Matthew

Matthew (ムート Mut) is a Venus Adept and the main protagonist of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The son of Isaac and Jenna, he has been trained by his father to follow in the footsteps of the Warriors of Vale who set off the Golden Sun thirty years earlier in a controversially damaging effort necessary to safeguard the world's long-term future. Matthew and his close friends Karis and Tyrell are initially tasked on a difficult errand that takes them across Angara to fetch a replacement component, which Isaac intends as a means for the Warriors' children to gain the experience needed to succeed their parents as Weyard's protectors in an age where the dangerous powers of Alchemy have spurred on wars and strife between nations.

However, Matthew is almost immediately sidetracked into a scheme authored by agents from the militant nation Tuaparang when his abilities lead to him being seen as useful to their plans. His party expands to encompass fellow Adepts Rief, Amiti, Sveta, Eoleo, and Himi as he delves into both his home continent's modern-day politics and the ancient legacies of the lost age of mankind, and he soon seeks to halt the spread of a grave outcome that arises as a result.

As a playable character
Matthew is featured throughout Golden Sun: Dark Dawn alongside Karis as one of the two Adepts comprising the game's eventual stable of eight playable characters who are usable and present in battles and the party from the very beginning. As an Adept of the Venus element, he can use Earth-aligned Psynergy spells in his default Squire class series, and his class series can be changed by having different elements of Djinn Set onto himself so that he can use a blend of Venus-aligned Psynergy and Psynergy aligned with the other elements. In these and virtually all other conceivable regards, Matthew is nearly identical to Isaac from the first two Golden Sun games on the Game Boy Advance.

In one of many parallels lifted directly from Isaac's role, Matthew is his party's leader and the "avatar" of the player, making him the only directly controllable character in the game's world outside of battle and making him the character who initiates conversations with NPCs. Matthew shares in the tradition established by Isaac and Felix — both "Venus Adept leader characters" — of innately having access to the exclusive Retreat Psynergy and the nearly exclusive Move Psynergy; the former instantly brings the player's party to the entrance of any area that is presented as one of the game's monster-infested "dungeons," while the latter is a (newly ranged) utility effect that moves an object in the environment for the purpose of solving out-of-battle puzzles. The only other Adept in Dark Dawn to know Move is Himi, who is the other Venus Adept in the game.

Another very conspicuous parallel he shares with Isaac and Felix is how, despite being the character who initiates conversations on the player's command, he is never shown speaking because he ascribes to the "silent protagonist" archetype. At most, he will "say" exclamation marks and ellipses, and the other Adepts populating his party will speak on his behalf. In one critical difference from his forebears, however, he innately retains access to the first stage of the Growth Psynergy series regardless of his class series because it is a vital utility Psynergy in its own right; previously, the lead Venus Adept would have needed to change to a class series with the Growth series to gain access to it as a utility.

Classes and Statistics
Matthew's base statistics before class modifications are taken into account are highly similar to Isaac's from the previous games; he has the highest innate Attack statistic among the eight Adepts in his party, and he has the third highest HP stat, the fourth highest Agility stat, and an average Defense stat. He shares his fairly solid starting Luck rating of 3 with Sveta. Also like Isaac and Felix, he has a below-average PP pool. As a "warrior-style Adept", Matthew is naturally very different from Himi in terms of default class series and what kinds of equipment can be warn; in particular, he is the only Adept in Dark Dawn who can equip what is commonly seen as the game's ultimate weapon, the Sol Blade.

The following are the class series that Matthew can access based on how many of what elements of Djinn he keeps Set onto himself (with series listed as "Partial" being series Matthew cannot advance to the highest class stages of):


 * Mono-Elemental: Squire class series
 * Dual-Elemental (Full): Brute class series, Apprentice class series, Crusader class series
 * Dual-Elemental (Partial): Seer (Jupiter) class series, Seer (Mercury) class series
 * Tri-Elemental (Full): Dragoon class series, Ninja class series, Samurai class series
 * Tri-Elemental (Partial): Medium class series

Appearance and Personality
Matthew looks extremely similar to how his father Isaac appeared at the same age, and he appears not to have inherited any traits from his mother Jenna. His dirt-blond hairstyle is slightly better kept, and his eye color is a paler gray than his father's light blue eyes. His build is notably thin for someone who ends up highly well-traveled. His preferred outfit involves a wine-colored vest-like shirt with a small blue coat layered on top, but he bears what appears to be the emblematic yellow scarf Isaac had used during his own adventure.

Matthew's portrayal as the "silent protagonist" archetype renders much of his personality indiscernible despite it being clear that he has no apparent trouble talking when his leadership role requires it, though certain points in Dark Dawn play on this tradition. His encyclopedia entry describes him as "a person of few words but strong convictions," and when directly asked for his name in one scene, the game depicts him as emitting a speech bubble with ellipses, which is immediately followed by the character who asked to have him repeat himself more clearly; one of Matthew's companions has to acknowledge that Matthew is "kind of quiet" and gives Matthew's name on his behalf.

While Dark Dawn introduces the capacity to have Matthew respond with either a contented, cheerful, sad, or angry emotion at various points in an ongoing conversation so that the next line in the scene is all that is affected, his angry thoughts appear never to be intended to directly upset characters who are not his opponents. For example, when one character asks forgiveness from Matthew for concealing the full scope of her rather relevant backstory, his angry response will be seen by her as intended to be a rebuke of the enemy faction both she and Matthew are opposed to.

On the other hand, Matthew is implied to be capable of responses against his enemies that are harsh to the point of being socially questionable; when an ally aggressively betrays Matthew's side of an agreed accord and Matthew is asked for his opinion by one of his companions, the "angry" response will literally be met with the remark "Wow...graphic." More infamously, when an unwelcome opponent makes an extremely exasperating appearance near the end of Matthew's quest, Matthew's projected response uses a set of Unicode symbols commonly interpreted as representing a censored swear word even though he is still supposed to be bound to his unstated silent protagonist tradition. However, since Matthew's response in the Japanese-language source version simply has him emitting a set of exclamation marks, and since Tyrell's reaction at this same moment is what draws the attention of the aforementioned opponent for its perceived aggressiveness of displeasure, this may merely be a fabrication inserted by the localization team.

Matthew approaches the challenges of leadership posed to him by his quest with a willingness to partake in atypical activities. For example, he accepts what is ultimately a proposal for him to imbibe a drug-like substance and fall asleep at the base of a cursed tree so that he can spiritually battle the source of the curse within its home realm, which leads his lifelong friend Tyrell to remark that Matthew can be "talked into anything." When Matthew intends to find a missing royal prince both to bring him home and to extract an important resource for Matthew's quest from him, he finds that said prince's mother is too distraught and worried to consult the item that can remotely verify his state of health and location and instead has it contained in her room; Matthew deliberately drives her into a panic by ringing a gong meant to indicate an imminent enemy attack so that he can steal the item and get to rescuing her son with its help, perhaps considering his methods justified over how the queen will clearly be helped by his actions in the long term.

Matthew's quest eventually comes to a point where he ends up bearing at least a small measure of responsibility for allowing a great disaster to be brought down upon the continent. When a young woman is shown to get killed in front of him, he is willing to stay with her during her last moments and then bury her nearby even though the ongoing disaster heavily incentivizes him to hurry up and flee. Easily the most spectacular demonstration of his dedication to his role as a protector of Weyard's fortunes comes near the end of Dark Dawn when it comes out that the means to put a stop to the disaster will require him to give up his own life — and he accepts these terms.

History
Matthew was born roughly fourteen years after the Golden Sun event brought about by his father and mother, Isaac and Jenna of the now-infamous Warriors of Vale. While many details about his upbringing are undisclosed, he would be raised at the cabin Isaac built near the persistently erupting remnants of Mt. Aleph in western Angara. Matthew took pride in calling Tyrell, the rather trouble-prone son of Isaac's fellow Warrior of Vale Garet, his best friend, and the two boys also regularly received visits from Karis, the daughter of Isaac's companion Ivan. As Isaac and Garet used their Lookout Cabin as a vantage point to study the aftereffects of the Golden Sun event, they brought up both of their sons to be warrior Adepts who could follow in their parents' footsteps as a new generation of Adepts who could look after the well-being of Weyard.

The world had originally been spared a creeping doom by the successful completion of the Warriors of Vale's quest to release the bound force of Alchemy from its seal and revitalize the world's core state of being, but many natural disasters have transpired in the decades since — not the least of which is a foreboding phenomenon Isaac calls Psynergy Vortexes. These dangerous concentrations of pure anti-Psynergy in the environment appear to come about on a decennial schedule and accompany the emergence of an exceedingly massive and destructive Vortex in particular; this phenomenon has happened twice over the thirty years following the Golden Sun event, and one of these events once wrought such misery somewhere in Angara that it and potential Vortexes of the same scale are referred to as the Mourning Moon. Driven to desperation by this and other tumultuous natural disasters, the world's cultures and nations have militarized against each other and become more widely aware of the existence of Adepts in the Psynergy arts — though they remain few in number.

A Quest for a Feather
When he is sixteen years of age, Matthew is noted by Isaac as having become stronger as a Venus Adept and better capable of handling the difficult life facing them at their cabin. Isaac plans on using a Psynergy-controlled harness invented by Ivan, a soarwing, to reach the remains of Sol Sanctum within Mt. Aleph and potentially elicit answers from the Wise One about what humankind is to do to save itself from the Psynergy Vortexes. Karis has brought the winged harness from Ivan and his place of residence, Kalay, so as to instruct the adults in its use.

Once Matthew and Isaac return to Lookout Cabin from a routine supply trip to Patcher's Place — a trading outpost home to many refugees from what was once Vale, Isaac's home village — they discover that Tyrell is aggravating a commotion with Karis by insisting that he be allowed to fly around with the Soarwing. Karis and the adults sternly warn Tyrell that he is not capable of using it properly because he has not undergone the necessary training, but Tyrell expresses frustration with how little he is taken seriously by people and flies above the valley beneath the cabin regardless. Tyrell realizes only after taking the plunge that he cannot avoid descending toward the dangerous Tanglewood forest below, so Isaac instructs him to fly to a small peak in the distance that contains an abandoned Psynergy Stone mine. Matthew's chosen form of encouragement is what convinces Tyrell that he can make it there and expect everyone else to fetch him safely.

Matthew and Karis, as much as they would have every reason to leave saving the day to the adults, are quite willing to agree with Isaac that they should be brought along to brave the forest and rescue Tyrell with the adults. After Karis helps him suit up and arm himself, Matthew is somewhat unnerved by Isaac's decision to have him and Karis battle the wild monsters along the way on their own, but the children quickly rise to the challenge posed both by the monsters and by natural obstacles deliberately set up by Isaac and Garet to test their aptitude in Psynergy. As the monsters native to the Tanglewood become more dangerous with the onset of night, however, the adults lend Matthew and Karis several Djinn and step in to help them as needed. Matthew and his father are eventually successful in rescuing Tyrell from a Psynergy Vortex and a threatening plant monster, though the soarwing is discovered broken.

The following day, back at Lookout Cabin, Isaac announces that he is sending Matthew to help Tyrell fulfill the latter's responsibility to retrieve a critical piece of replacement material for the soarwing's reconstruction: the feather of a Mountain Roc, which roosts in the distant Morgal region of Angara. The abruptness of Isaac's decision to send just the two boys on an errand as difficult as this startles Karis because Isaac himself had a hard time of it making the journey east through Bilibin and across Angara's reshaped landscape into Morgal years earlier. Isaac, however, views that to be the point because both young Adepts need to grow into warriors sooner or later; to this end, Isaac sees value in having Matthew's quest mirror how suddenly he and Garet were forced into their own quest decades earlier. Karis elects to join the boys in their trip, just as Isaac evidently intended her to. Isaac arranges for a message to be sent by carrier pigeon to the person who once informed the Warriors of Vale, Kraden, so that he can receive the young Adepts at Carver's Camp near Bilibin.

Matthew does not necessarily exhibit disapproval or trepidation toward any of this, but he is evidently put down that Isaac, his own father, is ultimately not present to see the three young Adepts off on their first big adventure; Garet is the only one who accompanies them to the edge of Goma Plateau. With the adults having to stay behind at the cabin to continue their investigation into Mt. Aleph and its relation to the Psynergy Vortex phenomenon, Matthew departs on his quest for a Mountain Roc's feather with a mixture of emotions. However, Isaac's first Djinni, Flint, almost immediately catches up to Matthew, having been sent by Isaac to enhance his power for the entirety of his trip; Matthew and his friends would come to collect dozens of wild Djinn over the course of their adventure and develop their abilities as warriors and Adepts as rapidly as their forebears.

Matthew stops by Patcher's Place and partakes in an excursion at its Psynergy Training Grounds before traveling southeast toward Carver's Camp. Once he arrives, however, he finds that the only bridge across the chasm separating the Goma region from Bilibin has been destroyed by the spontaneous appearance of a Psynergy Vortex. Kraden therefore traveled southeast to scout the ancient Konpa Ruins, which is known to link to an underground cave network that bypasses the mountain range separating the Goma region from the rest of Angara. This set of caves is known to branch into separate exits leading north toward Bilibin and south into the Ei-Jei region of the continent, which is partitioned from the Morgal region by the Khiren Mountains that effectively divide Angara into halves.

Sidetracked into Ei-Jei
While searching for Kraden in the ancient Konpa Ruins, once thought to be where Adepts from the ancient past shared ideas with visitors, the elements of Psynergy that Matthew and his friends have access to allow them to activate an ancient mechanism that rewards Matthew personally by supernaturally imbuing him with fluency in the lost writing system of the ancients. This knowledge helps Matthew enter the cave network underneath, where they discover Kraden and the two pupils he has been traveling with — the young Mercury Adepts Rief and Nowell — observing an underground Psynergy Vortex that appears to be actively influenced, if not maintained, by a technologically advanced man-made device. A squad of armored soldiers bearing similar technology suddenly drop in to prevent anyone from looking into the device, and Matthew's party manages to dispatch them.

Then, two shadowy figures of authority address Matthew and Kraden's side and extract an admittance from Matthew that he now knows the ancient glyphs; it is revealed that while they would normally have a mind to do the Adepts in over them having seen the machine, that Matthew is seemingly the only person on Weyard to be fluent in the ancient language gives the figures a heavy self-admitted incentive to keep him alive. The two figures reveal themselves to be the cocky swordsman Blados and the theatrically dressed Arcanus, who seems to playfully engage Kraden as though he would take delight in the elderly scholar piecing together that the two once had dealings in the past. Blados and Arcanus reveal themselves to have taken Rief captive and openly use the fact that they will leave him vulnerable at either one of the two cave exits to split Matthew's group from Kraden's, and Matthew is specifically instructed to take the south exit.

After Kraden questions whether he knows Arcanus' voice, he tells Matthew that they will resume their quest for the feather once they have reunited. Kraden instructs Matthew to find a way to cross directly north from Ei-Jei through the Khiren Mountains so that they can meet in Belinsk, the capital of Morgal. Somewhat exasperated that their quest for a feather got sidetracked so easily, Matthew's side rushes to look for Rief outside the southern entrance; their successful discovery of Rief there and the detonation of the cave exit behind them confirms that Blados' side had intended for them to be "trapped" in Ei-Jei from the start. Blados tauntingly describes the Khiren Mountains as the only hope the Adepts would have of crossing into Morgal like they had wanted. At one point, Blados lets slip the implication that a figure of higher authority than himself is the one who had given him orders to let the Adepts live until they played their parts in an unexplained scheme his side is partaking in. After Blados leaves, the Adepts resolve to stay in Ei-Jei for as short a time as possible and let Rief guide them to a point in the mountains that could represent a viable path toward Morgal.

With Rief now rounding out Matthew's initial party of four elementally varied Adepts, Matthew discovers the ancient smithing village of Passaj high up in the Khiren Mountains, at the north end of which is a dormant "cloud platform" that Kraden believed could create a cloud-like passage north across the Khiren Mountains. Through tinkering with the village's massive and dormant Alchemy Forge with their elementally diverse array of Psynergy powers, the Adepts infer that it would create the cloud passage once fully activated. They learn from the village mayor that an artifact named the Sol Mask is what is necessary to allow control of the machine, which was created by the ancient Exathi craftsmen who once worked with the ancient ancestors to modern Adepts, the Jenei. Since this mask-like implement lies in an ancient and highly dangerous Exathi labyrinth due east named the Ouroboros, it is described to Matthew that he would need the help of the prince of Passaj's allied nation Ayuthay down south, Amiti, to survive it.

In the years since the Golden Sun event, the culture resident to Angara's southeastern region consolidated into a unified nation named Sana. An off-shoot of Sana headed by the militaristic King Wo had expanded southwest and founded the nation of Kaocho directly on top of the entrance to the Ouroboros, and he is now sending his armies against both Passaj and Ayuthay in a bid to take hold of each of their Alchemy Machines; Ayuthay's own such machine, the Alchemy Well, had long made the nation lush and prosperous on its own terms. The people of Ayuthay have successfully holed themselves up under Ayuthay's ancient foundations with their Well to avoid Kaocho's military occupation on its surface. Before leaving Passaj, Matthew is handed a Tree Flute that will help him reach Ayuthay and Amiti's inner circle through a secret path; however, he is not able to slip past the watchful eyes of the occupation without presenting himself as allied with the Kaocho army, so he heads to Kaocho first.

To Matthew's surprise, King Wo is revealed to have been expecting his group of Adepts to arrive and swear fealty to him; the individual responsible for this perspective is revealed to be the sultry Chalis, who is part of Blados' ilk and has managed to earn a de facto position in Wo's court. She presents Matthew's group as willing to both help Wo's army in Ayuthay and get him the relic from the Ouroboros — the relic being believed by Wo to help him wage war like never before — and Wo hastily has a letter of introduction shoved into Matthew's grasp so that he can help with the former prospect. When Matthew's side reflexively portray themselves as disinterested in being pawns in Wo's war, Wo becomes enraged and has them dropped into an isolated segment of the Ouroboros dungeon with the intent to put them to death. However, Chalis subsequently anticipates that they will survive the fall, discover that they cannot reach the Sol Mask properly for the time being, and later come back better prepared to get the mask for their own purposes.

Matthew's party survives a multi-story fall underground and finds a way from the Ouroboros back to the surface, believing that doing so runs counter to what they presume to be Chalis' plan to keep them away from the Sol Mask permanently. They travel back to Ayuthay and use Wo's letter of introduction to gain admittance, and they secretly infiltrate the Ayuthay people's concealed domain, where they are warmly greeted by Ayuthay's royal family. Over the course of Matthew's dealings with the Ayuthay prince Amiti, it is discovered that Matthew's company could well fulfill the role of Adepts prophesied to bring the twin Exathi cultures of Ayuthay and Passaj to a more prosperous state of being by reuniting the Sol Mask with the Alchemy Forge. During an investigation Matthew and Amiti conduct into an underwater temple at Ayuthay for the Insight Glass, the object that would bestow the Insight-providing Psynergy needed to solve the Ouroboros' puzzle, Amiti is stunned to be chosen by the Glass itself as its bearer, which ultimately plays a role in Amiti's decision to accompany Matthew on the remainder of his quest and seek personal growth as Ayuthay's future heir.

With Amiti's help, Matthew returns to Kaocho and enters the Ouroboros to retrieve the Sol Mask, not suspecting that Chalis has taken Wo out of the city on a campaign seemingly to ensure that Matthew could take away the mask in their absence. When the Sol Mask is installed into the Alchemy Forge back in Passaj, the two societies' machines work in unison to bring lushness back to the Ei-Jei region. After further tinkering is required with the Alchemy Forge that forces Matthew to take another detour to gain the proper Mercury-aligned Psynergy, Passaj's Cloud Platform is able to generate the ancient floating trail that passes north through the Khiren Mountains, bringing Matthew and his company back on track to their original errand for the Roc feather.

Politics in Morgal
Matthew crosses the Khiren Glacier and reaches the nomadic village of Te Rya, which has been used as a place of refuge for those of Sana who had once occupied the beastman lands of Morgal before a bloody revolution saw the beastmen regain their independence and drive Sana's citizens out of their territory. The village had, up until recently, been hosting the Sanan royals who were children of Sana's deceased colonial governor for Morgal; however, the villagers are now greatly distressed because the Sanan royal Hou Ju, who everyone treasures dearly, recently went back to Belinsk — only to be taken captive by the driven beastman king Volechek. Her royal brother, the hotheaded Ryu Kou, and his elderly mentor Hou Zan are actively pursuing methods to take back Hou Ju by force, but Belinsk's castle is an exceedingly well-defended fortress.

During Matthew's expedition through the crumbling Teppe Ruins that amounts to a path into Morgal's mainland, his side has their first encounter with a wayward female beastman named Sveta, who claims to know little of current politics but is sympathetic toward Hou Ju over her plight. With her unique talents as a Jupiter Adept, Sveta briefly guides them into Morgal in exchange for them helping her secretly forward a message to Ryu Kou, though she leaves the party when it comes out that Matthew's side plans to pluck a feather from the creature Morgal's people consider a divine national symbol. However, she instructs Matthew to meet back with her in Belinsk to see about saving Hou Ju once he is finished with his deed; she tells Matthew to have the musical troupe performing in Belinsk perform the piece "Arangoa Prelude," which will be seen as a signal to summon her.

Despite a thorough combing of Belinsk's civilian areas, Matthew is unable to find Kraden anywhere, and the strained relations between Morgal and Bilibin's leadership are evidently what has prevented Kraden's passage east. Matthew's company proceeds west into Border Town, the crossing between the two nations, to affirm that the way is fully closed off. However, the party also comes across a pair of Champan pirates who were in the area intending to pass a letter to Kraden on behalf of their notorious leader, Briggs; Matthew is urged to read it because the message would have directly asked Kraden to get the children of the Warriors of Vale to help Briggs with a personal plight. Matthew learns that King Volechek has also taken captive Eoleo, Briggs' son and a feared pirate in his own right, and plans to publicly boil him alive during the festival set to occur on the night of the upcoming full moon. Both the Adepts' inability to meet Kraden and their current interest in rescuing Hou Ju from the same location compels Matthew to lead the party east to Port Rago to at least meet with Briggs.

At Port Rago, an ancient shipyard at which Briggs is currently getting his ship repaired for another effort to stage a rescue of Eoleo, Briggs recognizes Matthew as Jenna's son and requests that his party head to Kolima Forest to speak with the knowledgeable Tret, who would know how Belinsk's castle can be infiltrated by land. Briggs was told of this by the famed Captain Piers of the Warriors of Vale, who had also given him a vial of Hermes' Water, which had once proven its medicinal value when it was used to heal a tree. Matthew agrees to this because his and Briggs' paths align in regard to seeking Tret, who would also inform the Adepts about the Mountain Roc in this country, and so Briggs "rewards" Matthew with the vial on a whim.

The way to Kolima Forest is blocked to Matthew's company at first because one of the great trees comprising Kolima Village in front of it had been afflicted with a curse, which is brought about by a supernatural monster that was formed when many wild animals were killed by the Golden Sun event's reshaping of the land. Matthew's willingness to go along with unconventional proposals made by those he seeks to help is what ultimately brings him into the monster's own phantasmal realm, and after he slays it, he uses the Hermes' Water on the tree in question. The Venus Djinni Pewter — an emissary of Tret and his consort Laurel — rewards Matthew's deed by guiding his party to the two forest elders. To everyone's surprise, the two guardians of the forest are revealed to quite literally be talking trees referred to as Waelda — and the Adepts also learn that their famed parents once met these two.

In regards to the Mountain Roc, the Adepts learn that retrieving a feather will be impossible unless they can awaken the creature from a slumber that currently renders its very composition stone-like in substance, and the only way to do this is with a wind-like "slapping" Psynergy that occurs naturally among beastmen. A simulated form of this effect can be produced by a national treasure of Morgal's royal family, the Slap Glove, which probably remains locked in Belinsk's castle; since Sveta remains unavailable to the Adepts as well, the Adepts believe for a moment that infiltrating Belinsk Castle for the gloves would have to be their next course if they are to successfully rouse the Mountain Roc. However, the Waelda then reveal that, while a secret passage within the ruins underneath Belinsk could allow the Adepts access into the castle from the inside, this passage requires that the Adepts bring an external power source that takes the form of a shard laced with magma power; the Waelda portray this as only appearing once the Mountain Roc — of all things — is roused.

Matthew's party is left with two objectives that each cannot be completed without the other objective having been completed beforehand, so long as they do not have the Slap Psynergy needed to at least pursue the matter of the Mountain Roc. Before Matthew leaves, Laurel introduces the existence of an ancient machine named the "Alchemy Dynamo" that lies in the underground ruins; Laurel sternly instructs the Adepts not to restore power to it, though she does not go into the specifics of what dangers doing so would portend. Despite Laurel deliberately withholding the information about what exactly this machine would require for its activation, Matthew promises not to do this, which draws some remarks from his companions regarding his developing leadership.

North of Kolima Forest, Matthew and his company are approached by Ryu Kou and Hou Zan, who reveal that Sveta has given them the Slap Glove so that they can team up with Matthew's party and subsequently sneak into Belinsk Castle together. That Sveta was in a position to give them that heirloom draws out the revelation that she is, in fact, part of Morgal's royal family — and is sister to King Volechek, whose interests she is obviously interested in acting against. Agreeing to accompany each other so that each side in the arrangement can free its respectively intended captive from Belinsk Castle, Matthew and Ryu Kou's expanded company proceeds to Talon Peak near Kolima Forest to both extract a feather from the Mountain Roc that roosts there and find the shard of magma-like power that would apparently accompany it.

Though Matthew's party successfully Slaps the massive avian beast awake into a soft-bodied state and plucks their long-sought feather from it, no apparent "magma shard" appears in the manner Laurel predicted (possibly indicating that not all of her knowledge is accurate). They are suddenly offered some foreboding "assistance" from Blados and Chalis, who reveal to them that the Mountain Roc contains a fully formed version of that commodity called the Magma Orb; the sinister duo openly confirm that they seek the activation of the Alchemy Dynamo and that only the Magma Orb is powerful enough to manage this, and they explicitly threaten Matthew and Ryu Kou's side with the executions of Hou Ju and Eoleo if the Magma Orb is not used in Belinsk to the duo's liking. It is confirmed that King Volechek is a conspirator in their scheme and implied that Eoleo was captured specifically to help draw Matthew's party into their plot from the start. After Blados and Chalis leave, Matthew's party is thrust into an especially fierce battle against the Mountain Roc, but they manage to slay the beast in the end.

Climbing into the innards of the Mountain Roc's stony corpse, Matthew and Ryu Kou's party finds multiple Magma Shards like what Laurel described and the complete Magma Orb that Laurel had tried to conceal. Even though it had previously been established that the shards are all that would be needed to infiltrate Belinsk Castle and allow a direct attempt to free the captives, Blados and Chalis' threat that Hou Ju will only avoid being boiled alive once the Alchemy Dynamo is activated has its intended effect on Ryu Kou. He takes the Magma Orb and the Slap Glove, and he antagonizes Matthew's party with his aggressively proclaimed intent to go into the ruins beneath Belinsk to save his sister, heedless of the vague dangers ascribed to the machine by Laurel. Hou Zan apologizes to Matthew before leaving with Ryu Kou; Matthew — whose potential response to this development apparently can be rather colorful — subsequently resolves to save the two captives and prevent Ryu Kou from activating the dangerous machine.

A Dread Machine
After unsuccessfully attempting to persuade Briggs not to wait until his ship's repairs are done to help them with their imminent planned raid of Belinsk Castle, Matthew and his party return to Belinsk just as the sun sets. With the night's imminent festival set to feature Eoleo's public boiling to fulfill the masses' characteristic itch for violence, Matthew requests "Arangoa Prelude" of the local musical troupe as previously agreed; the demanding piece is revealed to put every non-Adept beastman in the village in a trance, and a secret entranceway into Belinsk Ruins opens in the center of the town square. Sveta telepathically urges Matthew's party from under the ruins to take the entrance to her.

After the party reaches Sveta with the help of their Magma Shards, she apologizes for concealing her royal lineage; she had seen doing so as a necessity in order to help Ryu Kou's efforts to save Hou Ju, and she is taken aback to learn that Volechek conspired with Blados and Chalis to make use of Sveta's efforts. Matthew, who is inclined to forgive Sveta for not telling his side her whole story beforehand, lets Sveta use her mind-reading technique on him to inform herself how Blados and Chalis seek to activate the ruins' ancient machine by compelling Ryu Kou to use the Magma Orb to do so. Sveta confirms Blados and Chalis to be commanders from the mysterious and militant Tuaparang nation whose "High Empyror" has been interested in all matters relating to Alchemy in recent years.

After Sveta joins Matthew's party of Adepts, they are confused and concerned to discover that the layout of the passageways underneath Belinsk is being toggled by an external player, blocking off their intended path into Belinsk Castle, blocking their way back, and designating the deeper reaches of Belinsk Ruins underneath as their only possible destination. Ryu Kou and Hou Zan are soon revealed to only now be following them up; the implication is clear that both groups are being guided below by the Tuaparang commanders, who are also in the ruins. The Sanans apologize for their behavior, and the two sides conclude that they would evidently be playing directly into the Tuaparang's hands if they go further down — with Sveta speculating that the Tuaparang and Volechek seek a revival of ancient civilization to some end. Nonetheless, the combined group's inability to force their way backward and unwillingness to sit idle at Eoleo and Hou Ju's expense is what compels Matthew to lead the party through their eventual decision to forge ahead to the deeper parts of the ruins in search of some sort of answer that would bring them closer to saving the captives.

Matthew's extended party proceeds deeper into the core of Belinsk Ruins, and they eventually solve ancient riddles that specifically require the Psynergy talents of all four elemental varieties of Adepts — which the mechanisms of the ruins themselves seem to interpret as proof that the four elemental clans of ancient Weyard are once again acting in concert. It becomes apparent to them that the Alchemy Dynamo seals a subterranean structure named "Luna Tower"; as they stand before the Dynamo's core, the Adepts express trepidation about the unpredictable results of unsealing such a foreboding structure when Laurel had sternly made them promise not to do so. Ryu Kou stresses that he technically did not make that same promise.

Just then, Blados, Chalis, and Arcanus appear from behind and forcibly demand that the Magma Orb be placed into the core. When Matthew's party exhibits their expected defiance, the Tuaparang commanders fight them to establish dominance, but the six Adepts are able to beat them and leave them lying on the floor. Matthew and the others call out in dismay, however, when they become aware that Arcanus has nearly finished prodding Ryu Kou to insert the Magma Orb; the Sanan royal briefly shows hesitation, but Arcanus' gentle reminder that Hou Ju's safety hangs in the balance is what pushes Ryu Kou to submissively comply. The entire chamber begins to tremble as Luna Tower begins rising from its subterranean repose behind Belinsk, and Arcanus smugly insists in his defense that Ryu Kou has done this by his own hand. After vaguely indicating that Luna Tower's release is "only the beginning," Arcanus warps away with Blados and Chalis, and Matthew's party hastily follows Arcanus' trail out of Belinsk Tower with Ryu Kou.

With the raised Luna Tower uneventfully superimposed against the full moon for the moment, Matthew's party brings the Sanans into the now-open Belinsk Castle and toward Hou Ju's holding cell. Almost immediately, King Volechek himself appears and — in an uncharacteristically gracious response — unlocks Hou Ju's cell as his expression of thanks to Sveta for having activated "his" tower for him. Almost immediately after that, Kraden makes a long-overdue appearance to bring the young Adepts some ill tidings indeed: The activation of what was originally known as Eclipse Tower will cost Weyard dearly. Volechek is disinterested in the suggestion that the tower will not amount to his long-desired weapon against Sana and Bilibin (which both had hands in the terrible years for Morgal's people prior to Volechek's revolution) and storms off. After the party bids a hasty farewell to Ryu Kou and his mentor and sister, they rush to fetch Eoleo from his holding cell.

Terror becomes the defining emotion of the hour as the rising sun ominously assumes a stationary position behind the moon; Eclipse Tower, crackling as it uses this eclipse to somehow absorb the light of Sol, suddenly encapsulates Belinsk in a generated dome of dark energy. This brings about a sudden onslaught of shadowy monsters that massacre a fair fraction of Belinsk's populace. While fighting through the hordes, Matthew is shown to be particularly affected when he is unable to prevent the death of a young woman at the local opera house, and he goes out of his way to bury her in the midst of the spreading disaster. The party then discovers Briggs' repaired ship waiting for them — and that Briggs himself has tragically given his life to grant Matthew and Eoleo's group the opportunity to sail from Belinsk and the expanding aura of darkness.

As Matthew's party pulls away from Belinsk, Sveta telepathically receives a message of apology from Volechek, who has realized that the Tuaparang deceived and used him. Seeking to atone, Volechek sends to Sveta a blue orb he had managed to steal from Blados so that she can find some way to use it against the Tuaparang's interests, and he stays behind to take the fight to the Tuaparang personally — giving up his life if need be. The Adepts and Kraden shove off on Briggs' ship to escape Eclipse Tower's expanding domain of influence. Upon reaching calmer seas, the Adepts and Kraden — viewing themselves as partly responsible for the unpredictably dire calamity — resolve to break away from their enemies' planned roles for them and discover through their own efforts the means to end the eclipse-like phenomenon that has now encompassed most of Angara. Matthew's companions give him a vote of confidence over his leadership thus far, which had previously seen to his successfully activating ancient Alchemy machines and crossing north into Morgal.

The Quest to Dispel the Grave Eclipse
Following Kraden's recommendation to begin by searching for societies that can provide insight into the workings behind Eclipse Tower's destructive phenomenon, Matthew leads his company to Harun Island, where the local storyteller Ikan reveals himself to bear a heritage charging him with helping the modern-day descendants of the Jenei on this very matter. It is revealed that Eclipse Tower had once caused the same eclipse-like phenomenon in the world's ancient past — at a time when the ancients, having already mastered the four elements, sought mastery over the fundaments of darkness and light as well. The ancients who had gathered at the nearby ruins at Warrior's Hill left behind a treasure that would guide modern Adepts' efforts to dispel Eclipse Tower's effects before the structure would, as an outcome of its overly successful design, release its accumulated energy in a cataclysmic burst. Once the party finds the treasure in the ruins, however, they find it is nothing more than a small patterned rock that they do not have the means to make use of yet.

The next island Matthew stops at is Nihan, once the location of a settlement named Izumo before its people were forced to resettle at the new Yamata City. As of recently, the princess Himi had fallen into a state of unconsciousness for indiscernible reasons; to Matthew's utter surprise, the rock from Warrior's Hill suddenly exhibits a will of its own and imprints the substance of its being into Himi's forehead, awakening her with a "Third Eye"-like symbol. The young mystic and Venus Adept suddenly recites ancient information imparted into her mind by the Third Eye regarding Eclipse Tower.

The dark cataclysm currently encompassing most of Angara, formally identified as the Grave Eclipse, can only be halted if the tower at its center is overloaded with light energy. The ancient machine that can shoot the focused beam of light necessary to achieve this, the Apollo Lens, had actually been provided its power when Matthew activated the Alchemy Machines of Ei-Jei, and legend holds it only opens up while the Grave Eclipse is ongoing to begin with. Undoing the ancient device's lock, however, can only be done by someone clothed in the five pieces of "Umbra Gear" scattered across upper Weyard. An "Umbra Map" that would have been part of Morgal's oldest records indicates where these articles of dark clothing are located, but since the map would have been taken as a previous spoil of war by Sana, Matthew must go next to Tonfon, the seaside capital of Sana. Himi unilaterally decides to accompany Matthew for the remainder of his quest to help search for the pieces.

The emperor of Sana, Lord Unan — the uncle of Ryu Kou and Hou Ju — warmly receives the offspring of the Warriors of Vale and takes solace that his kin were last seen alive shortly before the eclipse began. While he would give Matthew any of his personal treasures if it would help bring the Eclipse's end sooner, Unan confirms that the Umbra Map would only be with Ryu Kou at this point, and the ships he has sent have not returned with the discovery of his whereabouts. While in the palace, Matthew becomes aware of the Lady Hinechou, who cannot bear to look at her Echo Gem for fear that it might confirm the death of her son Ryu Kou, the bearer of its supernaturally linked duplicate. Deciding that this is the only viable lead on his location, Matthew pulls a trick to distract Hinechou with fear of an enemy attack so that he can steal the Echo Gem, which confirms Ryu Kou to be alive and located in the ice floes north of Mercury Lighthouse at present.

Matthew discovers Ryu Kou and Hou Ju hiding at a derelict outpost, with Hou Zan having since been done in by the shadowy monsters of the Grave Eclipse. After helping with the burial, Matthew brings the Sanan royals back to Tonfon and reunites them with their mother and uncle; for having saved Hou Ju effectively twice at this point, Matthew is all but revered by the royal family and handsomely rewarded. Unan reveals, however, that Arcanus approached him to inform him in advance that Matthew's band of Adepts would be seeking an end to the Grave Eclipse — and asked Unan to give Matthew a red orb on his behalf to help Matthew accomplish this. Apparently, the red and blue orbs, taken together with a third yellow orb, collectively comprise the key to the Apollo Lens, and Himi's Third Eye tells her that the yellow orb lies in Yamata City's underground ruins. The Adepts are rightfully perplexed that Arcanus is now seemingly helping Matthew end the Eclipse after making use of Matthew and other parties to help start it in the first place, but their view regarding the Grave Eclipse is that they must take what they can get. Kraden has seemingly decided that now is not the time to confuse matters further by divulging who from his own past with the Warriors of Vale he believes Arcanus to be.

The remainder of Matthew's journey across the Eastern Sea sees to him collecting all five pieces of the Umbra Gear, which is revealed to only be wearable by beastmen like Sveta — seemingly indicating that beastmen once existed in the ancient era and helped work on the Apollo Lens' creation. After retrieving the yellow orb from Yamata Ruins, Matthew's company proceeds to traverse the top of the Endless Wall running along the mountains dividing Angara until they reach Apollo Sanctum at the continent's highest mountain peak. The Umbra Gear and three colored orbs are together sufficient to raise the massive cannon-like Apollo Lens and point it at Eclipse Tower directly to the north.

Matthew and his party then express a particularly exasperated reaction when Arcanus makes one more appearance at that point to reveal that all of this is as he intended. Kraden shocks the children of the Warriors of Vale with the revelation that Arcanus is actually Alex, the infamous Adept whose machinations were largely responsible for their parents' successful enactment of the Golden Sun event. The Warriors had long shared an assumption between themselves and their children that Alex was killed when he tried to become an immortal through his involvement in the Golden Sun three decades earlier, and Kraden had for a while been distracted by his assumed name making him look as though he was not only native to Tuaparang's inner circle but above even Blados and Chalis in rank as well (though according to Alex, he has merely been cooperating with the High Empyror as an outsider).

On the subject of Blados and Chalis, who drop in with a retinue of soldiers, it is revealed to Matthew's side that the High Empyror's orders to them and "Arcanus" from the beginning was to use whatever methods were necessary to guide Matthew, the bearer of the Glyph Book's knowledge, into activating the Apollo Lens for the Tuaparang's benefit — implying that the Grave Eclipse was but another step toward the Lens' acquisition, much like the Alchemy Machines that Matthew had been all but forced to turn on to exit Ei-Jei. It is then revealed that Blados, Chalis, and their soldiers are Dark Adepts of an elusive Umbra Clan that the High Empyror's Tuaparang had become "scions" of; this apparently has driven Blados and Chalis' clan to seek to use the Apollo Lens as a weapon against the Tuaparang, which apparently would lie along the same trajectory as Sol Sanctum at this time. Alex's smug willingness to antagonize the Dark Adept commanders by divulging these sensitive secrets corresponds to his revelation that the High Empyror had personally sent Alex to use the Lens according to a plan of the Empyror's that was not shared with the duo; this seems to reflect the Empyror's forming doubt of the Dark Adepts' loyalty.

The Dark Adepts' tacit acceptance of Alex's theorizing that they had intended to stage a revolt against the High Empyror by using the Apollo Lens against his empire and interests is followed up by their attempt to eliminate Alex and silence him for good. While Alex holds them off, Matthew's party follows Alex's instructions to try to fire the Lens at Eclipse Tower. (This outcome, perplexingly, appears to be the full extent of what the High Empyror personally intended to use the Lens for, if everything Alex says is to be taken at face value; it later comes across that the Lens would no longer amount to a functioning weapon once the Eclipse has been ended, so it is unknown what value the High Empyror apparently saw in setting up the Grave Eclipse for the purpose of enabling the Lens' use in the first place.)

For an unknown reason, Alex's prior offer to handle the Dark Adepts does not prevent Blados and Chalis from getting back to Matthew before the Lens' control console can be reached. Having brought along a twisted lupine monster as a pet, the Dark Adept commanders try to put Matthew's company down so that they can use the Lens for a purpose other than clearing away the Eclipse, but Matthew's side manages to prevail at first. Blados and Chalis resort to merging with the beast to form a truly sinister monstrosity that brings down its overbearing power upon the Adepts, but Matthew's party — in a feat matching the greatest feats of their parents in Kraden's perspective — brings down even this foe.

Sveta reacts with shock and sorrow when she then realizes that the monster was once Volechek, who was rewarded for his selfless defiance against the Dark Adepts by being wretchedly "improved" by them for their purposes. However, she does an impressive job maintaining a semblance of composure as she stresses to Matthew that Volechek's mistake continues to bring death throughout Angara even as they speak. When Matthew attempts to oblige by throwing the switch, however, he finds that the oppressive light energy permeating the area around the control console is nothing short of lethal. Urged on by his companions, Matthew continuously tries to make it to the console, but there comes a point in his fruitless struggles where even Alex spirits a message to Matthew warning that he is not able to see this through.

It soon comes out that not even the Umbra Gear would prevent the death of its wielder at the console — but Sveta resolves to give herself up for what is necessary for Angara's people regardless, and she apologetically pleads with Matthew to let her borrow his strength. Somehow, Matthew is able to will his vitality and spirit out of his body and into Sveta's, and as Sveta climbs onto the console, both know full well that they will die together to buy the lives of countless others. But then, Volechek jumps onto the console and sends Sveta plummeting back to the ground, and Matthew's soul rejoins his body just in time for him to leap back to his feet and catch Sveta's fall. They and everyone else watch in wonderment and a mixture of other emotions as Volechek, having regained his sense of self, willfully gives up his life to fire the Apollo Lens at Eclipse Tower, overloading it with light and bringing the Grave Eclipse to a close.

Epilogue
Little is known of what transpires regarding the Apollo Lens, Blados, Chalis, and Arcanus immediately following the firing of the Lens, but it can be presumed that it has been left in a status that renders it incapable of being used again because it is the furthest thing from Matthew and his companions' minds at a much later point in time when life in Belinsk has returned to normalcy.

Because the newly crowned Queen Sveta had promised him at an earlier point that she would meet Matthew in front of Belinsk Castle, Matthew is seen impatiently and anxiously pacing in front of the castle's front gate near Tyrell and Karis until the city guards reveal she is waiting for them at the city's front gate. Upon arriving there, Matthew finds the rest of his companions and Kraden waiting to say farewell to him before they head back to their respective nations, and the surviving people of Belinsk — many of whom have been transformed into Light Adepts by what some call the "Sol event" — give his party a hero's farewell. Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell begin the long journey home on foot, with the Mountain Roc's feather safely in tow.

As Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis close in on Isaac and Garet's cabin, however, Matthew is the first to point out that a colossal Psynergy Vortex is now pulsating in the vicinity of the cabin's air space.

Trivia

 * Matthew being the son of Isaac and Jenna gives him several familial distinctions for a playable Adept:
 * He is the only playable Adept in which both of his parents are playable Adepts. None of his first three allies — Tyrell, Karis, and Rief — have both of their parents known.
 * He is the only known child of any of the four playable characters introduced in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
 * He is the only character to have had all four of his grandparents be seen on-screen in prior games.
 * When the party meets Briggs for the first time in Port Rago, Briggs mentions that Matthew has Jenna's eyes. At most, this can only be a metaphorical statement because Matthew's grayish blue eyes bear no physical resemblance to Jenna's reddish-brown eyes.
 * Matthew is one of several Golden Sun characters whose official pieces of promotional artwork are featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as collectible "Spirits," of which Matthew's is among the vast majority that requires an accompanying match scenario to be won before it will be awarded.
 * The unwillingness of Matthew's father Isaac to see his son off on his quest parallels the unwillingness Isaac's own mother showed in seeing her son off on his quest thirty years beforehand.
 * Matthew's gloves appear to have undergone a slight redesign following his introductory depiction on the promotional artwork that was first released during E3 2009; at the time, they were shown to be fingerless.

Name origins and meanings

 * English: Matthew. Apparently following the lead of Isaac's name as potentially bearing religious references, Matthew comes from the Hebrew Mattathyah, "gift of Jehovah," and the name appears in the Bible as one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ.
 * Japanese: Mut. Mut is derived from the German word "Mut", which means courage.
 * French and Spanish: Matt. The shorthand form of Matthew.

Quotes

 * Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's encyclopedia entry for Matthew:
 * This young man is a promising Earth Adept, just like his father was when he started his adventures 30 years ago.
 * And just like Isaac, who led the famous Warriors of Vale, Matthew is a person of few words but strong convictions.

In fan circles
Matthew elicits a mixed reception among the Golden Sun fandom for once again being a Golden Sun protagonist depicted as silent, for being an almost complete "clone" of the series' main representative Isaac, and for his story being commonly seen as having amounted to more harm than good for his world, in stark contrast to the outcome earned by previous protagonists Isaac and Felix.

Many observe that Matthew's journey in Dark Dawn can, in some perspectives, be summarized as an incidental fetch quest that gets sidetracked into him fulfilling the villains' purposes for quite literally the remainder of the entire game, which remains the case even after he makes a more concerted effort later in the game to break away from the roles secretly prescribed of him. What is presented in-game as his "greatest feat" amounts to him preventing further damage from a cataclysmic disaster that the villains had, in part, required Matthew and his party's partially unwitting aid to help set off in the first place.

Some of this backlash is tempered upon observing that the particular situations faced by Matthew effectively give him no choice but to blunder into his enemies' plans — which are quite vague in their implications until they come to fruition — because these are quite clearly the moral choices to make; he very obviously would be directly complicit in allowing for the deaths of those he seeks to save were he to choose otherwise at several critical points. Fans react to how he is always shown to seek to help those in need out of an uninterrupted sense of justice and continues doing so even after fulfilling the goal of his initial fetch quest.

Nevertheless, Matthew is seen to have a more readily discernible personality behind the veil brought up by the series' "silent protagonist" tradition than Isaac had in his own game, and his implied choices of colorful language when retorting against his enemies and his offbeat approaches to certain obstacles have earned him some endearment. He has more opportunities to show empathy, particularly toward a dying girl in one scene, and his demonstrated willingness to give up his own life to bring an end to the aforementioned disaster leaves a strong impression with players.

In the fan fiction community dedicated to Golden Sun, Matthew is quite often romantically paired with Karis (dubbed Dawnshipping) for being a childhood friend who accompanies his quest from the beginning. Perhaps as prominent if not more so, however, is fan fiction about a relationship between him and the particularly central character Sveta. Dubbed Spiritshipping, this hinges on how much of Matthew's efforts in the game are dedicated to helping her particular plights and how his aforementioned intent to sacrifice himself to save, among many other places, Sveta's home country carries out as a joint effort between the two to sacrifice themselves together. An epilogue scene showing Matthew anxiously waiting for Sveta to arrive is also picked up on by fans. Sveta's design as a human with animal-like features gives her potential romantic relationship with Matthew appeal to what is commonly referred to in Internet culture as the "furry fandom."