According to the story of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the chronologically earliest of the games, the Triforce was bestowed upon the Hylian people by the three goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore, according to Hylian creation myth. Kept safe in a realm parallel and reflective of the "normal" Hyrule, known as the Golden Land or Golden Realm, the Triforce is the ultimate representation of all power, wisdom, courage and magic in Hyrule.

Ganondorf Dragmire, a Gerudo thief and the sole male of their tribe at the time, heard of the legend of the Triforce and lusted after its power, primarily as a tool to subjugate the kingdom of Hyrule and expand his influence. Inadvertantly aided by a young hero known as Link and the Hyrulian princess, Zelda, Ganondorf found his way into the Golden Realm, but could only claim one fragment of the Triforce, the Triforce of Power, typically associated with the color Red and the goddess Din. The other two fragments split off and merged with Link, who recieved the Triforce of Courage, associated with blue and Nayru, and Zelda, who recieved the Triforce of Wisdom, associated with green and Farore. Each of the three was marked with on the back of one of their hands with the mark of the Triforce.

Eventually, Ganondorf was defeated, and the reunited Triforce and the power of seven Hylian Sages (including Zelda herself) were used to seal him in the Golden Realm, and the Triforce remained there as well. Eventually the power of the Golden Realm twisted Ganondorf's form into a porcine reflection of his greedy heart, and time forgot his original moniker. Although Ganon struggled many times afterwards to rise to power once more, each time a new incarnation of Link and a new Princess Zelda are awakened to put him down and reseal or, eventually, destroy him.

In both A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker, it was revealed that one who touches the Triforce has all of their wishes come true; the Triforce reflects the heart of the one who touches it, whether good or evil. In A Link to the Past, Ganon exploited this power to corrupt The Golden Land, turning it into the Dark World, a realm of dark skies and evil creatures.

Triforce is also the name of an arcade board developed as a joint-venture between Sega, Namco and Nintendo. The hardware is based on the Nintendo Gamecube, but with more RAM (48 MB instead of the Cube's 24). Sega ported it's Naomi Development Kit, originally developed for the Dreamcast game console, to the Triforce, making game development very easy. Among the games known to run on the Triforce hardware are F-Zero AX and Virtua Fighter 2002, both from Sega.

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