- Joined
- Aug 18, 2011
Here, I'm simply wanting to lay out what I believe is a fairly good geography of Hyrule. First, I must state some of my assumptions that lead to my understanding of Hyrule.
1. Cartographers are not wholly accurate. Small things, mysterious things, and even whole towns move or vanish from one map to the next.
2.In line with the above, the games are best viewed as 'legends' or 'myths'. Heroic tales where the absolute location of a thing is minimal to the understanding of a story are common, thus why temples and *dungeons* might completely vanish, or appear a vast distance from a previously known area.
3. Some things are important, and therefore, never move unless the thing is mysterious or it's disappearance or movement lends to the story being legendary.
From here, with my assumptions, I note a few important things that are always present, or can be derived from the locations of each other. Lake Hylia, Death Mountain, the Castle, and the desert. In all of the stories, Lake Hylia rests to the south, it's headwaters coming from the waterfall at Zora's Domain, which resides among the mountain range in which Death Mountain lays, usually to the north-east. The Castle of Hyrule rests in the center of the land, while the desert sits in the west. This statement is correct when talking about the maps of ALttP, OoT, FSA, TP(GCN) and (loosely) MC. [Just learned that Death Mountain doesn't exist proper in MC... Mount Crenal, then is possibly just another mountain within the same range as Death Mountain...]
Now, arguments have been made for the maps of LoZ and AoL to also fit this bill, with Hyrule castle actually resting in the small, southern wilderness.The issue here is that Death Mountain, one of our derivable locations, is actually in the west. As well, Death Mountain itself is only shown as a mountainous area, while we know it is a large volcano. In LoZ, the final battle takes place in Death Mountain as accessed through Spectacle Rock. These would seem to lead to Death Mountain being a part of a much larger, still volcanic, mountain range that forms important borders between provinces during the Era of the Triforce using Monarchy. Hyrule itself sits to the west of Death Mountain, while the North Palace (possibly a vacation palace or border fortress at some point) lies to the east in the vast, mountainous 'Eastern Hyrule' (which may have become the center of the country during its decline).
To make matters a little more problematic, we have a set of seemingly moving areas that are rather important. These are Kakariko Village, the 'Lost Woods', and the Temple of Time. Here's where I get serious with the theory. Because Kakariko is placed in the mountain range of Death Mountain twice, as opposed to being near the Castle in ALttP, I believe that Castle Town was either called Kakariko during this time, or that the original Kakariko fell into obscurity following OoT (which could be upheld because of Old Kakariko in TP, which is on the Child Timeline, unlike ALttP's Failure Timeline). The Temple of Time houses the legendary and powerful Master Sword, once within Castle Town, and once (barely, since there isn't a roof) in the Faron Forest. This, and the location of the 'Lost Woods' (also known as Mysterious Woods, which must be gone through to get to the Temple in TP, and house the sword themselves in ALttP) can be chalked up to legendary and mysterious status of these locations.
Back to AoL for a moment. Many have noticed that several of the towns are named after the Sages from OoT, with the exception of two. The town of Mido, which rests on the shore of western 'East Hyrule', and old/new Kasuto, which rests in 'Dangerous Hyrule', in the shadow of the Great Temple above Death Valley (Note, that this is separate from Death Mountain, and would actually put the Great Temple on the side of a cliff if viewed in modern graphics). I believe that Kasuto is the replacement for Impa, as she exists in that story. To have her alive, with a town named after her so close to the location of the Triforce of Courage, would both give away her position of a guardian, and be extremely dangerous. Mido, however, appears to be just a small port town.
For most of the games, their location to each other physically is now explained. Except for FS. Most may notice that FSA's map is based strongly on ALttP's map, and for good reason. It takes place prior to that game. But FS seems to be in a different location, and it is. As above, I noted that Death Mountain is in the East of most games, except LoZ and AoL, which I explained. Here, it appears that Death Mountain is in the North, like in LoZ. Same place? Not likely. One might notice the bridge just north of the forest stage, which goes off into another land. I believe that that other land is LoZ's Hyrule, or that FS takes place in the south-west section, below Death Mountain, within the 'Lost Woods' of LoZ, and in a previously unvisited icy location to the south.
So now, outside of a few small issues, like the huge size of Maze Island and the Death Mountain area in AoL (which are simply caused by the graphics of the time), I feel that a basic sketch of Hyrule is fairly easy to draw. For clarity, the Hyrule of OoT and TP are really only so big because of their proximity in time to the Unification War and Interloper War, causing a smaller country that has focused more on internal growth than outward expansion. For LoZ and AoL, the country is near the end of its' decline after several generations of Triforce use causing growth.
1. Cartographers are not wholly accurate. Small things, mysterious things, and even whole towns move or vanish from one map to the next.
2.In line with the above, the games are best viewed as 'legends' or 'myths'. Heroic tales where the absolute location of a thing is minimal to the understanding of a story are common, thus why temples and *dungeons* might completely vanish, or appear a vast distance from a previously known area.
3. Some things are important, and therefore, never move unless the thing is mysterious or it's disappearance or movement lends to the story being legendary.
From here, with my assumptions, I note a few important things that are always present, or can be derived from the locations of each other. Lake Hylia, Death Mountain, the Castle, and the desert. In all of the stories, Lake Hylia rests to the south, it's headwaters coming from the waterfall at Zora's Domain, which resides among the mountain range in which Death Mountain lays, usually to the north-east. The Castle of Hyrule rests in the center of the land, while the desert sits in the west. This statement is correct when talking about the maps of ALttP, OoT, FSA, TP(GCN) and (loosely) MC. [Just learned that Death Mountain doesn't exist proper in MC... Mount Crenal, then is possibly just another mountain within the same range as Death Mountain...]
Now, arguments have been made for the maps of LoZ and AoL to also fit this bill, with Hyrule castle actually resting in the small, southern wilderness.The issue here is that Death Mountain, one of our derivable locations, is actually in the west. As well, Death Mountain itself is only shown as a mountainous area, while we know it is a large volcano. In LoZ, the final battle takes place in Death Mountain as accessed through Spectacle Rock. These would seem to lead to Death Mountain being a part of a much larger, still volcanic, mountain range that forms important borders between provinces during the Era of the Triforce using Monarchy. Hyrule itself sits to the west of Death Mountain, while the North Palace (possibly a vacation palace or border fortress at some point) lies to the east in the vast, mountainous 'Eastern Hyrule' (which may have become the center of the country during its decline).
To make matters a little more problematic, we have a set of seemingly moving areas that are rather important. These are Kakariko Village, the 'Lost Woods', and the Temple of Time. Here's where I get serious with the theory. Because Kakariko is placed in the mountain range of Death Mountain twice, as opposed to being near the Castle in ALttP, I believe that Castle Town was either called Kakariko during this time, or that the original Kakariko fell into obscurity following OoT (which could be upheld because of Old Kakariko in TP, which is on the Child Timeline, unlike ALttP's Failure Timeline). The Temple of Time houses the legendary and powerful Master Sword, once within Castle Town, and once (barely, since there isn't a roof) in the Faron Forest. This, and the location of the 'Lost Woods' (also known as Mysterious Woods, which must be gone through to get to the Temple in TP, and house the sword themselves in ALttP) can be chalked up to legendary and mysterious status of these locations.
Back to AoL for a moment. Many have noticed that several of the towns are named after the Sages from OoT, with the exception of two. The town of Mido, which rests on the shore of western 'East Hyrule', and old/new Kasuto, which rests in 'Dangerous Hyrule', in the shadow of the Great Temple above Death Valley (Note, that this is separate from Death Mountain, and would actually put the Great Temple on the side of a cliff if viewed in modern graphics). I believe that Kasuto is the replacement for Impa, as she exists in that story. To have her alive, with a town named after her so close to the location of the Triforce of Courage, would both give away her position of a guardian, and be extremely dangerous. Mido, however, appears to be just a small port town.
For most of the games, their location to each other physically is now explained. Except for FS. Most may notice that FSA's map is based strongly on ALttP's map, and for good reason. It takes place prior to that game. But FS seems to be in a different location, and it is. As above, I noted that Death Mountain is in the East of most games, except LoZ and AoL, which I explained. Here, it appears that Death Mountain is in the North, like in LoZ. Same place? Not likely. One might notice the bridge just north of the forest stage, which goes off into another land. I believe that that other land is LoZ's Hyrule, or that FS takes place in the south-west section, below Death Mountain, within the 'Lost Woods' of LoZ, and in a previously unvisited icy location to the south.
So now, outside of a few small issues, like the huge size of Maze Island and the Death Mountain area in AoL (which are simply caused by the graphics of the time), I feel that a basic sketch of Hyrule is fairly easy to draw. For clarity, the Hyrule of OoT and TP are really only so big because of their proximity in time to the Unification War and Interloper War, causing a smaller country that has focused more on internal growth than outward expansion. For LoZ and AoL, the country is near the end of its' decline after several generations of Triforce use causing growth.
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