Hylian

— The wiki's staff

 **Alignment** | * Lawful Good
* Neutral Good
* Chaotic Good
* Lawful Neutral
* Neutral
 **Homeland(s)** | * Hyrule
* Great Sea islands
 **Language(s)** | * Hylian

The **Hylian** race is the most famed race of humanoids. They live all throughout Hyrule kingdom, but the greatest density of Hylians is usually in Castle Town. The most notable members of this race are all of the Links and Princess Zeldas.

## Ecology

### Description

Hylians look much like humans apart from their long, pointed ears. These ears are their most unique physical characteristic, and supposedly they allow the Hylians to hear the gods. They tend to be almost entirely caucasian with pale skin and various colors of eyes and hair, however, some dark skinned Hylian exist. Their body types and general stature vary just as much as humans’ do, however Hylians are naturally shorter than humans. They usually dress in simple clothing and women pull their hair up, but they seem to enjoy embroidering and accessorizing their clothes with jewelry and other designs from legends. Hylian royalty, however, wear finer clothing.

#### Abilities

One of the few known abilities that the Hylian people possess is the use of their pointed ears to receive special messages from the gods themselves. This also includes the ability to send telepathic messages to other Hylians across time and space. This is an ability that continues to get passed unto their children, their children's children and so on. Sahasrahla and an incarnation of Princess Zelda display this particular ability in *A Link to the Past*, the former being able to communicate to Link across even the void between dimensions to assist the young hero in his quest.

Another special ability of the Hylians is their use of magic in musical notes that can aid in fast-forwarding time from day to night and night to day (Sun's Song), summon instant storms (Song of Storms) and allow teleportation to specific locations throughout the Kingdom of Hyrule.

### Culture

Unlike most other races, Hylians are a predominantly urban race. This, however, by no means suggests that Hylians are not seen elsewhere, as many people seen living on farms and other comparable non-urban locations have been Hylian. Hylians are shown to have ranging professions, varying from farmers to merchants and bartenders. In addition, Hylians are known of being highly superstitious, having a rich mythology and many legends.

#### Religion

The Hylian typically worship Hylia or the three Golden Goddesses (Din, Nayru and Farore).

## History

The Hylian race is one of the oldest races in Hyrule, initially created by the goddess Hylia and living on the Surface world, then known as Hylia. When the demon Demise rose up in an attempt to conquer the world, Hylians fought alongside Gorons and other races to stop his conquest. Eventually they began to lose the fight, and in an effort to protect them and the Triforce, Hylia used the Master Sword to cut away a portion of the earth and send it skyward. She granted them Loftwings to travel around their new home and ordained that she would be reincarnated as a mortal Hylian in order to finish conquering Demise. This chunk of land in the sky became known as Skyloft, and it was the home of the Hylian people for many centuries.

Hylians soon established a Knight Academy in Skyloft where they trained young men and women to become Skyloft Knights. A student could graduate and become a full-fledged knight by winning the Wing Ceremony. Link had been training at the academy for some time alongside zelda (who, unbeknownst to any including herself, was the mortal reincarnation of Hylia) when the events of *The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword* occurred. After the Surface was saved from Demise and Ghirahim, the residents of Skyloft descended to the Surface. Shortly after the Era of Chaos and the sealing of the Sacred Realm, Hylians founded the kingdom of Hyrule. Hylia’s Crest was added to and recolored to resemble Link‘s Crimson Loftwing to create the Hyrule Crest in later times.

By *The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap*, Hyrule was a well-established kingdom ruled and primarily populated by Hylians. Hylia was no longer worshiped, nor were the Golden Goddesses. The Hylians celebrated the legends of the Hero who brought the Picori Blade (also known as the Four Sword) down from the sky to save the world, and it is during the Picori Festival that the Minish Vaati turned Princess Zelda to stone and began the events of The Minish Cap and then the events of Four Swords. After Link saved the princess, Vaati was once again sealed in the Four Sword.

Shortly before the events of *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*, Hyrule was impacted by the Hyrule Unification War, a war that resulted in the various small kingdoms around Hyrule (the Zora Kingdom and Gerudo tribes, for an example) being united beneath the single monarchy of Hyrule. A universal religion honoring Din, Farore, and Nayru was also established. Many casualties occurred, many of them supposedly Hylian Knights.

The Hylian race remained the most prevalent and powerful race in Hyrule up to the time of *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*. The Hyrulian monarchy was made up of Hylians, they were the most populous of all the races in Hyrule, and they now worshiped the Golden Goddesses, even erecting the Temple of Time in their honor.

After the events of *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*, the fate of the Hylian race took very different turns.

### Hyrule's decline and the last hero

After Link lost the fight against Ganondorf and the Sealing War, Hyrule was in utter chaos and the Hylian race nearly extinct; Ganondorf‘s first place of attack had been Castle Town, where the majority of the Hylians lived. The race maintained a steady but small population throughout *The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past*, *The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds*, *The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons*, *The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages*, and *The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*. The Golden Goddesses may have incarnated themselves in the mortal forms of three Hylian women: the Oracle of Seasons (Din), the Oracle of Ages (Nayru), and the Oracle of Secrets (Farore). However, after The Tragedy of Princess Zelda I, the Hylian race slowly declined along with the kingdom of Hyrule until only traces of either remained.

### The Dark World and the hero's descendants

During this timeline, which includes *The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask*, *The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess*, and *The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures*, the Hylian race does not experience a decline. Despite a greater number of humans in Castle Town and outlying villages like Kakariko Village and Ordon Village, Hylians remain the majority race and maintain control of the monarchy (Princess Zelda is, as always, a Hylian). At some point after *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*, either the Temple of Time or Castle Town and Hyrule Castle was moved.

### The Hero of Wind and the new world

Before The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Ganondorf managed to escape from his seal and wreak havoc on Hyrule. Without a Hero to defeat him, the gods told King Daphnes to herd his people on to high hills so that they could flood the land. Hyrule soon became a legend submerged beneath The Great Sea while the people prospered on the scattered islands above. While most other races perished in the flood, many Hylians survived. As the islands began to repopulate themselves, the majority of the people on them were Hylian. In fact, the Hylian race was almost the only one to exist. In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, a new continent was discovered by Link, Tetra, and the Pirate Crew. They founded New Hyrule on this continent, and it was soon populated almost exclusively with Hylians.

## Ethnic groups

* **Skyloftians**

When the homeland of the Hylians was under a massive assault by demonic hoards, they were separated from the Surface for thousands of years by Hylia in an attempt to protect them. Living above the clouds on a separate outcrop of earth, they named the safe haven Skyloft. In the sky, the new society flourished in peace and the majority of the Skyloft populace remained ignorant of the ravaged world below the clouds until the events of Skyward Sword. It can be assumed that a portion of Skyloft's population flew down and repopulated the Surface after the events in *Skyward Sword*, leading to the Hylian establishment of the Kingdom of Hyrule seen in future years.

* **Terminans**

The Hylians from Termina live, like their *Ocarina of Time* counterparts, in a big, central city. There is only one significant difference between the Hylians from Hyrule and the ones from Termina: magic and technology. While the Hylians from Hyrule are magic-users, the Terminan Hylians focus on technology and seem to care or know little, if any, for the sacred Triforce and the Three Goddesses. Instead, they honor the Four Giants, the gods who shaped Termina and continue to guard it.