Spoiler The Temple of Time and the Sacred Grove: Location, Location, Location.

[Agent B]

That is a pretty solid theory and along the same lines I was thinking after the end of Skyward Sword. One problem I see is why don't they just build another Hyrule Castle in the same general location after the fall of Ganon. Another problem I see with it is I always thought the Hyrule Castle in The Wind Waker is the same as Ocarina of Time, which explains the statue of the Hero of Time

 

[Locke]

I presented an explanation in a previous thread that the location of the ToT in OoT has been retconned. It's in the woods in SS, and it's in the woods in TP. OoT is sandwiched between these with no evidence of relocation, so it should logically be located in the woods during OoT as well. Others suggested that it was originally supposed to be in the woods but was moved to Castle Town for the shock factor (a gameplay reason).

Another problem I see with it is I always thought the Hyrule Castle in The Wind Waker is the same as Ocarina of Time, which explains the statue of the Hero of Time

(OoT spoilers, in case any living being hasn't finished the game yet)

Spoiler

Hyrule Castle was destroyed in the adult ending of OoT, so the castle in OoT must be a new one.

My theory is that it's a renovated ToT, which explains the MS in the basement.

 

[JMsmash1118]

Movement of the Master Sword

Hello Zelda fans. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about a topic that has been puzzling me. The Master Sword and its different locations over the years. I'm going to be following Nintendo's "official" timeline during this explanation so this topic doesn't become a timeline debate. If you are unfamiliar with Nintendo's timeline you can find it here: http://www.zeldawiki.org/Timeline

The Master Swords story starts off with Skyward Sword. At the end of that game Link places The Master Sword in the Sealed Temple in the Sealed grounds, which is located in the Faron Province.

The Next chronological occurrence of the Master Sword is the Ocarina of Time. In it, Link finds the Master Sword located in the Temple of Time, which is located inside Castle Town. At the end of the game Link places the Sword back where he found the blade. Now OoT did not separate its version of Hyrule into provinces, but if we look at the map from Twilight Princess, we know that most of Hyrule Field, Hyrule Castle, and Castle Town are all located in the Lanayru Province. Based off that, I can conclude the Master Sword is now in the Lanayru Province.

Now this is where the timeline splits into the child timeline, the adult timeline, and the hero defeated timeline (that everyone seems to hate). If you are unfamiliar with this split please look at the Link (no pun intended) above.

The timeline split I want to talk about is the child timeline, where after defeating Ganon in OoT, Link is sent back to his childhood to warn Zelda. The next game in this timeline to include the Master Sword is Twilight Princess. In this game, Link finds the Master Sword hidden deep within Faron Woods, The Sacred Grove to be exact.

Now this is where things start to get confusing. Skyward Sword has the Master Sword in the Sealed Temple which is located in The Faron Province. The next time we see it is in Ocarina of Time, where its being housed in the Temple of Time... but now its in the Lanayru Province. Now the Final time we see it in this timeline is in Twilight Princess, where we find it in the Sacred Grove in the Faron Province. What the Hell Nintendo.

Now to make things even more confusing, these 3 games are the only games to feature the Temple of Time. Skyward Sword's Temple of Time rests in the Lanayru Province. It does not however, house the Master Sword. Ocarina of Time's Temple of Time also resides in the Lanayru Province, but this temple does house the Master Sword. Finally Twilight Princess's Temple of Time is located in Faron Province and it does have the Master Sword.

Now a lot of people think Oot and TP are the same Temple of Time. They play the same music inside the Temple of Time which helps when trying to connect the two. But the main problem is they are located in different provinces and they are structurally built differently (door of time, statues, stairs). If I were to try and connect a location to TP's Temple of Time, I would say it is the same location as the Sealed Temple in Skyward Sword. I don't think anyone can deny the similarities. The Sealed Ground (SG) and the Sacred Grove (SG) are both temples located in the Faron Province and both house the Master Sword. But do I think these places are the same as Oot's Temple of Time? No. My theory is that there are two different Temple of Times from SS to TP. A Faron Province Temple and a Lanayru Province Temple. According to my theory The Master Sword Starts in the Sealed Temple but, for an unknown reason, is moved to the Lanyaru Temple of Time, which undergoes minor construction to turn it into the Temple of Time of Ocarina of Time. Then, sometime later, the Temple of Time is destroyed (which explains its lack of appearance in TP) and the Master Sword is moved back to the Faron Province, where the Sealed Temple is turned into the Master Sword.

Anyway my theory opens up holes, for example, “Who moves the Master Sword?” Either way, I've become quite fond of my theory and I was wondering what this community thinks about it. Any comments, complaints, and concerns are much appreciated.

 

[Locke]

The Historia claims that the OoT ToT stands where the Sealed Temple once stood.

Temple of Time
The only entrance to the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm. Though it bears the same name as the temple that stood in the desert in ancient times, the Temple of Time constructed by Rauru is thought to be located where the Sealed Temple once stood.

OoT's in-game placement has evidently been retconned. (I believed it had even pre-Historia, just judging by its positions in SS and TP, as you pointed out.) The MS starts in the Sealed Temple in Faron Province, which becomes the new Temple of Time to replace the old Lanayru Province one. Here it stays through OoT despite its in-game depiction, and on to TP, when it is in ruins. I haven't seen a source for this yet, but some claim that OoT's ToT was originally supposed to be located in the forest during beta but was moved to Castle Town, supposedly for the 'shock factor'. (not that it has anything to do with an argument involving its placement being retconned)

But if we accept this, then its placement in WW is the oddity. Either the ToT is not in the woods (if one subscribes to the Hyrule Castle = ToT theory) or the MS was inexplicably moved to a separate castle (the same problem you encountered with your theory). LttP works out, though its forest is in the NW corner of the map...

 

[Seth]

The Historia claims that the OoT ToT stands where the Sealed Temple once stood.
OoT's in-game placement has evidently been retconned. (I believed it had even pre-Historia, just judging by its positions in SS and TP, as you pointed out.) The MS starts in the Sealed Temple in Faron Province, which becomes the new Temple of Time to replace the old Lanayru Province one. Here it stays through OoT despite its in-game depiction, and on to TP, when it is in ruins. I haven't seen a source for this yet, but some claim that OoT's ToT was originally supposed to be located in the forest during beta but was moved to Castle Town, supposedly for the 'shock factor'. (not that it has anything to do with an argument involving its placement being retconned)

But if we accept this, then its placement in WW is the oddity. Either the ToT is not in the woods (if one subscribes to the Hyrule Castle = ToT theory) or the MS was inexplicably moved to a separate castle (the same problem you encountered with your theory). LttP works out, though its forest is in the NW corner of the map...

Um, I don't think so. I mean unless they decided to recon the entire game I don't think that's possible. It's location in OoT and the role it plays there is central to the entire story, you can't just change something like that. Also if we accept the games as the one true canon, which it is, then you can't go against what appears in-game.

For it to work the MS doesn't have to move, for all we know the Faron area became Castle Town then after moving north in TP was overgrown again and turned back into forest land? IDK just a thought. I think the whole argument though that in making a timeline that you have to ignore Hyrulian geography and that it is and always will be inconsistent from game to game applies here.

 

[cucco002]

I learned to not take Zelda geography too seriously, but would be great to find a way for it to make sense.

The difference between the games geography are just "the way the games are developed", now thinking in-game, maybe there is some kind of magic to help the place to never be found or it has something to do with the woods

Talking about Temple of Time, what do you think happened to the one in the desert?

 

[Blue Window]

It seems like the Historia has more or less confirmed that the Sealed Temple (SS) = Temple of Time (OoT) = Temple of Time (TP). The only time the Master Sword might be moved is between OOT---WW and OoT---AlttP (unless the Hyrule Castle is rebuilt on the Temple of Time before WW and unless the Pedestal in AlttP is the ruins of the original pedestal).

Traces of the Era of the Hero of Time

The Goron Tribe and the Zora Tribe are in good health in this era. We don't see the figure of the Kokiri Tribe, only the mark of the Kokiri is left in the Forest Temple.

The pedestal of the Master Sword is in the decayed Temple of Time, which has become the ruins in the middle of the forest.

(Translated by The Baton of the Wind on Zelda Universe)

/Blue Window

 

[Kprizzy]

so i joined just to answer this question. heres my general understanding of why the master sword moves around: in SS, link puts it into the sealed temple. rauru then makes the temple of time out of the sealed temple. the selaed temple is pretty much inbetween all the provinces so it is possible that they moved teh province or just changed the boundries. in the adult timeline, its in the new castle so it could be assumed that the castle was rebuilt around the temple. in the child timeline link leaves it in the temple of time. for some reason hyrule moves farther north and a new caslte is made while the master sword is left with the temple of time while it decays and is turned into the temple of time ruins. in the link is defeated timeline hyrule is destryoed when gannon gets the whole triforce and they rebuild the castle and the major city is now kakariko village. the master sword is moved to the woods to be taken by someone who has the blood of a knight (or something like that). in a link to the past, link is one of the last

 

[The-Last-Hylian]

There are some interesting theories going on here.
It is an interesting point that the OP has put accross. Theres nothing to say though that between SS and OoT Link and Zelda moved the MS from it's location in Faron Woods Sealed Temple to Lanayru provice ToT and over the decades between SS and OoT the climate changed and Lanayru province grew to become more wooded and ends up as we see it in OoT, I know this means alot of moving about etc... it's just a thought.

What we need is an image with all of the maps laid out over one another and the locations of the MS laid out on it... I might see if I can fix one up.

 

[Masterswords]

I think that The Sealed Temple turned into the temple of time in OOT and TP maybe the temple of time in SS turned into the spirit temple or something but it makes sense OOT's temple of time was beside the market which I belive was once the Sealed Grounds (Godess statue etc ) just it got bigger to become the market I honestly don't think they moved the master sword only link can carry the master sword remember? so Link would have to move it yet there's no reason to that we know of

 

[The-Last-Hylian]

Obviously there will be a big difference is distances due to the sizes of the maps in each game but here is a side by side image showing each map from SS, OoT & TP.

I think in relation to OoT and TP the landmass has obviously been expanded. The map in OoT comprises of the area ringed in blue.

Not only does the location of the MS change but the surrounding landmarks etc, Lake Hylia and Death Mountain being the obvious two.

To see the image full-size go to http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj413/hylianslast/SS-mapcopy-2.jpg

It needs tidying up and editing, I'll see if I can create a better example later.

 

[JMsmash1118]

Not only does the location of the MS change but the surrounding landmarks etc, Lake Hylia and Death Mountain being the obvious two.[/B]

This was my point exactly. If you look at it on the maps, it makes very little sense. My guess is that Nintendo screwed up on that part.

 

[The-Last-Hylian]

This was my point exactly. If you look at it on the maps, it makes very little sense. My guess is that Nintendo screwed up on that part.

The geology doesn't fit very well at all.

 

[guy]

Questions About the Temple of Time.

ok, so the location of the temple of time made sense in the majority of the games its featured in. in OoT it is located in hyrule castle town, in TP its in ruins in the forest because so much time has past, and in ALttP it is completely in the forest with no traces of the temple of time. now it all makes a logical order, but then i played Skyward sword, where the temple of time is in the desert region. can some one please explain to me why it is there and not in the faron woods region.? in no other game is it near the desert. also the design of the temple fits more with the sealed temple, located in the forest region where it makes more sense.

 

[ThatEffingArch]

if you think about it it does make sense. you see, the temple of time is where the gears of time are. in the game *spoiler* the gears of time are broken in the desert, thus making that temple of time just a temple :p
but guess where the next gears of time appear? you guessed it, the FOREST. so in essence, since there are new gears of time in the forest, it is safe to believe that that is where the new temple of time, the one from OoT, TP, and LttP, is created
hope it makes sense