Daily Debate: Is The Minish Cap’s Wind Tribe Related to Zelda’s Other Sky Dwellers?
Posted on April 09 2025 by John Lortie
The Minish Cap’s Wind Tribe’s existence didn’t begin in the sky. Its people lived on the land before turning their sights skyward to protect the Wind Element. Those same folks then left Hyrule to live in the clouds high above the kingdom.
The Wind Tribe isn’t Zelda’s only sky-dwelling group, nor is it the first in the series’ timeline. It was, however, the first one to make an appearance in a Zelda game. I was awestruck when I played The Minish Cap and saw the red-haired people living in the clouds. This felt more expansive than what I’d encountered in Four Sword Adventures. I wanted to explore more of the sky and find its secrets.
While The Minish Cap didn’t do much to sate my curiosity, Zelda titles since have. We’ve ventured into the clouds in Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Tri Force Heroes, and Tears of the Kingdom. In these titles, we’ve met more sky dwellers in the Oocca, the Skyloftians, and the Zonai. Could the Wind Tribe be related to any of these groups?
Let’s look at what we know about them: Twilight Princess frames the Oocca as Hyrule’s creators, living in their City in the Sky. The Zonai descended from the sky into Hyrule, where Rauru married Sonia and became the realm’s first king. The Skyloftians also came from the clouds to found Hyrule. Notable among them is Groose, who has bright red hair.
Now, I think that all these sky dwellers are related. I believe the Oocca are a later evolution of the Zonai (we’ve seen the Zora evolve into the Rito after The Wind Waker’s Great Flood). If Rauru is Hyrule’s first king (working under an assumption that the games share a single timeline) and Sonia is a Skyloftian, the Wind Tribe could draw lineage from both peoples. If not, maybe they’re descended from Groose.
This all fails to mention the Ancient Hero, a Zonai-like warrior with red hair who fought Calamity Ganon before Breath of the Wild. Could he be descended from Rauru and Sonia? That’s a question for another time.
Now’s the part where I ask to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Is the Wind Tribe related to Zelda’s other sky dwellers? Let us know down in the comments!
John’s been a Zelda fan since he was seven years old (which was a good few decades ago). He loves the last three months of the year, analog media, his family, and Tolkien. His favorite Zelda game is Breath of the Wild and his favorite game is Night in the Woods.
