Imprisoning War

The Imprisoning War or Seal War was a conflict that ensued after Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm and laid claim to the Triforce, becoming Ganon. This great conflict is spoken of in A Link to the Past. Ganondorf's seizure of the Triforce tainted the Golden Land, transforming it into the Dark World and Ganondorf himself into a beast named Ganon. He launched an invasion against Hyrule with his new army of monsters, made up of people from Hyrule that came seeking the Golden Power for themselves. This invasion was repelled by the Knights of Hyrule, who gave their lives almost to the last to protect the Seven Sages as they cast a seal on the Dark World, trapping Ganon and his army inside and restoring peace to Hyrule.

The Discovery of the Sacred Realm
Long ago in the land of Hyrule, legends spoke of a great power left behind by the Golden Goddesses following Hyrule's creation. Stories speaking of the Sacred Realm and the omnipotent "Golden Power" known as the Triforce that resided within it spread across Hyrule over the ages, causing a lust for the Triforce's power to grow and fester in the hearts and minds of Hyrule's people until there was nothing left in many of them but pure greed. The Triforce could not judge between good and evil and thus would merely grant the wishes of its holder.

One day, a gateway to the Golden Land of the Triforce was accidentally discovered and opened by a band of thieves skilled in dark magic and their leader, a man named Ganondorf. It was a place like no other, a realm of midday golden skies rather than blue. And there, shining down upon this world from above, was the Triforce in all its glory. A long running battle then ensued between Ganondorf and his followers to the heart of the Sacred Realm in a race to reach the Triforce first. Ganondorf fought his way past and killed all of his followers that had accompanied him into the realm along the way so that he could claim it uncontested.

The Great Cataclysm
After the murders of his followers, Ganondorf stood over the Triforce and grasped it with blood-stained hands. A voice whispered to him, stating that if he had a strong desire in his heart to wish for it. In response, Ganondorf's laughter echoed across time and space and reached even Hyrule itself as he made a wish that he become the ruler of the world. This event would came to be known as the Great Cataclysm.

Thus, it was out of the Great Cataclysm that one of Hyrule's greatest threats was born in the form of the King of Evil, Ganon, who now had the strength of the Triforce at his command. An ancient prophecy concerning the Great Cataclysm also existed however, stating that if a person with an evil heart should ever gain possession of the Triforce that a Hero would be destined to one day appear, and that Hero would defeat the evil one that unleashed the Great Cataclysm.

The Creation of the Dark World
As a result of Ganondorf's wish for the domination of the world, the Triforce caused the Sacred Realm to radically change. It began to whither and die as it was transformed into a twisted copy of Hyrule that represented what Hyrule would look like if Ganondorf ruled it. Dark clouds now permanently blackened the skies. As a side-effect of this transformation, the Triforce's magic was used to cast a curse over the entire realm, one that would cause any without protection from it to transform into a shape that would reflect what is in his or her heart. The Golden Land was now the Dark World, a place of darkness and evil.

Ganon was not satisfied merely with ruling the newly-transformed Dark World however, as he sought to return to Hyrule and conquer it as well. In time, evil power began to issue forth from the portal to the Golden Land, beckoning to men from the outside to seek out the Golden Power and have their wishes become reality through its magic.

The Invasion of Hyrule
As greedy men from Hyrule entered the Dark World hungry for the Golden Power, each of them was transformed into a monster reflecting the greed within them. As a result, Ganon's army of monsters grew to a large enough proportion that he was now capable of launching an invasion against Hyrule. Many plagues began to beset Hyrule as well, causing catastrophes for the people that would precede the coming storm.

Finally, with his army now ready, Ganon launched the invasion against Hyrule, intending to make his wish come completely true to be the ruler of both the Dark World and the Light World. Ganon's army swarmed from the Dark World and flooded into Hyrule, causing mass chaos and attacking Hyrule Castle. Meanwhile, the Seven Sages, a group of powerful sorcerers skilled in magic, searched for a courageous individual that could take up a weapon that had been crafted to combat magic as powerful as that of the Triforce's, a sword that could banish evil itself, the Master Sword. However, no hero worthy of the blade could be found.

The Seal of the Sages
The King of Hyrule eventually convened the council of the Seven Sages as well as the Knights of Hyrule that served to protect the Hylian royalty and commanded them to seal the gateway to the Dark World shut in order to stem Ganon's invasion of the kingdom. Both groups would play pivotal roles in the hope of reaching this goal, with the Seven Sages bearing the responsibility of creating the seal itself while the Knights of Hyrule would protect them as they did their part to halt Ganon's invasion of the kingdom.

The Knights of Hyrule took the full brunt of the attack from Ganon's monsters, and while they fought courageously to the end, they were nearly wiped out entirely as they did their duty. Their lives were not lost in vain however, as they bought the necessary time for the Seven Sages to create their seal, trapping Ganon in the Dark World and halting the invasion. With this, the war was ended in a victory for the Light World, though it had come at a very high cost. The people of Hyrule rejoiced nonetheless at the restoration of order and peace to their kingdom, thanks to the efforts of the Seven Sages and the Knights of Hyrule. Ganon and his army were trapped in the Dark World until the events of A Link to the Past.

Ganon
The individual responsible for unleashing the Great Cataclysm and the primary instigator of the Imprisoning War, Ganondorf, known as Ganon after his hauling of the Triforce, was once the humanoid leader of a band of thieves that resided in Hyrule. He and his followers were skilled in the dark arts; One day, they discovered one of the gateways to the fabled Golden Land. After a deadly race to the heart of this Sacred Realm in which he slew all of his own followers, Ganondorf seized the Triforce as his own with the blood of his followers literally on his hands. His wish to become the ruler of the world caused the Golden Land's transformation into the Dark World as well as his own transformation into Ganon.

As Ganon, he took on the grotesque shape of a boar-like creature that thirsted only for conquest and destruction as hungered for power at any price. He also took to wielding a magical trident as his primary weapon of choice. Using the Triforce's magic, he cast a spell over the Dark World that would cause any venturing into it without protection to be transformed into a shape reflecting what lies in that person's heart, not too unlike himself. He also used the Triforce to lure greedy men from Hyrule into the Dark World in order to transform them into monsters for his army and create the foundation for a massive invasion of the Light World. Once he had built a large enough force, Ganon proceeded to launch his assault on Hyrule with the intention of ruling both worlds with the Triforce at his command. His schemes were put to a halt however through the sacrifice of the Knights of Hyrule and the magic of the Seven Sages when a seal was placed on the gateway to the Dark World, preventing him from being able to return to the Light World.

King of Hyrule
Not much is known about the sitting King of Hyrule at the time of the Imprisoning War, apart from certain details concerning his actions during the conflict. It is said that when Ganon's army invaded from the Dark World and began attacking Hyrule Castle that the king called the Seven Sages and the Knights of Hyrule together and ordered them to seal the gateway to the Golden Land as a means to stem the invasion. Beyond that, not much is known about his reign or what other actions he took during the war, but it appears he was the chief architect of the plan to seal Ganon within the confines of the Dark World in order to restore peace to the kingdom.

In the stories of the Imprisoning War, he is referred to as the "Lord of Hyrule". As is the case with the Royal Family at the time of A Link to the Past, it is implied that he too ruled from Hyrule Castle during his reign, as Ganon's beasts were said to have targeted it during their invasion of the kingdom. As there is still a sitting king at the time of A Link to the Past, which supposedly takes place centuries after the Imprisoning War, it is thought that both the King of Hyrule in the present as well as Princess Zelda are descendants of the unnamed king that led Hyrule through the Imprisoning War.

Knights of Hyrule
The protectors of the Hylian royalty renowned for their bravery, the Knights of Hyrule were the primary military force defending Hyrule during the era of the Imprisoning War and sacrificed a great deal to preserve its freedom. Not much is known about their order or how it was formed, but their primary purpose was to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule and to defend the country. When Ganon seized the Triforce and attacked Hyrule after forming a great army of monsters, the knights were the main source of resistance to the chaos he wrought upon the kingdom. When the King of Hyrule formed the plan to seal Ganon and his army within the Dark World, they were assigned the role of protecting the Seven Sages from harm as they cast the seal on the portal to the Dark World. As a result, they took the full brunt of the beasts' attacks and subsequently perished almost to the point of complete extermination. They had however succeeded in their ultimate goal of giving the Sages the time they needed to cast the seal, so their lives were not lost in vain.

Their bloodline was not entirely destroyed, however, for one of their few remaining descendants, Link, is featured in A Link to the Past and becomes the legendary Hero spoken of in the prophecy of the Great Cataclysm that would reverse the Cataclysm's effects by taking back the Golden Power and restoring both the Golden Land and Hyrule to their former beauty.

Seven Sages
The Seven Sages, also known as the Seven Wise Men, were a group of powerful sorcerers skilled in magic that served the Royal Family of Hyrule around the time the Imprisoning War broke out. Not much is known of their history, such as their group's formation or even what their names were, but what is certain is that they were primarily responsible for ending the Imprisoning War by placing a seal on the gateway to the Golden Land, therefore locking Ganon away within the Dark World and protecting Hyrule from further harm. Before the formation of the plan to seal Ganon away, they were said to have searched for a courageous individual that could take up the Master Sword and confront the evil that was threatening Hyrule. Despite this search, the beasts of Ganon's army were wreaking havoc, and the King of Hyrule acted by convening the Sages' council, where he ordered them to place their seal on the Dark World. They succeeded in this endeavor largely because the Knights of Hyrule sacrificed their numbers to defend them while they created the seal. In the end, it was the combined efforts of the Sages and the knights that saved Hyrule.

The descendants of the Seven Sages, the Seven Maidens, appear in A Link to the Past, and have inherited their status as Sages in their own right in the present day. The town elder of Kakariko Village at the time of A Link to the Past, Sahasrahla, also claims to be descended from the Sages as well as the lost old man that gives Link the Magic Mirror on Death Mountain. During the events of A Link the Past, the dark wizard Agahnim intends to send each of the Sages' successors, the Seven Maidens, across the barrier between the worlds and destroy the seal placed on the Dark World by their ancestors.

Version Differences

 * Ganondorf is given the surname "Dragmire" in the American manual, while in the Japanese version is simply called Ganondorf.
 * The Japanese version tells that the Master Sword is ancient, and was forged at the direction of the gods. The American version has the people forge it on their own initiative to fight Ganon.
 * The American version of the story has the sages forget where the Triforce is hidden.
 * The Japanese name for the war is the "Seal War," referring to the Sages' seal.
 * The story was heavily truncated for the manual of the Game Boy Advance version of A Link to the Past and did not include such important details as Ganon seizing the Triforce or the search for the Master Sword. These details are still provided by in-game text, however.

Candidates for the Imprisoning War
Although it was confirmed by Nintendo that this war is retold in Ocarina of Time shortly after its release, many fans don't accord with these statements anymore. The similarities between Four Swords Adventures and the Imprisoning War may also mean that Nintendo no longer considers Ocarina of Time to be the Imprisoning War.

Although The Imprisoning War was first mentioned in A Link to the Past and was covered in detail in the instruction manual, the American translation differed in several key places from the original Japanese. This made it inconsistent with the story told in other parts of the series.

To date, no game has seamlessly told the story of the Imprisoning War without some discrepancies with the backstory provided in A Link to the Past. However, three games in particular stand out as the most likely candidates for the Imprisoning War: Ocarina of Time, Four Swords Adventures, and Twilight Princess. The strengths and weaknesses of each candidate are listed below. (See below for comparisons in translation of the manual.)

Ocarina of Time
Many believe the events of Ocarina of Time chronicle the Imprisoning War spoken of in A Link to the Past. The main events of the Imprisoning War do seem to occur within Ocarina of Time, such as the opening of the Sacred Realm, the seizing of the Triforce, the Sacred Realm’s transformation into the Dark World, Ganondorf’s imprisonment within the Dark World, and the involvement of the Seven Sages. Furthermore, statements by Nintendo from 1998 indicate that Ocarina of Time was developed with the Imprisoning War in mind. However, there are several continuity errors that come into question between the games. Some of these errors appear below: While there are several other questionable events, these prominently stand out since they were present within A Link to the Past, the first game to give an overview of the Imprisoning War and mention the war at all. The exact reasons for these supposed errors are of course not known for sure, leaving many gamers to merely speculate on the differences between the games. Possible theories explaining the continuity errors appear below. It is not known for sure whether or not the King of Hyrule is killed in Ocarina of Time, although this is heavily implied by his absence following Ganondorf’s siege of Hyrule Castle. Some speculate that the Hyrulean Civil War was fought over the Triforce, as has been implied by A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess. If this was the case, then the King of Hyrule may well have commanded the essences of the Sages (the ethereal Sages of Twilight Princess that may be the possible source of the Seven Sages' powers in Ocarina of Time) to seal the Sacred Realm shut if some evil entity should gain entry into it and cause evil power to start flowing from it shortly after the conclusion of the Hyrulean Civil War (seeing as it caused the previous war). This would be in keeping with the King’s command spoken of in A Link to the Past since gamers are not told explicitly that the King commanded the Sages to seal the Realm at the particular moment of Ganondorf’s invasion of the Sacred Realm. Alternativaly this can be explained as the king was killed in the adult timeline but not in the child timeline.
 * The King’s commanding of the Seven Sages in the legends of the Imprisoning War. Even though it is never stated in the game, he is presumed dead, and the noncanonical manga states that the King indeed died in Ocarina of Time following Ganondorf’s assault on Hyrule Castle.
 * The story telling that there was no hero found who could wield the Master Sword, yet Link was obviously in Ocarina of Time.
 * The seven sages being of all different races of Hyrule even though in A Link to the Past their descendants, the seven maidens appear to be humanoid.
 * Ganondorf is sealed in the Sacred Realm with only one piece of the Triforce. In the backstory for A Link to the Past, he steals all three pieces and makes his wish on them.
 * The Knights of Hyrule are not as prominent in Ocarina of Time as they are in the original story. Only one Knight is seen in a back alley, and though his dialogue indicates he was killed by Ganon, the battle waged by the Knights to protect the Sages does not happen in Ocarina of Time.
 * Ganon could not figure out how to return to the Light World after the seal was cast. Two direct sequels to Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess feature Ganon's return. Thus, a seamless OoT-ALttP chain of events has been rendered improbable.

The Seven Maidens of A Link to the Past are supposedly the descendants of the Seven Sages of Ocarina of Time, and yet while the Seven Sages are of differing races, the Maidens all appear to be human. This could possibly be due to the fact that A Link to the Past occurs many centuries (if not millennia) after Ocarina of Time. As such, the races of Hyrule have been known to integrate and evolve over time. One such example would be Telma, who appears to be of Gerudo descent in the absence of the Gerudo race in Twilight Princess, which occurs roughly a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. This would seem to indicate that the Gerudo (who were humanoid) integrated into the Hylian race at some point in that hundred years. Another such example would be the Rito of The Wind Waker. They are heavily implied to have descended respectively from the Zoras due to the ancestor of Medli being Laruto (a Zora). This would seem to indicate that the Zoras evolved at some point following the Great Flood into the Rito. With such drastic evolutions occurring in that timeline, it makes it plausible that the different races of Hyrule could have evolved into humanoid figures as well, or possibly integrated into Hylian society like the Gerudo. Four of the Seven Sages (Rauru, Impa, Nabooru, and Princess Zelda) were all humanoid, making it very easy for their races to integrate into the Hylian race over time. The others, as stated before, could have either evolved or also merged into the Hylian race over time as well. These explanations could account for the descendants of the Seven Sages being the Seven Maidens, who all appear human. Although it could be said also that since A Link to the Past was only the third game in the series there was hardly any way that the person who wrote the story for the Seal War could have known what was to come in the future of the Zelda series. It can also be said that A Link to the Past happens so long after the events of the Seal War that the story has been changed over the years in Hyrule in ways that would make it harder to connect Ocarina of Time to it.

Ocarina of Time Plot
After the end of the Hyrulean Civil War, there was peace in the land of Hyrule, however, one day a man of the desert, Ganondorf, one of the men that still looked for the Triforce, and for the Sacred Realm entrance, began his plans to take over Hyrule and the entire world. He cast a dreadful curse upon the Great Deku Tree, used his magic to bring many dodongos and seal the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern which prevented the Gorons from eating nutritious rocks from the cavern and almost brought them to extinction, and swore a false alligance to the King of Hyrule; all of this to obtain the three Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time. The Great Deku Tree sensing that malevolent forces were mustering to attack the land of Hyrule, he summoned Link. Link defeated Gohma, that was cursing the Great Deku Tree, however Link could't save him. In his last seconds, he sent link to Hyrule Castle and gave him a spiritual stone. After various battles, Link obtained the other two spiritual stones, but when he was returning to Hyrule Castle Ganondorf attacked it. Noncanonical information tells us that Ganondorf and Stalfos invaded the castle, and they killed many of the Knights of Hyrule. After that, Zelda and Impa escaped, and when they passed across the bridge, Zelda saw Link and threw him the Ocarina of Time. Then Gandondorf appeared in front of Link, and although Link tried to fight he was easily defeated. Hyrule Castle surrendered after a short time, and unable to do anything Link went to the Temple of Time. There Link, the Hero of Time, opened the Door of Time in the name of peace, however, Ganondorf used it to enter the Sacred Realm. He stole the Triforce and it, not knowing that Ganons wishes were evil, made them reality, however, the Triforce separated into three parts and only the Triforce of Power remained in Ganondorf's hand, neverless, evil power began to flow from the Golden Land. Black clouds permanently darkened the sky, and many disasters beset Hyrule. This events transformed the Sacred Realm into the Dark World, from which Ganondorf launched an invasion against Hyrule. Ganon's army consisted in Gerudos, greedy man that were drawn there to become members, Stalfos, Redeads and many other monsters. The army swarmed from the tainted Golden Land into Hyrule and attacked the castle. Ganondorf overthrown the King and became the new ruler of Hyrule. During his rule ordered his phantom and monsters to attack the Kokiri; destroyed the Market; he put a curse in the Water Temple, it drained Lake Hylia and freezed all the Zoras; and turned Ingo to his evil side. Despite all of these, seven years later, Link re-appeared and destroyed all the curses and defeated most of Ganon's army. Ganondorf could have defeated Link, but he left him wander so that Zelda appeared. But that was a mistake, because Link had reunited Six Sages, then Link and the sages attacked Ganon's Castle, and ultimately defeated Ganon with the power of the Master Sword and he was sealed by the Sages into the Dark World. Finally peace was brought to Hyrule, however, Zelda returned Link to his original time, by doing this the road between times was closed, and they were split off.

Four Swords Adventures
As indicated by deleted text in Four Swords Adventures the original concept for that game would have included elements which might have made it the game in which the Imprisoning War occurred. Deleted text talks of Link not being able to wield the Master Sword, and more explicit references to the Hylia. Several elements of the backstory from A Link to the Past are present in Four Swords Adventures such as the Dark World, the Knights of Hyrule, and a new origin story for Ganon. However, the absence of such elements as the Master Sword and the Triforce in the final version of the game likely means that Four Swords Adventures does not cover the entire story of the Imprisoning War. A common answer to these discrepancies is to answer that the Imprisoning War is a myth, a combination of the stories of Ocarina of Time (The Triforce and seal) and Four Swords Adventures (The Knights, the Dark World, human sages). Supporters of this theory point to the Palace of the Four Sword included in the GBA version of A Link to the Past which could indicate that the Four Sword was sealed in the Dark World sometime following the events of Four Swords Adventures.

Four Swords Adventures Plot
Ganondorf was once a member of the nomadic Gerudo tribe who was ostracized from his people when he sought out the Pyramid in the Desert of Doubt. In the Pyramid, he found the ancient artifact the Trident of Power and became Ganon, the King of Darkness. With his newfound power, Ganon killed the Knights of Hyrule and trapped their corpses in the Dark World while making it seem that Vaati was the mastermind behind the calamities. He also stole the Dark Mirror and created Shadow Link with its evil power. After the four Links vanquished Vaati, Ganon finally revealed himself, when Zelda recognized him as the "ancient demon reborn." This may indicate that the Ganon of Four Swords Adventures is actually Ganon's second incarnation (Ocarina of Time being the first). He engaged the four Links in battle until he was stunned by Zelda's ball of light magic and the Seven Maidens sealed him inside the Four Sword. It is unknown how Ganon obtained the Triforce or broke out of his prison in the Four Sword in time for A Link to the Past to happen. He likely stole the Triforce when he reopened the Sacred Realm (The Dark World's presence in the game means that he has been there before) and broke out of his prison sometime before A Link to the Past, if the blade's shards in the Palace of the Four Sword are any indication.

Twilight Princess
The events of the Twilight Princess backstory bear at least a superficial similarity to the events of the Imprisoning War. Ganon invades Hyrule, but is captured and sealed in the Twilight Realm by seven sages. Upon further inspection, however, it is evident that these similarities are merely superficial. Although Ganon sought the Triforce, he did not take it by force as in the story, but had it mysteriously granted to him (and only in part). Likewise, neither the Knights of Hyrule nor the Sacred Realm are involved in the plot, as the Twilight Realm is explicitly not the Dark World. The similarities between the plot of Twilight Princess and the Imprisoning War could simply be developer homage or reused memes. Some, however, believe that the Interloper War was one of the wars fought over the Triforce prior to Ganon discovering it.

Twilight Princess Plot
Ganondorf launched an invasion against Hyrule. His army swarmed from the tainted Golden Land into Hyrule and attacked the castle. but this time, the attack was repelled by the Knights of Hyrule and the Seven Sages, commanded by the king (probably because Link warned them). The Knights fought and eventually perished during the invasion, and so Ganondorf was blind to any danger, and thus was exposed, this allowed enough time for the Seven Sages to successfully seal Ganon within the Twilight Realm and peace was found on Hyrule. It is not confirmed how Ganondorf received the Triforce, but he exhibits it during his execution and sealing scene. The mere fact that Ganon had a piece of it baffles the Sages, and they call it a "divine prank."

As a Separate Event
A common explanation for the discrepancies between the Imprisoning War story and Ocarina of Time and Four Swords Adventures is that neither game is the true story, and that because the backstory does not include Link, it cannot be adequately told in any game. Thus, these theorists place it as an event separate from any particular game, sometime before A Link to the Past.