Madra

Madra is visited three separate times as the player travels between neighboring continents bordering the southern region of Indra, where it is located.

Madra (マドラの町 Madra Town) is a prominent settlement featured in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is located in southeastern Indra; with Indra itself having wedged itself between southern Gondowan to the west and Osenia to the east as a result of the tidal wave in the game's prologue, Madra has only very recently become a crossroads between the east and the west. The party can make up to three distinct visits to the town during their time spent exploring the other continents, each time exploring more of the underground Madra Catacombs that lie underneath the town.

Felix's party, looking for a ship and having found one beached at East Indra Shore, find the ship's owner, the Mercury Adept Piers, imprisoned by Madra's populace on suspicion of being part of Champan pirates who attacked the prison to free their leader, Briggs. Felix must follow Briggs into Alhafra on Osenia to beat his vow out of him that Piers is not part of his crew. Then, upon returning to Madra, Felix must follow the newly freed Piers west into Gondowan to help him retrieve his ship's Black Crystal from the Kibombo tribe. When all is said and done and Piers has joined Felix's party, they briefly cross paths with another traveling outsider at Madra before setting out to sea.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

Madra is the sole settlement occupying the southern swath of the starting continent of Indra, which is reached by traversing south through the dungeon-like Dehkan Plateau from the northern swath occupied by the first settlement of the game, Daila. Because Dehkan Plateau's puzzles do not block your progress if you did not detour first to Kandorean Temple to earn the Lash Psynergy, the player has the option of heading directly from Daila through the dungeon and toward Madra. However, opportunities to use Lash to solve environmental puzzles at Dekhan Plateau, Madra, and other locations heavily incentivizes completing the Temple before making the trip south. This is to say nothing of when Lash eventually becomes mandatory to pass an upcoming mandatory dungeon.

Along the way southwest from Dehkan Plateau's south exit, you can pass through East Indra Shore where the Lemurian Ship is beached, which will be noted by the characters for the sake of the plot but otherwise does not offer anything you can take with your current abilities. You can quickly complete the small Indra Cavern west of it, using Lash, to acquire the Zagan summon tablet. Randomly fighting battles inside any of the three larger forests lining the south edge of Indra – including the one surrounding Madra itself – should soon get the Venus Djinni Iron to appear in battle; it will be added to your collection if you defeat it.

Both the west and east coasts of the southern swath of Indra feature overworld icons functioning as dungeon-like "land bridges" leading to the neighboring continents, and both are functionally closed off. At the far west end is Gondowan Cliffs, and you can meet some tribesmen from Gondowan in the limited portion of the Cliffs you can explore. Stepping onto the bridge just northeast of Madra, even though it is not represented by an icon of its own, brings you into Madra Drawbridge, where two guards initially block you from proceeding further northeast toward Osenia Cliffs, the "land bridge" leading east into Osenia.

The basic premise of Madra and the surrounding locations is that you must first enter it and watch cutscenes involving Piers in its prison, which will cause the guards at Madra Drawbridge to allow you to pass. Once you touch down on Osenia via Osenia Cliffs, you must traverse Yampi Desert to reach the town of Alhafra and defeat the pirate Briggs in a boss battle. An extremely long dungeon that can be separately explored and completed during your time in Osenia, Air's Rock, rewards you with the Reveal Psynergy, which eventually becomes mandatory in its own right.

Your next destination required by the plot, which a second visit to Madra will indicate for you, will take you through Gondowan Cliffs and up north into the heart of southern Gondowan, through the Kibombo Mountains (which is where Lash becomes required to progress). Completing your business at the village of Kibombo and the connected dungeon Gabomba Statue will result in Piers being permanently recruited into your party. Finally, you must bring Piers back to see the mayor's family in Madra before you will be allowed to enter the beached Lemurian Ship and complete that as a "dungeon", which will allow you to start sailing the Eastern Sea of the world.

Initial visit

The entrance ladder leading down to the Madra Catacombs leads to a gate that requires the Reveal Psynergy from Air's Rock.

When you first enter Madra and walk up the steps to the front gate, two guards will exposit on a recent attack from Champan pirates who came to free their captive leader, Briggs, from the prison at the west end of town. When you enter it, a cutscene introduces Piers, the eventual fourth member of your current party, and another cutscene that takes place back outside the prison has the daughter of the Elder of Madra granting your party permission to head northeast into Osenia. Incidentally, in the mayor's manor at the northwest end of town, Piers' most important possession – the Black Crystal used to commandeer the Lemurian Ship at East Indra Shore – is on display atop the fireplace.

Though the story defines your objective as heading to Alhafra and forcefully securing Briggs' vow that Piers is not a member of his crew, there are several worthwhile collectibles that can be picked up before leaving. The village's shops introduce the Battle Axe, Travel Vest, Leather Armlet, Circlet, and Leather Boots as common gear pieces. Leather Boots, in particular, are very valuable for being Boot-class items you can distribute to your party members for extra Defense, and they will remain equipped for most of the game, up until you start winning more specialized boots in Contigo late in the game. The weapon shopkeeper also adds the Magic Rod to the Artifacts menu when it is opened.

If you go upstairs in the Inn and step out onto the balcony, you can walk west along the roofs of the stalls of the aforementioned vendors and hop to the chest on the ledge, which contains the highly defensive Nurse's Cap for either Jenna or Sheba. (It can be Used as an item during battle to restore roughly 70 HP to an ally.) Incidentally, if you have transferred data from a Clear Data Save File in the first Golden Sun in which you had won the Colosso Finals as Isaac, two of the gladiators from that tournament – Morgan and Dekka – will be seen in the upper floor of the inn. This can serve as the earliest in-game indication that the password you applied to the current game file in The Lost Age was successful.

At present, Madra features two entrances into Madra Catacombs, a fairly cluttered optional dungeon running underneath the town that can be explored in sections as you revisit Madra throughout the first third of the game's play time. The ladder just right of the Inn leads down to a subterranean front gate that cannot be passed without Reveal, making it a dead end at the moment. A second ladder located northeast of Madra's own front gate, just outside the town walls, currently allows passage into a limited portion of the Catacombs at the back end of the complex, where you can pick up the Tremor Bit Utility Psynergy item. The Tremor Psynergy it bestows is only used for side objectives, such as one allowing early access into Alhafran Cave during your time in Alhafra. This second entrance will only remain available up until the boss battle with Briggs in Alhafra.

Subsequent visit

Once Briggs has been defeated in Alhafra, Madra will have been updated by the time you return to it, with a second set of gossip and Mind Read-able thoughts put forth by the town's populace. The guards at the gate will again momentarily stop you to explain that the village was sacked again in your absence, this time by warriors from the Kibombo tribe in southern Gondowan, and they made off with the Black Crystal in the mayor's manor. Piers has followed them west into Gondowan to retrieve his orb, so this second visit to the town defines Kibombo as the player's next mandatory destination. Technically, Madra does not need to be entered if the player already knows this, and you can walk past Madra straight to Gondowan Cliffs.

The hole leading down into Madra Catacombs outside the town's walls is being permanently sealed up, but most of the complex can now be explored if you have acquired the Reveal Psynergy from Air's Rock, letting you pass through the subterranean gate accessed from the hole next to the inn. Currently, the Catacombs can be looted for a Lucky Medal and one of the game's six Apples, as well as the Tremor Bit if you did not get it earlier.

Final visit

You must eventually bring Piers back to the mayor's manor in order to get the Cyclone Chip, before going back to his ship at East Indra Shore.

At the end of your time spent in southern Gondowan, Piers will have permanently joined your party as its resident Mercury Adept, with the Black Crystal in his inventory. When you cross back into southern Indra, if you bring Piers back to his ship at East Indra Shore first, an extra cutscene will instruct you to bring him back to the mayor's manor in Madra first so that he can give the mayor's family his regards. The ship can only be entered, and the "Lemurian Ship" "dungeon" inside it played through, after this meeting takes place. The cutscene with the Mayor of Madra will gift your party the Cyclone Chip Utility Psynergy item, and the party will also be introduced to Karst, one of the game's recurring antagonists.

The village's NPCs will have updated into their third and final set of spoken and mentally expressed gossip. In the two-story building in the south-center part of town, a couple keeps the Mars Djinni Char penned upstairs and expresses interest in edible mushrooms. In Gondowan Cliffs, you can find both the Laughing Fungus and Healing Fungus, the latter of which requires Piers' Frost Psynergy to reach. You can try giving them the Laughing Fungus first for a brief cutscene in which they say it isn't the right kind of mushroom. Regardless, giving them the Healing Fungus will make them give you Char in exchange.

The Frost Psynergy is also what allows Madra Catacombs to be explored to its fullest, and one remaining treasure you can find is a Mist Potion. You will be able to cast the Tremor Psynergy in the direction of a chest atop a remote bookshelf to make it fall down to the floor below, letting you find the Ruin Key. Use the key on the thick, dark door at the bottom of one stairwell to reach the summon tablet for Moloch.

After the cutscene with Karst, a second bonus event that can be enabled by the applied Clear Data from the first game will trigger the first time you exit back out into the overworld. If Isaac's party in Golden Sun revisited the town of Vault midway through the game and talked with its mayor to learn that the Bandit and Thieves they previously fought as bosses have busted out of its jail, the trio will accost and attack Felix's party. This is an extremely easy battle, and they will leave the game's sole pair of Golden Boots lying in the overworld in front of Madra once you defeat them. This offers very high Defense and Agility ratings and is vastly superior over both the Leather Boots sold in Madra and the Quick Boots that can be won as a Game Ticket prize in Contigo in the Western Sea. (If you do purposefully lose the battle, you will get a unique post-loss cutscene, but the Golden Boots will be permanently lost.)

Vendors

Madra's Inn is located north of Madra's front gate and charges 4 coins per party member not currently downed. Therefore, it will be 12 coins in total until you revisit Madra with Piers having joined as a permanent member of your party, in which case it will be 16 coins. At the end of the game, when the party has doubled in size, the Inn will charge 32 coins;

Weapon Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Long Sword	Long Sword	200	Attack +14
Mace	Mace	80	Attack +6
Short Sword	Light Blade	120	Attack +8
Battle Axe	Axe	280	Attack +24
Artifacts
Magic Rod	Staff	380	Attack +16, Unleashes Murk

Armor Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Travel Vest	Clothing	50	Defense +7
Leather Armlet	Bracelet	180	Defense +7
Leather Cap	Hat	20	Defense +3
Circlet	Circlet	120	Defense +6
Padded Gloves	Gloves	10	Defense +2
Leather Boots	Boot	270	Defense +6
Wooden Shield	Shield	40	Defense +4

Item Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept

Collectibles

The following items can be acquired in town during the earliest visit, at the same time the Tremor Bit can be found inside the Madra Catacombs underneath the town:

• Nurse's Cap: Found in the chest on the ledge off to the right of the mayor's northwest manor. Can only be reached by walking out the Inn's second-floor balcony and walking left along the roofs of the vendors' stands.
• Antidote: Found in a wooden box in the upper-right corner behind the house north of the south Sanctum.
• 15 Coins: Found in the slanted brown box in the first floor of the mayor's manor.
• Elixir: Found in the white jar in the cave residence north of the item shop.
• Sleep Bomb: Found in the second floor of the Inn, in the tall jar at the west end of the cramped room north of the main bedroom.
• Smoke Bomb: Found in the house north of the Sanctum, in the upper-left standing barrel.

When passing through Madra on the way west into Gondowan, a Lucky Medal and Apple can be gotten in Madra Catacombs if you have the Reveal Psynergy from Air's Rock. When you return to Madra a third and final time with Piers in your party, his Frost Psynergy additionally lets you reach the Ruin Key inside the dungeon and use it to claim the summon tablet for Moloch, and you can also find a Mist Potion. By this time, the following major collectibles are available in the town itself:

• Char: Initially seen in a holding pen in the second floor of the old couple's house northwest of the Sanctum. After coming back from Gondowan Cliffs with Piers in your party, you can give the husband the green Healing Fungus that Piers can help retrieve back in the Cliffs to have him give you Char in exchange.
• Cyclone Chip: Granted automatically by the Mayor of Madra during the cutscene that takes place when you bring Piers to the mayor's manor. If all four of your party members have completely filled-up inventories, he will instead place the Cyclone Chip in the gray jar to his right.
• Golden Boots: A bonus reward that can only be granted if you have enhanced the game file with data from a Golden Sun Clear Data Save File in which Isaac talked to the mayor of Vault midway through that game. Win the battle with the Bandit and Thieves so that they will leave the item on the ground in the overworld.

History

This article or section has been identified as needing to be either cleaned up, reformatted, or rewritten. Please help us improve it by editing.

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.

The tidal wave caused by Poseidon's return managed to move the entire continent of Indra, wedging it between Gondowan and Osenia. Since Madra is near the bottom of Indra, it now finds itself right next door to both continents. The tidal wave also caused Briggs' ship to crash near the newly formed Osenia Cliffs, and Briggs was soon arrested and placed in Madra's jail. Briggs' crew and his wife Chaucha remained out of sight as they planned a way to break Briggs out of jail. Finally, the Champan pirates began digging a tunnel into the town, uncovering the Madra Catacombs in the process. At the same time, warriors from Kibombo attacked the town, searching for a jewel to use in Akafubu's ceremony, which would cement his position as witch doctor. It is suggested that the Champan and Kibombo warriors worked together, as several of the pirates' weapons were left behind and appear to be Kibombo in design.

Piers is wrongfully accused of being part of the Champa pirates who raided Madra shortly before Felix's arrival.

While the Champan pirates snuck in from the east, the Kibombo warriors came from the west, attacking a weak spot in the wall. During the chaos several people were injured, including the item shopkeeper. Briggs managed to escape and fled to Osenia with his crew. The Kibombo, however, failed in their mission. Shortly afterwards Piers' ship was found and, due to the recent events, he was automatically accused of being a member of Briggs' crew. While Piers remained imprisoned, Madra's mayor and the town elder left with a small travelling party to track down Briggs and prove Piers' innocence. It is around this time that Felix and the other party members arrive in Madra. During their short stay, they witness Piers being harassed by the shopkeeper's boyfriend, Shin. Piers finally loses his cool and casts Frost on a puddle Shin was standing on. Kraden immediately recognizes this as Psynergy. Felix and Co. then leave to find Briggs themselves.

After Briggs is captured in Alhafra, most of the Madrans who left returned to set Piers free. Unfortunately, before they could return, the Kibombo warriors returned to finish what they started. During their second attack, the Kibombo managed to steal a gem that the mayor was holding onto for Piers. Without the gem Piers' ship would be unable to move, so Piers set his sights on Kibombo once he was freed. Felix and Co. chase after him once they hear what happened, and manage to help him get his gem back. During this time, Isaac and his party pass through Madra and hear about Piers. When they hear that Piers was able to turn water into ice they automatically realize that he must be an Adept and set out to find him.

After returning to Madra with Piers' gem, Felix's party find that the mayor and elder have returned from Alhafra. They had grown tired of waiting for Alhafra's mayor to follow up on his empty promise to fix the boat Briggs bought with Madra's money. Before Piers left with Felix's team, the mayor of Madra gives them the Cyclone Chip as a reward for helping capture Briggs. Unfortunately, Karst happened to be in the area and realized who Felix was. Sheba made the mistake of telling Karst that Isaac killed her sister Menardi. At this, Karst makes sure that Felix remembers his goal: to light the remaining Elemental Lighthouses. Karst then leaves to seek revenge on Isaac. After this, the infamous "Madra Blushing Scene" occurs. This scene is where Sheba teases Jenna about liking Isaac (It is looked on by Valeshippers as canon evidence for the Isaac/Jenna pairing).

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

Trivia

• If a walk-through-walls code is used with an external hacking method to bring Felix to the very top-left corner of the main village area, beyond the mayor's manor, the lower half of a sprite can be seen behind the trees on the cliff. Memory and address tools confirm it is the Mayor of Madra's sprite; you cannot interact with it, and the sprite is incorporeal. It is unknown whether it is a sprite used in cutscenes.
• In the sanctum, when Madra is revisited on the party's way west into Gondowan in the English localization, the spoken text boxes and mental thoughts respectively assigned to the blue-dressed woman and the old woman give the impression that the old woman's vocal speaking style (in which she uses the phrase "them Kibombo") was mistakenly applied to the thoughts of the blue-dressed woman instead of her own thoughts. The blue-dressed woman, despite her spoken statement using far more normal diction, thinks about how "them Kibombo were mostly nekkid," whereas the old woman's thoughts concerning villager injuries are suddenly a lot less "crotchety" in tone compared to her spoken statement.
  • Also in the sanctum, the blue-dressed woman makes a reference to the Christian faith when Mind Read is used on her during the party's first visit:

[Spoken] "We must pass this test. Now is the time to be strong! Come, join hands, and let us give thanks."

[Mind Read] "If this is a test, please give us a sign. We are your flock... Do with us as you will..."

• If you fill up all four of your party members' inventories prior to receiving the Cyclone Chip from the Mayor of Madra, he will place it into the pot just right of his manor's front door, reasoning that he couldn't just let the party leave without his gift.

Cultural references

Madra is likely named after Madras, the old, colonial name for the southern Indian city of Chennai. Madra is also the name of an ancient region of the Indian subcontinent, located in modern day Pakistan. This is less likely the origin of the town, however, as Madra is part of northern India and Pakistan, while Madra Town in Indra is in the south. Chennai or Madras is located on the Bay of Bengal, and the origin of the name, Madras, is very much in doubt.

Incidentally, on the fold-out world map packaged in the boxes of western copies of Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Madra is misspelled as "Madras". It should be noted that this is not an issue of overly direct transliteration from the Japanese version because the name does not end with an "s" sound in that version.