Din (Goddess)

Din (ディン, Din) is the Goddess of Power, one of the three omnipotent Golden Goddesses who created the land of Hyrule (along with parallel realms, such as the Sacred Realm). Din's essence, as well as the essence of her sisters Nayru and Farore, is the source of the Golden Power within the sacred relic, the Triforce.

Before time began, Din, along with Nayru and Farore, descended upon the chaos that was to become the land of Hyrule, each of them creating a different facet of the realm. According to the Great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time, Din, "with her strong flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth." Upon departure, they created the Triforce, the embodiment of the goddesses' divine essence, and left it within the Sacred Realm.

Din's essence is what constitutes the Triforce of Power, which affords Ganon his limitless strength and mystical power. To a much smaller extent, Din's power can also be invoked by a powerful sorcerer. Her essence is often represented by fire as exemplified in the magic spell Din's Fire. Also, when Ganon takes on his "god" form (to do so he must use the Triforce of Power), he is manifested as an apparition of his head, constituted of flames.

Attributes
As the Goddess of Power, Din is associated with themes that exemplify power. Most often, she is associated with the elements of fire and earth, and is implied to be worshiped in the Earth Temple. She is also associated with mountains, and more specifically volcanoes such as Death Mountain.

Of the races of Hyrule, Din's essence is most exemplified by the Goron race. These volcano-dwelling, rock-consuming golems epitomize the essence of Din; in their society, they respect power, moreover, physical strength, as demonstrated in their relentless competition with one another in tests of strength. They are the most physically capable of all the races in Hyrule, boasting superhuman strength, and nigh invulnerability.

Din is associated with rhythm; she is accredited to the circadian change of seasons, and she is also associated with the art of dancing.

A Link to the Past
Although never mentioned in-game, the A Link to the Past manual describes how the three Golden Goddesses descended to the world and created life and order. Din, referred to by the manual as the "God of Power", created all of the land of the world. Despite Din being referred to as a "god" instead of a "goddess" like in later Zelda games, the A Link to the Past/Four Swords manual changed it to a more ambiguous word: "deity." As such, it can be safely assumed that the God of Power described in the manual is Din, the Goddess of Power.

Ocarina of Time
In her first in-game appearance in Ocarina of Time, Din is represented as a winged, golden figure surrounded by a reddish aura, and it is also in this game that she is first referred to as the Goddess, not God, of Power. She is first seen when the Great Deku Tree explains to Link the history of Hyrule's creation, which includes a cut-scene of Din soaring along with the other two Golden Goddesses: Nayru and Farore. She is last seen as the three goddesses depart to the heavens and leave the Triforce hidden in the Sacred Realm.

The Wind Waker
In The Wind Waker, Din, Nayru, and Farore are mentioned during the introduction of the game as well as when King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule explains the tale of the Great Flood to both Link and Tetra. The three goddesses, after hearing the pleas of the people of Hyrule who were faced by Ganon's onslaught of evil, instructed them to flee to Hyrule's mountaintops in order to escape the apocalypse they were about to unleash upon the land to halt Ganondorf's invasion. It was then that the Golden Goddesses chose to seal away the kingdom of Hyrule by bringing a "torrential downpour of rains from the heavens," leaving the land forgotten beneath the waves.

There is also a statue depicting Din's characteristics, which can be found in Northern Triangle Island. The statue of Din appears almost identical to Din, the Oracle of Seasons from Oracle of Seasons.

Twilight Princess
During the Light Spirit Lanayru's tale of the Sacred Realm, the history of how the three goddesses created the land of Hyrule is retold, albeit in a more compressed manner. Lanayru goes on to explain how word of the Sacred Realm soon spread throughout Hyrule, causing a great battle and marking the appearance of the Dark Interlopers who excelled at magic. These sorcerers tried to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm, but it was then that the goddesses, Din included, commanded the three Light Spirits to intervene and seal away the great magic the interlopers had mastered.

Din is also one of the Golden Goddesses depicted in a giant monument that appears in the throne room of Hyrule Castle. Strangely, statues possibly depicting Din (a figure holding a flame or two flames in her palms) show her with a snake around her neck, ready to strike.

"Evil" Din?
One theory that some have about Din is that she may be the "evil" Goddess. She is the creator of the Triforce of Power and some believe her to have chosen Ganon/Ganondorf to bear the Triforce of Power knowing of his wickedness. Another theory that she is "evil" points out that even after Ganon/Ganondorf shows that he is misusing the Triforce of Power she refuses to punish his wickedness. However, there is little to no evidence to support either theories. Since the Triforce is impartial to good or evil holders, and since Ganondorf probably was not evil since birth, this theory can be disproved, although some still theorize about Din being "evil" despite the evidence to the contrary. Some of the issues further disproving this theory include the following: the fact that she and her sisters flooded Hyrule specifically to stop Ganondorf's invasion of the kingdom at the time of the Great Flood spoken of in The Wind Waker, the fact that she and her sisters specifically "choose" a Hero to take on Ganondorf each time that he rises to power, and the fact that she and her sisters send the Light Spirits to stop the evildoing of the Dark Interlopers before imprisoning them within the Twilight Realm for their crimes spoken of in Twilight Princess.