A Note About the Timeline
Events mentioned here are presented as modern day Hyrule knows of them. Much has been lost to history over the ages, or shaped into myth and legend. As players, we may recognize events to be distorted or incorrect here, having played the games they are based on, but be careful of acting on this knowledge! You can always talk to the GM for clarification.
The Birth of the World
The three Golden Goddesses came down from the heavens and created the world
Din created the land, Nayru created order, and Farore created life.
They departed again to the Heavens, leaving the three sacred triangles of the Triforce at the point of their departure.
The Imprisoning war
An evil King arises
In a time before we truly know, a great evil arose. This Demon King broke the seal on the Sacred Realm and seized the Triforce for himself. Darkness and evil overtook Hyrule for many years, until the seven sages awoke. Together with the armies of Hyrule and led, it is said, by the Princess, they fought back the beast and sealed him into the Sacred Realm.
Many lives, and the Triforce, were lost, but peace was restored.
Although it is not known why, or when, in the eras following this great Imprisoning War, the races of Hyrule became fragmented from one another and many people departed, leaving only Hylians and a few stubborn Zora in the Kingdom of Hyrule.
A Legendary Hero
The restoration of the Triforce
There is a tale from the ancient past that tells of a time when the Demon King, sealed so long ago, broke free from the Sacred Realm, which he had corrupted with his hateful heart. With the help of a wicked sorcerer, he seized the Princess and the descendants of the Sages of old, and sought to destroy Hyrule as revenge for his bitterly long imprisonment.
In defiance, to protect the Sages and the Princess, a hero arose, wielding the Sword of Evil’s Bane. He battled the Demon King and at last slew the great evil once and for all, and wished with his pure heart for the Sacred Realm to be restored. The Triforce granted his wish, and he brought it forth with him into the care of the Royal Family.
An era of prosperity unlike any followed. The Kingdom grew into surrounding lands, far past the northern border of Spectacle Rock, to places that had not been occupied in any time of memory at all. Many of our towns, cities, and palaces were built during this time, named to honor the first Sages. Goron and Zora settlements were, for the first time in centuries, once again near to Hylians, and a tentative relationship between the races began to grow.
The Great Distortion
Hyrule split asunder
Long long ago, the great Southern sea rose, flooding all of Central Hyrule in her wake. At the same time, the desert far to the southwest in Lower Hyrule began to spread like a blight over the once lush area, and the long dormant Eldin volcano burst into a stunning caldera. The northwest reaches of the Hebra mountains fell into a deep cold, and from those mountains, a new people were born — the sky faring Rito, never before seen in any land like Hyrule.
Some say it was a chiding from the Goddesses themselves at the misuse of the Triforce by the Royal Family. Others tell stories of three impossibly ancient and gargantuan gods that crashed into Hyrule during their last days, irrevocably changing the land around them. Some say that instead, it was the birth of powerful spirits, unleashing turmoil with the energy required for their creation.
No matter the cause, this distortion of the world divided the people of Hyrule both physically and in their hearts, and the Kingdom began to fall into decline. The Goron and Zora were right on the edge of these disasters, and have many legends telling of how their people survived by going into hiding.
The Second Imprisoning war
The Sages Reborn
In the time of our known ancestors, evil forces began to covet the Triforce as they have over and over throughout time. As the hearts of some men grew dark, so did the power of an evil beast, Ganon. His followers grew in number and monsters sprang from the world wherever he went as he promised power and glory to whoever would help him in his task.
Ganon and his army raided the Kingdom and managed to steal away the Triforce of Power. Many years passed and the army The Princess of the time resisted the army’s evil influence, and is said to have hidden away the remaining portions of the Triforce before she was kidnapped. As of old, in Hyrule’s time of need, the power of the Sages awoke and those brave souls battled their way to Demon King’s place of power and managed to seal him away. Once more, Hyrule was left without the power of the Triforce to guide her.
Still, the Sages and the Princess are said to have become close, and strove to restore Hyrule to it’s former glory, working to rebuild not just the areas the war had destroyed, but to bring back the ancient pacts of allyship and trust among all of the disparate peoples of the world.
It is know that this Princess was the last princess to be born to the Royal line.
The Restoration of Hyrule
The Return of peace and civility
Hyrule’s face is forever changing. When our grandparent’s gradparents were young, some shift in the winds or whims of Gods led the Great Hyrule sea to drain, allowing the Hylian Royal Family to reclaim and rebuild Hyrule Castle and settle across the marshes of Central Hyrule and working to drain the wetlands once more and bring back the Plains.
Long assumed to be a myth, the Sheikah clan began to thrive, and established themselves as a force of their own in Hyrule, spreading across the Necluda region and reclaiming the area that became Kakariko village, which had been taken over by Ganon’s forces so long ago.
The Rito are now a common sight across all of Hyrule, acting as messengers and bards, spreading story far and wide.
The caldera in Eldin known now as Death Mountain returned to dormancy. Though the area they call home will never be strictly hospitable, the Gorons themselves are hospitable to all. They have reopened their borders and come forth from hiding, happily returning to a peaceful co-existence as their great ancestors had.
Although the desert in the southwest had by then almost entirely swallowed up Lower Hyrule, it also brought forth the return of the Gerudo people, who traveled from an incredibly far away land to return to their ancestral home. As natural desert-dwellers, for generations they have cultivated that blighted land and built grand palaces and bazaars. Despite barring outsiders from their capital, they opened trade with the other races of Hyrule and established a positive relationship with their neighbors to the north.
Alas, though the occasional Zora may be seen in northern Lanayru, and some Goron have traveled to their city, the water-dwelling people have only become more reclusive. There is an intense and unspoken hostility between the Zora and Hylians, and it has been that way since the Second Imprisoning War.
Present Day
And of Times Yet Unknown
As of late, the mood in Hyrule has become uneasy. Though peace still reigns, nightmares and strange occurrences have been on the rise of late…