Town Square
Gondarle (ゴンダール) was a town in Lufia: The Ruins of Lore. It was located in the southeastern coast of the territory of Gratze beyond the Border Forest around the bordering river of the kingdom.
Description[]
Gondarle seems to have been an early victim of Gratze's past civil war. It was a peaceful town until one day Gratze came and destroyed everything in their way for no apparent reason. This caused a massive impact on the villagers whose resent and hatred for Gratze impeded their souls from fully departing to the afterlife. Along the affected ones was a girl, who was suffering a slow death and abandonment from her loved one, whose resentment and grief were so great that it caused the town to enter into some sort of limbo, freezing it in a specific temporal point before Gratze invaded. Eventually the girl's lover would try to return but would find himself unable to do so as the villagers' and girl's enmity would overextend to the Border Forest near the village accursing it and creating an endless loop point that would block any further access to the innermost parts of the Border Forest, thus blocking any entry point to Gondarle.
Story[]
Gondarle is visited after encountering with Rand, who reveals the possible locations of various shards and stones. One of said locations was Gratze itself. As the group tried making their way to the impregnable fortress they first had to traverse the Border Forest around it, however, they found something weird occurring in the entrypoint: there was some sort of loop that was blocking their progress, effectively trapping and making them walk in circles. As the group tried finding a way of crossing the forest they found an old priest who told them the forest was cursed by an incident caused by Gratze's cruelty and that he was trying to purify the forest ever since said incident. As he was already old the group offered to help him and they took his duty having first to return to his hut at the forest's entry dock to find a bottle of Holy Water. Eventually the forest is purified by Eldin and his group and they're able to traverse to the innermost parts of the forest, however as the group was finally nearing Gratze they found another dead end: a heavily armed surveillance outpost.
The group had to find another way through it or else they would easily be vanquished in the place, so they had to take another route to go unnoticed. Said route took them to a weird looking translucent village: it was Gondarle. They found a village where people were refusing to walk to the afterlife. One of the villagers mentioned that the collective grief of the village was preventing them from departing. The group had to find a way of getting out of this cursed place; the only exit was through a mansion where a lonely girl whose lover abandoned lived, however the mansion's door was blocked, so Eldin and his friends had to find another way of leaving the villlage. They unexpectedly found a tunnel in the cemetery that led them to an underground maze that connected the catacombs with the mansion. After entering the mansion the group was greeted with many hordes of monsters that had made the place their nest. Traversing was hard indeed, but the group made their way, picking a peculiar pendant on the way and learning too about the truth of the eerie place. In the innermost part of the house they found the spirit of the girl sitting on her bed who melancholically reacted after seeing the pendant only to try to attack the group out of sheer frustration and hatred for having been left abandoned for so many years. The group tried defending against her but they found themselves powerless against her strong magic. The battle seemed lost until the old priest came, along with a familiar pendant in hand; the girl saw this pendant and instantly recognized the man: she was happy to finally see him once again. Both souls reunited again finally put hers at rest, however, as blissful this moment was, this caused the mansion to collapse and Gondarle's illusion to vanish revealing the town's true ruined state. Eldin and friends managed to return safely to the town's square where they were greeted by a calm atmosphere where nature had bloomed; the mansion had collapsed but by doing so opened a way out of the town that would allow the party to reach Gratze. Before departing Eldin and friends went to where the graveyard was and made one last prayer for the village and its inhabitants.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The town's name was based on Gondar also spelt as Gonder, the capital of the ancient Ethiopian Empire.
See also[]
- Land of the Dead
- Border Forest
- Gratze
- Girl's Spirit