#iann learn to shut up challenge also FAILED

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Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom theory about the secret stones and the elemental dragons in Breath of the Wild that I'm entirely unsure if anyone else has already said

Spoilers ahead for Tears of the Kingdom. I'm not yet sure what exactly for, but I've played through everything but the final boss fight.

Not putting this under a read more because I know I find it annoying as all hell to have to click away to a different page, just keep scrolling to avoid spoilers. Sorry.

so anyway we know there are only meant to seven secret stones (zelda's is a copy of rauru's from the distant past so there's a point in time where there are eight (during zelda's stint as the sage of time in the distant past) and a point where there are only six (during the game play of totk)

seven is a weird number to have, if only because the only significance I can attach to it is the fact that in botw there were seven settlements across hyrule prior to the side quest for tarrey town (kakariko village, hateno village, lurelin village, rito village, goron city, zora's domain, gerudo town), and I haven't come across anything that describes the number as sacred to either the zonai or the hylians (if anything, it would make sense for the hylian's sacred number to be three [triforce, the three goddesses, and it botw and totk the three elemental dragons]).

plus, draconification is a known thing, which is odd because it's at least a partially documented phenomenon hasn't faded into mythos, which means either a) a single entity was dracinfied with recent memory, or b) (and what I think to be more likely) multiple people have been draconified.

PLUS even PRIOR to totk (and zelda's subsequent time travel + rearrangement of hyrule [the depths, the sky islands, both things I believe have been sealed over and brought down to earth respectively in the timeline BEFORE zelda messed with it and were purposefully left accessible because she mentioned it would be useful for Link to have access to these things in the future in the timeline she altered), we had three (again, maybe a sacred number) elemental dragons VERY clearly named after or in inspiration of the goddesses of the triforce (farore to farosh, nayru to naydra, din to dinraal).

THEREFORE it isn't a massive leap to assume there were originally ten secret stones and three were consumed, turning three PEOPLE into three DRAGONS.

my theory is that the three elemental dragons used to be three high priestesses or priests to the three goddesses of the triforce.

presumably, each had a secret stone either as an acknowledgement of their rank to amplify their potential abilities (lightning, frost, fire) for rituals. i think it would make the most sense for them to have the abilities to being with, but not necessarily for said abilities to be associated with each goddess or dragon until later.

maybe they swallowed the stones as a ritual, and didn't know what would happen, or maybe they DID and the goal was some kind of martyrdom.

the high priest/ess thing also explains the names; they could be titles or maybe they had the names changed once they rose to rank.

either way, these three hypothetical priest/esses to the the three goddesses of the triforce eat the secret stones and become the three dragons we see in botw and totk.

which would MEAN that originally, there were TEN secret stones. the only issue with this theory is that the chamber behind the great goddess statue in the forgotten temple only has slots for seven stones, but it's possible the draconification of the priestesses happened before that.

and of course i have OTHER theories that i'm ALSO going to put here because i'm NORMAL like that.

I've typically associated farore (and farosh) as courage with the hylian race because of link's reincarnation, din (and dinraal) as power with the gerudo because of ganon, and nayru (and naydra) with the sheikah, because more often that not we get an impa in the game, even though she isn't technically tied to the cycle. which leaves hylia with zelda, which i think makes sense in its own right, because i'm under the belief that hylia was an entirely hylian-made goddess, just like the hyrulean royal family was an entirely hylian-made heirarchy that the other races of hyrule accepted after a while. and obviously, farora and farosh have faron, nayru and naydra have lanayru, but where is din and dinraal's named area? dinraal travels over akkala, not anywhere named after either the dragon or the goddess.

i have more theories. they're gonna go here, too

in keeping with my association of the goddesses with hyrulean races, i think they imbue each incarnation with their respective power (why impa is always in a position of advisor to the princess, why the princess has kept her sealing powers this long after hylia became mortal, why link is so powerful and so hard to kill, and why ganondorg just Keeps Coming Back), and that every time ganondorf goes from incarnation of power and din to the ganondorf we have to fight in the games, it's actually demise, latching onto the reincarnation cycle and slowly corrupting him. and of COURSE demise would go for the goddess of power, especially when the gerudo are so helpfully isolated from the rest of hyrule. so, sometime shortly after he was defeated, demise latched onto din and onto ganondorf through the reincarnation cycle, which is why i think din and dinraal don't have a place in hyrule named after them.

the gerudo desert is the gerudo desert, but why not akkala? i tihnk it's just because dinraal never stays in the same place long enough for people to really start to associate her with a location. obviously, the springs of courage and wisdom are located in the regions named after their respective goddesses, but i think the spring of power is in akkala simply because it's easier for hylians to access, and they'd need permission from a different goverment to build a temple on gerudo land.

and it's in akkala because it's one of the two locations LOOSELY associated with dinraal. i think dinraal would fly over the gerudo desert more between ganondorf's reincarnations, but when he's around and demise is there too, corrupting din's power (the goddess the priestess dinraal used to be used to serve and still draws some power from), she goes elsewhere to avoid being corrupted too, like we see in naydra in botw.

i don't know how to end this but know that i have more PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask me about this stuff i love to ramble. i'm more into dc and tmnt overall but botw/totk is where all my theorising and thinking capacity goes 90% of the time