aubergion | Tears of the Kingdom: Lose Yourself (Reply)

There are two major things I want to do in Eldin:

First, I need to use my journalist powers to fix this musical troupe at Woodland Stable. It turns out their cart broke. Well why didn't you just SAY so? I've done this at New Serenne, I know how this works. Have some wheels, and a horse to go with it - I caught them a new spotted horse because I don't have any I'd like to give away at this point. Except they don't want a horse, they want me to be their delivery driver. Well fINe. It's not like I have better things to do. I hitch them up to Chino and we're on our way.

Tera says that she was warned by Zelda that the land would be consumed by gloom and monsters. Technically not wrong, but kind of a downer. But then she suggests Zelda's demeanor was strange, like it wasn't really Zelda. Are you telling me there might be a princess imposter running around on top of all of this other crap? Oh boy. But the important part is that Tera is out of her bud, and Penn's happy, and I'm getting paid. Time for clothing upgrades - what do you mean they cost rupees now???

Well, last time I spent 11,600 rupees just to get them to wake up. I'm going to keep tabs on my clothing-rupee expenditures and see if I'm saving rupees this way. Also, between Mija, the musicians, and the bridge quest still not being entirely done, I think I've got cause to head back to Hebra after this. But first things first - there's a geoglyph in the area. Two, actually - one nearby and the other on the far side of Death Mountain. Might as well grab both, while I'm here. Chino and I ride up to the Skyview Tower, at which point I catapult myself in search of the first geoglyph: the Switch. I mean the Purah Pad.

Mineru's an interesting one. The upright ears kind of make her look younger, even though I know erect (as opposed to lop) ears are a sign of maturity in animals. She's also the Sage of Spirit, and oops, I mixed up Rauru and Sonia = Rauru is the one with light powers, and Sonia has time powers. So those are the elements, I assume - the four Western classical elements (wind, water, fire, earth), plus light, time, and spirit. But that's still seven. Why did the Rito guy say there were six sages? If there's only four main regions, where am I supposed to find the other two/three? I'm so confused.

The more flashbacks I see, the more I can see the connection between the Faron stuff (the clothing, the statues) and the Zonai designs. The skull it still a bit incongruous, but the crop tops are actually very on-brand based on Rauru and Mineru's outfits. Overall the South American influence on Zonai design is very strong (so far we have Mayan statuary, Nazca lines, and the llama-esque look of the Zonai themselves). Her taking the Purah Pad to look into the teleport tech is explains very neatly why the Zonai shrine teleport circle has the same blue color as the Sheikah shrine teleport circle despite the Zonai color theme being green and the Sheikah color theme otherwise being orange. She's using the same technology as the Sheikah shrines.

She also mentions something called draconification - the forbidden act of swallowing a secret stone and becoming an immortal dragon, at the cost of one's self. Given what Tera just mentioned, I have concerns about where Zelda ends up. And also whether or not that dragon that broke the cloud cover really was Naydra.....

I can't do anything about it. Onwards. Back to Woodland Stable, specifically, to swap horses, and then up north, towards Great Hyrule Forest, where maybe the Deku Tree will explain what's up with my rotted sword. Except the fog has changed and now I can't even see the lights that would normally guide me forward. Hm. Don't like that. I abandon Inqy on the side of the mountain and just start walking around the damn forest instead. Well, climbing, mostly. I can see the faint outline of the sword in the distance. It's not too bad of a climb overall. Just a bit tedious.

Eventually, I spot the tower for this region, rising out of a location I don't recognize immediately - the Thyphlo ruins, now freed of their impenetrable darkness. The tower's got a big old box stuck on top, which is impeding its function. Thankfully, there's a bunch of other floating blocks just loaded with rockets, so it's easy to pluck it off. I don't entirely see why the Rito engineer couldn't look up and see what the problem was, but ok dude. The sword geoglyph is beautifully visible from the Thyphlo Skyview Tower, and with Tulin's help, it's a breeze (hah) to get over here. And - whoops. I've apparently sequence broken quite severely. This is the last memory, containing flashbacks to memories I haven't even seen. Zelda accepts the broken Master Sword - the other half of the cutscene from the Sky Temple. She realizes she's here do something no one else can - fix the sword, in the past. And she accepts what must be done. She has to become the dragon. And once more, she calls to me. You must find me.

I will. I swear it. I just wonder what I'll find when I get there.

Clothing expenses:
3 x Tier 1 upgrades = 30 rupees.