This page is for any discussion of the Goddesses of Hyrule -- Din, Nayru, and Farore. Please keep discussion of these deities off the main page.

If you have other WMG entries for the Zelda franchise, try here: WMG/TheLegendOfZelda

[[WMG: The goddesses want their enemies to be HijackedByGanon.]]

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Villains like Vaati or Zant could pose new unexpected threats if they didn't take part in Ganondorf's same old predictable schemes.

[[WMG: The entire series is a result of the Goddesses BatmanGambit to get Link laid.]]
This is consistent with the "Alternate Timeline", "Young Link killed himself" and "the CGI Games are prequels" theories. He couldn't get laid after ''[=OoT=]'' because Future Link disappeared forever, Zelda didn't have sex with Past Link because he didn't save her on that timeline. Even if he did, according to ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'', she'll never have conscious sex with him because she considers herself to be above him. He finally has sex with her at the end of, during ''Zelda II,'' the final chronological game.
* [[SarcasmMode That's right kids, Robot Chicken is now officially Zelda Canon.]]

[[WMG: The Goddesses are peeved at Link throughout the entire series, and put him through everything for their own amusement.]]
They're annoyed because of something he did or was in ''Ocarina of Time'', and decided to [[DisproportionateRetribution make his lives a series of living hells]]. They keep resurrecting him not because he's the only one whose soul can handle the Triforce of Courage, but because they they don;t care enough about anyone else to put them through it. They influence salespeople to act friendly and take points out of peoples' [[RewardingVandalism Not Rewarding Vandalism]] skill and put it in the [[CommonPlaceRare Don't Sell Link Anything Useful]] skill (which is why he can buy cool stuff like a bow or shovel when he is not, in fact, ''in'' Hyrule, as during Link's Awakening or, to a much lesser extent because they still have ''some'' pull, in ''Majora's Mask''. And why they decided to make all those scenes with Future!Zelda CanonDiscontinuity and took away his only surviving friend at the beginning of ''Majora's Mask'' and replaced her with a possibly ''more'' annoying fairy companion. And really, what decent, all-powerful godesses who ''didn't'' hate you would allow you to [[NightmareFuel die by zombie rape]], or repeatedly bring you back to life, or even back to the beginning of the room, no matter how many times you die, or even kill yourself jumping into a bottomless pit or standing on a bomb? Goes along with the Link Is Getting More and More World-weary as the Series Goes On theory above, and the antithesis to the The Goddesses Are Trying to Get the Hero of Time Laid and Don't Succeed Until ''[=AoL=]'' theory.

[[WMG: The three fangirls in front of the Star Game tent in ''Twilight Princess'' are the Goddesses.]]
Or incarnations thereof. Notice their hair: red, blue, and green. The colors of the Goddesses. They are also... well, fangirls, following you around and gushing over Link every time you talk to them. The ''real'' reason why they act like that is because they're giving you hearts to restore your life. Why do they run away? Because the Goddesses work in mysterious ways, of course.

[[WMG: Din once tried to betray the other two Goddesses]]
If Link and Zelda are avatars of Fafore and Nayru, and Ganon is an avatar of Din, it seems logical that Din is being punished somehow. Din attempted to conquer the other two, and when she failed, she was forced to relive her failure over and over again in the form of Ganondorf.

[[WMG:In addition to the three female Goddesses, there is at least one male God who is either there brother or lover]]
The Ocean King, from ''Phantom Hourglass''. We know he is a God of some kind. Given his connection to the wind fish and possibly the Terminian Guardians, he is the ruler of his realm, equal to the Goddesses, but in harmony with them. (He is, after all, able to arrange time shares with the Goddesses for various different Links.)

[[WMG: The Golden Goddesses are Titans from the ''Warcraft'' series.]]
They came down to a primordial world, shaped it and planted races, then just vanished without a trace. Like the Titans, some creations of the Goddesses (or creations of their creations) have been mechanical - the robots in ''Skyward Sword'' and Fi - or earth-based, the Gorons. This would also mean the Sacred Realm is Hyrule's equivalent to the Emerald Dream, since they're both "perfect" copies of the physical world. Now, the only question is why Hylians are flesh, which is not something Titans usually make life out of. Perhaps Hyrule has an [[EldritchAbomination Old God]] that Curse of Flesh'd them?
* Further connections: When ordering planets, the Titans seem to work in sets of three (Most of the work on Azeroth seems to have been done by Eonar, Norgannon, and Khaz'goroth, with Aman'thul stepping in occasionally for administrative purposes), with similar associations (Din and Khaz'garoth are physical terraformers associated with red and power, Nayru and Norgannon are lawmakers associated with blue and wisdom, and Farore and Eonar are lifebringers associated with green and courage). Combine with some of their design tendencies (leaving high-tech facilities around, such as Uldaman/Uldum/Ulduar vs Lanayru mining facility/Skykeep/Tower of the Gods, powerful guardians such as the Titanic Watchers/Earthen/Dragons vs Hylia/the Light Spirits/the Dragons), general hands-off approach with notable exceptions (Old God infestation vs Demise's invasion/Ganon during the Era without a Hero), and leaving behind objects of great power (The Well of Eternity vs the Triforce), it seems obvious.

[[WMG: The cuccos' revenge death-call is punishment from the goddess Farore.]]
Farore is essentially the goddess of life and nature, and as the goddess of courage as well, she doesn't approve of mindless bullying of innocent and weaker creatures. She's also related to wind, so birds possibly get a preferential treatment (over say, fish). Given that Link is the one carrying her triforce, it's not far-fetched to think she'd pay special attention to him, in a manner Din and Nayru would to their respective triforce-holders.

[[WMG: There is a great extensional evil, not Ganon, going by various names, that opposes the creation of the Goddesses.]]
This is an evil entity who only wants to destroy all forms of existence, and particularly despises The Goddesses, The God, (see above) and creation. When the Goddesses set about to create hyrule and the universe that nurtures it, this evil, (who would one day go by the names Majora, The Nightmare, and Bellum) tried to destroy it. Majora was weak compared to the Goddesses and so failed to interfere at the beginning of time. Still, this evil waited and bided it's time, hoping to gain more power drawing upon the evil of man to make another assault. At this point...

[[WMG: The Goddesses are JerkassGods, a la Greek mythology.]]
This came from me playing [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]] in particular. So, we all know that the Goddesses in game threw the Twili into another dimension for creating a shadow artifact (Fused Shadow) to rival the Triforce. But they don't kill Ganondorf (who seems to be a homicidal maniac; [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]], he threated the survival of the Kokiri, Zoras, and the Gorons; [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]], he gave some of his power to Zant, who went even more insane than he was before), and the Sheikah and Kokiri as a race seem to be dead at the point of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]. The Bombers (the essayists on the internet, that is) made a good point about Termina as well. They are doomed as a whole, because they don't like the Goddesses. (Look at the blocks at the inverted Stone Tower Temple; the gargoyles are licking their asses, which have the Triforce on their tongues.) They only care if people create something that rivals their own power or if people don't like them, because ''they realise that the three of them are assholes.'' Speaking of which, though, there ''was'' a FanFic that had this similar to the main premise, but the Goddesses just didn't care.
** Supported by the Backstory of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'': The goddesses DROWN their people, because when Ganon was rampaging through the country and slaughtering their friends and families and the hero failed to appear. They are goddesses. They could have just, I don't know, let Ganon fall into a pit and let him drown there alone, but instead they killed of most of Hyrule's population and then forced whoever was still alive to live on a bunch of deserted islands in a fishless sea. Jerks.
*** It seems you didn't pay attention to the intro properly, [[spoiler: although I realize that this may be a more satirical theory than a serious one.]] The absence of the Hero of Time prompted the people of Hyrule to turn to the Goddesses, who apparently are powerless to directly influence the world, and flood the world, as an all-encompassing remedy. They apparently cannot harm one who wields a Triforce piece, quite ironically. So, they decide to "nuke everything". Of course, even by going with these hard facts, the Goddesses still seem like jerks, disregarding the safety and wellbeing of the people of Hyrule in order to deal with, again ironically, what is harming their safety and well-being.

[[WMG: The "spirits" are the race the three golden goddesses belong to. They just happen to be the three strongest of them.]]
Supported by the fact that Byrne claims, Zelda had the power of the Spirit's within her, when in every other game , Triforce or not, it's called the Power of the God(desse)s. Farore, Din and Nayru are the queens of the Spirits, but they decided not to get too involved with the world they created anymore, which is why they sent the remaining weaker Spirits to take care of Malladus, instead of killing him theirselves. In other cases, they just relied on a hero to do that work.

[[WMG: Zelda is really the human incarnation of the goddess Nayru]]
Shortly after the creation of Hyrule, Din had a little disagreement with Farore and Nayru, causing them to battle each other. Nayru finally banished all three of them into mortal bodies, so their battle would not destory all of their newly created world. Din's soul was split upon the Gerudo tribe and Farore's sould upon the 6 maidens, while Nayru became Zelda. Koume and Kotake however, found out about this power resting in their clan and managed to assemble the whole power of Din in one beeing through.... errrm.... selected "breeding"...
Fafore's power was then reasembled within the master-sword by the sages and Link's soul was bound to it, so he too would reincarnate and reincarnate, until the balance between the three powers was finally completly restored.
If the master sword is destoried, Link stops reincarnating and Nayru(Zelda) is all alone against Din(Ganon). She would probably loose and the world would be lost. However, since in the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]''-timeline both, the triforce and the mastersword were lost in the floods of the great sea, it could be that Tetra and WW Link are already freed of the reincarnation-circle yet and that the struggle now continues under the sea, between Din's soul in Ganondorf's body and Farore's soul in the master sword, which is STUCK IN HIS HEAD.
** Apparently, SS!Zelda is the reincarnation of Hylia. Still, doesn't prevent her descendents from being avatars of Nayru.

[[WMG: Ganon is actually the embodiment of the goddess Din's sorrow, born within the Gerudo Ganondorf.]]
As someone suggested before, the goddess Din probably had some sort of disagreement with Farore or both of the other goddess and probably became violently during this fight. Her sorrow over her mistakes and the unfair violence she used were sealed as pure power in the Gerudo dessert, where they were latter born into a Gerudo-prince: Ganondorf. The pig-form "Ganon" is the true form of the evil Din did in her rage.

[[WMG: The three golden Goddesses represent not only the japanese Imperalia Regalia (items of virtutes); they also represent [[{{God}} the Christian concept of the sacred trinity]].]]

Three seperate units, which actually are just part of one omnipotent item/entity? Triforce sounds like the christian God, don't you think? It's obvious: Nayru represents the Holy Spirit, Din is the "Father" (Mother, in this case) and Farore is the "Son"(or, rather, Daughter). This also fits with the God of the Old Testament (who corresponds to the Father) being a whole lot more cruel and prone to just, you know, destroy things (Power), while the New Testament has Jesus (the Son) often acting pretty akin to this little, nice attribute we'd like to call "Courage". How "Wisdom" and the Holy Spirit (which enlightened the apostles) fit should be obvious.

[[WMG:''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' are meant to form a trilogy. Each of them is "dedicated" to one of the Golden Goddesses.]]
''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' features time travel (Nayru is often considered to the Goddess of Time) and there's more emphasis on Princess Zelda's role as a prophet and spellcaster in this game, than in the other two. Also, the game's color palett tends towards "blue" for the most part. Notice Navi being blue as well.\\
''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' has a very prevelant courage theme to it (especially the courage to move on from what has been lost, as well as the courage to do something great, despite being small and weak), the color green is used a lot in this game, often in vibrant shades. Additionally, Farore's oracle is obviously the youngest of the three, explaining (if this also applies for the Goddess herself) why ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' features a younger cast, as well as a more "childlike" design overall.\\
[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]] features a very red (or should I say [[RealIsBrown brown]]) color palette, and there's a very prevelant power theme: Zant receives power from Ganondorf and uses it to overthrow Midna, Midna wants to gain the power of the Fused Shadows and Ganondorf... Generally, many things in this game are more "brutal" than in the other Zelda games, fitting nicely with Din's connection to power and the element fire.

[[WMG: The Goddesses are incapable of maintaining more than two universe/timelines.]]

Immediately following the timeline split of ''[=OoT=]'', the balance of the universe is upset and will eventually collapse, given that one of the timelines is neutralized. Therefore the Moon is created in Majora's Mask. The Skull Kid also acts on the will of the Goddesses. He steals Majora's Mask, escapes to Termina, seals the four Gods of Termina in masks (as well as Link, in the Deku Mask) and sets the Moon to impact Termina, having no remaining opposition. Each area of the game is strucken with some great malady by Majora also to increase the difficulty of releasing the Gods.

Due to the unlikely occurance of the Happy Mask Man, the Goddesses' plan is foiled and Termina continues to exist. Around this time, Ganondorf has risen again in the Adult Link (''TWW'') timeline, and this has become the most unstable timeline. The Goddesses' respond to Link's victory in Termina by flooding the TWW timeline, significantly curbing the growth / unstable tendencies of that universe. Link actually causes destruction in a universe he was entirely unaware of.

The power balance now shifts to child (''Twilight'') timeline. At this time the Twilight Realm has begun to encroach upon the rest of the world, dictated by Ganondorf. If the Twilight race was capable of returning to the normal world, it would be assumed they would conquer the Sacred Realm (as attempted in the past) and threaten the existence of that timeline -- most likely ending the cycle of reincarnations of Links and Ganondorfs. Link again prevents the end of the timeline.

The universe decay catches up again in the Oracle games. The power disruption between the three universes explains how basic constants in the universe such as time (in ''Ages'') and nature (in ''Seasons'') are quickly unraveled, throwing both worlds into chaos simultaneously. Until the split timeline patching that occurs after the Oracle games, all of Link's actions are effectively a RageAgainstTheHeavens plot in order to prevent one of the timelines from being destroyed. Which can make Link a VillainProtagonist.

[[WMG: There is a fourth goddess.]]
While '''Din''', '''Nayru''' and '''Farore''' are the Creators, '''Hylia''' is the Creation. Her spirit pervades the land and all that lives above and below. Her feelings are those of the multitude. When the triforce is assembled, her piece is a window open on the world. Some call her "mother nature", but to the Golden Goddesses she is their daughter who has still so much to learn.\\
Over time, men achieved great power by channeling a single aspect of her. '''Majora''' was reborn out of all the despair and death wishes in the world, while the '''Fierce Deity''' rose as a being of collective survival instinct and awe for life, but neither got any of her kindness. Much later, '''Ganondorf''' became a vessel for the malice of his time. Others, however, have proven to be true Sages.
* With ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' soon to be released, it has been revealed that [[spoiler: when the "[[TheOldGods gods of old]]" departed, they left "the ultimate power" in the care of "Her Grace, the goddess", who has been rumored to be named Hylia]].
** ''Skyward Sword'' confirms this. Even down to the "lesser goddess" status and her name being Hylia. It doesn't state, exactly, what Hylia's the goddess OF, but it's still confirmed.

[[WMG: Hylia was closest to Nayru growing up.]]
Goes with the above theory that the golden goddesses were Hylia's parents, this would explain why [[spoiler:Hylia's human form got Nayru's part of the triforce as opposed to the others]].

[[WMG: The Goddesses drowned Hyrule as part of a deal with Ganondorf]]
Ganondorf appears, takes over most of the world and starts making demands of the Goddesses, starting with the irrigation of the Gerudo desert. They agree and drown the world to spite him.

[[WMG: The Light Force is the life force of a deity]]
The official explanation for the Light Force is that it is a massive amount of the life force found in all living things. But this leaves open the question of where such power came from. This goes hand in hand with the theory that the Light Force is Hylia's power: it is her dormant life force that is held by all the incarnations of Zelda, being a former Goddess. The other possibility is that the Minish were also present during Hylia's battle with Demise, and they were the ones she entrusted her life force to.

[[WMG: The Goddesses are from three different tribes.]]
If they ever appear in person, Din will have FlamingHair and scales much like Demise’s, Farore will wear gear and FacialMarkings reminiscent of the Fierce Deity, while Nayru and Hylia will ressemble each other in some way.

[[WMG: Malon is the Hyrulean goddess of domestic animals incarnate, and Talon is the vengeful cucco god.]]
Okay, so first off, Malon somehow knows instinctively a song that can not only tame a seemingly untamable horse, but can also summon it from anywhere in the world, as well as cause cows to talk and spontaneously produce milk. That doesn't seem like something a mortal farm girl should have access to, but if Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf are all incarnations of some divine force, it stands to reason that Hyrule's minor gods should also be able to take human form. Now, let's assume that Malon is the avatar of a goddess, presumably a minor goddess of domestic animals or something of the sort. It then stands to reason that Talon, who runs the ranch that she works on, is also a deity. Why of cuccos? Because something is protecting the cuccos by sending a swarm of invincible flying chickens to defend them when one is in danger, and we already know that Talon is very protective of his favorite bird. It all fits!

There's one more thing. In addition to being able to call upon the wrath of their protector, the Hyrulean cucco has another unique property marking it as a sacred bird: the ability to enable a human to enter its mind, as is the case with the Twilight Princess cuccos. One other creature in Hyrule has the same property: the seagull in the Wind Waker series. And what creature did Malon/Marin expressly state she associated with in Link's Awakening? That's right. The seagull. Hyrule's two telepathically-capable birds are also the favorite birds of two closely related, possibly divine, individuals. Coincidence? I think not.

[[WMG: There were other lesser gods besides Hylia]]
It's implied there were other human tribes besides the Hylians prior to the Demon invasion. These tribes also had protective gods like the Hylians had Hylia. However, they were weaker than Hylia and fell when Demise went all [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] on them.

[[WMG: Farore was usurped by Vaati after ''The Minish Cap'']]
The Japanese version of Hyrule Historia states that sometime between Minish Cap and Four Swords Vaati became a God of Winds and since Tingle refers to Farore as the Goddess of Wind("Outset Island was said to be blessed by Farore, the Goddess of Wind.") and only other Gods of Wind(Zephos and Cyclos and possibly Jahalla since the japanese version of Wind Waker refers to him as "Gaurdian Deity of the Seal: Jahalla" and he blows wind attacks from his breath) still are shown onscreen with power over wind, Farore is the only candidate as the deity Vaati usurped as God of Winds probably leaving the other 2 Golden Goddesses to decide who gets the Triforce of Courage since Vaati became the '''new''' Wind God before [=OoT=].

[[WMG: The three Golden Godesses as an item are the Zeldaverse's Pantheon supreme godesses, but there are a lot of gods/spirits à la Shinto]]
Hylia is the protector of Hylians, the Goddess of the Sand is the patron of Gerudos. Zephos and Zyclos are minor deities of wind too.
In a further elaboration of the Shinto theory, the three could be similar Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and Susanoo (Din, Nayru and Farore, respectively).\\
Or perhaps the Three Goddess are a part of the same supreme Goddess, in a Holy Trinity fashion of sorts.
(English is not my native language, feel free to correct my grammar)

[[WMG: The Goddesses are, and always have been, dead.]]
In ''Skyward Sword'', [[spoiler: Hylia/Zelda]] states that after the creation of the world, the Golden Goddesses "departed to the heavens" or something very similar. From my first playthrough, the implication to me was that they were dead. From a perspective of UsefulNotes/{{Pandeism}} they may have become Hyrule or the Triforce, but after what was said in Skyward Sword, I have a hard time believing they ever had any actual interactions with Hyrule and were never alive during the story proper. With that said though...

[[WMG: The Goddesses became the Triforce, a la UsefulNotes/{{Pandeism}} and were reincarnated as the oracles after ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'']]
* Being the first and only true time Link used the Triforce, his wish was a selfless and undid all of the evil wrought by Ganon, but it also could have released the Goddesses from their place within the Triforce, giving them new life as the oracles.

[[WMG: The Goddesses are dragons.]]
The shape of the Triforce is based on the Mitsu-Uroko (三つ鱗 -- "Three Scales"), which originated as the crest of the Hojo Clan, who was most prominent in the 13th and early 14th centuries.

The legend behind the Mistu-Uroko is detailed in the historical epic Taiheiki: The fukujin Benzaiten appeared before a pilgriming Hojo Tokimasa and proclaimed his eventual prosperous rule. As she departed, Tokimasa glimpsed the tail of a dragon from beneath her robes. Upon further investigation, three dragon scales that had flaked off were found in the sand.

With that in mind, it could be implied that the Triforce, instead of merely being a combined ethereal essence given physical form, actually consists of one scale from each of the Goddesses that flaked off as they departed.

That would imply that the Goddesses could be far more powerful than first believed. After all, if a single scale could contain immense power, try to imagine that of its source.

[[WMG: The Goddesses are distant and mostly uninvolved in the world.]]
The Golden Goddesses are typically only shown as acting in the world during times of immense crisis, generally during events when their direct intervention is needed to prevent it from being consumed by evil, but seem to have very little involvement in it otherwise. For the most part, they seem to prefer to create immortal guardians, such as lesser deities like Hylia, the three dragons from ''Skyward Sword'' or the Spirits of Light from ''Twilight Princess'', and leaving them to actually manage the world.\\
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Consequently, it can be assumed that Din, Nayru and Farore are for the most part content to observe the world or are otherwise occupied with their own ineffable business, and only interact with their creation when they absolutely need to in order to prevent its destruction. Even their agents tend to be reclusive and non-interactive, guarding certain places or waiting for certain events and largely being content to watch the centuries go by from isolation.\\
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Notably, there also isn't any real evidence of direct worship of the three goddesses in-game. Their sacred places and temples are all ancient, forgotten ruins, generally tended by individual guardians but not something that people visit with any regularity, and don't seem meant to be actual places of worship. If the Golden Goddesses are distant and non-talkative, this makes sense -- they people of the world view their distant creators with a sense of respect, but aren't given to actively worshipping them and indeed their existence is mostly treated as a historical trivium, rather than religious dogma.\\
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By contrast, lesser deities are much more involved in the affairs of the world. Hylia, most notably, actively led the mortal peoples in the ancient past and actively answers prayers by the time of ''Breath of the Wild'', cultivating a closer relationship with mortals that can be seen in their much more active worship of her.

[[WMG: The Goddesses are Aliens.]]
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