Ordon Village

Ordon Village is Link's hometown in Twilight Princess. It is a simple village located in southern Hyrule just south of the Faron Woods whose existence largely depends upon agriculture and ranching. As such, its functioning relies very much upon the efforts of all its residents. It is here that Link's adventure to save Hyrule begins and is where he was brought up as a ranch-hand prior to the events of the game. A chance encounter with King Bulblin and his Bulblin subordinates sends the young hero on a quest that would begin with the rescue of his friends but ultimately would expand to saving all of Hyrule from one of its oldest and greatest enemies.

Twilight Princess
Twilight Princess begins in Ordon Village, with Link being tasked by Rusl with delivering the Ordon Sword to the Royal Family of Hyrule at Hyrule Castle as an offering from the village to the Hyrulean government headed by the kingdom's matriarch, Princess Zelda. The village is a small annex to Hyrule located in the Ordona Province that is located across a vast gorge from the neighboring Faron Province. Near the village is the spring of the Light Spirit known as Ordona, the deity responsible for guarding the entire Ordona Province. Link works here as a ranch-hand and serves as the protege of the village mayor, Bo, the father of Link's childhood sweetheart Ilia. The village is shown to be located in a small forested area with a large pool of water nearby with a small stream flowing through the village flowing into it and powering a waterwheel on one of the village structures. Just outside the main village is the Ordon Ranch where Link assists Fado with shepherding the Ordon Goats that are raised there. The village also has a shop that sells an array of different items and acts as the primary source of supplies for the village. Link's small treehouse is located on the opposite side of the village from the Ordon Ranch and is located on the only path leading out of the village to reach the Faron Province.

On the day Link is scheduled to depart for Hyrule Castle, his horse, Epona, is injured in a jumping exercise at the Ordon Ranch, causing Ilia to scold Link for his carelessness and take Epona to the spring of Ordona to treat the wound on her leg. Link follows her there, where the two resolve the situation after Ilia is told about Link's exploits in saving Talo, one of the village children, from enemies that kidnapped him alongside a monkey in the Faron Woods a day earlier. Ilia requests Link be cautious on his journey and shares a tender moment with him before their meeting is crashed by King Bulblin and his Bulblin warriors acting secretly on behalf of the fiend's master, Ganondorf, in conjunction with the forces of Twilight led by the evil Twili known as Zant, who is also secretly a minion of the Dark Lord. The Bulblins knock Link and the rest of the Ordon children (including Ilia) out, and they abduct Ilia and the children, leaving Link out cold in the waters of Ordona's spring. Upon coming to, the young hero ventures beyond the veil of Twilight now covering the Faron Province, where he is transformed into a divine beast by the power of the Triforce of Courage and taken prisoner in the dungeons of Hyrule Castle before learning of the kingdom's invasion by Zant. This sets into motion a quest for Link to save his friends and his village from the invading forces of Zant before expanding to include the entire land of Hyrule as well.

Link returns to the village shortly after his escape with a strange impish creature named Midna and is tasked by her with finding a sword and shield to combat Zant's forces. Link is forced to go on a stealth mission then to recover the Ordon Sword and the Ordon Shield in order to progress forward in his quest. Taking advantage of the village's presently poor security and the obliviousness of his fellow villagers to his presence, he is able to successfully retrieve the items from the homes of Bo and Rusl. He would later return to the village also to learn how Bo bested the Gorons and thus earned their respect so as to progress in his adventure on Death Mountain to reach the Goron Mines. Bo teaches Link the art of sumo-wrestling and gives him the Iron Boots at this point, an invaluable item that would prove essential in both the mines as well as underwater missions. Link is also able to visit the village at any point during his adventure, though not much beyond the aforementioned events happens there for the remainder of the game. In the end, the children and Ilia are restored to the villlage as Link rides away from it on a new adventure after returning the Master Sword to its resting place in the ruins of the Temple of Time deep in the Sacred Grove.

Link's Crossbow Training
Ordon Village appears in two stages of Link's Crossbow Training. Link will shoot targets, Ordon Pumpkins, scarecrows, balloons, and more. Both occurrences of Ordon Village are simple lined up target practicing shootouts; thereby do not include any threatening enemies-as other stages do. Ordon Village appears almost exactly as it had in Twilight Princess. The neighboring Ordon Ranch later appears in the Finale.

The first appearance in Stage 1 begins with an overview of the village. As the introductory area, the village's targets are large, obvious, and stationary. The targets show up slowly and do not disappear as quickly as in later stages. The view then zooms to the front of Mayor Bo's house. Targets again spring up slowly and the main change is that other interactive bonus targets such as the door, pots, and signs are more likely to be hit, thus introducing players to experiment with shooting various objects. After the last camera change, the level ends in a pumpkin patch between Mayor Bo's and Jaggle's home. In this final area, a lone cucco is the only thing appearing to subtract points when shot. Alternatively, the stage could end beside Jaggle's home, but facing the lake. This scenario is only unlocked by shooting the scarecrows eight times, then bursting the pumpkin-head for 1000 points in the stage.

The second appearance of the village in Stage 6 pans in a complete circle from Sera's Sundries. This stage has the targets much more active and mobile. Targets zip along clothes lines running in the background and can only be hit between gaps in the earthen pillars, homes, or trees. Many of the targets evidently prompt others to appear after being hit. The most noticeable example being the target centered on the waterwheel of Jaggle's home, which sets the wheel spinning and has new targets on its spokes.

Possible Origins of Ordon Village
It has been theorized that Ordon Village is built upon the place where formerly the Kokiri Forest, the home of the forest-dwelling Kokiri race as well as the Hero of Time himself, once resided. There are multiple pieces of evidence to suggest this that can be found throughout the area as well as the village's location. For one thing, the terrain of Ordon Village closely resembles and in some cases matches exactly the terrain of Kokiri Forest that was seen in Ocarina of Time, with features such as pools and streams running through the village matching those found in Kokiri Forest. A second point is that the treehouse that Link lives in during the events of Twilight Princess is virtually identical to the one occupied by the Hero of Time during Ocarina of Time, with even its outer features appearing identical. Considering that Link already possessed the Triforce of Courage at the beginning of Twilight Princess, it is conceivable that he possibly inherited it from the Hero of Time if they were indeed related by blood (the Hero of Time was sent back to the timeline that Twilight Princess takes place in). A third point to suggest this is the village's close proximity to the Faron Province, and its Forest Temple that many believe to be the remains of the Great Deku Tree himself, though the terrain separating the village from the temple has changed drastically over the course of a century. It is within this Forest Temple that the Kokiri symbol appears countless times throughout the dungeon on its doors, similar to the dungeon Inside the Deku Tree.

Additionally, the geographical location of Ordon Village should be considered: when comparing the maps of Hyrule at the times of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, they appear very much alike and many places can be recognized between the two. Ordon Village seems to sit in the place occupied by Kokiri Forest when the two maps are compared. It is unknown what became of the Kokiri in this branch of Hyrule's history, although fans suspect an evolution of the Kokiri.