Temple of Time (Ocarina of Time)
from Zeldapedia, the Legend of Zelda wiki
| This article requires a cleanup to meet Zeldapedia's quality standards. Please edit this page to improve it. Feel free to discuss this cleanup on the article's talk page. |
| Temple of Time | |
|---|---|
 The Temple of Time | |
| First appearance | Ocarina of Time (1998) |
| Country | Hyrule |
| Region | Hyrule Castle Town |
| Point(s) of interest | Door of Time Master Sword |
The Temple of Time is a location from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is the gateway between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm. When the Master Sword was infused into the Pedestal of Time it sealed the portal between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm. That is why Ganondorf was able to enter the Sacred Realm when Link removed the sword from the Pedestal. The Temple of Time is one of Hyrule's most ancient buildings and is protected by Rauru, a Sage who aided in its construction long ago.
Within the Temple stands a sacred altar which inscribes the instructions to opening the Door of Time which leads to the Master Sword. The inscription reads that the person needs to have possession of all three Spiritual Stones, to stand with the Ocarina of Time and play the Song of Time. Behind the Door of time stands the pedestal.
It was here that Link, the Hero of Time, was sent into a seven-year slumber, after drawing the sword from its pedestal, for that was the only way that he could grow old/mature enough to wield the Master Sword and possibly have a chance at defeating Ganondorf/Ganon. It was also the place where he could put back the Master Sword and warp back and forth through time.
Contents |
[edit] Origin
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
According to history, the Temple of Time was built ages prior to Ocarina of Time, at the time of Hyrule's creation by the Golden Goddesses (Din, Nayru, and Farore). When the Goddesses created Hyrule and the Sacred Realm, they sought to link the two dimensions to one another but also to seal the entrance to the Sacred Realm (the Golden Land). This seal would be put in place to protect the Sacred Realm and the Triforce stored within it. To this end, the Goddesses instructed the Ancient Sages to forge a sword powerful enough to repel even the Triforce's magic, knowing that evil ones could abuse the Triforce's power should they gain possession of it. The Ancient Sages did as instructed, forging a mighty weapon which they infused with the "Power to Repel Evil," housed in a yellow gem they forged into the blade's hilt. This sword came to be known as the "Blade of Evil's Bane," or more commonly known as the "Master Sword." The Master Sword would then serve as the key to the Sacred Realm, and the Ancient Sages infused it into a pedestal of stone that came to be known as the Pedestal of Time. The Master Sword and the Pedestal of Time served as the key and lock to the portal leading to the Sacred Realm, and only one worthy of the title "Hero of Time" could pull the sword from the Pedestal of Time. This was a safety feature put in place by the Ancient Sages, in the hope that this would ensure that only one pure of heart would be able to enter the Sacred Realm and lay claim to the Triforce one day to lead Hyrule to a golden age of prosperity. After the infusion of the Master Sword into the Pedestal of Time and the subsequent sealing of the gateway to the Sacred Realm, the Sages, in collaboration with the Oocca race, constructed a massive, mighty temple around the Pedestal of Time and the Master Sword, ending with the pair being in a private chamber known as the Chamber of the Master Sword. This chamber was sealed with a mighty stone door by the Ancient Sages, a door known as the Door of Time. To lock the Door of Time, the Ancient Sages crafted three magical stones known as the Spiritual Stones (each representing one of the three Golden Goddesses) along with a magical ocarina that came to be known as the Ocarina of Time. The three Spiritual Stones (the Kokiri's Emerald, the Goron's Ruby, and the [Zora's Sapphire) would have to be placed on a special altar fashioned for them in front of the Door of Time, and the Ocarina of Time would have to be used to play the so-called "Song of Time" in order to open the Door of Time. Each of the stones was given to a different race within Hyrule itself, and the Ocarina of Time was gifted to the Hylian race, to be kept by their Royal Family as the race's hidden treasure. The temple itself came to be known as the Temple of Time, and became known as the gateway to the Sacred Realm, namely the Temple of Light situated at the heart of the Sacred Realm that also served as the home of the Triforce.
[edit] Imprisoning War
Many ages following the creation of Hyrule and roughly a decade following the Hyrulean Civil War, the Gerudo King of Thieves, Ganondorf Dragmire, returned to Hyrule in search of a way into the Sacred Realm so that he could lay claim to the Triforce and its great power. He learned the legend of the Triforce and the process for opening the barrier in the Temple of Time leading to the Sacred Realm, the Door of Time. To this end, Ganondorf threatened each of the leaders of Hyrule's races with catastrophes if they did not turn over the Spiritual Stones to him, each of which flatly refused his demands. Ganondorf also pledged false allegiance to the King of Hyrule at Hyrule Castle in the hope of discovering where inside the castle the King kept the Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf was ultimately spared the trouble of bringing these items together thanks to the Princess of Hyrule, Princess Zelda, and a heroic boy from the Kokiri Forest named Link. Under Zelda's orders, Link gathered each of the Spiritual Stones from Hyrule's races by defeating the evil's Ganondorf had cast upon them. When he returned to Hyrule Castle with the stones, he found the Hyrulean capital city, Hyrule Castle Town, under attack by Ganondorf and his Gerudo Army. Zelda escaped with Impa on horseback and passed Link as they fled the Hyrulean capital, but she threw the Ocarina of Time into the city's moat, meaning for Link to find it. Ganondorf appeared shortly thereafter and confronted Link as to the whereabouts of Princess Zelda and Impa, which Link refused to reveal. After Ganondorf knocked the young hero down using his dark magic learned from his surrogate mothers Koume and Kotake, he sped off after Zelda and Impa into Hyrule Field. Link retrieved the Ocarina of Time from the moat and telepathically learned the Song of Time from Zelda. He then traveled to the Temple of Time just off of Hyrule Castle Town's main square and entered the sacred structure. There, he placed the three Spiritual Stones on the altar and played the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time, causing the Door of Time to open and yield access to the Chamber of the Master Sword. Inside, Link approached the Pedestal of Time and grasped the Master Sword by its handle. With his hand firmly on the handle, Link pulled upward and removed the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time, the Blade of Evil's Bane having recognized the purity of Link's heart and the strength of his resolve. With this, a rush of magical energy issued forth around the Pedestal of Time as the portal to the Sacred Realm was opened. However, Link was too young to wield the Master Sword at his current age, and thus he was sealed away within the Temple of Light for a seven year period until he was old enough to properly handle the Blade of Evil's Bane. Meanwhile, Ganondorf had secretly guessed that Link possessed the keys to the Door of Time and followed him into the Temple of Time, accessing the Sacred Realm through the portal Link opened. He then touched the Triforce, causing it to split apart and leave him with only the Triforce of Power in an event known as the Great Cataclysm, which also transformed the Sacred Realm into the corrupt Dark World. Ganondorf returned to Hyrule with the Triforce of Power and used it to subjugate the land to his will, ruling it with an iron fist for seven dark years, always on the lookout for the two other special people that now held the other two Triforce pieces.
Link awakened seven years later in the Temple of Light and was sent by the Sage of Light, Rauru, to awaken the rest of the Seven Sages. Returning to Hyrule through the Temple of Time, Link found that while Hyrule had become a dark and ruined place, the Temple of Time still stood, having survived Ganondorf's overtake of Hyrule. Link successfully cleansed Hyrule's temples of evil and awakened five other Sages, and upon his success, he returned to the Temple of Time to learn that Princess Zelda, disguised as Sheik, was the seventh Sage and the leader of the Seven Sages. After Zelda revealed the truth of their possession of the Triforces of Wisdom and Courage and gave Link the Light Arrows needed to battle Ganondorf, the King of Evil finally found her and imprisoned her in a rose-colored crystal. As she rose into the air, Ganondorf telepathically challenged the Hero of Time to come to his home, Ganon's Castle, for a final showdown, using Zelda as the bait. Link successfully infiltrated the castle with the assistance of the other six Sages and successfully defeated Ganondorf in battle, after which Ganondorf used his last breath to knock down his own castle in an attempt to kill the Hero of Time and the Leader of the Sages. Link and Zelda successfully escaped the castle just before it completely collapsed, and they believed the battle to finally be over. However, Ganondorf emerged from the rubble and used the Triforce of Power to transform into the Dark Beast Ganon, forcing the Hero of Time into a final battle to the death. With the Master Sword, Link successfully defeated Ganon, and while he was seemingly immortal with the might of the Triforce of Power, the Seven Sages used their power to cast him into the Dark World and sealed the gateway, causing the King of Evil to vanish from Hyrule. Shortly afterward, Zelda used the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to his childhood to regain his lost seven years (creating a massive time paradox that split Hyrule's history into two branches), and the Hero of Time laid the Master Sword to rest in the Pedestal of Time, closing the Door of Time once again. He then returned to Hyrule Castle in Hyrule's still-tranquil past and revealed the truth of what was about to happen to Princess Zelda, altering the course of history in that branch of the timeline.
[edit] Post-War History
It is unclear what exactly happened to the Temple of Time following the Imprisoning War's end. While it is known that Ganondorf attacked Hyrule Castle just as he had previously at the outset of the Imprisoning War, the second time found the Hylian Army fully prepared for the Gerudo invasion thanks in large part to the Hero of Time's warning of what was about to happen. In Twilight Princess, the Ancient Sages show an image of the invasion which features Ganondorf with much fire and destruction behind him. This would suggest that while Ganondorf and his Gerudo Army were defeated, the Hyrulean capital, Hyrule Castle Town, took heavy damage during the attack the second time around due to the sharp resistance by the Hylian Army. A hundred years later, during Zant's Invasion of Hyrule, the Temple of Time is seen once again; however, it lies in ruins and is surrounded by the ruins of what appears to have once been a city. This evidence would seem to suggest that the Hyrulean capital was too badly damaged during the Gerudo invasion for it to be worth repairing, and this would be supported by Hyrule Castle Town's new location near the center of Hyrule Field during Zant's Invasion of Hyrule. It is possible that while the former Hyrule Castle Town's ruins were abandoned, the Temple of Time may still have been visited for a time before being largely forgotten by the mainstream public (save for the Royal Family) and abandoned. It also appears that at some point following the failed Gerudo invasion that the Hylian people removed the Door of Time from its original place guarding the Chamber of the Master Sword and installed it as the main door to the Temple of Time before the Temple of Time fell out of mainstream knowledge. This would later enable a new Link of the Hero of Time's bloodline to go back through time's flow to visit the Temple of Time as it had stood in the days of his forbearer. Whatever the reason, the Temple of Time fell into deep ruin over the next century and became a largely forgotten place to many, save for Hyrule's Royal Family and the best of Hyrulean historians. It would remain the home of the Master Sword and the Pedestal of Time, despite the Sacred Grove growing over the area surrounding it, and would later serve as the location of one of the lost fragments of the Mirror of Twilight during Zant's Invasion of Hyrule.
Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.
[edit] See also
- Temple of Time, a dungeon in Twilight Princess
