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rotisseries · 1 year

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idk anything about loz but do you wanna explain how hyrule is old as balls

i would LOVE to explain why hyrule is old as balls!!! this applies to both hyrule as a kingdom and the land itself

ok so. first of all. all the mainline games technically fit into a timeline. now the timeline was made AFTER most of the games came out and its clearly not nintendo's no.1 priority when they make their games (it's not mine normally either. personally my preferred interpretation is that all the games are just different versions of the same hyrulean folktale? but the timeline is fun to consider) but nevertheless it IS canonical and amazingly they don't seem to really overtly contradict each other?? I haven't played a lot of the games so I don't know for sure but it works

anyway this is the timeline

orignally published in 2011 in the hyrule historia, this is a version where someone added breath of the wild, as nintendo stated it comes at the end of the timeline. now you may notice 3 splits. that's not really super important here but botw supposedly comes at the end of all of them equally. unlikely for the one on the far right, but again, unimportant rn)

first thing to establish before we really start getting into it, with the exception of a few games with direct sequels, all of these games have new incarnations of zelda, link, and ganon. (with the exception of twilight princess, the second game in the middle line, which includes the same ganon from the previous game) I haven't played every zelda game, but the ones that I have played present you with the story of the cycle as though it is far enough back that its a mixture of history and legend. everyone who would remember the last events is dead by the time there's a new cycle. so there's at minimum, probably 150-200 years between each new cycle, keep that in mind

now, I'm starting at breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom because I wanna work my way backwards. so, in breath of the wild, it's already been 100 years since the last time anything significant happened. we're already working on a timespan of 100 years. what happened 100 years prior is that link, zelda, and 4 champions were prepping for the next time ganon rose, and then he did but he got them off guard and they weren't ready and most of them died and link had to be put asleep for 100 years to get healed while zelda kept ganon from completely destroying the world in the meantime.

NOW before THAT, the hyrule of botw's LAST cycle was 10k years ago. that is a LONG fucking time already, it's so old that this hyrule is incredibly divorced from its history, the more significant lore of the triforce is little more than a symbolic royal family crest, and it isn't directly referenced at all. all that this hyrule knows is that 10k years ago was the last time ganon rose, and hero and princess defeated him, so they know that they're gonna have to prep for it again, I also can't actually remember but I think? this may also be the first generation in a while that knows of the legend at all, hence why they're the first to prep for it. so anyway, already, at the end of the timeline, hyrule as a civilization is at a minimum 10k years old, for reference, in OUR world, 10k years ago humans were still living in caves. earth was just coming out of the ice age.

now, the latest game, tears of the kingdom actually shows us this 10k years ago, it's shown to us as the early days of the kingdom with its first king and queen. BUT it's still at the end of the timeline. how do I know this? and not that it's possibly at the start? 1. that contradicts a fair amount of previously established lore lol. in tears of the kingdom you get show this dessicated ganon mummy that's been lving under the castle from 10k years ago. if that was the beginning of hyrule entirely then it means for the entirety of the timeline there's been 2 ganons in existence. which is kind of. um. not how it works. ("but what about the ganon they fight in botw?" you may ask. I get the impression that wasn't a real ganon but just a manifestation of mummy ganon's power as he attempts to break free so its not like. a new ganon incarnation)

so anyway, it doesn't work super well if 10k years ago hyrule is actually the first hyrule, and already in the lore the kingdom of hyrule has risen and fallen countless times, it's gone through lots of wars. so I'm thinking the most likely explanation is that hyrule from any previous games fell, all memory of it died out, and then a new hyrule eventually rose in its place, hence why the king and queen self identify as the first king and queen of hyrule. so, AGAIN, the hyrule at THE END OF THE TIMELINE. is already like. hundreds or thousands of years removed from all the previous cycles.

now we're gonna work our way back to the beginning. so, there's 3 different timelines shown on the picture, but only one of them, the middle one, can actually be canonically achieved in the game they split from, ocarina of time, so we're going up the middle line. it's also the shortest span of time, so we're counting hyrule's years at a most generous minimum here.

so, there's an unknown amount of time between 10k years ago tears of the kingdom hyrule, and the last game on the middle line, four swords adventures. got no idea how much time is there but it's probably a lot, bc, again, civilization falling and rising again.

moving on, now when looking into this more, while again, I'm very rarely given explicit and specific time frames, there's generally supposed to be a few hundred years between four swords adventures and the previous game, twilight princess.

now, at twilight princess. as previously stated, that is the same ganon (this is also the first ganon to appear, all games chronologically prior to ocarina of time feature other villains) as the game before it, ocarina of time. (majora's mask, the game actually listed right before it on the timeline, is a direct sequel to ocarina of time and doesn't have significant bearing on this count) the lore of ocarina of time involves a lot of time travel, and in this center timeline, and the achievable canonical ending of the game, link defeats ganon and then goes back in time to warn the hyrule leaders, and ganon is stopped before he can ever get started. he's set to be executed, but evidently they don't succeed, because he's back at it again in twilight princess (I haven't played either of those games so I don't know the specifics) I don't know how long ganon's life expectancy is (clearly a lot though. he still looks like a middle aged man), but twilight princess has a new link and zelda, so assuming ocarina of time link lived a long and healthy life, it's probably been almost a century at minimum. this is also likely the closest gap between games.

now, from ocarina of time to the game before it. there is a vague "countless eras long" hyrulean civil war. so that's another couple hundred years between oot and four swords (different from four swords adventures)

now from four swords to the game prior, minish cap, is another vague and indeterminate amount of time, but it's for sure a new zelda and link, so that's probably over a hundred years again.

AGAIN with the unknown amount of time, we go back from minish cap to skyward sword. skyward sword is the first in the timeline, featuring the first link, the first zelda, and the earliest form of ganon, an evil god called demise who curses link and zelda to forever be reincarnated and to keep having to deal with his ass. now, skyward sword takes place in, the sky!!

the lore of this game is that, an unknown amount of time, long ago, demise cracked open the earth (already full of prospering people btw. no mention of a kingdom though. but keep that in mind. these weren't hyrulean cavemen these were societies) and monsters poured out, he was looking for the triforce, which was passed down from the golden goddesses (hyrule's creation gods) and protected by hylia, another goddess of the land, the triforce is capable of granting any wish to the person who has it. hylia took the triforce and sent it skyward on a piece of land (to be called skyloft) with the remaining surviving humans (hylians. despite the fact hylians are categorically an elven race, they are referred to interchangeably with the term human in the zelda games) hylia then took up forces with the remaining land dwellers (bc there are other races and they just got stuck on earth. fuck those guys ig) and they fought a vicious war that finally resulted in hylia sealing demise away. peace was restored to the surface, but the humans were left up in skyloft because she knew the seal wouldn't hold forever. hylia knew she wouldn't be able to defeat demise again without the help of the triforce, but a goddess can't use the triforce, so she gave up on immortality and was eventually reincarnated as a hylian. the first zelda. the first zelda is literally a direct reincarnation of a goddess. all future zeldas share her bloodline. (funny thing about this is you're never introduced to a hyrulean queen, there's only ever princess zelda and her father, despite the fact their divine right of kings follows a matrilineal line)

an unknown amount of time after the imprisoning war, we're at present day skyloft. they have little memory of the surface and the imprisoning war. og zelda ends up getting thrown down to the surface, where she discovers that she's a goddess incarnation and what her duty is. she's going to purify herself at springs and shit, while link follows trying to find her. there's a bunch of shit that happens while link follows her, eventually there's some time travel where he follows her back to when the goddess had first sealed away demise, zelda tells him she's a reincarnation, hylia intended for the triforce to be used by a chosen hero with an unbreakable spirit (link!!), she ends up getting sealed into a crystal so she can be awoken in her own time, the works. he goes back, does some other shit, part of skyloft breaks off and comes crashing down, and link and zelda decide to stay on the surface. hyrule as a kingdom is founded sometime between this game and the next.

so. to recap. the end of the timeline is already over 10k years removed from the last cycle. and then there's a couple hundred to a thousand years from THAT to ocarina of time, where the timeline splits. THEN there's another couple hundred to a thousand years from ocarina of time to skyward sword, the beginning of the cycle. and at the time of skyward sword, which is the prologue to the FOUNDING OF HYRULE. the land is already a few hundred years old ABSOLUTE MINIMUM. and had thriving and complex societies with technology BEFORE humans ever even got sent into the sky. all this together I'm estimating around 15k years of thriving society. at 15k years ago our earth had just started warming after about 100k years of ice age. and they already had technology. hyrule is an OLD ASS kingdom and all the intelligent civilizations on its land are even older. what the fuck

#I first started thinking about this a couple years ago or whatever when I watched an osp video about the history present in botw's setting #bc there's a shit ton of ruins. there's the ruins from 100 years ago and ones from 10k years ago #but there’s even older ruins #there's ruins with images of loftwings (bird creatures from skyward sword) there's a giant hylia statue like the one from skyward sword #there's so much just. unexplained stuff #bc it's older than that hyrules history #there's a mountain with a giant perfectly shaped hole shot through it. the edge of it smooth and glassy #that's never explained!!! that hole. probably shot from some great giant robot or something. is older than botw hyrule's known history!!!#and like. I'd never noticed those details BUT THEN I DID after watching the video #and it just infested my brain. I was like. wow botw hyrule is fucking old #and then started thinking about how it comes at the end of the chronological timeline. that's insane #it's something like 15k years removed from skyward sword. and there are ruins with loftwings on them #that's like if we found ruins with depictions of animals we never even found fossils for #ask #witch-of-aiaia #hi aiaia!

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