--Book of Mudora – The First Cataclysm -Verse 1.

Long before the land had ever heard of the Hero of Time, before Ganondorf the King of Evil, before Hyrule was the glorious country it was today, there was a time of great peril. Ganondorf Dragmire was not the first soul to desire the mythical Triforce. Nay, long before the Gerudo were even rumors; there were more dangerous foes, much closer to home. The Sheikah, Shadows of the Hylians.

Millennia before the Sheikah pledged their fealty to the Royal Family of Hyrule; millennia before there was a Royal Family, Hylians that were tempted by the black arts and the ways of evil were taken in to the mysterious group. No one knew where they came from, but they destroyed many a village, laying waste to the Great Plains of the land, leaving misery in their wake. Their names were spoken with fear, but none more so than the Warlock, the dark wizard Agahnim. Agahnim was searching, searching the world for something powerful, a power that would make him a living god.

"Lies! All lies!" The huge robed man screamed, tearing things apart. His followers cowered nervously in the shadows, fearful of their master’s rage. He stormed out of the tent he used as his own and called for his steed. Mounting the beast, he tore off into the fog-enshrouded night, into the depths of the forest. The Sheikah looked at one another. The Master had hit another dead end, and someone would pay for it. His hunt for the Power of Gold had been ongoing for decades, and he was no closer to finding it.

Agahnim returned the next morning, his mood still dark. He motioned for his lieutenant to come to him.

"We are leaving this forest, Ortho. Pack the supplies. The Great Forest is not where we are supposed to be."

"Great Agahnim, where will you lead us to? The Sheikah will not like leaving here, for the food is plenty and we have not had to raid villages in months."

"They will follow. They would not dare question my motives. Not anymore, at least." Those who disagreed with the Warlock found themselves quite dead. It was a lesson that was learned quickly.

"We are going into the West. I feel drawn in that direction."

Ortho blinked. "West? But there is nothing to the West. No one has ever been beyond the mountains."

"Then we shall be the first. We are leaving tonight."

The Dark One led His people from the forest, slipping through the villages of Hyrule in the dead of night. They traveled for weeks, until the formidable cliffs rose before them. With his great magic, He opened the path and took His people into the unknown.

--Book of Mudora –The First Cataclysm-Verse 2.

Agahnim stood before the cliffs, his lips pulled tight against his skull in a cruel sneer. Focusing his dark power, he thrust his staff into the soil and chanted. The staff dimmed until it became a hole of blackness pulling the energy of the land into it. A great bolt of black lightning sprung from the staff’s head, slamming into the tall cliff before it. It began to bore a hole through the stone. Agahnim cackled, and grabbed his staff, wielding it in front of him and marching into the newly formed tunnel, creating it as he went. The Sheikah unquestioningly followed him, and left the land of Hyrule behind them.

For miles they marched in a straight line through the mountains, not speaking, perhaps not even thinking. Until they reached the end. The wall in front of the wizard suddenly vanished, and all were blinded by the bright sunlight.

Agahnim stepped out of the passage, and was standing in a large valley surrounded by the rocks of the mountains. No plants grew here, though the small black shapes of birds could be seen high in the cloudless sky. Something was alive out here, but very different from the lush greenness of Hyrule.

The wizard threw back his hood at the intense heat, showing his scarred face and white hair. The valley was cut crosswise by another, deeper valley, and at the distant bottom, a river could be seen. The gap was several hundred feet across, with no way to cross it. No way, that was, for mere man. Agahnim threw up his arms and created a dark orb around himself and his people. The orb lifted into the air, startling many Sheikah and straining Agahnim’s power. He willed it towards the opposite side of the canyon. It slowly moved in that direction.

Halfway across the wizard’s power began to weaken, causing the orb to slip down several feet, scaring the Sheikah within. The young children cried, distracting Agahnim even further. Ortho, using his limited abilities the wizard had taught him, added his strength to the magiks swirling around them. The orb was renewed. Agahnim glanced back at his lieutenant briefly before willing the orb to the far side.

The valley continued on for miles, until it suddenly widened and the mountains stopped. Before the wandering people a vast desert stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see. The Sheikah knew their leader would take them into this desert, far from water and food, into the burning heat. But none protested. They would rather die with honor than in disgrace at the hands of their
Master.

--Book of Mudora –The First Cataclysm-Verse 2.

The peak on the horizon was discarded as one of the strange mind shadows the Sheikah had been seeing at first. But once everyone could see it, they knew it had to be real. For miles they walked, the rocks becoming bigger and steeper every minute. Until finally they reached the hills, and looked down at the valley before them.

It was shaped like a vast crater, much like the forbidden Death Mountain hundreds of miles away. Except this was filled with sand and not boiling rock. The first thing they noticed was the spire on the far side. Its face had been shaped into a figure of a Goddess, though it did not resemble any of the three the Sheikah knew. Whoever dwelt in this harsh land were pagan, monotheistic infidels. Then the city of small stone structures and tents was noticed, along with the blue shape of an oasis. Agahnim led the way down the slope into the valley.

The people that stopped them were very different from the Hylian race the Sheikah belonged to. Their skin was copper-colored, and their ears small and rounded. Their large, dark eyes seemed to stare into the Sheikahs’ souls. When they spoke, it sounded of gibberish, but somehow Agahnim could understand them, and responded in the same tongue. After a while, the strangers ran off towards the monolith, and the wizard addressed his people.

"These are the Gerudo, the Children of the Sand. This is their chief city. I have arranged a meeting with their king, and you are to wait for my return. You may drink of their water." Agahnim beckoned for Ortho, and began walking after the runners.

--Book of Mudora –The First Cataclysm-Verse 2.

The Gerudo sultan sat within his throne room, in the cool interior of his palace. The palace was carved out of the monolith, with the throne room dominated by a smaller version of the colossus. A complex network of polished silver mirrors brought light into the labyrinth. Agahnim stood before the foreign king, and bowed slightly. Ortho had been made to wait outside, but with the young Sheikah’s abilities, he could be at his master’s side in seconds.

"I am known as Agahnim, leader of Sheikah." The king silenced him with a wave of his hand.

"You are not of the desert. I have never seen anyone such as you and your people."

"We come from beyond the desert."

"Absurd. There is nothing outside the desert. Only rock cliffs, too high for any to climb."

Agahnim held out his hands and let the magic inside him to jump between them. The king gasped and stared. "I did not climb them. I came through them. There is more to this world than your wasteland empire. Powers beyond your comprehension."

The king couldn’t speak for a moment. Finally finding his wits, he replied. "What do you wish of us?"

"My wishes are my own, but if you prove helpful to me, you and your people will surely be rewarded." Agahnim reached inside his robes and pulled out an ancient scroll. Unrolling it, the king could see it was a crude map, but not of any land he knew of. There were words and an arrow, pointing west, but it meant nothing to him.

"I am searching for something. A relic of the goddesses. My studies have drawn clues that it may lay out here, beyond the borders of the map, in the unknown."

"Goddesses? We only know of one Goddess, Dens, our protector." The name sounded different, but Agahnim made the connection in his mind. Din, the Goddess of Power. These people, isolated in the desert for eons, drew from the same myths of the Hylians. Perhaps this desolate waste was indeed the Sacred Realm, where the goddesses placed the Golden Force, and left these copper-skinned people here to watch over it. They would draw off of Din’s Power to help them accomplish this. It made sense. Suddenly the evil greed within him took over, and he used his powers on the poor king, raping his mind for clues. The guards saw their leader in pain, and rushed to stop the wizard. Agahnim cast them aside with a gesture. He didn’t hear the wailing shout of a Gerudo sentry calling for help.

He learned the history of the Gerudo in mere seconds. There were many such settlements scattered in the desert, forming small nation-states. They fought among themselves for resources, a savage race. The colossus had been standing here for thousands of years, chiseled out of the rock by the earliest Gerudo. They were a very patriarchal society, ruled by men. They couldn’t function without their male leaders. More knowledge amassed itself in the wizard’s mind, but nothing of the Golden Force. This enraged Agahnim, and he killed the sultan with a thought. More dead-ends! Weeks and weeks in this sand pit with nothing to show for it. He stormed out of the throne room, collecting Ortho on his way out side.

The Gerudo responded quickly, and were just as quick to exact vengeance. Dozens of warriors surrounded the group of Sheikah, and herded them towards the palace. Agahnim saw this just as the sultan’s bodyguard attacked him and his aide.

One of them snarled at the wizard, thrusting a wicked, curved sword at him.

"Demon! You will pay for killing our lord! We will tie you to the rocks and watch the vultures pick at your bleached bones!"

Ortho drew his tanto, the short sword Sheikah warriors used. Agahnim held up a hand, stopping the young man.

"Stand aside, or you shall join him in death," the wizard said.

The Gerudo didn’t answer, as he was leaping through the air at Agahnim. Agahnim cocked a gray eyebrow at the young man, and sidestepped, laughing. The wizard had turned him into stone in midair with a thought. The statue thumped into the soft sand, where the other Gerudo looked at it in amazement. But they did not back off.

Agahnim the Sheikah Warlock was beginning to get annoyed. He snapped his fingers, bringing his staff into his hand.

"Stand down, or your entire race shall suffer. My power is great, and unmerciful."

A young woman warrior crouched on a nearby roof, stringing an arrow to her bow. Standing quickly, she fired at the man in red robes. The arrow never reached him.

Agahnim unleashed his magic, a dark wave of energy washing over the entire valley, pulverizing buildings. It struck the colossus, ripping large pieces of it off, which crashed to the ground. The oasis was flash-boiled into a great cloud of steam. The waves of darkness flowed out into the desert, reaching the other Gerudo towns in minutes.

"Note what has been done here!" Agahnim yelled over the howling sandstorms brought on by his attack. "I have placed a curse upon your people! There will never be another male born to a Gerudo, ever again! Your race will perish within a generation! This is what has been done, in response to your belligerence!" The wizard has breathing heavily now, drained of his power. It had been the single most powerful spell he had ever cast. He signaled to Ortho, who helped his master limp back to the waiting Sheikah.

"The desert has lied to us, my children. It does not hold the Power of Gold, and our paradise. There is nothing for us here. We must return to Hyrule…" he passed out.

--Book of Mudora –The First Cataclysm, Verse 3.

"Our creation is endangered."

"We cannot intervene. It is the way of things."

"Our children have been cursed. Our children must not perish from the world."

"Then the rule can be bent."

"Perhaps."

"They will not disappear from this earth. One manchild shall be born to them every hundred years. They will survive."

"We can do no more than that."

"Our creation is still endangered. It seeks the Master Force; the symbol of our power."

"We cannot intervene."

"Its will is evil. It will destroy our creation."

"Choose seven from those that live in our world. They will protect it."

"They must learn themselves."

"They will; they are our children."

"It is done. We can do no more."