The Legend of Zelda

The Lost Realm

Prologue: Legends

It is said that Hyrule is a land of myth and tale; a place of fantasy and forgotten dreams. While it is true, many legends come from this ancient land; such as the legend of the Hero of Time and the Seven Sages; and it is home to many myths as well; such as the rise of the Hylian Empire and its five thousand year rule; one cannot argue the fact that it is a land interwoven with history, superstition...and yes, even forgotten dreams.

Long before the Kingdom of Hyrule, before the descent of the People of Hylia and the fall of Demise, there was a people that dwelled upon the surface lands called the Mogma. These ancient, mole-like people would dwell upon Hyrule for a time before descending into the deep, but to those who would brave the surface world they would speak of a time when they once lived in an ancient, sunless world; a time when there was not just one realm, but three intertwined. They spoke of a legend of a time when the world was young, before the coming of Demise, and of the legend of a Lost Realm.

The Mogma tell tales of the first two of the three realms; the realm Above, and the realm Below. In the Above, the sun reigned supreme and the races of the Above knew of a time of plenty, but then the sun beat down harshly upon the dwellers of the Above, and forced them into hiding. Their crops died leaving only their seeds that they could use to regrow the land, but all was dry and barren; dusty and dead.

In the Below, the people lived a life of cool solitude. There was water aplenty and none would know thirst there, and its races knew the joys of wealth and the beauties beneath. But then a famine came, and food grew scarce. They could not hope to survive, for they could not eat beauty or wealth. It seemed as if these two realms would know only hunger and thirst...

But then came a day when two explorers, a prince and a princess of these two lands, met each other on the road Above and Beneath. They told each other of their plight, and the two agreed; something must be done. So the Prince brought to the Below bags of seed to grow food, while the Princess brought to the Above caskets of water to tend to the thirsty. In time, the two lands peacefully weathered their shared misfortune, and all was happy again.

But their actions angered the forces of Chaos, for while the two realms worked to bring peace back to the land a third realm was enduring the hardship and torment of war. It was from this deep realm, the Realm of Chaos, that the monsters came forth. Heralded by their dark gods, they struck out against the lands of the Above and the Below, pillaging all that they could find, enslaving those who could not escape. The peoples were scattered, hunger and thirst were known again, and all was hopeless.

But then the day came when this would change. The Prince, now a grown man, and the Princess, a fine woman, met with the Stranger, who was a commander of the forces of Chaos. He too wished to end the suffering caused, and would side with them. Together, the three called forth the Power of the Gods, and cast out the forces of Chaos, sealing their realm away deep in the depths of the Below. The Stranger would then disappear from our world, never to return.

The Prince and the Princess knew that though they sought unity between their people, they could never dare attract the powers of Chaos again. So they agreed; the safest course of action would be to split the realms apart forever. With the last remnant of the Power of the Gods, the Prince and Princess sealed the entrance to the Below, thus closing that realm from sunlight forever. Never again would the Below feel the sun's rays, or would the Above feel the depths' cool air. In time, the people of the Above forgot the Below, and there was just only the Above, and the realm of demons from which later Demise would arise to take his vengeance.

So it was that many thousands of years would pass without contact between these realms. The Mogma are long gone, but they insisted that the Below existed, for they were pilgrims from that place before the pact was made. Where they went is equally a mystery, for they disappeared not long after the descent of the Hylians back to the surface world. Perhaps they found a way back to the Below, or perhaps they too are lost in legend and myth, never to return...

Only time will tell...

Kerian: I would like to direct to any readers who happen to be currently watching me to look at my account page, because I have a special message for them there.

The short version: I'm back, and I'm here to stay. I've been writing Zelda-related fanfiction almost non-stop for the last two days straight, and the bug that once gripped me years ago that started it all has finally returned. Rest assured that the return is for real this time, and I am confident that I am sticking around. The issue that had been bugging me since my return from Egypt back to my lovely homeland in Idaho has finally been uncovered, so now I can start the quick and steady process of healing myself and becoming a new person along the way.

Sad to say, for those of you hoping on me updating my old stuff, I have bad news. The wellspring that fed many of my old projects has grown long dry, and I'm afraid that if I try to take them on now the prospect of trying to finish them will become too grim. Legacy of the Sages, Secrets of the Lost Woods, and most of my other fanfics are now officially defunct, and at a later date I will be taking them down. I am sorry. It's been a good long run, and given that all of those stories had been my primary learning experience in writing they will be sorely missed. I will be saving them on my hard drive (brand new computer, by the way, she's an absolute beaut) for future reference, but otherwise I will be taking them down. I'm not sure when that'll happen, so rest assured if you've already started on them you should be able to have time to finish up before I take them down.

I don't intend to completely erase what I wrote, however. What I wrote in the previous fanfics I have yet to finish I will retain and maybe even include in future works, such as this one you're reading right now. This means that characters you grew to love, plot elements that you enjoyed, and even bosses that were memorable and exciting to read will all be featured in upcoming stories.

...Yes, even Darin. He's not here right now; he's getting busy for later. I had to dust him off exceptionally well just to make sure that he was up and ready for the chance to perform some antics.

In any case, I'd like to thank you, all of you, for your patience and for taking the time to read this. I never expected to continue writing fanfics at 22, but as my account page indicates I have learned the hard way to never fix that which isn't broken, no matter how much people think improvement is needed. Improvement and growth can come at their own due pace. In the meantime, I ask for you to sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. I'm looking forward to your reviews.

-Kerian