Zelda lore galore!

Ok, this isn't really for those of you who regularly read my blog, this is for all the zelda fans out there who are exteremely confused as to what the crap is going on in between games. The 3-d ones, anyway. This will be a very long post, so if you're not a zelda fan, or don't have a borderline OCD with the timelines (like me ;P), then there are wiser ways to spend your time.

Firstly, let it just be said that most (all) of this will just be theory and massive nerdery on my part.Secondly, don't freak out about it too much.  I absolutely wrecked my head trying to make sense of twilight princess, and it kinda ruined the game for me. So take everything with a grain of salt, and at the end of the day, if something doesn't make sense or contradicts previous lore in the games, don't think about it. Ignore it.  If you're fighting a giant dragon, don't say "Hey, there haven't been a race of dragons in the Zelda games before!", instead say: "Hey, cool, a dragon.". Learn from my mistakes people. Now that all that is out of the way, let's get right into the hypocrisy of contradicting all that stuff I just said about being halfway normal about it.
Oh, and HUGE SPOILER ALERTS TO FOLLOW.Chapter 1: In the beginning of the beginning.

Ok, so, basically, it all starts off with the 3 godesses, din, fayore, and nayru creating hyrule. Din does the races of people, Nayru creates it so life can exist, and Fayore actually makes the life. Then they vamoose. The place where they left becomes "The Sacred Realm", and the triforce is created when they leave, being housed in the sacred realm(taken from ocarina of time [OoT] Lore, see meeting the princess) . And then for a while, everything is hunky dory. Then word about the triforce gets around, and all hell breaks loose. People get greedy about it, and The Hyrulian Civil War takes place. Amidst the fighting, a Hylian mother decides to try to escape the fighting, for a better chance of life for her baby boy. She flees on horseback to the Kokiri forest, but gets injured along the way. Upon reaching the woods, she asks the Great Deku Tree to take care of her child. Deku tree agrees, sensing that is a "Child of Destiny", and the mother dies. But back to the Civil war. Everyone fights, but a particular group are quite nasty about it, the tribe later known as the Twili, called "Dark Interlopers" at the time. The Godesses create light spirits, and the light spirits decide to end the fighting by punishing the people being the biggest jerks about it, the Dark Interlopers. They are banished to the Realm of twilight. Then, everyone gets along rather nicely, Most of the races unite under the flag of the Royal Family of Hyrule, and everyone hugs and gets high fives. (Hylian mother info taken from Great Deku Sprout, Civil war info taken from Link to the past booklet and Twilight princess scenes).Chapter 2: In the beginning
Ok, Ocarina of time is the first Game, as canonically stated by Shigero Miyamoto himself. And he friggin' invented it, so I'd say he knows. Game starts off with you as the "Child of Destiny" in the above, and you go on an adventure to save the land. I'd talk about the game, but I'll stick to the parts that are confusing. Everything makes sense right up until you come back after getting the third spiritual stone. You reach the gates of hyrule castle town, and everything goes dark. Cue cutscene of Zelda and Impa fleeing, as shown in your dream. Dun dun Duuuuuun! While you were away fighting in Zora's domain, Ganondorf staged a coup against the royal family (which succeeded), in an attempt to get the Ocarina of time. After meeting Ganon, you secretly retrieve the Ocarina of time from the river, and enter the temple of time. You open the door of time, and unbeknownst to you, ganon is watching, you, waiting to make his move. You pull the master sword from the pedestal of time, and a portal opens to the sacred realm. (I always presumed the portal was all that blue light shenanigans). Ganon enters the portal with you, and lays hands on the triforce. Due to his imbalanced heart, the triforce splits in three parts.  Ganondorf gets the triforce of Power, and You and Zelda get the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom, respectively. However, due to your young age, the sage of light, Rauru, kept you in the chamber of the sages for 7 years until you were old enough to seriously kick some ass. Just to say a little on the chamber of the sages, it is housed in the Sacred Realm itself, in the Temple of light, and stands as the last bastion against evil in the sacred realm. The sacred realm isn't really explored much in Ocarina of Time, but it is totally explored in "Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past".

After Ganon gets his hands on the triforce, the sacred realm goes to hell, and ganon comes back with the triforce of Power, intent on kicking Hyrule's collective ass and establishing an eeeeeeevil Kingdom. Which he does. Then after 7 years, you come back intent on kicking Ganon's ass. And now, a word on sages. In Ocarina of time, you have to wake the 6 sages to seal ganondorf in the sacred realm. But Rauru says that the temple of light was built by the "Ancient Sages", which seems to note a difference between the six sages and the Ancient Sages. That'll be important for later nitpicking. You Awaken the sages, kick ganon's ass, and then, Zelda does something that will drive future Zelda fans insane for centuries to come.  She sends Link Back to his original time, back 7 years, to his childhood. This creates two timelines, and here is where the madness sets in.

Chapter 3: The Child Timeline

This is the timeline for Link, when he is sent back to his past. It is important to note that he still possesses the triforce, as seen here , right at the very end. That will be important later. Link is sent back 7 years, and as seen in the final cutscene, Zelda reacts in exactly the same fashion  as to the cutscene when you first meet her. This is up for dispute, and is my personal theory, which is where I could be wrong, but it makes enough sense to me. She's got fancy sage magic, she could wrap up any loose ends. So, you are sent back 7 years to the time when you leave Kokiri Forest, off to meet the princess. You warn Zelda about Ganon's Plot (See 2:29), and then depart to try and find your old fairy friend Navi, who departed at the end of Ocarina of Time, and run into the Skull Kid, who robs you of your Ocarina, causes hell, and leads you into an alternate dimension known as termnia, for the adventure known as "Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask". That adventure is just great and awesome, and you return to Hyrule. At some point, Ganon goes through with his coup d'etat, only this time, with forewarning, the Royal Family is prepared. Ganon is captured and excecuted.

Only not quite. Ganon posesses the Triforce of Power, and thus, seemingly returns to life, kills the ancient sage of water, and is all set to go on a slaughterfest, when the Ancient Sages notice something. Just for a word on the Ancient Sages, Rauru notes a difference between the Ancient Sages, who built the temple of light in the sacred realm, and the 6 sages needed to seal away ganondorf in the sacred realm. So I presume these are the guys that Rauru was talking about. Anyway, back to the story. The sages notice that Ganondorf is standing right smack dab in the middle of the device used to seal away the Dark Interlopers, the Twili, who were sealed into the Twilight Realm for causing such rucus during the Hyrulian Civil war.  The sages activate the Mirror of Twilight, and Ganondorf is banished to the Realm of Twilight. Things seems to be cool for a while, and cake and punch is enjoyed by all. Except for the ancient sage of Water, Because he is dead.
Now, for a word on how the heck Ganondorf got his grubby mitts on the Triforce of Power. In the Child Timeline, Ganondorf never touched the triforce, and so he should never have obtained it. However! I also said that Link still has the triforce of courage, marked on the back of his hand, when he returns to his childhood, so there is a problem there. There can only be one triforce of courage obviously, so here where fact turns into theory, I suppose, As I said before, I could be wrong on the theory stuff. When someone touches the triforce, if their heart is imbalanced, it will split into three, and the other two pieces will find the two people most suited to each piece of the triforce. So logically, if Link went back in time still possessing the triforce of courage, the existing triforce would have split up as if it had been touched, and the triforce would have gone to it's other two respective owners, ala Zelda and Ganondorf. At any rate, this post is about 2 months late and I've totally lost my place, so here it is, Lorcan's post on Zelda Lore in all it's unfinished glory. And why yes, I totally and completely did ignore the early games and most all gameboy games. Rejoice!

"......"- Link