Shaman Village

Shaman Village must be reached by traversing Shaman Village Cave, whose entrance lies at the north end of Hesperia's large lake.

Shaman Village (シャーマン村) is a settlement featured in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Located among the mountains in the northwestern island continent of Hesperia, it can only be reached by passing through Shaman Village Cave near the lake in the center of the continent. Its society is isolated from the outside world, its villagers untrustworthy of outsiders other than those from Contigo, the most prominent settlement in the neighboring island continent of Atteka far to the south.

Long ago, champions from Shaman and Contigo brokered peace between their societies by exchanging their respective cultural treasures for mutual safekeeping. Contigo would hold onto the Shaman's Rod, and Shaman Village would retain the Hover Jade, which grants the Jupiter-aligned power of Hover that is representative of Contigo's ancient Anemos heritage. As is understood by the current-day chief of the village, Moapa, Shaman Village is charged to grant the stone to whomever from Contigo returns the Rod to them.

In The Lost Age, the Hover Psynergy is required to solve the ancient riddles of Jupiter Lighthouse on Atteka, which is why Saturos makes finding the Shaman's Rod such a high priority throughout his quest in the first Golden Sun to light all of the Elemental Lighthouses. Thanks to his efforts, Felix's party spends the entire game retaining the Rod until they start exploring the Western Sea. When they present the Shaman's Rod to Moapa and show off Sheba as a potentially qualifying Jupiter Adept, they find they must compete against Moapa in Trial Road, a dungeon-like mountain trail connected to the village, and defeat him in battle before they can inherit the Hover Jade.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

Several tents and buildings are closed off, and the villagers won't talk to the party, until Trial Road is completed off the north end of the area.

When the party sails south through Gondowan Cliffs between Gondowan and Indra to reach the Western Sea, the three settlements strewn across it become functionally accessible all at once. There is little point to visiting Loho at the northwest coast of Angara at the moment (other than to buy Vials), but the player might want to detour into the southwestern continent of Atteka and sail into Atteka Inlet to collect supplemental gear from the Lucky Wheels minigame at the village of Contigo. Jupiter Lighthouse, which will eventually become your party's next primary dungeon to play through, cannot currently be entered with your available utility Psynergy; the Psynergy you need can only be earned during a visit to the third village in the Western Sea, Shaman Village.

Shaman Village lies enclosed within a ring of mountains in the heart of Hesperia, the northwestern continent. To reach it, sail into the large, blue lake just southwest of this ring (using any of the three rivers it connects to, two of which run northwest and one of which runs directly south from the lake), then disembark around the north end of the lake right where a cave icon is located. This is Shaman Village Cave, a small cave that connects to another cave icon within the ring of mountains and serves as a two-way route between Shaman Village and the outside world. While you cannot solve the optional puzzle yet to reach the Mercury Djinni, dropping an earth pillar onto an indentation in the ground opens up a shortcut that makes traversing between the two exits shorter in both directions. Shaman Village's icon is not far from the cave's northeast cave icon.

Initial visit

At present, most buildings are closed, and every villager standing outside simply says "... ..." whenever Felix tries to talk to them; you can only extract information from them using Mind Read, which reveals that a law handed down by the village chieftain forbids them from talking to untrustworthy outsiders other than those from Contigo. You can still engage the services of the Great Healer at the sanctum as normal, and "talking" to the innkeeper from below his counter will prompt him to hold up a sign explaining that you can still use the inn service. On the other hand, you cannot enter the tent containing the local vendor, so you would have to detour all the way to Loho or Contigo to sell off items taking up inventory space.

After showing Moapa the Shaman's Rod from your inventory, have Sheba cast Whirlwind on this stone to clear the way to Trial Road.

You can go out of the inn's bottom-floor exit and hop up to a sapling just to the upper left of the building, cast Growth on it to turn it into a vine ladder, and climb it to reach the Spirit Gloves in the chest just left of the chief's residence.

When you try to enter the front door of the chief's residence, he and two warriors will walk out to meet you face to face. Introducing himself as Moapa, he will claim that he will only listen to what you have to say for a short time. Once you use the Shaman's Rod in front of Moapa, a cutscene will take place in which they explain that they would give back Contigo's ancestral treasure, the Hover Jade, to whoever gives back the rod, Shaman Village's own treasure. You will have to follow Moapa north from the village and cast Whirlwind (or Gale) on the large, purple whirlwind stone to clear away the sand blocking the way to Trial Road, thus earning the right to compete against Moapa for ownership of the Hover Jade.

Before beginning Trial Road, you can climb up the wall ladder to the upper left to reach an elevated chest containing one of the game's five Hard Nuts. Trial Road itself is a fairly complex series of puzzle rooms, not dissimilar to the Colosso Finals from the first Golden Sun, in which you will be "racing" Moapa as he solves his way through his course running parallel to yours. You must temporarily give up your equipped gear to empty chests to progress to the next room on your course, and whichever side reaches a door last will have to give up a second piece of gear.

Staying consistently ahead of Moapa while reaching the ending doorways of all four rooms on your chosen course ensures you only have to temporarily unequip four pieces of gear while forcing Moapa and his two warriors to incur more penalties to their Defense stats. This makes the eventual boss battle with Moapa and his two "Knights" at the summit of Trial Road easier to complete; regardless, you will earn the Hover Jade when you win, and you can make unlimited attempts at Trial Road. (You may want to make use of Trial Road's infamous duplication exploit to give yourself the privilege to buy copies of a lot of valuable items at other settlements' Artifacts menus, such as otherwise-limited Lucky Medals, before winning Trial Road once and permanently disabling the "race" with Moapa.)

Post-Trial Road

Reaching the Jupiter Djinni Aroma requires dropping the earth pillar into the left gap by casting Move from south of it, then heading through Moapa's residence.

After defeating Moapa, the party will reawaken in the inn, and the local populace will become more talkative and all previously closed buildings can now be entered. Though this includes the general store in the left tent, which adds several artifacts to the Artifacts menu, the Silver Blade and Crystal Rod among them ought to be far behind the weapons your party should be holding; only the Magical Cassock has an opportunity to be viable, based on what you might have missed for your caster-style Adepts up to this point. You can talk with the Fortune Teller in the screen east of the village to be given the hint that your next general destination is Jupiter Lighthouse to the south, and you can collect one of the game's five Lucky Peppers in the right jar inside his tent.

When you enter the beige structure built into the east cliffs in the main village screen, you can pick up one of the game's limited Lucky Medals in the jar on its second-floor balcony. Walk east along the cliff to be able to remotely Move the earth pillar near the fortune teller's tent left so that it completes a path to the visible Jupiter Djinni. Then, go downstairs inside Moapa's residence and cast Lash on the coiled rope back outside to be able to climb east, and follow the elevated pathway above the sanctum's entrance east into the fortune teller's screen, where you can hop across the earth pillar you had dropped to reach the Jupiter Djinni, Aroma.

You can explore both paths at Trial Road to collect various restorative items in the chests you likely would have ignored while competing against Moapa. At the summit screen, you can cast your new Hover Psynergy on the purple circular tile at the glowing bird-shaped pattern to "walk along the air" to reach a cave, but a boulder prevents you from progressing further. You would want to come back here once your party's roster has expanded following Jupiter Lighthouse because you will have acquired the first game's Lift Psynergy through that event, which allows you to elevate the boulder. You can get another Lucky Pepper and the Jupiter Djinni Gasp in an enclosed outdoor screen.

Vendors

Shaman Village's inn lies very close to the village's south entrance, charging 20 coins per party member (amounting to 80 coins for Felix's party by default and 160 coins after the party's roster doubles in number). The inn and the northeast sanctum are both open to you even while the general store tent just right of the inn's beige building remains closed and the NPCs respond to you with silence; the vendor only becomes available after clearing Trial Road for the first time.

General Store
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Nut	Consumable Item	200	Restores 200 HP to one Adept
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Removes Stun, Sleep, and Delusion from one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporarily lowers monster encounter rate
Artifacts
Silver Blade	Long Sword	12000	Attack +108, Unleashes Aqua Sock
Crystal Rod	Staff	13400	Attack +106, Unleashes Drown
Magical Cassock	Robe	9000	Defense +39, PP recovery +2
Potion	Consumable Item	1000	Restores all HP to one Adept
Psy Crystal	Consumable Item	1500	Restores all PP to one Adept

Collectibles

• Hard Nut: Found in the elevated chest near the entrance to Trial Road.
• Spirit Gloves: Found in the chest at the northwest corner of the main village area, left of Moapa's residence. It is reached by walking out of the inn's lower-floor doorway and casting Growth on a sapling to turn it into a vine ladder.
• Elixir: Found inside the white jar in the sole lower-floor bedroom in the inn.
• Weasel's Claw: Found inside the right of the pair of barrels in the lower-floor bedroom of Moapa's residence. (This only becomes accessible once you show the Shaman's Rod to Moapa to get him to walk to Trial Road.)

The following items become accessible once you have won Trial Road by defeating Moapa at its summit:

• Aroma: Resting on a cliff to the upper right of the fortune teller's tent. You must first Move the earth pillar left of it to drop it into the gap to its left; this can only be reached from the bottom by entering the right, beige building in the main village area and walking right from its balcony. The route that allows you to hop east across this earth pillar to the Djinni begins by exiting the lower-floor door of Moapa's residence and casting Lash on the coiled rope.
• Lucky Medal: Found inside the closed jar outside the upper-floor door of the beige building at the right side of the main village screen.
• Lucky Pepper: Found inside the right jar in the fortune teller's tent.

The above does not encompass various collectable restoratives strewn across the various stages of Trial Road, which can be collected at your leisure after clearing the competition with Moapa the first time. Furthermore, in the secret area near the peak of Trial Road that requires both Hover and Lift to reach, you can collect another Lucky Pepper and another Jupiter Djinni, Gasp.

History

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The people of Shaman's Village have a long-standing dislike of all outsiders (although the village has an open inn). This is, according to the inhabitants of Hesperia Settlement due to a brutal massacre the people of Shaman's Village suffered at the hands of foreigners long ago. The only outsiders they trust are their allies of Atteka, namely the people of Contigo.

After completing Trial Road, the party can find chief Moapa in his residence and offer to tell him their names for him to remember.

The reason for this is that long ago, the two continents of Atteka and Hesperia were engaged in a lengthy war. Eventually, to resolve this great conflict, two heroes were chosen to represent their respective continents. Atteka chose Yegelos while Hesperia sent Hoabna. These two dueled each other atop the mountain that is home to the current-day Trial Road, with Hoabna emerging as the victor. Eventually, the two founded a great lasting peace, and as a sign of mutual friendship, the respective nation's two precious treasures, the Shaman's Rod and Hover Jade, were exchanged. Along with this, a legend was formed, saying that whoever returned the Shaman's Rod to Hesperia would be a new hero.

Eventually, as time passed, the foresight of the Jupiter Adepts of Contigo led to the Shaman's Rod being passed on to the merchant, Hammet, and eventually to Ivan. Hammet was unable to find Shaman's Village, and was thus forced to leave the task of returning the Rod to Isaac's group. They fail in this task, however, as the Rod is taken from them atop Venus Lighthouse, where it falls into the hands of another Jupiter Adept, Sheba. Eventually, after traversing much of Weyard, Felix's party arrive in Shaman's Village with the Rod and fulfill the legend, but only after proving their worth in a duel against Moapa, the current-day Shaman Village chief, atop Trial Road, as Hoabna and Yegelos had once done.

Trivia

• Shaman Village is perhaps the only location in either GBA title that is presented as an inherently "safe" settlement while allowing the use of the Retreat Psynergy (which brings you either to the south entrance or the entrances into Trial Road). This is most likely a development oversight, as it normally can only be used in areas where random encounters can occur. In a possibly related matter, Djinn in recovery mode will recover while walking in Shaman village, which also normally happens only in monster-filled areas.
• When the Shaman's Rod is presented to Moapa, he and his Knights explain how their ancestor, Hoabna, gifted it to Yegelos in exchange for safekeeping Contigo's Hover Jade, and that Shaman Village has been keeping the Jade in anticipation of someone from Contigo bringing back the lost Rod to them. However, a localization error causes the left Knight's portion of the lecture to state that it was Yegelos who gifted the Shaman's Rod to Hoabna in the ancient past, which contradicts the foregoing and preceding statements by other characters.

Cultural references

Hesperia geographically correlates with North America, and Shaman Village's tents and culture accordingly resemble Native American tribes that existed prior to European colonization. In particular, the architectural style of the beige, blocky structures built separately from the tents draws inspiration from Pueblo settlements that existed in what is now the southwestern United States. The Japanese version's script holds that Shaman Village's ancestors were called the Navajo, which in the real world is one of the tribes indigenous to the same general southwestern area.