Kalay

Kalay
Middle-eastern in design, Kalay is one of the more prosperous towns in Weyard.
Landmass	Angara
Game(s)	Golden Sun
Inn Pricing	15 coins per adept
Services	Item Vendor Weapon Vendor Armor Vendor

Kalay (カレイの町 Kalay Town) is a prosperous town that is located in Angara on the eastern shore of the Karagol Sea.

Description

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

It is across the sea from Tolbi, and the Silk Road connects the two. The town was founded by the merchant Master Hammet. A large settlement, with the largest building being Hammet Palace. The townspeople attribute its prosperity to Master Hammet's business skills, Lady Layana's love and devotion to the town and the aqueducts in Kalay Tunnel. Ivan lived in this town for most of his life prior to joining Isaac on his quest. A Colosso tour group leaves from Kalay in Golden Sun, which Isaac and co. join for the journey across the Karagol Sea.

Beneath Kalay is the Kalay Tunnel, which contains the Mars Djinni, Scorch. If the player frees Hammet from his detention in Lunpa, they may return here to gain access to the treasure room and the mountainside exit to the tunnels.

Vendors

The town's Inn service is provided in the building just above the item shop and just east of the armor shop with a fee of 15 coins per Adept.

Weapon Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Battle Mace	Mace	2600	Attack +56
Battle Rapier	Light Blade	2900	Attack +58
Claymore	Long Sword	4000	Attack +70
Great Axe	Axe	5200	Attack +80
Artifacts
Frost Wand	Staff	5400	Attack +76, Unleashes Frost Bite

Armor Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Chain Mail	Armor	2000	Defense +25
Gauntlets	Gloves	1600	Defense +23
Heavy Armlet	Bracelet	2000	Defense +25
Iron Helm	Helm	1600	Defense +20
Iron Shield	Shield	1200	Defense +20
Jerkin	Robe	2400	Defense +26
Mail Cap	Hat	2000	Defense +23
Silver Circlet	Circlet	1300	Defense +16

Item Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Cures Sleep, Stun, and Delusion from one Adept
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Nut	Consumable Item	200	Restores 200 HP to one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporary lowers monster encounter rate

Collectables

• 11 Coins: In a barrel to the lower right in the house to the lower right.
  
• Elixir: In a barrel in the lower floor of the Inn.
  
• Nut: Dangling off a tree just above the cemetery. Use Catch.
  
• Nut: Hammet's Palace in a barrel to the lower right near the woman at the fireplace.
  
• Sleep Bomb: In a pot to the lower left of the main town's top fountains.
  
• Smoke Bomb: In an oven in the bottom floor of the two-story building at the upper right of town.
  
• Vial: In a pot bordering the lower right grave stone in the cemetery.
  
• Water Jacket: Found in a treasure chest in the bottom-left room of Hammet's Palace.

History

Spoiler warning: The following section(s) contain plot details that some people may not wish to learn before reaching this point in the game on their own.

Some time before the events of Golden Sun, Master Hammet, then a fledgling businessman, travelled across Weyard in search of a profitable source of trade. Eventually, he made a long journey to the distant land of Atteka (which was, at that stage, still connected by land to Gondowan, a trip that exhausted him so badly that it nearly cost him his life. He was saved however by a tribe of Jupiter Adepts, presumably residing in or around Contigo. These Adepts gave him some gold doubloons, the Shaman's Rod, the infant Ivan and a piece of advice, to trade silk produced in Xian with the citizens of Tolbi. In exchange, he was tasked with helping Ivan fulfil his future role as one of the party members who re-ignite the four Elemental Lighthouses.

Fearful he would run out of time (as he was given the ambiguous timeline of three years after a great storm that struck only Vale, which occurs in the game's prologue), Hammet traversed the land in search of this item, taking Ivan with him so that he could pass it on as soon as he found it. He never locates the item, and is instead captured by the band of thieves in Lunpa, leaving Ivan behind to re-acquire the Shaman's Rod that was stolen from him by a separate band of thieves in Vault, which unknowingly made Ivan, Isaac and Garet meet, thus putting Ivan on the path toward fulfilling his predestined role. If Hammet is rescued from his captors in Lunpa, he will explain that he did manage to find out that the item the party needs is located in Hesperia. This "something" is later revealed to be the Hover Jade, which is exchanged for the Shaman's Rod after completing the challenge of Trial Road although it is not Ivan, but rather Sheba who acquires the Jade. After the ignition of Jupiter Lighthouse, both parties do combine and hence Ivan is part of the group that fires the final beacon, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Acting on the advice of the Jupiter Adepts that saved him, Hammet sets up the town of Kalay, between Xian and Tolbi, to exploit Silk Road's lucrative trading potential. This turns out to be a huge success, and Kalay grows to become one of the largest cities in Weyard, and Hammet receives the reputation (as Garet put it) of being the "greatest merchant ever known".

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Kalay is not seen in Dark Dawn, but is mentioned as being the new home of Ivan, Jenna, and other refugees from Vale. Moreover, this photo posted by Nintendo America states that Kalay has grown into a country of its own.

Spoilers end here.Those who did not want the plot ruined for them may now continue reading as normal.

Cultural references

Kalay has a distinct Arabian touch to it, seen in the architecture and soldiers. Given its location along the Silk Road, with Xian being equivalent to China and Tolbi to Rome, Kalay is probably Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), given Kalay's eastern location on the Karagol Sea and Constantinople's eastern location on the Mediterranean Sea.

The name Kalay may be a reference to the Persian word kāhrēz (كاهریز), referring to the underground aqueducts used across the Middle-East, with a liquid consonant metathesis due to the lack of differentiated L and R sounds in Japanese). Kalay Tunnel's underground aqueducts are a key feature of the town, and therefore a likely origin for the town's name.

Alternatively, Karay may be a variation on Karagol, and thus share its name origin with the Karagol Sea - in Turkish, Karagöl means "Black Lake", is the name of two separate lakes on opposite sides of the Republic of Türkiye, and may be an allusion to the Black Sea itself, one of the possible inspirations for the Karagol.

It should be noted that in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Kalay region of Angara has descended down to sea level and broken off from the Goma Region, apparently become mostly a desert with a few rivers, and its new form alludes either to the shape of Türkiye or what South-West Asia would look like without the Arabian Peninsula. A new large lake has formed to the north of Kalay, where an island stood in Golden Sun, potentially reflecting either the Black, Caspian, or Aral Seas as the Karagol has taken on a more clearly Mediterranean shape.

The two rivers east of Kalay are clearly represented in both games, with the great loop of the western river creating the island where Vine may be found in Golden Sun. These rivers may be a reflection of the Mesopotamian Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, or alternatively may represent the great loop of the Kızılırmak River (Red River) in central Türkiye and the headwaters of the Euphrates to its east. These rivers formed the boundary of the core of the Hatti Kingdom, the Hittite Empire, and the Galatian Kingdoms in Antiquity, and modern day Ankara City is also with these bounds, not far from the Red River. Ankara therefore is a third potential name origin for Kalay via Japanese Karay.

Alternatively, Kalay may represent Samarkand further east in Uzbekistan, an area that has also desertified from human diversion of water, has multiple rivers that potentially line up with the orientation and flow of rivers in the original Golden Sun game, and was a Iranian-speaking trade hub on the Silk Road, just over the mountains from the Taklamakan Desert in China. This location would further fit the Kahrez namesake, given the Persian cultural traditions, but is much further from any sea than Kalay is. It's possible that the expansion and opening up of the Karagol represents a uniting of Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas, akin to how the Morgal region reflects what would happen to north-central Siberia if the sea level rose ~100 feet.

A further alternative is that Kalay is a reference to the wetland deltas that feed the Aral Sea and the larger area to the north, south and west of the Arals until reaching Samarkand – known in Antiquity as Chorasmia (Hwârazmiya, Khwarazm, Gorithm) and Greater Khorāsān (Xwarāsān), respectively, the eastern parts of the Iranian Plateau, which were also integral parts of the Silk Road. Both regions have names quite close to Karay in starting sounds, and are further west than Samarkand, thus matching up with the geography of Kalay in regards to the rivers and mountains a bit more. The Khwarasmian Empire ruled much of Persia and all of Khorasan, for a time, and later the delta region was settled by the Karakalpak Turks, another potential name source.

Possibly, Kalay could refer to ALL of the above. Given the geographical and cultural similarities, Kalay is a representation of the Antiquity and Medieval Middle East, when Silk Road trade brought riches to the region at the crossroads of east, west, north, and south.