Timeline revealed in the contents?
Since as far back as 1991 with the introduction of A Link to the Past the Zelda series has been rife with controversy over something that seems fairly straightforward in most gaming franchises: in exactly what order do the games take place? Here at ZeldaUniverse we have an entire active subforum devoted to the topic where every minute detail is analyzed and debated.
Part of what makes the debate so lively is that so few known indisputable facts have been revealed by the developers. In fact for quite a while part of the debate was whether there really was an intended timeline at all, but this was shown to be unfounded by then-director Eiji Aonuma who declared that there was a huge document representing the official timeline to the Zelda series but that it is confidential and is only shown on a need-to-know basis.
We fans feared we would never be privy to that knowledge, but all of that may be about to change…
Scans recently surfaced for the soon to be released art book Hyrule Historia which spans the full 25 years of Zelda art.
What’s curious, however, is that the table of contents hints at an even bigger reveal than original concepts for Link’s outfits. According to translation over at GameFAQs of the Japanese scans, there is a section entitled “Finally Revealed, The Geneology of The Legend.” It then goes on to give page numbers for the specific entries in the series.
History of Hyrule
~Finally Revealed, The Genealogy of the Legend~
The Timeline of Hyrule, Kingdom of the Gods………………………..68
The Legend of Gods and the Hero of Time……………………………….70
The Downfall of Hyrule and the last Hero……………………………..92
The Twilight Realm and the Hero’s Descendant…………………… 110
The Hero of Wind and the New World…………………………………..122
While it certainly sounds like the art book will make official the much speculated-upon timeline, please keep in mind that this is not an official translation of the Japanese. And also remember that Eiji Aonuma has started that the official timeline document would never be released. It’s likely that this is more a playful attempt at placing the stories in some semblance of order.
When the book releases in Japan on December 21, 2011 we will certainly have more definitive information. Stay tuned.
