Great Cataclysm

"I am Aginah. I sense something is happening in the Golden Land the Seven Wise Men sealed... This must be an omen of the Great Cataclysm foretold by the people of Hylian blood..."

- Aginah

"The Hero's triumph on Cataclysm's Eve wins three symbols of virtue. The Master Sword he retrieves, keeping the Knight's line true."

- Pedestal of the Master Sword

= On Cataclysm's Eve = The Great Cataclysm is the name given to an event that occurred in Hyrule's history that involved Ganon's entry into the Sacred Realm and his theft of the Triforce. The inscription on the pedestal of the Master Sword reads: "The Hero's triumph on Cataclysm's Eve wins three symbols of virtue. The Master Sword he retrieves, keeping the Knight's line true." This refers to the Link of A Link to the Past, who was destined to triumph over Ganon and reclaim the Triforce, preserving the bloodline of the knights who fought against Ganon during the Imprisoning War. The Maiden Link rescues in the Skull Woods further explains that the prophecy of the Great Cataclysm means that whenever an evil person seizes the Triforce (as Ganon did during the Imprisoning War), a hero is destined to rise up and vanquish the evil one. Furthermore, the prophecy states that the hero must be of the bloodline of the Knights of Hyrule. This seems to indicate that the Cataclysm ends with the battle between the Hero armed with the Master Sword and the evil person holding the Triforce.

In the instruction manual for Link's Awakening, another reference to the prophecy is made. Link "fulfilled the Hyrulian prophecy of the Legendary Hero and destroyed the evil tyrant Ganon."

=Theories=

Some believe that the Great Cataclysm refers to the prophecy of the Hero of Time, the Master Sword's first true wielder and the Hero that was present at the time of the Great Cataclysm itself (thought also to be the opening of the Sacred Realm and the shattering of the Triforce, hence the term "cataclysm"). The Hero of Time triumphed over the evil monsters created by the Dark Lord Ganondorf on the eve of the Cataclysm (literally, as Ganondorf's entry into the Sacred Realm took place almost immediately following the Hero's success in gaining the Spiritual Stones) and won three objects, the Spiritual Stones, that were required to open the way to the Master Sword. Despite the Hero's triumph and his claiming of the Master Sword, this enabled Ganondorf to unleash the Great Cataclysm, which shattered the Triforce and altered the course of Hyrule's future for ages to come as the Triforce pieces remained divided for eons and Ganondorf attained immortality of sorts, giving Hyrule an unrelenting threat to its existence that would persist for ages to come and beyond. While it would be a retcon of the original story of A Link to the Past, it only makes sense that a "cataclysm" is some "catastrophic" event that leads to disaster, and in this case, Ganondorf's entry into the Sacred Realm proved to indeed be one of the greatest "cataclysms" in Hyrule's history, given the consequences Hyrule suffered thanks to it. It is also no surprise that a prophecy was made about a new Hero that would completely erase the devastating effects of the Great Cataclysm and destroy Ganon utterly, the Link of A Link to the Past. However, the Hero spoken of in the legend of the Great Cataclysm itself seems almost certainly to have been the first Hero that was actually present when it occurred, the Hero of Time.

However, this prophecy is never mentioned outside the context of A Link to the Past and The Link from Ocarina of Time is never confirmed to be of the Knights' line, as the Link from A Link to the Past is. Moreover, because it is a prophecy, the event the inscription describes has not yet happened at the time of its writing. This inscription is not seen in Ocarina of Time, so the prophecy of the Cataclysm must have been made later. Moreover, Aginah explains that part of the prophecy involves the Book of Mudora, which never featured in the plot of Ocarina of Time.

= References =