The Zelda Chronicle
An interactive map of every Legend of Zelda game — from the Skyward Sword origin point through the three-way split at Ocarina of Time, to the still-unofficial placement of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Age of Calamity, and Age of Imprisonment. Scroll to walk the eras, or jump to the full chart below.
The Origin
It begins in the sky
Before Hyrule has a name, the goddess Hylia seals the demon king Demise — and his dying curse promises that his hatred will return, forever, against the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero. One game stands at the top of every official timeline: Skyward Sword.
The Origin
The Shared Trunk
One history, for now
The wind mage Vaati rises and is sealed; the Four Sword is forged and shelved. The Minish Cap and Four Swords fill the quiet centuries — quiet, because the detonation hasn't happened yet.
The Shared Trunk
The Split
One ending becomes three futures
Ocarina of Time ends three different ways depending on how you read it — the hero warns the past, the hero wins and vanishes, the hero falls. Nintendo's official chart refuses to choose. All three happen. History forks.
The Split
The Child Timeline
The warning lands
Sent back to childhood, Link tells Zelda everything — and Ganondorf's coup dies before it starts. This branch trades apocalypse for stranger dooms: Termina's falling moon, the Twilight invasion, and a final double-threat of Vaati and Ganon reborn.
The Child Timeline
The Adult Timeline
Victory, then the flood
The hero wins and is returned to his own era — leaving the adult world heroless when Ganon breaks free. The gods' answer is the ocean. Centuries later, a boy with no destiny sails the Great Sea and earns the title the old world lost.
The Adult Timeline
The Downfall Timeline
The hero falls
In the timeline nobody in-fiction wants to remember, Ganondorf wins the Triforce whole. Eight games of seals, declines, and stubborn survival follow — ending, chronologically, with the two games that started the series in 1986.
The Downfall Timeline
The Distant Future
After everything — but after which everything?
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom sit past the far end of all three branches, and Nintendo will not say which one leads there. 'That's up to the player's imagination,' says the series' producer. The chart simply… stops.
The Distant Future
The Unplaced
Stories without a chart
Age of Calamity refights the Great Calamity as a winnable what-if. Age of Imprisonment plays the ancient Imprisoning War that TOTK only remembers. Both are officially blessed stories — and neither appears on any timeline Nintendo has ever printed. Their placement here is interpretation, and this site says so.
Outside the Chart
And then there are the CD-i games
Licensed to Philips in a collapsed hardware deal, disowned by Nintendo, and immortal on the internet anyway. Every chronicle needs an appendix.
Outside the Chart
Explore the full chart
Every game, every branch, filterable — the complete chronicle at once.
Shared Trunk (Before the Split)
Child Timeline
diverges from Shared Trunk (Before the Split) at Ocarina of Time
Adult Timeline
diverges from Shared Trunk (Before the Split) at Ocarina of Time
Downfall Timeline
diverges from Shared Trunk (Before the Split) at Ocarina of Time
A Link to the Past1991 · Super Nintendo
Link's Awakening1993 · Game Boy / Switch
Oracle of Seasons2001 · Game Boy Color- Oracle of Ages2001 · Game Boy Color
A Link Between Worlds2013 · Nintendo 3DS
Tri Force Heroes2015 · Nintendo 3DS
The Legend of Zelda1986 · NES / Famicom Disk System
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link1987 · NES / Famicom Disk System