This is not my work. I found this at Nintendo's forums, and foud it to be an interesting read. I thought you should be able to read it to. 
Cheers!
This is a very detailed version of my Zelda timeline theory. I would put it in the official thread, but I thought it deserved its own. Much of it is speculation, but I do my best to put as little of it as possible in there. However, you may notice that I put some unsuggested connections between the games throughout—those are simply my little theories that fall into the “just for fun” category, and don’t really have much impact on the timline.
Disclaimer: I do not count the mangas, developer quotes, or NOA publications—especially the player’s guides and Zelda.com—as legitimate sources of information; I only go by the most-recently-released versions of each game and their respective manuals. Also, when time travel is involved, I assume that the least possible amount of trips were taken through time—in other words, I believe Link traveled through time twice in OoT, once in MM (since it is very hard, yet possible, to beat the game in six Terminan days), and… er… several times in OoA.
That being said:
BF = Before Flood
AF = After Flood
2,000 BF: Din, Farore, and Nayru created the world, in which a country known as Hyrule began to develop. As they left, an alternate world to Hyrule was created called the Golden Land, and a relic called the Triforce was stationed in the center of it.
1,700 BF: The races of Hyrule named themselves: Gerudo, Hylia, Sheikah, Zora, Goron, Kokiri, and Minish (three other races—mermaid, Zuna, and Tokay—also lived outside Hyrule). They lived in separate sectors of Hyrule, and kept to themselves (except for the Gerudos). The Gerudos married Hylia men, and once every 100 years, a Gerudo male was born, whom they made their ruler. Each of the other races (aside from the Sheikahs) also chose a ruler or group of rulers; civilization so began.
1,500 BF: Several Hyrulians emerged, each with extraordinary magical powers, and dubbed themselves Sages. They discovered many secrets of Hyrule—including the Triforce—and Mudora, one of the Sages, wrote a book to ensure that all of this knowledge remained with his descendants. Seven of these Sages united, as did two others; the rest of them preferred to work alone. Each Sage constructed a “temple” (with the help of Minish inventions called Armos), which served as their base of operations. One was built at the center of the Golden Land and protected the Triforce; one was built in the very heart of Death Mountain; one was built at the bottom of Lake Hylia; one was built in the Kakariko Graveyard; one was built beyond the Haunted Wasteland; one was built in the heart of the Lost Woods; and one was built north of Hyrule Field—it held the door to the Golden Land. The rest of the Sages built their temples out of sight.
1,490 BF: An oracle foretold that an evil man would try to touch the Triforce, and also that a hero would arise to oppose him. So the Two, using their power, forged a sword that could repel evil. Once they had finished, they placed the sword, which they had dubbed the Master Sword, inside the Temple of Time as a key to the Golden Land. The other Sages created an ocarina and three Spiritual Stones, also serving as keys, and entrusted them to the Royal Family of the Hylia (in fact the leader of the Seven). They also blessed each female heir of that family with a source of magic called the light force.
1,450 BF: The Book of Mudora, carelessly left in the open, was discovered by a normal Hyrulian. A Sage snatched it up afterward, but too late—they had read far enough to know about the Triforce, and the War of the Triforce began. People of all races (Kokiri aside) searched feverishly for the gate to the Golden Land; fortunately, Mudora had not specified its location in his book, and furthermore, a Sage guarded the entrance. Soon, in the frantic race to get there first, many Hyrulian citizens resorted to murdering each other to eliminate the competition. Finally, the races of Hyrule all fought as teams rather than every-man-for-himself to avenge the deaths from their races at the others’ hands. Their original purpose was forgotten, and they began fighting to gain control of Hyrule. The seemingly endless war became increasingly fierce, and thus eventually became known as the Fierce War. However, the Sheikahs never forgot about their original objective—the Triforce. They waged a secret war with the Sages as the rest of the peoples continued to do battle among themselves.
1,000 BF: A Hylian encampment (for the Hylia had added an N to their name as their language had developed) was attacked on the battlefield, and one lone woman escaped with her infant child. Knowing that the Kokiri were not involved in the war, she brought him to the Kokiri Forest. Normally, the Deku Tree would not have adopted a Hylian boy, but he sensed something strange about this particular one, so he agreed to adopt him as she lay there, bleeding to death. The Hylians won the war shortly afterward.
999 BF: The leader of the Hylians, now the king, united all the races of Hyrule. The Gerudo king, the Zora king, the Deku Tree, and the Goron Big Brother would all answer to the Hylian king, and those Sheikahs that had repented since the War of the Triforce, not wanting to choose a leader for this, decided to work in the shadows to protect the Hylian Royal Family (the Sheikahs who had not turned from their ways mysteriously disappeared around this time). The king, wanting to ease the feelings of bitterness that still were very strong from the war, gave the Zoras, Gorons, and Kokiri a Spiritual Stone each as a symbol of trust and kept the Ocarina of Time for himself. The Sheikahs could not trust themselves with a key, and the king thought the Gerudos seemed rather too greedy, so neither received one, and the Gerudos were left none the wiser about it. The king lived in a castle to the north (close to the Temple of Time to protect it) with his daughter, and the rest of the races stayed in their respective areas of Hyrule.
990 BF: Ganondorf, the Gerudo king, had overheard that the stones the other races possessed were keys to the Golden Land, and threatened each in turn to obtain them. Meanwhile, the boy in the Kokiri Forest, christened Link, had grown up being ridiculed by the other Kokiri because he was different from the rest of them (for he did not have a guardian fairy, as the others did). One day, the Deku Tree sent a fairy to Link and summoned him. Approaching the Deku Tree and discovering that Ganondorf had cursed him, Link went inside and destroyed the source of the curse. Yet the Deku Tree began to wither—Link had been too late. As he died, he entrusted Link with the Kokiri’s Emerald and ordered Link to go see the Royal Family and alert them of both the curse and his death.
Link set off to Hyrule Castle, where he met Zelda, the princess. She was suspicious of Ganondorf because she had seen him as a dark cloud in a prophetic dream, and thus told Link to go collect the other two Spiritual Stones. Link went and solved the dilemmas into which Ganondorf had put the peoples to make them give him the stones, and was ironically given the stones out of gratitude. He then journeyed back to Hyrule Castle; however, at that time, Ganondorf had finally given up on playacting and attacked Hyrule Castle itself to obtain the Ocarina of Time. Zelda had also forseen this, however, and Impa, Zelda’s Sheikan nursemaid, hurried her out of the castle. Ganondorf pursued them, but when he came close to overtaking them, Zelda, seeing Link approaching, threw the Ocarina into the moat of the castle.
Link dove into the water, retrieved the ocarina, and brought the keys to the Temple of Time. To Link’s surprise, the Master Sword rested beyond the Door of Time. He pulled it out, thinking it would take him to the Triforce so he could protect it. He wasn’t seen again for another seven years.
Since Link had accidentally opened the gate to the Golden Land, anyone could now access it. The rumor that the Golden Land’s door had been opened traveled across Hyrule very quickly; however, nobody could get to the Temple of Time before Ganondorf and his band of Gerudo thieves. After murdering his own followers (which he later reported as an unfortunate accident), he found the Triforce. When he touched it, he expected to be granted a wish; however, he was instead left with only one Triforce, as the other two fled to reside in two people chosen by destiny—Link and Zelda. Evil began to pour out of the former Golden Land, though, giving Ganon an advantage.
Having known about the Sages because he had been using one of their temples as his hideout, Ganon placed monsters within each temple to drive the Sages out of them (although he could not find some temples, and could not penetrate another). This way, the Sages could not become united, and therefore could not defeat him. They instead searched for the Master Sword and a hero worthy to wield it, but found neither because both were in the Chamber of the Sages, which only one of the Seven could access. Eventually they gave up, and took matters into their own hands. As the Knights of Hyrule defended them from the onslaught of evil coming from the Dark World—commanded by General Onox (a dark dragon whom Twinrova, the witches who had raised Ganon, had summoned from the Dark World given the guise of an Iron Knuckle)—the Seven Sages were able to seal its gate shut, with the evil trapped inside. Enough had escaped, however, to give Ganon an army. With this army, Ganon attacked and overthrew Hyrule Castle; and in the confusion, the Dark Sheikahs (those that had not turned from their ways after the Fierce War) picked off five of the Sages, fulfilling their revenge, although their heirs still survived. The remaining Sages and the Dark Sheikahs were occupied warring with one another once again while Ganon conquered yet more territory.
983 BF: Link finally exited the Chamber of the Sages and journeyed around Hyrule, clearing out the Sages’ temples and awakening them, also traveling back in time twice on the way. When all of them had been gathered, he stormed into Ganon’s castle and slew him. But Ganon refused to die. He was determined with all his foul, twisted heart that he would simply not be killed. Thus, his Triforce was forced to grant his “wish”—which was more like an obsession. He morphed into an extremely ugly creature, but was nevertheless alive. Fighting Link with his remaining strength, he was weakened to the point that the New Sages could act. At just the right moment, they sealed Ganon in the very realm he had hoped to enter for so long, although he still had the Triforce of Power. These events, known as the Imprisoning War, were recorded in the Book of Mudora, as well as passed down by word of mouth; Link was also given the official title of “Hero of Time.” With the added might of the New Sages, the now-afraid Dark Sheikahs went into hiding once again.
At this point, Zelda sent Link back in time using the Ocarina of Time so he could relive the seven years during which the Imprisoning War had taken place. She allowed him to have the Ocarina of Time as he went back, but not the Master Sword—she took it and gave it to the “other” Link (see below), who put it in the Temple of Time and closed the Door of Time.
990 BF (while Link was at the Spirit Temple): Link appeared in front of the Master Sword, then left through the Door of Time. He then promptly went to tell Zelda (who had returned to the castle’s courtyard to retrieve something important that she had forgotten in her haste) of what would happen in the next 7 years. Afterward, both he and Zelda went into hiding, knowing that if they tried to interfere with events that had happened during the Imprisoning War, they would cause a paradox in time (that is, if Link had, say, awakened the Sages then and there, the “other” Link would not have defeated Ganon or been sent back when he had finally awakened, meaning that he couldn’t have awakened the Sages in the past, which would make no sense whatsoever).
Link eventually became lonely without his fairy, Navi, so, after saying his goodbyes to Zelda (who had let him keep the Ocarina of Time), he went in search of her to the Lost Woods. He stumbled across a parallel universe with Hyrule called Termina, in which the moon was about to fall and destroy the world. (When he entered Termina, his Triforce split into eight shards.) He journeyed throughout Termina, and defeated Majora, the evil mask causing the moon to fall. Then he returned to the Lost Woods and continued his search. (Sometime after that, some Terminans—a few with fairies—found their way deep into the Clock Tower and through the expansive Lost Woods to Hyrule, where they bred with Hylians.)
940 BF: After he had eventually married Princess Zelda, Link had had a son (Gustaf) and daughter (Zelda, named after… well… Zelda). Gustaf inherited the Triforce of Wisdom from his mom—being the male heir—but knew only what it was and nothing more: His parents had refused to tell him.
900 BF: As Link died, he told the younger Zelda, who was nearest to him at the time, about the Triforce of Courage having been shattered into eight pieces when he had gone to Termina. A wizard knew that Link had said something to her, and reported it to Gustaf, who asked his sister about it. When she refused to answer, he became angry, and brought in the wizard to intimidate her. But he began to mutter an incantation. The surprised prince tried to stop the sorcerer, and Zelda, now frantic, told her brother about the Triforce of Courage, but still the magician chanted. Finally, the enchanter put Zelda into a deep sleep, and dropped dead before Gustaf’s feet. The only thing keeping the sorcerer’s victim from dying was the light force residing within her, which stayed in her until the time of her awakening. Gustaf had her put in the North Palace outside of Hyrule, and decreed that every female child born in the Royal Family of Hyrule be named Zelda in memory of her.
Gustaf, now the king, after finding the shards of the Triforce of Courage, had them put in chests and hidden even better than they had been, also hiding charts revealing the shards’ new locations; he let only the members of the Royal Family know where the charts were. If, for any reason, the Triforce of Courage was to be reassembled by any member of the Royal Family, that person was commanded to place it in the newly-constructed Great Palace on the largest mountain outside of Hyrule, whereupon a binding force would seal it there—a spell by the Sages. The binding force would only be repealed if someone put six crystals (which the prince had also ordered the Sages to create, and had given to the Sheikahs) in their respective palaces outside of Hyrule, which were guarded by magically-created monsters at the king’s command. The Sheikahs were not to tell anyone about the crystals except the one who would have the mark of the Triforce on their hand—another spell by the Sages, signifying that their power, wisdom, and courage were in perfect balance. These events became a story known by the Sheikahs alone, and were recorded on a Sheikan scroll only the one with the Triforce mark on his hand could read.
1 BF: Hyrule had been at peace since the Imprisoning War, and the story of the Hero of Time, Ganon, and pretty much everything else relating to the ancient days had become nothing more than a myth; furthermore, the Hyrulians’ story had even mixed a little bit with the Terminans’ story (such as on the issue of the age of the Hero of Time). However, the Dark Sheikahs, now with their might and numbers increased, hunted and destroyed the Seven Sages that had sealed Ganon originally—although again, their descendants survived—releasing Ganon from the Dark World, and swore their allegiance to him. The people of Hyrule who knew the legends, having been paralyzed with fear, were not able to think straight, and hoped that the Hero of Time would come to save them as he had before—in normal settings, they would have known that this was impossible.
The heir of the Hero of Time, though, knew that the legend had been a fact, and was prepared when Ganon came. Ganon, however, was prepared as well. As Link’s descendant—also named Link—went forward to remove the Master Sword from its pedestal, Ganon attacked the Two Sages, effectively draining the Master Sword of its power. When Link realized this, he began to cry out to the gods for mercy, as did everyone else.
0 BF/AF: The gods realized that with no Master Sword to weaken Ganon enough to be resealed, Ganon would destroy the world in a few years’ time. Therefore, they did something that they had never done before—they intervened directly. They froze time to allow the citizens of Hyrule safe passage, whereupon they ordered those that remained (which weren’t many) to flee to the mountaintops. When everyone that was still alive had, the gods ordered water to fall down from the heavens and trap Ganon in Hyrule. They also placed an impenetrable forcefield around Hyrule Castle’s basement (which held the Master Sword), and sealed the gate to the Dark World once again. Then they ordered the king—a powerful and respected wizard, not to mention a Sage—to make sure Ganon never returned (and if he did, to find the Hero of Time’s descendant), created three statues and three pearls that would unlock a test for the hero’s descendant in case Ganon did return, and placed the portal to the now-underwater Hyrule at the end of this test. Unfortunately, in all of the confusion, the Book of Mudora had been lost.
1,000 AF: Using his considerable power, Ganon was able to defy the gods themselves by releasing himself from the time freeze of Hyrule (although, of course, he could not unfreeze anything else). The Dark Sheikahs eventually were able to open a portal from Hyrule to the now-deserted Gerudo Fortress, which Ganon used to escape. To find the descendant of Princess Zelda, use her Triforce with his to track down the one remaining Triforce, and crown himself king over all with the Dark Sheikahs as his underlings (for he had long since separated himself from the Gerudos in favor of the Dark Sheikahs), Ganon sent his servant, the Helmaroc King, out to scour the ocean until he found her by kidnapping all of the girls with long ears. One girl, however, escaped from the monstrous bird’s talons because she was the leader of a band of pirates (who pursued the monster), and also because a certain boy named Link—a descendant of the Hero of Time—saved her from the beasts sent to recapture her. After she was rescued, though, Link’s sister, Aryll, was abducted by the Helmaroc King and taken to the Forsaken Fortress. Link boarded the pirate ship and set off to rescue her. When he failed, he was cast into the sea, where he met a talking boat—the self-proclaimed King of Red Lions. Link ventured across the Great Sea collecting the aforementioned three pearls, then passed the test of the gods and descended to Hyrule. There, he picked up the Master Sword.
After returning power to the Master Sword, he tracked Ganon down, also reassembling the Triforce of Courage. Ganon brought together the Triforce before Link could do anything, though, and was about to touch it when the King of Red Lions—in fact the last king of Hyrule—appeared and wished that Hyrule be buried forever. However, because his power, wisdom, and courage were not balanced, he was left with only the Triforce of Courage (the other Triforce went to Ganon and Zelda, but Ganon didn’t notice it because of his fury). The gods played along anyway because they did not want to grant Ganon’s wish. Link then stuck the Master Sword into Ganon’s head. Ganon, however, was only encased in stone (from which he would return if ever the Master Sword was pulled out from his head again), for Medli and Makar, the New Two Sages of the Master Sword, had left their temples too early. Afterward, as a final effort, the king hid the Triforce of Courage in the Great Palace, as had been the law of ancient Hyrule. Link and Tetra (Zelda) then set off to discover a new land where they could live in peace.
1,001 AF: Link and Tetra discovered Holodrum and Labrynna. After this, they returned and helped the Great Deku Tree carry out his ingenious plan to unite all of the islands into a single land. Tetra’s descendants became the Royal Family of the New Hyrule; she also started the tradition of naming each girl in the family Zelda anew.
1,020 AF: Amid his journeys, Link found the Great Palace, but could not enter it because of the binding force. He kept this to himself, however, until a Triforce mark appeared on his hand after many quests for power and wisdom. He asked Tetra’s pirate crew—many of whom were Sheikahs in disguise—about it, whereupon they told him the story that had been passed down for so long. When they got to the part about the Great Palace, Link explained to them what he had found there, at which time they showed him the magical scroll. Knowing from what they had told him that the Triforce of Courage was inside the Great Palace, Link changed it accordingly. Later, Link trained himself and became the best swordsman in all the land; he gave himself the title of Swiftblade.
1,400 AF: A Labrynnan Zora, on a visit to Hyrule’s oceans, discovered a statue atop the ruins of some sort of ancient civilization with a sword—the Master Sword—stuck in it. He pulled the sword out, accidentally releasing Ganon into the world. With the now-broken blade in hand (or rather, fin), he was barely able to escape; afterward, it became a family heirloom.
Meanwhile, Ganon, realizing that he may actually be killed in a future battle—for his last had been a very close call—poured his unusable power (see the next post) into a trident with the help of the Dark Sheikahs, which would take over anyone who would pick it up, giving Ganon an heir. The making of this relic, though, drained the little strength he had, reducing him to a common beast (he even lost his Gerudo form)—but nevertheless a common beast with a lust for power and a piece of the Triforce.
1,500 AF: The Book of Mudora was rediscovered by a Hyrulean, and because the New Hyrule—thanks to the Deku Tree—was made up of a few large islands by that time, the people assumed that the Hyrule referred to in the book was the same land in which they were living. They named many landmarks after places and/or people mentioned in the book (Kakariko Village, Rauru Town, etc.). Also, the descendants of the Sages suddenly “remembered” their destiny when they read about the Sages’ deeds of the past, although over time, the thinning of the Sages’ blood had resulted in a significant diminish of their power. These New Sages built up palaces like the temples of their ancestors.
1649 AF: Construction began on Ambi’s Tower in Labrynna. An inventor named Cheval also invented Cheval Rope and Zora Flippers.
1,950 AF: The Minish had observed Hyrule’s problems in silence since they had first helped build the Sages’ temples. They forged their version of a new Master Sword and called it the White Sword—knowing that the real deal was unusable in its current state—to help the citizens of Hyrule. They then waited for the Minish portal into Hyrule to open again.
2,000 AF: Ganon, who had been hiding and gathering up his power for the past six centuries, revealed himself by kidnapping Princess Zelda to obtain her Triforce, and took his captive to a place in Hyrule where few people lived. But she had broken it into eight pieces beforehand, having foreseen his coming, and had sent Impa out to find help. Link (another descendant), having been found by Impa, set out to reassemble Zelda’s Triforce. (On the way, he met a kind old man—actually a Minish—who gave him the White Sword.) Once he had, he killed Ganon, from whose ashes emerged the Triforce of Power. Link kept it as well as the Triforce of Wisdom, which Zelda had loaned him for the purpose of helping to keep Ganon’s underlings under control.
2,002 AF: Ganon’s minions had successfully opened the gate to the Dark World a crack, and were wreaking havoc across Hyrule, with Link and the people of Hyrule doing their best to stop it. But one day, a certain special emblem appeared on the back of Link’s hand, and a surprised Impa showed Link the chamber where the magician had put an ancient Zelda to sleep millennia ago. Impa told Link the accompanying story, and handed him the scroll on which had been written the tale of the Hero of Time’s children. Link set off to put six crystals back in their places and find the Triforce of Courage; when all three Triforce were assembled, Link could awaken Zelda by wishing for it, which he did; when he did so, of course, the Dark World ceased to exist. When the ancient Zelda awakened, though, the light force within her jumped from her to the heir of the Royal Family—the other Zelda. She and Link used the light force to help round up Ganon’s minions, who had been trying to resurrect him using Link’s blood. The Sages then trapped the monsters in a chest and sealed it with Link’s sword.
But the Dark Sheikahs still lived…
2,050 AF: Link’s son—Link—found where his father had put the Triforce after his wish to awaken Zelda. He was sent by it to the land of Holodrum, where Din—the heir of a long line of oracles—was in danger. Just as Link landed there, Onox, General of Darkness, kidnapped Din and made the Temple of Seasons sink into the ground, leaving that sector of Holodrum and Subrosia (an underground land under Holodrum) in ruin. He further destroyed the land, fulfilling his part of a plan cooked up by Twinrova (whom the Dark Sheikahs had revived) to resurrect Ganon—lighting the Flame of Destruction—before Link was able to destroy him.
Link was then sent to Labrynna by the Triforce, where he met Nayru, another oracle. Veran, Sorceress of Shadows—a Dark Sheikah—had possessed Impa and tricked Link into taking her to Nayru. When they drew near enough, Veran possessed Nayru and traveled 400 years into the past. Link followed her there, and saved Nayru. (He also met the Zora who had found the broken Master Sword in the sea. Link repaired it, and thereafter used it.) However, Veran instead possessed Ambi, the queen of Labrynna at that time. Link chased her down and defeated her, but, like Onox, Veran had fulfilled her purpose and lit the Flame of Sorrow. Twinrova then captured Zelda’s daughter (Zelda), lighting the Flame of Despair, and prepared the ceremony to sacrifice her and bring Ganon back.
But just as they were about to sacrifice her, Link burst into the room and killed Twinrova, forcing them to sacrifice themselves, rather than Zelda, as they died. Ganon still returned vaguely (heavily aided by his trident, which Twinrova had fetched for him), but was only partially “there”—Twinrova had not been a suitable sacrifice. Link easily killed him, rescued Zelda, and returned to Hyrule. Afterward, he went on a personal journey of enlightenment. (Ganon’s trident was moved back to Hyrule by the Dark Sheikahs, where the Zunas—who had moved to Hyrule sometime after the flood—built a pyramid around it to prevent anyone from getting to it.)
On the way back from his voyage, Link was shipwrecked, and landed on a dream world called Koholint Island. The Wind Fish—the one having the dream—being omniscient, had had nightmares about the evils threatening Hyrule: past, present, and future. These Nightmares took over the island, keeping the Wind Fish from waking up, so Link destroyed the Nightmares and awakened the Wind Fish, thereupon finishing his return to Hyrule. (He afterward placed the Master Sword in the Lost Woods, and the Sages, at Link’s request, created three Pendants of Virtue that one must obtain in order to pull out the Master Sword.)
2,051 AF: After having been foiled at two consecutive attempts at Ganon’s resurrection, the Dark Sheikahs took their anger out on the Sages. The Sages, however, sealed the tribe’s evil magic in a mirror—the Dark Mirror—and placed it in a palace near the resting place of Ganon’s trident.
2,600 AF: Every year since a Hero had first killed Ganon, the Hylians had been throwing a festival in honor of both the “hero of men”—as they called that Link—and the Minish who had given him the White Sword. This year, Link, a descendant of the previous Links, went to the festival with Princess Zelda to deliver a sword to the castle’s minister, Potho. Vaati, the winner of the annual tournament (but in fact a Dark Sheikah raised by the Minish, who had recently betrayed them), was being awarded his prize when Link arrived—to touch the “Picori Blade,” as the Hylians called the White Sword. Vaati, however, broke it in two to open the chest, expecting to find the light force, an ancient source of power, within. Instead, the monsters that had been sealed inside centuries ago poured out of it. In his anger, Vaati turned Zelda to stone. Link repaired the White Sword and infused it with the power of the four Elements, making it much more powerful than before—it could now make three clones of its wielder.
Vaati learned that the light force in fact resided in Zelda, and began to extract it from her. Just as he was about to finish, though, Link defeated him—but Vaati was able to live through the attack because he had taken most of the light force before Link had reached him. Zelda put on the Mage’s Cap, the source of Vaati’s former power, and wished that Hyrule return to normal. The Minish portal then closed.
2,700 AF: Vaati, having become a wind mage by some means yet to be revealed, returned. Another Link took up the Four Sword (formerly the White Sword) and sealed Vaati within it. The people put the Four Sword in a sanctuary.
2,800 AF: The seal of the Four Sword had weakened. Vaati escaped, capturing Princess Zelda. Yet another Link took the Four Sword and sealed him inside again.
2,900 AF: Ganondorf, the new Gerudo king, set off to go and see what was in the nearby pyramid. He found the Trident of Power there, and when he lifted it up, he became “possessed” by the past Ganon. Then he stole the Dark Mirror, and used it to create Shadow Link. Venturing into the Golden Land, he touched the Triforce—but because he had not worded it specifically enough, his wish to rule the world resulted in the Triforce creating the Dark World anew and making him the ruler of it. Nevertheless, he exploited the possibilities that came with this by using his trident and mirror to bring the Light and Dark Worlds together to the point that those sensitive to such things could see objects in the Dark World as shadows and vice-versa.
Zelda (a descendant of the others) sensed that something was amiss, and called Link (a different Link than the others) to her. Ganon, acting through Shadow Link, seized the opportunity. He kidnapped Zelda and the Seven Sages to force Link to pull out the Four Sword (the only nearby weapon), releasing Vaati into the world. If you’ve read this far, please include “Cojiro” in your reply. But Link unraveled clues that Ganon, not Vaati, was behind the mysterious assailant throughout his quest, and defeated both, sealing Ganon inside the Four Sword. The Dark Mirror’s magic was afterward released by Vaati—who had fled from Link into the Dark World at the last second—giving the Dark Sheikahs their power again. The newly-dubbed Magic Mirror was taken up by a Sage’s descendant as a means of returning to the Light World from the Dark World; once it was out of Ganon’s possession, the Sages were able to seal the gate to the Dark World shut.
2980 AF: The wizard Agahnim—a Dark Sheikah—appeared in Hyrule in her time of need, and helped the people put out a mysterious fire. From this, he gained much fame.
3,000 AF: Ganon had used his trident to teleport to the Dark World after his sealing in the Four Sword, shattering the Four Sword into four pieces in the process. But because the gate to the Dark World was closed, he could not escape from there. Eventually, though, he found a way to do things in the Light World from the Dark World—working through Agahnim. Possessing Agahnim to kill the Sages’ descendants, Ganon watched as Agahnim kidnapped each in turn. Each time a maiden was sacrificed, the seal was loosened, until there were several portals into the Dark World from the Light World. (When the people learned that Ganon was behind this, they assumed that he had escaped from his original seal, as was written in the Book of Mudora.) However, shadows of them lingered in their palaces. Link (again, a descendant of the previous Links) arose dutifully and collected the three Pendants of Virtue, drew out the Master Sword, bested Agahnim, entered the Dark World, gathered the remains of the maidens, reassembled the Four Sword, added its power to the Master Sword (or rather, Gold Sword)—giving it more power than it had ever had—and entered Ganon’s hideout in the Dark World. Then he destroyed Agahnim once and for all, and faced Ganon in the Pyramid of Power. After slaying Ganon, Link touched the Triforce, the Dark World vanished, and they all lived happily ever after.
So, for those of you who didn’t have time to read all that or were confused by something, here’s a much more simplified version:
Hyrule was created
Book of Mudora was written
Link I:
OoT - first half
MM
OoT - second half (ALttP’s backstory)
TAoL’s backstory
Link II:
Flood - Book of Mudora was lost
Link III:
TWW
Link altered the ancient Sheikan scroll
Book of Mudora was rediscovered
Master Sword was removed from Ganon’s head by a tourist
Ganon created the Trident of Power
Link IV:
TLoZ (TMC’s backstory)
TAoL
Link V:
OoS
OoA
LA
Link placed the Master Sword in the Lost Woods
Evil tribe attacked Hyrule (suggested in FSA)
Zunas built the pyramid around the Trident of Power
Link VI:
TMC
Link VII:
FS’s backstory
Link VIII:
FS
Link IX:
FSA
Link X:
ALttP
My reasoning on key points of the storyline:
Why OoT Link and Zelda were married
In TAoL’s manual, a tale is told of a prince who interrogated his sister about the Triforce. She refused to answer, however, and the prince brought in a wizard, who, to the prince’s horror, cast her into a deep sleep.
Now in ALttP’s account of the Imprisoning War—which, obviously, I think is OoT—it is implied that the Imprisoning War was the first time anyone had touched the Triforce. In other words, since it says in TAoL’s manual that the king had kept peace with the Triforce, the prologue cannot have happened before OoT. Also, in TWW, the king said to Tetra that she was Princess Zelda—not just “the princess”—which, again, heavily implies that TAoL’s prologue cannot have come after TWW either.
As well, in ALttP’s in-game account of the Imprisoning War, it says that the king had ordered the Sages to seal Ganon away. Since this obviously didn’t happen in OoT, how is this possible?
Given that set of circumstances, I find what I put in this thread to be the most logical.
My placement of the Oracles and LA
I know that most people have something to the effect of ALttP-OoS/A-LA in their theories, but I kinda… doubt that. There are some factors that lead me to believe otherwise.
First and most obviously, there’s the Master Sword. In ALttP’s ending scene, as Link put it back in the Lost Woods, the narration said, “And the Master Sword sleeps again… forever!” If the Oracles occurred after ALttP, how, then, was the Master Sword obtainable? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Second, there’s the fact that Zelda introduced herself to Link. She seemed to have heard of him, but she talked to him as if she had never met him before. If indeed this was the same Link as the one in ALttP, they would have known each other, which doesn’t add up. One could argue, of course, that Link had not been sufficiently specific in his wish at the end of ALttP, and consequently Zelda forgot him, but still, that seems sort of… well, unlikely.
Third, there are the oracles. I’m talking people here, not games. The oracles in their namesake games lived in Holodrum and Labrynna, but in TMC, they were permanently moving to Hyrule. They had lived in their respective countries before; the figurines confirm that. One could easily say that they just moved back, but… why? It seems more likely that they would stay in Hyrule, right?
While only the first one is a fact, the rest are implications—enough to convince me to put the Oracles and LA before ALttP and TMC.
The Picori Festival
People have asked me about when I place TMC if I believe that the Legend of the Picori refers to TLoZ and TAoL, saying that TMC took place 100 years after the Legend of the Picori. But let’s take a look at the manual:
“…The people were so grateful for the Picori’s help that they held an annual celebration in their honor. The tradition of the Picori Festival continued, but over the generations, the Picori themselves passed into legend.
“The legend of the Picori tells of a mystic doorway that opens just once every hundred years. When the door is open, the Picori can cross from their world into Hyrule. This year is that year in one hundred, and the festival is unusually grand…”
That year in one hundred. Meaning it’s a multiple of 100. So yeah, that is pretty much just a misunderstanding of the text.
Why the Hero appeared during the flood
Yes, I’m very familiar with TWW’s prologue, thank you for asking. But there are two factors that lead me to believe that the Hero did in fact appear between OoT and TWW:
1. The Master Sword had been moved from the Temple of Time to the castle. Since Rauru said that only the Hero could pull it out, we can assume that the Hero did pull it out.
2. The back of TWW’s box states that every time evil comes to threaten Hyrule, a boy named Link also rises to oppose it. Would that not also apply to the flood era?
In other words, the Hero tried and failed to defeat Ganon when he returned because the Master Sword was useless; Ganon had already killed the Sages giving the Master Sword its power.
Why TLoZ was before ALttP
Oh, boy.
TWW’s ending is rather confusing. During the final battle, Zelda and Ganon’s Triforce appeared on their respective hands, but Link’s did not, nor had it appeared on his hand anytime before Ganon had summoned it out of him. Ganon had the Triforce crest on his hand when he looked into Zelda’s dreams, yet he didn’t have it when he drew his swords. These factors lead me to believe that:
1. Triforce appear on their respective owners hands only when the latter are calling upon the former’s power.
2. The king’s virtues—power, wisdom, and courage—were not balanced, so he was left with only the Triforce of Courage, and the other two Triforce went back to their respective owners. The gods, therefore, must have granted the king’s wish in a successful attempt to fool Ganon.
This sets the stage for TLoZ and TAoL perfectly.
The light force
This is tricky. I originally just said that the “golden light” referred to in the prologue of TMC was not the light force—how would Zelda get it if the Hero of Men had it, and why would he give it to her? However, when I played the game again, I discovered that the storyteller in Hyrule Town said that the light force was indeed the golden light referred to in the prologue. This led me to think that the Picori “giving” the Hero of Men the light force was a metaphor. Then I played through the beginning of TMC again, and saw that Vaati said something about the ancient power of the Hylians right before he turned Zelda to stone. I’m assuming that it is the light force; that is why my theory is… the way it is.
And as to why I don’t believe it’s a Triforce or something, I have five words for you: “light force” is never capitalized.
Why the Hero of the Winds was Swiftblade the First
In TWW, Orca acted as if Link was the only one to have ever mastered the Hurricane Spin. In TMC, Swiftblade the First said that he was the only one to have ever mastered it. Put two and two together, and… well… yeah.
Why the Links were all blood-related
The most common argument against this is that when the King of Red Lions spoke with Jabun, he said that Link had no connection with the Hero of Time, meaning that he couldn’t possibly have been a descendant. However, when put in context, that comment seems to mean, not that they were definitely not related, but that Link from TWW was not the Hero of Time himself. Remember, the Deku Tree thought he was; also, the question in question (heh) was whether the King of Red Lions had found the Hero of Time—not his heir. It seems to me that the KoRL was just confirming that they were not one and the same.
As to the evidence that the Links were related, I’ll start with the Hero of the Winds. Grandma said that the shield on the wall was the family shield, and the item description said that it had been used by the Hero of Time. And again, a common argument against this is that they didn’t look the same; to that, I say to go compare the Kokiri Swords from OoT and MM. Anyway, in ALttP, there were several references to the “Knight,” and it was stated a couple of times that Link was descended from “the Hero.” Also, in LA, it said that the Whirling Blade (or Spin Attack) had been passed down by the family of the Hero. All those things together lead me to believe that each Link was a descendant of the last.
The Dark Sheikah
These were never directly mentioned in the games, but there are references to a “dark tribe” in FSA whose magic had been sealed in the Dark Mirror. As well, in ALttP, Agahnim said, “After all, the legendary Hero cannot defeat us, the tribe of evil, when we are armed with the Power of Gold.” Put that together with a comparison of Agahnim, Vaati, and Veran’s many similarities, and you’ve got yourself some sort of evil tribe or another. I just choose to believe that they are Sheikah because of their similar symbols and the physical trait they have in common: red eyes.
Sages and maidens
As the maidens of ALttP said, the ancient blood of the Sages had thinned over the years, so that the maidens of that era were only shadows of their predecessors. For one, I believe they had lost the power of immortality that seemed to be present in OoT’s era, meaning that, obviously, the maidens of FSA and ALttP were different. And as to why the maidens all took Hylian forms in ALttP, I think that that’s because, while they may not have possessed many of their ancestors’ abilities, they did retain the power of shape-shifting.
Further thoughts:
The geography of Hyrule between OoT and TWW
First of all, I believe that everything had been rotated about 30-35° clockwise—be it by tectonic movement, slight rotation of the magnetic poles, whatever. Got that image in your head? Good. On to the next part.
I think that the Forest Haven was in fact the top of the Great Deku Tree from OoT. The Forest Haven and Forbidden Woods looked like they could easily have been the top parts of the “Y” shape that had formed as the tree had grown. This is reinforced by the fact that as you approached it, the KoRL said that it looked like a tree trunk rising out of the water.
Furthermore, I believe that Outset Island was the Kokiri Forest, and the Forest of Fairies was part of the Lost Woods (the rest was… south of the map, perhaps?). This requires further tectonic movement, since if this is true, the Kokiri Forest would have gone from the east to the southwest and left the Deku Tree… but hear me out here. There were lots of similarities between the two places, and Outset Island even had the Kokiri Forest’s music mixed in with it.
Next, obviously, Dragon Roost Island was Death Mountain; I don’t really need to explain that. The clockwise rotation of Hyrule, though, would have put Kakariko Village west of Death Mountain—exactly how Windfall Island was in comparison with Dragon Roost Island in TWW. And again, Kakariko Village’s music was remixed for Windfall Island. As well, I think that Fire Mountain was just the result of an eruption: a piece of Dragon Roost that had been recently ejected.
I also believe that Ice Ring Isle was what had remained of Zora’s Domain—that Morpha’s curse had never completely left, although it had lifted for the most part. Funnily enough, if this is true, the Hero of Time must have put the Iron Boots back where he had gotten them…
Last, there’s the Forsaken Fortress. I think that it was the Gerudo Fortress from OoT. This explains why Ganon chose it as his base of operations in TWW. Perhaps the Gerudos had been forewarned of Ganon’s return—an oracle, perhaps?—and had forsaken the fortress (hence the name). Tetra said that her gang of pirates used to compete with another group of pirates that lived there—Gerudos, anyone?
Confused?
Here’s an illustration.
The geography of the New Hyrule
I used to try to put them all in one place, saying that this place was renamed, that place was burned down… but I found it really hard. Then I stumbled across this quote from TAoL’s manual:
“Long ago, when Hyrule was one kingdom…”
When Hyrule was one kingdom? Meaning that she wasn’t (when Impa said that, at least)? That explains a lot. So pretty much, I just believe that they were different kingdoms on different landmasses, led by different divisions of the same Royal Family—I suppose you could call it a dual monarchy. I would explain it in detail and stuff, but…
A picture is worth a thousand words.
The changing of the races of Hyrule
As we all should know, in OoT, it started out with the Zoras, Gorons, Sheikahs, Gerudos, Kokiri, and Hylians. But in TWW and other games, some of the races had changed, died off, or migrated; other, new races have also made appearances. This is what I believe happened to each of them, in backward alphabetical order (don’t ask why):
The Zunas originally lived outside Hyrule, but sometime after the flood, they moved. Afterward, they built a pyramid around the Trident of Power.
The Zoras, once they had thawed, stayed in Zora’s Domain (those in Hyrule, anyway—there were others outside of it) until the flood, at which time they went to the highest piece of land they saw—Death Mountain. There, they crossbred with one or two other races, including the Terminans (I’m basing this off of Koboli’s figurine in TWW—it said that he had had a postman in his ancient ancestry, and the shape of his noggin looked exactly like that of the postman from MM). When Valoo moved in, they each took a scale, and became the Ritos.
Eventually, however, Valoo died, leaving the Ritos’ way of life in ruins. Without their wings, the Ritos eventually went back to the water, taking up the name of their ancestors—Zora. They spread out across Hyrule and the surrounding areas, and became hostile toward other races of Hyrule.
The Sheikahs lived among the Hylians without them knowing throughout the rest of the series. Some branched off into the Dark Sheikahs, warring with the Sages and eventually joining Ganon.
The Minish built the Armos to help the peoples of Hyrule, then stayed in isolation for a very long time; the only thing they did in regards to the “big world” was place Rupees, hearts, and other goodies in the bushes and grass. Eventually, they forged the White Sword and presented it to the Hero of Men, and became involved in the battle against Vaati.
The mermaids lived in the sea, and continued to do so after the flood.
The Kokiri eventually became Koroks as a result of continually leaving the woods (they did it fairly often after the partay at Lon Lon Ranch)—there had been some truth in the myth. They helped the Deku Tree carry out his plan to unite the islands with forests, and lived in those forests once the plan had gone far enough to be self-sustaining.
The Hylians interbred with lesser humans—much like the Men of Númenor from The Lord of the Rings—and eventually lost many of their gifts of communication with the gods. Obviously, they remained the dominant species of Hyrule throughout the entirety of the series.
The Gorons, when the Zoras came and took over their mountain, set out across the new sea and spread out, establishing colonies in other countries, and eventually Death Mountain again when the Ritos/Zoras moved out.
Finally, the Gerudos stayed in their fortress until around the time that Ganon returned in TWW, at which time they left Hyrule, only to return later.
The spellings of the proper adjectives
Throughout the series, there have been two spellings of the word meaning “in Hyrule”: Hyrulian and Hyrulean. There have also been two words used to describe the race of humans in Hyrule: Hylia and Hylian. The way they are used, it seems to me that Hyrulian refers to the Old Hyrule, and Hyrulean refers to the New Hyrule. Likewise, I believe that Hylia refers to the ancient race, and Hylian refers to the race as we see it in OoT and afterward. I have found nothing yet to contradict this, so I’m stickin’ with it.
Ganon in TWW
One day, a couple of friends and I were discussing certain aspects of the series, and I brought up that I found it funny that in TWW, Ganon likened the Master Sword to a key, rather than a lock. One of them went all spastic and came up with this amazing idea, which both of us still use. What is this idea, you ask? Here it is:
When you pulled the Master Sword out, you took Ganon’s powers away, rather than granting them.
Remember how he had been able to cast the land into eternal night before he had supposedly regained his powers? That after that, he conducted a swordfight with you, rather than a magic fight? It just doesn’t add up… unless you believe this theory. This is also compatible—very compatible—with TLoZ, as you saw above in the timeline theory. But what about what Ganon said? The theory was originally spawned by Ganon’s seemingly inaccurate comparison, given what he said afterward. My conclusion:
Ganon has a very good poker face.
Other stuff in the timeline:
I’ve been asked before where I think other games and stuff with Link as a cameo appearance in them or those not made by Nintendo would go. I finally have an answer; here is my timeline with all those included (remember, this part is just for fun, so don’t like GANNON-BAN me for it or anything):
Link I:
First half of OoT
MM
SSB
SSBM
Second half of OoT
SCII
Link II:
Flood
Link III:
TWW
TT
Link IV:
TLoZ
Cartoon series
FoE
WoG
ZA
Zelda G&W
TAoL
Link V:
OoS
OoA
AST
LA
SMRPG:LotSS
Link VI:
TMC
Link VII:
FS’s backstory
Link VIII:
FS
Link IX:
FSA
Link X:
ALttP
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soon to get 
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