Chaos Emeralds

The **Chaos Emeralds** (カオスエメラルド, *Kaosu Emerarudo*) are reoccurring objects that appear in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. They are seven ancient emeralds and mystical relics tied to the Master Emerald, with powerful properties and abilities. Those that hold the Chaos Emeralds can use their powers for a variety of things, such as initiating a super transformation, powering machines, and warping time and space. Anyone who combines all seven Chaos Emeralds can command ultimate power.

Throughout history, the Chaos Emeralds have been the center of countless world-threatening conflicts and have been targeted by multiple factions on both the world and beyond, who seek them for their immeasurable powers. In the hands of villains they have been used for doomsday weapons and schemes for world domination, and in the hands of heroes they have been used to save the world. Over time, the Emeralds have been gathered multiple times, though they tend to scatter themselves after each usage and reset the hunt for them.

In the early games of the series, the Chaos Emeralds were more like "bonus" items, but since *Sonic Adventure*, they have become necessary plot devices, and that trend has continued throughout the later games.

"*The servers are the 7 Chaos*... *Chaos is power*, *Power enriched by the heart*... *The controller is the one that exists to unify the chaos*!"

—Tikal the Echidna.

## Background

The Chaos Emeralds' background are shrouded in mystery and no one knows where they came from. It is known that they have been around for several millennia and predate the Master Emerald which has existed since before recorded time and that they have played a large role in numerous events throughout known history. The Chaos Emeralds' power has been passed down into legend, and the power of all seven emeralds brought together has been described from the emergence of a mysterious power to no less than a miracle.

Over the course of history, ancient civilizations came to know about the Chaos Emeralds and sought to harness their power: according to legend, the ancient civilization on West Side Island utilized the power of the Chaos Emerald for the advancement of their society and achieved great prosperity. Other civilizations also seeking them included the Babylonians, who existed thousands of years ago and the Black Arms, who have visited the world for at least 2,000 years. The Chaos Emeralds also have a connection to the Gaia Temples which supposedly to go back ten thousands of years, if not more. Similarly, the Chaos Emeralds would shape several locations on planet, like Cocoa Island which was part of a coral reef in that was pulled to the surface by the Emeralds' power, and South Island which shifts along the water due to the Emeralds' presence.

It is said that in the era predating recorded history, besides ancient civilizations usage of them, the Chaos Emeralds were used for evil deeds. One known instance was when West Side Island's prosperity lead to avarice as some people wanted the emeralds for their own evil intentions, sparking a conflict so great that the gods had to intervene and seal the Chaos Emeralds. Having witnessed this misuse, the gods created the Master Emerald to balance out the Chaos Emeralds' power and equipped the gem with the ability to nullify and control them. An ancient mantra associated with the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald would eventually arise, explaining their connection and the Chaos Emeralds' ability to transform thoughts into power, which goes like this: "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The heart is the controller. The controller is the one that exists and serves to unify the Chaos."

Over 4,000 years ago, the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald had come to reside in the Altar of the Emeralds, a shrine in the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins where a colony of Chao lived peacefully, for an unprecedented amount of time. This shrine was protected by a sacred barrier, preventing anyone from taking the Emeralds. There, the water itself began to form an actual living body, due to being received prolonged exposure to the Chaos Emeralds which became into the mystical water beast Chaos. Chaos would take up the role of the shrine's guardian, protecting its contents and inhabitants.

Around 4,000 years ago, ancient echidna civilizations knew of the Chaos Emeralds and sought their secrets. The Nocturnus Clan were known to have been experimenting with the Chaos Emeralds as a part of the creation of the Gizoids, while the Knuckles Clan revered the Chaos Emeralds as sacred and they became a part of their lore along with their associated mantra. Tikal the Echidna, the daughter of chief Pachacamac the Echidna of the Knuckles Clan and a friend to the Chao and Chaos, was eventually allowed into the shrine by Chaos where she could behold the Chaos Emeralds.

As the Knuckles Clan faced extermination at the hands of the Nocturnus Clan, chief Pachacamac and his followers launched a raid on the Altar of the Emeralds to take the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to gain undisputed power. Tikal attempted to stop her clan, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Trampling over Tikal and the Chao alike, Pachacamac and his warriors were poised to take the emeralds, but in the process they incurred the wrath of Chaos who used the Chaos Emeralds to become Perfect Chaos and destroying many civilizationa in vengeance, before being sealed in the Master Emerald by Tikal. After this tragic event, the emeralds were named the "Chaos Emeralds" by the surviving members of the Knuckles Clan due to their connection with Chaos, and they have since been primarily guarded by the echidnas.

In more recent times, over fifty years prior to the *Shadow the Hedgehog* game, the Chaos Emeralds were researched by Gerald Robotnik for Project Shadow, which enable him to create the Chaos Drives, and for his studies of the Gizoid.

## Powers and Traits

Described as holding enough power to let their possessor control the whole world, each Chaos Emerald is said to possess mystical properties and contain unlimited amounts of highly potent and powerful chaos energy that is said to give life to all things. Even alone, their power is unmatched by pretty much anything else in the universe, except by the Power of the Stars and the Master Emerald; just one Emerald can grant access to unlimited power and radiates enough chaos energy to repel the incomplete Time Eater, power an entire Gaia Temple, and destabilize the crust of a planet. It is often said that those whom manage to combine all seven Chaos Emeralds would gain ultimate power. Because of the great amounts of power emanating from each emerald, it is possible to create radars to track their energy signature.

The power of each Chaos Emerald is described as being able to “transform thoughts into power”; by "sensing" people's thoughts, the Chaos Emeralds can generate the chaos energy they contain which make them an everlasting source of energy. Oppositely, the Emeralds can absorb chaos energy exposed to them. By focusing one's thoughts, the Emeralds can even bend reality to achieve certain feats, such as showing visions, performing rituals, reviving the recently deceased and even make them react and move on their own. Additionally, each Emerald can float in midair on its own power.

The Chaos Emeralds' power can be harnessed with or without physical contact, and can be done so over great distances. When harnessed by living beings, they allow different Chaos Powers, such as Chaos Control, and occasionally enhance the wielder's abilities. Harnessing all seven Chaos Emeralds will bestow a Super State, a form that grants flight, invulnerability, different Chaos Powers, and increased innate talents. Additionally, a Super State user can transfer their power to others bestow them with a Super State. However, Super States generally do not last long, as they consume tremendous amounts of energy. The Emeralds can also be harnessed to power machinery, such as the Eclipse Cannon. Potentially, their power can as well be used for nuclear or laser based weaponry.

The type of chaos energy the Emeralds produce is based on thoughts. Positive thoughts, such as friendship and caring, generate positive energies and negative thoughts, such as anger and hatred, generate negative energies. If the Chaos Emeralds are either absent of their negative energies or all of it, they become inert and lose their lustre. The only known ways to restore them from this state is through peoples' thoughts, the Gaia Temples, or by returning their energy. The Chaos Emeralds can as well take on other powers, like when the Overmind psychically treated them into Great Emeralds which boosted their psychic powers, or potentially be enhanced.

The Chaos Emeralds appear to amplify their own power the more of them there are used in the process. This is mainly demonstrated with the Eclipse Cannon: with five Emeralds it could destroy a large city, with six Emeralds it could blow up half of the moon and with all seven it could destroy planets and pierce stars. Like the Master Emerald, the Chaos Emeralds appear to possess some form of sentience, as they can seemingly act on their own, remain stable despite the conditions and show up in places where they are most needed.

Each Chaos Emerald is linked to each other and act like magnets that can attract or repel each other. This for example allowed Tails to pinpoint Dr. Eggman's location on Space Colony ARK because he had the rest of the Chaos Emeralds in his possession. After using all seven Emeralds though, they will usually scatter themselves, meaning that they can only be used for one purpose together before disappearing again. While they can end up anywhere in the world, they quite often end up in Special Stages, which are strange alternate dimensions.

## Collecting

For unknown or unexplained reasons, after the Chaos Emeralds have played their part in the story in the games, the users of them apparently lose possession of the emeralds, and they have to be collected in the following game. While the Chaos Emeralds can lie around basically anywhere, even in strange alternate dimensions.

Although Sonic is seen at the end of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game allowing the Emeralds to return to their original places, it is unknown why the Chaos Emeralds need to be collected at the beginning of every game (except, of course, for the purpose of game dynamics).

However, there is one exception to this explanation. During the opening sequence, 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 steals the Chaos Emeralds and hides them from Sonic so that he has to search from scratch. Sonic states that every time they come together they always scatter again. 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." This is also backed up when Sonic scattered the Chaos Emeralds throughout the universe while he was in his Super form so that Eggman wouldn't get a hold of them.

Another reason why the Chaos Emeralds are spread is because they have magnetic qualities as stated earlier; after each use of the Chaos Emeralds, the resulted merge of the emeralds and their power forces them to repel themselves from their shared location, so they tend to scatter themselves after each use.

## 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 and the Metarex. In addition, the artificial Emeralds can be used to sabotage devices that require Chaos Emeralds to power them. It was because of this that Tails attempted to place a fake Chaos Emerald into the Eclipse Cannon console and render it inoperable. In addition, because it had the same wavelength and properties as the originals, artificial emeralds also allowed the user to access Chaos Powers just as a genuine Chaos Emerald would, which is especially apparent with how Sonic escaped from a pod rigged to explode.

However, the Metarex-made Emeralds seem to phase out after use, becoming fragile and useless; even without using them, these Emeralds are fragile themselves as they can be hand-crushed easily as demonstrated by Shadow and Rouge. Metarex-made Emeralds also seem to only have negative energy inside them as Sonic felt sick in their presence and became Dark Super Sonic when he used them.

The artificial Emeralds can be used to sabotage devices that require Chaos Emeralds to power them. It was because of this that Tails attempted to place a fake Chaos Emerald into the Eclipse Cannon console and render it inoperable. In addition, because they have the same wavelength and properties as the originals, artificial Emeralds also allow the user to perform Chaos Control as a genuine Chaos Emerald would, which is especially apparent with how Sonic escaped from a pod and how Shadow teleported back to the Blue Typhoon after being launched far away by the Sonic Power Cannon. It is mentioned that the Metarex made artificial Chaos Emeralds to trick Sonic and the others from getting their hands on a real Emerald.

## Sol Emeralds

*Main article:* *Sol Emeralds*
The **Sol Emeralds** are the equivalent jewels from the Freedom Fighters' dimension.

## Guardians

The Chaos Emeralds were originally guarded by Chaos, a Chao that had mutated due to contact with the Chaos Emeralds, and that protected both the Emerald Shrine and the other Chao that lived there. This is the point at which the Echidnas took over in protecting the Emeralds, known as the Brotherhood of Guardians.

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 the gems, but Chaos absorbed the power of the Emeralds, became Perfect Chaos and destroyed the Echidnas. Tikal appealed to the Master Emerald to seal Chaos away inside it, sealing her own spirit in the process. The Chao lived on and bred, however.

Angel Island was not afloat in the time of Tikal, but was instead located in the ocean, just only near the Echidna city (now Mystic Ruins). It's possible the Floating Island was created when Perfect Chaos arose before Tikal sealed him. 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. 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 wobble in the sky after the Master Emerald was stolen again by an Eggrobo.

Strangely, when the Chaos Emeralds become Super, 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.

The House of Acorn are the Guardians of the previously mentioned Sol Emeralds.

## Colors

Throughout the franchise and series, the Emerald colors are always: Dark Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Purple, Red, White and Green.

## Emerald Shards

*Main article:* *Emerald Shards*
**Emerald Shards** are fragments of Chaos Emeralds crushed by Doctor Eggman and found. They are used to operate the E-121 Phi model robots. Once an E-121 Phi is destroyed they drop their Emerald Shard and either break down or retreat. When 5 Emerald Shards of the same color are united, a Chaos Emerald can be created. Tails is the one who first discovered how Emerald Shards work and characters often visit him to have their Chaos Emerald reassembled which Emerl would soon absorb. Chaos Gamma is also seen with an Emerald Shard which he absorbs to injure Shadow.

## See also

* Wisps
	+ Hyper-Go-On
* Power of the Stars