Elemental Star Chamber

The Elemental Star Chamber is the deepest area within Mt. Aleph and the containment area of the Elemental Stars. It is a very important area in terms of the core plot of the Golden Sun series, and is visited in Golden Sun after clearing the way through the introductory dungeon within Mt. Aleph, Sol Sanctum. The primary events that set up for the rest of the series transpire here.

Walkthrough
At the end of the Sol Sanctum dungeon, examine the point at the wall that a beam of light hits to enter the portal into the Elemental Star Chamber. After an extended cutscene shows you across the room to the points where the four objects you're supposed to collect are, your party will now be comprised merely of Isaac and Garet. At the upper-rightmost corner of the main floor, hop up and take the "hopping path" that goes east and down to the statue at the lower right corner of the chamber, and interact with it to make some pillars rise up from out of the water and receive the Venus Star. Hop back up, and now head up and right to get to the statue on the upper right corner of the room and receive the Mercury Star. Now return to the main platform, and this time hop down onto the pillar path to the south to go over to the statue on the lower left, whereupon you collect the Jupiter Star.

Immediately after doing this, a lengthy and story-intensive cutscene occurs, and when you eventually regain control of Isaac with the three stars you collected no longer in your inventory, hop back to the main platform and take the upper right set of pillars you hopped on earlier. Hop up past the floor with the statue where you collected the Mercury Star to take the path that extends left along the top of the chamber, and when you get to a fork branching left or down, go down to be lead to the floor with the statue holding the last star yet to be collected, the Mars Star. As soon as you interact with the statue, the story takes over for a while, at the eventual end of which you'll automatically be placed back in Sol Sanctum at the point where you originally entered the Elemental Star Chamber through. Leave Sol Sanctum to complete the dungeon and progress with the story.

Background and Story
As with Sol Sanctum, the ancient complex of tunnels that connect to the Elemental Star Chamber within Mt. Aleph, the true origins of the chamber and whether they were created for a purpose are unknown. As it is in the modern day and age, though, it functions as the hidden containment area of the Elemental Stars, which are the highly guarded Alchemy-related secret locked within Mt. Aleph that only Adepts may find the way into. The chamber is apparently designed to destroy itself should the four jewels be removed from their pedestals; first of all, Mt. Aleph is a volcano whose internal lava would otherwise be flowing. However, the stars are placed on their pedestal-statues in such a way that the shared influence of the essences of power they contain have have consistently repressed the lava below, keeping Mt. Aleph in a dormant state over the ages. If they are removed, the lava would flow freely again, and Mt. Aleph would become an active volcano.

At the beginning of Golden Sun, a team of young Adepts named Isaac, Garet, and Jenna solve the potentially deadly trap blocking the way into the Elemental Star Chamber, and are astounded by what they see. They momentarily think that the body of water that has accumulated at the base of the chamber below the elevated platforms they stand on is the "ocean", but dismiss that on the basis that the ocean has waves (because of their hometown Vale's location at the base of Mt. Aleph and how they've lived there all their lives, they had not yet seen a real ocean in their lives). Kraden, who brought them here claiming that observing this is an important part of their education as Adepts, is excited to learn that the Elemental Stars he's heard legends about really exist, and explains in detail everything that is believed by scholars like him about Alchemy, the Elemental Stars, and the hypothetical vessel of stone named the Stone of Sages that dominates everything.

Kraden explains that, as a scholar, he has long sought the Elemental Stars to learn the truth about the stones and their alleged ability to provide Alchemy, and desires to take them with him for study. (The truth of the matter is that Kraden was ordered to study the secrets of Alchemy up close by his master figure, Babi, the lord of Tolbi where Kraden originally lived, who was interested in Alchemy's alleged effect of extending life.) He hands Isaac four fine bags made of mythril that he had prepared for specifically this purpose, and has Isaac and Garet fetch the Stars for him. The Elemental Stars of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are removed from their statues and placed in bags.

All of a sudden, a second group of Adepts come in and immediately take Jenna and Kraden hostage. These Adepts, led by the Mars Adepts Saturos and Menardi, demand Isaac and Garet to give them the Elemental Stars; when Kraden asks if they have a guarantee that Saturos will not harm them, Menardi has the young man in the mask reveal his identity as Felix, the elder brother of Jenna who everyone had presumed died years earlier, shocking Isaac's group into submission. After Isaac and Garet hand the three Elemental Stars to Alex, another companion of Saturos, they venture to bring the remaining star for them, the Mars Star.

When Isaac and Garet remove the fourth star from its pedestal, the influence that subdued the magma within the depths of Mt. Aleph are removed, and thus the mountain suddenly quakes under a volcanic eruption, all the water in the Star Chamber disappears and is replaced with erupting lava, and the physical structure of the chamber begins to crack and crumble. Everyone in both parties then watch in awe as a massive boulder-like entity with a single eye emerges into view, having awoken from apparently an ages-long slumber. When Kraden identifies it as the all-powerful guardian entity of Mt. Aleph previously spoken of in the legends of the people of Vale, the Wise One, Saturos' group realizes it is too dangerous to remain in the Star Chamber and that they must flee Mt. Aleph with only three of the Stars in their possession. The Mars Star is something they really need, but Alex proposes that they take Jenna and Kraden with them so that if Isaac and Garet survive the eruption, they will pursue them for the hostages and bring the Mars Star with them. Felix lashes out at this proposal, but is forced to accept considering that Jenna would also be at risk were she left behind. Thus, Saturos, Menardi, Alex, Felix, Jenna, and Kraden flee the Star Chamber and Mt. Aleph.

Isaac and Garet, meanwhile, meet the Wise One up close. The Wise One shows he, by himself, does not intend for harm to come to the two by attempting to hold off the erupting lava with his great power. The Wise One explains that if the Elemental Stars are used to light the beacons atop the Elemental Lighthouses situated across Weyard, the world would be exposed to the "threat" of Alchemy - it being a threat better left sealed because it can become a dangerous power if misused. The Wise One also notes small bodies of energy being loosed by the statues that formerly held the Stars and fleeing the chamber, and explains that they are the elementals returning. Finally, the Wise One commands Isaac to take out the Mars Star, and he imbues the stone with an as-of-yet unexplained property that becomes relevant to a future event the Wise One predicted when it first awoke. The Wise One helps Isaac and Garet escape Mt. Aleph with their lives by teleporting them out back into Sol Sanctum before the chamber is completely destroyed.

Trivia

 * The placement of the statues holding the elemental stars correlate with the placement of their Elemental Lighthouses around Mt. Aleph. However, the stars are collected out of this order; first the Venus Star, and then the Mercury Star before the Jupiter and Mars Stars are collected.