ʜᴇʀᴏ ᴏғ ᴛᴡɪʟɪɢʜᴛ

Alright, so I went an remade an old reference sheet that I had around. By remade, i simply just... moved the upper section a bit so that the 'gods not claimed' had a bigger/more balanced section. But let me just explain a bit about this.

Essentially... The Left side that has Hylia underneath is but ONE religion that may be found within Twilight Princess Hyrule. This.. religion is what would many consider like... the relgion that probably will be found/considered in other eras as well since it follows "Hylia and the Goddesses" faith. With Hylia being the topmost favoured/ruler of the other gods/goddesses. A 'king/queen'. If you will. Its almost similar in Greek Mythos where... Zues is considered the King of Gods but that doesn't mean that he is the ONLY God.

It's a system is a bit similar in that aspect? But not wholly or exactly like it. Still though, you would also have something similar to the "Olympians" as well. The Olympians of this religion of hyrule being... Din, Farore, and Nayru ( the 'Goddesses' ).

In TP, the folks that normally follow THIS specific religion are namely the Hyrulian Royal Family, the Sheikah, and a few other notable Non-Hylian Royals.

This faith is a 'newer' faith system compared to the Right Side. But it should be noted that, for the most part, the faith/religion sort of 'takes over' very specific traditions over time for those who follow this faith due to the 'Triforce' also just simply comes from this side. IT is not ALL of it, but a good majority of it does, which is why... 3 of the 4 light spirits are also found on this side of the religion. It's also what the followers pass down to tell the story of legend.

This main issue with this religion, and why it is ultimately NOT followed well in Twilight Princess is due to the fact that this faith system puts an emphasis on very specific gods/goddesses. Almost like a take over, and there is an attempt to ERASE any other sort of faith system. It's pretty harsh in discrimination against any gods that don't FIT the model very well, and just... seems to ignore them completely.

I honestly do not have or know the words that can describe this well other that... a foreign entity comes and tries to take over what was originally there. You can actually see this in real life with some Western Religions actually. Honestly, Christianity is a primary religion/faith that I can think of where you this happening where there is an attempt to convert people over. My personal experience with this is the church of the La.tter D.ay Sa.ints.

A DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a jab at western faith for the most part ( though I do actually have a dislike for Christianity but thats neither here nor there and im not really intending to make a jab, but it IS an observation that I have personally seen ). BUT i DIGRESS.

Anyway... This faith system really isn't fully set into place in Twilight Princess due to the fact that a majority of Hyrule still follow the 'older' traditions. This actually also includes the Light spirits as well. Though 3 of them are 'Claimed' in this new religion, you do witness them sort of adhering to the more common faith that is found ( especially since Link would be somebody who would know more about the 'old' faith rather than the 'newer' faith that the royal family follows ). This could be a possible oversight for them ( Eldin, Faron, and Lanaryu ), but it could also mean that they dont really care or prefer one way or the other ( as the other 'unclaimed' deities also do not care either' ). To them they don't normally see the separate faiths anyway since for them, God's are gods. so its like... well who cares?

It's important to note that. Yes: Hylia IS a goddess. She is, however, an outsider goddess. A goddess that came from a different place/land. She is... as some would call... an 'alien resident'. But many took her in as a new goddess anyway. She, later and eventually, brings about her own faith system and tries to 'take over' ( for some odd reason that honestly I cannot explain. ) Take over is a rather strong word, though. I think its more of her trying to 'organise' religion and faith a bit more to her liking since, before, there really wasn't any sort of organized faith. ( i wouldn't say it was chaotic, it was just disorganized ). This also doesn't include the fact that hylia also had her own set of problems and ordeals to handle so she... more or less just tried to do things that made sense to her.

Some people obviously liked the 'order' hylia brought, naturally. ( these include skyloftians ). but there were a large group of folks just simply didn't take to the religion as well. Or rather, it was more on the faith and believe that.... some people just didn't like the erasure of the other gods - since for them, they truly believed there were deities for EVERYTHING. It was a very common faith.

Which brings us to the RIGHT side of the diagram. The more 'COMMON' Faith system found within TP.

The thing about the right side/other religion is that.... By technicality... Hylia and the 3 goddesses are ALSO found within this religion, though... They don't NEARLY have as much of an important role as the other religion. Instead of them being THE goddesses, they are simply.... just some goddesses found.

If we are following from top to bottom, we see that there are like... 'higher gods' listed. Now. in regards to WHAT these gods are and what they represent? thats a valid question and point. Of which i can only answer.... I don't know. I really do not know the answer to that one. Though I think it is REALLY safe to assume that some/many/most of the following are or would be considered higher deities: Life, Death, Sun, Moon, Water, Air, Earth, and Fire

I think another way to think about it is.... What would be the most common/general deities that would most likely be worshipped by EVERYBODY and that is what you would probably have for the 'major' gods. But also.. note that.... You have a few in there that would.... Follow or fit into the 'Hylia' Religion/Faith as well. This is actually done on purpose because.... Unlike the Hylia religion, this 'older' faith does/did genuinely take the Hylia faith into consideration. Some of the older gods were simply just 'repurposed' into the 'newer' faith so I think naturally... that's why the model is sort of... made into this specific way. Of course, if this doesn't make sense, feel free to let me know and I can try to explain it better. sdlsdkj

Anyway... Moving on...

So yea... You have the.... 'Higher Gods' of the Faith, and then, under them are the Light Spirits. Which are considered Deities in their Own right, but are sort of SEPARATE from.... the higher gods. Like in a tiered system, though, they would be underneath the higher gods, but still above all other 'minor-ish' deities. The reason for this is due to the fact that... They are still widely followed/worshipped by mortals. ( Though perhaps who worships them are not as intense since its more of a regional thing than anything ).

Example: Ordona is probably more worshipped by people in the Ordon providence. Though she is probably seen/recognized by other folks from the other providences, they just don't prey to her as much or often since she is not part of their providence. This is the same for the other Light Spirits ( Though in the case of the Other Light Spirits, They are also part of Hylia's Faith as well so they are also seen as the protectors/guides of their part of the triforce - meaning that they simple are seen with some extra stuff in Hylia's faith system. )

After/under the Light spirits, you essentially have like... every other god/deity that just aren't technically considered a major god - and therefore arent ALWAYS worshipped by everybody - but are still recognized as such. Normally they have a smaller set of devout followers for themselves, but... its more on a personal level than anything else? like people can pick and choose who they want to worship or celebrate but they wouldn't be punished if they didn't recognize all of them. ( its a bit like.. they pick whichever god speaks to them the most ).

These 'minor ish' gods probably would consist of stuff like: dreams, shadows, other elements not part of the major ones ( electricity, ice, etc ), medicine, seasons, desert, forest and sea/lake/river gods. Like there isn't really a limit to what could or couldn't be a god. If you can think of a subset/subject, there is most likely a god for it. Theyre just simply a bit more 'niche' in that aspect. Plus, there are minor gods always springing up and popping up. If somebody believes in it, then there is most likely a god for it.

In this section there also comes like the idea that some of the other immortals ( who aren't gods themselves ) can also become gods. Normally it is when... an immortal race becomes all dies out except for one. and then they become the personification of whatever they were meant to represent. I say this because I specifically have a draconic-fae deity that wasn't really a god to begin with. She was part of an immortal race. But her kin died out and she was the last of her kind and she like.... ultimately became another deity of what she represents ( dreams ).

These instances are QUITE rare to happen, and they normally don't realise they theyve become gods themselves until somebody directly tells them but the only way to really tell them is if another god recognizes it and says something. Which... doesn't happen often since Gods REALLY just simply do not care like that.

But ahhhh okay and then you have like.. the IMMORTALS that aren't really like... considered gods at all. but they aren't mortal either. These groups of people just.... aren't really worshipped by mortals at ALL, however, they ARE seen/treated as like... the 'children' or offspring/creations of the gods. Its almost like... demi-gods in a way? but also not really? This would include stuff like... the Fae ( and fairies included ) Forest/Flower/water spirits and nymphs. Dragons. Like.. think of all the things that would like... be plenty or have like a group of individuals. like there are races of folks found within and they are in some cases plenty. but they aren't gods themselves since... they are not a single entity.

these 'immortals' are atually often seen by mortals themselves, and they are USUALLY the ones that act as sort of messengers to the gods ( since the immortals can see the gods but the mortals cannot). The exception to this are the Light spirits, which CAN present themselves in front of mortals if they so choose. otherwise, in MOST cases, the gods simply do not want to be seen by mortals. Though... if they DO want to, they normally guise themselves as something else ( either as an immortal that isn't a god, or they guise themselves in the body of a mortal themselves ).

Naturally, I think... another example of.... a God putting themselves under a guise of a mortal body is Hylia herself. I would like to think that... she actually does this often in order to spread her teachings and faith across the land. This is something that wasn't typically done with the older faith system as.... I think the gods didn't really want to be so hands on in pushing the mortals into specific faith systems. ( essentially, they were hands off and allowed mortals to believe in whatever they wanted to believe ). The only other instances of divine intervention that happened in the non-hylia religion is when the gods were GENUINELY trying to protect the mortals from something that they would have otherwise deemed destructive.

There are plenty of instances where you see this happening where the gods genuinely tried to take care of the mortals. However... there are also A LOT of instances where it was a LOT of hylia's meddling as well. And her, along with the 3 goddesses, either tried to prevent the other gods from intervening or the other gods genuinely just did not want to get involved in hylia's meddling to begin with.

In all honesty, there were some gods that believed that hylia was an interloper herself ( she technically was ) because she came from a different place, but given that they gods were just so VERY old to begin with, i dont think they really had the energy to stop her ( or they simply didn't care ).

The REASON why, in Twilight Princess, you have a rather strange pocket of.... people following the older faith system is due to the fact that.... for some reason, Hylia just STRUGGLED to really make her mark here. The triforce was made and set, however, I think there was a lot of pushback as well from the gods. They really just up and went 'ENOUGH' for like an era ( which ultimately is the Twilight Era ). there were a lot more instances where the other gods got involved, which ended up with a REALLY convoluted faith system in Twilight Princess. ( it was an attempt to reclaim what had been more or less 'erased' ).

I think this is WHY many of the hylians/morals outside of the Hylian Royal Family just.... followed the 'older' faith system. Because there were A LOT more instances of 'divine' intervention happening. Not to mention that... Ordona somehow reclaimed a providence that didn't follow the Hylia religion. ( since Ordona was never part of the religion to begin with ). And because of that, I think a lot of folks 'defaulted' back to the older faith system cause like.... IT MADE SENSE for them.

Anyway... I rambled for a while... but let me uh.... answer something that was asked. also!!!

IF THERE ARE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK AND I WILL DO MY BEST TO ANSWER.

is Hylia discussed in TP's era? She didn't actually exist when the game was made...which is honestly why I have such issue with her coming into existence and just becoming THE most worshipped goddess after SS. It's weird. But I am curious as to how you incorporate her into TP's religion.

aright I think... this was MOSTLY answered, but to summarize it for you. She is but also isnt worshipped in TP. The main people to really 'worship' her are the hylian royal family. as mentioned. But even then... I think MANY in that family also recognise her as... a god that was amongst the other gods - she simply just rose up to power on her own accord. Though.... she really isn't discussed that much in the .... main/old religion that is just more commonly found in Twilight Princess. Like I dont even think shes really ever mentioned/discussed or seen all that much. partially due to the fact that I think there was an attempt to paint her as some sort of 'interloper' ( not all but some ) by some of the gods. Rather... she was the cause and reason for the interlopers to happen.

It is also worth to note that.... there IS a cutscene.... where 'the goddesses' are actually discussed. I have linked that scene here for you. So its not like... the goddesses DON'T exist. And the Gods DO recognise that.... there was some order that had been made ( this is what Hylia attempted to do with the goddesses ). This also explains how the Triforce ( which also comes from Hylia ) had been created.

but again... Hylia herself is not even mentioned. The goddesses are actually BARELY mentioned themselves. I think the reason for this is to make it a bit messy and convoluted, but also to allow a bit more freedom to have faith in WHATEVER you wanted ( because if you believed in it then you should be allowed to have faith in it ) instead of what Hylia wanted ( which was very... constrained and limiting ).

I also like to think that... given the fact that Magic use was also something that was... more or less lost in Twilights Princess ( due to the interloper war ), a lot of people... turned back to the old gods and wanted to like... believe in them more since... THEIR faith and religion wasn't nearly as destructive as hylia's faith. ( if that makes sense, I hope this makes sense ).

like essentially, due to the magic just dwindling, I think a lot of mortals really just had no explanation for certain things and therefore defaulted to 'well it must be a sign from the gods.'

But again, its also because there was jsut so much more FREEDOM with the older faith system. So I think there were plenty of traditions/superstitions that followed that really just matched/aligned more with the system that... there were more gods than what Hylia initially created.

And! in case.. folks are curious to how i see the timeline, its pretty close to how the timeline was created with the Zelda franchise. The timeline being ( from the games that I played ).

Skyward sword -> Twilight Princess -> BOTW -> TOTK