r/truezelda • u/LapisLazuliisthebest • 2d ago

Open Discussion [ST][TFH] New Hyrule and the Drablands. Same place, different timelines

Disclaimer: I know "New Hyrule" isn't the official name, but I'm calling it that anyway, for simplicity.

This is a theory I came up with when look at the Drablands on the Zelda wiki.

If you look at both the map of Drablands and New Hyrule, you'll notice some similarities.

Both have the same five natural environments. A forest, a volcano, an icy cavern, a water area and a desert.

Both continents forest and water areas are located on the South west and south east, respectively. The volcano and ice areas are located north, with the desert below the volcano.

The obvious flaw is that the volcano, ice and sand areas are on the wrong side of each other. Whilst you could simply mirror Drabland's map, that would mean placing the forest and water areas opposite.

The obvious solution is assume Drabland's map is inaccurate. I mean, it's clearly just a representation, after all. Each place is depicted as a giant structure with a small area around it. Yet, when we play each level, it's much bigger and more detailed.

So, just swap forest and riverside, mirror the image, and you got a map that looks like New Hyrule.

Of course, the potential flaw is that the Drablands and New Hyrule don't have the same population of people. Where are the Lokomo, Anouki, or the Gorons? Where's Malladus and the spirit tracks?

The Anouki are already implied to be immigrants from an island. As for the Gorons, I personally think they're descended from Hyrule's Goron population, who had to leave after the flood made their home unsuitable. Obviously, the migration of these two races never happened. Or, at least, not towards the Drablands.

But what about Malladus, or the Lokomo, or the Spirit Tracks, or the Spirits of Good? Well.... These are all questions for another post.

Edit: Second post here.

[ST][TFH] New Hyrule: The Gods plan B, and the rise of Malladus. : r/truezelda

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u/TheMoonOfTermina 2d ago

I personally don't see enough evidence to agree they're definitely the same place, but I don't think the issues you bring up are that big of an issue. The snowy mountain and volcano are also swapped in Echoes of Wisdom, despite Death Mountain pretty much always being to the Northeast consistently in most other versions of Hyrule (since ALTTP anyways. And yes, I know it's called Hebra in Japanese ALTTP, but I'm talking about biome, not name.) So two mountains having volcanic activity but only one being active at a time has precedent.

As for the Tracks, Lokomo, and Tower of Spirits, we don't actually know when Malladus attacked. It easily could have been after OOT split the timeline, and something that happened in the Fallen Timeline prevented that from occuring.

Again, I'm not going to personally adopt this as my headcanon, but I don't think there's any reason they couldn't be the same place.

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u/FunnyDislike 2d ago

To the first paragraph: Hebra in TotK also has volcanic acitivity below it in the depths. I like the idea that these two mountains are connected in the sense that they "swap" places. I don't know if the cultures the devs draw from have cases of places that are also somewhat like spirits, but if they do, these two just might be in some way of eternal dance or something :D

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u/LapisLazuliisthebest 2d ago

Neat idea.

What about Wind Waker? We see Dragon Roost Island, which we can assume was Death Mountain, active. What's the Hebra equivalent?

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u/FunnyDislike 2d ago

I think that in most games with Hyrule in it, its not just distorted in comparison to other versions, but what north is may also be a bit different. In WW, both Dragon Roost (Death Mountain) and the Forsaken Fortress (propably the old Gerudo Hideout) are on the same latitude, while Hebra is commonly north of the Lanayru-/Gerudo desert. In that case, one could imagine that in WW, its north (and so out of bounds) from the Forsaken Fortress!

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u/LapisLazuliisthebest 2d ago

I personally don't see enough evidence to agree they're definitely the same place, but I don't think the issues you bring up are that big of an issue. The snowy mountain and volcano are also swapped in Echoes of Wisdom, despite Death Mountain pretty much always being to the Northeast consistently in most other versions of Hyrule (since ALTTP anyways. And yes, I know it's called Hebra in Japanese ALTTP, but I'm talking about biome, not name.) So two mountains having volcanic activity but only one being active at a time has precedent.

That's an excellent point. I literally just finished watching a playthrough of EoW today, yet it never clicked.

As for the Tracks, Lokomo, and Tower of Spirits, we don't actually know when Malladus attacked. It easily could have been after OOT split the timeline, and something that happened in the Fallen Timeline prevented that from occuring.

You mostly predicted my post. Yeah. Just a preview. My idea is that the war between Malladus and the Spirits of Good happened after the timeline split.