Tower of Spirits

"After much carnage and loss, the spirits captured and imprisoned the Demon King in a dark realm, sealed with a tower and metal shackles across the earth."

- Spirit Tracks prologue

The Tower of Spirits is a fortress that appears as the central dungeon within Spirit Tracks. The Tower of Spirits is very similar to the Temple of the Ocean King which appeared in Phantom Hourglass in that the player must revisit it each time they complete a dungeon to proceed further and open up a new area to explore. However, unlike its predecessor, there is a staircase that allows Link to skip over previously completed floors. Each floor of the tower has puzzles required to proceed to the next.

Background

 * See also: Spirit War

The land that would become the new Hyrule was not without its troubles. A monster known as the Demon King, Malladus attacked the land in the hope of conquering for himself and bringing it to ruin. Despite their great power, the Spirits of Good were not powerful enough to defeat Malladus. In last ditch effort, the Spirits used their last remaining power to create shackles to chain the Demon King and bind him to the Earth. These chains would be known as the Spirit Tracks and their lock would be the Tower of Spirits. After the events of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass Link, Tetra, and her pirate crew would settle this land to replace the sunken Hyrule after it was given over to them by the departing Spirits of Good following Malladus's defeat.

Spirit Tracks
In the beginning of the game, Princess Zelda, who is escorted by Link and his master, Alfonzo, travel to the Tower of Spirits in order to investigate the the sudden disappearance of the Spirit Tracks. Their travels are cut short when Chancellor Cole along with his partner, Byrne, free Malladus from his prison by destroying the Tower of Spirits. In this scuffle Zelda's body is stolen when her spirit is forced out.

Zelda partners up with Link soon after as he is the only one who can see her in her current form. The two decide to return to what is left of the Tower of Spirits to find a woman said to be the guardian of the Tower. After sneaking their way into the Tower they meet Anjean, a member of the Lokomo tribe, the servants of the Spirits. Since Malladus' imprisonment, Anjean has guarded the Tower, trying her hardest to withhold Malladus from escaping. In order to repair the Tower of Spirits in hopes of stopping Malladus who needs Zelda's body in order to have a physical form. Anjean informs duo that in order to restore the fortress they must travel to the temples of the land which contain Force Gems that can restore and repair the Tower. In order to travel though they need to repair the Spirit Tracks. Anjean once again enlightens the two by explaining that inside the Tower there exists stone rail maps that can partially restore the tracks. It is at this time that Link and Zelda are introduced to Phantoms. Although normally peaceful to those that are not evil, these guards have become tainted by Malladus but with the Tear of Light within the tower, Princess manages to possess the suits of armor. After finally getting a rail map Anjean offers the usage of the Spirit Train a train that only the Spirit have only been touched by the Spirit since Link's own train had been destroyed when confronted by Cole. Link and Zelda with their new train head off in search of a temple.

On their journeys, Link and Zelda would continually return to the Tower after repairing in order to get a new rail map they would do this up until the Tower is finally intact but sadly not quickly enough to stop the Demon King's return and escape.

Byrne, being a former apprentice of Anjean and recently being betrayed by Malladus and Cole informs Link and Zelda that a hidden level exists atop the Tower that contains the Compass of Light an object created by the Spirits with the ability to track the location of Malladus. After finally finding the compass Link and Zelda use it to locate and stop Malladus once and for all.