Mt. Aleph

Mt. Aleph is a dormant volcano situated north of Vale. This mountain houses Sol Sanctum and the Golden Sun forms at its peak. The Mt. Aleph Boulder, which crashed through Vale and supposedly killed Felix, his parents, and Kyle, came from this mountain as well. Mt. Aleph also houses the secret Elemental Star Room, which keeps the four Elemental Stars necessary to light the four lighthouse beacons.

The name Mt. Aleph is stated by the legends of the people of Vale to refer to the origin of all things. Among Mt. Aleph's allusions to real-world culture is that its name is based on the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, א, which is called an Aleph. The Hebrew connection is likely intended to indicate a parallel that can be drawn between Mt. Aleph and the Biblical Mt. Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were handed down by God; in Golden Sun, for comparison, the god-like entity the Wise One gives his commandment to Isaac while they are still in Mt. Aleph, which would set Isaac off on his quest.

Story
In the prologue to Golden Sun, Saturos and Menardi, along with several other unnamed Mars Adepts, proceed into Sol Sanctum to try and steal the Elemental Stars housed within. These Stars represent pure, concentrated Alchemy, something which the Mars Adepts need in order to secure a future for their hometown of Prox. Much to their dismay, they find the Sanctum laced with traps, one of which unleashes a furious storm onto Mt Aleph and the nearby town of Vale. This trap also caused the Mt. Aleph Boulder to fall, seemingly killing Felix's whole family (aside from his sister, Jenna) and Isaac's father, Kyle. In fact these people are not killed, and are instead washed downstream where they are rescued by Sarutos and Menardi, the only survivors of Prox's initial raiding party. Three years later, Isaac, Jenna, Garet and the Scholar Kraden, seeking to learn more about the secrets of Alchemy, climb into Sol Sanctum to investigate the existence of the legendary Elemental Stars. After solving the riddles of the Sanctum and hence disarming the traps, they are ambushed by Saturos' party once again, this time numbering four. The two new additions are the Mercury Adept Alex and a masked man, later revealed to be none other than Jenna's brother, Felix. With Kraden and Jenna held hostage, Isaac and Garet are forced to retrieve three of the Elemental Stars and give them to Saturos, but upon their removal of the Mars Star from its pedestal, a cataclysmic change occurs within the sacred chamber. Without the power of the stars to hold it back, the lava of Mt. Aleph began to stir, changing the serene mountainside temple into a cave within an extremely dangerous volcano. Saturos sees this danger and flees, taking Jenna and Kraden with him, knowing that Isaac and Garet, should they survive the eruption, would attempt to rescue the pair, and thus bring the Mars star to him. Alone and unable to make it back to the entrance of the Sanctum, this leaves the remaining two children in a seemingly inescapable situation. It is then that Vale's Guardian, the Wise One appears and halts the lava flow. He buys enough time for Isaac and Garet to flee, as well as redirecting the magma away from Vale, although he does not stop the eruption entirely. He also tasks Isaac and Garet with recovering the Elemental Stars, saying that the terrible power of Alchemy would surely send the world to its doom.

The force of the resulting eruption blasts Psynergy Stones across Weyard, causing many drastic changes in the land, such as causing people to become Adepts, animals to become monsters, and even creating an entire forest. Vale itself is saved from harm though, and save for periodic tremors and a brief heating of the river, it is otherwise unaffected by the eruption, which was redirected to the northern side of the mountain.

From here, the events of Golden Sun and The Lost Age take place, and Mt. Aleph is scarcely mentioned again, aside from in passing in Garoh, where it is revealed that Maha knows the same legends as Vale, that is, that Mt. Aleph has stood since the beginning of time and is the sources of all of Weyard's Alchemy. In the final moments of the second game, it turns out that these are not mere legends, as Isaac and Felix join forces, seeking to restore Alchemy to Weyard. Isaac's change of heart is brought about when he converses with Felix, who, after visiting Lemuria, had learned that the absence of Alchemy was causing the land will wither and die, something that Saturos had been striving to reverse all along. When they light the final beacon, the Mars Lighthouse north of Prox, the four Lighthouses each emit a brilliant beam of pure energy, gathering into a glowing ball of light in the skies above Mt. Aleph. This pure golden light is the Golden Sun, the blast of light that marks the formation of the stone of sages, the purest and most powerful source of Psynergy imaginable. Alex, who had vanished after the lighting of Jupiter Lighthouse, had in fact predicted this event and was awaiting atop Mt. Aleph to absorb this energy for his own use. Quickly he discovers that his desires had failed to be realised, as the Wise One had imbued the Mars Star with some of the power of the forming star, gifting some of its power to Isaac, thus the energy Alex had absorbed made him merely powerful and not omnipotent. In his rage, Alex attacks the Wise One, only to be soundly defeated. Defeated, Alex struggles, but is unable to flee as Mt. Aleph collapses, and is drawn into the earth along with the mountain and Vale.

Eventually, the two protagonist's parties, along with their rescued parents, return to Vale and Mt. Aleph, only to find that it and the surrounding area had been completely destroyed. Their dismay is short-lived, as the citizens of Vale had been evacuated by the Wise One before the tragedy befell the area, and were all alive and well. Excluding the events of the upcoming game, Golden Sun DS, this is where the Golden Sun series ends, and as such the ultimate fate of Alex, Mt. Aleph, the residents of Vale and the Golden Sun itself, are unknown.

Trivia
After the initial dungeon is completed, Mt. Aleph cannot be returned to, even with the use of a cheat device, and is used exclusively in cutscenes. In The Lost Age a well known trick can allow the play to walk "into" Mt. Aleph, but there is no special code for the area, and it behaves in the same manner that any ordinary part of the world map would.