The Chaos Emeralds

	Dr Robotnik with the South Island Emeralds

What are the Chaos Emeralds? While this may seam like a stupid question, because all Sonic fans know what the Chaos Emeralds are, how many people really DO know what they are? There are a large number of bits of information we must talk about and the first one that makes the most sense is just what is an Emerald? Well, really a Emerald is a Mineral which is coloured green by trace amounts of Chromium and once in a while, vanadium. The word Emerald, comes from the Latin Smaragdus (which doesn't seam that close) but then to Greek for Smaradgos and then back to Semitic 'Izmargad' or possibly 'Marakata' which basicly means 'Green'. Of course, this is the problem that we all know. The Chaos Emeralds SHOULD be green but most of them aren't are they? However, if you take different kind of stone, the Sapphire which is mostly Blue, there are Pink, Yellow, Green, Orange, Brown, Colourless (often looks hinted blue), or even a light blue sapphires due to amounts of Vanadium, Iron, Chromium or such like. Which sound a lot like all the different Chaos Emerald colours right? well, Emeralds themselves can have some changes. Mostly, they are all near green (from Yellow-green to Blue-green), it is even possible for a grey-green one. However, if they are lighter tones other then green, they are mostly called Beryl's. Different Beryls have different names. A Colourless one is 'Goshenite', a Pink one is 'Morganite', a Red one is Bixbite (or sometimes 'Red Emerald'), clear bright yellow is 'Golden Beryl', Yellow-green is 'Heliodor', Green is 'Emerald', Blue is 'aquamarine' and deep Blue is 'Maxxixe, there are even Gray ones. Colours like the Red ones are very rare and are only found in small amounts, often used for very pricey jewellery and such like. There are a lot of other shades known in Beryl's but they aren't named much.

	Bixbite the "Red Emerald"

So, we have learnt that the Chaos Emeralds are in fact, Beryl's... While some of them (like the Red) are sometimes known as the 'Red Emerald', it's not too often or quite right. . So, now we have worked out the name (let us Forget about the 'Chaos' bit for now, it doesn't really lead us anywhere right at this moment), let us move into when they were first found. In the Japanese storyline for Sonic 1 (MD), it says that South Island "moves in circles along the surface of the ocean. It's said that the island's movement is caused by the power of six legendary Chaos Emeralds that sleep in its lush hills. The Emerald's distribute energy to all things and are sought for the development of nuclear and laser Weapons." It is in fact, the reason by Dr Eggman (Robotnik) travels to the island in hope of getting them Chaos Emeralds. Sonic then follows Eggman to the Island and knows that the "the Emeralds exist within a torsion created by the circular movement of the island and hence can't be found on the surface". This game says the Six chaos Emeralds are under the ground in special places and help control the movements of the island. Fairly different from the UK and US story lines which only says the following on the matter of the Emeralds "If you're lucky, you can warp to the secret zone where you spin around in a floating maze.". While the Japanese story is mostly about these emeralds, the American and English stories just pretty much dismiss them as only an extra.

When Sonic 2 comes out, we find out there are in fact 7 emeralds. This was known about when most of the UK and US comics were being created. How come? well, they say the Reason Dr Kintobor's machine (Noting that in Japan, it was ALWAYS Eggman, No 'used to be nice and kind' stuff) was unstable because neither he nor Sonic could find the Grey 'Control' Emerald to complete the set. This explains why there is one more Emerald in Sonic 2.. Problem there is the Gray one is in the first game. It is in fact the 'Rich Blue' emerald that was missing. Also notice that in Most English and American stuff, the Emeralds are all green. The fact of them being the same Emeralds seam to be hinted by the English/American Manual having it's first reference to the emeralds by saying that there are 7 Chaos Emeralds buried somewhere on the island and that Robotnik now wants them to take over the world. In the Japanese Manual, these apply to be a completely DIFFERENT set of Emeralds. When Sonic lands on West Side Island, Sonic knows the legend, that is "was once the home of a flourishing civilization. The people of the island utilized the power of seven mysterious stones for the advancement of their society. However, their prosperity lead to avarice, which did not sit well with the gods. The displeased deities reclaimed the stones and sealed them away." If you get the impression that they aren't in fact the Chaos Emeralds but ones like them, When Dr Eggman turns up, he is "tearing the place apart in search of the seven Chaos Emeralds". The Reason why this set of 7 turn Sonic into Super Sonic and the set of 6 don't, doesn't seam to be explained but just that the 6 don't have enough power, it needs 7.

	Robotnik with the Master Emerald

In Sonic 3, we heard about the Floating island that flies with the power of the 'Stone of Power' and that it was home to a civilization much like West Side Island. It says "The civilization flourished until a faction of elders, driven by greed, attempted to utilize the "stone of power" for their own designs. They inadvertently unleashed a force greater than they could control, resulting in the collapse of their entire society." Sound familiar? Also, in the Japanese storyline, we found out that Though Angel Island is the name of the first level, it is in fact the name of the whole island too. This Island does have Emeralds of itself as explains here: "It's a normal sunny day on Angel Island as the island's guardian performs a routine patrol of the Chaos Emerald altar. Knuckles the Echidna, last surviving member of the lost civilization that once dominated the island, is shocked as the seven Chaos Emeralds rise from their pedestals and begin violently oscillating in mid-air. With a blinding flash and a sharp noise, the Emeralds knock Knuckles away. The last thing he remembers is hovering off the ground, as though his body is weightless. When he regains consciousness, Knuckles finds that he has been thrown some distance from the altar. He is horrified to discover that the ancient structure has been badly damaged and the Chaos Emeralds have disappeared." Knuckles Believes the seven emeralds that Sonic has, are HIS set of Emeralds (after being told this by Dr Eggman) and he goes after Sonic. So Let's work everything out... 6+7+7.. there are now 20 Different Chaos Emeralds (Oh and we find out that the Stone of Power, is the Master Emerald in SnK Japanese manual when it Sonic finds it: "In the middle of the altar lies a humongous green jewel - none other than the Master Emerald, the legendary 'stone of power' that destroyed the echidna civilization"). As we see, the 7 Emeralds of Sonic's and the 7 of Knuckles fuse together (which is also shown to happen in the English 'Sonic the Comic' by Fleetway) making it back down to 13 (Plus Master Emerald). While the Fuse idea is mostly being taken from the English comic, Sonic does appear to 'lose' the Emeralds after Sonic 3, and find Knuckles with a set of 'Gray' Emeralds that he needs to collect before able to form Super Sonic again (though, that form is more known as 'Hyper Sonic'), so the idea of them fusing seams to make the most sense from the facts known.

By looking at the other games, the number of emeralds appear to change. Sonic Chaos (Sonic & Tails 1) sets the idea of it being a return to South Island by saying that he is back there. In Triple Trouble's (Sonic & Tails 2) Japanese story, "Dr. Eggman, having finally procured the six Chaos Emeralds, proceeds to conduct experiments to harness their power for the ultimate weapon. Unfortunately for him (and luckily for the rest of the world), one of the experiments goes awry, and the resulting explosion sends five of the six Emeralds flying across the globe.". This seam to say it is the he in fact got the Emeralds at the End of S&T's return to South Island and these are still the South Island set, NOT the West Side Island/Angel Island set. In the American Sonic Spinball, there are a whole bunch of Chaos Emeralds which are in fact, Blue. In Sonic The Fighters, There are 8 Chaos Emeralds, each in the possession of 8 Guardians (the 8 playable characters). No information hints if any of this are the South Island or West Side Island/Angel Island emeralds, which probably means we have another 8 to add to the total. In the Japanese Story for Sonic Blast, Sonic has returned to South Island again (where he seams to now live) and see 1 Emerald brake into 5 shards (each appear to look like a complete emerald.) However, it is pretty sure that these shards are put back together. For Sonic R, yet against some more Emeralds appear as we aren't told which emeralds the 7 collected are. Since Knuckles doesn't enter because the Emeralds are missing, they can't be the Set from Angel Island. Since there are 7 not 6, they can't be the South Island Set. In Tails Adventure, (doesn't matter when you set it) there is another set of six emeralds on Cocoa Island. Also, In Flicky's Island, there appears to be Another set of 7 emeralds, but this don't seam to make Sonic turn Super. To Maybe this aren't as powerful? Before moving on, lets do a little tally and look back, however not complete:

	Sonic with the Flicky Island Emeralds and Flickies

South Island:- 6 Chaos Emeralds (One brakes into 5, get put back together)
West Side Island:- 7 Chaos Emeralds (end up fused with Angel Island Emeralds)
Angel Island:- 7 Chaos Emeralds (end up fused with West Side island Emeralds) Plus large 'Master Emerald'
STF set:- 8 Chaos Emeralds
World Grand Prix Set:- 7 Chaos Emeralds
Spinball Set:- about 16 Chaos Emeralds
Cocoa Island Set:- 6 Chaos emeralds
Flicky's Island Set:- 7 Chaos Emeralds
Total:- 64 (Plus Master Emerald) Chaos Emeralds. 57 After West Side/Angel sets Fusing

That's a lot of Emeralds. So, we can guess that there isn't anything very special about them. Sure, Chaos Emeralds are rare and powerful, but there is no limit to there number as they are hidden all over the planet. You can probably remove the 16 from Spinball and maybe then the World Grand Prix set because them games aren't Japanese originals, but neither the less, Sega approved and allowed the games, they ARE 'Cannon'. So to wrap up, A Chaos Emerald is a Rare Powerful Gem that are either a left over of an Ancient Race (known which race as the echinda's seam to 'find' them) or a naturally created Gem which have been used throughout the years. They don't HAVE to be green to be emeralds, but it is probably more correct to call them the Chaos Beryls.

But this wouldn't be complete unless I say about all the other Emeralds from other forms of Sonic. In AOSTH, We have 5 Chaos Emeralds (four from the Quest, and one from a later episode) which are all green but different shapes and have different special powers (Invisibly, Invincibly, Immortally, Power of Life, and nothing seams that special about the last). In SU, we only ever see 2 Chaos Emeralds. One is used to Power the Floating Island, the other was used by Robotnik. We have already said in Sonic The Comic there were two sets, but we also find a number of Emerald look-a-likes or name-a-likes (Such as the Black Emerald) which we are unsure what they really are. Later in the Comics life, we find out that the Chaos Emeralds we know, were gems mined and treasured by the echidna Race, but the Drakon Empire (from another dimension) stole some of these gems and made them into the Chaos Emeralds, which were then stolen BACK by the echinda's leading to a war that created a lot of problems (and the Water beast 'Chaos). In Archie Comic's 'Sonic the Hedgehog', Chaos Emeralds keep appearing to change in nature, sometimes they are all green, other times not. This is common with the forever changing and rarely explaining nature of the Archie Sonic Stories. Outside of all these, Chaos Emeralds have appeared in a number of Sonic books by ladybird, most notably 'Sonic the Story', which states Sonic's Origin, and the Adventure game books which have you finding the emeralds, among other things, in the pictures. Chaos Emeralds also appeared in both Fantail's 'Adventure game books', often as Something Robotnik has found and is using, and in Troll's 'Sonic The Hedgehog' book range, in which Robotnik is after the Chaos Emeralds and they are all green in colour.

Before we come to a complete close, here is a list of the Emerald colours at different times. One small problem is that even though the South Island set appears a number of times, the colours seam to change between games. And again, not quite a complete list:

South Island Set- Light Blue, Yellow, Purple, Green, Red, Gray
West Side Island Set- Green, Purple, Gray, Light Blue, Red, Blue, Orange
Flicky Island Set- Red, Yellow, Light Blue, Purple, Green, White, Bluey-green
Cocoa Island Set- Blue, Green, Purple, Red, White, Yellow
Blast 'Brake' set- Gray-> Green, Red, Gray, orange, blue
TT-South Island set- Blue, Gray, Red, Orange, yellow, Gold
STF Set- Blue, Orange, Red, Purple, Yellow, Green, Dark Purple, Light Purple

	The AOSTH Emeralds from 'Quest for the Chaos Emeralds'

it's a bit of a pain, but even emeralds from the same set seam to change colour from game to game. This isn't something that can be explain via some fancy story really (well, not one that would stand up) so let's just say it is due to limits in colours and research mistakes. Should I talk about Emerald wannabes? well.. not really, but here is a little bit. In order to change bits and at the same time, make the story better, the Chaos Emeralds were changed into the 'Time Stones' for Sonic CD. They were the same kind of things, and yet again, Robotnik was going after them to rule the world, but this time there power wasn't to power weapons, but travel though time. In Choatix, there are the Chaos Rings. Colour wise, they are the same and the share the 'Chaos' name. However, this aren't quite explained as well as the Chaos Emeralds.

From a Game point of view, The Chaos Emeralds made a great Collectable item, They could even be the main point of the game in both Story and objective, or an preferred optional extra leading to a good ending. They even allowed special ability (Such as Super Sonic) to be added into the game. Now, none of you should not know what the Chaos Emeralds really are!

Report writen by Manic Man.