Agon Wastes

Agon Wastes
Agon, the scorched desert.
Planet	Aether
Environment	Rocky desert, semi-industrialised
Sub-Areas	2 Sub-areas: Mining Area Space Pirates Area
Bosses	Bomb Guardian, Dark Samus 1
Upgrades	Morph Ball Bomb, Dark Beam, Darkburst
Connected areas	By elevators: Temple Grounds, Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress By portals: Dark Agon Wastes
Distinctfeatures	Crash site of the Space Pirates and their primary base on Aether.
Map	[1]

The Agon Wastes, also known as Agon Sector, the Land of Sand and Ruin Agon in the Japanese release, and previously the Agon Plains, are an area in the east of planet Aether. Back in the Golden Age of the Luminoth, these lands were vast, lush plains stretching out as far as the eye could see. The region was scorched when the Leviathan crashed into the planet, leaving nothing but a barren, arid desert. The Agon Wastes also house the Agon Temple, the guardian of which was I-Sha before their death. Its Dark Aether counterpart is the Dark Agon Wastes.

The Agon Wastes are home to many unique creatures, such as Lumites, Sandiggers, and Sandbats. The Space Pirates have installed a mining facility in its cave systems, and almost all of Agon is under the marauding race's command. Few signs of Luminoth civilization can be seen, as the Pirates have mined the sector to search for its resources.

Areas and main rooms

This sector can be divided into two subareas:

Mining Area

This subarea contains little current Space Pirate activities, and has some Luminoth ruins and technology in various places. Most of the rooms are open.

Main rooms

• Agon Temple
• Mining Plaza
• Mining Station A
• Portal Terminal

Space Pirate mining facility

This subarea is an old Luminoth mining facility that has become the main base of operations for the Space Pirates (who have crashed here). Most of the subarea is subterranean.

Main rooms

• Central Mining Station
• Command Center
• Main Reactor

Similarities to Chozo Ruins

The Agon Wastes are somewhat similar to the Chozo Ruins from Metroid Prime. Like the Chozo Ruins, the region is desert-like, and contains ruins left behind by the ancient species that lived on the planet. They each have ambush predators, such as Sandiggers from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes or Beetles from Metroid Prime. Counting the Great Temple as a subarea of the Temple Grounds, they also both act as the second areas explorable via the natural route of the game. Lastly, they seem to both have statues, like the statue of the Amorbis, or the many Chozo statues and relics, and in Metroid Prime's case, most Chozo Artifacts.

See also

• List of rooms in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc/Agon Wastes
• List of rooms in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes/Agon Wastes

Development notes

Kynan Pearson implied that the Agon Wastes were referred to as the Sandlands in development. He also pronounces the name as "Ay-gon", whereas Jack Mathews pronounced it in an interview as "Aggon" (as in "agony").

Prime World Editor reveals that some room files within the Agon Wastes contain the name Alamo, specifically the Space Pirate base and its dark counterpart of rooms. Alamo appears to be a developer reference to the real life Battle of the Alamo, suggesting that part of the Agon Wastes was inspired by the in-universe location of the same name. The name "Alamo" may have also likely been chosen due to the amount of large-scale battles taking place within the area, or due to being the Pirates' base of operations within the desert climate (many, if not all, dark rooms internally reuse their light world counterpart's name followed by "dark" in the filename). Coincidentally, both the Alamo and Retro Studios are housed within the state of Texas.

Trivia

• A-Kul's Clues refer to the Agon Wastes as the "scorched land" or the "dry land".
• Agon is a Greek word that meant a contest, competition, or challenge that was held in connection with religious festivals. In its broader sense of a struggle or contest, agon referred to a contest in athletics, chariot or horse racing, music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece.
  • Agon, of course, also has possible relation to the English word agony, which is a common synonym for suffering.
• Before its Energy Controller is restored, the Agon Wastes are plagued by lightning storms, though Samus is never struck by the lightning. Like the other regions, Agon becomes sunny when its planetary energy is returned, and lightning begins to plague the Dark Agon Wastes instead.
• From the Agon Wastes to the Torvus Bog just below the Torvus Temple, the connection is an elevator that goes downward into Torvus. However, the two ends of the elevator, Transport to Torvus Bog and Transport to Agon Wastes, respectively, are on opposite sides of the planet, yet there is scarcely a difference in elevation.
• The color code of Agon is Amber.

Gallery

The Portal Terminal, the first room with a portal to Dark Aether.

Metroid Prime: Episode of Aether

The skybox of the Agon Wastes.

An earlier version of the area's sky, as seen in the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc, with a prominent moon.