We had assumed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would be pretty rich in lore, but we weren't fully prepared for just how much would be thrown our way — think you know the creation of Hyrule? Think again. There is so much packed into this game, in fact, that we are sure we will be discovering more and more about Hyrule for years to come.
Take, for example, the game's Shrines. We know that they got a Zonai makeover in the sudden removal of all Sheikah tech (something that still needs some explanation, we'd say), but did you know that they are actually serving a secret purpose of keeping the demons of Hyrule's past at bay? There's more to these challenges than meets the eye, it seems.
This little tidbit of lore comes from none other than the game's director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who, in a recent interview with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream (translated by Nintendo Everything), expanded on exactly when and why the Shrines appeared across Hyrule:
The shrines themselves were built before Rauru founded Hyrule – before the Demon King Ganondorf appeared there were still a lot of evil beings, so Rauru and Sonia went around various places to calm things down. Shrines are placed above where a demon was destroyed so it will not reappear. This is why that spiral of light emerges from the shrine. Therefore, bathing in the remaining power of the shrines slightly cleanses Link of the demon magic.
The light swirling from the Shrines, the light emanating from dehydrated Ganondorf at the start of the game, Link's purification after completing a Shrine's challenge — it's all connected, see?
According to the game's director, Hyrule Castle serves a similar purpose of keeping Ganondorf under wraps. As it turns out, the castle was built as "one part of the barrier that helps release Rauru’s purification of the evil magic," and not because of the beautiful views of Hyrule Field. Who would have thought it, eh?
For those after a little more lore, the Nintendo Dream interview also sees Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma go into detail about Rauru's seal and explain how the team named the Lightroots. Be sure to check out Nintendo Everything's translation for all the lore talk in English.