Rauru (Tears of the Kingdom)

Title	Source of the Right Arm; Founding King
Race	Zonai
Gender	Male
Games	Tears of the Kingdom
Location	Great Sky Island
Teaches	Ultrahand; Fuse; Ascend
Related	Sonia (wife); Mineru (older sister); Zelda (descendant); Sacred Princess (descendant)

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This article is about the character in Tears of the Kingdom. For the character in Ocarina of Time, see Rauru (Ocarina of Time). For the town in The Adventure of Link, see Town of Rauru.

Rauru is a character in Tears of the Kingdom.

Tears of the Kingdom

"The first king of Hyrule. The strange arm was once his. As king, he did not hesitate to risk his own life for his people. After Zelda traversed time to the era of Hyrule's founding, he worked with her and the other five sages to imprison the Demon King."

— Final in-game description

Past

"Long ago", Rauru filled the Shrines of Light with "light that purges evil." He left his right arm magically pinning down Ganondorf's corpse Beneath Hyrule Castle long after he apparently died.

TODO: Memories

Care to do so?

Present

When Link and Zelda travel Beneath Hyrule Castle searching for the source of the gloom affecting Hyrule, they see the arm pinning Ganondorf down. When the arm falls, Ganondorf begins to revive, still corpse-like, and ravages Link's arm and health while shattering the Master Sword, and mockingly notes that "Rauru placed his faith" in Link.

When Zelda falls into the abyss, Link leaps after her, but sees her vanish; then is caught by the mysterious arm which had been pinning down Ganondorf's corpse. He awakens some time later, almost naked and his ravaged arm replaced with the arm which had saved him, to the sound of an unknown voice.

The voice explains that it had heard a great deal about him from Zelda, and that he very nearly died. It replaced his arm because his original "was beyond saving". After Link leaves the room, he leaps down to Great Sky Island and is pointed to the Temple of Time there. When he reaches it, and uses his new arm on the door, he is denied entry, whereupon the voice tells him the "door will open only to those with sufficient power".

Link spins to see a ghostly figure, who apologises for startling him and tells Link that his new right arm originally belonged to him. He identifies himself as Rauru, and states that he no longer has a physical form. He is surprised Link cannot open the door, as it should have been powerful enough, but apparently no longer is. He points Link to three Shrines of Light on Great Sky Island - Ukouh Shrine, In-isa Shrine and Gutanbac Shrine - which should have the sacred light needed to restore the arm's power.

When Link enters the first shrine, Rauru appears and explains that he filled them with the light, which can restore an ability Link's arm has lost. In each shrine in turn, he appears and uses the shrine's power to grant the arm an ability - Ultrahand, Fuse and Ascend - and sends Link deeper to collect the Light of Blessing within.

As Link travels across Great Sky Island, he meets Rauru's ghost in various places; musing on subjects such as how the Constructs mindlessly continue to perform their function even when all the reason for them to do so is gone, which disquiets him; the Time Bell of the Garden of Time; and the Zonai Devices they created.

When Link collects three Lights of Blessing and enters the Temple of Time, he touches a tear-shaped statue and has a vision of Zelda, which grants him the Recall ability. Rauru appears and explains it; but cannot explain the vision of Zelda, nor where she has vanished to. When Link does not have the vitality to get through the back door of the Temple, he sends Link to the final shrine on the island - Nachoyah Shrine - to receive one more Light of Blessing, which he can offer to the Temple's Goddess Statue for more health. He also grants Link's Purah Pad the ability to warp to travel gates, and directs him to use it to travel back to the Room of Awakening and find the shrine there.

After Link has collected the Light of Blessing, and exchanged the four for a Heart Container at the Goddess Statue, enabling him to pass through the door, Rauru appears to Link once more. He observes that Link is not yet fully recovered, but since he was "almost beyond saving", that's understandable and receiving the shrines' blessings has mitigated some of the corruption Ganondorf wreaked upon him.

He then bids Link farewell, noting he was so happy to finally meet Link, and that he was "exactly as Zelda said." Saying he's done everything he can for Zelda, he tells Link it's up to him now, and his ghost dissolves into specks of light.

Ending

Rauru's ghost appears one final time after Link defeats the Demon Dragon, and in concert with Sonia's ghost, changes Link's right arm into a normal Hylian arm and reverts the Light Dragon to Zelda. The two ghosts then disappear without a word.