The Royal Family of Hyrule, The Shadow Temple and the Holly Inquisition Part One

I can't stop seeing this parallelism on the real world case that the Royal Family of Hyrule with the Spanish Inquisition and how the Royal Family consolidated their power through the blood of the goddess.

Is not weird to see the similarities as the ultimate means of the Royals to consolidate their power became religion, the religion centered in Hylia, the Triforce and the miracles executed in the Royal Family first born daughter who was always presented as the avatar of the goddess. The idea of centering a figure as the maximum authority is not strange in any religious organization, from the Pope to the Elders, there is always someone and Zelda plays the role or at least could be seen as puppet leader in which the shadow lead uses for the expansion of the ideology and the kingdom.

What is the hypothesis of my theory? If we use the unified timeline or dragonbreak as we can call it also call it, we can find a parallel that the Royal Family had an interest into unifying their religion centered on Hylia and abolish any potential ones that could create competition towards their power and hegemony on the land such as the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula that was ruled by the Muslim in 1492, but to explain specific to regain control of the geography as because probably there was a riff and the family lose power before the Great Calamity.

We can see different religious fetishes and totems around Hyrule, i.e. Breath of the Wild, where the Seven Heroines are reverb or the Desert Colossus (Goddess of the Sand) in Ocarina of Time which show the difference in religions which for someone or a group that looks to execute their power that could a problem, as the act of proselytize could bury older religions and bring new adepts but subjugate and exterminate large ethnic groups.

There are similarities between antisemitic attitudes that many people held towards Gerudo's and even Sheikas, similar as the 13th Century up to the 14th Century Spaniard anti-Jewish sentiment similar as the riots that happened in Barcelona, which I can relate to the Hyrule Civil War that unified Hyrule under one banner but at the expense of the permanent lost of lore, language and traditions from tribes that weren't related to the Royals.

Albeit during the game there aren't specific examples towards conversion, but rather vague quotes that gives hints about the history, it makes me think what initiated the Civil War was that the King of Hyrule in the Ocarina Timeline timeline was extremely similar as Peter the Cruel and started a way just on a mere impulse in which he saw infidels on other tribes based on his own insecurities but also on what the cult centered around his daughter and the Royal Family as the guardians of the sacred power was placed.

The hatred Hylians and other races had to the Gerudos had over the different timelines borders the antisemitism that has been presented on with the Jewish population over the centuries, but also it can be taken on the Islamophobia as is a tribe that historically speaking with the franchise had been prosecuted because of the idea they are thieves but also they are a threat to the status quo or in better words the escape goat or the justification to preserve the Royal Family in the power. 

According to Don Hasdai Crescas, persecution against Jews began in earnest in Seville in 1391, on the 1st day of the lunar month Tammuz (June).[16] From there the violence spread to Córdoba, and by the 17th day of the same lunar month, it had reached Toledo (called then by Jews after its Arabic name "Ṭulayṭulah") in the region of Castile.[17] From there, the violence had spread to Majorca and by the 1st day of the lunar month Elul it had also reached the Jews of Barcelona in Catalonia, where the slain were estimated at two-hundred and fifty. So, too, many Jews who resided in the neighboring provinces of Lérida and Gironda and in the kingdom of València had been affected,[18] as were also the Jews of Al-Andalus (Andalucía),[19] whereas many died a martyr’s death, while others converted in order to save themselves. (Wikipedia)

But who were the core cult who preserved the the Royals? the similar to the Holly See, the answer lies on the Sheikas. Their role in the rise of the first family of Hyrule is quite complex because they are their bodyguards but also there is a parallelism on being clerics, since they seem to know and profess the message of the Goddess. The story of the Sheikas can be scarce and it adjust on each timeline but there are two games in which the players can see the roles of they are Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild.

The Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well are the two spots to see the torture devices and locations in which the Sheikas mimicked the inquisitors techniques of torture such as the rack that is seen in the photo to the left, which to explain in an easy way would break someone's back but also pull every single limb out of your body, which can explain the poodle of blood that is bellow the torture device.

The Sheika's were ruthless but also fanatics on their devotion to Hylia that they would support a war to protect the incarnation. Albeit on a far point within the timeline such as BotW the tribe that is presented is completely changed and has taken a more agricultural and trader because of the Great Calamity influence over the land.

The evolution of the Sheikas on the unified timeline probably offers a different interpretation as there are no signs of them on previous incarnation and they are more focused on them as a revolutionaries with technology, which itself is a contradiction in reference to them as Inquisitors in the real world because the Inquisition set back technology and human advancement several centuries behind, even on Hyrule Castle the traces of torture chambers are almost none existent.

The Sheikas - Between Blood, Magic and Technology

At first I was trying to write an article on genome and hereditary traits towards the Sheika's, but the only ending I had was their "red eyes and seemingly long life spans" then I thought why not to talk about a more applied concept towards the characters development in the real world and that has been the Sheika's influence in Hyrule technology, socio-political history and how they used magic as a natural resource to boost their discoveries. So, this is just the first entry of a few to explain how can a tribe implement a change within their cosmos.

To place a real world example the influence of the Sheika's mimic the rise of superpowers after World War 2  (1) in which an economical power rise and other whiter after an economical crisis that is tied to social problematic; historically speaking in our world an empire has a duration of 80 years which is also linked to how the world goes into crisis or recessions within a similar time-frame.

Generational speaking, within 3 generations we are destined to repeat mistakes that were on the time of our great-grandfathers but if we go on a more contemporary example right now we are repeating mistakes saw within the generation of the 20 which encompass our grandparents. If we analyze the Sheika's behavior towards their world events, they'd been there within almost every crisis.

We are going to place the Sheika's within every possible scenario with the new converged timeline and we are going to place the structure of the classic feudal Hyrule into a constitutional monarchy as it's the idea I could observe within Breath of the Wild because there were hints on how each dependency or province ruled their own land but ultimate they were influenced by the Royal Family of Hyrule.

The Sheika's power within the kingdom of Hyrule was merely economical, within a context they could be seen as some form of Silicon Valley (2) but also besides being the guardians of the royals they were also the people who influenced the political, mercantile and technological advances of the entire kingdom, we can see they were even more powerful in terms of influence than the Royal Family.

The most crucial aspect on their hegemony were their technological development such as the Gossip Stones (3) which they can decode, transmit information but also self-destruct if the situation is need thus keeping the information safe from the hands of the enemies of the Kingdom, in terms of warfare the Sheikas were ruthless and also could had seize the control of the Kingdom because at least in theory they were more powerful than the Royals but it would lead to a paradox what if you defy the reincarnation of the Goddess you swore to protect? Probably the best answer would be in the creation of the Yiga clan.

Why do I mentioned Silicon Valley before? Because the similarities are there, the two with their interaction on technology influenced politics but also on how the kingdom or the country developed (4) towards politics; politics are usually interlinked with how much you can lobby towards an ideal but also how can you benefit from the ruling class of the country.

Silicon Valley as a PR move they usually present themselves as more of nerdy influencer in which they are usually the first ones that give an idea that everyone should take on their homes or the latest technology, but reality is far macabre because we can look at the scandals of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (5) in which information became the prime treasure in terms of technological warfare.

Talking about Breath of the Wild, we continued with on how the Sheika's are the protectors of the Goddess, but also through the game experience we are shown as spectators on how the influence technology over the millenia with the creation of the Divine Beasts in which it consolidated them as a race devoted to warfare; a hypotethis I have is that the Royal's didn't placed their power based solely on magic or Triforce but on war games.

In terms of military expansion, natural resources are usually the main objective on war declarations or conquest of territories, geographical outpost and appropriation of information tends also to be the related to reasons of war, because with information, with natural resources and conquest of territories you can become richer, lets think of oil but also precious mineral as our in our world and in between all of that the Sheika's where always there and they are the reason why the Hyrule Royal Family became extremely powerful.

Probably at the end of the converged timeline there wasn't too much information, but there are hints on why the empire fall and that's the lack of coordination to keep the socio-economical power of the kingdom at check   

References:

1. https://medium.com/@ntsikayezwefakude/rise-of-the-superpowers-the-united-states-vs-russia-f298ce3767ca 
2. http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/foucault1.pdf
3. https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Gossip_Stone
4. https://www.thenation.com/article/how-silicon-valley-hacked-the-economy/
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-explained.html

The Multiversal Paradox of Beedle and the Happy Mask Salesman

Who are they?

This is just a mere theory based on observation of the different games that contain the Happy Mask Salesman and Beedle which they seem to exist outside of a temporal correlation of time and space, or to use a better word atemporal beings, because no matter where you are, no matter where you go, you will always find them, up to the point I am thinking they could belong to a separate race of characters such as beings that do not follow the same physic rules as Hylians but also they could be guardians left by the Goddess's to protect the Hero named Link through the ages.

Beedle and the Happy Mask Salesman through their different incarnations exhibit similar abilities to each other, they know events that are happening around them, they have abilities to teleport around the field of gameplay, they seem to be immortal as enemies just ignore them or simply don't mess with them; another ability the two characters carry between each other is to simply have access to a large amount of objects and pull them out of nowhere to assist Link.

Happy

 The knowledge of the Happy Mask Salesman seems to be vast and there are proof he traveled to different universes based on his first appearances where he keeps mementos int he form of masks through his travels on the different universes.

A theory I have, and I am sure many others had it also is that the Mask Salesman can alter his appearances to adapt to the timeline he is in, or at least to blend with the population which let people wonder who he really is? And if he could be related to his last incarnation that goes by the name Kilton.

Kilton and the Happy Mask Salesman have a lot in common besides their obssession with masks, they only appear at certain moments, have quirks on how they react to link but also seem to create powerful objects to assist the player. Kilton itself could be HMS who adapted his appearance to the unified timeline.

Since the unified timeline contains pieces of the previous ones, then it wouldn't be strange that HMS would find a way to survive but also to discard his previous appearance that was Hylian related into a more "creepy one" since there was no need to try to blend in with the decimated society that Hyrule turned to be after the Calamity Ganon.

Beedle

Beedle on the other hand I find him far more interesting, because he has been since the beginning of time aiding Link as a shopkeeper; around Breath of the Wild  he can travel everywhere in the blink of an eye or essentially be where and exists where you are at the same time.

For me Beedle is omnipotent and in a certain way omniscient such as the HMS but regards the incarnation his appearence always keep a similar look such as the bowl-do and the same mannerism over the different timelines and millennia, which let me think he could be the same person you find on the different placements.

The problem is to explain the existence of these two characters towards the multiverse theory, even on a epystemelogical way is difficult because it will lead these characters as an extension of a higher God or Goddess that is beyond the Golden Goddess's and that deity manifest itself in the most humanoid or monstrous form that is always behind Link to ensure his victory.

Some people say Zelda being the reincarnation as Hylia is the Goddess of Time have enough power, but on her humanoid form even if she wields great skills she seems to be more of a herald of the higher beings or a lesser god that rejected her divinity to become a guardian for eternity trapped in a cycle of reincarnation, while Beedle and HMS seem to defy every form of logic and manipulate time and space and time and seem to have an absolute power to manipulate their surroundings to always be there, vigilant.