TriForce

In the Legend of Zelda video game series, the Triforce is a legendary relic. Bestowed upon the Hylian people by the three goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore, according to Hylian creation myth, the Triforce consists of three triangular fragments, representing Power, Wisdom and Courage. 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 the first incarnation of the 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 (blue, Nayru), and Zelda, who recieved the Triforce of Wisdom (green, Farore). Each of the three was marked with a magical "tattoo" on the back of one of their hands, 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. The Triforce remained there as well, but whenever it occurs that Ganondorf (or eventually Ganon, so called as the Golden Realm's power eventually twisted his form into a porcine reflection of his greedy heart, and time forgot his original moniker) may be rising to power again, a new incarnation of Link and the current Princess Zelda (established as pretty much the only name for daughters of the Hyrulian ruling line) will be called and awakened to their ties to the Triforce to put him down and reseal or, eventually, destroy him.

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.