CHAPTER 1

THE LEGENDS OF HYRULE

A legend has being handed down from generation to generation…

The past we must understand and respect, but it is not to be worshipped. It is in the future that we shall find our greatness. On the winds there echoes a legend. It speaks of a kingdom and of the boy who once saved it from the brink of destruction…

"Long ago, before life began, before the world had form, three mythical goddesses descended upon the chaotic land of Hyrule. Din, the Goddess of Power dyed the mountains red with fire and created land. Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom created science and wizardry and brought order to nature. And Farore, the Goddess of Courage, through justice and vigor, created life—the animals that crawl the land and the birds that soar in the sky. For it were the greatest land and most prosperous land of its time.

After the gods had finished their work, they left the world and entered the heavens, but not before creating a symbol of their strength, they left behind three mystical golden triangles. Together these three triangles came to be known as the holy Triforce. A small but powerful portion of the essence of the gods was held in this mighty artifact, which was to guide the intelligent life on the world of Hyrule. Although it was an inanimate object, the Triforce had the power to bestow three titles, which gave the person who received them great powers: "The Forger of Strength", "The Keeper of Knowledge", and "The Juror of Courage". The Triforce though able to grant extremely powerful magic and one wish to whoever touches it, was infinitely delicate: if one who did not hold all three aspects of the Triforce—power, wisdom and courage—within perfect balance, the Triforce would split into its three aspects and the person who first touched the Triforce would be left and only one force would remain in his hand: the force which he most believed in. The remaining two aspects would take refuge within the hearts and minds of two whom best personified the remaining aspects of the Triforce.

Where the Trifoce stood became sacred land. From its hiding place in the so-called Golden Land where the Gods placed it, beyond the reach of men, the Triforce beckoned people from the outside world to seek it in the hope that someone worthy of these titles would find it. But Triforce holds a dark power that can corrupt the minds of friends and make them foes. If one with a pure heart obtains the Triforce, Hyrule would be led into a new age of peace and prosperity. But if an evil-heart obtained the Triforce, then he would begin a Great Cataclysm.

Many aggressively searched for the wish-granting Triforce, but no one was sure of its location. That yearning for the Triforce soon turned to lust for power, which in turn led to the spilling of blood. Soon the only motive left among those searching for the Triforce was pure greed. So it was that many went in search of the power of the gods.

One day, an evil man, leader of a gang of thieves skilled in the black arts invaded Hyrule in the hopes of establish dominion over the Sacred Realm.

The evil man and his followers soon found the entrance to the Golden Land. Upon entering the realm of immense power, the Triforce is shown in its glory, hoping to claim the golden power as there own, the people of the land began to quarrel and fight. The evil man murders his fellow thieves and touches the Triforce with bloody stained hands. But he did not however have all three essences in balance, the evil man valued power far more than wisdom or courage so the Triforce split; he could only claim the Triforce of Power but the other remaining two pieces of the Triforce infused themselves within two beings who best represented the respected essences. But his abiding hatred and lust for power turned to purest malice.

Once the evil man got a hold of the Triforce, his evil black heart and its power combined made the world change utterly. The evil man's wish was to conquer the world. The Golden Land withered and died and became a place of darkness and evil, it became the Dark World, a corrupt version of the Golden Land, a reflection of Hyrule that was meant to serve the evil man's wish of conquest. But the evil man was not satisfied, and plotted to take over the Realm of Light—Hyrule to make his wish come completely true.

However, in time evil power began to flow from the Golden Land and greedy men were drawn there to become members of the evil man's army. Black clouds permanently darkened the sky, and many disasters beset Hyrule. The evil man uses his Triforce to summon creatures of shadow to the Golden Land and transform his followers into reflections of their own hearts as monsters for a stronger army. His army attacks the land of Hyrule until the seven sages and the Knights of Hyrule combined forces to wage war on this evil horde.

The Knights took the full brunt of the fierce attack, and although they fought courageously, many brave souls were lost that day. However, their lives were not lost in vain; for they bought precious time for the Seven Wise Men to combine their power to subdued the evil man and bring him to justice.

The evil man was ritualy chained to a giant black rock and impaled by a Blade of Light. But the Triforce of Power gave him power to survive execution and break free from the chains. He slays a sage with the Blade of Light he impaled him with, and while charging at the others, the sages quickly sealed him into the Dark Realm whitch he had created and reducing him to energy matter. All of Hyrule rejoiced that upheld peace and order over the evil man's evil and chaos. The Six Sages then erected a barrier to seal the Dark World away, preventing any from entering. But the evil man quickly sent a portion of his spirit across the barrier before it was completely sealed.

Ages later, the portion from the evil man take the form of an evil wizard to fulfill his agenda in the Realm of Light—Hyrule. In this form, he uses deception to gain a position within the Castle. When the time was right, he overthrew the King, capture the Princess that was blested with the chossen power by the gods—the Triforce of Wisdom, and seized control of the castle, and ritualy succeeds in breaking the seal.

The evil man returned to Hyrule with his newfound power and army, carries the Triforce of Power and Wisdom, searching for the last piece of the Triforce—Courage, and promptly laid waste to all resistance in Hyrule and cast down the Royal Family so that he may set himself up as the King of Evil. Using the Triforce of Power and Wisdom, there was no one who could stand in his way.

An evil shadow began to stretch from the heart of Hyrule to its peaceful borderlands and mergeing the Dark Realm and the Realm of Light—Hyrule, to make them into one land of darkness. These events began to keep Hyrule in a grip of fear as the skies became filled with dark clouds that filled those who saw them with fear. The evil man's shadow army swarmed from the Dark Realm into Hyrule and attacked the castle. The evil man's power was so great, using the power of the Triforce; the entire kingdom was at his mercy. It fell quickly into his bloody hands…

But then, when all hope had died, and the hour of doom seemed at hand, a young boy clothed in green and he too had been blested with the power by the gods—Tiforce of Courage, appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding the Blade of Evil Bane, beat the Evil King, and gave the land light. But however, the evil man had survived the attacks due to the Triforce's power. This boy, who traveled through time to save the land, was known as the Hero of Time. Peace was brought back to Hyrule by helping the newly formed Sages Council imprison the evil man within the Sacred Realm, a forgotten realm, a place of loneliness and solitude where he would remain for eternity—or so they hoped.

The evil man, however, still bares the Triforce of Power and made a vow to wreak a thousand-fold vengeance upon the descendants of the Hero of Time, the Princess and the Sages as long as the Triforce was still in his hand. There was little else to do: the six Sages could only remain in the Sacred Realm, while the Hero of Time and the Princess was returned to Hyrule. This war, which had claimed many lives, became known as the Imprisoning War. All that which he accomplished could not have been done without the Master Sword, for by its power alone could the Evil King have been defeated. After this was accomplished, the Hero of Time returned the Master Sword to its hidden place until it would be needed once more.

With his great and violent quest at an end, the boy disappeared into obscurity and his fate is unknown to this day. Yet the stories of his and his valor lived on afterwards. The land he remained in separated him from the elements that made him a hero back in his homeland, which brought another age of darkness to an unknowing land, the Blade of Evils Bain, the Master Sword suddenly lost its divine glow and lost its power, the power that made it evil's worst enemy, it was separated from its wielder of courage, and if there was no force to be reckoned within the blade, the seal that it acted as would no longer function, and the key it once was would be broken.

Many centuries have passed since the Imprisoning War. The land of Hyrule healed its wounds and the people lived in peace for a long time. But, when these events were obscured by the mists of time and became legend. Memories of the vicious Imprisoning War faded over the generations. While Hyrule remained at peace, this was clearly not a problem, but until one day, a day came when a fell wind began to blow across the kingdom and with a shake of the earth, pestilence and drought, uncontrollable even by magic, ravaged the land. The great evil that all thought had been forever sealed away by the hero managed to break free of his bonds and escape the Sacred Realm from a portal he created in Death Mountain, once again crept forth from the depths of the earth, eager to resume its dark designs, wanting revenge.

After the evil man appeared as if from nowhere, it is no surprise that no one was prepared for the new disasters that have recently struck Hyrule, the people of the land began to panic. He then began his new siege upon the Kingdom.

In desperation, the people believed that their Hero would come and fight for their salvation, and were anxiously waiting for him to return and save them. But the Hero did not appear...

In the absence of the hero, Determined not to let the evil man conquer Hyrule as he had did once more, the King of the kingdom—Hyrule, attempted to take full responsibility in saving his people from the evil man. He threw all his armies of the civilized races of Hyrule towards battling the shadows that crawled swiftly across the land. Despite all his efforts, even the great king could not stop the onslaught that faced him and his people and he was forced to watch his kingdom burn.

The evil man wrought havoc between the kingdom and its people. He even went so far as to find the sages in their respective temples and killed them, releasing their infusion of power within the blade but its power still did not return. He invaded the long-hidden Temples of Earth and Wind where the prayers of the Sages kept the blade coursing with the power of the Goddesses. Inside the hallowed walls of the Temples, the evil man personally stained the prayer chambers of each with the blood of their keepers.

As long as the blade remained untouched so would his inner capabilities. The evil man wanted to find the blade and destroy it once and for all, but it was too well hidden for even for the king so he waited for the one of courage who would come to stop him, for he knew that as long as that blade remained where it was, the hero would be reborn to take the key and attempt to smite him down. However, like in times long gone, the blade was doomed to be awoken by the machinations of the Evil King, and the attempts of a heroic lad to defeat him.

Meanwhile, in the confusion and terror that ensued, faced by an onslaught of evil, blood ran thick around them, as monsters ripped flesh from bone and slaughtered all who opposed them, as darkness began to flow thru the land, the people turned to the goddesses and prayed for some kind of divine help, but yet victory for the allies of darkness seemed close at hand. In their last hour, as doom drew near into the night, they left their future in the hands of fate. And it appeared that the goddesses heard there prayers and a mysterious event occurred. It is said that holy goddesses appeared and created a path towards salvation. Thus the kingdom was saved. But yet the kingdom mysteriously disappeared. What became of that Kingdom? None remain who know of its true fate…

The memory of the kingdom vanished, but its legend survived on the wind's breath. The last remains of this kingdom lie in the identity of the young boy who once, despite all odds, broke the darkness of night and led his people to the light of peace.

The boy's tale was passed down through generations until it became legend. Because of this, it became customary to garb boys in green when they came of age. Clothed in the green of fields, they aspired to find heroic blades and cast down evil. The elders wished only for the youths to know courage like the hero of legend. It is also said that, one day, the hero of legend shall return and reveal the path to the Kingdom that disappeared so long ago…"