Wind Temple

The Wind Temple is one of the two major temples and the sixth dungeon to be explored in The Wind Waker that is located within the now-sunken land of Hyrule, beneath Gale Isle. After the defeat of the Dark Beast Ganon at the hands of the Hero of Time, two new temples (the Earth Temple and the Wind Temple) were built in order to protect the Master Sword’s power to repel evil, by means of providing a place for the two new Sages to conduct their prayers to the Golden Goddesses, the prayer song for the Sage of Wind being the Wind God's Aria. When Ganondorf somehow escaped his imprisonment within the tainted Sacred Realm, he saw the Hero of Time was not present to stop him and thus sought to remove the power to repel evil from the Blade of Evil’s Bane. In turn, he ordered the great sandworm, Molgera, to invade the Wind Temple and kill the then-sitting Sage of Wind, the Kokiri known as Fado. After the death of Fado and Ganondorf’s subsequent invasion of Hyrule, the Goddesses drowned the kingdom in the Great Flood, sealing the kingdom within an enchanted air chamber and freezing it in time as the newly-created Great Sea was formed and covered the land of Hyrule that now rested on the seabed. The water did not leak into the Wind Temple, as its two entrances were safely outside the water’s reach both above the waves and down in Hyrule. It was here that Fado’s spirit lingered on, awaiting the time when a new Hero bearing the Master Sword would come with a successor Sage to destroy the evil that now haunted the temple. Many centuries later, Link, the Hero of Winds, came with Fado’s successor, the Korok known as Makar, who bore the violin previously used by Fado himself. Together, the Hero of Winds and the new Sage of Wind worked together to purge the temple of evil (defeating a Wizrobe mini-boss along the way) and destroyed Molgera, freeing Fado of his obligations and fully restoring the power to repel evil to the Master Sword.

Construction
Shortly after the Hero of Time journeyed back through time’s flow to regain his childhood after sealing away the Dark Beast Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time, it was decided that two new temples would be built to safeguard the Master Sword’s power to repel evil, so that it would always be ready to be used once again should Ganondorf ever return from his exile in the tainted Sacred Realm, where he had been sealed by the Seven Sages and the Hero of Time. One of these was the Wind Temple, a structure built to honor the element of wind as well as the Goddess of Wind (speculated to be the Goddess of Courage, Farore). The Wind Temple was built to Hyrule’s northern border, inside one of the land’s high mountains in a similar fashion to its counterpart to the south, the Earth Temple.

Deep within the heart of the temple was a sandy, cylindrical chamber that housed the shrine meant to be the place for the prayers of the Sage of Wind to be carried to the Golden Goddesses for the power to repel evil to forever remain within the enchanted blade of the Master Sword. A special, magical violin was crafted for the Sage of Wind to play his or her prayer song, that song being the Wind God’s Aria. Typically this song, along with the Earth God’s Lyric played by the Sage of Earth upon a harp constructed for he or she, was typically conducted by the sitting ruler of Hyrule, who would use a magical conductor’s baton known as the Wind Waker. As long as a sitting Sage sat in each temple, playing their prayer songs within their shrines to the Golden Goddesses, the Master Sword continued to be blessed with its evil-banishing magic, and so it was for a time following the triumph of the Hero of Time and his subsequent journey through the flows of time.

The Return of Ganon and the Great Flood
Quite some time after the Hero of Time departed for his own age, the Dark Lord Ganondorf discovered a way to break the Seal of the Seven Sages and returned to Hyrule in a red wrath. Seeing there was no Hero to oppose him (and no sign of the Hero of Time himself), Ganondorf sought to deactivate the only thing that could truly harm him, the Master Sword. He learned of the two new Sages and discovered that to achieve this goal, he simply needed to dispose of the two Sages to render the blade powerless. To this end, he ordered one of his loyal monsters, the great sandworm Molgera, to invade the Wind Temple and kill the Sage of Wind. The enormous beast did as instructed, invading the Wind Temple and attacking the sitting Sage of Wind, a small Kokiri named Fado. Molgera killed Fado and took over the latter’s shrine chamber, rendering the Master Sword powerless against the Dark Lord in conjunction with Jalhalla, a great Poe that simultaneously invaded the Earth Temple and killed the Earth Sage as well.

After ensuring that the Master Sword could no longer pose a threat to him, Ganondorf assumed his bestial form of the Dark Beast Ganon and enacted an invasion of the kingdom to conquer it once more, leaving a trail of death and ruin in his wake. The people prayed for the Hero of Time to come once again to save them, but he did not appear (the Hero of Time having been sent back to the other branch of Hyrule’s history and thus unable to answer, along with his descendants, the cries of Hyrule’s people in the future age). With no Hero to take up the Master Sword against the fiend, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule and his people prayed to the Golden Goddesses for deliverance from evil, and their prayers were finally answered. The goddesses instructed the people to take refuge on Hyrule’s mountaintops before bringing down a torrential downpour from the heavens that soon buried the fair land of Hyrule and all still in it beneath a vast new ocean, the Great Sea. They also encased Hyrule within an enchanted air chamber that prevented the water from flowing in and destroying the land in addition to freezing it in time, along with Ganondorf and his army. The Wind Temple (as well as the Earth Temple) remained intact as its two entrances located on top of the mountain (now above the waves) and down in Hyrule were safely out of the water’s reach. Here Fado’s spirit lingered on, awaiting the time when a new Hero would come with a successor Sage of Wind to destroy the evil now inhabiting the Wind Temple and restore the Master Sword to its former glory.

The Coming of the Hero of Winds
Many centuries later, Ganondorf found a way around the seal of the goddesses and was able to free himself and part of his army, and, using his now-limited magic, was able to create a portal that took he and his army to the land now above the water. He took over the foreboding isle known as the Forsaken Fortress and sent his army along with his pet, the Helmaroc King out to search the entire Great Sea for the descendant of Princess Zelda, who would be the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. These events eventually swept a new Hero, Link, up into them when the Helmaroc King mistook his sister, Aryll, for a pirate captain named Tetra (who was the new Princess Zelda in disguise) and brought her to the Forsaken Fortress to be inspected by Ganondorf himself. Link eventually met the King of Red Lions (the alter ego of King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule) and learned that he would need a great, ancient power to defeat Ganondorf and save Aryll. Link went through many trials and was deemed a worthy Hero by the Golden Goddesses, who opened the portal to the ancient land of Hyrule at the bottom of the sea and allowed Link to take up the Master Sword, hidden in the remains of Hyrule Castle, which caused the land to unfreeze and time to resume its normal pace once again within the ancient kingdom. Link took the Master Sword and returned above the water, traveling to the Forsaken Fortress to face Ganondorf. However, when he attempted to strike Ganondorf with the blade, he found it had no effect whatsoever upon him, and it was revealed by Ganondorf himself that by removing the blade from its pedestal, Link had broken the seal on Ganondorf’s powers as well. Link was rescued, along with Tetra, and was returned to the castle at the bottom of the sea, where the pair met King Daphnes Nohnasen Hyrule’s spirit and learned that Tetra was indeed Princess Zelda. The King then stated that he suspected that the Master Sword has lost its power because something had happened to the Sages of the Master Sword that were supposed to be somewhere in Hyrule, praying to the goddesses. He then instructed Zelda to hide in the castle while he and Link went to investigate what became of the Sages.

After discovering the fate of the Sage of Earth and installing a new one in her place, Link restored part of the Master Sword’s power. However, he learned of the Wind Temple and traveled there next to see what had become of the Sage of Wind. There, he conducted the Wind God’s Aria using the Wind Waker (given to him by the King of Red Lions), causing Fado’s spirit to appear before him. The small Kokiri introduced himself and explained that Ganondorf had laid siege to the Wind Temple and caused his death at the hands of a terrible beast. Showing Link what his violin looked like, he instructed the young Hero to seek out the one that now carried it and to conduct the Wind God’s Aria for that person, which would in turn awaken them to the knowledge that they were to be the next Sage of Wind. Link recognized the violin as being the one held by the Korok known as Makar and returned to the Forest Haven to find him. Finding the small Korok hiding behind a waterfall practicing with the violin, Link conducted the Wind God’s Aria for him using the Wind Waker, to which Makar then played along while remarking that the song seemed somehow familiar to him, as though it was something he had forgotten that was now attempting to be remembered. As Makar played, Fado’s spirit also appeared and played as well before disappearing into Makar’s body. Link then took the now-awakened Makar to the Wind Temple, where they worked together to solve the temple’s mysteries. Makar was abducted by Floormasters within the temple but was eventually rescued by Link when he discovered the Hookshot after defeating a Wizrobe within the temple’s depths and used it (alongside his Iron Boots) to free Makar from his cell. The pair then continued on through the vast chambers of the temple until they finally discovered the deepest chamber, the chamber of the Sage shrine. Link entered the chamber and confronted Molgera, using the Hookshot and the Master Sword to damage the great sandworm’s weak spot, its tongue. After dealing Molgera its deathblow, Makar entered the shrine and played the Wind God’s Aria while Link conducted with the Wind Waker, causing Fado’s spirit to reappear one final time and play along with them. This action restored the Master Sword to its full power and finally freed Fado of his obligations, allowing him to finally rest in peace. Makar remained within the temple shrine and sent Link back above ground, now armed with a fully-repowered Master Sword, to confront Ganondorf.

Destruction
After Link succeeded in conquering the trials of Ganon’s Tower, he faced Ganondorf himself atop the roof of the tower, where the Dark Lord reformed the united Triforce and attempted to wish for the Great Sea to be drained and for Hyrule to be given over to him. However, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule appeared and touched the golden relic before Ganondorf could, and the King wished instead for Hyrule to be washed away, that Link and Zelda be given a future, and for Ganondorf to drown with Hyrule. With this, the magical air chamber covering Hyrule began to collapse, allowing the Great Sea to pour into Hyrule. There, in Hyrule’s final moments, Link dueled Ganondorf alongside Princess Zelda in one final battle, eventually plunging the Master Sword into Ganondorf’s forehead and turning him to stone. After speaking to the King one final time, the water overtook the entire kingdom, and Link and Zelda floated to the surface under the Triforce’s protection, leaving the King to drown with his doomed kingdom and Ganondorf. It is presumed that as with everything else within Hyrule at the time, the Wind Temple was destroyed by the water, along with Hyrule Castle and the Earth Temple. The Sages escaped the destruction however with the aid of Tetra’s pirates, and they greeted Link and Zelda on the surface of the sea.

Dungeon
The Wind Temple appears to be a forest-themed dungeon in addition to its wind-related theme. Makar, the Sage of Wind, is himself a forest-dwelling creature (as was his predecessor, Fado), and his planting of small trees throughout the temple only adds to the forest-related atmosphere of the temple. The dungeon is filled with various traps (Spike Traps amongst them) and wind-related puzzles. The dungeon's primary chamber is a long, cylindrical shaft several stories tall that extends deep down into the temple's depths and has small sections that branch off the main shaft, at the bottom of which is a large propelling fan that periodically turns on and off after being reactivated. This is not too much unlike the Water Temple of Ocarina of Time in its makeup, as that temple also had a large central shaft-like cavern with the other areas of the temple branching off of it. Link makes very good use of several tools within this temple, primarily the Hookshot, the Iron Boots, and the Deku Leaf. The Command Melody is also heavily used in this dungeon to take control of Makar, who can reach some locations that Link himself would otherwise find difficult to reach. Within the dungeon, Link must face a Wizrobe as a mini-boss in order to claim the dungeon's treasure, the Hookshot. Meanwhile, in the deepest recesses of the temple's depths, Link must face the great sandworm Molgera as the temple's boss, a battle which requires extensive use of the Hookshot in order to exploit Molgera's vulnerable tongue.

Enemies
Armos Knights Floormasters Keese Peahats Spike Traps Stalfos Wizrobes

Trivia

 * It is hinted by both Tingle and Makar that this Temple is dedicated to the Goddess of Wind, who is speculated to be Farore.
 * While not located in the Forest Haven, the Wind Temple has prevailing forest themes (it's sage is a forest character.) The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time was originally intended to be the Wind Temple before it was changed. This is likely the reason the Wind Temple is associated with the forest.
 * The music in the temple has a resemblance to that of Faron Woods.
 * In Phantom Hourglass, a similarly-named dungeon called the Temple of Wind makes an appearance. This also happened to the Fire Temple with the Temple of Fire.  The Temples of Power in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were alternatively referred to as "Temple of X" (and therefore the Wind Waker ones may be), causing confusion in names.
 * The Earth and Wind Temples cover the elements not already represented by the temples in Ocarina of Time, though they are more analogous to "shadow-" and "spirit-themed" levels in comparison.