#holodrum

I like your idea that the kingdoms Legend went off to adventure to (Holodrum, Labrynna, Hytopia and Lorule) are all in the same place or era rather haha, like they all coexist. Its rather genius!

But that makes me curious, do you have an idea where the kingdoms are located? I know Lorule is a whole other place entirely, but what about the others? Which kingdom is from the north? South? Etc. I'm just curious how far or near each kingdom is, and where Hyrule is between all of them. (Also am I missing other kingdoms?)

Thank you!!!

Yep— the five kingdoms currently entering an alliance in Legend and Fable’s era are Hyrule, Labrynna, Holodrum, Lorule, and Hytopia.

Technically, Legend (and sometimes Fable) have seen even more: Subrosia is a separate kingdom beneath Holodrum, past Labrynnans can visit the present with the Harp of Ages and have canonically traveled to other countries, and Koholint… was as real as a dream can be 🥲. And that’s not counting independently governed countries that are part of the larger conglomerates, like Hyrule’s river Zoras ruled by Queen Oren, or the Tokay island beside Labrynna.

So, background— as you may know, there are four types of non-Hyrule worlds in the Zelda franchise.

Independent government, but owes allegiance to Hyrule (Ex: Every Zora’s Domain and Gerudo Town in the series)

Actual, independent other country (Ex: Spirit!New Hyrule, Hyrule!Calatia (Calatia is not canon to the games, but is a popular fan-canon based on Link’s homeland in the Valiant Comics adaptation))

Parallel world (Ex: Time!Termina)

Dream world (Ex: Wind!Ocean King’s Realm)

The question is: which of these are each of the kingdoms Legend has visited, and if they’re physical, where are they located with relation to Hyrule?

Koholint is a dream world, and is therefore not in this alliance. However, I love Link’s Awakening too much to ignore it entirely in the Wisdomverse. What happened to Koholint will be addressed in The Secrets We Keep :).

As you said, Lorule’s different. No need to place it geographically; it’s a parallel world to Hyrule.

Hytopia seems to be confirmed North of Hyrule according to the (admittedly non-canon) Hyrule Encyclopedia. Apparently it’s also confirmed in ALBW? I don’t remember that, but it’s been a while since I’ve played ALBW so I’d believe it. According to the Encyclopedia, the Hytopians wear frilly clothing to brave the cold northern climates. That’s hilarious and I love it. I’m going with north for this one.

Hyrule is where Hyrule is :)

Finally, Holodrum and Labrynna are claimed by the Encyclopedia to be parallel worlds, but I disagree with this. The Encyclopedia is non-canon, and iirc also says Termina stopped existing after Time left, which I refuse to believe as well. Sure, it looks like Legend gets teleported to Holodrum/Labrynna by the Triforce in the beginning, but later, Impa, Fable, and a bunch of Hylian knights make it over there just fine and I doubt they did so using anything other than normal physical means. In the Hyrule Historia timeline (which I pretty much mostly follow), the Oracle games happen before Link’s Awakening, which means Legend sails home from Holodrum/Labrynna. But Legend is also pictured riding somewhere on a horse at the beginning. Therefore, we can deduce that perhaps one of the two countries borders Hyrule on land, and the other is a separate continent— or both are connected by land, but you could take a boat back to Hyrule if you wanted. My money’s on Labrynna being off to the West so far— the eastern Labrynnan forest border connects to Hyrule’s woods, and this leaves the southeast ocean of Labrynna open for Legend to sail back to Hyrule to, through the Sea of Storms where the storm at the beginning of Link’s Awakening seems like it could work (Legend has already shipwrecked there once before, but he’s totally the kind of guy to want to brave those waters again either as a test of strength, challenge, or punishment.) Jury’s still out on Holodrum!

UPDATE: After the Echoes of Wisdom and Adventure of Link connection, I maintain most of what I said, but I’m swapping sides. Labrynna is to the East of Hyrule. This matches with where the Zoras are in EoW, since the Ocean Zoras migrated from Labrynna at the end of OoA; and where the raft takes you at the halfway point of Adventure of Link. Holodrum, I believe, is to the Northeast of Hyrule, closer to North Hyrule and Hytopia/Calatia (relevant post). This is why I imagine Calatians to have slightly darker skin, like Din and some of the people of Holodrum.

I’m actually playing Oracle of Seasons for the first time right now (on Wednesdays and Fridays! 😇) and just finished Oracle of Ages last week— so I may update my views on Holodrum as I unlock more of the game’s map!

You know what I'd like to see in a future LoZ game?

An exploration of Hyrule's relationships with other countries.

As far as we know, Hyrule is a really small country. About the size of Kyoto.

This, when compared with the confirmation that Hyrule exists upon an alternate Earth where magic exists, means that there's so much more to their world that we only truly get glimpses of.

So, I wanna see what other countries exist in their world, other races, & their cultures.

Like, Holodrum/Subrosia, the Republic of Labrynna, the Drablands, New Hyrule, Koridai, & Hytopia! (Also, wherever an Oracle of Secrets game would take place; possibly Calatia?) Or maybe Termina isn't actually in a separate universe, just a different country? Or, if it is in another universe, it's possible that it's actually an alternate New Hyrule rather than Hyrule proper. Several people have noticed that the 2 maps are surprisingly similar.

Also, speaking of New Hyrule? I wonder if it's sort of like what America is to England?

Not to mention the islands of Oshus from Phantom Hourglass. Someone mentioned that it was a spirit world & that all the islands & people had been sucked in there by Bellum. If this is the case, then wouldn't that mean that those islands & their inhabitants have likely returned to Hyrule's Earth? If so, then I believe that they likely exist between TotK's Hyrule & New Hyrule.

I also theorize that the Gerudo aren't originally from the desert on Hyrule's southwestern border. Recall that we don't see any mention of them beyond the Gerudo Dragonfly in SS & that they don't show up until Cadence of Hyrule (which isn't canon, but still) & OoT. And 2,000+ years in the past, it was actually full of life & sat beside the sea, which has now evaporated into sand. (Which, the presence of the Gerudo Highlands in the Era of the Wild suggests that the sea may have evaporated due to tectonic shifts that raised the Highlands in the first place, thus the Gerudo Desert is most likely a Rain Shadow.) Not to mention the fact that it'd been referred to as the Lanayru Desert & the Lanayru Sea back then.

My thoughts are that the Gerudo were a nomadic tribe from another continent far to the southwest of Hyrule. One that had before been entirely separated from the continent that Hyrule is a part of. And ever since the sea had evaporated, the 2 are connected to each other in a similar way to how North America & South America are connected via Mexico.

Like, I especially wanna see a full world map someday.

You know, Hyrule used to have humans living there. You meet them in both Wind Waker & Twilight Princess. You think that Hylians are unique to Hyrule?

I remember that having "long ears" was a plot point in Wind Waker as targets for Ganondorf, indicating that not everyone had them. In both, it's indicated that Hylians, in comparison to humans, are fairly rare.

Where did all those humans go!? Did they just go extinct??

I also read somewhere that the populations of Holodrum & Labrynna are predominately human.

LoZ General Masterlist

I've got a post on the oracles here!

Labrynna and Holodrum, though, are something of a mystery, at least as far as Hyrule is concerned. With the drastically different climates of these countries in comparison to Hyrule, along with the ocean bordering both of them, it's hard to place them geographically. But we do have a handful of clues.

For the sake of this post, I'm going to do Holodrum first, then revisit it later with a part 2 for Labrynna.

The placement of the Oracles games in the timeline has kind of flipped back and forth as far as Nintendo's been involved; in Hyrule Historia, they come directly after A Link to the Past, but in the Hyrule Encyclopedia, they come after Link's Awakening, as a separate Link to ALttP's hero. However, thanks to A Link Between Worlds, we know exactly what Oracles' Link's Hyrule looks like.

ALttP and ALBW have functionally identical maps, meant to only be a century apart as a remake. And regardless of Oracles' placement, it always falls after ALttP but before ALBW, which means it also has a Hyrule that looks like that.

In this post, I gave my best guess at how the various Zelda maps fit into BotW's huge map, including ALttP's.

All in all though, it's not TOO different, the biggest differences being the omission of the coastline, Faron, and Hebra due to size and angle.

But what does this mean for the Oracles games?

Holodrum - s/t LP - “Disco rock from West Yorkshire“

Prompt #15 is "Pet/Animal" and I would like to draw your attention to Moosh the bear.

It has been ages since I played the Oracle games, but I always thought Moosh's design was extremely cute, and I'd love to see him, Ricky, and Dimitri get equivalents in some other games. I am always a sucker for big, ride-able animal companions.