#dark skeletons

[alithographica]

ok you said we could ask about weird biology and this is close i think. ok so minor totk spoilers? these r in the depths and its not story related but still beware: yknow the dark skeletons? the huge fully formed ones? what creatures R Those?

I have not yet encountered the dark skeletons and the pics on Google are not helpful so I might have to update this when I actually find them, but...

The BotW great skeletons/leviathans spawned some speculation that they were references to creatures in other Legend of Zelda games—but I can't speak to that because BotW was my first LoZ game. What I can say is that they were very reminiscent of whale skeletons, just with a fantasy flair. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the dark skeletons are similarly cetaceaned.

All 3 of the BotW leviathans were slightly different variations on this theme:

Second pic © Manyee Desandies

Those are both baleen whales—no teeth, they filter their food with a sort of hair-like structure (a baleen.) There are also toothed whales, like orcas, that have pointy predatory teeth. Now, the leviathans back in BotW...

Beyond the obvious size, note the curved upper jaw, the sweeping arc of the two sides of the lower jaw, the low and protruding orbit (eye socket), the ribs that terminate partway down the spine...That's a whale model, even once you throw on some hind limbs or wings or an armored head like BotW did.

So whatever's down in the depths: Probably also whale-adjacent fantasy fun!

[tigertaurus22]

Concerning the Dark Skeletons in the Depths

I’ve been playing a lot of Tears of the Kingdom, ever since it came out last summer (2023).

Since I completed the side quests concerning the three Great Skeletons, something’s been bugging me.

In the Depths, corresponding to the three Great Skeletons on the surface, there are three more giant skeletons.

Except, instead of being different species of whale, they all appeared to be dragons. The same kind as Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra.

This has left me with several questions as to their existence

I have a few theoretical explanations

1. They are the predecessors to Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra

2. They existed at the same time as the other three and just… disappeared into the Depths one day and never came back.

3. There was a dragon fight and those three lost

4. If 1 is true, then they were likely Sages and either a) the same elements as the current dragons or b) one of the Sage elements we don’t see in Totk. Namely Shadow, Wood/Forest, and Earth.

5. If 4b is true, then I believe the Dark Skeleton in Hebra could’ve been the Earth Sage, referencing Vah Medoh and/or Medli. By that logic, the one in Eldin could’ve been the Forest Sage since it’s closest to the Great Hyrule Forest. That leaves the one in Gerudo Desert as the Sage of Shadow, which kinda makes sense considering the presence of the Gibdos and the Arbiter’s Grounds.

6. Before it became forbidden, I think the act of Draconification was seen as a sort of holy sacrifice undertaken by special individuals. The first dragon, the one the Zonai initially worshipped, might’ve been the Water Dragon. The ban started with Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra for some unknown reason.

[n-or-x]

[ex0skeletal-undead]

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Jarek Pawlak

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