| “ | My name is Mineru. I am the Sage of Spirit. | „ |
| ~ Mineru |
Mineru, also known as the Sage of Spirit, is a major character in the 2023 action-adventure video game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the twentieth main installment in The Legend of Zelda video game series.
She is a member of the Zonai Tribe who acted as the Sage of Spirit in Link's adventure and in the distant past, where Zelda ended up in as a result of a fateful encounter with Ganondorf's mummified corpse deep below Hyrule Castle.
She is the older sister of Rauru and the sister in-law of Sonia. She becomes a spirit who inhabits Zelda's Purah Pad which is then transported to Link, who stayed in the present age and was given a functional arm by Rauru after his original arm was corrupted by Ganondorf's Gloom. She can separate her spirit from her body at will.
She is voiced by Heather Gonzalez, who also voiced Yukari Takeba in Persona 3 Reload.
Biography[]
Past[]
Mineru is one of the last two remaining Zonai in existance, alongside her brother Rauru. She is shown to be an expert in the way of life and history of the Zonai.
When Princess Zelda travels back to the early days of Hyrule, Rauru and Sonia take her to Mineru to seek advice on how she can return to her own time. Mineru believes that Princess Zelda's own time power was amplified by the Secret Stone that she found during the encounter with Ganondorf in the present age had strengthened that power. She doesn't believe that it will return her to her era, since it would require her know how to use her power properly. She brings up an alternative way to return to her time through the process called draconification, which would turn those who swallow their Secret Stone into an immortal dragon, which Mineru explains that it will cause them to lose themselves which is why this act is strictly prohibited.
After Sonia was killed by Ganondorf, who uses her Secret Stone to become the Demon King, Mineru uses her power as the Sage of Spirit to fight the Demon King in the Imprisoning War. She, alongside the other Sages, where unable to defeat Ganondorf, so Rauru uses his power to imprison Ganondorf for numerous millennia. While the other Sages managed to survive, Mineru was mortally wounded from the battle and on the verge of death. When Princess Zelda presents her the Master Sword, she tells her that it would take centuries of exposure to restore it to its original strength. When Zelda has a plan to become the Light Dragon, Mineru objects to her going through with it, but she backs down when Zelda's dedication persisted. She promises to help Link in any way she can before her spirit is transferred to the Purah Pad, with her body essentially dying, and given to a Zonai Construct for safekeeping while Princess Zelda ingests her Secret Stone, transforming her into the Light Dragon with the Master Sword in hand.
Present[]
Eons pass, and the Purah Pad was given to Link by the Zonai Construct. After all of the four Sages have awakened and the confrontation with Phantom Ganon, who was impersonating the missing princess, Link was at a loss at what to do next. Purah noticed that not all of the Sages are accounted for and realizes that the Sage of Spirit still needs to be found. Link was able to receive help from Tauro's Zonai Survey Team which would lead to him finding a mask and a voice advises him to follow the light from the mask.
Link follows the mask's light to Tobio's Hollow Chasm and an elevator leading to the Depths and the Construct Factory. Upon placing the mask on a Construct, Mineru introduces herself to Link that she is the Sage of Spirit. Without her body, Mineru tells Link to find the other Construct parts that she can make use of by exploring the four storehouses. Once the Construct is assembled, they would make their way to the Spirit Temple.
Once Link defeats the Seized Construct, Mineru leaves the Purah Pad and possesses the defeated and purified Construct. She explains that she intended to awaken once Link found the Purah Pad and guide him to the construct. She couldn't do it because it was under the influence of the Gloom. She finds Link's efforts admirable and grants him her power to use her spirit to construct anything whenever necessary.
Mineru explains the origins of the Zonai, Hyrule's infancy, the Imprisoning War, and how Zelda gained the Master Sword, which she tells him that it is the strongest weapon that is able to destroy the Demon King and gives him advises him to seek the Great Deku Tree's help on the sword's current location, as the princess intends to grant him the sword. She tells Link that she will stay in the Spirit Temple to work on the construct body in preparation for the battle against Ganondorf and gives Link the Vow of Mineru before he leaves.
In the epilogue, Mineru, Link, Purah and the living Sages appear behind the Temple of Time. Mineru tells the princess that Rauru and Sonia don't want her to remain a dragon much longer as it was no longer necessary, so they gave Link the power he needs to reverse her transformation. Under the belief that they have overcome the burden that the Zonai left to Hyrule, and fulfilled the promise she made to Zelda, Mineru prepares to move on to the next life, and she tells her that she will let Rauru and Sonia know how much the princess cares, and thanks everyone for everything they have done to preserve peace on Hyrule before she vanished.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Mineru is the only Sage who has fought Ganondorf twice, in her own era in life and the present age far beyond death.
- Out of all the Sages who have been afflicted with Gloom, Mineru is the only one shown to die from the Gloom induced illness.
- She is the only sage who doesn't appear to save Link from Ganondorf's second Gloom attack in Hyrule Castle, regardless of whether or not she is awakened before the fight.
