Great Sea

The Great Sea is the setting in which the events of The Wind Waker take place. In Phantom Hourglass, the Great Sea only makes an appearance during the introduction and ending sequences of the game.

In-game, the Great Sea is restricted to an area of 7x7 1000-unit squares, each containing an island of its own.

Etymology
As the name suggests, the land is a huge sea whose insular scope covers up to 49 islands, although the waters' status are sometimes contradicted.

History and Mythology
Many years before The Wind Waker begins, the land of Hyrule was flooded by the Gods as a last resort to stop Ganon's forces when the Hero of Time didn't arrive to destroy them. Its surviving people fled to the mountain-tops and tried to restore their peaceful lives. Those mountain-tops became the many islands of The Great Sea. Many years passed since then, and the people have forgotten about the history of "Old" Hyrule, except as a bedtime story told to children, and in a coming of age ceremony for young boys.

Governance
The majority of the islands in the Great Sea are actually uninhabited, meaning that no one governs them; neither Outset Island nor Windfall Island are governed officially, despite their dense population. Only Dragon Roost Island (with a Rito Chieftain and the Sky Spirit Valoo), Forest Haven (with the Great Deku Tree as the Earth Spirit), and Greatfish Isle (with Jabun as the Sea Spirit) are known to have guardian deities. In addition, certain islands are owned by individual characters for private purposes.

Economy
Like in most lands in the Zelda universe, and because of the fact that the Great Sea is born from Hyrule, rupees are the means of currency, which is accepted in every inhabited island in the game. However, the economy is a bit more diverse than in the former land of Hyrule, given the different businesses run; for example, Traveling Merchants fuel trading sequences by selling their goods to travelers and also sending them to major shops and retails to give townspeople access to them. Auctions are run in Windfall Island every night, and shop ships can be seen sailing around numerous islands as well.

Technology in the Great Sea
The weaponry in the Great Sea is more advanced than it was in Hyrule before its flood. Navigating across the waters are Warships capable of shooting at enemies from far distances. It's unknown whether these boats are piloted manually or work automatically (in the latter case, it would indeed prove how much advancement is shown in matter of technology in the Great Sea). Mounted in coral reefs and high platforms are wall-placed warlike cannons that can shoot bombs to distant enemies, and they do operate on their own.

Advanced tools and devices can be found as well, such as the Tingle Tuner (which allows communication between the user and an assistant for various purposes), color-recording Picto Boxes (used to take pictographs that become important for figurine making, and pieces of ancient technology (as seen in Tower of the Gods and Wind Temple). Aside from this, it's unknown how much Hyrule had progressed in this aspect before being flooded, thus it's unknown how much was lost before the aforementioned divine intervention.

Geography
Most of the islands in the Great Sea are quite small, with little intelligent life inhabiting them. The chief island is Windfall, which houses various shops and attractions, and has the only major village, except for a small settlement on Outset, another important location. Aside from these islands, some of the more prominent ones in the Great Sea include:


 * Dragon Roost Island, home of the Rito tribe, and where the Great Sea's main messenger company is located.
 * Forest Haven, home of the Korok tribe, whose inhabitants are dedicated to travel across the Great Sea to cultivate trees in order to create new forests.
 * Forsaken Fortress, former home of a clan of pirates, and source of the evil by the moment the events of The Wind Waker take place.
 * Greatfish Isle, formerly the home of numerous people, it is tragically destroyed at a point of the game.
 * Tower of the Gods, hidden fortress said to wait for a hero to rise it from the sea's dephts.
 * Headstone Island, which houses one of the temples where a Sage prays to ensure the power of the Master Sword to work. It's directly east of Outset.
 * Gale Isle, which houses the other temple where a Sage prays for the power of the Master Sword to work. It's directly north of Windfall.

Among the remaining islands, abandoned triangle-shaped isles, sacred seashell-shaped islands, giant reefs and archipelagos adorn the vast territory of the Great Sea. Additionally, it's told by fishmen that other islands guard charts leading the location of sacred golden fragments, as well as other legendary treasures (notably in Fire Mountain, Ice Ring Isle and Mother & Child Isles).

Population
There are many people in the Great Sea, but the main group is Hyrulean. They live on Windfall and Outset Island, but they are also scattered around. The Rito live on Dragon Roost Island with the Sky Spirit Valoo, and the Koroks reside on Forest Haven with the Great Deku Tree. Gorons in this game are in the form of Traveling Merchants. No signs of the Kokiris or the Zoras remain, as they gradually evolved into the aforementioned Korok and Rito, respectively. Also, a fish creature called Jabun is in this game, looking like Jabu-Jabu and the fishmen (the latter inhabiting the waters of the Sea). Finally, there are at least one group of pirates, Tetra's Pirate Crew, but there probably was or is some more that are not seen in-game.

Trivia

 * Contrary to popular belief, the Great Sea is not the setting in which most of the events of Phantom Hourglass take place. Link, Tetra and the rest of the pirate crew are only navigating the Great Sea during the introduction and ending sequences of the game; the rest of the time is spent in a new sea with the implied name of the World of the Ocean King.
 * The Great Sea is also a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although the stage is called Pirate Ship.
 * There was a real life "Great Sea" that, like Hyrule, was once dry land that flooded with ocean waters &mdash; the Mediterranean Sea, which has also historically been called the "Great Sea". Originally a part of the ocean but now almost completely surrounded by continents, the real-life Mediterranean Sea has almost completely drained and reflooded multiple times between 5 and 6 million years ago, in episodes called the Messinian salinity crisis.  In each episode, tectonic forces would close off the Strait of Gibraltar, turning the Mediterranean Basin into a giant lake.  With no inflow from the world's oceans, the Mediterranean's evaporation offset its ability to replenish its water from rain and rivers, and the sea almost completely evaporated to its depths, leaving a vast salty crust of Messinian evaporites that still underlies much of the Mediterranean.  Much later, the sea would refill when tectonic forces broke the natural dam at Gibraltar, causing the sea to reappear rapidly.  Unlike Hyrule, the dried-out Mediterranean abyssal plain was a very hot desert with temperatures at least in excess of 35 °C (95 °F), not unlike Death Valley.  With the African Plate's northward movement, the Mediterranean will likely close again, and perhaps experience more salinity crises before the continents completely collide and the Mediterranean Basin ceases to exist.