Chao

The **Chao** are creatures that appear in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. They are a mystical species inhabiting various areas of earth.

## Description

### Anatomy

While there is not a defined appearance for Chao, most of them share various common features. Described as cute, they are small creatures, about the size of Wisps, with gelatinous, pudding-like bodies each. In general, Chao have round, waterdrop-like heads with large eyes but no noses, round torsos smaller than their heads, smooth feet with no legs, and arms with no visible hands. Neither their arms or feet have digits. They also have a short tail, small wings, and a floating dot above their heads. It has been noted that, when they grow up, Chao do not show many differences compared to younger Chao.

### Characteristics and culture

Like humans and other anthropomorphic animals, Chao are highly social and sapient creatures, have very flexible facial expressions, and possess self-awareness. They also behave closely like human infants, and possess delightful, pleasant, and lively mannerisms, getting delighted when their owners pat or embrace them gently, or simply carry them around. Conversely, Chao do not like to be attacked, especially with a Spin Attack-related move, thrown, or punished. They also enjoy fruit, which is their favorite food.

Chao live in certain areas of earth, known as the Chao Gardens. These gardens are paradise for Chao, and have a nice, clean and shallow pool for them and palm trees with the fruit they eat. Nevertheless, various Chao have demonstrated that they can live in other environments, as long as these have pools of fresh water. The best-known case of this is Cheese, who lives with Cream the Rabbit and her family. Conversely, Chao dislike dried out places like Sandopolis, and are also scared of Dr. Eggman's bases, including the Final Fortress. While Chao are said to live in packs, they hate living in crowded Chao Gardens.

When it comes to biology, all Chao are genderless. They also appear to be oviparous creatures, since they are born from special eggs known as Chao Eggs. Chao are capable of reproduction; when they are ready to mate, flowers will bloom around them. If two Chao with flowers encounter each other, they will make a little dance and generate a Chao Egg. Chao can also mate if they are given heart fruits.

Chao can also grow into adults, though they do not change much in terms of body size. When one "Chao year" has passed (roughly one to three hours), the Chao will create a cocoon and evolve into a more mature form. Like other living beings, Chao have a life span and will eventually die; however, if their owners take good care of them and befriended them, Chao will begin a process known as **reincarnation**, where they will either show a pink-colored cocoon and be reborn from an egg as a child. However, if their owners treat them harshly, Chao will show a gray cocoon and then disappear for good.

Chao can also have their own alignment, which varies depending on their owners and the way they are treated. By default, Chao are **Normal Chao**, and change to either Hero or Dark Chao, with a gentle or a wimpy personality respectively. Regardless, all three types of Chao behave mostly the same. Looking at it this way, Chao may be like some sort of water mirror that reflects their environment.

Besides the normal evolutions, a special Chao called a "Chaos Chao" can be created. This can be done once the selected Chao has transformed at least two times. During that third or higher cycle of its life, if it is happy enough, given at least one of each animal in the game, and all its stats are around equal, it will become a Chaos Chao. Besides looking different than a normal Chao, the Chaos Chao has an endless lifespan. There are three types of Chaos Chao: "Light Chaos", "Hero Chaos" and "Dark Chaos". To get a Hero Chaos or a Dark Chaos, the player should give them one animal from either the Hero or Dark characters respectively, and that all of their stats are around equal. Along with their apparent invincibility, Chaos Chao lack the ability to reproduce.

### Powers and abilities

Chao are capable of flight. As shown during various incidents, some Chao are able to deal great damage to their targets. During Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Chao have also demonstrated to be able to drive racing vehicles like the Chao Pod, and in other instances, they could drive mechs like the Chao Walker as well. However, they are said to be weak life forms; as noted by Tikal, Chao are too vulnerable without the protection of a guardian.

By giving Chao other lifeforms such as Animals, they will absorb and learn some of the given beings' skills and traits. Besides a physical change to the Chao, this will also cause a vast change in behavior, abilities, and personality. Similarly, Chaos Drives can be used to raise Chao's abilities. On a similar note, as demonstrated by Chaos, Chao can harness the power of at least the Master Emerald to gain deity-like abilities, though the effects of these on another Chao are unknown.

## Background

At least one Chao colony has existed on earth millenia before the Chaos incident. On what is now Angel Island, a small community of Chao was known to live around the Altar of Emerald. Eventually, however, contact with the Master Emerald caused one of those Chao to turn into Chaos, a liquified being with deity-like abilities akin in appearance with the Ancients, the Chao's genetic ancestors. With its new powers, Chaos protected its friends from foreign invaders and kept the water around the altar pure. Thanks to its protection, the local Chao lived singing in peace.

Around 3,000 years ago, the Chao living in the Altar of Emerald met and befriended Tikal, a young echidna from the Knuckles Clan. Shortly after her arrival, Chaos appeared before her. Though the female echidna was surprised by this, Chaos assured her it trusted her. The two soon became friends, with Tikal having become so close to the Chao that she would allegedly go to the Altar of Emerald to play with her Chao friends and Chaos.

Unfortunately, the Chao from the Altar of Emerald were threatened when Pachacamac, the chief of the Knuckles Clan and Tikal's power-hungry father, sought to obtain the seven Chaos Emeralds on the altar for his people. After learning of this, Tikal immediatly went to the Altar of Emerald and warned Chaos about the future invasion, begging it to take the local Chao away from there. However, it told her it could not do that, leading to the female echidna promising to try to change her father's mind. Sadly, however, Pachacamac ultimately went along with his plans. On a night, he launched a full-scale assault on the altar and had his troops cramble over Tikal and the Chao. Seeing this horrible treatment towards its friends, Chaos gave in into its anger and used the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds to turn into Perfect Chaos, killing Pachacamac and his men. Now fueled by thoughts of destruction, however, Chaos did not stop its rampage right there, and instead sought to destroy the world. Fortunately, Tikal used an ancient prayer to seal herself and Chaos in the Master Emerald, which would then be guarded by the few remaining people of the Knuckles Clan for the next millennia.

After this incident, the Chao that lived in the Altar of Emerald were endangered and forced to leave their original home and look for a new place to live elsewhere. A few were able to barely survive, and some had new, artificial homes built by humans.

## Other Appearances

### Season 7-Sonic Adventure

in *Sonic Adventure*, Chao is a prominent feature. One of those Chao, Chaos, plays a major role in the games as their main villain until the end, where it gets neutralized by Super Sonic and reunites with its fellow Chao. Ordinary Chao, alongside Chaos, are also found in Tikal's visions of the Knuckles Clan's attack on the Altar of Emerald 3,000 years in the past.

### *Sonic Rivals* series

#### *Sonic Rivals 2: Comic Adaption*

The Chao play an important role in *Sonic Rivals 2*. At the beginning of the story, the Chao appeared to have gone missing and Sonic and Tails suspect that Eggman Nega (masquerading as Eggman himself) is behind the disappearance. In the meantime, Silver and Espio try to hide every Chao he can find from Eggman Nega's sight because of the doctor's intentions with the small creatures: he plans to feed them to a powerful beast named the 'Ifrit' which grants it invincibility and to be unleashed into Sonic's world, conquering the world with it. Later, Eggman Nega reveals to Espio and Silver that he has acquired more than enough Chao kept in a secret room of a mysterious mansion. Despite of this, Sonic and Tails discovered the secret room before Eggman Nega does and escorted the Chao away to safety.

### *Team Sonic Racing: Comic Special*

In *Team Sonic Racing*, a group of Chao consisting of a Normal Chao, Hero Chao, Dark Chao and Omochao appear as one of the playable characters (which are collectively referred to as "Chao"). In this game, they are members of Team Rose and Technique-Type characters. Their race car in this game is the Chao Pod. Neutral, Hero and Dark Chao also appear on the stands in the background of the race tracks, serving as the audience.

During the events of the adventure, Team Rose's Chao joined Amy and Big on a picnic before coming along with their team to join the Grand Prix organized by Dodon Pa. During the races, the Chao spectators would panic when they spotted Zavok, which alerted the other heroes to the red Zeti's presence. At the end of the game, the Chao helped take the non-flying members of Sonic's friends off the Final Fortress, which had begun to crash, in order to save them.

## Known Chao

* Chaclon
* Chaoko
* Chaolin
* Chaos
* Chaosky
* Cheese
* Chocola
* Eggie
* Happy
* Lucky (Chao)
* Milk
* Smokey (Chao)
* Stormy
* Wacky