Some very rough concept sketches for my LoZ headcanon timeline: New Mythos. Finally have a name for it! <:
Anyway, I love focusing the work on the characters but I also wanna explore the environment the characters habitat. BG work isn’t my strongest suit but I enjoy it and wanna improve on it, so these are halfway practice but mostly me trying to capture what I see in my head.
So context! When Link, Zelda, and Gandondorf answer the call to adventure, they are tasked with journeying to the forbidden lands of Old Hyrule. Old Hyrule is the vast landscape all of the other LoZ games took place in, with BotW marking the final instance civilization thrived there. After Demise’s Malice is struck down the entirety of the inhabitants decided it safer to move themselves entirely, mostly out of extreme precaution in case Demise’s death isn’t so “dead”, as it were.
So! One vast ocean and magical barrier later, Old Hyrule is cut off from the rest of the world, as the final resting place of the biggest scourge of the world and a forbidden land that can be seen from afar. If you want the full explanation behind my thoughts on this here’s the links to the posts going a bit more into detail: Here, and Here
Top right sketch is of a cliff that gives the best view of Old Hyrule: nothing more than a faded silhouette with it’s volcano still active as it always has been. The top left is a rough idea of how the beach of Old Hyrule’s Gateway looks like: a thin stretch of an island with shallow sea water and nothing dotting its landscape but the carcasses of destroyed sunken ships and the actual gate itself. Old Hyrule’s Gateway is on an island that sits just before the rest of Old Hyrule itself, the only stretch of land right outside the very transparent barrier that closes the Old Hyrule in.
To reach this island is a dangerous (near suicidal) quest by boat, and very rarely does anyone actually reach it. But if one does, the last obstacle is to activate the actual gateway itself, but the only way to do that is with a specific key.
The bottom two is an exploration on how that gateway looks like while dormant and inactive: when dormant the gateway glows blue and there is no bridge that allows passage through the barrier itself. For anyone without access this would spell the end of their journey: no one can pass the barrier just as much as nothing can get out of it.
But, if that person has the key necessary to activate the bridge, the gateway will glow a brilliant orange and a bridge of solid magic will form to connect the island to Old Hyrule itself. And it will mark the start of a long journey for our heroes.
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Aaaaaaaaaaand there we go! Got a bit long-winded there since I didn’t do more concept sketches, but I think I’ll add more to better illustrate how I see it! Until then, I hope ya’ll enjoy! <:
