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Why Eldin Volcano was renamed Death Mountain

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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I know that some have requested this to be revisited for the next generation of forum dwellers, so here we go. Here is why Eldin Volcano became Death Mountain.

In the earliest point of the timeline, in Skyward Sword, the Eldin region features an active volcano just as it does in every other Zelda game. There are pools of deadly lava and it seems quite inhospitable to most. Yet still those deadly geological features werent considered enough for it to be known as death mountain even by the people that lived there before the creation of Skyloft. Which means there is another reason that it got a new name and it is one which is far more sinister than you might think.

We know the name change took place between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time. Why the change in name occured and what event prompted it is quite obvious if you take a look at the facts.

In Skyward Sword you find that Eldin Volcano is inhabited by the Mogmas. An annoying race of digging jewel obsessed creatures. Yet these Mogmas are never to be seen again after Skyward Sword. The Zelda series has over 20 games yet they only appear in one. Not that in every other game it is the Gorons rather than the Mogma that inhabit the Eldin Region.

Whilst often seeming friendly in the games that they appear, the Gorons docile nature is called into question in Twilight Princess and their capacity for brutality is shown. Link is violently thrown from a cliff by a Goron and if he was a normal human and didn't have bones strong like wolverine he would have been killed for sure. This is also the case when Gorons roll at him further up the path. The Gorons have no care for human life when it comes down to it. They are all fat gluttons who care first and foremost about gorging themselves on delicious rocks and second about their own pride. If human lives need to be lost to maintain this pride or if anything gets in the way of their rock eating then they are prepared to kill!

So just imagine when the first Gorons came to Eldin Volcano. It would have been like kids entering Willy Wonka's factory. Big brutish kids made of rock with the ability to crush anything weaker than themselves with ease. Unfortunately when they found this mountain it was already inhabited by other occupants. And I imagine the Gorons didn't like that. Not. One. Bit.

I am guessing the jewel loving mogmas didn't want to give up their territory to these new rock men though there could be another reason for the dispute. This denial would certainly have hurt the pride of these Gorons and as we know a Gorons pride is something they will kill to defend. Consumed by the thought of an entire area filled with delicious rocks, enough to feed their pot bellies for millennia to come, these Gorons would have realised there was only one thing to do. Remove all those who stood in their way.

The Mogma weren't physically strong and would have soon regretted their defiance. The Gorons would have flooded their holes with lava giving those who tried to hide a firey grave. The ones they gold hold of who didn't manage to dig below ground would have fared a gruesome fate also. Pummeling by Goron fists! The mountain would have run red that day not just with the lava but with Mogma blood! With the entire race exterminated, Eldin Volcano would have been known from that day onwards as Death Mountain!
 
Joined
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There's nothing in the games to show that Gorons are that violent. While at the times they have been adversarial it was mostly defensive. The Mogmas likely mined all the treasures and then moved away making way for the Gorons to take residence. As for the name, well it is an active volcano and when people settled back down on the land from Skyloft some probably tried to scale the mountain and never made it. The royal family then guards it so that only certain people can traverse the area. Maybe, maybe not, but your 'theory' has very little to support it and is contradictory to the games.
 

Jirohnagi

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That region may have been renamed to Mt Crenal as well, so it could be due to the fact it's a volcanic region with a hell of a lot of eruptions that y'know kill people that could've gotten it renamed to Death mountain
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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I remember a theory that just mentioned how a volcanic eruption took out the mogmas, and the gorons just came by and took occupancy
however you stand on it, it's a reasonable assumption that the renaming of it to death mountain is linked to the end of the mogma race, it's just a matter of how it all happened
 

Grigaming335

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Or it may be that the Mogmas died out
and since they were the only living creatures that inhabited Eldin Volcano at that point no one was really there but maybe a few years later Gorons found it but without knowing of its previous name named it Death Mountain.
 
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Can see it now. BotW2 Link takes Yunobo back in time to look for a relic then they stumble upon the absolute savagery of the early Gorons in their war with the Mogma.
 

Storm_Echo

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Those poor crash bandicoot-lookin Mogma! Forgettable as they are, I never thought of how unusual it is that they've never been seen before or since in a game, not even an older one like Zelda II. I wouldn't be surprised if it was called Death Mountain not because of Mogma genocide by the Gorons, but because at some point the Mogma died out or left the region and the Gorons came to a blasted landscape of lava and flames with very little alive in it and called it "Death Mountain" due to the lack of life.
 
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I don't think Eldin Volcano was renamed Death Mountain... I think Eldin Volcano fell dormant/extinct, icing over and being renamed Snowpeak and later the Hebra Mountains... and this climate change is what likely killed the Mogma (or at least caused them to leave Hyrule).
The name Death Mountain I suspect has been given to a few different volcanoes over the centuries... each were likely formed by an initial eruption that would have caused a huge amount of destruction and death as the mountain rose from the ground, which would likely be why each were named Death Mountain at the time... and as with Eldin Volcano, each Death Mountain likely fell dormant/extinct over time, and were renamed accordingly prior to the formation of the next volcano, which then took up the name Death Mountain.
As for the Goron's association with Death Mountain, despite it not being a single fixed location... this actually fits with the Gorons original nomadic nature... they seem to gravitate to volcanoes because they are a good food source for them, so they build settlements and mines on volcanoes to make the most of them, but once that food supply runs out there would be nothing keeping them there, so they'd naturally return to their nomadic origins until a new volcano emerged. This may have actually already occurred at Eldin Volcano prior to Skyward Sword, as Eldin refers to "a time when those above ground (the Gorons?) and those below (the Mogma?) lived together in harmony".
 
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I don't think, provided by the source material they appear in, that the Gorons are a particularly turbulent, violent race of beings. In fact, most of the time, we learn that the Gorons are a proud and peaceful race, the events of Twilight Princess notwithstanding, the Gorons have always maintained xenia which is an Ancient Greek principle that seeks to honour guests whether foreign or local in homage to Zeus. How do I know this? They are willing to welcome Link, a Hylian, into their society and call him "Brother", so I don't think the Gorons are necessarily secluded or hateful beings. The Goron you speak to in Skyward Sword is friendly and even helpful to you, so I am really struggling to see how the Gorons would have committed genocide against the Mogna race. It's far more plausible to assume natural relocation of the Mogna due to some kind of catastrophe, Elden Volcano was active, maybe it blew up one day and devastated the region it was in, forcing the Mogna to immigrate elsewhere. The Gorons would have moved in because the heat and the conditions wouldn't have bothered them.

Interesting theory nonetheless but I think the Gorons are fairly docile and quite compassionate towards others given the games they appear in. They even regret their hostility towards Hylians in Twilight Princess after Link helps their Patriarch Darbus. Their pride prevents them from accepting outside help, but it's not hatred that guides their hostility, just pride.
 

GrooseIsLoose

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I'm sure Gorons were like Buddhist monks.They don't even have sexual desires in life. The lack of leniency is seen among every monk i.e they live with strict principles and under penance.
1. Mogmas are after precious stuff
2. No kind of treasures like Eldin Ore , Goddess Plume, Amber Relic was found during Twilight Princess era
So basically the treasure could have got exhausted, mogmas could've moved out.
 

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