Zuna

[Hyrulian Hero]

The Zuna are a race first (and thus far, only) encountered in the Desert of Doubt in Four Swords Adventures. They are a race of green-skinned nomads who exist alongside the Gerudo. Weirdly enough, we only meet them later in the timeline as Four Swords Adventures is the latest game in the Child Era. I say weirdly enough because (and this is Hyrule Historia so make of it what you will) the Zuna are the descendants of the tribe that built the [ancient] pyramid. Although I can't find that the pyramid was ancient in the game itself, it appears to be weathered, the Zuna are the "descendants" which implies age, and the stone inscription is engraved on a broken and weathered stone as well as being written in an ancient language (likely Zuna-ese since their ancestors built the pyramid).

That stone inscription, by the by, explains the purpose of the weapon ensconced beneath it. That weapon is the Trident. The inscription reads in part, "Evil...spirit of magic trident." and indicates that the wielder of the Trident will be the King of Evil. It is said that Ganondorf entered the pyramid and stole the Trident; we later see Ganon wielding it.

As an aside, I'll introduce a tangential point that I've discussed before. Gerudo normally have brown skin but Ganondorf, Koume and Kotake, and Veran (I only THEORIZE that she may be related because of the skin color and the Gerudo symbols on her clothes and relationship to Koume and Kotake. Remember Onox also wore Gerudo symbols and looked like an iron knuckle but had lighter skin) have greenish skin. Wild speculation but perhaps this skin color indicates some kind of relation to the green-skinned, desert-dwelling, nomadic, Gerudo adjacent Zuna?

And now the point and the subsequent eye-rolling...

Zuna ≈ Zonai?

The ancient and mysterious tribe that lent evil power to Ganondorf? It's fun to speculate wildly.

Spoiler: Very Weak Speculative Evidence

On the corners of the stone above the doorway, we can see a couple of symbols that look like what is speculated to be the Zonai symbol. Then again, FSA borrowed from Wind Waker and the "Zonai symbol" just looks like a Wind Waker swirl to me

 

[Pokémaniac13]

The biggest problem I see is that I had assumed that the Zonai weren’t that old. Ancient in BotW, but if BotW is the “missing link” of the timelines, then what about the Great Sea? The waters destroyed so much, and yet these random ruins are fine (I guess. They’re still old.)? I could be wrong though.

 

[Hyrulian Hero]

An excerpt from Creating A Champion:

"The Mysterious Zonai
The history of the Zonai people has been lost to time. There are rumours that they were
a savage tribe based in Faron, where the most substantial of their ruins are located.
However, Zonai ruins or ruins with very similar characteristics can be found in all parts
of Hyrule (highlighted in green). In addition to the massive palace in Faron, the Zonai
ruins throughout Hyrule seem to have elements connecting them to the ancient
shrines. The Zonai themselves are spoken of in hushed whispers as strong magic
wielders who vanished suddenly thousands of years ago. The disappearance of the
Zonai is one of Hyrule’s greatest mysteries."

(Color added for emphasis)

That still doesn't mean they existed anytime during or before previous games since we have no idea about Breath of the Wild's timeline placement, but I've always been of the opinion that Zelda games really don't have a coherent canon since they are all legends of Zelda. Breath of the Wild includes much of the history from all three timelines in the same way that many of the other games include aspects of other timelines that they shouldn't if there were truly a coherent canon to the series. Still, that's beside the point to me, I don't say this because I think Nintendo intended there to be some kind of a Zonai throughline since the beginning of the series or something. I just think that if Nintendo wanted to, they could tie several elements of various Zelda games together in retrospect in order to bring Tears of the Kingdom into the Zelda universe.

 

[Pokémaniac13]

An excerpt from Creating A Champion:

"The Mysterious Zonai
The history of the Zonai people has been lost to time. There are rumours that they were
a savage tribe based in Faron, where the most substantial of their ruins are located.
However, Zonai ruins or ruins with very similar characteristics can be found in all parts
of Hyrule (highlighted in green). In addition to the massive palace in Faron, the Zonai
ruins throughout Hyrule seem to have elements connecting them to the ancient
shrines. The Zonai themselves are spoken of in hushed whispers as strong magic
wielders who vanished suddenly thousands of years ago. The disappearance of the
Zonai is one of Hyrule’s greatest mysteries."

(Color added for emphasis)

That still doesn't mean they existed anytime during or before previous games since we have no idea about Breath of the Wild's timeline placement, but I've always been of the opinion that Zelda games really don't have a coherent canon since they are all legends of Zelda. Breath of the Wild includes much of the history from all three timelines in the same way that many of the other games include aspects of other timelines that they shouldn't if there were truly a coherent canon to the series. Still, that's beside the point to me, I don't say this because I think Nintendo intended there to be some kind of a Zonai throughline since the beginning of the series or something. I just think that if Nintendo wanted to, they could tie several elements of various Zelda games together in retrospect in order to bring Tears of the Kingdom into the Zelda universe.

Fair

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

I think Nintendo intended there to be some kind of a Zonai throughline since the beginning of the series or something. I just think that if Nintendo wanted to, they could tie several elements of various Zelda games together in retrospect in order to bring Tears of the Kingdom into the Zelda universe.

I am in a similar place, after finding the Zonai like stone textures in Skyward Sword. There is enough to make interesting connections, but possible connections don't make definite connections.

Zuna ≈ Zonai?

There was the whole thing with the Golden Triumph Forks, so it's not impossible. It would be strange that a species so important to the story would only appear once... like the Minish.

 

[Pokémaniac13]

It would be strange that a species so important to the story would only appear once... like the Minish.

Technically, Vati is Minish, so they have appeared three times. And were almost in BotW.