Imprisoning War

The story was first introduced in A Link to the Past's instruction manual.

The Imprisoning War (Seal War in Japan) started after Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm and laid claim to the Triforce, becoming Ganon. This transformed the Sacred Realm into the Dark World, from which he launched an invasion against Hyrule, which was repelled by the Knights of Hyrule and the Seven Sages. The Knights fought and eventually perished during the invasion, but allowed enough time for the Seven Sages to successfully seal Ganon within the Dark World.

Although The Imprisoning War was first mentioned in A Link to the Past and was covered in detail in the manual, the American translation differed in several key places from the original Japanese. This made it inconsistent with the story told in other parts of the series. (See below for comparisons in translation of the manual.)

Ocarina of Time
Many believe the events of Ocarina of Time chronicle the Imprisoning War spoken of in A Link to the Past. The main events of the Imprisoning War do seem to occur within Ocarina of Time, such as the opening of the Sacred Realm, the scattering of the Triforce, the Sacred Realm’s transformation into the Dark World, Ganondorf’s imprisonment within the Dark World, and the involvement of the Seven Sages. However, there are several continuity errors that come into question between the games. Some of these errors appear below:


 * The King’s commanding of the Seven Sages in the legends of the Imprisoning War even though he was presumed dead in Ocarina of Time following Ganondorf’s assault on Hyrule Castle.
 * The seven sages being of all different races of Hyrule even though in A Link to the Past their descendants, the seven maidens appear to be humanoid.
 * The story telling that there was no hero found who could wield the Master Sword, yet Link was obviously in Ocarina of Time.

While there are several other questionable events, these three prominently stand out since they were present within A Link to the Past, the first game to give an overview of the Imprisoning War and mention the war at all. The exact reasons for these supposed errors are of course not known for sure, leaving many gamers to merely speculate on the differences between the games. Possible theories explaining the continuity errors appear below.

It is not known for sure whether or not the King of Hyrule is killed in Ocarina of Time, although this is heavily implied by his absence following Ganondorf’s siege of Hyrule Castle. Some speculate that the Hyrulean Civil War was fought over the Triforce, as has been implied by A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess. If this was the case, then the King of Hyrule may well have commanded the essences of the Sages (the ethereal Sages of Twilight Princess that may be the possible source of the Seven Sages' powers in Ocarina of Time) to seal the Sacred Realm shut if some evil entity should gain entry into it and cause evil power to start flowing from it shortly after the conclusion of the Hyrulean Civil War (seeing as it caused the previous war). This would be in keeping with the King’s command spoken of in A Link to the Past since gamers are not told explicitly that the King commanded the Sages to seal the Realm at the particular moment of Ganondorf’s invasion of the Sacred Realm.

The Seven Maidens of A Link to the Past are supposedly the descendants of the Seven Sages of Ocarina of Time, and yet while the Seven Sages are of differing races, the Maidens all appear to be human. This could possibly be due to the fact that A Link to the Past occurs many centuries (if not millennia) after Ocarina of Time. As such, the races of Hyrule have been known to integrate and evolve over time. One such example would be Telma, who appears to be of Gerudo descent in the absence of the Gerudo race in Twilight Princess, which occurs roughly a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. This would seem to indicate that the Gerudo (who were humanoid) integrated into the Hylian race at some point in that hundred years. Another such example would be the Rito of The Wind Waker. They are heavily implied to have descended respectively from the Zoras due to the ancestor of Medli being Laruto (a Zora). This would seem to indicate that the Zoras evolved at some point following the Great Flood into the Rito. With such drastic evolutions occurring in that timeline, it makes it plausible that the different races of Hyrule could have evolved into humanoid figures as well, or possibly integrated into Hylian society like the Gerudo. Four of the Seven Sages (Rauru, Impa, Nabooru, and Princess Zelda) were all humanoid, making it very easy for their races to integrate into the Hylian race over time. The others, as stated before, could have either evolved or also merged into the Hylian race over time as well. These explanations could account for the descendants of the Seven Sages being the Seven Maidens, who all appear human.

Although it could be said also that since A Link to the Past was only the third game in the series there was hardly any way that the person who wrote the story for the Seal War could have known what was to come in the future of the Zelda series. It can also be said that A Link to the Past happens so long after the events of the Seal War that the story has been changed over the years in Hyrule in ways that would make it harder to connect Ocarina of Time to it.

Four Swords Adventures
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 Hylia. 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. However, the absence of such elements as the Master Sword and the Triforce in the final version of the game likely means that Four Swords Adventures does not cover the entire story of the Imprisoning War.

As a Separate Event
A common explanation for the discrepancies between the Imprisoning War story and Ocarina of Time and Four Swords Adventures is that neither game is the true story, and that because the backstory does not include Link, it cannot be adequately told in any game. Thus, these theorists place it as an event separate from any particular game, sometime before A Link to the Past.