long post abt the sheikah/yiga

so from what the game tells us and also from the art on the botw tapestry, the backstory for the yiga is basically as follows:

(strip 1, top of tapestry) 10,000 years before botw, hyrule was in a golden age of advanced civilization thanks to technology created by the sheikah. the hylians were basically piggybacking off of all the sheikah’s work, but the sheikah were seemingly okay with it. the top strip shows a town and hylian farmers on the left half. and on the right, there are sheikah working on technology, with the king and some guards between the sheikah and some hylians who look like theyre begging to the king.

(middle of tapestry) in order to assist the hero and princess of that time in defeating calamity ganon, the sheikah build the towers, shrines, divine beasts, and an army of guardians. they are successful in helping to defeat calamity ganon.

(strip 2, bottom of tapestry) despite the fact that the sheikah were integral to defeating calamity ganon, hylians grew extremely fearful of the sheikah, viewing them as a threat. the king of hyrule cuts off ties with the sheikah and sends soldiers to exile (or even kill) them. the sheikah all flee from the soldiers. some stay “good” and appear to run to the goddess hylia, and some stop running and now have weapons, becoming the yiga. (and at this same point, it can be assumed that the king of hyrule ordered for all of the sheikah tech to be buried underground and never be built or used again)

to me,the tapestry is basically saying that the sheikah were attacked despite having done nothing wrong (they HELPED hyrule, as they always have). half of them, still loyal to the goddess hylia and the royal family, left hyrule castle and accepted their fates. the other half were outraged by being betrayed by the country they worked so hard for and became the yiga. and what i think happened after that is that over the passing 10,000 years, the good sheikah were able to have good relations with the royal family again, while the yiga clan lived “underground” for 10,000 years being super pissed off.

a lot of fans noticed (and were even disappointed by) the fact that in botw, the sheikah are well. normal. kakariko village is a farming village and none of the sheikah have the characteristics of sheikah in past games (heck, that sheikah guy in tarrey town has blond hair and blue eyes). not even impa of all of them has red eyes. there are a few sheikah warriors present in flashbacks, but in the present time, there are none at all (presumably because they all worked for the royal family and died during/soon after the calamity 100 years in the past)

but on the other hand, the yiga are all extremely powerful warriors and have magic (magic similar to what weve seen impa use in ss and oot) that the “good” sheikah dont appear to have. but thats exactly it, isnt it? the yiga clan, over 10,000 years has preserved their sheikah heritage better than the “good” sheikah have. and i imagine this is the case because the group of sheikah that became the yiga grew to hate the royal family and the hylians for being so ungrateful, attacking them, and ruining everything the sheikah used to be– so much that they began to jealously hold onto what they had left of their culture. 

so while the “good” sheikah have their stone frogs and red cards, the yiga have that AND ancient, powerful combat techniques and magic. (and i dont think itd be a stretch to think that the yiga have more true sheikah blood than the “good” sheikah do too. the sheikah in kakariko probably have a lot of hylian ancestry, which is why none of them have any of the classic sheikah traits we know. i dont think the yiga have 100% sheikah blood– and i’ll explain why later– but i wouldnt be surprised to learn that some of the yiga have red eyes, unlike the sheikah in kakariko.)

something that i think is interesting that the game seems to imply that members of the yiga clan are either 1) recruited, 2) born into it, 3) and being yiga is ride-or-die. the way some of the disguised yiga assassins try to get link to join the yiga clan implies that theyre used to recruiting people. i think that the yiga clan sometimes sneaks into kakariko village, or encounters sheikah people elsewhere and tries to get them to join. (which is why the yiga dont have 100% sheikah blood despite hating hylians so much– the sheikah they recruit dont have full sheikah blood). and we know from the stolen heirloom sidequest that dorian actually used to be a member of the yiga clan, but left the clan because he married and had kids with a woman in kakariko village. i think that dorian was actually born into the yiga clan (hes honestly too good of a person to have willingly joined in his youth, i think). and god are the yiga serious about their members staying– they killed dorian’s wife as punishment for HIM leaving the yiga. and the yiga blademaster’s dialog with dorian is really unsettling. “Don’t play dumb, Dorian. You foreited your life the moment you left.” but because they killed dorian’s wife and not dorian himself, i think the yiga wanted his punishment to be crueler.

hmm its 12:24am so i probably worded all of this horribly and im out of thoughts at this time but yeah. tldr the yiga hate the royal family and hylians and are hardcore as fuck. and also they probably view the sheikah of kakariko as traitors to their own people. yah.