Chaos Emerald

Chaos Emeralds are magical gemstones containing infinite power. They previously existed all over the universe, until the Great Harmony, caused by the Chosen One, sent all of them into the Zone of Silence. The thousands of existing Chaos Emeralds were then merged by Feist to form seven different coloured emeralds: peridot (green), aquamarine (cyan), sapphire (blue), ruby (red), amethyst (purple), topaz (yellow), and diamond (gray). Chaos Emeralds have been the center of conflict on Mobius for thousands of years, from Forgotten War during the reign of Mammoth Mogul and his Order of Ixis ten thousand years ago, to the recent battles against Dr. Ivo Robotnik's ten year domination of the planet.

Arrival of the Chaos Emeralds

 * See: Coming of the Chaos Emeralds

The origin of the Chaos Emeralds remains a mystery. The arrival of the green Chaos Emeralds on Mobius came thousands of years after the Xorda attacked the planet with Gene Bombs, which resulted in billions of tons of ash being hurled into the air, blocking out the sunlight. Nearly 2,000 years later, the sun finally broke through the dirt and ash. Around this period in time, the first primitive species on, the Mobosaurs, emerged. However, the green Chaos Emeralds mysteriously reigned down on the planet, causing disasterious weather anomolies which wiped out all of the Mobosaurs with the exception of the Ancient Walkers and Mammoth Mogul, who had become demi-god like figures as a result of the Chaos Emeralds' powers. (StH: #148, TMS: #3, SMM)
 * Although the robot Isaac claimed that the green Chaos Emeralds were a bi-product of the gene bomb's radiation reacting with beryl deposits beneath the planet's surface, this theory has been considered false as it does not account for how the other Chaos Emeralds could have been created. However, other details, such as the effects of the Xorda attack causing the Days of Fury, are considered canon.

Creation of the Floating Island

 * See: Angel Island

Over 400 years ago, the Echidna scientists Kayla-La and Jordann discovered a White comet on a collision course with their city Echidnaopolis. The High Council accepted Kayla-La's proposal to use the power of twelve Chaos Emeralds to lift their city off the surface of Mobius into the sky. The comet struck the city's former site on the continent of Downunda, after the city had safely ascended into the sky. Some time later, the two scientists' great-great grandchildren, Edmund and Dimitri decided on a plan to slowly drain the power of the emeralds to lower Echidnaopolis back into its former site on the planet. Unfortunately, the Chaos Syphon created by the scientist brothers ended up sending the power into Dimitri, when he attempted to proceed with the plan despite the High Council's vote against it. All but one of the twelve emeralds were destroyed as a result, though this one emerald managed to keep the island afloat. (StH: #35, KtE: #1, KMS: #1, #2, #3)

The Great Harmony

 * See: The Great Harmony

When A.D.A.M. enacted his plan to draw all of the Chaos Emeralds from around the universe to Mobius, his plans ultimately allowed Tails, the "Chosen One", to fulfill the prophecy of producing the Great Harmony. While A.D.A.M. was distracted, Shadow assisted Tails and opening a portal to the Zone of Silence. There, Tails sent all of the Chaos Emeralds where they would be safe and out of reach from villains, thus fulfilling the prophecy set out by the Ancient Walkers. (StH: #169)

Merge Into Seven
Shortly after being sent into the Zone of Silence, every Chaos Emerald was fused together with the other emeralds of the same color by Feist, (the Mobian trapped inside the Zone), creating the actual seven Chaos Emeralds and giving him god-like power in that Zone; using that power, Feist reshaped the Zone of Silence into the renamed "Special Zone". Feist now presents challenges to those who wish to obtain one of the seven emeralds (StH: #170, SU: #4). As of StH 218 there are still 4 Emeralds in Feist possession, while the Gray is in Mogul's hand and the Green and the Red have been taken by G.U.N. In StH 219 Sonic will travel to the Special Zone again.

Powers
Each of the emeralds contain vast quantities of pure Chaos energy, highly potent and powerful. The current power levels after the merging is unknown but most likely incomprehensibly great. Alone they enhance and empower the holder, together they have theoretically unlimited potential and can induce super transformations.


 * Writer Ian Flynn has said before that each Chaos Emerald started with infinite power and that has not changed despite the thousands of Chaos Emeralds have now merged into seven, saying "There's nothing to be gained when you already have everything." (1)

Background information

 * Emerald is the name of a specific gem of the beryl variety, a family known for its wide array of possibly colours. "Emerald" (pronounced "emerarudo") is also used in Japan as a generic term for jewels.
 * "Chaos" in the English language means disorder and an irregular, unpredictable action that was remarkably sensitive to regular changes in environment, similar to how the Chaos Emeralds in the series act. "Chaos" as used in Greek refers to a large emptiness, or space. "Space" in English came to be a general term meaning both everything outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and the placement of objects in relation to one another.

Origin Controversy

 * The origins of the Chaos Emeralds on Mobius and the other planets is rather questionable, due to the revelation that remarkably-similar Chaos Emeralds existed all over the universe, including within the heart of a star and on the home planet of the Xorda themselves. The Gene Bomb origin story does not account for these Emeralds, nor for the Green Emeralds that exist in Mobius's pocket dimensions. The most current storywriter, Ian Flynn, has very solidly denounced the "Xorda Gene Bomb" origin for the Chaos Emeralds and has purposefully left their origin vague and untouched, so as to accentuate their "mystical qualities" and leave it open for interpretation by the reader. Thus, the "Gene Bomb" theory is considered not-canon by this website's policy, though other details provided by Isaac about Mobius' history are, as there is no contrary evidence to these in the books.


 * User BobR revealed on Ken Pender's message board their intended explanation for the various Chaos Emeralds:
 * Emeralds are crystals of the mineral beryl, a silicate of beryllium, aluminum, silicon, and oxygen. On earth conditions have to be just right to form an emerald. Thanks to the Xorda's power source in their Gene Bomb, the earth was subjected to a massive energy wave that acted the same as a seed crystal to start the transformation of earth's beryl deposits into their crystalline form. But this crystal wasn't forming a natural emerald crystal matrix pattern. Instead its matrix formed in such a way that the crystal was able to tap into the zero-point energy that is available at every point in the universe. An unlimited source of power fed by the chaotic energies of the universe. A Chaos Emerald. 


 * The power of a Chaos emerald has been described as being infinite. But the mistake being made by those familiar with the emeralds was that the emeralds themselves contained the power. They did not. They merely acted as a resonating chamber, tapping the virtually limitless power of zero-point energy. When an emerald has power drawn from it, the crystal structure taps this energy, acting as a conductor into the physical world. But, if too much power is drawn from the emerald, the crystal matrix begins to breakdown, and the power available from the crystal drops to nothing. It appears the crystal had been "drained", but more technically correct is that it had become de-crystallized.


 * While Chaos emeralds are usually green, it's not the only color they can appear as. Other crystals of beryl include aquamarine (blue), heliodore (yellow to yellow-orange), morganite (pink), goshenite (transparent or white), and bixbite (red). The color of the crystal depends upon the "contamination" element mixed with the beryl. For normal green emeralds, that element is chromium or vanadium. Red beryl (bixbite) comes from a manganese contamination. Blue beryl or aquamarine contaminant is iron, and so forth. Thus it would be possible to have Chaos "emeralds" of colors other than green, as all use beryl as the base material. It also explains why the different color crystals would have differing effects. Each contamination element would "color" the energy transmitted by the crystal.

However, this explanation is not considered canon.