After creating the world, the three great goddesses, their labors completed, departed for the heavens. Three golden sacred triangles remained at the point where the goddesses left the world, symbols of the goddesses' strength. These triangles became known as the Triforce. A small but powerful portion of the essence of the goddesses was held in this mighty artifact, which was to guide the intelligent life on the world of Hyrule.

The sacred triangles became the basis of the world's providence, and the resting place of the triangles became the hidden Sacred Realm, or Golden Land. According to legend,

If you would seek the sacred triangle, listen well. The resting place of the sacred triangle, the Sacred Realm, is a mirror that reflects what is in the heart, the heart of one who enters it. If an evil heart, the Realm will become full of evil; if pure, the Realm will become a paradise.
The Triforce...the sacred triangle... it is a balance that weighs the three forces:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.
If the heart of the one who holds the sacred triangle has all three forces in balance, that one will gain the True Force to govern all. But, if that one's heart is not in balance, the Triforce will separate into three parts:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.
Only one part will remain for the one who touched the Triforce...the part representing the force that one most believes in. If that one seeks the True Force, that one must acquire the two lost parts. Those two parts will be held within others chosen by destiny, who will bear the Triforce mark on the backs of their hands.

Although it is an inanimate object, the Triforce has the power to bestow three titles which gives the person who receives them great powers: "The Forger of Strength", "The Keeper of Knowledge", and "The Juror of Courage". From its hiding place in the Golden Land where the goddesses placed it, the Triforce beckoned people from the outside world to seek it in the hope that someone worthy of these titles would find it.

The Triforce will grant the wishes in the heart and mind of the person who touches it, and will obey only this person as long as that person lives. If a person with a good heart touches it, it will make his good wishes come true. If an evil-hearted person touches it, it grants his evil wishes. The stronger the wish, the more powerful the Triforce's expression of that wish. However, the Triforce, being an inanimate object, cannot judge between good and evil - it merely grants the wishes of its holder. According to the Prophecy of the Great Cataclysm, if a person who has an evil heart gets the Triforce, a Hero is destined to appear.