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.

Theories
The Imprisoning War has been a source of much debate in the Legend of Zelda community since it was first introduced with the release of A Link to the Past, and there have been numerous attempts to decipher where exactly it fits in the timeline of the series or even if it has already been depicted in a game. However, Nintendo did issue the statement that Ocarina of Time depicts the war shortly after that game's release. Despite this seeming confirmation, there have been numerous problems that have made it difficult to fit not only Ocarina of Time but other existing possibilities as well into the aforementioned story of the Imprisoning War spoken of in A Link to the Past.

Ocarina of Time
Perhaps the one game possessing the most evidence to support its candidacy for the Imprisoning War, Ocarina of Time was released in 1998 and tells the story of the Hero of Time and his long journey not only across Hyrule but through time itself to save the land from Ganondorf, a thief from the desert intent upon harnessing the Triforce's power and ruling the kingdom. After acquiring a special stone from his father-figure, the Great Deku Tree, and meeting Hyrule's Princess Zelda, the young Hero, Link journeys to find the other two stones and open the gateway to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce is kept. Though he succeeds in this effort, Ganondorf attacks the kingdom, resulting in Link acquiring the Ocarina of Time as well, another of the keys to the Sacred Realm. Using these keys, the young Hero opens the Door of Time within the Temple of Time and claims the Blade of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword, from its holding place within the Pedestal of Time. This action fully opens the portal to the Sacred Realm, but also causes Link to be sealed away for seven years until he would be old enough to claim the mantle of the Hero of Time. Meanwhile, Ganondorf uses this opportunity to enter the Sacred Realm and haul the Triforce, resulting in the relic's split into its three component pieces and the Sacred Realm's transformation into a world of evil.

Ganondorf then returns to Hyrule and becomes its tyrannical ruler for seven dark years, until the Hero of Time returns to confront him. To defeat Ganondorf, the Hero of Time journeys around Hyrule rescuing the Seven Sages that have the power to seal Ganondorf away in the void of what was formerly the Sacred Realm. After rescuing all of the Sages, Link reunites with Princess Zelda, the seventh Sage, and learns that she and he both hold one of each of the two pieces of the Triforce Ganondorf had failed to acquire. This however results in Zelda's capture by Ganondorf, who uses her as bait to lure the Hero of Time to his castle. There, the Hero of Time battles the King of Evil for the fate of Hyrule and the balance of the Triforce, ultimately triumphing over the evil Gerudo. Ganondorf then uses his piece of the Triforce to transform into Ganon, a dark beast of terrible strength. The Hero of Time once again triumphs over him however, and the Seven Sages use their powers to seal Ganondorf away within the void of the Evil Realm, upon which he promises to return one day to exterminate the descendants of those who imprisoned him. As a reward for his efforts, Zelda sends the Hero of Time back to his own time to regain his lost seven years, resulting in a split universe of Hyrule's history.


 * Support
 * 1) The single strongest piece of evidence for this game's candidacy of being the Imprisoning War is the aforementioned statement released by Nintendo shortly after the game's release, stating that the game was made with 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 do indeed 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 indeed hauled by Ganondorf from its hiding place in the Sacred Realm, causing the Sacred Realm's transformation into a world of evil, once again virtually identical to the way this event is described in A Link to the Past.
 * 5) Ganondorf's origins are seemingly 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, another match to what is said in A Link to the Past.
 * 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.


 * 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. He is however thought to have survived in the other timeline.
 * 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 original 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 direct sequels to Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both feature Ganon's return.

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. A common answer to these discrepancies is to answer that the Imprisoning War is a myth, a combination of the stories of Ocarina of Time (The Triforce and seal) and Four Swords Adventures (The Knights, the Dark World, human sages). Supporters of this theory point to the Palace of the Four Sword included in the GBA version of A Link to the Past which could indicate that the Four Sword was sealed in the Dark World sometime following the events of Four Swords Adventures.

Four Swords Adventures Plot
Ganondorf was once a member of the nomadic Gerudo tribe who was ostracized from his people when he sought out the Pyramid in the Desert of Doubt. In the Pyramid, he found the ancient artifact the Trident of Power and became Ganon, the King of Darkness. With his newfound power, Ganon killed the Knights of Hyrule and trapped their corpses in the Dark World while making it seem that Vaati was the mastermind behind the calamities. He also stole the Dark Mirror and created Shadow Link with its evil power. After the four Links vanquished Vaati, Ganon finally revealed himself, when Zelda recognized him as the "ancient demon reborn." This may indicate that the Ganon of Four Swords Adventures is actually Ganon's second incarnation (Ocarina of Time being the first). He engaged the four Links in battle until he was stunned by Zelda's ball of light magic and the Seven Maidens sealed him inside the Four Sword. It is unknown how Ganon obtained the Triforce or broke out of his prison in the Four Sword in time for A Link to the Past to happen. He likely stole the Triforce when he reopened the Sacred Realm (The Dark World's presence in the game means that he has been there before) and broke out of his prison sometime before A Link to the Past, if the blade's shards in the Palace of the Four Sword are any indication.

Twilight Princess
The events of the Twilight Princess backstory bear at least a superficial similarity to the events of the Imprisoning War. Ganon invades Hyrule, but is captured and sealed in the Twilight Realm by seven sages. Upon further inspection, however, it is evident that these similarities are merely superficial. Although Ganon sought the Triforce, he did not take it by force as in the story, but had it mysteriously granted to him (and only in part). Likewise, neither the Knights of Hyrule nor the Sacred Realm are involved in the plot, as the Twilight Realm is explicitly not the Dark World. The similarities between the plot of Twilight Princess and the Imprisoning War could simply be developer homage or reused memes. Some, however, believe that the Interloper War was one of the wars fought over the Triforce prior to Ganon discovering it.

Twilight Princess Plot
Ganondorf launched an invasion against Hyrule. His army swarmed from the tainted Golden Land into Hyrule and attacked the castle. but this time, the attack was repelled by the Knights of Hyrule and the Seven Sages, commanded by the king (probably because Link warned them). The Knights fought and eventually perished during the invasion, and so Ganondorf was blind to any danger, and thus was exposed, this allowed enough time for the Seven Sages to successfully seal Ganon within the Twilight Realm and peace was found on Hyrule. It is not confirmed how Ganondorf received the Triforce, but he exhibits it during his execution and sealing scene. The mere fact that Ganon had a piece of it baffles the Sages, and they call it a "divine prank."

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.

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.