Temples

One idea for temple themes I had was basing them on the four humors, with the overarching theme being balance. A great way to represent this would be temples devoted to natural phenomena. In humorism, there are four states wet, dry, hot and cold and the combination of these different states leads to what are called different temperaments.

The four temperaments are:
-Sanguine (pleasure, creativity) derived from the combination of warm and wet. It's element is air and it is often represented by artists.
-Choleric (passion, aggression, efficiency) derived from the combination of warm and dry. It's element is fire and it is often represented by healers.
-Melancholic (introversion, mournfulness) derived from the combination of cold and dry. It's element is earth and it is often represented by guardians.
-Phlegmatic (rationality, stability) derived from the combination of cold and wet. It's element is water and it is often represented by scientists or philosophers.

Using the four states, we could come up with four base temples (the four starting temples) that represent basic concepts. To stick with what I said, basing them around natural phenomena we get something like this:

-Warm- Volcano Temple -Basic Fire theme
-Dry- Sandstorm Temple -Basic Desert theme
-Cold- Blizzard Temple -Basic Ice theme
-Wet- Tsunami Temple -Basic Water theme

Meaning the combination temples are really where we get to have some fun as these can represent more complex ideas.

-Warm and Dry- Tornado Temple -Wind/Chaos Themed: Basically the idea of this temple would be that destruction is the only way to advancement. Lots of bombs get used and lots of whirlwinds that you have to strategically use to advance and guide bombs. Probably a very confusing temple. The item would be bombs, bombchues or powder kegs.

-Warm and Wet- Rainbow Temple -Forest/Light/Life Themed: The overreaching theme here is life. Lots of plants and using light and water to your advantage. Perhaps you have to use water and and light to make plants grow to advance farther into the temple. The item would be the mirror shield or light arrows.

-Cold and Dry- Earthquake Temple -Earth/Shadow/Death Themed: The game's scary temple. It's mostly underground and it is also in a very seismically active area. Periodic earthquakes in this temple awaken the dead which rise up from the ground. The item would be iron boots, Pegasus boots or the hook shot.

-Cold and Wet- Temple of Storms-Electric/Order Themed: Machines and electricity make up this temple. Representing the concept of order, it's probably pretty straight forward, but also being the penultimate temple (before the game's final dungeon) very difficult. It has a focus on combat. The item would be the ability to hold your sword up as a lightening conductor, allowing you to do a skyward strike type move.

As the entire concept of humorism was the Classical World's attempt to understand balance, especially within the human body and how it related to the surrounding world, I would make the ideas of balance and environmental homeostasis (not in the ecological sense, but in a more fantasy sense) a central concept of the game. The game would be not just about restoring order to a chaotic world (perhaps a world that is seeing a rise in disasters as a result of an imbalance in the temples caused by the villain) but also about finding balance within oneself.