Kokiri

liacel The Kokiri tribe are a group children under the protection of the Great Deku Tree in the hidden Kokiri Forest, deep within the Lost Woods of Hyrule. The Kokiri children dress in Kokiri Tunics, and have guardian fairies which look over them. Link's mother brought Link to the Great Deku Tree when he was a baby, and asked it to care for him. After Link's mother passed away, the Great Deku Tree decided to raise the baby Hylian as a Kokiri. It was said that true Kokiri die if he/she leaves the forest; however, there is an unexplained inconsistancy at the ending of Ocarina of Time in which the Kokiri are seen in Lon Lon Ranch along with other characters to celebrate Ganondorf's defeat. Because of this, it is theorized that the story is of metaphorical nature. If a Kokiri leaves the Forest, he/she does not die immediately, but might simply age or be killed without the protection of the Great Deku Tree, and therefore eventually die if they do not return.

The leader of the Kokiri tribe is named Mido.

They appear predominantly in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and return in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as the Koroks. A set of carpenters in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past are sometimes said to be Kokiri, to help explain their absence in games considered to be later in the timeline. The symbol of the Kokiri can be seen in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in the doors of the Forest Temple.