Hyrulean Lore: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda continues to grow and expand its lore and history with each new addition to the series, where the history of Hyrule is revealed more and more. Skyward Sword is no exception; the latest title has revealed a great deal of history and knowledge to the series, including introductions of new characters and themes, while expanding upon (or in some cases, convoluting) stories and facts from previous games.

From Hylia to Demise to the Triforce, Skyward Sword holds nothing back, and understanding how all the pieces fit together is crucial to understanding the games impact on the rest of the series, in particular, its impact on Ocarina of Time. Perhaps the most important area to cover first is that of the two new powerful entities at the centre of Skyward Sword’s story; the Goddess Hylia and the Demon King Demise.

“The old gods created a supreme power that gave anyone who possessed it the ability to shape reality and fulfil any desire. They called it the Triforce. In his thirst to make the world his own, Demise readied a massive army ofmonsters for war. He sought to take the Triforce for himself by force. The goddess feared for her people. She used her power to send both them and the Triforce into the sky on a slice of earth she cut away from the land.”

“In order to put an end to the demon king, Hylia devised two separate plans and set them both into motion. First, she created Fi. She made the spirit that resides in your sword to serve a single purpose: to assist her chosen hero on his mission. Her second plan… was to abandon her divine form and transfer her soul to the body of a mortal. She made this sacrifice, as you have likely guessed, so that the supreme power created by the old gods could one day be used.” – Zelda, SS

By analysing the introduction of Skyward Sword and matching it up with these quotes, the full backstory to the game becomes apparent. In the distant past, the Demon King Demise gathered an army in order to seize the Triforce and rule the world. The Goddess Hylia sent a crop of land with the last remaining Humans and the Triforce into the Sky, and created a barrier of clouds so that they were separated from the ground. Then, using her Harp and Sword, Hylia fought against Demise, and managed to seal him away at the Sealed Grounds. Hylia then set in motion her plans to combat the possible resurrection of Demise; the creation of Fi and the sacrifice of her immortality. We learn that Zelda is in fact Hylia reborn, and that it is her destiny to travel through the Gate of Time and empower the seal on Demise in the past. Zelda’s status as the incarnation of the goddess gives her a great deal of importance in Skyward Sword, possibly more-so than any other game in the series.

While we have seen Zelda play the role of a princess, a sage and a vessel of resurrection, being the mortal form of the all-mighty goddess Hylia brings a whole new level of power to her character. Zelda openly admits that she (as Hylia), was using Link as a sort of tool to combat Demise. However, Link understands his role in the events of Skyward Sword, and is happy to do whatever he can for his childhood friend. Furthermore, noting that Hylia used her control over time via the Gate of Time to combat Demise, it is possible that Hylia may in fact be the infamous Goddess of Time mentioned throughout the series. This is discussed in more detail in Ben Lamoreux’s article Secrets of Skyward Sword: The Goddess of Time.

Skyward Sword’s story starts to come to a conclusion with the revival of the Demon King Demise, a wholly evil creature who is said to have conquered time itself. His goal was to take the Triforce for himself in order to rule the world, a story we Zelda fans are all too familiar with. He was stopped by Hylia, and sealed away by her power in the Sealed Grounds, but not entirely defeated. He appeared various times throughout the game as the monstrous Imprisoned, an abomination of his former form, after his defeat at the hands of Hylia. His rise as the Imprisoned was the indication that Hylia’s seal was fading. Using the Triforce, Link wished for Demise to be destroyed, and the wish was granted in Link’s time. However, Demise still lived in the past, and it was there that he was revived by his loyal servant Ghirahim.

In order to settle their final battle like true warriors, Demise opens a portal for Link to follow him through. The realm that the final battle takes place in is quite mysterious. Some theorists have likened it to the area where Link and Zelda talk at the end of Ocarina of Time, as well as with the design of the Ocarina of Time Dark Link battle in the Water Temple. However, the realm changes appearance after the battle begins, showing us that the area is under Demise’s control, suggesting that it may a realm of his own creation and ownership, his Makai. A Makai is a demon realm associated with a Demon King, or Maou, in Japanese literature, and seeing as Demise is indeed called the Demon King in Skyward Sword, it is likely that the final battle takes place in his Makai.

“Though this is not the end. My hate… never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again! Those like you… Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero… They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!” – Demise, SS

After Link deals the final blow using the Master Sword charged by lightning, Demise begins to erode and fade in defeat. However, he claims that the world is not safe from his evil, and that an incarnation of his hatred shall haunt Link and Zelda’s descendants. It is safe to say that Demise is referring to the eventual appearance of Ganondorf, as Ganondorf is the Evil King fated to do battle with Link and Zelda throughout the series. So, as well as giving us a possible origin for the importance of Zelda, Skyward Sword also offers the true origin of Ganondorf; he is the incarnation of the hatred and evil that was the Demon King Demise.

The greatest point of interest in Skyward Sword, particularly in relation to other games in the series, would have to be the mythical Master Sword. We have wielded the legendary blade as Link many times before, but Skyward Sword, following its theme of origins, shows the physical creation of the Master Sword.

The swords starts out as the Goddesses Sword, a weapon we can only assume was forged by Hylia. Link later learns that by imbuing the blade with the power of the three Flames of the Goddesses, Din’s Flame, Nayru’s Flame and Farore’s Flame, the Goddesses sword will be empowered beyond comprehension and will be powerful enough to stop Demise. Indeed, the Goddesses Sword is forged into the Master Sword by the three flames. Link then uses the Master Sword to slay Demise, destroying Demise’s physical body and forever sealing his soul within the sword. This likely indicates the swords status as “the blade of evil’s bane”.

The Master Sword has had many legends surrounding it in other Zelda titles. A Link to the Past claims that the ancient Sages helped craft the sword with their wisdom, and Ocarina of Time tells us that the blade can only be pulled from the Pedestal of Time by the Hero of Time. Whether or not Nintendo still holds quotes such as these as fact is up for debate, however we can speculate on how they may be linked to Skyward Sword. The Sages are not present nor mentioned in Skyward Sword, so it is unlikely that their intended involvement of the creation of the Master Sword still holds true. However, the symbols of the Medallions corresponding to the Sages appear at the Sealed Grounds and then Statue of Hylia, so it is possible that the Sages existed before Skyward Sword, although this is speculation.

As for the second quote, it would certainly hold true if Link from Skyward Sword came to be known as the Hero of Time. Sheik, in Ocarina of Time, states that as Link wields the Master Sword, he looks very much like the Hero of Time from legend. As Link in Skyward Sword does a great deal of time travelling using the Gate of Time and the time stones in Lanayru Desert, it is certainly possible that this Link is the original Hero of Time, especially since Skyward Sword was specifically stated to be a prequel to Ocarina of Time. So indeed, the Master Sword, being forged by the original Hero of Time in Skyward Sword could be wielded by the next hero destined to follow in his footsteps. After the defeat of Demise, the Master Sword is placed in the mysterious pedestal present in the Sealed Temple and Fi enters an eternal rest within the blade, alongside the sealed spirit of Demise.

Perhaps the most surprising part of Skyward Sword’s tale was the presence of the Triforce. The game cements that the Triforce was created by the old goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore, and left in the world as they departed. The goddess Hylia sent the Triforce to the sky after Demise appeared in order to keep it safe from his assault, and there it rested until Link collected its pieces and claimed the Triforce himself. It is interesting to note that the Triforce is separated into its three components, power, wisdom and courage, in the Sky Keep. Unless the Triforce had been used prior to being sent to the sky, it should have been whole. Perhaps Hylia somehow split the Triforce herself so that it would be more difficult to complete, as only one with a balanced heart could form the true Triforce.

What is also worth noting about the Triforce in Skyward Sword is that when Link sets out to obtain it, the pieces of the Triforce are present in particular sections of the Silent Realm that are accessed in Sky Keep. We know from Ocarina of Time that the mysterious Sacred Realm is the resting place of the Triforce on the earth, indicating that the Silent Realm of Skyward Sword could be connected to the Sacred Realm, or perhaps be the Sacred Realm itself, as discussed by Ben Lamoreux in Secrets of Skyward Sword: The Silent Realm.

After completing the Triforce, Link uses it to wish for the destruction of Demise. The wish was successful, and the Triforce remained upon the statue of the Goddess. As the Triforce was resting in the Scared Realm at the beginning of Ocarina of Time, we must assume that after the events of Skyward Sword, the Triforce is returned the Sacred Realm, and that the entrance to the Sacred Realm is locked in the Temple of Time by the Master Sword.

One possibly scenario for this would be that the Sages eventually come to be in Hyrule, and construct the Temple of Time over the area where the Sealed Temple is, and lock the Triforce away in the Sacred Realm. An alternative is that perhaps the Sages existed before the events of Skyward Sword, and that the Sealed Temple was always intended to be the resting place of the Triforce, and so it was simply refurnished to become the Temple of Time after Hyrule was founded. Obviously there is the issue that a Temple of Time is already present in Skyward Sword in Lanayru Desert, however, based on its appearance and location, it cannot be the same Temple in Ocarina of Time.

However, perhaps Nintendo intended to imply that there can be more than one Temple of Time. Both the Lanayru Temple and the Sealed Grounds Temple house a Gate of Time, so perhaps both locations were intended to be Temple of Times, and after Impa destroyed the Gate of Time in the desert, that Temple of Time lost its namesake and was forgotten over time, leaving the Sealed Grounds as the last location of a Gate of Time, where the Master Sword rests.

Skyward Sword presented such a large array of information in relation to the rest of the series. The game presents the first legend in the Zelda chronology by covering many familiar topics, such as giving an explanation for Zelda’s importance, as she is the goddess Hylia reborn, and then the origin of Ganondorf and his malice. It also detailed the creation of the Master Sword, as well as revealing more intimate details about the Triforce, and of course, the possible origin for the Hero of Time whom we all so familiar with. They are commonly seen as the five key plot figures of many of the games, and Skyward Sword has incorporated them all in a unique and fresh way. The game also left us with many mysteries to be solved and many gaps to be filled, such as the whereabouts of the Sages and the origins of races such as the Zora, Gerudo and Kokiri.

While there are still many pieces of Hyrulean lore left to discover in the Zelda universe, Skyward Sword’s connections to other instalments in the series, particularly Ocarina of Time, are quite apparent. The true path to understanding the history of the world of the Legend of Zelda is by playing the games and enjoying the fascinating stories they present.