Idk I Have Thoughts But None Of Them Are Clear Enough To Make A Whole Post About - Tumblr Posts

How cool that Hyrule Castle in Breath of the Wild was so remarkably detailed. You could glean so much insight from found journals, and the specialized rooms--some places still somewhat preserved, like a time capsule--gave a sense of courtly life before the Calamity struck.

But one of the most surprising details was in a hidden room off of the library. You could pull a bookshelf aside to reveal a secret corridor. As you venture up the staircase, the Hylian brickwork transitions to a cavern of blasted rock; clearly an older part of the castle.

You turn a corner, and one of the rock walls has large panels missing--perhaps damage from the violent earthquakes on the day of the Second Calamity--to reveal a few broad surfaces of Sheikah technology.

This is the first indication that Hyrule Castle was built upon a massive Sheikah structure. That structure had to have built >10k years ago, because the guardians, Divine Beasts, etc. were created in preparation of the return of Ganon, wherein he was defeated 10k years ago.

This raises questions:

When was Hyrule Castle built? Was this part of the earlier King of Hyrule's attempt to literally bury the Sheikah technology that defeated Ganon, in his paranoid attempt to protect his own crown?

Those Shiekah walls were under a layer of rock; could it be that the Sheikah tech is much, much older?

The shrines are entrances to large--often vast--subterranean ancient Sheikah structures. How much of Hyrule was terraformed by the ancient Sheikah, anyway? Is there a lot more just waiting under the surface?

Then, deep under the very heart of the castle sits an ancient Sheikah astral observatory.

This is fascinating for several reasons:

Why were the Sheikah monitoring the movements of the stars?

Constellations are constantly present in the walls and architecture of ancient Sheikah shrines and motifs; this is clearly an important part of ancient Sheikah culture, but why? Are celestial bodies somehow related to ancient Sheikah history?

What was the purpose of that larger Sheikah structure, before Hyrule Castle was built over it? It can't all be observatory. Was it once an ancient Sheikah city?

Where was the prior Hylian capital? The city at Lanayru? Are there ruins of another Hyrule Castle somewhere?

...but the BotW2 trailers hinted that Link and Zelda were exploring under the castle, and the architecture there was arguably Zonai. Do the Zonai predate the ancient Sheikah? Is that site just a layer cake of forgotten empires that built over the prior?