Deep in the rocky terrain of Akkala hides one of the three sacred springs, the Spring of Power. This holy spring is a shrine dedicated to the Goddess Hylia. One may make an arduous journey to this hallowed ground to be closer to the Goddess when they pray, as Zelda herself came here to plead for power. Let’s take a deeper dive into this mysterious, holy pool.
The Spring of Power can be found in Deep Akkala, west of the Akkala Stable and north of the Ordorac Quarry. She rests quietly in a giant basin surrounded by waterfalls that create a shallow pool. At the heart is the statue of the Goddess Hylia who waits for the next traveler to offer supplication. Just like the other springs, the Spring of Courage and Spring of Wisdom, it is connected to a Shrine Quest. Once complete, a Shrine will be revealed from a hidden location. Praying to the statue yields a response from the Goddess, where she instructs you to bring a scale of the mighty Dinraal, the flaming dragon that dominates the Eldin skies. Once Link scales the red mountains, fires an arrow at the great beast, and retrieves a Dinraal Scale, offer it to the sacred pool and gain access to the hidden Shrine.
What I love about the Spring of Power in particular is the significance it holds. There is a lost memory that Link can awaken at this spring. In this memory, he travels with Princess Zelda as her guard so that she might pray at this holy place. Unfortunately, this is not a pleasant memory. She is not here to worship as much as she is to plead. She begs that the Goddess Hylia would awaken the power in her so that she might have the means to seal away Calamity Ganon. She is constantly told to “stop playing at being a scholar” by her father, that she should be more focused on praying for power rather than seeking it herself in her studies. Perhaps this act of abandoning scholarship and wisdom in exchange for divine intervention is what led to the downfall of Hyrule. The ancient Sheikah technology was buried and forgotten. Was there a rejection of scholarly progress in the past that lead to all this technology and advancements being forgotten?
