Call for Papers: Religious Emergence and The Sacred in Legend of Zelda
This book will explore how religion and the sacred emerge from within the structure and narrative of The Legend of Zelda series, one of the most influential and enduring franchises in video game history. Zelda has greatly impacted multiple generations of players, and has an extremely loyal and dedicated fanbase.
Rather than primarily comparing Zelda to existing religious traditions or applying pre-set theological frameworks, this volume will try to focus on how religious meaning arises internally—through things like gameplay mechanics, symbolism, spatial design, and narrative development. The book aims to show how Zelda generates religious forms as organic expressions native to its world, as well as how these may impact the player in a manner similar to religion.
The Legend of Zelda movie is set to debut in March of 2027. I want to allow a significant amount of time for editing/peer review/etc. so that the publication date can (roughly) coincide with the movie debut.
Potential topics
- The role of creation myths and divine figures
- The emergence of ritual, sacred garments, and symbolic objects (the Hero’s Tunic, masks, the Master Sword) as carriers of spiritual meaning
Mantling and embodiment (i.e. wearing the green tunic in Wind Waker to become courageous) - The function of temples, shrines, waypoints, and rest zones as sacred spaces that structure the player’s experience of narrative and time
- The logic of time loops and resets as vehicles for ritual and spiritual transformation
- The relationship between sacrifice & vocation in the Zelda narrative (especially as embodied by Link and Zelda)
- The use of music and gesture (ocarina songs, invocation sequences) as sacred technologies within the game world
- The portrayal of evil and purification (Demise and Ganon, the role of monsters and environmental corruption, etc.)
- How the player’s participation, repetition, and travel through space and trial shrines mimic rites of passage and spiritual growth
- The cultural afterlife and reception of Zelda as a “sacred text” (i.e. impact on players as a sort of religious/mythic thing)
- The significance of “backworlds” (alternate realms, dream worlds, parallel realities)
Projected length
60,000-75,000 words (I’m hoping for about 15 chapters, and would love for them to be relatively short: 4,000-5,000 words)
Dates
- Abstracts Due: Aug 1, 2025
- Full Chapter Drafts Due: Dec 1, 2025
- Editorial Review Feedback Returned: Dec 31, 2025
- Major Revisions Due: Jan 31, 2026
- Final Chapters Due (to me): Feb 21, 2026
- Final Manuscript to Series Editor: Mar 1, 2026 - I’ll be sending this.
Some notes:
I apologize for the short timeline in advance. That’s why I am aiming for relatively short chapters. Our goal is to get the book published around the same time as the Zelda movie release in March of 2027, and I want to be sure we’ve got at least a year cushion between final draft and publication.
Michael Barros
