The Hyrulian Pantheon: Demi-Gods
Posted on May 30 2012 by Mases Hagopian
I considered lumping these in with the minor gods and ignoring this rung on the divine ladder, but none of them really belonged in the previous article. None of them belong in the next article on divine guardians either, as all of them are more important than that. In the end I decided that it was best to have them in their own category, more important than guardians but less important than full gods.
A Demi-God in traditional mythology is usually either the son or daughter of a God or Goddess, or have obtained divine powers/immortality in some other way. They are a product of their culture and are a part of it, unlike most of the Gods and Goddesses who are somewhat removed from the world. These beings almost always live in the world itself, rather than in another realm.
In Norse Mythology, the closest they have to this concept are the Light and Dark Elves. These beings are mystical, almost God-like and often interact with the Gods, but are not Gods themselves. They inhabit their own worlds in Upper and Lower Earth, respectively, outside of the worlds of the Humans and the Aesir Gods in Middle Earth.
Without further deliberating, here is the list of and discussion on the Demi-Gods of Hyrulian mythology.
The Great Fairy Queen
A tier above the great fairies themselves, who I have placed in the guardians category, the Great Fairy Queen is the ruler of all the great fairies. We see her in two games. First, she appears as a child holding a doll on Mother and Child Isles in the Wind Waker. She grants Link the power to use fire and ice arrows with his bow, and is very smitten with the young hero.
She also appears in Four Swords Adventures, where she has been split in two by dark magic. Once the halves are united, she thanks Link by destroying an attacking hoard of Hyrule Guards and breaking the dark magic barrier. It is clear from this moment that she has great, god-like power not previously seen in her Wind Waker incarnation.
The Ocean King
The Ocean King is a large aquatic deity that rules a place on the Great Sea called the World of the Ocean King. Other than what happens to him in the game itself, the Ocean King and his land are largely a mystery. He has great, divine-like powers and rules a world that exists in the world and yet seems to be on another plane or time somehow.
Perhaps the world of the Ocean King was just an illusion created by the Ocean King to enlist Link’s help, and illusion is his greatest power. We don’t really know. The closest thing that I can liken the Ocean King and his world to are the Wind Fish and the Island of Koholint in Link’s Awakening.
The Wind Fish/Lavias
The Wind Fish is a large flying whale that exists somewhere over the sea. Link gets caught in a storm which destroys his ship, and he washes up on an island, exactly like in Phantom Hourglass. We find out that the whole island and everyone on it are a dream that the Wind Fish is having, and by waking the Wind Fish up Link destroys it.
It is possible that the Wind Fish and the Ocean King are the same deity, or at least related somehow. The Wind Fish does have a brother called the Sun Fish, who we only know about because we meet his son in Link’s Awakening. Nothing is known about the Sun Fish.
It is possible that the Wind Fish and Levias from Skyward Sword are the same being, as they bear a striking physical resemblance. How many flying humpback whales could exist in a pantheon?
Cyclos and Zephos (Gods of Wind)
Speaking of Wind Gods, the two frog brothers from the Wind Waker claim to be gods of the wind. Zephos controls the direction of the winds, and Cyclos controls sea cyclones. This is possibly a theological conflict with the next Demi-God on our list.
Golden Chief Cylos (God of Cyclones)
The Golden Frog Chief doesn’t claim to be a God, but he does have the same powers as Cyclos. They might be the same deity, but in different time periods. He is at least a guardian of the Sea, which would place him in the next chapter, but we will leave him here.
Spirits of Good (ST)
Lastly, we have the Spirits of Good spoken of in the opening of Spirit Tracks. It is said that they sealed Malladus away and bound him by the spirit tracks, then left for the heavens to recover from the conflict. Nothing else is known about them. The Lokomo are their “sages” left behind to protect the world in their absence.
There are not many Demi-Gods in Hyrulian mythology, but they didn’t really fit anywhere else so this is where these Gods land themselves in the Hyrulian Pantheon.
PREVIEW OF ARTICLE 6:
Next we talk about the bulk of the deities seen in Hyrule, the Guardian Deities. We will talk about all the many incarnations of the Deku tree and Jabu Jabu, as well as some other guardians that you might not have thought of that way before.
Author: The Wolfess
Jennie Marie, also called The Wolfess, is getting her Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry at Eastern Washington University. She is the author of a three-book Zelda fan fiction, The Doppelganger Trilogy and does freelance articles for Zelda websites. The Wolfess has written such articles as Zelda Wii Needs An Anti-Hero, Skyward Sword’s Art Style: Straddling the Line or Walking a New Path, and a ten-part series on The Hyrulian Pantheon currently running at ZeldaDungeon.net.
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