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When Were the Interlopers Expelled?

Castle

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So it's another "Who were the Interlopers" thread. But the question pertains specifically to when the Interlopers tried to seize the Triforce and were expelled, as depicted in Ordona's exposition dump by way of nightmare head trip to Link in Twilight Princess.

The most obvious period for the Interlopers attempted seizure and expulsion to the Twilight Realm would have to be the Hylian Civil War that took place just a few years prior to the events of Ocarina of Time.

There is much evidence in Twilight Princess to suggest that the Interlopers and the Gerudo are intrinsically linked somehow. Indeed, the Gerudo are one of the races suspected of having been the Twili despite much evidence to the contrary. The Arbiters Grounds deliberately depicts evidence of at least parts of it being a Gerudo construction. One can speculate that the Gerudo may have been imprisoned there at some point as well. The Gerudo Desert still bears the name of the Gerudo in Twilight Princess, despite the Gerudo having inexplicably vanished sometime prior to the events of TP. No evidence of their fortress remains, but the Arbiters Grounds is speculated to be built around the Gerudo's Spirit Temple from Ocarina of Time. It also houses the Mirror of Twilight, which had been used to expel criminals from Hyrule into the Twilight Realm. Is this what happened to the Gerudo? If the Gerudo became Twili, then it would have had to of happened prior to the events of Twilight Princess, but after the era of the Hero of Time as the Gerudo are still around and kicking in that era. Which would mean that sometime after Ganondorf's attempted betrayal and take over of Hyrule, his people were expelled to the Twilight Realm. The Gerudo may have even been expelled before or during Ganondorf's botched execution. But did the Twili exist prior to that? Could it be that anyone sent to the Twilight Realm simply assumes the shape of the Twili due to the transformative effects of Twilight?

But more speculation exists if one considers that the Interlopers were yet another faction fighting over the Triforce during the Hylian Civil War. The biggest issue here is that no mention of the Interlopers or the Twilight Realm or the Mirror of Twilight is ever made in Ocarina of Time. The term "Interloper" implies that they came from somewhere else, giving credence to the assumption that the Interlopers may have been the Ancient Tribe from Termina that created Majora's Mask. It is easy enough to assume that the Interlopers were subdued and banished to the Twilight Realm and the people of Hyrule entered into an alliance with the King to end the war. Midna explains that her people were driven into the Gerudo Desert where they were expelled. In Ocarina of Time, the desert was the domain of the Gerudo. The Interlopers would presumably have to have been driven past the Gerudo at that time. If the Interlopers were the Gerudo, then their flight would have happened after the events of Ocarina of Time, and they would have been driven back into their ancestral homeland. Also, the Interlopers are said to have been skilled magic users. In Ocarina of Time, only Koume and Kotake, the Gerudo matriarchs, and their surrogate son, Ganondorf, are skilled in dark magic. After Ocarina of Time, the practice of dark magic may have spread among the Gerudo until it was more prolific. But what about the Gerudo would make them "interlopers?" Only in the sense that they would have come from the desert, an outlying region of Hyrule, as a race of traditionally xenophobic people with little contact with the rest of Hyrule.

If the Interlopers had been driven into the desert just prior to Ocarina of Time and subsequently banished to the Twilight Realm, then that would mean that the Arbiters Grounds existed in that time and it was operated by the Royal Family of Hyrule. In Ocarina of Time, the grounds may simply be inaccessible, obscured by the blinding sandstorm that blankets the Haunted Wasteland. The grounds could have originally been a Gerudo construct that was appropriated by the Royal Family after pursuing the Interlopers into the desert. If the Gerudo were subject to an occupying force after Hylian soldiers pursued and subsequently detained a captured army in the desert, then that could explain the Gerudo's xenophobia in Ocarina of Time. Hyrule may have even abandoned the grounds after all the Interlopers had been expelled and moved the mirror elsewhere only to return it to the grounds some time prior to Twilight Princess. Since Ganondorf's execution took place on the grounds, that would mean that the mirror would have been there not long after the events of Ocarina of Time. If Hyrule entered into an alliance with the Gerudo after Ganondorf's capture, then the Gerudo may have given use of the grounds back to the Royal Family.

If the Gerudo are the Interlopers, then their expulsion couldn't have taken place during the Civil War. Unless the Interlopers were only a portion of the Gerudo people who were more practiced in dark magic than the rest of em. Koume and Kotake could even be the last of the Interlopers in Hyrule.

And even though I am loathe to so much as acknowledge the existence of Skyward Sword, it could even be possible that the Interlopers were involved in the attempted seizure of the Triforce that lead to the Goddess Hylia lifting Skyloft as a sanctuary for her people and sealing Demise. This is going way back to the earliest point in Hyrule history. It is unlikely that anyone in Twilight Princess would have been aware of whatever nonsense took place way back then. No one even remembers how that bird crest got on the Hylian shield. But it could explain why there is no mention of the Interlopers in Ocarina of Time. But even Rustl knew of the Interlopers and the Twilight Realm in TP, even if legends of the Interlopers were largely unheard of to most.

Another discrepancy is that the Light Spirits were sent by the godesses to drive away the Interlopers. If this took place during the Hylian Civil War, there is again no mention of it. Or indeed any trace of the Light Spirits at all in Ocarina of Time. The Light Spirits are still present and accounted for in TP, but it may simply be that for however long they've been around, their presence hadn't been known, and only since sometime prior to Twilight Princess have people began to notice them. If the Light Spirits have been around as long as Skyward Sword, then that would explain why nobody remembers them. Indeed, the only other game to feature the spirits is Skyward.

It could also simply be the case that the Interlopers appearance and attempted seizure of the Triforce took place long after the Era of the Hero of Time in Twilight Princess's distant past.
 
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There's one detail you seem to have overlooked... the location of the Triforce.
When Link gets sent back to the past in OoT the Triforce is split between Link, Ganondorf and presumably Zelda... yet the TP backstory shows the Triforce as being in the Sacred Realm when the Interlopers attempted to take it... which means the Interlopers must have been sent to the Twilight Realm prior to the events of OoT.

The way the backstory sequence in TP is written, it implies that the battle was already underway when the Interlopers appeared, so I get the impression that the Interlopers were not actually involved in the battle themselves, and merely took advantage of it to go after the Triforce while the Hylians were distracted.
This could have been during the Civil War, but I'd be tempted to place it during the 'Era of Chaos'... the chaos it's name refers to was caused by people trying to enter the Sacred Realm (not unlike the battle referred to in the TP backstory), and the era ended when the Castle Town Temple of Time was constructed to seal the entrance to the Sacred Realm... a seal that was too powerful for Ganondorf to break, and there's no indication of any others breaking the seal until OoT.
 

Castle

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I've not read it, but didn't the Hyrule Encyclopedia confirm that this was just before OOT?

Could be... I haven't read it in a while. I prefer my head cannon. Still, the hylian civil war does seem to make the most sense for the time of the Interloper's expulsion.
 

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It was pretty early on in Hyrule's history, according to Hyrule Historia. It took place between Skyward Sword and Minish Cap if I remember correctly. They were interlopers, meaning they were entering into affairs that shouldn't have pertained to them. Most think this is limited to the Sacred Realm, but I've longed believed it is true of Hyrule as a whole. They were foreigners. But the Gerudo though? I'm not sure. Maybe a extreme sect of them...? I must take more time to ponder this, however. I have been out of Zelda theorizing for awhile people, and unfortunately I have only just started playing BotW for myself. So I'm uncertain of just how much of the lore has changed.
 

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