Weyard

Weyard is the world on which the Golden Sun games take place. It is a flat world, and the water of the oceans continually flows over its edges. In land locked places where there is no water to flow of the edge of the world, there is a sheer drop that goes down for an unknown height into nothingness. The place where the water begins its fall into oblivion is called Gaia Falls.

Details of Weyard's ancient past were revealed sporadically throughout the two Golden Sun games. See Weyard (Ancient past) for full details.

History
Golden Sun: The Lost Age provides a general overview of Weyard as it existed in the ancient past; it is the Lost Age of Man that the game's title alludes to. In this age, the ability to use Alchemy and Psynergy was unfettered and accessible to the general populace, and civilization had reached great levels of development. Various clans of Adepts existed across Weyard, and the landmasses of Weyard itself were far more uniform: It generally resembled the shape of a giant crescent moon. The four Lighthouses were lit at this time, providing energy to both the world and the people.

As the story goes, conquest and war eventually became objectives amongst those who desired power, riches, and dominion over all that lived, and global war fueled by the misuse of Alchemy for military purposes yielded potentially catastrophic results for Weyard; the world would have been torn apart if not for the efforts of a group of brave and wise men who took it upon themselves to seal Alchemy away by removing the Elemental Stars from the four Lighthouses, and confining the jewels in the innermost reaches of Mt. Aleph's Sol Sanctum. The world and the people were saved from themselves, but deprived of a massive resource, and Alchemy and the four Lighthouses would remain dormant for ages to come.

With the sealing of Alchemy, Weyard's landmasses gradually began to break up and decrease in size over the ages, though this would not be noticed by the general populace due to how gradual it was. However, over time the populace began to lose much more; Civilization thrives by building upon the knowledge of the past, and the disappearance of both Alchemy and seemingly Psynergy as well caused the various cultures of the world to lose knowledge and become more primitive over the ages. That is why in the current age when the Golden Sun games take place, Weyard is a fairly inactive and sparsely populated world, with scarcely few individuals being aware of the existence of the force of Psynergy, let alone possessing the ability to manipulate it as Adepts. A lot of the great Lighthouses, mountain sanctums, and other structures that stand today from the ancient past cannot be properly investigated by today's commonfolk because they lack the necessary adeptness to Psynergy that the locations were constructed in mind with.

The story of the current two Golden Sun games revolves around the conflicting efforts of opposing groups to either restore Alchemy or prevent its restoration to the world of Weyard. It begins when members of the Mars Clan of Adepts from Weyard's northernmost reaches, Saturos and Menardi, raid Sol Sanctum to steal the Elemental Stars and use them to activate the Elemental Lighthouses so that Alchemy may be restored; their motive for doing so, revealed near the end of The Lost Age, is because their home settlement of Prox is in danger of being lost over the edge of the world, which is because Weyard's deterioration has become great enough that its perimeter is starting to shrink in size and collapse into the abyss below, and the people of Prox know that both their settlement and the rest of the world would be saved with Alchemy's return.

The game's playable characters, however, led by the young Venus Adept Isaac, are tasked by the guardian of the Elemental Stars in Mt.Aleph, a powerful boulder-like entity called the Wise One, to pursue Saturos and Menardi and stop their objective, relating how Alchemy is a potentially cataclysmic power but does not explain how Alchemy is also necessary for the world to survive, something the Wise One is perfectly aware of. In spite of journeying under the Wise One's deception for a long period of time, Isaac eventually realizes the truth and joins forces with his "enemies" and helps them reactivate the Elemental Lighthouses. The Wise One himself attempts to stand in their way at the end of their journey at Mars Lighthouse, forcing them to murder what they later tragically find to be their own loved ones, but Isaac and the others find the resolve to accept this sacrifice in the name of saving the entire world, and all four Elemental Lighthouse beacons are now lit.

The finale of The Lost Age sees the four Lighthouse Beacons merging their beams of energy into a sphere above Mt. Aleph called the Golden Sun; this is pure Alchemy made real, at the heart of its power. It subsequently shoots into Mt. Aleph below and gives shape to the Stone of Sages. With this, both Alchemy and increased Psynergy are restored to the world of Weyard and its denizens. It is revealed that the Wise One's seemingly cruelly deceptive actions were all parts of his great test of the strength and virtue of Isaac and his Adept companions; Since in the ancient past the world was put in danger as a result of Alchemic abuse and pettiness, there would have to be a strong and trustworthy group capable of ensuring that history does not repeat itself in this newly released golden age across Weyard. For this immense responsibility, Isaac's group has proven itself worthy. It is at this point that the Golden Sun series currently ends.

Continents
Weyard has several continents. It is unlikely that Weyard's continents follow the plate tectonics of Earth, as a tidal wave was able to move the entire continent of Indra southwards and wedge it between Southern Gondowan and Western Osenia.


 * Angara - This is the northern central landmass on Weyard. It is where five of the protagonists from the Golden Sun games hail from. It is also the largest and possibly the most populated continet. Angara bears similarities with Europe, continetal East Asia and the Near East.


 * Gondowan - This continent is directly south of Angara. It is where Sheba lived most of her life. Gondowan has similarities with Africa and the Middle East.


 * Indra - The starting location in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Indra is currently wedged in between Osenia and Southern Gondowan. It was located much farther north before an earthquake and tidal wave moved it at the beginning of TLA. Indra bears similarities with India.


 * Osenia - Osenia is currently located to the east of Indra and is the Easternmost continent. Osenia bears slight similarity to Oceania and Australia.


 * Hesperia - A continent in the Great Western Sea, north of Atteka. It is inhabited by people resembling North-American Indians.


 * Atteka - A continent resembling South America located in the Western Sea, just south of Hesperia. Contigo and Jupiter Lighthouse are located here. The civilization of Anemos used to reside here.


 * Tundaria - Tundaria is a frigid, Antarctica-like continent at the extreme south of Weyard. It is devoid of habitation and it's only feature is Tundaria Tower.

Smaller Land Masses
There are a number of notable locations scattered around the Great Eastern Sea and Great Western Sea, but are too small to be called continents in their own right.


 * Northern Reaches - A region of pack ice and perma-frozen land in the extreme north of the world. The only known settlement is Prox, and Mars Lighthouse is located here.


 * Lemuria - An ancient island-city in the middle of the Sea of Time. Alchemy remains unbound here.


 * Izumo - A large island in the Eastern Sea east of Angara that resembles real-world Japan. Contains Gaia Rock.


 * Apojii Islands - An archipelago of small islands in the Eastern Sea at the very edge of the world and adjacent to Gaia Falls. Contains Aqua Rock and is inhabited by island dwellers that resemble Polynesians or Indonesians.


 * Treasure Island - A large island in the northern part of the Eastern ocean, it contains a dungeon and an optional boss, the star magician, in the second game.

Bodies of Water
Weyard has many bodies of water, and most are named, with the exception of rivers, which are hardly mentioned at all in the games.


 * Great Eastern Sea - This is the largest body of water in Weyard. It contains Izumo and the Apojii Islands and it surrounds the reefs that border the Sea of Time. Angara, Gondowan, Indra and Osenia all have areas of coastline meeting this ocean.


 * Great Western Sea - This the second largest body of water in Weyard and encompases most of the western side of the world. The Western Ocean surrounds Atteka and Hesperia. Angara and Gondowan both have coastline along it.


 * Sea of Time - A small body of water in the middle of the Eastern sea, separated from it by large impassable reefs. The Sea of Time surrounds the island of Lemuria and has notoriously wild currents and is covered by a constant blanket of fog.


 * Karagol Sea - An inland sea that is in between the continents of Angara and Gondowan. the Karagol sea is traversed by trading vessels from Kalay and Tolbi, and is the location of Crossbone Isle.

Creatures and races
Humanity is primarily the one sentient race located across Weyard in sparsely spread out settlements, and in the wilderness between is all manner of wildlife. At the start of Golden Sun, when Psynergy Stones rain all over the world, the wildlife become savage monsters, and other more fantastic creatures such as the undead (corporeal ghosts, zombies, and animate skeleton) and dragons arise as well.

Other human-like races are found on Weyard, but certainly not anywhere near as diverse and varied as a high-fantasy world such as Lord of the Rings. One of the visitable settlements is home to a race of mining dwarves, while another is home to a race of humans that transmogrify into lycanthropes when they look upon the full moon at night. The northernmost settlement of Prox is home to a race of cold-resistant humans with lizard-like scales and pointed ears, and a powerful sorcerous command of fire-based Psynergy.

In addition to the above corporeal creatures and races are a diverse assortment of spiritual entities. Formerly residing in Mt. Aleph and collectible throughout both games are magical creatures called Djinn, which come in four varieties, one for each element. These creatures each have a unique ability based on its element, and their general power can be harnessed by Adepts to bolster their own Psynergy-based powers, or to call upon and summon powerful entities to cause massive damage to the opposition. These spiritual entities are embodiments of their respective elements and take the form of mythical entities prevalent in real world cultures, examples including the Viking god Thor using an electricity-laden hammer, or a demon duke named Haures, or a deadly Grim Reaper-like entity named Charon. The greatest of these summonable spirits is a goddess named Iris.

Maps
The retail version of Golden Sun shipped with a stylised map of Angara and northern Gondowan, while Golden Sun: The Lost Age shipped with a map of the whole of Weyard, albeit missing the names of many places.


 * reshadgs.tripod.com - A scan of the map that shipped with the with Golden Sun: The Lost Age with locations in English.
 * Golden Sun Harmony - A scan of the map that shipped with Golden Sun: The Lost Age, with locations in Japanese.
 * GameFAQs - Taken from the in game map, this map highlights the locations visited in The Lost Age.