Tears of the Kingdom – The Zonai, Twili and the Sacred Realm?

The part of yesterday's trailer for Tears of the Kingdom that has probably caused the most speculation was actually the logo. This was originally part of my trailer analysis, but I decided to move this into its own post, because there were more thoughts to be had here.

You can see two dragons in the logo eating each other up, where their design is clearly based on the Zonai statues found in Breath of the Wild. This soft-confirms that all the magical / technological stuff that we have seen so far, like the glowing hand, the vials, the Eyegore enemy, or the mechanical glider could really be have been made by the Zonai in the past.

As explained in Creating a Champion (pages 342 and 413), the Zonai were a warrior tribe, who have wielded strong magic, worshiped a water dragon, and vanished thousands of year ago, where this is one of Hyrule's greatest mysteries. Many of the monuments and old temples found in the world of Breath of the Wild are tied to the Zonai, including the large Lomei Labyrinths, where you can find the barbarian outfit once worn by the tribe.

There have been lots of Zelda fans out there speculating about the Zonai's role in the sequel ever since the 2019 trailer (e.g. Zeltik), even calling Link's new hand the "Zonai Hand". I was personally never too convinced, since the Zonai were more of this background mystery in Breath of the Wild and Nintendo loves to leave certain things to the imagination. The name is even an anagram of "nazo", the Japanese word for "mystery", so it's a bit on the nose. And I expected them to simply add to this mystery, where you get to explore more of their ruins and such, instead of making the Zonai a central plot point. However, there could be a lot more this tribe, where "Zonai" may not even be their actual name.

Back in 2019 I saw the hand and vortex as "Gerudo magic", mainly because it used Gerudo runes and banished Ganondorf. And it still may be related, where the Zonai could be connected to the Gerudo somehow. They both share the use of the color green (at least in Breath of the Wild). They both are warrior tribes. The relation of Zelda and the divine being on the stone carvings looks really friendly, reminiscent of Urbosa and Zelda. And the seven orbs might truly reference the Seven Heroines somehow. At the end of the trailer you can also see two orbs in one, facing each other, which could have something to do with the Eighth Heroine... Maybe it's supposed to be Zelda or the divine being.

But that's already speculation about speculation, so it feels a bit out there. Also, in Breath of the Wild the Gerudo were portrayed in balance with the Rito, Goron, and Zora tribes due to the Divine Beasts, the Champions, and all that. But focusing more on the Gerudo would make them feel more important than the others here. Of course the sequel doesn't have to keep this balance and with the re-appearance of Ganondorf there will naturally be some more focus on the Gerudo, but it still might leave a slightly sour taste.

On a side note, there also have been the Zuna in Four Swords Adventures, who lived next to the Gerudo and were a different desert tribe, one with green skin. They had built the Pyramid housing Ganon's Trident. But the name stems from the Japanese word for sand, "suna", and it's very unlikely that we will ever see this tribe again.

Learning more about the Zonai will be very interesting in any case, with or without the Gerudo being related. It might also make revisiting the old ruins in Breath of the Wild worthwhile, because some of the details there may be important in hindsight. A big part of this were the statues, where according to the Creating a Champion artbook they symbolized the history of the Triforce from an ancient perspective (page 342). The dragons represent courage, the owls wisdom, and the boars power.

The Triforce itself hasn't really seen any mention in Breath of the Wild, only depictions, but if the sky islands really are the Golden Land – the Sacred Realm –, then the connection to the Zonai will be interesting. Maybe they tried to enter the Sacred Realm and then vanished together with it, which sounds similar to some other tribe we know...

Speaking of, there is also the corroded Master Sword in the game's logo and it looks like it gets repaired by the Zonai magic. It's either that or this acts as a replacement blade in the meantime, where this may be a temporary thing and shatters after a while.

But this blade substitute is visually very reminiscent of elements in the Twilight Realm, the magic used by the Twili, who seem to have a similar backstory to the Zonai, since they are also strong magic wielders who have disappeared. The connection would even strengthen if Tears of the Kingdom really was about the Sacred Realm and the Zonai have something to do with it, as already mentioned.

And that these two tribes might be connected somehow is yet another fan theory that has been going for a while. It already came up with the Monument Shards in Breath of the Wild, which had a big resemblance to the Mirror of Twilight:

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Of course Breath of the Wild is full of references to older Zelda games with the whole purpose of making the fans speculate again after Hyrule Historia, but this led people to believe that the Zonai might have something to do with the Twili and that the Twili may return in the next game.

I personally always saw the Twili as something that was only important to the story of one game, similar to the Minish or the Lokomo, but we're dealing with the tears of the fandom here, who have been eternally sad about Midna's good-bye. And to be fair, the theme of tears could also insinuate a connection to the Twili thanks to Midna's tear, which has shattered the Mirror of Twilight, or the Tears of Light and so on. Hands were also a popular motive for the Twili with Zant's Hands and Midna's hair, which gets repeated with the hand from the first trailer.

In addition, the Fused Shadow looks quite similar style-wise to the carvings from the new trailer, which is based on the Zonai architecture from Breath of the Wild. The typical spiral form, like with those "tears", can even be found at the very tip of Midna's helmet:

It's clearly related in style when you put it right next to each other. Of course the similarities could simply be there, because things get repeated in Zelda from time to time, especially visual designs and symbols, where for now it's best to expect that the Zonai may be similar to the Twili, but still something new entirely... Kind of like how the Fused Shadow looked similar to Majora's Mask, but the game never implied any connection otherwise.

Similarly, the Zonai seem to make heavy use of an eye symbol, where it's found on the top of Link's vial belt, the door he opens, his new shield, and the Eyegore golems. This feels very much like something by the Sheikah, but unlike the Sheikah Eye this one doesn't have a tear attached to it, which implies that they have different views, like the Yiga. Having a third faction of the Sheikah would feel a bit much at this point, though, especially since they already have seen so much focus in Breath of the Wild.

That's one thing that Breath of the Wild did remarkably well, however: making the most out of the different tribes from previous Zelda games. They could have invented a completely new tribe for the whole technology aspect, like they did with the Lokomo in Spirit Tracks, but instead they made it a new trait of the Sheikah, which gave the mysterious tribe from Ocarina of Time many more layers.

In the same vein they could bring back the Twili in a very different way, where they might have been just one of many incarnations of this tribe of "Dark Interlopers", who tried to control the Sacred Realm. Naturally, this game probably won't feature the Twilight Realm, Midna, or anything like that, because these things were all tied to the wolf transformation mechanic and with that not really important to the overall story of Hyrule. But it's possible that the Twili and the Zonai are simply different manifestations of the same ancient tribe of sorcerers, making them not entirely the same, but very much related.

The only problem with this theory is that this depicts the Zonai as something evil, while they appear to be an ally in the records. The ancient hero from the old mural in Breath of the Wild clearly was wearing the garbs that Link also acquires in Tears of the Kingdom. The being on the stone carvings, given that it is part of the Zonai tribe, clearly is cooperating with Zelda. And of course the mysterious hand has sealed Ganondorf deep underground.

It all feels more like Zonai became the protectors of the Sacred Realm, where they are defending it from intruders, instead of claiming it for themselves. They even might have hidden it deep in the earths of Hyrule, though there has to be some explanation why it's not longer a separate dimension. But with the Triforce in place anything is possible...

There is also the portrayal of an Ouroboros cycle with the two dragons, where maybe the intention of the Zonai was to end the never-ending cycle of destruction caused by the battle for the Triforce. No matter what, you get a new incarnation of Demise's hatred, usually in the form of Ganon, as well as a new incarnation of Hylia and the hero, and it all starts over again and again. And maybe their plan was to bring this to an end by simply removing the one thing from the equation that matters most: the Triforce.

But we have seen what happens when you destroy the Triforce in A Link Between Worlds. You don't want Hyrule to turn into Lorule, so this was not an option. Instead, they could have wished for the Triforce to be hidden and forgotten, which could explain the situation in Breath of the Wild, why the Triforce never really gets mentioned. It's still there somehow and manifests in Zelda when she awakens her sealing powers, but the knowledge around the three Goddesses and their most precious relic seems to have vanished from the earth, like the Zonai.

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But this is a lot of speculation here all based on the imagery that Nintendo has shown us. With Breath of the Wild they have proven that they know what buttons to push to make the fans speculate and create a ton of Youtube videos, forum posts, and articles like this one. It's smart marketing and it works, where in the end the similarities could be just that and we're dealing with something entirely new here. Keep that in mind before you hype yourself up for a story that may never be.