Historical Records

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This page is archived. It will receive no further updates, and internal links to it have been or will be removed.

Where's the timeline?

Any die-hard fan of Zelda knows there is a widely-accepted timeline which connects virtually all the entries of the franchise into a single continuity. If you want to only use that for your campaign, go ahead! The Lore section isn't heavily referenced outside of the Lore section, so feel free to ignore it.      The main drawback to the timeline is that it doesn't facilitate all Legends of Hyrule content. Just for starters, races like anouki and twili never had a home in Hyrule proper, and that iconic moon from Majora's Mask never existed beyond three days in Termina. Even if you smash all the games together there's a lot of gaps. It's difficult to create a believably rich and complex role-playing world with only a dozen people per town. For these reasons and more, Legends of Hyrule provides its own (optional) lore to help connect the content and create a wider world of the Light World. The history on this page intends to be an alternative, unofficial timeline that provides the narrator with the means to combine many different aspects from different games into one campaign while still drawing on a rich history rooted within the Zelda franchise.

Thus far in Hyrulean history, historical dates are rarely found and rarely reliable. Historians have managed to piece together a chronology of events that shaped the Light World we know today, but the exact number of years which transpired between these events is usually an approximation, and sometimes completely unknown. The most credible theories group history into eight eras.
     The following sections are split into these major eras of Hyrulean history, and further sectioned off into major events instead of precise years. Events that are most recent and thus better understood are listed topmost. Each section that follows delves further and further back into the past—into the misty uncertainties of antiquity.

Modern Era

What historians call he modern era began about a century ago with the foretelling of a Calamity.

Era of Rebirth: Generations Ago

This era began about a thousand years ago and ended about a century ago. Some creatures are still old enough to have first-hand accounts of this era. Few if any have lived through all of it. With the forces of Ganon subdued, the world enjoyed a relative peace for centuries.

Era of Decline: Over 1,000 Years Ago

This era began nearly 5,000 years ago and ended about a thousand years ago. The oldest zora, great fairies, and undead might still remember the most recent years of this era but for most creatures it is several generations removed. It is characterized by conflicts between the major civilizations of the world, the emergence of the Evil King Ganondorf, and a millenia-long struggle between the forces of Ganon and the forces of Light.

Zoran Civil War

River zora became geographically and culturally separated from other zora. Before the split, the race as a whole worshiped and revered their patron god, the great fish Jabun. For reasons that have been lost to history, Jabun either died or vanished in this era. Non-river zora replaced their former god with another immortal great fish now known as Jabu-Jabu, which many still believe to be the reincarnation of Jabun. The sect that would become river zora saw this as sacrilegious, and tensions rose into a holy war over this dispute. The outcome of the war is unknown, but nonetheless river zora still hold age-old animosity towards other zora—even if the original reason for it is forgotten by most. Over centuries, river zora would grow to have vivid physiological differences from others of their race.

Era of Gods: 50,000 Years Ago

This era occurred about 50,000 years ago but may have spanned only one or two centuries. This most cataclysmic time in the history of the Light World was wrought by a single entity, whose name itself has become foreboding.

• Monsters introduced
• Languages split
• Great Caldera
• Fall of the Gerudo; the race would be shaped by the traits of the survivors

Progenitor Era: 100,000 Years Ago

This era began ~100,000 years ago and ended abruptly with the Era of Demise 10,000 years ago.

• The Gerudo Kingdom diverged from the Hyrulean Kingdom after a great conflict. Eventually the gerudo would become so different from hylians that they are today no longer even considered the same race.
• Although several written languages exist in this era, by far the most widespread and understood is the script used in the Ancient language. The script is said to originate from the gods, but likely spread from the then-prolific zuna to other civilizations and races.

War of Twilight

• Some Ancient Hylians would be banished to the Twilight Realm, where they would eventually become the twili race. This divergence is believed by some to remove some of the most powerful mages from the Light World.

Prehistoric Era: Over 100,000 Years Ago

Many historians consider the end of this era to be whenever the Ancient script began to spread through different kingdoms—about 100,000 years ago but spanned a million years or more. Although symbols appear in the written record throughout this era, there may not have no widespread written language as modern people know it.

Ancient Civilizations

Numerous ancient civilizations existed in this era, spanning all across the Light World. Almost all information about these cultures has been lost to time, with little more than the crumbling stone ruins offering any hint to what life was like for millions of people across thousands of years. Some of the more prolific civilizations are known today as the Cobble Kingdom, the Ikana Kingdom (possibly merged into hylians), the Zunai (possibly became the zuna), "Robots", and at least one aquatic empire.
     Most of these civilizations engaged in long-distance trade with each other and there is evidence of intercontinental war. It seems many of these civilizations went extinct due to calamities, famine, war, or other causes. Some would disappear as they become absorbed by larger civilizations.

• Ancient Hylians diverged into two races known today as gerudo and hylians.
• The Great Deku Tree originally sprouted in this era. koroks and kokiri were created by the Great Tree, so they presumably couldn't have predated this era.

Primordial Era: Millions of Years Ago

The primordial era is generally all time that occurred before signs of intelligent life appear in the known record. This era ended about a million years ago, but opinions differ widely upon how long it lasted. Some say the world was created with intelligent life, while others suggest it existed for billions of years before intelligence emerged.

• Although intelligent people likely did exist before the prehistoric era, there is no evidence of even basic architecture anywhere in the Light World. Only simple items like stone tools, pottery, and the like are believed to originate in this era.
• An ancient aquatic race split off to eventually become the races now known as parella, zora, and rito. Parella are believed to most closely resemble these ancient ancestors.
• An ancient mammal race existed at this point, believed to be the common ancestor of many different humanoid races including both hylians and anouki, among others.

Creation

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“Before time began, before spirits and life existed, the three Golden Goddesses descended upon chaos. Din, with her strong flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, with her rich soul, produced all life forms who would uphold the law. After these goddesses finished their work, they left the world, but not before creating a symbol of their strength, a trio of golden triangles which together could become known as the Triforce.”

• A small but powerful portion of the essence of the gods is still held within the mighty Triforce. According to legend, the goddess Hylia was trusted by the Golden Goddesses to guard such a holy and powerful item after their departure.
• It is generally believed the Golden Goddesses created not only the Light World but all realms that ever could or would be as well as the origin of all creatures that would come to exist.

Primordial War

• A great battle was waged between the Demon King Demise and the Goddess Hylia, possibly including monsters fighting on the side of demise and mortals fighting on the side of Hylia. This conflict is said to have literally changed the shape of the world due to the power both beings held at their peak, and so many creatures were wiped out that it no doubt shaped every generation which followed.
• At some point in time near this conflict, perhaps even during it, Hylia sent the Triforce and the progenitors of the hylian race on an outcrop of earth she flung into the sky. It is this rock that would go onto become the group of sky-lands which still exist today, most notably Skyloft. It is unknown if other skyborn races, such as the Wind Tribe and the Oocca, were also sent the sky by Hylia at this time.
• Although Hylia managed to seal Demise, she knew the seal would not hold forever, and she herself was gravely wounded. Hylia devised a plan which included creating the blade that would evolve to become the blade of evil's bane, the Master Sword, and the spirit within it. As the Triforce could not be wielded by a god, Hylia renounced divinity and transferred her soul to the body of a mortal who would come of age when Demise returned.