Recalling an Ancient World

Mesoamerica is a historical region including the modern nations of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. This area was inhabited by various ancient civilisations, most notably the Aztecs and the Maya. For a setting with so much potential, ancient Mesoamerica is sorely underappreciated in mainstream media, particularly in video games. But it’s not omitted completely – players can explore Mayan ruins in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

A less obvious example, however, is found in Nintendo’s celebrated Zelda series. For Breath of the Wild (2017), the developers drew from a variety of real-world cultures to construct the diverse peoples and histories of Hyrule. This layered approach deepens the setting – and nowhere is this more compelling than in the mysterious Zonai.

The presence of the Zonai in Breath of the Wild is limited. All we knew for certain was that, in the game’s history, they were a technologically advanced ‘warlike tribe’. Similar to the ancient Mesoamerican Olmec civilisation, they disappeared long before the events of the game, leaving behind various ruins whose purpose and creation are shrouded in mystery. Their enigmatic nature seems to have been purposeful, since their very name is an anagram of the Japanese word ‘nazo’, meaning ‘mystery’ or ‘puzzle’, according to Senior Lead Artist Makoto Yonezu. 

Zelda’s Cultural Inspirations

This isn’t the first time the Zelda team has looked to ancient culture for inspiration. The games take place in the world of Hyrule, modeled on medieval European fantasy archetypes with various elements from Germanic and Mediterranean heritage. This kingdom is inhabited by Hylians – a human race with elvish features. 

Meanwhile, some of the series’ other races derive from non-European archetypes. One example is the Gerudo, an Amazonian-Persian desert matriarchy that features prominently in the series. Earlier portrayals border on exoticism and Orientalism, but newer titles seem committed to deepening their in-game culture. In recent games, the Gerudo have their own mythology, traditions and even gastronomy. Every settlement in Hyrule’s grandest iteration has their own distinct architecture, clothing styles and setting, making a diverse and beautiful world for players to discover.

The Zonai: Echoes of Wisdom

This depth of culture isn’t limited to the game’s primary races. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes inspiration primarily from Mesoamerica for its ancient Zonai race. As someone with Mexican ancestry, I have an appreciation for the country’s history. I found myself pleasantly surprised by the geometric artstyle, references to a ‘warrior race’ in armour descriptions, and animal statues amongst the game’s explorable ruins that looked suspiciously similar to ancient Aztec stonework. 

Firstly, the setting is interesting. The Faron Jungle where Zonai ruins can be found mirrors the tropical areas of the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize and Guatemala where the Maya once thrived. Massive stone animal statues, spiral motifs, trapezoidal doorways, and jungle-claimed temples create an aesthetic that feels strikingly similar to existing Mesoamerican sites. 

One such settlement is the ancient city of Calakmul in Campeche, Mexico. With monumental pyramids, ceremonial plazas, and detailed carvings, its architectural legacy directly resonates with the Zonai Ruins’ mood and structure. 

More recently, the 2024 discovery of the Classical Maya site Valeriana, also in Campeche, revealed a lagoon-adjacent city. Valeriana reached its peak between 750-850 AD, with temples and housing for up to 50,000 people.

In Breath of the Wild, these Zonai ruins are all constructed around Lake Floria in the Faron region. This is a possible nod to the Aztec civilisation’s famous city of Tenochtitlan, built upon Lake Texcoco: today, this is the location of modern-day Mexico City. Tenochtitlan was composed of canals, not dissimilar to the Venetian canal system. In their agriculture the Aztecs used ‘chinampas’, a sustainable farming technique still in use today which makes use of small, artificial islands. The lake had an important role in Aztec daily life, mainly due to the legend of the founding of Tenochtitlan that is preserved in Mexico’s flag.

Art and Iconography: From Quetzalcoatl to Zonai Dragons

In Zonai iconography, the three triforce tenants of courage, wisdom and power are represented by the dragon, owl and boar respectively. One little detail is that the Aztecs would have associated the dragon with wisdom rather than an owl since Quetzalcoatl, a plumed serpent, was their god of wisdom. This idea was interestingly shared by ancient China, a civilisation that I’ll touch upon later.

The owl statues resemble depictions of the Mayan Principal Bird Deity, a figure linked to Itzamná. Usually appearing as an elderly man, the Mayan people revered him as their supreme creator god.

The eyes of these owl statues are almost identical to the large, disc-like eyes that the Maya used in their art to represent beings of great power, most notably their sun god, Kinich Ahau. 

The game’s owl statues additionally seem to be pedestals to enable food offerings to spirits, a ritual also present in Mesoamerican tradition. This practice is echoed today in Día de los Muertos celebrations.

The stone dragon heads found in the Zonai ruins bear a close resemblance to representations of the aforementioned Quetzalcoatl. He was a major deity revered by various Mesoamerican tribes as the god of the wind and knowledge. His name, meaning ‘feathered serpent’ in Nahuatl (he was also known as ‘Kukulkan’, meaning the same thing, in the Yucatec Mayan language), denotes his draconic nature. Below is a comparison between the Zonai dragon statues and the carved serpentine heads at Teotihuacan’s Temple of Quetzalcoatl.

The grimacing mouths, stylised eyes, and spiral motifs find uncanny parallels in Mesoamerican iconography. Another parallel is the frequently-used ‘Zonai spiral’, which mirrors glyphs found in both Maya stelae and Aztec codices.

The Zonai seemingly worshipped a dragon, according to the official Breath of the Wild art book, Creating a Champion (of which I am a proud owner). Their reverence for Farosh, a spirit-dragon associated with lightning and water who shall be touched upon more later, parallels the ancient cult of the serpentine Quetzalcoatl.

Beyond Mesoamerica: The Zonai as an amalgamation

With the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom (2023) expanding upon the role of the Zonai, there are even more examples of influence from pre-hispanic cultures. Notably, the Zonai, rather than being a clearly Mesoamerican-inspired civilisation, seem to more widely be inspired by the pre-Columbian Americas. 

This is made clearest with the game’s geoglyphs, which are stylistically identical to the Nazca Lines in South Peru. Named after the culture believed to have created them, they are fascinating motifs whose purpose remains uncertain. They can only be fully appreciated from above (as can be done in Tears of the Kingdom, pictured below), and they are shaped like various animals, geometric designs, and humanoid figures. The inclusion of the glyphs indicates that the Zonai are not a one-to-one representation of a single culture, but an amalgam of various indigenous civilisations from the Americas.

Further adding to this hybridity is the unexpected inclusion of traditional East Asian motifs. In the sky islands, Zonai structures feature sweeping, segmented roofs, ‘Torii’-like gates, and zen garden arrangements. While these aesthetic choices are anachronistic when paired with Mesoamerican imagery, they are unsurprising, given Nintendo’s Japanese origin, reflecting both internal artistic tastes and broader pan-ancient stylisation.

There are also traces of Incan architecture, most notably the precision-cut stonework and trapezoidal forms in the blocky, tightly fit stone structures. These similarities extend to polygonal columns and a recurring emphasis on natural geometry. Furthermore, the archways throughout the floating islands incorporate features which resemble fangs, a common architectural motif in the Mayan Puuc region where entrances were designed to resemble giant serpent maws. However, these structures have an ancient Chinese flair to their overall design.

A further indication of Chinese influence lies in the game’s main theme, which makes use of an ‘erhu’ amongst a symphonic orchestra. The ‘erhu’ (二胡), a two-stringed bowed folk instrument, is perhaps the most evocative instrument of ancient China. It likely evolved from the earlier ‘xiqin’, a similar proto-Mongolic instrument.

The below artefact of the Shang dynasty also seems very similar to the geometric designs used in Zonai architecture and the art featured in their tapestries and murals. Made of bronze, due to oxidation it has turned green over millennia; a colour that is prominent in the design of the Zonai.

To add another ancient civilisation into this mix, the traditional garb of the Zonai is reminiscent of Ancient Greece. The ‘Archaic Set’, the game’s starter garb, includes a tunic and legwear similar to a kilt. This tunic’s structure is very similar to that of an ‘exomis’, a draped linen chiton that was generally used by ‘hoplites’ (infantry) like Link and later adopted by Ancient Rome. Its defining trait is that it leaves the right shoulder uncovered (hence the name, ‘exo’ meaning outside and ‘omos’ meaning shoulder) to allow maximum freedom of movement for fighters and workers. Statues of heroes, such as Odysseus, don similar clothing, denoting Link’s heroic role in the game.

The footwear is also interesting, as it is accurate to the time period in which the ‘exomis’ emerged. In the 5th century BC, Greek soldiers used ‘kothornoi’, laced footwear with an open toe that reached the mid-calf, laced with soft leather cords.

Back to more Aztec inspiration: another overt example comes from their turquoise and red oyster shell mosaics, such as the famous double-headed serpent sculpture in the British Museum. The intricate inlay technique and vibrant blue-green tones are echoed in Zonai technology, particularly in the embedded ornamentation in their constructs.

Another possible link comes from Mayan eschatology. To the Maya, caves held a sacred importance as portals to Xibalba, the spirit world. Given this, the fact that Rauru, a Zonaite character, sealed Ganondorf’s mummified body in a cavernous dungeon beneath Hyrule Castle seems intentional. 

Pictured below, Rauru’s arm (later attached to Link) seems to bear a similar pattern to ‘xicalcoliuhqui’, which is a known motif in Mesoamerican cultures. The pattern is associated with many ideas, and is believed to generally depict the concepts of water, waves, clouds, lightning, and a serpent or serpentine deity.

This mirrors the Zonai’s association with and worship of Farosh, a dragon in the game that embodies the element of lightning. However, the appearance of the game’s three dragons more closely resemble ‘long’ dragons of Chinese mythology. Chinese dragons are wingless, powerful serpentine creatures that are associated with elemental power and imperial grace. 

Both the dragons and the Zonai are shown to inhabit the sky.

There is also an homage to Aztec traditional garb in the form of the Zonaite Armour set. It’s not quite accurate to depictions of warriors found in codices, who were typically fully covered in ‘ichcahuīpīlli’ body armour. Warrior attire sometimes included animalistic qualities, such as the jaguar-inspired design for the ‘ocēlōmeh’ rank of soldiers. Such armour was donned with the belief that the animal’s powers could be transferred to the wearer. 

However, the headdress in the Zonaite set is similar to ‘quetzalāpanecayōtl’, plumed Aztec headgear with both ritualistic and military uses. Below is the headdress of Moctezuma II to showcase what a grander version of such headwear may have looked like.

Allegory and Cycles

The Zonai civilisation’s sudden end and their technological prowess in sky architecture, constructs and magic reflect the story of pre-colonial Mesoamerican cultures. The Aztecs in particular were one of the most technologically advanced civilisations in the world at their time. Just a few of their achievements include their complex cities, agriculture, architecture, medicine, astronomy, and clean water transportation. Though there are still many indigenous communities in Latin America, European colonisation made an undeniable impact on their size and cultural preservation.

Perhaps the game’s most profound link to Mesoamerican myth lies in the Zelda series’ recurring theme of cyclical destruction and rebirth. The ouroboros featured in the sequel’s logo, two dragons eating each other’s tails, is reminiscent of the Aztec belief in cosmic ages known as the Five Suns. In this cosmology, detailed in the Codex Florentine and the Codex Chimalpopoca, the world has been created and destroyed multiple times by different elemental forces. These cycles are mirrored in the recurring cataclysms in Hyrule, continuously reincarnated beings, the rise and fall of ancient peoples like the Zonai, and the ‘Calamity’ that continually threatens the world.

Why it matters

The Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom duology draws clear inspiration from a wide range of real-world cultures, from the Polynesian-like fishing town of Lurelin Village to the confirmed Jomon-influenced Sheikah settlement. Among these, the Zonai stand out as an enjoyable amalgamation of motifs from the ancient world, particularly Mesoamerica.

Nintendo didn’t aim for historical accuracy in their depiction of the Zonai – nor would this be expected of a fantasy series. Instead, they embraced creative stylisation, crafting ruins, lore, and armour that evoke the spirit of ancient American civilisations without directly replicating them. The result often resembles what someone with only a surface-level understanding of Mesoamerican history might imagine, but that doesn’t diminish its impact. Even stylised nods can carry weight when done with care.

As a Mexican gamer and student of history, seeing aspects of my ancestral culture echoed in one of gaming’s most beloved franchises, even indirectly, is both thrilling and moving. It’s a reminder that the civilisations of the Americas weren’t silent, primitive backdrops, but brilliant, inventive societies whose memory continues to ripple through art, myth, and imagination.

In giving players a world to explore filled with ruins, mystery and magic, The Legend of Zelda also offers a quiet tribute to real-world peoples – ones who gazed at the stars, built cities in the jungle, and imagined gods in the shape of serpents.