Triforce

Triforce
Origin	Sacred Realm
Debut	The Legend of Zelda (Wisdom and Power) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Courage/full Triforce)

The Triforce (commonly referred to as the Golden Power or the comical misnomer of Triumph Forks) is a sacred artifact featured in the Legend of Zelda series. It is a mysterious object that resembles three giant golden triangles, the three individual parts being Courage, Wisdom and Power. It contains the power of the Golden Goddesses that created it and is known for granting wishes to those who who claim it. Even in games where the actual Triforce does not appear, its likeness is seen on shields and buildings due to being an important symbol in Hyrule. There are many mysteries surrounding the Triforce and its powers which arise, deepen or are solved as it appears throughout the series.

Information

Origin and Powers

It is said that after the three goddesses created the world of Hyrule, they left the Triforce behind as a symbol of their power. It became the basis of the world's providence and came to rest in the Sacred Realm. The Triforce would grant wish to whoever touched it, apparently unable to judge between good and evil, but it would only grant wishes to one with a balanced heart in regards to the virtues of courage, wisdom and power. The degree to which the Triforce granted the wish was proportionate to the strength of the person's wish. If someone with an unbalanced heart touched the Triforce, that person would only receive the piece with the virtue they exhibit, while the other pieces would separate and travel to others who had those virtues. Only by uniting the three pieces from these chosen ones could the Triforce be reunited to grant a wish. In the games, Link is usually associated with Courage, Princess Zelda with Wisdom and Ganon with power. It has also been shown that individual pieces could be further split down into smaller shards, usually by the piece's bearer.

The Triforce also has other powers and attributes which are less clearly define. In some games, the Triforce has been shown to speak through what it describes as its "spirit" or "essence". Within the Oracles games, the Triforce acted under its own power to teleport Link to a faraway land for an adventure. The Triforce also has a strong connection to the Sacred Realm, which is said to act as a mirror of the Triforce. The Sacred Realm becomes a paradise when one with a good heart makes a wish upon the Triforce, or it devolves into a Dark World when someone with an evil heart wishes on it.

Triforce Mark

It is also a recurring element within the games for characters to gain Triforce marks on the back of their hands. This was associated with ownership of a Triforce piece in Ocarina of Time, where the mark would only glow matching the Triforce piece that the character has, and the Triforce marks have the same meaning in The Wind Waker and seemingly Twilight Princess as well. However, there have also been several instances where a character (so far all incarnations of Link) has had a Triforce mark without owning a piece of the Triforce. In Zelda II, Link gained a Triforce mark on his hand on his sixteenth birthday (despite having obtained two pieces of the Triforce in the previous game), and it was described as the mark of a legendary hero. The Triforce mark had similar implications for Link in the Oracles games.

Skyward Sword utilized the Triforce mark in a way that redefined it, as Link suddenly gained the mark when his sword was empowered with the first of the three sacred flames (which were each associated with a different goddess). For each flame that he reached, one matching piece of his Triforce mark would begin glowing. This would seem to imply that Link was gaining the Triforce pieces, but Zelda later clarified that the full Triforce mark proved that he had passed his trials and was someone worthy of truly wielding the Triforce. She said that it ws proof that Link was the hero of legend and had sacred power within him.

Appearances

The Triforce plays a large role in the backstory for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, which tells of a king who once used the Triforce to rule wisely over Hyrule. After his death, his son was only able to inherit part of the Triforce, and his attempts to find out the location of the other piece(s) led to Princess Zelda being put in a seemingly eternal sleep. At some point before or after this, the Triforce of Courage was hidden within the Great Temple where only someone capable of wielding it could find it. Only the Triforces of Wisdom and Power appear in The Legend of Zelda, in which Ganon had stolen the Triforce of Power and sought Zelda to reclaim Wisdom. However, she split it into eight pieces that were hidden across the Underworld, where Link found them. Only with the full Triforce of Wisdom could Link enter Ganon's Death Mountain lair and after defeating him, he claimed the Triforce of Power as well. In The Adventure of Link, Link received a Triforce mark on his hand on his 16th birthday, which leads him to go on an adventure to claim the Triforce of Courage from the Great Temple. After finding it and reuniting the Triforce, he used it to revive the sleeping Princess Zelda from the backstory.

Ganon had acquired the full Triforce and been sealed within the Dark World for centuries at the time of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The Triforce is mentioned throughout the game due to the great lengths many went through to find the Sacred Realm and the Triforce, which led to bloodshed and war, while those who succeeded in finding the Sacred Realm wound up being warped into grotesque forms due to it becoming the Dark World. The Triforce is found by Link within the Pyramid of Power after destroying Ganon at the climax of the game. The Triforce's spirit spoke to Link at that point, asking him to touch it and make his wish, becoming its new owner. With Link's wish, the Sacred Realm is restored and many of the evil deeds done by Ganon and his minons were undone. During the ending credits, the Triforce pieces appear to drift away, making what happened to the Triforce in the end somewhat vague.

In Ocarina of Time, the Triforce was housed within the Sacred Realm in the Temple of Light, which could only be reached by pulling the Master Sword within the Temple of Time after unlocking the Door of Time with the Ocarina of Time and the three Spiritual Stones. Although it was Link who opened the gate to the Sacred Realm, Ganondorf touched the Triforce. Due to his heart being unbalanced, he only kept Power while Courage and Wisdom went to Link and Zelda respectively. All three still seem to have their individual pieces at the end of the game, despite Ganondorf's failed attempts to unite the Triforce. In fact, the ending scene shows that Link still has the Triforce of Courage upon returning to the past.

The Triforce also appears within the opening of both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, where the pieces are stored on separate pedestals within Hyrule Castle. Link approaches the Triforce, which teleports him away to a distant land for the first of his adventures, telling Link to accept their quest.

Within The Wind Waker, supposedly in the aftermath of Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf held the Triforce of Power still while the Hero of Time was said to have lost the Triforce of Courage after being "separated from the elements that made him a hero", which led to the Triforce of Courage splitting into eight pieces that were scattered throughout the Great Sea for the Hero of Winds to collect later in the game. The Triforce of Wisdom was also split into two pieces, one being held by Daphnes Nohansen while the second was seemingly given to his offspring and passed down to Tetra. Tetra later receives Daphnes's piece, which results in her transforming to resemble Princess Zelda. At the end of the game Ganondorf unites the Triforce after incapacitating Link and Zelda, but Daphnes beats him to the wish and wishes to give Link and Zelda hope while putting an end to Hyrule. This leads to the flood that destroys Hyrule, while the Triforce itself ascends to an unknown location.

Twilight Princess is vague in relations to the Triforce. The backstory tells of a group of interlopers who attempted to take control over the Triforce, only to be imprisoned within the Twilight Realm where they became the Twili. Within the game, Link, Zelda and Ganondorf all appear to have their respective Triforce pieces through unknown means, as evident in the Triforce marks on their hands. The mark on Ganondorf's hand fades away when he seems to die in the ending, which may represent the Triforce of Power leaving his body.

Skyward Sword expands on the early history of the Triforce. It is said that the Goddesses originally entrusted it to Hylia, a goddess who was empowered by the Triforce. Hylia had to defend it from the forces of Demise when it surfaced. She eventually hid the humans as well as the Triforce by sending them on a piece of land into the sky. After Demise's initial defeat, Hylia gave up her divine form so that her chosen hero could one day use the Triforce instead, and she was reborn as the original Zelda. The Triforce itself was hidden within the Sky Keep that was hidden in the underside of Skyloft's Isle of the Goddess. The three Triforce pieces were kept in separate rooms, and in all cases they only appeared within Silent Realm versions of the rooms. Link had to undergo an arduous series of tasks and trials to reach Sky Keep, at which point he was able to collect the Triforce. Link had to make a prayer to the Triforce, which caused the Isle of the Goddess to descend back to the surface and destroyed Demise in the present time. Once they traveled to the past, Impa said that she would look after the Triforce to continue to keep its existence hidden from man. Within the present, the Triforce remained outside the Statue of the Goddess in the ending, when Zelda decided to stay on the surface world and look after the Triforce.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• The Triforce appears in Kirby Super Star (as well as the Kirby Super Star Ultra remake) as the last treasure that Kirby can find in The Great Cave Offensive.
• In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Triforce appears within the Underground Maze level of the Adventure Mode as the final goal of the stage.
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, an image of the Triforce appears during both Link and Toon Link's Triforce Slash Final Smashes. In these moves, the image surrounds and entraps the enemy while Link slashes at them.

Other Media

• The two pieces of the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda appear in the Zelda cartoon. Reflecting the status quo at the beginning of the first game, Princess Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom protected while Ganon seeks the Triforce of Power. Both pieces are depicted as colored tetrahedrons rather than golden triangles and sometimes are capable of speech.

Trivia

• It may also be connected with the "light force" appearing in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, although the game's creators have denied a connection.