Community:Hyrule: The Land of Zelda

Hyrule: The Land of Zelda (HTLOZ) was a Zelda website founded by Falco-X in 1998. HTLOZ was one of the major Zelda sites from the late 90's (Along with Zelda Headquarters, Ice's Zelda Central, Odyssey of Hyrule, and The Grand Adventures). The site was infamous for its rumor mill, which eventually churned out the Ariana Almondoz fiasco in early 1999. The site disappeared without warning in early 2002 when their host, Trintium Gaming Network, closed its doors.

n64gamer.com
The earliest known incarnation of HTLOZ was founded at hyrule.n64gamer.com in February, 1998, as part of the first generation of Zelda websites. Not long after the launch, HTLOZ adopted insidetheweb forums. Not much is known about this period because all those who went there at that time have pretty much disappeared--A reoccurring theme with HTLOZ. The only lasting legacy of the ITW forums was the infamous TRIFORCEGUY and his Triforce hoax.

htloz.com
Eventually, Falco-X launched htloz.com at some point in late 1998. Since no information is available from this time period, we assume HTLOZ switched hosts to Trintium Gaming Network around this time. In February 1999, when speculation about the Triforce in Ocarina of Time was at its peak, HTLOZ unleashed a killer story: A reader by the name of Ariana Almondoz claimed to have found the Triforce, and had convincing screenshots to back it up. The result was explosive - Every Zelda site around the net came to focus on the story, and in the process, Ariana's claims came under intense scrutiny. Within a week, one sharp-eyed reader caught a giveaway in one of the screenshots - Link's sword was sheathed on the wrong side of his back in a screenshot depicting him playing the "Overture of Sages". The entire story fell apart almost instantaneously, and community backlash towards this fraud was harsh. Ariana Almondoz's infamous hoax brought about the beginning of the end for Ocarina of Time Triforce rumors.

The War
By late 1999, the community was in the midst of the "Golden Era" of Zelda Gaming. The Big Four (Zelda Headquarters, Ice's Zelda Central, Odyssey of Hyrule, and HTLOZ) were at the top of their game, some garnering bigger attention than just fans. Like any "Golden Era," conflict brought about it's end. Tensions rose between HTLOZ and The Odyssey of Hyrule. The Crooked Cart code that Video Gamer X had claimed as his own appeared on HTLOZ. Odyssey of Hyrule did have the code first, however the 'owner' of the technique was in question (If anyone owned the trick, it was it's discoverer, T-Dog). After an exchange of words, forum members opened fire between boards. By 2000, Falco-X shut the HTLOZ boards down.

On February 27th, 2000, following Falco's shutdown of the forums, HTLOZ users Tempest and Alric launched an ezBoard known as Fallout Shelter. Fallout Shelter was the first of the HTLOZ refuges, a tradition carried on by Indigo's Place and Gamers Talk Elite/Gamer Crossfire.

Late HTLOZ
In the same year, HTLOZ switched to a flash layout, one which was either loved or hated, and Blazer opened a new vBulletin message board, which soon became the largest Zelda forum in its day. Here, a new legacy was born: Tri-Link's Cafe. Founded by Da_#1_Link, TLC was a sprawling, off-topic RPG Forum "Cafe" thread that reached over 40,000 replies before HTLOZ's end - A record for the Zelda community that stands to this day.

HTLOZ's end finally came about in 2001, following a nasty hacker incident on the forums. Just when it seemed HTLOZ would be getting back up on it's feet, Trintium Gaming Network, HTLOZ's free host, decided to close it's doors. Falco-X, tired of managing HTLOZ, didn't look for a new alternative. Members dispersed to hyrule.com.ar, Ganon's Tower, and the impromptu HTLOZ refuge, Gamers' Talk Elite (Later known as Gamer Crossfire). HTLOZ was never seen again.

Revivals
In the Fall of 2002, ex-HTLOZ staffers Blazer and Brian attempted the first HTLOZ revival, named Hyrule: The World of Zelda, or HTWOZ for short, after being denied the rights to the name HTLOZ by Falco-X. Complications arose from hosting arrangements, and the project caved within the first quarter of 2003. For posterity, a small archive of HTWOZ can be found here.

The name was successfully revived in March 2005 when a group of former members launched HTLOZ II.