Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn!
Something Iâve been thinking about often in regards to this series has to do with the geography of Weyard. Namely, how the cities and locations from ALL the games line up with each other, especially the ancient civilizations in Dark Dawn that didnât make an appearance in previous games and certain locations from the first two games that are suspiciously absent in Dark Dawn.
Well, I finally decided to make an attempt at figuring this out. Here we have the official Dark Dawn map.
And here is a composite image I created from the maps for The Broken Seal and The Lost Age since TLAâs map has labels covering the middle part of Angara and lacked several locations present in the first game.
Here is Dark Dawnâs map with some overlays that will help when talking about how the land shifted - of note are the areas circled in white, which are places in Angara that have evidence of being the same exact location (the Mt. Aleph crater, Kolima Forest, and Champa) and the area circled in yellow is Apollo Sanctum: located on the highest mountain in Angara.
Here, I created the same overlay on the Old Angara.
Here are what the overlay colors represent:
pale cyan: Imil, Bilibin, and other northern regions
pale orange: Goma Plateau
greyish green:Â Kalay region, plus Gondowan and Idejima
pale green: Kolima Forest
pinkish orange: Saha Area/Displaced Marshlands
pink and magenta: Morgal region (split up to make the shapes more clear)
dark blue: Khiren Mountains
blue: Altin region
yellow: Lamakan Desert region
orange: Harapa region
red: Champa region
bright green: Mogall Forest
The two biggest changes appear to be that the Lamakan Desert region stretched and moved a LOT and Kolima Forest became a peninsula. In Dark Dawnâs time the Goma Range has suddenly formed a gap that wasnât there before - more evidence of the continent stretching.Â
Based on the shape of the coastline and how the mountains fall, itâs highly likely that the entire Mogall Forest area is gone in Dark Dawnâs map, and I also think itâs very likely that Xian and Tonfon are in the same general location and may even be the same city - just rebuilt and renamed when it suddenly became a seaside location or in the subsequent wars that happened in this area.
One theory of mine is that the tidal wave that destroyed Izumo was caused by Mogall Forest sinking, as this would be a logical repercussion of such a large displacement of land and water. It could also be connected to the shifts that caused Indra and Osenia to be on a different âshelf.â
Somehow, until doing wiki reading while researching individual towns, I didnât remember that the Kolima Forest supposedly âmigratedâ but I wonder if thatâs just how the people of Weyard explain plate tectonics they donât understand. The earthquakes and such still couldâve injured Tret and Laurel - and the marshlands that were once here could still have been displaced by the shifting. Similarly, the Harapa region and Khiren Mountains are said to have "risen up" but this could also mean the mountains simply grew taller and revealed long-buried ruins in the process.
Anyway, more specifics for individual locations follow!
LOCATIONS FROM THE OLD GAMES:
Vale and Mt. Aleph: destroyed, but the people survived and relocated.
Vault: likely destroyed and rebuilt as Carverâs Camp and Lumberyard.
Bilibin: a major power in Dark Dawnâs time, possibly suffered less damage than nearby areas if the Goma Range protected it.
Kolima: probably suffered earthquakes during the continental shifting on top of the weird fallout that caused people to turn into beastmen.
Imil: survived and is doing fine.
Xian: possibly destroyed and rebuilt or otherwise absorbed into Tonfon. The name change could also have to do with the power shifts caused by the various wars and conflicts that have happened in this area. Itâs also possible that Xian was destroyed or conquered during one of these conflicts even if it survived the Golden Sun event and fallout.
Altin: the mines probably collapsed due to all the seismic activity; the presence of a lake in what I believe is the general vicinity of Altin also makes me think it may have flooded again as well (survivors couldâve moved to nearby Kaocho or other towns.)
Kalay: survived and is prospering - probably the capitol of the country of Kalay in Dark Dawnâs time. However, the region around it seems to have become more of a desert than it was in the past and there is a new lake where there was previously a mass of land.
Tolbi: unknown, probably survived but also likely had a lot of political unrest and turmoil after Babiâs death.
Lunpa: suspiciously absent from Dark Dawn; probably destroyed by either the Golden Sun event or fallout from it. The survivors probably moved to other nearby settlements.
Suhalla: unknown, but the region it was located appears intact so itâs probably still there.
Lalivero: unknown, but thereâs a new forest visible in the region between Babiâs Lighthouse and Venus Lighthouse - if these areas survived, the lands around them have changed considerably. (Iâd assume the forestâs growth can be attributed to the influx of Venus power from the lighthouse.)
Loho: unknown, probably survived or was at least rebuilt.
Champa: survived and still a pirate nation as of Dark Dawnâs time.
Lemuria: survived but has definitely shifted location - an interesting possibility @unluckyadeptâ suggested is that it sank much like Atlantis, which is somewhat supported by NPC dialogue in-game mentioning âan advanced civilizationâ that sank during the GS event. Either way, other dialogue seems to indicate that the people of Lemuria opened up trade with the outside world after TLA, so their civilization must also still exist. Maybe theyâre just underwater now?
Izumo: destroyed by a tidal wave, citizens relocated to Yamata. Everyone survived because of Lady Uzumeâs foresight ability.
Other settlements from The Lost Age: since they arenât visited or even mentioned in Dark Dawn, we donât know much. Gondowan and Idejima can be seen on the map, but there are no visible cities or named areas. The seas and islands seem to have shifted around quite a lot, though. (With Crossbone Isle appearing in an entirely new location for some reason.) I also assume that with psynergy restored, regions near other areas of influence (such as the four elemental rocks) also are receiving more energy than they were prior to the Golden Sun.
I could do a separate meta on beastmen in general but one headcanon I have is that what happened to everyone in the Morgal region is directly related to the transformations that happen to the people of Garoh, whether through genetics or lunar influence or both!
Since the transformations of Garohâs elders become permanent after theyâre exposed to the high levels of psynergy present at Airâs Rock, I have a feeling this is the same thing happened to all the people in this part of Angara. And if this is the case, itâs possible everyone in Garoh became permanently transformed due to the Golden Sun event as well!
LOCATIONS FROM DARK DAWN:
Patcherâs Place & Carverâs Camp: new settlements created by survivors of the Goma Region - Vale, Vault, and possibly Lunpa.
Harapa: new settlement, but the ruins it was built on are ancient.
Passaj: this is an ancient city, but Isaacâs party never ventured into these mountains farther than Lama Temple. However, these do appear to be in the same general area. Like Ayuthay and Lemuria, they probably didnât trust outsiders back then.
Ayuthay: ancient city that was even more reclusive before the Alchemy Well was activated. I assume that if Isaac or Felixâs parties traveled by it, they didnât consider the location worth a visit. They probably skipped right by a LOT of seemingly uninhabited ruins.
Kaocho: founded by King Wo within the past couple decades. Itâs unclear if the settlement existed before the split-off from Sana. The ruins it was built over are definitely older than the city.
Te Rya Villiage: the people here are nomadic, their culture could be new or go way, way back. Presumably, the people werenât in the area during the shifts and changes that happened here either way. The Khiren Mountains are said to have ârisen upâ which I take as means this whole area is at a much higher altitude than it was previously.
Belinsk: Like Harapa, the settlement is new but the ruins it is built over are ancient. My guess here is that the continental shift unearthed the structure the capital of Morgal would be built over.
Border Town: I assume it was created when Morgal became itâs own country, but itâs possible the border started being enforced as soon as the people of the Morgal region started turning into beastmen.
Port Rago: probably a new settlement, at least in itâs current form. I like the idea that it couldâve been an insignificant fishing village that gained a lot from the trade boom post-TLA but that is just my theory.
Saha Town: new settlement. As stated in-game, it sprang up because of the newly-fertile area and the trade centered around the âdream leavesâ found here.
Harun Villiage: unknown. If itâs not a new settlement, it was probably considered an insignificant location in the past.
Yamata City: new settlement inhabited by the people from Izumo.Â
Please, feel free to use these maps and musings as a reference and springboard for other works. I made them with the hope that having a solid idea of how the geography works would spark some new ideas.Â
I'd love to see people take this and make new things with it!
This whole project actually started because I started wondering âwhat happened to Xian?â because it was one of my favorite locations in the first game, and then also wanting to know âwhere was Ayuthay during the first two games?â because itâs one of my favorite locations in Dark Dawn.
I have a better idea of both of those things now, myself. I hope this meta proves useful to others, too!
Finally, I'd also love to give a shout-out to this Golden Sun Discord Server! Finding them and learning this event was happening gave me the little push I needed to finish up my meta.
You can also find this essay cross-posted on Ao3!
