Master Sword Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
Image: Nintendo

A new patent related to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been spotted, and its for a new piece of artwork of Link's rather weird-looking Master Sword.

The Tears of the Kingdom subreddit has been scrambling for reasons as to why this new piece of art has been patented by Nintendo for any scraps of lore they can find for the upcoming Zelda title (thanks GamesRadar!). The most likely reason is for future merchandise purposes, or you know, perhaps Nintendo is going to release an actual gnarly Master Sword.

The patent was shared by user timately, who spotted it on a Japanese trademark website (which is currently down for maintenance). And we have to say, the artwork and the design looks even cooler in black, logo-esque form.

If you want to see the new artwork for the sword, just click 'View' on the embed below to show the image.

GamesRadar confirmed that all kinds of products have been listed under the patent, but we obviously don't know specifically what the Master Sword will be used for.

Of course, even if it looks that simple on the surface, there's always theories. SherbobHolmes thinks the bottom of the sword looks like a stylised version of Demise (which we've previously considered with TOTK).

MeltdownComics has noticed that the sword is broken into seven pieces — and seven seems to be a significant number. They wonder whether the seven pieces will relate to the islands in Tears of the Kingdom's Hyrule. There are also seven tears surrounding the mural, as JudetheDude21 points out, and there are GunnersnGames thinks we could be getting those tears from the seven sages.

So, all of that talk about gameplay that will "change the game world" the other day? It might make sense. Restoring the world could restore the Master Sword. Sounds like a heck of a prospect. This is all just speculation, but Nintendo — our eyes are very, very open.

What do you think this patent means? Do you have any theories about the artwork or the sword itself? Share your ideas in the comments.

[source reddit.com, via gamesradar.com]