High Empyror

The High Empyror is the ruler of the Tuaparang Empire, introduced by name in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Very little is known about this individual other than that he is male, and all else that is more-or-less known comes in the form of scattered rumors across the populace of Weyard. Sveta states that the High Empyror pursues military power above all else, and therefore Tuaparang is a country that devotes all its resources to science and military power over the needs of its own citizens, making it closer to a massive army than a nation. Stated bluntly, the country itself resembles a flying battleship.

The High Empyror's country has apparently continued the experiments originally started by the Adepts of the ancient past to manipulate and take control of the fundaments of the other two values that comprise Weyard besides the four base elements, Darkness and Light. Tuaparang seems to have succeeded, producing Adepts that can employ darkness as an unusual form of Psynergy, literally referred to as Dark Adepts, and causing Tuaparang to also gain the name Umbra Clan. Two of Tuaparang's stronger Dark Adepts, Blados and Chalis, serve the High Empyror as field commanders.

The goal of the High Empyror, at least over the course of Dark Dawn, is to take control of the Light-based apparatus called the Apollo Lens, which he knows is at the sanctum at the highest peak of the mountain range dividing Angara in half, and which he also knows can be used as a veritable superweapon. The High Empyror appears to have extensive knowledge of the hidden, ancient Alchemy-based machinery located throughout Angara and how they work in relation to each other. Prior to Dark Dawn, Alex is somehow able to approach the High Empyror and get himself inducted into the circle of Tuaparang's elite, gaining the codename "Arcanus" to correspond with Blados and Chalis and gaining the position to effectively "freelance" for Tuaparang's ruler.

The High Empyror is somehow able to notice when the children of the infamous Warriors of Vale, led by the Venus Adept Matthew, sets off on a quest for the feather of a Mountain Roc. He orders Blados and Arcanus to watch and determine if Matthew can be used while Chalis is sent to Kaocho to see about getting the Alchemy Machines hidden under its rival nations in Angara's southern Ei-Jei region, Passaj and Ayuthay, more vulnerable to activation. When Blados and Arcanus first encounter Matthew, they find that the young Venus Adept indeed is able to be used for their plans, because he had gained the critical knowledge to read the ancient glyphs that permeate all of these ruins connected to the Apollo Lens. Therefore, the two trap Matthew and his group in the Ei-Jei region of Angara, so that Matthew will be forced to find the Alchemy Machines and figure out how to activate them in order to achieve the ancient sky passage across the Khiren Mountain range and make it into the north half of Angara. The Alchemy Forge and Alchemy Well are successfully activated and made to work in unison, which provides power to the Apollo Lens, completing the first phase of the High Empyror's plan.

The High Empyror's next order to his three subordinates is to manipulate Matthew's increasing party of Adepts into activating Eclipse Tower, which is a structure of terrible destruction that the ancients originally created in their attempts to take control of Darkness, but which they had sealed away and hoped would never be unsealed. Unsealing Eclipse Tower will trigger a dark phenomenon called the Grave Eclipse, which will make shadow monsters manifest and slaughter everyone on Angara, and legend says the Apollo Lens will only open up when the Grave Eclipse occurs. Apollo Lens and the devastating beam of light it can project, after all, were originally created to counteract Eclipse Tower and destroy its Grave Eclipse if it were unsealed.

It is unknown whether it is the High Empyror's goal specifically to make it so that there will be no people left on Angara to mount resistance against his Tuaparang empire, or whether he considers the mass loss of life that the Grave Eclipse would entail to be merely a side-occurrence in his campaign, and it is not known whether or not he is aware that once Eclipse Tower has remained active long enough, it will release an enormous quantity of energy in a cataclysmic burst. All that is known is that the High Empyror does not want the Apollo Lens to be used to destroy Eclipse Tower, as though doing so will defeat the purposes of his plan. Therefore, when the Grave Eclipse is finally triggered and Matthew, as expected, becomes motivated to put an end to it as soon as possible, Tuaparang makes use of Matthew once again, waiting for him to reach and set up the Apollo Lens so that they can move in and take control of the Lens for themselves.

Whether by this point or since beforehand, there seems to be some sort of mutual distrust going on between the High Empyror and the two Dark Adept commanders, and so the ruler of Tuaparang orders Arcanus personally to make sure the Apollo Lens is used according to his plan, as though he suspects Blados and Chalis might dare to control the Apollo Lens for themselves. When Matthew's group gathers everything they need and successfully reaches Apollo Sanctum and sets up its light-based weapon, Tuaparang makes its move, deploying the three field commanders and many of its own soldiers to take control and silence Matthew's party for good. However, Alex decides to betray the High Empyror in his own way by hinting at Blados and Chalis' ulterior motives for the device, and provokes the Dark Adepts into focusing their attention on battling him while he tells Matthew's group to throw the switch on the Apollo Lens and end the Grave Eclipse with it.

Ultimately, through Matthew and his group's efforts, Blados and Chalis are defeated in combat, and the Apollo Lens is used for the purpose of foiling the High Empyror's complex plot for domination by ending the Grave Eclipse. Presumably, when Matthew's group leaves Apollo Sanctum, the Apollo Lens is left in a state that there is no longer any risk of the High Empyror being able to make it amount to any further threat - the legend that the Apollo Lens will only open up when the Grave Eclipse occurs may indicate why this is the case. And presumably, Alex is no longer affiliated with the Tuaparang and is viewed by them as a traitor because it was he who foiled the plot of Tuaparang's ruler in the end. Nonetheless, the High Empyror and his flying battleship of a country remain at large.