Gossip Stone: Where Would Hyrule Warriors Fall on the Official Timeline?

I know Hyrule Warriors isn’t canon. You know it. Eiji Aonuma has said it. But, as a fan, I can’t help but wonder where it might fit in the official timeline. I have discussed it while playing, looked through the timeline for clues, and thought about it in bed. I’m pretty sure some of you have thought about it too. It is an interesting thought experiment, if nothing else: a game, if you will. Hit the jump to play along.

Hyrule Warriors officially takes place in its own dimension (whatever that might mean). But consider, strictly speaking, each alternate timeline would constitute its very own separate universe. Our ‘separate dimension’ has to cross over with the Zelda universe (or multiverse) and merge for some stretch of time.

Hyrule, the Triforce, and our entire regular cast of characters exist in it; it has a similar history of good versus evil battles; so it makes sense to think about it as just one more parallel timeline, one which does not intersect with the official timeline. Perhaps it branches off early on, shortly after the original creation. So, given this admittedly tenuous connection to the official canon, where would you place Hyrule Warriors in the timeline? Where does it fall in your own personal head-canon?

I think it must fall early on in the timeline, before Ocarina of Time. When Cia summons up portals to the three eras, Skyloft appears, along with Death Mountain, and part of the Era of Twilight. So my first assumption is that Skyloft is already gone by this time. Since Skyward Sword falls so close to the creation of Hyrule, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to place it before that era.

Death Mountain also appears, implying that it has either been destroyed or has never existed in this dimension. Now, Death Mountain appears in both Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, but not Skyward Sword. So that places us in-between Skyward Sword and Ocarina. In fact, it lets us place Hyrule Warriors in in between Minish Cap and Four Swords, since it exists in the later, but not the former.

After considering these factors, and any others I may have overlooked, where do you think Hyrule Warriors belongs? Would you place it in the era I did? Another era? Would you bother at all?