Castle
Ch!ld0fV!si0n
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2012
- Location
- Crisis? What Crisis?
- Gender
- Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
Once upon a time... Hyrule had an ocean. I know, right? 
It's seldom talked about these days because - up until Breath of the Wild - Hyrule's coast hasn't been seen since it was mentioned in Link's Awakening.
Now granted, Link's Awakening doesn't explicitly state that Link departed Hyrule by boat, thus leaving it up to question whether the ocean Link sets sail on for his journey in LA was actually part of Hyrule's coastline.
Even still, the first two Legend of Zelda games clearly feature an ocean to the east of Hyrule. This is especially apparent in Zelda II, but there are also a few explorable map screens in the south east of Hyrule in LoZ that appear to be coastline complete with surf sound effect. And indeed, Zelda II would later confirm this by connecting its much larger and more obvious ocean with the southern region of Hyrule from the first game.
But from A Link to the Past on, Hyrule's ocean has been missing from the atlas.
Now, from a geographical standpoint, there are major differences between the map of Hyrule from the first two games and the map of Hyrule from A Link to the Past which Ocarina of Time's atlas is based on so it is difficult to establish any geographical connection between Hyrule from the first two games and Hyrule from ALttP/OoT. I've already written at length about the discrepancies between Twilight Princess' atlas and the rest of the series, but Twilight Princess as well features no evidence of a coastline.
So what happened? Where'd the ocean go?
The first possibility is that the kingdom of Hyrule relocated between the era of the Hero of Time and the earlier games. The lands featured in LoZ and Zelda II simply aren't the same as ALttP/OoT. The Hylian's migrated from somewhere inland to a region with a sea board. Either that, or the borders of Hyrule expanded to encompass a coast line and the lands in which ALttP/OoT take place are an older region of Hylian settlement.
Another possibility would be a significant rise in sea level bringing the ocean inland. It has already been established that the gods flooded Hyrule generations prior to the events in Wind Waker. Could magic or divine intervention have created new coast line? Perhaps the flooding of Hyrule in Wind Waker wasn't a divine act at all but simply the result of a natural phenomenon like global warming?
The desert regions featuring prominently in ALttP/OoT as well as Twilight Princess could be the remains of an ancient sea bed all dried up. Perhaps the waters receded from that corner of Hyrule leaving the desert behind. A distinctive feature of the desert regions from all three games is that they are not separated from the rest of Hyrule by a mountain range. Deserts are typically formed from the relative inability for atmospheric moisture to pass over high altitude landmasses. At most, the desert is separated from Hyrule by a rocky rise or ridge in all three games, not a mountain range significant enough to impede storm currents. But receding sea water could just as easily leave marshlands or fertile plains in its wake. The prevalence of salt deposits in the desert regions would be strong indication that seawater once covered the area. A big problem with this theory is that the deserts are in the wrong place in all three games. In LoZ and Zelda II the coastline was in the east. In ALttP/OoT the desert is in the south western corner of Hyrule and in the Gamecube version of TP which is considered canonical by some accounts. Breath of the Wild gets it right by putting the coastline in the south east like in the original game.
So how bout it? What could possibly explain coastal Hyrule's comings and goings? How does one lose an entire freaking ocean?
It's seldom talked about these days because - up until Breath of the Wild - Hyrule's coast hasn't been seen since it was mentioned in Link's Awakening.
Now granted, Link's Awakening doesn't explicitly state that Link departed Hyrule by boat, thus leaving it up to question whether the ocean Link sets sail on for his journey in LA was actually part of Hyrule's coastline.
Even still, the first two Legend of Zelda games clearly feature an ocean to the east of Hyrule. This is especially apparent in Zelda II, but there are also a few explorable map screens in the south east of Hyrule in LoZ that appear to be coastline complete with surf sound effect. And indeed, Zelda II would later confirm this by connecting its much larger and more obvious ocean with the southern region of Hyrule from the first game.
But from A Link to the Past on, Hyrule's ocean has been missing from the atlas.
Now, from a geographical standpoint, there are major differences between the map of Hyrule from the first two games and the map of Hyrule from A Link to the Past which Ocarina of Time's atlas is based on so it is difficult to establish any geographical connection between Hyrule from the first two games and Hyrule from ALttP/OoT. I've already written at length about the discrepancies between Twilight Princess' atlas and the rest of the series, but Twilight Princess as well features no evidence of a coastline.
So what happened? Where'd the ocean go?
The first possibility is that the kingdom of Hyrule relocated between the era of the Hero of Time and the earlier games. The lands featured in LoZ and Zelda II simply aren't the same as ALttP/OoT. The Hylian's migrated from somewhere inland to a region with a sea board. Either that, or the borders of Hyrule expanded to encompass a coast line and the lands in which ALttP/OoT take place are an older region of Hylian settlement.
Another possibility would be a significant rise in sea level bringing the ocean inland. It has already been established that the gods flooded Hyrule generations prior to the events in Wind Waker. Could magic or divine intervention have created new coast line? Perhaps the flooding of Hyrule in Wind Waker wasn't a divine act at all but simply the result of a natural phenomenon like global warming?
The desert regions featuring prominently in ALttP/OoT as well as Twilight Princess could be the remains of an ancient sea bed all dried up. Perhaps the waters receded from that corner of Hyrule leaving the desert behind. A distinctive feature of the desert regions from all three games is that they are not separated from the rest of Hyrule by a mountain range. Deserts are typically formed from the relative inability for atmospheric moisture to pass over high altitude landmasses. At most, the desert is separated from Hyrule by a rocky rise or ridge in all three games, not a mountain range significant enough to impede storm currents. But receding sea water could just as easily leave marshlands or fertile plains in its wake. The prevalence of salt deposits in the desert regions would be strong indication that seawater once covered the area. A big problem with this theory is that the deserts are in the wrong place in all three games. In LoZ and Zelda II the coastline was in the east. In ALttP/OoT the desert is in the south western corner of Hyrule and in the Gamecube version of TP which is considered canonical by some accounts. Breath of the Wild gets it right by putting the coastline in the south east like in the original game.
So how bout it? What could possibly explain coastal Hyrule's comings and goings? How does one lose an entire freaking ocean?
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