The Legend of Zelda-1

Conquered by Twilight, the Kingdom of Hyrule struggles to resist its dark and monstrous oppressors.

Type: Blossom

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Overview

In its earliest histories, war erupted among the races of Hyrule for the right to control the sacred power of its creator-goddessses. Greed drove brother against brother. Men fought to infiltrate the Sacred Realm. For their hubris and greed, these Dark Interlopers were driven into the desert and banished to the Twilight Realm. There they remained for a hundred thousand years, forgotten by time itself.

Hyrule united beneath the banner of the Hyrulean royal family, whose female sovereigns bore the blood of the Goddess Hylia. Generations passed. Even the myths forgot about the Dark Interlopers and the Twilight Realm. Now, thousands of years later, the Twilight has united under a cruel and power-hungry king.

In a single day, they wiped out Hyrule's defenses, reduced the royal family to a single young woman, and crushed all hope of resistance. As the darkness comes before the dawn, the restoration of light to a shattered realm now rests with a few scant individuals.

A dangerous place since the collapse of the kingdom, the Twilight seeks to spread now to other realms, its ambitious king ever hungry for more power. Those travelling are subject to attack from monsters of the Twilight, and the roads are not safe. However, mingling with other realms has given hope to Hyrule's people, and examples of higher technology can be found here and there, though most of it hasn't caught on widely just yet. Things like more modern clothing, trinkets, and other small effects are still uncommon, with Hyrule's downtrodden population too frightened to trust in strange things from beyond Hyrule.

Meanwhile, the Twilight King seeks to turn this confusion to his advantage, ever hungry for more advantages and more territory. He will recruit and reward those who seek gain in Hyrule's fall; Hyrule's people have sought help, and now the conflict has reached more of a stalemate than the disgraceful rout the Twilight had begun as.

Factions

Three main factions are at play in Hyrule.

    KINGDOM LOYALISTS

The displaced and frightened people loyal to the royal family of Hyrule make up one part. They support Zelda, even if the situation looks pretty dismal, and have hope that someone will save them from this pickle the kingdom's found itself in. They wait on the prophetic Hero, chosen by the goddesses themselves.

Most of these loyalists are Hylian in race, but there are others represented as well, including the mountain-dwelling Goron and aquatic Zora. There is little they can do individually to challenge Zant, especially for those fearing retribution, but they do what they can.

    DARK INTERLOPERS

In the other corner of the ring are the Twilight invaders, led by the Twilight King Zant and, secretly, the Gerudo Prince of Darkness, Gannondorf. The people of the Twilight Realm are twisted by Zant's ambitions, driven to the conquest of the Hyrule they had been exiled from since time out of mind. They are led by Zant. Zant, in turn, is secretly led by the Prince of Darkness, Gannondorf, the Gerudo prince and bearer of the Triforce of Power... but power unchecked is dangerous in its ambitions.

Zant's Twilight beasts and minions do his dirty work for him. Other denizens of darkness support them, including creatures under Gannondorf's influence, such as lizard-men and monstrous beasts. They're often cunning but dumb as a bag of rocks, and fiendishly strong.

    NEUTRAL PARTIES

Some have opted for a more neutral solution, choosing to weather out the storm of civil war. They flock either to distant places in the World Tree or the fringes of the kingdom, trying their best to avoid conflict. These include all races and forms of life -- even some disillusioned monsters or Hyruleans. Their motivations are as varied as the worlds that lie beyond Hyrule, and not all of them default to being friendly towards outsiders.

Technology

The level of technology in Hyrule is mostly mediaeval. Soldiers rely on melee weapons like halberds and swords as well as steel armour, and archers make use of composite bows made of wood, horn, and laminate. Some materials are magical in nature, defying 'mundane' physics, such as enchantments laid on items to strengthen them beyond mundane durability.

Examples of more modern technology native to Hyrule can be found in some places, such as telescopes and lenses. Such things are rare, though, requiring expertise to make and often made at great cost. Other materials that should be rare and costly may not necessarily be, such as glass making use of magic to ease the smelting process. As a result, glass windows are relatively commonplace. Hygiene is also very good, with even some of the poorer homes boasting private baths.

Technology has also filtered in through the breach, brought by those from the World Tree. More modern examples like cell phones can be found, though mostly in the hands of eccentric collectors and the very wealthy; information technology has no native infrastructure in Hyrule, so it doesn't always work at its best. The people of Hyrule are slow to trust such marvelous wonders, suspicious in the wake of their conquest by the Twilight.

There is some trade with other worlds, but many of Hyrule's merchants don't know how to value such strange foreign goods. As a result, trading is a little bit tentative, but it does happen.