Golden Sun series/Implications

This is a collection of inquiries into the various mysteries and uncertain elements of the Golden Sun series, as well as answers to these that are estimates based on what the games encourage the player to think. This is not a page for baseless speculation. However, the discussion page is open for each of these and other parts of the series to be discussed and speculated on. Each of the inquiries on this page may end up being answered by a future release, in which case they will be removed from this list. Note that this page contains extreme spoilers.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Sanan conquests coinciding with Tuaparang goals

Over the course of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Tuaparang's primary objective is to harness the power of the Apollo Lens. The Lens' power source is a pair of Alchemy Machines: The Alchemy Forge in Passaj and the Alchemy Well in Ayuthay. Both are located in the Ei-Jei region, as is the nation of Sana, located farther to the east. Both the Alchemy Forge and the Alchemy Well require a special mask to be fully operational. The Alchemy Well is reactivated by Alex, who also retrieved the Luna Mask, roughly 20 years before Dark Dawn. The Sol Mask, which powers the Alchemy Forge, remains in the Ouroboros labyrinth; Kaocho, founded by the Sanan conqueror Wo, is built atop the Ouroboros. For quite some time, King Wo attempts to both retrieve the Sol Mask and conquer Passaj and Ayuthay, intent on using their Alchemy Machines to wage war.

Another prerequisite to Apollo Lens' activation is the presence of a Grave Eclipse emanating from Eclipse Tower. A group of beastmen founded the city of Belinsk, which would later become the capital of the Morgal region, atop some ruins connected to the tower. Eclipse Tower is powered by another Alchemy Machine, the Alchemy Dynamo, which requires a Magma Orb to operate. The only known Magma Orb sits in the belly of the Mountain Roc, which is considered a sacred bird by the beastmen of Morgal. The late ruler of Sana, Emperor Ko, was told that the blood of a Mountain Roc would make him immortal; this is believed to be the reason Sana invaded and occupied Morgal.

Hypothesis: It seems rather suspicious that many of Sana's actions aid the Tuaparang in their campaign. Since King Wo is first met alongside the Tuaparang general Chalis, it is not unreasonable to assume that the Tuaparang manipulated Kaocho into reactivating the Alchemy Machines they needed to use the Apollo Lens. However, since the Tuaparang needed the Magma Orb residing in the Mountain Roc, it's possible they also told Emperor Ko that Roc blood could make him immortal (which isn't true, by the way): If the Sanans slayed the Mountain Roc, the Tuaparang could acquire the Magma Orb they needed to start the Alchemy Dynamo, and the Sanan occupation of Morgal would grant Tuaparang soldiers free reign of the region, including Belinsk and the underlying region. Also, Kaocho was founded before Emperor Ko's death. If Ko had met the Tuaparang before Kaocho's founding, it would be possible that the Tuaparang told King Wo of the Sol Mask in the Ouroboros, explaining why he built his palace atop the labyrinth.

Sveta assisting Ryu Kou and Hou Zan

Prior to the events of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the countries of Sana and Morgal were at war. Morgal had been conquered and occupied by Sanan forces; among the Sanan settlers were Ryu Kou, his younger sister Hou Ju, and his mentor, Hou Zan. Eventually Sana's emperor passed away, sending the mighty nation into a state of civil war. Caught up in a new war, Sana could not afford to send reinforcements to Morgal when the original inhabitants revolted. Many of the Sanan occupiers fled, with Ryu Kou and Hou Zan finding their way to Te Rya Village. Hou Ju, however, was taken prisoner and held in Morgal's capital city.

Quite some time later, Matthew and his companions would find their way to Te Rya on their way to retrieve a feather of the Mountain Roc in Morgal. At the same time, Sveta, younger sister of Morgal's current ruler, was in the area. Sveta knew of Hou Ju's imprisonment and wished to help free her, but could not meet with Ryu Kou and the other Sanans in person for fear of being attacked. Fortunately, Sveta meets Matthew's team while they are exploring the ruins north of the village. Sveta had found a bag in the ruins; the bag was once property of Hou Ju, and the Sanans had been keeping it safe for her before losing it. Sveta asks Matthew to return the bag on her behalf. When he does, one of the Sanans notices a piece of paper in the bag; a short while later, the Sanans leave Te Rya on their way back to Morgal.

With the bag safely delivered, Sveta offers to guide Matthew's party around Morgal. While navigating the ruins that separate Morgal from Te Rya, Sveta demonstrates her Slap Psynergy, without which the ruins could not be fully traversed. Upon arriving in Morgal, the party hears a sound similar to Slap in the distance. When asked what it is, Sveta briefly mentions the Slap Glove - a special item that allows its wearer to use Slap, even if they aren't an Adept - before stopping herself. Sveta soon learns that Matthew's group is after a Mountain Roc's feather and refuses to aid them any further, since the Mountain Roc is considered a sacred bird in Morgal. Quite some time later, Matthew's party again crosses paths with Ryu Kou and Hou Zan, who have learned of Matthew's quest and have at some point acquired the Slap Glove. The Mountain Roc can only be awakened with Slap, so Ryu Kou offers the Slap Glove to aid Matthew.

Hypothesis: Although the contents of Hou Ju's bag are never revealed, it is possible that the paper found in the bag is a letter from Sveta, explaining the situation to the Sanans and offering her assistance (alternatively, it may have been the Umbra Map, which Matthew's party later acquired from Ryu Kou). Also, Sveta may have placed the Slap Glove in the bag to help them navigate the Teppe Ruins, explaining not only how Ryu Kou acquired it but also how he made it back to Morgal and why Matthew's group heard the Slap Glove being used.

Eclipse Tower's capacity to be unsealed

Much of what is known about Eclipse Tower's function and history is provided by Ikan the storyteller, and Himi when she is chosen as the host of the Third Eye that the ancients left behind to guide modern-day Adepts in the event of a Grave Eclipse: Eclipse Tower is a light-powered machine built by the ancients to advance their art of alchemy. The Jenei once ruled all of Weyard as well as all four elements, but they craved yet more power to the point of omnipotence. They were perhaps trying to do something you can't do with Psynergy, which is manipulate the other two values that comprise reality beyond the four great elements that comprise physical matter, the fundaments of darkness and light.

To this end, the Eclipse Tower is a machine that, through some unknown and spectacular processes, maintains Luna in a stationary position in Weyard's northern sky, then when Sol rises up behind Luna, it maintains that in a stationary position as well, so that the two celestial bodies are in a constant state of solar eclipse. This somehow allows Eclipse Tower to siphon the light Sol is intending to give to the world, and as it steals this light, a colossal, semicircular dome of purple-looking dark energy is projected out of itself, which stretches across almost all of Angara and the area of the Eastern Sea surrounding it, with Eclipse Tower at the exact center. The Grave Eclipse is not an eclipse that leaves a constant and perfectly circular shadow on the world; it is an eclipse that allows Luna Tower to steal Sol's light into itself and project a gigantic, circular aura of dark energy. Whether producing this field of energy is what the ancient Jenei had intended to achieve in their experiments is not certain.

What makes the Grave Eclipse a tragic calamity is that it grants a large portion of the world the same dark conditions as the places that normally are the secluded gathering places of the evil energy that is inherently associated with dark and cold places, such as caves - this causes the monsters that ordinarily haunt these places to come out of hiding and infest the whole of the continent in massive numbers, as well as get unnaturally bolstered by the dark influence. That Eclipse Tower's darkness-spreading effect ends up covering much of the world because of all the light of Sol that constantly gets poured into it is what is meant by it "working too well". Eclipse Tower's Grave Eclipse effect was triggered in the ancient past and therefore triggered a monster-related calamity just as it does when it is triggered a second time in Dark Dawn. Furthermore, another process Eclipse Tower has for some reason is that once it has gathered the right amount of light energy, it will release it all in one cataclysmic burst.

The method the ancient Jenei used to end the Grave Eclipse is their other light-powered apparatus, the Apollo Lens, which shoots a ray of amplified light energy; its intended function is to be shot into Eclipse Tower so that its mechanisms are instantly overloaded, which stops them, lets Sol and Luna resume their normal courses, and ends the tower's dark energy field. The Jenei then gave Eclipse Tower the artificial name "Luna Tower" and sealed it underground by means of the Alchemy Dynamo machine, and unlike the Elemental Lighthouses, they hoped this tower's secrets would not be brought back out into light in the far-off future.

The question here, then, is why the Jenei did not simply remove all possibility of Eclipse Tower being able to be brought back out and starting another Grave Eclipse, and instead implement systems called Wards, which replicate the will of an ancient Jenei official named the Warden of the North, that give instructions on how to use an appropriate power source to cause the Alchemy Dynamo to unseal "Luna Tower". Indeed, the dungeon leading up to the Alchemy Dynamo has several gates that can be opened up by solving riddles involving Psynergy of the four physical elements. If the Jenei hoped that Eclipse Tower would not cause grief in the far-off future, this seems counter-intuitive.

Hypothesis: The riddles and tests located all throughout the Belinsk Ruins dungeon that leads to the Alchemy Dynamo require Psynergy of all four of the base elements to pass. Once the Alchemy Dynamo core is reached, the Ward system comments "It is good to see the clans acting in concert once more. Welcome, children of the Jenei."

The first thing this indicates is that the ancient designers anticipated that any successful attempt to solve its riddles of all four elements would indicate that Weyard had progressed to a state where the four Elemental Clans were once again working together and united. Not necessarily a foolproof means to ensure that this is the only circumstance that the Alchemy Dynamo can be reached, for in the present-day Golden Sun games, these clans are either barely in existence or have disappeared completely, and Adepts that do exist of each element are scattered and uncommon, and generally do not belong to "clans". An answer exists as to why the ancients would make this erroneous assumption about their world's future, however: as indicated in the GBA games, when Alchemy and the Elemental Lighthouses were sealed, the ancients did not realize that this would cause civilization to wane over the ages to come, and that therefore the clans would essentially disappear as well, regardless of whether the Lighthouses would be lit once again.

With this in mind, what can ultimately be guessed is that the ancient designers believed the following: in the scenario where the future Weyard has the four elemental clans once again acting in concert, that the clans have put aside their wars to focus on better deeds somehow would make them "more fit" to once again be allowed to try to continue the original experiments to manipulate Light and Darkness. It is as though that if the unified clans delve into the secrets of the sealed Eclipse Tower and choose to unseal it, it is as though they would "know what they're doing".

Ikan and Kaba able to see Psynergy

While visiting Harun Island, Matthew's party aids a man from the nearby village. The man was injured while fishing and can't move, so Rief uses his healing Psynergy to aid the man. That man's young son, Kaba, also happens to be present and mentions seeing Rief's Psynergy, which he describes as "light". Normally, only Adepts can see Psynergy, so Kaba's ability to see Psynergy catches the band of Adepts by surprise. Later, back at the village, Kaba's grandfather, Ikan, asks Matthew to demonstrate their Psynergy. Upon doing so, Ikan also describes the same light Kaba saw.

Hypothesis: Since normally only Adepts can see Psynergy, there is a strong possibility that both Ikan and Kaba are Adepts. However, they both seem surprised by the party's demonstration of Psynergy, suggesting they are unaware of their own abilities. Of course, the possibility still exists that Ikan and his grandson are not Adepts, and are instead simply ordinary people with a rare, never-before-heard-of innate ability to see Psynergy.

Trajectory of the Apollo Lens encompassing Sol Sanctum or Tuaparang

The Apollo Lens superweapon at the top of Apollo Sanctum is described by a legend in Passaj as being able to be aimed at a target. At the end of the game it ends up firing its beam at Eclipse Tower to the north. However, when Alex, Blados, and Chalis arrive at Apollo Sanctum via a large Tuaparang dropship so that the duo may take control of the Lens, Alex asks what Blados and Chalis intend to do with the Lens. The duo remark that they can't spoil that surprise, but Alex notes that the trajectory of the Lens suggest that the duo's target is either the Tuaparang empire or the area around Sol Sanctum, in these words:

Alex: "Based on the trajectory, your target is Tuaparang... Or perhaps the area around Sol Sanctum..."

And right after this, Alex notes that the duo has not contradicted this and his other various deductions. Sol Sanctum is far to the west of Apollo Sanctum, and while the Lens' alleged ability to be aimed at a target would allow for it to target Sol Sanctum's area, it is strange that this line implies that making the Lens' trajectory encompass Sol Sanctum's area also makes the whole of the Tuaparang empire encompassed as well.

Hypothesis: If Alex's line is to be taken at face value, then the Tuaparang empire, in whatever form it takes, is apparently near Mt. Aleph and Sol Sanctum by that point in time at the end of the game - there is no other way that the lens' "current trajectory" could end up encompassing both of these targets at the same time.

Psynergy Vortex origin

A Psynergy Vortex is defined by the Encyclopedia as a distortion in space that sucks the elemental energy out of the world and from Adepts in their vicinity. They are thought to be an affereffect caused by the Golden Sun event, and early in the game Isaac states that what is also theorized about them is that they are anti-Psynergy that form in places with high concentrations of normal Psynergy, like a place with a large concentration of Psynergy Stones. One especially gigantic Vortex appeared ten years ago around the center of Angara for no discernible reason, and it was named the Mourning Moon for the unimaginable destruction and widespread misery it caused. A little later, however, one is found pulsating above a strange machine, and the Tuaparang immediately makes its first appearance in this scene and says nothing to deny that the machine is one of theirs. At the end of the game, a colossal Psynergy Vortex is close to the vicinity of Isaac's Lookout Cabin near the area around Sol Sanctum, for no apparent reason.

Hypothesis: It is easy to guess that the Tuaparang are quite closely involved with Psynergy Vortexes. It is baseless to guess outright that Tuaparang is the source of this phenomena, but if one assumes from the section above that the Tuaparang empire is around the area of Sol Sanctum by the end of the game, that may indicate why there is a giant Psynergy Vortex pulsating near Isaac's cabin near the area of Sol Sanctum at the end of the game. However, aside from the fact that all Psynergy Vortexes in Dark Dawn are seen in the area south of Sol Sanctum and the possibility that the Tuaparang had something to do with the Mourning Moon as well, there is nothing else about their relation that can be stated either as factually known or implied.

Blados and Chalis' motive for the Apollo Lens

After Alex indicates to Blados and Chalis and to all of Matthew's group that the High Empyror doubts the duo's loyalty, Alex asks what Blados and Chalis intend to do with the Lens, and the duo remark that they can't spoil that surprise. However, Alex then deduces that the men that came down with the dropship along with the duo have strange powers similar to the duo's own as Dark Adepts, and implies that this indicates the men are not really soldiers of the Tuaparang empire, even though the duo commanding the men serve the empire as its field commanders. When Alex follows this with the deduction that the possibility is open, based on the Apollo Lens' trajectory, that Blados and Chalis may be intending Tuaparang itself as one of their targets for the weapon, and announces that Dark Psynergy may now be considered an open secret, the duo do not discount his claims, and instead try to eliminate him and Matthew's party to keep these secret.

Hypothesis: Though the High Empyror of Tuaparang had tasked Blados, Chalis, and Alex to secure the Apollo Lens for him, Blados and Chalis apparently intend to use the Apollo Lens against Tuaparang for unknown reasons, and the High Empyror apparently distrusted them and thought them likely to do this because he had put his trust in Alex to make sure the Lens would be used according to the Empyror's own plan. The clan that Dark Adepts like Blados and Chalis belong to are the Umbra Clan, and that the men loyal to the duo and accompanying them to the lens are described as having powers like Blados and Chalis suggests that the men are Umbra Clan adepts as well. Alex describes the Tuaparang as "scions" of the Umbra Clan - "Scion" being defined as "descendant" - and indicates through his wording that the Umbra Clan soldiers dropping down from the dropship are not really Tuaparang soldiers because they have the Umbra Clan's Dark Psynergy. This all suggests that Tuaparang and the Umbra Clan are, in some way or another, not all one and the same - they doubtlessly have close relations and ties, and the Umbra Clan apparently operates for the Tuaparang and its Empyror. And apparently, the Umbra Clan - at least the members of it that are under the command of Blados and Chalis - intends to rebel against or strike at Tuaparang by using the Apollo Lens against it.