Understanding the Hylian Fantasy Timeline
The Legend of Zelda series is well known for it's apparent abuse of time travel and realm hopping, both inside and between games. This has led to the creation of a somewhat convoluted and controversial "Master Timeline" showing the order that each game takes place in. Some games quite obviously LoZ and AoL for instance]follow each other, while others take some piecing together. The broadly accepted game orders, in-world chronologically, are as follows:
Skyward Sword, followed by Minish Cap, then Four Swords and lastly Ocarina of Time.
During Ocarina of Time, Link is put into a spiritual sleep for seven years until he has reached his potential to be able to defeat Ganondorf. After the villian is defeated, Zelda uses magic to send this Adult Link back to being a child at the start of the game. This creates two timelines: The Adult Timeline, where Link defeats Ganon and then disappears due to Zeldas Magic, and the Child Timeline, where a young Link warns the Royal Family of Ganondorfs plot and is arrested.
16 May 2023
Look, this newest game has broken everything I've worked towards and honestly, I don't know how I feel about it. A lot of what I'm seeing is actually great, but it clearly makes every game before BotW a true myth tale. A large collection of ideas are now condensed and my various histories are completely wrecked.
Adult Timeline
100 years after Zelda sends Link back to his childhood, the beast Ganon revives, leading to events that predate Wind Waker, which is followed by Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. No games have yet to be set directly after this.Child Timeline
After Ganondorfs arrest, Link travels in search of his Fairy Companion from OoT. In doing so, he travels to Termina during the events of Majora's Mask. Some centuries after this, the events of Twilight Princess take place, with Child Link reappearing as the Hero's Shade that teaches the new hero of this game a multitude of combat skills. Further time passes, and an attempt is once again made to revive Ganon, using a new Ganondorf, in Four Swords Adventures.The Other 7 Games
This so far leaves out the existence of seven other games, including the first four in the series. Where do these fall, then? For many years, fans attempted to make sense of where all the games could fall in these two timelines. At the time, it was largely agreed that Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, and Link's Awakening were all the last games in their timeline. Many fans also believes that the Oracle of... games were either before or after ALttP. In 2011, Nintendo released the Hyrule Historia, a printed look at many elements in the series long history that also included an Official, if not immutable, Timeline. This new timeline revealed an interesting idea, one that has absolutely shaken the fandom up since it's reveal: The original four games, plus Oracles take place in a Timeline in which Link is defeated by Ganon in Ocarina of Time! Fans of this Three Timeline Theory point to a common game element to support the idea of this "Downfall Timeline", The Triforce. Each piece of the Triforce represents Power, Wisdom, and Courage, respectively. Each Timeline Branch also focuses on those same elements. The Adult Timeline follows the fallout of Zelda's Wisdom in sending Link back to his Childhood, the Child Timeline then examines the Courage of the Hero, while the Downfall Timeline focuses on the reoccurring Power of Ganon. Eventually, A Link Between Worlds would be added between Link's Awakening and the original Legend of Zelda. Still, the Downfall Timeline serves as a reminder of Ganon/Demise's continued presence across Hyrule even as the series most reoccurring big bad has been effectively removed in the other two Timelines.The Hylian Fantasy
So then, where does this leave the Hylian Fantasy? Sure, it takes place three to four hundred years after the end of Breath of the Wild, but how does this relate to the larger history of the series? With BotW taking place with at least 10,000 years of time elapsing since the games prologue, the most accurate answer is that the game, and as such this setting, take place at a point where all three timelines have managed to merge together. Either the mythology or real events have occurred in such a way that every game previously has an element of truth to it. As such, I've divided the Hylian Fantasy Timeline into a few eras that allow for a known set of variables to take place.You can view the in-progress Timeline here.
First, we need to have Hyrule's Era of the Sky, when the Hylian people's lived above the clouds in Skyloft. After they eventually return, we have the Ear of the Land, which lasts until the Unification War. Here in the Unified Era, is where we develop the various events of the three timelines before eventually having them merge with the Divine War following the Dark Era. This is beginning of the earliest parts of BotW's prologue. That Divine War then leads into a Golden Period which is then destroyed by the Calamity. After a hundred years, we then come to the current time period that the Hylian Fantasy exists during, the Era of New Hyrule. By my math I'm currently looking to be covering roughly 100,000 years of myth and history across the franchise to make any one element I want to have actually work in this project.
Skyward Sword's Ending and Another Split
The plot of Skyward Sword ends with some strange time traveling shenanigans. The hero, through the use of a Time Gate, travels back in time to just after the Goddess Hylia had sent they Hylians into the Sky Realm and sealed Demise. Her incarnation, the first Zelda, is sealed in a magical crystal through to the end of the game. Link travels back to the games present, reseals Demise and rescues Zelda, only for the dark lord Girahim to appear, steal Zelda, and travel through to the past to reawaken Demise there instead.
Link also returns to the past, seals Demise within the Master Sword, and returns with Zelda into the present. This sealing of Demise starts off the reoccurring events of the three main protagonists reincarnations, but also creates a strange situation where Demise's present form as the Imprisoned seems to be a mistake. The lack of Demise on the Forgotten Temple Grounds would seem to make it seem that there is actually a secondary split in the Timeline that has not been investigated by the games.
Link also returns to the past, seals Demise within the Master Sword, and returns with Zelda into the present. This sealing of Demise starts off the reoccurring events of the three main protagonists reincarnations, but also creates a strange situation where Demise's present form as the Imprisoned seems to be a mistake. The lack of Demise on the Forgotten Temple Grounds would seem to make it seem that there is actually a secondary split in the Timeline that has not been investigated by the games.
Wow, this is so incredibly thorough, and also very confusing! I didn't realize how much of a mess the timelines of the games are. Best of luck to you to sort it out! :)
I haven't even gotten into the whole part where I think the mythology is actually cyclical and that BotW is before SS.
Wow! Lots of work for sure, and very confusing work at that. I wish you all the best! :)