Epilogue: The Three Features Explained
This is the beginning of the end. I set out to write a single chapter to explain what happened in my collection of stories called "From the Shadows". There was too much. Each epilogue chapter will revolve around specific theories/themes in the original story.
So join me on my journey to once again dive into the world of the Shadows of Hyrule in a much more simple and straight forward manner. I will also explain things further as a writer in the following chapter.
At the start of every chapter there is a quote. This quote is a direct in-game quote. Each quote refers to a central theme/subject in the story.
"A long time ago... There was a man in this very village who had an eye they said could see the truth! Now usually, you have to train your mind's eye most strenuously to actually see the truth... But this fella, no, they say he had a different way of doing things... His house stood where the well is now..."
Above you can see a quote about the man who I believe became the Phantom Shadow Beast, Bongo Bongo.
"Here is gathered Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred..."
The second comes from a painting in the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of TIme, where the setting of the chapter "House of Dead" takes place.
"Look at it with the eye of truth."
The third, is a quote from Navi on your first encounter with Bongo Bongo.
After the quote is the Chapter title. Each chapter title is only 3 words to keep with the thematic Rule of Three mentioned in the previous chapter. The Rule of Three is fairly self explanatory. Many things in the world of Hyrule come in threes. Hence my choice to portray one of the disciples as obsessed with it.
The only chapters that do not have 3 word long titles are Chapter 8 "Shhhhhh", Chapter 9, 18, 27, and 36. Chapter 8 should be renamed to "It's a secret" and very well may be renamed by the time you read this. Chapters 9, 18, 27, and 36 are thematically different as they are specifically about the Sheikah who inhabit Gossip Stones. More on this later.
Each chapter is separated by threes symbols. /\/\/\, ~ { 0 } ~, and /\
If you line them up without text in between you will see this
/\/\/\
~ { 0 } ~
/\
My very poor excuse of a textual rendering of the Sheikah eye.
These symbols serve to divide the chapter into sections. Funnily enough, it splits the chapter into 4 sections which is completely intended.
The first three sections contain the main story, they vary in length and mood. Sometimes it's where I imagine a long pause or a commercial break or the opening theme song might go, other times it's where a mood or thematic shift occurs. The fourth section is always 3 lines long. Usually it's there to give a final brief taste of the overall feeling I'd like the reader to leave with, or the allow the reader to breathe a sigh of relief. To almost break the spell of the chapter, or conversely to keep the chapter alive in the mind of the reader even after they've closed their browsers. Whether or not this succeeds is an entirely different matter.
Of course this newfound rule of four omits/includes the starting quote and title with the first section, and the author's note with the fourth. Since while the Rule of Three is the implicitly stated theme, the indirect theme is actually the rule of four. It's the rule of negative space. The missing spot in the Triforce that allows them to be three separate pieces. The reason three symbols divide a story into four sections. To me the Sheikah have always been that little space in between. Shadowy figures who operate in silence and secrecy. Who knows what they've had to do, who knows what they have done.
The Stone of Agony is made from the bones of the people the man tortured and killed for his experiments. Most of them dead or dying Sheikah.
The Mask of Truth is made from the skull of the first Link. This mask is used to speak to the Gossip Stones, and what Sheikah can lie to one so full of Light and Goodness, who lived and died in service to the Royal Family.
And the Lens of Truth is made from the man's own eye. This requires more explanation.
The reason I believe and have depicted the man who made the Three Features this way is that I believe he never thought of himself as evil, that he never thought of the work he was doing as evil. Because of this, the idea that he pulled out his own eye as the perfect ingredient to become the Lens of Truth was so perfectly tragic. He was blind to the evils he committed every day. He could not see that what he was doing was evil. So his eye became the perfect ingredient to become the tool that could not see evil.
The man was so blinded by this idea of the truth, the idea that what he was doing was right. That he saw the world for how it truly was. Knew what he had to do to protect Hyrule. That he was right. That he alone could see the truth... It brings a whole new meaning to this quote
"A long time ago... There was a man in this very village who had an eye they said could see the truth! Now usually, you have to train your mind's eye most strenuously to actually see the truth... But this fella, no, they say he had a different way of doing things... His house stood where the well is now..."
He had an eye that could see the truth... and he had a different way of doing things.
How horribly chilling.
I hope that this chapter and my rendition of the Three Features, Bongo Bongo, the Dead Hands, and the beginning hints of my theory on the Gerudo, Twili, Sheikah, and the Interlopers has been satisfying thus far. If there is a chapter you wish to know about, or something that piques your interest please feel free to message me.