Proof there is more than three god(desses)

[Commodore Axilon]

Just a thought actually, could the lower pantheon be "spirits". Spirits tend to be a alot more specific than the traditional "omnipotant" gods, thus bringing in a spirit/god of wind etc. Could the duku tree even be a spirit, being as he is ... a talking tree and not really a "creature".

Actually, Valoo is the Spirit of Wind, isn't he?

And yes, the Deku Tree is the Spirit of Earth.

[Mysterious F.]

Spirits, not God(desse)s. Spirits could be very powerful mortal beings, possibly immortal ones, but not yet gods.

[Commodore Axilon]

Huh? I was just commenting on this:

thus bringing in a spirit/god of wind etc.

And seeing as how there are already both a God(s) and Spirit of Wind, that kind of disproves his theory, does it not?

[Mysterious F.]

According to Ancient Greek Paganism, a spirit is a higher class mortal, or an immortal who is not a god, with some spiritual powers. It's most likely that the Hyrulean religion is based around Ancient Greek.

[darkphantomime]

You see, it's not based off of Greek at all; the main source of worship in the Hylian religion is the trinity  of the three goddesses. Neither Greek nor Roman paganism had a trinity around which their beliefs and gods were based. The spirits and demi-gods, you could say are an aspect of Greek and Hylian worship alike, but there exists no trinity in Greek paganism, meaning that the Hylian religion wasn't based off of Greek or other forms of paganism.

Rather, the goddesses of time/sand/wind/earth/whatever were added conceptionally as elementals, lower in the pantheon, but unrelated to terms of worship, at least when the majority of Hyrule is concerned.

Various other parts and races of Hyrule could be said to be inspired by other religions and mythologies. The Kokiri are irish/celtic fairies, the Gerudo, middle-eastern peoples, and the gorons... I'm not sure where to classify the gorons, except maybe as Nordic Dwarves of sorts.

[DW]

I think the frog thing is Cyclos, and then his brother Zephos or something, isn't he a god as well?

[darkphantomime]

Demi-god. Valoo would be the dragon spirit of dragon roost island. Not sure if he's a (demi-)god of any sort though.

But he IS worshipped.

[Commodore Axilon]

Oops, looks like I was wrong. According to his figurine, Valoo is the "Sky Spirit," not the "Spirit of Wind."

[Mysterious F.]

BASED OFF OF

That means the game designers probably centered the Hylian religion, more recently anyway, around the Greek Paganism religion. And the Greek religion has those twelve top god(desse)s group that rules over everything basically, which could inspire the Three Golden Goddesses' creation. But generally, it's based alot off of Greek Paganism.

[Evilslayer]

The Goddesses seems more likely to be based on a mix between Christianity/Judaism and Shintoism.

the Gerudo, middle-eastern peoples

They are actually more closely based on Ancient Greece. The Amazons, anyone?

[Marcamillian]

Well... as for what religious template hylian gods would take I think Evilslayer is right. Anyone can make the connection to 3 godesses and the christian trinity, also, wether or not its been discussed before or even if its relevent, LoZ link has a cross on his shield. I always thought it was a little homage to the crusades but would back up the christianity thing.

[Evilslayer]

I think they used Christian symbols because Hyrule didn't have an official religion at the time. In my fan fics I'm explaining the cross as an upside-down sword.

[Marcamillian]

hmmm... interesting. As i've said before I dont believe that there is a truely unified timeline/theory that encompasses all of the games but trying to make sence of it is the challenge. If you disregard this are you saying that by virtue of being the first game everything can be disgared (not that there was alot to go on).

There must have been a reason for putting the cross on there. If it was asthetics then why not something more relevent? like the triforce? And even then if you wanted to represent religion, why the symbol of a religion that isn't the main religion of the country in which the game was produced?

[Evilslayer]

Using Christian symbols is more exotic for the Japanese.

[Marcamillian]

Bt combined with the TRI-force don't you think this adds up to more than a mere coincidence? To my knowledge (though limited) christianity is the only religion to feature 3 so heavilly. I know 3 and 7 are seen as "magic" numbers but again i think it would have crossed someones mind at nintendo? and i know the triforce doesn't mean 3 godesses yet, but again it begs the question...do you have to ignore everything in this game due to it being the first game and the story not being fully developed??