Hylian "extinction"?

[Seth]

I have looked around but haven't really seen anything about it, not even on the couple of zelda wiki sites I know of.
As we know Hyrule was inhabited by Hylians as seen in many games, but has their been any talk or theories about what happened to them?
By that I mean in A Link To The Past there is dialogue, at least in the SNES version, which basically says they do not exist anymore.

Here is one specific quote:

Long ago, a prosperous people
known as the Hylia inhabited
this land...

So for some reason they went, more or less, extinct, and I guess Hyrule became inhabited by regular humans. So what info is there, if any, about what happened to them?

 

[KAGOME05W]

Maybe they just migrated after the flood.

 

[Locke]

I think over time they grew distant from the goddesses and lost their favor, losing their tall ears and magic powers as well. I think I remember implications that the humans descended from the Hylians, but I could be wrong.

 

[JuicieJ]

I don't think this means they're necessarily extinct. I don't know what exactly it's supposed to mean, either, though. (I also like how it was "Hylia" in A Link to the Past.)

Maybe they just migrated after the flood.

A Link to the Past has nothing to do with The Wind Waker's flood.

 

[Djinn]

The ALTTP manual is full of mistranslations and assumptions that are not present in the original Japanese version. There is no "long ago" with the Hylians in ALTTP as they are still living there.

This documentation was written by the race of Hylia, the chosen people capable of hearing the voices of the gods. For that reason, the Hylians have high ears, unsurpassed senses, and the ability to use magic. It is said that they passed on [stories of] their magic and prophecies to their descendants, who rooted themselves in all parts of the world

The people loosing the long ears and looking more human concept did not come around until WW. Before that no distinction was ever made to separate them from the normal eared people in LA and OoX games. It appears that TP also chose to ignore the distinction again as no mention was made between long eared people and short eared ones, they were both considered the same people. Midna casually called Link human a few times in the game, while other races had them as well like the Rito, Lokomo, Sheikah, Minish, and Kokiri. So the longer ears are not a trait that is specific to the Hylians but a more general trait of a magic using society. The common theme among all those tribes is that they are all considered more magical in all their activities as opposed to the more physical Gorons, Zora, Gerudo, or Anouki. Each of those tribes might have one or two magical individuals living among them but are not on the whole a magical people. It could be possible that the Hylians slowly became a more mundane normal people over time. As the normal eared Hylians seen in the games were relatively common. The simple people of Ordon village, the farmers of OoA, the people of Windfall island, there is probably no magic in their lives at all for at least a few generations.

 

[Seth]

The ALTTP manual is full of mistranslations and assumptions that are not present in the original Japanese version. There is no "long ago" with the Hylians in ALTTP as they are still living there.

Um, this isn't from the manual but directly from in-game text.

 

[JuicieJ]

Um, this isn't from the manual but directly from in-game text.

He sure told you, Djinn.

 

[Djinn]

He sure told you, Djinn.

And my exact same statement

is full of mistranslations and assumptions that are not present in the original Japanese version

Should still stand, I cannot see why it would be any different as the manual and the game were both translated by the same people. Of course things would be changed to complement each other. This was done as late as TP with the Oocca creating Hylians issue a few years ago. Also The manual and in game text was originally written by the same people so I cannot see why they could ever have conflicting accounts.

But the quote you placed there was from the old woman of Kakariko village who might not be as credible a source of information as the descendant of the sages. Sahasrahla later mentions to Link that they are both descended from the Hylians.

Long ago, there was a family of people who protected the Hylian royal family.

They were called the Knight Family, who kept charge of the Crest of Courage, but when the Seven Sages' seal was carried out, I'm afraid most of them perished in the battle with the demons. The hero is supposed to appear out of that family.

I am indeed Sahasralah, the elder, one of the descendants of the Seven Sages.

Later on Aginah mentions more on the Sages and descendants of the Hylians

My name is Azinar.
It seems that something is happening inside the sacred land that the Seven Sages sealed...

A prediction handed down among the descendants of the Hylians, starting with the Seven Sages, tells of a "Great Catastrophe".

Yes, the only ones who are supposed to be able to become the "Hero" are those of the Knight Family that protected the Hylian royal family...

You carry their blood, don't you. Make sure to rescue Princess Zelda.

This quote from the Ice Palace Maiden leads me to believe it is a similar situation as that of WW. The Hylian magic faded over time, not that the Hylians became extinct and were replaced by humans. And then give an account that they can be restored when needed.

But the blood of the Hylia has
become thin over time. We who
carry the blood of the seven

wise men do not possess strong
power any more, either.

Our powers will increase if we
mix the courage of the Knights
with the wisdom of the wise men.

I have always taken the fact that Zelda contacted Link Telepathically to be significant, Sahasrahla does this throughout the game

Help me...

Please help me...

So I do not believe the Hylians of ALTTP are extinct in any way. They have just become more mundane and normal over time while the term Hylians is more used to describe the past more magical era while the current kingdom still uses it to describe their own people. The seven maidens, Zlrda, Link, Sahasrahla, and the old man of the mountain are all descended from the Hylians of old as this is spoken several times in the game. So they are not completely gone, they just refer to Hylian when speaking of the old kingdom or the no longer used language.

 

[Seth]

I don't think it is mistranslated. The quotes mention Link and Zelda carry the blood of they Hylians, but does that mean every human does or just them?
Your theory makes the most sense though, but I don't think it ever will be completely clear.

 

[JuicieJ]

And my exact same statement

Aw, I was just playin' with ya', little Djinnie.

 

[Justeazy]

That's a good possibility, or they are near extinction (hello, Giant Pandas). However, I don't think it means that. If I said my ancestors lived in England hundreds of years ago, does that mean they died out? No, my lineage moved here. Although reality works different in the Zelda world, my personal opinion is they simply moved away/moved on from the Great Land of Hyrule. Think about it, if every few generations a great evil would descend upon your land, would you want to raise children there, hoping the next wouldn't come for them?

Your theory makes the most sense though, but I don't think it ever will be completely clear.

And that is why there will always be conflicting theories/timelines. Everyone is entitled (and personally; encouraged) to their own opinion, but supporting evidence, no matter how strong, usually still leaves gaps that we have to speculate. Both are potential truths, and only time will tell should we be revealed with the true answer.

Interesting theory/discussion, nonetheless. =]

 

[DuckNoises]

Djinn, I'm going to have to partially disagree with you on this issue; while the Hylians are not "extinct," their language and culture has died out over a long period of time. This is alluded to in TP, as many NPCs remark the gradual dwindling of the Hylians in numbers, such as the Lamp Oil Salesman in Ordon Woods.
The Hylian language is most certainly dead, as Link is not capable of understanding the language of the Hylians without the Book of Mudora:

You found the Book of Mudora!
You can use it to read the
ancient language of the Hylia!

The use of the word "ancient" illustrates that the Hylians and their culture are no longer present as they once were. This is supported by the fact that very few characters in the game are familiar with Hylian history or language, possibly due to a "Dark Ages" of sort that occurred during the Seal War. I suspect there is some connection there, as those sections of the game are some of the last places chronologically where the Hylians are mentioned.

This must be an omen of the
Great Cataclysm foretold by
the people of Hylian blood...

This is another reference to the fact that there seems to be some distinction between the Hylians and what is now considered the present culture. He mentions the "people of Hylian blood" in the past tense, which leads me to believe that the Hylian culture no longer exists. This diminishing of Hylian culture was a budding theme in TP, as there are the beginnings of a division between the Hylians and the non-Hylians. This division could have easily disappeared as the non-Hylians became more prominent in a gradual sequence of events over time.

This is the most definitive quote I can find, which is quite straight-forward.

They say the Hylian people
mastered mysterious powers,
as did the seven sages.
But the blood of the Hylia has
grown thin over time. And we
who carry the blood of the
sages do not possess our
ancestors' powers, either.

In short, I wouldn't quite call it an "extinction," but there is definitely a downward trend in the numbers and culture of the Hylians. The Hylians do exist, but there are very few characters of that lineage. It would be incorrect to say that the Hylians weren't disappearing, but it would also be incorrect to say they were gone altogether.

 

[Oni Cucco]

someway you can take a logical conclusion...I think. You know than TloZ and AoL are supposed to come after Alttp, if you think about Tloz, in the game all the world is filled with enemies, all the people seen in the game lives in caves and if you make a comparison between Alttp and LoZ hyrule, you can see there is a big graveyard where kakariko should be. And in AoL, you can see many new towns in a new land, so, its possible to say that, when ganon returned, some people died and some other got out of hyrule and formed new towns, after this, there where not (significantly) hylians in the old hyrule