"All you seek is power, Veran...You steal raw power to use as your own and then reap the harvest of the destruction you sow with it. You say that you sought to avenge your fallen people, but in reality all you want is to satisfy your own bloodlust!"
Similarly to the franchise itself, fan works based on The Legend of Zelda can have some utterly vile villains who threaten Hyrule and beyond.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
- Bound Destinies Trilogy:
- Overall: Majora is a far cry from its game counterpart. Once the Demon King of Termina, Majora warped the hearts of most of its people into worshiping it, and tried to lay claim to the land's Triforce. Upon being defeated, Majora corrupted Terminus's hero into becoming the Fierce Deity and rampaged across Termina, until Link tried to stop it. Majora lets the Deity die and attempts to corrupt Link into becoming the new Deity, torturing Link every way it can think to try to get him to break, up to and including trying to get him to kill Zelda. Much later, Majora attempted to destroy Termina completely by dropping the moon on it and corrupting the incarnation of Link that tried to stop it using the Fierce Deity's Mask. Seven years later, Majora allies with Veran to defeat Link, fully planning on betraying her later. Majora helps Veran continue her path of destruction, and the two torment Link and Zelda once more, with Majora trying once again to turn Link into its pawn.
- Wisdom and Courage: Veran is the mastermind behind the civil war in Hyrule that wiped out the Sheikah and the Hylian Knights, as well as the one who killed Zelda's mother. In the present day, she captures the Triforce holders, then forces Link to acquire the Fused Shadow or allow Zelda to be tortured. Veran places a curse on Link allowing her to torture him at will, and sets the Deku Tree on fire and tries to kill Saria because Link wasn't moving fast enough. Once she has the Fused Shadow, she tortures the Triforce holders into letting her take the Triforce, and destroys Castle Town. She has her monster minions kill Impa and Malon, then mocks Zelda and Link for being unable to save them. After entering Termina, Veran allies with Majora and the two rampage across Termina, destroying Clock Town and causing mass natural disasters, before doing the same to Hyrule. When Link and Zelda confront Veran at the Temple of Time, she tortures Link once more, and tries to kill Zelda to allow Majora to corrupt Link. Despite her claim of wanting to better her people's lot, Veran clearly cares only about power and satisfying her own bloodlust.
- The Hero of Time (Fan Film): Ganondorf, lacking his usual redeeming qualities, is the king of the Gerudo clan who wanted to take over Hyrule and gain the full Triforce for himself. In the past, Ganondorf was searching for the prophesied hero of time and ended up murdering Link's mother. Ganondorf manipulated the king of Hyrule into making him think he was friendly, then murdered the king, along with a few guards protecting him. Ganondorf used the Triforce of Power to take over Hyrule and would tax the Hylians so severely that many of them would fall into starvation. Ganondorf also had his soldiers routinely murder dissidents and anyone who tried to resist, among those being Malon and a large number of the Gorons. Ganondorf would also seal away the sages, placing monsters in their place, the most notable being a dragon monster that leaked lava from Death Mountain that threatened multiple villages.
- The Hero of Time (Script Fic) (link
): Ganondorf is presented as the selfish king of the Gerudos. Ganondorf discovers the TriForce (sic) and seeks its power for himself, attacking Hyrule and annihilating entire armies to get it. Ganondorf was defeated by the King of Hyrule, and after being banished, worked for the new king and made his way into his ranks, pretending to be a changed man. Ganondorf eventually has Twinrova fully brainwash the king, allowing him to slowly take over more and more of Hyrule. During his seven-year reign, Ganondorf would starve out the Gorons to complete extinction; freeze over Zora's domain and kill off a large number of them; try to murder his wife when she tries to kill him; and brainwash Zelda and make her his queen. When Link returns, Ganondorf breeds himself an army of Orcs and has them raze entire villages to tighten his grip over Hyrule even further. - Legend of Hyrule: Invasion of Darkness (link): Zant is the same sociopathic usurper as his canon counterpart. Zant would murder Ganondorf and steal the Triforce of Power from him, then discover Majora's Mask and willingly ally with Majora in exchange for power. Zant would first use his immense new power to cause a merging between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm, completely destroying the Twilight Realm and transporting its people to Hyrule. Zant then plans to destroy Hyrule and kill everyone there in one fell swoop. Zant and Majora would plot for the invasion of Hyrule, at one point sending a giant Moblin to destroy Castletown, as well as murdering 200 soldiers.
- Link's Reawakening (link): Ganon, after his defeat and losing the Trifore, makes a deal with Zanterian to gain the power of the orb of darkness to unleash his army to burn all of Hyrule. Using his new powers, Ganon torments Link's mind so that the hero is trapped in a nightmare that leaves him screaming in pain. With Link out of the way, the king of evil orders a attack on Hyrule, leaving Kakariko village in ruins with a mother and child being among the casualties.
- Lost Isle: The soul-devouring Morlach is the demon responsible for the deaths of every human on the eponymous island. When he was previously known as Worlach, he terrorized the island until the day the islanders sealed him in Horgrus Mountain. Generations later, Worlach set his eyes on the hunter Morvayn and took over his body, becoming Morlach and transforming Morvayn's apprentices into brainwashed cronies called Morachs which he used to take over the island and procure the arts needed to break Morlach's seal, while at the same time turning more people into Morachs. When the surviving islanders attempted to resist, Morlach had them killed either on the spot or dragged off to be tortured to death in the Oderra Catacombs and/or the Doom Cave within. Morlach also had the Plague Fortress constructed to study the arts needed to break his seal and eventually transform the island into a flying fortress for his plan of global domination. Finally, when Link puts him down for good, Morlach reveals that his death would result in the island's destruction, and dies content that Link would die with him.
- The Missing Link: Arborachnid is a demon who desires as much power as possible. In the past, Arborachnid kidnapped a group of villagers and did experiments on them that forcefully transformed them into Cursed Skulltulas. Through these experiments, Arborachnid would learn about using the power of the fairies to transform himself into a powerful creature. Arborachnid succeeds in kidnapping nearly all the fairies across Hyrule and absorbing much of them, as well as killing Saria when she tries to stop him. During his boss battle, Arborachnid kills four fairies he happened to have.
- The Myth of Hylia (link): Demise is the god of power, the son of the god Din, and just as vicious as he was in canon. Demise was initially a good god, but his desire for conquest and bloodshed drove him to turn against his fellow gods and family. Throughout the story, Demise would lead his army in a series of vicious massacres across many lands, with a body count ranging from thousands to millions, including children, with the ultimate goal of destroying as much as he can. Demise also desires to take Hylia as his bride and is willing to do anything to do this, including killing her true lover, the Fierce Deity. Demise would later use his army as Cannon Fodder to lure Madas and his children into a trap so he could depower them and kill The Fierce Deity, which would also trap him inside a mask.
- The Sage of Darkness: Davik, Link's Evil Uncle and the titular sage of darkness, seems to train Link in the ways of the hero, but is really attempting to feed Link hatred and anger in order to speed up Ganon's revival, even supplying him with the White Sword, one of Ganon's artifacts. He's also manipulating Ertegun for his own agenda, and it is also hinted that he also plans on betraying Ganon as part of his agenda as well. He also brutally murdered Link's parents, as well as poisoned his own sister, for no reason whatsoever, aside from possibly trying to get Link to go down the road of hatred even more. His real plan is to extinguish the Cycle of Eternity, which may result in the destruction of the entire world, for no reason besides hating it for unspecified reasons.
- Script Fic by Brian Murchie (link): The Big Bad—Ganon—and The Heavy prove to be equally evil:
- Ganon, originally known as Ganondorf, is given Adaptational Villainy and establishes himself as truly wicked. In the past, Ganon was a wizard in Hyrule who had a massive lust for power and wanted to claim the Triforce for himself. Despite being forbidden, Ganon built up a massive army and used it to murder all of the masters and then invade the Golden Land. Ganon slaughtered his way through hundreds of his own men to get the Triforce and was able to claim it. The king, learning of what happened, sent hundreds of his best men to take Ganon down, but all of them were killed by him. Ganon started making his Dark World and absorbing tons of people into it. The last seven wizards sacrificed themselves to seal Ganon away, but many years later, Ganon would use Vaati to sacrifice seven people to break the seal, as well as engineer it so Vaati would be the seventh sacrifice as Ganon doesn't share his power with anyone.
- Vaati made a deal with Ganon for power in exchange for freeing Ganon from his prison. Vaati would manipulate a massive war by sending monsters after Hyrule and then defeating some in order to gain the trust of the king and the queen. Vaati would eventually murder the king and queen, then imprison Zelda and her sisters under the guise of protecting them. Vaati would murder each sister one by one during the full moon until he reached seven, planning to save Zelda for last just to make her suffer. When Zelda escaped, Vaati sent his minions to capture her, telling them to burn Hyrule to the ground to find them if necessary. When Vaati is defeated, he reveals that he will now be the seventh sacrifice, and Ganon can be freed just as one last spite towards the heroes.
- Ocarina of Time fanfic by DragonRand100: Ganon, also known as Demise, is a Decomposite Character from Ganondorf and proves to be far worse than the latter. Ganon is a demon who, long in the past, threatened the land of Hyrule before he was stopped and sealed away. Ganon used Ganondorf as a vessel by taking advantage of his grief at the death of his parents, the curse on his people, and his hatred for the Sheikah to slowly influence Ganondorf via the Skull Mask, leading him down a darker path. Ganon would have Ganondorf curse the Great Deku tree and endanger the lives of the entire Kokiri, then murder a majority of the Royal Family and take over Hyrule. During Ganondorf's 7-year-long reign, he was responsible for murdering a large number of people, including nearly all the Sheikah, the Gorons, and the Zoras, with his number of deaths in the hundreds to thousands, even including some of the Gerudos who were sacrificed in battle. Ganon, through Ganondorf, would launch his plan to devastate all of the world's kingdoms and destroy everything the gods created out of hatred for them. When Ganon is defeated by Link, he vows to return and be a curse on his bloodline forever.
