Hyrulean Civil War

The Hyrulean Civil War was a war that took place in the realm of Hyrule shortly before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Little is known about the war, but according to the Deku Tree Sprout, the war 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 Deku Tree could sense that this was a child of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world. After the mother passed away, the child was raised as a Kokiri, completely unaware of his true Hylian heritage until the Deku Tree 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 other 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 three of them within the Forest Temple (the remains of the Great Deku Tree), the Goron Mines (the Fire Temple), and the Lakebed Temple (the Water Temple). The 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. Thus, with the Dark Interlopers gone, the Hyrulean Civil War was ended with the aid of the Gerudo King Ganondorf, who laid down negotiations between the tribes in the King of Hyrule's favor in order to win his trust. As a result of these negotiations, the Hylians emerged as the ruling tribe of the new nation that was formed, and the land of Hyrule was united under one banner. And yet, Ganondorf learned of the Triforce and its promises of unlimited power, and for roughly a decade he would plan and scheme for a way to seize the Triforce for himself in a conflict that would come to be known in legend as the Imprisoning War.

In a Realm Beyond Sight
For many ages, the land of Hyrule had known peace and prosperity after the creation of the world by the Golden Goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore. Upon completion of their work in creating the realm of Hyrule, the Goddesses also created a parallel world which they connected to Hyrule which would come to be known in time as the Sacred Realm. It was said that within this Sacred Realm, the midday skies would shine gold rather than blue, and that there would be a mighty temple at the heart of the Realm known as the Temple of Light. 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 desireable 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 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 wields the completed Triforce, their heart’s desire will become a reality 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, the Gerudo, the Zoras, the Gorons, and most other tribes learned of the intentions of these dark magicians 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 fierce battle erupted between the Dark Interlopers and the other tribes of Hyrule and between the other tribes themselves 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. And thus, the Dark Interlopers vanished from Hyrule, removing some of the war’s biggest contributors.

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 abscond 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 mother lived just long enough to name her son Link before she succumbed to her injuries and passed from the world. After her death and burial, 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.

The Gerudo King's Negotiations
Meanwhile, as the fighting continued between the other races of Hyrule, the Gerudo, a group of largely female thieves from the Gerudo Desert far in the west, forged an alliance with the Hylian race as they struggled merely to unite the tribes and stem the bloodshed. The Gerudo leader, Ganondorf, called for a ceasefire between the tribes and a meeting of the tribal leaders that included himself and the leader of the Hylians. This meeting would conclude with a formal end to the conflict that would come to be known in history as the “Hyrulean Civil War” as well as the unification of the land of Hyrule under the banner of the Hylian Royal Family. The tribal leaders pledged their allegiance to the new King of Hyrule, and the realm was united at last with the assistance of the Gerudo King. Little did anyone realize that this was all a ruse: Ganondorf had no intention of subjecting himself and his people permanently to the rule of a group of what he saw as malleable and weak-minded individuals. Having learned of the sacred Triforce through the Hyrulean Civil War, he made it his mission to discover all he needed to know of how to gain entry into this mystical Sacred Realm he had learned of and to eventually seize the Triforce for his own to better the lives of his people. And for a decade, Ganondorf would wait until he learned all he would need to break through the seal on the Sacred Realm and enter it.

Resolution of the War
The land of Hyrule was finally united under one banner, and the tribes of Hyrule celebrated the end of the brutal and bloody conflict. A capital for the new nation was selected by the newly-ordained Royal Family of Hyrule. 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 many suspect 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). And finally, Faron took his fragment of the dark relic and sealed it deep within the Forest Temple (a place many suspect to have originally been the interior of the Great Deku Tree himself). The tribal leaders pledged allegiance to the Royal Family, and the land once more knew peace. Darunia, the big boss of the Goron race, made the King of Hyrule his sworn brother and pledged his enduring allegiance to the Hyrulean Throne. King Zora, the ruler of the Zora race, also maintained close ties to the Royal Family and pledged his allegiance to the King in alliance. However, far to the west, in the Gerudo Desert, the would-be “hero” of the war, Ganondorf, was already starting to research the legends of the Sacred Realm in search of what was needed to open the gateway between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm. Although Ganondorf had helped to install the Royal Family of Hyrule as the ruling body of the new nation of Hyrule, his efforts had not yielded nothing: he had gained the complete confidence of the King of Hyrule, which would prove instrumental in his scheme to eventually take over the land of Hyrule in good time. For ten years, the Gerudo King would research and plot for his overtake of both Hyrule and the Sacred Realm, and for his seizure of the so-called “Golden Power” that was said to rest within the Golden Land.

Quotes Regarding the Hyrulean Civil War
"Some time ago, before the King of Hyrule unified this country, there was a fierce war in our world. One day, to escape from the fires of the war, a Hylian mother and her baby boy entered this forbidden forest. The mother was gravely injured... Her only choice was to entrust the child to the Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forest. The Deku Tree could sense that this was a child of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world, so he took him into the forest. After the mother passed away, the baby was raised as a Kokiri. And now, finally, the day of destiny has come!"

- Deku Tree Sprout to Link

"Though he (Ganondorf) swears allegience to my father, I am sure he is not sincere...Yes, I told my father about my dream. However, he didn't believe it was prophecy..."

- Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

"You must know that it was the will of the goddesses that we lock away the forbidden power… When all was chaos, the goddesses descended and gave order and life to the world. They granted power equally to all who dwelt in the light, and then returned to the heavens. The lands where the goddesses descended came to be known as the Sacred Realm. For ages, the people lived at ease, content in mind and body… But soon, word of the Sacred Realm spread through Hyrule, and a great battle ensued…Among those living in the light, interlopers who excelled at magic appeared. Wielding powerful sorcery, they tried to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm. It was then that the goddesses ordered us three light spirits to intervene. We sealed away the great magic those individuals had mastered. You know this magic… It is the dark power you seek… the Fused Shadow. O hero chosen by the goddesses… Beware… Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it. Never forget that… The dark power that you seek is within the sleeping Lakebed Temple in Lake Hylia."

- Lanayru in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Theories Surrounding the Hyrulean Civil War

 * The full details surrounding this war are unclear since gamers are told very little about it in Ocarina of Time. However, this conflict may have connections to other games in the series.  For instance, gamers are told in the opening sequence of A Link to the Past that the peoples of Hyrule began to "quarrel and fight" over the Triforce before going on to tell about the Imprisoning War in which Ganondorf was sealed inside the Sacred Realm.  Twilight Princess also describes how "a great battle" ensued once word of the Triforce spread, mirroring the battle spoken of in A Link to the Past.  If the Imprisoning War is the equivalent of Ocarina of Time as some believe, then there may be a connection between the prior war described in A Link to the Past and the ones described in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.  Gamers are later introduced to the Twili in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and learn that their ancestors, a group of Dark Interlopers, tried to use their own dark magic to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm and the Triforce housed within it.  If Twilight Princess takes place relatively close to Ocarina of Time (as is suggested by the presence of the Temple of Time), then there may be a connection between the actions of the Dark Interlopers and the war that preceded Ganondorf's imprisonment in the Sacred Realm.  The war supposedly took place at the time of the Hero of Time's birth, so it can be estimated to have taken place within a decade before Ocarina of Time.


 * One possible scenario, if the above connections are related as some believe, could go something like the following: Ten years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a group of Dark Interlopers (the Twili) attempted to use their dark magic (in the form of a relic known as the Fused Shadows) to seize control of the Sacred Realm and the Triforce that was held within it. Upon learning that one tribe was trying to take the Triforce for themselves, the other tribes of the land of Hyrule began to quarrel and fight, as depicted in the opening sequence of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, leading to a massive civil war that engulfed the entire land.  The three Goddesses sent the Light Spirits to drive the Dark Interlopers into a realm known as the Twilight Realm, as depicted in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  They also sealed away the Fused Shadows within the Great Deku Tree (later to become a successor Forest Temple), the Fire Temple (later known as the Goron Mines), and the Water Temple (later known as the Lakebed Temple).  As the civil war raged across Hyrule, the Gerudo King of Thieves, a man named Ganondorf, came to help the King of Hyrule unify the land and to quell the destructive war that was tearing the land apart.  As a result, the Hylians were able to end the war with Ganondorf's help, and Ganondorf won the King's trust.  It was due to this war that Ganondorf learned of the sacred Triforce and the power it represented, which he would covet not so long afterward in another even greater war known to legend as the Imprisoning War.  During the course of the war, a Hylian mother tried to escape the fighting with her infant son, but was gravely injured in the process.  As she fled to the Kokiri Forest, her time grew short, and her only choice was to entrust the child to the Great Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forest.  The Deku Tree could sense this was a child of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world.  After the mother passed away, the child was raised as a Kokiri, completely unaware of his lineage as a Hylian and descendant of the Knights of Hyrule or of his destiny as the Hero of Time that would come to pass in due time when Ganondorf returned to Hyrule a decade later.

Theoretical Narrative
This is a research-based narrative chronicling the events of the Hyrulean Civil War, with a bit of theory mixed in that is also based on research of what is concretely known about the war. This is but one of many ways the war could have played out, but this is one of the most likely case scenarios based on what is factually known at the present time.

Temptation of the Golden Power
For ages following Hyrule's creation, the people lived in peace, content in mind and body. The many tribes of the land lived in peace and harmony, but still there was no central government for the entire realm to answer to. Those of the Hylian tribe kept relations with their neighbors, but mistrust and misunderstanding still persisted between the tribes of the land. From its hiding place within the Sacred Realm, the Triforce beckoned across the void to those from the outside, in the hope that one worthy of its power would find it and use it to lead Hyrule to a path of justice and benevolence. Soon, word of the fabled Sacred Realm and its treasure, the Triforce, spread across the world. Whispers of a limitless Golden Power that would grant the heart's desire of its holder as long as he or she lives spread like wildfire, creating an excited and yet power-hungry feeling within those who heard it. This was the test to which the Goddesses had intended the Triforce to put to the people, to give them a clear choice: to allow the Triforce to be shared and used to lead Hyrule to a golden age of prosperity and happiness, or to allow individual greed for the Triforce's power to tear the land apart and cast it into darkness. The ends to which the Triforce could be put were indeed mind-boggling to the many tribes of the realm, but it was not long before that lust for the Golden Power that was thriving in the hearts and minds of Hyrule's many beings soon turned to pure greed. From the summit of high Death Mountain to the distant Desert Colossus of the Gerudo Desert, the tales of the Golden Land spread, bringing that same greed with them. It was not long before the Sacred Realm's existence and purpose had become known to all of Hyrule's major races, turning Hyrule's once-stable situation quite volatile. Although Hyrule's many diverse races had co-existed quite harmoniously up to this point, the mistrust that remained hidden within the background, coupled with greed for the Golden Power's limitless magic, turned the state of the realm quite fragile, leaving it in a position where the peace could be shattered at any moment with one wrong move on the part of any one group toward another.

The Dark Interlopers
Eventually, the stories of the Golden Land and the Golden Power housed within it reached the ears of a group of magicians powerful in magic and sorcery. These were the Interlopers, beings powerful in sorcery, on par with the Hylian race's best wizards. They made many important discoveries that rivaled even those of the Hylian wizards in pushing the boundaries of magic further and further in their search for more powerful and more useful magic. Of late, however, they had begun to delve into the darker aspects of the laws of magic set down by the great Goddess Nayru, and thus their neighbors bestowed upon them a new title: the Dark Interlopers. As such, their intentions grew equally darker. As they had researched and experimented to push the boundaries of magic further than any in living memory, these tales of an ultimate Golden Power were quite intriguing, not to mention seductive. Soon, they perfected an ultimate weapon, one in which they vested all of their dark powers. This dark artifact came to be known as the Fused Shadow, a helmet-like artifact that augmented the already powerful magic wielded by the Dark Interlopers. With a simple raise of a hand, they were able to obliterate a being in mere seconds using the Fused Shadow, and he who actually dared to put it on would be transformed into an awesome and yet terrible creature capable of much destruction. With this weapon, the Dark Interlopers felt none could stand against them. Seeking to rule over and subjugate the other races of Hyrule, they resolved to use the might of the Fused Shadow to declare war on them, seize their respective keys to the Sacred Realm, and open the gateway to the Sacred Realm to claim the Triforce as their own. With the Triforce's limitless magic at their fingertips, they believed they could become the ruling tribe of Hyrule unto the end of time. These dark plans would be the spark that would ignite the first full-scale war in Hyrule's history and would sow the seeds of Hyrule's future yet to come.

Birth of the Princess of Destiny and the Hero of Time
It was around this time that the King of the Hylian tribe and his wife gave birth to a child, a girl they chose to name Zelda. However, due to complications with her delivery, the Queen died shortly after giving birth to Zelda, leaving the King and Zelda to rule the Hylian tribe. The King selected the leader of the Sheikah tribe that had forged an alliance with the Hylians, Impa, to tend to Zelda in place of her mother and to be her overall caregiver. Impa had been born and raised in a village on Death Mountain's slopes named Kakariko, founded by her race, the Sheikahs, and behind which sat the Shadow Temple, home to Hyrule's dead that was also built by the Sheikahs. It was Impa's first and foremost responsibility to protect Zelda and keep her out of harm's way. Hence the baby's title would become "Princess Zelda," the first to ever hold that title, but certainly not the last as time would reveal. Around this same time, one of the King's Knights, the "Knights of Hyrule" as they were called, fathered a son with one of the Hylian women. The couple lived peacefully alongside the other members of the Hylian race and was subject to the rule of the Royal Family. The father was one of the King's most trusted Knights and was arguably the most skilled fighter of all the Knights of Hyrule, whose oath was to protect the Hylian Royal Family and to follow their King to whatever end. They served as the guardians of peace and justice amongst the Hylian tribe, protecting the tribe from external threat as well as internal unrest or dispute. The mother and father rejoiced at the birth of their new son, and agreed to name him Link. Shortly afterward, the King called the father to service due to a growing threat. Little did they know that their time with their newborn son would indeed be short due to the coming storm that was the Hyrulean Civil War, which would soon rock the entire realm of Hyrule.

Outbreak of the War
Finally, with their ultimate weapon, the Fused Shadow, perfected, the Dark Interlopers were at last ready to pursue their ultimate goal of seizing control of the Sacred Realm and harnessing the power of the Triforce for their own ends, namely subjecting the other races of the realm under their rule. Thus, they declared war on their neighbors holding the respective keys to the Door of Time: the Kokiri's Emerald, the Goron's Ruby, the Zora's Sapphire, and the Ocarina of Time. The first three of these keys were known as the "Spiritual Stones" kept by the Kokiri, Goron, and Zora races respectively and were the hidden treasures of each race. The Ocarina of Time meanwhile was kept as the hidden treasure of the Hylian race and was in the possession of their Royal Family. The Dark Interlopers stuck, attacking each race respectively in an attempt to take from them their keys to the Sacred Realm. Soon, all the land's major races were drawn into the conflict. Knowing that the Triforce could enable whoever claimed it to dominate all others, even the other races of the land began to fight each other even as the Interlopers attacked them as well, fighting for control of the Sacred Realm in a race to seize the Triforce before the others could. The only race that did not enter directly into the ruckus was the Kokiri, the children of the forest that were under the protection of the guardian spirit of the forest, the Great Deku Tree. Although they possessed one of the keys to the Door of Time, they were shielded from the major parts of the conflict by the mighty Kokiri Forest, which stood as a barrier, deterring outsiders from entering it. The Gorons and the Zoras meanwhile joined in the confrontation, and a fierce battle ensued as the entire realm erupted into the first full-scale war of its history. The Knights of Hyrule, under the command of their King, took up the Hylian banner to defend their tribe against the catastrophic attacks of the Dark Interlopers. After many battles leading the Knights in defense against the Interlopers, the father of the boy named Link was badly wounded in the fighting. He eventually passed away on the field of battle, Hyrule Field, leaving his wife and his newborn son to fend for themselves in the struggle. After his death and the vacancy of his seat as one of the Hylian King's most trusted advisers and General, the Gerudo race of largely female thieves, led by their King, Ganondorf Dragmire, joined forces with the Hylians to defend themselves against the attacks of the Interlopers. The Gerudo King was a dark man, with piercing yellow eyes and a strong, powerful body and mind. He treated with the Hylian ruler to ally his army with that of the Hylians, and he served as a partner with the Hylian King throughout the war, taking the place once occupied by Link's father as the King's new confidant. The fighting went on for weeks on end, shedding much blood and devastating the world, seemingly without end. But the Fused Shadow proved a most formidable weapon, and with its power, the Dark Interlopers suffered few casualties and were able to obliterate any being with a mere gesture. As victory seemed near at hand for the Interlopers, they felt that nothing could stand against them.

Divine Intervention
As this civil war spread across the world and threatened to destroy all they had created, the three Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, decided it was time to step in to save the land of Hyrule from self-destruction. Knowing that the Interlopers had sparked the war with greedy intentions and selfish thoughts, they resolved to remove these greedy magicians from the world of light and to punish them for their selfish actions in the hope that removing them would bring calm to the land of Hyrule and stem the bloodshed. To do this, they summoned four Light Spirits to the land of Hyrule: Lanayru, Eldin, Faron, and Orodona. Lanayru took the form of a divine serpent, and was gifted with his own orb of light that housed his power. Eldin, likewise also had an orb of light that was the source of all his powers, but he took the form of a proud eagle with great wings. Faron meanwhile took the form of a strong monkey and also was gifted his own orb of light that provided him with his power. And finally, Ordona took the form of a large, spectral goat that stored his own orb of light in the hole formed by his singular circular horn on top of his head. The Golden Goddesses gave the Light Spirits their orders: to confiscate the Fused Shadow from the shadowy magicians known as the Dark Interlopers and to chase them out of the realm of light, into the prison-world of perpetual twilight, where they would henceforth only exist as shadows outside the so-called Twilight Realm.

The Light Spirits did as they were instructed. They descended from the heavens and in one fell swoop confiscated the Fused Shadow from the Interlopers. Without their ultimate weapon's strength and terrified of these strange happenings, the Interlopers fled across the land of Hyrule, into the Gerudo Desert beyond Hyrule proper's borders as they were pursued by the four spectral Light Spirits. There, in the midst of the vast desert, the Light Spirits opened the doorway to the Twilight Realm and chased the Dark Interlopers through it. It was a place like no other: an entire realm that consisted of perpetual twilight and an unfriendly terrain. Once there, the Interlopers began to change: their faces became white as chalk while their eyes turned predominately red and their bodies twisted into strange shapes reminiscent of shadows and turned predominately black accordingly. The Light Spirits broke apart the Fused Shadow into four fragments, one of which they allowed to stay with the Dark Interlopers, as a reminder of their broken power and their defeat at the hands of the Goddesses, whom they had greatly displeased. The other three were split amongst Lanayru, Eldin, and Faron respectively. The Interlopers, resigning themselves to their situation and to distance themselves from their humiliating defeat at the hands of Hyrule's Goddesses, they gave themselves a new name: the Twili. As the years would pass, they would grow into a less-selfish race and grew accustomed to their new home in the Twilight Realm. However, although they were now confined to the boundaries of the Twilight Realm, the Goddesses did not completely sever the Interlopers' connection to Hyrule. They created an artifact that possessed the power to open a single gateway between the Twilight Realm and the land of Hyrule, and they left it at the point where they had vanished into the twilight, the Gerudo Desert, namely the temple created by the Gerudo, the Spirit Temple. This artifact, which came to be known as the Mirror of Twilight, was left in the care of the spectral Ancient Sages that had watched over the realm since its beginning. Thus, the Dark Interlopers vanished from the land of Hyrule, and they would never be able to take physical form again outside the twilight.

Disappearance of the Hero of Time
At a certain point, the fighting reached even the major Hylian settlement ruled by the Hylian Royal Family, forcing many from their homes and raining death and destruction from all sides. The mother of the infant Link was forced from her home during one of the attacks of the Dark Interlopers following the death of her husband, and to escape from the fires of the fierce war, she resolved to flee their settlement and try to escape the war on foot, planning to escape to a place relatively untouched by the intense fighting, the forbidden Kokiri Forest. Packing her infant son and taking what provisions she could, she fled her besieged home as war raged all around her. As she was fleeing the settlement, she was blasted by an attack of dark magic, badly wounding her in the process. Still, she fled as far as she could possibly go, and she escaped into the depths of the forest, taking her infant son with her. However, her injuries were quickly weakening her, and her strength was giving way quite quickly. Finally, when she could run no more and her energy was spent, she collapsed on the forest floor, clutching her child closely. As she was about to faint, she heard small footsteps nearby and just lost conciousness as many small figures appeared from the shadows of the trees around her.

These small figures were the Kokiri, the child-like race protected by the Great Deku Tree whose members were said to never age. They brought her to their settlement deep within the forest and tried to tend to her wounds, but her injuries were so great that they could do little but comfort her. They then took her before the Great Deku Tree himself, the guardian spirit of the forest that took the form of a great, talking tree. The Hylian mother regained conciousness as her last moments were nigh, and the Deku Tree conversed with her concerning the future of her son. Knowing that her time was quickly drawing to a close, she revealed the child's name to be Link and made it clear she did not want him to become another victim of the civil war that was tearing the realm apart. Her only option was to leave her child under the guardianship of the Great Deku Tree, who could sense that her child was one of destiny, whose fate would affect the entire world and change the course of Hyrule's future in years to come. Shortly after the Deku Tree promised to protect her child from harm and to watch over him as he grew, the mother finally gave up her spirit.

Following the burial of the Hylian mother, the Deku Tree resolved to raise Link in accordance with Kokirish tradition, teaching him the means necessary to survive in the forest and to deter him from straying outside its borders until he was ready. The Deku Tree resolved to not tell the child of his true heritage or what he truly was until the time was right, until he was ready to know. One slight problem with this omittance of information however was the fact that every Kokiri has a fairy companion to accompany them throughout the course of their lives, leaving Link the only member of the tribe without one due to his true heritage. The Deku Tree did not deem this to be too revealing however, and decided the best way to protect the child was to withhold his true heritage from him until he was fully prepared to know it and accept his destiny as a Hylian. For ten years, the boy would grow up amongst the children of the forest, not having any idea why he seemed somehow different from all the other Kokiri nor why he alone did not have a fairy companion. Thus, the boy that would one day become one of the greatest figures in Hyrule's history vanished from the public eye, disappearing into the depths of the forest, not to be seen nor heard from again for a decade.

Ceasefire
With the disappearance of the Dark Interlopers, some of the war's greatest contributors were removed from the equation. However, the remaining races continued to battle for control of the Triforce. As the war dragged on, the Gerudo King, Ganondorf, called for a ceasefire amongst all parties and a parley between the tribal chiefs to discuss a way to end the war and stem the bloodshed. The Zora ruler, King Zora, and the Goron leader, Darunia, attended this meeting, alongside Ganondorf and the Hylian King. It was agreed between the leaders that the war couldn't be allowed to continue on to destroy all they held dear. Ganondorf mediated the meeting and helped draw up the terms between the tribes to end the war. The warring factions agreed to discontinue their efforts to seize the Triforce and to allow each race to keep their respective keys to the Sacred Realm as a way of keeping the means of opening of the Sacred Realm equally distributed between the tribes. Each agreed to not take the Triforce merely for their race's own gain, and that the only way the Sacred Realm would be opened would be if it were to the benefit of all of Hyrule's tribes. Otherwise, they were all content to leave the Sacred Realm be for the present time and to begin rebuilding what they had already lost as an indirect result of it.

To ensure that similar events would not happen again, Ganondorf suggested that a central government be arranged that they could all pledge their allegiance to, for a safer and securer society and for unity throughout the land. He negotiated the naming of the Hylians as the ruling tribe of a monarchy that would be ruled by the Hylian Royal Family, one that all could pledge their allegiance to and place their trust in. Thus, the Hylian King was now proclaimed the "King of Hyrule," and the Royal Family's title was edited to reflect the establishment of the new country that now encompassed all of Hyrule. The newly-minted King of Hyrule pledged to protect all beings of the realm and to insure that similar happenings such as those that led to the Hyrulean Civil War would not happen again. As such, the other races pledged their allegiance and devotion to the King of Hyrule, and agreed to coexist with the Hylians peacefully. Each of the tribes would remain intact with their individual leaders still ruling them, but their final allegiance lay with Hyrule and its King. Darunia made the King his sworn brother and agreed to come to his aid whenever needed. King Zora also pledged his race's allegiance to the new nation, as did Ganondorf with the Gerudo and Impa with the Sheikah, most of which were killed in the war, leaving Impa one of its sole survivors. Envoys were also sent to the Kokiri, who readily accepted the new government and pledged devotion to it, despite the fact that they could not leave the forest. Hence, the war was finally over, and Hyrule was at last united under one banner, thanks in large part to the King of the Gerudo Thieves.

Unification of Hyrule
Construction began on a capital for the new country of Hyrule, whose location was selected by the new King and was subsequently built in the northern part of Hyrule, across Hyrule Field and quite near the ancient Temple of Time, the gateway to the Sacred Realm that had been so fought over. The King then ordered the construction of a massive castle that would house the Royal Family of Hyrule and serve as the seat of Hyrule's government. This castle, built just north of the new capital city of Hyrule, was appropriately named "Hyrule Castle," and the vibrant new capital became known as "Hyrule Castle Town." This city would grow and prosper over the years and become the heart of Hyrule's culture, where beings of all races would come to conduct business and pay homage to the Royal Family. A coronation was held shortly thereafter, in which the Hylian King formally took on his new title as the "King of Hyrule," and his daughter was subsequently proclaimed "Princess of Hyrule." A great holiday was proclaimed throughout the kingdom, and all of high or low caste came to pay homage to their new King and his infant daughter Princess Zelda. The King thanked all of his allies and his subjects, pledging to rule them with wisdom and understanding and to always keep the order and peace of the kingdom.

Although it would seem that all was well in the land of Hyrule, this was not the case. Far to the west of the new Hyrulean captial, in the heavily guarded Gerudo Fortress near the Gerudo Desert, the so-called "hero" of the Hyrulean Civil War (as the war would come to be known in history), the Gerudo King Ganondorf, sat upon his own throne, reminiscing over the legends of the Golden Power, the Triforce, that he had come to know through the war. While he had helped install the new Royal Family to unify the realm, this was all a sham: Ganondorf had no intention of subjegating his people or himself forever to the rule of a race of what he deemed to be weak beings. He merely helped install a man who had the utmost of trust in him into the most powerful position in the land, one that would in the end prove instrumental in his future schemes. The fact that he had the full and complete confidence of the King of Hyrule would be essential in his ulterior motives that would come to light in years to come. He began to think of just what the Triforce could do for his people; he could lift his people out of their miserable lifestyle in the desert and rule over the fertile land of Hyrule forever with its power. And to this thought he held; but soon his mind began to turn to more selfish and evil thoughts, those of conquest, domination, and immortality. In time, his original wish of creating a better way of life for his people would be as nothing, easily outweighed by his own desires. Ganondorf resolved himself to discover all he would need to know to enter this so-called Golden Land and to claim the Triforce, and for ten years he would research and plot for his overthrow of the Royal Family he himself had helped to install upon the Throne of Hyrule and to take the Triforce for his own.