AN: My first Legend of Zelda fanfic! A study of one of my favourite villains of all time, Ganondorf throughout the Downfall timeline. Be warned, timeline speculation and headcanons are abound! Oh, and MAJOR Breath of the Wild spoilers!
Disclaimer: All copyrighted materials belong to their respective creators and are not owned by me.
Infinitum
by Anju Addams
"My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing... Death. But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose."
- Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker)
The man who would one day become the King of Evil is born in the desert west of the kingdom that was known as Hyrule. The tribe of people he is born to are a race of only woman called the Gerudo. Even the most thorough scholars, who have researched everything from as far back as the time of the Sky, do not know how the existence of the Gerudo came to be. The Gerudo themselves do not know either. They live alone, surrounded by an endless desert and the burning winds that scorch their land.
The Hylian race, with their pointed ears and their talent for magic, live in luxury in the grassy plains of their kingdom. They feel the caress of the wind on their flesh, the warm sun on their skin, just like the Gerudo do. In that respect, they are similar. But to the Hylians, the wind and the sun do not bring death. Instead, it brings bountiful harvests and the ever changing nature of the seasons. Often, it brings the rain.
It never rains in the desert.
The Zora race, with their scaled skin and their noble appearance, live comfortably along the waters of their domain and on the shores of Lake Hylia. The waters of their domain are said to be so magical, that the liquid itself is the purest water in the world. These waters flow through the kingdom; down towards the lake named after a Goddess, that was once called Floria, feeding anyone along their way.
The waters of Zora's Domain do not reach the desert.
For the tribe of the Gorons, the steep slopes of Hyrule's largest peak are perfect for them. They are adapted to their environment. The boiling heat of the mountain is nothing more than a minor annoyance in the summer and a blessing in the cold winters that hit the peak once a year. The rocks that surround them are their food. The rocks are like eggs to them, the minerals inside, a nutritious yolk. Across the eras of history, the mountain, whether it was named Eldin, or Crenel, or Death, has always provided for the Gorons, who have adapted and evolved.
The Gerudo have never truly adapted to their environment.
The desert in which they live is too harsh for any crops to grow, too dry for any water to be found under its sand. Therefore, the Gerudo make do with what they have. But even as they try, many of their race die out, young or old, because the desert is hot and unforgiving. The Gerudo are a proud people, however, and they do not give up. To ensure that their bloodline continues, they take Hylian men as their husbands and birth new daughters. As time passes, a tradition springs up in the Gerudo clan. Sometimes, once every hundred years, a male is born into the tribe. Every time this happens, once every one hundred years, the babe who is born male will become their leader. Their king.
It is into this harsh world, that the man who would become the King of Evil is born. On the day that Ganondorf is pulled from his dying mother's womb by a pair of old women, he is crowned the king of the Gerudo tribe. It is a large title to live up to, and for the few decades of his life, Ganondorf does. The women who took him from the corpse of his dead mother raise him as best they can, teaching him the mystical arts for which made them so famous. Magic comes easy to Ganondorf, and he pulls off the hardest spells with ease. Very soon, he becomes the strongest king that the Gerudo have ever had. He is raised alongside the young members of his race, who he comes to see as sisters and aunts. For a while, Ganondorf is content.
Yet it is still not enough to save his people. The desert is harsh and merciless, and his people are slowly dying. No matter what magic Ganondorf has, he cannot make the rains fall from the sky, or cause the sun to burn less. He cannot make the crops grow, or cure the sicknesses that pass through on the burning winds. The only thing he can do is find someway to expand the Gerudo territory. It is not easy, however. The kingdom of Hyrule is slowly expanding their influence across the country, swallowing the smaller nations that surround it. Some people are not satisfied, and soon, the inevitable happens.
A war between kingdoms breaks out.
Ganondorf seizes his chances. He is a smart man, one of the smartest in the world. He sides with the king of Hyrule, hoping that one day, perhaps very soon, the man will grant him some reward for his loyalty. Because of the strength of Ganondorf and his army, the king manages to bring peace to his kingdom. After a decade of hellish war, the kingdom of Hyrule is reunified once more.
The king offers Ganondorf a generous reward. But Ganondorf has no need for precious gems or stones, and he asks the king that his people may live in the confines of Hyrule where the waters are fresh and the grass is green. The answer he gets is not one he is expecting or hoping for, however. For some reason, the king says one simple word.
"No."
These words shock Ganondorf and no matter how much he pleads or even begs, the king refuses to let the Gerudo into Hyrule. There is no room, Ganondorf is told. It angers him, and every time the king says no, the anger inside him worsens. His rule over his people becomes harsher and his temper grows more volatile. His most loyal sister, the wise Nabooru tries to comfort him, but he takes no heed and banishes her far, far away. Soon, all he can think about is revenge against the king.
He comes up with a plan.
Without the king to rule over Hyrule, Ganondorf can make a bid for the throne. Better still, he remembers the tales in his youth about the Triforce, said to grant any wish. While the Triforce is locked away in the Sacred Realm, it can be reached with the power hidden in the three spiritual stones held by the Kokiri, Goron and Zora races. The leader of each of these races refuses to give him their stones and in his anger he curses them and their lands. He knows that in time, the stones will come to him.
He is proven right when his spies report that a small child has somehow broken through his curses and retrieved the spiritual stones all by himself. Ganondorf makes his move and takes an army to attack Hyrule Castle, overwhelming the guards and killing the king. But Zelda escapes alongside her nursemaid and Ganondorf makes a chase after her. The boy is waiting for him. Absurdly, the child even tries to attack him. He, the great king of thieves!
"Heh heh heh...You want a piece of me?" he laughs. "I like your attitude! I am Ganondorf and soon I will rule the world!"
After he speaks to the boy, he rides into the horizon. There is something that he doubts, however, and he doubles back to find the boy entering the Temple of Time. Ganondorf is elated when he watches the child pull the legendary Master Sword from its pedestal and disappear, leaving the doorway to the Sacred Realm wide open. Finally, his hard work has paid off, and the Triforce is his and it is all thanks to that kid!
Underneath his grasp, the Triforce shatters into three pieces leaving Ganondorf with only one, the piece of Power. Although unexpected, Ganondorf knows that all he has to do is find the other two pieces so that his wish for revenge can be granted. Under his control, the royal family of Hyrule will be eliminated. Returning to the Light World, Ganondorf uses his newfound strength to lay waste to Hyrule's capital and the nearby castle. His evil resonates throughout the land, and monsters that have laid in waiting for centuries come to serve him. Ganondorf hears whispers though. Of how Nabooru has betrayed him by fighting against his loyal servants. He needs to get rid of her, and so sends his two mothers who are elated by his strength and power as king. He also hears whispers that six sages in the six temples could awaken and defeat him alongside the still missing Zelda. In order to make sure it never happens, Ganondorf makes his strongest monsters wait deep within the temples in order to entrap the sages should they awaken.
Seven long years pass. But Ganondorf has still not found the Triforce. He does not know where it is.
Then his monsters are slowly slain. Ganondorf sends out his spies and learns that the boy who vanished those seven years ago has come back and he is working alongside a strange Shekiah man to restore the six sages. Even with all that the king of evil throws at him, the boy manages to awaken each one. Even more insulting is when he learns that one of his own kind has betrayed him and become a sage! All is not lost, and he soon learns that the Shekiah man is actually the long lost princess herself holding the Triforce of Wisdom. So, he captures her, knowing that the hero will come.
Come he does.
"The Triforce parts are resonating. They are combining into one again. The two parts that I could not capture on that day seven years ago...I didn't expect that they would be hidden within you two. These toys are too much for you! I demand you return them to me!"
The boy confronts him with all of his skills and all of his weapons. But Ganondorf is far stronger, far more talented. He manages the unthinkable. Even though the boy fights hard, he loses.
Ganondorf has won.
He rips the piece of Courage from the corpse of the boy whose name he did not even learn. Zelda, who watches horrified can do nothing as he removes the piece of Wisdom from her too. His dream has finally come true and he makes his wish upon the Triforce. Soon, all of Hyrule will become his. The royal family will burn. He makes a fatal mistake, however. Now that he has the Triforce, his attention is turned away from Zelda and he is tricked. Utilising the power of those accursed sages, she seals him and the Triforce away into the Sacred Realm, so that he may never enter Hyrule again.
From his new seal, Ganondorf curses her and her descendants. He vows revenge.
Trapped within the Sacred Realm alongside the unified Triforce changes the world and Ganondorf. Over time the Sacred Realm's appearance changes, reminding Ganondorf of the twisted ruined realm he had ruled over for seven years. Monsters and demons spring up across this 'Dark World' as he calls it. But he cannot escape, no matter the power he holds. His wish upon the Triforce to rule over Hyrule has already been granted, and it now waits for a new master behind him. As long as he has it, however, he will make sure that no one can ever hold it again.
There does come a few moments when people from the Realm of Light appear in the Dark World. The nature of the world changes them into beasts and other-such creatures because of the twisted desires in their hearts. The desire in Ganondorf's heart twists him as well. Slowly, his humanoid features and Gerudo ancestry fade away until he is nothing more that a boar-like creature. Ganon, he renames himself, in order to separate from his past identity. There, in the Dark World, he waits for a chance.
It takes a few hundred years before Ganon is able to crack open a small hole into the Light World with his magic. From his small view of the world, he besets Hyrule with countless tragedies, until the people cry out for a saviour. Ganon sends them one, in the form of a lesser alter-ego, Agahnim. With his skills, Agahnim resolves the crises he himself had created with ease and becomes the current king's most trusted advisor. Ganon's plan for freedom comes to fruition.
It is easy enough for Agahnim to brainwash the knights of Hyrule into following him and him only. It is also easy for him to capture the descendants of the very same Seven Sages who sealed him away so long ago. Then, he disposes of the king of Hyrule and captures the last maiden, the princess who shares the name of her ancestor, Zelda. It seems that she too holds the blood of a goddess. In his brilliance, he warps six of the maidens to the Dark World in which he resides and syphons their power so that he can be unleashed on the world once more.
Something does happen that he is not predicting, but he manages to work around it. Someone storms his stronghold in the Light World and takes back Princess Zelda. For a brief moment, when he sees the boy, it looks as though the past has come to haunt him. He is a spitting image of the hero that he had slain back when he was but a man. It is enough to shake him, wondering if it is some divine prank, but he grows confident again. He managed to kill the last boy clothed in green easily, and this time he has the entire Triforce. His plans continue and he finds Zelda once again. The boy comes to Agahnim however, wielding the blade of evil's bane and in his desperation, he transports the boy to the Dark World, hoping that he will die.
He doesn't because the boy remains the same in both worlds and can walk between them. He rescues the maidens and destroys Agahnim. Ganon grows even more desperate and reveals himself. He must win this time. He must! The world and everything in it belong to him and him only. He will eliminate all he stand in his way.
"I never imagined a boy like you could give me so much trouble. It's unbelievable that you defeated my alter-ego, Agahnim the Dark Wizard, twice! But I will never give you the Triforce. I will destroy you and make my wish to conquer both Light and Dark Worlds come true without delay."
After he says these words, he engages the hero. With the power at his side and wielding the Trident, Ganon feels invincible. But the boy's strikes with the blade of evil's bane ring true and he is slowly weakened. Yet it is not enough, the Triforce is his after all. The Master Sword cannot stop him now. Despite all that, in spite of everything, he still loses.
Ganon is bewildered. He is the king of evil! The dark prince. The beast who commands the Triforce itself. How can he have been defeated? How could he have been stopped? The answer comes in the form of the shining silver arrows that pierce his hide and splash his blood onto the floor. As he lays, choking to death, the hero steps over him and takes his one true desire. With his pure heart, the Triforce restores the Sacred Realm and the Light World to normal, reversing all of Ganon's work.
This is the last thing Ganon sees before he is brought into the darkness of another seal. There he waits.
Waits and plots.
The next event in Ganon's long cursed life is a significant one. Compared to his other defeat, this one does not last too long, a few years at most. During this time, he hides away in the darkness of his seal and calls out to his minions. They answer him almost immediately and he begins his next plot. It is long and complicated, but Ganon is thankful and almost comforted when he learns that his mothers, the people who raised him, have managed to survive across the centuries. After all this time, they still follow him loyally. He cannot say the same for the rest of the Gerudo, who abandoned him alongside Nabooru. But he does not care for them anymore, all he wants is revenge.
Sometimes, Ganon wonders what revenge he wants. The eras of time that have passed, have blurred his memories.
Alongside his twin mothers, Ganon's plan comes into fruition. By utilizing the flame of the dark rites and the unwilling sacrifice of Princess Zelda, the same princess from the last time he was stopped, he will be resurrected. His mothers manage to manipulate two individuals, Onox and Veran into stealing the powers of the Oracle of Seasons and the Oracle of Ages. Of course, Ganon knows that the three Goddesses will not allow two of their avatars to be imprisoned like that and will send a hero. But Ganon's plan is a brilliant one and he is counting on it.
Just as he predicted, the hero comes to save the captured Oracles and slays the two forces of darkness that oppose him. This too is part of the plan. With their sacrifice as well, the flames of the dark rites will be lit with the destruction they caused to Holodrum and Labrynna and he will return. However, something happens that neither he nor his mothers are counting on. When the hero sets out to rescue Princess Zelda, he has to fight against the two witches. Despite the powers that they throw at him with their experience that has blossomed over the centuries, they fall. In their last efforts, they sacrifice themselves.
From his seal, Ganon tries to stop them. But either they do not listen or hear his cries.
In an instant, Ganon is ripped from his seal and is sent back to the Light World. The ritual is incomplete, and the journey back to the real world changes Ganon. His mind grows cloudy, his thoughts are suppressed. Ganon struggles against it, but it is in vain. The being that returns to life, is nothing more than a mindless raging beast. For the next eons of Ganon's life, he will be like this.
"Gwoh hoh hoh... Gwah hah hah... Destroy...all... Kill ALL!"
These are the only words that Ganon can speak upon his resurrection. In his bestial form, he cannot fight as he once was. Worse still, he does not hold the Triforce like he once did. But he fights with all his strength for one reason. Though his memories are faded, and possibly inaccurate, he vaguely remembers the young boy in front of him. The same boy who defeated him for the first time in his life. It burns a flame in him like never before, it fills him with rage. To fall again to the same boy is an insult.
Yet he still fails. Even more devastating is that the boy does not wield the Master Sword, but a simple blade of no significant power. It is proof of just how far he has fallen, proof of the ritual's failure. Ganon is defeated easily.
As he dies, for a split second, his mind is free. Before being swallowed up by the everlasting darkness, he calls out one last time.
"Gwoh hoh hoh! I am Ganon... The Evil King..."
When he returns to his prison again, his mind is still fractured and shattered. For a long, long time, Ganon waits to be free.
There does come a time when he is brought to a strange realm with dark skies and dead grass. A strange world where the princess with the blood of a goddess is filled with evil and terrible desires for Hyrule's Triforce. This includes the piece that Ganon holds, the piece of Power that returned to him at some point in his seal. His overjoyment at being free does not last long, as another strange man merges them together. No matter how much he fights against it, his simple mind is crushed by the overwhelming intelligence and insanity in the one called Yuga. Under the man's deranged mind, Ganon's cries for control fade into the background.
The next time he wakes up, he is imprisoned again. He does not even have the piece of Power within his grasp anymore.
In the long abyss of time that follows, the eras of the world fade into obscurity for Ganon. His mind is still too clouded, too broken for him to ever remember much but a blur of images. Over and over again, he mindlessly attacks the kingdom of Hyrule, and over and over again, he is slain by the hero wielding the blade of evil's bane and the princess with the blood of a goddess. For generations upon generations, upon generations, the rise and fall of Ganon is expected and acknowledged in the kingdom of Hyrule.
Ganon observes endlessly, through the fog of his mind, the never-ending cycle stretched out before him. The kingdom of Hyrule shifts over the centuries that follow. At times the kingdom seems to move across the land itself, shrinking or growing in size. But, while the shape and face of Hyrule changes, there is always constants. The hero garbed in green and the wise princess are always there, and they always oppose him. Time and time again, Ganon falls, just like he always has.
The eras and scope of his reign also change too. There are a few times in his neverending existence where he regains control of the Triforce of Power, but these are few and far in between. He is always beaten back by the blade of evil's bane and the arrows of light and silver. Sometimes, his reigns last for years, plunging the world into darkness. In these times, some people are born young and die, old and withered, having only ever known the rule of the Dark Prince. But, he is always stopped and always resealed.
He cannot die.
Eventually, so much time passes by, that the legend of the Hero of Time who fell to the King of Evil, fades into almost obscurity. Even the tale of the man Ganon once was, becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. One told in hushed words and to naughty children whose parents scare them into behaving.
The tale of the king of the Gerudo, the king of thieves, and the name 'Ganondorf' become nothing more than a whisper on the breath in the wilds.
Soon they become forgotten to the stretch of time entirely.
One day, Ganon reappears into a kingdom which is much changed. Unlike the times before, the people of this era have been waiting for him. In the long span of peace that followed his last defeat, the kingdom of Hyrule has prospered like never before. Technology that would seem like magic to those living eons before has sprung up across the world and its people live long and comfortable lives, unthreatened by even the most dangerous of monsters.
Ganon is still trapped in his decaying mind, and thus pays it no attention. Instead, the mindless, raging calamity focuses instinctively on the army that has gathered to defeat him. This time, the hero wielding the blade of evil's bane and the princess with the blood of a goddess, are not alone.
With their entire technological prowess, the Hylians have created a seemingly endless army of artificial soldiers that are known by the name 'Guardian'. When the hero and the princess appear on the very same day that Ganon reappears, the fields are overrun by the thunderous footsteps of over a thousand Guardians.
Beset by their onslaught, Ganon is overwhelmed easily.
His reign is short-lived, over in mere hours. It isn't helped by the four mechanical beasts who pummel away at him, distracting him from the hero wielding the blade of evil's bane. The final blow comes swift and quick, and the princess with the blood of a goddess seals him away effortlessly.
Ganon is quickly engulfed in the darkness of his prison once again.
The next time he awakens, over ten thousand years have passed.
The Hyrule into which Ganon awakens has changed yet again. Somehow, in someway, most of the technology they had before has been lost and the kingdom has returned to the simpler times of before. The Guardians remain in spite of this and it seems that like last time, the people of this kingdom are ready to oppose him. There is a hero with the blade of evil's bane and a princess with the blood of a goddess. There are even four champions, ready to pilot the beasts that swiftly defeated him last time.
Ganon does the only thing he knows how to do. He attacks the kingdom from its greatest stronghold, the castle that is still standing, proud and tall. But this time, things go differently. When Ganon awakens into this world, he has grown even more powerful. So powerful, that he cannot contain it as he is. In pain and agony, he sheds whole parts of himself to the kingdom below him. The malice that pours from his body corrupts the guardians and beasts that have raced towards him and they turn on their former masters. Ganon can only watch through the dullness of his mind, as the kingdom of Hyrule is burnt to ashes in the span of a single day. The four champions, and even the hero wielding the blade of evil's bane are lost in death. Only the princess remains.
Even though he has won, completely and utterly, for the second time in a row, he still does not have the Triforce. Without even the piece of Power that once belonged to him, he can be stopped. This is something he cannot prevent and allows the princess to seal him away. Trapped inside the castle, Ganon can do nothing but rage against the barrier which keeps him entrapped. He will be free one day soon, though, the divine power the princess still uses to entrap him, dulls the pain he feels from the power he gained and in turn makes him stronger. Just by leeching off the princess of Hyrule, who is still somehow alive, he will be freed.
Some point into his trapped state, there comes a time when he looses control of the Divine Beasts and they attack him again. Ganon never bothers to find out that the hero thought dead one hundred years ago has come back, ready to save the princess. The moment that Ganon sees that boy, however, it ignites a fury within him and he does the only thing his limited mind can do.
In order to destroy Hyrule, he abandons the cycle of reincarnation altogether. He pulls all of his remaining strength, divine or otherwise into one final form, a dark beast. He throws everything he has at them, all of it, at the height of his power, but still, he loses. He has grown too strong, and even the blade of evil's bane cannot kill him truly. Only with the help of the Divine Beasts, and the arrows of light does Ganon fall.
When Ganon falls, his power is all but gone. He could be killed forevermore. The princess does not truly know this and therefore seals him away again. Even though she knows that one day, he will return she still remains optimistic. With the Hero of the Wilds at her side, she sets out to restore Hyrule to its former glory. Perhaps one day, Hyrule can be as wondrous as ten thousand years ago. Maybe even more.
Hyrule never recovers. It remains nothing more than a misbegotten wasteland for the rest of its time.
It is too late for anyone to ever fix it.
Even for the princess with the blood of a goddess.
The next stretch of time that follows after is even longer than the eons of his entire existence which he had lived until his latest sealing. Trapped in a bubble of eternal darkness, the last sliver of human intelligence in the beast who was once Ganondorf fades away into nothingness. He cannot think. He cannot scheme. In the blink of an eye, a decade passes by. Then a hundred years. Then a thousand. Then ten thousand.
Ganon is still trapped, unable to break free for a long, long time.
By the time he is unleashed on the world once more, the length which he has been trapped away no longer has any meaning. Perhaps it has been one hundred thousand years. Perhaps it has been two hundred thousand years. Perhaps it has been even longer.
Ganon does not know. All he knows is his own madness.
One day, countless eons later, probably through some lucky fluke or merely by chance, he does not care to find out; Ganon is freed from his eternal prison. For the first time in a long time, the fog of his mind clears slightly and he can think. While his newfound sentience is rather simple and brutish, it is just enough to comprehend the fate of the world he once knew. He cannot speak or remember the spells he had once used an eternity ago, but he can think. At least just a little.
Ganon wants the Triforce. For what reason he does not know. The state of his mind is too far gone for him to ever remember his original goal.
All he wants is the Triforce.
The Hyrule that Ganon emerges into, some five hundred thousand years after his sealing is unrecognisable. The kingdom that once stretched to the farthest corners of the world is nothing more than a shadow of its former self. It is fragmented into thousands of pieces among the seas that now spread across what were once grassy plains. Seven of these pieces, the largest, he learns, are called 'continents'. The kingdom of Hyrule does not rule in those places.
It is rather sobering.
Instead, Hyrule is a tiny, nearly deserted patch of land that is slowly being swallowed up by the rapidly expanding kingdoms that now neighbour it. The number of Hylians, who once populated the world, in the hundreds of thousands, can now be counted on the palm of his hand, leaving round eared beings called 'Humans' to conquer the known world.
Many of the others races, the Gorons, the Kokiri, even that strange desert race, the Gerudo, that seem distantly familiar, have simply vanished from the face of the earth. The few that remain, including the Zora, have degenerated into beasts like him. Nothing more that monsters that prey on unlucky travellers.
Even the stories and legends told in old Hyrule have been forgotten and discarded. To the people of the world, the legend of the Golden Goddesses who created the world is nothing more than that. A legend. The people of this alien world do not worship any triangles or divine spirits. The belief of the existence of many gods has become the belief of just one.
The slow, but expanding religion that has come into place of the old ones has only been around for a few hundred years but has slowly swept across the world unlike any other. Ganon briefly wonders if this new religion, this 'Christianity' will last. He shakes it away. He does not care for any divine being, whether it is three Goddesses or just one God.
All he wants is the Triforce.
He gathers the last remnants of his minions, thankful that they have survived over the span of time, and attacks the last stronghold of Hyrule, the castle that somehow still stands. Even though it is half ruined and battered by the time even he arrives, there is still a Zelda, for as much power as she holds. Luckily for him, the princess holds in her possession two of the three Triforce pieces. Unluckily, though, his arrival is too noisy and too predictable and Zelda splits the piece of Wisdom into eight fragments and spreads them across her devastated kingdom. He has no choice than to capture the princess herself and send his minions after the missing object.
Ganon spirits the princess away to decaying ruin that he has discovered under Death Mountain. There he sits and waits for his subjects to return with the Triforce of Wisdom. He is confident that they will return. In the meantime, he keeps a close eye of the princess. Compared to the other incarnates that he has met, she is the most different. She is not even a blonde anymore, the ages and mixed blood have reduced her once golden hair, to a dirty brown. She also acts rather strangely too, as she does not even attempt to fight back or struggle. No, she accepts her fate and does not appear to have a hint of magic. Time has diluted the blood of the goddess into nothingness, it seems.
Still, he learns much from her. In this time and place, much of the history he once knew is confused and muddled. He allows the princess to bring a select few tomes alongside her, and he sometimes takes the leisure to read through them. It is a struggle to read the unfamiliar text especially with his simple brain, but he slowly learns.
Gannon is his name in this alien land. He even vaguely notices that the Zelda of this era calls the Triforce of Wisdom, the Triforce WITH Wisdom. He also learns that the Triforce with Courage has also been lost to time. So lost, that even Zelda does not know where it is. To Ganon it is no trouble at all, he will find it eventually, and then he will...
What will he do? He does not know. Why does he want the Triforce? Why?
These thoughts torment him as he waits for the return of his followers.
But his followers do not return to him. Time after time, he calls out to them but they do not answer. He does not know what has happened to them, and he cannot speak or even ask the captured princess. Eventually, he realises that the aura of the Wisdom piece is growing stronger and stronger. Briefly, he thinks that his servants have slowly been gathering the pieces for him before he notices that the magic surrounding them is too good, too pure.
The hero clad in green has come forth once more.
All Ganon can do is prepare. His power is still weak, and even with the Triforce of Power, his abilities are nothing compared to the Ganon from so long ago, at the height of his strength. Most of his magic is lost, his minions are less intelligent than before, the Trident is lost to time, and even his physical prowess is weakened. All Ganon can do is sit and wait for the hero to arrive. Sometimes, he even feels like giving up.
Ganon has lived a long, long time. He is tired of it all.
The drive in himself to get the Triforce is too great, however, even if he does not know why he wants it.
But, he is tired.
Perhaps he wants to die.
Because of this, he barely notices when the hero arrives wielding the Triforce of Wisdom and the silver arrows. The battle that ensues is a short one and Ganon falls easily. He does not know why. Perhaps he wishes his own death. His hide is pierced by the arrows once more, and his physical body is obliterated from the face of the world.
The darkness of the seal swallows up Ganon again.
Sometimes, Ganon wonders if he is cursed. His life has been nothing but a slow and painful series of events that even he could not predict. He wonders if there is another world out there, where he had been slain by the hero who travelled through time or a world where he was caught before his schemes could ever come to fruition. Sometimes, Ganon wishes he lived in those worlds. But he does not.
The cycle continues on, forever and ever, and Ganon can do nothing to stop it. It spirals into infinity. Until the end of time.
Even if he is tired of it.
All he wants is the Triforce.
But he does not know why.
AN: How did I write 6k words? This was supposed to be a short drabble... Oh well, it's time for some short notes, since I know people will ask:
Breath of the Wild
Yes, I put this game on the Downfall Timeline. Since no word from Nintendo has come about regarding the placement of the timeline, evidence regarding Ruto and Nabooru's depiction of sages in both the Japanese and English translations have led me to headcanon this place on the timeline. But, I could be completely wrong, so take it with a grain of salt.
BOTW between ALBW and Zelda 1?
Yup, I did that. Why? Cause it fits, especially with the way Hyrule is depicted in Zelda 1. Again I could be wrong.
Is Hyrule on Earth?
I left this vague on purpose. The correct answer is yes, and no. You can make your own opinion on that one.
Christianity?
In Zelda 1, there is a bible and Link's shield has a cross. I also believe WOG said that the original religion in Zelda was going to be Christian. It makes sense that eventually the old religions would be phased out for a new one, and fans have speculated this to be the case for years.
Gannon is wrong!
Yes, I am aware. I kept that in for reasons, alongside the other mistranslated text from the original game. It is kind of unrealistic that texts and lore from so far back would be remembered accurately. Look at how much it happens in real life! So, I kept it in. Please don't spam me with flames about it. I know it's wrong!
Anyway, I hope you liked, so leave a fav or a review! See you around!