The Architecture of the Legend of Zelda
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      • A Thematic Unmasking of Majora's Mask
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      • On Spider Houses and Greed within The Legend of Zelda
      • Majora's Mask 3Ds — An Enumeration of Changes
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    • Twilight Princess >
      • Ordona Province and the Meaning of Twilight
      • Faron Woods and the Forest Temple
      • Cultures of Eldin Province
      • Lakebed Temple and the Lands of the Zora
      • The Arbiter's Grounds
      • Snowpeak Ruins
      • Sacred Grove and the Temple of Time
      • The City in the Sky
      • The Twilight Realm and the Palace of Twilight
      • The Hylian Architectural Tradition
    • Skyward Sword >
      • Skyloft and the Provenance of Legend
      • The Sealed Grounds and Intentions of the Goddess
      • Faron Woods and Skyview Temple
      • The Earth Temple of Eldin Volcano
      • Ancient Cultures of Lanayru Desert
      • Lake Floria and the Ancient Cistern
      • The Lanayru Sand Sea
      • The Fire Sanctuary
      • Sky Keep and the Isle of Songs
    • Breath of the Wild >
      • Breath of the Wild — Review
      • Ancient Sheikah Art and Architecture
      • Kakariko Village
      • Hateno Village and the Ancient Tech Labs
      • Lurelin Village
      • Tarrey Town and Modular Hyrulean Architecture
      • Stronghold of the Yiga Clan
      • Gerudo Town and the Great Desert
      • On Stables
      • Zora's Domain
      • Goron City and Death Mountain
      • Rito Village and the Wild's Frontier
      • Great Fairy Fountains of Hyrule
    • Random Articles >
      • The Great Deku Tree: A Triumph of Aided Discovery
      • Are the Arbiter’s Grounds the Spirit Temple of Antiquity?
      • The King of Red Lions
      • A Bathhouse in Hyrule
      • The Mirror of Demise
      • To the Fishing Hole
      • The Fang & Bone — The Hunt Across Hyrule
    • Riddles >
      • A Rough Guide to Riddling
      • Simple
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Simple Riddles   ( ^ o ^)


​​
​1)  Ebon shell quite a statement makes — 
      Light it emits and earth it shakes!


2)  Love is patient, love is kind,
      But it’s often hard to find.
      Love is solid, love is fun;
      How is it that four makes one?


3)  Purveyors of information you encounter,
      Yet nothing is their fee.
      Mysterious their provenance,
      Though trusted, as all can see.


4)  Weakness uproots me not,
      Though even the strong dare not try.
      Life to some, death to others,
      Please strive to keep me dry.


5)  With fire of power are two-dozen lit;
      Upon rings enciphered they glow.
      Sealed path now shown, beyond truth’s gaze in stone,
      Into death and shadows below.


6)  A massive rock, a giant face:
      Rings in fire will help to displace.


7)  Extend, contract from place to place,
      Secret boon of a ghostly race.


8)  An emerald tome of secrets and lore;
      Its verses wrought greed and, thereafter, war.


9)  From arm to the air, just watch this bug go,
      As it picks up things and drops them below!


10)  Awakening, a fey flight,
        And the tools of a Hero.
        A troubled past, and curse of stone:
        Travel into darkness.
        Death of innocence, birth of destiny,
        A marred victory, Repose.


11)  Empty beings endowed will where absent before 
— 
        Mass moved, arbiter’s foes destroyed.
        A relic most ancient, its import told in lore,
        Yet seldom it’s ever employed.


12)  While seeking the sky it never shall see,
        A rotten horror of evil and death
        Waits just underneath, grinning viciously,
        To choke its prey to the very last breath.


13)  A perfect bodyguard, dying never,
        And a sight to behold, indeed,
        Whose service burdens any endeavor
        Lest fed by insatiable greed.


14)  All at once, or not at all,
        Twisted innocence held in thrall.
        Descent from on high in bounds complete,
        A sacred beast can spell defeat.


15)  An implacable adversary 
— 
        Stern, yet mild.
        Mind of man 
        In the form of a child.


16)   Journey under eaves and bough,
        A far place you will come to know.
        Through valley, through pool, spirits walk on the breeze;
        A tryst and a parting, in the shadow of trees.


17)  A dire choice,
        And exodus,
        Not easy was the fate.
        A trust in God,
        And providence,
        By this the land was saved.


18)  A cowardly fellow, yet an ally most dear;
        From near yet far he hails to aid your efforts here.
        Who’s under there? Beneath that cloak of violet hare,
        He who makes room in yours to hawk many a ware?


19)  Small treasures I find in the strangest of places 
— 
        In pots, bushes, and even under stone!
        Who could have put them there, of all the land’s races?
        Perhaps in youth would I have known . . .


20)  A Coleridgean Journey, a tempest and wreck,
        Though no albatross as burden of sin.
        Where once it was, now not a speck:
        Only guilt and memory therein. 


21)  
A shape aloft, 
        And sword below;
        Two wings aside,
        What do I show?


22)  A shell of a home,
        Both high and cold,
        At last is warmed by the fire.

       A broken stair, 
       And vast disrepair,
​       Made home at last by desire.


23)  Inside of a mushroom, or tucked in a shoe, 
       A tiny bed, hearth, and a working bench, too;
       Placers of items
— gems, health, and food, 
       To belittle their size does seem quite rude.



24)  At farthest reach, 
        A being rests
        Who waits to teach
        Our mortal chests. 
      
        A boon it grants
        In darkened rain;
        A risk to chance
        For loss or gain.

        Life and power
        Are its dealing;
        In needful hour
        Your future sealing.


25)  From three came a fourth, 
        But then there was one,
        Whose labors, in blood,
        May never be done.


26)  Life and mystery, and both in excess;
        Inside and out cartographic distress!
        A spiriting away, should one digress;
        The question of where is anyone's guess.

​

27)  A western, barren land — 
        A way engraved in sand;
        Feminine form, a martial pose,
        This sisterhood an altar shows.


28)  Separate from the pack
       And the means to attack; 
       Skill forgot, a missing sigil 
— 
        Frozen heights conceal her vigil.


29)  Much like a horse — 
        Less tall, of course; 
        Two limbs and a tail, 
        Fangs like a nail.
        Dragging chest
        With soaring crest; 
        A bushy 'stache
        And quick to dash. 
        At every sound
        It looks around.
        In streams of wind 
        It will not bend.
        In waters dry, 
        You'll hear its cry.

​
30)  Beings in walls, deep in a cave,
        Accepting of stones, your friendship they crave.
        These circles rent with varied shape, 
        Without a pair, they're left agape.


31)  Made in stone and meant to last, 
        Memories of an unknown past:
        Decrepit soldiers far from rare
        Guard most ancient Place of Prayer.
        This site of lore with skill was made; 
        Now all is ruined and decayed.


32)  Trapped both in mind and in form, 
        A savior arrives in a storm;
        A god to wake eight instruments takes, 
        Releasing an island once warm.


33)  All as one, yours to borrow:
        Hope, fear, love, rage, life, and sorrow.
        A final task at the end of days: 
        The time has come. Are you ready to play?

​
34)  This rainbow of value
        Sets the world a-turn,
        So waste not what you find, 
        For far less can you earn.
​

35)  In spring atop the fertile mound, 
        Upon the blossom-coated ground, 
        Reincarnate sage is found 
— 
          Vibrant coat and laurel-crowned.


36)  On peak of prosperity built,
        Towering over the land,
        Engulfed in autumn fire's gilt:
        The Kingdom's final stand.



37)  In hidden cove
        Where land is wove,
        Play royal verse
        And falls disperse.


38)  Twitching, rustling, crawling . . . 
        Moving, never going . . . 
        Only nighttime showing . . . 
​        Golden treasure calling.



39)  Set high upon a hill, 
        Or hiding under stone;
        One hundred is a taste 
—  
        Nine hundred shows your will.
        You'll soon begin to groan
        Beneath the growing waste.


40)  Famous craftsman and sage, 
       By your own pupil betrayed.
       Both shrinking and growing, 
       A Hero's heart showing, 
       Before the Gate seals for an Age.


41)  Red or blue is yours to choose, 
        Created from a wiggling ooze;
        Within the woods we make our lair, 
        Our faces foul, our prices fair!


42)  Wrested from a place of air, 
        Breaking cloud and sand 
—   
        A low-born tool, this bristly pair, 
        To scrape beneath the land.


43)  
With realm and people petrified,        
       Their faces frozen, terrified, 

       And crowned by crimson regicide, 
       Land's life-stream ice-bound, ossified.
       A Hero gains the mountainside,
       To find his hope and task defied;
       Yet tool he finds of alloy plied,
       And flame to leave fire liquefied. 


44)  
In the hills we oft hang out, 
        A thieving, red-nosed stack.
        We only tread where we can scout, 
        And spinelessly attack.


45)  
A turquoise flame 
        in copper frame;
        A gift of greed
        in time of need;
        A helpful aid
        in soulful trade;
        A Hero’s tool
        to catch a ghoul;
        A guiding light
        in day or night;
        A final one,
        and flame is done.

​
46)  From flaming peak to sandy sea 
—  
         In blooming well, you seek all three.
        When forged within their sacred blaze,
        The Sword shall purge all evil ways.


47)  Backbone of Hyrule, 
        Travels all quarters;
        No guise can befool
        This Prince of the Porters;
        Himself he will addle,
        Then sing and skedaddle.


48)
  Heavens above, interred below.
​        Through shattered seal, enter.
        
        Cataclysmic battle finish,

        At the kingdom’s center.


49)  Joyous and playful, a daylight delight;
        Violent and dreadful, a midnight fright!
        Forever in flux, caught in suspension
        Till the hour of demonic redemption.


50)  From humblest of start
        To blackest of art,
        A servant of light
        Mastered evil's might.
        Unseen and so small,
        Now that which sees all.
        Sealed away by four
        Who is one once more.
        Forgotten never,
        Returning ever.



​51)  “Sad child in darkness who yearns for the light,
               to you, whom no one can follow: 
        A guardian friend to set things aright —   
              familiar, yet heartless and hollow.”



52)  A creature once taken is given in trust,
        A being quite foreign in source.
        No amount of its name will render it hoarse; 
        Its diet will leave you nonplussed.


53)  
Back and forth rocking,
        Here and there talking.
        In you he'll confide . . .
        But not side by side.


54)  
No matter the depth of your visit, 
        Your progress is always effaced;
        Time’s protection you’ll gain —  
        Every move ‘gainst the grain —  
        Ending war between two kings debased.


55)  
Fauna or flora?
        Or something between?
        They’re timid and skittish — 
        But easily seen.


56)  
Courage is shattered in pieces anew;
            Hero needs travel the reach of the land;
        Artist must cipher illegible hand — 
            Records of creatures and specks in the blue. 
        Traces forgotten once known to the wise,
            Salvaged and reintroduced to the skies.

​

57)  Kaleidoscopic flower, or psychedelic weed?
        As hydra loses hue, it gains yet greater speed.


58)  
When floats away, at last released,
        It disappears to raise deceased.


59)  
A token of friendship for when we’re apart,
        Both memory and melody played from the heart;
        Affinities youthful once conjured from sound,

        Forgotten instead for another one found.


60)  A polished stone that sits on high
        Hides inner self from outward eye;
        A magic bound in carmine hue
        Grants humors false instead of true.


61)  We all of us are present,
        But where is our last guide?
        With Light and Fire and Spirit, 
        Why’s Shadow been denied?


​
62)  A gate of stone,
        I sit alone.
        Alive, yet not,
        I must be fought.
        I’ve waited long
        To hear your song.
        So give me breath, 

        And taste your death.


63)  Use flame to tame the glow of snow,
        And tool to fuel a trail ice-pale;
        You force a course to sound profound,
        And bells toll knells to bless success.


64) 
They’re hidden and old, both tiny and smart,
       These Guards by Guardians sent;
       In chairs they’re bound but they still get around,
       To reseal a land that was rent.


​
65)  You quest-                         
        ion my o-                     such high
        utfit, do                       office. You
        you? We-                     dare to m-
       ll, this is n-                   ake fun of   
 ormal for one of          my haberdasher!?


​
66)  A system of veins
         On the body divine;
         A seal on all banes
         Once our paths realign.


67)  
The past is present, 
        The future now.
        Play these strings,

        And time shall bow.


​68)  This item’s inlay
        Is a godly cachet.
        To heaven they flee,
        These two dozen and three.


69)  In darkness darker than darkest night,
         Shrouded guides shall guide with light.
​
​ 
70)  Sown and sealed within the past, 
         In ray-soaked earth, to ages last;
         Its golden flesh and seeded womb
         ​Saves tempest measure from the tomb.

​
71)  This for that, and tit-for-tat,
         ​ A bargain, a barter, a trade;
         ​ Travel, collect, a swapping crusade:

         ​ See what this junk’s valued at?!


72)  Niter, my scent,
         ​ Twisted, my name; 
         ​ With careening descent, 
         ​ Exploding’s my game!

​
​73)  Oh, small betrayed, your home mislaid!

         ​ By friend waylaid, who form unmade! 
         ​ Your quest delayed, and heart dismayed!
         ​ Though you have strayed through unknown glade,
         ​ With bond of trade, my notes pervade: 
         ​ All forms remade, all evils fade.

​
74)  When the third erupts in faded light,

         ​ The lands and the people will know suffering.
         ​ One by shadow, begun in slavery;
         ​ 
One in darkness, drowning order;
         ​ The last secured by wisdom’s loss — 
         ​ And true evil shall be born in blood.


75)  
Cast by fire, earth’s gamble thrown:

         ​ A rocky game of chance — 
         ​ From pip to eyot, we hold the cay
         ​ To greater happenstance.

​
76)  In song,
         ​ We mirror you,
         ​ And leap in gratitude.
         ​ Submerged, we wait, we watch, we hope
         ​ For rain.


​77)  Brightening, nurturing
   
         ​ Soothing, blowing
         ​ Enriching, quickening
   
         ​ ​Changing, flowing


78)  
Human-made, 

         ​ Maiden-given;
         ​ Goddess-seamed,
         ​ Seem a Hero.


79)  I am the one that got away:
         ​ I’m carried, never thrown.
         ​ Know: cleanliness is godliness; 
         ​ I’m enemy to sloppiness!
         ​ My art is rather obvious — 
         ​ Maybe slightly overblown . . .


80)  I track the phantom iron-horse;
        My bearings spot its sooty source.


81)   Doubled once, 
         Doubled twice: 
         A tetrad linked
         As one we slice!
​

82)  What a group of classy brutes,
        Dancing round in four-piece suits:
        Skill and chance are in cahoots.


​83)  
My glow stands for dough, 
         Cash gone in a flash;
         Try'n to shoot me to loot me
         While spammin' for Mammon;
         Though my bond to money is funny,
         All of my coin you'll never purloin.


84)  Scene: 
Two oldsters gammin’ over a pint:


         “Have’e seen ‘em,
 
         ​   Crawlin’, searchin’, flyin’?
         Some’re half-buried, like old potsherds,
             But eyes always watchin’ . . . 
         Look all new, yet mighty ancient: 
 
            All moss’n metal —  grime’n gears!
         Ain’t nothin’ what can take ‘em out, seems, 
             And what’re they even guardin’?”


85)  Appears at night, departs at dawn;
         ​A rattling sound from a burial mound;
         ​A threat to none, a fright to all;
         Reborn from the ground, it still roams around.


86)  
I am lost, forever, 

         ​Though I can be found.
         ​What became of what I was?
         ​With me there is no past, no future:
         ​Nothing but blurred boundaries.
         ​What became of yesterday?
         ​I play a perpetual game:
         ​Hiding, yet eternally seeking.
         ​Can you ever forgive me my tricks?
         ​Music attends me; laughter follows;
         ​I follow no rules but my own;
         ​Do you think me cruel?
         ​We share a timeless bond,
         ​Tied together by a sacred fate.
         ​Do you still remember your friends?


87)  
My form: unworldly.

         ​My gift: dichotomy.
         ​I’m found through tempest gale,
         ​And crowned ‘yond mother’s veil.


88)  
“O Fairest Chromaticism!
     
         ​By you they called us kin.”
         ​“Our nomen was our omen,
    
         ​ But we failed, to our chagrin.”
         ​“Through lives both bleak and fleeting,
     
         ​ We studied Nature’s meetings.”
         ​“We ruled red sun and palest moon,
    
         ​And governed rain and shine.”
         ​“Yet now we roam no longer —”
         ​​“— cut off from lands divine.”


89)  
WANTED


         ​By Order of the Honorable Town Mayor,
         ​All Citizens are to be on the Lookout for:

         ​​1. Misnomer miscreants.
         ​2. Puckish philanthropists.
         ​3. Timetable tots.
         ​4. Furtive fraternities.
         ​5. Stellar sidekicks.

         ​​Reward: 20 stickers.


​90)   
With violet soul and flesh of stone,
         I seem my kin 'til darkness shown;
         In eerie glen I call my home — 
         Strike me as the shadows roam.


91)  
Foretold, one in one hundred;
        Taken and twisted by two;
        Forever seeking the three;
        Always stopped by the one.



92)  Ingenious collector
        And thoughtful aesthete;
        With detailed physique,
        Each work is unique.
        In full they do capture
        The faces you meet.


​
93)  I am a mere servant, yet
        I am the carrier of voids;
        My brethren are legion yet
        We crack under pressure.


94)  
Harmonic motion to and fro:
        Divine, it tames the unseen flow.