Set Flame To The Night
How I Stole The Black Flame
In my previous post in the Breath of the Wild category, we left Link, exhausted yet restless with nightmares, at Riverside Stable. Since then, he has journeyed to Kakariko and met with Impa, but since he'll be returning there soon, I'll save coverage of that special place. There are also some important landmarks Link sees along the way, including Fort Hateno, a war memorial, but they're so weighty with context that treatment of them will need to be postponed for later. For now, we'll pick up Link's journey as he arrives among the chimneys and windmills of Hateno Village. I skipped ahead to this place briefly in an earlier post, but that was on a different playthrough, before certain oaths were taken.
Warning! SPOILERS for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild from here on out!
Home Bittersweet Home
Hateno Village is a key location in Breath of the Wild for a couple main reasons:
Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, where Link meets Purah. As we discover, Purah was the person who put Link into the "Slumber of Restoration," the name for his 100 year-long nap in the Shrine of Resurrection on The Great Plateau. Here, Link has some key functionality restored to his Sheikah Slate.
Link's House. It's not technically his yet, but yes, he does have the option of purchasing an in-game house here.
There are only three people I like in this entire village, and it's the place Link has to live. There was a video on YouTube somewhere—I really wish I could link to it here, but I can't remember which list video this observation was actually a part of, but anyway, it explained a lot about how Hateno Village hit me:
Link is really aloof here and it's odd in a way how most of the villagers are scripted considering he's a resident himself; even after purchasing the house, NPCs will stop him and ask him who he is and what he's on his way to do or generally act like they've never heard of him. There was some speculation that this was due to some last-minute developer changes, that maybe he was meant to live somewhere else; anyhow, that's the situation.
I only realized this evening, perhaps primed by having written my post about Lyons and Riverside and their connections to this blog, why that irritates me underneath the surface: The place reminds me of my current hometown in that and other respects.
Running Some Errands
I already talked about Teebo in a previous post, but he's one of the three people in town that I like. Briefly, he hangs around near the entrance to town and offers to take Link on a fateful visit to meet The Horned Statue (Link passed him by this time as he rode into town).
The next person in the village that I like is Nebb, otherwise known as The Weapon Connoisseur, according to the title of the quest chain he offers Link. The kid is just in love with weaponry. He likes to tell Link about weapons he's read about in his late grandfather's books, then ask him to go find them for him and bring them back to show to him. The first one in the quest line is for the Traveler's Sword, and I always smile as I tuck away the one I find earlier on The Great Plateau and save it for him. I love this little guy.
Nebb pays Link an increasing number of Rupees for each weapon Link shows him, then he runs off to continue running around with his sister. Since I'm such a generous guy, I always like to drop the weapons I bring so he can keep them. What could go wrong?
Spreading The Blue Flame
Before Purah can upgrade Link's Sheikah Slate some more, Hateno Ancient Tech Lab needs its power restored. The lab is powered by Blue Flames, which ultimately hark all the way back to the Blue Candle in the original The Legend of Zelda. There's not much lore about its manifestation in BotW, so it remains rather mysterious.
Link is scripted to go meet up with Purah, who then gives him the quest to run down to the Blue Furnace with a torch to get the Blue Flame and bring it up to light the furnace at the tech lab, but I always like to jump the gun and go get it myself before Purah tells me to, then show up by surprise, announcing my presence by lighting the furnace at the lab. What can I say? I like making an entrance, I guess.
So yeah, Purah is the third person in town that I like. She's just so fun and quirky! Always so bouncy and exuberant. She appears as a child despite being 124 years old; evidently, a failed experiment caused her to age backwards (wait, is Fulcanelli in the house??). She wrote all about it in her diary but is super embarrassed and doesn't want Link to read it under any circumstances. So don't.
Among the most important things Purah does for Link is to restore his Camera rune. This is an important plot element. At this point, 12 photographs are recovered on the Sheikah Slate, and this is the ground for the quest Link gets from Impa once he returns to her.
In-game, I don't much care for the Camera rune except when a quest calls for it, because the pictures we can save are only accessible in the game and are marred with the graphical overlay of the Slate's screen; I take all my screenshots directly with the Switch's screenshot function. The Camera can also be used to fill out the Hyrule Compendium, sort of a "Hitchhiker's Guide to Hyrule;" when you photograph a weapon, mushroom, animal, etc., that photo gets added to a databank about that object, and the databank entry is unlocked. A cute little gimmick, I suppose. But the import of this, to me, is that it's sending a strong signal to the player that photography is encouraged here.
Running the flame up to the lab is a trek; the road winding up to the top of the hill where the lab/observatory stands is long and dotted with unlit lanterns. It is wise for Link to light them each on his way up simply because it can start raining any time, which will extinguish Link's torch; this way, he only has to run back to the last lantern when it happens, instead of all the way down the mountain again.
There is no real in-game benefit other than the fact that lighting these torches is so damn satisfying; well, not true, I like to brighten people's lives, and the townsfolk will gaze upon the Blue Flame with wonder if they happen near Link while he's carrying it; anyway, I like to run around town and light all of its lanterns, too.
One of the last things I usually do in town before I head back to Impa in Kakariko is, of course, to climb Hateno Tower and activate it so I can have the map of Necluda. The tower is blanketed in brambles that need to be burned away for Link to climb it. I remember always making sure I had some flint, some wood, and a metal weapon in my inventory before heading over there.
Wait a minute. I can't believe this never occurred to me before...I can maybe light that tower up with The Blue Flame!
Phew...that's a long way though, isn't it? What if it rains while I'm like, halfway there? This would be a real fun and symbolic way of extending my little flame ritual, though, since this would be such a marathon. Succeeding would be a fun little challenge. It's tricky because, aside from the risk of rain, Link is restricted to basically one action: Jogging. If he sprints, he will automatically put the torch (as with any weapon) away. And I happen to know the path there is riddled with Bokoblins. Still, I gave it a try.
I can't believe I made it past this guy. He barely missed me with his axe! Zigzagging a little seemed to help.
I braved the undead Stalkoblins as they rose up from the ground before me, and ran past an enemy tree fort as arrows nipped my heels!
Nearing the finish line, Keeses began closing in! Egads, they're fast and agile and really tempt you to swing at them! I don't want to lose my flame! Hey, look at the fox, right next to my goal.
Aaaaaahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Success!!!! I lost almost all of my hearts to fire damage....
...but hell, it was worth it.
Updating this post as I just had a memory flash that caused me to look back at the map of Hyrule to check on something, and my hunch proved lucrative!
Check this out:
Okay, so the place to start here is with Purah and with the 12 pictures she uncovered. I don't need to mention her reversal into childhood, since that's why I linked to the Fulcanelli article above. Anyway, I was going to save this Hercules connection for later, since Link hasn't actually received the quest from Impa yet involving these photos; I was planning to bring that up in my next post in this category, but then something in the article caught my eye: The word "ash." "Ash, where have I...seen that...around Hateno Tower?" Aha. Ash swamp.
Okay, back to Purah and the 12 pictures, and then I'll connect the dots. From the article, discussing phases in The Great Work of alchemy:
The hard labors of Hercules are accomplished and his work has been reduced to the ludus puerorum (children’s play) of the texts, i.e. to keeping up the fire, which can easily be undertaken and carried out successfully by a woman spinning with a distaff.
Interesting.
Further down:
This, as it gradually becomes thicker, gains in-depth. The second period, characterized by dryness then begins with a second turn of the wheel and is completed and perfected when the contents of the egg, which has been calcined, appear granulated or powdery, in the form of crystals, sand, or ashes.
I already covered the connection between the word "ashes" in the article as well as on the map (circled in red). However, look over at the valley to its right (the blue, diamond-shaped icon on the map is Hateno Tower): "Ovli" is really close to "ovum," or "egg."
Well, I'll be.
Fort Hateno sits as the gateway between these two valleys.
The Peak of Awakening is marked with "X" for future note. This place is...special. I've had strange things happen here. We will be heading there in the not-too-distant future, and I'll tell you about it then.
 | A guest post by
|