What happened to the Shrines & Sheikah Technology? (BOTW/TOTK Theory)

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#breathofthewild #tearsofthekingdom #zeldatheory

[@ZeoViolet]

Did you ever consider that they now exist as stored data? The Ancient Sheikah had a lot of magitek, which means that however magical, you could download it and transport it at will. In _Age of Calamity_ especially, Purah got really good at transporting and teleporting huge amounts of Sheikah tech at will. After the Calamity, Purah from TotK went, revved up her Purah Pad, and downloaded huge swaths of Sheikah tech in a few fell swoops. They're stored data now until she can repurpose them as she sees fit....and she has, with the Sheikah Towers (now Skyview towers) their pedestals, and some guardian legs in said towers. Link is basically downloaded and bumped off to each location he can warp to, before he reappears where he wants to be, after all. Some of the empty space beneath them became shafts to the Underground after the Upheaval happened, because the ground was unstable.

[@CaptBurgerson]

I hadn’t thought of that of, but it is certainly a more interesting answer than anything the game gives us haha

[@ZeoViolet]

@@CaptBurgerson Well I was cudgeling my brain for days before watching _Age of Calamity_ and noticing how much Purah revves up the Sheikah tech and maximizes its potential for the final battle. She could transport amazing swathes of people and tech anywhere. There was no reason to figure that main-timeline Purah hadn't done the same thing after Ganon was defeated. That tech is really prone to being infected by malice (like a virus), so with the few exceptions we see in TotK, she keeps the rest of the tech, what remains of the Shrines, the Divine Beasts, all of it, dowloaded as data and kept in a very safe offline place, to be repurposed as she sees fit. And it would answer the big question of where it all went so quickly, when all Purah has to do is press a button on a screen and zing, it's turned into data and energy.

[@nuotatorre8741]

​@@ZeoVioletWow that is a very good idea it would allso explain how the divine beast disappered without a trace, once Pura saw the Gloom spreading she could have easly just uploaded them to prevent any problems. Even then that dosen't explain why nobody ever mentions the divine beast exept indirectly with things like Medho's roost, I understand that is just videogame logic at this point but it would have been nice to at least put the words "Ah we got rid of the meks like this..." in some NPC's mouth

[@knifeguy3357]

I felt like Zelda going back in time and helping save Hyrule in the past changed the timeline. So the Zonai weren’t completely forgotten and all their technology lost, preventing the sheikah technology that would’ve replaced it from being invented.

[@ZeoViolet]

@@knifeguy3357 Check out the top of Purah's old lab to see why that is unlikely. Good idea though.

[@Calikid331]

One thing I wish happened was having a few guardians in the depths. Imagine exploring the pitch black darkness then seeing a guardians eye light up and that music start playing again. It would have made the depts so much scarier to explore.

[@themushroominside6540]

Some insanely creative souls have combined the guardian with gloom spawn and i wished that was a thing but a part of me is very much afraid of what it could have been

[@majora5651]

guardians infused with gloom hands would be the devils spawn but man would they be cool to fight

[@lunamoth105]

imagine if they were fused with gloom hands, i should be litteraly jumpscared

[@CloverCutieASMR]

DEAR GOD NO

[@Mick4yD0nald]

Nah the depths already scary

[@volcanicz6739]

I think it's actually genius that Ganondorf put chasms on the Great Plateau shrines. Because of this, Link could no longer download the runes into the purah pad (assuming they were compatible with each other). Had it not been for Rauru's hand, link could pretty much only rely on his weapons and bullet time

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

Challenge accepted.

[@ssjcookie5498]

I actually would like that in a dlc a bunch of challanges (something like the coleseum with like 50 or more waves of enemies and every 10th round a boss like lynel/gleeok or gloomhands/fantom ganon) where u can't use abilities and you only have weapons and bullet time don't get me wrong love the abilities in this game but they kinda make the battles to easy especially the zonai tanks and stuff

[@kevinmadcock8999]

@@ssjcookie5498 Then just dont use them?

[@eefmp]

and also, if not for rauru’s arm, link would just die because of the gloom from ganondorf. rauru literally said he needed to amputate it for the gloom to not get worse, so if not for rauru then link would be on a time limit, or the game would end with link dying

[@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099]

Guess we need a third game now

[@andrewcollins6701]

I was more bothered by the way most of the NPCs don't recognize link, as if he didn't do any of the side quests. It was wild to me that only hudson and rhondson recognized him in tarrey town.

[@lillith7257]

Well imagine that he didn't and just focused on rebuilding and main story. As technically that is only what is canon. The side quests are extras that don't add to the overall narrative. it makes perfect sense from a lore perspective, just feels wrong from a player perspective but you cannot satisfy both in this instance, as they are conflicting.

[@andrewcollins6701]

@@lillith7257 plenty of other game sequels have different dialogue and npc interactions based off the players decisions in the prequel. I know they can do it because your horses carry over, and you keep the picture of the champions in link's house if you did the dlc. Anyway, link recruited the tarrey town help personally, so they should recognize him, but they don't. Aside from that, with the size of rito village it's really hard for me to believe that only teba's family would recognize the hylian who helped teba with medoh. There's more but I've made my point. Also there's almost no references to the calamity or the ancient shieka, despite how important those elements were. There was so much story progression potential, but they just left everything vaguely related instead. On that note, the story was much less compelling, partly because it feels like nothing you did in botw mattered

[@deusvitae69]

I literally think that Zelda changed the timeline they were originally in. So things MOSTLY happened the way they did but the faces/motives are forgettable

[@CaptBurgerson]

I literally just made a video about how that didn’t happen lol

[@IJustLoveStories]

It was weird to me that Hestu talked to me like a stranger, like I didn't literally give him hundreds of shits

[@jordanfish]

I think it would have been cool to find one old Sheikah shrine corrupted with Gloom, and there would be a hidden chasm where the elevator shaft had been.

[@jijonbreaker]

I mean, if you note the great plateau, all 4 of its chasms are exactly where the old shrines used to be. I figured that kind of answered it on its own.

[@lunamoth105]

this should be really cool and this should answer why divine beast's dissapeard, becouse gloom is much stronger version of malise and it is able to scorupt things much faster and much more effective

[@mrbiscuits001]

A corrupted shrine would've been awesome. I am glad we moved on from the sheikah tech, but I was hoping we'd see some sheikah automaton get corrupted by gloom and it could've been a boss called "The last Gaurdian" or something.

[@fl0_hrl]

The ancient collumns shrine in the memory would have been incredibly fit for that, but Misko had to put a secret instead.

[@jockson7574]

@@fl0_hrlwhat are you talking about? Are you talking about the 5 columns that came out of the castle when the calamity came

[@nacnud2115]

I really like this theory, But man I wish they just kept SOME things. like the shrine of resurrection, it feels kinda dismissive that it is just a cave now (albeit a cave with a pretty neat reference to the master cycle in the form of a zonai build) Or imagine how cool it would be to find a singular lone guardian in some obscure corner of the map up and kicking to fight. and the ancient furnaces that had been apparently burning for thousands of year just being gone now is weird.

[@majora5651]

A hidden guardian as an easter egg would‘ve been so cool. I mean, I probably would‘ve shit my pants but it‘d be a neat detail. Maybe it would make sense for it to be hidden in a remote area of the depths?

[@CaptBurgerson]

There is one guardian husk atop Hateno tech lab, so there you go

[@lunamoth105]

@@majora5651 this should be cool if there some working guardians in depths that are fused with gloom hands

[@ZER0VII]

​@@majora5651yeah i think i agree with some other guys comment, at them being first destroyed by gloom of the upheaval then purah and robbie downloading whatever was left off the map for reuse.

[@CloverCutieASMR]

Master cycle refrence? Did I miss this?

[@Komelikus]

The Shrine of Resurrection is the only thing that strike me the most. I was so hoping to see its ruins, literally anything and i got so sad.

[@mikesdynasty1]

if it's any consolation, they replaced the bathtub thing in it with a hot springs pool as a nod to the original shrine of resurrection. which i personally think is a cute way to reference the previous game.

[@countcr33per]

I personally don't mind the Guardians, Shrines, and Towers having disappeared without a trace. Its the Shrine of Resurrection and the Divine Beasts I'm miffed about. I can understand from a development standpoint why the team would want to remove as much content from the previous game as possible, even if its a direct sequel, Nintendo, specifically within the LoZ series, prioritizes being able to provide fans with an enjoyable experience without requiring them to play the games in a specific sequence. Thats why in Majora's Mask we know Link is looking for 'a friend' but we are never specifically told it is Navi. In TotK, removing as much of the Sheikah Tech as possible accomplishes that, new players that never played BotW can enjoy the game without constantly wondering what all the old guardian, shrine, or tower ruins were or how they go there. However, i think it is sort of a slap in the face to the fans that do enjoy continuity, especially when one game is a direct sequel taking place in the exact same setting, to not have more references to the previous game. And i think it is a horrible missed opportunity not to have the Divine Beasts found crashed into the bottom of the Depths. We wouldn't necessarily have to be allowed to explore them either, just have Vah Ruta's trunk poking out from some rubble, or Vah Rudania's tail. Hell, they could have made the ruins of the Divine Beasts where we could find the Divine Beast Helms instead of where we actually find them in game.

[@kd4n347]

The shrine of resurrection didn't disappear it fell into unrepair and the yiga clan took over to use it as a base, you can go there in totk

[@CaptBurgerson]

It’s kind of both? It still is there but it’s clearly been stripped of all the technology that used to be there

[@al3220]

@@kd4n347 It's not there, it's just a cave now.

[@robbates4704]

@@al3220 it’s a cave with healing waters over a massive healing lake in the depths. If anything TOTK expands on the shrine of resurrection lore for where its power came from. Only the terminal and bath are missing. Those seem easy enough to remove.

[@AstralXen]

@@robbates4704so they stripped the walls in the cave too? And the ceiling proportions don't match as well. I just find it kind of creepy how it's almost like the shrine of resurrection never existed, and instead was always just a cave.

[@absflgd]

The shrines had elevators down. So the inside of shrines was underground. Would be cool if you could access one of dark disabled shrines from the depths. Just as an easter egg.

[@debbiebernhardt5406]

The shrines were in the depths only because they were meant to train link, minerau had probably had his original constructs that made them… there are tons of damaged non military constructs throughout the hyrule land. They were beyond repair, because they could of been the manager of those underground shrines. The spirits were probably master controllers for setting them up. Zelda was sent to the past able to teach them how spirits remained most likely. The durability of shrines were zonal in origin, but were reduced to their ore state because of Gannon being released from his seal. Intelligent pose could be the reason that those shrines survived the calamity and were reduced to unintelligent when Gannon main body woke up again.

[@officersoulknight6321]

The only real thing I have gripes with in TOTK is this. You’re telling me these two ancient societies with high-power technology that were hyrulean Allies that fell in the Great War aren’t connected.

[@officersoulknight6321]

@therealgirl3295 I could see the Zonai not just being Hyrule's elders, but being basically the ancient Greece of the Zelda universe, with modern Hyrule being Italy. The direct descendant is just as affected as everyone else, even though others use their developments and tech more (the shiekah)

[@BackflipBrickfilms]

I believe the sheikah just copied the Zonai, and in the area where they surpassed the originals, Rauru had that tech buried.

[@gwathanaur]

They fell in two completelu different wars tho. The Zonaï fell before Hyrule was even created as Rauru and his sister are, accordong to Ganondorf, the only two remaining Zonaï and created Hyrule. The Sheikah and the great war against the calamity is millenia later

[@BackflipBrickfilms]

@@gwathanaur In BotW, they say that specifically the FIRST king of Hyrule ordered the sheikah to bury the guardians. The guardians/beasts might still have been used against ganondorf/calamity 1 and only buried after. The tapestry from the last game was woven by biased Sheikah who didn't know about the king's sacrifice/ ganondorf being a person/the time traveler etc. Also, even if the zonai had already fallen, the sheikah could have learned about zonai tech from Rauru.

[@adamH.1]

​@@BackflipBrickfilmscan you please tell me where in botw did they mention that it was the first king of Hyrule who buried the guardians?

[@lins_z2]

I had thought of the technology being destroyed for it to never be corrupted again, but I never thought how the gloom could have been one of the reasons there’s nothing left but the guardian on top of the laboratory

[@thelegendmario1064]

I share the first theory that the technology was discarded to prevent a new calamity from corrupting the technology. I believe Puran and Robbie.etc disagreed and kept their tech for their projects.

[@SnazzyParesh]

@@thelegendmario1064 same. Imo the tech was dismantled and the ancient materials are with Robbie and Purah. The sky view towers and the Purah pad obviously use that old tech.

[@lunamoth105]

maybe becouse link won with ganondorf in totk we will see divine beast's and other thing in next game

[@mktj1]

All they would’ve had to have done to avoid people feeling weird and disconnected is have some character mention the deconstruction of the sheikah tech, and have one or two places with old tech still being pulled apart. The outside of fort hateno would’ve been a perfect place for this. Imagine coming across an even bigger pile of old guardians and a couple of ruins of shrines and towers.

[@TheGreatVoicemancer]

I honestly wished in more abandoned areas there were still gaurdians, maybe even some possessed by the gloom hands

[@purpledanielle]

Yooo that would have been so cool and so terrifying, a GUARDIAN sprouting mf GLOOM HANDS?! Goddamn that would’ve been sick

[@finnheisenheim8274]

Maybe Ganondorf's original power is too strong that it corrodes Sheikah tech instead of proper possession.

[@TheRealDorge]

@@finnheisenheim8274 that could be the case. Perhaps because malice was only a leakage of Ganondorfs power and therefore not as concentrated which lead to him being able to take over the sheikah tech, but gloom is a very concentrated form of ganondorfs magic and decays it too fast, just like most weapons in Hyrule

[@panosmosproductions3230]

It also seems clear that the Guardian legs themselves were also repurposed for the Skyview towers.

[@dekoldrick]

One thing I can add is that since Gloom Hands can spawn without warning in certain areas, even areas without gloom, the places where a shrine once stood but has no signs of gloom were probably dismantled by Gloom Hands.

[@debbiebernhardt5406]

Constructs of non military were destroyed in game… gloom did reduced the whole network of trials to the underground.

[@yanyanyannn_]

well maybe those shrines were used for the sky view towers bc if ganon destroyed all of them where would they get the parts?

[@ccelure]

I like this theory and it makes me feel better about the continuity between BOTW and TOTK. But I wish there could have been at least some dialogue in the actual game that explained this, rather than leaving it up to the fanbase's interpretation. From a worldbuilding standpoint, there should be at least SOME people talking about how they destroyed all of the old Sheikah technology from 7 years ago.

[@andythebestok]

This

[@chillagerr]

Honestly I love this theory because it makes Sheikah Technology even more scarier. The Sheikah created hundreds and thousands of robot soldiers and technology to revive even the mortally wounded. Both Ganon and Hyrule, having been destroyed by it and helped by it, agreed it was way too powerful and destroyed it all. Sheikah Tech is terrifying.

[@sambeckettcat]

I do think the most conspicuously missing item is the Sheika Slate, as the Purah Pad only has a couple of its features. It would’ve been nice if there was a diary or journal making a mention of Purah & Robbie working on recreating the Sheika Slate’s full abilities, with the original being out of commission due to them dismantling it to make the Purah Pad

[@user-um1np8fx3j]

theory: maybe they would be unable to recreate the Sheikah slates runes (magnesis, stasis, etc) since they were only obtained from shrines on the great plateau - and they didn't have all the knowledge of the past Sheikah's methods.

[@debbiebernhardt5406]

@@user-um1np8fx3jthe methods were magnet and stasis were connected as weaker versions of ultrahand being only for metallic, and stasis for holding entities. Bombs were used with bomb flower production site.

[@mattfry6716]

I bet Purah and Robbie probably dismantled the ancient horse gear.

[@CaptBurgerson]

I miss the horse gear so much 😭

[@mattfry6716]

@@CaptBurgerson same, it was so easier to get your horse back.

[@darrenm.7980]

Was really hoping for an alternative, but I guess based on this comment there isn't one. Maybe in some DLC?

[@CaptBurgerson]

@@darrenm.7980 at the very least, not one I’ve found yet 🫠

[@lavendermintyy]

@@CaptBurgerson zonaite horse gear please nintendo

[@MaxWelton]

9:30 this actually explains why the Purah Pad has no offensive features like the Runes. It’s not just that Link’s arm replaced them.

[@brandonhelcher3691]

I like the Ganondorf theory. Though are you sure Ganondorf is aware of Calamity Ganon and its actions? He's aware of Zelda because of their meeting in the past, but he only seems aware of Link through Raurau's threat. He never recognizes Link as the one who who stopped the calamity.

[@squimpy22]

I’m pretty sure The Calamity is a result of ganondorfs power slowly escaping the seal and building up over thousands of years. Assuming ganondorf has control over his own power, he should probably be aware of what he’s doing with it. That’s all assuming The Calamity is his fault though

[@countcr33per]

@@squimpy22 I like to thing of the Calamity as an individual yet connected entity. Just look at Malice, its called Malice, which is just another word for hatred. I interpret Calamity Ganon as its own entity birthed from the leaking hatred of Ganondorf, sort of a more powered up and self conscious version of the Gloom Spawn/Phantom Ganon's. It was born from Ganondorf, with the full intent of returning to power, but would constantly get pushed back and learn from its own personal experiences, but wouldn't necessarily communicate with Ganondorf. Think of Ganondorf(TotK) as Demise and Calamity Ganon as Ganondorf(OoT), the latter spawned from the other, but not in communication with the former

[@squimpy22]

@@countcr33per yeah that seems like the more likely answer, I was kinda just making mine up as I went lmao

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

The Calamity was a much less organized manifestation of Ganondorf's power. Its single goal was destruction and chaos, which probably hints at it being a subconscious embodiment of what was locked away under the castle.

[@countcr33per]

@mariorodriguez4472 I'd generally agree, except Calamity Ganon's only goal wasn't just destruction and chaos, it was creating itself a body to resurrect itself, and upon giving up on resurrection we get the big pig of Malice

[@allhailme8457]

I kinda wish there were a handful of shrines still being mined for resources and you can go in and see people working or maybe you help some NPCs from stopping gloom taking over one of those mines. Then you can visually see that it was all torn down by the people and what had not been was taken by the gloom.

[@cbggaming1463]

Damn, the shrines being devoured by Gloom actually makes a lot of sense. I never considered that Gloom appeared in the same spots as shrines.

[@finnheisenheim8274]

Ganondorf taking a page from his Calamity incarnation by crippling Hyrule's ability to fight back. Too bad he still underestimated Link being a creative wild child.

[@jroth87]

For me, the continuity issue is less about lack of sheikh relics, but more with the way the game never really aknowldges what happened previously. I know we get NPC's acknowledging link but no one ever seems to acknowledge how Link defeated Ganon. For example, (spoiler) when you go to the school in Hateno Village, They give the history of Ganon and say a hero slumbered for 100 years and then defeated Ganon with the aid of a princess.. but they don't actually say it was Link specifically and Zelda. Then I have this issue with Ganon vs Ganondorf. I think most of us saw the trailer and drew the conclusion that Ganon was somehow the result of a mummified ganondorf below Hyrule. Like somehow the demon king was sealed by the hand on him, but that his power was able to manifest itself every 1000 years when put in check by a hero and princess. But I think the developers want these to be considered two separate entities... Which seems strange but I guess makes sense when you consider Ganon had free rein over hyrule for 100 years while link was being restored and Zelda kept him at bay. If Ganondorf was the same as Ganon, I would assume he would have found someway to just get digging and unseal the mummy under hyrule. It also checks out when you consider Ganon returns every 1000 years or so and the gloom from Ganondorf comes out of nowhere just a few years after the events of BOTW. It's still a great game, I have really enjoyed it, but just feel like Nintendo created a sequel that feels like it is actively trying to not acknowledge the previous entries events by only giving subtle nods to BOTW.

[@jakobr_]

The upheaval saw the destruction/decay of practically all of the weapons in Hyrule. Maybe it’s possible that, in the case of the divine beasts and guardians everywhere, he saw these as huge and powerful “weapons” and immediately saw to their obliteration for that reason.

[@finnheisenheim8274]

Since gloom is a more concentrated form of Ganondorf's power, he might have attempted to take them over again like Calamity Ganon did but the tech couldn't handle gloom's power and just corroded away.

[@godessnerd]

I think a lot of people genuinely forget calamity ganon was at least smart enough to be able to learn to use the guardians. Like do you imagine how terrifying an idea it would be for Zelda,link,purah,impa,Robbie when they sat down after 100 years of pain and heartbreak and realizing “it’s not worth having any of this around anymore.” They lost friends and family and honestly ya half of civilization being lost all over again isnt worth it

[@themushroominside6540]

They were the ones who dug it all up in the first place, and it literally lead to the kingdom to the brink of collapse, It would be impossible to not feel deeply remorseful about essentially dooming your entire world unknowingly by engaging in your life's passion.

[@W00dyWoodp3cker]

The hole north of kakariko village is right where the great fairy used to be. Does that mean that Ganon tried to attack the fairy in some way?

[@thelivingcat0210]

I wouldn’t put it past him

[@GoddessCeleste]

Minor spoiler! The fairies do seem to be scared at the start of the game. A fake (yiga soldier) Zelda warned them about the world being doomed and freightened them to the point where they wouldn't come out of their flower buds. Thinking the Yiga got some form of contact with Ganon... Yes, Ganon is trying to stop the fairies from being able to upgrade Link's armor as well. So putting a chasm where their bud once was, could be a failed attempt to stop the fairies himself.

[@CaptBurgerson]

Mmmm slightly more spoilery, it was a fake, but not a Yiga

[@GoddessCeleste]

Spoiler warning: Well it being the same fake Zelda yiga soldier as from the side quest dueling peaks stable: princess Zelda kidnapped, made the most sence to me. Why would anyone else other than the yiga dress up as Zelda to scare the fairies? All other npcs seem to be quite fond of them and saddened that they won't come out of their buds. Also Link not being able to upgrade his clothes would give Ganon a big adventage cuz he'd take more damage and sertain special effects he'd miss out on

[@CaptBurgerson]

I don’t know how far everyone has gotten through the game but so I don’t want to spoil it, but while there was a Yiga disguised as Zelda, the game outright shows us the other fake Zelda as well and that is the one responsible for all of the other shenanigans

[@elsiebartlett6808]

As a totally unrelated side note, since you mentioned that the champions’ spirits were eased, I for some reason thought of Majora’s mask how spirits that are healed imbue certain masks with their own properties, and how, post BotW, the divine beast helms deepen the connection with their respective sage. Just a mini-thought 😁 Great video, I always thought the same that Robbie, Purah and Josha dismantled everything. A lot of time passed. As to how much, we have Mattison’s existence, the fact that all of the students of the Hateno school at first don’t even believe in the calamity so obviously weren’t alive for BotW either, and I heard a commenter on another video talk about an interview with Zelda’s voice actor where she specifies that Zelda is 25, making the gap 8 years, so plenty of time to dismantle it all I think. I would’ve liked seeing more remnants lying around, especially of the divine beasts (there is that guardian still on top of the tech lab). I half expected to find Vah Ruta in the Zora waterworks when I first went down there. Great catch with the shrines/towers/chasm location relationship. Never noticed that! 😮

[@moldomre4838]

Most of the kids in Hateno Village were in the previous game tho. Very inconsistent aging as well; kid with the glasses still looks the same and doesn't go to school, but the others are all older and DO go to school? Weird.

[@bonnies122]

Oh I like the theory of Ganon destroying what’s left of the shrines. I do still wonder about the interiors of most of the shrines, seems like so much to dismantle!

[@darrenm.7980]

Oh yeah they would essentially have to go underground to dismantle everything, and not to mention some of those shrines were huge lol

[@kyleoliver637]

The dismantling is what really bothers me. Like not only were many shrines placed in ridiculous areas and went DEEP into Hyrule, they had a lot of dangerous physics, technology, and materials. Like those shrines where they have constant loops such as the ones where if a sheikah orb drops into the abyss, it magically comes back or a new one is generated quickly or whatever the case may be. You mean to tell me that all that is gone in such a short time frame?

[@darrenm.7980]

@@kyleoliver637 hence why the Ganondorf theory makes the most sense

[@theendofthestart8179]

@@kyleoliver637 new to story telling or something? suspend thy disbelief in favor of gameplay my friend, in the lore Link went through every single shrine on his first try, never lost a single fight, and deflected a lazer beam, with a pot lid, AS A CHILD.

[@ASquared544]

I think it would’ve been cool if the Yiga broke down and stole all the Shiekah tech, and the Shiekah broke down other Shiekah tech to create the towers we see today among other things. Regardless, Nintendo might be saving the Shiekah stuff for DLC.

[@godismyjudge4964]

I think the devs were leaning into the “legend” aspect of the series where we the player are not experiencing events that took place a few years apart but hearing ancient stories or legends of those periods where details can differ significantly despite a short time gap. My evidence is Hebra peak. In Botw Hebra peak, before the events of the game unfold, had a large circular chunk blasted out by Vah Ruta evidenced by the perfect circular shape, the glass/gem like texture inside the cut as though something hot burned through and crystallized the surrounding rock, and the angle the lines up with the relative position of the Devine beast. In Totk we actually visit this same spot during the main quest line and notice a few changes. The angle of the cut is the same, but now there are ancient zonai island pieces fused into the walls, and the crystalline texture is gone, replaced by a natural looking rock face. It’s as if this detail was forgotten or left out. Considering how methodical the devs are with very small details this feels like it was intentional.

[@michmill7007]

true

[@catalyst539]

Medoh blasted the chunk out, not Ruta.

[@MaxWelton]

5:40 it would also explain how the bird man enthusiast and that one Zora survived being stranded atop Sheikah Towers

[@nightfrostbreeze]

I like this theory. But I do wish they were more explicit with saying what happened to the tech in game. For how important this technology was and the people in this game having a ton of dialog, it's weird that no one mentions what happened. Tho it's also cool having to make theories based on background details. Another thing to note with the shrines is that they could be similar to the Divine Beasts in that they are powered by a spirit, in their case the monks that disappear when Link completes the shrine. So they would be without power as well, having fulfilled their purpose.

[@Drakenwild]

See, I thought about the first half of this theory before, that Zelda, Purah and Robbie probably wanted to get rid of all that potentially dangerous tech but then I immediately went "well, but the sheer volume of that stuff is just too large for them to be able to dismantle and dispose of it all in the time alloted by the timeskip". Somehow Ganondorf destroying Shrines and Beasts himself did not cross my mind even though I very much did notice that quite a few of them were directly replaced by chasms x'D Great theory, I think you're right on the money here!

[@lunamoth105]

beasts couldn't be destroyed by ganondorf, that's becouse this dive beast in rito village was on top of a mountain, and there should have to be at least some gloom left but there isn't so propably purah did something with them

[@metricsplash]

I think it is completely reasonable for them to dismantle all the ancient tech and build all the new stuff in about 5 years. They have the Hudson construction company. These guys can completely remodel the interior of a house in about 10 seconds albeit with a lot of grunting.

[@Dave01Rhodes]

I still wish the game had any explanation at all, even if it was just in passing. Highland Stable laments that the Horse God moved away. How come none of the stables lament the loss of the Sheikah Shrines, who some were using as tourist attractions? The explanation that Ganondorf targeted the shrines and towers specifically does mix rather well into what Mineru says about creating the sky islands to keep the Zonai tech safe from Ganondorf.

[@firedroid8047]

You know what? The gloom eradicating these shrines makes a lot of sense. I always wondered how there weren’t any signs of sheikah shrine dungeons down in the depths or where these small but long tunnels came from that replaced some shrines. It makes so much sense, the gloom wiped out the shrine buildings that were likely built in the depths originally and the elevators were withered away, leaving narrow tunnels for the gloom to carve out to the surface. Maybe that doesn’t explain why there aren’t 130 chasms around hyrule replacing all the shrines, but it’s a good theory.

[@raffaelm6558]

I really like this theory. It's something I considered too when I realized how many chasms were at spots of shrines or towers but I hadn't considered a deliberate effort by Ganondorf. I really love that direction and your illustration of it was great. That and the repurposing of the rest of the technology makes perfect sense. And from a real life standpoint it just makes sense to remove assets that have absolutely no use bc as incredible as the game looks, the Switch still is a console with limitations.

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

Since there are chasms where the shrines and towers once stood they should've put some sheikah tech ruins in the depths

[@raffaelm6558]

@@sophitiaofhyrule They really should have, I would have loved that. I suspect it's really a design choice so that they don't have to create assets and textures that serve no purpose but it would have added some environmental storytelling for sure.

[@jonah.w7397]

I think one thing that definitely took me a while to understand (even outside the disappearance of the sheikah tech) was how little Nintendo told the story/stories through confirmable dialogue. Sure on one hand you can call nintendos dialogue heavy handed, but arguably an equal portion/even most of the overall storytelling is done environmentally. I went into the game with a huge theory about everything thinking that by the end of the game I’d either know that I was right or wrong. To this point I can still make arguments both supporting and disproving my theories simply because the game never actually tells you THAT much about what’s going on.

[@theendofthestart8179]

Hi, welcome to zelda lol

[@DurealzForReal]

souls games would like a word with you. Don't give credit to nintendo and zelda where they don't put effort into lore

[@jonah.w7397]

@@DurealzForReal damn I really forgot that because souls does it to such a higher extent that other games and developers can’t receive credit because they’re not doing it the souls way. My bad

[@MysticRuined]

I haven't clicked play yet, but it would be cool if the old shrines that are now chasms, you would find a destroyed shrine at the bottom (not the interior, just the exterior) would be neat, like how the shrines fell in by the chasms being made

[@user-um1np8fx3j]

the exterior is just an elevator...

[@hiimbobbyo631]

So here’s my take, after defeating calamity Ganon, they prob thought it was get to destroy and get rid of all the old tech in case Ganon ever rose again, so he’d have less to control/monsters to turn against Zelda and co. but the sheikah being clever and resourceful came up with new towers and a whole new slate for link to use in his adventures

[@SnugNap]

My hypothesis is they destroyed it all with ancient arrows

[@aetherial87]

I won't lie, even after basically 100%ing the game, it feels half like a sequel and half like a reboot to me.

[@theendofthestart8179]

it has the same exact characters, takes place in the same exact world, and is only 5-6 years later, how does it feel like 50% reboot to you?

[@splatfan]

@@theendofthestart8179 Well Rauru was originally human looking in Ocarina of Time but now is a Zonai on the new game.

[@CaptBurgerson]

Rauru is a different character with the same name, just like how we’ve had multiple Impas

[@aetherial87]

@@theendofthestart8179 I was expecting more links (heh) back to the first game story-wise. The disappearance of Sheikah tech in an unreasonably short time doesn't make sense. Link and Zelda looking the same in their twenties as at 17 doesn't either. Half the recurring characters don't recognize you while the others sing your accolades. BotW was set up in a way where it felt like it could follow any timeline, TotK threw that out entirely and can only either be a new timeline altogether or relegate previous titles to myth, neither option I'm much a fan of. All that stuff makes me feel a disconnect between the two titles I've never experienced before.

[@theendofthestart8179]

@@aetherial87 The disappearance of Sheikah tech in an unreasonably short time is entirely a real world choice made by the devs in fear of the game getting called botw2, which idk if you knew, but is that was the main critique that came out of fans when the first trailers and news started dropping. For rest of the stuff, I see and understand your point, I just cant agree with it, and im sorry you feel that way

[@rinforthewin-ks1vk]

Great video and theory. Makes tons of sense. The thing that puzzles me most about the Sheikah tech missing is the NPCs not really acknowledging that the towers and the shrines disappeared. I guess this can be attributed to *gestures wildly at the chaos the Upheaval caused*

[@PatThePerson]

Don’t read this if you haven’t passed “regional phenomena”. Mineru’s construct is a divine beast built by link and controlled by Mineru. Seized construct is a divine beast corrupted by Ganondorf. He’s still in the corrupting technology game although on a smaller scale.

[@KyleWall]

Really really well put together video! I hadn’t even considered gloom’s destructive properties, and when you got to the reveal of chasms in old shrine locations it really felt like a twist in a documentary lmao.

[@jacobwashenfelder8365]

This video covers a topic I've seen on other channels, but brings up a lot more interesting points and covers the subject thoroughly without going on forever. Great job!🎉

[@EPMTUNES]

Awesome analysis here! The lack of guardians make it feel special to me when you see purah has a mini guardian and the one on top of the tech lab.

[@shasta_creates]

I agree with this wholesale; it would make sense that both dismantling and repurposing happened, as well as a Ganondorf erasure strategy. Excellent video!

[@DruCypher]

This was really fun. Thanks for taking the time to answer questions i didn't even know i had.

[@darrenm.7980]

I have definitely assumed all of these possibilities while playing through but it seems the Ganondorf theory makes the most logical sense. One could argue against the the shrines and towers retracting underground by saying we don't see them in the depths but they could easily still be hiding in the "ceilings" of the depths. As for Purah and Robbie dismantling the shrines, they would have to go underground to fully dismantle the shrines, but then again you could also argue they just took down the exterior part but that wouldn't be fully removing them, which is what the theory says thye needed to do with the Sheikah technology. The Ganondorf theory doesn't really have any holes that I could think of and the areas you showed of the depths entrances replacing shrines definitely strengthens the theory. I just wish Nintendo at least had the NPCs have some acknowledgment over the Sheikah technology disappearing.

[@TheLitman72]

This video was massively helpful. Made sense of the shrines from BoTW. Some were dismantled and repurposed and others melted away by the gloom.

[@RinRin-ge7bq]

This makes a lot of sense! Everyone learned from their mistakes and in the end they came to the same result, which is super interesting! Thank you for clarifying this and showing us the evidence :)

[@iwasanMBTInerd]

Something to note is that all of the Ancient Shiekah Monks fulfilled their duties and disintegrated after speaking with Link. I think there were 144 of them if you include the DLCs. The only Monk still around by the time of Calamity Ganon's defeat was Maz Koshia, the guardian of the Shrine of Resurrection and the Master Cycle Zero. So perhaps after Calamity Ganon was defeated, he passed on, and the Shrine of Resurrection went with him.

[@rosaledrew3392]

NOT TO MENTION- has ANYONE noticed that the Guardian corpses themselves.....EVERY SINGLE one- is missing??? The field behind the dueling peaks stable, the castle grounds, AND the field near Tarrey Town we take on the side quest for Mr. Snobbypants to fight the two active guardians. (Understandably that area had been taken over- but EVERY single guardian in the game?) They were EVERYWHERE. It seems plausible if, perhaps, one or five were left in the VERY remote areas- but for the sake of continuity- it doesn't seem right that they're ALL gone.......

[@DYkim0307]

The developer of the game finally stated how it disappeared. He basically said, “uh it disappeared because it disappeared” My personal theory is that once the calamity was over, the sheikah monks in the shrines decided to make the shrines disappear, because there purpose was done, as the calamity was over, so they deactivated them and just mysteriously disappeared, which eventually deactivated all divine beasts and guardians and towers and made them disappear. Or, once the calamity was over, the scientists decided to break out the parts of the sheikah technology, and decided to create a whole new technology because they were afraid of ganon returning again and using it to create another calamity, so they destroyed all towers, guardians and everything that had sheikah technology to make the purah pad and new towers, which could reason with zonai technology, as they would have tried to find a alternate technology, they found the depths and sky island and found zonai technology

[@bluelfsuma]

I figured a number of the Sheikah tech vanished like the monks did. What remained, people salvaged. I also thought the salamander shaped ponds on Death Mountain were prints from Vah Rudania falling off, into the infinite canyon. But Bludo said he knew of them when he was younger, so pbbfft.

[@cuttleb0nes]

this theory makes so much sense, it’s a shame there weren’t at least a couple more lines in the game referring to events like this occurring. without seeking out and considering this theory, the sudden disappearance of all the sheikah tech with no explanation is so jarring

[@Xiomaro01]

As far as the sheikah technology goes, they had to have a reason to change the color palette from orange/blue to green. So the zonai stuff definitely makes it easier

[@mechamanw668]

I definitely noticed that the gloom holes replaced shrine locations for the Great Plateau, but I had no idea the same was for other shrines throughout Hyrule. That is such a cool detail

[@casualbird7671]

Your ideas sound very valid! I just really wish there was at least some single in-game reference to the vanishing of everything. Not one person or diary mentions it and I find that so bizarre.

[@SpaceAgeWolf]

This makes sense. While I would rather have it mentioned in game, it isn’t too much of a stretch to infer what happened. Hope we get a dlc that has some left over tech.

[@swankstablook]

This is a really well made video!! Since TOTK’s release my head has been spinning with these questions. But you had my attention the whole time, you should totally have more subs!

[@egorhans1424]

Leaving my headcanon here beforehand: 1. The Yiga started systemically stealing all Sheikah tech and crafting it into weapons 2. The Sheikah dismantled the entire technology, storing most of it in Hyrule Castle (some was used for the new towers, the PurahPad and random tidbits such as Purah's telescope and Robbie's Compendium storage) 3. The Ancient weapons used by the Yiga all broke from usage 4. Ganondorf reawoke and the Gloom eruption destroyed all the Sheikah parts in the Hyrule Castle deposit, leaving only the stuff that was built into the tech we see

[@clairepinckney416]

i always just reasoned that it would be safest to destroy technology that was easily possessed by ganon and caused 100 years of terror while awaiting the revival of the only guy who could stop him… yeah i’d be making the same call! there’s not really a lack of continuity to that for me as a result

[@informationnotavailable6433]

Great video! One small correction though, TotK takes place at least 8 years after BotW. We know this because there is an NPC who is seven that was not yet born in BotW, but his parents were in BotW.

[@CaptBurgerson]

You’re not the first to mention this, but I can’t find ANYWHERE where Mattison’s age is actually explicitly mentioned? Can you point me in the right direction? Based on how she acts and speaks though, 5-6 years old isnt far fetched imho

[@CometX-ing]

The fact that one has to speculate about why literary THE most central part of BotW is just gone is a problem. They could have easily thrown in a line from Purah, Robbie or Zelda to explain it because they’re inexplicably gone from existence.

[@nunull6427]

Figured they were all mapped by link/purah and then purah/robbie had a few years to strip the ruins spotless. Definitely feasibly with the amount of funds we gave them and if they had access to what we map in botw.

[@PixelFusionProductions]

It's a very interesting conclusion you've reached here. I have been working on my own explanation, and will probably put out the video next week sometime. I had not considered that Ganondorf would aid in the destruction of the technology. In the game, we can see that his gloom is able to overpower and control machines too, even Zonai ones as is the case with Mineru's robot in the Spirit Temple. I'll have to think about this more, good video Burgerson. A pleasure to watch as always.

[@dio3471]

I love how basically everyone forgets/doesn’t put attention to the ending in Botw, in the ending sequences, we can clearly see that the pilars in which the Guardians were deployed retreat back on earth, so most likely, all sanctuaries and towers went back to earth. Now you may ask why we don’t see Sheika technology on the chasm, well, Zelda says that Vah Ruta stopped working not long after Ganon was defeated, all the Guardians, weapons, and the remainings of the ancient tech had the purpose of helping to defeat Ganon, and because of that, they had planned expiring dates, all that technology decayed fast once their purpose was full filled, which would explain why there is almost no sheika technology left, besides a bit of the Sheika technology is canonically in the chasm, the construct in the Spirit temple found some like the ancient daggers

[@CaptBurgerson]

I don’t believe we actually see the pillars around the castle retract back down during the ending of botw. We do see that they turn back to their normal “blue” state though

[@thelivingcat0210]

This adds a new question, why do the chasms go all the way down to the depths? Sure it can just be that it’s bc ganondorf was down there, but I have another theory on top of that. Let me ask you this: how deep do you think the shrines went? Think about it, all we see is link descending into the shrines from the elevator, but we never see how long the whole elevator actually is, just what it exposed in the shrine. I think the main chambers were built, in the depths and the elevators go all the way down to them from the surface. Because what is easier: hallowing out a massive area to house your trial, or just using the existing hallowed area and just drilling a vertical shaft down to it. That also means that the sheika had to be aware of the depths existence which they would be if they were in close contact with the zonai since they already have facilities down there. I think the original sheika from 10,000 years ago, derived their technology from the zonai technology, possibly in a collaborative effort between the two tribes shortly after ganondorf was sealed, so there was a safeguard for if he or a form of him (calamity Ganon) was to return after the zonai left. That also explains why some of the runes on the sheika slate seem like just more primitive versions of the zonai powers in link’s arm, and why both versions of the shrines are similar in layout, as well as other aspects of each other technology. Zonai technology is just a purer, more refined version of sheika tech, just like how gloom is a purer version of malice.

[@sarenarterius6217]

As some theories point out, Sheikah tech used a very special power source, connected to the monks. When each shrine it's completed, the monk vanishes. Without any monk, the sheikah tech would stop functioning eventually - and this would leave to the desmantle - after all, a husk tech could be filled with gloom and be corrupted.

[@murillodelima]

I really think the explanation is simply "Zelda changed the past when she travelled and things are slightly different "

[@priestofronaldalt]

I always thought that following the end of BOTW sheika tech started to stop working as evidenced by the ending of BOTW and because of this old sheika tech was collected for their energy and any remaining unstudied technology

[@phillnyetheplaylistguy3759]

To me it takes me out of my Emerson when I think about them being gone. The world feels empty without the husk of guardians littering the empty fields and battlefields. Obviously it makes sense for them to be gone completely near population centers but what of mountains and other area in the wilderness?

[@theendofthestart8179]

There are still a few nods to ancient tech though, just very few, I think it was a choice made very early on in development to strictly limit the amount, a big reason why could be the thousands of people shit posting "botw2" in early trailers, and they REALLY didnt want the game to feel like that.

[@nathanpfirman625]

I assumed that they were dismantled to stop the chance that they could be corrupted again. Plus maybe the gloom that destroyed all the weapons destroyed the rest of the remnants. The only parts we see left are the ancient daggers found in the depths by the constructs sent by Mineru. Which makes sense since we do see perfect weapons down their.

[@kaelig.8569]

With the exception of the shrines, i assumed the sheikah stuff was all taken apart so they couldnt be used again for evil. Sure, a devine beast would be cool to have as a monument. But... That monument also terrorized the local city when possessed by an evil force

[@tossingturnips]

That's a really genius theory, which proven by your before and after shots, seems to be exactly what Nintendo were going for. I live for Zelda lore and theories and this came up as a suggested video on my feed, so I'm definitely subscribing and looking for more. Great work!

[@Jaricko]

Purah and Robbie : This technology is dangerous. Lets repurpose it for the good of hyrule. Link after getting a new hand : ROBOTS AND LASER BEAMS! The fact that link learned nothing from the previous game is hilarious to me.

[@Ron_Junkman]

Still find it odd though that one of them didn't write around that happening in a journal or something, hell I would think that the average people would be lamenting at the fact it is gone now because all other weapons that where left over was decayed by the gloom too.

[@chaoticrobot]

I am thinking that after the champions ballad Monk maz koshia stayed in hyrule until the end on calamity ganon. assuming that link did a 100% run in the previous game, after the champions spirits leave the divine beasts after maz koshia had removed the sheikah tech from all the land, but leaving sheikah tech that the modern shieka scientists have taken. so they can keep their name as the sheikah. being the shrines, the divine beasts and the towers. thats it.

[@apaleguy]

So this dude sat there being held onto by a hand, only using his phantom to fuck with us and then reveals himself in the sequel as a shambling corpse, breaks the fucking master sword, and is like, "Yeah honestly been watching this whole time. Fuck your Shrines and towers." What an absolute unit this incarnation of Ganon is Jesus Christ.

[@dradenyyg4805]

As somebody who is bothered by the sudden disappearance of the sheikah tech, All of these are theories I had come up during my time playing. It still leaves a few holes. For instance, there are guardian corpses out in basically the middle of nowhere, on top of mountains, that are so busted Link can’t even loot ancient materials from them in BOTW. In TOTK there’s no gloom chasm where they used to be. It just seems like nobody would go through the effort to get rid of those piles of scrap while there are *literally hundreds* of more accessible and useful pieces of nearby shiekah tech. Really the only thing I can think of to explain it would be that Purah or Robbie devised a way to teleport all of the old tech to one place for easy disposal. Otherwise dismantling a single divine beast would likely take decades, let alone something like the shrine of resurrection which might be useful enough in peace time to get a pass on the “too dangerous to be left around.” Ultimately, the reason it bothers me isn’t that it’s all gone. It’s that it’s gone and NOBODY mentions that it was around. No NPCs mention “oh hey remember that giant tower that burst out of the ground? Weird how it seemed to be wrapped in the gloom and disappeared” or Purah having some dialogue option about building the SkyView towers and saying it took them researching and dismantling every piece of shiekah tech they had to produce them. There needed to be at least some acknowledgement about them in game, something to ground these theories in, and that would have been enough. But the game acts like the shiekah tech simply never existed.

[@telerobotic]

To your point, Ancient Sheikah Tech can still be found from active excavation under the depth by paying a Construct at the Spirit Temple 50 Zonaite for Ancient Daggers.

[@cherubin7th]

So the elevators of the shrine in BOTW moved you into the underground, but you couldn't see it.

[@blazingphoenix1000]

Omg I’m glad I’m not the only one who notice the elevator tubes for the shrines were used for the towers

[@MC-rh7vj]

I think Nintendo actively decided to not tell us what happened because they know we'd jump on this to create theories and generate more mysteries.

[@gregomyeggo4639]

Even if all of this is true and it WAS a great explanation for such a major plot hole, the fact that all of it has to be speculation because Nintendo just didn’t think to include an explanation ANYWHERE is just lazy on their part and bad continuity. Like seriously they could’ve included even just one journal in a corner from Purah or Zelda explaining any of this…

[@gregomyeggo4639]

Good video btw, I agree with your theory I do think that’s what happened. Nintendo just needs to do better at portraying this kinda info, especially for a direct sequel

[@tyronejennings599]

Ironically the shrines & guardians disappearing was kinda foreshadowed in Breath Of The Wild because when you escape the barrier in the dark beast fight if you go to where the shrines are they aren't there.

[@antlionworkerfan2007]

My interpretation is that since the monks and divine beasts, and what not’s points we’re finished, they simply self destructed as the calamity is gone

[@BladRavenYey]

these are possible theories i also had as well, i just wish there was direct mention of what truly happened in the game itself, thats probably why some people think that the continuity between the games feels weak.

[@PorkShark]

I think I just expected MORE out of the removal of the sheikah tech. It would've been so cool if we were able to explore the insides of Naboris after the Yiga or a bunch of enemies took over it

[@PorkShark]

In TOTK we have previously existing locations being changed with the passage of time or civilization or etc: Yiga Clan Hideout, heart lake, Lurelin Village... It doesn't feel like the same dev team that added all of the little easter eggs in BOTW just decided to rip out all the sheikah stuff

[@PorkShark]

Like in BOTW we saw how the people of the world had the ability to interact with the sheikah tech despite not understanding its origin or true purpose (Guardian Slideshow, Stolen Heirloom, Fragmented Monument, etc.) I expected maybe a couple shrines to be _repurposed_ by the people of Hyrule to be used as a training place. Maybe through it you get armor that was in BOTW but not in TOTK (Gerudo vai armor).

[@ALmizzle415]

It’s really no mystery hudson and his crew got to work. And cleaned it all up. Ooooh that hudson. 😂

[@serenatortellini7927]

genuinely i thought the absence of shiekah technology was because zelda time traveled to the past and altered history, like basically retconning all the events of botw, which i thought was the reason nobody mentioned the events of botw. like since the beginning of hyrule zelda used her knowledge to shape history so that link can defeat ganon, and while i think this video has a good explanation for what happened to shiekah technology i still feel like time travel has to play *some* part here

[@CaptBurgerson]

I hear you, but I do not believe botw was retconned. There are multiple characters who reference the events of that game in TotK. My copy/paste from another comment: Go check the school in Hateno because there is a quest that literally talks about the events of botw. Go check Zora’s Domain as well, which also has plenty of dialogue that directly references that botw happened. It is still in the same main timeline as botw 100% imho

[@serenatortellini7927]

@@CaptBurgerson ooo I gotta check that out for sure! thanks for the reply :D

[@raidb0ss29]

I never noticed the towers used old shrine shafts. Thats some really good consistancy!

[@Peter_Lankton]

I think it would’ve been kind of cool if they kept one or two botw shrines around, but in bad condition and unable to open their doors again. It would imply that Ganondorf missed one or something during his shrine purge, and it would also be a cool Easter egg for botw fans. Even if Ganon couldn’t get to these shrines, natural decay could.

[@hallwaerd]

iirc, the reason the Shrines were created was to test and train the future hero, as well as provide him with Spirit Orbs to increase his power. Since Link has max hearts in the opening sequence of TOTK, it seems that the “canonical playthrough” of BOTW involves completing every Shrine and getting max hearts. As such, I had assumed that the Shrines and Towers voluntarily disappeared between the two games, their purpose having been fulfilled. These theories aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but I think I like your’s even more. It just lines up with Ganondorf’s apparent strategy in this game perfectly. See, the conflict of BOTW was very much a conflict of avatars. In that game, Ganondorf was still sealed under Hyrule Castle, so his only means of confronting Hyrule was through his puppet of Malice, Calamity Ganon. Rather than facing this apocalyptic force head-on however, the ancient Sheikah developed avatars of their own: Guardians. Through the power of these automatons, as well as the more powerful Divine Beasts, the ancient Sheikah were able to soundly route the Calamity. Ganondorf is known as the cunning King of Thieves however, and I think this version of him truly lives up to that title. 10,000 years later, rather than falling to the Guardians again, he used the power of his Malice to corrupt the Sheikah technology and make it his own, eliminating Hyrule’s greatest defense and bolstering his own forces in one fell swoop. But as you pointed out in the video, this was only a temporary victory. Thanks to Link, the Divine Beasts were freed, and the Champions of the 4 races were able to combine forces one final time to destroy Ganon. In TOTK, Ganondorf has once again learned from his defeat and has a new strategy. Thanks to the events of the beginning of the game, he is no longer sealed by Rauru, and he has a secret stone. He may be a mummified corpse now, but he is essentially at full power. He isn’t hiding behind puppets any longer. This time, it’s war. The forces of Ganondorf against the people of Hyrule. And that is why all the weapons are decayed now. Ganondorf’s main goal is to disarm Hyrule and remove any way for its people to fight back, while enhancing the weapons of his own monstrous army: their horns. But it also seems that some of the more powerful weapons weren’t just decayed, but destroyed entirely. That’s my personal theory as to why the original elemental weapons from BOTW just aren’t in TOTK: since they have elemental magic infused in them, they’re much more powerful than other weapons, which makes them more of a threat. So rather than just decaying them, the Gloom completely disintegrated them. And returning to the topic of this video, that’s probably what happened to a lot of the Sheikah technology. Guardians, the Divine Beasts, and Ancient weapons are some of the most powerful arms in Hyrule, so maybe Ganondorf used his Gloom to completely destroy them. Considering he was able to use Gloom to decay the Master Sword itself, The Sword That Seals The Darkness, presumably thanks to the power of his secret stone, the Divine Beasts and Guardians being completely disintegrated by Gloom seems perfectly possible.

[@lillith7257]

Some people hate that things are not told to them so they consider it a downside that you have to piece it together yourself but that's dumb, it's what Zelda is all about. Piecing together the puzzles, that includes lore.

[@MrJFL]

I really wish this theory were still backed up more by what is actively in the game. I would have loved to see like 2, maybe 3 sheikah shrines that still existed in the world in the same spots, albeit corrupted and broken shells vs active shrines. You could see one major test of strength for example be invaded by gloom being overtaken and manipulated. A shiekah robot could be molded into a unique miniboss. The potential to include a guardian or two in a few remaining shrines isn't out of question with this idea either. These shrines could hold valued loot and provide better means of stitching the two worlds together in a way that wouldn't require large theories to connect the dots. Overall I like your theory and interpretation of it. I just wish, given your theory is right, it was handled better in the product.

[@lithium3925]

My thoughts have lead me to a similar conclusion. Only, I think the Yiga could have played a role as well? At least regarding the Shrine of Resurrection, since there are Yigas hiding nearby and in the cave of the Shrine. Maybe they dismantled it, so they could use it for their own ideas? I personally do not know if the Yiga could possibly know about the Shrine and its properties, but this is what makes the most sense to me, I think. Aside maybe Purah and Robbie being afraid that Ganondorf would use the Shrine for his own purposes. Though I do think the Shrine provides too much of a failsafe to dismantle just like that. Tldr either the Yiga dismantled it (they are capable engineers, as shown in the dephts) or it was useless due to the Sheikah tech not working anymore and Purah & co repurposed it.