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Spirit Temple

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Spirit Temple
A map of the Spirit Temple
A map of the Spirit Temple
Location(s) Desert Colossus
Game(s) Ocarina of Time (1998)
Main Item Silver Gauntlets, Mirror Shield
Mini-boss(es) Iron Knuckle (Nabooru)
Boss(es) Twinrova
"The Spirit Temple was built by the ancient ancestors of the Gerudo people. Since only a single male child was born to the Gerudo every hundred years, the massive shrine was built by female masons and engineers."
— Nintendo Power Player's Guide description

The Spirit Temple (魂の神殿, Tamashī no Shinden) is the fifth major dungeon of the adult-Link portion of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The Spirit Temple lies within the Desert Colossus to the west of the Haunted Wasteland in western Hyrule.

Contents

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Seeking to awaken the Sage of Spirit, Link travels westward to the land of the Gerudo. Link crosses the broken bridge in the Gerudo Valley and happens upon Mutoh, the boss carpenter. His Carpenters have abandoned their work to join the all-female Gerudo thieves and have not returned. Mutoh asks Link to find his workers for him. Link sneaks through the Gerudo Fortress, evading the Gerudo Guards and navigating the mazelike structure. Eventually, Link finds one of the Carpenters locked in a cell. After talking to the Carpenter, Link is ambushed by a Gerudo Duelist; after a heated battle, the Duelist loses and drops a Small Key to the nearby cell. Link rescues the Carpenter and in exchange, he is given valuable information before the Carpenter travels back to work on the bridge. Link successfully rescues his three co-workers and is approached by the interim leader of the encampment (who is implied to be the same person as the four Duelists Link battled earlier.) She tells him about their leader, Nabooru, whose headquarters is the Spirit Temple. Due to his impressive sneaking and swordsmanship skills, he is made an honorary member of the Gerudo and is given the Gerudo Membership Card.

With the help of his newfound allies, Link travels into the vast desert of the Haunted Wasteland, where three trials await those who want to travel to the Desert Colossus, within which lies the Spirit Temple. Using the Longshot or Hover Boots, Link crosses the River of Sand. Once on the other side of the quicksand pit, Link sees a flagpole, which serves as a marker for those who wish to cross to the desert. Link vaguely makes out another nearby flagpole and uses these to navigate his way through a sandstorm. Eventually, he happens upon a small monument in the desert. At the top, he finds an engraved stone that claims that those with the "eye of truth" can see the Phantom Guide that shows the way. As soon as he activates the Lens of Truth, the guardian appears before him and guides him safely through the sandstorm to the Desert Colossus.

At the Desert Colossus, Link meets Sheik again, who tells him that he must travel back in time using the Master Sword in order to make it through the Spirit Temple and awaken the Sage. He is taught the "Requiem of Spirit", before Sheik disappears shortly thereafter. Inside the temple, Link finds no way to get ahead, and travels back to the Temple of Time, and restores the Master Sword to its pedestal, returning him to the past. With the "Requiem of Spirit", Link warps to the Desert Colossus and enters the Spirit Temple, now a child. He meets Nabooru, who tells him of a silvery treasure known as the Silver Gauntlets, that bestows great strength upon its wearer; enough to move the giant grey stone that blocks Link's path. However, Nabooru is too large in order to get through the tiny passage that leads the way into the temple, and asks Link to do it for her in exchange for a reward. As the Silver Gauntlets are much too small for the hands of a child, she asks that she be given it if Link recovers it. Link travels into the temple and comes upon an Iron Knuckle. After its defeat, Link exits the Temple and finds the Treasure Chest containing the Silver Gauntlets. Suddenly, a sandstorm begins blowing, and Link sees Nabooru before the Desert Colossus as she is being sucked into a vortex by the evil twin witches Koume and Kotake and disappearing shortly thereafter.

Link is left with no choice but to keep the Silver Gauntlets, and travels to the future, and enters the temple. Inside, he obtains the Mirror Shield and with the help of sunlight and a giant mirror, he opens the way to the area where Koume and Kotake dwell. In a small antechamber, Link comes upon another Iron Knuckle, which looks different from the other ones. Link defeats this tougher Iron Knuckle, and as its armor falls off, Nabooru is revealed to have been inside the armor suit all along, having been brainwashed by the twin witches, who suddenly appear once more and spirit her away again. They escape into the boss room, where Link battles them. After defeating them separately, the two join forces and become one being; Twinrova. Link deflects their own wicked magicks back at them, defeating them (and seemingly, killing them or stopping whatever was keeping them alive, as they are shown in a post-battle cutscene with halos, ascending to the light skies.) A pillar of light appears, and as Link steps into it, he is transported into the Chamber of Sages. Within the chamber, Nabooru is revealed to be the Sage of Spirit. She gives him the Spirit Medallion and adds her power to his. As Link exits the chamber, Nabooru can be heard saying that she would have kept whatever promise she made in the past, had she known what a handsome man Link would turn into.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.

[edit] Dungeon

The Spirit Temple is located inside a gigantic statue of the Goddess of the Sand, most likely a historical figure in Gerudo legend. The Temple is divided into two portions--one accessible only when Link is a child and the other only when he is an adult. The child-Link section consists mostly of puzzles. The temple consists of two sides which are nearly symmetrical. Each one is accessible in a different age of Link. Each side's whole purpose is to lead outside the temple to two large folded hands on the outside of the Temple, each of which contain a treasure for Link. The child Link portion gets Link the Silver Gauntlets, which allow him to access the adult portion, which yields the Mirror Shield. The apex of the Temple design involves entering the top floor access route, to activate the light that shines down into the main room. Link then stands on lowered platform and dissolves the face of the giant statue with the mirror shield to reveal the entrance to the Temple's sacred chamber, where its boss, Twinrova, is located. The Temple's prominent theme seems to take heavily from Egyptian tradition.

[edit] Sage

Nabooru

[edit] Items

[edit] Enemies

[edit] Mini-boss

[edit] Boss

[edit] Theories

Theory warning: This section contains theoretical information based on the viewpoints or research of one or several other users. It has not been officially verified by Nintendo and its factual accuracy is disputed.

[edit] Origin and purpose

The Spirit Temple was built by all-female architects and masons from the Gerudo band of thieves. It is said to hold a vast amount of treasure and secrets, presumably in the form of picture writing that can be seen on its walls inside the game. It was once Ganondorf's hideout. While the Gerudo Desert does appear in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the Spirit Temple is nowhere to be seen. However, the Arbiter's Grounds bear many striking similarities to the Spirit Temple both in architecture (for example, the Gerudo Goddess of the Sand appears at the top of the Arbiter's Grounds and is also a prominent feature of the Spirit Temple) as well as location, and it is possible that they could be the one and same.

[edit] Temple Guardian

It is possible that the snake statues found all over the Spirit Temple symbolize the dungeon's patron deity. This statue is never mentioned, but it is seen quite often throughout the temple. Also, all of the other adult dungeons seem to have their own representations, which furthers this concept.

Also, it is possible that the Goddess of the Sand serves this purpose as well, although she seems to be the temple's focal point of worship and not its protector.

[edit] Fourth or Fifth Temple?

The Spirit Temple, canonically, is widely considered to be the fifth and final temple in the game before Ganon's Tower, as evidenced by the fact that almost every guide (including Nintendo's) and walkthrough will have it fifth and when Sheik lists the temples he lists the Spirit Temple last. It is, however, speculated that it may actually be the fourth. This is suggested because on the status screen the Spirit Medallion is placed before the Shadow Medallion in a clockwise order, and also because it is possible to complete the entire Spirit Temple without playing through the Shadow Temple, as the Hover Boots are not needed. Another reason why it is confusing as to where it is in the order, is that on the song screen, the "Requiem of the Spirit" is placed before the "Nocturne of the Shadow". There is one room where it is intended that the player use the Hover Boots: a large room with boulders rolling around and silver rupees strewn about (without them it is seemingly impossible to get one that is floating nearer to the middle of the room), but it can be accomplished by timing the jump so that Link gets hit by a boulder mid-air, which knocks him into said rupee. An even easier way to get the rupee is to find a safe spot away from the ledge (just past the second rolling boulder seems to work) and use the longshot to climb back up, hitting the rupee midair. The Lens of Truth, while not found in the Shadow Temple, is acquired in the Shadow Temple section of Link's quest, and the Lens of Truth is required to cross the Haunted Wasteland to find the Spirit Temple. This is another indicator implying that the Spirit Temple is likely meant to be the final temple before ascending Ganon's Tower.

Theory warning: Theories end here.

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