Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has a shocking story for fans of Breath of the Wild, and there are MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. In Breath of the Wild, Link wake 100 years after a massive disaster befell Hyrule. With little except the Sheikah Slate and Link's can-do spirit, players have to explore the world as it is, half in rubble and Hyrule Castle unreachable as it is covered in Malice.
While touted as a prequel to the 2017 hit game, Age of Calamity wasn't actually part of the same timeline as Breath of the Wild. And the updated timeline is so altered from the Breath of the Wild one that it will have huge implications for the overarching Zelda timelines as well as the Champion's roles in BotW2. In Age of Calamity, a small, egg-shaped Guardian built by Zelda travels back in time, altering the timeline so completely that it changes the outcome of the first battle against Calamity Ganon.
In this timeline, the little unlockable Guardian named Terrako also casts its time-traveling magic a second time, bringing the descendants into the past in order to save the Champions' lives. While the Champions are all long dead in Breath of the Wild, the Age of Calamity Champions survive, meet the four descendants, and defeat Ganon. There is no 100-year gap, no sleeping Link with amnesia, and no gridlocked Zelda and Calamity Ganon in the Hyrule Castle. Therefore, the Divine Beasts are still good guys, and the Champions' spirits don't get locked into their Divine Beasts.
Implications for Breath of the Wild 2
Many fans insist that Age of Calamity reads like a Breath of the Wild fanfiction rather than the prequel that was promised. Whether it does or not, the Age of Calamity's big twist ending will have massive implications for BotW2's handling of the Champions going forward. There are several questions that will now need to be addressed in the sequel, and the most important of these is in relation to which timeline BotW2 takes place.
There are two possibilities for the continuation of the already confusing Zelda timelines in Breath of the Wild 2: the game will take place after the 100 year events of Breath of the Wild and will feature four descendants who remember the events of Age of Calamity, or Breath of the Wild 2 will take place in the alternate timeline.
The Alternate Timeline
The alternate timeline would make for an interesting game; Age of Calamity has already defeated Calamity Ganon, and Link and Zelda now have the free time to venture around Hyrule. They both have unlocked their powers as the Sealers of Darkness, and Zelda's father is alive to rule so they have the ability to travel without leaving Hyrule leaderless. And in traveling, the two would come across the weird Ganondorf mummy in that creepy cave in the BotW2 teaser trailer.
Since the average lifespan of a Hylian is about 100-150 years, and Link and Zelda both look as they do in Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild, this game would not be able to take place 100 years later. There would just be too many physical changes for a Hylian that old; fans would have seen signs of it in the trailer and Link wouldn't be the one of his strongest Zelda incarnations. However, it could take place immediately after the Age of Calamity making it a sequel to the Hyrule Warriors game and not Breath of the Wild.
If that's true, it means that not only would the Champions and their Divine Beasts be part of the current world, but those Divine Beasts would still be uncorrupted by Malice. This would mean that the Divine Beasts along with their Champions could be part of the battles with whoever the villain or villains of BotW2 could be. This could mean playable Champions in certain chapters or special storylines. It would be interesting to play a Zelda game where the player can not only play co-op as Link and Zelda, but the other characters as well.
Ultimately, however, this seems unlikely. It's more probable that, despite being a prequel of sorts, the events here are deemed non-canon.
The Current Timeline
If Breath of the Wild 2 is truly a sequel to Breath of the Wild, it can still make some interesting allusions to the alternate timeline of Age of Calamity. Since the four descendants traveled back in time to fix the timeline, they would, in theory, return to the original Breath of the Wild 100-year timeline with the memories of saving their Champions intact. This means that, while the Age of Calamity timeline wouldn't be mentioned much, it could be hinted at through the four descendants and their story of the other world.
This would mean that the new Champions, the descendants, would have been the ones to travel back in time. These new Champions would have had to learn to pilot the Divine Beast as part of saving the old Champions in Age of Calamity, which means that they would be the new chosen to help in the battle against evil with the ancient Divine Beasts. This could once again mean that the new Champions would be integral to the plot of BotW2 or even possibly playable characters.
But Why Not Both?
There is a third possibility for the setting of the next Zelda chapter; there are some rumors that Breath of the Wild 2 might be all about time traveling, or more specifically timeline traveling, moving through the different games and finally reuniting them. The games have already been split into several different possible outcomes for Link; however, one of the many unsolved mysteries of Breath of the Wild is that it has references to all three timelines.
For example, there are the DLC costumes like the Mask of Majora and Tingle's outfit, the Aribiter's Grounds in the desert which is a ruined replica of the dungeon in Twilight Princess, names of places identical to those in Link's Awakening, hints that Zant from Twilight Princess may return, and many more. The references touch every single one of the timelines, meaning that perhaps, Breath of the Wild 2 could be the one to bridge them all together. This means that the game would have to take place in both the 100-year future of Breath of the Wild, and the alternate future from Age of Calamity. This would mean that the Champions are both alive and dead, making for an interesting clash between the two worlds. And maybe even Links and Zeldas from other worlds as well.
This would make for an interesting twist. As Link and Zelda, the Champions and their descendants, players would be able to travel through all of the previous stories, possibly cementing Breath of Wild 2 right in the center of all three diverging timelines.
Breath of the Wild 2Â is currently in development.
