This article contains spoilers for most games in the Legend of Zelda franchise.
Nintendo has many popular franchises, including Mario, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, etc. but one of the company's most iconic is The Legend of Zelda. As the franchise is nearing its 39th anniversary, here’s a recounting of the rich lore that has been peppered in throughout the entire series.
The Legend of the Goddesses and the Hero
Before we can get to the timeline and how all of the games fit in with each other, we must acknowledge how the world of Hyrule came to be. The idea is first planted in the instruction manual of the Link to the Past game but it’s reiterated in other games as well. The idea is that three goddesses—Din, Nayru, and Farore—shaped the land, order, and life that makes up Hyrule, and created the Triforce, three triangular pieces that represent power, wisdom, and courage. The Triforce was created to keep order throughout the land. Shortly after it was sent to the Sacred Realm—a separate world connected to Hyrule that holds the Triforce for protection—the goddesses departed and the land was entrusted to the Goddess Hylia. The Demon King Demise then came and declared that he wanted to take over Hyrule for his own. Hylia did what she could to save the surviving humans by creating lands in the sky and sending the humans there to live away from Demise. The remaining troops on the surface fought against Demise's army, and Hylia was able to seal him away successfully, vowing not to return until Demise broke his seal.
Link raising skyward sword in air. In-game screen capture taken by Sam Jasionowski.
Our story picks back up with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Although it was the sixteenth game in the franchise, it was the first to suggest that every Zelda game is connected. The story starts on the floating island of Skyloft, where we meet the first incarnations of Link and Zelda. Throughout the game, you slowly learn that Zelda is the direct reincarnation of Goddess Hylia, the one who created the world of Hyrule, and only she and Link can stop the Demon King Demise from taking over Hyrule again. After a lengthy fight, Link finally defeats Demise, but before he dies, he places a curse that states his hatred will reincarnate into an evil being (Ganon) in every generation the Goddess (Zelda) and Hero (Link) are reborn. This curse explains why even though the games have different versions of the beloved characters, the storyline stays the same. Finally, the floating islands fell to the ground, creating the land of Hyrule and starting an era of peace.
Years later, war and chaos start to break out and evil entities try to steal the triforce from the Sacred Realm. For the sake of its safety, the Sacred Realm is sealed within the pedestal of the Master Sword, which is housed in the Temple of Time, ensuring that the Triforce was kept safe and the only way it could be opened was by the Hero of Time. We then get to the games Minish Cap and Four Swords, which introduce Vaati, the evil spirit that tries to use Zelda’s Light Force (the power she has from being a descendant of Hylia). Link locks Vaati away for a few generations until Vaati returns to kidnap the next reincarnation of Princess Zelda. With a second attempt, Link defeats Vaati and saves Zelda. Another era of peace comes and goes until a civil war breaks out and leads us to Ocarina of Time.
The Three Fractured Timelines
Ocarina of Time is where the timeline starts to get confusing. The game starts with a woman leaving her child, Link, with the Great Deku Tree and the Kokori Tribe, where he then is entrusted with the quest to stop Ganondorf (the leader of the Gerudo) from opening the Door of Time and taking the Triforce. Link and Zelda plan to open the Sacred Realm, but when Link goes to pull the Master Sword out of the pedestal, he is forced into a seven-year slumber. While Link was sealed away, Ganondorf breaks into the Sacred Realm and steals the Triforce. To protect itself, the Triforce splits into three pieces and a piece each goes to Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, the beginning of the split Triforce pieces. After gaining power from the Master Sword and the Seven Sages, Link faces Ganon in a final fight, and the three outcomes split into separate timelines.
If Link loses to Ganon, he steals the rest of the Triforce pieces and takes over the land of Hyrule, sending it to the Fallen Hero Timeline. However, if Link successfully defeats Ganon, Zelda sends him back the seven years that he missed out on, and this is where the remaining timelines split. In the Child Timeline, when Link goes back in time, he warns the Royal Family about Ganon’s future betrayal and goes on a new adventure. The Adult Timeline is created the minute Link goes back in time—he creates a new timeline by going back, meaning Link gets erased from the current one, leaveing Hyrule with no hero. All of the timelines have their own storylines, making each version unique and offering new perspectives to the respective games in each timeline.
The Fallen Hero Timeline
The Fallen Hero Timeline is the most straightforward timeline out of the three, but that doesn’t mean it’s not packed full of interesting lore. After Link loses and Ganon steals the Triforce, the Seven Sages fearfully decided to lock Ganon in the Sacred Realm, initiating the Imprisoning War era. During this era, people hear legends of the Triforce being hidden in the Sacred Realm and tried to enter for their own greed but when they tried, they would be greeted by Ganon and turn into his army. In the meantime, other evil beings took over Hyrule and started the Era of Light and Dark. In A Link to the Past, a wizard named Agahnim is able to break the seal on Ganon, but when he’s defeated, the Triforce is sent back to safety with the Royal Family.
Link entering Sky Keep dungeon. In-game screen capture taken by Sam Jasionowski.
The next few games in the timeline have similar premises: an evil wizard decides to try resurrecting Ganon, but is ultimately defeated by Link. This goes on for about five more games. While these games have similar themes, they each have some cool aspects to it, like the 2D and 3D aspects of A Link Between Worlds, or the fact that Echoes of Wisdom is the first mainline game where you get to play as Zelda. After a few decades of shenanigans, the Triforce gets split again, and the King of Hyrule hides the Triforce of Courage until someone worthy enough comes along to wield it. Ganon comes back and steals the Triforce of Power, and this is where the original game, The Legend of Zelda, begins. When Ganon and his army come back, Link goes on a mission to find the eight splintered pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, which enable him to defeat Ganon once and for all. Years later, Link goes on his final quest to defeat the rest of Ganon’s minions. Once he succeeds, the Triforce is finally restored, and the Fallen Hero Timeline comes to a close with Hyrule at peace.
The Child and Adult Timelines
The Child and Adult timelines are a bit funny because when you look at the content and art style of the games that fall under each timeline, you’d think the names should be switched. The Child Timeline starts at the end of Ocarina of Time, where Zelda sends Link back seven years to live out his childhood. Instead, he gets stuck in a parallel world called Termina. This begins the nightmare fuel of a game known as Majora’s Mask. In this world, Skull Kid—a recurring character in the Child Timeline—gets taken over by the Majora’s Mask and devises a plan to take over Termina within the span of three days by taking down the moon. This creates an interesting playthrough, but once Link saves Termina, he goes back to Hyrule and decides to settle down until he dies. Because Link was given the opportunity to go back in time and warn the Royal Family about Ganon’s future plans, he is sentenced to death, but escapes because he still holds the Triforce of Power. To stop him from gaining more power, the Seven Sages banish him to the Twilight Realm where he meets Zant, the main antagonist of Twilight Princess, and grants him the power to take over Hyrule. Zant takes over the power of the Twilight Princess Midna and brings the Twilight Realm to Hyrule. While Zant takes over Hyrule, he turns Link into a wolf, and Link teams up with Midna to return the land to normal. Of course, they are successful in defeating both Zant and Ganon. Midna returns to the Twilight Realm, and we never hear from her again. The last game in the Child Timeline is Four Swords Adventures, where Ganon resurrects Vaati all the way back from the original Four Swords game and somehow splits Link into four heroes. The four Links then go on their own adventure to save Hyrule, and Vaati and Ganon are defeated once and for all. Peace is restored in the Child Timeline.
The Adult Timeline differs from the Child Timeline because in this story, Link goes back in time and vanishes, causing an era without a hero to protect Hyrule. After Link goes missing, the Triforce of Courage gets split into eight pieces and hidden throughout the land. The Seven Sages seal Ganon in the Sacred Realm along with the Triforce of Power while Zelda returns the Master Sword to the Temple of Time to keep it safe without its wielder. Over time, the Sages' seal breaks and Ganon regains his power, but because there is no hero to stop him, Ganon’s power starts to get alarmingly stronger. To combat that, King Daphnes, the king of Hyrule, pleads with the gods for help and they respond by flooding Hyrule, creating the Great Sea. The Triforce of Wisdom gets split in two. One piece stays frozen in time under the sea, and Zelda gets sent to the new world with the other piece in disguise. This works for a while ,until in Wind Waker Ganon comes to the surface and plots to kidnap any girl with pointed ears in hopes of finding Zelda. This is how Link’s sister, Aryll, gets kidnapped. Link gets sent on a great mission by his grandma to go find his sister and meets Tetra, a female pirate, who turns out to be the disguised Princess Zelda. After restoring the pieces of the Triforce, Link and Zelda defeat Ganon below the sea, and the King of Red Lions wipes out the rest of Hyrule. Above sea, Zelda returns as Tetra, deciding to adventure the sea with Link. They discover the Ghost Ship, where all of Phantom Hourglass takes place. Tetra gets kidnapped on the ship, and Link must venture through this haunted ship alone to save her. Once they escape the Ghost Ship, Tetra and Link continue sailing until they find a new continent and settle down there until the events of Spirit Tracks. Many generations pass and a new evil comes about, but doesn’t put up a great fight against Link. The Adult Timeline has restored its peace.
The Unplaced Games
There are two games that stick out like a sore thumb within the history of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. It is said that both games take place many decades after the events of the other games, but no one is exactly sure where it falls into the timelines as they sort of have their own history. The storyline technically starts in Tears of the Kingdom, with the Zonai descending from sky islands in the sky—not to be confused by the sky islands from Skyward Sword—and King Rauru (Chris Hackney) and Queen Sonia (Cherami Leigh) create the Hyrule Kingdom. When the Demon King Ganondorf (Matthew Mercer) becomes the King of the Gerudo and tries to take over Hyrule, Rauru bands together five sages from each region of Hyrule, who all hold a secret stone that gives them powers to imprison Ganondorf. They aren’t exactly successful, but Rauru sacrifices himself and his secret stone to seal Ganondorf away underneath Hyrule Castle, keeping it hidden for many centuries. After the Imprisoning War, Calamity Ganon comes into the picture. To combat it, the Sheikah—a technologically advanced tribe that helped develop Hyrule—built Guardians and the Divine Beasts. The Link and Zelda in that era are able to seal Calamity Ganon, but the King of Hyrule becomes paranoid and bans all the Sheikah technology, burying it underground around Hyrule.
Link falling in the sky during title sequence. In-game screen capture taken by Sam Jasionowski.
About 10,000 years later, a prophecy about Calamity Ganon scares King Rhoam (Bill Rogers) and he decides to reconnect with the Sheikah to dig up the technology that sealed Calamity Ganon all those centuries ago. When the Divine Beasts are dug up, four warriors of each tribe in Hyrule were given the power to work the Divine Beasts, giving them the titles of Champion. Zelda (Patricia Summersett) is also tasked to try and hone her sealing power, ones that she has as a descendant of the gods. Before preparations are complete, however, Calamity Ganon breaks his seal and takes control of all of the Sheikah technology that was supposed to help fight against him. After a tough battle, the only hope left is Zelda, who puts an injured Link in the Shrine of Resurrection to sleep for 100 years so he can come back and save Hyrule. Zelda then sacrifices herself to seal Calamity Ganon. Her final wish is for Link to come find her once he wakes up, which he does. After 100 years, Link wakes up, finds new warriors of each tribe to help take back the Divine Beasts, and is able to finally defeat Calamity Ganon and bring Zelda back. Once safe, Zelda dedicates her time to rebuilding Hyrule and helping where she can.
Shortly after the events of Breath of the Wild, a strange substance called Gloom starts seeping out from under Hyrule Castle. Link and Zelda venture under to see what’s causing it. They then discover the scene where Ganondorf was sealed all of those centuries ago by Rauru. Ganondorf awakes, and Zelda saves Rauru’s secret stone but gets sent to the past, leaving Link alone to deal with the fallout of Ganon's resurrection. Once Link recovers his health, he goes on a mission to find all of the warriors that helped him with Calamity Ganon in the past and finds that they are all descendants of the Sages that held the other secret stones during the Imprisoning War. With the help of his Sages, Link is able to defeat the revived Ganondorf, save Zelda, and bring peace back to Hyrule for once and for all and this is where the timeline currently concludes.
Is the Timeline Worth the Pain?
The idea of all the games being connected causes very polarizing opinions because it is a bit unorganized and messy. Some say having some sort of consistency between games make it fun for fans who have been dedicated throughout the whole franchise, but others say it is pointless. Regardless of opinion, The Legend of Zelda series has rich lore that drives the games forward and makes each game unique and interesting to play. As the franchise continues to grow, the story will continue to change and it will be exciting to see all of the stories connect and hopefully make an epic conclusion.
Sources: Nintendo, Pokemon, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb
Photos: In game screenshots by Sam Jasionowski
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or on Instagram @s.jasionowski.
