The Legend of Zelda: Blood and Spirit

Epilogue: Blood and Spirit

Seven years later…

Over the course of seven long, but busy years, the kingdom of Hyrule had expanded from the sparse human settlement it had once been into a nation that spread across the entire land. Under the diplomacy of the fledgling land's young king and queen, all of the other races and tribes of the land were starting to unite under the banner of Hyrule, in respect to the goddess who ruled over the surface still. The kingdom had known mostly peace for the past several years, though there had been the occasional natural disaster and, on one occasion, even an unexpected invasion from beyond the western boarders of the desert a few years ago, but the people of Hyrule were resilient and strong. With the help of the Sheikahs, the Hylians, as the former residents of Skyloft now called themselves, had handled the intruders to their new home decisively and, in time, even their assailants, a tribe of mostly female warriors known as the Gerudo, soon raised a treaty of peace and wished to join the kingdom of Hyrule as well. And so it was, that even though the early nation had its share of struggles as it got its feet off the ground, the kingdom was established on a firm foundation, one that would not crumble so easily.

And, as the people of Hyrule continued to build their new kingdom, so too, did they begin to create a new culture for it. The people had all come to embrace the name that the goddess and the hero had created for the surface years ago, and what it symbolized: both a hearkening to the past and the start of the new beginning. And in the same way, the people of the new land gradually formed its culture with a combination of both old and new ideas. Many of the same staples of Skyloftian culture remained in place; the Hylians still often called up to the skies for their Loftwings, and the very image of the guardian birds themselves had become the royal crest of the new kingdom, as well as the effigy of the Triforce. When the humans used to dwell in the sky, most of them did not know the legends of the golden goddesses or even the story of Hylia, but they had all been told of all these ancient tales by the Sheikah, who had worked closely with them over the past seven years in helping them develop their new kingdom. And, as much as the Hylians were starting to embrace the history of the land they now called home, in many ways, they had started to incorporate new elements into their way of life as well.

As expected, the population of Hyrule had grown from beyond the original group of Skyloftian settlers who had come down after the Interloper's destruction of the city in the sky. The number of humans living in the land had grown well into the hundreds over the past seven years, and as such, the town they had built needed to expand. New homes were built to accommodate growing families and a few Hylians had even taken to going out from beyond the borders of the city and going out into the land to build new communities villages of their own, ones that would still be connected to the budding capital of the kingdom. Even the city itself had earned a name of its own over the past few years, one that was self explanatory, but fitting nonetheless: Hyrule Castle Town, in honor of the rising structure already towering over the town, one that was growing everyday as construction on it continued along at a steady pace.

Though the castle itself was still a work in progress, the plans created for it by both the Hylians and the Sheikahs were ambitious and grand indeed. After all, it had to be a fitting dwelling place not only for the members of the newly established royal family, but also for the goddess and the hero, who had saved the land from eternal darkness not only once, but twice. While the Sheikah still served under the direction of a matriarch, the Hylians were a different case. In Skyloft, the people had not really known any recognized form of government, but throughout the years it had come to be widely accepted that the headmaster of the knight academy also acted as something of an unofficial leader amongst the people. However, as human society began anew upon the surface, the knight academy was one of the old facets of Skyloftian culture that did not survive the transition as a new method of recruiting and training the protectors of Hyrule was developed in its stead. And so, as Gaepora stepped down from his position and retired about a year after the Interloper War, the mantle of leadership was passed onto his daughter. At first Zelda, still being the young mother that she was, had no idea how to exercise the authority that had been given to her, even with Link's help. But it was around that time that the young couple had remembered what the goddesses had asked of them: to create the royal family of the land, so it would have its roots in both the Blood of the Goddess and the Spirit of the Hero. And, despite neither the hero nor the girl knowing how they were ever going to get the people of the land to accept them as their king and queen, they somehow did. The people of the new kingdom all knew that it was a time of change, and, in light of all that Link and Zelda had done to protect the surface and its inhabitants and how they had basically founded Hyrule itself, both the Hylians, the Sheikahs, and all the other races of the land alike were quick to swear fealty to this new monarchy and the young couple who had somehow found themselves at the head of it.