Kevin's Favourite capital of the week:
Hyrule Castle (and surrounding town), the capital of the land of
Hyrule in the Legend of Zelda video game universe (created by
Nintendo).
The Legend of Zelda is one of
Nintendo's most successful franchises, having to date 16 games in its
cannon. There are several spin-off games, a short run TV show, many
comic and manga adaptions (including a complete history of the land
of Hyrule) and a four movement orchestral symphony of its music also
making the rounds. A 17th game for the cannon is in the
works as we speak and should be released on the Wii U console by the
end of this year (possibly). I am not sure where this game will fall
chronologically in the very abridged history of Hyrule I have below.
The games have always had three characters in common: Link (the
silent Hero), Zelda (the benevolent princess and often summoner of
the Hero) and Ganon/Ganondorf/Demise (the demon lord in all his
various forms). These three are forever locked in an eternal war for
the peace (or lack thereof) of Hyrule, and for the Triforce Triangle,
that helps maintain (or destroy) that peace. Maybe not the most
original of story ideas, but certainly compelling, especially in the
interest of creating more video games.
A note about Hyrulean history: up until
the release of the Hyrule Historia (the official history of Hyrule by
Nintendo) there was little agreement on the chronological order of
the games, and a lot of theories. With the December 2011 release of
the Historia, much was clarified.
An abridged history of the Land of
Hyrule:
The land of Hyrule was created by the
3 Golden Goddesses who, upon this creation, left for the heavens.
They did however, leave a symbol of their power, in the form of the
Triforce triangles, which could grant the wishes of any who could
master it, provided their spirits were balanced. The triangles that
made up the Triforce were: courage, power and wisdom (one for each of
the respective goddesses that made them). They left the goddess
Hylia in charge of the world. Hylia was also given Triforce, though
she could not wield it as it was a tool only for mortals.
It was not long before Hylia was
challenged for control by the demon lord Demise. Demise gathered an
army of monsters and launched a surprise attack, from out of the
bowels of the earth on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Hyrule, in an
attempt to draw out the goddess and gain the power she possessed.
The attack caught most off guard and many were killed. The goddess
used her power to send the surviving humans and the Triforce to sky
on large a piece of land, out of reach of Demise and his followers,
before sealing him away with the help of the five land tribes of
creatures who could not go aloft with the humans. The goddess
suffered grave injury from her battle with Demise and, knowing her
seal was only a temporary (albeit thousands of years temporary)
thing, she set a plan into action, that would reach fruition, should
Demise ever escape his prison. She hid the Triforce away on a
floating island in the realm now called Skyloft, and prepared a sword
imbued with her ebbing power and only waiting for her chosen hero to
draw it out. To that end, Hylia gave up her form as a goddess and
set herself to be reborn a human, when the seal on Demise was
weakest. She would be reborn as the Princess Zelda, thousands of
years later, in the Skyloft kingdom.
For the sake of not completely ruining
the story line of the game the Skyward Sword, I will be rather brief
here. When Demise's seal is at its weakest and Hylia (now Zelda) is
reborn, so too is the hero she expected. The two attempted to keep
Demise sealed away, but with the help of his own servants, Demise
managed to break free. In a pitched battle between hero and demon
king the hero defeats and kills Demise. But Demise's spirit is too
strong to simply go away and he warns Link (the hero) that he will
always return in some form, to eventually have his dominance of the
world. So the cycle of rebirths for the spirit of the hero, the
blood of the goddess and the spirit of hate begins.
With the defeat of the Demise, the
land in the sky returned to the ground and, after some disorientation
and chaos, a new age of prosperity began. A wise sage named Rauru
sealed away the Triforce as well as the hero's sword (now the Master
Sword) in the Sacred Realm and sealed the entrance to that in the
Temple of Time (something that was integral to the defeat of Demise),
to insure continued peace and prosperity throughout the land.
As time passed Hyrule, continued to
prosper, despite some infrequent incursions made by evil forces.
There was always a hero who rose to help Hyrule weather the storm.
But, it was rare that the Triforce was threatened and Hyrule did not
see any true threat to itself. The only thing that might have
represented Demises return was a sorcerer named Vaati. Who was
defeated twice (in the games The Minish Cap and The Four Swords).
And more time passed until complacency turned to greed and a civil
war erupted in Hyrule.
There was no known reason for this to
happen and it took some time for the king to restore order. In this
time an unnoticed evil crept in, in the form of Ganondorf. Also
unnoticed was the birth of a baby boy in a forest, who would grow up
to be the Hero of Time, Link. Though apparently he did not grow up
fast enough.
In the newly calm again Hyrule,
Ganondorf attempted to gain access to the Sacred Realm and the
Triforce. Needing the Ocarina of Time, an object possessed by the
Princess Zelda, he attempted to steal it from her. But Zelda tricked
Ganondorf and got the Ocarina to Link. Link played the Ocarina, as
instructed, in front of the alter in the Temple of Time and was able
to pull the Master Sword from its alter, which was through a door of
time in the Temple of Light. Unfortunately Link was too young to
properly wield the sword and he was sealed in the Temple for seven
years until he was old enough and strong enough to wield the Master
Sword. In that intervening time Ganondorf, had gained access to the
Triforce of power, had conquered Hyrule and it appeared to many that
all hope was lost. Link, following the instructions left to him by
Zelda and others, set about cleansing the world of the evil that
Ganondorf had set upon it, until all that was left for him to defeat
was Ganondorf himself. Link met and defeated him but on his defeat,
Ganondorf transformed into Ganon (pure hatred one might say) at this
point Link manages to weaken him enough so that he can be sealed away
by the sages and Zelda.
And here is where things get a bit
messy for the timeline. Because Zelda then sent Link back to his own
time and to his child self, a branch in the timeline of Hyrule was
created. Since Ganondorf was unable to gain access to the Sacred
Realm, since the child Link in this timeline warned the nobles of the
tragic future Ganondorf would cause, he was defeated by normal means
and sent to the Twilight realm. This branch brings about the events
of the games: Majora's Mask, The Twilight Princess and Four Swords
Adventure.
Yet the future created by the hero of
Time defeating Ganon was also formed and leads to the stories that
are in the games: The Wind Waker, The Phantom Hourglass and Spirit
Tracks.
There is a third branch in the timeline
as well, one in which Link is defeated by Ganondorf, who is sealed in
the corrupted Sacred Realm by the sages and leads to the events in
the games: A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, A Link Between
Worlds, The original Nintendo Legend of Zelda games (1 and 2) and
Oracle games.
This seems to be a good place to end.
History of places don't tend to split in 3 after a certain point and
makes for difficulty in continuing a history (even an abridged one).
Also I've written way more than I expected.
You can be assured though, that in all
of the timelines, the three souls locked in eternal struggle will
continue to appear.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm
going to go play one of those games.
