Hyrulean Civil War

The Hyrulean Civil War is a war mentioned in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It took place in the realm of Hyrule shortly before the events of the Imprisoning War. Little is known about the war, but according to the Great Deku Sprout, it took place before the King of Hyrule unified the country. One day, to escape from the fires of the war, a Hylian mother and her baby boy entered the forbidden Kokiri Forest. The mother was gravely injured, and her only choice was to entrust her child to the Great Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forest. The Great Deku Tree could sense that this was a child of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world, so he decided to take him in. After the mother passed away, the child was raised as a Kokiri, completely unaware of his true Hylian heritage until the Great Deku Sprout divulged the true story to him years later when he grew up to become the Hero of Time.

According to Lanayru, the land of Hyrule and all its tribes were content in mind and body for many ages, until word of the Sacred Realm and its wish-granting Triforce spread throughout the world. Eventually, a group of Dark Interlopers attempted to use the dark magic they had mastered, the Fused Shadow, to seize control of the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce for themselves. This caused the various tribes of Hyrule to quarrel and fight, as depicted in the opening of A Link to the Past, and a great battle ensued. Finally, the Golden Goddesses sent the four Light Spirits to chase the Dark Interlopers into a parallel dimension known as the Twilight Realm, where they started the Twili Tribe, and to seal away the Fused Shadow. The Light Spirits broke the Fused Shadow into four pieces, one of which mysteriously made it to the Twilight Realm, and sealed the rest within the Forest Temple, the Goron Mines and the Lakebed Temple. The Golden Goddesses created a lone link between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm, the Mirror of Twilight, and left it in the care of the Ancient Sages. After some time the land of Hyrule was united under one banner and the war ended.

The Golden Realm
For many ages, the land of Hyrule had known peace and prosperity after the creation of the world by the Golden Goddesses; Din, Farore and Nayru. Upon completion of their work in creating the realm of Hyrule, the three goddesses also created a parallel world which they connected to Hyrule which would come to be known in time as the Sacred Realm. And upon completion of their work, the Goddesses departed the world from the point atop the Temple, leaving three golden sacred triangles representing each of their essences behind that combined into a larger triangle that would come to be known in legend as the Triforce. Although the Triforce became the basis of the world's providence, there was an old rhyme that made the Triforce all the more desirable to those who heard it:

In a realm beyond sight, the sky shines gold, not blue. There, the Triforce's might, makes mortal dreams come true.

The Mythology of the Triforce
The Triforce would grant the wishes of he or she who touches it with a wish in his or her heart and would grant nearly unlimited power to he or she that mastered it. If that one who touches the Triforce gains it in its entirety, that one will gain the True Force to govern all. However, there was also another stipulation regarding the Triforce: If the heart of the one who touches it is not a righteous one, the Sacred Triangle will split, leaving only one piece for the one who touched the Sacred Triangle representing the force that one most believes in. The two lost parts would be held by two other special people chosen by destiny, who would bear the mark of the Triforce on the backs of their hands. For he or she that holds the completed Triforce, their wish will come true as the Triforce’s might has the power to make mortal dreams come true. So says this legend from the Book of Mudora, a descriptive book of Hyrule’s history put together by the great historian Mudora. This legend began to spread throughout the realm of Hyrule, which had many tribes and yet no central government to answer to, eventually reaching the ears of a group of dark magic wielders known as the Dark Interlopers. As greed for the Triforce’s power rose within them, as it was throughout Hyrule, they resolved to use their magic, the Fused Shadow, to seize control of this fabled Sacred Realm and harness the power of the sacred Triforce for their own ends.

Banishment to the Twilight Realm
Soon, the other tribes of the land of Hyrule including the Hylians, their attendants the Sheikah, the Zoras, the Gorons, and most other tribes learned about the Golden Power and began to quarrel and fight as they knew what it would mean if one tribe gained the Triforce and could use it to dominate all others. It was not long before a great battle erupted for control of the Sacred Realm. As the fighting spread across the entire realm and threatened to destroy all that had been built, the Golden Goddesses decided it was time to step in. They decided to remove the group that had sparked this civil war and to punish them for attempting to take the Triforce for selfish reasons of domination. They summoned the four Light Spirits - Lanayru, Eldin, Faron, and Ordona - to the land of Hyrule to seize the Fused Shadow from the Dark Interlopers and ordered them to chase these dark magicians out of the realm of light into another realm they created where only perpetual twilight prevailed, a realm that came to be known as the Twilight Realm. The Light Spirits did as they were instructed and chased the Dark Interlopers across the land of Hyrule and into this netherworld the Goddesses had spoken of. There, the Dark Interlopers slowly began to change into new shapes that would be more adaptive to their new lifestyle in the Twilight Realm, and they took on the name of the Twili. In time, they would grow accustomed to their new home and would become a gentler and less selfish race. However, the Goddesses did not completely seal off the Dark Interlopers from the world of light. They created a mirror that had the power to link the two worlds and open a portal between them, a mirror that came to be known as the Mirror of Twilight. They left this mirror in the care of the Ancient Sages, a group of spirits that represented the elements of the world and retained great power.

The Birth of the Hero of Time
One day, to escape from the fierce fires of the war, a Hylian mother attempted to flee the war with her infant son, fathered by one of the Knights of Hyrule. As she attempted to escape with her son, she was gravely injured as she fled her besieged settlement. Despite her injuries, she escaped to a relatively unexplored part of the realm, the forbidden Kokiri Forest. Her energy was quickly being lost, and soon she could run no more as she collapsed in the forest, not far from the place the children of the forest, the Kokiri, called home. Although they tried to tend to her wounds and save her life, she was too badly injured for them to do much but comfort her. As she lay dying, she had few options regarding her son’s future. Not wanting him to become another victim of the fierce war that was ravaging the world, her only remaining choice was to entrust the child to the Great Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forest and father of the Kokiri. The Deku Tree could sense that this was a child of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world and everybody in it. The Great Deku Tree resolved to raise the child as a Kokiri and to not give him any hint of what he truly was until the time was right, knowing that there would come a day when this child would change the course of Hyrule’s future.

After effects of the War
Many aggressively searched for the wish-granting Triforce, but no one, not even the Hylian Sages, were sure of its location; the knowledge had been lost over time. Many went in search but none returned.

The land of Hyrule was finally united under one banner, a city was built that would become the nerve center of the new nation and serve as its source of culture. This city would come to be known as Hyrule Castle Town, with the home of the Royal Family, the majestic Hyrule Castle, standing tall within its boundaries. The Golden goddesses instructed the Light Spirits to remain in the land of Hyrule and to protect it from darkness. The Light Spirits broke the Fused Shadow into four fragments, allowing the Dark Interlopers to keep one fragment as a reminder of their broken power and their crimes. The remaining three fragments were taken respectively by Lanayru, Eldin, and Faron. They each sealed their respective fragments within certain locations within the provinces the Goddesses had instructed them to remain within and protect. Lanayru took his fragment of the Fused Shadow and sealed it deep beneath the waters of Lake Hylia within the Lakebed Temple, a place thought to have originally been the Water Temple. Eldin took his fragment of the Fused Shadow and locked it away deep within the mighty Death Mountain in the Goron Mines, a place many suspect may have originally been the Fire Temple or Dodongo's Cavern. And finally, Faron took his fragment of the dark relic and sealed it deep within the Forest Temple, a place theorized to have originally been the interior of the Great Deku Tree himself.

The tribal leaders pledged allegiance to the Royal Family of Hyrule, and the land once more knew peace. Impa, the leader of the Sheikah race, pledged her sworn allegiance to the Royal Family by stating that the Sheikah would serve the Royal Family with loyalty. King Zora XVI, the ruler of the Zora race, also maintained close ties to the Royal Family and took care of overseeing the waters. It is unknown if Darunia, the leader of the Goron race, pledged his allegiance to the Hyrulean Throne, but he did care about the fate of Hyrule when it was in danger, and he also does call the king of Hyrule his "sworn brother".

Even after this war ended there were still people that wanted to obtain the Triforce, such as the evil Gerudo king, Ganondorf. And one day evil began to flow from the dark portal of the Golden Land.