THE GREAT TIMELINE

Sometime after the Great Sea came the Great Desert…

 

 

PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS BEFORE READING “THE GREAT DESERT” AS THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE FAN FICTION.

 

 

This is a general Timeline of the eras of the various Legend of Zelda game titles as they relate to The Great Desert.  This Timeline deviates from what many Legend of Zelda fans consider to be canon – and with full knowledge and purpose:  Shadsie and Sailor_Lilithchan wished to make multiple games references and to pay general homage to the many games without worrying too much about what other fans seem to think is set in stone for the continuity of the game series.  It made the best sense for the story we wanted to tell to have a Linear Timeline with its own specific quirks.  In other words, The Great Desert takes place in something of an alternate universe, anyway, so a sense of fun and a desire to tell a good story trumped all other concerns. 

 

Shadsie thought it might be useful to compose the Timeline she had in mind while writing the story.  In this way, those who have read the story and those who wish to re-read it may, perhaps, better understand the references peppered throughout.  Also detailed in this are bits of the story that came up in the original role-played rough draft of TGD and were otherwise in-mind, but were not put into the body text.

 

Spoilers for multiple games abound, as they do in the fan fiction’s body text.

 

General Notation for the History: Every incarnation of Link has died young.  Most incarnations of Zelda have died old.  Ganondorf/Ganon, never is truly killed in the same sense as Link and Zelda suffer, but merely “sealed.”  He occasionally comes back to the realms of the living under his own Power, but usually comes back through the blood sacrifice of someone from either Link or Zelda’s hereditary line. Additionally, Link and Zelda through the ages are old souls – essentially the same base people – reincarnated in the Goddesses’ Game.  When danger comes upon the land, Zelda often regains memories of past lifetimes while such things do not come to Link easily, and in some lives, not at all.  All of the past selves that Link encounters in TGD are essentially memories awakening within him, advice from “who he used to be.”  

 

 

ERAS AS THEY RELATE TO THE HISTORY OF HYRULE IN THE GREAT DESERT

 

 

FIRST DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of the Hero of Time

 

Game(s) Subtitle(s):  Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask

 

This is the story that everyone in Hyrule knows, even to the very day events recorded in The Great Desert begin.  The story of the Hero of Time is the best preserved record of any of Hyrule’s great cataclysms.  The Hero of Time is thought to be the first of the sacred Heroes of the world.  Even the events of the Great Moon Cataclysm in Termina have been remarkably well-preserved.  (In fact, the story of “the parallel universe, the time traveling boy, and the falling moon” is cited as the favorite childhood bedtime story of TGD’s Link of the desert). 

 

Whether the events of the Hero of Time’s first adventure in the defeat of the Demon King were undone by his traveling back in time to become a child again and were merely recorded by knowledgeable people in the Royal Family or if they actually occurred in repeat is a mystery. It is thought that Time folded in upon itself and that the events actually repeated themselves.  The young Hero of Time may have, in fact, left Hyrule for a while not only to search for a lost friend but to avoid running into himself and creating a dangerous temporal paradox.  Some of Hyrule’s foremost scholars hold that, in regards to Time and time-travel, that some events “must always happen.”  

 

In The Great Desert, The Hero of Time visited the modern Link in the form of a child. This was because Link, at the time, needed the wisdom of a child and needed to be reminded to take life with a little fun.  He learned some essential skills in dodging.  Later on, when the ghost of Veran visits him and Navi in the fever state he suffered from an infected wound, she hints that the Hero of Time married the farmer, Malon, and died in an unspecified war. The cousin of Link of TGD is named after this ancient rancher. Late on in the story, Mido of Mido Town mentions that the Hero of Time “bought it on some battlefield somewhere.”

 

That Which Was Left Unspoken: In the original role play / rough draft of TGD, a shocking mention was made regarding relationships between the principal characters. The Link and Zelda of TGD’s version of the Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask era truly did love each other, but could not be together on Zelda’s decision.  According to her (in the role play version), when Ganondorf held her prisoner, he had his way with her.  She could never overcome the memories of this trauma and refused Link marriage because she could never fully give her heart to him as she felt he deserved of a woman.  Link confided his heartbreak and guilt in his friend, Malon, and the two eventually fell in love, married, and had children.  The Royal Line was continued through one of Zelda’s cousins, to no ill effect to the reincarnation cycle.  Link remained loyal to the Court as a knight.      

 

 

 

SECOND DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of the Twilight Crisis

 

Game Subtitle: Twilight Princess

 

The tale of the “Hero who was also a wolf” has not weathered the years quite as well as the tale of the Hero of Time.  There have been times when this Hero has been completely forgotten, but, at some point, via archeological finds, the rediscovery of old books that survived the Flood, and the oral traditions of the few Twili that have had contact with Hyrule, his story was rediscovered.  Link of the desert knows it well, in fact, as it is one of the foremost stories he grew up with. 

 

It is said that the Hero of Twilight’s story is particularly tragic. Some believe that he fell in love with the partner he worked with in his quest, the ruler of the Twilight Realm, who left him to protect both her world and his.  For like Termina, the Twilight Realm was a strange rift-dimension, and, additionally, a cursed place inhabited by the descendants of exiled cosmic criminals.

 

As for the Hero, it is written that he formed a close friendship with the then Queen Zelda of Hyrule.  They married and produced one son.  After this, the Hero of Twilight was killed by a skilled archer while on a royal mission to take care of a band of monster-brigands that had been waylaying innocent travelers.  

 

Many years after this, the Borderlands Portal opened up to the Twilight Realm – it is thought to be a natural rift, not subject to any magical control on either side.  After this rift was opened, a small number of Twili crossed over and developed relations and treaties with Hyrule’s Royal Family.  The Twili never stay long in the realm of Light, preferring to act as emissaries and dignitaries upon limited stay.  Because of this, Twili are generally seen as rare, elegant creatures that are always on important business.  Because the magic and technology in their world is different than what is present in the kingdoms of Light, Twili dignitaries are said to fall prey to being stuck-up. 

 

The Royal Line of Hyrule was continued through the daughter Queen Zelda produced from a second marriage.  Her son via the Hero of Twilight preferred a simple life and left the throne to his younger half-sister.  He remained an honored noble in the countryside, but it is thought that his line eventually became peasant-class. 

 

 

 

FLOATING ERA: Hyrule’s Neighbors in Crisis – Destruction, Sorrow and Despair

 

Game(s) Subtitle(s): Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages

 

It is not known, definitively, when this era of world history occurred.  It can be placed almost anywhere between the era of the Hero of Time and the era of the Great Flood.

 

At some point in world history, two kingdoms bordering Hyrule fell into destruction and sorrow and had need of a sacred Hero.  A young traveler answered the call and became the Hero of the Essences of Time and Nature.  He traveled through Holodrum and Labrynna and was given charge over the seasons in one land.  In the other, he was given a sacred harp which allowed him access to a time a few centuries in the past from the time in which he lived.  Since the boy only time-traveled within a foreign land, he did not encounter any of his previous incarnations in living form. The dark powers that sought the destruction of these two kingdoms ultimately sought the resurrection of the Demon King, Ganon, and power over Hyrule.  The Hero defeated all of these great evils successfully and left upon a journey across the sea. 

 

Some tellers of the legends think that he is one and the same as another Hero, the Hero of Dreams, but learned scholars of the Desert Era claim that he is not. It is most likely that he was merely a little-known Hero.  What is known is that he easily befriended animals.  What is not known is whom he had progeny with or how he died. 

 

The Authorial Take: The Link of Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages appeared to Link of The Great Desert to give him some advice upon accepting the cycles of nature. He presented himself as wise and serene, traits gained from being very in touch with nature.  He did not appear in the original rough draft / role play, but Shadsie thought he’d be appropriate to include in the final story.  Some Legend of Zelda fans think that this Link is the same as the Link from A Link to the Past.  Both Shadsie and Sailor_Lilithchan sharply disagree with this theory and hold that he is a separate Link.  He is presented as a separate Link in The Great Desert.     

 

 

 

THIRD DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of Dreams and Nightmares

 

Game(s) Subtitle(s): A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening

 

This is a quirky time in history when the Triforce of the Gods was united as a whole and almost fell under the dark wishes of Ganon.  The Demon King, having been sealed in an alternate realm began to exert his sheer force of will over it.  People seeking the Triforce for their own gain or even for noble reasons disappeared into this realm and could not find their way back to Hyrule and the world of Light.  It is known that the Dark World, as it came to be called, is distinct from the Twilight Realm and Termina.  In the Dark World, the truest nature of a person’s soul was made manifest, twisting their form. 

 

The Demon King was able to exert his influence beyond the Dark World into Hyrule and was able to engineer Court intrigue and a coup against the Royal Family of Hyrule. This prompted the awakening of a young Hero, a teenaged boy who belonged to the last surviving house of the ancient Hylian Knights.  He fought evil in both the Light and Dark Worlds and restored the balance of the land. 

 

Some say that he obtained the Triforce in full balance, but this is not known for sure. 

 

This Hero left for a journey across the sea to visit many lands, wishing to gain wisdom and skills should Ganon ever somehow return in his lifetime.  For many years in the historical record, he was thought to have been lost in a shipwreck.  His name was heard in the small kingdom of Calatia where he’d settled and married a merchant’s daughter.  The Royal Family of Hyrule was relieved at the news that he’d survived, but refrained from calling him back to the kingdom as he was happy with his new life and family.  It is known that he died somewhat young, but it is not known how. 

 

 

 

FOURTH DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of Loss or the Broken Era

 

This is a non-canon era, not present in any actual Legend of Zelda game.  The Link and the circumstances of this era were made up specifically for The Great Desert.

 

Good has no guarantee of triumphing over evil always.  A Hero can fail and this is what happened in this era. 

 

The Lost One was a resident of Calatia and a descendant of the last Hero of Hyrule who’d settled there.  During his time, people married and began having children very young, in their teenage years, and were generally expected to be prolific during their lives. The Lost One was no different than the other members of his community and, accordingly, is thought to have married around the tender age of fourteen or fifteen and had children by the time he was seventeen.  Trouble began brewing in the important neighboring kingdom of Hyrule with rumors of the Demon King upon the wind, in his full power and ancient form.  This is when the Lost One was confronted by a small black cat that spoke to him and told him of the important destiny she sensed in him. 

 

The cat was a Sage, the Sage Kasuto, who was cursed by a powerful minion of the Demon King into her animal form.  It is not known, precisely, what Kasuto was a Sage of, but the two most likely elements are Night or Death.  While those sound quite evil, they are quite necessary and even good – for it is commonly known that any Sage of Death’s duty, for example, would be to comfort and ease souls into the Afterlife / Eternity.  Whatever powers she previously had as a Sage, Kasuto lacked them in her cursed form. 

 

The Lost One Link did not want to take up his destiny, as he had a wife and young twin sons to look after.  He left his small village with great reluctance once it became clear that to let Hyrule fall to Ganondorf was to let Calatia fall, as well.  At this time, Princess Zelda of Hyrule, who was held by Ganondorf, was only a small child, not much older than Link’s sons.  This probably also played a role in his acceptance of heroic destiny. 

 

The Lost one pushed himself very hard, going for days on end without eating or sleeping.  He neglected proper treatment of wounds he incurred in battle.  As a result, when he made his final push against Ganondorf, he was in poor condition.  Ganondorf slew him and had his body laid out upon a slab in the square of Hyrule’s Castle Town so that all citizens could see that their Hero was dead and he was in control.

 

Kasuto managed to rally the aid of Hylian patriots to spirit away the body of the Lost One to his home village for proper burial rites.  Ganondorf, sometimes in the guise of his bestial form, Ganon, ruled Hyrule and most parts of the greater world for a good century.  Many things were lost in this era, including many records of the Heroes and the Royal Family that were only rediscovered much later. A great deal of Hyrulean technology and culture were lost during this time, as well.  It is said that this is the era in which the Triforce of Courage was lost – which was appropriate since the common people lost their courage, as well.  To those who are aware that this era happened, it serves as a warning and a cause of great fear. 

 

The Heroic Line was continued through one of the Lost One’s sons.  Young Princess Zelda was killed soon after the Hero was slain, so the Royal Line was continued through the survivors of the Royal Family in hiding. 

 

 

 

FIFTH DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of Fragmentation

 

Game(s) Subtitle(s): The Legend of Zelda (Classic) and The Adventure of Link

 

This is perhaps the most confusing era in Hyrule’s history, as of the time of The Great Desert.  It as been a legend largely lost in detail due to the Great Flood.  After the Demon King solidified his power during the Lost One’s era, it is thought that he concentrated most of his energies in the south of Hyrule.  Many people from Hyrule began building their own government in the north, in a land peppered by many ancient palaces belonging to the pasts of lost and nearly extinct races.  During this era, most of the Zora race had been overcome by evil, becoming the fierce-tempered Zola.  The Gorons hid in the mountains – it is said that they hid so well that they became indistinguishable from the stones themselves.  The Gerudo had long left the land for the deserts of other kingdoms.  Humans were rare, but present, and the Hylian race was dwindling.  Truly, the land, the south especially, had become a monsters’ country. 

 

There is some debate over the true Sacred Princess of this era.  It is written in some accounts that the southlands of Hyrule had their own faction of the Royal Family and their own Princess Zelda while the people of the northlands revered an ancient princess (so-called Zelda the First), who was a person from the distant past.  She had been made subject to a sleeping spell.  Some accounts have these two princesses as being one and the same – such records hold that once Princess Zelda of the south had been rescued from her captivity by the Hero, that the Demon King himself placed the sleeping spell upon her in his death-throes.  The truth of this matter is not really known in the Desert Era. 

 

In any case, a Hero is known to have come out of the nation of Calatia, the descendant of one of the Lost One’s sons.  The princess of the south, entrusted with the Triforce of Wisdom, was found out and captured by Ganon.  She shattered the Triforce of Wisdom to keep it out of his hands.  The Hero gathered and reunited the Triforce of Wisdom and defeated the Great Demon, or so he thought.  Sometime after this, he went on a journey through the northern portion of Hyrule and rediscovered the lost Triforce of Courage.

 

The most reliable texts have the monsters in all of Hyrule at this time as being especially strong and a mention of Ganon’s return.  These accounts show the Hero being captured by the Demon King’s remaining minions and having his blood spilled over the Evil One’s ashes.  The Hero survived this, surprisingly, but enough of his blood was liberated to bring Ganon back in a twisted half-form.  The Hero spent many years fighting against him until he eventually triumphed a second time. 

 

He married Princess Zelda, but it is not known for sure which one (the princess of the north or the princess of the south, or if only one existed).  When she ascended to the throne as Queen, he ascended as the Hero-King.  Some stories have painted him as a bit of a flirt, but there is no evidence that he was ever unfaithful to Queen Zelda.   The Queen and the Hero-King had at least five children and the Hero-King is thought to have been the longest lived of the Heroes. 

 

After a time, a terrible epidemic spread throughout the land of Hyrule.  Measures were taken to keep it from spreading to other kingdoms.  Roughly a third of all the kingdom of Hyrule died, despite the Royal Family’s best efforts to help the people.  The Hero-King caught sick from the disease and perished. 

 

The Authorial Take: Shadsie had in mind when she wrote parts of The Great Desert that had to deal with these two classic games not only the canon games, but also the non-canon comic series from Valiant – which had some elements that contradict the canon games and game manuals. She has tried to incorporate a mix of both histories here, but purposefully leaves much up to the reader to decide – hence the “garbled legend.”

 

 

 

INTERMEDIATE HISTORY

 

It is to be noted that in the era of the Hero-King of Hyrule, the people spoke of many legends.  At this time, many people accepted their Hero as a reincarnation of all the great Heroes of the Past.  For this reason, “Hero of Time” became the common title, taking the title of very first known Hero.  In any case, much time passed and most of the details of various periods of history were lost.  The Legend of the Hero of Time, though it was the first of the legends, strangely became the best known.  Many other legends, such as that of the Hero of Twilight or the Hero of Time and Nature were forgotten and had to be re-discovered later.  Monuments were made to the Hero of Time and it was for him the people of Hyrule and its neighbors cried out during a time of bleakness…

 

 

 

SIXTH DEFINITIVE ERA: The Era of the Great Flood

 

Game(s) Subtitle(s): The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass

 

The Demon King entered the mortal world again and began to spread despair across the land.  The people cried out for a Hero, but he did not appear.  The Goddesses responded by sending a flood to quell the ancient Demon and bid the people to flee to the tops of the mountains, which became islands in a great archipelago.  They restarted life in the new island nation and forgot the kingdom of their ancestors save in legend and song. 

 

Rumor spread upon the wind that the Demon King, too, had survived.  Many disasters came upon the islands and a young boy – one who had just come of age, stood up against him.  He also is recorded as being the one to find the once-again lost Triforce of Courage. This Hero has become known as the Hero of Winds.  It is said that he gained the power to control the wind and that he was a free spirit, preferring to travel with pirates to establishing solid order, though it is said that one of the pirates he traveled with was the royal heir to the ancient kingdom.  Some texts refer to him as the “Outlaw Hero.”  Records of his later life are sketchy, as he did travel the seas freely.  He is thought to have had many descendants and it is thought that he was lost in a shipwreck. 

 

Sometime after the Great Flood, the waters receded, leaving vast areas of sand.  Initially, green sprang up in the land upon muddy and stony mountains.  Surely, it looked as though the ancient kingdom of Hyrule was being restored to its former glory.  Then, the waters in even the rivers, streams and the oceans that had existed prior to the Great Flood began receding.  Incrementally, the land began drying up…

 

 

What the People of Hyrule Do Not Know:  Those few beings privileged to know the Three Goddesses in their true nature know that the Great Flood was no act of divine will to save the people – on the contrary, it was a terraforming experiment preformed by Din and Nayru that had gone wrong and had gotten out of their control.   The specifics of this experiment are something they do not share, as the mistake was one of their greatest blunders.  They think it best that the people of Hyrule and the rest of the world do not know what really caused the Great Flood. 

 

 

 A NOTE ON SPIRIT TRACKS: The Era of the Rails

 

At the time that The Great Desert was being conceived and written, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks had not come out.  It was more or less a rumor and all that was known about the title was that “Link drives a train.”  It is given a minor reference, as steam locomotives fit into a wild west theme (such as TGD has) like a hand into a glove.  The Link of TGD has no formal meeting with the memory of Link from Spirit Tracks because not much was known about the game at the time the story was written.  It is to be assumed that ST Link is among the Heroes that TGD Link did not need specific advice from in his quest.    

 

Train technology in The Great Desert is thought to have come from “another land,” something that was imported into the remnants of old Hyrule after the Flood waters receded, so it is entirely possible that a new land on higher ground was discovered sometime during or after the Great Flood era and the technology originally developed there.  There was a “rail boom” in old Hyrule for a while, but in many areas, it died off in favor of other forms if transportation due to a lack of coal resources.  Trains survive as a major means of transport only between areas where there is an abundance of coal.

 

 

 

SEVENTH DEFINITIVE ERA: The Desert Era / The Era of the Great Desert

 

This is the era of the main fan fiction story.  The land of Hyrule began drying up and the desert began spreading even to neighboring kingdoms on Hyrule’s boarders.  The unforgiving sands even began invading the outer dimensional worlds, such as the Twilight Realm.  While, geologically, many deserts were once seas, this was no mere overcorrection of the Great Flood or rapid evolution of the land – what began as a restoration of the land became an imbalance in the cosmic powers, particularly in the desert element of the Triforce of Power.  Gerudo tribes returned to the newly opened desert lands while the remnants of the Zora more or less went extinct (some where saved due to the quick thinking of the Goddesses).  Other races scraped to eek out a living.  Human populations rose while the Hylian sub-race dropped in numbers. 

 

Many new technologies were developed or rediscovered during the drying period, not limited to electricity and television.  Perhaps the most controversial technological development was firearms.  Although a few people kept the arts of swordsmanship and archery alive, most soldiers, law enforcement officers and ranchers protecting their lands took up guns.  As the era progressed, swords, while not unseen, became archaic and a sign of someone living in the deep past. 

 

Faith dwindled during this era.  Even belief in the Goddesses was beginning to become an anachronism, but far more people held to them than to belief in the old ways of practical magic.  Faeries became fairy tales.  The old Hero legends were thought, for the most part, to be highly exaggerated stories. The Hero of this era had to overcome much of his own disbelief in order to progress.  Very few people besides members of the Royal Family knew or kept to the old ways, and even then, were not public about them for fear of losing the good faith of an increasingly pragmatic populace.    

 

The Hero shall rise with the Blade, the Gun and the Courage in his Heart… So begins the story.

 

 

Authorial Tidbits Regarding Sheik:  Sheik appears as a character in TGD, the alter-ego of Princess Zelda much as she did in the Ocarina of Time era.  In both the original role play, Sheik had blond hair despite the fact that TGD’s Zelda had black hair.  Shadsie never imagined a particular costume for her, though Sailor_Lilithchan envisions her as being much like a Leji Matsumoto character (if you are familiar with that name and the anime titles he created). 

 

Sheik in TGD, though androgynous in looks, is adamant about being female.  This decision, believe it or not, was not an attempt to annoy the yaoi/slash “Shink” fans, nor those who like to envision Sheik as a separate, male person.  Part of Sheik’s female gender in TGD is due to how she was played in the original role play and most of it comes from a comment that Shadsie saw on a fan board somewhere along the lines of “Of course Sheik is male because Zelda can’t do anything without a dick.”  Shadsie, being a somewhat tough female, was enormously offended and wanted to do the fan fiction equivalent of flipping people like the one that made the comment off.    

 

 

OTHER ERAS OF HISTORY

 

Some games of the Legend of Zelda series have gone un-mentioned for this story, such as The Minnish Cap and the Four Swords series.  This is because at least one of the authors hasn’t played these games and because we did not know quite how to fit mentions of these eras into The Great Desert history.  These are to be considered Floating Eras – placeable at any point in the Timeline.  The Link of TGD did not formally encounter any of the Hero-incarnations of these eras because, presumably, he did not need their specific advice.  These same rules apply to any new Legend of Zelda game set to come out in the future/post date of TGD unless the authors decide for some reason to edit it/them into the story.  The original TGD story was finished in mid-summer of 2009, while this Timeline was created in January of 2010.

 

 

 

 

GUIDE TO THE HERO-INCARNATIONS

 

These are the resurfacing memories of the Heroes that Link of The Great Desert has been in the past.  These are the spirits of the Heroes as he encounters them.  They always approach him first in the form of an animal. The animal reflects the personality of each incarnation before revealing their Hylian form.  It is thought that the Hero of Tides (Link of TGD) best understands animals; therefore, his past incarnations came to him as such to ease him into their lessons. 

 

Here is each Hero-incarnation in the order that they appear to the living Link:

 

Wolf – Hero of Twilight – Link of Twilight Princess

 

The Hero of Twilight appears first in the form he took as the Sacred Beast of the Twilight that he held when he lived and did his quest.  He approached Link rather harshly, attacking him and knocking him off his horse.  He then appeared as a young man with a sword.  His lesson was an introduction to the spirit world of the past Heroes and also a lesson in basic swordsmanship.  He knew nothing of the gun.   

 

 

Golden Wolf Pup – Hero of Time – Link of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask

 

The Hero of Time appeared first as a golden wolf, a throwback to when he gave lessons to the Hero of Twilight in ancient times. This time, however, he appeared as a whelp or pup, small and friendly.  In his Hylian form, he presented himself to the living Link as a child – the age he was when he’d first been called to his quest.  He cautioned Link not to underestimate the power of the young and gave him a playful lesson in dodging attacks.  According to the Hero of Time, the “wisdom of a child” was needed here. 

 

 

Bear – Hero of Nature – Link of the Oracles Series

 

His proper title was The Hero of the Essences of Time and Nature, but he preferred to call himself the Hero of Nature.  He first appeared as a large blue grizzly bear coming down off a mountainside.  When in his Hylian form, he informed the living Link that the bear form was taken to honor an old friend.  He appeared as a teenaged boy in a meditative pose.  He carried a warning and a hard lesson about the indifferent cycles of nature. 

 

 

Black Cat – The Lost One – Original “Broken Link” in the Chain

 

The Hero who failed appeared in the form of a very sickly black cat.  This is because the partner he had failed to save in his quest had been cursed into a feline form.  The sickly appearance of his animal form was a reflection of his general state at the end of his quest.  In his Hylian form, he appeared to the living Link as he was just after he had died – gaunt, ill, and with a fatal wound in his chest.  He warned Link to take care of himself, to rest, and to allow his friends to help him lest he become a forlorn failure like him. 

 

 

Rabbit – The Hero of Dreams – Link of A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening

 

The “Rabbit” actually appeared as a hare – a desert jackrabbit.  The lapin form reflected the involuntary state the Hero fell into when he first fell into the Dark World upon his quest.  His soul held the timid kindness of a rabbit; therefore, his body was twisted into that of a pink-furred bunny.  In his Hylian form, he named himself the Hero of Dreams for lack of a significant formal title in his lifetime and spoke of worlds of dreams and nightmares.  He taught the living Link a magical skill to see what is hidden (essentially the same as the Lens of Truth in Ocarina of Time or the wolf-senses in Twilight Princess).

 

 

Cardinal – The Hero-King of Hyrule – Link of The Legend of Zelda/Hyrule Fantasy and The Adventure of Link

 

The Cardinal appeared to Link when he was going through a very dark time.  The bird hopped about cheerfully in an attempt to lift his spirits. When this Hero revealed himself, he showed himself to be a chipper young man with reddish hair.  He presented himself as a king, but also as one who was much more comfortable in his adventuring clothes than in royal finery.  His practical lesson was in magic, how to guide it, not to fear it and certain spells.

 

 

Seagull – The Hero of Winds – Link of The Wind Waker

 

The Seagull only appeared to Link after his quest was done.  He appeared as a young boy in bright island clothes.  He had nothing to give Link for his quest, but, instead, gave him encouragement to help Zelda rule the newly-restored kingdom. 

 

***

 

 

Coyote – The Hero of Tides – Link of The Great Desert

 

When Midna returned to Hyrule, she carried with her an item she thought may be of use – the shadow crystal that she’d used to shift the Hero of Twilight’s form in ancient times.  On a whim, she tries it on TGD’s Link, thinking that he would become a wolf like his predecessor did.  Instead, he became a coyote.  This is a reflection of his tough and cunning nature and the reflection of him having been raised in the desert.  He bears the title “Hero of Tides” because he was the one destined to “bring back the tides” to the dry, ocean-less land.  This title was the idea of Sailor_Lilithchan as Shadsie was originally going to go with the less creative title of “Hero of the Desert.” 

 

 

 

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