Piers
 Piers
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Element | Mercury |
| Hometown | Lemuria |
| Relatives | An uncle A deceased mother |
| Hair color | Turquoise |
| Eye color | Yellow |
| Battle style | Warrior |
| Weapons | Long Sword Light Blade Axe Mace |
| Body armor | Clothing Armor |
| Arm/Hand armor | Gloves Shield |
| Head armor | Hat/Crown/Mask Helm |
| Japanese name | Picard (ピカード Pikādo) |
| German name | Aaron |
Piers is a Mercury Adept who debuts in Golden Sun: The Lost Age as the fourth member of the game's main party. He is introduced as a mysterious boatman who washes up near the town of Madra after the tidal wave that kicks off the game's main plot, and he gets falsely imprisoned. Felix's party seeks to recruit him so that they can make use of his Psynergy-operated Lemurian Ship to reach the Western Sea where the final two Elemental Lighthouses are located, while he seeks to return to his homeland, the ancient and hidden society of Lemuria in the Eastern Sea. What Felix and his party will learn once they reach Lemuria will change their perspectives on the quest they have been pursuing.
Compared to the first game's "caster-style" Mercury Adept, Mia, Piers' stat spread, class series, and gear options position him as a unique "warrior-style" Mercury Adept even more strongly than the third game's Amiti. On top of being the only playable character in the second game who was never alluded to in the first game, Piers is only added to the party over a quarter into the game's especially lengthy playtime. In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Piers technically never makes an on-screen appearance, but he plays an active role in the progression of the game's plot by fulfilling background roles at several key points.
As a playable character
Piers first joins the party roughly 25% into The Lost Age at Kibombo in southern Gondowan, joining as soon as the earth pillar north of him is dropped into the gap with the Move Psynergy. Much like Mia from the first game, he becomes this party's resident Mercury Adept, giving him access to all multi-elemental class series that at least involve the Mercury element in some way. His positioning as a "warrior-style Adept", however, is signified by having his mono-elemental class series be the Mariner class series, which features the Diamond Dust and Diamond Berg elemental physical attack Psynergies. Roughly in the middle of the game, he will also be taught the unique Parch utility Psynergy, which removes standing bodies of water.
Piers joins the party at level 18, with 25,333 EXP already accrued, and he is initially equipped with a Battle Mace, Chain Mail, Iron Shield and Bronze Helm. These are all gear classes meant for warrior-style Adepts, and Piers can also hold Long Swords, Light Blades, and Axes; in fact, he cannot equip staves or "caster-style" gear like bracelets at all. He brings with him two Mercury Djinn that are already Set onto him, Spring and Shade, which means he starts off already in the second "Privateer" stage of his Mariner series. The Avoid Psynergy, which can only otherwise be accessed by having Venus or Mars Adepts change into the Swordsman or Dragoon class series with Mercury Djinn, is on the Mariner series by default, making it much easier for Piers to use this useful utility function throughout the second game. Furthermore, it is possible for the party to have collected enough Djinn of all elements that he can immediately graduate to the Commander class. Finally, his inventory also comes stocked with an Herb, Antidote, and Elixir.
Because of how all the dual-elemental and tri-elemental classes available to Mercury Adepts have average Attack and health stats to go along with their caster-oriented play-styles, Piers more-or-less has to stay in the Mariner class series to give himself a distinction that attempts to avoid being overshadowed by other Adepts once the four extra party members join Felix's party late in the game. For one thing, his default Mariner series is the only class series he can reach the end of that has elemental physical attack Psynergy to speak of, so he will often rely on casting Diamond Berg for solid-at-most damage even in the endgame. While the Mariner series' final stage of Admiral shares the high HP modifier of the similarly tank-like Garet in his own default class series, the Admiral is saddled with an average-at-best attack value that is no higher than any of Piers' other class choices. The only way for him to reach a higher attack modifier based on his class would be to devote himself to the hard-to-use Tamer class series provided by the Trainer's Whip.
The Mariner series also lacks Mia's Water Seer class series' powerful and versatile healing arsenal, retaining the single-target Ply Psynergy series while missing the mass-healing Wish Psynergy series and even lacking an acceptable Agility rating that would let him reliably heal the intended target before the enemy's movements for the turn. However, his unique Cool Psynergy series gives his casting potential an especially wide area of effect, and its final Megacool stage hits slightly harder than Mia's Ice Missile. If Piers is essentially turned into a caster by being turned into one of his other class series, he will largely perform as well as Mia would in the same circumstances, with the Hermit class series giving him a lot of speed and PP to cast the Prism Psynergy series, Plasma Psynergy series, Impact Psynergy series, and the aforementioned Wish series.
Being turned into one of these faster casters that retain largely the same attack rating modifier as the Mariner series makes it feasible for Piers to capitalize on his warrior-like gear choices in a unique way. His generally tougher defensive gear choices will make him take less damage than other casters, and he is capable of holding several of the endgame-level weapons with enormously destructive Unleashes, like Tisiphone Edge, Masamune (whose Unleash is Mercury-elemental like Piers himself), and Excalibur. Piers as a Wizard-level Hermit can use Excalibur's Jupiter-oriented Legend unleash with a very fast Agility rating, albeit still without as much potential for damage as any Venus or Mars Adept who is a War Adept-level Apprentice or Page.
Classes and statistics
Piers has high natural HP that slightly surpasses Isaac's, about as much Attack as Garet (though barely more than Jenna's Attack), and the highest natural Defense rating only behind Garet. However, he has low PP matching Isaac's PP trend, and he has the second lowest Agility in the game, in the exact midway point between Mia above himself and Garet beneath himself. He could be seen as a less extreme version of Garet. Given that there are two Adepts for each starting Luck rating value available (2, 3, 4, and 5 points), Piers sharing Isaac's inherent Luck rating of 3 puts him in the "bottom half" of the available Adepts. Compared to the decidedly caster-oriented Mercury Adept Mia, he has much more inherent HP and Defense and somewhat higher natural Attack, but less Agility, much less PP, and two fewer inherent Luck points. Piers has the following classes available to him:
- Mono-Elemental:
Mariner - Dual-Elemental:
Hermit, 
Pilgrim (Mercury), 
Seer (Mercury)
- (Partial) Swordsman (Mars), Swordsman (Venus)
- (Partial)
- Tri-Elemental: Ranger, White Mage, Medium
- (Partial) Dragoon
- (Partial)
Appearance and Personality
While Mercury Adepts depicted in the Golden Sun games all have hair colors that are variations on blue, Piers' hair is noticeably more turquoise than the rest. He keeps his hair tied in a short ponytail that hangs behind an odd, turquoise-patterned headdress that itself hangs from the back of his headband, draping over his shoulders and extending practically down to his elbows. His blue outfit includes short sleeves and short pants that expose both his equally muscular legs and knees, and he wears blue boots. He has strikingly yellow eyes, though it is difficult to determine whether this is a common trait among individuals native to the hidden society of Lemuria.
Piers is possessed of an arrogance that seems to go hand-in-hand with his strong sense of justice and willingness to hold others to a high honorable standard. He seems to be adept at the art of patience and restraint, though he can only maintain it for so long; when he is falsely imprisoned and thoroughly goaded by a villager in Madra, he casts icy Psynergy to scare the villager off and immediately proceeds to kick himself for letting frustration get the better of him. Apparently, "everyone" in Lemuria knows Piers "possesses great courage."
Piers is unwilling to disclose his true age even when asked politely by people who believe themselves not to have shown the right respect once they become aware that he is far older than he looks, instead requesting them to treat him like they've always had. In the Japanese script, Piers purposefully talks with a diction befitting young males whose ages he physically resembles on a surface level.
History
Piers has been a lifelong native of Lemuria, a kingdom concealed from the outside world in the Sea of Time, the fog-shrouded point in the center of the Eastern Sea that is surrounded by a virtually impassable maze of rocks, rushing currents, and whirlpools. Lemurians live far beyond the normal years of any outsider because of the waters of their spring located in the center of their grand city. Thanks to the fountain's apparent connection to the life-extending effects of Alchemy, continued consumption of these waters slows one's rate of aging, potentially allowing one to live for centuries. It is unknown how much older than his physical appearance Piers really is. Piers apparently had a timid personality when he lived with his beloved father, mother, and uncle originally. His father passed away early on because of undisclosed circumstances, and his mother was prone to illness because she was born with a weak heart.
Roughly a hundred years prior to Golden Sun: The Lost Age, a great flood that ransacked the outside world drove two sailors named Babi and Lunpa into the Lemurians' secluded domain. Some time afterward, Babi stole Lemuria's remaining stockpile of bottled life-preserving draught and made off with a Lemurian Ship to return to his city, Tolbi, leaving Lunpa behind to live idly with the Lemurians for quite literally the next century.
The Lemurian King Hydros, who has lived longer than anyone else, became convinced from the increasingly downtrodden state of Lemuria over the years that the seal placed on Alchemy has brought the development of civilization across Weyard to a standstill. A comparison between a map of the world as it existed in the ancient past and the world map Lunpa brought with him indicated an even more alarming conclusion: that cutting the world off from the flow of elemental power, which was caused by the extinguishing of the four flames of the Elemental Lighthouses, has locked Weyard into a dire path that would ensure the world and its continents would very physically shrink and collapse, given enough time.
However, Lemuria's body of senators, headed by Lord Conservato, have long downplayed the effects the seal placed on Alchemy has had on society and held firm to their beliefs that unleashing it will destroy the world through its inevitable abuse in the hands of the people. Under Conservato's direction, the senators have uniformly stonewalled their own king's plans to release Alchemy, and they have even passed a law barring any Lemurians from leaving the Sea of Time. This was passed mainly to prevent Hydros from sending Piers, now renowned for his uncharacteristic courage among Lemurians in general, out into the world to advance the king's self-evident plan to hasten Alchemy's return.
Even so, Hydros gave Piers a secret mission to depart Lemuria and explore the world on a Lemurian Ship, complete with the Black Orb needed to power and propel it, so as to definitively determine how its continents' shapes have changed since the time Lunpa's century-old map was created. Hydros was convinced to make this decision once he somehow caught wind that Mercury Lighthouse and Venus Lighthouse had just been ignited far beyond Lemuria's borders. Piers disclosed his mission only to his uncle before making his departure.
Piers originally intended to carefully navigate the rushing currents and stone crags of the Sea of Time so that he could safely make the trip back into Lemuria once his survey of the Eastern Sea was complete. Neither Piers nor Hydros anticipated that a monstrous demigod that had been slumbering within the Sea of Time, Poseidon, suddenly chose that moment to awaken, having also been remotely influenced by the lit Mercury and Venus Beacons. Poseidon's emergence generated a huge tidal wave that impacted much of the southwestern Eastern Sea, and Piers was knocked unconscious as his ship got tossed out of the Sea of Time and sent floating southwest toward the island continent of Indra.
In Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Meeting with Felix
Piers' Lemurian Ship beaches itself on Indra's eastern shore, and he is quickly discovered by the villagers of nearby Madra, arrested, and thrown into Madra's jail building. This action is predicated on an unfounded belief that Piers is a member of the notorious Champan pirate crew whose leader, Briggs, had recently been terrorizing other coastal settlements along the Eastern Sea. Briggs' boat was destroyed by the tidal wave, which had led him to be imprisoned in Madra for a time, but his crew had successfully broken him out and fled east into Osenia with him. Obviously, Piers is hardly in good spirits over these developments, but he appreciates that Madra's ruling family, who disbelieve their villagers' unfounded suspicion of him, have headed off to Osenia to secure Briggs' vow that Piers is not one of his men. In the meantime, the family is keeping Piers' Black Orb in their manor for safekeeping.
Shortly afterward, Felix's traveling party of Adepts, including Jenna, Sheba, and Kraden, arrive at Madra searching for a ship they can use to eventually light Jupiter Lighthouse and Mars Lighthouse. They catch sight of a scene in the jail where Piers is hounded by a Madran local named Shin and accidentally lets anger get the better of him, casting the Frost Psynergy on a puddle underneath Shin to scare him off. Felix's party learns from this that Piers is an Adept who owns the ship that remains beached nearby, and so they head off east into Osenia to find Briggs and help the mayor beat the vow out of him that he doesn't know any Piers. Unknown to either Piers or Felix's sides, Alex, another Adept who recently split off from Felix's party to search for a ship himself, also watches the scene from hiding.
While Felix's side is away on their self-imposed errand, Madra suddenly gets attacked again, this time by warriors of the Kibombo tribe hailing from the heart of southern Gondowan. As if fate itself were unduly preoccupied with tormenting Piers, his Black Orb is the only valuable the raiders bother to make off with. As the Madrans recover from their second raid in a week, they receive the word confirming Piers' innocence and allow him to walk free. Piers is disheartened when he finds out what happened to his Black Orb and immediately sets off northwest for southern Gondowan, intent on taking the Orb back somehow. His journey takes him across Gondowan Cliffs and north through Naribwe until he reaches Kibombo Mountains, and he avoids being detected by the heavy Kibombo patrols and knocks watchmen unconscious whenever necessary.
When Piers finally reaches the home settlement of the Kibombo tribe, he discovers that their leader, Akafubu, is attempting to use the Black Orb in a ceremonial ritual where a mechanical statue, the Great Gabomba, is expected to "swallow" the orb into itself if it has judged Akafubu worthy of the title of "witch doctor." It is while Piers is watching the ceremony from the sidelines, trying to work out his next course of action, when he suddenly receives unexpected visitors: Felix's party, who have followed him all the way into Gondowan seeking to help him. Piers is seemingly unimpressed that these strangers came over to help him unbidden, but he suddenly takes far more interest in them when they demonstrate that they are Adepts.
Piers voluntarily introduces himself as a resident of Lemuria, and he appreciates Kraden's efforts to vouch for his truthfulness in front of Felix's incredulous party when he states he had never left Lemuria until recently. Though he simply portrays himself as having been driven out of his homeland by accident without disclosing his mission from the king, Piers explains how he needs to retrieve his Black Orb so that he can helm his ship and somehow make it back past the Sea of Time. Kraden recalls that his own master, Babi, often spoke of Lemuria as a location he wanted to rediscover so that he could reconnect with its Alchemy. When Kraden stats he wants to help Piers, the Lemurian states that he cannot permit it because Kraden would do so on behalf of Babi, whom the Lemurians view with disdain because he had stolen one of their ships and fled the isle with it. Kraden insists that he more specifically wants to see Lemuria to observe the full scope of Alchemy's power personally. The others agree with Kraden, and Piers accepts their offer to at least help him retrieve his Orb, even though he remains personally uncertain whether he can keep a promise to physically take them into Lemuria.
Now accompanying Felix's party as their fourth battle-ready member, Piers infiltrates the Gabomba statue with them, but he expresses pointed disinterest in fixing the broken components of the statue's mechanisms for Akafubu's benefit until he is told that letting the ceremony conclude successfully would effectively bring the orb straight to them inside. When the orb enters the statue but seemingly falls somewhere unreachable, Piers laments that he is now "lost forever" from his homeland. Then, when Akafubu enters the statue, finds the Adepts inside, finds out the Adepts had helped him get his title, and agrees to help return their orb to them, Piers admits to having him all wrong. Felix's group then escorts Piers all the way back to Indra's southeastern shore. Piers is happy to return to his ship with the Black Orb in hand, and he announces he has decided that he will take them to Lemuria like Kraden wanted, having appraised them all as truly good people who went out of their way to help a stranger. Before departing with Felix, Piers convinces his new allies to come with him back to Madra to let the mayor's family know he is all right.
This detour back to Madra serves to introduce Piers to several of Felix's concerns at once, however, when they briefly cross paths with the Mars Adept Karst. Felix, Jenna, and Sheba were originally part of a larger group of travelers led by the Mars Adepts Saturos and Menardi, who headed a journey across the world to ignite all four Elemental Lighthouses and restore Alchemy to the world. However, a rival party of Adepts led by one Isaac, who have sworn themselves to stopping the lighting of the Lighthouses, managed to slay the duo shortly after Venus Lighthouse was lit, and they now pursue Felix in hopes of stopping him from carrying out the remainder of Saturos' quest. From Felix and Jenna's perspective, they are only pursuing this quest to win the freedom of their parents, who are currently being kept captive in Saturos' home village of Prox far in the Northern Reaches. Karst, Menardi's younger sister, has recently departed Prox seeking to confirm her sister's safety; when she learns from Felix's side that Isaac had slain her, Karst forces Felix to agree to keep focused on the matter of Jupiter Lighthouse while letting her kill Isaac in revenge, should she happen across him.
Piers' mission
Once Piers and his new companions embark for the vast expanse of the Eastern Sea, Piers allows Felix to personally helm the ship. Felix finds that his goal of making it to the Western Sea is currently being prevented by natural obstacles blocking the only plausible naval route, which is a direct result of the tidal wave. Essentially locked within the Eastern Sea for the time being, the party's objective is now to gain the Psynergy power needed to eventually overcome that barrier. Felix also makes an effort to try to pass through the Sea of Time blindly, since Piers' experience with the tidal wave prevented him from working out the ideal way to get back into the Sea; indeed, the rushing currents and whirlpools make this come across as a nigh-insurmountable task as well.
Felix's party decide to visit every settlement and explore virtually every ancient ruin they come across throughout the Eastern Sea to give themselves both power and knowledge in preparation for a more focused effort to navigate the difficult Sea of Time. During these travels, Piers becomes the recipient of a special power in Aqua Rock called Parch, which grants him the unique ability to dissolve small bodies of standing water by evaporating them into steam. Piers also secretly charts the sizes and shapes of the landmasses per the terms of his mission. The party may or may not have found out by the start of their voyages that Isaac has recently found out about Piers and is desperately seeking him; Felix's side, of course, would be unaware that the now-150-year-old Babi had essentially recruited Isaac back at Tolbi to find a way into Lemuria on his behalf so that they could retrieve more Mystic Draught for him and prevent death from catching up to him.
At one point, Felix and his companions visit Champa itself and are suddenly approached by Alex, who puts on a show of affected discontentment while chiding them for having found themselves a new Mercury Adept to "replace" him with. Alex also claims that he was on the verge of "borrowing" Piers' boat to head out to sea himself when Felix and Piers came back from Kibombo (though how Alex would have been able to do this without the Black Orb to helm the ship with is never commented on). However, because of the finesse Felix showed in retrieving the Orb from the Kibombo without relying on intimidating the tribe with their Psynergy, Alex judges the party to be the best suited for the task of reaching and lighting Jupiter Lighthouse, and he tells this to his new allies he is traveling with: Karst from before, and her partner, the Mars Adept Agatio. Alex allows the Mars Adepts to threaten Felix's side with the promise that they will always be nearby to pressure Felix into prioritizing opening the way to Jupiter Lighthouse over treating his quest as a leisurely exploration venture.
As the trio leave, Alex also decides to notify Kraden that his master, Babi, has passed away at Tolbi; he apparently does this both to warn the party against risking sailing anywhere near Tolbi and to allow Kraden to consider himself free to stop putting himself at risk accompanying Felix. After all, Kraden had been ordered by Babi to study Alchemy and find Lemuria on his behalf. Though Kraden is understandably shaken, he stresses to his young companions that his participation in the quest has recently been motivated by more than just his original obligation to Lord Babi; Kraden admits to discussing with Felix a certain theory he has been forming about how the subject of Alchemy relates to what he has seen of the world thus far on his travels. Piers has a hunch that Kraden has picked up on the gradual waning of civilization that has transpired over the ages and promises that Kraden will be able to prove his unspoken theory once everyone reaches Lemuria.
Ultimately, Felix's party comes to discover via disconnected hearsay and folklore that the tidal wave was set off by a sea monster lurking within the Sea of Time named Poseidon, which is impervious to any form of assault other than from the ancient Trident of Ankohl. Felix's quest across the Eastern Sea takes him to three shrines that each holds a prong of this weapon, and they are able to convince the leader of Champa, Obaba, to reforge it with her ancient forge of Ankohl — but only after they put up with another scuffle between them and her grandson, Briggs. Armed with a weapon that is described as allowing its wielder not to fear any monster from the sea, as well as special navigational knowledge from ancient songs at the Osenian village of Yallam, Felix and Piers sail into the Sea of Time and surmount the complex maze of rocks and currents surrounding it. They soon come face-to-face with Poseidon, and Piers fights fiercely alongside his friends and manages to put the beast down with the help of the Trident.
Felix's party docks inside Lemuria, and their party — which the Lemurians would have reason to be wary of because of how they were powerful enough to slay Poseidon — is only allowed by the outside guards to step into the city thanks to Piers' promises to keep a close eye on them and prevent them from causing any problems. Piers and the party cannot enter the palace yet because King Hydros is occupied with a debate with Lord Conservato, so he shows them around the city and explains how the king tells of a time when Lemuria was a far grander and livelier city. Piers surprises Kraden by revealing that the king believes that the recent decay is an outcome of Alchemy's absence. He then brings his friends to his uncle's house, where he unfortunately learns that his mother has since passed away from illness and shock brought upon by Piers' sudden absence. Piers rushes to the cemetery and spends some time silently mourning in front of her gravestone.
Felix and his other companions, in the meantime, learn from Piers' uncle for the first time that Piers was sent on a mission to depart Lemuria on purpose and explore the world. Both the uncle and Lunpa are surprised to learn that Piers told them nothing about this mission, and Felix and Jenna explain that they are only seeking to light the Lighthouses so that they can win the freedom of their parents being held in far-away lands. Lunpa reveals to Kraden that the scholar's theory that the degradation and eventual vanishing of all the great civilizations of old correlated with the sealing of Alchemy's power is also the theory shared between Hydros, Lunpa, and Piers. That said, Lunpa brings Felix and Kraden to an audience with King Hydros in his palace to discuss an even more dire form of the degradation that has followed in the seal's wake, and Piers rejoins Hydros in his chamber.
Piers introduces his traveling companions, and Hydros admits to having violated the senate's directives and sent Piers out to sea to confirm his theory that all civilizations are on a path to destruction. Hydros confesses he would only have refrained from sending Piers had he anticipated that Poseidon would emerge at that moment and set off a tidal wave that would drive Piers out of Lemuria so chaotically. Hydros then shows a comparison between the map of the ancient world and Lunpa's own map, and Piers confirms that he found out during his travels that the world's continents have shrunk even more since Lunpa's map was made a century ago. This leads to the horrifying conclusion that Weyard is physically crumbling away because it has been cut off from the elemental power that sustains it by the long-dormant Elemental Lighthouses, and it will eventually die if the final two Lighthouses are not reignited.
Conservato emphatically objects to these observations as "lies" and exclaims that they are risking subjecting the world to great and terrible danger, which he believes to be a foregone conclusion. Despite not being able to say for sure that this will not come to pass, Hydros announces his intent to send Piers back out with Felix to light the Jupiter and Mars Beacons, proclaiming that he cannot personally stand by and consign Weyard to its slow but inevitable fate otherwise. Thus, Conservato warns that the senate's laws will see to it that Piers will be banished from Lemuria forever once he leaves. Hydros sees Piers and the rest of Felix's party off as they depart Lemuria with a powerful grinding Psynergy Lunpa once found during his travels, which will allow them to breach the obstruction at Gondowan Cliffs and enter the Western Sea. Though Felix resumes his quest with the knowledge that his and Jenna's quest to light the Lighthouses is more important than they could have ever suspected, the party allows itself some brief levity when they try to pry Piers' real age out of him.
The final beacons
Piers' role in the development of the remaining plot in Golden Sun: The Lost Age largely amounts to him serving as part of the muscle that Felix relies on in order to facilitate in the remainder of his own quest. Their party soon makes an effort to scale Jupiter Lighthouse, only to find that Isaac's pursuing party has fallen into a trap and ambush set up by Karst and Agatio; Piers is heard remarking that he is disgusted that Karst would forge an advantage against Isaac so dishonorably. Felix's side steps in to pressure the Mars Adepts out of killing Isaac and into agreeing to accompany Felix to the aerie so they can light the Jupiter beacon together. Piers logically brings up that they cannot trust Karst and joins Felix in his walk up to the aerie, and Piers soon beholds the astoundingly spectacular formation of the Jupiter Beacon.
Just as Piers feared, Karst and Agatio soon attempt to put Felix to death in retribution for his perceived betrayal of the agreement he had previously made with Karst, and Piers' involvement gives himself and Felix enough time for Jenna and Sheba to come by and join in on the fierce battle. Whether Felix's side manages to beat them down or they get defeated and nearly brought to death's door, Alex forces the Mars Adepts to escape Jupiter Lighthouse with him, leaving Felix's side and Isaac's party to have to come to an agreement to engage with each other more diplomatically in the nearby village of Contigo.
The meeting between the two parties reveals to Isaac's side that Felix was originally laboring to earn the freedom of both his own parents and Isaac's father up north at Prox. Furthermore, Piers' recounting of what Hydros had said about the world's perpetual shrinking being driven by the dormant Lighthouse beacons plays a role in convincing Isaac that his party must support Felix's remaining quest to light the final Beacon. The two parties sort out their differences and become one eight-Adept party, and Piers' own Lemurian ship incidentally gets a pair of Psynergy-powered wing-shaped attachments (called the Wings of Anemos) installed onto it because of a local prophecy that foretold that Piers' ship would be used to deliver the world's saviors to the conclusion of their quest.
Using these Psynergy-powered wings to give their ship the powers of limited flight, the eight Adepts, along with Kraden, travel north and pass through Prox along their way toward Mars Lighthouse. There, it is found that Prox had desperately sent out its strongest warriors to light the Elemental Lighthouses because Gaia Falls, the edge of the world, is eroding Weyard at its diameter and threatens to plunge both Prox and Mars Lighthouse into the void. The Adepts scale Mars Lighthouse to its aerie, but they are prevented from igniting its Beacon by the Wise One, the entity that originally tasked Isaac with putting a stop to Saturos and Felix's quest. The eight Adepts explain that they have found out the world needs Alchemy to be released despite the destruction mankind itself could plausibly wreak with it, and they hold firm even after the Wise One notifies them that Alex is planning to gain ultimate power from the "Golden Sun" process that will take place once the final beacon is lit. He therefore summons a gigantic three-headed dragon, and Piers proclaims that he accepts the Wise One's challenge and valiantly joins the Adepts in their final battle.
The Adepts' victory over this obstacle transitions into grief and outrage when it is revealed that the Wise One deceived them into slaying a transformed amalgam of the parents they hoped to reunite with at Prox, and they cannot be revived even after Piers and Mia pour their Psynergy reserves into healing them. Reacting to Jenna's grief in particular, Piers calls out to the empty sky to lecture to the unseen Wise One that the entity does not understand the damage done to a child who has learned she has destroyed her own parents. Isaac, however, convinces everyone that they should accept that they took on this sacrifice on behalf of the world and all of its peoples, who will ultimately be saved by Alchemy's release. As the Adepts ignite the Mars Beacon, Piers remarks that he never imagined that being driven far off course by the tidal wave would put him a position where his actions would come to help save the world.
As the Golden Sun event is produced between all four Lighthouses simultaneously, everyone's bodies are bathed in an eruption of energy from the Mars Beacon, which miraculously revives the parents just enough that the Adepts bring them back out of the tower and to the safety of Prox. This eventually leads Kraden to speculate that the Wise One had intended for the parents to be saved in this manner, and that the being was actually testing their resolve and willingness to accept sacrifice in the name of the greater good. The eight Adepts are considered to have shown that they can accept the burden of guiding the world through a new age of strife where Alchemy's power reigns supreme.
In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
The sudden release of Alchemy into the world and the newly freed-up flow of elemental power within the world's living being would bring both years of terrible natural disasters and decades of a new and violent geopolitical reality for Weyard's peoples. Piers gains his share of simultaneous fame and infamy for his participation in a quest that only a portion of the world's populace are willing to agree was necessary to save the world from the void. The rest of the populace blame these eight "Warriors of Vale", as they come to be called, for bringing about a new age of chaos and conflict. This is not to say that these conflicting perspectives overshadow Piers' other particular achievements, though; he also becomes renowned across the world as the legendary sailor who passed through the Sea of Time, leading mentions of him to often use the name "Captain Piers" to refer to him.
To those who have observed him over the thirty years that elapsed since the Golden Sun event, Piers has managed to appear as though he only aged around ten years throughout that time. This is an outcome of the energy his party absorbed at Mars Lighthouse, which has given all of his other companions abnormally slowed rates of aging. The fact he appears even this much older to begin with still indicates that he has never had access to the life-extending springwaters of Lemuria in that time, lending credence to the idea that Piers has remained banished from Lemuria ever since the Golden Sun quest concluded.
By the time the events of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn begin, Captain Piers is described as spending his days investigating mysterious occurrences as he sails Weyard's oceans. He keeps in contact with Kraden by sending and receiving letters delivered via a carrier pigeon. While he does not make an on-screen appearance throughout Dark Dawn, he does a fair amount from the sidelines to influence how the later stages of the game's plot play out.
Piers is notified by a letter sent from Kraden that he and one of his pupils, Nowell, are currently stranded outside the closed borders of Bilibin in northwestern Angara, having been separated from several of the Warriors of Vale's children by agents of a sinister nation calling itself Tuaparang. Kraden had promised these young Adepts, led by Isaac's son Matthew, that he would meet back up with them in the northeastern Angaran territory of Morgal to help them run an errand handed down by Isaac.
Through unknown circumstances, Piers also receives a message from Briggs, the now-elderly pirate who considers Piers to be on good terms with him. He explains that the leader of the beastmen who have claimed Morgal as their domain, Volechek, has captured his son, Eoleo, and scheduled his public execution to take place at the beastman capital city of Belinsk come the next full moon. Since Eoleo cannot be rescued from Belinsk's fortified castle through a frontal assault, Piers advises Briggs to seek out the assistance of both Matthew's traveling party and Kraden. Piers has apparently heard the tale of Isaac's particular exploit where he had used Hermes' Water from Mercury Lighthouse to cure a talking tree, named Tret, deep in Kolima Forest, and he is aware that Kolima Forest is currently suffering from a supernatural affliction of a different sort. Piers gives Briggs a vial of Hermes' Water so that it can be given to Matthew, whom Briggs can ask to seek out Tret for information on how Belinsk's castle can be infiltrated.
Matthew's party lifts Kolima Forest's curse with the Hermes' Water and receives information from Tret both regarding how Belinsk Castle can be infiltrated from inside the ruins underneath Belinsk and how Matthew can finish off his errand for Isaac at nearby Talon Peak. Having critically influenced how Matthew's journey in Morgal plays out at this stage, Piers then elects to repair Briggs' extremely aged sailing ship at Port Rago through some unexplained method while none of the repairmen handling the ship are looking. The ship ends up refitted with several defining features of Lemurian ships, including the ability to be propelled forward with Psynergy. It is not known whether Piers had picked up Kraden and Nowell before or after this incident, but he soon drops Kraden back off so that the scholar can meet back up with Matthew in Belinsk. Nowell, however, chooses to stay on board with Piers, somehow having spontaneously fallen in love with him; Piers' perspective on this development is not indicated to the player in any way, though he apparently allows Nowell to stay on board with him.
The information Matthew obtained from his time speaking with Tret leads to his party entering and being trapped within the ancient Belinsk Ruins, but he is unable to stop his Tuaparang enemies from activating an ancient machine and initiating the horrific Grave Eclipse phenomenon that causes shadowy monsters to emerge across most of Angara and massacre many people across the continent. Matthew's party only manages to escape the darkened dome comprising the phenomenon with the help of Briggs' refitted ship, with Briggs himself dying during the escape. Matthew and his companions, Eoleo included, proceed to look for a way to put a stop to the Eclipse as soon as possible.
Piers and Nowell manage to sail away from the Eclipse as well. Piers somehow anticipates that Matthew will need free access to the port city of Tonfon, the capital of Sana at Angara's southeastern edge. Because the current emperor, Unan, had closed Tonfon's borders to prevent news of the previous emperor's death, Piers writes him a letter instructing him to allow Matthew in and welcome him as the one who labors to put a stop to the Eclipse.
Virtually nothing else about Piers and Nowell's subsequent movements in the game are known, though it is quite possible that Piers is the one who sails to Yamata City at the island of Nihan and brings Prince Takeru on board so that Takeru can supposedly set out to help Isaac after his sister Himi had a grave premonition about him. The hint that Takeru departed Yamata City with Piers in particular comes from a local child who recalls that the prince "left on a huge, neat-looking ship."
In another vague conclusion that can be gleaned from the text, the conversation Kraden has with Rief at Tonfon's port regarding Nowell shoving off with Piers implies that they are apparently sailing to a place that is perilous in its own right, separate from the ongoing calamity that is the eclipse. Rief remarks that Nowell is "lucky" for being able to escape the vicinity of the eclipse with Piers, but Kraden cryptically warns with a blank stare that Rief might "eventually" view Nowell to be quite the opposite of "lucky." When Rief asks concernedly where Nowell and Piers are sailing to, Kraden brushes the question off by saying it does no good to stand idly reflecting on every worry when they need to get a move-on with their quest.
Neither Piers, Nowell, nor Takeru are seen on screen even as Matthew's side explores the Eastern Sea and uses the opportunity granted by Piers to scale the Endless Wall past Tonfon, reach Apollo Sanctum at Angara's highest peak, and put a decisive end to the Eclipse.
Trivia
- Piers is the only Mercury Adept in any of the games who is decisively portrayed as a warrior, since the third game's Amiti, though more martially inclined than the mage-like Rief, still does not equip heavy gear.
- A bookshelf in Lemuria Palace features a book titled "The Great Lemurian People", and the excerpt inside it shown in the game reads as follows: "The chosen master of water will be a native son of Lemuria." This most likely refers to Piers, though it is unknown whether this "master of water" designation plays into Piers' ability to receive the water-dissolving Parch Psynergy from a tablet inside Aqua Rock that addresses its recipient as "Wielder of water's might".
- Though Conservato tells Piers that he will be banished once he leaves, the player is free to return to Lemuria as many times as desired throughout the rest of the game. While this obviously allows for the important Lucky Medal Fountain at Lemuria to continue being used, an in-universe justification for this can be inferred: The "raucous caucus" described as taking place in the senate building has to finish first before the law finalizes Piers' banishment, and it takes the senators very long to go through this procedure.
- Piers plays what could be seen as an unexpectedly significant role in the events of Dark Dawn despite not being the main character of The Lost Age. He is mentioned on multiple occasions from characters like Briggs and Kraden, who knew Piers from the events of the previous game, and his background roles are discussed by Matthew's own party. He is also mentioned by the locals living at Port Rago. In contrast, Jenna is only ever mentioned once (by Briggs), Felix is mentioned by Garet, Karis, and individuals living in Yamata City, and Sheba is never mentioned by NPCs at all, only making appearances in the third and fourth books of the Sun Saga feature.
- When Felix's party first meets Piers at Kibombo during Akafubu's ritual, the starting conversation they have talks about how the two sides saw each other previously in Madra's jail. Since that cutscene is mandatory to proceed beyond Madra, it is impossible for players playing normally to see a fully coded and written alternative version of the starting conversation that has the characters acting as if they had never seen each other before. Other than a hacking device, the only way to see this conversation in-game would be through a very tricky and precise application of the Retreat glitch to pass west of Gondowan Cliffs without the Scoop Psynergy. The perhaps-unintentionally "dummied-out" conversation plays out as follows:
- Piers: "Wh-Who are you?!? What... What are your intentions?"
- Sheba: "He seems to believe we are enemies..."
- Jenna: "I hope he doesn't think we're with the Kibombo."
- Piers: "I must admit, you don't look much like Kibombo... But that begs the question, if you're not Kibombo, then who are you, and why have you come here?"
- Kraden: "They are...warriors. But how did you get in here?"
- Piers: "Why are these warriors in a place like this?"
- Sheba: "I'm not sure how to answer that..."
- Jenna: "Actually, we've been looking for a boat... We kinda need one."
- Piers: "You're looking for a boat... in the middle of the continent? That seems like a bad idea."
- Sheba: (Hops twice) "Hey, this wasn't exactly our first choice, you know?"
- Jenna: "A tidal wave destroyed all the boats in the coastal towns."
- Piers: "You're asking me to believe rather a lot, don't you think?"
- Akafubu: (Offscreen, to the crowd) "SILENCE! I shall now present our jewel to the Great Gabomba!" (The rest of the conversation between Piers and the other Adepts plays out as it does in the normal game.)
- Given that the Scoop Psynergy is also needed to enter the Gabomba Statue and eventually bring Piers back to Madra, bringing Piers back to "meet himself" in Madra's jail is impossible without the use of a hacking device. If hacking is used, the player will find that the puddle in the scene cannot be turned into a pillar with the party's own Frost Psynergy.
Quotes
| In Golden Sun: The Lost Age |
|
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Encyclopedia entry for Piers:
- This Water Adept from the remote civilization of Lemuria joined Felix's party in his quest to ignite the lighthouses.
- He now sails the world in his ancient ship, investigating mysterious phenomena.
In fan circles
Piers' unique design and potential for being someone centuries old in a twenty-something's body makes him a character of interest to fan fiction writers, though the severe mismatch between his age and the rest of the playable Adepts in the series tends to stymie interest in shipping fan fiction that pairs him romantically with much younger females. This holds true even after Dark Dawn explicitly stated Nowell, a daughter of one of his seven companions, had fallen in love with him at first sight; since there is nothing to indicate this relationship isn't one-sided, shipping fanfics about these two (called "Sailingshipping") tend to portray Piers as reluctant to play along.
In the earlier days of the series and its fandom, many fans expressed a preference for his original Japanese name, "Picard." Some fans who were willing to turn this into a full-blown movement categorized themselves under the title "Obsessors of a Blue-Haired Lemurian," or OBHL for short, and a common meme phrase was the rallying cry "POW POW PICARD!" Since then, fan opinion of Piers' localized name has mellowed almost completely, though some still use it as the launching point for "Captain Picard" jokes referencing the famous Star Trek character (and, incidentally, the starting five notes of the second game's sailing theme sound oddly similar to the classic Star Trek theme).
| Main characters in the Golden Sun series | |
|---|---|
| Playable Characters | |
| Golden Sun | Isaac Garet Ivan Mia
|
| The Lost Age | Felix Jenna Sheba Piers
|
| Dark Dawn | Matthew Karis Tyrell Rief Amiti Sveta Eoleo Himi
|
| Non-Player Characters | |
| Golden Sun & The Lost Age |
Agatio Alex  Babi Briggs Dodonpa Dora Feizhi Hama Hammet Hydros Karst Kraden Kyle Menardi Moapa Puelle Saturos Susa The Wise One Tret
|
| Dark Dawn | Arcanus Baghi  Blados Bogho Chalis High Empyror Hou Zan King Wo Laurel Nowell Paithos Ryu Kou Unan Vande Volechek
|
