expect them, and the terrible, terrible feeling of feeling like you shouldn't really be there.

My question to you is: why does it exist? Many theories are out there that try to explain it's dire warnings, it's treacherous design, and why it feels like the dungeon itself is trying to kill you. They range from everything from trying to say that it's a place of concentrated evil, where all the misdeeds and misfortunes of the world were concentrated all together, to saying that it was the meeting place of a much darker breed of Sheikah. The general idea that this is supposed to be a general area of torture and death is definitely one that is not lost on me.

Why does it exist? Surely a place like this would never really ever need to be used? Ah, but it does.

http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/threads/lanayrus-vision-and-the-creation-of-the-sacred-realm.54627/

Within my last theory, I went to great depths to try to get across the idea of Lanayru's vision. He/she presented to us a vision in which the people of Hyrule had been turned to greed and in which the Twili's ancestors had stepped forward in order to assault Hyrule. One in which race turnef against race in order to claim Hyrule. What does this at all have to do with the Shadow temple? Everything.

My theory, based on the evidence given to us by both TP and OoT, is that the Shadow temple was built in order to honor the sacrifices of the great and powerful Sheikah, and illustrate to us just how horrific this war was.

The horrors unleashed within this great war forced the Sheikah to turn to cruel and unusual punishments in order to turn the tide of it, and in order to bring peace to the land of Hyrule.

Light was said to be spread equally between those who lived in Hyrule. It wasn't until a great shift in the people's faith of things that said people started to turn against one another, stab each other in the back. Race pitted against race, man pitted against man, and even friends pitted against friends.

My personal belief is that the war that Hyrule had just been quelled in years past, the one that had just ended years ago before OoT, is the very same war spoken of by Lanayru. It would fit all the neccesary time requirements, fit all the neccesary timeline needs, and would come to explain why there was a need for the Shadow temple in the first place.

The Sheikah are never spoken of as having ever been an evil race, and if anything were to be a result of the years and years of misfortune and greed with Hyrule, I would have to say that it would the dark magic of the Ancient Sorcerers. Their magic seems to be one that fits the bill pretty well of being consisted of greed and misfortune, especially if we take into account the Fused Shadows (or as aptly named in the original japanese version, the Crystal Stone of Shadow).

So what do ya'll think? Do I have something pretty good put together, or do I have some major plot holes strewn about it.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I'd say you are right about the Shadow Temple being a place where the Shiekah are buried but at the same time wrong about it at the same time.

The Twili wouldn't have become as they were from just the interveneing years between the Hyrule Civil War Which ended as Link was born, We see that ganondorf is finally sentenced in TP, and we know that TP had happened a fair few years after OOT, i'd say within 200 years given that we see Twinrova can easily live close to 500 years of age, and ganondorf is still in his prime, if we take that 200 years it's simply not enough for the losers of that war to be imprisoned in the hell that is the twilight realm and then to mutate, the Twili even have a ruling family akin to the Hyrulian one.

No the Shadow Temple is quite bluntly the crypt and true burial ground of Hyrule, Mainly it serves as the War grave heck we know it has existed far longer than some of the other temples due to it's depth and also it's links to the after life, we can argue that yes the Shiekah are buried here but we don't definitely see their graves nor any others, but we know hyules bloody past is buried here none the less, Taking a shot at this i'd say that the Shadow Temple was in fact Housing part of that civil war and it's responsible for the deaths of many shiekahs and other races such as gorons, and so death would saturate the area. You can also say due to Bongo Bongo's presence the temple goes back further than Kakariko.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

Bongo Bongo was sealed in Kakariko's well, not the Shadow Temple. He wasn't sealed there and until Impa went there and tried to seal him herself.

Also, we really don't know how many years passed between Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. While quotes on how far apart the games are are nice, I don't think that they're neccesarily steadfast. I think honestly if they wanted too, the developers could go back and say that was old information.

200 years gave the Zora enough time to evolve into the Rito, so I don't necessarily see where that's a problem. The Twili could have evolved just as fast.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Bongo Bongo was sealed in Kakariko's well, not the Shadow Temple. He wasn't sealed there and until Impa went there and tried to seal him herself.

Also, we really don't know how many years passed between Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. While quotes on how far apart the games are are nice, I don't think that they're neccesarily steadfast. I think honestly if they wanted too, the developers could go back and say that was old information.

200 years gave the Zora enough time to evolve into the Rito, so I don't necessarily see where that's a problem. The Twili could have evolved just as fast.

WW has a far larger gap it's been hundreds of years since Hyrule was Flooded, Literally Hundreds and the Zora had an outside source in a literal sky spirit, though i never understood that evolution to be honest they coulda just gotten Jabun WHO IS LITERALLY DESCENDED FROM JABU to make them saltfish.

Back on topic, one why are you saying between SS and TP? Also the Boss Room, hell ALL the Boss room as specially made to each boss, I.E morpha's room is mostly water, In hyrule you could almost make a good argument for Bongo Bongo becoming the new Death, if we look at the symbolics of it, Bongo Bongo's room is deep and i do mean REALLY deep into the earth to get their you ride the Ferry, which in greek Mythology was the path to the realm of the dead, you can also say that Dead Hand is the Guardian of the world of the dead I.E bongo bongo's room due to the fact both the items you receive from it are instrumental to reaching Bongo Bongo.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

Twilight Princess and the Wind Waker were both quoted by a delevoper as having been set 200 years apart from OoT. If a later source quoted something different, than that just goes to prove what I said about timeline quotes not being steadfast.

Bongo Bongo is an ethereal spirit. He didn't need those two items to get as far as he did. Link just needed them to be able to progress deeper into the temple.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Twilight Princess and the Wind Waker were both quoted by a delevoper as having been set 200 years apart from OoT. If a later source quoted something different, than that just goes to prove what I said about timeline quotes not being steadfast.

Bongo Bongo is an ethereal spirit. He didn't need those two items to get as far as he did. Link just needed them to be able to progress deeper into the temple.

I was referring to link requiring those items.... Damn i ballparked my guessing on the intervening years inbetween OOT and TP, it also throw weight into the Zora being unable to evolve in that time without outside help.

Also I wouldn't say he is an ethereal spirit because he can act on the mortal plane, the physical plane, ethereal spirits couldn't do that with out masses of energy behind them and BB (BB = Bongo Bongo) Is able to wound Sheik and kick link's backside from here to donkey kong with little effort.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

I guess that's true. He's not really ethereal, just a spirit.

One could argue that the Twilight Realm itself was the Twili's outside cause of evolution, but I do commend you for bringing that up!

 

[Jirohnagi]

I guess that's true. He's not really ethereal, just a spirit.

One could argue that the Twilight Realm itself was the Twili's outside cause of evolution, but I do commend you for bring that up!

Thanks ^^, Likewise, i love this it's been so long since i've discussed the Shadow Temple.

So back to this particular topic I once thought that the man who owned the Lens of Truth was Bongo Bongo and he was executed for it (actually had my theory stolen by another user once) But the more i think on it, i think that Bongo Bongo was always in the background of the Sheikahs hometown, The Shadow Temple has existed for a ridiculously long time, to the point where it even had an underground river many bottomless pits and other traps, no way that coulda been carved in such a short time, so my thoughts are this:

The first sheikah found a place where energy was abundant to the point that this individual could hone their skills easily to the point where they could fade from sight and strike from nowhere over time this person developed true site and discovered the source of energy a gaping chasm in the ground and so this individual plumbed the depths of the chasm and found it penetrated deep into the ground and the depths of this chasm, this pit he found the gateway to the underworld and him being the first sheikah and the greatest stole in and stole the power of the being that lived there granting greater stealth to avoid retribution this person built a temple above the chasm and a barrier in the form of a river he built many traps that people constantly died to and over time he built up a village around this dungeon, the dungeon itself would be the testing grounds to the people much as the gerudo used a natural cave formation for theirs. As we see in the Shadow temple it goes from dressed stone (Bricks) to solid stone showing where the temple left off and the path to the underworld began, over time the Power beneath was weakened and fell into sleep and so these foolish people started to create arcane tools none the least the Sheikah Stones and the Lens of Truth, the one who created this eventually became the creature known as Dead Hand for he was a great deceiver and what more fitting punishment than being set to guard that which he made? Forever trapped in a mutated form? The death over time in the Dungeon seeped into the ground awakening the dark entity from his slumber enraging it, it found a great feasting ground under the village in fact in it's water source, the wells bottom where the torture of spies and prisoners occured, feeding on this power it grew to the point where only the strongest living sheikah could seal it, she succeeded at this but the seal only lasted a short time and it broke free once again at this time the sealer had journeyed to depths of the temple to find out if the beast in the well was the same as the one from the temple's heart and if it was to seal it again, if you note we see Bongo Bongo flee to it's temple it's source of power indicating that after attacking Sheik and Link it was weakened not much but enough that it felt it needed to re-power, or maybe it sensed someone in it's lair, who knows, what i do know is Impa Was killed trying to seal it and Link shortly arrived killing the Phantom Beast.


This is mostly conjecture and my own personal theory on Bongo Bongo, the Shadow Temple origins and Dead Hand. Do not take it as canon unless it's headcanon. There massive holes in this that even i see but again just a theory.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

One of the great things about the Legend of Zelda is the fact that you can take just one game and build so many stories off what it has to offer.

Like you said, your theory definitely has some holes in it, but I think I get the general gist of it. Maybe if you refined it you could have something a little bit... Plausible. For now though, I think that it definitely makes for a good!

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I always had an idea that the Twili might have been part of the Sheikah. That would explain why they found the Sacard Realm, and accessed it. They probably were a schism of the Sheikah turned bad. They became greedy for more power, more knowledge. I realize the Japanese translation alludes to the Sacard Realm not existing when the Dark Interlopers tried gaining the Triforce, but if we just go by the American Version this makes sense, right. If we assume the sacard realm is a gidden place someone would need insider knowledge to access it.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

The Twili may very well have origins within the Sheikah, that I don't doubt. They both can use powerful magic, but if you wanted to go off that I like both versions of the translation tbh, but the Japanese has always seemed like it be the most qualified candidate to for the better translation (since it is the original.

I see no harm in entertaining the original, though. The concept of the Interlopers was/is something that's always been appealing to me.

 

[Johnathan Cevi]

I believe the Shadow Temple is actually very old older then Kakariko its self . Possibly dating back to before skyward sword ( Part of this theory was inspred by a guys theory on Zelda univers`s forum) and that is the areas where the walls floor and even ceiling are made of stacks of the remains of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people .One war alone could not cause that much death at least not the unification war. but perhaps the War against demise. I believe the shadow temple was at that time built as a mass grave and then turned into a temple to pay honor to the dead, but sometime down the line the temple was renovated to be a torture/execution chamber during the unification war (and that was only until the Hylian forces reclaimed control of the Arbiters grounds from the Gerudo in the events after link returns to warn Zelda and the king in the child timeline) As for Bongo Bongo It is a high possibility that he was the man that his house was above the well (and in my fan fiction he will be) but it could be otherwise mainly because we have never seen a person become the kind of spirit that Bongo Bongo is normally a angry spirit becomes a poe . Not a massive hands and body flower ghost thingy that BB is so we honestly don't know BB`s true origin for sure.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

We don't really know how long the civil war went on for. If the civil war was started for the reasons shown by Lanayru, it could very well have been going on for years in some form or another, even via tensions related to the Triforce being missing in TMC.

"But Lord, Minish Cap is shown to have to have occurred during a peace-time. It can't be possibly be the same war! If it was quelled, then what could have possibly restarted the war?" My answer is the restated because of Vaati.

The Minish Cap would have had happened after the relative peace created by the Triforce being sealed away from the eyes of man, within the Sacred Realm. People would no longer think it exists, until the King (via Vaati) orders all of his soldiers to seek out the light force throughout all of Hyrule. The citizens were shown to have been publicly known about the efforts, and looking at all things logicly, decided that the Triforce had to have still been around. Why else would the King launch such a huge campaign? What other well known "shining force" would fit that description? Especially knowing that Princess Zelda had been turned to stone, it would make total sense if that is what he was seeking out.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

If the sum total amount of bodies in there includes people that would have died during the war described by Lanayru, then I'm sure that there would be plenty of bodies, especially considering that the crypt is inscribed with whole quote of Hyrule "having a bloody past".

 

[DeactivatedUser2]

I think it's important to remember that The Well of Three Features shares these similarities as well. Hell, it's possible that the well was originally part of the Temple, and was later disconnected to prevent the Shadow Temple to be accessible again. Personally, I just believe the Shadow Temple/WoTF area was used by the Sheikah as simple torturing methods during the Hylian Civil War and were later abandoned. This could also explain the Well of Three Features; after the Hylian that later became Bongo Bongo's house was made into the well, the Sheikah used that as the original passage to get to the Shadow Temple. After Bongo Bongo wreaked havoc and was sealed, the Shadow Temple's access to the well was also sealed so he couldn't escape there.