Cfrock
Keep it strong
Twilight Princess introduced us to the Oocca, weird little chicken-men that, by my estimation, were not well received. The game establishes that the Oocca and the Hylian Royal Family were in contact but evidently that connection came to an end some time in the distant past, since knowledge of the Oocca has practically faded from Hyrule entirely. The question is why? Twilight Princess tells us that the Oocca founded Hyrule (the English version was mistranslated to say they made the Hylians, but this is false) so you'd expect them to have played a bigger role than, well, not existing as far as the average Hylian is concerned.
Looking at a range of evidence, I have drawn an admittedly sketchy conclusion as to what caused the split and I want to open it up to discussion, because we have a Theory Section so why not use it? I'll give you the overall theory and then get into my evidence because I think I'll find it easier to write this clearly that way. This is long, just so you know.
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My theory as to why the connection between the Oocca and the Hylian Royal Family broke was because a king from Hyrule's past wanted to use the magic and technology of the Oocca for war and so isloated them in the sky in order to keep their artifacts for himself.
Now, this is how I drew such a conclusion. The Dominion Rod, the most prominently featured Oocca artifact after the Clawshot, is used in Twilight Princess to take control of statues. There are four types of statues it works on in the game:
-small pot-like statues
-large Owl Statues
-large statue weilding a hammer
-giant statues with huge fists.
Three of these four types are found exclusively in the Temple of Time while the other type, the Owl Statues, are found dotted around Hyrule. The Owl Statues are visually very different to the other types, featuring a more angular design as opposed to the Temple Statues rounded and curved appearance. The statues found in the Temple of Time are mostly violent in nature, one weilding a hammer used to smash fences and instantly crush all enemies and the others are standing poised to attack and slamming their huge fists to the ground when commanded. The pot-like statues, while not offensive in themselves, are very heavy for their size and are found in far greater numbers.
Based on the visual differences of the Owl Statues and the Temple Statues, as well as the more violent nature of the Temple Statues compared with the Owl Statues' docile nature (their use limited to forming platforms to jump from) it seems likely that the Temple Statues were not built by the same people who built the Owl Statues. After all, the Oocca are said to have given the Hylians the Dominion Rod to allow the two groups to communicate and nothing more, so why would they have provided them with, essentially, war machines? The idea of the Oocca having any kind of militant leanings whatsoever is further debunked by the complete lack of any form of defenses present in the City in the Sky, evidenced by how the Oocca are completely helpless to fight back against Argorok or the other monsters.
This was the basis for thinking the Hylians may have built their own statues based on Oocca technology, statues specifically built for war. Hammers and fists don't fit in with the nature of the Oocca but fit spectacularly well with the nature of Hylians, being know to have waged many wars in the past and having a standing army. Invincible and incredibly strong automaton soldiers would probably seem like a good idea, especially when we factor in the extreme range of terrain surrounding Hyrule that the statues could easily fight in more effectively than humans.
So that's the 'using the Oocca technology for war' part but how did I come to the 'Hylian King isolated Oocca in the sky' part? Well, allow me to explain. During Twilight Princess we encounter a character named Ooccoo who, not surprisingly, is an Oocca. Ooccoo's issue is that she cannot return home to the sky and she is desperately searching for a certain item in order to do so. This item turns out to be the Dominion Rod but in the end, Ooccoo still needs the ancient Sky Cannon to actually get back to the City in the Sky. The Dominion Rod simply allows access to the Sky Cannon.
So the Sky Cannon is the only way for the Oocca to return home from Hyrule. The Sky Cannon itself is found behind an Owl Statue, but one which has been altered to prevent it being controlled by the Dominion Rod. It has a strange object placed on it which, interestingly, resembles the Sheikah symbol. The plot thickens. This seems to imply the Sheikah specifically locked the Sky Cannon away, which would prevent the Oocca from venturing to Hyrule as they would not be able to return home. The Sheikah, being bodyguards and spies for the Royal Family of Hyrule, follow the King's orders, so any decision to seal away the Sky Cannon would have first come from him.
The Sheikah-esque symbol on the Owl Statue is not all. The Dominion Rod is still needed to move the statue even if the seal is removed. The Rod was placed in the Temple of Time, deep within the dungeon that can only be accessed by someone able to pull the Master Sword, guarded by many traps and Beamos and even a sentinel Darknut who fights to the death. Seems like a lot of security for an object with limited utility.
Before I move on, I have to explain something else. The Dominion Rod only has a limited amount of magic and needs recharging after a while. This aspect of the Rod is what I believe prevented the King of Hyrule from using his army of statues, or indeed, from building a true army of them at all. His first priority would have been to gain the Oocca magic so that the Rod didn't become useless. This is where I believe the Sheikah first enter the story.
The Sheikah are custodians of the Ancient Sky Book, a book full of spells written in the Oocca language. It has the power to restore the Dominion Rod but there is evidence to suggest that the Sheikah did not know this. Impaz, the apparent last remaining Sheikah, seems unsure of what the Dominion Rod itself even actually is:
On top of this, we have Shad, a scholar, who has studied the Oocca all of his life and even works off the research of his father. After two lifetimes worth of dedicated research, Shad himself does not know what the spell which restores the Dominion Rod does, believing nothing happened when he read it. If this Oocca expert is unaware of which words restore the Dominion Rod, I find it unlikely Impaz or the other Sheikah do, what with their apparent limited knowledge of the artifact in the first place.
Impaz goes on to say this:
The second thing it tells us is that Impaz, who cannot leave the Hidden Village until she passes the book on to the messenger to the heavens, is there under the orders of the monarch. Her use of the past tense suggests that she is not referring directly to Princess Zelda but to a previous monarch. Being as long-lived as the Sheikah are, this could be a king from, honestly, any point in the last one thousand years.
What I am very ham-fistedly trying to say here is that the Sheikah were sent away by the king to decipher the Ancient Sky Book in order for him to be able to build his army.
-Dominion Rod has limited magic
-Sheikah do not know how to resotre that magic
-Ancient Sky Book is the only thing that can help but it is written in a different language
-Time is needed to dechipher it and secrecy is needed to prevent the Oocca or Hyrule's enemies from possibly finding out
This is backed up somewhat but a quote from Gor Coron:
The use of the word "worked" implies they were doing more than just waiting for the messenger to show up. What is interesting here is how he describes where the Sheikah lived as "a lonely, forgotten place." Kakariko Village was hardly lonely or forgotten. Even in Twilight Princess there is a well known settlement called Kakariko Village. He is obviously referring to the Hidden Village, which identifies itself as 'Old Kakarico'. This shows awarness of a 'New' Kakariko. Did the king build a new settlement to allow the old one to fall into obscurity to hide what he was up to?
Gor Coron also mentions how the Sheikah "dwindled in the prolonged wars..." To me, with this theory as context, that seems to give a very good motive for why a Hylian King would want to build an army of statues that could be controlled remotely, giving a little more weight to this idea.
The last piece of evidence I have to support the idea that a king of Hyurle actively sought to prevent the Oocca use of the Sky Cannon is that the spell which removes the possible Sheikah seal on the Owl Statue guarding the Cannon has several character removed and hidden throughout Hyrule. The characters are hidden under Owl Statues, meaning whoever hid them needed the Dominion Rod, which, you'll remember, was given to the Hylians, making them the prime suspects here.
So let's recap. We have a king from Hyrule's past involved in prolonged wars that are killing even his elite bodyguards. In desperation, perhaps, he decides to use the Dominion Rod to command an army of powerful statues to save his kingdom. Perhaps believing his misuse of the artifact will anger the Oocca and see them take the Rod from him, he decides to deny access to the Sky Cannon to ensure no one comes to take his new weapons away. After building some prototypes, essentially, he learns that the Dominion Rod only has limited magic and so he calls on the remaining Sheikah. He has them sabotage the Sky Cannon ("there's no ignition device, so you can't even use it." - Fyer) and then seal the Owl Statue guarding it. To ensure the seal holds, the Sheikah remove some characters from the Ancient Sky Book and hide them using the Dominion Rod and then they store the Rod itself in the extremely secure Temple of Time before retreating to their secret village to try to learn how to maintain the Rod.
All of that can be supported by the evidence I have presented. I'm not gonna say it's 100% definately true, obviously, but from the evidence I have thus far presented, that is the conclusion I have drawn.
The issue I see with this theory is that it leaves a big gap between the Sheikah going into hiding to decipher parts of the Ancient Sky Book and then Link finally figuring it all out. I mean, several hundred years must have passed, since Link had to go back in time several centuries to actually get the Dominion Rod in the first place. Well, I have a possible explanation for that too.
The Sheikah, wracked with guilt about essentially banishing the Oocca to the sky, decided to not help the king subvert their artifacts and instead waited for one who would re-establish the link between sky and Hyrule as an act of attonement.
The evidence I have for this is not solid but here it is anyway.
That is the symbol found on the doors of the City in the Sky. It resembles an eye with four lashes above it. The Sheikah symbol is an eye with three lashes above and a tear below. Now, bear with me here. Let's say those four lashes on the Oocca symbol represent the major races: Oocca, Hylian, Goron and Zora. The Sheikah, guilty at their actions, adapted this symbol when sealing the Owl Statue into an eye with no lashes and a long tear, symbolising the sorrow at banishing the Oocca and the disconnection from the other races. I admit this is pretty weak but it's better than nothing.
---
Anyway, that is the case for the connection between the Oocca and the Hylian Royal Family breaking because of betrayal inspired by a desperate attempt to win a war. Now, my pretties, let rip and tear it to shreds! Tell me what you think. Do you agree or disagree? Are parts of my evidence too weak or is there contradictary information I have overlooked? Let me know
Looking at a range of evidence, I have drawn an admittedly sketchy conclusion as to what caused the split and I want to open it up to discussion, because we have a Theory Section so why not use it? I'll give you the overall theory and then get into my evidence because I think I'll find it easier to write this clearly that way. This is long, just so you know.
---
My theory as to why the connection between the Oocca and the Hylian Royal Family broke was because a king from Hyrule's past wanted to use the magic and technology of the Oocca for war and so isloated them in the sky in order to keep their artifacts for himself.
Now, this is how I drew such a conclusion. The Dominion Rod, the most prominently featured Oocca artifact after the Clawshot, is used in Twilight Princess to take control of statues. There are four types of statues it works on in the game:
-small pot-like statues
-large Owl Statues
-large statue weilding a hammer
-giant statues with huge fists.
Three of these four types are found exclusively in the Temple of Time while the other type, the Owl Statues, are found dotted around Hyrule. The Owl Statues are visually very different to the other types, featuring a more angular design as opposed to the Temple Statues rounded and curved appearance. The statues found in the Temple of Time are mostly violent in nature, one weilding a hammer used to smash fences and instantly crush all enemies and the others are standing poised to attack and slamming their huge fists to the ground when commanded. The pot-like statues, while not offensive in themselves, are very heavy for their size and are found in far greater numbers.
Based on the visual differences of the Owl Statues and the Temple Statues, as well as the more violent nature of the Temple Statues compared with the Owl Statues' docile nature (their use limited to forming platforms to jump from) it seems likely that the Temple Statues were not built by the same people who built the Owl Statues. After all, the Oocca are said to have given the Hylians the Dominion Rod to allow the two groups to communicate and nothing more, so why would they have provided them with, essentially, war machines? The idea of the Oocca having any kind of militant leanings whatsoever is further debunked by the complete lack of any form of defenses present in the City in the Sky, evidenced by how the Oocca are completely helpless to fight back against Argorok or the other monsters.
This was the basis for thinking the Hylians may have built their own statues based on Oocca technology, statues specifically built for war. Hammers and fists don't fit in with the nature of the Oocca but fit spectacularly well with the nature of Hylians, being know to have waged many wars in the past and having a standing army. Invincible and incredibly strong automaton soldiers would probably seem like a good idea, especially when we factor in the extreme range of terrain surrounding Hyrule that the statues could easily fight in more effectively than humans.
So that's the 'using the Oocca technology for war' part but how did I come to the 'Hylian King isolated Oocca in the sky' part? Well, allow me to explain. During Twilight Princess we encounter a character named Ooccoo who, not surprisingly, is an Oocca. Ooccoo's issue is that she cannot return home to the sky and she is desperately searching for a certain item in order to do so. This item turns out to be the Dominion Rod but in the end, Ooccoo still needs the ancient Sky Cannon to actually get back to the City in the Sky. The Dominion Rod simply allows access to the Sky Cannon.
So the Sky Cannon is the only way for the Oocca to return home from Hyrule. The Sky Cannon itself is found behind an Owl Statue, but one which has been altered to prevent it being controlled by the Dominion Rod. It has a strange object placed on it which, interestingly, resembles the Sheikah symbol. The plot thickens. This seems to imply the Sheikah specifically locked the Sky Cannon away, which would prevent the Oocca from venturing to Hyrule as they would not be able to return home. The Sheikah, being bodyguards and spies for the Royal Family of Hyrule, follow the King's orders, so any decision to seal away the Sky Cannon would have first come from him.
The Sheikah-esque symbol on the Owl Statue is not all. The Dominion Rod is still needed to move the statue even if the seal is removed. The Rod was placed in the Temple of Time, deep within the dungeon that can only be accessed by someone able to pull the Master Sword, guarded by many traps and Beamos and even a sentinel Darknut who fights to the death. Seems like a lot of security for an object with limited utility.
Before I move on, I have to explain something else. The Dominion Rod only has a limited amount of magic and needs recharging after a while. This aspect of the Rod is what I believe prevented the King of Hyrule from using his army of statues, or indeed, from building a true army of them at all. His first priority would have been to gain the Oocca magic so that the Rod didn't become useless. This is where I believe the Sheikah first enter the story.
The Sheikah are custodians of the Ancient Sky Book, a book full of spells written in the Oocca language. It has the power to restore the Dominion Rod but there is evidence to suggest that the Sheikah did not know this. Impaz, the apparent last remaining Sheikah, seems unsure of what the Dominion Rod itself even actually is:
She only knows its name and what it looks like, nothing more, like, how to power it up or what it is capable of. The vagueness of her knowledge also implies that her predecessors knew little of the Rod, otherwise she herself would have had the information passed on to her.
On top of this, we have Shad, a scholar, who has studied the Oocca all of his life and even works off the research of his father. After two lifetimes worth of dedicated research, Shad himself does not know what the spell which restores the Dominion Rod does, believing nothing happened when he read it. If this Oocca expert is unaware of which words restore the Dominion Rod, I find it unlikely Impaz or the other Sheikah do, what with their apparent limited knowledge of the artifact in the first place.
Impaz goes on to say this:
This quote tells us a few things. First off, from Skyward Sword we know that the Sheikah are a long-lived race (Impa in that game is over one thousand years-old) so "generation to generation" could mean that the book has only been passed down by a small number of guardians, since they live so long naturally, meaning not many Sheikah have actually read it or even seen it.
The second thing it tells us is that Impaz, who cannot leave the Hidden Village until she passes the book on to the messenger to the heavens, is there under the orders of the monarch. Her use of the past tense suggests that she is not referring directly to Princess Zelda but to a previous monarch. Being as long-lived as the Sheikah are, this could be a king from, honestly, any point in the last one thousand years.
What I am very ham-fistedly trying to say here is that the Sheikah were sent away by the king to decipher the Ancient Sky Book in order for him to be able to build his army.
-Dominion Rod has limited magic
-Sheikah do not know how to resotre that magic
-Ancient Sky Book is the only thing that can help but it is written in a different language
-Time is needed to dechipher it and secrecy is needed to prevent the Oocca or Hyrule's enemies from possibly finding out
This is backed up somewhat but a quote from Gor Coron:
The use of the word "worked" implies they were doing more than just waiting for the messenger to show up. What is interesting here is how he describes where the Sheikah lived as "a lonely, forgotten place." Kakariko Village was hardly lonely or forgotten. Even in Twilight Princess there is a well known settlement called Kakariko Village. He is obviously referring to the Hidden Village, which identifies itself as 'Old Kakarico'. This shows awarness of a 'New' Kakariko. Did the king build a new settlement to allow the old one to fall into obscurity to hide what he was up to?
Gor Coron also mentions how the Sheikah "dwindled in the prolonged wars..." To me, with this theory as context, that seems to give a very good motive for why a Hylian King would want to build an army of statues that could be controlled remotely, giving a little more weight to this idea.
The last piece of evidence I have to support the idea that a king of Hyurle actively sought to prevent the Oocca use of the Sky Cannon is that the spell which removes the possible Sheikah seal on the Owl Statue guarding the Cannon has several character removed and hidden throughout Hyrule. The characters are hidden under Owl Statues, meaning whoever hid them needed the Dominion Rod, which, you'll remember, was given to the Hylians, making them the prime suspects here.
So let's recap. We have a king from Hyrule's past involved in prolonged wars that are killing even his elite bodyguards. In desperation, perhaps, he decides to use the Dominion Rod to command an army of powerful statues to save his kingdom. Perhaps believing his misuse of the artifact will anger the Oocca and see them take the Rod from him, he decides to deny access to the Sky Cannon to ensure no one comes to take his new weapons away. After building some prototypes, essentially, he learns that the Dominion Rod only has limited magic and so he calls on the remaining Sheikah. He has them sabotage the Sky Cannon ("there's no ignition device, so you can't even use it." - Fyer) and then seal the Owl Statue guarding it. To ensure the seal holds, the Sheikah remove some characters from the Ancient Sky Book and hide them using the Dominion Rod and then they store the Rod itself in the extremely secure Temple of Time before retreating to their secret village to try to learn how to maintain the Rod.
All of that can be supported by the evidence I have presented. I'm not gonna say it's 100% definately true, obviously, but from the evidence I have thus far presented, that is the conclusion I have drawn.
The issue I see with this theory is that it leaves a big gap between the Sheikah going into hiding to decipher parts of the Ancient Sky Book and then Link finally figuring it all out. I mean, several hundred years must have passed, since Link had to go back in time several centuries to actually get the Dominion Rod in the first place. Well, I have a possible explanation for that too.
The Sheikah, wracked with guilt about essentially banishing the Oocca to the sky, decided to not help the king subvert their artifacts and instead waited for one who would re-establish the link between sky and Hyrule as an act of attonement.
The evidence I have for this is not solid but here it is anyway.
That is the symbol found on the doors of the City in the Sky. It resembles an eye with four lashes above it. The Sheikah symbol is an eye with three lashes above and a tear below. Now, bear with me here. Let's say those four lashes on the Oocca symbol represent the major races: Oocca, Hylian, Goron and Zora. The Sheikah, guilty at their actions, adapted this symbol when sealing the Owl Statue into an eye with no lashes and a long tear, symbolising the sorrow at banishing the Oocca and the disconnection from the other races. I admit this is pretty weak but it's better than nothing.
---
Anyway, that is the case for the connection between the Oocca and the Hylian Royal Family breaking because of betrayal inspired by a desperate attempt to win a war. Now, my pretties, let rip and tear it to shreds! Tell me what you think. Do you agree or disagree? Are parts of my evidence too weak or is there contradictary information I have overlooked? Let me know
