Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda and related characters belong to Nintendo. Here I am just doing my own thing with the concepts as a lowly fan.

Notes: This story is a revision / edit of a story previously posted under the title The Legend of Zelda: Rise of Evil. It was envisioned as "a Legend of Zelda game if Ganondorf was the protagonist" and depicts a "lost era" in Hyrule's history. It was also envisioned as a side-story and distant prequel to another fanfiction, The Great Desert, but one does not have to read that one to understand this.

Timeline: This story, as a side-story to The Great Desert, takes place on a specific point in its timeline, which is not canon. Both that story and this one were originally written well before Nintendo announced an official timeline-structure to the Zelda games. The stories follow a hypothetical / alternate universe linear timeline created through the events at the end of Ocarina of Time generating a stable time-loop rather than a split. This is why there are references to many disparate games in the series (including those which should have no shared history in the canon) throughout the text. If Nintendo ever made a game like this, I could see them going for the alternate universe "fourth timeline branch" treatment, anyway. I could also see them showing slightly less blood than I do.

THE LEGEND OF GANON: TYRANT'S ASCENT

A fan fiction by Shadsie

Chapter 1: Ganondorf's Awakening

His days were spent between dreams and wakefulness, bound in chains forged of spirit. He did not know what was real anymore. He did not know anything anymore, save for hatred, but he had no one to hate here. The man – was he a man? – existed in a world of white and light. It permeated everything. It was everything. He would have welcomed eternal agony – the flesh melting from his bones continuously – something – just to relieve him of this monotony, this Hell of absolute sterility. This was damnation that was worse than damnation. This was nonexistence and he was powerless against it.

The prisoner heard dripping and he smelled a strong scent. He heard a distant voice.

"Gan-on."

"Ganon."

"Awaken, Ganon."

Darkness. A dimly-lit ceiling greeted his eyes as he opened them and blinked. A rich, familiar taste filled his mouth. It was like iron or copper. He was lying upon something flat and hard. He began to laugh.

"Do not strain yourself, Master," a female voice pleaded. "The blood has brought you back, but your body has not yet mended itself."

The shadowy outline of a delicate hand placed something his lips. He took the small chunk of flesh between his teeth and swallowed it quickly. The hand proffered another. This felt familiar – ah, yes, the Rites. They were not always this gruesome, but he enjoyed them better this way. It was a surer way that he would come back full, and as himself, rather than as a mindless beast. He had been a beast when he had been sealed away, hadn't he? He was not mindless then, though. There was one time when the Rites had been botched and only a small part of him had come back to the mortal plane. It wasn't even the right country then, either – it hadn't been Hyrule.

The man moaned. "Hy…Hyrrl?" His tongue was not used to movement. It was something both ancient and new. He could feel his muscles growing over his bones. He could feel new skin and hair cover his scalp. Another small piece of meat was placed upon his tongue.

"Yes, you are in Hyrule," the figure feeding him answered. He could see shadowy, cloaked figures surrounding him. "We are in the broken temple of Parapara in the Western Desert. The Rites were very difficult… difficult indeed to gather what was required for them. Eat well, my lord. This is the fresh heart of a Hylian, which will restart your own. The blood brought you forth. Shortly, we shall give you the liver for strength."

The man on the altar could see the figures more clearly now. They surrounded him in a circle and, as one, bowed their heads. "Welcome back, Lord Ganondorf," they said as one. They pulled the hoods of their cloaks back to reveal red hair and painted faces. The person who was feeding him so gently had hair that was washed-out and graying. Her face was wrinkled, but her nose was large and proud.

"Thera…"

"Yes, Master," Thera replied. "It is I… perhaps the last of the purebloods in the world."

"My other daughters?"

"Perished. There have been wars with the Hylians and humans, and a plague. But Hylians are dying breed now, as well."

"The Gerudo have been on the margins for many ages now," one of the other women explained, "Scraping by on the edges of Hyrule, keeping to the wastelands – the deserts, the mountains and way out in the sea… shunned by the rest. Even those of us who tried to join polite Hyrule society were turned away on account of our skin, our hair, our religion and the ancient specter of you, but you are not to blame for this, our lord. Hyrule has always feared the strength of the Gerudo people. Our blood is thinning – we need you. Our strength is fading – we need you."

Another woman spoke up. "We need you to be our king again, and not only that, we need you to become King of Hyrule, even of the entire world! It is your rightful place. They that would shun our strength and they that would deny you must be crushed under your feet! A new age for us, well-deserved terror for them. Will you be our king again?"

"Of course," Ganondorf said with a growing smile as he sat up, his strength becoming renewed. He looked down at the stone floor of the chamber he was in, partially covered by sand. An array was carved into the floor tiles, circles, triangles, all intersected with lines and symbols. The grooves were red, filled with blood flowing from the center where it was spattered. There were remains in the center – it was hard to tell of what at first since the body had been cut into like a lamb's carcass being prepared for an open-roast. Ganondorf did see the face of the victim quite clearly. Her dead blue eyes stared up at him, sad and dull. Her hair was very light in color – blond when caught by the light of the room's torches. Her ears were quite long and delicately tapered.

He licked his lips. "The only blood with power sufficient enough to release me from my prison must come from one of the bloodlines of the erstwhile Triforce-bearers," the new revenant said. "She wears the remains of peasant's clothing, by what I can see of the scraps. Was she a Royal trying to disguise herself?"

"No, my lord," Thera said. "She was from the Hero's Line. The last, in fact. We tracked her down in the border-kingdom, Calatia. No males remained of the Line, according to every record we could find. Hopefully, her blood is not too weak for you. Hylian women are not strong like we Gerudo."

"She has a nice taste," Ganondorf replied. "Are you certain she is the last? That she birthed no brats?"

"She was a young widow," Thera answered. "Her husband went to war and died in a battle on the border of Holodrum three years ago. She lived alone. Her body testified to having undergone childbirth, but the family record we uncovered showed only a daughter that died shortly after birth – no other children."

"Good," Ganondorf said, stroking his chin as he got up from the altar and walked toward the corpse. "I do not trust in that, though. He will return. He always returns. She may have given birth to a son and stashed the child somewhere, with some other people – a sleepy village perhaps. I shall have to have all the sleepy villages in Calatia razed as soon as I can. As the last of the Hero's Line, surely she knew of its importance. You did not happen to torture anything out of her, did you?"

"No, my lord," said a Gerudo who stood near him. He backhanded her. As she held her nose and stepped back, another woman took Ganondorf's hand in her own.

"My lord! Careful! Do not expend your energy so! You have yet to regain your strength!"

"Incompetent fools!" Ganondorf roared. "You are only half-finished! You brought me back, but as soon as I rise to power, he…he… that kid will show up…I'll not have a sword or arrow shaft rammed through me again! He must be found while he is still young and tender… I must destroy him!"

Ganondorf felt woozy. It was not a feeling he was accustomed to. In life – all of his lives – he was the worthy recipient of the Triforce of Power, a person of immense physical and magical strength. In the realm of his imprisonment, he was accustomed to nothing. At least this was better than the all-encompassing white nothing. He sat back down on the altar and only then noticed that he'd been dressed in fine black sorcerer's robes.

He was proffered a plate of raw liver.

"For the furthering of your strength," Thera said.

He stared at the back of his hand before taking the silver platter. "What of the Triforce?" he asked. "The Triforce of Power is not with me, though my hand bears its scar and its residue."

"It is in the keeping of Hyrule's Royal Family," Thera said. "It is whole. The Triforce of Power came into the keeping of the last Wisdom-bearer. When the last Hero died, the Triforce of Courage also went into her keeping. When she passed on, it united itself."

Ganondorf laughed, deep and dark. "If I approach it in just the right way, perhaps the game will be easy this time. All I have to do is obtain it, touch it just right and the world is mine! Our people will enjoy a new era and Hyrule will get what it deserves. Now, then, how long have I been gone and in what portion of this kingdom is the capitol these days?"

"You have been gone for just over one-hundred years," Thera answered.

"You are one of my direct daughters. I remember you, by Givanna, I believe. You have aged well."

"Your seed is of strength and longevity, father. I also practice the spells of the old Twinrova Scrolls. I shall live at least one more century unless I am called upon to die in your service."

"What of Hyrule?"

"The capitol and palace are in the central region. The people are soft and ripe for conquest. There is a young princess in the palace named Zelda, as is tradition, but she is a very young child – not even of proper schooling-age yet, though it is said that she is precocious and is already raiding the palace library for advanced tomes to read. Her great-grandmother, the Queen Mother Zelda, died a year before her birth. That was the Zelda you knew last."

Swallowing the last of the liver, Ganondorf wondered aloud; "I wonder how the last Hero died."

"The rumors abound about that one," Thera answered. "What I do know is that he lived in Calatia for a time and that he died young. The Heroes always die young. Some say that he was killed while hunting by a wild boar he'd wounded."

Ganondorf grinned broadly. "That would be justice," he said. "Speaking of bulbos and potential riders… It would be unseemly for me to pay a visit to the castle without a proper army. To go alone would just be rude, would it not?"

"Wait until your basic strength returns before you begin any necromancy," Thera cautioned. "The Gerudo tribes are dwindling and only we who are in this room are able to be at your side now. There are many creatures that dwell in the shadows, harassed and hunted by the Hylians that have been waiting for your return."

A clattering sound filled the room and out of the darkness stepped a menacing, magnificent creature. It had the form of a centaur – the horse-part of it all black. The human arms and what could be seen of the torso of the beast were black, as well – and not in the typical brownish way dark skinned humans were – but as black as the coat of the horse-part, as black as deep night. The head of this being was that of a lion, its mane long and its eyes red. From the torso down, it was clad in silver-colored armor. The armor on its legs jangled as it walked. It halted and bowed its head.

"The ancient deities of the mountains at are your service," it said in a deep, gritty voice. I am Night, the chief the Lynel Knights. "We, the Lynel, have been the protectors of the mountains since they were created by Mother Din in the lands where the little humans and Hylians fear to tread. It is in a Lynel's nature to follow one with great power. You have the kind of power we respect. I have bathed my hooves in the blood of the weak that would dare defile my mountain. I am willing to bathe my hooves in blood for you, as long as you remain strong – and such it is with my brethren."

Thera passed something into Ganondorf's hands. It shone with an ethereal light. His chest ached upon seeing it. He pulled the ancient sword from its sheath and looked at it with a bitter nostalgia.

"It took us many moons to track that treasure down," Thera said. "It is sufficient to blot out the light of Hyrule forever, don't you think?"

"Once, I almost did….with this blade," the sorcerer said. "The blood of that dog was strewn across the field of battle – much more of it than my own, but somehow… that kid. That kid. Yes, this blade is most sufficient. Things are about to get very interesting."