Hylian

Hylian
Type	Human
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Hylians are a race of long-eared people whom have played vital roles in the history of Hyrule.

Information

The Hylians have been described as the people closest to the gods. This claim has been complicated by more recent games. In Twilight Princess, when Shad reveals a theory that there was a mysterious group of sky people (whom he believes to be the Oocca) who were closer to the gods than the Hylians, and he believed that these sky people were the ones who created the Hylians. Since then, Skyward Sword seems to have shown the early history of the Hylians, and it is uncertain how it meshes with Shad's theory.

The Hylians were known for their long ears (which were supposed to hear messages from the goddesses), heightened senses and the ability to use magic, and these traits were attributed to being a chosen people. The Hylians are said to have created Hyrule and built most of Hyrule's ancient structures, and they also passed down various powerful items and prophecies along with their own unique language. They had descendants who spread to various parts of the world, such as apparently Holodrum and Labrynna.

Over the years of Hyrule's history, the Hylian blood slowly thinned out until only a few remained, with the majority of the world becoming normal humans. The Royal Family seemed to preserve the Hylian bloodline, as every Princess Zelda has the Hylian long ears. Additionally, every incarnation of Link has appeared to be Hylian. This possibly has to do with their own connection to the goddesses. Other living Hylians were mostly wise men and the families of sages. The Hylian's written language also slowly faded away, although it could still be translated with the Book of Mudora. WIthin the timeline of The Wind Waker, Hylian people still seemed to live in fair numbers by the Great Sea, but their language (both written and spoken) had been forgotten.

Within the games, there are several games which seem to take place during the time when the Hylians prospered. Skyward Sword took place at an early point in history, seemingly before Hyrule or the Hylian race were named. They were referred to only as humans, but they were shown to have followed the goddess Hylia long ago, which could be the root of their eventual name. During the war on Demise, Hylia rallied the surviving humans onto a piece of land and raised it into the sky. There they formed the civilization called Skyloft and traveled using large birds known as Loftwings. Demise's threat did not end until centuries later, at which point they were free to return to the surface as they pleased.

Ocarina of Time showed that note all Hylians were skilled, and some commoners were confused by the apparent ability to receive messages from the gods, which makes it possible that only select Hylians had actual power or that the ability to hear the goddesses was actually referring to the goddess Hylia. The sages seemed to be responsible for most of things that were attributed to the Hylian people in the other games. However, while A Link to the Past originally established that the Seven Sages were Hylian, Ocarina of Time showed them to be of a mixed race. In Majora's Mask, Termina was also shown to be inhabited by long-eared people who appeared to be Hylians. As Termina is a parallel world and its connection to Hyrule was not elaborated upon, it is uncertain if should be considered as actual Hylians or just a similar-looking species.

Trivia

• The original text of the A Link to the Past manual refers to the Hylians as being the "root word" for Hyrule. This implies that the Hylians were named before Hyrule, and it also indicates that the two names have similar pronunciation. This is clearer within the Japanese language, where l's and r's are interchangeable. Skyward Sword seems to corroborate with this account, as the goddess Hylia is shown to precede both the naming of the Hylian people and the kingdom of Hyrule, and it comes with the implication that the word Hylian referred to their time as Hylia's followers.
• Link, Zelda and Impa had been depicted with long ears in The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but it was not until A Link to the Past when the Hylian race was actually introduced, so those games only contain Hylians retroactively. Link and Zelda being Hylians does mean that all Zelda games technically include Hylians.
• The Hylian language has changed over the years and undergone several different variations. While A Link to the Past only used nonsensical symbols to represent Hylian, Ocarina of Time introduced Hylian symbols which were based on the basic Japanese alphabet, and The Wind Waker established a new Hylian symbol system which corresponded to all of Japanese and was used in most following games. Ocarina of Time 3D notably used a mix of the two Hylian systems. Twilight Princess also had a unique Latin-based system of symbols.
• Unused text in Four Swords Adventures indicates that the game was at one point going to acknowledge the decline of the Hylian tongue in Hyrule with a minigame in which players had to identify Hylian symbols.