In the canon as it appears in the official reference material, the Kokiri became the Koroks after Hyrule was flooded in the era of The Wind Waker. The change itself is established. The published references that document it do not spell out a single motive for it, so the reason the Kokiri took this form is best read as an inference about the flooded world, not as an explicit explanation from Nintendo.
What is established about the Kokiri
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo’s official story summary places Link in the forest with the Kokiri, a tribe whose guardian is the Great Deku Tree. Nintendo’s character profile describes the Kokiri as a tribe of children who never age. That detail matters later, because it is the feature that separates the original Kokiri from the Koroks who appear in a different world.
How the later story connects the two tribes
Nintendo’s official series overview places The Wind Waker in a world that has become a great sea after a flood. That is the setting in which the Koroks appear. The link between the two tribes comes from Hyrule Historia, the series reference book, which states that the Kokiri transformed into the Korok tribe. The copy of that statement that is indexed online is a secondary scan rather than a Nintendo-hosted page, so cite the book itself rather than the scan.
| Feature | Kokiri (Ocarina of Time) | Koroks (The Wind Waker era) |
|---|---|---|
| World setting | Forest in Hyrule, where Link lives with the tribe | A great sea following a flood, per Nintendo’s official series overview |
| Tribe name | Kokiri | Koroks, stated in Hyrule Historia as the transformed form of the Kokiri |
| Appearance | Children who never age, per Nintendo’s character profile | Not stated in the official sources reviewed for this article |
| Guardian | The Great Deku Tree | The Great Deku Tree belongs to the story context of The Wind Waker; dialogue linking the Koroks to their Kokiri past appears in an indexed fan-hosted text dump, so it should not be quoted verbatim without checking a game copy |
Why the change happened: stated versus inferred
What is stated
The Kokiri became the Koroks in the later era. That is the only part of the answer that rests on a direct statement in the reference material. Everything about a motive sits beyond it.
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- This, the last of The Goddess Collection trilogy, which includes Hyrule Historia and Art & Artifacts, is a treasure trove of explanations and information about every aspect of The Legend of Zelda universe!
- This 336-page book is an exhaustive guide to The Legend of Zelda from the original game through Twilight Princess HD.
The flood as the likely context
The most reasonable reading is that the transformation belongs to a world reshaped by flood, and that a form suited to that environment would make sense for the tribe. This is interpretation. The sources available for this article do not establish that swimming, floating, flight, or travel was the reason the Great Deku Tree changed the Kokiri’s form, and they do not give any other specific cause.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- The Legend of Zelda: Art and Artifacts contains over four hundred pages of fully realized illustrations from the entire thirty-year history of The Legend of Zelda including artwork from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!
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- This book includes rare promotional pieces, game box art, instruction booklet illustrations, official character illustrations, sprite art, interviews with the artists, and much, much more!
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Rank #4
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Rank #3
Rank #2
Explanations the sources do not support
- That the Kokiri were an illusion. This is a fan theory, not a claim made by any official source reviewed here.
- That the Kokiri’s childlike appearance existed only to make Link comfortable. This is also a fan theory and has no official backing.
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