#null eow

[friendlybatteringram]

Priestess of Wisdom

Hero of Courage

Devourer of Reality

[moth-glum]

"𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘯𝘰𝘸..."

captain beecher takes princess zelda back to the safety of the castle.

(though, he had secretly prayed for the sun to halt its rotation so he could aid her in the garden eternally)

[talasdoodles]

While we may not have had an official Vaati appearance aside from re-releases in Switch online. What if instead of Ganon, Null had used Vaati instead.

This is partially inspired by bouncing some ideas with the amazing @willowthearts awhile ago about how Null works. And possibly just using Vaati occasionally as it's never clear how well the Four sword holds him. So he'd be a convenient "evil" of Hyrule to just show up and try and sent Hyrule to ruin.

[bl00dblight]

Malphemi, who is about 8'7" tall, getting picked up is so funny to me...

[weepingtalecowboy]

Difference between a god and a mortal

A thing I noticed about the Zelda timeline is following

Phanes is a being who embodies everything (not Zelda lore but Greek mythology lol the fates exist in Zelda and they are Greek mythology characters so l guess )

Also the heavenly principles in my opinion are pretty great to differentiate between what is above mortals and what isn’t

Every being that can evade at least one of its laws and see beyond the bounds it set is technically a god like being

Because what is above mortality other then godhood

The heavenly laws are life, death , space and time if you can give the middle finger to it you should be above a mortal being

Like already said you need one law broken to be able to break all others even if by technicality or theory

Hylia is a very good example like she is above the concept of space as she keeps spawning as Zelda but not her true self which still exists along with Zelda (because if not what the heck is answering when we visit a hylia statue lol)

Being able to infinity respawn as Zelda puts her above life and death by technicality and being able to respawn through time as often as needed puts her theoretically above time

Wind fish another example as it from what we saw is timeless (being able to appear whenever timeline if we count phantom hourglass and Hyrule warriors whale god as the same entity) being above time means being above life and death and space gets ignored via sheer technicality

Who cares about the concept of space if you can freely travel through it and appear at any point

Also lana and cia who as time guardians obviously have to be above time as well and if they can open portals whenever they ignore space as well and obviously they couldn’t have possibly been around since the beginning if they aren’t capable of breaking life and death

Demise same as hylia is beyond space and death and the rest is a necessity to even be above the first two concepts

Then there is Null as well who is beyond space as well and therefore timeless and above life and death by nature of the first two

And while those beings are still all mostly capable of being destroyed or hindered

Hylia and demise literally are just playing chess and the pawns are the heroes or villains and the playing field is the timeline they don’t really can be truly killed perhaps a bit hindered by eachother but not killed

Null was destroyed by the triforce because it literally couldn’t be defeated any other way

The gods of the Zelda universe are interesting

[dead-in-a-damn-ditch]

what if ganon(dorf) isnt the one behind dark and shadow links, and neither are the goddesses, and it's null that creates them. theyre just echoes of the hero, after all.

[marenwithanm]

So I finally finished echoes of wisdom lol. I've got a lot of art ideas for it so you'll be seeing that for a while. Few notes on this one: since the rifts stole links voice, rather than him choosing not to talk, I think he desperately wants to speak but can't. He probably knows some sign but not many others know it as well so I thought it would be fun if he carries around a little notebook for when he really wants to say something. Also, I thought it would be fun if when Link tries to talk he has a speech bubble but no words inside. And finally, I've seen some people design eow link with some kind of rift scar on his neck to visualize the rift having taken something from him, and I think it's super cool so I've used that idea here

[ok-pop-1]

ready?

[crowroboros]

A Really Cool Detail About Might Crystals in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

The first time I encountered a Might Crystal was maybe ~an hour into the game. I think I found it in a chest or something in Suthorn Forest and the first thing that I thought was "Huh...that looks kind of like bismuth." But, as I was so early on in the story that I didn't know much about what the Might Crystals were, I didn't think much more of it.

Well here I am with 46 additional hours worth of playtime in Echoes of Wisdom, and I'm here to say that there is a very cool reason that Might Crystals resemble bismuth crystals!

Before we get into bismuth, I need to talk about what is going on in Echoes of Wisdom. This WILL contain mid-to-late game spoilers, so do be warned.

Long before Creation there was nothing more than a void—a vast empty oblivion. Occasionally, bits of matter would spark to life in this nothingness. Nothing substantial, just small clumps of reality managing to form only for a moment. Only a moment, for anything that managed to flicker to life was devoured by the one who dwelt within this void:

Null.

Null is the main antagonist of Echoes of Wisdom. It is an ancient, incomprehensible lifeform that thrives in the absoluteness of zero. Nothingness personified.

Seeing the way these sparks of existence were so quickly extinguished, the three Golden Goddesses—Din, the Goddess of Power; Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom; and Farore, the Goddess of Courage—descended from the heavens and forced Creation. Together, the three built the world itself and everything that makes up reality with Null imprisoned and contained at its center.

The Golden Goddess then departed back to the heavens, leaving behind the Triforce, the Secret Stones (though they aren't relevant for this, just thought I'd throw them in since we know they were created around this time), and the Tris. The Triforce and the Tris served as the glue keeping reality together; the Tris specifically being created to maintain the structure of the world, as even though Null was imprisoned that didn't stop it from consuming and returning the world to nothingness.

From the point of Creation onward, Null and the Tris were locked in a delicate balancing act of destruction and recreation. Null ate away at the world, creating rifts that tore through reality. And in turn, the Tris constantly patched up these rifts, quickly restoring what was lost.

This return to nothingness is a major part of the themes of Echoes of Wisdom, and why Might Crystals likely were inspired by bismuth.

Might Crystals—as well as the energy they produce—are some of the only things capable of withstanding Null and the void. When everything else is lost, these crystals remain. But what does this have to do with Bismuth?

Well visually both Might Crystals and Bismuth share the iconic stairstep spiral growth structure, but the main reason I believe bismuth to be the inspiration for the Might Crystals is the Bismuth-209 isotope.

Bismuth was previously thought to be the heaviest stable element, with only one stable isotope (Bismuth-209). I say previously because in 2003, a research team at the IAS (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, a research institute in France) came to the realization that the Bismuth-209 isotope is actually undergoing alpha decay at an incredibly slow rate. How slow? Well it was determined that Bismuth-209 has a half life of approximately...

2.01x10^19 years. Or about 20,100,000,000,000,000,000 years (20 quintillion if you don't know/don't want to count out the zeroes).

For reference, that is billions of years longer than the current estimated age of the universe.

It is because of this inconceivably long half-life that it is said that bismuth will be among the last elements to disintegrate. And it is that bit of information that I believe inspired Might Crystals. If you need to come up with a crystal that can withstand nothingness itself and outlive matter in a void that consumes endlessly, what better choice to base it off of than the element that decays so slow that we used to think that it was stable?

I just thought that it was a cool detail. This is a bit different from my other Zelda posts—as this isn't me talking about the lore and story, but rather me talking about a possible irl inspiration for something in the series—but I thought this was really cool and I wanted to share my thoughts.

[pocketseizure]

The Creation of Hyrule

[tinsil]

mask-y guys & what they make me think of

[zelda-of-hyrule-tloz]

Why the "Prime Energy?"

In Echoes of Wisdom, we encounter the Triforce for the first time in a long time (in its usual state, anyway). But something that stood out to me (and a lot of people, I'm sure) was the title it went by: The Prime Energy. It's not something we've heard before, so we have to wonder: why? I obviously can't give a "canon" answer, but I do have some ideas.

Energy in Echoes of Wisdom

Throughout EoW, we collect little blue crystalline shapes called "energy." This replenishes the gauge that allows Zelda to use her swordfighter form. These crystals are found throughout the Still World and appear tied to Might Crystals, which also appear from the rifts (but only when they close). We use them to upgrade the sword and bow themselves.

There are two safe assumptions we can make about Energy:

Might Crystals are the "purified" form of energy or something close to it (its resemblance to bismuth "crystals" seems to hammer in this implication).

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"Energy" is the essence we see Null consume in Din's tale. It appears on its own even before land and sky are built around it. Because of this and the association to might and vitality, this essence must be that of life itself. (Perhaps Zelda's role as a Priestess is what allows her to use this energy in its raw form and gain that supernatural state, unlike Link?)

How may the Triforce relate to this idea of energy?

We know that Din, Nayru, and Farore go on to create the land of Hyrule (or what would become MANY Hyrules over time) to seal Null and prevent its destruction of all life. In A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword, we are told the Triforce is left behind in the wake of this world's creation (creation over the void, in the context of EoW).

The Triforce has the ability to judge those who use it (even going as far as to prevent deities from using it) and its essence speaks to Link in ALttP. Although it may not be "alive" in the same way most mortal characters are in the series, it has a will. This will knows not of good and evil, only of the traits each piece is meant to embody.

We also know that the Triforce has dominion over said world and beyond, being able to shape realms by its wish-granting and power-giving abilities. Hence, the idea of "prime." And, in Lorule of A Link Between Worlds, we can see just how much the rest of the world depends on the Triforce's existence for its energy to be sustained.

EDIT: Don't forget the Force Gems in FSA! They further emphasize the ideas above in the same way!

It's also worth noting that the Tris are tied to the idea of threes, and they are the idea of "existence" to Null's "nothingness." They reinforce the idea of the Triforce's embodiment of "being."

The "Prime Energy" is the Triforce's true name and original state - its intended title. "Then," You may ask, "Why have we called it the Triforce up until this point?"

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Why the Triforce?

It is after the three leave that Hylia is brought into existence with the sole purpose of protecting the Prime Energy. But there's an important detail many overlook:

Hylia doesn't know the purpose of the Triforce.

Not fully, anyway.

Yes, Hylia knows how it works - her whole plan to defeat Demise revolves around it - but she still has questions. Even with all of her memories restored, the first Zelda states that she doesn't know why the Triforce was left behind. She guesses that it was to give the people of the world Hope (perhaps even against world-destroying entities like Null, should he break free...). Even then, it's only a guess.

Doesn't it stand to reason, then, that she wasn't even given its name? After all, she was only created to understand and protect the golden power; perhaps even as an "extension" of its being, given her often implied powers over light and time magic (but that's just a personal headcanon). Perhaps "Triforce" is simply what she took to calling it, as she still could recognize that it was something beyond the nature of the mortal world. (Also, I see it reasonable that she could see Tris - she probably saw them patching rifts and drew a connection between them, which influenced the name).

And, in the thousands of years to follow, wars become waged over the Prime Energy as it is understood only as a relic: a relic meant to give ultimate power to the one who touches it.

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Conclusion

The Prime Energy is the true name of the Triforce, and it is the core to the many realms of Hyrule. Its nature has been misunderstood by many throughout its existence, but none of these ideas are truly false; it holds dominion over time and space while simultaneously keeping it together. It is an essence of the very concept of "life," and as such holds a sort of "will" of its own. It is the ultimate state of the Energy we see everywhere else in Echoes of Wisdom, and Hylia may not be far off - despite being a neutral force that begins and ends wars, it may just be personification of the idea that life will prevail. Although the worlds in this franchise may be scorched and healed, they are never meant to fade into nothingness like Lorule once verged. They are simply meant to be.

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to those who may have scrolled to the bottom because this is unnecessarily long, it's basically just what its name was supposed to be when the three created it but then they just sort of forgot to tell hylia that or anything else lol. also it may just be a personification of existence like the fittingly-named tris.

I love love love solving little Zelda lore puzzles, I may do this again. :) I just HAD to lore dump when a friend asked me about it

[kirby-roth]

are we gonna talk about how echoes of wisom pulled a reverse hijacked by ganon

[moth-glum]

i love puppet zelda

[bl00dblight]

Oh, you know, just painting the primordial and omniscient embodiment of nothingness' nails.

[ixtaek]

Null hilariously is the most sympathetic Zelda big bad to me. Like could you imagine if you keep sweeping your house, because dust keeps getting in and you’re not sure how, then one day out of nowhere they build a cement plant directly on top of you to stop you from cleaning up?