Thanatos Mace

The Thanatos Mace is a Mace-class weapon featured in the Golden Sun series, introduced in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Basic Description by Game
In all its appearances, the Thanatos Mace increases the wielder's attack by 125 points. It can be bought for 10400 coins and sold for 7800 coins.

In The Lost Age, the Thanatos Mace is located in a treasure chest in Ankohl Ruins, in a small sector of a room that can only be reached by using the Sand Psynergy. It can be equipped by Felix, Sheba, and Piers. After they join the party, Isaac, Garet, and Mia can also equip it. Its Unleash effect is Heartbreak, which is effectively a standard physical attack that adds 42 damage points and modifies the resulting damage based on the user's Venus power and the target's Venus resistance. The attack may also instead instantly fell the target. Heartbreak visually resembles a ghostly demon with a head resembling a horned animal's skull, touching the target, retracting its hand which is now glowing with a green fire, and disappearing off the top of the screen.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, it is found as an Old Mace west of Harun Village, slightly southeast of the Lost Ship. To properly obtain the Thanatos Mace, the player must take the Old Mace to Obaba in Champa. She will re-forge the Old Mace into the Thanatos Mace and give it to the player free of charge. The Thanatos Mace retains Heartbreak as its main Unleash. It also gains two other Unleashes, Critical Strike, and Fearless Attack. Both Unleashes are non-elemental Unleashes, that multiply damage by 1.5 and  1.7 respectively.

Analysis
The Thanatos Mace has an attack rating suitable for the later portion of the exploration of the Great Eastern Sea, and has an Unleash effect that might instantly kill a target, so it is  valuable and may be worth giving to Felix. That it can be equipped by Piers or Sheba as a hand-me-down once Felix finds a better weapon (though the Cloud Brand found earlier probably outclasses it) means that the Thanatos Mace is likely to stay with the party for a while.

In Dark Dawn, despite its main Unleash being Venus-aligned, the Thanatos Mace will generally find its way to Rief. Matthew will usually have the Gaia Blade (and later the Sol Blade), while the other Venus Adept, Himi, cannot equip Maces. The other Adepts capable of equipping Maces will also have access to stronger weapons.

On the other hand, Rief can only equip Maces and Staves/Ankhs, and thus will have fewer choices at this point. However, Heartbreak's ability to instantly fell targets makes it extremely useful, and the player may choose to put Rief in a Venus-influenced class to increase Heartbreak's power. It will generally remain in Rief's possession for some time, at least until the player can get the stronger Clotho's Distaff, or Atropos' Rod.

As a Mace-class weapon, the Thanatos Mace is still outdone by the Vajra Mace, the strongest mace in the game. However, the Thanatos Mace has an advantage in the fact that the Vajra Mace is not considered an Artifact. Additionally, the Vajra Mace can only be found at Crossbone Isle, which can only be accessed after the Chaos Chimera has been defeated. Thus, the Thanatos Mace will be the more practical weapon for much of the game.

Cultural Allusions
Origin: Greece

Thanatos was the personification of death in Greek Mythology. Though he rarely appeared in person, he was often referred to in the texts. He was the twin brother of Hypnos and the son of Nyx, the goddess of night.