Hyrule

Creation
Before time began, before spirits and life existed, three Golden Goddesseses descended from a Distant Nebula upon the chaos that was Hyrule. These three Golden Goddesses were Din, the Goddess of Power; Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom; and Farore, the Goddess of Courage. The Golden Goddesses each infused the land of Hyrule with with their own powers. Din, with her strong, flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth. Hence, she created the very earth from which life in Hyrule would spring. Nayru poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world, thus establishing order in a formerly chaotic world. She was responsible for the creation of the laws of the universe, including the laws of science and wizardry that would govern Hyrule and the universe at large. Farore, with her rich soul, produced all life forms that would uphold the law established by Nayru. As the mother of all life in the universe, she created the beings that would walk the earth, fly in the sky, and swim in the waters.

The three Golden Goddesses, their labors completed, departed for the heavens from a parallel dimension connected to the land of Hyrule, a realm of midday golden skies and a place where the spirits could roam free. A temple dedicated to the element of light was set at the heart of this Golden Land and the Goddesses departed from the point atop the pyramidal temple, leaving behind a symbol of their power at the point atop the temple. This symbol, a golden triangle composed of three smaller triangles united to form one, came to be known as the Triforce, a relic of omnipotent and omniscient power. The Triforce, when mastered in its entirety, would grant its wielder his or her heart's desire for the duration of his or her natural life. It served as a balance of the three forces: Power, Wisdom and Courage. Only one with all three forces in balance in his or her heart would be able to wield the united Triforce and use its true power to govern all. The Golden Land of the Triforce came to be known in the land of Hyrule as the Sacred Realm.

To seal the gateway to the Sacred Realm, the Ancient Sages, the appointed wielders of the powers of the world's elements by the Goddesses, crafted a sword capable of repelling even the Triforce's magic, as they knew that the Triforce could not judge between good and evil and could thus be abused by one of impure heart. This sword, forged and infused with the power to banish evil itself, came to be known as the Blade of Evil's Bane, or more commonly, the Master Sword. The sword would serve as the key to the Sacred Realm as well as the primary weapon against those of evil intent. The sword was infused into the magical Pedestal of Time and the mighty Temple of Time was constructed around the Pedestal of Time by the Ancient Sages, with the assistance of the Oocca race. The Sages then sealed the Grand Chamber of the Master Sword with a mighty stone barrier known as the Door of Time, which was then locked by a seal that could only be broken by one possessing three magical jewels, the Spiritual Stones, and the powerful instrument known as the Ocarina of Time. Each of these items were then given to the four major races of Hyrule.

As the ages passed, a prophecy formed, telling of a catastrophic event known as the Great Cataclysm, in which the Triforce would be shattered and the land of Hyrule would be cast into darkness by the evil one that shattered the Triforce. However, this dark entity would be repelled by a great hero, the Hero of Time, who would wield the Blade of Evil's Bane on the eve of the Cataclysm. The Hero of Time would work with the mythical Seven Sages to banish the dark one and return the light of peace to the land of Hyrule. This legend passed down through time and became myth as well as prophecy, the Prophecy of the Great Cataclysm and the Hero of Time.

Hyrulean Civil War
For many ages following the creation of Hyrule, each of the races of the land formed their own governments and lived in relatively peaceful relations. However, knowledge of the mythical Sacred Realm and the all-powerful Triforce contained within spread across the land, eventually destabilizing the realm to the point of war. One tribe, a group of dark magicians known as the Interlopers, crafted an ultimate weapon, the Fused Shadow, and attempted to use it to seize control of the Sacred Realm and by extension, take the Triforce for their own.

This set off an arms race of sorts, with each of the other tribes of the land feeling threatened not only by the Interlopers themselves, but also by the threat of any one tribe attaining the Triforce, which could give them total dominance over all other races. Thus, the first major war in Hyrule's history broke out across the realm, with the Interlopers and other races declaring war on each other to attain the Spiritual Stones and the fabled Ocarina of Time, the rumored necessary keys to enter the Sacred Realm.

The Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore, intervened when the war was on the verge of destroying the world they had created. They ordered four Light Spirits to confiscate the Fused Shadow and banish the Interlopers to a land of perpetual twilight. The Light Spirits obeyed their orders, and the Interlopers were driven into the prison world of the Twilight Realm, where they evolved into the Twili and grew into a more peaceful and humbled race. The Fused Shadow was shattered into four pieces, one of which was kept by the Interlopers and their descendants. The other three were hidden across the land of Hyrule by the Light Spirits.

The Gerudo King of Thieves, Ganondorf, then helped to negotiate an end to the destructive war amongst Hyrule's other races and helped to install the Hylian Royal Family as the ruling family of a new monarchy that would encompass the entire realm, with each of the races' individual governments still intact, but ultimately loyal to the new Royal Family of Hyrule. The new King of Hyrule unified the country beneath one banner. Even so, the Gerudo King who had helped make this possible was plotting to one day overthrow the new government and take the wish-granting Triforce for his own.