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The Imprisoning War or Seal War was a large-scale conflict spoken of in A Link to the Past that broke out across the land of Hyrule long in its past when an evil thief named Ganondorf gained entry to the fabled Golden Land and stole the Triforce from its resting place. Ganondorf's seizure of the Triforce tainted the Golden Land, transforming it into the corrupt Dark World, and Ganondorf himself was transformed into a demonic sorcerer now named Ganon. He launched an invasion against the land of 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 courageous Knights of Hyrule, who gave their lives to the utter last to protect the mythical Seven Sages as they cast a magical seal on the Dark World, trapping Ganon and his army in the confines of the Dark World and restoring peace to Hyrule.

An Accidental Discovery
Long ago, in the beautiful land of Hyrule, legends spoke of a great power left behind by the Golden Goddesses following Hyrule's creation. Stories telling of the legendary "Golden Land", or the Sacred Realm, and the omnipotent "Golden Power" known as the Triforce that resides within it eventually spread across Hyrule over the ages, causing a lust for the Triforce's wish-granting 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 according to legend, and these tales eventually led to the spilling of blood out of lust for the Golden Power.

One day, quite by accident, a gateway to the Golden Land of the Triforce was discovered and opened by a band of thieves skilled in dark magic and their leader, an evil man named Ganondorf. They were the first to set foot in this magical place in ages. It was a place like no other, a realm of midday golden skies where the spirits could roam free. And there, shining down upon this enchanted 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 deadly 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 in a fit of lust for the Triforce's power and so that he could claim it uncontested.

The Great Cataclysm
After the murders of his followers, Ganondorf stood triumphantly 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 evil laughter echoed across time and space and reached even Hyrule itself as he made a wish that he become the ruler of the world forevermore. This event would come to be known in history as the Great Cataclysm, an event that came to symbolize the hauling of the Triforce and would have vast implications for the land of Hyrule for ages to come.

It was also out of the Great Cataclysm that one of Hyrule's greatest threats was now born as Ganondorf 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 started the Great Cataclysm, as nobody else could take back the Golden Power and save the world from the wicked reign of the evil one but the Hero of legend.

The Spoiling of the Golden Land
As a result of Ganondorf's wish for the domination of the world, the Triforce interpreted that wish by causing the Sacred Realm to radically change. The Golden Land began to whither and die as it was transformed into a twisted copy of Hyrule that seemingly was meant to represent what Hyrule would look like if Ganondorf were to rule it. Dark clouds now plagued the skies as light shined no more upon this magical realm. As a side-effect of this transformation, the Triforce's magic cast a curse over the entire realm, one that would cause any without protection from the Triforce's magic 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 that was meant to satisfy Ganondorf's wish.

Ganondorf himself also changed as a result: he transformed from his humanoid form and took on the form a demonic, boar-like creature bent upon conquest and destruction. It was then that he took on the name of Ganon, a name that would stick with him henceforth and came to symbolize his villainy 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 by Ganon's doing, 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 of Hyrule that would precede the coming storm.

Finally, with his army now ready, Ganon launched a massive invasion against the land of Hyrule, intending to make his wish come completely true to be the ruler of both the Dark World and the Light World. Ganon's army swarmed from the tainted Golden Land and flooded into Hyrule, causing mass chaos and attacking Hyrule Castle. Meanwhile, the Seven Sages, a group of powerful sorcerers skilled in magic, searched for a courageous individual that could take up a mighty weapon that had been crafted to combat magic as powerful as that of the Triforce's, a sword that could banish evil itself. This enchanted blade came to be known as the "Blade of Evil's Bane" or the Master Sword.

The Seal of the Seven 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 while they did their part to halt Ganon's massacre 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 bitter end, they were nearly wiped out entirely as they did their duty to Hyrule. 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 an extremely 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.

Ganondorf/Ganon
The individual responsible for unleashing the Great Cataclysm and the primary instigator of the Imprisoning War, Ganondorf, known as Ganon after his hauling of the Triforce, was once the humanoid leader of a band of thieves that resided in Hyrule. He and his followers were skilled in the dark arts, and 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 that had accompanied him, 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 radical transformation into the Dark World as well as his own transformation into the demonic Ganon.

As Ganon, he took on a grotesque form in the shape of a boar-like creature that thirsted only for conquest and destruction as well as power at any price. He also took to wielding a magical trident as his primary weapon of choice. 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, not too unlike himself. 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 and create the foundations for a massive invasion of the Light World, Hyrule. 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 are put to a halt however through the sacrifice of the Knights of Hyrule and the magic of the Seven Sages when a seal is placed on the gateway to the Dark World, preventing Ganon 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 swarmed 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 of Hyrule. 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 so he could bring no further harm upon Hyrule or its citizens.

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 courageous protectors of the Hylian royalty renowned for their bravery, the Knights of Hyrule were the primary military force defending Hyrule during the dark times of the Imprisoning War and sacrificed a great deal to preserve its freedom and the well-being of the Royal Family of Hyrule. 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 from threats. 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 they wrought upon the kingdom. When the King of Hyrule formed the plan to seal Ganon and his evil army within the Dark World, they were assigned the role of protecting the Seven Sages from harm as they cast their seal on the portal to the Dark World that Ganondorf had opened. 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 for nothing. As a result, the kingdom once more knew peace thanks in part to their sacrifice.

Not all of their numbers were completely decimated though, 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. This would seem to imply that not only is Link descended from the knights, but also his uncle, who taught him the basics of swordsmanship.

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 across the world. Not much is known of their individual or group history, such as their group's formation or even what their names were for certain, but what is certain is that they were the primary ones responsible for ending the Imprisoning War by placing a powerful magical seal on the gateway to the Golden Land discovered by the evil Ganon, therefore locking him away within the Dark World and protecting Hyrule from further harm at his hands. 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 Blade of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword, and confront the evil that was threatening Hyrule head-on. Despite this search, the beasts of Ganon's army were wreaking havoc across the country, 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 the Sages while they created the seal. In the end, it was the combined efforts of the Sages and the Knights of Hyrule that saved Hyrule from destruction.

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. 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 whether or not it has already been depicted in the games in one form or another. To date, no single attempt to link the Imprisoning War to events already depicted in the games has been completely successful; However, Nintendo did issue the statement that Ocarina of Time depicts the war shortly after that game's release. Despite this, 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 story of the Imprisoning War spoken of in 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.