The Legend of Zelda’s lore has always been a point of interest for fans of the franchise. Countless debates on the Zelda timeline wouldn’t exist without passionate fans analyzing the inner workings of The Legend of Zelda’s mythos. At the center of it all is the Triforce, the Sacred Triangle governed by the Goddesses.
The Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru is one of the most interesting deities in the series. While her Oracle counterpart is rather developed (perhaps the most of all the Oracles,) Nayru the Goddess is left more in the background. Of course, it’s not as if any of the Goddesses are major characters, but Nayru’s relative obscurity makes her quite an interesting figure.
10 She Used To Be Zelda’s Signature Goddess
To be blunt, the only character who really has some kind of thematic relationship with their Goddess is Link. Him and Farore are connected on a more meaningful level than, say, Ganondorf and Din. Zelda and Nayru are the worst of the lot, though. Zelda spends most of her time in the background, meaning there’s very little to analyze in terms of presence.
This is to say nothing of how Skyward Sword re-contextualized the Goddesses quite a bit, explicitly making Hylia Zelda’s signature Goddess— a concept that returned in full force for Breath of the Wild. It doesn’t seem like Nayru will be the apple of Zelda’s eye anytime soon.
9 The Defensive Properties Of Nayru’s Love
As far as magic spells go in Ocarina of Time, there’s really no going wrong with Nayru’s Love. It doesn’t seen any mandatory uses ala Din’s Fire, but it’s the most practical of the in-game spells. With Nayru’s Love, Link can boost his defense. While Ocarina of Time is not a particularly difficult game, it can still be challenging for genre newcomers.
More importantly, an item like Nayru’s Love could help players who were struggling with the transition from 2D to 3D back in the day. This is also arguably the original concept of what would become the Magic Armor in The Wind Waker. It’s even possible that Nayru’s Love is the Magic Armor.
8 Nayru’s Presence Is All But Gone In The Wind Waker
Hopefully the Magic Armor really is related to Nayru, because she doesn’t have much of a presence in The Wind Waker’s Great Sea otherwise. While she’s certainly present as a Goddess in the game, there’s no one left in the Great Sea who worships her. Jabun seems to be the only one who remembers her, and that’s only because he has her Pearl.
It’s likely that Nayru’s presence would have been more noticeable had The Wind Waker not been rushed. Two dungeons were confirmed to have been cut out of the game, and it’s more than likely that one of them was connected to Jabun and Nayru’s Pearl in some way.
7 “The Spirit Of Law”
Ocarina of Time very specifically refers to Nayru as the creator of “the spirit of law.” Of the three Hylian Goddesses, Nayru is the most metaphysically connected to Hyrule. Ocarina of Time not only suggests that she created the literal physical world, but the concept of space and time themselves. The universe, in turn.
That really does place Nayru on a much higher level than either of her sister Goddesses. It does make sense, though. Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom, and only wisdom could create the concept of laws in that sense. Nintendo really couldn’t have had the Goddesses of Power or Courage setting the world’s foundation.
6 Wisdom And Magic
Of the three Goddesses, it’s suggested to some extent that Nayru is the most magically in-tune. It only makes sense as Zelda is the most magically in-tuned of the three regular Triforce holders. It also only goes without saying that wisdom can naturally tap into magic, at least as far as The Legend of Zelda is concerned.
Zelda likely wouldn’t be able to pull off so many magical feats without Nayru’s presence. At least in the early games. Nowadays, Zelda is firmly in the Hylia camp. She still has the Triforce of Wisdom, but her magic doesn’t necessarily stem from Nayru anymore.
5 The Only Goddess With A Real Love Interest
Both Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons do a very good job at turning the three Goddesses into characters with personalities and some depth. Farore’s the least developed of the bunch with Din somewhere in the middle, but both pale in comparison to how fleshed out a character Nayru is. She even has a love interest!
Ralph is not only Nayru’s love interest throughout all of Oracle of Ages, he actually has a rather healthy role in the game. Interestingly, Ralph’s sprite is based off of Richard’s from Link’s Awakening, a character who originated in The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls.
4 The Oracle Of Ages
What exactly does it mean for Nayru to be the Oracles of Ages? At first glance, not too much. Even as far as gimmicks go, Oracle of Ages as a game is less creative than Oracle of Seasons, using a concept Ocarina of Time had already used. That’s not a bad thing, though, as the game handles the concept arguably better than Seasons handles its own.
More importantly, Oracle of Ages does a better job at defining and explaining what an oracle is, mainly because Nayru herself is an easier character to care about than Din. If nothing else, she’s more active in her plot.
3 She May Be The Goddess Of Time
More importantly, though, Nayru’s role as the Oracle of Ages actually does lend a bit of credence to the idea that she’s also the Goddess of Time. A popular fan theory in the series claims that because Nayru created Hyrule’s metaphysical laws, she’d naturally be the Goddess of Time who’s mentioned in Majora’s Mask.
It only makes sense, after all. Both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask heavily imply that Zelda has time based powers. Who was Zelda’s signature Goddess at the time? None other than Nayru. It’s only logical to assume that Nayru herself is also the Goddess of Time. SInce Oracle of Ages is all about time travel, it certainly fits.
2 Nayru Was Originally An Artist
Interestingly, Nintendo’s original concept for Nayru would have featured her as a painter. She’d have a paint brush and palette. While this seems like a totally random detail— one that actually has nothing to do with Oracle of Ages— it makes sense when considering that the original version of the game was going to feature color based puzzles.
Which makes sense as that’s a natural use of the Game Boy Color’s hardware, but it’s perhaps for the best that Capcom opted to revisit time travel instead. It’s very likely that the color based puzzles wouldn’t have had the same depth as the time travel ones. This also meant that Nayru’s artistic references had to go.
1 The Only Goddess Link Fights
It’s not often than Link gets to fight a deity— and technically he doesn’t in this case— but it’s just as exciting when Nayru herself ends up as a boss fight in Oracle of Ages. After all, the Oracles are just extensions of the Goddesses. It makes for an exciting and unique showdown, one that Twilight Princess would actually reuse to some extent.
That said, Oracle of Ages’ boss fights aren’t its best quality, but Nayru’s certainly not a bad fight. If anything, the mere fact that players need to fight a possessed Goddess before they beat the game is a nice little moment in the last act.