Vale

Vale is a town situated at the foot of Mt. Aleph, and the hometown of several of the main characters: The Venus Adepts Isaac and Felix, and the Mars Adepts Jenna and Garet, as well as all their respective family members. From a story standpoint, it competes with Prox as the most important settlement, and it is the town the games' story both starts off from and ends at.

Description
Vale is effectively the location the prologue and outset of the first Golden Sun takes place in. A hefty amount of cutscene-based exposition takes place here, and this is the only town in either game where random monster encounters can occur (but only in the prologue).

Prologue
When the game is started, after the cutscene you control a younger form of Isaac. Boulders will slide to block your way when trying to go down the nearby stairs, so first head upwards, pass by young Garet, and he will join you. Go left over the nearby bridge and a small cutscene will occur with a big rolling rock. Head downward, but another small boulder will block your path, so head left into another screen. Pass by a man on the ground who warns you about monsters, and from then on you will engage in random monster encounters with very weak Vermin, Bats, and Wild Mushroom. Head down to the lower right and return to the first area you were in. Head straight downwards to trigger a cutscene involving young Jenna, young Felix, and several parents. Head down and right over the bridge below and enter the lower right area of town. Head downwards to where Jenna is standing and another small cutscene occurs, then retrace your steps back to the last bridge you recently crossed. The next major cutscene that occurs is very important to the overall plot of the game. After it happens and you only control Isaac, run back down and right, and the next cutscene involving Saturos and Menardi will end the prologue sequence.

To Sol Sanctum
After another lengthy series of cutscenes, you control a more grown-up Isaac, with Garet and Jenna as part of your party. You can explore the town, talk to everyone, and investigate whatever boxes you like, but be sure to travel to the vendors in the shop building at the town's south end and spend your 200 Coins on better defensive equipment for your party members (but focus specifically on Isaac and Garet, as Jenna is a guest character who will leave shortly). Eventually, you should cross the northernmost bridge and head left into the next screen, where a cutscene with Saturos and Menardi ends with you being able to proceed onward to the nearby house, which is Kraden's cottage. Talk to him to trigger another big cutscene, then when he joins you you are ready to enter the Sol Sanctum dungeon. Head back up to the very top of the town, where trying to enter the next screen on top causes a healer to appear and warn you not to go there, and he pushes you back. He will then walk to the right and above; when he enters the shadow of the building in front of you, run to the upper left and enter Sol Sanctum. See Sol Sanctum for full details.

Much later, after having completed the Sol Sanctum segment of the game, with Jenna having left the party, and after fleeing from the quaking dungeon, you will return to Vale, and another lengthy series of story-centric cutscenes will occur. Ultimately, your party, consisting of Isaac and Garet, will next be controllable on the overworld map, right in front of the town of Vale, and you will have received the Catch Beads and an Herb as well. It is here that the main, actual quest in Golden Sun begins, where you are supposed to depart and travel around the overworld in search of your objective (currently your destination is to the southwest of Vale, at the town of Vault), but you can immediately reenter Vale if you like. Some time later, after your party adds Ivan, you should return to Vale and use his Whirlwind Psynergy on the green bush behind the shop building, and the small cave behind it will contain a chest with a Power Bread item on it. You can also use his Mind Read to glean additional information from everyone in town.

Once you have entered Kalay, the town will update, and the next time you visit, which is possible immediately after crossing Lamakan Desert, several optional cutscenes can trigger and the storage building to the upper right in the town's lower screen will be unlocked (where you can find a Vial inside), but most importantly you will be able to explore the optional Vale Cave dungeon. Go to Kraden's cottage, cast Lift on the boulder sitting on the fence, and you can make it to the optional cave, where the most important treasures to find are a Jupiter Djinni and the Halt Gem. Once you take care of these points, there will be no need to come back to this town anymore, so you can leave and play through the rest of the game's quest. For the rest of the game and throughout the entirety of The Lost Age Vale does not factor into gameplay, but the finale of The Lost Age involves Vale cimenatically, somewhat.

Vendors
The town's inn service is provided in the town's lower-right-most building, to the right of the giant Psynergy stone formation, for 2 coins per person. Players with healing Psynergy in their inventories can also use healing Psynergy on themselves and then touch the Psynergy stone formation to replenish themselves. The town's sanctum is located near the town's very top area, right next to the entrance to Sol Sanctum.

Collectibles

 * [[Image:Catch Beads.gif]] Catch Beads: Automatically received in a cutscene after completing the Sol Sanctum dungeon and right before leaving the town for the main quest.


 * [[Image:Antidote.gif]] Antidote: Found in a wooden barrel to the lower left of the bed of Jenna's grandmother in the house to the right of where the waterfall crashes down.
 * [[Image:Coin.gif]] 1 Coin: Found in a wooden barrel right by the stairs in the second floor of the Inn.
 * [[Image:Coin.gif]] 3 Coins: Found in jar to the lower right inside the topmost house in the town's lower area.
 * [[Image:Coin.gif]] 5 Coins: Found in jar inside Kraden's cottage.
 * [[Image:Coin.gif]] 6 Coins: Found in jar left of the entrance inside the house to the upper left of Isaac's house.
 * [[Image:Coin.gif]] 123 Coins: Found in a wooden box five spaces right and one space up from the Psynergy stone in the storage building that does not open up until after you've crossed Mogall Forest and returned to Vale.
 * [[Image:Elixir.gif]] Elixir: Found in the upper water jar left of Kraden's cottage.
 * [[Image:Herb.gif]] Herb: Automatically received in a cutscene after completing the Sol Sanctum dungeon and right before leaving the town for the main quest.
 * [[Image:Herb.gif]] Herb: Found in a wooden box to the lower left inside the blacksmith house in Vale's plaza.
 * [[Image:Herb.gif]] Herb: After leaving the town for the main quest, return and speak to the item shopkeeper behind her counter to get one for free.
 * [[Image:Nut.gif]] Nut: Dangling on a tree above where the waterfall begins in the town's main upper area. Use Catch to grab it.
 * [[Image:Power Bread.gif]] Power Bread: Found in a chest in the small cave area hidden behind the bush that can be whirlwinded behind the weapon and armor shop in the plaza. (The cave with monsters found in Goma Range)
 * [[Image:Smoke Bomb.gif]] Smoke Bomb: Found in a jar right next to the entrance inside the first house to the right above the lower plaza.
 * [[Image:Vial.gif]] Vial: Found in a jar three spaces up and two spaces left from the Psynergy stone in the storage building that does not open up until after you've crossed Mogall Forest and returned to Vale.

Enemies
During the stormy prologue sequence, Young Isaac and Garet must battle a small array of weakened enemies. They must later battle (and lose to) Saturos and Menardi, referred to as "Mystery Man" and "Mystery Woman", respectively.

Background
The only thing known about Vale's history is that it was established at the foot of Mt. Aleph quite some time ago. Mt. Aleph contains Sol Sanctum, and within its furthest depths is a chamber containing four jewels called the Elemental Stars, and each of these jewels contain the purified essence of one of the four elements of the world. The people of Vale were only vaguely aware of the presence of the Elemental Stars within Sol Sanctum, but they were too well hidden inside the dungeon for them to find and investigate the supreme jewels. They were only really aware that it was a shrine to Sol, a mythical depiction of the Sun itself, and they were aware of the Wise One within Mt. Aleph merely as a mythical figure as well. Hence, over the generations the people in Vale took it upon themselves as a town to guard the sanctity of the shrine, ensuring that no outsiders to the town can enter the sanctum, and even the people and elders of Vale themselves do not freely enter and exit the shrine.

Located at the foot of Mt. Aleph in what would be Vale's main plaza is a large Psynergy stone formation. When a person undergoes prolonged exposure to a source of Psynergy, he or she gradually develops a sort of Adeptness to the art of manipulating Psynergy to achieve effects sorcerous in nature, and people can be born with such Adeptness inherited from their parents and able to continue to develop over generations. Therefore, everyone in Vale today is an Adept to a degree because of the presence of that Psynergy stone formation. The Valeans follow ancient laws passed down through the village that state Psynergy is a secret art that should never be revealed; therefore, when outsiders are in the town, all citizens are to refrain from showing Psynergy at all. The code of Vale had also established that Psynergy is not to be shown outside the village, and not to be used for evil. Consequently, one must attain permission from Vale's elders to leave the village. It would not be outrageous to say that the town borders on xenophobic from all this.

The town of Vale is referred to by official sources as a "small town", but the games themselves seem to depict the contrary; Vale is likely the most extensive and populated settlement in either game, and with a very developed code of society as well. This is likely due to the general influence of Psynergy upon the town; One of the overall themes of the history of the world of Weyard is that with the great power of Alchemy and Psynergy, mankind was able to develop great civilizations in Weyard's ancient past, so with Psynergy abound in this town, Vale became a healthy, populous town with a more developed society than most other settlements across Weyard. In addition to the Psynergy-related laws above, the elders of Vale have also passed other customs into effect, including the notion that it is courteous and respectful for outsiders to introduce themselves to the town's mayor. Vale was also helped by being set in an idyllic environment, with a river flowing through the town from Mt. Aleph. A tradition held by the Valeans that would prove very important in the future is what follows: Vale stays pristine because of Mt. Aleph's purity. Taint that purity, and you risk "terrible retribution."

Story
The story of the full Golden Sun series effectively begins here at Vale, three years before the present. By this time, young versions of several of the series' main characters have been raised and brought up: the 14-year-old Venus Adept, Isaac, is the son of Kyle and Dora. The 15 and 14-year-old Venus and Mars Adepts, Felix and Jenna, are the children to their father and mother who are not identified by name but are given facial portraits and are considered big characters nontheless, and they all live together in a riverside house. Felix and Jenna also have an aunt and two grandparents living in a house opposite theirs on the other side of the river. And the 14-year-old Mars Adept Garet is the second of three children, the other two popularly named Kay and Aaron, of their parents who are generally unidentified by official sources but are referred to by many players as Mr. Jerra and Mrs. Jerra (see Jerra for the full story on these names), and Mr. Jerra's two parents, being the grandparents of Garet and his siblings, are the Mayor of Vale and his wife. Also living in Vale that time was the scholar of Alchemy, Kraden, who just recently took up tenancy, and he was sent to live there to study Alchemy for the mysterious lord of Tolbi, Babi, who was interested in Alchemy's purported ability to thwart death itself. They all lived seemingly perfect and tranquil lives in Vale until the prologue sequence depicted in Golden Sun takes place three years before the present.

The Mt. Aleph boulder incident
The town of Prox, located far to the snowy north, has found that Weyard is shrinking in size because of the absence of Alchemy over the ages, because the abyss up north is gradually expanding in size, and it would swallow the town in the future if Alchemy is not returned to the world in time. Prox decides to send emissaries south to Vale, the town in front of Mt. Aleph where much of Alchemy's lore revolves around, to tell the elders that the world was dying. For some unfathomable reason, the elders do not listen to them and do not believe any of their claims, and they drive the emissaries out of Vale by force. The emissaries have to leave in peace, but they had found out that Sol Sanctum within Mt. Aleph held a hidden secret connected to theirs and the world's salvation: the Elemental Stars, which must be cast into the wells of the Elemental Lighthouses throughout Weyard to commence the return of Alchemy to the world. Prox is now required to take matters into its own hands: the elders of Prox send out the town's finest and most powerful Mars Adept warriors, led by Saturos and Menardi, to perform a manual investigation within Sol Sanctum itself and see if they can acquire the Elemental Stars.

When Saturos and Menardi's raiding party tries to explore the sanctum, however, they trigger the sanctum's trap, and their entire raiding party lose their lives and Saturos and Menardi are the only ones to make it out of the sanctum alive as Mt. Aleph generates a magic thunderstorm that engulfs both the mountain and Vale. A great boulder on Mt. Aleph referred to as the Mt. Aleph boulder becomes dislodged and starts tumbling down in the direction of Vale. Naturally, the whole town is in a panic, and everyone is trying to rush down to the plaza where it would be safer while several adults with Psynergy try to hold the giant rolling rock back from entering the town as long as they can. However, Felix fell from the pier of his and Jenna's riverside house and can only hang onto a wooden pole sticking out from the raging water of the river helplessly, lest he fall over the nearby waterfall to a very likely death, and he is too far away from his parents and Kyle on the pier to be rescued without Psynergy, something they all had run out of at that point.

When Isaac, Garet, and Jenna return from the plaza to the pier with an adult with the Psynergy reserves to help Felix, that is when it happens: the Mt. Aleph boulder begins its inevitable descent through the town, crashing right through Jenna's house at the area where Felix, his parents, and Kyle were located. In a moment, all four of them, as well as the boulder and most of the house itself, have seemingly disappeared, having fallen over the nearby waterfall. With everyone else in a seemingly inanimate disbelief, Isaac and Garet wander away from the disaster site and catch a glimpse of Saturos and Menardi, discussing what had transpired and how they must not fail in their objective to find and acquire Sol Sanctum's secrets the next time they attempt to do so. The Mars Adepts catch Isaac and Garet eavesdropping on their conversation and decide the latter two must forget what they just heard, and they administer this remedy by force, knocking out Isaac and Garet cold, then leap and bound away from Vale. The two children did indeed forget the existence of the Mars Adepts and what they were saying.

Saturos and Menardi pass by the river at the area at the base of the waterfall and see the four people who were assaulted by the Mt. Aleph boulder earlier - Felix, his two parents, and Kyle - floating along the river leading away from Vale. Perhaps out of remorse for what they have caused to Vale, Saturos and Menardi take the four injured people along with them on their voyage back to Prox. Of course, the fact the four victims' bodies were not found by the people of Vale would leave them to believe that all four of them were killed after weeks of searching the river following the disaster.

The town of Vale becomes very different emotionally in the years after the Mt. Aleph boulder incident. Jenna is legitimately traumatized by being deprived of all of her immediate family - her brother Felix and their parents - and can only live with her aunt and grandparents in the house on the opposite side of the river facing what was once the house of her family's past. Jenna would make it a daily routine to stand among the ruins of her former home and appear lonely and somber. Isaac and Dora are distraught over the death of Kyle as well. While Kraden was not present at the disaster site when it happened, Kyle and the other parents were very dear to him, so he shares the young ones' pain.

Disturbing Sol Sanctum
In the present, the emotional wounds the town has suffered have been gradually stitched over time, and Jenna had regained some of her spirit over the long years. Since the disaster, Isaac and Garet have decided to work and study hard to be able to use Psynergy. Isaac used to visit Kraden a lot, and Kraden has lived in Vale long enough to be allowed by the elders to visit the interior of Sol Sanctum from time to time to study it, though he has yet to find out the sanctum's true secrets. One day, Kraden plans to bring Isaac, Garet, and Jenna into Sol Sanctum for their education in Alchemy and Psynergy.

Saturos and Menardi return to Vale on that day, however, ready to execute another infiltration of Sol Sanctum, and they are assisted by two others: Alex, the powerful and secretive Mercury Adept from Imil, and none other than Felix, custom-trained by Saturos and Menardi to assist them on their venture. Felix is essentially indebted to serve Saturos based on the latter's saving the former's life, and he must now break the code of his old hometown by helping Saturos break into and pilfer Sol Sanctum. This he considers shaming to himself, so to avoid any of the people of Vale recognizing him, Felix wears a mask, and he and Saturos and Menardi check into Vale's inn while Alex is off somewhere else. The fact that outsiders are in the town means the people of Vale must refrain from displaying Psynergy, and the townspeople certainly take notice when Saturos' group doesn't bother introducing themselves to Vale's mayor, something Vale considers customary; thus Saturos' group is labelled "apalling" by the gossip of the townsfolk. While Felix stays at the inn, Saturos and Menardi investigate the town for more information about Sol Sanctum, but they find the people know little about Sol Sanctum's mysteries.

When Saturos and Menardi happen upon Kraden, they interrogate him for information. They tell Kraden how they plan to "set the elements into motion" using the Elemental Stars from Sol Sanctum; Kraden, even though he is a trained Alchemy sage, had previously not known what they do know about how the Elemental Stars are supposed to work, and he finds it unnerving how the pair speak as if they had seen it with their own eyes. He stubbornly refuses to assist Saturos in researching the sanctum and displays notable cunning in his responses to their inquiries, and he ultimately sends them away because his Sol Sanctum-related engagement is with Isaac and his friends. Saturos and Menardi agree in secret that they can use him to the advantage of their objective.

Isaac, Garet, and Jenna, meanwhile, make their normal rounds around town for the day, and if they enter the inn they will encounter the masked Felix. While they don't recognize him, he sure recognizes them and is extremely unnerved by the sight of his former friends and family right there next to him, and he must keep his identity a secret from them, so he must assume a callous disposition and shoo them away. When Isaac and friends head to Kraden's cottage, they encounter Saturos and Menardi (who they had forgotten about from their past encounter three years ago), and after recognizing the intricacies of the current scenario Saturos allows them to go to Kraden. Isaac and friends meet a very troubled Kraden, who tells them what he had learned from the Mars Adepts, and they agree it's possible they could be thieves who came to rob Sol Sanctum. But Kraden, not certain about how accurate Saturos' account of Sol Sanctum was, decides it's better to commence their trip into Sol Sanctum with the added objective of seeing whether or not the Mars Adepts have actually been to the sanctum, and then notifying the town elders right afterward if so.

When Isaac, Garet, Jenna, and Kraden sneak past the elder keeping watch for possible intruders into the sanctum to intrude the sanctum, Saturos, Menardi, Felix (who forgetfully leaves his wallet behind at the inn), and Alex secretly follow and stalk them into the sanctum, intending to use their efforts to explore the Sanctum to find for themselves the chamber containing the Elemental Stars which they plan to steal. What would happen over the next hour within Mt. Aleph's Sol Sanctum would be central to the circumstances of the entire world and the plot of the entire Golden Sun series. Saturos' group pilfers three of the Elemental Stars, but the mountain begins to erupt as a direct result, and the group flees the mountain and Vale with Kraden and Jenna in their group as hostages, and Isaac and Garet encounter the mythical Wise One himself, who transports them out of the volcano to safety after telling them that Alchemy's release can have potentially dire consequences for the world. The eruption of the mountain could have been disastrous for Vale, but the Wise One saves the town by redirecting the lava flow away from the town's direction, an act seemingly God-like in scale.

Isaac and Garet return to Vale and relate everything that had transpired in a town meeting with the Great Healer, the Mayor of Vale, and Dora, including the revelation that Felix is alive but is in league with the robbers of Sol Sanctum and was forced to kidnap his own sister, and the fact that the welfare of the entire world is at stake here. The Great Healer receives information from the Wise One telepathically and tells Isaac and Garet that they must make the decision as to whether or not they will pursue Saturos' group and prevent them from casting the Elemental Stars into the Elemental Lighthouses to return what the Wise One claims to be a terrible power. Should Isaac refuse, and subsequently leave the village on his own, the Golden Sun series' storyline will reach one of its possible conclusions, ending with the message "And so the world began drifting toward its fated destruction..."

In the canonical version of the game's story, Isaac accepts the great responsibility to take the fate of the world in his hands. Having accepted the quest, Isaac and Garet are provided little actual informational assistance from the Great Healer, much to the Mayor and Dora's exasperation. Everyone knows that it doesn't sound like they can afford to wait, but they agree that Isaac and Garet should depart on their adventure the next day. During the night, Isaac promises Dora not to return to Vale until they have completed their mission for the Wise One. The next day, much of the entire town's populace is there to see the two warriors off, and Kay gives her brother Garet some comedic advice while Aaron gives Isaac the Catch Beads, as he was instructed to by Dora, who has become depressed enough over the circumstances that she is not there among the group to see them off and has locked herself up in her house instead. After Isaac and Garet leave the town to go on their journey, the town goes back to its ordinary routines, more or less. However, even if Isaac should come right back and knock on Dora's door, she will not recognize Isaac's voice and send him away, believing that Isaac would keep his promise to her and return only much later.

After Mt. Aleph's eruption
The town again becomes quite different emotionally, feeling empty and quiet in comparison to what it was before. Everyone now knows the Wise One from the healers' tales exists, but that doesn't make much difference now. After Jenna was taken away, her grandmother grows sick with despair, and Dora has much the same thing happen to her over the next period of time when Isaac leaves. Even though it's approaching winter at that point in the story, with cold outbreaks occurring, Dora takes long to recover from her depression-based illness. The people also become all the more xenophobic, never trusting strangers to the town again. The town would experience regular tremors that would occur from the erupted and smoking Mt. Aleph, and the river in the town grows very hot after the eruption. Everyone gets excited, thinking there are hot springs on the mountain, but then the river cools down again. The air also sparkles with glittering powder from crushed Psynergy stones from within Mt. Aleph, and Psynergy stones rain all over Weyard.

When Isaac has explored much of the continent of Angara, he and his group have the opportunity to revisit Vale. The townspeople they meet are happy he has come back for a visit but are disappointed that he has not yet completed his mission. Garet meets his family again, but Isaac finds his mother ill in bed even though Jenna's grandmother has fared much better with her cold. Dora, though happy Isaac has come back to visit, scolds him for breaking his promise to come back only after completing the Wise One's mission, and she jumps out of bed to demonstrate that her fever is not that bad. She then encourages Isaac to do his best to complete his quest. The next time Isaac leaves the town, his quest will not allow him to return until the end of The Lost Age.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Whatever goes on with Vale during the long period of time Isaac is gone for the rest of his journey is not specified, though it may have indeed been uneventful, and Dora apparently becomes better from her illness. A tremendous amount of story-centric events have occurs with Isaac and Felix's parties outside of Vale though, with Isaac's party first being able to defeat Saturos and Menardi in battle after the latter two have activated two of the four Lighthouses. Felix and his party of Jenna, Kraden, Sheba, and Piers continue Saturos' quest and activate a third Lighthouse. When Isaac and Felix's party encounter each other, Isaac learns startling truths about Alchemy from Felix and how it is actually the life force behind Weyard and must be returned to ensure the world's survival, so the two parties join forces and activate the last Lighthouse together. With the four Lighthouses activated, the process that restores Alchemy to Weyard is about to begin.

The Wise One enters the dreams of everyone at Vale and warns them that the return of Alchemy at Mt. Aleph will effectively erase the entire town and everyone within it; all of the townspeople therefore perform a mass evacuation of Vale to save themselves. The energies of the four Elemental Stars then get shot out of their respective Lighthouses and merge in the airspace above Mt. Aleph to form a glowing yellow sphere of Alchemy known as the Golden Sun, and it in turn shoots out light that bathes Mt. Aleph's peak, giving shape to the Stone of Sages within the mountain below, and the presence of that vessel is what returns the force of Alchemy to Weyard. At the peak of Mt. Aleph is Alex himself, who has actually taken advantage of everyone else's efforts to restore Alchemy so that he could be up there in time to stand in the center of the Golden Sun's stream of power and gain immense power for himself. Having gained the power of the Golden Sun, Alex commands storms to manifest and assault the now-empty town of Vale below to test his power, but nothing happens because his mastery of Alchemy is incomplete; a precaution the Wise One took long ago has caused a portion of the power he lacks to have entered the body of an unwitting Isaac.

With Alchemy now released and its influence at Vale and Mt. Aleph now at large, Mt. Aleph begins to magically sink into the ground, with all the surrounding landscape being destroyed and Vale disappearing in what ends up being a large crater around the mostly sunken mountain. But all of the town's former residents are safe and sound outside the area's perimeter. Sometime later, Isaac and Felix's party, who have reunited with their long lost parents and Kyle in Prox, triumphantly return to Vale, but after crossing the mountain to the northwest of Mt. Aleph, they tragically find the town has been all but erased. Isaac and Kyle believe Dora has been lost, and Garet grieves over the apparent fact that his entire family is gone for good, but these emotions do not last long because Garet's family and Dora show up to meet them. The current series ends with everyone happily reuniting with each other outside the perimeter of the destroyed town, at sunset.

Trivia


Due to an oversight in the layout of the world in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, most of the area of the overworld explored in Golden Sun'' can be explored by disembarking from the Lemurian Ship at the pictured area just southwest of Loho. While most towns from the first game have disappeared off the map completely, the town icon of Vale remains on the overworld, but when you attempt to enter it, you remain on the overworld and appear to be walking "over" it.

Vale