The Undead

[Zeldaduderox]

These are one of the most frightening and startling monster races. These have walked the grounds of Hyrule, Termina, The Great Sea, and many more places. They have always had something a little mysterious about them. So I plan to shed some light onto the story.

The undead are a monster race of creatures that are obviously, undead. They have creatures such as gibdos, poes, stalfos, and more. First I'll take a look on the gibdo.

A gibdo is a clothed mummy-like body that has been brought back to life somehow. I believe that these gibdos were previously the body of a Gerudo. Why Gerudo? Because Egyptians originally clothed their dead and they live in the desert. So it wouldn't surprise me if Gerudos clothed their dead as they live in the desert.

I believe that Gibdos are brought back to life from the magical properties of the great fairy's spring water. I believe that the water sieves through the ground and gets into the Gibdo's grave, bringing them back to life. Then the gibdos cloth either falls off or burns off. Revealing the flesh and body of the zombie-like redead. This redead eventually looses it skin as it will decay, so then the skeletal stalfos comes. Depending on the amount of spring water it got, it will either become the magical skull-like bubble or just become a pile of bones. This skull-like bubble then gets repossessed by its spirit, transforming it into a Poe. The Poe then kills a Gerudo and the process repeats. I refer to this process as the Circle of Death.

However, In the Wind Waker the Redeads have pointed ears. So the redeads must be Hylian in this game. As well as smoother skin than most redeads. I believe that the People of the Grand Sea Send the bodies of to sea and then they get buried underwater. This then has an erosion effect on their skin. Spring Water again comes down onto redeads, bringing them and anything else back to life. Then the Circle of Death continues as usual.

In Twilight Princess, again, like Wind Waker, there are no Gibdos. So it starts from this “Redead Knight” I believe they use to be Gerudo Guards over the Arbiter’s Ground. So later, spring water comes on the redead knights, it skips the face of redead and goes straight to stalfos. From there it continues the circle of death. Also, I believe that in Twilight Princess there are some Gerudos hidden somewhere within the depths of the desert.

 

[ironknuckle1]

Hey maybe instead Stalfos are like you say but they have armor because Ganondorf gave it to them when they were recruited or were given it when they were sent to protect a sanctuary such as the Shadow Temple.

 

[Zeldaduderox]

That could be true.

The Redead-Stalfos part has a bit of a gap of information, but I couldn't find a bridge between the two.

Possibly they found the armor when the skeletal body appeared?

Beats me.

 

[Clucluclu]

I think that redeads, Stalfos, Gibdos, etc were reanimated by Ganon/dorf.

 

[Zeldaduderox]

Well I'm not saying that they're all resurrected by spring water. Just some of them that home near springs.

 

[DeletedUser9]

A pretty interesting theory, but...

There's no proof of any of this, and very little to suggest it to begin with, so this really all falls under fanfiction.

Gerudos are desert dwellers, yeah, but they are hardly Ejyptian in design (the Zuna look more ejyptian,) so I don't see the connection with Ejyptian rituals (mummification.) Besides, I believe that there were other cultures who practiced mummification, ones that didn't live in deserts. Also bear in mind that the process of mummification doesn't rely on bandages. The real meaning of the word is how the body is treated. Though it's traditional to put the bandages on afterward, you don't need them to mummify someone. In fact, the ReDeads look mummified as well (without the bandages, of course.)

Besides, even if the Gerudo were Ejyptian in theme, that doesn't mean the mummy-like Gibdos come from them. There are many elements of the Zelda series that come from various Earth cultures, but are not used in a corresponding area in the game world. Take Rupees for example. Zelda has an arguably European medieval feel. Whereas Rupees were an ancient Indian currency. The Boomerang is another good example of this.

If a spirit returned to the Bubble, then it could not become a Poe because Poes are just immaterial ghosts. They have no physical presence. If it were like your case, then Poes would look much the same as Bubbles, they'd just have the presence of a ghost.

There's also the fact that all these enemies have completely different names and are referred to almost as separate creatures, which would lead me to believe that they are different sorts of undead made in individual ways, not links in an evolutionary chain. You also missed plenty of other undead creatures, such as Stalls, Reapers and Stallchildren, which would have to be added to the Circle of Death for it to make sense.

I mean no offense by any of this.

 

[Zeldaduderox]

It's a speculation. You can choose to believe it or not.

What I'm mainly trying to prove is the Gibdo-Redead-Stalfos-Bubble factor at the least.

 

[DeletedUser9]

It's a speculation. You can choose to believe it or not.

What I'm mainly trying to prove is the Gibdo-Redead-Stalfos-Bubble factor at the least.

It's just that, to me at least, it seems like groundless speculation. Nowhere in the series does it imply that water from a fairy's fountain has healing properties. Additionally, the graves you claim that this water seeped into, well, they can't exist. Graves can't be made in a desert. You need dirt for a grave; sand can't support a gravesite. The closest thing would be a tomb, which would by sealed off with stone walls. Inside those stone walls would be sarcophagi in which the mummies (or in this case Gibdos) would be sealed.

Theoretically they could be cracked, but this would mean that at least two stone surfaces (the tomb and the sarcophagus) would have to be cracked, as well as both cracks perfectly and vertically lined up. Then there's the fact that there'd have to be a tomb underneath a fairy fountain in the first place.

The chances of all this are so slim they're practically nonexistant. And even if it did occur once in a blue moon, that would produce such a small amount of undead that you'd likely never see a single one, much less the many we see in the Zelda series.

The idea of the bandages coming off and turning Gibdos in ReDeads does hold a lot of water. I said myself that ReDeads look like mummies as well. But in the games themselves, sometimes you can burn off the bandages, and this always reveals Stalfos, never ReDeads.

If Stalfos turn into Bubbles, then where did the wings come from? And how come they didn't develop magic properties prior to this point in evolution?

And again, if a soul returned to the Bubble, it couldn't turn into a Poe because Poes are simply spirits with no physical form.

I do see some interesting points in your theory, and I can see where you got the idea that some of them are connected, but the idea of this cycle has a lot of things contradicting it. I find it more likely that through one way or another, a mummy got revived, or a zombie or skeleton. In a few cases, perhaps deterioration could have lead to a lesser (or greater?) type of undead, but I think other sorts such as Bubbles are created through separate means.

I can probably agree with you that Gibdos are simply mummies, ReDeads are simply zombies/mummies, and Stalfos are simply skeleton warriors.

 

[Master Kokiri 9]

These are one of the most frightening and startling monster races. These have walked the grounds of Hyrule, Termina, The Great Sea, and many more places. They have always had something a little mysterious about them. So I plan to shed some light onto the story.

The undead are a monster race of creatures that are obviously, undead. They have creatures such as gibdos, poes, stalfos, and more. First I'll take a look on the gibdo.

A gibdo is a clothed mummy-like body that has been brought back to life somehow. I believe that these gibdos were previously the body of a Gerudo. Why Gerudo? Because Egyptians originally clothed their dead and they live in the desert. So it wouldn't surprise me if Gerudos clothed their dead as they live in the desert.

I believe that Gibdos are brought back to life from the magical properties of the great fairy's spring water. I believe that the water sieves through the ground and gets into the Gibdo's grave, bringing them back to life. Then the gibdos cloth either falls off or burns off. Revealing the flesh and body of the zombie-like redead. This redead eventually looses it skin as it will decay, so then the skeletal stalfos comes. Depending on the amount of spring water it got, it will either become the magical skull-like bubble or just become a pile of bones. This skull-like bubble then gets repossessed by its spirit, transforming it into a Poe. The Poe then kills a Gerudo and the process repeats. I refer to this process as the Circle of Death.

However, In the Wind Waker the Redeads have pointed ears. So the redeads must be Hylian in this game. As well as smoother skin than most redeads. I believe that the People of the Grand Sea Send the bodies of to sea and then they get buried underwater. This then has an erosion effect on their skin. Spring Water again comes down onto redeads, bringing them and anything else back to life. Then the Circle of Death continues as usual.

In Twilight Princess, again, like Wind Waker, there are no Gibdos. So it starts from this “Redead Knight” I believe they use to be Gerudo Guards over the Arbiter’s Ground. So later, spring water comes on the redead knights, it skips the face of redead and goes straight to stalfos. From there it continues the circle of death. Also, I believe that in Twilight Princess there are some Gerudos hidden somewhere within the depths of the desert.

Another great work of mystery solving by Zeldaduderocks!! However there are a few tiny holes in it. First of all we know that great fairy spring water has very good healing effects but why would it only make them undead instead of fully alive? And second if 'too much' water is poured onto a gerudo grave then why would the end result be non-living bones instead of a fully revived gerudo? But yeah I think the process goes something more like this. A person dies, gets wrapped in bandages, and buried like you said. But instead of the tears the spirit of the gerudo has unfinished business so it doesn't move on to the afterlife and starts tormenting people as a poe. Then some poes possess a dead body of a gerudo to create an undead gibdo. Of course if the bandages are burned off or something it becomes a redead. Also a poe can simply skip the gibdo process by possessing a body that isn't all bandaged up. Of course the natural forces of decay are still at play so eventually gibdo becomes redead and redead becomes stalfos. Also a poe can skip straight to stalfos too. Now not many people know this but without some sort of mineral at play to protect them bones also decay and thus the bubble stage happens. Also poes can skip here as well. Now the bubble decays even further into nothing and all that's left is the poe. Now the process of death repeats itself. So yeah I agree with the order for the most part but I don't agree with the cause of it very much.

 

[Shadsie]

*Skimmed topic*

Original poster person? Can you do us a favor and reduce the size of your image? It's stretching out the screen for me, making everything difficult to read. Just go to "Image Size" in whatever program you're using, shave off a couple of inches or change the dpi to a lower number, re-upload it to whatever online photo service you are using, and viola! Someting that doesn't stretch out our screens.

Personally, due to being able to burn off the bandages of gibdos in Majora's Mask to reveal ReDeads, I think they are essentially one and the same kind of creature. Some people think ReDeads look like "wood" but to me, they look like mummies. I got to see one once at an Egyptian exhibit, unwrapped, plus, where I used to live (Arizona desert), I used to find dumped livestock while out on walks - a dead calf in a desert environment has its skin turn to hard leather rather quickly, due to the dryness in the air.

One way in which this theory does hold water is in the desert environment. Early mummification techniques for the Ancient Egyptians and other desert-dwelling cultures involved merely covering a body with sand and letting it dessicate - I know if you get lost in the desert in Arizona and drop dead and no one finds you for months, you're probably going to be somewhat mummified just by nature. The Great Fairy's spring (TP) is in the Gerudo Desert, so ... the proximity is there.

However, what shoots a hole in this - you must remember that water seeps through sand like nothing else - so it would be very difficult for it to seep *up* into people's graves - it would be more prone to seep *down* into the bedrock/groundwater table. I think a sounder theory would be in people mummifying their dead, then, as a last rite, sprinkling them with Great Fairy Spring water for luck/to send the soul to the afterworld, then leaving the tombs unaware that it would bring the flesh back to life.

As for Poes... I believe in Ocarina of Time, we got our answer on them, or most of them at least - the Poe Salesman describes them as "spirits of hatred" that have sprung up due to the turmoil in the land. This feels kind of Animist to me, very interesting.

As for me, a friend of mine and I had our own theory, which I explored in a fanfiction of mine. Here is a brief exerpt from that fanfic, "Sacred Flesh."


The funeral would be in just over a month. It would take that long to prepare Link’s body. Since ancient times, nobility in Hyrule mummified their honored dead. It was not remembered how the tradition started, but it was no longer believed that the body had to be intact for a soul to be received by the Goddesses. Now, it was merely a tradition, and considered a very high honor. In this way, a noble family could, in a sense, keep a beloved member with them forever, preserved in their tomb.

Some said that gibdos and even redeads were corpses that had been treated in this way, re-animated by magic as bodies without souls. A few tales had it that such creatures were the mummified dead, body and soul, unhappy about being forgotten by their descendants. No one in Hyrule Palace believed the latter was true, at least.


Again, this is just something I used for a fanfic, nothing I'll call "canon" on.

 

[DeletedUser9]

I was discussing this a bit with someone else, and discovered some problems with my information. It's not impossible for there to be graves in the desert. Although the corpses in desert graves are likely to be mummified by nature (as Shadsie stated,) that fits anyway as Gibdos and ReDeads are both very much like mummies.

However, here's something that makes little sense to me. The presence of bandages suggests ritual mummification, rather than it being the work of nature. The Gerudos are thieves. Their whole attitude makes me think they're not even the sort to honor their dead much (burying is an act of honoring the dead,) much less perform rituals for them. Additionally, the only Gibdos encountered in all of OoT (the first game to feature Gerudos) are in the Bottom of the Well under Kakariko Village. This suggests affiliations with the Sheikah, or even the Royal Family of Hyrule.

Regardless of any of this, it seems silly to be discussing these sorts of things... (Ha, I'm one to talk after getting involved! :xd: ) Gibdos, Stalfos and Bubbles all originate from the original LoZ. ReDeads first appear in OoT, as do Gerudos. It seems silly to connect all these things (at least while putting a lot of thought into it) because they were not originally intended to connect. Most of them follow classic "fantasy monster cliches" and thus probably don't have much to them other than being monsters. And I'm pretty damn certain that's all the creators had in mind when putting them into the series, even the newer games... with the exception of perhaps a few creatures here and there (not necessarily undead ones.)

 

[Twilight Prince]

Personally, this is the best thing I heard. I mean, this seems to have a huge chance to be correct. I love your work on that... I would have to agree with you 99.9% the other .1% is never given by me . So don't feel bad about that. So I think your view of this is quite perfect!

 

[Zemen]

While it is a cute theory, I'll have to agree with Axle that nothing backs it up. For all I know this could end up being true, but as of now there is nothing to back it up. I bet a million dollars that I could relate Lizfos evolving from Dodongos and have seem to be a perfect theory, but that wouldn't make it right. Same applies here. You can come up with a theory of the transition but that doesn't make it a correct theory, especially when nothing backs it up. This is just a fanfic, but it is well thought out so I will give you kudos on that.

 

[Shadsie]

The Gerudos are thieves. Their whole attitude makes me think they're not even the sort to honor their dead much (burying is an act of honoring the dead,) much less perform rituals for them.

Just because they are a criminal element does not mean that they do not have honor. There is the old addage "honor among theives." While they steal from the people of Hyrule, they do actually seem to care about each other/their own tribeswomen. Also, consider what Nabouroo said to young Link - she was quite upset that Ganondorf "stole from women and children" and killed people. Of course, she could have just been acting honorable to smoochze the kid into helping her, but since she was Sage material in the end, I think she really did have a sense of honor going on. I've always imagined the Gerudo to be pretty tight-knit among their own kind, so I think rituals for their dead would be very fitting with their character. Sure they'd leave a Hylian killed in battle to rot in the desert (especially if it was a man), but their own? I think they'd give high honors to their own dead.

Regardless of any of this, it seems silly to be discussing these sorts of things... (Ha, I'm one to talk after getting involved! :xd: ) Gibdos, Stalfos and Bubbles all originate from the original LoZ. ReDeads first appear in OoT, as do Gerudos. It seems silly to connect all these things (at least while putting a lot of thought into it) because they were not originally intended to connect.

Sure, it is silly, but it doesn't keep fanfiction writers and fan theorists from having fun! Plus, the creators started making some of their own connections when they decided that burning the bandages off Gibdos in Majora's Mask = ReDeads. I think they thought "Let's throw the fans something fun" more than anything of serious worldbuilding. Still, 'tis fun to come up with little theories.

 

[Zeldaduderox]

Exactly, for those of you who STILL don't believe the gibdo-redead-stalfos-buble thingymajigey... In Minish Cap (Possibly another game) if you burn the cloths of a gibdo it becomes a STALFOS. So this atleast proves that the Gibdos and Rededs have a connection to the Stalfos. So the Gibdo-Redead-Stalfos is proven at the least and the stalfos-bubble remains likely but not proven.