A new Zelda timeline updated for Tears of the Kingdom might be on the way, and lore sickos are already bracing for their theories to be obliterated

A new timeline is sure to have the community’s theories up in smoke

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Nintendo has just announced an array ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdommerch for release in Japan, and that includes a new book that promises to bring an updated timeline accounting for the latest entry in the series.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Master Works is a big ol' art and lore book scheduled to be released in Japan on August 30, and somespecific bits of art are already capturing the hearts of fans. AGoogletranslation of theofficial descriptionsays that the book will include “a new history of Hyrule based on the settings at the time of production.” That line already has the Zelda lore community in a frenzy.

Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit divisive among Zelda lore enthusiasts, since it only managed to partially pay off the mysteries they’d been speculating on for years since the launch of Breath of the Wild. With 464 pages of design and lore insights from the dev team, this book promises to clarify a bit of that, including details of the timeline.

Of course, in terms of each game’s placement on the timeline, there’s not much to add - Tears of the Kingdom is a direct follow-up to Breath of the Wild, and that’s pretty much that. But in terms of the history of Hyrule? As Zelda Lore notes onTwitter, the book will “have to address OOT’s events, since the conflict with Ganondorf in that game are also mentioned in TOTK again, so expect clarification on the placement of the Imprisoning War.”

Some rough translations of the preview pages are already happening,including details likehow the temple containing Ganondorf’s mummified remains at the beginning of the game is, in fact, the Temple of Light. With morsels of new info like this, members of the community are already preparing for theproper obliterationof everyone’sfan theories.

The previous Master Works book was translated as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Creating a Champion, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if this follow-up also got an English translation, nothing’s been announced just yet. You know what’s even more fun than a normal Zelda lore debate? A Zelda lore debate fueled by fan translations of Japanese art books. I legitimately can’t wait.

Take a look at our list of thebest Zelda gamesand decide what’s wrong with it for yourself.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He’s been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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