The first thing you become aware of is a beam of golden light penetrating your eyelids, and a voice.
Wake up. . .
The light becomes brighter, expanding across your field of vision, and fades from gold to a bright, artificial blue.
Come on, wake up . . . Open your eyes!
You do, slowly, and as your vision gradually focusses, you find yourself blinking up at some strange contraption, fitted with multiple bright, blue lights. You squint uncomfortably—how did you not notice them before?
Come on, Dave. You need to get up.
Dave? Is that your name? As your eyes get used to the harsh light, you open them wider. You feel like you're floating . . . What's going on?
Your back meets something solid and you feel something draining away from around your body. With effort, you sit up and glance around, just in time to see the last of . . . water? . . . draining back into the slab you're sitting on. Actually . . . as you look around, it seems like more of some huge kind of bathtub. It's relatively shallow, but it has raised rims that you're sure were keeping the water from spilling earlier.
Remembering the strange voice that roused you, you brace your hands on the edge of the tub and hoist yourself out, standing at first on wobbly legs. As you feel the blood start to course more evenly through your body, you feel yourself becoming steadier, and you let go of the side of the tub to straighten and look around. You're in some sort of . . . huge room. It's quite dark, but you can see thanks to what looks like depictions of constellations along the walls, glowing orange. And even more blue light coming from above, which . . . holy shit. Stretching from the hanging lights above the tub to the tall ceiling is what looks like a massive root-like structure, glowing the same alien blue. It must be at least three times as big as the enormous tub and its hanging lights combined. Where in the world are you?
As your eyes further adjust to the dim light, you notice a strange door set in the far wall, but . . . it's most definitely blocked up with something. You notice something else, though—not too far away from the door, over to the left, is some sort of strange podium. The pattern etched onto its top is glowing that same blue. You move closer to look.
It's holding something. As you approach, the face of the thing turns like a cog and that seems to unlock something, because suddenly whatever it's holding is flipped around and propped up, like some sort of offering.
It looks like some sort of thin brick, a little larger than your hand, decorated with glowing orange patterns and stamped in the middle with an open eye, iris glowing artificial blue, a single tear dripping beneath it.
You can only stare at it for a moment, at a loss for what to do.
That is a Sheikah Slate!
The voice is back. Now that you're fully awake, you notice that it sounds like a young man.
Take it. It will help guide you after your long sleep!
You can practically feel the excitement buzzing in the voice. You warily reach out and pluck the thing from its pedestal, turning it over in your hands. As you watch, the newly revealed side lights up with that same strange eye glyph. Though you know you've never seen this thing before, there's something . . . strangely familiar about it.
You think over the words you just heard. Long sleep? So you were asleep? For how long?
The pedestal suddenly flashes orange, catching you off guard, and you look up to see the doorway clearing, pulling the grey pillars that barred you in up and out of sight. You look back down at the device—the "Sheikah Slate"?—in your hands, wondering what to do with it, and as you trace your fingers around the outline, a sturdy strap detaches and falls to dangle beneath: it's a belt. Well, that's convenient. You secure the belt with Sheikah Slate attached around your hips and (cautiously) pass through the door.
You find yourself in what appears to be a storage room of some sort, littered with large wooden crates, decrepit barrels, and placed on the pathway, a single dull, unassuming chest.
Open it! comes the cheerful voice, so you follow and kneel down in front of it. The mechanism catches beneath your fingers and you pull back the lid, peering inside. The chest is empty save for a small pile of folded clothing at the bottom, and you pull them out to examine them.
You shake them out and find in your possession a pair of well-worn trousers, an old shirt and some beaten-up shoes. They're all threadbare and beginning to come apart at the seams, but you suppose they're better than nothing. Certainly better than the briefs you're wearing right now.
You easily slip into the new-old clothes and find they're a bit too short for your limbs, but they're also surprisingly comfortable, so you let it slide. They also come with a leather hitch and a decent-sized pouch for carrying items, which you loop around your torso and fasten to your new belt, respectively. Looking around, you notice another glowing pedestal by another door a few paces away, so you tug on the snug-fitting shoes and approach.
As you get closer, the pedestal seems to register your movement because it activates with a strange trilling sound, and then you hear the voice again: Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal! That will help you get out of there.
You unclip the slate and hold it screen-down on top of the pedestal, and soon its glowing orange patterns flash to blue. "Authenticating," a robotic voice says, and then after a few seconds: "Sheikah Slate confirmed."
You feel a rumble close by and step warily back from the pedestal, slate hanging by your side—and you see that the second door is opening. As its own pillars split from the middle like an opening mouth, it reveals a piercing golden light from somewhere beyond, and you have to shield your eyes from the assault.
Dave. . . The voice is back. I know you don't remember, but all of Hyrule needs you. I need you. . . You'll understand everything soon, I promise.
What don't you remember? You try to reach out to that voice, to reach for an answer, but it's already gone again. More confused than ever, you stare past the now-open doorway to the light beyond. Steeling yourself, you start forward.