The Legend of Zelda timeline has gotten yet another confusing new update, shifting the events leading to Breath of the Wild by 9,900 years and directly contradicting established lore. It's such an about-face for the existing story that series fans are pretty sure it's just a mistake, but the new word comes straight from Nintendo of America, which is often treated as gospel.
The Zelda timeline splits into three different branches based on the end of Ocarina of Time, but those branches all converge in the misty history leading up to the events of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Earlier this year, Nintendo updated the Japanese version of the timeline and made clear that the founding of Hyrule depicted in flashback during Tears of the Kingdom shows the start of a new Hyrule, well after the one depicted in Ocarina of Time and other games has faded into history.
Now, Nintendo of America has updated the official English-language timeline to confirm the refounding – well, I say "confirm" but I'm sure it'll remain contentiously debated among the most dedicated purists. Either way, the update has made another curious tweak to the rest of the backstory.
Up until now, we've understood the timeline depicted in Tears of the Kingdom's flashbacks like this: Hyrule is (re)founded, Ganondorf appears to invade, and is sealed away as part of the Imprisoning War. Untold generations pass, and the evil entity known as Calamity Ganon eventually emerges and ravages the kingdom before being pushed back by Sheikah technology. 10,000 years pass from that Great Calamity, and that brings us to Breath of the Wild. Calamity Ganon reemerges, Link hibernates for 100 years, and the game begins.
According to the new timeline, the Imprisoning War happens, 9,900 years pass, and then the Great Calamity happens. Then it's just 100 years before Ganon reemerges – now referred to as "the second Great Calamity" – kicking off Link's century-long hibernation leading into Breath of the Wild.
In other words, the first Great Calamity, which was originally placed 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild, now takes place just a century or two before the game's events. This is despite the fact that Breath of the Wild is full of people trying to unlock the secrets of a pre-Calamity world that's long since faded into myth.
How are Zelda fans taking the sudden break in established lore? Well, you can read the Reddit threads for yourself, but I imagine you can already guess the tone of the responses. The Zelda timeline is notoriously convoluted, and while Nintendo has kept it up since at least 2003, Shigeru Miyamoto always maintained that it's "not that important to us."
Perhaps that's why Eiji Aonuma shut down attempts to add further nods to the timeline Ocarina of Time, and why a new official timeline update can so suddenly make an astronomical shift to established lore. Don't worry – regardless of how this detail shakes out, I'm sure the timeline will be broken in all-new ways soon enough.
