Murals have played an important role in past Legend of Zelda games, explaining the lore, and teasing fans with incomplete details, and it looks like Nintendo are at it again with Tears of the Kingdom. In their latest trailer for the next installment of the Legend of Zelda series, Nintendo gave away a lot of details, albeit with little context or explanation. Today I’m going to dive into 5 key details hidden in the mural predicting where we are headed story-wise in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Before we get stuck into today’s topic, let me know in the comments what you see in the mural in the latest Tears of the Kingdom trailer. What’s going on with Princess Zelda, who is that new character, and who is Zelda holding hands with? Share your theories down there in the comments.

Nintendo has done a pretty good job of keeping the story for Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom under lock and key, we don’t really know many details other than it’s a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild. Nintendo has been drip feeding us all little snippets of information, and in the latest Tears of the Kingdom trailer, we may have had more than meets the eye. Much of the trailer was taken up with focus on a mysterious mural, and if you look closely you can gleam some crucial details.

Murals have played an important part in telling the history of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, at crucial story moments in the first game we’re walked through a mural depricting the battle between the Hero from 10,000 years ago, Calamity Ganon and a Princess weilding a great power. We have also seen drawings on the wall in the background to Tears of the Kingdom trailers, in particular the first trailer where Link and Zelda were traveling underground on the back of a big, lumbering animal.

The new Tears of the Kingdom trailer leans much more into the mural, and in there we get a better understanding of where the story might take up in the latest entry to the Legend of Zelda series.

Malice

Malice has played a big part in all of the trailers so far for Tears of the Kingdom, and this is no different. Here in the mural we can see an army of monsters battling as the malice creeps to the left. We see Bokoblins and Moblins attacking, almost riding a wave of malice. To the left of the image we see Hylian figures holding their swords, and we see one Hylian holding their sword standing on top of the malice. We also see other Hylians laying dead on the ground as the wave of enemies is attacking.

This lone Hylian could be Link, standing firm amongst the monsters and the malice. It may be hinting that Link is somehow immune to the malice, given his interaction with it in other Tears of the Kingdom trailers. In the E3 2021 trailer we get a quick flash of Link, his arm wrapped in malice, and a shocked look on his. It’s clear Link comes into contact with the Malice, and the end result is his new, modified arm that appears to hold magic powers or the key to new abilities. Given Link has come into contact and he’s survived, the mural could be indicating his immunity to Malice, as others fall in battle around him.

Malice is also seen pouring out of the ground from under Hyrule Castle at the end of the second trailer. Malice played an important part in the first game, providing that toxic environment around the castle, and here in Tears of the Kingdom it looks like it’s going to play another important role.

Rito

The Rito are likely to have a greater role in Tears of the Kingdom, given the sky is going to be our playground with traversing between the Hylian land and sky islands. We’ve seen Link jumping off sky islands, and diving below, plus we’ve Link traveling back up into the air via Sky lifts, plus traveling on a potential sky mount by means of a huge wooden glider. The Rito are perfectly kitted out for the sky given their ability to travel with ease in the air.

We see some Hylian figures in the new trailer, and if you look closely at their faces they could have beaks, indicating an important role for the Rito in the coming war against the Malice and Monsters. The Rito would be perfect assistants to a Link who has to travel in the sky, they could bring him supplies, help him get from A to B or maybe even take part in airborne combat.

Of all the races in the game, the Rito are my favourite, and the sky islands seem like the perfect environment to elevate the Rito up to help Link in Tears of the Kingdom.

Deity

We see a strange, new character in the latest Tears of the Kingdom trailer. This is an important character, as the trailer opens on them, lingering for more than a few seconds. It has a piercing gaze, looks something like a cross between an Owl and a Rabbit. It’s thought to be some kind of Deity or God-like creature, although we haven’t seen any statues related to this character in Breath of the Wild.

Later in the trailer we see this Deity surrounded by seven symbols. Seven is an important number in Legend of Zelda Lore with the Seven Sages being important in like Ocarina of Time. This could indicate a few things. The seven sages could return, or perhaps we have seven dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom, and each one rewards one of these symbols.

Hylia could be another candidate for the identity of this mysterious creature. The Godess Hylia is a very important character in Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, and much of the design direction appears to be linking those two games together, and leading us to Tears of the Kingdom. We are returning to the skies in Tears of the Kingdom, and could be about to plee to Hylia herself. Zonai markings do appear on the mural, so this imagery of Hylia could be from the perspective of the Zonai, rather than Hylians.

We don’t know the anwer right now, but we do know this is an important character. It’s almost certainly a god, but who’s god? Is this the godess Hylia, or perhaps a god worshipped by the Zonai or Sheikah people. Let me know in the comments your thoughts and theories for this character.

Princess Zelda

Zelda appears to be highlighted a few times in the murals. First time we see her she’s floating on her back, and it looks like she could be lowered towards malice. We can’t see who has her under a spell here, although we’ve seen Zelda in precarious positions like this before. Aghanim had Zelda positioned like this in a Link To The Past. It looks like we can just about make out the trousers of the character behind the sleeping Princess Zelda, but that it likely to remain a mystery until we see another trailer in the near future.

We see another close-up of Princess Zelda later in the trailer, but this time much of the detail is intentionally hidden from view. We can see Princess Zelda holding hands with another, holding hands in front of two of the symbols surrounding the Deity. Nintendo are purposefully hiding the identity of the being holding hands with Princess Zelda, much like they have hidden other details. Could this be Link, or Ganondorf? I think it’s likely to be Link, but Nintendo doesn’t want us to see the full reveal yet of what Link looks like in this mural depiction. The lack of Link in the mural is notable, given he’s always by Princess Zelda’s side in Breath of the Wild. Nintendo still has a few secrets up their sleeve, so we’re going to have to wait and see.

Zonai text

There is some mysterious Zonai text found in the trailer, when we see Princess Zelda standing, holding hands with her mysterious partner. GameOver Jesse’s Hylian Gamescast has done some increidble work looking to translate the text, and they believe the text says this:

“When the sun shines, the moon shines.
When the moon shines, the stars shine.
When the sun sets, the moon turns red.
Daylight comes and goes, but the sun never shines.”

The moon turning red certainly sounds familiar, however, the rest of the text is very cryptic indeed, Nintendo looking to not give too many details away at all. The daylight coming and going, but the sun never shining sounds very ombnious, and once again we’re going to have to wait and see what this means for the upcoming plot to Tears of the Kingdom.

Let me know in the comments what you think of the Mural, and let me know your theories related to what you think it all means.

That’s it for this look at 5 key hidden mural details in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. For more Legend of Zelda content like this check out Triforce Times on YouTube and subscribe today.