Introduction
For the longest time I've believed that Hyrule had only one religion and everyone believe in it. We all know for our culture, that this is absolutely not true! I'm not going to talk a lot about our culture, and I plan to treat Hyrule as a separate culture. Thinking after this over a while, I started to realize that Hyrule may not have one religion, and the possibility of Atheism in Hyrule.
Three Goddesses Religion
A Link to the Past - Booklet/Manual Art
This religion has been thought to be the main religion of Hyrule. We see the triforce all over Hyrule! There are very few places that this symbol isn't depicted. I'm starting to question if this is an a religion. We know that it contains stories of creation, goddesses, etc. However, there really isn't any stories of a heaven and hell. We get the golden realm where the triforce lays. Can this be viewed as a heaven? Its guarded by the Hylian royalty, and living beings can enter and leave this realm.
A Link to the Past - Dark Realm
In fact, depending on the living being who enters this realm. The realm with transform to their hearts. Good, it becomes a golden realm, and vice-versa with a dark heart. The mere fact living beings can leave and enter this realm, sort of makes it anti heaven/hell. So is there even a heaven/hell in this religion? If there isn't, then is it a religion? This idea, sort of brings up new philosophical thoughts on what is a heaven or a hell in Hyrule, but that could be a topic by itself. The main point for this thread is that this idea could easily be a template for sub religions, which may or may not have a heaven/hell.
Other Religions?
A Link to the Past - Official Art
This is an interesting idea in my opinion. We aren't given any hints about another religion, and yet we are given legit evidence of other religions. There is one thing that history can teach and that is religion creates war. Almost all world wide wars had some form of religious background. From the Great Crusades to World Wars, religion gives birth to war. I'm not going to discuss this idea in our culture, because that screams strong political talk, and that is for the Mature Discussion.
A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask all have big hints to huge war. With huge wars, there is always religion behind it. With A Link to the Past, there was a vast war over this Golden Realm. This strongly reminds me of the Great Crusade Wars, don't you think? Which means that there are multiple religious, but they're very similar to each other. For example, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all believe in the same god. They may have different terms, but they're similar because they believe in the same god. So its not too difficult to picture sub religions of the Three Goddess Religion.
Ocarina of Time was intriguing in the fact we are given hints to a similar war to A Link to the Past. A lot of people claim that OoT was going to be a 3D remake of ALTTP which can sort of explain the hints of war. The reason OoT is intriguing is because we are given two different races. In ALTTP, there isn't really any hard evidence of multiple races, but with OoT there is. The Gerudo and Hylians were the two races in OoT war, and we're even shown of racism in OoT. I have theories of Gerudo suppression by the Hylians, which would be a huge influence to starting up the war. As much as I would like to discuss that, it would be better off in its own topic.
Majora's Mask - Ikana Castle
In Majora's Mask, we're given an entire empire to learn about. An empire that was defeated by war. This empire has been referenced as the Ikana Empire. There are triforces depiction in the Stone Temple and various places. This sort of tells us that Ikana may have been another sub-religion of the Three Goddess Religion. Whatever it may be, they lost the war. I'm sort of curious of who did they fought, and I've bet many theories were written about who defeated Ikana. It could have been the Hylians or Gerudos from Hyrule, or another empire that had its own religion or sub-religion.
Conclusion
If you took the time to actually read my post, you can now see why there has to be multiple religions in Hyrule. They could be simple sub-religions of the Three Goddess Religion, or an entire religion itself. I personally think the wars were all started between two sub-religions of the Three Goddess Religion because we see a lot of it in our culture. The biggest wars were between two religions which were sub-religions or religions that believed in the same god. When you have two religions that believe in the same god, and have different views, you get war.
What do you think? Do you think they could be entire different religions with similar symbols or sub-religions? There could be the possibility of them being the same religion and just a war of power hungry. I'm excited to see comments!
For the longest time I've believed that Hyrule had only one religion and everyone believe in it. We all know for our culture, that this is absolutely not true! I'm not going to talk a lot about our culture, and I plan to treat Hyrule as a separate culture. Thinking after this over a while, I started to realize that Hyrule may not have one religion, and the possibility of Atheism in Hyrule.
Three Goddesses Religion
A Link to the Past - Booklet/Manual Art
This religion has been thought to be the main religion of Hyrule. We see the triforce all over Hyrule! There are very few places that this symbol isn't depicted. I'm starting to question if this is an a religion. We know that it contains stories of creation, goddesses, etc. However, there really isn't any stories of a heaven and hell. We get the golden realm where the triforce lays. Can this be viewed as a heaven? Its guarded by the Hylian royalty, and living beings can enter and leave this realm.
A Link to the Past - Dark Realm
In fact, depending on the living being who enters this realm. The realm with transform to their hearts. Good, it becomes a golden realm, and vice-versa with a dark heart. The mere fact living beings can leave and enter this realm, sort of makes it anti heaven/hell. So is there even a heaven/hell in this religion? If there isn't, then is it a religion? This idea, sort of brings up new philosophical thoughts on what is a heaven or a hell in Hyrule, but that could be a topic by itself. The main point for this thread is that this idea could easily be a template for sub religions, which may or may not have a heaven/hell.
Other Religions?
A Link to the Past - Official Art
This is an interesting idea in my opinion. We aren't given any hints about another religion, and yet we are given legit evidence of other religions. There is one thing that history can teach and that is religion creates war. Almost all world wide wars had some form of religious background. From the Great Crusades to World Wars, religion gives birth to war. I'm not going to discuss this idea in our culture, because that screams strong political talk, and that is for the Mature Discussion.
A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask all have big hints to huge war. With huge wars, there is always religion behind it. With A Link to the Past, there was a vast war over this Golden Realm. This strongly reminds me of the Great Crusade Wars, don't you think? Which means that there are multiple religious, but they're very similar to each other. For example, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all believe in the same god. They may have different terms, but they're similar because they believe in the same god. So its not too difficult to picture sub religions of the Three Goddess Religion.
Ocarina of Time was intriguing in the fact we are given hints to a similar war to A Link to the Past. A lot of people claim that OoT was going to be a 3D remake of ALTTP which can sort of explain the hints of war. The reason OoT is intriguing is because we are given two different races. In ALTTP, there isn't really any hard evidence of multiple races, but with OoT there is. The Gerudo and Hylians were the two races in OoT war, and we're even shown of racism in OoT. I have theories of Gerudo suppression by the Hylians, which would be a huge influence to starting up the war. As much as I would like to discuss that, it would be better off in its own topic.
Majora's Mask - Ikana Castle
In Majora's Mask, we're given an entire empire to learn about. An empire that was defeated by war. This empire has been referenced as the Ikana Empire. There are triforces depiction in the Stone Temple and various places. This sort of tells us that Ikana may have been another sub-religion of the Three Goddess Religion. Whatever it may be, they lost the war. I'm sort of curious of who did they fought, and I've bet many theories were written about who defeated Ikana. It could have been the Hylians or Gerudos from Hyrule, or another empire that had its own religion or sub-religion.
Conclusion
If you took the time to actually read my post, you can now see why there has to be multiple religions in Hyrule. They could be simple sub-religions of the Three Goddess Religion, or an entire religion itself. I personally think the wars were all started between two sub-religions of the Three Goddess Religion because we see a lot of it in our culture. The biggest wars were between two religions which were sub-religions or religions that believed in the same god. When you have two religions that believe in the same god, and have different views, you get war.
What do you think? Do you think they could be entire different religions with similar symbols or sub-religions? There could be the possibility of them being the same religion and just a war of power hungry. I'm excited to see comments!