#ramrock

“Mechanical Marvels within The Legend”

The Legend of Zelda series has featured several large automatons and mechanical beasts in its day, and here I’ve gathered the most notable, to showcase the similarities and differences of each. Let’s begin!

First, we have 古代巨岩兵 オーイス (Kodai Kyoganbei Ōisu), Ancient Giant Rock Soldier: Ōisu, known in English localization as Eox. This behemoth of a living structure was built by the ancient and premonitious Cobble Race of the World of the Ocean King, and were his servants — much akin to the Sheikah being the devout servants of the Goddess Hylia. Curiously, the Cobble Knights and King share their names and, vaguely, the appearances of, the carpenters of earlier games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Oracle of Ages, and The Minish Cap. Carpentry and masonry (the occupation of stone work) ties an interesting link between these incarnations of the characters.

There’s オーイス (Ōisu), Ōisu, known by the name Mazaal in English localizations of the game, The Minish Cap, was a large and colourful automaton built by the Minish as a gift for the Wind Tribe. Small ports are accessible to one of Minish stature, to get inside and perform maintenance (or attack) on the automaton.

裁定者ゴードン (Saiteisha Gōdon), The Judging One: Gōdon, or simply Godhan, is a massive artificial construct built for the sole purpose of testing the mettle of would-be heroes within the ancient Tower of the Gods — built, most likely, by their devout sages and servants, the Sheikah race. Godhan resembles Mazaal in appearance, function, and form in all but colour and the presence/absence of Minish doorways. This judge was the boss of the Tower of the Gods, in The Wind Waker.

We have ゴーリガン (Gōrigan), known in English as “Ramrock”, was another massive stone automaton from Oracle of Ages, which was the boss housed within the Ancient Tomb. Not only was this a terribly powerful boss, but it was the last of the eight who kept guard on the Essences of Time. Note the similar katakana is quite similar to Godhan’s name, ゴードン; only the middle syllable has been replaced. Curious, very curious…

Last but certainly not least, we have the latest additions to the franchise: the Divine Beasts of Breath of the Wild! Built by the Sheikah tribe (well known now for building advanced machinery), these hulking behemoths put every other automaton on this list to shame! We have four of these, each roughly located in the four corners of the world. While we have yet to have been revealled their true names, we can name them based on their appearances to realworld animals: the Eagle, of the Skies above Hebra; the Salamander, of Death Mountain in Eldin; the Elephant, of the Zora’s seas; and the Camel, of the Gerudo Desert. Each of these is piloted by a “commander”: another artificial intelligence which has been “blighted” by Ganon’s Malice. And these four commanders, well, they “command” the machines they inhabit, as well as the massive army of mobile cephalopod-like mechanical marvels known as the Guardians (ガーディアン (Gādian)).