Hyrule Castle

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 17^th 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.