Border Town

Border Town straddles a river dividing the eastern Morgal region from the territory of Bilibin off to the west.

Border Town (ボルダー, Border) is a fairly small settlement featured in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is essentially a conjoined pair of small towns stradding a river that separates the northeastern Morgal region of Angara from the north-central territory claimed by Bilibin. Owing to hostilities between the two nations in the years leading up to Dark Dawn, the two halves of Border Town have become increasingly divided, and the bridge connecting them has been closed off.

Matthew's traveling party of Adepts cross into Morgal from the south roughly midway through Dark Dawn but are unable to find Kraden in Morgal's capital, Belinsk. When they look for Kraden at Border Town, they instead come across Champan pirates who planned to give Kraden a letter from their leader, Briggs. The Adepts decide to head east to Port Rago to hear Briggs out regarding the well-being of his captive son, Eoleo.

In-game, it is only mandatory to visit Border Town once on account of these cutscenes, but the player may decide later to make a return visit to make use of a Dream Leaf purchased at Kolima Village. This lets them perceive a dream-like vision of Border Town where the two countries are at peace and the border between them is open, which is the party's only opportunity to reach a cave at Bilibin's side of the crossing containing the Haures summon tablet.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

When the player first exits Teppe Ruins through its north end and steps into Angara's northern Morgal region, Border Town becomes possible to visit at its far-west end at the same time as several other settlements: Port Rago, Saha Town conjoined with Kolima Village, and the primary hub settment for the player's activities during the Morgal arc, Belinsk. The player is expected to enter Belinsk first and trigger two cutscenes that ultimately direct them west to Border Town. Entering Border Town after this will trigger a cutscene that has been enabled as a result.

Inside the Morgal side of Border Town. The dark-gray border gate cannot be passed to explore the western half occupied by Bilibin.

By approaching the gray border gate at the explorable eastern half of the area, a pair of pirates will approach the party and hand them Kraden's Letter, and the party will decide that they should meet with Briggs in Port Rago next. Then, as you leave Border Town, one of the musicians who had recently left Belinsk for "musical inspiration" will greet the party from the inn's roof and announce she will return there, reminding the party that all six band members from Belinsk's troupe need to be present to play "Arangoa Prelude". (Another traveling musician will return to Belinsk from Port Rago once you have finished business there next, and the final musician needed, Vande, will only head there from Kolima once you talk to him after completing Talon Peak. Requesting Arangoa Prelude will allow the party to descend into Belinsk Ruins, the final storyline dungeon in the Morgal region.)

While it is technically possible to visit Border Town before Belinsk and acquire non-mandatory collectibles "early", there is no practical incentive to do so because the player would be visiting Border Town on business quite early in their time in Morgal anyway. While dealing with the pirates, the party can shop at the vendors; while the armory sells a very limited selection of weak generic gear that was sold in earlier settlements, its Artifacts menu adds the unique Knight's Greave boots, which can be worn by Matthew or Tyrell (and later Eoleo) for a hefty Defense boost and some HP regenerated at the end of each turn. The item vendor's Artifacts menu is also the player's first opportunity to buy a Mist Potion.

The gray border gate east of the river remains permanently shut, so it is not possible to physically walk the west half of the screen of Border Town as it currently exists (external cheat devices notwithstanding). If you climb the ladder inside the border gate, you can interact with a telescope from its east end to see a first-person view of the other side's border gate, and the camera will conspicuously point out a cave. This cannot be reached until later in the Morgal arc. If you step out the nearby door onto the balcony level of the gray border gate, you can cast Grip on the wooden spire atop the damaged cabin east of the gate to bring yourself to the cabin's roof, letting you head down the staircase and reach the Jupiter Djinni Sirocco.

This view of the blocked-off west half of Border Town is only possible by using a walk-through-walls code.

Once you have used the plot-critical item Hermes' Water in Kolima Village to dispel a curse, the village will start selling Dream Leaves. If you make an optional return visit to Border Town and have one in your inventory, you can take the innkeeper up on her offer to make use of it while using her inn service to sleep for the night. This will deposit Matthew into a "dream world" equivalent of Border Town that depicts it in a far more idealized state of affairs, with the town's structures no longer ravaged by war and the peoples of Morgal and Bilibin now intermingling peacefully. You can either step back onto the glowing yellow floor portal in the inn or walk into the purple fog circling the perimeter of the dreamlike Border Town to be offered to "wake up from this dream", returning you to the inn in the real world if you say "yes".

In the dream version of Border Town, you can freely walk past the border gate and cross the river into the normally unexplored western half of the screen. You cannot enter any other buildings because of NPCs stationed in front of each doorway, but you can head to the upper-right corner of the western half to the spot pointed out by the telescope from earlier. Cast Growth on the sapling to create a ladder down to the open cave, where you will find the summon tablet for Haures. This summon sequence, alongside the Jupiter Djinni Sirocco (and the Knight's Greave if you never talked to the armory vendor), will be among the countless collectibles across the Morgal region that can be permanently missed once you step up to the final podium in the deepest chamber of Belinsk Ruins to initiate a certain boss battle.

Vendors

Border Town's inn is located immediately very close to the town entrance from the Morgal side and costs 14 coins per party member.

Armory
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Broad Axe	Axe	1400	Attack +50, Unleashes Critical Strike and Rolling Attack
Battle Mace	Mace	2600	Attack +56, Unleashes Power Charge and Critical Strike
Gauntlets	Gloves	1600	Defense +23
Mail Cap	Hat	2000	Defense +23
Artifacts
Knight's Greave	Boot	2700	Defense +16, Max HP +5

Item Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Nut	Consumable Item	200	Restores 200 HP to one Adept
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Removes Stun, Sleep, and Delusion from one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporarily lowers monster encounter rate
Artifacts
Mist Potion	Consumable Item	9000	Restores 300 HP to all Adepts
Water of Life	Consumable Item	3000	Revives one downed Adept

Collectibles

• Kraden's Letter: Acquired by the party in a cutscene with two pirates that triggers when approaching the gray border gate, provided that Belinsk had previously been entered.
• Sirocco: Seen inside the small cabin east of the gray border gate, on the other side of a pile of crates and debris. It can only be reached by climbing upstairs in the gray border gate to step onto its roof, then casting Grip on the spire atop the small cabin, and going downstairs through the cabin's roof.
• 8 Coins: Found inside the upper white pot inside the gray gate.
• Sacred Feather: Found inside the upper-left of the three crates in the lower floor of the inn.

The following is only available late in the player's time in the Morgal region, after having used the Hermes' Water from Port Rago to dispel the curse in Kolima Village and unlock the Dream Leaf vendor there:

• Haures: Can only be reached in the "dream world" version of Border Town that is accessed by using a Dream Leaf at the inn. After crossing the bridge to the normally closed-off western half of the area, cast Growth at the sapling at its upper-right corner and climb down to the open cave containing the summon tablet.

All of the above collectibles are permanently missed once the player reaches the point-of-no-return in the deepest chamber of Belinsk Ruins at the end of the Morgal arc.

History

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At one point, Border Town was a prosperous trading town. Following the events of the Morgal Revolution, Bilibin's leaders attempted to invade the newly independent country. To protect Morgal, King Volechek ordered that the Border Crossing be blocked off. This had several effects on the town: trading came to a standstill and at least one Morgal citizen, the son of the Innkeepers, was trapped on the Bilibin side of the town. By the time Matthew's party arrives, the citizens of the town have fallen into despair. Its Encyclopedia entry reads as follows:

This town is essentially two towns: one in Bilibin and one in Morgal.

As the nations involved become more hostile, the town is increasingly divided.

Matthew's group had come to Border Town in an attempt to head off Kraden, as they believed he was traveling to Belinsk from Bilibin. However, they learn about the border's closing and realize that they won't be able to meet with Kraden anytime soon. While exploring their options, the group is approached by Pirates under the command of Briggs. The pirates have a letter for Kraden, which they give to Matthew to read, as it concerns them as well. The letter asks that the Adepts assist Briggs in rescuing his son, Eoleo, who has been captured by Morgal forces.

The Adepts, especially Amiti, initially refuse, as Eoleo is a notorious pirate. They soon realize that they have no other options but to help Briggs at that point, though Amiti is still resistant. Rief points out that the Sanan royal, Hou Ju, is also imprisoned, and by helping Eoleo they may be able to free her. Amiti is willing to agree to help an innocent girl, and so the group leaves Border Town to meet Briggs in Port Rago. On the way out, they meet with a musician from Belinsk's minstrel band. After speaking to Matthew, the musician agrees to travel back to Belinsk so that the band will be able to play Arangoa Prelude, which will allow the Adepts to contact Sveta.

Dream Leaves have become particularly popular in Border Town, as they allow the citizens to dream of better days. If Matthew stays at the inn with a Dream Leaf in his inventory, he will enter a Dream World where the Morgal-Bilibin border is open. In the Dream World, Border Town is described by its citizens as a cultural crossroads between east and west, where humans and beastmen live in peace. Matthew will be able to cross the border into the Bilibin side of Border Town, allowing him to access a cave where the Haures summon may be found. If the player does not activate the event prior to the Grave Eclipse, the summon will be permanently lost.

Trivia

• The name "Border Town" is an overtly literal descriptor of what the settlement functions as in-universe and can be seen as sounding awkward and uninspired to players of the English-language localization. However, its name in the Japanese version, "ボルダー" (Borudā), sounds far more like a proper noun in a foreign language to Japanese readers because it is a transliteration of a set of syllable sounds similar to the English word "Border" instead of the commonly used native word for a border between countries, 国境 (kokkyou). Even when the Katakana script is used to transliterate "Border" for other contexts, it is usually rendered ボーダー (Bōdā).
• Coincidentally or otherwise, Border Town's role as a border separating Bilibin from the Angaran lands east of it is mirrored by the the far smaller Bilibin Barricade that the party had to pass in the first Golden Sun. It is unlikely that the latter became the basis for the former because Bilibin Barricade was located much farther east than where Border Town is situated in Dark Dawn.

Cultural references

Border Town's geographical layout and architecture both seem to be references to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, which straddles the Yenisei River and features a prominent bridge crossing over. Krasnoyarsk serves as a major junction on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, connecting western Russia and Europe with the Russian Far East. Krasnoyarsk's position along the Yenisei lies south of where it meets the Angara River that flows out of Lake Baikal, much like how Border Town, in the in-game continent of Angara, is located on a river flowing out of Lake Bycal.

During the Russian Civil War, self-proclaimed Supreme Ruler of Russia Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak – a potential partial inspiration for Volechek – had to retreat his forces by means of the Great Siberian Ice March across the Yenisei River at Krasnoyarsk. He was ultimately betrayed to the Red Army at his new headquarters in Irkutsk – the most likely architectural and geographic inspiration for Belinsk – near Lake Baikal. This is similar to circumstances faced by Volechek in-game, where his leadership is marred by tensions with a nation west of the river that Border Town crosses and will ultimately fall victim to a betrayal by his nominal allies at his stronghold of Belinsk.