A fan-made guide to the complete Legend of Zelda timeline is drawing attention online as reports point to an Ocarina of Time remake on Nintendo Switch 2. The project, posted as a Show HN entry on legendofhyrule.com, walks through Hyrule's history from the creation of the world to the events of Tears of the Kingdom, and it arrives just as the remake talk heats up.
The timing matters because Ocarina of Time is the pivot point of the whole series. Nintendo's official timeline splits into three branches the moment that game ends: the child era, the adult era and the fallen-hero era. Anyone who wants to follow a remake's story will eventually have to pick a branch.
Why Ocarina of Time splits the Zelda timeline
According to the guide, Ocarina of Time follows Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo, as he hunts the Triforce hidden in the Sacred Realm. Princess Zelda and Link, a boy raised in Kokiri Forest, try to reach it first, a quest that throws Link seven years into the future and back.
That time travel is what fractures the chronology. The guide lists the child era, the adult era and the fallen-hero era as the three branches Nintendo uses, which explains why later games like Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker and A Link to the Past can all follow Ocarina of Time without contradicting each other.
Zelda timeline explained: the eras before the split
The guide starts at the beginning. The three Golden Goddesses create the world and leave the Triforce behind. The goddess Hylia is trusted with it and hides it from those who would misuse it, which brings her into war with the Demon King Demise.
Hylia sends the surviving people and the Triforce into the sky on land above a sea of clouds, then seals Demise away. In time, Skyloft forgets the Surface.
Other early chapters fill in the gaps: the Interlopers who try to take the Triforce from the Sacred Realm and are banished to the Twilight Realm, the sage Rauru building the Temple of Time over the Sacred Realm's entrance, and the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule below the clouds.
