Theory/rant in comments

the hylians probably removed it between the games

You can't just remove a core part of the previous game without saying anything.

The sheika were basically wiped off the map, this and the depths are the only things I have against this game.

(I absolutely DESPISE the depths.)

So, because Nintendo won't do it, I crafted a theory about what happened to the shrines and towers.

Haven't come up with a theory that works for the divine beasts though.

So, remember at the start of botw when you activate the first tower? Then ALL of the other towers and shrines activate. Why were they in the ground to begin with? Well I think it was a defense mechanism. They were likely in the ground to protect them from the calamity, and only come up again when someone with a sheika slate (likely someone on our side) activates it.

Maybe the upheaval activated that defense mechanism, and we just can't find a way to reactivate them?

However... That wouldn't explain how the skyview towers showed up. There's no way purah built them overnight.

So maybe something else activated it, possibly the gloom coming up.

However then there's the divine beasts.

The divine beasts are a WHOLE new level of difficulty.

They're just gone, no possible way to explain them.

I have two (at first glance) plausible theories

Vah medoh

What if vah medoh was swept away by the massive storm above hebra?

There's an obvious problem here though.

HOW HEAVY IS THAT THING

Anyway...

Vah rudania

Rudania could've easily fallen into death mountain. We see it climbing around the inside of it all the time while we're solving puzzles in it.

However... (Slight spoiler)

While dealing with the problems in eldin we go inside death mountain, and down into the depths near the end. Guess what? Rudania is nowhere to be seen!

If it fell into death mountain, it would be in the depths below it.

SPOILERS Better idea, *Stemming from the lack of sheikah tech in SOR* In the shrine of resurrection, there's no tech. My theory is, it was meant to disappear AFTER the hero saved Hyrule, similar to the monks. But, if you look at the lightroots in the depths, there is sheikah tech, and when Mineru's mech teleports to you, it teleports to you similarly to link, fading into little blue strands, then materializing. SO my theory is, The Sheikah derived from the Zonai, working Zonai tech into their creations. The Shrines of Light had to have been in Hyrule from the beginning because, under most shrines, there is a light root. BOOM

Wait, I think you mean there's ZONAI tech in the lightroots. They have the zonai hand symbol and match up perfectly with every ZONAI shrine on the surface

exactly, the shrines have roots, and they look like buds

but look at the floor of the light root, its Sheikah. And the Zonai research team couldn't have done that because Robbie says in the beginning of the camera quest "We have barely begun to explore the Depths!*

Well if you looked at any of the memories you would know that some of the zonai technology was modified to be compatible with the purah pad.

True, but why would the teleport points be blue and not green?

b e c a u s e
t h e y
w e r e
m o d i f i e d
t o
b e
c o m p a t i b l e
w i t h
t h e
p u r a h
p a d

yes, i get that but how could they make the light roots compatible if they didn't explore them until link came around?

Magic idfk

Yeah where'd the divine beasts go :(