Where Do Hyrule's Rivers Go?

[@any_austin]

Go to expressvpn.com/anyaustin and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free!

[@any_austin]

It's true you can actually do that if you use my very special link. If you need or want to try a VPN anyway, you should use it because it'll help me. This is, by far, the most work I've ever had to put into a single video and I'm very grateful for every single person that watches it! If you want to try and win that cool poster, comment on this Patreon post: www.patreon.com/posts/giveaway-tears-108524123 Thanks everyone.

[@robertbarrett1035]

13:50 While I cant explain botw's errors here away, totk does have an excuse beyond man made, the upheaval would "naturally" shift rivers into illogical forms

[@generalmaddi6310]

I love you bbg​@@any_austin

[@estusf1ask]

Worth noting that streaming sites can actually tell if you are using a vpn to circumvent region locks, and some are starting to block those using vpns

[@X862go]

Did you do the Skyrim river one ? That was a great time for my smooth brain.

[@rho-bot]

austin: "i am not a nerd" also austin: "now let's exhaustively map this fictional river system"

[@JohnnnyJohn]

He never said, I am not a geek.

[@MkSnap-wu1su]

also austin: Ontological Utility

[@Cakemarvelous]

Misread that as "autist"

[@rho-bot]

@@Cakemarvelous when people ask if i'm acoustic, i say no i'm all electric... no one has every laughed at that though

[@asackboyplush6508]

I thought that said autism

[@JamPirateTrue]

"That's a nice river, Hyrule. Why don't you back it up with a source?" "My source is that I made it the fuck up"

[@no3ironman11100]

"Imagine a world, earth. Free from relativity. Where the author is free to make their own sets of rules, aesthetic and laws of physics! A land of the truly free, god damn it!"

[@theoryofunrelativity]

​@@no3ironman11100**dashes in** I'm here!! **panting, coughs** did I make it **wheeze** am I relevant yet

[@pitioti]

That was one of the best Max0r reference I have ever saw !

[@cronuslite6358]

"My source is that it fell out of the sky!"

[@no3ironman11100]

@@theoryofunrelativity omg it's relativity

[@TroubleChute]

I hope a dev in the future quotes this channel as the reason they properly laid out river starts and ends, as well as other seemingly "obvious" map design bits.

[@benevolentworldexploder5395]

Not a video game dev, but I actually took the time to learn each factor of land development piece by piece when designing my fantasy landscape. I would say it was designed for D&D, but the campaign in this world came over a decade after I had already come up with it. (This setting was a love child between my erstwhile girlfriend, now wife, and I. We decided to share it with more people, but use a set of rules that would gamify it for simplicity.) So even though this video didn't inspire me, it does validate all the effort I put in to something that was a passion project instead of a marketable product.

[@juliahenriques210]

I naively thought everyone else was like me and designed their fictional worlds from the ground up. First topography, then climate, then hidrology, then biomes... you know... the simple stuff. But then Austin comes along determined to make me feel slightly better about myself. vov

[@lelaleasl]

I have a feeling a lot of this was intentional, since swimming and using rafts are an interesting part of the open world Zelda games, making it so that when you travel by water you can reach any other point on the map

[@Falcodrin]

​@@juliahenriques210something I love about this comment is that it reminds me of the book series based on the Myst games. Without spoiling too much one guy was writing worlds super shallow and they had all sorts of issues and another guy learned how to properly write the tiny details of the land and it made his worlds way more stable.

[@TheVRSofa]

Its only this way because oceans look different. So they didn't join rivers to them. Thats kinda it. Saves on a few mb of textures

[@sebastianromero3393]

I’d like to point out that the changes made to Gerudo Canyon are one of the few changes that the game explicitly mentions. Several NPCs point out that the river, caves and waterfalls formed directly because of the Upheaval.

[@Jackoff_icial]

the upheaval is blamed for pretty much all of the changes to hyrule. the caves forming/being exposed by shifting earth, the rivers, the sudden holes in the ground which lead to the underworld area. in fairness it makes at least passing sense

[@benipfun]

fun fact about the floodplain theory, if you go to the backroom of the forgotten temple there is a map of hyrule on the floor which shows that during rauru's era most of hyrule field was actually one massive lake

[@Jonathan-nb9lc]

And maybe before that it was one massive sea 😮

[@OrangeX2]

Until probably the ancestors of the Zora were hired to build the giant dam.

[@GraemeGunn]

back room

[@NoSauceRoss]

My head is fucking spinning trying to figure out how the hell the Lands Between from Elden Ring got to be the shape they are

[@Waffles1313]

@@NoSauceRoss The Land of Shadow existed in the middle before they were shoved into a pocket dimension by Marika.

[@Well_Meaning]

Somehow I had never managed to notice that all water in the game is perfectly flat. The illusion of topographical relief worked so well that I never even considered that I never saw a river *actually* flow downhill.

[@thegreatzucchiniidkalastna3743]

Me neither but now that I know it’s all flat it really bugs me lol

[@mrhalfsaid1389]

That was a technological limitation that Nintendo worked around quite creatively, I did notice this though, because of water that could have went smoothly downhill that just... Didn't

[@jonathanflanagan1504]

@@mrhalfsaid1389 Meanwhile the blatant river slopes in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet always felt weird to me lol Mostly because those rivers have little to no flow and none of them actually pull the player in any direction while swimming.

[@farrisbuellersweekoff]

Yeah took me a while to realise why if you travel around on a raft for a long time it starts to feel…weird. It’s because it’s all so flat for miles and miles, but then you go over a waterfall and it feels insane.

[@karaltar7914]

I get why they had to make it like that, it’s very hard to get stuff like rafts to properly interact with the water if it’s not flat, that said it’s still ugly.

[@natemadill2390]

Something was missed and is incredibly important is that under the East Reservoir is an enormous complex of pipe systems that spread out over the massive cave systems in the directions of the enormous waterfalls that feed Zoras domain, meaning its not wizard magic but an incredibly massive engineering feat of the Zora

[@ryanmccampbell7]

Wait you mean in the depths? I don't think I've ever seen that. Guess I have to check now.

[@sleepdeprivedcactus]

it makes complete sense that the fish people are good at hydrological engineering

[@natemadill2390]

@ryanmccampbell7 there's a whirlpool in the middle of the east reservoir that drops you into a flooded cave system and you can lower the water to reveal a massive pipe system under the lake

[@Xbob42]

@@natemadill2390 I dunno if that's an entirely accurate description of the place. There are big sewer pipe openings at points, but we see no method of pumping any water that I could make out, the entire place is in ruins, draining it doesn't seem to affect anything outside of the cave system, and then you go even deeper and there's just water splurting out of naturally formed stone pillars via magic I guess? It is a cool area though, and I think you're right that it's quite important.

[@sleepdeprivedcactus]

@@natemadill2390 ancient zora waterworks to be precise

[@5MadMovieMakers]

So excited for the next Zelda game, "Wisdom of the Hydrologists"

[@meegsoteegs]

Hear me out: Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom *Sweat of the Hydrologists*

[@ericpeterson6520]

I don't remember who, but one NPC in BotW actually mentions that the Lanayru Great Spring (i.e. the Zora's Domain area) is the source of all fresh water in Hyrule

[@doughboywhine]

I guess this means that every other source of water is salt water

[@BowlOSoup6661]

The Water Temple is mentioned to be the source of all water. So I guess the Water Temple filled the Lanayru Region and the Lanayru Region filled the rest of Hyrule

[@SeasoningTheObese]

That's how it worked in Ocarina of time too, all fresh water in Hyrule comes through Zora's domain. All water in Hyrule is blessed by King Zora's ball sack. God bless.

[@Robbie_Haruna]

​@SeasoningTheObese I guess you could say Hyrule's water supply in Ocarina of Time is... Tainted

[@SeasoningTheObese]

@@Robbie_Haruna (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

[@antediluvial]

Undergrad geologist here, At 15:00 you mention a divide in the landscape which does occur naturally as well! The left side is called the *point bar* where sediments are deposited on the shallow slow moving slope. The right side is called the *cut bank* where the cliff side is being eroded by fast moving currents. I hope this insight helps and thanks for the video

[@gigamilk6981]

SCIENTISTS ARE MISSIONARYS OF SATAN GODS TRUE WORD IS THE ONLY TRUTH OF THIS WORLD THEY ARE TRUTHS TO BE HELD SELF EVIDENT AND SELF JUSTIFYING BAN NASA AND THEYRE GLOBE HEAD AGENDA PRAISE THE LORD ONE NATION UNDER GOD

[@jacquesss]

also an undergrad geologist so it’s nice to see this shared here!!

[@phasein5413]

This made me happy :) Thank you!

[@SirBucelotte]

Thanks for explaining more!

[@santiagorios1659]

Undergrad geologist that has a Glowing Womb pfp? Never thought I’d see that

[@sunflowerhandler]

i could see a Discworld book about a character mapping all this out, especially with quotes like "the river gets really strong around here, presumably due to evil goblin magic."

[@therealdemen247]

I love those books so much. You'd absolutely see something like that.

[@helenanilsson5666]

Sounds like a task for an unusually nerdy student at Unseen University :)

[@frenchtantan]

If there is an afterlife, I bet someone there is aggressively holding back good ol' Terry Pratchett, so he doesn't forcibly jump back to the world of the living to write this after seeing that comment.

[@gristen]

​@@frenchtantanhonestly i might write it for him, im already picturing scenes of it in my head 😂

[@TheJolteonMaster]

In Breath Of The Wild there is a sidequest called Wife Washed Away that starts in Zora’s domain where you are told to follow the river to find someone’s wife. You find her all the way down in Lake Hylia. Which imo strongly intentionally implies Lake Hylia is the endpoint. There’s in-game diologue iirc at various points in Breath Of The Wild & Tears Of The Kingdom that indicates Zora’s domain is the source for most of the fresh water in Hyrule. So yes I do believe this much at least is intentional. The new Gerudo valley endpoint is outta left field though.

[@titan1umtitan]

Apparently it's not new, it was the same in OoT somehow

[@kylecompare1106]

As a real PhD hydrologist, you give really good explanations for these concepts! You are the best digital hydrographer on KZbin. At 15:00 , you point our the rocky versus mossy sides of the river. While this scene is a little more extreme than reality, it is grounded in real life! At turns in river channels, the flowing water has a hard time turning, so it's energy is directed at the outside channel wall, and this extra energy will erode the side, which may cause fresh rock to be more exposed. This is known as a cut bank. Conversely, the inside of a channel turn will have the lower energy flowing water, allowing the water to slow down, allowing for sediment to settle in this region (known as a point bar). This sediment can build up and it isn't too surprising that wetland plants to start growing here. (Although moss may be a bit of a stretch as peat moss tends to not be that close to faster flowing water). Your Skyrim video was recommended to me a few months ago, thought it was great, and I'm glad the algorithm sent me back this way!

[@LimeyLassen]

I take this runaway erosion as a sign that Hyrule needs to restore its extirpated beaver population!

[@darrenmills3943]

W hydrography

[@ViviBuchlaw]

What would you say is the most realistic and unrealistic hydrological feature of hyrule?

[@DroolRockworm]

No one cares. Just kidding

[@seiretzym]

this makes so much sense but never occurred to me, and I got really excited to learn something new so thank you!

[@calebbenson7332]

Fun fact: A lake with an underground/ hidden outlet is called a Cryptorheic basin, and a lake with no outlet that lets off water via natural processes like evaporation is a Endorheic basin. It seems like Hyrule has a fair few of both of these types even though they are rather rare in the real world.

[@AS-fp4gb]

You've made me google a nearby lake that doesn't have any creeks or rivers coming from it to find out what it is, now

[@jennifergreggerson6225]

Makes sense. Hyrule is indeer, quite a rare place. Never seen a place like it.

[@realbosstakea]

facts what if hyrule has different elements or rocks that can soak up water which is why the basin lake doesnt lead anywhere... if link can make shit hover magiclly and theres different types of monsters and creatures im sure theres different types of rocks and elements that can handle water differently... its hyruletheres no rules

[@EzekielBrockmann]

Lol, Hello from Finland!

[@olachens]

So, Hyrule has karstic bedrock with a high water table.

[@tionodese8110]

"Places you can stand to feel strange feelings for no reason" Wow finally someone who understands these games!

[@ender7278]

His entire channel is built on just that.

[@tavoreparan8091]

Read Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language if you want to know why you feel those strange feelings.

[@valoujkb]

Hi Hydrologist here! pretty cool video! Actually the complexity of rivers in Hyrule could be explained by the fact that the geology is probably made of Karst! (lots of water cave, lots of water-sources out of rocks), so yeah normally rivers are suppose to go to the sea but karstic ones can just go throught cave systems popping litteraly kilometers away! But a river this size can't normally entirely disappear in the ground... even with the underworld xD the unnammed lake and lake Hyliya could be connected, and I suspect the stream south of hylia to be connected to lake hylia and be the true exiting point

[@celestialdragonlord]

In BotW they explicitly say that the Zora’s and Hylians worked together a long time ago to build East Reservoir Lake to reduce flooding. On a stone tablet they tell the story how every few years central Hyrule would be hit with unusually heavy flooding so they built East Reservoir Lake to contain the water. You can even see in TotK the intricate pump work at play to make this happen in the Ancient Zora Waterworks. We can also see in TotK how ancient Hyrule looked on a map in the Forgotten Temple, in which it shows that much of central Hyrule and its plains were once flooded and mostly wetlands. The water level used to be much higher, with the Digdogg Suspension Bridge lake previously connected to Lake Hylia, and also Lake Aquame around the Coliseum used to make it an island and connected to both the Digdogg lake and Lake Hylia. Also, East Reservoir Lake used to be connected directly to the water that surrounds Zora’s domain, though interestingly not Rutala River. Another thing the map shows is that the moat surrounding Hyrule Castle is naturally forming and not man made, as at the point in time when the map was constructed modern Hyrule Castle was not yet built. Another interesting fact is that the modern day snowy peaks of Mount Hylia on the Great Plateau were once much warmer and were not cold, as shown in memory 6 The Gerudo Assault. Also the River of the Dead on the plateau was not yet formed. I theorize that during Rauru’s time, Hyrule was much warmer either in general or this specific season. That would explain the higher water table and the lack of snow on the great plateau. We can see that climates can shift extremely fast even without magic like in the southern Gerudo highlands where all of the snow there melted and the general Gerudo Canyon being much warmer and cooler at day and night respectively. Also, the construction of East Reservoir Lake had to make a lot of changes to Hyrule’s water flow, such as the water table in central Hyrule lowering and matching what we have in modern day contrasted to the flooded version of the past.

[@adventureike]

The hero we needed

[@eddnox]

Also Dueling Peaks was a singular mountain once, but now there's a river in between. So, that means probably a big part of Necluda would have been a lake.

[@bloxxybaddie]

this is so interesting omg ty for the explanation

[@rambbler]

​@@eddnoxdragon, it was a dragon that split the mountain(absolutely metaphorical but seeing as there are actual dragons you can see fly around I'm willing to believe it)

[@3X3NTR1K]

Bravo! *claps*

[@Eagle1Golden]

29:35 My favorite part in the whole video is when Austin says “f*ck ton” but the bleep happens 1 second after he says it, so the bleep is completely pointless. Lagging bleeps are funny.

[@NoriMori1992]

That happened in his Fallout NPC video too! He said "f*cking fast", but bleeped "fast" 😂 I couldn't tell if it was on purpose for a joke, or an accident; I guess this confirms it was an accident 😂

[@tylersmith9942]

I immediately jumped into the comments to see if anyone else caught that lol

[@Eagle1Golden]

@@NoriMori1992 I’m more of the opinion that it was intentional comedic genius😂

[@Sliver]

This has been like a running joke on his channel for years, it started off during an episode of Eggbusters on Metroid Prime I believe, where he goes "Holy (bleep), Holy shit (bleep)" and everyone loved it

[@CausticCatastrophe]

came here to see if someone else mentioned it this was great

[@BrittanyLeavitt]

Seems like hyrule is one big wetland, kind of like southern Louisiana. So the waterways are ever-changing depending on the season

[@Headlessgenie]

Damn i live there why didny i think of that

[@Lord_Hengar]

So you're telling me that Hyrule is full of mosquitos.

[@dillonmoore9810]

​@@Lord_Hengar Lawd help people's Shirtless Links

[@Twohomst]

@@Lord_Hengar100000%

[@J0hnzie]

​​@@Lord_HengarGrazing wildlife and relatively plentiful humanoids, living near lots of stagnant water? You bet. Can't wait to explore hyrule again to find a cure for malaria.

[@Real_Kaedinh]

9:38 fun fact actually, in Tears of the Kingdom during the Dragon Tears questline, you find the ancient map of Tear Locations depicted on a map of Hyrule, Hyrule field actually had a lot more lakes/rivers than it does now. Just brings a little more credence to the Flood Plain theory you had!

[@chrismetzger6746]

How I felt when Austin casually drops “odd and unremarkable” in the middle of a sentence must be what it’s like to go a concert and the band plays your favorite deep cut album track from before they were famous

[@TheKiddo2468]

“Wow, that waterfall is one hell of an egg buster” sorry I couldn’t think of a better pun

[@BeaBea-54]

@@TheKiddo2468 "all this nonsensical water is making me wanna VG Wham!"

[@gimpthe2nd735]

@@TheKiddo2468PLAY THE JINGLE

[@just_call_me_leo]

deep cut? splatoon?

[@Niamh9902]

woomy

[@Christian_McCaffrey]

Couple of my favorite highlights from this video: 1.) I’ve never seen such a good section for sponsorship. 2.) Austin dropping the F bomb and then the censor comes two seconds afterward 29:34

[@MrMoon-hy6pn]

I like how he played the punchline sting at 26:38 instead of an actual drum roll, it got a chuckle outta me.

[@troqu]

I didn't even notice 2 lol.

[@drew-horst]

I thought the water was sourced from the kingdom's tears

[@Shenorai]

It DOES sound fitting from a mythological standpoint though, doesn't it?

[@iLors]

I thought it was from the wild's breath

[@drew-horst]

@@iLors I'd hope it's breath isn't moist enough to provide water to the entire map

[@fish871]

​@@drew-horst condensation, you know how it is

[@drew-horst]

@@fish871 🤢🤢 oh god

[@TheJolteonMaster]

16:40 I love how it dawns on you that you forgot about the ginormous sinkhole in Lake Hylia. 😂

[@astronauticsYT]

I'm a hydrotechnical engineer (not quite the same as a hydrologist, but I conduct a lot of hydrology work) and you've done a great job explaining a lot of concepts. While some things might not be fully explained, the concepts are solid. Also, when we are talking about "snow melt" induced runoff, we call this a 'freshet' season. Many areas around the world have large catchments (area where hydrology is contained and reports to one water body) which are heavily dominated by freshet flows. In fact, BC (where I work) depends almost entirely on freshet season to recharge our reservoirs for hydroelectric power and drinking water. We also desparately need more hydrotechnical engineers so... anyone who found this video interesting, maybe consider it? ;)

[@urkittenmew]

Where are some good places to learn about this stuff online? Ideally not behind tens of thousand of dollars of courses and books to begin with. It sounds really interesting

[@lord6411]

@@urkittenmewto begin learning this stuff you’d need a pretty solid background in physics, mostly fluid dynamics. That’s where I’d start looking. After that, Wikipedia can be a good place to begin your learning. Look into the sources used there and try to find a textbook or two from libgen. That’s probably your best bet for free online learning.

[@purplerain3109]

I second this. I'd also be willing to move out to a different country or do an intense internship. I enjoy tedious tasks and love learning about systems in general. -a person in the United states.

[@parasocks1613]

water cool unless hot (hot water is also cool, fight me)

[@EldritchDoodler4828]

Zora’s Domain has a cave called the Ancient Zora Waterworks- so I’m guessing that the reason water inexplicably pours in and out of places in Zora’s Domain is because during the time of the Zonai, they gifted the Zora with a magitek sewer system that pumps water around to keep it clean That being said, some of the pipes are blocked when we actually go down there, so maybe they’ve been working with a damaged system for generations- makes sense why the muck ruined Zora’s Domain’s water as effectively as it did There’s also the fact the Zonai made the Hydrant device, which spawns water out of thin air, which was used to cure the sky islands’ drought

[@lechking941]

This is what I figure. The zonai and there magitik being what it is. Something tells me the zora habe mostly been at a loss at how to maintain the old waterworks. At least untillvthe sheka found some basics a made their tech.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

They also lost a giant robotic elephant that generates endless water on a ridiculous scale down there somewhere

[@titan1umtitan]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 They dismantled it, like all the sheikah tech

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

@titan1umtitan Where is the workshop and resulting scrapyard or plural for the job? Where is the economic footprint of there being a sudden need for low skill manual labor, that immediately and entirely dried up? How were they moved without being piloted? If they weren't piloted to a site to be dismantled, then how were entire teams of workers moved to and housed in the depths of the Gerudo Desert, Death Mountain Crater, or the outright sky? Where is the residual logistics chain that such jobs would have required if the dismantled constructs were transported somewhere, that would have remained afterwards, as almost always happens? What tools, rigs, and secondary constructions were used in the dismantling, that would be of massive use to Hyrule's infrastructure afterwards, but appear to be nowhere in particular afterwards? Where did the pieces of central wonder technology go, around which entire civilizations could spring up in isolation, let alone collectively? How was time or labor budgeted to accomplish these tasks alongside all of the other infrastructure and public works projects that were also completed in Hyrule, while also maintaining the food and other essentials being produced at surplus enough to feed such massive projects all at once? Why would the people of Hyrule agree to prioritizing the decommissioning of these machines over their individual needs, infrastructure, ect? Why does nobody mention these massive projects being rushed to be completed within the under ten years between the games, whether they worked on them themselves or merely saw them? If this massive of a collective project was undertaken by the entire region, why are the roads mostly unmaintained, with little to no evidence of truly open trade and movement of goods, services, and people between major Hyrule settlements, ESPECIALLY the ones close to any of the decommissioned pieces of wargear?

[@titan1umtitan]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 no clue. But that’s what the game said, and the same reason Sheikah tech is utilized for the tower system. You can ask as many questions as you want, but they were dismantled, it tells you in the game via implication. Link canonically killed all the guardians. And likely used a majority of that fuel for his bike. The divine beasts were dismantled because they still worked and posed a possible future threat, and most remaining were probably melted down as parts to rebuild. Shrines and towers went back underground because they weren’t needed (corresponding with their lore). Etc. So a lot happened. That and gloom likes to target weapons as well. Also, what kind of economic impact would a volunteer work effort have? The Hyrulian inhabitants are not the kind of people to put a price on humanitarian aid. Link is also able to pilot these beasts, if you even paid attention to the first game. And 7 years is more than enough time to dismantle it all. Also, hudson’s construction company is pretty damn fast, and wood scaffold and such was never really something that would stick around when the project was done. I don’t know about you, but dismantling the things that have been terrorizing people of the land for a century is pretty high on their bucket list. Finally, food? Really? They weren’t starving before, what makes you think they are now?

[@twobladedswordsandmauls2120]

The second endpoint lake is very interesting because it would imply that all that water used to drain into the Gerudo desert. Which for those who played Skyward Sword makes absolutely perfect sense. The Gerudo desert, before it all dried up, used to be called the Lanayru sea. As you just noticed, the primary source of pottable water in Hyrule is lakes in the Lanayru region. The Goddess of Water in TLoZ is named Nayru, who is also the Goddess of Wisdom and used to be the Goddess of time before passing that responsibility onto Hylia. So, all of the pottable water used to flow from the Lanayru region (or perhaps more accurately "The Nayru Region"), flowed west across Hyrule, before being dumped into the Lanayru Sea. Now though, it flows from the Lanayru region, across Hyrule, and into Lake Hylia. I just find that incredibly fitting.

[@LeahLuciB]

He jokes about devs making this map's waterways haphazardly, but they put a ton of care into this. I suspect they did consult with some geologists or hydrologists when making it.

[@chubomikz7104]

Yeah but BOTW and TOTK totally don't have lore/ their lore sucks guys, KZbinrs and forum posters told me so

[@thefaz3744]

That one point in Skyrim where water spawns and flows into 2 different sections lives rent free in my head 24/7

[@princessjellyfish98]

Wonderful how the innovations made in tears of the kingdom allowed you to construct proper vehicles for conducting this important geological survey

[@james2529]

Some sticks with a fan on them 😄

[@R3TR0J4N]

thats it 3rd installment of the franchsie will now have voxel after sandbox 😁

[@Xahnel]

Gah, I wish he'd made himself a proper little jetski or something.

[@debdebberton]

DIRECT SURVE- nope wait, this is rivers

[@melvinthebravefish9788]

It's a direct survey of the rivers 😂

[@BilobateDrip]

​@melvinthebravefish9788 that's how I'm looking at it. Works for me! 😂

[@nolanj.3897]

He should’ve tried asking the rivers

[@VBunplugged757]

Why didn't he ask the royalty lol

[@ElliottA7]

Ah, but it was, friend. But it was.

[@marions.3657]

Not a hydrologist but I am a biologist with some knowledge of hydrology. If we take the idea that the underground was always there, and that the recent century's seismic activities just made it accessible for us, I think it's a mix of Hyrule being geologically young from the last ice age, which would explain the amount of fresh water that's just there. The way Hyrule is overall reminds me of an ice age-formed landscape: we find glacial valleys, moraines, drumlins, eskers, kettles, striations and grooves, erratics, outwash plains, etc. Most of the lakes in Hyrule look like they are oligotrophic with clear water, low algal growth, deep waters, sparse aquatic vegetation, cold water (it looks cold), and rocky or sandy bottoms. Supporting the idea that hyrule is geologically pretty young. I think the center of Hyrule is sinking, creating a depression in the landscape, making it more floodable and maybe even lower than sea level, which could explain why no river goes to the sea. With all the cave systems, if we assume that they have just now become accessible due to the recent seismic event but were still there during BOTW, we can assume Hyrule has a very complex groundwater system. If all the water goes underground from the higher borders toward the lower center, it kind of makes sense why it is the way it is. TLDR: The hydrology of Hyrule isn't as unreasonable as one would expect. It is a geologically younger plane after a iceage.

[@aderyn7600]

The valleys with smaller hills and mountains remind me of Washington states “ripple” hills from being flooded a long long time ago.

[@marions.3657]

@@aderyn7600 Washington state is just next to bc, so it would make sense it has gone both the ice age shaping and floding.

[@elizabethjames3244]

@@marions.3657the ‘ripple hills’ ^^ referred to are the Palouse hills in eastern Washington by the Idaho border, resulting from the Missoula lake/floods of ice age times. So I’m not sure it’s directly related to the ice age happenings of Bristish Columbia? On the other hand, I don’t know that it’s not related 😅

[@3rdWorldGamer]

It kinda makes sense that hyrule could be below sea level. Also, there's massive lands to the north east, can't be explored by the player but these lands are clearly higher than hyrule.

[@VelcroPoodle]

​@3rdWorldGamer idk where TotK lies in the "timeline", but this Hyrule being below sea level makes flooding it for Wind Waker more possible.

[@pw3229]

Hydrologist/hydrogeologist here. You can actually calculate the flow of a river in zelda dude to its physics system. First, estimate the width and depth of the stream (lets use links height for reference, and call this unit of measurment a 'link'). This is the approximate 'area' over which the river flows. Next, count how long it takes for a floating object (leaf) to float from one arbitrary point on the stream to another. Divide the distance between the two points by the amount of time that it took to travel across, and now you have the velocity (speed) of the water in links per second. Multiply the velocity by the width and the depth, and now you have a total discharge volume in cubic links per second. If you ever want to do a video calculating the flows in these rivers and comparing to real world equivalents, happy to help

[@Aaron-ch7zt]

Worth noting: All water on the surface in TotK actually corresponds near perfectly to an impassable wall in the depths. (The depths are also a near perfect "topgraphic inversion" of all the dry land on the surface). Obviously this makes no sense rationally but it's definitely relevant to why the devs may have made some of the choices and/or changes they did, and why the water is all perfectly level.

[@kaiseremotion854]

someone else mentioned the potential of the depths being a dried up magma bed, similar to how the surface hyrule field is a dried up lake

[@lordofshades9852]

​@kaiseremotion854 so hyrule is just on top of a tectonic plate fault?

[@kaiseremotion854]

@@lordofshades9852 that makes sense considering how volcano's are formed

[@merekcook573]

Ummm, the water is Hyrule is all level definitely because of limitations on game design. It's a lot easier to do a flat texture than render a sloped stream.

[@TheRyulord]

@@merekcook573 No, it's basically the same.

[@NaXEthan]

the east reservoir lake being the source actually makes a lot of sense lore-wise! ever since Ocarina I think, maybe even earlier, the games have said that Zora's domain is the source of water for all of Hyrule, so it's really cool to see it all follow through on that

[@keiyakins]

A Link to the Past, actually. I don't know if it was said, but if you followed the rivers back it was just, true.

[@patyos2]

In Orcarina of Time map you can clearly see the river goes from Zora Domain to Hyrule Castle then through Gerudo Valley Bridge and straight to Lake Hylia OOT River map Zora's Fountain> Zora's Domain> Zora's River> Hyrule Field River from Zora River to Hyrule Castle> Hyrule Field River from Hyrule Castle to Gerudo Valley> Gerudo Valley> Lake Hylia

[@TheJadeFist]

@@patyos2 We just have to use our imagination and pretend there's a mighty river off past the castle going west before it makes to the desert. However that doesn't make that much sense either, cause the volume of water going through Hyrule Field is clearly much less than the giant waterfalls we see in the valley, there must be another tributary river. That or it's just a 30 year old game made of triangles.

[@patyos2]

@@TheJadeFist There’s probably another river that joins at the top of the waterfall in north

[@WatashiMachineFullCycle]

I found this channel because somebody on Twitter was ENRAGED at the notion of treating a video game like it should follow real life rules - but now that I'm here to see what the fuss was about, this place is a vibe, actually. In fact, as I started to browse your other videos (particularly the ones focusing on appreciating small details and liminal spaces in games) it really made my ADHD crusted brain slow down and actually LOOK at games like breath of the wild, devoid of the story itself, and appreciate the world as the Devs built it, and think about the thought process behind these decisions. The fact that it's so comfy here is the cherry on top. I love this place, and I feel a little sorry for the guy who was mad at you lol

[@lpnp9477]

People don't understand that there is value in enjoying things in unconventional ways.

[@WatashiMachineFullCycle]

​@@lpnp9477real

[@marissabulso6439]

Agreed! I think it’s absolutely delightful that videos like this exist and the comments are people trying to puzzle out how the rivers in a fictional world work. Applying real world logic to something that probably doesn’t have a logical answer and “doesn’t matter,” to boot, is so endearingly human.

[@Shnarfbird]

@@marissabulso6439 And like AUstin, sometimes we have to just go "wizard magic" anyway

[@Please_Stop_Me_Please_Kill_Me]

I think you made this story up for likes

[@aone9050]

14:10 those are the types of brackish ponds and streams that would break through to the ocean by itself, and city maintenance typically do something about it themselves, but instead the surfers get a fun time.

[@gregariosity]

Iirc the city actually refills the gap with sand and it causes flooding bc the stream they’re blocking up has nowhere to go

[@thewallsarebreathing2509]

in a zora quest where you are to clean the mud, an elder explains that their region supplies all the fresh water of hyrule

[@kyandi3498]

oh right i forgot about that

[@gorgolyt]

But it rains

[@EjazIbrahim]

​@@gorgolytFRESH WATER, RAIN IS SALTEH

[@joenu7s]

@@EjazIbrahim???

[@danuy072]

​@@EjazIbrahim Wrong rain is fresh water

[@honeybee8059]

I am a coastal and environmental scientist who happens to live in Louisiana and when the Mississippi river was brought up the first time in this video it felt like a spider man pointing meme moment. Louisiana has some really interesting geography below sea level. During the separation of the North and South American plate, for a long time the Gulf of Mexico was very small compared to what it is now so the salt levels were much more concentrated (think more like the Great Salt Lake in Utah). Due to the high concentration, there was so much salt in the water that some stayed in a solid state and couldn't dissolve in the water which caused these large salt deposits in the floorbed. Over the millions of years of the plates moving, sediment was still being deposited on top of all the salt so some of the sediment was so heavy it would deposit the salt into almost a bowl like shape. So over time, the floor bed gets these bulbous shapes that look like the rest of the seafloor because of the sediment deposition, but sometimes the sediment can get eroded or manually drilled and expose the salt to the water and immediately begins to dissolve leaving behind a large dome of now water which causes a lot of sink holes in southern Louisiana. The water gets sucked into the hole of what was the salt, cause trees to become unrooted and swallowed by the sink hole and a lot of erosion from the surround area as millions of gallons of water rush into the center.

[@LeahLuciB]

That is super cool thanks! I'd love to visit the delta some day

[@thalgrond]

One note about bifurcations: early in the video you surmise that much of central Hyrule is a floodplain. When floodplains flow through very flat silty areas - which seem to make up most of Hyrule - bifurcations can become much more common, at least seasonally. In that photo you showed to illustrate what a floodplain looks like, you can make out at least a dozen temporary bifurcations where the river splits and then comes back together. The other place where bifurcations are relatively common is in locations where water's direction changes at low speed, such as lakes or the turbulent pools at the bottoms of waterfalls. We see a lot of that in your hydrological diagram as well. There are a lot of bifurcations, it's true, but more of them are plausible than you'd think. The designers have created a video game landscape with tons of lakes and waterfalls, which is primarily intended to make exploring fun and interesting, but it coincidentally also makes the hydrology make a bit more sense.

[@almightytwinkie2171]

17:02 Up here in Idaho along the snake river, there's a tabletop mountain that actually has between 5-8 waterfalls coming out of the cliff face due to the natural underground resevoir. It looks very wonky at first, but creates a bunch of rainbows at around high noon. I don't actually know the science behind it, I just know it looks cool *1 hour of leaving this comment on hold for research* Ahah, Ritter Island State Park. There's an Aquifer Waterfall on one side of the island-like tabeltop mountain. The specific waterfall there is known as Minnie Miller Falls. They aren't magic, they're just...weird, but also very pretty!

[@levihilton730]

Fun fact, the water follows the same path in Ocarina of time, starting in Zora’s Domain and ending in Lake Hylia and a random unnamed pond

[@semajniomet981]

Fascinating.

[@O52T]

Every time I look at the map and see NO rivers end up in the sea, I always ask myself “where does all the water go?”. Finally someone else recognizes this issue, thank god I’m not alone

[@gregariosity]

Very simple answer in pretty much any situation is groundwater. It’s implausible irl for an area this broad but technically possible with permeable enough soil, and it’s helped in this case bc the water table is being lowered by the magitek water pumps at the ancient waterworks

[@Mediumhatlogan]

12:54 I actually yelled out loud "like fucking 3 trillion" right as you said "3 trillion" and ive never felt so connected to someone

[@npxxi]

he’ll yeah

[@Timthetinygoldfish]

@@npxxi Who will?

[@KourtneysPlasticSaladBowl]

@@Timthetinygoldfish lololol

[@leitmot1f]

yeah

[@standard-carrier-wo-chan]

Now that I think about it, Hyrule reminds me of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, where a river flows to quite literally nowhere in particular (geographically), creating this sprawling delta of flooded plains where "rivers" split and join as it pleases with a very very low flow speed, before finally meeting back somewhere down the line to either stop at dead end lakes or just straight up evaporate away.

[@kindleva]

I'd just like to add that when you drop down from the great sky island, you land in bottomless pond, which probably means there's an underwater source leading to it

[@torrent6181]

I love when you use weird phenomena in the game, like the Lake Hylia whirlpool, to talk about how those situations play out in real life. Like I never would’ve known about that collapse at Lake Peigneur if you hadn’t brought it up, and I think it’s a really cool story

[@OutbackCatgirl]

WTYP has a neat podcast with slides episode about it (which includes the iconic phrase "i do not respect fish") if you're interested in learning more of the timeline

[@yeetman1344]

the constant splitting and weird flow directions also suggest Hyrule may have really weird and inconstant geology, the kind you can get from continuous mass hydrological, volcanic and tectonic activity, and given the great ocean, the presence of a very active volcano. The geography of the land getting mixed up every couple of centuries plus magic this would honestly make sense. It would also suggest that Hyrule may be on several faults and some even going as far as to suggest the entire area is atop an inactive supervolcano, suggesting the depths as its dried-up magma chamber

[@daymuntaku6590]

the dried up magma chamber could make sense, considering the depths are always either room temperature or searing hot depending on how close you are to the hot springs lavas, despite the fact that it's an absurdly large underground cave that would end up being incredibly cold

[@cpMetis]

Actually looking a the map, while idk on the rock composition of the surrounding lands, what if Hyrule is actually the *caldera* of said gigantic super volcano? That would explain the way the mountains seem to cup the whole thing in a basin like that.

[@yeetman1344]

@@cpMetis perhaps but i feel would be alot more igneous formations outside of death mountain and the few intrusions there are

[@yeetman1344]

@@cpMetis i would say death mountain itself is a two-tiered cladera

[@Atmatan]

Sometimes I forget that Hyrule is only a continent.

[@knukls928]

One thing you missed is that in the Zora storyline for Tears, Sidon starts up a whirlpool that leads into the Ancient Zora Waterworks. They are probably the source for the manmade waterfalls and the Zoras are probaby tapping the line for the fountains in the Domain. Also Zora's domain has been referred to as Hyrule's source of water since OoT when it ran through the then King Zora's junk, them making a reservoir makes sense.

[@norock_]

Saw a tweet hating on this video without watching it. Good news is now I have a new channel to binge watch for the next week.

[@egghgfe6116]

Hating on it for what? What was wrong with the video according to the tweet?

[@norock_]

@@egghgfe6116 nothing, just people hating on someone being "too into" something. Yk how people on Twitter are.

[@WhateverIfeelikedoing]

@@egghgfe6116 The Tweet said "nowhere. its a video game. they dont go anywhere. they arent real. dont act like theyre real. theyre pixels on a screen made for our amusement. the rivers dont exist once we turn the game off."

[@itz_kybrrr]

@@WhateverIfeelikedoing That's literally the dumbest thing- I guess that's not surprising for Twitter. Just live and let live, Twitter! This video was really fun

[@egghgfe6116]

@@WhateverIfeelikedoing sad :/

[@NickJerrison]

29:36 Can we all take a second to appreciate the delayed censor sound effect here

[@tastypotato9272]

It's his trademark

[@revolug]

thats a classic any austin bit

[@jaromchristensen5598]

This was also the first time I noticed this in one of his videos 😂

[@RegulationJames]

Not a hydrologist but i am doing a major in ecology and conservation. That difference between the green grassy shoreline and muddy rocky shoreline could be both due to geology of the land as well as the direction and speed of the river. If that right side is taking the brunt if the rivers force, it softens the land, which actually carves the land away on that side and the left side will slowly build up with excess sediment and create a new bank. Over thousands of years, this can lead to the river sort of turning in on itself, causing something called an "Oxbow Lake"

[@ngwoo]

Could be from life too. Some kind of lichen that can't cross the river choking out any attempts for grass to grow

[@TheVRSofa]

@@RegulationJames its not as fun. Bit its because its a texture they already used. It saves memory.

[@lizardskynard4726]

17:17 I also messed with those. I would always patiently wait for the elder man or woman almost always using it then id sit down and put different parts of my arm in it. Like wrist, forearm, bicep. What a blast.

[@virdamofromko-metru1161]

Aside from mythological standpoint, the Wellspring is so high, it the clouds might leave water on the islands as morning dew. Of course, it wouldn't explain all the water gathering there, but it's at least kind of an explanation. Next up we need to remember that in BotW the Divine Beast Vah Ruta was said to drown Hyrule in the future if not stopped, which could mean it created the excess water in Zora's Domain with the Sheikah's "creating ice out of thin air" technology that it clearly possessed. That probably also affected the amount of water in the unseen underground lakes, which also would explain the Domain's waterfalls - not natural, but rather pumps built to circumvent the flooding of Hyrule for a few years by enhancing the flow of water from underground.

[@DaNintendude]

Regarding Vah Ruta, I think it's possible that it was pulling its source from groundwater. Instead of creating new water, it may be pulling water from deep underneath the Reservoir. And regarding the well-spring, remember that all the sky islands existed above a magic cloud barrier pre-TOTK. I think it's possible the wellspring used magic/tech to extract and accumulate water from the cloud barrier, before dispensing it back into the sky, where it would form other rainclouds or something. The Zora's domain waterfalls may possibly be a huge fountain system that pulls water from the lake/reservoir into waterworks underground before directed them back through those waterfalls.

[@PatManDX]

In TOTK we do see mechanisms under one of the lakes near Zora's Domain. Perhaps really ancient pumps dating back to the Zonai era.

[@Highstar25]

Gerudo Valley was my favourite place in TotK, because it felt like one of the few areas that had dramatically shifted since BotW, in no small part because of the lovely river and the way it integrated with the temperature mechanics. It's worth mentioning that in Age of Calamity, Sidon and Mipha do indeed demonstrate that experienced Zora have the ability to magically control large amounts of water.

[@EberTLOZ]

this is also true in totk, when we first encounter sidon he is literally moving the flow of water to separate it the most he can from the mud, thats not even counting his sage abilities, he makes a water bubble shield around you which can also be used as a projectile.

[@romano-britishmedli7407]

In Age of Calamity, the Divine Beasts are also physically able to change the environment by dashing/ramming into it. This would slightly support Any Austin's theory that parts of the water around Hyrule Castle is a result of Hylian-made changes to the natural river.

[@Mari_Izu]

@@EberTLOZ Yeah, in TotK it's said Zoras are capable of manipulating water, which is why they're able to swim extremely fast to the point of swimming waterfalls up. They're basically Zelda's water elves.

[@EberTLOZ]

@@Mari_Izu ye, where are walter elves from tho? what series/universe?

[@Mari_Izu]

@@EberTLOZ D&D, where they're called Aquatic Elves but then spread to other fantasy series.

[@chebikitty5566]

not a hydrologist but i live in an area that has seasonal rivers. During the winter the river dries up because all the water that comes down it is snow melt(and snow isn't melting in the mountains during winter) but during the summer it is fairly full. You could say that TOTK takes place in summer while BOTW takes place in winter alongside some other climate changes(like the fact that the volcano has stopped erupting) that has caused new rivers to form.

[@jvseventeen]

I love this theory, it makes a lot of sense as the seasons really make a huge difference sometimes, especially where water is concerned

[@Regalecus_glesne]

Interesting. Where I live, it’s the exact opposite. Because winter is rainy season, that’s when we get floods. There are whole valleys that get flooded in the winter that are dry in the summer.

[@Atmatan]

​@@Regalecus_glesnebut you don't have snow then

[@Devlinator61116]

Where I live winter and spring are rainy and summer and autumn are dry. (We actually get more sunshine hours in October than in June 😅.)

[@pinkcupcake4717]

Considering the lingering apocalypse in Central Hyrule, the kingdom could be in a permanent state of "nuclear winter" until Ganon is cleared out.

[@mercedes4202]

15:00 hi i've taken two community college geology classes -- this could be a fault line of some kind, where two different continental plates are meeting. this explains the different compositions of the shore. it could be a strike-slip fault; as the plates "slip" past each other, they can erode and grind down dips and valleys along their boundary.

[@Spabobin]

The Zonai are capable of producing infinite water with their hydrants, only needing to wait for the battery to recharge. Maybe there's a "master hydrant" feeding Hyrule

[@courtneyjo42]

I was gonna say, I wonder how both the hydrants and the splash fruit play into the water systems.

[@SaavedraLeon]

isnt that the island that feeds zoras domain? but i dont think it connects to the rest of hyrule

[@jamesThebulbmin]

That's the water temple the water temple is the source of all water

[@twobladedswordsandmauls2120]

Technically possible, but not the case in this instance. While the Zonai are probably not helping the massive amount of flooding the east reservoir lake is known to cause, that lake was already an infinite source of pottable water placed there by Nayru. It's supposed to drain into the Lanayru Sea, but that area is became a giant desert some time before Skyward Sword, so something clearly went horribly wrong at some point.

[@YujiUedaFan]

The goddesses OK'd Hyrule being flooded again because Link just can't do his job right.

[@Violn95]

I saw a tweet that angrily called you out for making this video, calling you stupid for even trying to ask this question, spitefully whinging that they weren't gonna watch your video at all. I, in turn, would like to spite that person and watch your video, because clearly doing this makes you happy. EDIT: This was a VERY enjoyable video, and I'm glad I went out of my way to watch it ^_^

[@hoezay380]

same reason im here lol

[@HylianSwordsman1]

At 25:30, in regards to the idea of fish people having magical control of water, this is actually canon lore, confirmed by Sidon, who states in his "Learnings of the Zora" etchings into the local stone monuments, the following: "We each, to varying extents, possess the ability to actually manipulate water. We use this gift for many purposes." So yeah, probably, the wizard magic you speak of in Zora's Domain is the magical control of water that Zora's have. In those etchings, there's also this lovely tidbit about Hyrule's hydrological formation: "Long, long ago, right here in Lanayru, incredible transformations, both subtle and drastic in nature, shaped the land. The tall mountains birthed clouds, these clouds cried tears of rain, and this rain filled our deep valleys past the brim. In time, this overflowing water became the Zora River, which bred waterfalls that fell and nourished the vast Lanayru Wetlands."

[@siegfread9683]

Well that and the pipe network under the resivour lake. You can go to the depths under the lake and reduce the flooding to reveal the ancient zora waterworks. A massive feat of hydrologic engineering that pipes the resivour all over lanayru provence.

[@Soken50]

@@siegfread9683 Do you mean "reservoir"? Or is that an English word I don't know? I thought it was a typo at first but then you wrote it like that a second time, which makes that pretty unlikely. Sorry for the dumb question, I'm not a native English speaker.

[@Will_Forge]

I live in Louisiana, and I hate to break it to you but the amount that it rains in BotW and TotK is pretty normal to me. Also I know that Japan gets as much rain as Louisiana almost to a T because they're an island and we angered Poseidon, so it stands to reason that a Japanese company designed the game to rain that much. Anyway, great video, and the effort to make the animation was absolutely worth it. I'm making a game right now, and since it's in the land of Fairy the water flows up-river so you'd think it would flow along the ridges of mountains and then "water fall" into the sky, but it's actually a bunch of spirits that lay down where they want and the upward flow is simply the spirits returning the water to its source for the realms of man where it can once again flow down hill, because fuck the water table. The rivers are fed by the spirits and fairies put dew drops on the grass one drop at a time, and Poseidon brings the rain and the storms because he hates river boats and Mardi Gras.

[@SEMIA123]

Most of the landscape changes can be explained by the Uprising physically altering parts of the landscape. We know that the chasms, for instance, opened up after the incident so its possible that it shifted around other parts of the map, opened up caves, etc.

[@Alexander_Alexander]

ganon might not be able to rule over the lands but he sure knows how to get rid of a giant iconic lake

[@pembertr0n]

Also before BotW there were massive archaeological digs to unearth the ancient Sheikah tech, and afterwards nothing was done to maintain the man-made waterways for a century

[@bingonight1504]

"oh what the hell is that" to the whirlpool was so funny. I can just imagine a real life hydrologist having that reaction

[@LimeyLassen]

I think a hydrologist would just say "Uh oh"

[@Frooti.loopz23]

Ngl, that killed me 😂

[@Herowho42]

There is actually 1 more instance of sloped water in the game and you're going to love it. It's in the middle of the ocean on the east side of hyrule, due east of the words "Ja'Abu Ridge" on the map. There's an odd "hill" of water in the ocean and I'm pretty sure it was there in Breath of the Wild as well.

[@kaiseremotion854]

somethings hiding beneath the waves...

[@Reliken]

Ocean Zora City!

[@basketcase77]

The delayed useless bleep at 29:35 had me dying. Also, I forgot about the blood pressure machines in the grocery store. Haven't seen one for a long time. They were always fun while mom was checking out at the register.

[@bdk336]

It's actually a historical point from official material that the East Reservoir Lake is a symbol of the bond between the Zora and Hyrule because it was built in ancient times to stop the regular flooding of the lands downstream and the Zora actively manage its water level. Cora Lake actually is a proper outlet or at least was an outlet. If you go there in Breath of the wild you can tell there's a channel beneath the water level flowing in one end at a corner of Lake Hylia and out the other at Cora Lake. That channel is the same one that's been uprooted in Tears of the Kingdom and become a traversible tunnel you can see on the map. Aside: I suspect that the hylia river reversed or diverted some point in history and previously carved out the canyon that separates Hebra from the other regions.

[@reyeg1148]

25:44 in Zelda Breath of the Wild is stated that the local Divine Beast is able to create water from air, which is probably a good reason for the spawning water

[@skyhonni]

The fact that there is now waterfalls in the sky adding new water to the atmosphere is actually really interesting, mostly because one could argue that it’s the main reason why Windwaker is as flooded as it is.

[@idonthaveskill5054]

TotK is the end of the timeline tho

[@zeldaindisguise]

Oh wait, that's a really cool idea. In the opening legend, when the people prayed to the gods (goddesses) and they responded by temporarily sealing and flooding Hyrule, it could literally just be the gods (goddesses) opening the Water Temple's floodgates to full blast. We know the sky islands have been up there all this time and simply shielded from sight so that people on the surface wouldn't see them -- like Skyloft and the other smaller islands not being visible in Skyward Sword (via the protective cloud barrier) -- so for all we know, that wellspring has been up there as some water-failsafe-control-mechanism since...the Minish Cap cloud dwellers/Twilight Princess Oocca society/who knows how long. A sacred temple used to flood the world and trap Ganondorf until the Hero has the chance to reappear. It's a neat idea to think about!

[@xSilentZeroXx]

@@zeldaindisguise That'd require TOTK to be connected to any of the other games though (it isn't)

[@saltop1879]

​@@xSilentZeroXx(it is)

[@lemoncakeslemonade5430]

I know that TOTK ostensibly is at the end of the timeline, if it’s connected to any of the games at all…. but all of it’s connections to the various ways that it could be flooded (most of it is below sea level, slight evidence that Hyrule is sinking, all of the stuff going on with the underwater river systems, everything going down with Zora’s domain, the sky water/waterfalls) in conjection with Windwaker is still *very* intriguing

[@mariapina7553]

fun fact this is not the first time nintendo does a thing like this in a zelda game. in majoras mask all the water is pretty much connected, you can see this river all up in the mountains and i assume through caves and out of bounds canals it feeds the waterfall and bigger river on Ikana canyon, which has by itself a shortcut directly through water to the swamp at the south which is, once again, a place filled with water pretty much everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if that water took off to great bay either with the beaver's rivers or someplace else

[@mmnootzenpoof]

"green on one side, dry and rocky on the other" happens in the western US, when rivers run east/west. the north bank receives a lot more sun than the south bank, getting hotter and drying out much sooner, so the south bank stays green longer in the spring/early summer.

[@MikMoen]

In Skyward Sword, during the Gerudo Desert section where you can turn back time in a small area around those stones, it reveals the entirety of the Gerudo Desert was actually the "Gerudo Sea". I have no idea if it was just a massive lake, or sea levels were actually higher back then and the Desert used to be part of the Ocean, but that could explain Hyrule's rivers flowing in that direction.

[@Shnarfbird]

Quite the opposite! It was Lanayru, which is shown to be still verdant and lush in this version of Hyrule. Though this idea could still hold merit, just take SS out of the equation. I think I saw coastline in the far distance of Gerudo? I'd have to check, but it could indicate that there is much more ice around the poles than there used to be.

[@Ryan-xj5et]

@@Shnarfbird the region of Lanyru in skyward sword canonically DID become the gerudo desert it is well known the electric elemental affinity in that game and the gerudo dragonfly (theorised to be where the gerudo got their name) catchable in lanyru desert in Skyward sword itself all but confirm this alone . Lanayru in botw/totk is a completely new area that just takes the same name of the goddess. the designers likely wanted 3 areas named after the goddesses still ( lanaryu after nayru) but didn't want to rename the iconic gerudo desert in a game with the actual gerudo. Lanayru was another area in twilight princess, being the region with hyrule castle and lake hylia or just central hyrule in botw/totk. the names changing of hyrules locations is much more plausible as they stay wanting an eldin, lanayru, and faron regions but lanayru being the water elemental makes sense to switch over time after the desertisation of the lanayru sea to once people resettle in hyrule to be to lake hylia/ central and once urbanisation took a hold in central to change lanayru to be a more water based natural region again and not an urban region.

[@keiyakins]

Even in Breath of the Wild there were some spots that *really* looked like water was flowing into an inaccessible underwater cave. Also, Hyrule did literally just have a massive geograhic upheavel caused by dark magic. Things being a little weird while it tries to restablize is pretty understandable

[@austinwilburn1772]

I love how he went “oh what the hell is that?” in the most annoyed way when seeing the sink hole for the first time. Sounds like a real hydrolysis.

[@regrettablemuffin9186]

Really love the claim “I don’t know what that means because I’m not a *nerd*” in the sponsor segment of the ‘where do all the rivers in Hyrule go’ video

[@1forge2rulethemall88]

This is also why when helping make dnd maps I ask the makers questions like "where does that river flow to?", "is this area at a higher or lower elevation?", "where is the source/outlet of this body of water?" A couple minutes later and suddenly rivers flow from mountains to oceans and such. The maps look much better after.

[@biggestnoob4704]

Doyalist answer: multiple teams worked separately to design each section of Hyrule before another team had to piece the parts together, but having no geographers involved, nobody knew that rivers are supposed to empty into the oceans off to the East of Hyrule. Watsonian explanation: the ancient sages and later the ancient Sheikah terraformed Hyrule to better keep Ganondorf contained, so all of the rivers empty out into the ocean through underground caves that they left the care and maintenance of to the Zora. Edit: Also! I vouch we make a mod that takes that unnamed lake and dub it Gerudo Lake!

[@niello5944]

Yes, finally someone in the comment said it. There is no geologist in the team and they don't know how rivers work. It'd be nice if there are fantasy elements at play, unfortunately, there's not much in the lore to suggest they are intentional world building decisions.

[@dreamer1292]

your "watsonian explanation" is actually partially correct (it doesnt have anything to do with sealing ganondorf). we KNOW that the water from lanayru came from the water temple, its stated multiple times in game, so the zonai of the old (way before rauru and mineru) built the water temple with the zora and they in turn became guardians of the region its also a key factor to note that this water used to flood hyrule especially the central portion we can see that fom the hyrule map in the forgotten temple which showed the topography and rivers of hyrule from raurus era. it is satated in creating a champion (a lore book of botw) that around 10.000 yrs ago the zora and the sheikah worked together to built a dam that in the lanayru region and that dam is the east reservoir which is consistent with the map of hyrule from the forgotten temple which dates back from wat before the dam was built. so it was a deliberate decision from the devs to make zoras domain water very odd and behave in magical ways.

[@Mr-Trox]

​@@dreamer1292 It's not just in that book, one of the stone tablets on the way to Zora's Domain mentions why the dam and reservoir exist.

[@dreamer1292]

@@Mr-Trox yes that it exist, not the time of origin, repercussions to the land and who else aided on building it.

[@Celesti1a]

Especially your tloz videos are kind of one of my reasons to live it's just so interesting to be interested in something we shouldn't, to be like "wow this is so cool even if normally nobody would care" but we do and you do it very well, thank you you're a great human

[@HitakaPhoenix]

This video reminded me of a cool detail. In the ancient temple where it shows the locations of all the geoglyph memories, the map of Hyrule shows what it presumably looked like thousands of years ago. You can see in Hyrule Field there are several large lakes that don't exist anymore, which lends credence to the idea that it's a large floodplain. The lakes might have dried up when the Zoras built the dam to reduce flooding in Hyrule.

[@stumbleduckwaywocket5818]

10:55 Fun fact, this area is actually the edge of a large lake deeper underground (on the chasm layer), and I'm fairly sure that's where it's implied the stream + meltwater go from here. Great video!

[@TheBreadPirate]

That ending animations was so satisfying!!

[@micaiahleigh2449]

This is my crossover episode moment

[@auraFireblood]

Funny you mention floodplains. If you look at the map in the back of the forgotten temple, the rivers look different and central hyrule is flooded. Theres a river from lake hylia that goes AROUND the great plateau that connects to aquame lake and then where the diggdogg suspension bridge is

[@Mr-Trox]

One of the stone tablets on the way to Zora's Domain mentions the fact that Central Hyrule and the Domain both used to be flooded regularly before the Hylians built the Rutala Dam and the Eastern Resovoir 10,000 years ago.

[@DragonXero]

"Because I'm not a NERD! Anyway back to mapping out the rivers in a video game." That one made it worth watching the ad all the way through!

[@grafzeppelin4069]

The reason sloping water is so rare is that ALL of the overworld water (except maybe small puddles) is created by a single layer of "water surface" that is mostly kept deep underground, and is "pulled up" to form the surfaces of lakes, ponds, rivers, etc.

[@voidformer839]

Come to think of it, that explains the impassable walls in the depths. It wasn't just an artistic choice, they did it to hide the water layer being pulled up to the surface

[@squibble08]

im pretty sure that it doesnt work that way in totk it sure did in botw but totk has sky islands and chasms and stuff which would need a break in the water unless the water level is below the depths but from videos ive seen of people clipping below the depths that is not the case

[@croissantic]

I think there's a really good chance that a lot of the rivers and lakes connect to the ocean via underground rivers. When you enter the Highland Stable Well, it's clear that the well draws fresh water. But as you explore deeper into the cave system the well connects to, you can find porgy, a salt water species, meaning the system may very well have been an outlet to the sea in the past (maybe seasonal). I also think it's fun to consider that the Great Fairies might utilize this extensive underwater system for communication with each other and as a space to reside in.

[@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968]

ngl, i kinda saw that "most water is from zora's domain" coming, because that is consistent with hyrule's geology (hydrology?) back from Ocarina of time and i think a link between worlds aswell. I'm pretty sure in OOT the only river on the entire map starts at Jabujabu's lake in zora's domain, which appearently turned into eastreservoire lake, and empties into lake hyrule, not completely sure anymore but i think the same is true for a link between worlds.

[@metallicoustic6733]

I'm pretty sure this is Austin's best work. The multiple teases of later content to keep the viewer engaged was very well-implemented, the quick joke edits were on-point, all the work he put into the animation at the end, and my favorite part, the missed bleep when he said "fuck-ton" 😂😂😂

[@dradenyyg4805]

An interesting possibility for the downstream cave and its connecting river that inexplicably flows towards the apparent source of the water, is that it is a relatively recent hydrological development. Perhaps sometime in the distant past the river flowed from the highlands to the main river and formed a confluence, but that water source has since been redirected (made apparent in the upheaval as the groundwater flowed into the previously dry Gerudo canyon) There’s still some degree of flow from the cave and such into the old channel, but it wasn’t enough to cause it to flow. Thus the main river course back-flowed into the now much lower channel, explaining both the apparent backwards flow of the river and its very slow flow speed.

[@kellanheikkila3553]

Not a hydrologist, but I took fluid mechanics. At 19:41 you are assuming the velocity of the water is the same at both the mississippi river and the lake hylia drainage. Its not really a realistic assumption but for the sake of making an approximation lets go with it. In this case, you need to compare the cross sectional areas of fluid flow, rather than the widths of the cross sections. Flow rate (in ft^3/s) equals velocity (in ft/s) times area (in ft^2). So, the flow rate is proportional to the cross sectioanl area. Austin used meters for the sizes, but the math actually works out so that it doesnt matter. For the mississippi, lets assume the cross section is a triangle formed by either bank and the deepest point in the river (like this 🔻). Deepest point is 60 m (google search). A = 0.5*b*h = 0.5*804 m*61 m = 24,522 m^2 For the hylia drainage, lets assume the cross section is a circle with diameter 4 m. A = pi*(D/2)^2 = pi*(4/2)^2 = 4*pi = 12.56 m^2 Let's set up an equation and do the math. Q is flow rate, V is velocity, and A is area. "m" denotes mississippi while "h" denotes hylia. Vm = Vh Qm/Am = Qh/Ah (remember Q = VA, so V = Q/A). (600,000 ft^3/s)/(24,522 m^2) = Qh/(12.56 m^2) Qh = (12.56 m^2 * 600,000 ft^3/s)/(24,522 m^2) Qh = 307 ft^3/s So lake hylia drains about 307 cubic feet every second, by my calculations 🤓 To put it more succinctly, I just did what Austin did, but using areas instead of lengths. 24,522/12.56 = 1952.4 600000/1952.4 = 307 Edit: upon closer inspection, making better assumptions and taking in-game measurements (see replies), my best approximation for the flow rate is about 6,000 cubic feet per second. Austin's approximations were not too far off!

[@Astroplatypus]

Yeah that's a common mistake scaling by length instead of area. Actually I left a similar comment on the Fallout video about Austin's analysis of crater density.

[@mrhalfsaid1389]

Either way it's a scary amount of water flowing underground to the ground

[@jtheguy-n2b]

Came looking for this comment! Many thanks. I wonder what happens if we assume different velocities, though? Wouldn't you expect Hylia's to be greater since it's essentially a waterfall?

[@kellanheikkila3553]

@@jtheguy-n2b Yes, I think it would much greater! But if we dont know the velocity of lake hylias drainage, we cant solve for the flow rate. I became a little obsessed with finding an answer to this problem lol, so I've made a better approximation below. I think maybe we can use bernoullis equation to find the velocity: P1 + 0.5×d×v1^2 + d×g×h1 = P2 + 0.5×d×v2^2 + d×g×h2 Where P is pressure, d is density, v is velocity, g is acceleration due to gravity, and h is height, and 1 and 2 denote two different points in the fluid. If we choose point 1 to be a point on the surface of the lake, and point 2 to be the point where the water drains, then the equation can be simplified. P1 = P2 (atmospheric pressure), v1 = 0 (velocity is basically 0 at the surface), h1 = 0 (we can choose an elevation to be our reference, in this case the surface). Factoring in all of this, the equation simplifies to v2 = sqrt(2×g×h2), where h2 is the difference in elevation between the surface and the drainage. I booted up the game and took some measurements. The surface of the lake is at -16 m, and the drainage is at -58 m (I'm assuming the in-game coordinates are in meters). So, the difference in elevation is 42 m. v2 = sqrt(2 × 9.81 m/s^2 × 42 m) v2 = 28.7 m/s. Additionally, I noticed that the drainage is not circular like I originally assumed, but rather rectangular like a waterfall. My very rough measurements are length = 6 m and width = 1 m, giving a cross sectional area of 6 m^2. So, my updated approximation for the flow rate is: Q = v × A = 28.7 m/s × 6 m^2 = 172.2 m^3/s Which equals about 6,077 ft^3/s. Austin was actually pretty close with his first guess! I'm not sure if this calculation was valid, given that the lake was draining in a whirlpool fashion. But it's the best I've got.

[@jtheguy-n2b]

@@kellanheikkila3553 Incredible. It's getting late and I'm not familiar with bernoullis equation, so I'll have to revisit this tomorrow to understand better. Amazing job though, huge respect for the dedication and maths!

[@flimbusmin]

I love your videos so much. This is honestly the kind stuff I'd wonder about as a kid playing games, so to see you exploring it with such humor and thoroughness is a complete joy. This has quickly become one of my favorite video game channels, so thank you!

[@DiamondPanda207]

One thing probably worth noting is that in botw it’s mentioned that divine beast vah ruta produces an unlimited amount of water, with the plot relevance being it threatens to flood all of central hyrule from the sheer amount of water being put out. This makes me curious as to exactly what that flood would look like in terms of how it would change the map

[@giddy7079]

Forgot about this point, Looks like the Sheikah and Zonai (Hydrant devices & Water Temple) both had the technology to create infinite water which can help explain away some of the weird "wizard magic" waterfalls. The land has been run by two powerful races with the ability to "create" water, so it would make sense that the hydrology would be a bit messed up lol

[@0x0wlOnYT]

Well the premise of Wind Waker is Hyrule was flooded.

[@RobinRhombus2]

The reason water in Hyrule can only lose altitude via waterfalls is because of the way Nintendo (and many game developers) programmed the water. It's not actual water. It's a rectangle with a water texture on it. It's not bound by what's visible to the player. It's just clipped into the terrain. The sloping water in Zora's domain isn't water either. It's just regular ground that Link just clips slightly into.

[@awildmoose6541]

No shit? Everyone knows this, why bring it up?

[@RobinRhombus2]

@@awildmoose6541 He asked.

[@Weebslayer13]

I don't know anything about game development so i didn't know that, so thank you for bringing it up 😊

[@VK-pn6rg]

@@awildmoose6541I didn’t know and appreciated it

[@ericvilas]

I noticed that the Hyrule Castle moat bifurcations are responsible for a lot of the water that goes to the unnamed lake - maybe originally only the small Gerudo rivers went there but after the moat was dug it disrupted the river flow and took water away from Lake Hylia

[@panosmosproductions3230]

The one river in this game that actually does flow into the ocean is the Menoat River, and it’s starting point isn’t far south of Lake Hylia, which I think is proof that Lake Hylia will have a channel to the ocean south of it which time. And looking at the color of this river on the map tells me that it’s an ocean inlet.

[@louloudaki_]

0:34 everyone asks where is the water but nobody asks how is the water😔

[@Thatreal_guy]

Yea take a moment to think about it

[@NGDandelion]

Well, let that sink in.

[@TheMasterOfCornedy]

Wet

[@RIskSO]

Not a hydrologist but I did have to take some hydrogeology and sedimentary deposits classes for my bachelors and I would like to add on top of what the other people with probably a lot more experience than I do that I think that the entirety of hyrule is covered by a karst river system aka the rock is mainly made of easily dissolvable rocks like limestone, dolomite or gypsum. The ground water seeps into the ground threw cracks and faults, dissolves the rock in place and created underground river systems so you end up with above ground lakes and streams that don’t seem to be connected at all. These easily dissolvable rocks are also called evaporites which means they are created in shallow marine environments with a lot of evaporation. With enough topography change, this sedimentary environment can change which then can result in the diagenesis (actual formation of the hard rock) and then the deposition of sediment deposits. So hyrules hydrogeology is actually pretty believable. This is not to say there isn’t any other type of rock that could explain the different canyons and lakes in hyrule though. Sorry if I’m not using the proper terms these concepts I didn’t learn all of this in English and Google didn’t offer the translations I wanted lol.

[@RIskSO]

In karst environments you can actually have holes in the sides of cliffs with water coming out so it isn’t even that unbelievable thwt it would be there either lol

[@beawolfe]

Hey. That animation at the end was one of the best parts of this video. I like to be able to visualize the entire map like that!

[@YouTubeHandleButWhy]

@any_austin Not a hydrologist as requested, but a geologist nonetheless... at 15:02 you point out the visible difference in terrain and plantlife either side of the river, for which there is a real-world explanation! It isn't that the river has caused the apparent divide in the landscape, more likely that the river and divide have been caused/created by the same geological boundary. Different rock types can promote the growth of very different plants. For example, limestone often has lush green vegetation growing on it while sandstones right next to it might have a much more barren plant cover (due to the availability of minerals and nutrients from the rocks) - these changes in vegetation can often help geologists spot where boundaries between rock types are! So assuming the rocks on either side of this Hyrulean river are different, it is not surprising that the river has carved out its channel right in the middle of the geological boundary, as we see this all the time in the real world! A geological 'fault' would be reasonable theory in this case, as rocks in a fault zone (which has brought two types of rock together through movement/sliding) are often very crushed up and therefore easily eroded into by flowing water. So the river will erode and follow the existing geological boundary. :)

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

Just ask that one lady from "A Wife Washed Away".

[@HyperfixationStation]

Mei!

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

​@@HyperfixationStation that's her name! Right!

[@kalcifer5558]

i’m so happy i have seen this video and now i’m going through your whole library. you are one of the first people i’ve seen explore the parts of games that fascinate me the most - the mundanity? the things outside of what we normally consider. i think exploring the corners, reaching for the invisible walls, learning about these manufactured worlds that hundreds of people poured thousands of hours into makes me appreciate the worlds even more. i think you validate my feelings when it comes to open world games and elements to their success which is creating interest beyond the set goal. whenever i play an open world game, what intrigues me the most is the parts i can’t reach. that look real but i can’t go to. this especially was true during ghost of tsushima playthrough looking at the mongol ships on the horizon of the sea. it sparks a sense of wonder and desire for adventure in me. so much so i start viewing the real world like that. what is the origin of this path im walking? where does this river lead to? i know on twitter people were shitting on the thumbnail but your videos have an audience and i appreciate them very much.

[@rareosts5752]

Welcome.

[@Khronogi]

Welcome in friendo.

[@quillalmighty]

24:00 I think that they're pumps. I think the Zora are using either machinery or magic to pump water from underground sources, or magically trasport it from lakes and rivers.