Mirror of Twilight

The Mirror of Twilight is a quest item from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The mirror was created by the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore, to banish the Interlopers to the Twilight Realm. It serves as a link between the Twilight Realm and Hyrule, allowing beings to travel between the two worlds as desired. It is housed at the top of the Arbiter's Grounds, where it was used in past ages to banish criminals convicted of crimes against Hyrule or the Royal Family to the Twilight Realm.

History
Seeking to put an end to the tyranny of Zant, the Usurper King of Twilight, Link and his Twili companion Midna travel west to the Gerudo Desert, the location of the Arbiter's Grounds, an ancient prison that holds a "cursed mirror." In times long past, the prison had been used to banish convicts to a realm of shadows, never to return. Midna, a resident of the Twilight Realm spoken of in the stories of the mirror, reveals that this is the Mirror of Twilight, which is the only known link between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm left behind by the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore, after they banished the Interlopers, the ancestors of the Twili, who sought to establish dominion over the Triforce, to the Twilight Realm. Midna makes clear that if they are to reach the Twilight Realm, they require the use of the mirror to journey into the realm of shadows.

Link and Midna, with the help of Fyer, eventually reach the borders of the Gerudo Desert and begin a long trek across the region in search of the abandoned prison spoken of in the stories of the Mirror of Twilight. After crossing the desert and eradicating an encampment of Bulblins situated in front of the Arbiter's Grounds, the pair enter the forsaken prison in search of the mirror; they brave the treacherous quicksand pits and undead enemies inhabiting the prison before finding an ancient device known as the Spinner and using it to defeat the fossilized remains of Stallord, an ancient beast revived by Zant. After defeating the monstrosity, Link and Midna are granted access to the Mirror Chamber atop the Arbiter's Grounds. Using the Spinner, the pair raise an enormous boulder covered in chains from beneath the sand, as well the mirror's stand. However, they find that the mirror has been shattered, with a single fragment remaining. The Ancient Sages appear before the pair and relate the tale of a failed execution they themselves conducted in the chamber they now stood. A century earlier, the King of Evil known as Ganondorf, the former Gerudo King of Thieves, was to be executed for his acts of treason against the Royal Family of Hyrule; however, as the Sage of Water stabbed Ganondorf through the chest with the Execution Sword to administer final judgment, the King of Evil broke free of his chains, and in the split-second that followed, he murdered the Sage of Water. The frightened sages were left no choice but to activate the Mirror of Twilight and send him into the Twilight Realm. Back in the present, the sages reveal that the usurper Zant attempted to shatter the mirror to prevent anyone from entering the Twilight Realm and challenging him there; as he was not the true king of Twilight, however, the Mirror merely shattered into fragments. Fearing that the Mirror might be restored, Zant sent three of the mirror's four shards to three separate locations around Hyrule: one in the snowy mountain heights, one in an ancient grove, and one in the heavens. Link and Midna travel in search of the mirror shards in order to restore the mirror and enter the Twilight Realm. After traversing Hyrule and beyond, Link and Midna recover the three lost Mirror Shards and return them to their proper place in the Mirror Chamber atop the Arbiter's Grounds. The three shards recombine with the fourth shard still left in the mirror's stand to restore the Mirror of Twilight as it had previously been. The mirror is then activated, and it projects a portal to the Twilight Realm onto the large boulder in front of it, opening the gateway between the two worlds. The Ancient Sages reappear and beg Midna for her forgiveness, revealing Midna's identity as the true Twilight Princess and rightful ruler of the Twilight Realm. Using the Mirror, the pair journey into the Twilight Realm and defeat Zant inside the Palace of Twilight; however, as they believe their battles against evil to be over, Zant reveals the truth of his relation to Ganondorf. Presenting himself as an omnipotent god, Ganondorf bestowed upon Zant powerful sorcerous powers, which allowed Zant to overthrow Midna, a plot he devised in order to escape from the confines of the Twilight Realm and return to Hyrule. Using the power of the Fused Shadow, Link and Midna shatter the twilight barrier around Hyrule Castle, and confront Ganondorf in the castle's throne room. After defeating his beastly form by focusing on the injury he had suffered during his failed execution, they battle him again on horseback and in a final one-on-one duel, saving both Hyrule's Princess Zelda and the land itself from Ganondorf's evil. After the Dark Lord's defeat, Midna is restored to her true form as the Twilight Princess, and is set to return home to the Twilight Realm to govern the Twili race; before departing, she exercises her authority as the ruler of the Twilight Realm to utterly shatter the Mirror of Twilight using one of her tears, thus preventing similar tragic events from occurring again by sealing the only known road between the two worlds.

Composition
The Mirror of Twilight sits atop the Arbiter's Grounds in a private chamber of its own known as the Mirror Chamber. When activated, it projects the image etched into the mirror's surface onto the slab of rock it faces, forming stairs for a being to step up onto if they voluntarily wish to enter the Twilight Realm. The Mirror of Twilight appears to be composed of two components within the game:
 * The Mirror of Twilight itself; which acts as a sort of "projector" that emits an extraordinary light that forms the portal that links the Twilight Realm and Hyrule to each other.
 * The large black Stone where the portal forms; the mirror shines onto this enormous black slab of stone to form the portal to the Twilight Realm. It was this very slab of rock that Ganondorf was chained to during his failed execution conducted by the Ancient Sages. When the image on the mirror is projected onto the stone, it appears just like a giant Twilight Portal and functions in a similar manner.

Mirror Shard
A Mirror Shard is a fragment of the shattered Mirror of Twilight, shattered by Zant to prevent Link and the Twilight Princess Midna from following him to the Twilight Realm. Altogether, there are four shards of the mirror resting in four locations:
 * The Mirror Chamber atop the Arbiter's Grounds; this shard still rests in the mirror's stand and is there when Link and Midna first learn of the mirror's shattered state.
 * The Snowpeak Ruins at the summit of Snowpeak; this shard was sent all the way to the top of Snowpeak Mountain, where it was found in the snow by a yeti named Yeto, who gifted it to his wife Yeta, who fell ill as a result of the Mirror Shard's influence.
 * The Temple of Time in the Sacred Grove; this shard was sent back through the flows of time into the ancient Temple of Time as it had stood in the days of the ancient Hero of Time, where it was placed under the guard of a gigantic arachnid who tapped into the Mirror Shard's power and lurked at the temple's heart.
 * The City in the Sky located in the heavens; this shard was sent into the heavens, all the way to the ancient City in the Sky, the home of the fabled Oocca race. A fierce dragon took possession of the shard and tapped into its power to wreak havoc on the city and its inhabitants.

Immunities to the Mirror's Limitations
Despite the mirror's destruction at the hands of Midna, there may be other ways of traveling between the two worlds, as Midna mentions several times that she and Link may meet again. There is plentiful evidence supporting the idea of other methods of travel between the two worlds, one of the most obvious pieces being that Zant is able to travel between the two worlds without the benefit of the Mirror. There is speculation that the Triforce may somehow be related to travel between the two worlds, as Zant's power was borrowed from the Triforce of Power, supplied by Ganondorf. Also, only those characters bearing one of the three Triforce pieces could reside in the Twilight Realm without becoming a spirit. In addition, there is also speculation that the sitting ruler of the Twilight Realm has the authority or ability to travel between the two worlds as pleased without the aid of the mirror, this being one of the special powers bestowed upon the Twilight Realm's ruler. As Eiji Aonuma has stated that if voices for Midna to return grow loud enough that she may make another appearance, this could be what makes another appearance by her possible. Another fact that makes another appearance by Midna possible as well is the fact that the Mirror of Twilight was destroyed in only one of the two timelines, meaning an appearance by her in the Adult Timeline prior to the Great Flood is also possible.

Spirit Temple Mirror
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there is a large round mirror found in the Spirit Temple that grants Link access to the chamber of the temple's boss, Twinrova. There are some physical similarities between the two. This mirror is also housed in the place theorized to have eventually become the Arbiter's Grounds. But in Twilight princess the Gods show at the top of Arbiters Grounds proving this theory wrong.

According to speculation, some fans believe the Spirit Temple was the original home of the Mirror of Twilight following the end of the Hyrulean Civil War and that it was kept there until the Gerudo fell out of grace with the Hyrulean Royal Family. After Ganondorf's unsuccessful attack on Hyrule Castle a second time following the end of Ocarina of Time and his subsequent capture, the Gerudo as a race became outlaws to the kingdom of Hyrule and were forced to disappear due to their standing with the Hyrulean government. This is supported by what appears to be the ruins of a fortress seen near the entrance to the Gerudo Desert in Twilight Princess, about where the Gerudo's Fortress should have been, which appear to have been destroyed either by invasion, time or both. This would account for their race's disappearance by the time of Twilight Princess as well as the Arbiter's Grounds' identical location and similar appearance to the Spirit Temple. As a result, their Spirit Temple is theorized to have been seized and renovated to hold enemies and prisoners of the Royal Family of Hyrule, and the Mirror of Twilight was rediscovered during the seizure and renovation of the temple. This is supported by Eiji Aonuma's statement that Ganondorf's execution took place several years following the end of Ocarina of Time, and the Arbiter's Grounds were shown to have been completed at the time of Ganondorf's execution. After the temple's renovation and renaming as the Arbiter's Grounds, the Mirror of Twilight was put to use banishing those prisoners not sentenced to death by the King of Hyrule to the Twilight Realm, where the Interlopers had been banished more than a decade in the past.

Considering this mirror's role in Link's quest to rid the Spirit Temple of the ancient Gerudo witches, known collectively as Twinrova, its similar appearance and the temple's many similarities to the Arbiter's Grounds, the Mirror of Twilight may very well have appeared even sooner in the series than previously thought.

However, the mirror in the Spirit Temple does not resemble the Mirror of Twilight and it leads to the Twinrova arena, not the Twilight Realm. If it really was the Mirror of Twilight, it must have undergone some modification before its appearance in Twilight Princess which would have given it the powers it had in that game.

Dark Mirror
The Mirror of Twilight may have some relation to the Dark Mirror shown in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. The Dark Mirror is a round mirror that is very similar in appearance to the Mirror of Twilight and was also noted to have been used to banish a dark tribe, its origins almost identical to that of the Mirror of Twilight. Also, in a cutscene from Twilight Princess, the Interlopers, depicted as a tribe of Dark Links, are banished by the Ancient Sages using the Mirror of Twilight to the Twilight Realm. In Four Swords Adventures Ganon uses the Dark Mirror to create Shadow Link. Therefore, it makes a connection. This is not in any way proven, but it remains a noteworthy possibility given the two mirrors' similar appearances and almost identical backgrounds. The fact that the Mirror of Twilight had to have existed in both timelines (Adult and Child) only makes this possibility even stronger and also gives another instance Midna or the Twili could reappear in the series, in the other timeline. It is also possible that all three aforementioned mirrors are one and the same.

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