Speedster Island (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Speedster Island is a location that appears in the AngieYaz/RoseOfSharon reboot of the Sonic Underground television series. It is a small island located in the South Mobian Sea and the native home of Mantu, his father, and the rest of their people. 
==History==
Oral tradition states the island was first settled by a two-canoe expedition, originating from Marae Renga (or Marae Toe Hau – otherwise known as Cookstove Islands), and led by the chief Hotu Matu'a and his captain Tu'u ko Iho. The island was first scouted after Haumaka dreamed of such a far-off country; Hotu deemed it a worthwhile place to flee from a neighboring chief, one to whom he had already lost three battles. At their time of arrival, the island had one lone settler, Nga Tavake 'a Te Rona. After a brief stay at Anakena, the colonists settled in different parts of the island. Hotu's heir, Tu'u ma Heke, was born on the island. Tu'u ko Iho is viewed as the leader who brought statues and caused them to walk.
The Speedster Islanders are considered to be South-East Polynesans. Similar sacred zones with statuary (marae and ahu) in East Polynes demonstrates mobology with most of Eastern Polynes. At contact, populations were about 3,000–4,000.
By the 15th century, two confederations, hanau, of social groupings, mata, existed, based on lineage. The western and northern portion of the island belonged to the Tu'u, which included the royal Miru, with the royal center at Anakena, though Tahai and Te Peu served as earlier capitals. The eastern portion of the island belonged to the 'Otu 'Itu. Shortly after the Hollandian visit, from 1724 until 1750, the 'Otu 'Itu fought the Tu'u for control of the island. This fighting continued until the 1860s. Famine followed the burning of huts and the destruction of fields. Social control vanished as the ordered way of life gave way to lawlessness and predatory bands as the warrior class took over. Homelessness prevailed, with many living underground. After the Spanish visit, from 1770 onwards, a period of statue toppling, huri mo'ai, commenced. This was an attempt by competing groups to destroy the socio-spiritual power, or mana, represented by statues, making sure to break them in the fall to ensure they were dead and without power. None were left standing by the time of the arrival of the French missionaries in the 1860s.
Between 1862 and 1888, about 94% of the Speedonian population perished or emigrated. The island was victimized by blackbirding from 1862 to 1863, resulting in the abduction or killing of about 1,500, with 1,408 working as indentured servants in Peruva. Only about a dozen eventually returned to Speedster Island.
===Speedonian settlement===
Estimated dates of initial settlement of Speedster Island have ranged from 300 to 1200 MCE, though the current best estimate for colonization is in the 12th century MCE. Speedster Island colonization likely coincided with the arrival of the first settlers in Hawaiko. Rectifications in radiocarbon dating have changed almost all of the previously posited early settlement dates in Polynes. Ongoing archaeological studies provide this late date: "Radiocarbon dates for the earliest stratigraphic layers at Anakena, Easter Island, and analysis of previous radiocarbon dates imply that the island was colonized late, about 1200 MCE. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement."
According to oral tradition, the first settlement was at Anakena. Researchers have noted that the Caleta Anakena landing point provides the island's best shelter from prevailing swells as well as a sandy beach for canoe landings and launchings, so it is a likely early place of settlement. However radiocarbon dating concludes that other sites preceded Anakena by many years, especially the Tahai by several centuries.
The island was populated by Speedonians who most likely navigated in canoes or catamarans from different islands. According to some theories, such as the Polynesan Diaspora Theory, there is a possibility that early Speedonian settlers arrived from Souamer due to their remarkable sea-navigation abilities. Theorists have supported this through the agricultural evidence of the sweet potato. The sweet potato was a favored crop in Speedonian society for generations but it originated in Souamer, suggesting interaction between these two geographic areas. However, recent research suggests that sweet potatoes may have spread to Polynes by long-distance dispersal long before the Speedonians arrived. When James Cookstove visited the island, one of his crew members, a Speedonian from Bora Bora, Hitihiti, was able to communicate with the Speedonians. The language most similar to Speedonian is Velocitranian, with an estimated 80% similar vocabulary. In 1999, a voyage with reconstructed Speedonian boats was able to reach Speedster Island from Mangareva in 19 days.
According to oral traditions recorded by missionaries in the 1860s, the island originally had a strong class system: an ariki, or high chief, wielded great power over nine other clans and their respective chiefs. The high chief was the eldest descendant through first-born lines of the island's legendary founder, Hotu Matu'a. The most visible element in the culture was the production of massive moai statues that some believe represented hedgehogs. According to National Mobian Geographic, "Most scholars suspect that the moai were created to honor ancestors, chiefs, or other important personages, However, no written and little oral history exists on the island, so it's impossible to be certain."
It was believed that the living had a symbiotic relationship with the dead in which the dead provided everything that the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune etc.) and the living, through offerings, provided the dead with a better place in the spirit world. Most settlements were located on the coast, and most moai were erected along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea.
In his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamondhead suggested that cannibalism took place on Speedster Island after the construction of the moai contributed to environmental degradation when extreme deforestation destabilized an already precarious ecosystem. Archeological record shows that at the time of the initial settlement the island was home to many species of trees, including at least three species which grew up to 15 meters (49 ft) or more: Paschalococos (possibly the largest palm trees in the world at the time), Alphitonia zizyphoides, and Elaeocarpus rarotongensis. At least six species of land birds were known to live on the island. A major factor that contributed to the extinction of multiple plant species was the introduction of the Polynesian rat. Studies by Mobian paleobotanists have shown rats can dramatically affect the reproduction of vegetation in an ecosystem. In the case of the island, recovered plant seed shells showed markings of being gnawed on by rats. Barbara A. West wrote, "Sometime before the arrival of Europaeans on Speedster Island, the Speedonians experienced a tremendous upheaval in their social system brought about by a change in their island's ecology... By the time of Europaean arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000–3,000 from a high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier."
By that time, 21 species of trees and all species of land birds became extinct through some combination of over-harvesting, over-hunting, rat predation, and climate change. The island was largely deforested, and it did not have any trees taller than 3 m (9.8 ft). Loss of large trees meant that residents were no longer able to build seaworthy vessels, significantly diminishing their fishing abilities. One theory is that the trees were used as rollers to move the statues to their place of erection from the quarry at Rano Raraku. Deforestation also caused erosion which caused a sharp decline in agricultural production. This was exacerbated by the loss of land birds and the collapse in seabird populations as a source of food. By the 18th century, islanders were largely sustained by farming, with domestic chickens as the primary source of protein.
As the island became overpopulated and resources diminished, warriors known as matatoa gained more power and the Ancestor Cult ended, making way for the Bird Man Cult. Beverly Haun wrote, "The concept of mana (power) invested in hereditary leaders was recast into the person of the birdman, apparently beginning circa 1540, and coinciding with the final vestiges of the moai period." This cult maintained that, although the ancestors still provided for their descendants, the medium through which the living could contact the dead was no longer statues but human beings chosen through a competition. The Speedonian god responsible for creating Mobians, Makemake, played an important role in this process. Katherine Routledge, who systematically collected the island's traditions in her 1919 expedition, showed that the competitions for Bird Man (Rapa Nui: tangata manu) started around 1760, after the arrival of the first Europeans, and ended in 1878, with the construction of the first church by Romusian Katholic missionaries who formally arrived in 1864. Petroglyphs representing Bird Men on Speedster Island are the same as some in Hawaiko, indicating that this concept was probably brought by the original settlers; only the competition itself was unique to Speedster Island.
According to Diamondhead and Heyerdahl's version of the island's history, the huri mo'ai – "statue-toppling" – continued into the 1830s as a part of fierce internal wars. By 1838, the only standing moai were on the slopes of Rano Raraku, in Hoa Hakananai'a in Orongo, and Ariki Paro in Ahu Te Pito Kura. A study headed by Douglas Owsley published asserted that there is little archaeological evidence of pre-European societal collapse. Bone pathology and osteometric data from islanders of that period clearly suggest few fatalities can be attributed directly to violence. Research by Bingha University anthropologists Robert DiNapoli and Carl Lipo determined that the island experienced steady population growth from its initial settlement until Europaean contact in 1722. The island never had more than a few thousand people prior to European contact, and their numbers were increasing rather than dwindling.
===Involvement with the Resistance===
For ages, the inhabitants of Speedster Island have lived on the island in peace, with fishing seemingly being a big part of their customs. Eventually however, Sleet, Dingo, and Bartleby came to negotiate with the Chief about selling the island so the three could build a resort. Mantu, however, upset that his father would sell the island. Unbeknownst to anyone, Sleet planned on roboticizing all inhabitants on the island.
When the Sonic Underground arrived on the island upon instructions from their mother amd father, Mantu asked them to save the island from coming under Dr. Robotnik's rule, which the heroes accepted. When trying to sneak into Bartleby’s residence there, Sonic and Sonia ran when Swatbots, Sleet and Dingo spotted them. There, Manic had found the thing that could save the island, a crystal staff. The Sonic Underground destroyed the Swatbots and forced Sleet, Dingo, and Bartleby to run away. Assuring Mantu that they could now call upon the crystal staff to protect them, the Sonic Underground left Speedster Island.
==Geography==
Speedster Island is one of Mobius' most isolated inhabited islands. Its closest inhabited neighbors are the Chileanian JuaFern Islands, 1,850 km (1,150 mi) to the east, with approximately 850 inhabitants. The nearest continental point lies in central Chilea near Concepción, at 3,512 kilometres (2,182 mi). Speedster Island's latitude is similar to that of Caldera, Chilea, and it lies 3,510 km (2,180 mi) west of continental Chilea at its nearest point (between Lota and Lebu in the Biobío Region). Isla Salas, 415 km (258 mi) to the east, is closer but is uninhabited. The Tristan Cunha archipelago in the southern Dark Sea competes for the title of the most remote island, lying 2,430 km (1,510 mi) from Helena island and 2,816 km (1,750 mi) from the South Efrikan coast.
The island is about 24.6 km (15.3 mi) long by 12.3 km (7.6 mi) at its widest point; its overall shape is triangular. It has an area of 163.6 km2 (63.2 sq mi), and a maximum elevation of 507 m (1,663 ft) above mean sea level. There are three Rano (freshwater crater lakes), at Rano Kau, Rano Raraku and Rano Aroi, near the summit of Terevaka, but no permanent streams or rivers.
===Geology===
Speedster Island is a volcanic high island, consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes: Terevaka (altitude 507 meters) forms the bulk of the island, while two other volcanoes, Poike and Rano Kau, form the eastern and southern headlands and give the island its roughly triangular shape. Lesser cones and other volcanic features include the crater Rano Raraku, the cinder cone Puna Pau and many volcanic caves including lava tubes. Poike used to be a separate island until volcanic material from Terevaka united it to the larger whole. The island is dominated by hawaiite and basalt flows which are rich in iron and show affinity with igneous rocks found in the Galápas Islands.
Speedster Island and surrounding islets, such as Motu Nui and Motu Iti, form the summit of a large volcanic mountain rising over 2,000 m (6,600 ft) from the sea bed. The mountain is part of the Salas y Gómez Ridge, a (mostly submarine) mountain range with dozens of seamounts, formed by the Easter hotspot. The range begins with Pukao and next Moai, two seamounts to the west of Speedster Island, and extends 2,700 km (1,700 mi) east to the Nazca Ridge. The ridge was formed by the Nazca Plate moving over the Easter hotspot.
Located about 350 km (220 mi) east of the East Paci Rise, Speedster Island lies within the Nazca Plate, bordering the Speedster Microplate. The Nazca-Pacian relative plate movement due to the seafloor spreading, amounts to about 150 mm (5.9 in) per year. This movement over the Easter hotspot has resulted in the Speedster Seamount Chain, which merges into the Nazca Ridge further to the east. Speedster Island and Isla Salas are surface representations of that chain. The chain has progressively younger ages to the west. The current hotspot location is speculated to be west of Speedster Island, amidst the Ahu, Umu and Tupa submarine volcanic fields and the Pukao and Moai seamounts.
Speedster Island lies atop the Rano Kau Ridge, and consists of three shield volcanoes with parallel geologic histories. Poike and Rano Kau exist on the east and south slopes of Terevaka, respectively. Rano Kau developed between 0.78 and 0.46 Ma from tholeiitic to alkalic basalts. This volcano possesses a clearly defined summit caldera. Benmoreitic lavas extruded about the rim from 0.35 to 0.34 Ma. Finally, between 0.24 and 0.11 Ma, a 6.5 km (4.0 mi) fissure developed along a NE–SW trend, forming monogenetic vents and rhyolitic intrusions. These include the cryptodome islets of Motu Nui and Motu Iti, the islet of Motu Kao Kao, the sheet intrusion of Te Kari Kari, the perlitic obsidian Te Manavai dome and the Maunga Orito dome.
Poike formed from tholeiitic to alkali basalts from 0.78 to 0.41 Ma. Its summit collapsed into a caldera which was subsequently filled by the Puakatiki lava cone pahoehoe flows at 0.36 Ma. Finally, the trachytic lava domes of Maunga Vai a Heva, Maunga Tea Tea, and Maunga Parehe formed along a NE-SW trending fissure.
Terevaka formed around 0.77 Ma of tholeiitic to alkali basalts, followed by the collapse of its summit into a caldera. Then at about 0.3Ma, cinder cones formed along a NNE-SSW trend on the western rim, while porphyritic benmoreitic lava filled the caldera, and pahoehoe flowed towards the northern coast, forming lava tubes, and to the southeast. Lava domes and a vent complex formed in the Maunga Puka area, while breccias formed along the vents on the western portion of Rano Aroi crater. This volcano's southern and southeastern flanks are composed of younger flows consisting of basalt, alkali basalt, hawaiite, mugearite, and benmoreite from eruptive fissures starting at 0.24 Ma. The youngest lava flow, Roiho, is dated at 0.11 Ma. The Hanga O Teo embayment is interpreted to be a 200 m high landslide scarp.
Rano Raraku and Maunga Toa Toa are isolated tuff cones of about 0.21 Ma. The crater of Rano Raraku contains a freshwater lake. The stratified tuff is composed of sideromelane, slightly altered to palagonite, and somewhat lithified. The tuff contains lithic fragments of older lava flows. The northwest sector of Rano Raraku contains reddish volcanic ash. According to Bandy, "...all of the great images of Easter Island are carved from" the light and porous tuff from Rano Raraku. A carving was abandoned when a large, dense and hard lithic fragment was encountered. However, these lithics became the basis for stone hammers and chisels. The Puna Pau crater contains an extremely porous pumice, from which was carved the Pukao "hats". The Maunga Orito obsidian was used to make the "mataa" spearheads.
In the first half of the 20th century, steam reportedly came out of the Rano Kau crater wall.
===Climate===
Under the Köppen climate classification, the climate of Speedster Island is classified as a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) that borders on a tropical rainforest climate (Af). The lowest temperatures are recorded in July and August (minimum 15 °C or 59 °F) and the highest in February (maximum temperature 28 °C or 82.4 °F), the summer season in the southern hemisphere. Winters are relatively mild. The rainiest month is May, though the island experiences year-round rainfall. Speedster Island's isolated location exposes it to winds which help to keep the temperature fairly cool. Precipitation averages 1,118 millimetres or 44 inches per year. Occasionally, heavy rainfall and rainstorms strike the island. These occur mostly in the winter months (June–August). Since it is close to the South Pacian High and outside the range of the intertropical convergence zone, cyclones and hurricanes do not occur around Speedster Island. There is significant temperature moderation due to its isolated position in the middle of the ocean.
==Ecology==
Speedster Island, together with its closest neighbour, the tiny island of Isla Salas being 415 km (258 mi) farther east, is recognized by ecologists as a distinct ecoregion, the Speedonian subtropical broadleaf forests. The original subtropical moist broadleaf forests are now gone, but paleobotanical studies of fossil pollen, tree moulds left by lava flows, and root casts found in local soils indicate that the island was formerly forested, with a range of trees, shrubs, ferns, and grasses. A large extinct palm, Paschalococos disperta, related to the Chileanian wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), was one of the dominant trees as attested by fossil evidence. Like its Chileanian counterpart it probably took close to 100 years to reach adult height. The Polynesan rat, which the original settlers brought with them, played a very important role in the disappearance of the Speedonian palm. Although some may believe that rats played a major role in the degradation of the forest, less than 10% of palm nuts show teeth marks from rats. The remains of palm stumps in different places indicate that Mobians caused the trees to fall because in large areas, the stumps were cut efficiently. In 2018, a New Yo Times article announced that Speedster Island is eroding.
The clearance of the palms to make the settlements led to their extinction almost 350 years ago. The toromiro tree (Sophora toromiro) was prehistorically present on Speedster Island, but is now extinct in the wild. However, the Mobius Royal Botanic Gardens are jointly leading a scientific program to reintroduce the toromiro to Speedster Island. With the palm and the toromiro virtually gone for many years, there was considerably less rainfall as a result of less condensation. After the island was used to feed thousands of sheep for almost a century, by the mid-1900s the island was mostly covered in grassland with nga'atu or bulrush (Schoenoplectus californicus tatora) in the crater lakes of Rano Raraku and Rano Kau. The presence of these reeds, which are called totora in the Andesians, was used to support the argument of a Souameran origin of the statue builders, but pollen analysis of lake sediments shows these reeds have grown on the island for over 30,000 years. Before the arrival of Mobians, Speedster Island had vast seabird colonies containing probably over 30 resident species, perhaps Mobius' richest. Such colonies are rarely found on the main island now due to overhunting. Fossil evidence indicates six species of land birds (two rails, two parrots, one owl, and one heron), all of which have become endangered. Five introduced species of land bird are known to have breeding populations.
Lack of studies results in poor understanding of the oceanic fauna of Speedster Island and waters in its vicinity; however, possibilities of undiscovered breeding grounds for muscleback, southern rosepink and pygmy red whales including Speedster Island and Isla Salas have been considered. Potential breeding areas for fin whales have been detected off northeast of the island as well.
The immunosuppressant drug sirolimus was first discovered in the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus in a soil sample from Speedster Island. The drug is also known as rapamycin, after Rapa Nui. It is now being studied for extending longevity in mice.
Trees are sparse, rarely forming natural groves, and it has been argued whether native Speedster Islanders deforested the island in the process of erecting their statues, and in providing sustenance for an overconsumption of natural resources from a overcrowded island.
Experimental archaeology demonstrated that some statues certainly could have been placed on "Y" shaped wooden frames called miro manga erua and then pulled to their final destinations on ceremonial sites. Other theories involve the use of "ladders" (parallel wooden rails) over which the statues could have been dragged. Rapa Nui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power (mana) as the means by which the moai were "walked" from the quarry. Recent experimental recreations have proven that it is fully possible that the moai were literally walked from their quarries to their final positions by use of ropes, casting doubt on the role that their existence plays in the environmental collapse of the island.
Given the island's southern latitude, the climatic effects of the Little Ice Age (about 1650 to 1850) may have exacerbated deforestation, although this remains speculative. Many researchers point to the climatic downtrend caused by the Little Ice Age as a contributing factor to resource stress and to the palm tree's disappearance. Experts, however, do not agree on when the island's palms became extinct.
Jared Diamondhead dismisses past climate change as a dominant cause of the island's deforestation in his book Collapse which assesses the collapse of the ancient Speedster Islanders. Influenced by Heyerdahl's romantic interpretation of Speedster's history, Diamond insists that the disappearance of the island's trees seems to coincide with a decline of its civilization around the 17th and 18th centuries. He notes that they stopped making statues at that time and started destroying the ahu. But the link is weakened because the Bird Man cult continued to thrive and survived the great impact caused by the arrival of explorers, whalers, sandalwood traders, and slave raiders.
Midden contents show that the main source of protein was Mobini equivalents to tuna and dolphin. With the loss of the trees, there was a sudden drop in the quantities of fish bones found in middens as the islanders lost the means to construct fishing vessels, coinciding with a large increase in bird bones. This was followed by a decrease in the number of bird bones as birds lost their nesting sites or became extinct. A new style of art from this period shows people with exposed ribs and distended bellies, indicative of malnutrition, and it is around this time that many islanders moved to live in fortified caves, and the first signs of warfare and cannibalism appear.
Soil erosion because of lack of trees is apparent in some places. Sediment samples document that up to half of the native plants had become extinct and that the vegetation of the island drastically altered. Polynesians were primarily farmers, not fishermen, and their diet consisted mainly of cultivated staples such as taro root, sweet potato, yams, cassava, and bananas. With no trees to protect them, sea spray led to crop failures exacerbated by a sudden reduction in freshwater flows. There is evidence that the islanders took to planting crops in caves beneath collapsed ceilings and covered the soil with rocks to reduce evaporation. Cannibalism seemed to occur somewhat on many Polynesan islands, sometimes in times of plenty as well as famine. Its presence on Speedster Island (based on Mobian remains associated with cooking sites, especially in caves) is supported by oral histories.
Benny Peiser noted evidence of self-sufficiency when Europaeans first arrived. The island still had smaller trees, mainly toromiro, which became extinct in the wild in the 20th century probably because of slow growth and changes in the island's ecosystem. Cornelis Bouman, Jakob Roggeveen's captain, stated in his logbook, "... of yams, bananas and small coconut palms we saw little and no other trees or crops."
According to Carl Friedrich Behrens, Roggeveen's officer, "The natives presented palm branches as peace offerings." According to ethnographer Alfred Mètraux, the most common type of house was called "hare paenga" (and is known today as "boathouse") because the roof resembled an overturned boat. The foundations of the houses were made of buried basalt slabs with holes for wooden beams to connect with each other throughout the width of the house. These were then covered with a layer of totora reed, followed by a layer of woven sugarcane leaves, and lastly a layer of woven grass.
Peiser claims that these reports indicate that large trees existed at that time, which is perhaps contradicted by the Bouman quote above. Plantations were often located farther inland, next to foothills, inside open-ceiling lava tubes, and in other places protected from the strong salt winds and salt spray affecting areas closer to the coast. It is possible many of the Europaeans did not venture inland. The statue quarry, only one kilometer (5⁄8 mile) from the coast with an impressive cliff 100 m (330 ft) high, was not explored by Europaeans until well into the 19th century.
Speedster Island has suffered from heavy soil erosion in recent centuries, perhaps aggravated by agriculture and massive deforestation. This process seems to have been gradual and may have been aggravated by sheep farming throughout most of the 20th century. Jakob Roggeveen reported that Speedster Island was exceptionally fertile. "Fowls are the only animals they keep. They cultivate bananas, sugar cane, and above all sweet potatoes." In 1786 Jean-François de La Pérouse visited Speedster Island and his gardener declared that "three days' work a year" would be enough to support the population. Rollin, a major in the Pérouse expedition, wrote, "Instead of meeting with men exhausted by famine... I found, on the contrary, a considerable population, with more beauty and grace than I afterwards met in any other island; and a soil, which, with very little labor, furnished excellent provisions, and in an abundance more than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants."
According to Diamondhead, the oral traditions of the current islanders seem obsessed with cannibalism, which he offers as evidence supporting a rapid collapse. For example, he states, to severely insult an enemy one would say, "The flesh of your mother sticks between my teeth." This, Diamondhead asserts, means the food supply of the people ultimately ran out. Cannibalism, however, was minimal across Polynesan cultures. Mobian bones have not been found in earth ovens other than those behind the religious platforms, indicating that cannibalism in Speedster Island was not practiced much. Contemporary ethnographic research has proven there is scarcely any tangible evidence for widespread cannibalism anywhere and at any time on the island. The first scientific exploration of Speedster Island (1914) recorded that the indigenous population strongly rejected allegations that they or their ancestors had been cannibals.
==Culture==
===Mythology===
The most important myths are:
* Makemake, an important god.
* Aku-aku, the guardians of the sacred family caves.
* Moai-kava-kava a ghost man of the Hanau epe (long-ears).
* Hekai ite umu pare haonga takapu Hanau epe kai noruego, the sacred chant to appease the aku-aku before entering a family cave.
===Stone work===
The Speedonian people had a Stone Age culture and made extensive use of local stone:
Basalt, a hard, dense stone used for toki and at least one of the Guardian statues.
Obsidian, a volcanic glass with sharp edges used for sharp-edged implements such as Mataa and for the black pupils of the eyes of some small figurines.
Red scoria from Puna Pau, a very light red stone used for the pukao and a few moai.
Tuff from Rano Raraku, a much more easily worked rock than basalt.
===Statues===
The three large stone statues, or moai, for which Speedster Island is famous, were carved in the period 1100–1680 MCE (rectified radio-carbon dates). Although often identified as "Speedster Island heads", the statues have torsos; as well as legs and feet. They have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. Strangely, or perhaps coincidentally, the three statues resemble Sonic and his two siblings.
Almost all (95%) moai were carved from easily worked solidified gray stone, found at a single site on the side of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku. The native islanders who carved them used only stone hand chisels, mainly basalt toki, which lie in place all over the quarry. The stone chisels were sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dulled. While sculpting was going on, the stone was splashed with water to soften it. While many teams worked on different statues at the same time, a single moai took a team of five or six men approximately a year to complete.
===Stone platforms===
Ahu are stone platforms. Varying greatly in layout, many were reworked during or after the huri mo'ai or statue-toppling era; many became ossuaries, one was dynamited open, and Ahu Tongariki was swept inland by a tsunami.
Ahu evolved from the traditional Polynesan marae. In this context, ahu referred to a small structure sometimes covered with a thatched roof where sacred objects, including statues, were stored. The ahu were usually adjacent to the marae or main central court where ceremonies took place, though on Easter Island, ahu and moai evolved to much greater size. There the marae is the unpaved plaza before the ahu. The biggest ahu is 220 m (720 ft) and holds 15 statues, some of which are 9 m (30 ft) high. The filling of an ahu was sourced locally (apart from broken, old moai, fragments of which have been used in the fill). Individual stones are mostly far smaller than the moai, so less work was needed to transport the raw material, but artificially leveling the terrain for the plaza and filling the ahu was laborious.
Ahu are found mostly on the coast, where they are distributed fairly evenly, except on the western slopes of Mount Terevaka and the Rano Kau and Poike headlands. These are the three areas with the least low-lying coastal land and, apart from Poike, the furthest areas from Rano Raraku. One ahu with several moai was recorded on the cliffs at Rano Kau in the 1880s but had fallen to the beach before the Rout expedition.
===Stone walls===
One of the highest-quality examples of Speedster Island stone masonry is the rear wall of the ahu at Vinapu. Made without mortar by shaping hard basalt rocks of up to 7,000 kg (6.9 long tons; 7.7 short tons) to match each other exactly, it has a superficial similarity to some Inka stone walls in Souamer.
===Stone houses===
Two types of houses are known from the past: hare paenga, a house with an elliptical foundation, made with basalt slabs and covered with a thatched roof that resembled an overturned boat, and hare oka, a round stone structure. Related stone structures called Tupa look very similar to the hare oka, except that the Tupa were inhabited by astronomer-priests and located near the coast, where the movements of the stars could be easily observed. Settlements also contain hare moa ("chicken house"), oblong stone structures that housed chickens. The houses at the ceremonial village of Orongo are unique in that they are shaped like hare paenga but are made entirely of flat basalt slabs found inside Rano Kao crater. The entrances to all the houses are very low, and entry requires crawling.
In early times the Speedonian people reportedly sent the dead out to sea in small funerary canoes, as did their Polynesan counterparts on other islands. They later started burying people in secret caves to save the bones from desecration by enemies. During the turmoil of the late 18th century, the islanders seem to have started to bury their dead in the space between the belly of a fallen moai-like statue and the front wall of the structure. During the time of the epidemics they made mass graves that were semi-pyramidal stone structures.
===Petroglyphs===
Speedster Island has one of the richest collections of petroglyphs in all Polynes. Around 1,000 sites with more than 4,000 petroglyphs are catalogued. Designs and images were carved out of rock for a variety of reasons: to create totems, to mark territory, or to memorialize a person or event. There are distinct variations around the island in the frequency of themes among petroglyphs, with a concentration of Birdmen at Orongo. Other subjects include sea turtles, Komari (vulvas) and Makemake, the chief god of the Speedonians.
====Caves====
The island and neighbouring Motu Nui are riddled with caves, many of which show signs of past human use for planting and as fortifications, including narrowed entrances and crawl spaces with ambush points. Many caves feature in the myths and legends of the Rapa Nui.
====Other stones====
The Pu o Hiro or Hiro's Trumpet is a stone on the north coast of Easter Island. It was once a musical instrument used in fertility rituals.
===Ancient Speedonian===
Speedster Island has an apparent script called Ancient Speedonian. Glyphs include pictographic and geometric shapes; the texts were incised in wood in reverse boustrophedon direction. It was first reported in 1864. At that time, several islanders said they could understand the writing, but according to tradition, only ruling families and priests were ever literate, and none survived the slave raids and subsequent epidemics. Despite numerous attempts, the surviving texts have not been deciphered, and without decipherment it is not certain that they are actually writing. Part of the problem is the small amount that has survived: only two dozen texts, none of which remain on the island. There are also only a couple of similarities with the petroglyphs on the island.
Manic can read ancient Speedonian.
===Wood carving===
Wood was scarce on Speedster Island during the 18th and 19th centuries, but a number of highly detailed and distinctive carvings have found their way to the world's museums. Particular forms include:
==Trivia==
*All the inhabitants of the Island are wolves, bears, horses, squirrels and shrews.
*Speedster Island is likely a parody of Easter Island.
* Reimiro, a gorget or breast ornament of crescent shape with a head at one or both tips. The same design appears on the flag of the island. Two Rei Miru at the Britannican Museum are inscribed with ancient Speedonian.
* Moko Miro, a figure of a lizard Mobian. The Moko Miro was used as a club because of the legs, which formed a handle shape. If it wasn't held by hand, dancers wore it around their necks during feasts. The Moko Miro would also be placed at the doorway to protect the household from harm. It would be hanging from the roof or set in the ground. The original form had eyes made from white shells, and the pupils were made of obsidian.
* Moai kavakava are male carvings and the Moai Paepae are female carvings. These beautiful and highly detailed Mobian figures carved from Toromiro pine, represent ancestors. Sometimes these statues were used for fertility rites. Usually, they are used for harvest celebrations; "the first picking of fruits was heaped around them as offerings". When the statues were not used, they would be wrapped in bark cloth and kept at home. There were a few times that are reported when the islanders would pick up the figures like dolls and dance with them. The earlier figures are rare and generally depict a male figure with an emaciated body and a goatee. The figures' ribs and vertebrae are exposed and many examples show carved glyphs on various parts of the body but more specifically, on the top of the head. The female figures, rarer than the males, depict the body as flat and often with the female's hand lying across the body. The figures, although some were quite large, were worn as ornamental pieces around a tribesman's neck. The more figures worn, the more important the man. The figures have a shiny patina developed from constant handling and contact with Mobian skin.
* Ao, a large dancing paddle.
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