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It's here, it's here, itshere—
What you've feared, what you've dreaded, what you've prayed would not arrive—
It's here.
High above, a hurricane grows ever larger, black clouds and red lightning consuming the horizon. The Abomination roars and the sound shakes the earth, resonating in your bones like the rolling rumble of thunder, the shuddering boom of a distant explosion.
The Great Calamity.
You wish each other well as you depart, the looming storm above a physical weight on your shoulders. You — soar — gallop — swim — roll — away, towards the Divine Beasts that await the battle to come.
We will win, the certainty burns within you.
Because this is a battle we cannot lose.
…
You swim down Lanayru Promenade’s channel, and run as quickly as you can across Rabia Plain. But these legs were not made to run, and by the time you dive into the Rutala River, your scaled feet are scratched and bleeding, bloody webbed footprints buried in the mud.
But now you are in your element, and you swim, swifter than an arrow from a bow. You move without rest, climbing the rapids and waterfalls of Zora River to where Ruta awaits.
You only spare a moment in the Domain when Sidon attaches himself to you. You smile and chide him — “Wait, you will be a warrior someday,” — and hand him to the Zoran soldiers. You nod to your father, emerged from the palace, and then you are diving into the waters once more.
You shall see them again, once it is all over.
…
You tuck into a rocky ball and thunder down the Promenade as a living battering ram. Any monsters are thrown back by your passage, clearing the way for your soft-skinned fellows. You enter onto the Lanayru Wetlands, following the dirt trail towards Death Mountain.
Hylians and soldiers jump from your path as you thunder by, pausing in the villages for only a moment to thunder an order: “Be ready!”
The soft-skinned Hylians watch you with wide eyes, whispers of “Champion” passed between them. Then they nod, and set off to arm themselves for the potential threat.
You continue, even as your back aches and your joints become rigid. You reach the Maw of the Mountain, the heat of the volcano welcoming you home. But you cannot stay in the city, cannot see your son or grandson before the battle.
But it is alright. You are tougher than boulders. You will see them after.
…
The borrowed horse is small for your stature but the fastest mode of travel if you are to reach the Great Gerudo Desert. With the Princess and her Knight following, you gallop down Lanayru’s Canyon. You only stop in the Sheikah’s village to exchange your mount for fresh, and then you are off again.
Galloping down Sahasra Slope, you follow the edge of the Hylia River. It takes hours until you have reached the Gatepost at the foot of the Great Plateau, where Hylian soldiers scurry around like desert mice. You pause to exchange your horse once more, but you do not stop, you do not rest, for you do not have time.
You meet your soldiers at the head of Gerudo Canyon, but the reunion is brief.
“Protect Gerudo,” you command, then you peel away, climbing Yarna Valley to meet Naboris atop the cliffs.
You look forward to seeing your sisters upon Ganon’s defeat.
…
You rise high, high, high into the air as your Gale fills the air beneath your wings. From Lanayru Heights you soar, arrowing your way across Hyrule towards where Medoh awaits in Hebra, at Highpeak City. But your flight is not straight, because you dare not fly so close to the boiling storm clouds that are the Abomination filling the center of Hyrule.
You look in silent horror at the thing wrapping its coils around the Sanctum, spot the pillars that have risen from the ground to encircle Hyrule Castle.
You cannot imagine that anyone within the Castle remains alive. Not at the center of that hurricane.
But you cannot do anything as you are, so you fly on to claim your Divine Beast, which can will defeat this Monstrosity. The weight of your duty threatens to pull you to the ground, but you clench your talons tighter.
It will be alright, you will see the other side.
…
Your journey is as fast as you can make it, but even moving as swiftly as you can, there are over a hundred miles to travel.
You arrive at the Divine Beast at sunset, exhausted beyond reckoning. Every gasp does little to restore the breath in your lungs. But you push past it, you must. The Calamity is here, there is no time for rest, even as your bones ache from the inside. (You began your travels at sunrise, and now the sun sets on Hyrule.)
But you cannot rest, you are a Champion. And Hyrule needs you.
You walk through the halls of your Divine Beast, taking comfort in the strength that rumbles beneath you. But instincts trained on years of battle, instincts that have saved you from death countless times, stand on end.
Be wary, they whisper. Something is not right.
The air feels too still, the hum of the Divine Beast feels off.
Something is wrong.
Hsss—
You lunge aside, something cleaving through the air near your head. You spin, bringing your — trident — scimitar — bludgeon — bow — to bear.
What you see is wrong.
It is the Calamity that now encircles the center of Hyrule, but in miniature. It is toxic sludge, dripping black acid. It is smoke, wisping at the edge, with no distinct form. It is shapeless, yet you see teeth glinting from within, see claws scrape the ground, see red red red eyeing you from the darkness.
The abomination wields something like a weapon, a blade made of blue. Around the blade, air hisses and crackles, an afterimage trailing behind.
It shrieks with no mouth, its single eye now hypnotizing blue.
It attacks.
••• — — — •••
The Calamity's Spawn is swift.
You know before you begin that it is deadly. You know as that toxic gaze settles upon you, as Ruta rumbles in pain and wrong wrong wrong —
Save us.
Its touch poisons the water. Every time you make it bleed (but what is blood to a thing like this?), dark sludge drips into Ruta's waters. The black water burns to the touch, and you can feel it sapping your strength, eating at your scales like acid. (Your Grace was never meant for yourself).
Save us.
The glowing blue of its blade cuts into your skin. Ruta cries, her trumpeting bellow a mimic of your own.
Help, you call. Save us.
The message thrums beneath your webbed feet, the plea of the Divine Beast. It hums around you in discordant harmony, and sings across Hyrule.
Save us save us saveus—
Every strike you give the Spawn, its blood thickens the water and takes more of your life away.
Save us.
••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — •••
This Beast of Ganon is slippery.
Every blow of your Crusher splatters it against Rudania's walls but it does not crack, does not die. This is no creature of flesh or stone, nothing natural. Your hits make Rudania herself shudder, but the sludge flows together, lunging with a flash of blue—
It is a strange feeling, to be burned. You've been burned by lava, but that is a slow burn. The blue of the Beast’s blade burns sharp.
Rudania echoes your bellow of rage and pain, before you send out a call.
Help us.
A Goron is not easily harmed, but your stony skin is cracking.
This is not a Beast that you can fight, not alone.
Unlike every other soft-skinned creature you've met, this Beast of the Calamity hardly seems fazed that it has been scattered across the floor. It drips like fluid, reforming, again and again and again and again—
Help. Save us.
You stumble, exhaustion and unnatural ash choking your lungs. pain pain pain like the hottest of magma drips down your side. You bellow, orange light flickering into place. (Protection that you gave others, but now you need it yourself.)
Save us.
••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — •••
Calamity’s Puppet is cunning.
Lightning charges the air as you snap, your Fury raining down upon this mockery of your heritage. The burning blue afterimage of a curved blade dances away, chased by crackling sparks. Your scimitar swings in a deadly arc, electricity running down the blade.
The strike cuts deep into the Puppet, but it does not cry as anything living would. It embraces the hit, and lunges.
Red liquid sizzles along the length of blue, your gasps echoed by the cry of Naboris.
Help us, your Beast cries. Save us.
May the Seven give me strength, you think as you raise your blade again. You spit out blood, a copper tang burning your senses. From which wound, you know not.
Lightning crackles around you in a protective barrier, an offense turned defense.
Help. Save us.
You know when the battle is too much for you alone.
Save us.
••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — •••
Ganon’s monstrosity is powerful.
Wind buffets your feathers as you rise higher into the air. The Gale carries you up up up and away from the sludge and poison that festers below. Arrows stick from its mass like quills, but they may as well be thorns.
Hel—
You do not cry for aid, because you are fine. Nothing can reach you up here.
The Monstrosity shrieks without sound, the hissing cry making your talons curl. It launches projectiles towards you, and you scoff, rolling to avoid them. But while they fly like arrows, they do not move like them.
They change direction mid-flight, and you shriek as an explosion hits your wing.
But you are fine.
You draw and fire volley after volley. Projectiles fall out of the sky, and your feathers smolder and burn. You hit every target… until a target hits you.
You screech in pain, crashing to the ground and Medoh echoes your cries.
Save us save us saveus—
No one can reach you up here.
Save us.
••• — — — •••
You fall.
Wheezing wet breaths, one arm (wing) hanging limply from your side, you stare down the single hypnotizing eye of the Calamity’s plight against Hyrule. Blood stains the ground, and you have too many wounds to count. They have merged into an all consuming pain.
You scrabble for your weapon but only claw at air.
The beating thrum of the Divine Beast echoes around you, a plea for help that no one can hear, because there is no one left to hear it.
Save us.
The Calamity’s Scourge looms above you, bloodied and broken upon the floor. You are afraid, not of death, but because of what will follow. Because you could not afford to lose.
You have lost.
The blue eye flares, and the world is consumed by darkness.
Across Hyrule, they watch as the Divine Beasts scream like a death knell. The thrumming beat that sang across the kingdom for hours falls silent. For a moment, the world is still, wondering what will happen.
Within the Beasts, on a blood and malice soaked battleground, masses of dark sludge encircle their victims. Tendrils reach out, ensnaring the corpse, then take it into the dark mass, absorbing the body. The formless malice takes shape, arms and claws extending from sludge, into some twisted nightmare of flesh and acid.
In each Divine Beast, a Blight is formed.
Luminous blue shines from the darkness, from the singular eyes and blades of energy. The malice creatures hiss with new mouths, the garbled shrieks of a corpse.
At the beckoning of each, a new power arises.
An orange shield flickers into being, lightning crackles through the halls, torrents of wind twist in the air.
And the one that is missing, the Grace of healing, is forced inward to give strength and vitality.
With their stolen powers, the Blights of the Calamity turn their attention to the Great Beasts of Hyrule. Dark sludge coats the mechanical wonders like a plague, and the Beasts shudder, their blue lights turning a poisonous pink as the Blights take the helm.
The Divine Beasts needed their pilots.
They have them.
…
In the kingdom’s center, the calamitous hurricane gives a roar of victory that echoes across the land.
The four corners of Hyrule — yet untouched by the Calamity that razes the center of the kingdom — watch as their Divine protectors turn from the Calamity. People come from their houses and stand in the streets, watching as the Great Beasts come closer.
Do they come to protect us? A few ask. Do they come to walk our borders, to defend us from the coming storm?
Others are more wary, cautious of the Beasts that come closer, closer, without any sign of changing their path. The Beasts are focused, but not on the distant storm that brews in Hyrule Castle.
Why do they cry out? The wary ask. Is it a warning?
For a moment, the world holds its breath.
In the next, it screams.
••• •— —••
You stand at Ja’Abu City, the second city of Zora’s Domain. From the east side of Lanayru Reservoir, you look to where Divine Beast Vah Ruta sits in the center of the lake. You have heard the trumpeting bellows, and you worry, because what could make the Great Beast scream like that?
What of Lady Mipha? Within the Beast?
The water ripples, and you feel something sooth within you as the Beast stirs. Ruta moves toward shore, massive trunk raising up, a great banner held high.
They are alright, you think, the fluttering of your gills easing.
But it is curious… were the Beast’s lights always such a pink color?
Ruta comes closer to shore, the massive bulk towering skyward. Then, it somehow grows taller, standing back on its hind legs in a feat you didn't know was possible. It looms above you like Shatterback Mountain, and you realize too late something is wrong.
You see the Beast fall forward, and then you are thrown from your feet as the ground buckles beneath you.
And it does not stop.
The earth gives way beneath your webbed feet, and you fall.
You plummet into the water below, and this time, the water does not embrace you as a friend. It is cold and turbulent, and you tumble like a leaf in a storm. Your gills open to breathe and you cannot, choking on mud. You are drowning.
You tumble in chaos for what feels like hours, battered by rock and liquified earth. When you break the surface again, you shut your gills and gasp, a fish on dry land, but you need it. Your vision is blurred as you look desperately around, searching for others caught in the landslide.
The water is red.
You have swum in the Reservoir before, the vast lake is a playground, guarded by the Great Beast. But now, the landscape is utterly different, there are cliffs where there were none before. And when you see the looming behemoth that is Ruta, it is no longer a protector.
You flee.
As swift as you can, you swim away away away— You swim towards Shatterback, because perhaps if you can reach the water bridges, you can get away—
But this lake is not as you remember it.
You join a swarming school of Zora, searching for a way out, a way away, but the lake is changed. As Ruta bellows and the Domain shakes, you search for a way out. Finally, you find a bank of sloped mud, and crawl onto land, hacking up mud and earth.
Your lungs are burning, and as red and black splatter the ground, you realize it is not from lack of air.
Your scales are covered in a glossy sheen, thick sludge that burns to the touch. You claw at yourself, trying to get it off, but it only burns deeper. Scooping water into your webbed hands to wash yourself, you wail in horror as they burn. The water’s surface has turned to poison, a glossy black that sticks and suffocates.
A roar shakes the heavens, and you look towards the monstrous beast. You do not recognize it, this demonic thing. You do not recognize this lake, your home, that has put poison in your lungs.
The earth shakes, the ground crumbles, and you flee—
It is all you can do.
••• •— —•• // ••• •— —•• // ••• •— —••
On the southwest side of Death Mountain in Goron City, you watch Rudania as it crawls atop the mountain’s summit. Despite the distance, the lizard-like creature is clear against the snow-tipped volcano, its claws digging into the rocky cliffs.
You do not know why the Beast screamed. You wonder if it’s a warning.
Beneath you, the mountain rumbles, as it has done for months now.
Eldin is whispering her own warnings, you think. The Hylians fear this ‘Calamity Ganon’ so much they ignore the warnings of other calamities that could come. A volcano is not so easily tamed and trapped. It does not battle, it simply does.
The mountain rumbles, but this time, it is not the mountain.
Even as far down the mountain as you are, you can see the brilliant light that flares from the summit. For an instant, twilight turns to day, everything thrown into sharp relief as shadows are banished. You see Rudania looking down into the crater, it’s face opened like a flower, then—
The mountain i m p l o d e s
You have seen landslides before, one of Eldin’s many cliffs giving way and tumbling down in a hail of boulders and stone. You do not worry for them, for you are stone-made, as strong as the mountain that birthed you.
But this is like no landslide you have seen.
As you watch, stomach twisting with lead, the entire north half of the mountain seems to give way . For an instant, Eldin’s great volcano has been cleaved in two… silently falling away. And then, moments after, it explodes outward.
There is stillness for a second…
BOOM—
The explosion hits all at once, a shockwave felt more than heard thunders beneath you, around you. You fall as the ground shakes, and the world is filled with shuddering rumbles. Goron City was built to withstand Eldin’s earthquakes, but you hear screams and cries as the earth roars and thunders and shakes.
Gorons do not feel terror easily, yet you find yourself as soft as clay.
Terror melts in your mouth as you look up towards the summit to see a towering cloud — still climbing higher — of ash. It looms above like a second mountain, ascending and descending all at once.
Eldin is done with warnings.
You scramble to your feet, scooping up any young carvelings you see. They huddle into you, but you cannot spare a comforting word, because you must run . Ash is falling, thick and fast, and you can already feel larger stones clattering against your rocky back. You wonder when the ash and lava will reach you.
Even a Goron can suffocate, even a Goron can burn.
Behind you, you hear Rudania scream.
You run, away away away—
It is all you can do.
••• •— —•• // ••• •— —•• // ••• •— —••
East of the town of Palu in the Gerudo Desert, Naboris advances towards the oasis settlement. Standing in the hardened sandstone streets, you look up at the Divine Beast that looms afar. Behind it, you see a dark wall begin to swell, reaching a hundred meters up.
You curse, and unfurl your headscarf, wrapping it tightly around your face.
You know the sight of an oncoming sandstorm. The one beyond Palu’s walls promises to be a big one. As Naboris is consumed by the storm, dimming to a silhouette, you see crackling purple energy swell between its humps.
A barrier or shield against the storm? You wonder, then notice the sparks dancing through the air.
You take a cautious step back, more a reflex than anything. You have seen lightning in these seasonal sandstorms, and these sparks are far too similar to static that precludes the lightning strike. As if on cue, the wall of sand looms closer, covering half the sky. (You hear the desert visitors whisper that it looks like a tidal wave). You flinch as sand stings your face, and pull your flapping robes closer to your body.
The static builds, and you have enough time to think you should take cover, when the world
b l a z e s
Heat scorches your face, searing into your eyelids, and you feel yourself leave the ground for an instant. Then an explosion rips through the air, and you cry out as you are thrown against stone. Agony rips through your body like a Lizalfos’ talons, and you lay, dazed.
When awareness comes back, it takes a moment to realize the blur of your vision is not solely due to your aching skull. You squint against the howling sand, and gasp, stumbling to your feet.
Palu is aflame, yards of woven cloth igniting like dry grass, buildings crumbling.
No lightning could do this.
The ground shudders beneath your feet, and you stumble. For a moment you think it is thunder, but then the ground shakes, again and again and again—
It is too rhythmic to be thunder.
You look skyward, craning your neck back to where you catch a glimpse of lights in the raging sand. Another shudder, and an immense silhouette looms over you, leaving you very, very small. The ground rumbles once more, and you see the shadow of Naboris emerging from the storm, its lights shining eerily.
You realize in terror, the Beast never veered its course.
Naboris steps foot in Palu, and you are already running, joining a fleeing throng that scramble through narrow streets, searching and screaming to get away away away—
There is no way away.
The world is naught but sand, a million stinging needles that pierce your robes and blast your skin. You cannot see a seal’s length away, you do not know if you run from Naboris or towards it. Thunder and footfalls shake the ground from all directions, and what is not crushed explodes under exploding bolts of crackling purple energy.
You run.
At some point, the hardened sandstone become dunes, and you stumble and crawl your way up the shifting mass. You may be heading into the endless depths of the desert, but you do not care, because at least it would be away —
Or maybe, you think, you are still in Palu.
Somewhere in the sand, Naboris screams. It comes from everywhere, and you run—
It is all you can do.
••• •— —•• // ••• •— —•• // ••• •— —••
Far above Highpeak City, the home of the Rito, Medoh soars closer. You watch, curious, as a distant glow begins at the Beast’s beak.
Then, the world goes w h i t e
For a moment, there is nothing but the blazing bright light, as if the sun had fallen to the ground. There is a flash of pain, of burning, and you are hit, everywhere, at once. The world goes dark, briefly, but you realize that is because you are underneath something.
You claw from the rubble, only to have darkness give way to burning bright.
You squint, looking for the buildings and roosts you know to be there, but there are none. In an instant, the landscape is changed.
You look to the sky, and see Medoh and a blazing beam — too bright to look, too bright to see — stretching from its beak. Like a hatchling with a stick, it lazily drags it across the ground. You can hear it this time, the sudden absence of sound, a yawning nothing that gives way to a roar.
You realize you can now hear the panicked shrieks and cries of your fellows, cries of pain and fear and terror. On instinct, you take to the air. Because the air means movement, freedom, escape.
You fly, joining the hysteric throng in the skies. You are buffeted by claws and wings, and you can barely keep yourself aloft in the storm of terror.
You do not know up from down, so you pull your wings close and fall, trusting gravity to take you. You fall from the swarming cloud of feathery bodies, trying to get away away away—
Medoh turns and there is only the blinding w h i t e
When the white recedes and your vision returns, you see a swath has been cut in the dark swarm. At the fringes, dark shapes fall like swatted insects. Nothing falls from the center of the empty swath, for there is nothing left.
You cannot think, you cannot hear.
The world is silent. It yawns like a chasm opening into an abyss and you cannot fly, you are falling.
The world is not still. Everywhere there is fire and fleeing and terror.
It is thick in the air, the thunderous cry to fly fly fly—
You do so, because it is all you can do.
••• •— —••
In the Domain of the Zora, Ruta’s rampage sends a hundred thousand tons of earth down steep cliffs in the waters below. The cities above the water are swept away, the ones below are crushed. The rivers run dark with poison and blood, until even swimming away is a death sentence.
Death Mountain becomes its name, as Rudania cleaves half the mountain away. Magma spews forth until there is nothing north of Eldin, and the mountain itself has collapsed inward. The sky turns to endless night as a second blanket of ash covers Hyrule.
In the desert of Gerudo, Naboris levels countless cities under foot and thunder until the sands run red, and the sky is dark from dust. A city that once stretched to the Bazaar is shorn away, until nothing remains. Palu becomes a Wasteland. There are no ruins, for they are buried beneath the sandstorm that trails in the Beast’s wake.
Far above the ruins of Highpeak City, Medoh’s laser cuts swaths through the ground, until there is no more Highpeak City. There is only a chasm in the earth, and a single spire at the center. It is all that remains, an island in a lake.
For three days, Hyrule’s Great Beasts destroy what they sought to protect.
For three days, Hyrule suffers under the grip of the Calamity.
And then, as the fourth day dawns, a stellar nova flares from the center of the ruined land, and the Calamity is pulled back to writhe in the depths of its palace turned prison. In the four corners of Hyrule, the Beasts go still as the calamitous hold on them lessens, pulled back into the Castle.
They do not retreat, but move on.
The Once-Divine Beasts disappear into the depths of Hyrule, where they become forgotten to many. One stands sentinel in the deep desert sands. One perches in the distant peaks of Hebra. One slumbers in the bowels of the caldera. The last sinks into the depths of a great lake.
There, they stay.
Until, a hundred years later, a fallen knight returns to life. And with them does the Calamity reach out through the bars of its prison, bidding its pilots to wake and stand.
They do.
In the four corners of Hyrule, the Great Beasts walk again. Until, at last, help finally arrives to a call sent a hundred years ago.
••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — ••• // ••• — — — •••
Save us. Save us. Save us.
Save Hyrule.
You do.