The Triforce is a sacred relic of three golden triangles, left behind by the three goddesses who made the land of Hyrule: Din, the goddess of Power; Nayru, of Wisdom; and Farore, of Courage. Whoever touches it can have a wish granted. As Ocarina of Time tells it, that only works if their heart holds all three in balance; if it does not, the Triforce splits, and the one who touched it keeps only the piece they value most. That split is why Ganondorf, Zelda and Link keep meeting.
The Zelda timeline is the order the games happen in, as Nintendo published it in the Hyrule Historia book and has extended it since: one history up to Ocarina of Time, then three branches. Each claim below names the game it comes from. Every design on the Legend of Zelda shelf belongs somewhere on that map.
What the Triforce means
In the background the games share, the three goddesses made Hyrule, then left, and the Triforce was hidden away in the Sacred Realm. Skyward Sword, the first game in the chronology, adds a fourth figure: the goddess Hylia, who guarded the Triforce and was later reborn as the first Zelda.
In Ocarina of Time, Link opens the way to the Sacred Realm by drawing the Master Sword, and is sealed away for seven years while Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Thieves, follows him in and lays hands on the Triforce. His heart is out of balance, so it splits. Ganondorf keeps the Triforce of Power; the Triforce of Wisdom goes to Princess Zelda and the Triforce of Courage to Link. Each piece marks the back of its bearer's hand.
Most of the series follows from that: the three pieces want to be one again, and the three bearers keep being drawn back together.
The Zelda timeline explained
Before the split, the order is Skyward Sword, The Minish Cap, Four Swords and then Ocarina of Time. The end of Ocarina of Time opens three branches.
In the adult branch, Link has beaten Ganon and Zelda sends him back to his childhood, leaving that future without its hero. When Ganon returns there, the gods flood Hyrule to seal him away, which gives The Wind Waker its Great Sea. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks follow.
In the child branch, Link goes back to his own time and warns Zelda about Ganondorf before he can reach the Triforce. Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess and Four Swords Adventures follow.
The third branch asks what happens if Link loses the final battle. Ganon claims the whole Triforce and has to be sealed in the Sacred Realm, and A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, the two Oracle games, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes and Echoes of Wisdom lead to the first two games, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link.
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are set so far after all of this that none of the published chronologies ties them to one branch.
Ganondorf, Ganon and the curse of Demise
Ganondorf is a Gerudo, from a desert people of women among whom, as Ocarina of Time tells it, one man is born every hundred years and becomes their king. Ganon is his beast form, the great boar-like monster Link fights at the end of Ocarina of Time and in many other games. Demon King is Ganondorf himself; Final Battle sets him against Link.
Skyward Sword explains why he keeps coming back. Its villain, Demise, is beaten by Link and, as he dies, swears that his hatred will be reborn to follow the hero and the goddess's bloodline for ever. Every return of Ganon is that curse at work.
Twilight Princess shows how hard he is to kill: the sages try to execute him, the Triforce of Power keeps him alive, and they banish him into the Twilight Realm instead. Tears of the Kingdom places him at the founding of the kingdom itself, a Demon King sealed beneath Hyrule Castle.
On the shelf
Majora's Mask and the Skull Kid
Majora's Mask picks up in the child branch. Link, now a boy again, rides into the woods looking for a lost friend and is ambushed by the Skull Kid, a lonely creature of the woods wearing a strange mask. The Skull Kid steals his horse and his ocarina, turns him into a Deku Scrub, and Link follows him into Termina, a world that mirrors Hyrule.
The mask is Majora's Mask, an old relic used in hexing rituals and holding a dark power of its own. The Skull Kid stole it from the Happy Mask Salesman, and it took him over. He had once been friends with the four giants who guard Termina, and when they left he felt abandoned; the mask used that hurt.
Under its control he drags the moon down towards Clock Town, where it will crash in three days. Link can only win by reliving those three days with the Song of Time, over and over, waking the giants of the swamp, the mountains, the ocean and Ikana Canyon one by one. In the end the giants hold the moon up, the mask abandons the Skull Kid, and Link fights Majora inside the moon. Majora and Three Days both carry the Skull Kid; the second adds Majora too.
Wolf Link and Midna
Twilight Princess is also in the child branch. Zant, a usurper from the Twilight Realm, covers Hyrule in twilight, and inside it ordinary people become spirits. Link, entering it, turns into a wolf.
Midna is the small, sharp-tongued imp who rides on his back and guides him. She is the true ruler of the Twilight Realm, the Twilight Princess of the title, cursed into that form by Zant, whose power came from Ganondorf. Drawing the Master Sword lets Link take his human shape back, and Midna then gives him a way to switch between the two at will.
When Ganondorf is beaten, Midna's real form returns. She goes home and breaks the Mirror of Twilight behind her, closing the way between the two worlds for good. Twilight Ridge has the pair together.
Calamity Ganon and the Sky Islands
In Breath of the Wild, Calamity Ganon is a form of Ganon made of malice. A hundred years before the game, it seized the Guardians and the four Divine Beasts, ancient machines built to fight it, and killed the champions inside them. Link fell and was put into a hundred-year sleep to heal, while Zelda held Ganon inside Hyrule Castle for the whole century.
Tears of the Kingdom starts beneath that castle, where Link and Zelda find Ganondorf, the Demon King, sealed since the founding of Hyrule. He wakes, the Upheaval lifts the Sky Islands into view, and Zelda is thrown back to the kingdom's first days. The game ties the Calamity to the sealed Demon King: Impa calls it his hatred made manifest. Sky Islands puts Link in that sky.
On the shelf
On the back of a tee
The heroes and villains above are on the Legend of Zelda shelf, drawn from canon reference art, including Hero of Time, the title Link earns in Ocarina of Time. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why it works on the back: the series is built from shapes a child could draw, three triangles, a pointed cap, a moon with a face, and a shape that simple reads from the far side of any room.
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