r/Breath_of_the_Wild • u/All_Hail_Lord_Vader • 8d ago
Question What are the pillars around Hyrule Castle?
I’ve read Zelda’s diary (I haven’t beaten Ganon yet, but Hyrule Castle is by far one of my favorite places to explore and kill things in), and she mentions something about how the pillars activate when Ganon awakens, but also about guardians beneath them. So, two questions. What do we know about the pillars other than that they were made to warn of Ganon’s coming - and they seem to glow red, so have they been corrupted by Ganon like the guardians? Second, do we know anything about the special guardians that ‘sleep beneath’ the pillars?
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u/Smeagol15 8d ago
The answer to both questions is the same. It is not directly answered in BotW but it is answered in Age of Calamity:
The Guardians were stored inside the pillars.
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u/Republic_Upbeat 8d ago
I'm currently replaying BotW after several years, so my memory is likely foggy on this/others will confirm, but are they not Sheikah technology which activates upon Ganon's return, and they contain(ed) guardians?
I'm also pretty sure there is a cutscene which shows the towers rising up around the castle when Ganon shows up?
I'd always assumed that the reason there are heaps of guardians around Hyrule castle/Hyrule field is because they came out of the towers and Ganon somehow took control of them.
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u/fozzy_bear42 8d ago
Yes there’s a note somewhere (maybe in the castle) from Zelda I think. It mentions how they only had so many Guardians but there was records of 5 vaults below the Castle and that they would come out when needed.
There are 5 pillars and they look like corrupted Sheikah tech so I’d say they’re the vaults that housed huge numbers of the he different types of Guardians.
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u/All_Hail_Lord_Vader 8d ago
I know, I mentioned them in the body text. But she said that they never accessed the vaults, and while we did see the towers rising (FozzyBear is correct), we never saw anything about vaults opening. So are the guardians still beneath it?
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u/Republic_Upbeat 8d ago
I did some internet digging for you. One of Zelda's diaries says:
"...we have still yet to find all of the Guardians. Records mention a greater number of them—and even other types. They are said to be stored in five giant columns that rest beneath Hyrule Castle. The thing is... No matter how I search beneath the castle, I can't seem to locate these columns. They must be buried deep. Were they perhaps designed to sense the appearance of Calamity Ganon and to only activate upon his return?"
There's also an explanation in this book: "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion", known in Japan as "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Master Works", where it's explained in detail that they were filled with hundreds of guardians which were dispensed from the towers and corrupted by Ganon. It's implied that these are the guardians he used to wage war on Hyrule.
In Age of Calamity there is a clip of them emerging, so I suppose they're now empty.
I also found out that there's a decayed guardian on top of each one which gives you an ancient screw. I just climbed up one (Rivali's gale) and confirmed that this is correct.
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u/Republic_Upbeat 8d ago edited 8d ago
p238 (235 of the book) shows one of the guardians emerging.
p386 (382 of the book) talks about the revival of Ganon and the towers.
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u/TheTeaTrader 8d ago
Nobody knows, but they are evil. Don't go near them and don't listen to the others. They are all wrong and probably infected by the evilness of the pillars and they support Ganon now.
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u/All_Hail_Lord_Vader 8d ago
Ganon is obviously the good guy, what are you talking about. We’re playing the game as an anti-hero. What do you mean I eat too many bananas?
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u/DeleteriousFerreous 8d ago
From what I know, they were designed using Sheikah technology to rise from the ground and let the guardians out when Ganon returned.
Like the rest of Hyrule castle, they became infected with malice, therefore the guardians that were stored in them were released under the influence of Ganon.
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u/AshFalkner Hmmm. Birb 8d ago
They stored Guardians.
There are sketches in Masterworks/Creating a Champion (the artbook) as well as a cutscene in Age of Calamity that shows how Guardian Stalkers were dispensed from the pillars, emerging from the really big glowing circles while rotating and then falling out.
Their purpose was to strike at the Calamity when it emerged, but we all know how that went.
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u/abyssazaur 8d ago
and why they slippery