Four Sword

The Four Sword is a legendary magical blade that has appeared in four games of The Legend of Zelda series (A Link to the Past, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap). Its blade sparkles with magical power, and it has a hilt of gold, usually with a jewel that varies in color. As its name implies, when wielded by one of pure heart, it has the power to split its holder into four near-identical copies of themselves. Not only this, but like its spiritual counterpart in the series, the Master Sword, it possesses the power to repel evil, meaning that like the Master Sword, it cannot be touched by those of impure heart. Like its counterpart, the only person shown to have wielded it in gameplay is the hero of Hyrule, Link. Typically when it is in use by Link, it will split him into four copies of himself with differing colored tunics: green, red, blue and purple. It has often been used to seal evil entities away such as Vaati and later Ganon.

History
Unlike the Master Sword, the Four Sword was not originally of the world of Hyrule, nor did it originally go by that name. As revealed in The Minish Cap, the Four Sword began as a creation of a race of tiny, thumb-sized beings known as the Minish (known as the "Picori" by Hylians) and was known as the Picori Blade. Long in Hyrule's past, a war broke out across the land when an army of dark creatures descended upon it and wreaked havoc. Just as all seemed lost, a young man known as the Hero of Men rose up to defend Hyrule, and the tiny Minish descended from the sky bringing him a sword, the Picori Blade, and a golden light, the Light Force. Using these two gifts, the hero drove back the creatures and locked them all away within the Bound Chest, sealing it with the sword itself. Following these events, the Picori Blade was carefully enshrined by the people of Hyrule while the Light Force was magically sealed inside Hyrule's princess. For many years afterward, the blade that would one day become the Four Sword was kept in the care of the Royal Family of Hyrule and brought out of Hyrule Castle once a year for the annual Picori Festival held to honor the service the Minish rendered during the war against evil.

Appearances
The Four Sword has made appearances in each of the three games that make up the so-called "Four Swords Trilogy", each time serving as a kind of stand-in for the more well-known Master Sword.

Four Swords
In its first appearance, the Four Sword appears as a sacred blade enshrined in the Four Sword Sanctuary that seals away a great evil, the Wind Sorcerer Vaati. According to legend, when Vaati rose to power some time in the past, he carried off many beautiful maidens to his palace and terrorized the people of Hyrule until a heroic young man wielding a sword appeared. The hero was able to defeat Vaati, seal him within the blade of the sword, and rescue the maidens. Nobody seemed to know how this young man succeeded where countless others had failed, but the maidens spoke of how his sword caused him to split into four copies of himself and how the four who were one worked together to subdue the Wind Sorcerer. Following these events, the blade was left enshrined deep within the forests of Hyrule, in the Four Sword Sanctuary where it served as Vaati's prison.

Four Swords begins many years after these events with Princess Zelda going with her childhood friend, Link, for a stroll through the Four Sword Sanctuary to check the seal on Vaati, which the princess senses is weakening. Sure enough, a dark figure descends upon the scene and captures the princess. Vaati reveals that the seal of the Four Sword is broken and that he will rage once again, but not before carrying Princess Zelda off to his palace above the clouds and making her his bride. The Wind Mage knocks Link out and carries the princess away, and shortly thereafter three fairies descend upon the scene as Link comes to, revealing to him what has become of the princess and explaining the power of the Four Sword to him. Seeing that he will have need of its power, Link draws the blade from its pedestal and sure enough is shattered into four colorful copies of himself. The four Links then use the Four Sword, now also shattered into four versions of itself (each having a different colored jewel to match the Link that wields it), to work their way across Hyrule to acquire the keys necessary to open the way to Vaati's Palace. The heroes, after much toil, succeed in this endeavor and reach the palace, where they battle Vaati and, with the sword's power, succeed in defeating him, resealing him within its blade. They free Princess Zelda from her captivity and return the blade to its resting place in the Four Sword Sanctuary, once again holding Vaati at bay once again.

A Link to the Past
If the player completes both games on the A Link to the Past/Four Swords Game Boy Advance cartridge, then the secret dungeon, Palace of the Four Sword, is made available. Here, Link must defeat more challenging versions of the bosses from A Link to the Past and recover shards of the Four Sword. Once all four shards are collected, Link must fight four Dark Links. After defeating them, the shards unite and become the Four Sword.

Four Swords Adventures
In its second appearance, the Four Sword is shown to still rest in the Four Sword Sanctuary some time after the events of Four Swords. The sword still seals away the Wind Sorcerer Vaati after he was re-sealed within it by Link and Princess Zelda. With the passing of time, the people have come to feel a sense of peace and security, or so they thought. As of late however, dark storm clouds have blackened the skies of Hyrule that fill all who see them with fear and dread. This has caused some to fear that the seal of the Four Sword binding Vaati may once again be weakening. The specter of Vaati's return causes such disturbance that Princess Zelda sees fit to convene a meeting of the six other Shrine Maidens that guard the different regions of Hyrule and have the power to open the way to the Four Sword's resting place. Intending to inspect the sword's seal herself, Zelda decides to take Link along with her for extra security while she checks to see if Vaati's return is really imminent.

Upon opening the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary, the entire party of the Shrine Maidens, Zelda and Link are surprised by the emergence of Shadow Link, who kidnaps the Shrine Maidens and Zelda before luring Link through the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary. Seeing he has no weapon to duel his dark doppelganger, Link draws the Four Sword from its pedestal, causing himself to split apart in the same manner the sword had worked previously, causing him to split into four different colored versions of himself. Shadow Link laughs and makes a quick exit as Vaati escapes his prison once again and sends the four Links far away with a whirlwind. Upon awakening, the four meet Kaepora Gaebora, who tells them that they must master the power of the Four Sword in order to defeat Vaati and rescue Zelda and the Shrine Maidens. To do this, they must gather a total of 2,000 Force Gems in each area they visit to fully power up the Four Sword and give it the Power to Repel Evil. In this manner, the four heroes work their way across Hyrule and gradually rescue all of the maidens with the power of the Four Sword. They eventually reach the Palace of Winds and confront Vaati, ultimately destroying him for good using the blade's power. However, it turns out that the true evil behind Vaati's release and the evil plaguing Hyrule is Ganon, who has stolen a Trident possessing the great magic of an evil spirit. Confronting Ganon alongside Princess Zelda, the four heroes succeed in subduing him while the Shrine Maidens magically seal him within the blade of the Four Sword. The sword is returned to the Four Sword Sanctuary soon after, now serving as the prison of Ganon.

The Minish Cap
The origins of the Four Sword are revealed in The Minish Cap, where it is revealed to have once been known as the Picori Blade and was used by the Hero of Men to lock away the beasts that plagued Hyrule during the War of the Bound Chest. By the start of the game, many long years have passed since the war, and the annual Picori Festival is being put on while marking the hundredth year since the Minish last came to Hyrule (as the Minish Door opens only once a century). The festival's sword-fighting tournament winner gains the honor of approaching the Bound Chest and touching the Picori Blade itself. The winner this year is a new face in Hyrule, a dark stranger named Vaati. However, the stranger reveals he is a powerful sorcerer and uses his dark magic to blast open the Bound Chest thinking the Light Force is inside, shattering the Picori Blade in the process. When the evil sorcerer turns Princess Zelda to stone, Hyrule's King Daltus sends Link (and consequently his companion, Ezlo) on a quest to restore the Picori Blade and use its power to break Vaati's curse on Princess Zelda.

To this end, Link has the blade's fragments re-forged into the White Sword by the master Minish smithy Melari and learns from the Minish that he needs the mystical Four Elements in order to transform it into a new sacred sword. The Four Elements are the crystalline jewels infused with the powers of the four major elements of the world: earth, air, fire and water. They are scattered all across Hyrule in different locations, and Link must take them to the Elemental Sanctuary located in Hyrule Castle's courtyard in order to infuse each into the blade of the re-forged sword. Meanwhile, Vaati, still searching for the Light Force, learns that it rests in a sealed chamber within the Elemental Sanctuary, and that the sacred blade is necessary to gain access to it. The villain decides to wait for Link to restore the sacred blade and use him to gain entry to this chamber. This plan succeeds when Link successfully retrieves the final element, the Wind Element, from the Palace of Winds and brings it to the Elemental Sanctuary, where infusing its power into the blade alongside the others fully regenerates the blade and transforms it into the Four Sword. This opens the chamber revealing the location of the Light Force, which turns out to be embodied within the body of Princess Zelda. Vaati learns this and takes Zelda to the roof of the now Dark Hyrule Castle to perform the ceremony necessary to extract the Light Force from her. Link arrives in time to stop the ceremony and is forced to confront Vaati in several deadly forms (ending with him finally transforming into his Wind Mage form). By creating four copies of himself, Link finally manages to defeat him.

Design
The Four Sword is a double-edged blade with a spear-point at its tip and a fuller hilt, which has usually been depicted as being gold in color. The hilt is engraved with an eye-like symbol, likely a reference to its history with Vaati the Wind Mage. On the pommel of the sword's hilt near the top, the sword is typically depicted as having a round jewel whose color usually reflects its wielder. For example, the part of the Four Sword wielded by the green Link will have a green jewel whereas the red Link's sword will have a red jewel. In Link's case, the sword will have a green, red, blue and purple jewel in each of its clones for each copy of Link. When the sword is not in use however, it appears that the jewel has a dull greenish color likely to reflect its dormancy.

The sword is shown to not have always been of this design however. For instance, when it was known as the Picori Blade, it more closely resembled the Master Sword with its purplish-colored hilt. After it is shattered by Vaati and re-forged into the White Sword by Melari however, it begins to more resemble the shape of the sword it would become, albeit with a green-colored hilt. It was not until the power of the Four Elements were infused into the sword that it finally transformed into its present incarnation, with its hilt changing first from red to blue and finally to the gold color that is seen in the chronologically later games. The Four Elements, which would chronologically later become known as the four "Royal Jewels", also typically are kept near the Four Sword's resting place on special pedestals near the blade's holder.

Powers and Abilities
Like the Master Sword, the Four Sword is blessed with many magical capabilities that have been infused into its enchanted blade. Some of these capabilities have been present in each game the sword is featured in while others have been specific to a particular game. In total, there have been three major abilities the sword has shown itself capable of performing, though as stated earlier not all of these have appeared in every game the sword is featured in. Also, some of these abilities that are shown in more than one game are shown to slightly differ from game to game. Overall, the sword has shown itself capable of repelling and sealing evil entities away, create three separate clones of the blade's wielder, and also break powerful curses.

When the sword is drawn from its holder, it will cause its wielder to split apart into four separate versions of themselves, each nearly identical to the original. The sole differences between the different clones is the tones of their voices (some are deeper than others) and the color of their clothing (in Link's case, his different clones along with himself are colored the four aforementioned colors). The non-canonical manga has depicted the sword as causing the different colored clones to represent different sides of one's psyche as well. The four can work together as a team or they can work independently should the need arise as well.

When the four Links choose to fight in formation, they can do so in four different ways: horizontal line, vertical line, box and diamond. The horizontal line is just as it implies, with the four Links lining up in a vertical line and attacking in unison. The same principle applies for the vertical line with the exception of the four Links standing vertically instead. The box formation has the four Links stand together in a square shape and attack as though in a box. Finally, the diamond formation has the four Links assemble themselves in a diamond shape and attack from all sides simultaneously.

The sword's ability to create clones has varied from game to game. For instance, while in Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures the sword keeps the clones around indefinitely and in varying colors, this principle is different in The Minish Cap, where Link must power up the sword and stand on special tiles to create the clones, who all look alike and only manifest themselves for a limited time before vanishing. The reason for this difference is not made clear, though it's likely just an aesthetic change for gameplay's sake. In this same game, the sword also shows the ability to, when charged up, cast a magical beam of energy that can break curses, such as the curse Vaati placed upon Princess Zelda.

When Link's health is full in most games featuring the sword, the sword will emit an energy beam. However, in Four Swords Adventures, the sword's power is based upon Force Gems, 2000 of which Link must recover in each area in order to restore the power to repel evil to the sword's blade. Only when this is accomplished can Link destroy the barriers in each area made with Vaati's magic and proceed to the next area. If not enough Force Gems have been found by the end of the area, the sword will take Link back in time to redo the level and find enough of them. In Four Swords, the sword will not emit an energy beam until Link has acquired the Master Sword in A Link to the Past.

Other Media
The Four Sword has featured in other media outside the games, namely in the manga published by Vizikids that supplements the games.

Four Swords Manga
In the Four Swords Manga, the Four Sword functions much the same way as it did in the game, where it splits Link into the four colored copies of himself as Hyrule is faced with multiple threats. The manga combines elements of Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, with Link facing not only the threat of Vaati, but also Shadow Link and ultimately Ganon himself. The four Links battle their foes all across Hyrule and eventually reach the heavens atop the Tower of Winds, where they battle Vaati with the power of the Four Sword and with the unlikely help of Shadow Link, who has turned against the side of evil. Shadow Link smashes the Dark Mirror to help the four Links destroy Vaati, even knowing that this will kill him as well. Following this, Ganon reveals himself and battles the four Links himself. Using the blade, they succeed in subduing Ganon and return the Four Sword to the Four Sword Sanctuary in order to merge into one again before walking away hand-in-hand with Princess Zelda.

The Minish Cap Manga
Unlike the game, the Four Sword is not originally called the Picori Blade, but rather the “Holy Sword” in the The Minish Cap Manga. It still functions largely in the same manner it did in the game however, with Link seeking to re-forge it into a new sacred blade. The Holy Sword eventually becomes the Four Sword, fulfilling the same role the Picori Blade did within the game. Unlike the game, Vaati eventually sees the error of his ways in the end however, accompanying Ezlo back to the Minish World in the end after apologizing to all whom he has wronged.