Glances At Early Hyrule
The following is a piece I wrote pretty much just for the helluvit. It's based loosely on in-game references, but is only designed to be an interpretation of the history of Hyrule before OoT.
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A Look at Early Hyrule
Not much is known about the state of affairs in Early Hyrule, as most of its long history is obscured by violence and bloodshed between the many warring nations of the world. Only the Sheikah can truly testify to what actually happened during these so-called ‘lost years of Hyrule’, but none have been seen for centuries. We may never know the full extent of Hyrule’s ‘bloody history of greed and hatred’.
Additionally, due to these distortions, it is difficult to determine exactly how old our world really is. Obviously the Temple of Time has long been destroyed, along with most of the relics from the Old World, so carbon-dating is quite out of the question. Most of the older burial sites have been washed away by floodwaters or ransacked by tomb-robbers, and attempts to unearth any remains of the dearly departed have been fruitless—although one expedition uncovered a curious poem involving the sun and moon…
What we do know, however, is that, not long after the Goddesses left behind the Triforce, the Ancient Creators of Hyrule, the Seven Sages, built the Temple of Time to house the entrance to the Sacred Realm and had the legendary blade of evil’s bane—the Master Sword—forged to seal the entrance. The Royal Family of the Hylia was charged with protecting the Ocarina of Time, and the three Spiritual Stones were entrusted to the Kokiri, Goron, and Zora peoples, respectively. So, at least for that short period, the people of Hyrule must have enjoyed at least a short-lived peace. Perhaps the Sages themselves were the only ones to celebrate this amity? Either way, like the details of the bloody struggles between peoples, how long this peace lasted may never be known, at least not with any degree of due certainty.
Some of the struggles may have been attributed to the appearance of monsters in the various regions. One story in particular, passed down by the Gorons, tells of a fiery dragon that terrorized the Death Mountain region. The dragon was inevitably defeated by a Goron hero wielding a legendary hammer, but, in the state of turmoil, the Gorons would not be quick to let such a catastrophe pass by without determining a cause. The Gerudo clan has long been associated with dragons, and so the blame, as well as that legendary hammer, may have been raised against them. This is all speculation of course, but such was the rash chauvinism of the era.
As time passed on, however, and the struggles progressed, the ever-evolving cause of the hostilities became clearer and clearer: the people were fighting over information that might lead to the Sacred Realm in which the Golden Power—the Triforce of Legend—was rumored to rest. Of course, given that each of the major nations within Hyrule was home to one of the Seven Ancient Sages—and four of these home to the keys to the Realm itself—one can only wonder how this knowledge could have been lost to them—perhaps in the same way that their history has been lost to us?
This much is clear: over the years, the Spiritual Stones had taken on new roles—not only were they the hidden treasures of their respective keepers, but they were also petty heirlooms; in the case of the Zora, the Stone with which they were entrusted had become the ‘Zora’s Engagement Ring.’ Inconclusive accounts also suggest that the Spiritual Stone of Fire was almost eaten at one point during a rock famine that struck Death Mountain. Apparently the knowledge of their importance was lost at some point.
Of course, this knowledge lay with the Royal Family of Hyrule and the ‘Shadow Folk’ who guarded them, the Sheikah, so eventually the conflict came to the Royal Family’s doorstep—to the City of Hyrule.
The Dawn of the ‘Hylian Age’
Apparently it was the end of this ‘fierce war’ that marked the beginning of the first ‘long peace’ Hyrule had ever seen. A few important points were made clear during this time: first, that the Zora had been longtime allies of the Royal Family of the Hylia; second, that the King of Hyrule had made a brotherly pact at the war’s end with the leader of the Goron clan; and third, that the Sheikah—who swore allegiance to the King of Hyrule and guarded the Royal Family—all but disappeared when the kingdom was finally united. Exactly when and how the wars ended is a matter that remains in question to this day.
Finally, peaceful dealings between the old warring nations, now united under the King of Hyrule and the Hylian Royal Family, could begin. The Zora, being incredibly endowed in the field of medicine, passed on many of their home remedies, including, but not limited to, eye-drops (made from the eyes of a now-extinct species of frog), aquatic lungs (made from the scales of the great Jabu-Jabu, as rumor has it), and a strange fabric that allows one’s skin to breathe as though he has gills. The Gorons, being expert smithies, crafted weapons and armor for the Hylian Royal Family, and made the Hylians heat-resistant tunics so that they could mine precious ores from deep within Death Mountain.
And so the ‘Hylian Age’ began, and the people of Hyrule prospered.
Apparently the rumors of the Sacred Realm still circulated throughout the land, though, particularly in the domain of the Hylia. The inaptly designated ‘long peace’ seems to have not lasted very long—only about a decade, as most scholars have predicted—the craving for the Golden Power was still too strong for some. Of course, this portentous note now leads us into the next chapter of the Legend of Zelda—the story that is told today as the Fable of the Ocarina of Time…
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09-08-2006, 09:05 AM
