Imprisoning War

The Imprisoning War or Seal War was a conflict that ensued after Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm and laid claim to the Triforce, becoming Ganon. This great conflict is spoken of in A Link to the Past. Ganondorf's seizure of the Triforce tainted the Golden Land, transforming it into the Dark World and Ganondorf himself into a beast named Ganon. He launched an invasion against Hyrule with his new army of monsters, made up of people from Hyrule that came seeking the Golden Power for themselves. This invasion was repelled by the Knights of Hyrule, who gave their lives almost to the last to protect the Seven Sages as they cast a seal on the Dark World, trapping Ganon and his army inside and restoring peace to Hyrule.

The Discovery of the Sacred Realm
Long ago in the land of Hyrule, legends spoke of a great power left behind by the Golden Goddesses following Hyrule's creation. Stories speaking of the Sacred Realm and the omnipotent "Golden Power" known as the Triforce that resided within it spread across Hyrule over the ages, causing a lust for the Triforce's power to grow and fester in the hearts and minds of Hyrule's people until there was nothing left in many of them but pure greed. The Triforce could not judge between good and evil and thus would merely grant the wishes of its holder.

One day, a gateway to the Golden Land of the Triforce was accidentally discovered and opened by a band of thieves skilled in dark magic and their leader, a man named Ganondorf. It was a place like no other, a realm of midday golden skies rather than blue. And there, shining down upon this world from above, was the Triforce in all its glory. A long running battle then ensued between Ganondorf and his followers to the heart of the Sacred Realm in a race to reach the Triforce first. Ganondorf fought his way past and killed all of his followers that had accompanied him into the realm along the way so that he could claim it uncontested.

The Great Cataclysm
After the murders of his followers, Ganondorf stood over the Triforce and grasped it with blood-stained hands. A voice whispered to him, stating that if he had a strong desire in his heart to wish for it. In response, Ganondorf's laughter echoed across time and space and reached even Hyrule itself as he made a wish that he become the ruler of the world. This event would come to be known as the Great Cataclysm.

Thus, it was out of the Great Cataclysm that one of Hyrule's greatest threats was born: the King of Evil, Ganon, who now had the strength of the Triforce at his command. An ancient prophecy concerning the Great Cataclysm also existed however, stating that if a person with an evil heart should ever gain possession of the Triforce that a Hero would be destined to one day appear, and that Hero would defeat the evil one that unleashed the Great Cataclysm.

The Creation of the Dark World
As a result of Ganondorf's wish for the domination of the world, the Triforce caused the Sacred Realm to radically change. It began to whither and die as it was transformed into a twisted copy of Hyrule that represented what Hyrule would look like if Ganondorf ruled it. Dark clouds now permanently blackened the skies. As a side-effect of this transformation, the Triforce's magic was used to cast a curse over the entire realm, one that would cause any without protection from it to transform into a shape that would reflect what is in his or her heart. The Golden Land was now the Dark World, a place of darkness and evil.

Ganon was not satisfied merely with ruling the newly-transformed Dark World however, as he sought to return to Hyrule and conquer it as well. In time, evil power began to issue forth from the portal to the Golden Land, beckoning to men from the outside to seek out the Golden Power and have their wishes become reality through its magic.

The Invasion of Hyrule
As greedy men from Hyrule entered the Dark World hungry for the Golden Power, each of them was transformed into a monster reflecting the greed within them. As a result, Ganon's army of monsters grew to a large enough proportion that he was now capable of launching an invasion against Hyrule. Many plagues began to beset Hyrule as well, causing catastrophes for the people that would precede the coming storm.

Finally, with his army now ready, Ganon launched the invasion against Hyrule, intending to fulfill his wish to be the ruler of both the Dark World and the Light World. Ganon's army swarmed from the Dark World and flooded into Hyrule, causing mass chaos and attacking Hyrule Castle. Meanwhile, the Seven Sages searched for a courageous individual that could take up a weapon that had been crafted to combat magic as powerful as that of the Triforce's, a sword that could banish evil itself, the Master Sword. However, no hero worthy of the blade could be found.

The Seal of the Sages
The King of Hyrule eventually convened the council of the Seven Sages as well as the Knights of Hyrule that served to protect the Hylian royalty and commanded them to seal the gateway to the Dark World shut in order to stem Ganon's invasion of the kingdom. Both groups would play pivotal roles in the hope of reaching this goal, with the Seven Sages bearing the responsibility of creating the seal itself while the Knights of Hyrule would protect them as they did their part to halt Ganon's invasion of the kingdom.

The Knights of Hyrule took the full brunt of the attack from Ganon's monsters, and while they fought courageously to the end, they were nearly wiped out entirely as they did their duty. Their lives were not lost in vain however, as they bought the necessary time for the Seven Sages to create their seal, trapping Ganon in the Dark World and halting the invasion. With this, the war was ended in a victory for the Light World, though it had come at a very high cost. The people of Hyrule rejoiced nonetheless at the restoration of order and peace to their kingdom, thanks to the efforts of the Seven Sages and the Knights of Hyrule. Ganon and his army were trapped in the Dark World until the events of A Link to the Past.

Ganon
The individual responsible for unleashing the Great Cataclysm and the primary instigator of the Imprisoning War, Ganondorf, known as Ganon after his theft of the Triforce, was once the leader of a band of thieves that resided in Hyrule. He and his followers were skilled in the dark arts; One day, they discovered one of the gateways to the fabled Golden Land. After a deadly race to the heart of this Sacred Realm in which he slew all of his own followers, Ganondorf seized the Triforce as his own with the blood of his followers literally on his hands. His wish to become the ruler of the world caused the Golden Land's transformation into the Dark World as well as his own transformation into Ganon.

Once he laid his hands on the Triforce, he became the King of Evil. Using the Triforce's magic, he cast a spell over the Dark World that would cause any venturing into it without protection to be transformed into a shape reflecting what lies in that person's heart. He also used the Triforce to lure greedy men from Hyrule into the Dark World in order to transform them into monsters for his army. Once he had built a large enough force, Ganon proceeded to launch his assault on Hyrule with the intention of ruling both worlds with the Triforce at his command. His schemes were put to a halt however through the sacrifice of the Knights of Hyrule and the magic of the Seven Sages when a seal was placed on the gateway to the Dark World, preventing him from being able to return to the Light World.

King of Hyrule
Not much is known about the sitting King of Hyrule at the time of the Imprisoning War, apart from certain details concerning his actions during the conflict. It is said that when Ganon's army invaded from the Dark World and began attacking Hyrule Castle that the king called the Seven Sages and the Knights of Hyrule together and ordered them to seal the gateway to the Golden Land as a means to stem the invasion. Beyond that, not much is known about his reign or what other actions he took during the war, but it appears he was the chief architect of the plan to seal Ganon within the confines of the Dark World in order to restore peace to the kingdom.

In the stories of the Imprisoning War, he is referred to as the "Lord of Hyrule". As is the case with the Royal Family at the time of A Link to the Past, it is implied that he too ruled from Hyrule Castle during his reign, as Ganon's beasts were said to have targeted it during their invasion of the kingdom. As there is still a sitting king at the time of A Link to the Past, which supposedly takes place centuries after the Imprisoning War, it is thought that both the King of Hyrule in the present as well as Princess Zelda are descendants of the unnamed king that led Hyrule through the Imprisoning War.

Knights of Hyrule
The protectors of the Hylian royalty renowned for their bravery, the Knights of Hyrule were the primary military force defending Hyrule during the era of the Imprisoning War and sacrificed a great deal to preserve its freedom. Not much is known about their order or how it was formed, but their primary purpose was to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule and to defend the country. When Ganon seized the Triforce and attacked Hyrule after forming a great army of monsters, the knights were the main source of resistance to the chaos he wrought upon the kingdom. When the King of Hyrule formed the plan to seal Ganon and his army within the Dark World, they were assigned the role of protecting the Seven Sages from harm as they cast the seal on the portal to the Dark World. As a result, they took the full brunt of the beasts' attacks and subsequently perished almost to the point of complete extermination. They had however succeeded in their ultimate goal of giving the Sages the time they needed to cast the seal, so their lives were not lost in vain.

Their bloodline was not entirely destroyed, however, for one of their few remaining descendants, Link, is featured in A Link to the Past and becomes the legendary Hero spoken of in the prophecy of the Great Cataclysm that would reverse the Cataclysm's effects by taking back the Golden Power and restoring both the Golden Land and Hyrule to their former beauty.

Seven Sages
The Seven Sages, also known as the Seven Wise Men, were a group of powerful sorcerers skilled in magic that served the Royal Family of Hyrule around the time the Imprisoning War broke out. Not much is known of their history, such as their group's formation or even what their names were, but what is certain is that they were primarily responsible for ending the Imprisoning War by placing a seal on the gateway to the Golden Land, therefore locking Ganon away within the Dark World and protecting Hyrule from further harm. Before the formation of the plan to seal Ganon away, they were said to have searched for a courageous individual that could take up the Master Sword and confront the evil that was threatening Hyrule. Despite this search, the beasts of Ganon's army were wreaking havoc, and the King of Hyrule acted by convening the Sages' council, where he ordered them to place their seal on the Dark World. They succeeded in this endeavor largely because the Knights of Hyrule sacrificed their numbers to defend them while they created the seal. In the end, it was the combined efforts of the Sages and the knights that saved Hyrule.

The descendants of the Seven Sages, the Seven Maidens, appear in A Link to the Past, and have inherited their status as Sages in their own right in the present day. The town elder of Kakariko Village at the time of A Link to the Past, Sahasrahla, also claims to be descended from the Sages as well as the lost old man that gives Link the Magic Mirror on Death Mountain. During the events of A Link the Past, the dark wizard Agahnim intends to send each of the Sages' successors, the Seven Maidens, across the barrier between the worlds and destroy the seal placed on the Dark World by their ancestors.

Trivia

 * The name of the Imprisoning War seems to be a play off of the end result of the conflict, which resulted in the "imprisoning" of Ganon inside of the Dark World; Meanwhile, the alternate name for the war in Japan, the "Seal War", seems to be a reference to the seal cast by the Seven Sages that trapped Ganon in the Dark World and ended the war.
 * In the American manual for A Link to the Past, Ganondorf is given the surname "Dragmire" as well as the alias of "Mandrag Ganon" meaning "Ganon of the Enchanted Thieves".
 * The American manual for A Link to the Past makes the claim that the Hylian people were responsible for the creation of the Master Sword, while its Japanese counterpart states that the sword was ancient and had been crafted at the direction of the goddesses ; It was later revealed by Princess Zelda in Twilight Princess that the sword was crafted by the wisdom of the Ancient Sages, falling more in line with the Japanese manual's version of the sword's origins.
 * The story was heavily truncated for the manual of the Game Boy Advance version of A Link to the Past and did not include such important details as Ganon seizing the Triforce or the search for the Master Sword. These details are still provided by in-game text, however.
 * The American version of the story has the sages forget where the Triforce is hidden.
 * In regards to the games nominated to possibly be the Imprisoning War, one highly cited reason for the differences between the nominated games and the story of the Imprisoning War is that so much time has passed between the time of A Link to the Past and the Imprisoning War that the story has been altered or changed over the centuries, resulting in the differences.

Theories
The specific conflict against Ganondorf has not been canonically revealed. Few conflicts against him are plausible candidates as the Imprisoning War based on the presented facts specific to the event. Zelda Wiki.org strives to present solid sides to each aspect of the debate as neutral as possible. Each argument, however elegant has its own flaws and weaknesses more fitting for forum debate than encyclopedic documentation. In varying degrees of strength using developer quotes, in-game text, and manual quotes have suggested the Ocarina of Time, Four Swords Adventures, and Twilight Princess plots as well as the always possible Separate Event unto itself.

Ocarina of Time
After the Hero of Time defeats Ganondorf in both his humanoid form and as the Dark Beast Ganon, the Sages throw him back into the void of the former Sacred Realm and place a seal on it, trapping him within the Evil Realm and restoring peace to Hyrule.


 * Support
 * 1) The developers of the game stated before and after its release that the game was made with the story of the Imprisoning War in mind.
 * 2) The Sacred Realm seemingly has never been opened in the continuity of Ocarina of Time before Ganondorf's incursion into it, closely matching the description of this event detailed in the backstory of A Link to the Past.
 * 3) A group of Seven Sages make an appearance in this game, and they also seal Ganondorf away in what was formerly the Sacred Realm, virtually identical to how Ganondorf's imprisonment is described in A Link to the Past.
 * 4) The Triforce is stolen by Ganondorf from the Sacred Realm, causing the Sacred Realm's transformation into a world of evil.
 * 5) Ganondorf's origins are revealed in Ocarina of Time, where he is fittingly described as being the leader of a band of thieves, the Gerudo, that live in the desert of Hyrule.
 * 6) A civil war is said to have taken place not long before the events of Ocarina of Time, closely mirroring the statement made in A Link to the Past that the people quarreled and fought over the Triforce shortly before Ganondorf discovered the gateway to the Golden Land.
 * 7) The prophecy speaking of the Great Cataclysm states that a Hero will triumph on the eve of the Cataclysm and win three symbols of virtue before retrieving the Master Sword. Though this certainly applies to the Hero of A Link to the Past, it can also be interpreted to fit the Hero of Time, who won the three Spiritual Stones necessary to obtain the Master Sword on the eve of Ganondorf's theft of the Triforce before using them to acquire the Master Sword in Ocarina of Time. This has caused some to speculate that the prophecy is a recurring one that is destined to repeat itself each time the evil one that unleashed the Great Cataclysm rises, until the evil one is utterly destroyed for good and all; This is further supported by the Heroes shown in other games featuring Ganondorf, such as The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, where both Heroes obtain three objects before obtaining the Master Sword (the Pearls of the Goddesses in The Wind Waker and the three missing fragments of the Fused Shadow in Twilight Princess).


 * Discrepancies
 * 1) It is said that the King of Hyrule commanded the Seven Sages to seal the Golden Land in the legends of the Imprisoning War. Even though it is never stated in the game, he is presumed dead, and the noncanonical manga states that the King indeed died in Ocarina of Time following Ganondorf’s assault on Hyrule Castle.
 * 2) The story of the Imprisoning War states that there was no Hero found who could wield the Master Sword, yet Link obviously did discover the sword and wielded it in Ocarina of Time.
 * 3) The Seven Sages are of all different races in Ocarina of Time despite that in A Link to the Past their descendants, the Seven Maidens all appear to be humanoid.
 * 4) Ganondorf is sealed in the Sacred Realm with only one piece of the Triforce in Ocarina of Time. In the backstory for A Link to the Past, he steals all three pieces together and makes his wish on the united Triforce.
 * 5) The Knights of Hyrule are not nearly as prominent in Ocarina of Time as they are in the Imprisoning War story. Only one knight is seen in a back alley, and though his dialogue indicates he was killed by Ganon, the battle waged by the Knights to protect the Sages does not appear in Ocarina of Time.
 * 6) Ganon could not figure out how to return to the Light World after the seal was cast. Two sequels to Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both feature Ganon's return and death.

Four Swords Adventures
The end events of Four Sword Adventures depict the Four Links facing with Ganon himself, but they are able to defeat him and buy the Shrine Maidens and Princess Zelda the time needed to seal Ganon away within the Four Sword.
 * Support
 * 1) Several elements of the backstory from A Link to the Past are present in Four Swords Adventures such as the Dark World, the Knights of Hyrule, and a new origin story for Ganon, who still lives amongst the Gerudo thieves of the desert, matching part of his description in the story of the Imprisoning War.
 * 2) Dark clouds do blacken the skies as a plague to Hyrule near the start of the game, mirroring the way similar happenings were described in the backstory of the Imprisoning War, where dark clouds and plagues were also noted to have beset the kingdom upon Ganondorf's gain of power.
 * 3) As indicated by deleted text in Four Swords Adventures, the original concept for that game would have included elements which might have made it the game in which the Imprisoning War occurred. Deleted text talks of Link not being able to wield the Master Sword, and more explicit references to the Hylians.


 * Discrepancies
 * 1) The absence of such elements as the Master Sword and the Triforce in the final version of the game means that Four Swords Adventures is missing some important pieces from the story of the Imprisoning War that are identifying features of the war.
 * 2) The Shrine Maidens are all female, whereas the Seven Sages are all implied to have all been Hylian men.
 * 3) Though some incarnation of the Dark World is present in Four Swords Adventures, it is not explicitly identified as the former Sacred Realm.
 * 4) The Shrine Maidens seal Ganon within the Four Sword, not the Sacred Realm.
 * 5) No Hero was said to have been found to take up arms against Ganon in the Imprisoning War, yet the four Links are present in the game to take on both Vaati and Ganon in this story wielding not the Master Sword, but the Four Sword.

Twilight Princess
The events of Ganon being sealed in Twilight Princess are a potential candidated for the Imprisoning War. The Ancient Sages appear and relate the story of Ganondorf, the leader of a band of thieves that invaded Hyrule to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm. The Sages tried to execute him, but his possession of the Triforce of Power made this ineffective. They used the mirror to send him away into the Twilight Realm.


 * Support
 * 1) As in Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is revealed to have been the leader of a band of thieves, matching the description of him in the manual for A Link to the Past.
 * 2) Hyrule is cast into darkness near the start of Twilight Princess as an army of dark creatures swarm from another world and attack Hyrule Castle, similar to the description of the invasion spoken of in the manual for A Link to the Past.
 * 3) A war fought over the Sacred Realm and the Triforce, the Interloper War, seems to match the description of the battles over the Triforce described in the manual for A Link to the Past before Ganondorf obtained the Triforce.
 * 4) Ganondorf is sent away into a world of shadows by a group of Sages, similar to the story of his banishment in the manual for A Link to the Past.


 * Discrepancies
 * 1) The Sages are only six in number, not seven, and Ganondorf murders one of them at his execution, where they send him away into the Twilight Realm; This conflicts with the story of his banishment due to the fact that there were seven Sages that sealed Ganondorf away in the Dark World, an entirely different place from the Twilight Realm, and none of the Sages were said to have died in the process.
 * 2) No battle between the Knights of Hyrule and Ganon's monsters is depicted in Twilight Princess, whereas it was a notable part of the Imprisoning War according to the story; Rather Zant's army is the one that invades Hyrule and does so at the command of Zant, not even knowing of Ganondorf's existence.
 * 3) Ganondorf does not steal the Triforce of Power from the Sacred Realm in Twilight Princess but rather it is mysteriously granted to him when he is injured to the point of death, starkly contrasting with the story of how he got his power in the story of the Imprisoning War.
 * 4) No Hero is said to have been found to take up the Master Sword against Ganon's forces in the story of the Imprisoning War, yet Link obviously wields it in Twilight Princess, even using it to deliver Ganondorf his deathblow.
 * 5) Ganondorf is seemingly killed in Twilight Princess, another stark difference from the story of the Imprisoning War, which states that he was sealed away in the Dark World and couldn't figure out how to return to the world of light.
 * 6) Ganondorf is said to have successfully infiltrated the Sacred Realm and killed his followers immediately afterward in the story of the Imprisoning War, yet though he and his band of thieves invaded Hyrule to find the Sacred Realm before the events of Twilight Princess, they are implied to have failed in their invasion of the kingdom, which resulted in his capture and incarceration by the Sages.

Separate Event
Some also argue that the Imprisoning War has not been depicted in any game to date, and some even say it cannot be portrayed at all, as Link is not depicted in its story, nor is any Hero as the Sages were said to have been unable to find one to take up the Master Sword. Because of this, there are some in the Zelda community that feel it is an entirely separate event in itself that takes place at a time long before A Link to the Past. There are others that argue however that because so much time has passed between the Imprisoning War and A Link to the Past that it is conceivable that the story has perhaps been altered or changed over the generations so much that the surviving version of events by the time of A Link to the Past is incomplete and missing some important information or added some overstated features that have distorted it in a way that makes it more difficult to identify. Whether either of these arguments is true or false is unknown however.