Synopsis
A Link Between Worlds presents players with a version of Hyrule that appears, on its surface, to merely be what would happen if one of the Triforce Wars resulted in the Triforce’s destruction. We are told that the Royal Family of Lorule, Hilda’s ancestors, destroyed their Triforce in order to prevent further wars over the relic. It is true that Lorule did have a Triforce that was destroyed, however there are more differences with Hyrule that are not so explicitly stated to the players.
In addition to the different Triforce story, the following are apparent further differences between Hyrule and Lorule based on what we see in-game or know from established lore:
1. Lorule has no Master Sword 2. Lorule has no Fi 3. Lorule has no Skyward Sword 4. Lorule has no Spirit of the Hero 5. Lorule has no Demise 6. Demons can exist without Demise 7. Lorule has no Goddess Hylia
With these facts established, I will propose a Lorulean origin for the character Demise and explain how and why this could happen.
An Alternate Origin
Lorule has no Master Sword
There are three primary facts about Lorule that indicate a lack of a Master Sword and its initial creation. The first and most apparent is that Ravio does not have the sword. It is obvious that Ravio is Link’s counterpart in Hyrule and therefore if anybody would wield Lorule’s Master Sword, it would be him. It is potentially explainable that Ravio would not have the courage to wield the Master Sword in this era even if it did exist, though.
If the Master Sword did exist and Ravio just wasn’t courageous enough to wield it, where would it be? Based on what we’ve seen from the Master Sword’s location in both A Link Between Worlds and A Link to the Past, the location would be the northwestern Lost Woods in Hyrule where the pedestal is found. In Lorule, we can find this exact location only to find no such pedestal.
If Ravio does not have the Master Sword, and the pedestal where it rests was never constructed, then was the Master Sword even created at all?
We can find up to four Master Ores hidden throughout Lorule that Link can use to improve his Master Sword. This ore is notable in that it visually resembles the Master Sword itself (the ore being shaped like the tip of a blade and the center engraving matching the shape of the Master Sword’s crystal on the hilt, as well as the crystal on Fi’s forehead). These Master Ores can only be found in Lorule and do not seem to exist in Hyrule. Because of this, I think that Hyrule’s Master Ore did exist at one point but was used in the original creation of the Goddess Blade which is the original form of the Master Sword.
So in Lorule, if Ravio does not wield the Master Sword, and the Master Sword pedestal does not exist, and the Master Ore still exists, then it follows that the Master Sword simply does not exist in Lorule.
Lorule has no Fi
Having established that Lorule has no Master Sword, we can follow this fact to its logical conclusion. We know from the events of Skyward Sword that Hylia was directly involved in the creation of the Goddess Blade and Fi. It is not explicitly stated from where the original physical blade came from, but we know Hylia created Fi who is bound to that blade and part of what gives the Goddess Blade and the Master Sword its powers. Without Fi, there is no Master Sword. And without a Master Sword, there is no Fi.
Lorule has no Skyward Sword
Given that Lorule has no Master Sword nor Fi, it follows that the events of Skyward Sword as we see them never happened. Without a Master Sword, there is no way for Link to defeat Demise and if Demise is never defeated, he will take the Triforce and conquer the world. We know from what Hilda tells us and what we see of Lorule that it did not fall to Demise and was prosperous (with the exception of Triforce Wars) until the Triforce’s destruction. It was only after this point that Lorule began to crumble.
Lorule has no Spirit of the Hero
It follows that without the Master Sword, Fi, and the events of Skyward Sword, there will be no Spirit of the Hero to be forged by Link on his quest. There is no Fi to give Zelda premonitions of her upcoming purpose or to guide Link towards pulling the Goddess Blade from Skyloft. There is no Skyloft in the Sky if Skyward Sword never happened either.
Lorule has no Demise
If Demise and the Triforce exist, then Demise will attempt to claim it through his war preceding the events of Skyward Sword. We also know that Hylia did not have the power to permanently defeat Demise and that his ultimate destruction was dependent on the Hero with the Master Sword defeating him.
Knowing Lorule didn’t fall to Demise while at the same time no Master Sword and Spirit of the Hero existed, we can reason that Demise (as we see him) did not exist. If Demise did exist, Lorule ought not to have survived after his war.
Lorule has no Hylia
We know from Skyward Sword’s backstory that Hylia was the protector of the Triforce and she did not believe the Triforce was safe under the stewardship of humanity.
“Its power is too great to leave in the grasp of man. Dependence on its might is an invitation to disaster.
When it has served its purpose, it must be secreted away to lie dormant once again...the knowledge of its existence hidden from mortal history.” - Impa (restating Hylia’s words)
Given that a war with Demise never would have happened, Hylia would not have entrusted the Triforce in the hands of man. Further, Hylia would have understood that the Triforce should not be destroyed because of its foundational tie to the realm’s existence. For the Royal Family to both obtain the Triforce and subsequently wish for its destruction, there would be a severe lack of wisdom on their part and a supreme dereliction of duty on Hylia’s part.
For these events to happen in a world where Hylia never had to sacrifice her body to seal Demise, Hylia must not exist in the first place.
Without Hylia, Fi does not exist; the Master Sword does not exist; the Royal Family has no connection to Hylia and the aspect of Wisdom; and there is no Spirit of the Hero. And without Hylia but with a Triforce, Demise cannot exist otherwise the world would be conquered by him.
An Alternate Timeline
With the absence of key figures and relics from Lorule’s history, it makes sense that there may be some further differences between Hyrule and Lorule. Among these potential differences are the impact that Hylia actually has on the world.
Hylia, Goddess of Time
An aspect of Ocarina of Time’s lore that isn’t addressed often is the notion that musical tones from ocarinas can control time itself. The Composer Brothers, Sharp and Flat, tell the players of their studies into magical music using ocarinas as well as the Royal Family’s hereditary magical powers which we now know to be the effects of Hylia’s essence through Zelda’s bloodline. From Zelda’s invocation of the Goddess of Time when wishing Link good luck with the Ocarina of Time prior to the events of Majora’s Mask and the integral tie of Zelda and her bloodline to this power, I think it follows that Hylia herself is that Goddess of Time spoken of by Zelda.
While Hylia might not be on the same level or tier as the Golden Goddesses, we still know these gods are responsible for or hold dominion over particular aspects of the world. From the story told to us by the Great Deku Tree, we know Din represents the aspect of Power and the physical world itself. Nayru represents wisdom and the laws by which the physical world operates. Farore represents courage and the life that exists within and upholds those laws. Hylia would represent time, but how exactly does that manifest itself?
If we look at the Greek god Chronos (keeping in mind that Hyrulean architecture is often heavily inspired by Greek and Roman architecture specifically), he was either time itself or a personification of time and represented the linear flow of time. Without Chronos and the other gods of time, time itself would not exist or would exist in some more chaotic or unregulated state.
If we were to imagine a multiverse where one universe exists with a Goddess of Time to regulate time and another universe where time is unregulated, what would that be like?
Lorule’s Timeline Quirk
Time in the Zelda series, like in real life, operates at least partially in a simple linear pattern where time flows in one direction giving us the past, present, and future. Even within Lorule, a world ungoverned by a Goddess of Time, time still appears to follow a linear progression.
Taking a step back, outside the local scope of any single universe, how do we imagine different universes line up with respect to time? We like to imagine that timelines are parallel to each other and if you were to look at two “parallel” timelines like the Adult Timeline and Child Timeline in Hyrule, we would imagine that 500 years after the nexus of the split in one timeline would be parallel with 500 years after the nexus on the other side of the split. In this respect, timelines would be linearly flowing in the same direction and would all correlate to the same rate of change.
However, without a Goddess of Time, could that relationship change? If you imagine some point in time where Hyrule and Lorule were connected (like A Link Between Worlds), would 500 years after the disconnection of those timelines still be parallel 500 years after ALBW in Hyrule? Has 500 years passed in Lorule if another connection were to open connecting the two?
If we suppose that the Goddess of Time, Hylia, was responsible for the linear order of the timeline then that may mean that a universe without Hylia may not be ordered in the same way as universes in which Hylia does exist. To visualize this, imagine Lorule’s timeline flowing “up” while Hyrule’s flows “down” so that they are flowing in opposite directions.
While Hyrule and Lorule were connected during A Link Between Worlds, their flow of time would be temporarily aligned but when that connection is severed, the timelines would resume their natural flow. In a situation where the timelines are not aligned, you could end up with a situation where 500 years later in Hyrule could correlate with 500 years earlier in Lorule’s timeline. Time would still be flowing “forward” from the perspective of anyone within those timelines, but the macro alignment of those timelines would not be parallel.
In the sense that Lorule is portrayed as an upside-down or inverted Lorule (in both the art and in some of its music), its timeline would also be inverted in this same way.
Ganon’s Actions in Age of Calamity
In Age of Calamity, we see Terrako open a Gate of Time and travel back in time to a new timeline branch in order to subvert the calamity. In witnessing this, Ganon makes the decision to follow Terrako to this new timeline where he acts through Terrako’s counterpart in this timeline to further his own agenda in conquering Hyrule.
This event is important because it displays that if Ganon is aware that another world is accessible to him where his goals can be accomplished, he will actively attempt to move to that world even while still maintaining his presence and actions in his original world. In Age of Calamity’s worlds, Ganon continues to cause the Great Calamity while a portion of himself through his Malice went back in time to another timeline allowing himself to effectively exist as two separate entities originating from a singular entity.
Demise’s Lorulean Origins
During the events of A Link Between Worlds, Yuga, Ganondorf’s likely Lorulean counterpart, succeeds in summoning Ganon’s sealed body (from when he was defeated in A Link to the Past) and subsequently fusing with him and obtaining the Triforce of Power. This scene is particularly notable because it shows Ganon being summoned to a world he’s never been to and was supposedly not sealed within.
After fusing with Ganon, Yuga becomes enraptured by the power he has and, like Ganondorf and Demise before him, seeks to take the Triforce for himself, conquer Lorule, and remake it to be a world he rules.
Yuga Ganon is ultimately defeated and Ganon’s body returns to a state that would allow him to return to Hyrule for the first Legend of Zelda, however it is likely that either part of Ganon’s spirit remained in Lorule deliberately or Yuga’s spirit was forever tainted by his fusing with Ganon turning him into Lorule’s version of Ganon whose spirit will return in a new form in the future.
If Ganon’s spirit is conscious during his time in Lorule, it would be within his character to leave part of himself behind so that he could exist in this realm just like he does in Age of Calamity. If he is not conscious during this time, it still would be reasonable that Yuga’s spirit has been permanently affected like Ganondorf’s has, causing him to be a Ganon-like entity existing within Lorule.
After Link and Zelda return to Hyrule, they wish upon their Triforce to restore Lorule’s Triforce. This happens and we see the Triforce of Lorule return to its original form. Without thinking about it too hard, one would imagine this is a happy ending as Lorule is returned back to a Hyrule-like state governed by its Triforce.
However, the implications of this action may be far-reaching. Lorule still has no Hylia, Spirit of the Hero, and Master Sword. Lorule does now have an equivalent of Demise in the form of Yuga or some lingering Malice of Ganon’s. Just like Ganon in Hyrule, this evil force will eventually grow in power and incarnate into Lorule in the form of another Ganon-like entity we will call Yuganon. With a Triforce existing in the realm and none of the keys needed to defeat Yuganon, he will eventually succeed in conquering Lorule and claiming its Triforce for his own. With this happening, Lorule will become a permanent Dark World and effectively a home for the Demon Tribe as that is always the end state of the motivations of Ganon and Demise in other games.
It could be after an event like this where Yuganon would be called a title more fitting for what he represents: Demise. He is a bringer of the end of the Light World and his success represents the permanent downfall of whatever world in which he exists.
When we look at Demise’s form in Skyward Sword, an aspect of him that stands out is the form of the sword he wields.
The explanation typically given for why Demise’s sword looks the way it does is that there are elements of mockery or disrespect for Hylia, the Triforce, and Link because of the inverted Triforce and usage of an inversion of the Master Sword against the champion of the original sword’s creator.
Looking at it from another angle though, the inverted Triforce on Demise’s Sword could simply be because Demise is actually from Lorule and is a symbol of the only other Triforce he has successfully obtained.
Like Demise as well, Yuga Ganon has dark “veins” pulsing on his body after he grows further in power level.
Getting Demise from Lorule to Hyrule In Lorule, it is through a mysterious crack in Lorule’s Sacred Realm in the slab that appeared once the Triforce was destroyed where Hilda and Yuga learn of the existence of another world with its own Triforce. It was with this revelation that the two hatched their plan to steal Hyrule’s Triforce. Once Yuga was able to witness this crack (and potentially use it to travel to Hyrule for the first time, although he might have only needed to detect it through the crack), he was able to independently open portals to and from the two worlds with his own magic without the assistance of a Triforce or any other person.
What happens after the Demon King Demise successfully obtains Lorule’s Triforce and transforms the realm into a Dark World?
With one Triforce obtained and the huge power boost that comes with it, the knowledge that other worlds with Triforces exist in the multiverse, and the ability to traverse between universes, Demise would seek out other worlds to attempt to claim their Triforces.
Keeping in mind the proposed inverted nature of Lorule’s timeline in the absence of Hylia, Goddess of Time, the distant future of Lorule would correlate with the distant past of Hyrule so when Demise would eventually cross over from Lorule into Hyrule it will be far in the past serving as the preceding events to Skyward Sword.
Criticisms
Master Ore
I proposed that Master Ore does not exist in Hyrule because it was already used in the creation of the Master Sword sometime in the past prior to A Link to the Past. However, there is a notable difference between how sword upgrading works in A Link to the Past compared to A Link Between Worlds. In A Link to the Past, we upgrade the Master Sword twice (to presumably the same levels as we see in A Link Between Worlds), but neither time did we require any physical ore. Instead, the blacksmith upgrades it for us on his own for a small fee of 10 rupees as his thanks for saving him.
You could reason that if, in A Link Between Worlds, the same blacksmith (or his descendent) requires Master Ore to upgrade the Master Sword then it means the blacksmith in A Link to the Past may have already acquired Master Ore and had it in his possession or within his workshop. That way, upgrading the Master Sword would just require him using that Master Ore he already possesses. And if Hyrule DID have Master Ore at the time of A Link to the Past, then it would render the argument that Master Ore is required to create the Master Sword and only existed in such a limited quantity as seen in A Link Between Worlds less compelling.
However, even if this is the case, I think the absence of the Master Sword’s pedestal in the Skull Woods is still a compelling piece of evidence that the Master Sword does not exist in Lorule.
Final Thoughts
At the time I wrote this theory, it was kind of half a joke and half doing a thought experiment on taking some theories about Lorule to the extreme and seeing where it leads. A common thought people had with ALBW was that if the Master Ore exists in Lorule and not in Hyrule, but a Master Sword exists in Hyrule and not Lorule, then it must mean the Master Ore was used to create the Master Sword in Hyrule and this never happened in Lorule.
If this was the case, then what other things were different in Lorule than in Hyrule? This theory was the exploration of this question.