King of Hyrule
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| A king addressing his people from the backstory of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. | |
| King of Hyrule | |
| Species | Hylian/possibly Zonai Zonai (Rauru) |
| Base | Hyrule |
| Relatives | Princess Zelda (daughter) |
| Debut | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (instruction manual) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (in-game) |
The King of Hyrule is the monarch ruling over Hyrule who appears throughout the Zelda series. The title actually describes several different kings from Hyrule's history. Some of them have not been officially been named, but most of them share similar physical appearances.
Background[edit]
Within the Zelda series, the king is a particularly important figure due to being the ruler of the games' primary setting, Hyrule. The kings are also important as the fathers of the various incarnations of Princess Zelda. However, within early games the king was usually either not mentioned or were confined to background roles. It was not until The Wind Waker that the games began to flesh out the king and make him a more important figure, including giving some of the kings names. Some later games do still have an absent king; Princess Zelda seems to be ruling in absence of the king in Twilight Princess, Spirit Tracks and A Link Between Worlds.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link[edit]
The king did not appear in the game, but he was part of its backstory and was depicted in official artwork. It was mentioned that a king once maintained peace in Hyrule using the Triforce, as part of a lineage of kings who ruled using the Triforce. The king was the father to Princess Zelda and an unnamed prince who was heir to the throne. This king worried about the possibility that the Triforce could be misused after his death, so he decided to seal the Triforce of Courage away in the Great Palace, where it could only be reached by someone who would wield it responsibly. Due to misgivings about his son's personality, he confided its location only to his daughter.
Once he died, his son ascended to the throne and was disappointed to only receive part of the Triforce. Suspecting that his sister knew the whereabouts of the missing piece, the prince went as far as to recruit a shady magician to interrogate Princess Zelda. The magician threatened Zelda and was angered to the point where he put a spell on her that put her into an eternal sleep, despite the prince's protests. The magician was said to have died at the same time. The prince, who had become a young king, decided to honor her by deciding that every female born into the royal household would be named Zelda. It was said that, as a king, he managed to reform himself and governed Hyrule wisely, but the kingdom still fell into decay.
A Link to the Past[edit]
The backstory to A Link to the Past mentioned the king as a key figure during the Imprisoning War, who commanded the sages and the knights of Hyrule, which led to Ganon being sealed within the Dark World. As for the king who presided during the actual game's events, he was impressed by Aganhim's amazing feats of magic and enlisted him as an adviser. Aganhim eventually betrayed the king and replaced him. The game was unclear about the king's fate, beyond an image of a figure with a skull face sitting in a throne in the game's introduction, which could have been either the late king or Aganhim himself. The Hyrule Historia later confirmed that the king was killed during Aganhim's coup. Regardless, the king was later restored to life and power in the ending as a result of Link's wish on the Triforce. His only physical appearance was during the game's ending, marking the first official in-game appearance by a king of Hyrule.
Ocarina of Time[edit]
The King of Hyrule was mentioned as having unified the country in the past, and this was implied to have happened at the end of the "fierce war". Most of the races of Hyrule swore allegiance to and trusted Hyrule following the war, to the point where the Gorons considered the king to be a Sworn Brother. Ganondorf also swore allegiance to the king for the Gerudo and appeared to be a loyal ally. Princess Zelda did not trust Ganondorf and tried to warn her father about a prophetic dream that she had, but the king did not believe in her dream and continued to trust Ganondorf. The king was never physically seen in Ocarina of Time, although he was just offscreen in one scene where Link and Zelda witnessed Ganondorf kneeling before him through a window.
During the seven years of Link's slumber, Ganondorf came into power and destroyed Hyrule Castle. The king's fate was unknown, although the presence of a king during the Imprisoning War implies that he may have survived, or that a replacement was found at that time.
In the alternate timeline created by the game's ending (the Child Timeline), Link's message from the future was used to stop Ganondorf before he could make his move against Hyrule. Thus, Hyrule was saved from being attacked by Ganondorf, and the king presumably continued his reign.
The Wind Waker[edit]
The Wind Waker was the first game in which the king had a large storyline presence, a developed character and a name: Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule. He was the last king of Hyrule in the timeline of The Wind Waker and continued to live in Hyrule Castle after the flood. He used a Gossip Stone to control a boat on the surface called the King of Red Lions and acted as the Hero of Wind's companion in his big first journey. He also discovered his descendant, Tetra, and told her about her true heritage as Princess Zelda. At the end of the game, he made a wish on the Triforce to put Hyrule to rest forever beneath the floodwaters. Daphnes chose to remain behind while sending Link and Tetra to the surface to found their own new Hyrule.
The Minish Cap[edit]
Two kings appeared in The Minish Cap. The presiding king was King Daltus, the father of this game's Princess Zelda. He was an accomplished swordsman in his youth and used to be a rival of Smith's. Their eventual friendship led to Zelda being friends with Smith's grandson, Link. Daltus was imprisoned and impersonated by Vaati for some time until Link saved him and defeated Vaati.
The other king to appear was the ghost of a previous king named Gustaf, who was buried within the Royal Valley. The ghost appeared before Link and invited him to his grave, where he gave Link a Kinstone that he could use to reach the sky from Veil Falls.
Breath of the Wild[edit]
Breath of the Wild featured Rhoam Bosphoramus, the ghost of a king who died a hundred years prior to the game during the conflict with Calamity Ganon and was the father of Zelda. In life, he was stern and disapproved of Zelda's focus on research instead of on her magic training, despite her failed efforts at the latter. Within the present time, his spirit appeared to Link in the form of an old man upon Link's awakening in the Shrine of Resurrection. He helped Link to grasp the basics of wilderness survival and explained the history of the conflict with Calamity Ganon, due to Link's amnesia. He also granted Link the Paraglider, which he could use to leave the Great Plateau and begin his quest to help Zelda and stop Ganon.
Afterwards, Zelda acted as the ruler of Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom.
Tears of the Kingdom[edit]
Tears of the Kingdom featured flashbacks to Hyrule's founding. The original king who founded Hyrule was shown to be a Zonai named Rauru, who married a princess named Sonia. Rauru ultimately sacrificed himself to seal Ganondorf away. During the events of Tears of the Kingdom, his right arm was all that was left of him when the seal expired, and it ended up attaching to Link to replace his corrupted arm, until it was healed at the end of the game. Like Rhoam, Rauru's spirit remained behind to instruct Link at the beginning of the game.
As the royal line is descended from Rauru, this indicates that all of them have Zonai blood in them. This was hinted to the original of the light magic wielded by members of the royal family, although that has also been implied to have originated from Hylia.
In Other Zelda Games[edit]
Daphnes and Rhoam appeared as unlockable playable characters in Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, respectively. In the main timeline of Hyrule Warriors, Zelda appeared to be ruling Hyrule, with no mention of a king. Daphnes was brought over from "another dimension" in which The Wind Waker took place. In Age of Calamity, an alternate timeline of the backstory to Breath of the Wild was depicted, in which Rhoam survived the events of the Calamity and presumably continued his rule.
Other Appearances[edit]
Video Games[edit]
- A king of Hyrule appears in Cadence of Hyrule. In this game, Octavo used his lute to put him to sleep and took over the castle. Near the end of the game, Zelda could wake him up by playing Zelda's Lullaby through a music puzzle. He had apparently been dreaming about the calamity that was unfolding, but also about becoming a famous musician. He revealed a secret path to Zelda, through which she could find the Royal Rapier, her ultimate weapon.
Other Media[edit]
- During the time when the king was a minor presence within the game series, most other media featured an original king named King Harkinian. He was used as the monarch for the cartoon series, the Valient comic series and the licensed CD-i games. Harkinian was depicted as a kindly and jovial man, if somewhat erratic. He was also supportive of Link's advances on Princess Zelda. Like the princess, he himself was captured on several occasions and needed to be rescued. The comics showed him to be living in the North Palace, in continuity with Zelda II. The CD-i games also showed that he had a cousin named Duke Onkled, who betrayed him and was forced to scrub all of Hyrule's floors after he was brought to justice.
Trivia[edit]
- King Daphnes and Rhoam are the only kings whose full names have been disclosed. Their last names are shown as "Hyrule", which implies that this may be the surname for the rest of the Royal Family as well.
- In Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, several mountains located in or near Hyrule Field are named after different kings of Hyrule: Mount Gustaf, Mount Daphnes and Mount Rhoam. Daltus is the only canonically named king from past games to not be referenced in this manner.