Mammoth Mogul

Mammoth Mogul, formerly known as Ixis Mogul when he led the Order of Ixis, is an ancient Mobian who was one of the first to be empowered by the Chaos Emeralds, during the Days of Fury. With a Chaos Emerald embedded in his chest, he gained tremendous power and immortality and decided to use his strength to rule Mobius as an enlightened superior lord. Over the millenia, he honed his Chaos powers and built up an army, only to be defeated by the Albion Knights of Aurora. After this defeat, he underwent temporary hibernation, to emerge in the present day to menace Mobius once again. With powerful Ixis Magicks and a great intellect at his disposal, Mogul has many a time come close to total domination of Mobius. But he has suffered more defeats that victories, especially at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles "Tails" Prower and their allies. This has forced him to come up with a new strategy: "patience." Mogul intends to simply out-live his enemies with his immortality, and in the meantime has set up the Casino Night Club to earn himself a vast income.

Early Years
In the beginning, Mogul was a primitive (now extinct) Mobian mammoth, dwelling among other prehistoric Mobians around the Days of Fury. However, his life was permanently changed during the Coming of the Chaos Emeralds, when a green Chaos Emerald fell from the sky, embedding itself in his chest. Mogul soon found that he had gained tremendous power and intellect from this gem, and decided to rule over his fellow Mobians with this power. However, this was to be short lived, as eventually the other species organised against him, and he was overthrown. Mogul was 100 years old at the time. (SMM)

Mogul then decided to learn about the secrets of the strange gem that had given him his power. And 200 years after his dethroning, he focused his efforts on mastering the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and in the process became master over manipulating its energies. Armed with this knowledge, he made another bid for power, founding the Order of Ixis - an elite order of fellow mages trained in the dark arts he himself had discovered and developed. Some of his acolytes included the elemental mages Suguna, Nusgau, and Agunus, who would later fuse into the being known as Ixis Naugus. (StH: #66, #163)

However, his bid for power was thwarted, as he was opposed by the Echidnas, specifically the Albion Knights of Aurora, and was defeated during a conflict known as the Forgotten War. With all his followers believed destroyed, Mogul disappeared once more, entering some form of hibernation to bide his time until he had an oppurtunity to conquer Mobius once more. (StH: #163)

Return
In modern times, his first attempt at gaining even greater power began with his theft of the Chaos Emerald that served as the power supply for Angel Island. He and his minions, the Fearsome Foursome, briefly engaged the Chaotix only to be driven off, since Mogul was apparently not at the peak of his powers. (SMM)

Calculating that the direct approach would be doomed to failure if attempted again, Mogul used his powers of illusion to pit the Chaotix against the Freedom Fighters and vice versa. Sally Acorn and Archimedes the Fire Ant quickly saw through his deception, though, and Mogul was forced to fight both groups for possession of the Sword of Acorns. Duping them into believing he was dead and tricking the heroes with a false copy of the blade, Mogul retreated to lie low until the he commenced the next phase of his intricate plot. (SSS: #1)



The Sword of Acorns and Master Mogul
The second phase of Mogul's plan began when he freed Knuckles' ancestor Dimitri - who at that time went by the alias of Enerjak - from his exile in space and returned him to Mobius and, during the confusion of Enerjak's attack on Echidnaopolis, used the genuine Sword of Acorns to steal the power of eleven Chaos Emeralds that fueled Enerjak, gaining the practically omnipotent might of twelve Chaos Emeralds and taking the name Master Mogul and claiming once again to be Mobius's ruler. Despite his newfound strength Mogul, while attempting to drain the power from the remaining Emeralds on the Floating Island, found himself challenged by the combined forces of Super Sonic, Turbo Tails, Hyper Knuckles, the Brotherhood of Guardians, the Ancient Walkers and Athair. Despite successfully absorbing the energies of the other Chaos Emeralds, Mogul's power and life force became trapped in the new Master Emerald. Knuckles expressed his concerns about this, but could do nothing about it. (StH: #56, KtE: #9)

Escape From The Master Emerald
Escaping when Dr. Eggman shattered the Master Emerald to feed Chaos, Mogul used the last embers of his power to mortally wound the Ancient Walkers. Following this, Mogul captured Turbo Tails when he was transported by Merlin Prower to fight Chaos Knuckles, while replacing him with an exact duplicate. Over the next few weeks, Mogul slowly sapped Turbo Tails' energy to regain his strength. Eventually he was discovered by the duplicate and Sonic and chased off, freeing Tails and causing the duplicate to disappear. (StH: #79, #94, #114)

Still lacking the power he desired, Mogul went on to lure Chaos Knuckles into a trap. Threatening to cut off the dying Dimitri's life support if he did not capitulate, Chaos Knuckles still refused, threatening to defeat Mogul with his limitless chaos powers. After turning off Dimitri's life support in order to spark a response from Chaos Knuckles, Mogul also activate the room-sized Chaos Syphon. Chaos Knuckles managed to save Dimitri's life using his powers before they were stolen, though ultimately he perished. Mogul had now regained much of his former chaos-powers. (StH: #117, #118)

When Knuckles returned from the afterlife to aid in the battle with the Xorda, it caused an imbalance in the Chaos Force that allowed Mogul to seize complete control of it, becoming seemingly omnipotent once more. Using his revitalized power, Mogul transformed into Master Mogul a second time and started to destroy the multiverse. This time, Mogul was challenged by an army of multi-dimensional Tails counterparts, but was not brought down until Tails merged with them to become the colossal Titan Tails. Reduced once more to his original power level, he was imprisoned within his own Chaos Emerald. (StH: #125, #149, #150)

The Darkest Storm
Mammoth Mogul made his return when the children of Arachne used the Sword of Acorns to cause a dimensional rift leading to the Zone of Silence in the Egg Grape Chambers, killing the Ancient Walkers and breaking their curse on Mogul's Emerald, while at the same time sending all previous prisoners of the chamber to the Zone. At the time, the gem was in Knothole, having been brought there as part of a plan to restore the Walkers' health and keep the villain imprisoned using the Artifacts of Acorn. With the curse gone, Mogul was able to free himself while Tails' uncle, the powerful wizard Merlin Prower was holding his emerald. Despite not being at the peak of his power, Mogul quickly struck Merlin and the Freedom Fighters down and absorbed his emerald once more. (StH: #162)

After liberating the Destructix from jail to serve as his minions, he stole the Crown of Acorns. To everyone's surprise, Mogul was temporarily halted by none other than Ixis Naugus, who hoped to usurp Mogul's powers. Fighting each other to a standstill, Mogul revealed to Naugus his foundation of the Order of Ixis. In a terrible twist of fate for the heroes, Naugus acknowledged Mammoth Mogul's superiority and pledged himself to Mogul's teachings. This granted Mogul control of both the Sword and Crown of Acorns and Naugus' minions, the Arachne. (StH: #163)

Restarting the battle, Mogul became locked in a contest of swordplay with Sir Connery, Paladin of the Ancient Walkers, who channelled his spiritual energy and life force through his Sword of Light to destroy the artifacts of Acorn, vanquishing the corrupted Source of All and diminishing Mogul's power at the cost of his own life. Despite this setback, Mogul prepared himself for a fight with Sonic, only to come under attack from Dr. Eggman's Egg Fleet. Using weapons specially tailored to affect Chaos energy, Robotnik managed to imprison Mogul, Naugus and their minions in another Egg Grape Chamber. (StH: #164)

Rouge the Bat later revealed that Mogul managed to escape, abandoning the still captive Destructix and the expired Arachne and accompanied only by rather dumbed down Naugus. The forsaken criminals were later liberated by the Dark Legion renegade Dr. Finitevus with assistance from Scourge the Hedgehog and Rouge, which is how she learned of Mogul's escape. A.D.A.M. eventually claimed to have released him, granting the Mammoth his freedom in exchange for his Chaos Emerald, which was afterwards verified by Mogul himself. This was part of A.D.A.M.'s larger plan, which involved gathering every Chaos Emerald in the universe. (StH: #165, #169)

Arrest, Captive & Escape
Some time later, Mogul was lured into a sting operation by Rouge the Bat, who had spread word that she had stolen the Master Emerald and was auctioning off the powerful gem. Despite his claims of still being a formidable opponent despite lacking the power of his Emerald, he was still easily defeated by the Freedom Fighters and taken into custody along with Naugus, Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite. (StH: #173)

Mogul and company were then further incarcerated by Eggman when his Egg Fleet launched an assault on Knothole, being among the hundreds captured and sent to the Egg Grapes, though was promptly released along with the others when Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and NICOLE launched a rescue mission following the attack. Not at all repentant, he and Naugus-together with his new minions Nack, Bark, and Bean-demanded to be given control of New Mobotropolis, proclaiming that his rule was preferable to being forced to deal with both him and the approaching Egg Fleet. Unfortunately for his scheme, NICOLE had designed the city in preparation for his return, and Mogul's new alliance was transported to a new prison only moments after being brought to the city. (StH: #175, #176, #177)

Despite this setback, Mogul remained confident, mockingly addressing both Elias Acorn and Amadeus Prower during the king's visit to the imprisoned general and just prior to Amadeus' outbreak. He also joined the other prisoners in watching the battle between Sonic and Tails, betting on Sonic because "he always wins." (StH: #178, #179)

After the second Enerjak was defeated, Mogul invited Sonic to his cell, where he demanded that Sonic release him or suffer the wrath of his new Fearsome Foursome. Mistaking the new group for Mogul's fellow prisoners, Sonic laughed it off, but didn't suspect the truth. At various points in the recent past, Mogul had made contact with Mighty the Armadillo, Mina Mongoose, and Tails, awakening super abilities in the former two and placing hypnotic commands in the minds of each. Using what little power he had left, Mogul took control of the trio, forcing them to attack Sonic so that he could convince Sonic to become the fourth member of the new Fearsome Foursome. Sonic was able to overpower them, however, so Mogul switched tactics. He sent each of the three into a potentially suicidal situation: Mina ran out on the ocean, where she would stop and then drown; Tails flew into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where he would pass out and fall to the ground; and Mighty was sent on a suicide run into New Megaopolis, not even making an effort to resist Robotnik's forces. With no other choice, Sonic gave in to Mogul's demands, bringing him a recently retrieved Chaos Emerald that Mogul then used to free himself and his minions. Mogul then revealed his newest plan: using his regained immortality to wait Sonic out. Having been defeated by Sonic time and again, Mogul had finally realized that he could not defeat Sonic no matter how hard he tried, so he merely decided to limit himself to the occasional small assault and wait to continue his plans to conquer Mobius until Sonic was either dead or too old to oppose him. With that, he and his minions vanished, teleporting away. (StH: #185, #186)

New Agenda
When next seen, Mogul had taken over a casino once owned by Robotnik and established it as his own, hiring old Badniks as his staff. He had also taken over the Last Chance Bar as his casino's kitchen, and his newest "business associates" included not only his fellow escaped prisoners but also the Destructix, who had left Dr. Finitevus. For his first new plan, Mogul directed Bark and Bean to steal Sonic's shoes, and sent the Destructix and Nack along to make sure that the job got done. They ended up capturing Sonic and bringing him back to the casino, where he was soon rescued by Sally, Amy Rose, Geoffrey St. John, and Rouge the Bat, the former two coming after Sally escaped Nack and the latter two having already been investigating Mogul's activities. Freed, Sonic confronted Mogul over the incident, only for Mogul to play the wounded party, claiming that Sonic was just trying to discredit him and pointing out that the good guys had no proof to back up their claims. Defeated, the heroes left with a new idea of one of Mogul's goals: to discredit his enemies while remaining innocent in the public eye. (StH: #187, #188)

Abilities
Thanks to the Chaos Emerald embedded in his chest, Mogul commands Chaos Energy. In order to achieve mastery of this force, he formed the Order of Ixis. As a result, he can also use Ixian Magic on an even higher level than Ixis Naugus. Thanks to these abilities, Mogul is capable of warping reality on a massive scale. Like Shadow the Hedgehog, he is unable to age as a result to tapping into his Chaos Emerald making him immortal, or rather, ageless. The loss of his Chaos Emerald greatly reduced Mogul's strength, making him a far less dangerous opponent; as of recent events, Mogul's powers have been restored upon taking possession of the grey Chaos Emerald.

Mammoth Mogul is also one of the few villains with his own super form. When charged with immense amounts of power, he can become Master Mogul. This has happened on various occasions, the first time being when he used the Sword of Acorns to drain the powers of Enerjak, thus giving himself the power of 12 Chaos Emeralds. Later, Mammoth Mogul absorbed the power of Chaos Knuckles, and thanks to that was able to assume complete command of the Chaos Force. In his second appearance, Mogul had the power to crush entire universes with his bare hands.

Being a mammoth, Mogul is also stronger than the average Mobian, which is only enhanced by his powers. However, Mogul's most dangerous "muscle" is his brain; as a genius of caliber equal or greater to Dimitri and Doctor Eggman, Mammoth Mogul poses a threat to anyone he pits himself against. Mogul's mentral prowess is demonstrated to deadly effect through his numerous mental abilities, such as telepathy or creating illusions (the latter of which he once used to trick the Chaotix and Freedom Fighters into attacking each other.) For a time, these powers were greatly diminished by the loss of his Chaos Emerald, to the point where he could no longer affect anyone but beings who had already been affected by those abilities, which are marked by a green diamond shape on their foreheads, though it is likely that he can now affect anyone with his psychic powers now that he has a new Emerald.

Personality
Egotistical to a fault, Mogul sees himself as the end all of intelligence and power. While not obsessed with himself, he sees all other entities as lower forms of life, useful only as pawns in his schemes for power. Mogul also cares nothing for such pawns, and is perfectly willing to kill them to achieve what he wants. Combined with a total lack of care for any of his minions, this makes working for him unappealing, and only his sheer power and the benefits he offers hold the loyalty of those who serve him. He thinks himself infallible, and always refuses to believe that he can be defeated even when the odds are clearly against him. Even when imprisoned, he refuses to admit defeat, and is always ready with a taunt for his enemies. At the same time, Mogul is courteous and cultured-for a villain, anyway. Mogul's immortality has also given him a great degree of patience. Since time is one of the things he always has, he is not prone to brash decisions that could be carefully waited for a more opportune moment, or when things will turn more in his favor. He is also well known for being overly verbose, which Sonic has commented on many times.

Background Information

 * Mogul seems to be heavily derived from the Marvel Comics and DC villians, Kingpin and Lex Luther respectfully: Both wear fancy, upper-class clothing, both have tremendous assets at their disposal, both consider themselves highly cultured, both are masterminds when it comes to planing an attack on their enemies, and, recently in Mogul's case, both take great efforts to make themselves untouchable by the law. His claim as a reformed legitimate business man is also similar to the DCAU version of the Penguin.
 * His origin and history are also somewhat similar to that of DC villain Vandal Savage: both achieved "immortality" after coming in contact with a meteorite, both have played significant roles throughout history, and both are out to achieve world domination. His former power over an army of magic users makes him a couterpart to dark wizards like Lord Voldermort from the Harry Potter series.
 * His name is similar to Gorilla Grodd, another intelligent animal villian from DC.
 * Given that he could be held responsible for Knuckles' death, Mogul is considered one of the few villains to have ever killed one of the main heroes in the various Sonic the Hedgehog series.
 * Though he has not as yet been seen to have any counterparts in alternate Zones or possible futures, Mogul did serve as the inspiration for Mog the Troll in a fairy tale told by Rosie to Rory, Snaggle, and Sasha.