A split-second glimpse of a premium item included with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's special edition has provided the backstory for the game, after dedicated fans put it through two translations.
Those who order the Special or Master editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, get a parchment map, which was shown briefly in a Nintendo livestream over the weekend.
YouTuber Zeltik captured a single frame, enahanced it, translated it from the "Sheikah" language in Zelda's canon into Japanese, then translated that into English.
This is what the map says:
Hylians pass stories of a destined time long past where multiple races lived and worked together in harmony. The Sheikah Tribe's blue aura breathed through the land and this mutual prosperity continued until a cataclysmic disaster stuck. The Hero and the Princess attempted to seal the terror which became known as the Calamity Ganon. Divine beasts awoke from four directions and deployed a mechanical army which made the King and his people fearful. They fractured Ganon's power and sealed him, but the Sheikah were banished from the land ever since.
The Sheikah, also called "Shadow Folk," previously appeared in 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and 2011's Skyward Sword. The story shown on the map explains the mysterious disappearance of their race.
The translation of the map begins at the 1:30 point of the above video. The rest of Zeltik's video is more or less a fan theory of the events mentioned and their outcome.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will launch with the Nintendo Switch on March 3. It also is coming to Wii U on the same date.
