Highlights
- The introduction of the Zonai in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has left fans with many mysteries about their origin and role in Hyrule's history.
- Despite being a central element in the game, Tears of the Kingdom did not provide much information about the Zonai's true origins, leaving players with unanswered questions.
- There is still ambiguity regarding the relationship between the Zonai and Hylia, as well as the current state of Zonai technology and ruins in present-day Hyrule.
Now that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has upturned the series canon with the introduction of the Zonai, there are many mysteries still left unsolved with the biggest of all being whether fans will ever discover more about Zelda's new enigmatic race. After being quietly alluded to in Breath of the Wild, the highly anticipated sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom raised new questions when it introduced the Zonai who seemed to predate the once-familiar series timeline. But even after the game's ending, there is still so much more that players don't know or understand about this deified race.
For as much as Tears of the Kingdom alluded to Zonai lore, the Zelda sequel still managed to withhold specific details about where this tribe came from, what happened to them, and how they fit into the bigger picture of the history of Hyrule. Between the fact that players only ever saw two Zonai with Rauru and Mineru to the uncertainty over Hyrule's founding by its then-king Rauru himself, there is plenty about the Zonai that has yet to be explored and explained. But unless a third Zelda game is planned after Tears of the Kingdom, this could join a growing list of other unresolved series' mysteries.
What's Known About The Zonai So Far
Despite being one of the most central elements of Tears of the Kingdom from the introduction of all-new Zonai devices to a time-travel plot revealing their involvement with Hyrule's formation, the game didn't confirm much for players to work with. What little is known seems to align the Zonai with Skyward Sword's own story of islands lifted into the sky by higher powers to escape evil's reach. But while this explains where Tears of the Kingdom's sky islands came from as well as Rauru's and Mineru's backstories as to why they stayed behind, it doesn't provide much information about the Zonai's true origins.
In particular, Rauru and Mineru are actually the only two Zonai players actually see throughout Tears of the Kingdom, with Ganondorf hinting that the pair are the last living Zonai in existence. Though this is neither confirmed nor denied in the game, it does suggest that there is more to their history that players don't yet know about, such as if they have become extinct or if they're hiding elsewhere akin to the Twili in the Twilight Realm. The only remaining legacy the Zonai have is in Hyrule's origins as Tears of the Kingdom claims that he was its founding king unbeknownst to its current population.
What's Still Unknown About The Zonai
Beyond the Zonai origins and what fate befell them leaving behind Rauru and Mineru, it's just as unclear about the potential relationship the Zonai might have to Hylia. Between the conflicting narratives of Skyward Sword and Tears of the Kingdom, fans are struggling to reconcile the two stories and determine what exactly is the truth. For example, in a scenario of whether the cuckoo or the egg came first, while Rauru may have founded Hyrule, his wife Sonia does appear to be Hylian which raises uncertainty about when and how Hylians were created if they predate their own kingdom.
But aside from their distant past, there is just as much that isn't clear in present-day Hyrule, from what remains of Zonai technology and their ruins in and below Hyrule. While they hinted at the Zonai's existence in Breath of the Wild, the Zonai ruins in Faron Woods don't appear to have been built by Rauru or Mineru themselves. But Mineru's knowledge of them and their links to the Construct Factory and Zonaite mines in the Depths suggests the Zonai were more involved than Tears of the Kingdom alluded to, meaning there could still be more to discover about this forgotten race.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Nintendo Switch.
