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| Official Zelda Timeline |
This is my attempt at explaining the official Zelda timeline released by Nintendo, shortly after the release of Skyward Sword. Now, there's no way for me to prepare you for the explanation of this screwed up mess of a timeline, so I'm just going to jump right in.
The plot of the first era is explained in Skyward Sword. We start with the beginning, the Goddess, Hylia, creates the world as we know it to be in Skyward Sword. Now, in Skyward Sword, Hylia is reincarnated as Princess Zelda to fend of the god of chaos, Demise, and enlists the help of Link (of this era). Now, within this point in time, Demise is sealed within the Master Sword, and along with that, the Sacred Realm is sealed, also.
So begins the second era, the Kingdom of Hyrule is established, and evil god Vaati is born. At this point in time, the Master Sword has been broken, and is then reforged into what is referred to in this period as "The Four Sword". Vaati is slain, and then is resurrected, only to be killed once more. This era is told by Minish Cap and Four Swords.
The next era is explained solely by Ocarina of Time, being the Era of the Hero of Time.
At this point in time, the Four Sword is renamed back to the Master Sword, during the time that the Four Sword was in use in Minish and Four Swords, a tear was created in the Sacred Realm, allowing Demise to create the Dark World within it. When the Link of this era removes the Master Sword, he breaks the seal once more, allowing Ganondorf to access the Dark World, and is tainted by the powers of Demise, causing him to become the Demon King, Ganon. After Ganon is slain, the master sword is returned to it's resting place in the Temple of Time, Zelda sends Link back in time to live his childhood that he missed out on, and this causes the timeline to split three ways.
Now, I'm going to handle the splits one section at a time.
In the first split (we'll call this the No Link era), child link was still in his childhood, Ganon was summoned by Aghanim, but since there was no adult Link to stop him, it was up to the Link to the Past Link to stop him, and recover the power of the Triforce.
In the Oracle games, Ganon was revived, once again, and defeated. Wich leads us into The Legend of Zelda, the first one. Ganon is revived AGAIN, and defeated AGAIN. Now we move onto Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. During this time, Ganon was in the process of being revived, but this link stops that from happening. Thus ending this timeline, and the cycle of Ganon.
Now for the second split. This is the first of the two outcomes after Ocarina of Time. The Child Link era.
Before the events of Majora's Mask, Ganondorf is executed in Hyrule by the orders of Princess Zelda. After this, Navi parted ways with Link as she had fulfilled her orders given by the Deku Tree, and Link was not a Kokiri child. So we go into Majora's Mask.
This story begins from Link leaving Hyrule in search of Navi, but gets intercepted by Skull Kid. By entering the Clock Tower in the beginning of this tale, Link crosses into another dimension, explaining the recurrence of characters from Ocarina of Time, with most of their personalities being the complete opposite of what they were in the first game, ie. the witches are potion salespeople. This link beats the Skull Kid, regains Majora's Mask, saved the world, and lives happily ever after.
His descendants spawn the next two games, Twilight Princess and Four Swords Adventures, both with the plot centered around defeating the revived Ganon, ending this time split.
Now for the final split. The Adult era after Ocarina of time.
After the events of Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is sealed, Zelda sends Link back to his childhood, Ganon is revived, the gods flood Hyrule to prevent the world from falling into Darkness, leading us into the Wind Waker. The Link of this Era is summoned to slay the revived Ganondorf after he was sealed beneath the ocean, he is successful, and moves onto the events of Phantom Hourglass, where a new continent is found. This new continent follows into Spirit Tracks and is the mainland where the story takes place. Within this game, Malladus is a reincarnation of Ganondorf, and is revived. Link slays him, and this ense THIS split in the timeline.
Hopefully I have clarified some things, but this "official" timeline is more confusing than the other timelines I've heard that were fan created.
Again, this is just me trying to explain Nintendo's version of the timeline, I did not change the placements of any games in the timeline.
