Cloud Brand

The Cloud Brand (あまくものつるぎ, Amakumo no tsurugi^?, lit. Sword of the Clouds of Heaven) is a Long Sword-class Artifact weapon that can be found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Unlike most pieces of equipment, this sword is relevant to the progression of the game's plot.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Cloud Brand
Visual effect of Raiden's Wrath
In-Game Description
"Long Sword: Unleashes Raiden's Wrath" (TLA)
Trade Info
Weapon class	Long Sword
Buy value	11800
Sell value	8850
Artifact?	Yes
Statistic Boosts
Attack Boost	130
Unleash effect
Effect name	Raiden's Wrath
Extra damage	39
Side effect	Ignores 100% of the target's Defense if the target is a dragon. Has a 5% additional chance to Unleash.
Acquisition
• Check the fluid behind the defeated Serpent in Gaia Rock (TLA)

The Cloud Brand becomes available to pick up as soon as the Serpent boss is defeated in the heart of Gaia Rock near Izumo, though the game purposefully hides this at first. After Felix learns the Sand Psynergy from the tablet that emerges near the Serpent's statue-like corpse, he can cast Sand to travel underneath the body, emerge next to the watery stream that has taken the place of the Serpent's tail, and inspect the rightmost tile of the stream to pick the hidden sword up.

While anyone replaying the game will know to do this before leaving Gaia Rock, first-time players are expected to leave Gaia Rock without knowing there is a sword waiting for them as a reward, only finding out about it from Susa all the way back in Izumo. Following a lengthy conversation with Uzume, Susa will stop you and explain that he had hidden the Cloud Brand under where the beast's tail lied as a gift to Felix for slaying it. First-time players will therefore find themselves having to retrace their steps all the way back into the final ground-level chamber of Gaia Rock to fetch the Cloud Brand.

The Cloud Brand's Attack boost is quite solid and ideal, and it has a rather unique Unleash effect in Raiden's Wrath (らいじんのいかり, Raijin no ikari^?, lit. Raijin's Wrath). First of all, its innate proc rate of 40% is slightly higher than the 35% proc rate of almost every other Unleash in the game. The Unleash itself aligns with Jupiter and adds 39 damage to the equivalent to a standard physical attack. When the Adept Unleashes Raiden's Wrath, a detailed image of a monstrous green-skinned humanoid resembing an Oni very briefly manifests and slides horizontally through the target's position in tandem with the user's own attack, suggesting that it slashed through the target with its electrified sword.

The most unusual quality of Raiden's Wrath is that it treats the target's Defense stat as 0, but only if the enemy counts as a "dragonlike" enemy. (The only other effect in the game that is similar to this is how the Trident of Ankohl bypasses the Defense of every "fish-like" enemy in the game.) The following lists every enemy within the game's code that has this parameter, with bosses listed in bold:

Many of these enemies are not fought in the game at all, and the Aqua Hydra and the Serpent itself would have been vulnerable had they not been already defeated in mandatory boss battles prior to this point. There is little point in using it to capitalize on the vulnerabilities of the few smaller dragon-like enemies from previous areas, like the Dino, Wyvern Chick, and Salamander. When it is acquired during the ongoing Eastern Sea arc of the game, it can be used against the Dinox in Tundaria Tower and Ankohl Ruins. Depending on how early you play through Gaia Rock, you can use it against the Sea Dragons in Aqua Rock and, more significantly, the Avimander boss in Champa. However, most of the rest of the game's enemies that can be struck hard by Raiden's Wrath lie in the Western Sea and beyond, which is largely when the player is already looking to replace the Cloud Brand with a weapon with a higher Attack stat.

In order of appearance, the following lists every applicable enemy the Cloud Brand can be used against, as well as their Defense values that Raiden's Wrath stands to ignore:

List of draconic enemies the Cloud Brand can be used against

Dino (23 Def) in the overworld of western and central Osenia and in Yampi Desert Wyvern Chick (36 Def) in Gondowan Cliffs and the overworld of southern Gondowan Salamander (49 Def) in Gabomba Statue Dinox (82 Def) in Tundaria Tower and Ankohl Ruins Avimander (89 Def) in Champa following Tundaria Tower Pteranodon (100 Def), Hydra (82 Def), and Turtle Dragon (100 Def) in the overworld of the Western Sea Macetail (89 Def), Wyvern (108 Def), and Blue Dragon (121 Def) in Jupiter Lighthouse Grand Chimera (109 Def) in Magma Rock Flame Dragon (large) (137 Def) and Flame Dragon (small) (134 Def) in Mars Lighthouse Pyrodra (125 Def) and Ocean Dragon (154 Def) in lower Treasure Isle Winged Lizard (160 Def) and Fire Dragon (178 Def) in Yampi Desert Cave Cruel Dragon (216 Def) in Islet Cave Bombander (224 Def) and Sky Dragon (232 Def) in Anemos Inner Sanctum Doom Dragon (155 Def), final boss of the game at Mars Lighthouse

In all of these specific use cases, Raiden's Wrath is more useful in the Hard Mode, when all Defense ratings are increased by 25%.

Disregarding the ability to ignore the Defense ratings of certain dragon-like enemies whenever the Unleash lands, the Cloud Brand is still an ideal weapon for either Felix or Piers to be wielding by the time the Eastern Sea arc is wrapped up and Poseidon is being battled. However, it is rather similar to another Long Sword with a Jupiter unleash that can be found in the Eastern Sea: the Lightning Sword, which can be found in Tundaria Tower. The Lightning Sword features 4 more Attack, and its Flash Edge Unleash features 7 more added damage and a 65% base chance to inflict the Delusion status condition. The Cloud Brand compensates for this slight damage output loss with a slightly higher natural chance to Unleash when you attack. Both swords will ideally be in both warrior Adepts' hands before the crossing into the Western Sea is made, by which point both will largely be outclassed by Hestia Blades that can be won at Lemuria's Lucky Medal Fountain.

If you try to change classes to optimize your damage output with either sword, you will find that Felix can reach the third Enchanter stage of the Apprentice class series if you give him at least four Jupiter Djinn during the Eastern Sea arc, and that it will give as strong an Attack bonus as the third Gallant stage of his native Squire class series. On the other hand, if he currently can hold exactly six Djinn, he can advance to the Lord stage of his Squire series, but not yet to the Conjurer stage of his Apprentice series. Piers does not have classes easily available to him that gives him similar Attack boosts, but both he and Felix can benefit from equipping Aerial Gloves for their 20 additional Jupiter Power. If you are not playing with a Password that gives Isaac's party stronger gear from the first game, both of these Long Swords can be given to Isaac and Garet as valid hand-me-downs.

History

As soon as the Serpent is slain, the party has an opportunity to reach the watery stream behind it using Sand to find the hidden sword.

The legends shared among the villagers of Izumo allege several claims regarding the Great Serpent and a sword closely associated with it, the Cloud Brand. One legend holds that the Great Serpent of Mikage was once the sword's "protector" and would sleep with its body crossing "the river," and the Cloud Brand laid hidden where its tail fell. It is told that the Serpent "lost" the sword many ages past. Another legend holds that only the Cloud Brand can put the Serpent back to sleep. As it stands, the sword seems to be the possession of a rather nondescript elderly male villager in Izumo (who oddly calls it a "dagger").

Prior to Felix arriving at the island of Nihan in The Lost Age, the Serpent awoke in Mt. Mikage (the local name for Gaia Rock) and began terrorizing the village, demanding a maiden's sacrifice. When Kushinada was chosen by lottery, her betrothed, the warrior Susa, took the Cloud Brand without the old man noticing and brought a huge amount of liquor into the Serpent's domain. Susa would spend the next great period of time plying the beast with the alcoholic substance, hoping to render it groggy enough that he would then slay the beast with a decisive strike from the Cloud Brand.

When Felix's party explores Gaia Rock, they arrive at the Serpent's chamber just in time to see Susa taking a literal stab at the issue, only to find that the dragon is still far too resilient and does not even so much as flinch. Felix's party of well-traveled, battle-hardened Adepts take over and fight the Serpent at length, and while they do best it in battle, they find it still does not seem close to dying. Susa finishes the job with another choice stab from the Cloud Brand, turning the creature to stone and causing its tail to dissolve into a stream of water. Apparently within a split second of dealing the final blow, Susa hides it within the stream of water without Felix noticing (and specifically within the tip of the stream, in concordance with the legend of the sword being buried under the dragon's tail). Despite this action being intended to let Felix find the Cloud Brand later as a gift of gratitude, Susa does not tell Felix about it until both of them are back at Izumo.

An unused dialogue string grouped together with the conversations in Uzume's abode reads, "The legend says that the Cloud Brand is a powerful weapon for fighting dragons. I trust you'll test the legend, should the time come."

Cultural references

The Cloud Brand's Japanese name, "Amakumo no Tsurugi", references Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi, more popularly known as Kusanagi no Tsurugi. This legendary Japanese sword is one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan, which are traditionally presented to the newly acceded Emperor of Japan in a private ceremony. ("Kusanagi", incidentally, is the name of a dummied-out weapon in the first Golden Sun.) Kusanagi is allegedly kept at Atsuta Shrine in Aichi Prefecture, though it is never publicly displayed. While its existence is largely accepted to be the case, its appearance and condition have never been confirmed, and only artists' impressions are left to fill in the blanks for the public conscience.

Japanese legend holds that the Kusanagi was found by the Storm God, Susano'o (Susa's namesake), inside the tail of the eight-headed Orochi dragon (which the Serpent represents) after he slew the beast for terrorizing the land of Izumo and after marrying the sacrificial maiden, Kushinada. Later, Susano'o gave it as a reconciliation gift to his sister, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, who bequeathed it to Yamato Takeru, a folk hero regarded as the progenitor of the Japanese royal family.

Kusanagi's high profile as a cultural artifact has made it popular to depict in various works of fiction and popular culture. In parallel to its real-world role in accession ceremonies for the newest Emperor, fictional characters are rarely depicted using it for martial combat. Instead, its magical properties are stressed. The surface-level premise that the Kusanagi is a Japanese sword results in it sometimes being misrepresented as a katana.

The sword's Unleash in-game references "Raijin" in the Japanese original and "Raiden" in the localization. Both names are interchangeable and refer to a god of thunder and lightning in the Shinto religion and Japanese mythological tradition.