Tikal/Pre-SGW

Tikal is an ancient Echidna and daughter of Chief Pachacamac. She was a member of the Knuckles Clan who colonized an area of Soumerca known as the Mysterious Cat Country. Tikal was responsible for imprisoning Chaos within the Black Emerald, at the cost of having to imprison herself as well. She later assisted Knuckles the Echidna and others in defeated Chaos when he was liberated by Dr. Eggman. Following this, she along with Chaos and the Seven Server Chao returned to their own zone within the Black Emerald.

Discovering the Chao
Tikal was born to Pachacamac, the chief of the Knuckles Clan, one of the two castes of Echidnas that settled in the lands of the Felidae in Soumerca. Sadly, the Felidae didn't take kindly to the Echidna intrusion, and the Knuckles Clan came into conflict with the Nocturnus Clan of Echidnas as well, leading to a three-way war. While exploring a mysterious altar in the Mystic Ruins, Tikal discovered seven Chao along with Chaos, the Black Emerald, and a group of Chaos Emeralds. Due to her pacifist beliefs, passed on to her by her grandmother, she possessed a gentle nature that earned her the trust of her newfound friends. When her clan's war with the native Felidae and their rival Nocturnus Clan went badly, her father desired to use the Chaos Emeralds' power to turn the tides and win the war. Tikal got in the way, saying "Greed is our enemy. Once it starts, you will always want more! Please, don't do this! I beg of you!" However, Pachacamac ignored his daughter's pleas and ordered his men to charge in. Enraged by this, Chaos used his powers to wipe out the entire Knuckles Clan. Because Chaos had become corrupted himself, Tikal and the Seven Server Chao realized Chaos needed to be stopped. Learning of his weakness, Tikal imprisoned herself and Chaos within the Black Emerald, while the Seven Servers transformed into the Super Emeralds. (StH: #82, SSS: #13, SSSM: #2, CSE)

Release and Aiding the Heroes
Hundreds of years later, Chaos was released by the mad dictator Dr. Eggman, who sought to use Chaos' powers to destroy Station Square and take over the planet. After cracking open the Black Emerald, Chaos escaped, but Tikal also escaped as a result. Realizing the threat Chaos posed to the world if he again became corrupt, Tikal, now in the form of a small, floating orb, sought out the help of Knuckles the Echidna. (StH: #79)

After finding him, Tikal explained the history of Chaos and herself, and worked with him to prevent the Chaos Emeralds from falling into the hands of Dr. Eggman. However, although Chaos was temporarily defeated, he managed to located and absorb the seven Super Emeralds, transforming into Perfect Chaos and flooding all of Station Square. It was then that Tikal showed her history to Sonic the Hedgehog before appearing to him, Knuckles and the Knothole Freedom Fighters in her Echidna form. Using an ancient ritual, Tikal managed to weaken Perfect Chaos enough to pull out the seven Super Emeralds. She then used its positive energies to transform Sonic into Super Sonic. (StH: #82, #83)

After Super Sonic defeated Perfect Chaos with Knuckles' help, the water monster returned to its "Zero" form, and the Seven Servers emerged from Chaos, Tikal then used her powers to transport herself, Chaos and the Seven Server Chao into their own zone within the Black Emerald once again. (StH: #84)

In the altered timeline created when Mobius was rewritten by the second Genesis Wave, Tikal once again appeared to aide Sonic in defeating Chaos. (MM: #27)

Personality
Thanks to her grandmother's upbringing, Tikal is a devout pacifist, the total opposite of her deceased clan members and particularly her father. While she abhors fighting, she is also a strong defender of truth and peace, and is not above helping others fight to protect Mobius. She loved her people despite their warlike ways, and attempted to sway them from their destructive path; having failed, she determined to insure that they would be the only victims of Chaos' wrath. Despite Chaos' dangerous, powerful nature, she continues to consider him a friend, and wants nothing more than to calm any anger he might display so that he might find peace.

Abilities
The full extent of Tikal's abilities is unknown, but she is obviously possessed of a connection to the Chaos Force. Through it, she was able to seal herself and Chaos within the Black Emerald, and later communicate with Knuckles. She was also able to use a ritual which was later named for her, Tikal's Prayer, to weaken Perfect Chaos enough to release the Super Emeralds from him.

Appearance
Tikal was once an orange-furred Echidna girl with cobalt eyes, physically in her teens-years at the time of her demise. During that period, she wore a tanktop-like garment which revealed her midriff and the traditional tribal dress with beige, green, and red triangular patterns. As a sign of her royal lineage, she wore a golden necklace and tiara-like band atop her forehead, both of which were decorated with a blue jewel in the center. Her white gloves were adorned with thick, cobalt-blue bracelets around her wrists, and she wore white-strapped sandals. Her dreadlocks were also wrapped with similar white bandages.

In her spiritual form, she appeared either as a bright pink orb of light which hovered in midair, or as a full-bodied apparition resembling her once-physical self.

Background information

 * In the games and every other media Tikal appeared in, her fur was orange while in the comics it was red in the first issue, and tan-pink everywhere else. In her first appearance, she had a full head of hair and bangs on her forehead, but this was only in one issue. To make matters worse, her design in the flashback changes from a design similar to her game counterpart, to a version with a different hairstyle, a made up wardrobe, and no forehead jewelery, the change taking place during a very short battle. In her more recent appearances, she looked more like her game counterpart, but with the wrong footwear. Given the rush job of that story arc, these inconsistencies can be somewhat forgiven. Her appearances and name in the Sonic X comic remained consistent with her game counterpart.
 * There are multiple instances of her name being misspelled as "Tical", including StH: #83, #84, SSS: #13, and even the letter pages for SSS: #15.
 * Tikal is also unusual in the Pre-SGW world because she is one of two known female Echidnas without a hyphenated name (the other being Shade), which is an otherwise customary trait in Echidna society. In reality, this is because her name comes from the video games, which did not apply the hyphenated name formula; there is no given storyline explanation.
 * Tikal also did not appear canonically-apart from a brief mention-in the Worlds Collide crossover, despite Chaos being featured in that arc. This fact was acknowledge in the Off Panel for SU #53, where Wily questions what happened to Tikal and is assured that she is no threat, only for her to be seen "counseling" the Yellow Devil.
 * As mentioned above, Tikal is one of the few SEGA characters from the comics whose biological family was created for the video game continuity, a trait shared with Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Cream the Rabbit and Jet the Hawk.