Despite existing for 25 years, with a sprawling, sometimes connected mythology, the Legend of Zelda never had an official, public timeline. Until last year. Alongside the release of Skyward Sword, Nintendo revealed that it was ready to publish what fans had speculated about for decades, and it would do so in 'Hyrule Historia', a book dedicated to the history of one of gaming's most revered franchises.

For months, many fans thought Historia would never make it outside of Japan. Fortunately Dark Horse Comics was there to answer the call, revealing earlier this year that it was translating and localizing Historia for a January 2013 release in the United States.Though we already have a good idea of what will be in the book - from a prequel comic to Skyward Sword to interviews, designs and more - one thing Dark Horse confirmed to IGN months ago was that it planned to commission a new cover design. Today we can reveal that, plus a cool teaser trailer Dark Horse assembled, which highlights the product as a whole, if you missed all the previous coverage we've done.

Why the changes? Dark Horse editor Patrick Thorpe gave us some quick insight.

"This is the official cover for the North American version of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. The logo and gold colored design elements will be gold foil stamped. The large symbol on the cover is the Gate of Time from Skyward Sword. We felt that it was appropriate for a number of reasons. Hyrule Historia is a history book, not only about the development of the games, but the history of Hyrule as well. We wanted the reader to feel like they were stepping through the gate, back in time, and experiencing all aspects of the Legend of Zelda. As keen-eyed Zelda fans will tell you, the three symbols surrounding the triforce are the symbols of the three goddesses who... well, I'll let you read the book to find out their signifance. But we loved the gate's symbol because it is fraught with meaning, much of which is explained in different sections of the book, and appear again and again throughout the series. One of the other reasons is that there are Skyward Sword sections that bookend Hyrule Historia. It felt appropriate to put a symbol from the 25th anniversary game on the cover. I hope that you all like it as much as we do."

Check out the trailer:

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Not to be too shameless about this, but we're buying the hell out of this thing. It'll not only be a great resource - that timeline is complicated as hell - but we're eager to dig through the legacy of the Zelda series, even seeing some of the sketches that went into creating areas like Skyward Sword's bazaar.

We'll have more on Hyrule Historia as it approaches release. For all things Zelda, keep tuned to IGN.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more.Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!