The Legend of Zelda: Dark Trinity
Part 1: At the Dawn of Time

This is my personal take on the course of events for the Legend of Zelda series. For the sake of clarity, here is my ordering of the games. (Note, however, that this is not the order presented by Mr. Miyamoto.)

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992, SNES)
   
2. The Legend of Zelda: Link�s Awakening (1993, Gameboy)
   
3. The Legend of Zelda (1987, NES)
   
4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988, NES)
   
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998, Nintendo 64)

I feel that my reasoning for the chronology is fairly well explained in Part I of the story (�At the Dawn of Time�). I have effectively disregarded the two monstrosities created for the CD-i or 3D0, or whatever it was, so don�t call me on it.

I do not own or claim to own characters created by the great Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto (Link, Zelda, the Deku Tree, Ganondorf, Aghnim, Din, Nayru, Farore). I do own all new characters (the Light and Dark Gods, etc.)

So sit back, relax, and enjoy some fiction� And don�t you ask me who the dang narrator is! You�ll find out eventually.

From the ancient texts of Hyrule, which are collectively called the Book of Mudora, we learn precious little about the creation of Hyrule. And what we do know has been obscured by mistranslation. However, the story I know to be true begins like this:

At the dawn of time, four divine siblings ruled the universe.

These four, three sisters and one brother, were the sole controllers of the three forces and their expression.

Din, the first goddess, controlled the force of power.

Farore, the second sister, was the goddess of courage.

Nayru, the third goddess, was the custodian of the force of wisdom.

Finally, their brother, the Lord Calmet, was guardian of the expression of these powers. As long as he was in power, the three forces would be in a pure form, uncorrupted by misuse. For his love and control of all things good, he was given the title of god of light.

When the deities grew restless in their empty universe, they cooperated to do something that they had never done before� they would create.

Din cultivated the land with her flaming arms.

Farore brought sentient beings to this new place.

Nayru gave knowledge to the people; knowledge that would make them prosper.

When the three goddesses had done their part, Calmet descended to this new land and finished the work. With the strength of the gods, he brought light to this place and made the creation good.

This land, which they named Hyrule, was joined with the heavens at a Sacred Realm, a golden land created at the point where the three goddesses returned to the heavens. And in this golden land there could be found a divine relic, three golden triangles, each representing the powers of one of the goddesses. This relic was called the Triforce.

The people of Hyrule have told this tale of creation for ages.

Where the tale of creation ends, however, an equally important tale begins. This story is known as the Tale of Time, or to the common people of Hyrule, the Legend of Zelda.

Hyrule existed on as a wholly good creation for thousands of years. This pure existence went on until the birth of a man of the dessert a man called Mandrag Ganondorf.

Ganondorf was king of the Gerudo thieves, a nearly all female race that lived in seclusion from the rest of Hyrule. The Gerudo were a rare sight, and nobody expected evil to come from their hidden fortress.

This Ganondorf refused to live the just existence that the other people of Hyrule lived. He desired more. This desire slowly warped into the first form of evil in Hyrule. Mandrag Ganondorf had created greed. And with this coming of the first evil, a new god was created from half of the power of the God of Light. This new god was given the name Kavore Tempak, which meant �two from what was one.� This name gradually was reduced to Kavore.

Ganondorf gathered an army of foolish men to be his foot soldiers in a war that he intended to make him king. He eventually forced his way into the Sacred Realm with the help of the wizard Aghnim, a former member of the Sheikah clan who had been exiled with his friends, the Actium.

However, Mandrag Ganondorf�s dreams were not to be.

At the first sign of corruption in creation, Calmet returned to Hyrule on his sisters� behalf and organized a group of righteous people to fight against Ganondorf�s evil army. Four smaller groups led this army of good: a wise family called the Royales, a mysterious people called the Sheikah, a rugged and courageous family called the Grannites, and a magical clan called the Lehn.

A long, painful war was waged. When the conflict was over, Mandrag Ganondorf was defeated. Hyrule, however, was never the same

At the end of the war, the people of Hyrule unfairly exiled the Gerudo as punishment for their king�s crimes. Ganondorf�s spirit was banished into the dimensional void with the God of Darkness, and the soul of Agahnim, who had made the mistake of helping Ganondorf create the army of evil. These three left with a vow that they would return in some form or another to take their revenge on Hyrule.

The Royales took over as leaders of Hyrule and built the land up for many years of peace.

The Grannites� name took on the same meaning as Grand Knights, and the latter quickly replaced the former. They defended all of Hyrule from evil influence, living mostly in a fortress on Fate Mountain.

The Sheikah became the dedicated servants and guardians of the Royal family, protecting them from all who challenged them.

The Lehn became the wise experts of magic in Hyrule, taking up residence on the Snow Peak in the south of Hyrule.

These groups called together a council of seven wise ones from the principle races of Hyrule who would seal the gates of the Sacred Realm from evil. From the Hylian race came the Sage of Light. From the exiled Gerudo came the Sage of Spirit. From the mountain dwelling Goron race came the Sage of Fire. From the fish-like Zora race came the Sage of Water. The Sheikah provided the Sage of Shadow. A mysterious, forest dwelling race called the Kokiri gave the council the Sage of Forest. Finally, the Royal Family gave the council its leader. This leader would be known as the Sage of Destiny.

Under these people, Hyrule remained peaceful for 10,000 years� until the second coming of evil.

A new king was born to the Gerudo, as did happen every 100 years. The new leader was named Ganondorf Dragmire, but eventually took on the name Mandrag Ganon in honor of his ancestor.

To the Actium clan of wizards, a new leader was also born. He was given the name Aghnim, as was custom for the leaders of that clan.

Finally, the door to the Sacred Realm became weakened by the return of the God of Darkness. Through escape and reincarnation, the three evils of Hyrule had returned.

The unknowing king of Hyrule allowed the wizard Aghnim into his court as an adviser, forgetting the events of so long ago. The wizard quickly took hold of power, exiling the king and opening the weakened gateway to the Sacred Realm.

With the door opened, Aghnim�s master, the reincarnated Ganon, stepped forward and entered the Realm. With the help of the God of Darkness, he unfairly took control of the whole Triforce.

The kingdom of Hyrule was blissfully unaware of these happenings, except for one small boy of the Grand Knights, named Link.

Link lived with his uncle in the center of Hyrule to serve as the Grand Knight�s resident Royal Council Member. For weeks before Ganondorf�s arrival, the child�s sleep plagued by recurring prophetic dreams and telepathic messages from a strange young girl.

In his dreams, Link saw a terrible force overpowering Hyrule; a force, which he knew, only he could stop. However, he disregarded the dreams as simple nightmares.

One stormy night, Link had a new dream. The young girl finally identified herself as Zelda, princess of Hyrule. The castle was under attack, and he was their only hope. Although the child did not realize it, he was the second true Grand Knight of Hyrule, the one destined to crush the Second Coming of Evil.

When Link awoke, his uncle was gone. He grabbed a lantern and headed out into the dark night� Thus began a life-long journey for that brave boy

Over a period of years, Link slowly defeated the three evils once more. With the help of one of the ancient sages who had sealed the Sacred Realm when Ganondorf had first tried to enter it 10,000 years earlier, Link retrieved the mythical Master Sword, slew Aghnim, and set the Sacred Realm right.

When Ganon returned and, without the help of the God of Darkness, stole the Triforce of Power, the boy again put down the evil and rescued Hyrule�s captive princess from him.

In the end, Ganon�s last-ditch effort to take control of Hyrule, placing a curse of eternal slumber on Princess Zelda and seizing the power of the Six Palaces of Hyrule was not enough. Link restored the six sacred crystals of those palaces to their rightful homes, turned the palaces to stone piles, and awakened the Princess.

At the end of Link�s quest, many changes had taken place. Link was now a young man, and began his life as a Grand Knight of Hyrule. Unfortunately, there wasn�t much Hyrule left for him to be a Grand Knight to. The expansive kingdom broke up, leaving only the small, central part of Hyrule.

In addition to these obvious changes, smaller changes were made, some in front of and some behind the backs of the people of Hyrule.

Din, Nayru, Farore, Calmet, and Kavore, he five principal deities of Hyrule, met and made an agreement as to how the power struggle between light and dark. It was agreed that the people of Hyrule would be left to their own devices for a period of no less than 10,000 years. The essences of Calmet and Kavore would be entrapped in sealed temples in a canyon in Hyrule for that period. Each would be sealed in by a curse locked by a sword. Calmet was sealed in with Kavore�s Dark Blade. Kavore was locked in his temple with the Divine Blade, a sword of power comparable to the Master Sword.

In 10,000 years, if the people of Hyrule had not worked out the conflict for themselves, the three evils would again rise from their entrapment. However, this time, Calmet was given the opportunity to plan ahead. Two mortals of Hyrule were selected as their realm�s defenders. These two young men, to be born far in the future, were given the titles Hero of Time and Hero of Magic. They would be the opposing forces to the reincarnations of Ganon and Aghnim, and, alongside the God of Light, would fight the final battle between good and evil.

Control of the gateway to the sacred realm was left to the Council of the Seven Sages at the choice of the three golden goddesses and Calmet. Seven temples at various locations around the new, smaller kingdom of Hyrule replaced the six sacred palaces. Each sage would be assigned a temple, with the Sage of Destiny defending the most important temple of all, the Temple of Time. This temple would serve as the link to the Sacred Realm. Three Spiritual Stones would lock a door to the chamber of the sages. The gateway would only be opened when the Hero of Time removed the Master Sword, which was sealed within.

When these agreements were made, the three goddesses and Calmet made a secret pact as well. The three sisters promised to free their favored brother ahead of schedule to that he might head off the Third Coming of Evil before it became too awful. But, that was not to be

Kavore�s plan for domination was set into place nearly immediately. The surviving member�s of Agahnim�s family formed the Council of Seven Actium to prepare for the next coming. This council came into direct opposition with the Council of the Seven Wizards, a group of Lehn wise men who watched over Hyrule�s magic. In addition, Ganondorf�s chief minions formed the Council of Darkness to counteract the measures of the sages.

These groups battled each other for the duration of the time between the Second and Third Coming of Evil.

Near the end of the 10,000-year span between the comings, the plans of both sides began to gain momentum.

With 38 years remaining, a new king was born to the Gerudo race. The child�s mother was instructed to name him Ganondorf Dragmire by two mysterious witch sisters from the desert. The first evil had been reborn.

At the moment that the new king of the Gerudo was born, a child was born to the leader of the Actium clan. The child was given the name Aghnim, and the title �Actium Prime�. The council met immediately, knowing that the second evil had returned.

30 years later, with the first two evils having met and made final preparations for the attack on Hyrule, the armies of the Actium and Dark Councils laid in wait for the first sign of their enemy preparing.

One dark evening, on opposite sides of the kingdom, three children were born. The young king of Hyrule�s first child was born, and given the name Zelda. The Princess of Destiny had been born.

On Mount Fate, far to the west, the wife of the leader of the Grand Knights birthed a child at the exact same moment. The child was given the name Link. The Hero of Time had arrived.

Meanwhile, on one of the snowy peaks to the south, a new prince was born to the Lehn. This third child was given the name Jonah. The Hero of Magic was then introduced to the members of his clan.

Quite literally, moments later the evil armies poured in from the lands surrounding Hyrule.

The land was at war in a few hours. The Grand Knights, Sheikah, and Lehn quickly mobilized an army to confront the invading force. The first battle was fierce, lasting many days. The fields and towns of Hyrule were lit up with fire. One of the casualties of the battle was the Light Temple, which was built in the center of Hyrule�s main field.

When the battle finally progressed to the home of the Grand Knights, the mother of the newborn Hero of Time was forced by the Elders to flee to safety with her child. Unfortunately, as she crept down the mountain, the wizard Agahnim launched his final assault on the palace. As most of the great structure vaporized in a tremendous explosion, an alert guard saw her in the light of the flash. The guard hurled his spear, and the young woman was stabbed in the side.

Slowly, painfully, the young mother crawled along the walls of Hyrule Field to the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. Losing consciousness, she dragged herself into the village, where the fairy residents took her to their master, the Great Deku Tree.

The Deku Tree, spiritual protector of the forest, sensed the great power within the child. As the baby�s mother died from her wound, the Deku Tree made the decision to raise the child Link among the Kokiri, never revealing that he was a Hylian.

Over the period of a year, the war slowly weakened the armies of both sides. All the Actium but Agahnim were killed. The monsters sent by the Council of Evil were eradicated. Most of the Sheikah and every last Grand Knight were killed. The evil ones surrendered, thinking that they had the war won.

But they were quite wrong