Imprisoning War
Games | Described in A Link to the Past | |
Location | ||
Occurrence | Downfall Timeline: After the Defeat Ending of Ocarina of Time, before A Link to the Past | |
Key Characters | ||
The Imprisoning War, or Seal War, is the conflict described in A Link to the Past's backstory which results in the Seven Wise Men placing a seal on the Sacred Realm, trapping Ganon inside.
Timeline Placement
The Imprisoning War takes place on the Decline Timeline sometime after the Defeat Ending of Ocarina of Time,[1]. The results of the Imprisoning War set up for A Link to the Past.
Preceding Events
The causes of the war trace back to Ganon's intrusion into the Sacred Realm. The A Link to the Past manual originally described that a band of thieves led by Ganondorf[2] stumbled upon the entrance to the Sacred Realm and fought and killed each other over the Triforce.[3]
However, this has since been retconned by the Hyrule Historia, which inserts Ocarina of Time - which hadn't yet been conceived at the time of the manual's writing - as the backdrop for Ganon's presence in the Sacred Realm. According to the Hyrule Historia, Ocarina of Time has a third ending which was not shown in the game. It involves Link being defeated in the final battle with Ganon, who then collects the entire Triforce before being sealed in the Sacred Realm by Zelda and the other Sages.[4]
The Spreading Darkness
Regardless of how Ganon entered the Sacred Realm, his wish on the Triforce caused the realm to transform into the Dark World.[5] After a while, his evil presence began to seep back into Hyrule.[6][7] Greedy people were lured into the Dark World, never to return.[citation needed]
Knights and Sages
Decline of the Hylians
Hylians were very common in Ocarina of Time, but by the time of A Link to the Past they became merely legend.[citation needed] The Hyrule Historia suggests that their bloodline was greatly diminished after the Imprisoning War.[8] Whether this is a direct result of the devastation caused by the war or a result of the passage of time is uncertain.
Gallery
The Knights of Hyrule fighting Ganon's army
References
- ↑ Hyrule Historia, page 93
- ↑ "However, one day, due completely by accident, the entrance of the sacred place was opened by a band of thieves. [...] The man's name was Ganondorf, commonly known as the evil thief Ganon.", A Link to the Past manual, translated from Japanese
- ↑ "After the bloody confrontation among comrades had ended, the victor was the leader of the group.", A Link to the Past manual, translated from Japanese
- ↑ Hyrule Historia, page 92
- ↑ "But the Sacred Realm had become the Dark World under Ganondorf's control...", Hyrule Historia, page 93
- ↑ "Yet, Ganon's evil made it to even Hyrule as it spread.", A Link to the Past manual, translated from Japanese
- ↑ "Instead, only evil came out of the entrance.", Hyrule Historia, page 93
- ↑ "However, after the Imprisoning War, the blood of the Hylians was greatly diminished compared to how it was in the past.", Hyrule Historia, page 93