Chaos Emerald
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A Chaos Emerald is a mystic item that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, allowing the holder of 7 Chaos Emeralds to achieve ultimate power, and certain characters from the Sonic world can transform into a "super" form as a result of this (see Super Transformation). Each emerald is composed of positive and negative charged materials which make them an everlasting source of energy and allow them to float. All player characters that are capable to transform, only use the positive charged part of the Emeralds to do so, which is demonstrated by Sonic at the end of Sonic Adventure. After the super form is reached, the Emeralds discharge and send themselves to different ends of the world in hopes that they will not be united again. The Emeralds became plot devices in the Sonic Adventure games, along with most of the latest 3D games.
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[edit] Plot Sequences and Background Information
The Chaos Emeralds can be anywhere, usually located in a Special Stage (commonly known as "The Special Zone"). Even alone, their power is unmatched by anything else in the universe; except perhaps by the Master Emerald, which is just as powerful as all seven Chaos Emeralds, if not more.
The Chaos Emeralds appear as plot points in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. In Sonic Adventure, the Chaos Emeralds were collected by Dr. Eggman in order to feed Chaos, a water beast that changed form every time it received a Chaos Emerald. With all 7, it became Perfect Chaos, and used all of the negative energy in the Emeralds before dropping them onto the ground. Sonic then picked all 7 up and used the positive energy to become Super Sonic and destroy Perfect Chaos.
In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic and Shadow had the ability to use the Chaos Emeralds to "Chaos Control": alter time and space to teleport or freeze time. Interestingly, Sonic at one point uses the Chaos Control ability with a fake emerald, but he nearly faints afterwards. Shadow's own game implies that proficient use of Chaos Control is actually a bloodline trait, which explains both why Shadow can use Chaos Control without an emerald, and why Sonic has so much difficulty using the technique. Then again, for most of Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow has one Chaos Emerald with which to use Chaos Control/Blast. In the last story though, all of the Emeralds are taken from Shadow, and Shadow is forced to use Chaos Control without Emeralds as a plot element.
In Sonic Heroes, the gameplay pays homage to classic elements, so it goes back to a way of collecting the Chaos Emeralds in special stages to unlock the Last Stage. In the end, Sonic becomes Super Sonic, and allowed Tails and Knuckles to use the Chaos Emerald energy to transform into their own powered forms, while the others buy them time by fighting Metal Sonic in the last story. Team Sonic then became Team Super, and defeated Metal Sonic.
In Shadow the Hedgehog, the Emeralds were found throughout the stages again (again, Special Stages weren't used), and Shadow collected all 7 by the end of the game, only to let them be stolen by Black Doom who used them to Chaos Control the Black Comet to Earth's surface. Shadow then got the Chaos Emeralds back and transformed into Super Shadow to destroy Black Doom and teleport the Black Comet into space to be destroyed by the Space Colony ARK's Eclipse Cannon, the cannon itself using the Chaos Emeralds as its' power source.
The Chaos Emeralds in themselves are usually used for weapons of mass destruction (in Eggman's case), Chaos powers, and making people (Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver) turn into their Super forms. The Super Emeralds allowed Tails to become Super Tails. The energy can also be given to a character to allow them to achieve a Super form.
It is not known why the Chaos Emeralds need collecting at the beginning of every game (except, of course, for the purpose of game dynamics). One explanation is that after the Chaos Emeralds are used to their maximum strength, they repel each other and so end up in secret stages (regular Sonic games) or just the four corners of the world (Adventure games), very much like the Dragon Balls from the Dragon Ball series.
However, there is one exception to this explanation. During the opening sequence for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (if you chose Sonic or Sonic & Tails as your character choice), Sonic is in possession of all seven of the Chaos Emeralds at the beginning. This is evident when he leaps off the Tornado and falls off-screen only to come racing across the ocean as Super Sonic before making his way onto Angel Island. There, Knuckles then steals the Chaos Emeralds and hides them from Sonic so that he has to search from scratch like all other games. Thus, another explanation could possibly be that Sonic himself hides them so their power won't fall into the wrong hands, and so all of them won't be in one group for "easy picking".
An interesting note is that the manual of Sonic 3 states that Eggman tells Knuckles that Sonic is after his Chaos Emeralds. Some fans disagree with the Sonic 3 instruction manual, instead figuring that Eggman said that Sonic was after his Master Emerald; this is due to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles being one game due to lock-on technology. However, it is also important to note that in the Japanese manual of Sonic 3, there is a Knuckles' side-story where he witnesses the destruction of his island's Chaos Emeralds, thanks to the Death Egg impacting the floating island. When Eggman tells Knuckles the reason for his Emeralds seemingly vanishing is because Sonic stole them, this gives Knuckles reason enough to ally with the doctor and steal Sonic's Chaos Emeralds. (Furthermore, this note is stressed in the Sonic Mega Collection summary, when it could have easily been retconned.)
Because of the huge power emanating from each emerald, creating radars to track them are relatively simple (Rouge, Tails and Eggman all had one in Sonic Adventure 2, and Tails used one again in Sonic Riders). Each emerald is linked to each other, and as Tails describes, act like magnets attracting each other, allowing him to discover Eggman's location on the ARK.
The 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog introduces a new concept for the Chaos Emeralds. According to Blaze the Cat, the Chaos Emeralds transform the user's thoughts into power (although Tikal did state this before using trapping Chaos in Sonic Adventure). Also, in this game, is revealed that the Chaos Emeralds are capable of bringing back people from the dead.
[edit] The Eighth Emerald
In the arcade game Sonic the Fighters, in order to travel to the Death Egg II, one must collect all the Emeralds. Each character held an Emerald, and to get another one from a different character, you must defeat them in a fight. However, instead of the traditional seven Emeralds, there are eight. The widely accepted reason for this is because there are eight fighters (excluding bosses). Some fans believe that the set of emeralds in "Fighters" are fake, another possible explanation. However, few regard the game as canon, and as such the "eighth emerald" is usually treated as a gameplay device rather than a significant plot element.
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, after accessing the Sound Test and entering a code, the player has access to a secret, and very difficult, 8th special stage. Upon completion, this stage yields the grey emerald. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, after you access the Sound Test, you could access 2 unused Special Stages (1 Chaos Emerald stage, with the same layout as the one in Sonic 3, but with different colored panels, and 1 Super Emerald Stage). After beating them, you get a "golden" emerald (instead of the grey one as in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 alone in the Chaos Emerald stage). After that, it goes on to Angel Island stage with the character displayed near the name of Angel Island in Sound Test (00 = Sonic & Tails, 01 = Sonic, 02 = Tails, 03 = Knuckles).
[edit] Super Emeralds
The Super Emeralds are a set of 7 Emeralds that transformed from the Chaos Emeralds with the help of the Master Emerald. (Although some believe that the Super Emeralds are separate from the Chaos Emeralds as shown by collecting 7 Chaos Emeralds and not entering the Special Stages an eighth time.) The Emeralds made their appearance in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It may be possible that the Master Emerald transferred half of its power into the 7 Chaos Emeralds, there by turning them into the 7 Super Emeralds. These are grey, and Sonic and company have to step on them and play through new Special Stages (taken from Sonic and Knuckles) to light them up to their original colors. Getting all the Super Emeralds (from both games) makes the Master Emerald glow, and enables Sonic to transform into Hyper Sonic, Tails to transform into Super Tails, and Knuckles to transform into Hyper Knuckles. Hyper Sonic and Hyper Knuckles are faster than their Super counterparts. Because of this, two after images of each character follow them as they run. Hyper Sonic glows the colors of the Emeralds and jumps much higher. While in mid-air, if you press the jump button again, he will do a mid-air dash ("Sonic Boom") that sends him in the direction you hold the D-pad and creates a flash which destroys all the enemies on the screen. As Hyper Knuckles, you glide and climb much faster.
The Super Emeralds have not been seen since. However, some speculate that the emeralds in Sonic Adventure, at the Master Emerald shrine in Tikal's time period, are indeed the Super Emeralds. Their size are roughly the same size as Sonic or Knuckles, while in the present the Chaos Emeralds are about the size of their hands. This has not been made official however. The sizes aren't likely important, seeing how in one scene of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Knuckles holds the Master Emerald in his hand. Another interesting fact is that one of the prototype screenshots of "Sonic Adventure" showed fourteen emeralds at the same time, and that the mural depicting Perfect Chaos is also surrounded by fourteen gems, making it possible that the Super Emeralds were a part of the story at some point. These may be references to the part of Sonic Adventure that includes Chaos taking the Emeralds' power from them, separating the emeralds into two separate sets of power.
A theory to the sizes are that the farther away the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald are from the shrine, the smaller they become, and the closer to the shrine they are, the bigger they become. This theory, however, could be false as seen in the last story of Sonic Adventure, Knuckles talks to himself, questioning why Angel Island has fallen though the Master Emerald is restored. In that scene, the player can see the Chaos Emeralds are laid around the Master Emerald in the shrine but haven't increased in size.
[edit] Sol Emeralds
A set of Emeralds from another dimension, the Sol Emeralds appear in Sonic Rush, and are guarded by Blaze the Cat. They are similar in function to the Chaos Emeralds, but they are rectangular in shape (emerald cut) unlike the pointed shape (brilliant cut) of Chaos Emeralds. Like the Chaos Emeralds, all seven can be used to achieve a super form (named Burning Blaze in Blaze's case). It is also interesting to note their magnetic properties - both Eggman and Eggman Nega quote that the Chaos and Sol Emeralds can attract and repel each other, and this power could destroy the world. There is no known Sol equivalent to the Master Emerald.
It was thought within the Sonic fanbase that the Sol Emeralds were to have a role in the new game Sonic the Hedgehog, after it was confirmed that Blaze would be returning in the game as an ally of Silver the Hedgehog. However, this turned out to be untrue, and as it was also revealed that Blaze originally hailed from the dimension of the Chaos Emeralds, the full story behind the Sol Emeralds is unknown.
"Sol" means "sun" in a variety of languages, and is the origin of the word "solar", along with "Solaris", which is the name of the final boss in Sonic the Hedgehog.
[edit] Other Powerful Gemstones
[edit] Time Stones
In Sonic CD, the Chaos Emeralds are replaced by the Time Stones, which teleports Little Planet through time; it is for this reason why it is only visible in the planet's atomsphere for one month out of every year. The Time Stones cannot cause transformation (or if they can, have not) and have not appeared since. If Sonic collected all of the Time Stones, he could use their power to prevent Eggman from ever spreading his influence on the Little Planet, thereby ensuring a good future for the planet.
In the SatAM continuity, there were two Time Stones that were guarded on a flying island which could only be accessed by defeating the guards and answering the riddle asked by the Guardian, who rather than being Knuckles the Echidna was instead an enormous, ancient owl. Sonic and Sally Acorn used these two Time Stones to transport themselves back to the day of Robotnik's takeover of Mobotropolis during the two-part episode "Blast to the Past" in an attempt to stop the takeover from ever happening. This ultimately failed, but Sally was able to save her nanny Rosie by telling her to never leave Knothole no matter what due to the fact that Sally knew that she would be captured while out in the Great Forest and roboticized by Robotnik.
In Sonic the Comic, there was mention in a Sonic's World strip of there being seven Time Stones on the Miracle Planet, but only one was ever seen in the main strip and it resembled a normal stone rather than the multi-colored gems shown in the back-up strip. Robotnik, by means unknown, had find the Time Stone and was using it to power a machine that would cyberform the whole Miracle Planet; through a bizarre time paradox, Sonic received a Time Stone from himself so he could go back in time, retrieve the Time Stone (and destroy the machine), and then go forward in time to give the Stone to himself, after which point the machine's effect on the planet suddenly vanished, as did the Stone. Its origin was never explained.
[edit] Deep Power Stones
In the SatAM episode Drood Henge, the Freedom Fighters discover that Dr. Robotnik is attempting to gain possession of the Deep Power Stones. The artifacts are dangerous, as combined one way they unlock ultimate power, while in another way they unlock ultimate destruction. They set out to stop Robotnik from getting them, but he gets his hands on the first stone. Tails, however, comes up with a brilliant plan, destroying a fake stone and then making off with the real one.
Later, when all seems hopeless, Sonic steals Robotnik's stone. He and Sally then call upon the energy imbued in the stones to defeat the Doomsday Project. Originally, they intended to unleash the power of destruction contained in the two stones, but later combined them in the other formation to grant them super abilities. It was revealed that physical contact between users of the stones produced further energy, as demonstrated by first a high-five, and later a kiss, between Sonic and Sally. The Deep Power Stones are also known to have the same energy found in the Power Rings, but infinitely more powerful.
[edit] Guardians
The Chaos Emeralds were originally guarded by Chaos, a water-like being that protected both these emeralds and the Chao that lived there.
Tikal found Chaos and the Chao in her ancient Echidna family. She loved them and cared for them, but her father found out about them and wanted the power of the Emeralds for himself. He attacked the Emerald Shrine and tried to steal them for himself, but Chaos absorbed the power of the Emeralds and became Perfect Chaos. Tikal appealed to the Master Emerald to seal Chaos away inside it, sealing herself in the process. We know this because Tikal's spirit is of the age when she was sealed, which is the age at which her father attacked the Emerald, (which would mean that Tikal is now a spirit with some magic, ghost and chaos powers). The Chao lived on and bred, however.
This is the point at which the Echidnas took over in protecting the Emeralds. Knuckles is the echidna that protects them in the time of the current Sonic the Hedgehog timeline, and probably the only echidna left (in the Sonic Team storyline, other continuities like the American Sonic comics have more echidnas in existence).
It is not known if the island was afloat in the time of Tikal. The geography of the island in the past and present seems to indicate that it wasn't afloat in the time of Tikal, as the Emerald Shrine was directly connected to the Echidna city in the past, but now they're separate. It's possible the Floating Island was created when Perfect Chaos arose before Tikal sealed him which there is evidence of in the Sonic 3 manual. If this is true, the reason it does float high in the sky is most likely in order to protect the Emerald from invaders who might try to steal it (like Dr. Eggman eventually did).
Another reason for the fact that the Angel island floats, could be that the Master Emerald's energy causes the island to rises high above the surface. During the time of Tikal's life the Chaos Emeralds canceled out the Master Emeralds effects and after Chaos used the Emeralds to become Perfect Chaos, the lifting effect of the Master Emerald started (although it is not shown in Sonic Adventure). This is extremely likely given that Sonic needed to retrieve the Master Emerald so the island could rise and that the island began to sink and even wobble in the sky after the Master Emerald was stolen again by an EggRobo in Sonic & Knuckles. Strangely, when the Chaos Emeralds become Super Emeralds in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which happens during the story of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, the island still floats in the air. The question is, why does it float if the Super Emeralds are in the same chamber as the Master Emerald? This may be true because the Master Emerald can cancel the Chaos Emeralds, or enhance them to make Super Emeralds. This may mean that the Master Emerald provides power for the Chaos Emeralds, and can be made to stop their power or maximize their power in close range. If the Master Emerald is giving power to the Super Emeralds, and they remain on the island, the power is still available on the island to keep it in the air.
In the Archie Comics storyline, Knuckles is the latest in a long line of Master Emerald protectors, known as the Brotherhood of Guardians.
Blaze the Cat, the new feline character featured in the 2005 DS game Sonic Rush, is Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, a new breed of Emerald from Blaze's universe.
[edit] Emerald Colors
In the original Sonic the Hedgehog, the six Emeralds were blue, yellow, red, green, pink and gray. A seventh, purple Emerald then appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the pink Emerald was replaced with cyan one - the yellow Emerald also became orange, but switched back in Sonic Adventure. The colors of the Emeralds have remained constant since, as red, blue, yellow, green, white, sky, and purple. The white emerald often appears grey, and Sonic R had both a yellow and an orange emerald instead of a blue/cyan one (the Chaos Emerald was blue in the racing course it was found in, but the screen after the race -that only comes if you finish in first- shows it as cyan.)
Certain games have used their own unique colors for the emeralds - in Sonic Spinball, they are all blue, while in Sonic Battle, they are all green. In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series by Archie Comics, green is the color of most Chaos Emeralds. Special zones sometimes house Emeralds that are white (see Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles, February 1996), a black Emerald served as a prison for Chaos 0 (see Sonic the Hedgehog #80) and mention is made of a red Emerald on an alien home world (see Sonic the Hedgehog #126). In the UK's Sonic the Comic series, the emeralds are blue, yellow, red, green, orange, grey and purple.
[edit] Chaos Emeralds in Other Media
[edit] Sonic the Comic
In Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, the history of the Emeralds is expanded considerably, though some points contradict the storyline of the games. These events were not related chronologically, but this document shall list them as such.
The story of the Chaos Emeralds begins in Mobius's distant past, during the war between the Echidna race and the Drakon Empire. Seeking vessels for their unstable, newly developed Chaos Energy, the Drakons raided the Echidnas' sacred emerald mines, and infused seven emeralds with Chaos Energy. The Echidnas were able to steal the seven emeralds back and capture a Drakon prosecutor, but exposure to the emeralds mutated the captive into a monstrous creature known as Chaos. Draining away some of the Emeralds' power, the Echidna elder Pachacamac was able to weaken Chaos, who was defeated and sealed away by the Echidnas.
Events which followed remain lost to history - Knuckles, appointed guardian of the so-dubbed "Chaos Emeralds", was apparently sealed into some form of suspended animation for unknown reasons and the Echidna race mysteriously vanished. At an unspecified point, either before or after this, six of the Emeralds were divided into twelve. Drained of the majority of their power, the two sets of emeralds dwindled in size until each gem was an emerald-cut shape about the size of a fist, and one set, drained even to the point that they had lost their individual colors, came to be scattered across Mobius. The other set remained in a temple on the legendary Floating Island, where Knuckles dwelled in stasis.
When the kindly scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor began his plan to rid Mobius of all negative energy, he sought out a vessel that could contain such power. He located the six emeralds, which were highly suited to containing such energy, and planned to transfer into them the negative energy he had collected using his Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor (ROCC), a machine comprised of golden rings. Requiring a seventh emerald to stabilize the transfer, Kintobor and his friend, Sonic the Hedgehog, searched for one to no avail. Eventually, Kintobor believed that he had developed a way to transfer the energy without the seventh emerald using the ROCC - but just before he was about to do so, he became distracted by a rotten egg, and tripped on a cable, slamming the ROCC's control panel with his egg-laden hand and causing an explosion that bathed him in chaos energy, transforming him into Doctor Ivo Robotnik.
Robotnik gathered up the six emeralds, and put them in sub-orbital space warps to keep their power out of Sonic's hands, but Sonic was able to reclaim them. Bringing them together in his underground base, another facet of their power was revealed - if brought together, the emeralds would interact with each other, generating and radiating chaos energy in a chain reaction that resulted in a spatial warp that thrust them into the alternate dimension called the Special Zone. This first warp re-energised the emeralds to a certain degree, restoring their multi-hued appearance, but Sonic was also caught in the blast of chaos energy and was transformed into the berserker Super Sonic for the first time. After reclaiming the Emerald's from the Special Zone, Sonic hid them in the Frozen Zone where the sub-zero temperatures rendered them inactive and prevented the spatial warp. They were briefly stolen by Captain Plunder and his Sky Pirates, but before they could heat up they absorbed the pirates' negative energy and turned them into easily-beaten hippies.
In order to keep a closer eye on the gems, Sonic kept them in a refrigerated box at his Emerald Hill Zone headquarters. Robotnik, meanwhile, had encountered the awakened Knuckles and brought the echidna into his service by claiming that Sonic had stolen the emeralds. Allowing himself to be captured by Sonic's Freedom Fighters, Robotnik was able to lead Knuckles straight to their headquarters and steal the Emeralds. Taking them back to the Floating Island, Knuckles reintegrated the two sets of six into one. Robotnik had developed a control device that would take the place of the seventh emerald - the Grey Emerald - and allow him to control the Chaos Energy, but, with the doctor's deception exposed, Knuckles revealed that he'd had the Grey Emerald all along and he used it to stop Robotnik.
The seven Emeralds were returned to the Hidden Palace Zone on the Floating Island, where they steadily regenerated into their original size. The green Emerald was restored to its status as the Master Emerald, which Robotnik then stole to use as the power core for his new Death Egg; Sonic managed to get it back. The emeralds were able to subsequently remain safe on the Floating Island and allowed Knuckles to generate a protective forcefield around it, although they were still the cause of some trouble when Sonic was accidentally exposed to them and transformed into an even more deranged, demonic version of Super Sonic.
When the Drakon Empire made contact with Mobius once more, Emperor Ko-Dorr, head of the House of War, secretly entered into a partnership with Robotnik in order to reclaim the Chaos Emeralds and use it to fuel a coup against the other Houses. As part of a double-cross, Robotnik had his assistant, Grimer, apparently defect to the Drakons and inform them of the Emeralds' whereabouts; the Drakon's disabled all of the Floating Island's defenses and defenders, allowing Robotnik (after Grimer had the Drakon's suddenly teleported away) to teleport in and finally seize control of all the power of the Emeralds. At first, the power seemed too much for his body to contain and he was transformed into a crystalline statue, but this soon proved to be merely a chrysalis stage as his form adapted to the energies it now contained. With the power of the reality-warping chaos energy in his control, Robotnik altered history and subjected Sonic to a series of challenges, until the hero baited him into restoring Knuckles to help him. With the echidna's aid, Robotnik was defeated and the chaos energy drained from his body - but it appeared that he could now no longer exist substantially without it, as its removal caused him to shrink into a sub-atomic state.
The emeralds were consequently left largely unmolested, aside from a brief abortive attempt by a gang of thieves working with the Doctor Robotnik Appreciation Tribe to steal them; unlike most villains, they knew the Emerald's were too dangerous to mess around with and just wanted to sell them. Robotnik himself, restored to normal, subsequently suffered a string of defeats which plunged him into a suicidal depression, and, desperate to break his master out of this dark state, Grimer unleashed the Chaos creature (which had formerly been discovered by Robotnik). Raging out of Grimer's control, Chaos headed for the Floating Island, intended to absorb the Chaos Emeralds into itself, but before it could get further than the blue emerald Knuckles jettisoned the remaining Emeralds to the four corners of Mobius. Without the emeralds' power, the Floating Island crashed to Mobius and sank into the ocean.
While Sonic himself was transported into the ancient past by Pachacamac and witnessed the origin of the emeralds and Chaos, Doctor Robotnik gathered the emeralds to draw Chaos and the Freedom Fighters to his fortress, that they might all die together; Sonic returned to the present just in time to witness Chaos absorbing the remaining emeralds and becoming the monstrous "Perfect Chaos." The disaster was stopped by the surprise arrival of Super Sonic, dying due to depletion of his own chaos energies, who plunged himself into Chaos's body and absorbed the energy of the emeralds into himself, reverting Chaos back to his Drakon form. At full power again, Super Sonic turned on the Freedom Fighters, but was defeated when he was re-integrated back into Sonic's own body.
Additionally, at one point, a black emerald was shown to be used by a group of shadow creatures in another dimension as a means of gaining access to Mobius. Its relationship to the Chaos Emeralds, if any, went unexplained.
[edit] Sonic the Comic - Online!
The online fan-made continuation of Sonic the Comic (viewed by some as an "officially unofficial" continuation due to its endorsement by some of the creators of StC) has added a little more to the history of the Chaos Emeralds. Although not explaining how the emeralds were divided into two sets or how the second set came to be on Mobius, the comic has shown them to have been found by Kintobor amongst a cache of abandoned technology left over from the Drakon-Echidna war in the Emerald Hill Zone. It also revealed Chaos Energy could be used for storing computer data and splicing genetics.
[edit] Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog
In Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog, Chaos Emeralds are much more numerous than they are in other continuities; in reality, there are far more than just seven. They are also connected to the "Power Rings", which are produced by harnessing the energy of the emeralds. This continuity explains a more scientific origin than a conventional mystical one found in other sonic continuities. It was revealed in a recent storyline that the Emeralds were the product of the Xorda (the aliens that transformed Earth into Mobius) gene bombs. Specifically they were formed by the absorption of the Xorda gene bombs' massive energy release into underground beryl deposits.
In addition, there is the existence of rare 'Super Emeralds'. The origins of these can also be attributed to the Xorda-induced cataclysm albeit these Emeralds are the product of much more concentrated energy absorbed into the beryl material. What's more, there's another level of existence known as "the Chaos Force", which is tied to the Chaos Emeralds and has been tapped into by the "Guardians of the Floating Island", Knuckles' ancestors - one theory is that the Xorda gene bombs allowed the energies of the Chaos Force to spill out into this plane and take the form of Chaos Emeralds or more canonically, the Chaos Force was only recently discovered and its existence made aware to the inhabitants of earth/mobius. There is also a special Black Chaos Emerald that served as the containment vessel for Chaos and Tikal. A Chaos Emerald was also used in a similar manner to temporarily imprison Mammoth Mogul.
While on an alien world, Sonic discovered a batch of red colored emeralds (officially designated outside of the storyline by the editor as "Chaos Rubies"), which rather than transform him into Super Sonic, created a mad, power-crazed Super Sonic that was independent of Sonic's body (similar to fleetway's normal Super Sonic). No such explanation has been offered as to the origins of these particular types of Emeralds though the catalyst for their existence can be alluded to a possible previous altercation with the Xorda or perhaps the idea that certain cataclysms of immense energy combined with certain minerals can follow the same suite as Earth/Mobius' Chaos Emeralds.
In issue 168, it is revealed by A.D.A.M. that there were many Chaos Emeralds scattered across the universe, in his plot to use Shadow and Tails to retrieve them. In issue 169, A.D.A.M. succeeds in collecting all the Chaos Emeralds of the universe. While Sonic transforms into Super Sonic as a distraction, Super Shadow and Turbo Tails send all the Chaos Emeralds to the Zone of Silence. It is as of yet unknown what the result of this development will be.
[edit] Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
The Chaos Emeralds made an appearance in DiC's cartoon series in a four-part story called Quest for The Chaos Emeralds, but they are very different from the game versions. There are only four, and instead of different colors they are all different shapes. They have no guardian, but the Emeralds are hidden in time instead of certain place. Each Emerald focuses on a different power:
- Invisibility: this made the holder invisible, and is buried on an island in the time of pirates.
- Invincibility: this granted invincibility, but it is more complicated than simply holding it. To trigger off its powers permanently, its first holder must become king. Guarded by Merlynx the Magician in the Middle Ages.
- Immortality: This granted immortality to the holder. Resided with Robotnikhotep, Robotnik's mummified ancestor, in a Mobius parallel of Ancient Egypt.
- Power of Life: possibly the most powerful one, this had the power to grant life to any inanimate or dead object. Inside a volcano crater in Prehistoric times and guarded by a volcano deity who would only exchange it for a sacrifice.
Robotnik forced a scientist, Dr. Caninestein, to build him a time machine to grab the Emeralds and become Supreme High Robotnik (possibly Robotnik's super form). In this form, he could rule the universe. Unfortunately for him, the scientist granted Sonic and Tails the duty of making sure he does not get them. Assisted by Caninestein's various time-travel devices (sneakers, surfboard, skateboard) and the locals from each time area (some were parodies of real historical figures or even Sonic's own ancestors) Sonic and Tails foiled Robotnik's first attempts at the first three Emeralds, facing many life-threatening situations on the way.
But Robotnik tried again and succeeded. Supreme High Robotnik almost killed the duo by sending them into the Big Bang, but they managed to escape, and Sonic formed an idea. Completely ignoring the rules of paradox, the duo managed to gather their past selves (who, as keen-eyed viewers will notice, are all shown using the skateboard instead of the devices they used previously) after they left each time area. Five Sonics and five Tails went back to the present time where Supreme High Robotnik was still wreaking havoc. The team that now consisted of ten all worked together to steal back the Emeralds and return them to their original places.
The AoStH episode Fast and Easy featured a fifth Chaos Emerald which is supposedly the most powerful - it does not focus on a specific attribute, so it is more like the game version. This emerald is of a brilliant cut and, unlike the other Chaos Emeralds, is fashioned into a ring. Its power is apparently dormant until it is plugged into a pedestal in the "Secret Zone", and then it is seemingly capable of doing anything. Robotnik intended to use this power to terrorise the world with floods, but his plans were thwarted when a thief called Easy Eddie stole it from him. After Sonic had realised what exactly was going on and the magnitude of the problem, the ring was prised from Eddie's finger. However, the thief stole it again and bargained with Robotnik, but it was a trick and Robotnik had the ring. But as always, Sonic messes up Robotnik's plans by stealing the ring from the pedestal, and subsequently throwing it into the sea. As for Easy Eddie, he managed to escape from Robotnik and give up being a thief.
[edit] Sonic Underground
The least popular of DiC's Sonic adaptations had Chaos Emeralds in it, but very little is known about them. Like in the games, they are a source of incredible power but the exact number of them in existence in unknown. Knuckles guards one Emerald on the floating island, and Robotnik tried to steal it and frame Sonic for it. Of course, it failed in a way very similar to the Archie story. In the last story before it got cancelled, Robotnik successfully gets his hands around one.
[edit] Sonic X
In Sonic X, the Chaos Emeralds echoed their role in the games as objects that were sought after by all parties. However, the series also introduced a new concept: Chaos Emeralds reacting to each other. In the cartoon, whenever Chaos Emeralds were brought together without being given time to adapt to each other's presence, they would release immense quantities of energy. When all seven were present, this resulted in automatic Chaos Control.
[edit] Artificial Emeralds
It is possible to create synthetic Chaos Emeralds with the same wavelength and properties as the originals, but with less power. This has been proven by Tails in Sonic Adventure 2 and by both Tails and the Metarex in Sonic X. However, the Metarex-made Emeralds seem to phase out after use, becoming fragile and useless. And in addition, these particular "fake emeralds" react to Sonic in a different way; instead of transforming him into Super Sonic, he will transform into Dark Super Sonic. Chaos Emeralds synthesized by the Metarex also have the attribute of not having similar energy signature to real Chaos Emeralds, although this is later corrected.
[edit] See also
| Emerald/Ring | Chaos Control | Chaos Emerald | Master Emerald | Rings | Special Stage | Star Posts | Super Transformation (other media) |
|---|---|
| Locations | Mobius | Little Planet | Angel Island (Hidden Palace) | South Island | Mystic Ruins | Central City | Station Square | Space Colony ARK | Tiny Chao Garden | Knothole | Mobotropolis | Shanazar |
| Vehicles | The Tornado | Egg Carrier | Dr. Eggman's vehicles |
| Other | Aliens | Badniks (E-Series Robots) | Mobians (Echidnas) | Eclipse Cannon | Eggman Empire | Roboticizer (Roboticization) | Sonic Team | Voice Actors |
| Spin offs | Manga | AoStH (episodes) (Blast) | Sonic the Comic | SatAM (episodes) | Archie | Movie | Underground (episodes) | Sonic X (episodes) (comic) (card game) | List of printed media |
| Fan-related | Hedgehog Heaven | Project Chaos |
