The Accursed Timeline

By Crystal, Monica, and Cameron

The Book of Mudora Podcast

UNIFIED TIMELINE: EARLIEST

KNOWN HISTORY

Creation (Apocryphal)
The Great Demon War
Skyward Sword

DEMISE TIMELINE: DEMISE IS DEFEATED IN THE IMPRISONED TIMELINE: DEMISE IS DEFEATED IN THE
PAST BY LINK WIELDING THE MASTER SWORD PRESENT BY LINK WISHING ON THE TRIFORCE

Death of the Imprisoned

The War of Unification
Ocarina of Time

ADULT TIMELINE: LINK DEFEATS CHILD TIMELINE: LINK IS SENT

GANON AND DISAPPEARS BACK IN TIME BY ZELDA

Death of Demise
The Light Force and the Hero of Men
The Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Swords Adventures Majora’s Mask
The Wish and the War THE WISH The Flooding of Hyrule THE WISH War Before the Twilight
A Link to the Past The Wind Waker Twilight Princess
Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages Phantom Hourglass A Link Between Worlds
Link’s Awakening Returning to the Old Kingdom
The Golden Age and Its End Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
A New Golden Age

CONVERGED TIMELINE: THE BRANCHES

GROW MORE SIMILAR AND THEN MERGE

A Wish, A Convergence, and Ganon

Tri Force Heroes
Breath of the Wild

Condensed Diagram
(Click for Full Version)
v. 1.0 - 2019-11-01 http://www.audioentropy.com/the-book-of-mudora/
 Table of Contents
The Accursed Timeline (Condensed Diagram)..................................................................................1
Foreword..............................................................................................................................................4
Concepts..............................................................................................................................................6
The Timeline Splits........................................................................................................................6
Peoples and Places.......................................................................................................................7
The Old Kingdom.....................................................................................................................7
Demons, the Dark Interlopers, and the Mirror of Twilight......................................................7
The Spirits of Good..................................................................................................................8
Dragons and Light Spirits......................................................................................................10
The Lost Woods.....................................................................................................................10
The Rito.................................................................................................................................. 11
Timeline Placement Explanations....................................................................................................13
Four Swords Adventures.............................................................................................................13
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.......................................................................................13
A Link Between Worlds...............................................................................................................15
The Accursed Timeline.....................................................................................................................17
Unified Timeline...........................................................................................................................17
Creation (Apocryphal)............................................................................................................17
The Great Demon War...........................................................................................................17
Skyward Sword......................................................................................................................19
Demise Timeline..........................................................................................................................22
Death of Demise.....................................................................................................................22
The Light Force and the Hero of Men...................................................................................22
The Minish Cap......................................................................................................................24
Four Swords...........................................................................................................................25
Four Swords Adventures.......................................................................................................25
The Wish and the War............................................................................................................27
A Link to the Past...................................................................................................................29
 Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages.................................................................................30
Link’s Awakening...................................................................................................................32
The Golden Age and Its End..................................................................................................33
The Legend of Zelda..............................................................................................................34
The Adventure of Link............................................................................................................35
A New Golden Age.................................................................................................................36
Imprisoned Timeline....................................................................................................................37
Death of the Imprisoned........................................................................................................37
The War of Unification...........................................................................................................37
Ocarina of Time......................................................................................................................38
Adult Timeline..............................................................................................................................41
The Flooding of Hyrule..........................................................................................................41
The Wind Waker.....................................................................................................................42
Phantom Hourglass.............................................................................................................. 44
Returning to the Old Kingdom...............................................................................................45
Spirit Tracks........................................................................................................................... 46
Child Timeline............................................................................................................................. 48
Majora’s Mask....................................................................................................................... 48
War Before the Twilight..........................................................................................................50
Twilight Princess....................................................................................................................51
A Link Between Worlds......................................................................................................... 53
Converged Timeline.....................................................................................................................55
A Wish, a Convergence, and Ganon......................................................................................55
Tri Force Heroes.....................................................................................................................57
Breath of the Wild...................................................................................................................58
The Accursed Timeline (Full Diagram).............................................................................................61
 Foreword
There is no true Zelda timeline.

The Zelda fandom has leaned on the Hyrule Historia timeline since it was published
almost a decade ago, but the history of Zelda fans seeking a “truth” that was being hidden
by Nintendo goes back a bit further than that. The early games related to each other in clear,
easy-to-understand ways, and up until 1998 the fandom was mostly able to figure things out
for themselves. But that year, Ocarina of Time introduced all sorts of interesting, messy bits to
the lore, and nobody could figure out if it was meant to be a retelling of a classic story, or the
prequel to one, or hey, maybe Link’s Awakening took place while Link was asleep in the Sacred
Realm? And Nintendo didn’t help. Different regional variants of timelines were published at
different times, and a lot of them didn’t make sense.

But there was always an underlying assumption that someone knew what order the
Zelda games went in. Miyamoto, a popular theory claimed, had a top-secret document that
outlined how all the games fit together and helped to guide the placement of future stories.

We know now that that was nonsense, of course. The stories of Zelda games are often
derived from single details, spiraling out from writing scenarios around mechanical or artistic
concepts (like Twilight Princess’s story, born from the idea of having someone ride on Link’s
back, or everything in Breath of the Wild being based on wanting to make big scary Octoroks
that are robots because robots are easier to animate). The games are written with an eye
to the history of the series, but their narratives are also unconcerned with fitting cleanly into
the stories told before. Tri Force Heroes and Breath of the Wild, the two latest games in the
series, are best read as emphatic rejections of concrete timeline placements. Tri Force Heroes
couldn’t be less concerned with or more removed from the normal narrative motifs of the
series, and Breath of the Wild is full of concrete details and references that all conflict with
each other.

One of the relics of the days before the Historia—one of the factors that lead people
to call for an official timeline, if we’re being honest—is that fans would make up their own
timelines constantly. They were all different, owing to different readings of the text, and
operated on different assumptions about how the stories in these games related to each other
and should be read. It was chaos. It was applied fanwork that was equal parts curative and
transformative. It was messy. It was exhausting. It was also beautiful, in its way. People took
stories to make their own stories, putting their own fingerprints on their experiences so that
they could share them with others.
 That’s what this document, and the Book of Mudora podcast that spawned it, is about.
Taking the stories, seeing if we can fit them together in a way that is fun and makes sense, and
then doing it.

The Accursed Timeline isn’t an attempt to “fix” the timeline of the Hyrule Historia, or that
of the Zelda Encyclopedia that followed it. Trying to fix those timelines, to make them work
cogently with all the games in the series, would be admitting to the default canon supremacy
of that reading of The Legend of Zelda. We reject the notion that the games can only be read
in one way. It is an aspect of the text of the games that the idea of real history is ephemeral at
best; records and memories are imperfect, even for immortal beings who were present at the
time. Anything in the games themselves, unless directly observed, could be inaccurate. It’s just
one of the quirks of the setting.

Nor is the Accursed Timeline an attempt to be definitive. We think that this timeline is
both more fun and more coherent than the officially endorsed series timeline, but by no means
does that make our take authoritative. Please don’t read it that way. Take it, instead, for what
it is: the product of some friends sitting around and having fun piecing together the disparate
parts of a story never meant to be told as a single narrative. Hell, we recommend trying to
make a cohesive timeline of your own! It’s a lot of fun. We enjoyed it, at least.

All right, let’s get started.

 Concepts
The Timeline Splits
In the Hyrule Historia, it is assumed that there are three timelines, and that they
all branch off from Ocarina of Time: there is one timeline formed when Link returns to his
childhood, one timeline where Link defeated Ganondorf in his adulthood, and one timeline in
which Link loses to Ganondorf, plunging the world into darkness.

The Accursed Timeline, in comparison to the Historia, tries to keep timeline splits
anchored in events that the player can see, rather than in outcomes that some players may
never experience, such as dying in Ocarina of Time. In the Accursed Timeline, there are two
main splits that end up resulting in three timelines.

The first split takes place when Link destroys Demise in two time periods: in the present
day of Skyward Sword he destroys the Imprisoned with the power of the Triforce, and in the
distant past of the same game he defeats Demise using the Master Sword. This divides the
course of events along what might be called the Demise Timeline and the Imprisoned Timeline.

The second split takes place in the Imprisoned Timeline, during the ending of Ocarina
of Time. In sending Link back in time through the power of the Ocarina of Time and the Master
Sword, Zelda makes concrete the divide in the timeline that had been forming during the events
of that game: Link returns to his childhood prior to Ganondorf’s attack in what is called the
Child Timeline, while Zelda remains in the future where Ganondorf has been defeated, the Adult
Timeline.

Like many fan theories about the shape of the timeline post-2017, the Accursed
Timeline posits that the disparate branches—Demise, Adult, and Child—eventually merge into
a single timeline leading up to the events of Breath of the Wild. The mechanics behind this
merging will be delved into further in this document.

One thing to note: though the document itself, the arrangement of canon, is referred to
as the ‘Accursed Timeline,’ within the document the word ‘timeline’ refers to the branches in
time that are caused by various temporal shenanigans.
 Peoples and Places
The Old Kingdom
The Old Kingdom is the name used by the Book of Mudora for what would eventually
become the new home of the Hyrulean Royal Family in the time of Spirit Tracks. At first glance,
it seems to be a land that is completely new to the people living on it, and the indigenous
inhabitants were either spirits or otherwise died out long ago. However, there are a few pieces
of lore and treasure in the game that suggest otherwise. Many of the treasures found in Spirit
Tracks are relics of older civilizations:

Regal Ring and Palace Dish: Both of these items were handed down by royalty of the
distant past. Whoever once lived in the Old Kingdom, they had a monarchy, and its general
structure seems very similar to that of the succession of Hyrule.

Ruto Crown: This artifact was apparently worn by generations of Zora princesses. There
are no Zora in Spirit Tracks, but they seem to have lived in the Old Kingdom at one point.

Ancient Gold Piece: This ancient coin bears the mark of the Triforce, indicating that the
Triforce was once revered in the land where the events of Spirit Tracks take place.

Based on these clues and other textual evidence, we take the position that the Old
Kingdom was the past home of the worshippers of the Triforce, and that their traditions were
continued in the land of Hyrule. Thus, in the backstory of Spirit Tracks, Tetra is returning to her
long-forgotten ancestral home by making landfall on the Old Kingdom’s shores.

It is assumed that many, though not all, of the peoples of Hyrule are in fact refugees
from the Old Kingdom, displaced by the terrors of demonic war.

Demons, the Dark Interlopers, and the Mirror of Twilight

The ‘Demon Tribe’ is a term that is used to refer to disparate groups of monstrous
individuals throughout the series. It is used by the servants of Hylia to refer, collectively, to
Demise’s band in the backstory of Skyward Sword. It is used by Ganondorf to describe his
servants. The word ‘demon’ is used in a multitude of ways, but is never defined concretely.

In the events of A Link to the Past, it is revealed that all the denizens of the Dark World—
Moblins, Hinoxes, and various other monsters which have been called members of the Demon
Tribe—were once people whose shape came to reflect their hearts. Over time they transformed
further, sustained by and reliant on the power of their demonic overlords. It is possible, then,
that all members of the Demon Tribe were originally something else before the evil in the
hearts twisted their bodies.

It should be noted that not all monsters are or were people, and therefore are not
demons. There are naturally occurring creatures like Deku Babas or Peahats or rats that are
very aggressive toward individuals and are best dealt with by fighting or fleeing, but these
creatures have no otherworldly source; they are natural products of their environment, even if
they can still draw power from evil sources.

The Mirror of Twilight appears in two games: in Twilight Princess it is called by its more
familiar name, but in Four Swords Adventures it is known as the Dark Mirror. In both cases it is
used as the gate between the world of light and a shadow realm, and in both cases it is used
as a source of evil intent by Ganon. However, it should be noted that in the Accursed Timeline,
unlike in the Historia, Four Swords Adventures and Twilight Princess do not take place on the
same timeline. Though the appearance of the Mirror of Twilight and the Dark Mirror would
serve as a reasonable link between the two narratives, placing the games in that sequence
suggests that the Twili became more demonic and vulnerable to Ganon’s influence after the
events of Twilight Princess, a notion that we emphatically reject.

The question of the identity of the Dark Interlopers has been persistent for many years,
their mystique and ambiguity enhanced by the way they are presented during the events of
Twilight Princess: all that is known of them is that they were tremendously powerful, that they
desired the Triforce, and that they had shapes that were like strange corruptions of humanity.

Based on the appearance of the Mirror of Twilight in the two games mentioned above,
and the few details attributed to the Dark Interlopers, a conclusion can be drawn: the Dark
Interlopers are, in fact, the Demon Tribe. Since the two games in which they are featured take
place in different timelines, their cataclysmic sealing away must have happened before the
initial timeline split. The details of that conflict are elaborated on within the timeline portion of
this document.

The Spirits of Good

The Spirits of Good were worshipped in the Old Kingdom where Spirit Tracks takes
place. Also known as the Gods of Light, these deities were responsible for the stewardship of
the land and its defense against forces that would have destroyed it. They were largely lost in
the battle against Malladus. Little concrete information about them is related in Spirit Tracks,
save for what can be gleaned from conversation with their servants, the Lokomo, and from the
examination of ancient artifacts that predate the war with Malladus.

Based on the Ancient Gold Piece, the Old Kingdom revered the Triforce in addition to the
Spirits of Good, indicating that the two cults were contemporaneous. It is possible, even likely,
that the war with Malladus wasn’t a war of pointless aggression: like the other Demon Kings,
Demise and Ganon, Malladus most likely sought the Triforce.

It is told in the legends laying out the history of the land in Skyward Sword that Hylia
was the caretaker of the Triforce, responsible for defending it against the demonic horde and
eventually giving her life to that purpose. It seems unlikely that the Triforce would be placed
into the safekeeping of two separate groups of gods, but there are elements that link Hylia with
the Spirits of Good:

The Light Arrows: When Zelda grants Link the Light Arrows in A Link Between Worlds,
she informs him that they are granted their sacred radiance by the light of the Triforce. This is a
theme in every appearance the Light Arrows have made throughout the series: in Breath of the
Wild, they are granted to Link by Zelda while she is in possession of the full Triforce; in Ocarina
of Time, they are granted to Link by Zelda as a match for the protection provided by the Triforce
of Power; in Twilight Princess, they are given by the servants of the Old Gods of the Triforce;
in Majora’s Mask, they are the key to a tower built on desecrating the symbol of the Triforce.
In Spirit Tracks, the Bow of Light was notably used by the Spirits of Good in the war against
Malladus, which implies that they drew some power from the Triforce for the war against the
Demon King.

The Crest of the Spirits of Good: Though the details are different, the crest that is used
as a channel for the power of the Spirits of Good, condensed into massive force gems, is
generally similar to the crest of Hylia made known in Skyward Sword.

The Legendary Blades: Though the details are different, the general shape,
effectiveness, and even coloring of the Lokomo Sword and the Goddess/Master Sword are
very similar. Both blades were used in battles against Demon Kings, and both were infused
with the power of gods. Though they are undoubtedly different blades, they bear similarities of
design that speak to a similar origin.

The Triforce: The symbology of the Triforce is present throughout both the Old Kingdom
and the land that would become Hyrule. Both the Spirits of Good and Hylia both derive their
providence from the power of the Old Gods.
 Based on these, an interesting conclusion can be reached: namely, that Hylia was a
Spirit of Good.

If Hylia was a Spirit of Good, then it is possible that the term ‘Spirits of Good’ refers not
just to a specific group of individual gods, but also to a larger category of beings in which Hylia
and the other Spirits might be included. Major or minor gods such as the Wind Fish, Oshus, the
Great Deku Tree, Valoo, and many others might also be referred to as the Spirits of Good, who
in ancient times stood as the primary defenders of the mortal world when it was assailed by
evil forces.

Dragons and Light Spirits

A different group from the Spirits of Good, the Light Spirits featured prominently in
Twilight Princess and are the servants of the Old Gods, persisting long after their masters
faded from history. Named for the regions in which they resided, Eldin, Faron, and Lanayru
symbolized and embodied the different virtues of the Triforce. Another spirit, Ordona, would
later be added to their number, but was not one of the three who participated in the war against
the Dark Interlopers.

Of note is that these three light spirits share their name with the three dragons who
served Hylia in the time of the Demon Wars. Their names are also similar to the dragons
(Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra) who guard Hyrule in the time of the Calamity.

Owing to their shared names, their incredible longevity, their link to the Triforce, their
guardianship of the same provinces, and their service to the gods of Hyrule, the Accursed
Timeline posits that the dragons of Skyward Sword and the Light Spirits of Twilight Princess
are in fact the same characters, separated by gulfs of time vast enough that they have changed
their shape to reflect the needs of the conflicts in that age.

It is possible, though not definite, that the dragons from Breath of the Wild are these
same spirits persisting throughout history.

The Lost Woods

The Lost Woods is a single forest that appears on many continents, many times, and
many worlds. Each place in the Lost Woods is connected, and time, space, and causality
behave very different within it compared to anywhere else in the world. By walking through the
Lost Woods and out again, one might find oneself miles removed from where one expected—or
on another continent. In another time. In another world entire, looking up at an unfamiliar sky.

Many things change between these stories, the different elements and entries in the
vastness of the Legend, but the Lost Woods remains. It moves from place to place, it shrinks
and it grows, it spreads across seas and waits patiently beneath blue skies, but it is always the
one wood.

The Rito
The Rito’s depiction in the now-infamous mural of Twilight Princess HD was so
incompatible with contemporary understandings of the timeline that it was treated as non-
canonical, and their presence in Breath of the Wild raised many questions about that game’s
placement on the timeline.

The orthodox understanding of the Rito is that they are derived from the Zora, who
changed their shape in order to survive after Hyrule was flooded by the harsh, high-salinity
waters of the Great Sea, and that they were granted wings by Valoo, the Sky Spirit who lived
on Dragon Roost Island. Since most readings of the timeline (including the Historia) place The
Wind Waker and Twilight Princess on different timelines, this created a problem for any reading
that posited they could be referenced canonically in the latter game. Moreover, in Breath of the
Wild, the Rito and the Zora exist together, which not only seemed to imply that Breath of the
Wild took place on the Adult Timeline—despite other evidence to the contrary—but also that an
isolated population of the Rito must have returned to being the Zora while another population
became more bird-like rather than less.

There is, however, one place in the story of the series where we can find evidence of the
Rito, far back enough that it’s possible for them to exist in every timeline.

In the events of Skyward Sword, Link eventually travels to Death Mountain to explore the
Fire Sanctuary, which is the abandoned home of a lost people from a time when “those above-
ground and those below lived together in harmony by the blessing of the mountain,” according
to the dragon Eldin. Nothing remains of these people, save for the evidence of their ruined
sanctuary, a temple whose structure contains precious few stairs in its exterior and whose
interior is filled with the statues of monarchs with the visages of birds.

It is very possible that the people of the Fire Sanctuary were worshippers of Hylia, and
that they used birds as a way to venerate her—birds, after all, were beloved by the Goddess.
However, it seems just as possible, and even more likely, that these statues were depictions
of bird monarchs, images carved in the likeness of the inhabitants of that temple. It seems
reasonable to conclude that Eldin referred to the Mogma as the people who lived beneath the
ground of Death Mountain while those who lived above it were the Rito.

The suggestion of the Accursed Timeline is that the Rito lived in the land that would
come to be called Hyrule, building a nation before the arrival of the refugees from the Old
Kingdom. During the Great Demon War with Demise, the Rito fled to distant lands, abandoning
their ancestral home in favor of climes less inclined toward demonic invasion.

In depicting the Rito, the mural of Twilight Princess HD drew from a scene in Hyrule’s
remote past, well before its recorded history, rather than from a scene in The Wind Waker.

Likewise, when Valoo took the Zora and reshaped them into a winged people similar to
the Rito of old, he was not creating a new people in line with his desires: he was attempting to
repopulate Death Mountain with the inhabitants that it had known long ago, in more peaceful
times.

After many, many centuries in more than one timeline, the Rito would eventually return
to their homeland. That is how they make their appearance in Breath of the Wild.
 Timeline Placement
Explanations
The purpose of this section of the document is to outline and explain certain Accursed
Timeline game placements that run counter to their placement in the Hyrule Historia and Zelda
Encyclopedia. You will see some placements in here that may strike you as strange, but we
think they all work better than the “official” take on canon.

Four Swords Adventures

Four Swords Adventures has a very particular place in the Zelda timeline as generally
accepted by the fandom. In the Historia timeline, Four Swords Adventures is placed after the
events of Twilight Princess, encompassing the reincarnation of Ganondorf, the corruption of
the Twili, and the final death of Vaati.

The Accursed Timeline posits that Ganondorf has never been fully resurrected on any
timeline except for the Demise Timeline, so Four Swords Adventures has been placed on that
branch as the last of the three games that form the Vaati Sequence. This provides the origin
story for Ganondorf in that timeline, explains how he was positioned to initiate the Imprisoning
War, and provides an explanation for the identity of the Dark Interlopers. These events are
recounted in the timeline portion of this document.

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons

The Oracle games present a unique problem for any timeline: combined with certain
elements of their setting, the fact that either can occur before the other introduces ambiguities
to any reading of their combined narrative. As such, this document does not treat either the
Ages-first or Seasons-first playthrough as being exclusively canonical.

A portion of the Book of Mudora posits that that as both games could have occurred
first, both did, forming a miniature branch in the timeline that merges before the events of
Link’s Awakening. The exact nature of this split is not clear—hence why this position is not
unanimous—though the theory’s proponents assert that it may be related to the Triforce
transferring Link first to Holodrum or Labrynna. There is a matter for this pair of games that
will be somewhat more controversial: the assertion that the Link from the Oracle games is
not the same individual as the Link from A Link to the Past. Given that the Oracle games very
clearly and visually lead into the events of Link’s Awakening, and that it has been long assumed
that Link’s Awakening was itself a canonical follow-up to A Link to the Past, this may seem
counter-intuitive. However, there is one particular point that we feel justifies this separation:

In the Oracle games, Impa and Zelda do not know who Link is.

Through the course of the two adventures, Link is recognized for his deeds and by his
abilities, but the games are clear that at the outset of his journey he has never encountered
Impa before, and more importantly, he has never met Zelda. Zelda, in fact, introduces herself to
Link when they first speak in the Oracle games. That she is not the same Zelda as the character
in A Link to the Past is a textual fact. And, if Zelda is not the same character as in A Link to the
Past, Link may not be the same character either.

Two issues with this assertion come to mind:

Firstly, the primary connection between Link’s Awakening and A Link to the Past are the
Nightmare versions of Ganon and Agahnim. It has long been assumed by the fandom that
these forms are Link’s nightmares, visions pulled up from his past as figures of power and fear.
However, given that the forms that the Nightmare takes in the final battle of Link’s Awakening
are so varied and so strange, including the final form Dethl’s very strong resemblance to Vaati,
it is the position of the Book of Mudora that the Nightmares are the fears of the Wind Fish,
rather than Link. After all, the Nightmares were present on Koholint prior to Link’s arrival. Link
in Link’s Awakening does not know Agahnim or Vaati, but the Wind Fish does—and, in fact, the
Wind Fish’s greatest fear is the Wind Mage.

Secondly, when it was written Link’s Awakening was very much meant as a loose follow-
up to A Link to the Past. Reading the text of the game at the time of its release, it’s obvious that
the shadows Link fights are meant to evoke the battles from the previous game, with a unique
finale that was somehow more intimidating than the great evils of the past. However, Zelda
games often recontextualize the relationship between earlier titles, which is what the Oracle
games are posited to have done in this case.
 A Link Between Worlds
Hoo boy.

All right, just follow me for a minute.

The primary conceit of placing A Link Between Worlds at the end of the Child timeline is
that it deals with several inconsistencies that occur when linking the narratives of A Link to the
Past and A Link Between Worlds.

There is no question that A Link Between Worlds is a literal, mechanical, and thematic
sequel to A Link to the Past. What we are discussing is strictly a matter of canonicity. As such,
here are the points that lend to the idea that A Link Between Worlds takes place on the Child
Timeline, rather than following its forebear:

The Triforce is split at the beginning of A Link Between Worlds. This is the largest and,
by far, the most important point of consideration. The Triforce is not split at the end of A Link to
the Past—it is fully in possession of the Hyrulean Royal Family and remains so until the end of
the Golden Age when the father of Zelda the First hid the Triforce of Courage. At the beginning
of A Link Between Worlds, however, the Triforce of Wisdom is in the possession of Princess
Zelda, the Triforce of Power is being held by the (completely and utterly dead) Ganon, and the
Triforce of Courage has been secreted away by the Sages to be given to the Hero when he has
proven himself worthy of its power. When Ganon dies at the end of A Link to the Past, he does
not possess any part of the Triforce—and, on that timeline, the Triforce otherwise shows no
tendency toward splitting and flying off toward different people regardless. The only timeline
on which this particular circumstance fits is the Child Timeline, following the events of Twilight
Princess.

Majora’s Mask is in the Hero’s home, and it has been neutralized. The Accursed
Timeline doesn’t deal in Easter Eggs, friends. There’s the mask, there’s nothing evil about it, and
it’s in Link’s house. This suggests that someone, at some point, went to Termina and saved
the place, which means that this game probably takes place on the same timeline as that
adventure.

The Seven Sages are not uniformly human. It’s stated multiple times over the course
of the game that the Seven Sages are descended from the Sages who participated in the
last battle against Ganon—however, in A Link to the Past, those Sages were all human. The
Zora queen, at the very least, could only be descended from other Zora, which suggests that
she is in fact descended from Ruto rather than the A Link to the Past Maiden of Water, and
Impa assumedly is a member of the Sheikah tribe. It is true that the Ocarina of Time Seven
Sages and the Ancient Sages of Twilight Princess are distinct groups of characters, but this
explanation only requires that the Ocarina of Time Sages eventually woke to their identities in
the Child Timeline, even if they were not directly involved in the sealing of Ganon. It’s true that
the conflict described in the backstory of A Link Between Worlds doesn’t perfectly describe the
wars against Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess, but—

The backstory of A Link Between Worlds does not describe A Link to the Past. The
conflict described by Sahasrahla as taking place in the distant past of A Link Between Worlds
is that Ganon was “sealed in darkness” for a second time. This is absolutely not what happens
in A Link to the Past—Ganon is fought and killed, identified by the Triforce as being utterly
destroyed, and the celebration of his defeat is both very public and covers the entire kingdom.
More, in the backstory of A Link Between Worlds, Ganon is defeated in a pitched battle involving
the Sages, Link, and Zelda—a detail that describes neither A Link to the Past nor Twilight
Princess, but which comes much closer to Twilight Princess, where Zelda actually fights.

There are other considerations to be made, some minor and some major, but point 1
alone is such an important one that it has effectively justified the placement of A Link Between
Worlds in the Child Timeline. More, as there are no major lore conflicts with this placement, it
is actually easier to fit A Link Between Worlds after Twilight Princess, however counterintuitive
that may seem at first glance.
 The Accursed Timeline
Unified Timeline
Creation (Apocryphal)
No one knows how the world was made. The stories told by the gods vary in this regard.
We know that once there were Old Gods upon the world, and they left their marks in the form of
eternal flames and the all-powerful Triforce that could reshape reality according to the heart of
whoever touched it.

In the earliest recorded history the Spirits of Good, including Hylia, guarded the Triforce
in what would come to be known as the Old Kingdom. They were caretakers of the land in
which the mortal peoples lived, and there was peace and harmony in that country.

The Great Demon War

One day the peace was broken by the appearance of the Dark Interlopers, powerful
magic users who would later be called the Demon Tribe. They coveted the Triforce and,
following their leader, Malladus, waged war against the Old Kingdom so they might possess it.

The Spirits of Good could not use the power of the Triforce in its totality, for no god
could wield the fullness of its power, but they could draw upon some measure of it. With the
blessing of the Triforce they created the Bow of Light and the Lokomo Sword, and with those
weapons they fought the first engagements of the Great Demon War.

This war devastated the land on a scale that is difficult to imagine. The peoples of the
Old Kingdom, humans, Zora, Gorons, and more, were helpless to defend themselves against
the onslaught of the Dark Interlopers, and many of them fled to the sea or through the forest of
the Lost Woods, either becoming lost in neighboring worlds, like Termina, or being given refuge
by benevolent spirits like the Lord of the Seas, Oshus.

Believing that they would win but unable to risk the lives of all the mortals or the
Triforce, the Spirits of Good concocted a desperate plan. Hylia, the greatest of them, would
take the Triforce and the remaining mortals and flee through the Lost Woods, seeking refuge
so far away that the demons would never find her or her charges. Leaving her fellows behind,
Hylia gathered the remnants of the people of the Old Kingdom to her and disappeared into the
forest.
 The remaining Spirits of Good defeated Malladus, banishing his minions to the demon
realm and destroying his body. His spirit, persistent despite all the powers leveled against
it, was bound beneath the earth with mighty lines of metal and magic that traced power and
life across the land. Leaving behind their servants, the Lokomo, and charging them with the
keeping of the Spirit Tracks and the land of the Old Kingdom, the Spirits of Good passed from
the world, utterly spent in their battle with their enemy.

Malladus, alas, was not the only Demon King.

Hylia and the peoples of the Old Kingdom emerged from the Lost Woods on a new
continent. Hylia, with her vast command over the flow of time, foresaw the conflict to come
and spent years in preparation for it. She empowered three dragons, set the flames of the Old
Gods in guarded places, built vast temples to serve as trials for a hero in days to come, and
created a sword that would become the ultimate weapon to smite evil. Her closest followers,
the Six Sages, aided in the building of the Temple of Hylia—later called the Temple of Time.
Word was passed among the people of the surface that any of those who wished to flee should
do so now, and the Rito of Death Mountain flew for distant lands. Her preparations completed,
Hylia waited.

Years passed, and then the most terrible and clever of the Demon Kings revealed
himself as Demise lead his forces in open war against Hylia. Hylia, wielding as much of the
power of the Triforce as she was able and leading a coalition of most of the peoples of the
land, fought back against Demise and his Demon Tribe. Too weak to join yet beloved of the
Goddess, humanity beseeched Hylia for salvation and were sent into the sky along with their
homes and enormous tracts of land so that they might survive the apocalypse to come. The
armies of the light were no match for the demon horde until Hylia challenged Demise alone
and ensured he would not interfere in what happened next.

The three dragons descended on the demonic band, tearing the army to tatters and
driving them across the fields of the land while Demise, uncaring, fought against the Goddess.
When they could be driven no further, the Dark Interlopers turned to fight to the last—and that is
when the Six Sages used the ancient relic, the Mirror of Twilight, to banish the greatest part of
their number to the Twilight Realm. The remaining demons were scattered, their cohesion lost.

The battle between Demise and Hylia dwarfed the rest of the conflict by far. The wounds
laid down on the land by their exchange would last for as long as the continent stood, and
no servant of Hylia, no army, was powerful enough to interfere. Through determination and
cunning and leveraging of the Triforce, Hylia finally defeated Demise and sealed him away—but,
because she could not use the full power of the Triforce, she could not destroy him.

Hylia made the necessary arrangements, ensuring that her servants were prepared for
the conflict still to come. Then, because a god could not use the full power of the Triforce and
because she was fatally wounded, she passed from the world, giving up her deific power and
form. She would return, in time, but at that moment the last of the Spirits of Good was dead.

Skyward Sword
Time passed peacefully in the floating land of Skyloft, separated from the world by the
cover of the cloud barrier. The people there kept the faith of Hylia, but after thousands of years
they forgot the story of the Demon War and how they had come to live in the sky, so it was as if
they had always lived there, graced by the benevolence of the Goddess.

Many years after Hylia died, two children were born close together: a girl, Zelda, and a
boy, Link. They grew up fast friends, though friendship was not what fate had in store for them.

One day, after the pair had performed a ceremony honoring the Goddess and her chosen
Hero, a black tornado broke through the cloud cover and plucked Zelda out of the sky, dragging
her down to the forbidden land below, the Surface. Link was determined to follow but did not
have the means to do so. When he was at his most desperate, a spirit appeared before him,
leading him to a secret chamber in the heart of the Isle of the Goddess, where rested the
Goddess Sword. That spirit was the spirit of the sword, Fi, and she informed Link that it was
now his destiny and his charge to aid Zelda, the spirit maiden, in her quest on the Surface.

With Fi’s help Link descended, retracing Zelda’s steps across the land, fighting through
hordes of monsters and demons. He learned that one, the Demon Lord Ghirahim, was
responsible for pulling Zelda to the Surface, so that she might be used in the resurrection of
Demise. Link followed Zelda across the Faron Woods, up Death Mountain, and through the
Lanayru Desert. During the course of his travels he learned that Zelda had a grand destiny that
demanded her pilgrimage.

When Link finally caught up to Zelda, Ghirahim attacked, and Link was forced to fight
him off while Zelda and her attendant fled through the Gate of Time, into the past. The Gate of
Time was destroyed in the conflict, taking them beyond Ghirahim’s reach—and beyond Link’s.
 As Link traveled, the power of Demise surged at the proximity of Zelda, and his power
manifested in the world in the form of an enormous monster, the Imprisoned. Link would be
forced to do battle with the Imprisoned many times, and each time the seal on the beast broke
faster and faster.

In order to reach the past, Link would need to forge his weapon and his spirit to be
worthy of the gods themselves, and so he traveled the land again, seeking out the fires of the
Old Gods. With each flame absorbed into the Goddess Sword, it changed, and when the third
was taken in the weapon took on its true shape: the Master Sword. With the holy power of the
Master Sword and a spirit forged by trials, Link activated the second, secret Gate of Time, and
traveled back to find Zelda. He arrived in a time almost immediately after Demise’s defeat at
the hands of Hylia.

There, Zelda confessed that she now remembered her past life: she was Hylia, the
Goddess, reborn as a human girl. She had planned for everything, including Link’s devotion to
her, and though it pained her she would need to make use of his power once more. She would
stay in the past, acting as the lynchpin keeping Demise’s power in check, while Link went on a
quest to find the Triforce. With his soul forged in adventure and after undertaking the trials of
the gods, he would be the one person capable of wielding the full power of the holy relic to rid
the world of Demise once and for all.

For the last time Link traveled through the land, gathering up the pieces of an ancient
song that, sung in Skyloft, revealed the resting place of the Triforce: the Sky Temple, hidden
beneath the giant statue of Hylia. Link ventured into the Sky Temple, gathering the pieces of
the Triforce one by one, and when they were assembled Fi directed him in his wish: to fulfill
Zelda’s mission and destroy Demise completely.

When Link made the wish in the present, the Isle of the Goddess plummeted down
through the cloud barrier. The Imprisoned once more broke free of its chains, rising to the
fullness of its power—just in time for the holy island, empowered by the Triforce, to fall on top
of it. The Imprisoned, and therefore Demise, was utterly obliterated. With Demise destroyed,
Zelda was free to wake from her millennia-long slumber, and she and Link were reunited,
however briefly.

Before the celebration had even begun, Ghirahim attacked, grabbing hold of Zelda and
leaping through the Gate of Time, taking her back into the past where his master still existed.
Link pursued the Demon Lord.
 From the perspective of the present, Link and Zelda reemerged only a moment later.
They left a destroyed Demon King in the past alongside the Master Sword, which would be
a seal on the power of darkness. Link, in traveling to the distant past and aiding Zelda, had
become the ancient Hero that the Goddess Ceremony venerated.

The story, however, does not end there.

The Master Sword was a powerful weapon against evil, but it was also a blade that
could cleave the very flow of time itself. In laying it to rest in the Temple of Hylia in the past,
Link and Zelda had created two timelines: one in which Demise was defeated in his own shape,
and one in which the Imprisoned was destroyed by the Triforce. The Master Sword was present
in both.

So it went.
 Demise Timeline
Death of Demise
Ghirahim fled with Zelda into the past and Link gave chase, but arrived too late—though
Ghirahim was finally and definitively defeated at Link’s hand, he completed the ritual, and
Zelda’s life force was stolen to resurrect the Demon King. Demise strode the world again.

Link did battle with Demise, and through courage and determination and the power
of the Master Sword he was able to slay the Demon King, whose soul was drawn into the
Master Sword to be destroyed over the course of ages. Zelda’s life force returned to her body,
and she and Link were at last reunited in truth. The Master Sword was laid to rest, and Link’s
partnership with Fi was finished as she sank into a sleep that would never end. Link and Zelda
returned to the present together, and found themselves in a land where the people who had
lived in the sky could now return to the surface without fear.

In this timeline, where Demise was defeated with the Master Sword, Zelda never
awoke from her vigil and the Goddess Sword was never lifted by the Hero in her defense. The
Master Sword remained, Demise’s soul decaying within it, and so that sacred blade existed
concurrently with the Goddess Sword while its creator was trapped in a slumber of her own
making.

Though Demise was destroyed, and his soul bound to the Master Sword, that was not
the last of his influence upon the world. Before he fell at Link’s hand, the Demon King laid a
terrible curse: that those who shared the blood of the Goddess and the soul of the Hero would
be eternally hounded by an incarnation of his hatred. His grudge would not die; it would see the
world brought to ruin. While Zelda slept, while the world recovered, the curse festered. While
Demise disappeared, his hatred grew.

All those who dwelt in this timeline would feel the bite of his revenge.

The Light Force and the Hero of Men

With the threat of Demise ended, the people and land of Skyloft returned to the surface
thousands of years earlier than in the other timeline. Impa, guarding the Master Sword so it
could not be drawn, told them of all that had transpired, and they revered the sleeping Zelda as
the Goddess reborn. Rebuilding their world would take a long time, but they were determined
to have their Goddess wake to a world that would make her happy. Those plans did not last for
long.

The Demon Tribe, still extant in that time, launched a full-scale attack on the Temple of
Hylia, seeking to destroy the Master Sword and free the soul of Demise. The sword could not
be drawn in its own defense; not only would pulling it from the pedestal potentially unleash
Demise, but there was no one alive who could draw it at all. None were worthy. Thus it seemed
that the efforts of Link and Zelda would come to nothing—until the Minish appeared.

Tiny, so tiny that they would go unnoticed in future ages, the Minish were powerful
magicians who understood the works of Hylia. With their magic they revived Zelda, who woke
to a world in which the people she knew and loved wouldn’t be born for thousands of years—or
at all. But still, she was the Goddess incarnate, and she saw the work that needed to be done.
Taking the Goddess Sword from its place in the Isle of the Goddess, Zelda transferred the spirit
of the sword, Fi, to the slumbering Master Sword, and gave the now-empty Goddess Sword to
the Minish.

With their magic and smithing the Minish crafted the Goddess Sword into the Picori
Blade—not so powerful as the Master Sword, but a magic weapon of incredible fineness. The
sword was taken up by a warrior, who in later days would become known as the Hero of Men,
and both the warrior and Zelda defended humanity against the demonic attack.

Between the unleashed power of Hylia and the sword wielded by the Hero, the Demon
Tribe suffered a total defeat. Its leaders were destroyed, and the remainder of the evil troupe
was sealed inside of a magic chest, using the Picori Blade itself as a key. In this timeline, as in
the other, the threat of the Demon Tribe was totally extinguished.

The Minish returned to their world. The kingdom of Hyrule was formed with Zelda as
its head of state. Her descendants, carrying the blood of Hylia, inherited her power. In time,
the divine power that Zelda wielded against the demons became known as the Light Force,
and was attributed to the Minish alongside the Picori Blade. Of the Triforce, little was said
and nothing was written. This was no accident: Zelda remembered her original duty, which
had been to guard the Triforce from being misused. And so, she brought the pieces together
in the Silent Realm where they had been stored, a realm that could only be reached by those
of her blood and their allies. At the touch of her mortal hand the Triforce resonated with her
heart, and the Silent Realm became a paradise—the Golden Land. Rumors of this sacred place
developed eventually, but the truth of the legend was lost to time.
 The Minish Cap
Hundreds of years passed, and knowledge of the Minish faded into myth for the people
of Hyrule. Legends would become truth again when one day, a Minish sorcerer, Vaati, betrayed
his master, Ezlo, and stole an artifact of enormous power. Using the wish-granting magic of the
Mage’s Cap, Vaati cursed his mentor into the shape of a hat, then traveled to Hyrule to steal the
legendary Light Force for himself.

Vaati’s magic allowed him to cause havoc in Hyrule. Taking on the shape of a human,
Vaati was able to win the annual sword tournament that would allow him to touch the Picori
Blade set in the bound chest. Believing that the Light Force was sealed inside of the chest,
Vaati shattered the Picori Blade, opening the chest and unleashing all the demons inside.
Caring only that the Light Force was not in the chest, Vaati took out his frustrations by turning
that era’s Princess Zelda to stone and took his leave. Link was commanded by the King of
Hyrule to travel to the Minish Woods and find a smith who would be capable of reforging the
Picori Blade—for the sacred weapon would be necessary in thwarting Vaati, and it was said the
Minish would only appear before children.

Link rescued Ezlo from being attacked by monsters, and the two traveled together
across Hyrule and the land of the Minish, using magic to change the scale at which they moved
through the world. Gathering up the crystallized essences of the elements, Link and Ezlo were
able to reforge the Picori Blade and strengthen it beyond its previous state. Traveling to the
Elemental Sanctuary so that the sword might take on its ultimate form, the pair accidentally
revealed to Vaati the truth: that the Light Force was the inherited power of Hyrule’s Royal
Family. Without time to waste, the Picori Blade was infused with a perfect balance of the
elements and took on its perfected form, the Four Sword, a weapon capable of letting one
warrior act in four bodies.

Link rushed to Hyrule Castle and was able to interrupt Vaati’s ritual before all of Zelda’s
power could be stolen. With the use of the Four Sword, Link was able to defeat Vaati not once
but twice, destroying him so that only the Mage’s Cap was left behind. Zelda, with the last of
the Light Force, used the Mage’s Cap to make a powerful wish, undoing all the evil that Vaati
had committed against the world. The kingdom and its people were restored, the Light Force
returned to Zelda—and Vaati’s spirit was sealed inside of the Four Sword.

The Four Sword was taken into a secret sanctuary, existing in a parallel world once
known as the Silent Realm, and there placed so that Vaati’s evil would never rise again. The
secret of his imprisonment would be passed down through the Royal Family, who became the
caretakers and guardians of the Four Sword.

Four Swords
Over centuries, the story of Vaati was diluted by legend—his capture of Zelda became a
tendency to kidnap beautiful maidens, and the forging of the Four Sword was forgotten almost
entirely. That Vaati was defeated with the Four Sword was still known, but almost everything
else was obfuscated by the passage of time.

It is not in the nature of evil to rest quietly in Hyrule, and Vaati was the greatest evil in
the world at that time. The Four Sword was a powerful weapon, but there was no such thing as
a perfect prison, and in time the gaps in the seal began to tell.

Many, many years after the defeat of Vaati, the Princess Zelda of the new era traveled to
the Four Sword Sanctuary alongside Link, hoping to inspect the seal and discover that the Wind
Mage was still safely bound—but he was not. His long imprisonment had taken great toll on
him, and he did not remember the things that he had fought for before, or the reasons behind
them. And so he took Zelda, claimed that he would marry her, and fled to the Wind Palace. Link
took up the Four Sword, splitting himself into four bodies, and gave chase.

With the help of the elemental guardians of the land, Link was able to gather the keys
to Vaati’s palace and fight his way to the top. No less fierce than he had been in the past, Vaati
put up a terrible fight, but he was defeated for a second time and re-sealed within the Four
Sword. The lock placed on him in the past had not been enough, and Princess Zelda sought a
new means by which Vaati’s imprisonment could be made permanent.

In the centuries to follow, Vaati’s memory and his very personality would continue to slip
away. The Four Sword and his repeated defeats were slowly destroying him, making him less
and less than he had been. It was not terribly long after this defeat that he forgot everything—
who he was, who he had been, where he came from, what he wanted, how to speak.

So the years passed, and Hyrule knew peace.

Four Swords Adventures

None can say when the curse of Demise found its foothold in the world; all that can be
known with confidence is that it did. In time the ageless hatred of the Demon King coalesced
and crystallized, taking on a physical form, and the demons of the world enshrined that relic—
an enormous trident born of malice—in hopes that the next King of Darkness would find it.
They inscribed in their ancient tongue a simple message: whoever possessed the trident would
hold the power of darkness, the power to ruin the world, and theirs would be the might of the
Demon King.

The demons did not wield the trident; they simply left it to be found by someone who
yearned for destruction. The Gerudo and the Zuna, recognizing the terrible power of the
demon’s curse, isolated it; the Zuna erected a labyrinthine pyramid around the weapon, and the
Gerudo guarded the desert against incursions. For many years they shielded the world from
the product of Demise’s hatred, and it was only when one from their own ranks sought the dark
power that their fears were realized.

There came from the desert a man named Ganondorf, a Gerudo who was shunned
by his own tribe for the great evil in his heart. Learned in the ways of evil magic and with an
unmatched hunger for power, he traveled to Hyrule seeking the means by which to rule the
world. He moved through the shadows, plunging into temples and sacred places that should
have been closed to him, taking possession of sacred artifacts and putting them to terrible
purpose; chief among these artifacts was the Dark Mirror.

Dark clouds gathered, and the Princess Zelda of that era sensed that some terrible
calamity was swirling around the Four Sword Sanctuary in the Silent Realm. Gathering the Six
Maidens, Zelda used their combined power to open a portal to the Sanctuary.

A Shadow Link, released through the Dark Mirror by Ganondorf, sprang forth from
the darkness. Shadow Link spirited away Zelda and the Six Maidens, taunting Link in his
helplessness until the would-be Hero pursued him through the portal and drew the Four Sword
to fight. Pulling the weapon from its pedestal, Link was split into four bodies and unleashed
Vaati, who subdued Link before leaving to spread terror and destruction all over Hyrule. The
Shadow Link disappeared, leaving Link to try to gather up the power necessary to defeat Vaati
once and for all.

While Link traveled and Vaati wreaked havoc, Ganondorf moved in the shadows. He
sought out the pyramid in the heart of the desert, and therein found the answer to his heart, the
embodiment of destruction. Ganondorf took the trident in his hand, drinking deep of the well of
Demise’s evil, and became the Demon King of a new era. Still he moved in shadow, feeding off
of the despair and chaos that Vaati spread.
 Link eventually rescued the Six Maidens and then Zelda herself, and fought his way to
the top of Vaati’s tower. Vaati, now a being of pure rage and destruction, never spoke as he was
defeated and utterly destroyed. Link and Zelda fled Vaati’s collapsing tower, and the moment of
their escape was when Ganondorf, now transformed into Ganon, finally revealed himself.

The power of the Four Sword alone was not enough to defeat Ganon. In the end, the
combined power of the Four Sword, the Hero wielding it, the Six Maidens, and the holy power
of Princess Zelda could not destroy him—it could only seal him within the blade, as Vaati had
once been sealed.

The Four Sword was placed in the pedestal in the Sanctuary in the Silent Realm, hidden
from the world at large, and a seal was placed on it by the Six Maidens and Zelda, far more
secure than any that had ever been placed on Vaati. The world returned to normal again, for a
time.

The secret of the Silent Realm had long been forgotten, even to the royal family.

The Wish and the War

Ganon was not like Vaati, and the seal that could contain the Wind Mage would not
suffice against the King of Darkness. Not forever.

Centuries after he was imprisoned, Ganon broke the seal of the Maidens, shattering the
Four Sword and freeing himself. He found himself in the Four Sword Sanctuary, a small part
of the Silent Realm, and explored that place. Perhaps he sought escape. Perhaps he sought
power; certainly, if that was his aim, then his wish was fulfilled.

The Silent Realm, then known as the Golden Land, was where the Triforce had been
hidden eons ago by the Goddess Reborn. However, the sole purpose of that realm was lost
to memory—knowledge of the Triforce was so carefully restricted that the Royal Family’s
knowledge of it also faded, in time. So it was that the Four Sword Sanctuary was erected in the
same place. So it was that Ganon was sealed there. So it was that Ganon laid his hands on the
very engine of creation.

The Triforce granted the wish of those who touched it, and the more insistent the prayer
of the heart, the more powerful the expression of that wish. Ganon’s wish was so focused, so
intense, lent so much momentum by the demonic powers he had stolen and the boundless
hunger of his heart, that the universe shook across every timeline when he spoke his desire: to
possess everything.

The Golden Land transformed into a Dark World that reflected Ganon’s heart. An entire
reality belonged to him, but it was not enough; his hunger could not be sated so easily. In
response to his boundless desire, the power of the Triforce was exerted on the seal between
the Dark World and the land of Hyrule, and the barrier between realities began to break.

Ganon emerged at the head of a horde of evil people who his power had transformed
into demons and waged open war on Hyrule, seeking to gather up the world under his banner.
The Knights of Hyrule joined in battle against him, the military of the nation moving as one
while the Six Sages and the Princess Zelda of that era gathered their own powers to join a
battle they could not win. Ganon was the most powerful demon the world had ever seen, and
the Triforce was behind him.

Still, there was one hope.

Forged in the fires of the Old Gods who had created the Triforce, wielded only by those
whose souls were in balance, the Master Sword was an answer to the engine of creation itself.
And, after thousands of years had passed, the soul of Demise had been fully destroyed. The
blade could be drawn once more.

Little is known of the Hero who wielded the Master Sword in the battle that became
known as the Imprisoning War. They lead an excursion into the Dark World, protected by the
magic of the Moon Pearl, and did battle with Ganon there. With the power of the Master Sword
Ganon was restrained, but he could not be destroyed: even the ultimate weapon was not
capable of such a feat, now. With no other options, the Hero and the other knights of Hyrule
fled to the Light World, leaving Ganon defeated but recovering. The Sages and Zelda called
upon the Old Gods, and the power of the creators was leveled to seal off the Sacred Realm
once and for all. The demons disappeared from the world. Peace returned.

Ganon was forgotten, in time.

But Ganon’s wish had effects that no one, not even he, could have predicted. In his
defeat, Ganon’s desire was not fulfilled. However, so powerful was his wish that it could not go
ungranted forever. The very law of the cosmos had been rewritten by his hand. The seal of the
Old Gods, perfect and untouchable, began to erode.

Ganon would return, forever, until every world was his.

 A Link to the Past
Generations after the Imprisoning War, the King of Hyrule brought into his employ an
advisor named Agahnim. Agahnim was a powerful wizard and proved himself very clever, and
so was popular among the nobility and the common people. Only Princess Zelda did not trust
him; she alone was wise.

Agahnim used his magic to control the minds of the soldiers of Hyrule, gathering up the
Maidens who were descended from the Sages who had placed the seal on the Sacred Realm.
His ritual sent the girls into the Dark World, where the power of their blood would quicken
the erosion of the seal on Ganon’s power. Zelda reached out with her thoughts to any of the
descendants of the Knights of Hyrule, anyone free of Agahnim’s power, seeking help.

Two people answered: a retired guard and his nephew, Link. Link followed his uncle to
the castle, found him mortally wounded, and was charged with protecting the Princess at any
cost. Leaving his uncle’s body behind, Link entered the castle through its sewers, coming up
into the dungeons and freeing the Princess. The two fled together through a secret passage,
emerging far away in a holy sanctuary where a priest swore that he would protect Zelda with
his life.

In order to fight Agahnim, Link would need the legendary Master Sword; to wield the
Master Sword, he gathered the Pendants of Virtue from across the land, from the Eastern
Palace, to the Desert Palace, to the Tower of Hera where the Moon Pearl waited. As he traveled
across Hyrule, Link found places where the space between the Light World and the Dark World
had grown thinner, where people had fallen through and assumed shapes that reflected the
truth of their hearts.

Link drew the Master Sword form the Lost Woods just as Agahnim’s forces found Zelda.
He returned to Hyrule Castle, witnessing the final ritual as Agahnim sent Zelda into the Dark
World, and did battle with the wizard. Agahnim was defeated, but with his magic he drew the
Hero into the Dark World. Link, stranded in that hostile land, was now tasked with rescuing the
Maidens and Zelda before the seal on the Dark World was broken and Ganon could be freed.

Flitting back and forth between the worlds, Link was able to defeat the terrible minions
of Ganon and rescue the Maidens, one-by-one, before finally freeing Zelda herself. Scaling
Ganon’s Tower, Link fought Agahnim once more—and when the wizard fell, a terrible shadow
rose from his body, screaming across the sky and smashing into the Pyramid of Power. The
sorcerer had only been a disguise, a means by which Ganon could exert his influence on the
world.
 Link traveled to the Pyramid of Power, carrying with him the Master Sword and the Silver
Arrows that had been blessed by the fairy queen, Venus, with the power to disrupt the demonic
vitality granted to Ganon by the ancient curse of the trident.

Ganon and Link fought in the chamber at the heart of the pyramid, and though Ganon
was powerful and protected by the Triforce, Link was courageous and aided by the weapons
and tools he had gathered in his travels. The Master Sword stripped away the Triforce’s
protection from Ganon’s body, and the arrows blessed by Venus struck home, wounding the
Demon King. The third arrow disrupted his power, destroying him in a conflagration of fire and
magic.

In the adjoining room Link found the Triforce. It spoke to him, congratulating him for
utterly destroying Ganon, encouraging him to make a wish that reflected his truest desires. He
did; with a prayer in his heart he wished, and the world changed.

It is not certain what Link’s exact wish was, but its effect was far-reaching. The people
of Hyrule were restored; the Dark World disappeared, and those people trapped in it returned to
their lives; the King of Hyrule was healthy once more; the knights of Hyrule were freed; Link’s
uncle and the brave priest lived again; Link and Zelda and all of the Maidens were able to return
to their rightful places. Link was lauded for his heroism, and the Triforce was placed into the
care of the royal family.

It was believed, then, that Ganon would never return.

Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages

During the era when the Royal Family ruled over Hyrule with the authority granted by
the Triforce, dark shadows moved in other parts of the world. The witches Twinrova, who had
taught Ganon evil magic in his youth, sought to revive the dread king. Reaching into the realm
of darkness they called forth two spirits: the dark dragon Onox and the dark fairy Veran. Veran,
a shapeshifter, was sent to the land of Labrynna, and Onox was bound into the shape of a
human using magical armor before being sent to conquer the nation of Holodrum.

In Hyrule, the Princess Zelda of that era had a premonition of a looming catastrophe
that would affect the Oracles of Seasons and Ages, two women of incredible power who lived
in Holodrum and Labrynna. Seeking to bring the Oracles to Hyrule for protection, Zelda sent her
attendant, Impa, to retrieve the pair.
 Zelda did not act alone: the Triforce itself called out to a Hero, and the one who
answered that call was named Link. Link came to the Triforce in the secluded castle where it
was held, and the engine of creation sent him on two quests: one to save Labrynna, and one to
save Holodrum.

The historical record differs here; it is possible that Link completed his tasks in either
order; some suggest that he might have done both simultaneously. It’s even been posited that
there was a branching of the timeline here, one where Link ventured to Labrynna first, and
another where the first kingdom he saved was Holodrum.

In Holodrum Link met Din, the Oracle of Seasons, shortly before she was captured by
Onox. By imprisoning Din, who controlled the passing of the seasons for that continent, Onox
threw Holodrum into chaos. Snow and drought buffeted the land side-by-side, and people could
not grow crops to eat or safely leave their homes. Link, guided by the Maku Tree, gathered
up the eight essences of the seasons and fought his way to Onox’s fortress, where he cast
down the dark dragon. Din was rescued and Onox destroyed, but Onox laughed as he fell: the
devastation he had wrought had lit something called the Flame of Destruction.

In Labrynna Link met Impa, who had been possessed by Veran to facilitate the dark
fairy’s search for Nayru, the Oracle of Ages. When Link and Impa found Nayru, Veran discarded
the attendant and possessed Nayru’s body, leaping back in time to change the course of
history. In the distant past Veran installed herself as the advisor to Queen Ambi, manipulating
the queen into forcing the Labrynnans to work for days that spiraled on without end, trapping
them in eternal labor and servitude. Link was able to free Nayru from Veran’s control, after
which the evil fairy possessed Queen Ambi, and it was only with the power of the essences of
time that he was able to face Veran directly. Though Link defeated Veran, she had completed
her task: the misery of Labrynna had lit the Flame of Sorrow.

That should have been the end of the threats, but it was not, and the Princess of Hyrule
knew it. Zelda came on her own to retrieve the two Oracles so that they might be protected in
Hyrule, but in so doing she was captured by Twinrova, who whisked her away to the Room of
Rites. At her abduction, the peoples of the world lost hope and the third and final flame, that of
Despair, was lit.

The lighting of the three flames was all part of Twinrova’s ritual to revive Ganon, the final
component of which involved sacrificing the life of Princess Zelda. Link arrived just in time to
stop the witches, and though they combined their powers they were no match for the Hero.
With their last breath, Twinrova sacrificed themselves in Zelda’s place.
 But the witches were flawed offerings, and Ganon’s revival was therefore incomplete.
The beast that rose out of the darkness had Ganon’s strength, but it was a mindless killing
machine with no impulse save to destroy. For all its power and all of the danger, Link was able
to defeat this revived beast and bring an end to the dark threat of Ganon once more.

The world saved, Link made to return to Hyrule—but instead of traveling with Zelda or
being transported magically, he opted to sail back on a small sailboat, braving the seas.

Link’s Awakening
On the sea there slept a god. A god’s dreams were not like a mortal’s: they had
substance. They had weight. The god dreamed an island full of people, and at the top of the
island’s tallest mountain the god slumbered inside of an enormous egg. So went the Wind
Fish’s rest.

The god’s sleep drew to a close, and it tried to wake. But, as a god’s dreams were unlike
a mortal’s, so too were its nightmares. The Wind Fish’s nightmares felt their world slipping
away and exerted their power to keep the dreamer asleep. The Wind Fish struggled to wake,
but could not. It seemed that the god would dream forever, trapped by its nightmares.

Then a Hero, sailing on the sea, drew near to where the Wind Fish slept. Reaching out
in desperation, the Wind Fish summoned a terrible storm, wrecking the Hero’s sailboat. Link,
unconscious, washed up on the shores of dream.

Directed by the Wind Fish’s desire to wake, which manifested in the shape of an owl,
and aided by Marin, the girl who wanted to be more than a dream, Link traveled across the
island of Koholint. His task was to gather up the instruments of the sirens, the only method,
he was informed, which would allow him to return home. Every instrument was guarded by a
nightmare, and he slew these as he met them, and they cursed him for destroying the world
they were keeping for themselves. Link learned slowly that Koholint was a dream, and that all
the places and creatures and people would disappear when his quest was completed—but that
could not stop him. He had to return to Hyrule. He had to wake the Wind Fish.

Traveling to the top of the mountain and playing the Ballad of the Wind Fish, Link
entered the vast chamber of the egg where the god slept and was met by the final and greatest
of the nightmares. It took on the shapes of the Wind Fish’s greatest fears—Ganon, Agahnim,
and even the Wind Mage, Vaati—but though it bore their likeness it was not equivalent to those
evils, and Link cast it down. The Nightmare died lamenting that its world would soon vanish.
 Finding the Wind Fish, Link played the ballad once more, and by its magic the god and
the Hero awoke.

Koholint vanished. The monsters, the houses, the rivers, the mountains, the people, each
winking out as if they had never been. The world around Link lightened, lightened, and then was
gone.

Link was left floating on the sea, clutching the remains of his boat, as the Wind Fish
soared away overhead. In the Wind Fish’s shadow there were gulls—and one more figure, who
had insisted that she was more than a dream.

The Golden Age and Its End

Many were the quiet centuries when the royal family of Hyrule ruled with the Triforce,
bringing peace, prosperity, and equality to all the people of the land. The Triforce gave not just
power but perspective, and so the rulers of that family, if they were good of heart, were always
just as well as kind. However, peace brought forgetfulness and complacency. So it was that the
Royal Family forgot that the divine powers of their family were passed down the bloodline of its
women, and the laws of succession were revised. And so it was that when one particular king
looked at the son who would succeed him and saw that his successor’s heart hungered for
power, the king took measures to prevent the full Triforce from falling into the prince’s hands
rather than decreeing that the kingdom would pass to his worthy daughter, Zelda.

Working in secret, the king hid the Triforce of Courage in a great palace, and sealed
that palace through the power of six guardians located in six palaces across the land. He cast
a spell on the land that would identify the one who was worthy of wielding the full Triforce, a
person who would therefore be worthy of ruling the land. Though by the conventions of the
time she could not succeed him, the king entrusted his daughter with this secret.

The king passed, and the prince did not receive his expected inheritance. He had an
advisor, a wizard of questionable origin that some scholars argue may have been an emissary
of Ganon, who whispered in his ear that the princess must have known the location of the
Triforce of Courage. The prince interrogated his sister, who would not answer, and the wizard
punished her by casting a curse that would place her into an endless sleep. Whether because
the curse was so powerful or because he ran afoul of the blood of Hylia, the casting killed the
wizard, who passed into the shadow of history.
 The prince, horrified by what he’d done and what had been done in his name, tried
desperately to wake his sister and failed. No power in the kingdom was capable of reviving her.
In his grief he built the North Palace, which would act as a fortress and mausoleum both, and
had Zelda enshrined there. He locked it with the magic of the Triforces of Power and Wisdom
so that only the worthy could enter. Thereafter he made into law what had previously been
tradition, and every princess of the royal family born thereafter was named Zelda.

Lacking the guidance of the Triforce, the power of Hylia, and rulers who were wise
and just, Hyrule fell into gradual decline. Different territories broke away, leaving only a little
kingdom within the greater land of Hyrule. The prince was largely forgotten by history. Zelda
waited in her eternal slumber.

Darkness stirred.

The Legend of Zelda

In previous ages Ganon had been revived through means that could be traced: the
breaking of a seal, a dark ritual, the regeneration of the Triforce. No longer. When the Golden
Age had faded from memory, when Ganon returned and brought darkness to the world once
more, no one could say the means by which he returned to life. It was as if the world itself had
given rise to him through shadow.

Ganon’s attack on Hyrule was sudden and nearly complete. In the first assault he
decimated the armies of the little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. The Princess Zelda
of that age took the Triforce of Wisdom and split it into eight pieces, hiding them in specially
prepared temples throughout the land, guarding them with monsters empowered by the shards
so that Ganon’s minions could not reach them easily. Zelda, knowing that Ganon was coming
for her, sent her attendant Impa out into the wilds to find a warrior capable of stopping the King
of Darkness. Impa ran just as Ganon made his move, and was pursued by his monsters while
Zelda was captured.

At the end of her strength, Impa was rescued by a young man named Link. She told him
of everything that had happened and charged him with gathering the pieces of the Triforce of
Wisdom, the rescuing of Zelda, and the slaying of Ganon.

Link traveled the width of Hyrule’s northern region, plumbing the depth of ancient
dungeons filled with Ganon’s monsters as they searched for the pieces of the Triforce, too. He
slew the guardian beasts protecting the shards, and one by one he gathered them up. Helping
and reconnecting the scattered, frightened people of Hyrule along the way, Link made his way
toward Ganon.

In Spectacle Rock, the fortress that served as the heart of Ganon’s power, Link found an
ancient weapon that the King of Darkness had kept in order to prevent them from being used
against him: the Silver Arrows, blessed by fairy magic in ages past. Filling his quiver with the
relics, and carrying the completed Triforce of Wisdom, Link stepped into Ganon’s throne room.

The power of the Triforce of Wisdom stripped Ganon of the protection of the Triforce of
Power, and Ganon and Link fought on equal terms. Blessed by the land and carrying weapons
of enormous power, Link slew Ganon, who burst into flames and burned to ashes at the foot
of the Triforce of Power. Link reclaimed the second piece of the Triforce and stepped into the
adjoining chamber, where the captive Zelda waited.

With Ganon defeated and Zelda rescued, Link had brought a temporary end to the new
darkness enshrouding Hyrule.

The Adventure of Link

Two years after Ganon fell, his forces attacked Hyrule en masse. They were searching
for the Hero, Link, so that he might be killed and his blood used as a sacrifice to revive Ganon.
Experienced in defending himself, Link was more troubled by the appearance of a mark on his
hand depicting the crest of Hyrule, which looked like a piece of the Triforce save that the center
was missing. With Zelda busy governing, Link went to the other person who would best be able
to help him: Impa. Impa, on seeing the mark, took Link to the Northern Palace and used his
hand to open the sealed door behind which the sleeping princess waited.

Impa told Link the entire story of the tragedy of that Zelda of long ago, and passed to
him a message from the king who had hidden the last piece of the Triforce. Link was charged
with recovering the Triforce of Courage and, in uniting the Triforce once more, to bring peace
and prosperity to the land.

The Great Palace was protected by mighty magic; to break the seal, Link needed to
travel to other palaces throughout Hyrule and defeat the guardians who waited there. Traveling
across the entire nation and stopping in every major town, Link amassed a wealth of magic
and experience to aid him in this new journey. The minions of Ganon hounded him at every
step, but they presented little danger compared to the machinations of the old king.
 In time Link broke the seal on the Great Palace and entered it, exploring until he came
face-to-face with the last guardian, the Thunderbird, and slew it. Though that should have been
the end of his journey, there was one last opponent with which to contend: himself. Link’s
shadow broke away from his body, taking up a dark sword, and fought Link with all the strength
and skill of the Hero.

Link was victorious, in the end, and for overcoming the darkness inside of him he was
granted the Triforce of Courage. Link returned to the Northern Palace and, with the might of the
entire Triforce in his hands, wished for the revival of the sleeping princess, breaking the ancient
curse.

A New Golden Age

There were two Zeldas now, one who had ruled the land for years and one who had been
denied succession in the long ago, but the thing that mattered was this: Link had gathered the
entirety of the Triforce, which empowered him as the true and rightful ruler of the land. The
Zelda of that age abdicated the throne so that Link might take it, and Link took the Zelda of the
past as his bride.

The sleeping princess had possessed the power of Hylia, passed down through
generations of women in her family; ever since the curse was placed upon her, that power
had been absent from the world. When Link and Zelda, first of her name, ruled over Hyrule as
monarchs, they reunited the providence of the full Triforce with the light of the blood of the
Goddess, restoring the balance that had been missing in Hyrule for many centuries.

The golden age that started with that pair would stretch on for far longer than the one
that had come previously. Thousands of years were spent in peace and happiness, and the
world began to change. Ganon, once more, was forgotten, and his shadow was thought to have
passed from the world.

But, unbeknownst to the royals who guarded it, the Triforce still worked silently in the
background, reshaping the world inch by inch.

There was still another wish for it to grant.

 Imprisoned Timeline
Death of the Imprisoned
When Link and Zelda emerged from the Gate of Time, they found themselves in a world
that faced no more threat from demons. The long war with Demise and the Demon Tribe had
ended, finally and truly, and in this happy present the Demon King had laid no curse upon the
land. Though they had been aided in this quest, the final moments were theirs alone: standing
atop the statue of Hylia, the Goddess reborn decided that she would live on the Surface and
her Hero decided to stay with her.

The War of Unification

In the timeline where the Imprisoned was destroyed with the power of the Triforce, the
people of Skyloft returned to the Surface and built a new society in harmony with the land. But,
with the same deific perspective she’d had in her previous life, Zelda looked toward the future
and saw that there would be great trials in the time to come. She and six trusted confidants,
the Sages, worked together to prepare for those times.

Zelda placed the Triforce back in the Silent Realm, behind an entrance in the Temple of
Hylia, with the Master Sword acting as the lock so that only one worthy of pulling the sword
could reach the golden power. Zelda and the Sages rebuilt the Temple of Hylia into the Temple
of Time, constructing it to protect the resting place of the Master Sword. They built a door
before the sword that could only be unlocked by a combination of three Spiritual Stones and a
song played on a magical ocarina. The Spiritual Stones were then given in trust to three of the
peoples of the land: the Gorons of Death Mountain, the Zora of Zora’s Domain, and the Great
Deku Tree guarding the entrance to the Lost Woods. The people of Hylia, by then called Hylians,
kept the Ocarina of Time for themselves, and the family that watched over the relic—Zelda’s
family—became the Royal Family of the newly founded Kingdom of Hyrule. Over time, the
resting place of the Triforce, the Silent Realm, would come to be known as the Sacred Realm.

Centuries of peace passed. The secret of the bloodline of the royal family was forgotten,
and Hyrule was a small, happy kingdom full of happy people. They lived in harmony with the
land and with their neighbors, and all the people of the land unknowingly kept the covenant to
protect the Triforce.

One day the story of the golden power spread through the continent like a rumor, and
that rumor lit the fires of conflict. The peoples of the land desired that power, even if they did
not truly know what they sought, and made war with one another over it. The war for the golden
power lasted for many terrible years, leaving lasting scars on the people and the land itself.
Many died, and one Hylian mother in particular fled into the Lost Woods with her infant son and
was never seen again.

After years of war the King of Hyrule managed to broker peace between the Hylians,
the Gorons, the Zora, and the Gerudo of the desert to the west. The Kokiri Forest, closed off
during the war, remained off-limits to outsiders by the decree of its guardian god. Each of the
nations became part of the greater kingdom of Hyrule, maintaining their internal autonomy but
acknowledging the supremacy of the Hyrulean Royal Family.

The King of Hyrule had a daughter, blessed with the gift of prophetic dreams.

A Hylian boy, watched over by the Great Deku Tree, grew up among the Kokiri.

And the young king of the Gerudo, Ganondorf, learned the truth of the golden power.

Ocarina of Time
One day Ganondorf traveled to the Kokiri Forest, easily pushing past the protections of
the Great Deku Tree, and demanded the Spiritual Stone of Forest. The Great Deku Tree, sensing
the evil in Ganondorf’s heart, refused him, and was cursed in return. Ganondorf took his leave,
and there were nightmares in his wake.

Link, the boy without a fairy, was summoned by the Great Deku Tree to break the curse.
Though he was successful, he was too late: the Great Deku Tree had been doomed from the
start. Link was charged with finding the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda, and helping her to stop the
evil plans of Ganondorf.

Link met with Zelda, and the two concocted a plan: instead of trying to stop the powerful
Ganondorf directly, they would obtain the Triforce first. Link traveled to Death Mountain and
Zora’s Domain, undoing the harm Ganondorf had done to the Gorons and the Zora, gathering
the other two Spiritual Stones. As he returned to Hyrule Castle, he witnessed Zelda and her
attendant, Impa, fleeing on horseback; Zelda left the Ocarina of Time with Link, along with the
magic song that would open the Door of Time. Ganondorf had attacked Hyrule Castle, killing
the king and most of the guards.
 Heading to the Temple of Time, Link opened the door and drew forth the Master Sword.
He did not know Ganondorf had followed him in.

Link, too small to wield the Master Sword, was placed into a deep sleep, and Ganondorf
entered the Sacred Realm unopposed. The Gerudo king found the Triforce there and took the
power of the Old Gods in his hand.

In another life, another time, Ganondorf had found the Triforce only after having forged
himself in defeat and in deep, unspeakable evil. This Ganondorf, though very powerful and
just as hungry as his alternate self, had not been forged in experience and had not internalized
the wisdom of loss. When he touched the Triforce, his imbalanced heart caused it to fly
apart, and he was left with the piece he best embodied: the Triforce of Power. He returned to
Hyrule, vowing to find the other two pieces, and with the might granted to him on top of his
own sorcery he subjugated the entire land, killing most of the Ancient Sages who might have
gathered to stop him.

Link awoke seven years later. Rauru, the Ancient Sage of Light who had watched over
him during his long sleep, informed him of his new mission: to awaken and gather the other
five Sages and use their power to stop Ganondorf before the evil king could unite the Triforce
and conquer the world. Link set out, guided by a mysterious youth, Sheik.

Link traveled across Hyrule and across time itself, using the Master Sword to move
between the past and the future to change events and places. He found the new Sages, all
people from his past and all of whom lost their lives in the process of awakening, and freed
them from the power of Ganondorf’s magic. Gathering up his courage, he returned to the
Temple of Time, where Sheik met him one last time and revealed themselves to be Zelda,
thought missing for years.

Zelda informed Link that he possessed the Triforce of Courage, and she the Triforce of
Wisdom. She was the seventh Sage, and with all the combined forces at their command they
would be able to stop Ganondorf once and for all. In preparation for that confrontation, Zelda
granted Link the Light Arrows, which were infused with the light of the Triforce itself. Little did
the pair realize that, for the second time, Ganondorf had anticipated them.

Link was protected by the power of the Master Sword, but Zelda was not, and with
his magic Ganondorf captured her, spiriting her away to his castle. Link made his way to the
floating fortress, and by the power of the Six Sages was able to cross into it. He fought his way
to the tower’s peak, where Ganondorf waited. The battle to unite the Triforce ensued.
 Overwhelmed by the power of the Master Sword and the boy who could wield it,
Ganondorf fell, but in his rage he unleashed a wave of destruction that destroyed the
foundation of the castle. Zelda and Link fled together as the structure collapsed. They thought
Ganondorf had been crushed in the carnage—but he would not die so easily. He emerged,
infusing himself with the fullness of the Triforce of Power, and took on the shape that reflected
his heart: Ganon.

Link fought Ganon, and with Zelda’s intervention he was able to defeat the King of
Darkness. Zelda and the Six Sages hurled Ganon into the Sacred Realm, calling on the power of
the Old Gods of Hyrule to seal him away, and the door to the Sacred Realm was slammed shut.

Using the power of the Ocarina of Time and the Triforce of Wisdom, Zelda sent Link
back in time to reclaim the years of his lost youth. In so doing, she created two timelines, and
in the one where she remained, the Hero of Time was known but no longer existed. There the
peoples of Hyrule rejoiced in Ganondorf’s defeat, though they would never see their Hero again.

In the past, Link returned to a time before he had met Princess Zelda, but things were
different: he already possessed the Triforce of Courage, and the Ocarina of Time was in his
hand. He sought out the princess, hoping to prevent the dark future that the two of them had
fought so hard against.
 Adult Timeline
The Flooding of Hyrule
In the timeline where the Hero of Time defeated Ganon, Zelda was left to rebuild Hyrule
on her own. She still possessed the Triforce of Wisdom, and the Triforce of Power was locked
in the Sacred Realm alongside the defeated Ganondorf, but now she was left with one more
wrinkle: in removing Link from her branch of the timeline, she was left holding the Triforce of
Courage, as well. Knowing that the sacred relic had to be protected, Zelda split the Triforce of
Courage into many parts, hiding them across Hyrule in a manner so that one who was worthy
would find them in the future, telling no one of what she had done.

The restoration of Hyrule was completed in Zelda’s lifetime, and the peoples of Hyrule
lived in harmony. Stories of the Hero of Time were common, and the figure of Link became
revered by those from every walk of life. Years went by, enough that Zelda died and the rule of
Hyrule passed to a new generation, but not so many that the stories faded.

A wish echoed across every timeline, and the world changed. Ganondorf’s hunger
resonated with the engine of creation, and the world warped, and the seal of the Old Gods
cracked. Ganon, who had been waiting for his chance, slammed against the walls of his prison.
By the strength of his will and the magic of the Triforce of Power, the King of Darkness broke
the chains set upon him by the Old Gods and was loosed upon the world once more.

Though an enormous portion of Ganondorf’s power was still in the Sacred Realm, held
in check by the Master Sword, the people of Hyrule were helpless against the evil sorcerer’s
limitless magic. They prayed for the return of the Hero of Time, that he might step out from the
past and wield the Master Sword against the dark—but the Hero did not appear.

The king of that time, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, ordered that every living person in
Hyrule should flee to the highest mountaintops. He took the Wind Waker, which had been used
to conduct the songs that worshipped the gods, and called upon the gods of wind and rain. To
protect the world from the abominable evil of Ganon, the king and the gods summoned flood
waters that sank him and Hyrule beneath countless fathoms. With the king stayed the two
Sages of the Master Sword, who maintained a continual prayer to keep the sword sparkling
with the power to repel evil.

Ganondorf, unwilling to relinquish Hyrule, was likewise trapped beneath the waves. His
evil permeated the Great Sea, turning it into a fount of monsters, but the power of the Master
Sword was enough to keep him from freeing himself or dispelling the waters.
 The Hylians lived on the sea, building new lives there, and forgot the kingdom that lay
beneath them.

The Gorons traveled far and wide, some reaching a land they had hailed from long ago.

The Zora could not live in the new sea, which was too salty and full of evil to sustain
their lives. They climbed the highest peak in Hyrule, Death Mountain, and beseeched the god
who lived there. Valoo, the dragon of Death Mountain, recalled the people who had once called
that place home and remade the Zora in their image, creating the new Rito.

The spirits of the forest took on forms that could traverse the world on the wind and
began to raise the land once more, progressing in fits and starts.

There was an uneasy peace.

The Wind Waker

One day a massive bird flew over Outset Island, carrying a young woman in its talons.
It was nearly shot out of the sky by the band of pirates pursuing it, and dropped its quarry.
Mistaking another girl for its prize, it plucked her from a bridge and flew off. The abducted girl
was Aryll, sister to an islander named Link. The first girl, who had narrowly escaped, was the
pirate captain, Tetra.

Link sailed with Tetra and her pirates in pursuit of the bird, which made its nest in the
Forsaken Fortress. Link infiltrated the fortress, fighting his way to the top, and was easily
subdued by the terrible bird before being taken before its master. That master, a sorcerer
wearing ancient robes, bid that the boy should be cast into the sea, and so he was.

Link would have died if he had not been found by the King of Red Lions, a talking boat
with a wealth of ancient knowledge. The boat gave to Link the Wind Waker, which could be
used to control the winds and commune with the gods, and told him the identity of the master
of the Forsaken Fortress: Ganondorf, who had been the scourge of the old world and who had
managed to claw his way through the seal to the surface. To rescue his sister and safeguard
the world, Link and the King of Red Lions sailed around the Great Sea, gathering up the pearls
of the Old Gods—one guarded by Valoo of Dragon Roost Island, one by the Great Deku Tree of
the Forest Haven, and one by Jabun of Greatfish Isle—and using them to summon the Tower
of the Gods. Proving himself in the trials of the tower, Link ascended and opened the way into
the old kingdom: Hyrule. Descending beneath the waves, Link claimed the Master Sword for
himself.
 Returning to the Forsaken Fortress, Link freed Aryll and the other kidnapped young
women before fighting and killing the enormous bird that had snatched them all away. Taking
the Master Sword in hand, he once more faced off with Ganondorf—and found that the Master
Sword had no effect on the evil king. The Master Sword had lost the light necessary to repel
evil.

Arriving to save Link, Tetra appeared and attacked Ganondorf, but was easily subdued.
Unfortunately, when Ganondorf held her aloft the both of them began to resonate with a golden
light. In the distraction, two Rito rescued Link and Tetra while Valoo attacked Ganondorf.
Knowing that the god’s assault would not delay Ganondorf for long, all made a hasty retreat.
From there, the King of Red Lions took Link and Tetra back down into Hyrule, revealing to them
the truth: that he was King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule and that Tetra was his descendant, the
bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, and therefore heir to the title of Princess Zelda. To defeat
Ganondorf, Link would need to restore the power of the Master Sword and gather the lost
pieces of the Triforce of Courage. Link set off on his adventure, and Tetra was made to wait
beneath the waves.

Traveling to the Temples of Wind and Earth, Link communed with the spirits of the
Ancient Sages and awoke the new ones, who restored the Master Sword to its original
sparkling glory. Thereafter he sailed across the entire sea, gathering clues and maps and
overcoming trials to reassemble the Triforce of Courage. Finally prepared, he returned to
Hyrule.

While Link had been away, Ganondorf found Tetra—he was well-practiced at it, by now—
and had taken her to his tower, which could only be accessed from within Hyrule. With the
power of the Master Sword and the Triforce of Courage Link made his way through the tower,
and within it he found an ancient weapon that Ganon had hidden away: the Arrows of Light.

Fighting his way past Ganon’s shadow and an enormous puppet, Link ascended to the
top of the tower. There, he faced off with Ganondorf, but still proved to be no match against the
sorcerer, who used the element of surprise to subdue him. Taking the Triforces of Wisdom and
Courage for himself, Ganondorf had finally, after many centuries, gathered the whole Triforce
together again. He prepared to make his wish: that Hyrule, and the world, be his.

But the phantom of Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule laid his hand on the Triforce first,
wishing that the children of Hyrule should have hope and a future. He cursed Ganon, directing
the Triforce to wash the ancient kingdom of Hyrule away. Ganon, seeing his dream slip from
him once more, drew his blades on Tetra and Link. If he could not have his wish, then no wish
would be granted, and the children of Hyrule would have no future.

Link and Tetra fought together as the flood waters fell around them, and though he was
stronger than either alone they were able to defeat Ganondorf through teamwork. Link buried
the Master Sword in the sorcerer’s head, sealing him within stone, and with Ganondorf’s defeat
the waters of the sea crashed down all at once, drowning Hyrule forever.

Protected by the spirit of Daphnes, Link and Tetra rose to the surface of the waters,
where they were rescued by Tetra’s pirates. Their work done and Ganondorf defeated, Link
and Tetra and her pirate crew set sail for new horizons, seeking new lands for the displaced
peoples of Hyrule.

Phantom Hourglass
Upon the vastness of the seas there existed an ocean parallel to the one sailed by Link
and Tetra: the world of the Ocean King, watched over by an ancient spirit who guarded its water
against the forces of evil. This was a realm that, long ago, had harbored many refugees from
the Old Kingdom. One day the Ocean King was attacked by a Demon King, Bellum, who stole
the life force of the guardian god and filled that ocean with terrible evil. The Ocean King, bereft
of his power, was forced to take on the form of an old man and wait for help to arrive.

When Link and Tetra sailed near the territory of the Ocean King, they were swept into a
deep fog and drew up alongside a terrible vessel called the Ghost Ship, which was said to steal
the lives of those who stood upon it. Tetra and Link, fearless, explored it anyway: and, true to
promise, Tetra’s life force was stolen by the evil of that ship, turning her to stone. When he was
hurled from the Ghost Ship, Link found he was no longer on the Great Sea, and eventually he
washed up on the shore of Mercay Island.

Link met an old man, Oshus, who told him the story of Bellum and directed him to the
adventuring sea captain, Linebeck, who became Link’s reluctant companion on the journey
to come. Link and Linebeck sailed across the world of the Ocean King together, meeting
many peoples on many islands, and gathered up the spirits of Wisdom, Power, and Courage,
who worked together to guide Link to the Ghost Ship. Link raided the ship and succeeded in
rescuing Tetra but learned that he was unable to restore her body unless Bellum was defeated.

Defeating Bellum required the forging of three particularly pure metals into the Phantom
Sword and then fighting down to the bottom of the Temple of the Ocean King, where the
Demon King waited. With the Phantom Sword and the power of the Phantom Hourglass, Link
was able to pass the dangers of that temple and make his way to its heart. Defeating Bellum in
combat, Link restored Tetra. The victory, however, was short-lived.

Bellum attacked the crew on the sea, destroying Linebeck’s ship and capturing Link and
Tetra. Linebeck took up the Phantom Sword and was able to free the young heroes, but in the
process was possessed by the Demon King. Through careful use of the sword and the power
of the Ocean King, Link was able to free Linebeck and cut down Bellum, ridding the world of the
demon’s terror once and for all.

Oshus emerged, now in the true form of the Ocean King, and fulfilled the wishes of Link,
Tetra, and Linebeck by sending the first two home and giving the latter his ship back. Link and
Tetra found themselves on the deck of their pirate ship and were informed that they’d been
gone for only minutes. It was enough to leave it at that: they sailed on, still searching for their
new land and new home.

In the distance they were tailed by a familiar ship, with Linebeck at its helm.

Returning to the Old Kingdom

No one knows how much time passed before Tetra and Link found a new land, but find
it they did. It was empty of people, though it contained the ruins and relics of a kingdom long
vanished, and was watched over by the Lokomo who had once been the servants of the gods
of that continent, the Spirits of Good. Tetra made contact with these guardians and became
acquainted with Anjean, the leader of the Lokomo. Tetra and Anjean, in the years to come,
would be fast friends.

Bringing over the people of the Great Sea, this new land was repopulated according to
familiar patterns: the Gorons of old Hyrule lived in the Fire Realm, and the Anouk from the sea
of the Ocean King settled in the Snow Realm. Though they could not remember such a time,
the people of old Hyrule might once have recalled the name of the Lost Woods, which bordered
their homes in the Forest Realm.

The land was covered in the metal rails that bound a Demon King beneath the surface,
and these rails were called the Spirit Tracks. The Spirit Tracks ran between many points on
the land, and so were used to create settlements that dotted the continent. With the aid of the
Lokomo, the people of the New Kingdom built trains to traverse the tracks, connecting the vast
continent in a way that no previous settlement had been connected before.
 Perhaps the Lokomo knew that the peoples of the Old Kingdom were returning home.
Perhaps, in the later years of her life, Tetra was privy to that secret. There are no records that
indicate it one way or another.

The power of Hylia returned to the land, and the New Kingdom, ruled over by the Royal
Family of Hyrule, began to rumble with the stirring of an ancient evil.

Spirit Tracks
One hundred years after the establishment of the New Kingdom, the ruling monarch,
young Princess Zelda, found herself in the position of being advised by a behatted man
named Cole after her parents mysteriously passed away. The princess, concerned that the
Spirit Tracks were beginning to vanish, secretly chartered private transportation with a young
engineer named Link to visit the Tower of the Spirits.

When Link and Zelda were traveling to the Tower, the tracks beneath them vanished,
wrecking the train that Link had been steering. Chancellor Cole appeared before the duo,
alongside a mysterious figure called Byrne. Cole revealed himself as a servant of the ancient
Demon King Malladus, and took Zelda’s body to serve as the vessel for his lord’s return. Zelda,
expelled from her corporeal form, was reduced to drifting as a spirit.

Link, the only one who could see Zelda’s ghost, took her to the Tower of the Spirits.
There, they met Tetra’s old friend and leader of the Lokomo, Anjean, who informed the pair that
the disappearance of the Spirit Tracks was directly tied to the rise of Malladus, and that only by
restoring the tracks and scaling to the top of the shattered Tower of Spirits could the return of
the Demon King be prevented.

Link and Zelda, the latter still incorporeal, set out on their journey. In each of the four
realms Link and Zelda braved the elements and terrible monsters, finding the hidden Force
Gems that contained the condensed power of the Spirits of Good, and for each one they
energized they restored another section of the shattered Tower of Spirits. Climbing the tower,
Link and Zelda worked together to move past obstacles that would be impassable for either
one alone, with Link using his adventuring prowess and Zelda possessing the bodies of mighty
phantoms.

After a long and arduous journey, they reached the top of the tower where the altar of
the Demon King waited. They would have stopped the ceremony to restore Malladus but they
were interrupted by Byrne, a Lokomo who now served Malladus out of a desire for power. The
duo defeated Byrne, but he delayed them long enough for Cole to summon Malladus’s soul into
Zelda’s body. The Demon King of old had returned.

Zelda’s body coursed with the power of Hylia, and that power was such that Malladus
could not assume perfect control of it. To give his master time to convalesce Cole called upon
the Demon Train, which transported the chancellor and Malladus into the demon realm. A
wounded Byrne was left behind, collected by Anjean, and carried away with Link and Zelda.

If he ever assumed full control of Zelda’s body, then Malladus would have been
unstoppable, becoming far more powerful than he had been when the Spirits of Good sealed
him away. In order to expel the Demon King, Link and Zelda traveled to the Sand Temple,
seeking the ultimate weapon of the Spirits of Good in ages past: the Bow of Light. With the
bow in hand, and with guidance from Byrne, Link and Zelda located the Demon Train in the dark
realm and brought the fight to Malladus.

Climbing atop the Demon Train, Link and Zelda did battle with Malladus, and through
both their efforts were able to drive the Demon King out of Zelda’s body. The conflagration that
followed destroyed the Demon Train, sending it tumbling through the barrier between worlds
and crashing in the New Kingdom once more.

Through Byrne’s sacrifice Zelda was able to reclaim her body, forcing Malladus to
possess Cole’s out of desperation. The Demon King’s new vessel could not support his spirit,
but he was no less powerful, and swore that he would burn the world before he fell. Calling on
the power of her ancient bloodline, Zelda placed a holy mark on Malladus, and through this
mark she and Link were able to harm the Demon King. Weakening the beast with the Bow of
Light, the youths thrust the sword of the Lokomo into Malladus’s head, destroying him forever.

With the threat of the Demon King eliminated, Anjean and the other Lokomo—including
the spirit of Byrne—ascended to the heavens, their work done. The world was left to the care of
the mortals living on it, and Zelda returned to the rule of the kingdom that would no longer be
troubled by demons nor require the aid of gods.
 Child Timeline
Majora’s Mask
In a land called Termina, in a world that neighbored that of Hyrule, there were four
guardian spirits who presided over the cardinal directions and protected its people. They were
friends with the wood sprite, Skull Kid, who delighted in being a trickster. One day, Skull Kid
pulled a prank that caused terrible harm. The giants had to repair the damage and showed their
anger to the sprite. Skull Kid, hurt by their rejection, nursed his aching heart with the help of
two fairy siblings, Tatl and Tael.

In Termina there was a tower made of stone that housed an unspeakable evil. That
tower stood for untold ages, undisturbed, sacred in its wretchedness—and then one day the
doors were opened, and a terrible wind blew across the land. The evil that had been housed
there was lifted up and carried away by one who collected such relics, and so Majora’s Mask
was brought back into the world.

The Happy Mask Salesman left Termina, returning to Hyrule through the Lost Woods,
but while he took his rest he was robbed of his newest acquisition by the Skull Kid. Majora’s
Mask, used in dark rituals in days long past, was a vessel for pain and suffering, and Skull Kid’s
heartache was poured into it, transforming that feeling—and the mask—into something else.

At about this time in Hyrule, the Hero of Time was given the Ocarina of Time by Zelda
as he left Hyrule on a long journey. The reason for Link’s quest was to search for his friend, the
fairy Navi, but his travels also served another purpose: without the ocarina, the Sacred Realm
would be closed off to everyone, including Ganondorf. Though Link possessed the Triforce of
Courage and Zelda the Triforce of Wisdom and both remembered what had occurred in that
future that would never come to pass, Ganondorf was not yet aware that he possessed the
Triforce of Power. That was the one hope for Hyrule in the time to come.

Link traveled through the Lost Woods, exhausting himself in his search for Navi, and
when he dozed in the saddle of his horse Skull Kid stole up behind him and startled his horse
into throwing Link off. Skull Kid then stole the Ocarina of Time and Link’s steed, fleeing through
the thicket. Link gave chase, plunging through the barrier between worlds, finally ending up in
Termina. As he arrived, Skull Kid cursed him, transforming him into a Deku Scrub.

Link, undeterred, still gave chase, and emerged at the base of a tower where a collector
of masks waited. The Happy Mask Salesman told Link that the world would end in three days,
and that before those three days were up Link had to retrieve Majora’s Mask from Skull Kid.
 Link spent the three days exploring Clock Town, meeting its inhabitants and doing tasks
that, on the third day, allowed him to ascend to the top of the Clock Tower where Skull Kid
waited. Skull Kid, now completely controlled by the evil in the mask, had pulled the moon out
of the sky, and would now watch as its crashing destroyed the world. Link managed to get the
ocarina out of Skull Kid’s hands, and played on it the Song of Time, which hurled him back to
the beginning of the three days, when he had first arrived in Termina.

The Happy Mask Salesman, distraught that Link had returned without Majora’s Mask,
taught the boy the Song of Healing, which allowed him to soothe restless spirits and resume
his human form. Then, he was given a goal: to travel to the four regions of Termina and free the
four giants, who had been imprisoned with the power of the mask.

Link lived those three days over and over, carrying nothing back but his experience and
his knowledge. Across Termina he spoke with people who waited for the world to end, and
across Termina he helped them mend old wounds or find closure where there had been none
before. For each of these deeds he was gifted with a mask that symbolized the good he had
done and the spirits he had soothed. These masks, too, would stay with him as he relived the
days.

After many cycles and many heartaches Link freed the four giants, and on the last day
of the last cycle he returned to the Clock Tower and called them to his aid. The four giants
appeared from across Termina, and by their power they prevented the moon from crashing into
the earth. Majora’s Mask discarded Skull Kid and retreated to the moon in a pillar of light. Link
gave chase.

Finding himself in a strange meadow where children who looked like the collector of
masks played under the shade of a giant tree, Link sacrificed the masks he had collected,
discarding the proof of all the good he had done. When he had divested himself of his deeds
he was granted a new mask, depicting himself as a wrathful protector. Donning this mask, Link
assumed the shape of the Fierce Deity, and in that form he destroyed the evil spirit of Majora.

The giants, freed, forgave the Skull Kid for all the harm he’d done, and returned to
their rest. Majora’s Mask, now empty of all evil and power, was returned to the Happy Mask
Salesman and would eventually find its way into the hands of another Hero. Link parted ways
with Skull Kid, leaving the sprite with a symbol of their enduring friendship, then continued on
his long journey.
 War Before the Twilight
Ganondorf waged war on Hyrule in the Hero’s absence. The conflict lasted for decades.
Unaware of the power he held, the Gerudo king used his dark magic to summon an army of fell
beasts and led them in attacks throughout the kingdom. At one point, the incursion caused the
destruction and abandonment of Castle Town and the Temple of Time. A new capital was built
in a more tactically advantageous part of the kingdom. The united peoples of Hyrule and the
power of the Ancient Sages were enough to keep the sorcerer at bay, but it was a losing war
until Link returned from his long journey and joined the battle.

The Hero of Time would never be known by that title in this timeline, but he became
a respected leader of Hyrule’s military who was instrumental in turning aside the darkness
threatening the kingdom. When Ganondorf led an elite strike force into the very heart of the
new Hyrule Castle, seeking the treasures and the deaths of the Royal Family, it was Link who
met him there. Though he did not possess the Master Sword, Link dueled with Ganondorf—and,
though the Hero fell in the battle, Ganondorf was defeated and captured as a result of that
sacrifice.

Link was buried on the grounds of Hyrule Castle, watched over by the spirits of the
soldiers he had commanded. Though he lay with regret that he had been unable to pass on his
hidden skills to those who came after, he was remembered as a legendary hero by the people,
his deeds commemorated in stories and plays and his bow enshrined in honor in the sacred
mines of the Gorons.

Ganondorf was taken to the Arbiter’s Grounds, a holy place in Gerudo culture that
had been claimed by Hyrulean forces. He was tried by the Ancient Sages, found guilty, and
executed. Crafting a sword of light from the power granted them by the Old Gods, the Sages
pierced Ganondorf through the heart—and, unwittingly, brought a terrible doom on the future.
At the moment of his death, Ganondorf awoke to the Triforce of Power that had hidden inside
of him. With its strength he broke his bonds, killed one of the Sages, and tore the Sword of the
Sages from his chest.

In their terror, the Sages called upon the power of the Mirror of Twilight, as they had in
an age long past, and banished Ganondorf to the Twilight Realm. Unfamiliar with the power he
now wielded, Ganondorf could not yet resist the pull of the mirror, disappearing from Hyrule for
an age.
 Twilight Princess
A wish echoed across every timeline, and the world changed. Ganondorf, who had been
suspended in unconsciousness in the Twilight Realm for centuries, suddenly awoke. Casting
about the world in which he had been imprisoned, he found the Twili, a people of magical skill
who were as peaceful as the dreamy realm in which they lived. Ganondorf could not have
known that these had once been the people known as the Demon Tribe, the original servants of
Demise, transformed by long years of reflection and tranquility. Among the Twili, he could find
only one heart that hungered for power: that of a man called Zant.

Ganondorf appeared before Zant in the guise of a god, placing all of his power into
the despairing Twili. Zant, wielding a power greater than any the realm had ever seen, quickly
conquered his fellow Twili, declaring himself the King of Twilight. In keeping with the orders
of his god, Zant used his terrible magic to turn the people of the Twilight Realm into beasts,
forming an army that would allow him to conquer the world of light. With Ganondorf’s blessing
Zant broke through the barrier between worlds, invading the world of light and shattering the
Mirror of Twilight. He allied himself with the demonic hordes who still lived in Hyrule, sending
them into the furthest regions of the kingdom, and while they spread the power of the Twilight
Realm Zant seized control of Hyrule Castle. Zelda, recognizing that more was at play than Zant
realized and wanting to protect her people, surrendered.

Zant’s forces attacked Ordon Village, injuring a youth named Link and making off with
many of the children of the hamlet. The wounded Link gave chase, and was pulled through
the shadowy veil of Twilight, which was slowly engulfing the land of light. Link should have
been reduced to a spirit—or transformed into a monster—but he was shielded by the Triforce
of Courage, which had been passed down through his bloodline. So protected, he took on the
shape of a wolf, and was taken to Hyrule Castle to be shown to Zant. Midna, the displaced
princess of the Twilight Realm who had been transformed into an imp by Zant’s magic, saw in
Link the sacred beast of legend, following him to the castle.

Midna freed Link in exchange for the promise of his help, and the two of them met
briefly with the imprisoned Princess Zelda before setting off in pursuit of the Fused Shadow, an
ancient magical relic of the Twili. Directed by the Light Spirits, who had fought to imprison the
Twili in the Great Demon War long ago, Link traveled across Hyrule, cleansing the land of the
incursion of the Twilight and gathering up the pieces of the Fused Shadow. Though they were
successful, Zant appeared before the Hero and Midna, trapping the former in the body of a wolf
and throwing the latter in the path of a wrathful Light Spirit, nearly killing her in a stroke.
 With Midna dying on his back, Link ran back to Princess Zelda again. Recognizing what
had to be done, Zelda passed her Triforce of Wisdom and her essence to Midna. Midna was
revived, now able to live in the light as easily as the shadow, and Zelda vanished, swept away
by the darkness that dwelled in the heart of Hyrule Castle.

Before she disappeared, Zelda told Link to seek out the Master Sword, which lay in the
same Temple of Time as old, though it had been swallowed up by the creeping Lost Woods
over the passage of generations. Link retrieved the blade, the holy power of which broke
Zant’s curse on him and would allow him to battle any evil. Traveling to the Arbiter’s Grounds
in search of the Mirror of Twilight, Midna and Link found that their goal had been shattered,
and so set out across the land to gather its pieces. Scaling mountains, traveling through time,
and walking in the sky, the pair were able to repair the mirror, and with it they ventured into the
Twilight Realm.

Link did battle with Zant, defeating him with the Master Sword. Zant declared that the
power of his god would not allow him to die—and Midna put pay to the lie, obliterating Zant
with the Fused Shadow. Thus assured and having freed the Twilight Realm, Link and Midna
returned to Hyrule Castle where the true evil awaited them.

Ganondorf sat enthroned, the King of Light and Shadow. Taunting Link and Midna he
possessed Zelda’s body and attacked them, and after being driven out turned into a dark
beast, Ganon. This form was swiftly defeated as well. Zelda was revived when that which she
had given to Midna was returned, but the trio exchanged only a few words before Ganondorf
recovered in his wrath. Determined to protect those of the light, Midna sent Zelda and Link
away to Hyrule Field, then called upon her ancestral magic to battle Ganondorf alone.

The conflagration that followed destroyed Hyrule Castle. A stunned Link and Zelda
watched as Ganondorf appeared on horseback with Midna’s Fused Shadow, crushing it in his
hand. Calling upon the power of the Light Spirits, Zelda and Link fought a pitched battle with
the Demon King on horseback, Zelda wielding the Light Arrows while Link used the Master
Sword. After Ganondorf fell from his horse he fought Link alone, wielding the blade that had
been used in his execution centuries before. Link outfought him, impaling him through the
chest, and Ganondorf died on his feet, a curse on his lips.

Midna was thought dead, but by the blessing of the Light Spirits she was revived, and by
Ganondorf’s death the curse was broken so that she regained her true shape once more. Midna
returned to the Twilight Realm—and, though it pained her to do so, obliterated the Mirror of
Twilight behind her, ensuring that her people would never again be threatened by the evils that
plagued Hyrule.

The Triforce of Wisdom remained with the bloodline of the Royal Family. The Triforce of
Courage was hidden by the Sages. The Triforce of Power vanished without a trace.

So peace reigned.

A Link Between Worlds

Once there was a land called Lorule. According to their legends, Lorule possessed its
own Triforce until their version of the sacred relic was destroyed. That destruction, meant to
free humanity from the temptation of divine power, destabilized their world terribly. Slowly, bit
by bit, Lorule and the world in which it stood began to come to an end.

There is no consensus on the exact nature of Lorule. It is possible that it was the
Twilight Realm, where legends about the Triforce had become warped and strange over time.
Perhaps Lorule was once the Sacred Realm, transformed into the Dark World by Ganon’s touch.
Perhaps it was an entirely new realm, created by the Triforce in answer to Ganon’s lust for
power. It is even possible that Lorule was simply in a reality that existed parallel to Hyrule’s
own, a piece of a wholly separate creation. No truth can be asserted there: all that can be truly
known is what came out of it.

Yuga, a sorcerer from Lorule, crossed the barrier between the worlds and appeared in
Hyrule. He flitted about the kingdom, capturing the descendants of the Sages by transforming
them into paintings before spiriting them back to Lorule. Anyone who crossed him would be
reduced to a mural on a wall. One person who received this treatment was a boy named Link,
who had been given a magic bracelet by a rude peddler named Ravio—luckily for Link, the
bracelet allowed him to move through the world as a painting, and flit between the different
states of being at will.

Guided by Sahasrahla, Link gathered up the pendants of Virtue and drew the Master
Sword, pursuing Yuga into Lorule. There he witnessed Yuga perform a terrible ritual, using
the descendants of the Sages to summon the fell power of Ganon and the Triforce of Power.
Yuga took both of these into himself and was transformed, becoming a beast like unto Ganon.
Hilda, the reigning Princess of Lorule, bound Yuga with her magic and bid Link to rescue the
Sages from throughout Lorule. If he could save them all, then he would be able to summon the
Triforce of Courage, and with it Yuga could be truly destroyed.
 Traveling across that startlingly familiar land, Link was able to free each of the new
Sages, adding their power to his own. When he had rescued all seven, they performed a ritual
that bestowed upon him the Triforce of Courage, identifying him as the true Hero.

Link returned to Lorule Castle, where Hilda revealed the truth: Yuga was her servant, and
had gone to Hyrule at her behest. Her plan was to steal Hyrule’s Triforce and use it to stabilize
Lorule, even if that meant the destruction of Hyrule, and to that end she had stolen the Triforce
of Wisdom from the captured Princess Zelda and lured Link into gathering the last piece. Hilda
released Yuga, who did battle with Link and was defeated. Frustrated, Hilda demanded that
Yuga turn the Triforce of Power over to her so that she could finish the job—but his monstrous
shape was not all that Yuga had inherited from Ganon.

Yuga betrayed Hilda, taking the Triforce of Wisdom for himself, and fought Link once
more. Gifted the Light Arrows by Zelda, Link was able to destroy Yuga once and for all,
obliterating him and dispelling his evil magic. Hilda, restored to her own body, reunited with
Ravio—revealed to be Link’s cowardly but clever counterpart—who had helped Link so that
Hilda would not destroy a whole world for the sake of their own. Hilda, resigned, asked Link
and Zelda to take their Triforce and go. Lorule would end peacefully, its people passing into
shadow.

Returning the Triforce to the Sacred Realm, Link and Zelda made a wish together,
undoing the great wrongs that had caused the misadventure. Yuga’s destructive rampage was
reversed, people restored to their own bodies, and in Hyrule all was well.

And, in Lorule, Hilda and Ravio found the greatest effect of Link and Zelda’s wish: that
the Lorulean Triforce had been restored, and that their world would endure.
 Converged Timeline
A Wish, a Convergence, and Ganon
Ganon’s wish that started the Imprisoning War echoed across all of time, breaking
the bonds that kept his alternate selves imprisoned in every version of the world. The seals
of the Old Gods crumbled and a broken mind stitched itself back together by sheer will. The
underlying laws of the universe were rewritten so that the Demon King would always return,
without fail and sometimes without explanation, until his wish was granted and he possessed
all of existence. Not even the Triforce could stop him permanently—for how could it be turned
against its own work before that work was completed?

The Triforce resonated with Ganon’s wish. It resonated in the Demise Timeline, where
the descendants of Link and Zelda the First used it to rule over a new golden age. It resonated
in the Child Timeline, where its last piece had been reclaimed from the shadows by the Royal
Family. It resonated in the Adult Timeline, where it had vanished after burying Hyrule and
Ganondorf beneath the sea.

Over the course of ages the three timelines grew more and more similar, closer
together, until the resonance of the Triforce began to unify them. As the timelines converged,
inconsistencies and disparities vanished, funneled into the Sacred Realm. The Rito returned
to Hyrule, and for the first time in any branch they lived alongside the Zora. The Sacred Realm
became filled with a mixture of different landmarks and architectures that could not fit into the
new world; it would eventually be called the Drablands.

As time converged, so did Ganon. The evil spirit that was summoned by Yuga, the
undying shadow that had been killed to mark a new golden age, the man sealed at the bottom
of the sea, all of these resonated and then converged with one another. The darkness of three
timelines overlapped, feeding into each other, layering on top of themselves, until a new single
Ganondorf emerged, more terrible than the sum of his parts.

When Ganondorf returned to Hyrule, there was conflict like nothing the world had ever
seen, eclipsing even the Great Demon War. The Triforce, still fulfilling his wish, could not be
used directly to stop him. With the Master Sword and the sacred power of the Royal Family’s
bloodline, Ganondorf was met on the field of battle, again and again, but each time he was
killed he returned as if death had no hold on him.

A group of people called the Zonai, followers of the Hero and worshippers of dragons,
gathered in the jungles of the Faron Grasslands. Together with the Gerudo, who still carried
the shame of Ganondorf’s origin in their hearts, the Zonai formed a plan to defeat Ganon once
and for all. Combining the magics and powers of their people, they did not kill Ganondorf; they
forced him underground, binding him with a seal more effective and more secure than those
of the gods. They left behind murals telling of their victory and his defeat, but throughout the
rest of Hyrule, virtually all mention of the Demon King was blotted out. The hope was that,
imprisoned in the bowels of the earth, no one would be able to reach Ganondorf or to free him.
This time, he was well and truly contained.

Ganondorf’s hate, however, could not be caged. It flowed from him like liquid, like smoke,
an outpouring of Malice that rushed up through the ground and emerged on Hyrule Field as the
Calamity. The Calamity was met by the Hero of its era and defeated—but, like its namesake,
it returned. For centuries it returned, and as Ganondorf’s hate grew so did the power of the
Calamity, until it too was called Ganon.

Eventually the same conclusion was reached again by the people of Hyrule: if the
Calamity could not be permanently killed, then it had to be imprisoned. The Sheikah built an
army of autonomous machines, the Guardians, which would fight alongside the Hero and
the Princess in the foretold battle to come. They also constructed the Divine Beasts, four
mighty weapons piloted by a representative Champion from each of the remaining peoples
of Hyrule. Sheikah technology had made incredible strides over the centuries, and between
the appearances of the Calamity it was a simple matter to subdue the monsters that would
occasionally appear; it was assumed that the same would be true when Ganon returned.

Then the Calamity, Ganon, reared its head for the final battle, bringing apocalypse. The
war that ensued shattered the land, digging new canyons throughout Hyrule and shattering
mountains as far north as the Hebra range. Monsters the size of castles roamed Hyrule, and
their bones would be scattered over the land for millennia. The guardian spirits who protected
the world joined in the war, and even they were not unharmed in the conflict—Levias, Oshus,
and the Wind Fish all lost their lives in the battle with Ganon.

The Hero of that era, a Zonai wearing the red headdress of his tribe, wielded the Master
Sword and led his people into battle with the Calamity. Though the Zonai were lost in that fight,
they bought the time necessary for the Guardians and Divine Beasts to be brought to bear. The
Divine Beasts unleashed their mighty weapons against the Calamity, draining its power, and the
Hero struck the final blow with the Master Sword. The Princess, using the power of Hylia and
the Triforce, then sealed the Calamity beneath Hyrule Castle, bringing the battle to an end.
 Then came a prophecy of ruin: that the weapons of the Sheikah would spell the end of
Hyrule and the world. The king of that age, fearing for the future, cast out the Sheikah and had
their weapons buried deep beneath the Earth.

The Sheikah split into three separate parts: those who saw this prophecy as an
injunction by the Goddess adopted a life of asceticism in the Necluda Mountains; those who
saw this as a betrayal by Hyrule and the Goddess turned to Ganon, and called themselves the
Yiga; those who worked to prevent the terrible future beseeched the Goddess for aid, and were
granted her sight. These last few hundred monks of the Sheikah constructed shrines and trials
before entering into millennia of meditation, hoping to restore the Hero of an age to come.

The Zonai were gone and the Sheikah were disgraced, but Hyrule slowly began to
recover. The seal on the Calamity was maintained by the matrilineal power of the Hyrulean
Royal Family, a secret passed down mother to daughter in turn, bolstered by the Triforce.

For ten thousand years, peace reigned.

Tri Force Heroes

In the neighboring kingdom of Hytopia, peace was a given; the primary concern of the
citizenry was to be fashionable, which was analogous to virtues of any other kind. It was a land
of plenty, a land of peace, a land of safety and few troubles or woes—it was so resplendent,
in fact, that some scholars are convinced that it was the home of the gods themselves. This
theory is, of course, very contentious.

Hytopia was linked to the Drablands, a separate realm accessible through portals where
hostile monsters roamed. Dangerous though it was, the monsters there provided excellent
materials for the most fashionable and most useful outfits. The boldest and mightiest of the
fashion-inclined spent a great deal of time there. One such fashionista, the mighty Lady Maud,
made her sorcerous abode in that realm so that she would always have the best materials for
her craft.

One day Lady Maud sent Styla, the Princess of Hytopia, a gift. The gift, however, was a
curse in disguise: as soon as she opened it, Styla was covered by a hideous one-piece jumpsuit
that was impossible to remove. Unable to go out for the shame of it, Styla and her father the
king fell into despair. The people, afraid to be stylish lest they draw Lady Maud’s wrath, began
to dress as drably as possible. A call for help went out.
 Three Heroes—or perhaps only one—appeared, and though they started off as style
delinquents, they possessed the pointy ears, epic sideburns, and side parted hair that marked
them as Tri Force Heroes. By working with Lady Maud’s sister, the powerful witch Madame
Couture, the trio were able to craft clothes fashionable enough to allow them to fight their way
through the Drablands. Becoming more stylish—and therefore more powerful—as they went,
the three warriors eventually fought their way to the heart of the Drablands.

The three Heroes eventually defeated Lady Maud, who was both confused and deeply
offended: the jumpsuit was the most stylish, cutting edge garment she’d ever devised. It wasn’t
removable because, well, why would you ever want to do so? In a huff, the Lady Maud gave
them the last component necessary for them to tailor the Lady’s Ensemble, and bid them leave;
she would never grace Hytopia with her designs again.

The Heroes returned triumphant and, by crafting and donning the Lady’s Ensemble,
were able to magically remove the jumpsuit and restore Styla to her fabulously chic self. The
kingdom celebrated, and the trio were enshrined for their courage—and, of course, their style.

Such was conflict in the days when the Calamity was sealed.

Breath of the Wild

Ten thousand years of peace passed for the land of Hyrule; what conflicts rose served
to make the myth of Ganon seem more terrible, but in time there were few people left who
believed he had ever been real.

One day there came to Hyrule a fortune teller, who approached the Royal Family and
uttered a prophecy: the Calamity, Ganon, would soon return, and the means to stop it lay deep
beneath the ground.

The Royal Family heeded the prophecy, excavating throughout Hyrule, and found that
the fortune teller had spoken the truth: beneath the earth were an untold number of Guardians
as well as the four Divine Beasts, all of which had lain dormant since the Calamity’s last fall.
The truth of the machines told the truth of Ganon, which lent proof to the prophecy.

The Queen of Hyrule died, suddenly and mysteriously, not long after the fortune teller
made their appearance and the ancient relics were unearthed. She took with her all the vital
knowledge of the sealing power of the Royal Family, leaving behind a six-year-old daughter with
no tutor and a husband who did not know how to prepare his child for the trials to come. The
Princess loved to study Sheikah technology, but there was no room for that with the Calamity
looming.

The Guardians and the Divine Beasts were unearthed and restored. Four Champions
from the different peoples of Hyrule were designated, tested, and found worthy to pilot the
machines. A final Champion was chosen as well, a young Hylian who came from of a family
of knights and who had proved himself worthy to wield the Master Sword. Through all of this,
for a decade and more, the Princess Zelda tried to awaken the legendary sealing power of her
bloodline. Through meditation, and prayer, and self-denial, and pilgrimage did she try—and
nothing availed her. The gods were silent. Hyrule quietly despaired. Zelda kept up her studies,
against her father’s wishes, to anchor herself.

The Princess came of age, turning seventeen, and still there was no awakening within
her. On her birthday the Calamity returned.

The shackles binding it beneath Hyrule Castle were broken and the Calamity rose in
a fury. With its power it seized control of the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, dispatching
Blights formed of its hatred to fight and kill each of the piloting Champions. The Hero, wielding
the Master Sword, fled with Zelda across Hyrule. The pair made their last stand against the
forces of darkness on the Blatchery Plain, where Link defeated hundreds of Guardians before
he was overtaken by his wounds. Seeing Link fall, Zelda’s power awoke, and with its light she
drove the Malice out of the Guardians, rendering them inert and lifeless.

Link was taken to the Chamber of Resurrection, where his wounds would be nursed for
a hundred years. Zelda took the badly damaged Master Sword to the Korok Village in the heart
of the Lost Woods, where it would rest, protected, until its master returned. Then Zelda went to
Hyrule Castle to face down the Calamity alone. With her power she bound herself and Ganon
together, fighting it, restraining it, until the Hero could rise again.

Hyrule was devastated; the decades that followed were called the Age of Burning
Fields. It would take many, many years before unity would rise out of the chaos. Some villages
escaped destruction, and the disparate communities were gradually connected by routes
maintained by travelers walking or riding between a series of interconnected stables. Monsters
lurked those paths, and most people never ventured far from home.

One hundred years later Link awoke, whole but reduced: the wounds he had taken were
so terrible that he would never recover his full strength, and the process of healing them had
robbed him of his memory. From Hyrule Castle, still battling the Calamity, Zelda called out to
him. Link answered by embarking on his quest.
 Link traveled all over Hyrule, between the different communities that had been so long
separated by Ganon’s monsters. He unearthed and explored the shrines of the ancient Sheikah
monks, and for each trial completed he was bestowed with the Spirit Orb that each monk
had formed after millennia of meditation. These Spirit Orbs restored his strength and vitality,
little by little, until he became something like his former self instead of only a shadow. He
explored the Lost Woods, having to prove his worthiness to the Master Sword once more, and
underwent trials to restore it as best he was able. As the Master Sword’s strength was linked to
his own, it was never again as perfect as it had been in the past, but it was still an unparalleled
weapon against evil—and the spirit of the sword whispered to him words that no one else
could hear and that were never recorded.

The other Champions were people that Link had known in his previous life, though he
knew them no longer, and in seeking out the Divine Beasts that they had piloted he freed not
only the machines but also the spirits of those he had once loved. Word of his deeds spread
throughout Hyrule, and the people waited.

Link arrived at Hyrule Castle just as Zelda’s strength was nearly exhausted. For a century
the Calamity had attempted to build itself a new body, but Zelda had frustrated its efforts
and the form that faced off with the Hero was awkward and misshapen. With the aid of the
Champions, whose spirits commanded the Divine Beasts, Link slew the Calamity—but that was
not the end of the battle. The body destroyed, the Malice that was the Calamity’s true identity
gathered onto Hyrule Field, coalescing into the Dark Beast Ganon, a monster that dwarfed even
the Divine Beasts.

The Divine Beasts, the Master Sword, the spirit of the Hero—none of these things could
avail Link against the monster. Zelda’s power allowed her to create weak points in its body, and
to strike at these weak points she gave to Link the Bow of Light. With the light of the Triforce
and the power of Hylia disrupting it from within and striking it from without, Ganon lost its form
completely. When it was reduced as much as it could be, Zelda manifested physically once
more, and with the power of the Triforce she eradicated the Calamity.

The Champions’ spirits at rest and the Calamity defeated in totality, Link and Zelda
traveled Hyrule together, picking up where the Princess had left off in her research on ancient
technology. They understood that Ganon would return, though they could not guess when, or in
what form.

They could not guess that, beneath the earth, the true evil was already stirring once
more.
The Accursed Timeline UNIFIED TIMELINE: EARLIEST
KNOWN HISTORY

By Crystal, Monica, and Cameron Creation (Apocryphal)

The Book of Mudora Podcast • The Triforce—and possibly the world—is created by the Old Gods.
• The Spirits of Good, including Hylia, watch over the Triforce in the Old Kingdom.
http://www.audioentropy.com/the-book-of-mudora/

The Great Demon War

• Demon King Malladus leads Dark Interlopers—the Demon Tribe—in assault on the Old Kingdom to
claim the Triforce.
• Peoples of the Old Kingdom scatter across the world.
• Malladus is sealed, at the expense of the lives of all but one of the Spirits of Good.
• Hylia takes the Triforce and flees through Lost Woods to a new continent.
• Demise attacks; Hylia sends humanity into the sky with the Triforce.
• Hylia imprisons Demise; Sages seal most of the demons behind the Mirror of Twilight.
• Hylia dies from her wounds. Her plan to defeat Demise permanently is put into action.

Full Diagram Skyward Sword

(Click for Condensed Version) • Hylia reincarnates in Skyloft as a mortal, Zelda, and grows up with Link, Hylia’s Chosen Hero.
v. 1.0 - 2019-11-01 • Zelda is swept to the surface by Demon Lord Ghirahim.
• Link is spurred to forge the Goddess Sword into the Master Sword, and himself into a person
worthy of wielding the Triforce.
• Zelda travels into the past and enters a magic sleep to maintain the seal on Demise.

DEMISE TIMELINE: DEMISE IS DEFEATED IN THE PAST IMPRISONED TIMELINE: DEMISE IS DEFEATED IN THE
BY LINK WIELDING THE MASTER SWORD PRESENT BY LINK WISHING ON THE TRIFORCE

Death of Demise Death of the Imprisoned

• Link travels back in time and defeats Demise. • Link obtains the Triforce and wishes for the annihilation of Demise. The Imprisoned is destroyed.
• Demise lays a curse on the world. His soul is sealed within the Master Sword to be destroyed over • Skyloft and its inhabitants return to the Surface.
eons. • The Temple of Hylia is converted into the Temple of Time. The Triforce is hidden in the Silent
• Link returns to the present and leaves the Master Sword behind, splitting the timeline. Realm, sealed by the Master Sword.
• The sleeping Zelda in this branch of the timeline does not awaken. • The three Spiritual Stones are placed in the care of the Gorons, the Zora, and the Great Deku Tree.
• The kingdom of Hyrule is founded and exists peaceably with its neighbors for generations.

The Light Force and the Hero of Men

The War of Unification
• Skyloft returns to the surface along with the unchanged Goddess Sword.
• The remaining demons attack, seeking to free Demise’s soul. • Rumors of the hidden Golden Power spread, and all the peoples of the land war to possess it.
• The Minish appear. They awaken the sleeping Zelda, and with her help forge the Goddess Sword • The kingdom of Hyrule unites the disparate peoples of the land into one nation.
into the Picori Blade. • Ganondorf rises to power among the Gerudo.
• The Hero of Men and Zelda seal the demon horde in the Bound Chest.
• The Kingdom of Hyrule is founded to guard the Bound Chest.
• Zelda hides the Triforce in the Silent Realm, later known as the Golden Land. Ocarina of Time
• Ganondorf curses the peoples of Hyrule to obtain the Sacred Stones.
The Minish Cap • Link, at Zelda’s direction, obtains the Spiritual Stones and pulls the Master Sword, aiming to obtain
the Triforce first. He is put in a seven-year sleep.
• A Minish sorcerer, Vaati, destroys the Picori Blade in pursuit of the Light Force; demons in the • Ganondorf uses Link to access the Sacred Realm. The Triforce splits at his touch, and he searches
Bound Chest are freed. for the missing pieces for seven years.
• Link, with the help of Vaati’s master Ezlo, reforges the Picori Blade into the Four Sword. • Link returns, awakens the Sages, and defeats Ganondorf. The Demon King is sealed in the Sacred
• Link defeats Vaati, and Zelda uses the Light Force—the power of Hylia—alongside the Mage’s Cap Realm along with the Triforce of Power.
to undo the damage Vaati caused. • Zelda sends Link back in time to before they first met, creating two timelines: one in which
• The Four Sword, with Vaati’s spirit sealed inside, is hidden in the Sanctuary within the Silent Realm. Ganondorf was defeated and the Hero disappeared, and one in which the war with Ganondorf had
yet to be waged.
• The Triforce of Courage in the Adult Timeline is left with Zelda, who splits it into pieces and hides it
Four Swords across Hyrule in anticipation of the Hero who will need it in the future.
CHILD TIMELINE: LINK IS SENT BACK IN
• Vaati, devoid of memory, breaks free and wreaks havoc before being defeated and sealed away TIME BY ZELDA
again.
Majora’s Mask

Four Swords Adventures • Zelda gives Link the Ocarina of Time and sends him away so Ganondorf cannot obtain the Triforce.
Link goes in search of a friend in the Lost Woods.
• Demise’s curse manifests as a trident and is sealed within a pyramid. • Link is lured into Termina by Skull Kid, who has been twisted by Majora’s Mask. The world of
• Ganondorf of the Gerudo steals the trident, becoming Ganon. Termina will be destroyed in three days, when the moon crashes into the land.
• Using the Dark Mirror—the Mirror of Twilight—Ganon engineers the release of Vaati, feeding off of • Link uses the Ocarina of Time to relive those three days over and over, freeing the guardian spirits
the ensuing destruction. of the land so they can stop the moon from falling.
• Ganon reveals himself when Vaati is totally destroyed by Link wielding the Four Sword. • The moon is stopped and the mask abandons Skull Kid. Link destroys the evil spirit residing in the
• Ganon is sealed within the Four Sword, which is placed in the Sanctuary once more. ADULT TIMELINE: LINK DEFEATS
mask, saving Termina, and returns to Hyrule.
GANON AND DISAPPEARS

The Wish and the War War Before the Twilight

The Flooding of Hyrule
• Ganon breaks free of the Four Sword, destroying it, and is free to act in the Golden Land, where the • Unable to obtain the Triforce through subterfuge, Ganondorf gathers an army and invades Hyrule.
• Hundreds of years after Ganondorf is sealed away, Ganon’s wish on the Triforce in the Demise
Triforce is hidden. GANON’S WISH ECHOES The war lasts for years.
Timeline echoes across all of time. The seal of the Old Gods breaks.
• Ganon obtains the Triforce, wishing to possess everything. ACROSS TIMELINES • Link returns from his long journey and, fully grown, faces Ganondorf. Link defeats Ganondorf at the
• Ganondorf is freed, and the people of Hyrule pray for the return of the Hero of Time, who does not
• Ganon wages a war on Hyrule, and is defeated by the Master Sword, which can resist the power of cost of his own life, and the Demon King is captured.
appear.
the Triforce. • Ganondorf is executed by the Sages but survives when he awakens to the Triforce of Power inside
• The king, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, orders the people of Hyrule to the mountains, and calls on the
• The Sages use the power of the Old Gods to seal the Golden Land, now the Dark World. of him. He kills one of the Sages before being sealed away with the Mirror of Twilight.
gods of wind and storm to flood the land.
• Ganon’s wish is not fully granted. The Triforce works perpetually to fulfill it, the enormity of the • Ganon’s wish echoes across all timelines, and Ganondorf wakes in the Twilight Realm. He bestows
• Hyrule sinks beneath the ocean, and Ganondorf’s power is contained there for many years.
wish echoing across every timeline. his power to Zant, a power-hungry Twili.

The Wind Waker

A Link to the Past Twilight Princess
• Ganondorf’s power reaches above the waves and he resumes his search for the other Triforce
• The seal on the Dark World weakens. Ganon’s spirit, in the guise of Agahnim, quietly conquers • Zant invades and conquers Hyrule, turning many people into spirits. Link, in the Ordona province,
pieces.
Hyrule. transforms into a wolf in the Twilight thanks to the Triforce of Courage.
• A girl named Aryll is captured by Ganondorf’s minions. Aryll’s brother, Link, sets off alongside Tetra
• Link draws the Master Sword and defeats Agahnim, who pulls the Hero into the Dark World. • Midna, the displaced Twilight Princess whose throne Zant usurped, enlists Link’s help.
and her pirate crew to rescue Aryll.
• Link fights and destroys Ganon, obtaining the Triforce. He wishes to undo Ganon’s evil. • Link and Midna gather the ancestral relics of the Twili, draw the Master Sword, and reassemble the
• Guided by the King of Red Lions, Link obtains the Master Sword and reassembles the Triforce of
• The Triforce is placed into the care of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Mirror of Twilight. They return to the Twilight Realm and defeat Zant.
Courage.
• Ganondorf is waiting for Link and Midna in Hyrule Castle. Link and Midna fight to free Zelda, and
• The King of Red Lions, in truth the ghost of King Daphnes, wishes on the Triforce to bury Hyrule
together the three bring Ganondorf low.
beneath the waves forever.
Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages • Ganondorf dies with the Master Sword through his chest.
• Working together, Link and Tetra defeat Ganondorf by piercing his skull with the Master Sword. He
• The witches Twinrova, working through the evil fairy Veran and the dark dragon Onox, conquer the is trapped under the waters, sealed in stone.
lands of Labrynna and Holodrum. • Link and Tetra set sail in search of a new land.
A Link Between Worlds
• Link is summoned by the Triforce and sent on a quest to rescue the Oracles of those lands.
• Link defeats Onox and Veran, who have caused enough havoc to light the Flame of Sorrow and the • The land of Lorule begins to crumble in the absence of its Triforce. Hilda, the princess of that land,
Flame of Destruction. Phantom Hourglass sends Yuga to enact a plan to steal the Hyrulean Triforce.
• Twinrova kidnaps Zelda, lighting the Flame of Despair. Sacrificing Zelda is the last component of a • Yuga kidnaps the Sages and Zelda—who has the Triforce of Wisdom—and uses their power to
• Link and Tetra are drawn into the World of the Ocean King, where Tetra’s life force is stolen by the
ritual to revive Ganon. summon the spirit of Ganon, who has the Triforce of Power. Yuga merges with Ganon’s spirit.
Demon King Bellum.
• Link interrupts the ritual so that Ganon is revived imperfectly. Link destroys Twinrova and Ganon. • Link of Hyrule rescues the Sages, who summon the Triforce of Courage. With that piece, Link goes
• Link enlists the help of the treasure hunter Linebeck. He ventures into the depths of the Temple of
• Link sails away on a sailboat. to do battle with Yuga.
the Ocean King, where Bellum waits.
• Yuga betrays Hilda and steals the Triforce of Wisdom so he may possess the entire Triforce for
• Link, Tetra, and Linebeck fight together to defeat Bellum, freeing the Ocean King and restoring
himself. Link, with Zelda’s help, obliterates Yuga.
peace to the world.
Link’s Awakening • Link and Zelda use the united Triforce to restore balance to Lorule, saving that world from
• The Ocean King sends Link and Tetra back to their own world.
destruction.
• The Wind Fish dreams the island of Koholint into existence and is trapped in its dream by the
Nightmares.
• Link’s sailboat is destroyed in a storm, and he washes up on Koholint. Returning to the Old Kingdom
• Link defeats the Nightmares and wakes the Wind Fish, ending the dream and erasing Koholint.
• Link and Tetra arrive in the Old Kingdom and establish a new kingdom in their ancestral home.
• Tetra befriends the Lokomo, guardians of the land who once served the Spirits of Good.
• The Spirit Tracks binding Malladus become the basis of travel throughout the realm.
The Golden Age and Its End • One hundred years pass.
• The Hyrulean Royal Family governs with the power of the Triforce for an era.
• One day, a king determines that his heir will not use the Triforce justly; he hides the Triforce of
Courage. Spirit Tracks
• The prince inherits two pieces of the Triforce. Attempting to learn the location of the third from his
• Malladus’s servants, seeking his return, steal the body of Zelda, princess of the new kingdom.
sister, his wizard advisor curses Zelda to sleep eternally.
• Zelda, in spirit form, travels with a young train engineer named Link to restore the power of the
• The prince declares that all women born of the royal family shall be named Zelda.
Spirit Tracks that keep Malladus sealed.
• Without the full Triforce or power of Hylia, Hyrule goes into decline. It loses much of its territory
• Malladus breaks free, but with the assistance of the Lokomo Link and Zelda reclaim the princess’s
until only the Little Kingdom remains. Hundreds of years pass.
body and defeat the Demon King.
• The Lokomo ascend to the heavens, leaving the new kingdom solely in the care of mortals.
The Legend of Zelda
• Through the power of his ancient wish on the Triforce, Ganon returns. He attacks Hyrule, stealing
the Triforce of Power.
• Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom and hides the pieces throughout the Little Kingdom, a region of
Death Mountain designed to protect the Triforce shards.
• Ganon captures Zelda.
• Zelda’s attendant, Impa, encounters Link, and charges him with uniting the Triforce of Wisdom and
rescuing Zelda.
• Link travels across Hyrule, rebuilds the Triforce, and slays Ganon.

The Adventure of Link

• Two years after defeating Ganon, Link notices the mark of the Triforce on his hand. Impa tells him
the legend of the Triforce of Courage and the sleeping princess.
• Link travels across Hyrule, eventually breaking the barrier on the Great Palace, and travels within it
to reclaim the Triforce of Courage.
• Uniting all three pieces of the Triforce, Link breaks the curse on the sleeping princess.
• With the Triforce as proof of sovereignty, Link becomes the King of Hyrule. He marries the sleeping
Zelda, uniting the power of Hylia with the rule of the Triforce once more.

A New Golden Age

• The Hyrulean royal family rules justly by the providence of the Triforce for generations.
• Ganon’s wish remains ungranted, and the Triforce works to fulfill it.

CONVERGED TIMELINE: THE BRANCHES

GROW MORE SIMILAR AND THEN MERGE

A Wish, a Convergence, and Ganon

• Ganon’s wish on the Triforce continues to echo in every timeline. As ages pass, each branch grows
more similar to the others. Eventually, they merge.
• A medley of disparate lands come together in the Sacred Realm, later known as the Drablands.
• The dark power of the eternally reborn Ganon in the Demise Timeline and the spirit of Ganon from
the Child Timeline merge with the sealed Ganondorf of the Adult Timeline, and a new and more
terrible Ganondorf returns to attack Hyrule.
• Using the Triforce and the Master Sword, Ganondorf is defeated many times, and returns just as
many times. Because he cannot be permanently killed, Ganondorf is sealed deep within the earth
by the Zonai and the Gerudo.
• Ganondorf’s hatred seeps to the surface in the form of the Calamity. The Calamity is destroyed and
born anew from Ganondorf’s hatred, over and over, until it too is called Ganon.
• An army of Guardians and four Divine Beasts are built to battle the Calamity, and after a continent-
shaking war the Calamity is sealed beneath Hyrule Castle.
• Peace reigns for ten thousand years.

Tri Force Heroes

• Styla, princess of the kingdom of Hytopia, is cursed with an unremovable ugly jumpsuit by the Lady
Maude. Hytopia, a kingdom concerned primarily with fashion, falls into chaos.
• Three Heroes are summoned to defeat Maude and break the spell. They march together into the
Drablands and confront Maude.
• Maude is defeated, the curse is broken, and peace returns to Hytopia as everyone returns to
dressing however they like.

Breath of the Wild

• A fortune teller guides the Kingdom of Hyrule to prepare for the return of the Calamity.
• The ancient Guardians and Divine Beasts are excavated.
• The Queen of Hyrule, who alone knows the secret to the sealing power of the Royal Family, dies
suddenly. Zelda, her daughter, struggles to awaken that power on her own.
• Four Champions are found to pilot the Divine Beasts. The Hero draws the Master Sword.
• The Calamity returns. It takes control of the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, killing the four
Champions.
• The Hero, Link, is defeated, but Zelda unlocks the sealing power in time to save his life. Link is
taken to the Chamber of Resurrection while Zelda battles the Calamity, Ganon, alone.
• Link’s wounds heal over the course of a hundred years. He is awoken by Zelda when she is at the
limit of her strength.
• Without his memories or prior strength, Link travels across Hyrule, regains the strength necessary
to draw the Master Sword, frees the spirits of the Champions and the Divine Beasts, and does
battle with the Calamity.
• Link defeats the Calamity, and Zelda uses the power of the Triforce to obliterate it.
The Accursed Timeline

By Crystal, Monica, and Cameron

The Book of Mudora Podcast
http://www.audioentropy.com/the-book-of-mudora/
v. 1.0 - 2019-11-01