The Zonai Tribe is a prehistoric race that were only referenced in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild while making their proper debut in its sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The two most notable members are Rauru and Mineru.
Physiology[]
The Zonai have descended from the heavens, which had them mistaken for gods by the ancient Hylians, and were entrusted with the tear shaped artifacts called Secret Stones which are known to strengthen an individual's elemental abilities such as water, wind, electricity, fire, light, time, spirit, and darkness. The Zonai are anthropomorphic humanoid like with long ears and are animalistic in appearance.
The Zonai have lived in the Faron Region and are known to be powerful magic wielders and have believed to have worshipped a water dragon. Their stone artwork represents the Triforce through the prospective of their tribe; boars represent power, owls represent wisdom, and dragons represent courage. Spiral symbols on the stone artwork are their tribal crest.
History[]
Breath of the Wild[]
The Zonai themselves have no role in the game as they have long vanished in the distant past, though their ruins in the Faron region have survived through history.
As depicted in the tapestry, the ancient hero that fought Calamity Ganon, alongside the princess and the Champions piloting the Divine Beasts, was a Zonai and possibly the ancestor of Link.
Tears of the Kingdom[]
The Zonai not only make a proper appearance in this game, but they have a more historic prominent role. During the time period where Hyrule was founded, only Rauru and Mineru were the only Zonai left. Rauru had taken a Hylian woman named Sonia as his wife, while Mineru was creating new Zonai technology. They have lived peacefully until Ganondorf and his Gerudo army opposed them relentlessly, despite Rauru wanting to make peace with them. After Ganondorf swore allegiance to the Royal Family, Princess Zelda, who came from the distant future, isn't trusting towards them despite assurances that that have everything under control.
It wasn't long before disaster struck beginning with Queen Sonia's assassination by Ganondorf and stealing her Secret Stone to become the Demon King, and he would then be conquering Hyrule. Rauru assembles the Sages, one of them being Mineru, and have led an attack against the Demon King though he proved to be too powerful for them, so Rauru sacrifices himself and successfully seals Ganondorf for numerous years. Mineru would later transfer her spirit to the Purah Pad for Link to retrieve later while Princess Zelda ingests her Secret Stone to become the Light Dragon in order to heal the badly damaged Master Sword.
After Ganondorf's seal was broken and Princess Zelda disappears, Rauru rescues Link before he fell to his impending death and replaces his disabled arm with his own and helps him utilize the power that his hand offers.
After Link destroys the Demon Dragon, Ganondorf's draconic form, Rauru and Sonia help to restore Princess Zelda to her human self before they silently vanish, and Mineru takes the sages to show them the view before she too leaves to join Rauru and Sonia in the afterlife.
Gallery[]
