A Chaos Emerald is a mystic item that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, allowing the holder of all seven of them to achieve ultimate power, and certain characters from the Sonic world can transform into a "super" form as a result of this (see Super Sonic). Each emerald is composed of positive and negative charged materials which make them an everlasting source of energy and allow them to float.
Sonic and Knuckles only use the positive charged part of the emerald to transform, which is demonstrated by Sonic at the end of Sonic Adventure. Knuckles has only been able to transform in Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Tails was also able to attain a super form with the use of the Super Emeralds (which are a Master Emerald impowered Chaos Emeralds) in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
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 whole entire universe; except perhaps by the Master Emerald, which is just as powerful as all seven Chaos Emeralds.
The Chaos Emeralds appear as plot points in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. In Sonic Adventure, the Chaos Emeralds were collected by Dr. Robotnik in order to feed Chaos, a water beast that changed form every time it received a Chaos Emerald. With all seven it became Perfect Chaos, and used all of the negative energy in the emeralds before dropping them onto the ground. Sonic then picked all seven up and used the positive energy to become Super Sonic and defeat 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, hinting at some untold power ("it has the same wavelength and properties", according to Tails, but it's less powerful than a real Emerald). Shadow collected the Emeralds for Dr. Eggman to power the space colony ARK, at which point Biolizard took over the station. Biolizard became FinalHazard, and then Sonic and Shadow had to team up and use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into their all-powerful, invincible forms, Super Sonic and Super Shadow, and destroy FinalHazard. This is the only game where, in the character's "Super" form, picking up rings is not necessary - though they are depleted over time, the character not being currently played is allegedly picking up rings while the other fights.
In Sonic Heroes, the gameplay is more retro, so it goes back to a way of collecting the Chaos Emeralds in special stages to unlock the Last Stage. In that, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails charged up Chaos energy, while the others bought them time by fighting Metal Sonic in the last story. Team Sonic then became Team Super Sonic and destroyed Metal Overlord.
In the Shadow the Hedgehog game, the Emeralds were found throughout the stages again, and Shadow collected all seven at the end of the game, only to let them be stolen by Black Doom, who used them so he could use Chaos Control to teleport the Black Comet to Earth's surface. Shadow then got the Chaos Emeralds back and became Super Shadow to kill Black Doom and teleport the Black Comet into space to be destroyed by Space Colony ARK's Eclipse Cannon.
The Chaos Emeralds in themselves are usually used for weapons of mass destruction (in Robotnik's case), Chaos powers, and for Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow to become Super Knuckles, Super Sonic, and Super Shadow. The Super Emeralds allowed Tails to become Super Tails.
Super Emeralds
The Super Emeralds are a set of seven emeralds that transformed from the Chaos Emeralds with the help of the Master Emerald, which made their appearance in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. These are grey, and Sonic and company have to step on them and play through Super Special Stages similar to the first game 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 holograms of each character follow them as they run. Hyper Sonic glows the colours 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 that sends him forward and creates a flash which destroys all the enemies on the screen. As Hyper Knuckles, you glide and climb much faster. While gliding, if you hit a wall, you will do the Hyper Quake, in which it destroys all on-screen enemies.
The Super Emeralds have not been seen since. However some speculate in Sonic Adventure at the Master Emerald shrine in Tikal's time period the emeralds are indeed the Super Emeralds. Their size are roughly the same size as Sonic or Knuckles, while the Chaos emeralds are about the size of their hands. However this has not been made official nor has been denied either.
Master Emerald
The Master Emerald is a large, green emerald depicted in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game and comic series.
Origin
Little is known about the origin of the Master Emerald except that it resides in a shrine on Angel Island for an unspecified amount of time, guarded by Knuckles the Echidna. We know its been in existence for atleast more then 2000 years (the time of the echidna clan was thriving), and whos main controller is the being known as Chaos, who controls the chaos emeralds as well.
Purpose
The Master Emerald contains an amount of power equal to the seven Chaos Emeralds (some even say it contains twice as much power as all seven of the chaos emeralds together)[to enable hyper-forms], and is used to keep Angel Island afloat in the sky. The Emerald also has the power to fully control everything that the Chaos Emeralds do, so if it wanted to, it wouldn't have to make them float and such. The Emerald also possesses the ability to negate the effects of the Chaos Emeralds, meaning it can stop the energy of the Chaos Emeralds. However it is still yet to be seen if Super Sonic would revert back to normal Sonic if the emerald is used on him. Though it is possible the negation works both ways, since Angel Island fell when Knuckles brought 6 Chaos Emeralds to the Master Emerald shrine. The Master Emerald can also be used to turn into a character's super form, but this was only shown once in Sonic 3 & Knuckles when Mecha Sonic turned into Super Mecha Sonic using the Master Emerald during Knuckles' final boss fight for the Master Emerald.
Role in the Story
First appearing in Sonic & Knuckles The Master Emerald would go on to play a crucial role throughout the rest of the series.
Sonic & Knuckles
The Master Emerald could be seen early in this game using to create the aforementioned Super Emeralds if the player accessed Special Zones. Regardless of this, it would appear later being stolen by Doctor Robotnik to power his Death Egg. It was retrieved (at length) by Sonic or Tails (depending on the player's choice) and returned to Angel Island.
In Knuckles' play through (which follows on after Sonic or Tails') the Master Emerald is again stolen, this time by one of Eggman's remaining badniks, although it seems to have been part of a deal with Mecha Sonic, who uses the Master Emerald to significantly augment his powers (essentially becoming "Super Mecha Sonic") although he is defeated by Knuckles (during the times when Mecha Sonic had to go back to the Emerald to recharge, since he didn't have the power to absorbe it into his being), who again retrieves the Emerald.
Sonic Adventure
The Master Emerald appeared again in Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast, where it was again shown keeping Angel Island afloat. The emerald also held within it the ancient monster known as Chaos (the god of chaos and destruction and the ultimate contoller of the master emerald and the chaos emeralds) and an echidna girl called Tikal. In the game, it was shattered by Dr. Robotnik, causing Angel Island to fall.
Sonic Adventure 2
The Master Emerald was again a source of contention as Knuckles fought with Rouge the Bat for possession of it. Eggman tried to steal it again while they were distracted, but Knuckles voluntarily shattered the Emerald in order to keep it out of his hands. Knuckles and Rouge then set off separately to gather the shards of the emerald for their own reasons.
Once all the pieces had been collected they were reformed by Knuckles. When ARK started to fall (due to an automatic system when all the seven Chaos Emeralds were gathered in the central control room), Knuckles used the Master Emerald to try to stop the disaster in the Eclipse Cannon's Core, which resembled the Emerald Shrine on Angel Island.
Sonic Heroes
The Master Emerald was mentioned by Rouge the Bat in the last movie of Team Dark's story. She says she "might as well go after that Master Emerald, since that annoying ECHIDNA is here!" Shadow responds, saying, "Some things never change, do they?"
Sonic Battle
When Sonic went to fight Emerl on the Death Egg, he brought the Master Emerald with him, hoping it would negate the Chaos Emeralds that powered Emerl. However, the Master Emerald was shattered by the teleportation to the Death Egg. It is not explained why it shattered or if it was put together again, but it most likely was.
Size Dispute in Sonic Adventure Series
The Master Emerald's size and shape seems to change over time. It is most definitely bigger than Knuckles in Sonic Adventure, but about the same size in Sonic Adventure 2 (some even suggest the Emerald stretches at the end of Sonic Adventure). Then, after Knuckles restores it at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, he pulls it out of his person to explain how to use it to stop the ARK from plummeting to Earth, and it's about the size of his hand (some suggest he has the ability to shrink it down to a portable size). Then, after Shadow defeats the Biolizard, Knuckles puts the Master Emerald into the core and it's slightly bigger than Knuckles. The two games also have a slight color difference - Sonic Adventure features a more opaque, darker green, while Sonic Adventure 2 features a clearer, lighter, transparent green.
Sol Emeralds
A set of Chaos Emeralds from another dimension that are slightly weaker than the orginals, the Sol Emeralds are guarded by Blaze the Cat. They are basically identical to the Chaos Emeralds, right down to being able to make someone go Super however they are square unlike the pointed shape of chaos emeralds. 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. This ability has only been used by Blaze to transform into Super Blaze, or some argue that her name should be Sol Blaze. As far as it is known, there is no Master Sol Emerald.
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 Emeralds and tried to steal them for himself, but Chaos absorbed the power of the Emeralds and became Perfect Chaos, before 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. 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 official Sega 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. 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).
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.
Emerald Colors
In the original Sonic the Hedgehog, the emeralds were blue, yellow, red, green, pink and grey. A seventh, purple emerald then materialised in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with no explanation (the UK fiction, see below, attempted to explain this by saying that Dr. Kintobor had not discovered the seventh emerald prior to the first game, but in said fiction, the seventh Emerald was the grey emerald). In Sonic Spinball all of the Chaos Emeralds are blue and have a different shape. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the pink emerald was replaced with a light blue one, and the yellow emerald became distinctly more orange. In Sonic Adventure the orange Emerald returned to being yellow. The colors of the Emeralds in the games have remained constant since. The final colors are Blue, Light Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Gray, and Purple. In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series by Archie Comics, green is the color of all Chaos Emeralds (though one issue briefly mentioned the notion of red Chaos Emeralds). However, in Sonic Battle, all the Chaos Emeralds are green, most likely because Sonic Team didn't see the need in making the Emerald sprites different colors, as you only saw them briefly.
Chaos Emeralds in the Comics
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 energy source, dubbed "chaos," the Drakons raided the Echidnas' emerald mines, and infused eight of the emeralds with the chaos. Exposure to the Emeralds mutated a Drakon into the creature known as Chaos, who was sealed away by the Echidnas. The Echidnas then appointed Knuckles to guard the Emeralds.
What follows is undocumented. The Echidna race mysteriously vanished, Knuckles was apparently put into some form of stasis, and the power of six of the emeralds was divided, creating another set of six. These six emeralds came to be littered across Mobius.
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, of course, 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 stabilise 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 - 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 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, of course, when Sonic successfully thwarted Robotnik's first attempt to take over Mobius, he also reclaimed the emeralds. Bringing them together in his underground base, another facet of their power was revealed - unstable, if brought together, the emeralds would radiate chaos energy, and create a spatial warp that thrust them into the alternate dimension called the Special Zone. This first warp turned Sonic into Super Sonic for the first time, and discoloured the emeralds, each one taking on a different colour - red, yellow, green, pink, blue and purple (the comic often portrays the pink emerald as orange).
During Robotnik's second attempt to conquer Mobius, Sonic used Star Posts to enter the Special Zone and reclaim the emeralds. Subsequently, he kept them in the Frozen Zone, where the sub-zero temperatures rendered them inactive, preventing the spatial warp. When they were stolen by Captain Plunder and his Sky Pirates, the emeralds absorbed the pirates' evil, so Sonic had no trouble in reclaiming them, keeping them in a refrigerated box at his headquarters.
When Doctor Robotnik encountered Knuckles the Echidna, he claimed Sonic had stolen the Emeralds, and Knuckles was able to reclaim them, reintegrating them with the other six on the Floating Island. 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 Knuckles had the grey emerald in his possession, using it to stop Robotnik.
The seven Emeralds were returned to the Hidden Palace Zone on the Floating Island, where, along with the largest emerald, the Master Emerald, they regained their full power and returned to their original, large size. Doctor Robotnik sought to use the Master Emerald as the power core for his new Death Egg, but his plans were thwarted by Sonic and Knuckles.
The emeralds were able to subsequently remain safe on the Floating Island, bar some attempts by Doctor Robotnik to steal them. When Robotnik's assistant Grimer unleashed the Chaos creature, which headed straight for the Floating Island, and absorbed the blue emerald into itself. Knuckles was forced to jettison the remaining emeralds, and without their power, the Floating Island crashed to Mobius and sank into the ocean. Doctor Robotnik - by this point suicidally insane - gathered the emeralds to draw Chaos and Sonic to his lab, where they would all die together, but Chaos was stopped and the emeralds were saved.
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. They are tied to the mysterious mystical beings known as the Ancient Walkers, three dinosaur-like beings that wear masks and have amazing powers. However, in contradiction to this, 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 - a more scientific origin than a mystical one. It has yet to be revealed whether or not there is more to their story or not.
In addition, there exist 7 "Super Emeralds", which were revealed to be the transformed form of the 7 Chao that were guarded by the being known as Chaos. 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. There is also a special Black Chaos Emerald that served as the containment area for Chaos.
Finally, while on an alien world, Sonic discovered red colored Chaos Emeralds, which rather than transform him into Super Sonic, created a mad, crazed Super Sonic that was independent of Sonic's body.
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 colours 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 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 anscestors) 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 it failed and Sonic formed an idea. Completely ignoring the rules of paradox, the duo manages to gather their past selves 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. Oddly, when Sonic stole the Emeralds from Supreme High Robotnik, he should have become his Super form (like Robotnik had done) but he didn't. In fact, none of the emerald powers worked on Sonic while he held them, apart from Invisibility, though in part two Tails used the Invincibility Emerald's powers to take out Scratch and Grounder while Sonic jousted with Robotnik. In part 3, Sonic's mummified ancestor had a different emerald which, when given to Sonic, created a shield which protected Sonic so that he could take on Robotnikhotep (Robotnik's ancestor). One possible explanation for these events is that it was possible to harness only the powers that were needed - since Robotnik wanted world domination, he used all four. There was never any need for Sonic to do this, so he uses only one or two.
Artificial Emeralds
It is possible to create synthetic Chaos Emeralds with the same power levels and abilites as the originals. This has been proven by Tails in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle 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.