PLAYED A BIT AWAY FROM MY LAPTOP, NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED

-Bogho is a stupid name
-also this feels like the part where Camelot figured giving everything weird names would make up for them being really boring. We have given names to the ancient cultures of Jenei, Exathi, Neox, and Fori, barely any of which are relevant to anything near as I can tell
-this is also the part where people ask some very good questions and then fail to answer them in favor of saying about eighty words repeating something inconsequential
-for example: Tyrell asks why Kaocho is trying to seize the Alchemy Forge, since it was in disrepair before we got to it, and even then they'd need the Sol Mask, which is sealed in the Ouroboros dungeon. it would be a useless trophy without a Mars Adept and the Sol Mask, neither of which they reliably have
-answers to this question: 0
-anyway, the people of Passaj could really use this Alchemy Forge being reactivated, since without it their people have fallen on hard times. we are, for the moment, ignoring that it has likely been WAY more than 30 years since it was last activated, which turns it from "hard times" into "civilization dies out or finds alternate means of sustaining itself".
-this is somewhat underlined by the fact that Ayuthay's Alchemy Well started functioning spontaneously 20 years ago, which in turn skyrocketed that town into prosperity, indicating that the Forge has about a 10 year time period where it could've theoretically been active, but it wasn't very likely. let's just go with that Camelot didn't think as hard about this as I did.
-in my defense, I haven't had reliable Internet access in days

HOLD THAT THOUGHT, HERE COMES SUN SAGA 3

-again, the game is trying to hint that Mercury Lighthouse being lit was the cause of all manner of calamities, when half the time the actual culprit was just "Psynergy Stones from the sky". this is a retcon I accept for the most part, though
-Babi gets zero mention. good, fuck that guy
-"But they didn't find Felix or Alex waiting for them at the top." okay is the Sun Saga supposed to be a retcon or an unreliable narrator? I don't trust Camelot enough to reliably pull off the second half and there's no good reason to retcon Felix not being there since that's LIKE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING HE DOES THERE
-oh wait. "Felix lost his grip on one of his captives, Sheba, the priestess of Lalivero". there, that's our actual answer: Camelot doesn't even remember their own damn story right. at least they remember he dove after her
-Sun Saga 3 ends there, leaving me to wonder whether the next books just watch Isaac's team some more or ignore their entire premise to focus on Felix. that's what the Psynergy Training Grounds would hint at since they're very much pro-Warriors of Vale and pro-lighthouse lighting
-anyway we're gonna sneak into the Ouroboros under Kaocho to fix the Alchemy Forge, because we need that to cross the Khiren Mountains to meet up with Kraden, which we needed to do to get the feather to fix the soarwing our dumbass broke.
-at no point in this sequence do we find Psynergy Vortexes, Blados, or Alex ER I MEAN THE MYSTERIOUS MASKED MAN WHO KNOWS KRADEN
-talking with the elders, we get two actual clues: we might use zol, a lighter-than-air material, to soar across the Cloud Bridge, and we might seek help from Ayuthay, since they were among the people who designed the Ouroboros. okay, sounds fair
-Baghi suggests we met his friend Amiti, the prince of Ayuthay. this would be our fifth party member, because it's not Golden Sun if you don't completely ruin Djinn totals for the early game apparently

SIEGE BREAKING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

-wtf do you mean there's not a Djinni on this peninsula, this is bullshit
-checking my djinn list from my "fuck it I'm not fighting Dullahan again" file says there's some around Kaocho but precious few in Ayuthay itself. weird, but that confirms the overworld's clean for now
-so the suggested choice of "go to Ayuthay" is overruled on account of Kaocho soldiers. that explains the Djinn list, at least. fine, be that way
-aaaaand there's the overworld Djinni
-oh hell, I have to get involved in a land war in Angara, don't I? FINE yes I'm an Adept you warmonger jackasses
-thankfully we're on the list, meaning we cut out some other Adepts seeking audience with the king. wonder who?
-the Ouroboros is sealed off, so we have to meet the king anyway
-this sure is a flattering Chinese-inspired nation we have here anyway, what with all the wanting to go to war but being really bad at it. Camelot is a Japanese company, right? wonder if some anti-Chinese sentiment was rooted among the writers
-could also just be general anti-war sentiment, this wasn't that long after 9/11 was it?

HELLO MENARDI MK III

-Chalis here has a heart cutout in her dress midriff because Camelot's outfit designers realized they were being too respectful of women or something. her encyclopedia mentions her uncommon beauty which I'm not really seeing but okay
-she's also the one that promised King Wo that Adepts would meet him here, so who does she mean?
-oh. she means us. she summons more high tech soldiers to force us out of her hiding spot. so I guess the expectation was for Blados to cut us off and force us to Kaocho, where Chalis could exert her political influence to bait us into working for Kaocho. that is almost clever
-except for the part where Blados' plans were identical to Kraden's and we only ever entered Kaocho because we couldn't get anywhere in Ayuthay and couldn't do anything by refusing to join the war effort
-"You clearly aren't paying attention, Chalis. That sounded like 'no' to me." Kan-Shuku might be intended to be a useless bureaucrat but I like this guy
-"So have I enticed you?" nope. not interested in playing along. im just gonna keep refusing until you do something to force me or let me go
-BUT THOU MUST
-yes you are a masterful temptress and I find your offer intriguing. also who left these thumbtacks here in my mouth
-eventually, after giving us a letter of recommendation and making Babi seem like one of the most sympathetic characters in the game, they pull the ol' trapdoor in front of the throne trick on us and drop us into the Ouroboros
-with the letter of recommendation, by the way. which we can totally use, and clearly unauthorized, if we survive the Ouroboros, which is exactly one half of the reason they wanted us here in the first place. this is perhaps not the most brilliant scheme they have devised
-"Uh, shouldn't we run or something?" you don't get to be the smart and cautious one tyrell, not after the shit you pulled. i am permanently angry at you
-Chalis starts yammering about all according to keikaku nonsense but whatever

WE'RE IN THE OUROBOROS NOW

-and then we're out. huh. that was quick
-well now we can get into Ayuthay so let's ignore these Kaocho nerds
-we make it to the generals and tell them we're taking over. they're content to let us exorcise the place, although you and I both know the laughing is just Ayuthay people hiding in safety and taunting them, as is only fair
-hey look it's Amiti thats cool
-the kids in town think we're all incredibly ignorant and offensive for not knowing about Amiti or Paithos but whatever
-everybody here is shirtless
-one of the first orders of business: sorry Amiti, you have a dad. its true
-like this is this huge awkward thing that Veriti didn't have a virgin birth and its REALLY fucking weird
-anyway this dad also started Ayuthay's Alchemy Well, which again was about 20 years ago, but it's not at full capacity because mystery dad (Alex. spoilers) didn't fix it completely, saying that later prophesized Adepts would do it for him. at least they maintained his character quite fully through all three games
-so to actually enter the Ouroboros, we need the Insight Glass sealed within the Temple of Barai. this is now multiple layers of separation from doing anything actually critical to the plot: open up the temple, get the glass, get the mask from the ouroboros, repair the alchemy forge, use the cloud passage to reunite with Kraden
-which IN TURN is a partial success since we were going to meet up to fish up clues to locate the Mountain Roc, whose feather we need to fix the soarwing our dumbass broke
-in no way does this help us with identifying Alex or his unknown cohorts, or solving the problem of the Psynergy Vortexes. yes, we need the soarwing to investigate Mt. Aleph safely, but even then that's not us investigating it, that'd be Isaac and Garet. once we finish that our mission is effectively over.
-this is a giant roundabout useless recursive errand
-anyway gonna fight a sand prince now i guess