The Trinegate Universe
A/U Specs - My "Sonic" Universe

Introduction
Writing for this theme is, for me, outlandish.  Though not a new approach, an elaborate public compellation remains both challenging and unconventional in my circumstance.  It is, however, the most ideal solution given particular considerations.

This text is equally comprehensive and lengthy.  Canon has been altered and a new systematic back-story written.  Be warned, if you crave only Sonic canon or you dislike the franchise, expect to have an aversion to this manuscript.  This literary file is provided to accompany a series of planned character drawings and any as yet undetermined fan-fictions.

One point must be clear from the outset.  This is NOT in itself a fan-fiction "story".  It is inspiration and background which, hopefully, will prove informative.


Beginnings
As a long-standing fan of the original Sonic titles, my first encounter derived from a friend’s SEGA Genesis nearly two decades ago.

We typically enjoyed a child’s diversions.  Action figures engaged in epic battles on the garden rocks or in the crumbling fortresses of the backyard sandbox.  We explored the dark worlds of red soil and deep pits in the alley.

Other activities might have included a bicycle or old fashioned skateboard and scooter.  Once, his dad even aided in the construction of a playhouse over the sandbox, a towering headquarters in our eyes.

And on occasion, we were permitted to enjoy the thrills of his Nintendo Entertainment System.  The adventures of Mario were our first taste of an action-adventure genre that has grown obsolete in the modern cinematic styles.

Later, my friend’s parents purchased a SEGA Genesis, our introduction to a peculiar blue hedgehog with super-sonic powers.

Both consoles are primeval by modern standards.  Nevertheless, fond memories remain for those products.  We found entertainment within those two-dimensional worlds and a freedom to create our own stories.

Limitless antics in the backyard or alley found us trapped by robotic foes and searching for the best solutions available.  Oddly, neither of us assumed a given persona.  We were merely a part of the story.

Other Sonic games have developed through the years, but none are as prominent as the first two.  In total, four titles have found their way into my experience.  Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic R, and Sonic Adventure.

Given the nature and quantity of sequels multiplied by the competing regional markets, the canon itself has mutated.  Company policies have changed and thus tampered with the plots present in the American conversions.  Further, separate but associated television programming and comic books have been woven into the pattern.

Influences are grand in stature and supply.  Yet the tale for which this document is intended stands alone.  This file is a sign post for weary travelers.  It is a guide book to a darker universe.  Familiar but alien, this is my universe.

It is a product of maturation.  This canon is its own.  However, its influences must be addressed.  If the reader so desires, the following section may be skipped in favor of the one titled “A Whole New Mobius”.


Sonic Revisited
Looking at the original games and comparing them to the modern console, PC, and handheld releases is daunting.  The story has been transformed, morphed into an altogether different creation.

Nevertheless, there are certain key aspects that remain constant.  For instance, Doctor Robotnik/Eggman is a villain.  Sonic, a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, is the protagonist.  And Mobius is the setting of many imperative, universe shifting battles.

A fan-fiction A/U must follow the same principals to remotely qualify as worthy media.  Inspiration is crucial to the concepts contained herein.

The innovative design for Sonic and the entire Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was never intended as a science fiction masterpiece.  Sonic was deliberate marketing, a concept to sell video games to minors.  He remains a cartoon character and profitable mascot, a replacement for Alex Kidd as the flagship series.

Recent releases have witnessed a deliberate shift to story driven game play.  Moreover, SEGA has endeavored fusion of a collection of regional campaigns.

SEGA has been divided into geographic divisions for years and products such as SATAM were the outcome of the western divisions and mythos.  Elsewhere, the names and stories were vaguely but fundamentally dissimilar.  Amalgamation has produced some discrepancies that are deliberately overlooked.

Even so, this A/U more accurately remains the consequence of a boy growing up.  Discrepancies are immaterial to this legend.  Only the ideology is pertinent.

Sonic the Hedgehog (games)
The early titles were enjoyable, based upon simplistic goals.  They offered a form of side-scroller game play that remains creative today.  Yet the underlying plot was a standard world domination power struggle.

Rings appeared in each progressive “ACT”, but served no driving purpose.  They were of a nature akin to the gold coins of Super Mario Bros, but assumed a more prominent role in strategy.  Wildly scattered, the rings were collected to increase the score and unlock the Chaos Emerald courses.  As a bonus, collecting rings would help protect the player from enemy attacks.

Chaos emeralds also only received lip-service in the original titles.  Collecting all seven unleashed Super Saiyen powers with-in the bearer.

Racing through each course, ultimately the player fought a number of the villain’s machines.  Consequently, Sonic liberated the entire rodent and bird population of the planet.

Newer titles have changed names, introduced new characters, and added more extensive settings.  Sonic has learned new moves, and the battles are more central to the plot.  Exploration is important to the story, but racing through outrageous courses remains the prevalent tool.

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Television)
The first of its kind, Adventures is the most accurate representation of the early Sonic titles.  Landscapes are abstract and violence is child-friendly.  Doctor Robotnik is comical, relatively comparable to such cartoon villains as Snidely Whiplash and Wyle E Coyote.

Running gags include clumsy robots and an absolute obsession with chili dogs rivaling the “soda madness” of our old BWL Half-Life Image Stories.

Stories are limited to simplified world domination archetypes.  The villain is an oppressive tyrant desperate to conquer the planet by defeating the heroes.  The heroes, in turn, are freedom fighters that spend their days preserving freedom for all.

Sonic the Hedgehog (SATAM)
The second television series, SATAM (shorthand for Saturday Morning) spins a considerably darker yarn of conquest and submission.  Sonic is joined by a team of “Freedom Fighters” that struggle to live under the oppressive thumb of a cruel despot.

Mostly teenagers, the heroes have lost friends and family to the villain’s technology and must cope with growing up in a blackened world called Mobius.  Robotnik has effectively committed vivicide (the removal of life/all life) even though his victims are considered merely enslaved.

Sonic SATAM is easily the most crucial inspiration for the A/U addressed in this document.  Without the darker series, personal interest might never have developed for this story.

Though still a cartoon in nature, particularly in resolution of major plot devices, SATAM stands as an icon of story-telling.

Sonic Underground (Television)
Less involved, the third animated program plays virtually no role in the enlargement of the subject A/U.  The plot is nearly identical to the other titles in its fundamental core, but follows a marginally different approach.

Sonic has been given two siblings with whom he forms a rock-band.  The trio happens to be overthrown royalty that must defeat Robotnik to reclaim their crowns.  Equipped with magical instruments that double as weapons, they set out on perilous adventures and musical performances.

Sonic X
Based upon Sonic Adventure for SEGA Dreamcast (and its successors), the fourth television series does not interact with the subject A/U.  Though the series is predominantly true to its inspiration, it is the product of previously mentioned combined regional product lines.

Doctor Eggman is retro-formed to a mad scientist role.  Merely an aspiring tyrant, he battles Sonic in a bid for world domination of Mobius.  A bid that in due course strands the cast on earth.  The cartoon imagery strengthens in this title with many battles finding Eggman exasperated.

Though not quite the Snidely Whiplash of “Adventures”, Eggman is nonetheless a stereotype nemesis for the blue hedgehog.  Comedic points are emphasized with stylized humor and props.  Drama still retains a key role in the plot but is often relegated in favor of a child-friendly format.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic)
Regrettably, the descendant comic for Sonic SATAM was bestowed upon Archie Comics. The characters and plot attempt to retain their dark inspirations, often building the newer game releases into the plot.

However, the stories are simplified for child-friendly audiences and evidence of the previously mentioned regional consolidation is present.  Action often reverts to the eccentric cartoon model and the characters become more two-dimensional.  Narrative is choppy and habitually filled with soap-opera drama.

These negatives overshadow the positives of a SATAM spin-off.  Therefore, the comic is only inspirational due to its relationship to its parent series.

Star Fox 64 (Game)
Although unrelated to SEGA and its Sonic titles, Nintendo’s Star Fox 64 is also an inspirational consideration.  With a simple story of betrayal, the game pits mercenaries against a villainous autocrat bent on universal conquest.  The game yields several plot derivatives.  With limited inclusion, Star Fox 64 helps mold the back-story and my own reflected character.

All Sonic Media in General
Sonic canon owes its lineage to cartoon forerunners.  The character of Sonic was never deliberately serious or provocative.  He was designed to sell video games to juveniles, to contend with the Super Mario Bros on a saturated game market.

In fact, Sonic owes his fur and quill coloring to the blue SEGA logo.  Everything within the Sonic universe was developed for multi-national merchandise.  The anecdotal narrative evolved from the multi-regional construct that shaped the company for years.

For instance, Doctor Ivo Robotnik has more recently assumed the name Eggman as that was always the “proper” Japanese name.  Other names that have sprouted from the American SATAM series, Archie Comic, European comic, and other sources include.  Julian Robotnik, Julian Kintobor, and Ovi Kintobor.

Like many cartoons and by extension media elements in general, the Sonic franchise will always be updated with new trends.  The principle goal of Sonic is to please children for profit.  This is perfectly acceptable in practice and ideology.

Nearly all incarnations of Sonic and his friends have added to the mythos of the subject A/U.  Even Alvin-Earthworm’s Super Mario Bros Z has lent itself as muse to this project.

Nonetheless, the cartoon facets of the Sonic franchise bypass the nature of a maturing fan.  For the fanatic among us all, there must be substance.  The addressed A/U provides a darker, striking legend.  A fantasy for an older audience.


A Whole New Mobius
By purest appreciation, an Alternate Universe is created to fulfill fantasies.  No matter the focus, an A/U is designed to empower its creator to surpass the original boundaries and then share the new creation.    A/U is freedom, freedom to fashion the worlds and ideas you wish were a part of the canon.

Contained within this subdivision are matters of historical significance.  This is back-story governing the creation of the A/U.  Canon has been re-written.  Mobius has been re-imagined.  The bonds of any one Sonic tenet have been expunged and re-forged.

The Disappearance
There would be no explanation.  No extra-terrestrial invasion.  No lingering nuclear consequence.  No uncultivated experiments or other science fiction fads.  Nothing.

It could happen any day, anywhere, at any time.  Millions whisked away in an instant.  Single young men and women vanish in whimsical fashion.  Structures, vehicles, plants and animals.

Neither modern being nor body could answer for this incident.  Apparently random distributions of humanity cease to exist at one transitory instant.

Stocks fall.  Depression happens.  And gradually people decide to move on.  Peculiar conjecture never dictates a remedy.

Five years pass and opinion holds certain that families should discard optimism.  After a decade, most never think of the Disappearance unless they lost a loved one or observe a commemorative report from some media outlet.  Tribute is forsaken after nearly two decades.  And upon the semi-centennial, the Disappearance is forgotten in the public mind beyond provocateurs and conspiracy theorists that deny it ever transpired.

Civilization Undone
Technology continues to advance in the decades and centuries that follow.  Earth’s estimated planetary population achieves critical mass.  Resources are inadequate and exploitation of the solar system becomes inevitability.

Innovations in micro-computer systems and robotics permit the consumption of extra-terrestrial resources.  Automated mines are constructed on the planet Mars, a few large asteroids, and even the Galilean moons of Jupiter.  Excavated assets are refined on-site and are then conveyed to Earth via shuttle freighter.

Discoveries of superior celestial bodies, far distant and promising, inspire humanity.  Chiefly, a freshly surveyed planet is ripe for terraforming.  Unlike Mars which would take millennia to re-model, this new planet could theoretically be fashioned in mere centuries with modern techniques.

Chemical seeding would loose existing water supplies.  Compound reactors would regulate minerals in the soil and, by association, the air.  Most importantly, the planetary temperature and atmosphere are almost indistinguishable.

The mission to Advent, so named as the new beginning for mankind, enters preliminary development directly.  Preparations are made at a casual pace at the outset.  A fleet, the first of many planned, is constructed in orbit.   Tremendous stock of plants and animals are maintained.  Supplies and equipment are carefully logged.  Everything is organized for the multi-generation voyage.

Alas, a series of astrological projections disrupt the vigilant planning.  Given the nature of these forecasts, the exodus is hastened.  The calculations are concealed until mission start.

An indivertible asteroid will collide with Earth.  The asteroid is not fast on a galactic scale, but its mass will alter the Earth’s orbit and virtually erase the planetary crust.

Impact lingers more then a decade removed and arrangements for two supplementary fleets commence.  All the same, panic ensues.  Politics intervene and questions arise.

Even as construction of the second fleet concludes, world politics break down.  Initial projections are updated divulging a stricter time table.  Only one fleet launch will be possible and other citizens might hope to evacuate to Mars temporarily.  But who should be saved?

Money, politics, loyalties...  War.  Life on Earth ends in excess of a year prior to the asteroid's climactic impact.  No shuttle is launched.  No ship leaves orbit.

The collision is precisely as intense as calculated.  The seas are boiled away.  The air is filled with dust and smoke.  The earth burns and is shrouded in a cloud of its own surface.  Plunged back to the planetesimal stage.

Advent Horizon
With optimum use of modern technology, the venture to Advent surpasses a century’s duration.  The first generation constitutes earthlings.  They left home and family and friends and life as a terrestrial citizen.  Their nations and countries were abandoned that they become one society.

The second generation is more diverse, with some of the younger children born in space.  The new world is a fairy-tail given to all children, wonderful and elusive.  Children are nurtured as scientists that they may thrive and maintain the undertaking.

The third generation is entirely born into the Advent expedition.  They never know Earth, never now the sensation of natural soil.  The common ambition of the voyage now begins to transmute.

Science, of one form or another, has been the only profession for three generations.  Advent has been the only objective.  And the fleet is the only home that the third generation has ever known.  Society undergoes certain metamorphosis and ideologies shift.

The fourth generation is born into the new doctrine.  Society is a systematic commune.  Creativity is redirected into technical enterprise lest the child be a dullard.

A fifth and sixth generation are born.  Over seventy years have elapsed, but there have been three full generations born in transit.  At more then a century of age, the final member of the fundamental operation is extinguished.  Her enduring direction is for the swiftly mounting populace to establish strict birth limitations.

The final transmission of data from Earth has long since been received and documented in the archives.  Earth itself has become the fairy-tale, spoken of flippantly in passing opinions.

Better then two centuries after departure, the fleet initially orbits Advent.  Such speed is an accomplishment, one attributable to unremitting scientific progression.

Pristine Prospect
Pilot terraforming procedures are conducted from orbit.  The fleet becomes an orbital command platform, and will function until the planet is habitable for standard lodging.

Through the subsequent century, a laboratory is erected on the planet surface.  As new facilities are added, the compound becomes a city.  Residents name it Pristine Prospect.

Once the terraforming efforts are self-contained within the city, the orbital platform is decommissioned.  It serves as a library and mission archives for the next one-hundred-fifty years.

Seeding of plant stock transpires first.  Once the foothold of flora has been established securely, animal transplantation begins.  The colony thrives and continues to expand, limited only by the need for air filters and safety concerns.  And those needs are relatively short lived.

For Want of a Legend
Greed has forever been the tormentor of mankind.  Greed for money.  Greed for power.  Greed for carnal gratification.  People have fought and died for greed. Societies have risen and fallen for sheer want.

For Advent, greed is a growing nuisance.  Generations of living in a scientific commune have ensnared mounting population in rationed lives.  Unrest is a subtle shadow over the colony.

When a young man learns the same old mythology of Earth, he looks at his immediate world and sees confines.  He is constrained by the rules of the Advent Council and compelled to live by their scientific laws.

As a teenager, the man attempts to coordinate a coup.  His labors are unproductive though, and his rallies against the council guarantee incarceration for one year.

One year wiser, the young man quietly investigates his opportunities.  During vast research of the Advent project, as he believes the Council is concealing the factual condition of the planet's progress, he visits the archives of the old space platform.  There he stumbles on documents of Earth, shocking proof that the myths are true.

Two decades later the man has enlisted a gang of loyalists.  His insurgence avoids civic display and operates in secrecy.  With a maintenance position aboard the space platform, the man is promoted to managerial standing.  Using his authority, he employs only loyalists.

Three of the old ships are salvaged and the remainder of the space platform is stripped for parts and supplies.  The renegades work in peace and complete their tasks without suspicion.

Animals are trapped and shipped to the waiting mini-fleet.  For years the cell accumulates plants.  Gradually, the three vessels are filled with seed stock and supplies.  Prior to launch, a collection of victims selected as breeding stock are abducted and stored in a new development of the Advent scientific community... stasis devices.

The apparatus affects a state of hibernation on the user.  Aging is partially slowed by the process.  The devices could preserve a dieing person for a time or could extend a healthy user's life by a few decades.  More significantly, the equipment stores detainees like so many warehouse crates.

In the middle of the evening watch, the three ships separate from Advent’s space platform and break orbit.  Regrettably, the incident sounds the death knell for Pristine Prospect.  The old platform is lifeless and powerless, disabled from the inside to prevent pursuit.

Its loss and the stolen mini-fleet rob the citizens of Advent of both precious resources and valuable instructions.  The planetary re-modeling must now conclude at a natural pace, and cannot provide for the inhabitants.

Residents of Pristine Prospect find themselves in a city filled with advanced technology that is proven useless as it does not produce additional food without farming and raising stock.

Opposing factions form in each precinct.  Civil war erupts, and demolition of the enemy’s food stores becomes the primary tactic.  Faced with no practical resources and on-going strife, the people wander into small pockets of wilderness in an attempt to survive.

Ravaged by an unknown deficiency and incapable of reproduction, the last of the citizens return to the city.  They make valiant effort to restore Pristine Prospect and to leave behind a monument of the civilization and scientific endeavor.  Their final act is to record a warning against greed for they believe that it destroyed their world.

Without humanity the terraforming process completes.  Centuries later, the planet is rife with animal and plant life.  And Pristine Prospect is a lost city.

Origins of a Monster
With Advent only a memory and slaves held in stasis, the man is pleased.  He is the king.  His will is law.

Unluckily, he is king of a mini-fleet of vessels bound for a desolate planet.  Without scientific precision, this “new” mission is inadequately conceived.  The possibility that others may yearn for anarchy or a democracy has in no way been deliberated.

Attempts to preserve dominion forcibly result in mutiny.  In an unceremonious execution, the King is dumped into space.

Anarchy reigns initially, but discrepancies in standards of life spawn discontent.  The victimized are alone responsible for justice.  Squabbles beget thrashings and "victimless crimes" yield destruction.

Ultimately, three diminutive committees are elected.  One per ship.  They are judges in the event of quarrel.  They are policy makers for essential concerns.

Two generations later, hunger for influence surfaces.  Following in his grandfather's footsteps, he aspires for tyranny.  Never the fool, he appreciates the magnitude of discretionary actions.

He pursues a scientific doctorate and fancies himself an esteemed constituent of the fleet-wide community.  He finds employ as a systems engineer and designs and tends sophisticated machinery.

Covertly, he rallies a party of loyalists.  He contrives a sinister coup.  Utilizing his position, he embeds a simple virus.  Certain portions of the security control code will be overwritten.  He and his confederates will reap system access; will be perceived as common crew.  Any resistance is unauthorized access.

Defense systems are compiled and upgraded at his proposal.  An aid to security and a powerful tool for the council.  The prototypes fruitfully detain a murderer and are promptly instated ship-wide.

Subsequent proposals for innovation of the ship’s drive system and external protection network are unanimously approved.  Energy mortars previously shielded the fleet against collisions.  Excluding negligible developments, the apparatus is centuries outdated.

Comparable modifications are mounted on all shuttle craft.  Emergency escapes should the need ever arise.

Initially, the coup proceeds splendidly.    Stasis victims are chosen, predominantly young women that appeal to his eye.  Regardless, ever the forward developer, several technicians are claimed as well.  Slaves are peacefully added to a shuttle’s cargo manifest.   Crops and livestock are also requisitioned.

With escape secure, the rebellion disbands.  Reporting to public encounters, they each procure credible alibis.

At 3:99 am, the virus is triggered by a defragmentation cycle.  Lost to obscurity, the transfer of influence is a whisper.

Sadly, the rule of law and a tyrant conflict.  A logic error.  Key lines of binary fail.  The anti-virus systems engage and further interfere.  Primary keys are erased.  Data is lost.

The coup is merged into the target entities flash table.  Only Doctor Ivo Robotnik retains his crewman flag.  Countless victims fall before the security turrets.  Automated drones rampage across all decks, mangling at will.  Particle mortars salvo and immobilize the two uninfected craft.

Self-healing, the database and source code is gradually rebuilt.  Control of the ship is restored to the only surviving committee member.  Survivors are few.  A lynch mob.

Injured in the bedlam, the doctor is further wounded in flight from his victims.  His nephew alone remains loyal.  Sidney "Snively" Pracownik remains faithful that his uncle’s schemes will yet afford luxury and freedom.  He escorts Ivo to his shuttle when the doctor is powerless to board alone.

The duo flees unnoticed.  Two ships remain inoperative, and the flag ship is sensibly crewless.  Status of survivors is, in point of fact, unknown.

Bionics combined with temporary stasis preserve the doctor’s life.  With the incorporation of "skip" drives, the shuttle outpaces the preceding missions by centuries.

Paranoid regarding the risk of a fleet pursuit the doctor summarily dedicates his devices to skip drive innovation.  He alone must claim dominion of Earth.

Augmentation notwithstanding, the journey remains lengthy.  Alone, the two men find few distractions.  Though women are lavishly deposited in stasis and easily violated, the doctor exhibits an abnormal fetish for eggs.  The obsession will warp his persona ad infinitum.

A Planet Reborn
For more then a millennium, earth has been a cloud of dust particles orbiting a central planetesimal.  Most if not all water vapor on the planet has been lost to space.  No life, not even bacteria remains.

The moon, Luna, and numerous larger blocks of rock serve as satellites.

Old mineral scavenging devices drift, inactive having filled their shipment rigs devoid of a destination for transport.  Only a beacon monitor awaits a specific binary signal to proceed.

Void of life... the time has come.  A spark of construction, unseen and unknown to simpler life, triggers something new...  something wonderful.

The particle field enshrouds the planet core.  Luna, though slightly resurfaced by smaller collisions, resumes its original orbit.  Moreover a considerable fragment of the asteroid, a hunk of rock, follows the moon in a vaguely lesser track.

The planet surface consumes the core and splinters of asteroid.  Previous continents have been thrust together in violent seismic upheaval.  A new planetary model, rendered far too rapidly for a natural planetary formation.

Atoms interact and reshape.  Water molecules form... amass into streams at first.  Then lakes and seas.  Climactically, the wash of the deep congeals into one sparkling blue ocean that covers most of the planet's surface.

Vapors fill the sky.  An atmosphere... an indistinguishable blend of gases to that of ages past.  Clouds.  Rain fall.

Tumbling into situation, the planet's axis shifts back to twenty-three degrees.  The early elliptical orbit is restored.

Restoration is limited to life baring stages though.  Geography is fresh and unrecognizable.  One continent and a few outlying islands dominate the profile.  Immense mountains stretch the length of the northern continental shelf.  Volcanic activity churns near the western shores, a condensed ring of fire in the ocean.

Lesser mountains grow intermittently from the crust.  Canyons carve themselves into the face of the planet overnight.  And an island emerges from the sea off the eastern coast.  A glittering green crystal mass, a fragment of the asteroid’s core, fills the new mass with power.

Held fast by thousands of tons of soil and rock, the entire titanic form lifts out of the water.  It drifts aloft, held by some great energy disturbance.  

Afterward there is faultless tranquility.  Immaculate serenity.

A subtle breeze.  The rustling of...

Green growths appear beneath the waters.  Grasses sweep across the plains, forming without source.  Trees slam into existence creating vast forests.  All manner of vegetation materialize, ripe and overflowing with life.  Even ancient and extinct species emerge.

In the cool of a temperate new world, distant across the ocean... broken surface.  Ripples.  In the clear waters of an inland sea, as if to answer, another happy splat.  The song of whales can be heard once again.  Fish and all manner of sea dwelling beasts emerge, reappearing instantly after hundreds of year’s absence.

Fauna suddenly walks onto the plains and into the forests.

Buildings with the foundations on which they once stood all reappear in a flash, scattered across the continent.  One particular concentration of structures forms a township near the eastern coast.

And there is peace.

Drawn across space and time, men and women suddenly find themselves standing in the Great Forest of the East.  All that remains of humanity, the great disappearance undone, is now gathered in one location.  A mass exodus, involuntary and unexplained, is concluded.

The prevailing theory is that some spirit or alien or all powerful being or God himself has delivered them to a new world.  Even though some try to remember the events leading to their "abduction" no answers are found.  The mystery most fantastic simply fades from their minds.

Many long for home and choose to leave in search of some escape.  Nevertheless, the majority believe they will not return home and choose instead to found a township.  Still others choose to set off in search of other territories and civilizations.

Slowly, the grand assembly of mankind separates.  The township organizes in the ruins on the east coast, the city of Prominent Hope.  Over the following year, a form of constitutional monarchy is founded. A king and parliament are elected.

One of their first statutes declares Prominent Hope the Government seat... the capital city.

Eventually, after explorers return from their wanderings and scientific minds assemble, the public consensus holds that the surrounding world is altogether alien.  Even the moons are divergent, though one bares some similitude to Luna.

Thus, the question of naming the world is resolved by parliament.  Citizens are encouraged to submit recommendations and the field of names is narrowed to three.  New Earth, Mobius, and Libera.  Mobius is chosen by a meager delegation majority.

The moons remain unnamed for another year as certain unrest interrupts the peace.  There are those among the citizenry that do not agree with laws passed by the fledgling government and abhor the thought of a king.

Additionally, those that left in search of home have found the new world both expansive and daunting.  Some of them have established their own governments.  One assembly treks the great planes.  Another settles in ruins of the towering mountains of the north.  Finally, a particularly large gathering settles a remote desert en mass.

The plainsmen live at peace and survive off the land.  The mountaineers, conversely, are warmongers.  The desert nomads are greedy and starving.  They desperately seek victims at which they may lay blame for their existence.  They walk the desert as if it were a fate forced upon them.

The mutation is most notable in the plainsmen first.  They live on the land and focus less on material possessions.  For them, life is chief among all concerns.  There ideals make them susceptible.

Next, the transformations appear in Prominent Hope and its surrounding kingdom, Radia.  Metamorphosis strikes the mountaineers in limited quantity.  Then the smaller tribes that pledge no allegiance to the four nations.

The nomads never experience the transmutation.

For some, biological change is over night.  For others, it is a matter of days.  No one ever remembers the experience.  They awaken to a new face in their mirror.

Biological revolution is present only in men and women that relinquish olden carnality.  This is never fully obvious, but the plainsmen believe it and spread the word intensively.
Transformation affects better then half the populace.  Animal characteristics, physical traits, are dominant.  Fur.  Heightened senses of smell and sound.  Altered body mass and shape.  Characteristics of canines, feline species, and other mammalian animals find their way into human physiology.

Then a second wave of transformations occurs.  Those still "human" by their own standards begin assuming a physical reflection of their own neurosis.

They become pale.  Most of their hair falls out.  They are scrawny and boney or fat and soft.  Their bodies loose certain animal traits such as canine teeth and protruding noses.  And men and women are almost indistinguishable from each other.  They are forced to don wigs and stylized clothes.

A societal disconnect follows.  “Anthros” become a part of the new world.  Conversely, humans are alien to their new home.  They are often the greedy or conceited and disapprove of the "dirty animals".

Nevertheless life continues unabated.  Adaptation is key to survival.  The Mobians, as the anthros presently call themselves, counter-balance modern humans in Radia and on the plains.

However, the nomads claim no Mobian citizens.  And greed is common among them.  The mountaineers preserve few Mobians and much hunger for war.

At first, the nomads and mountaineers declare war on one another.  The war is short.  The nomads are unable to march against the mountains themselves.  But their leaders are clever and seek alliance.

The two warring nations then turn their attention to the peaceful plainsmen.

The Kingdom of Radia is all that averts absolute genocide.  No victor will be crowned in the Great War.

During the first year, the mountaineer Mobians secede to form their own tribe.  The nomads face starvation for their violence-gilded existence.  Many humans defect from Radia, taking defense secrets and yielding greater casualties.

The first year also bears witness to the horrors committed against the plainsmen in the name of power and pride.  The population is nearly eradicated in death camps.

Despite the war, the moons are named.  The larger moon is Selene, named for a Greek goddess.  The smaller asteroid moon is named Seth, a name with ancient Egyption/African origins in mythology... the god of chaos.

By year’s end, a new generation is born... but only to the Mobians.

Rise and Fall of a Kingdom
The balance of power on Mobius will shift with the emergence of new mutations.  The genetic code is re-written for a segment of the Mobian populace.  Unique "powers" and special abilities, dormant until now, are unlocked.

Further, all Mobians develop a striking resilience. They develop abnormally dense molecular builds.  Physiology and appearance remain constant, but certain inhuman durability is demonstrated on the field of battle.

Ironically, the first document report of Mobian resilience was that of a lumberjack, not a warrior.  His latest project turned hazardous when a partially cut tree snapped and fell across his legs.  After a comparatively brief stay in the hospital, he was able to return home.

Later reports of other Mobians arise.  A family that was trapped in the mountains by an avalanche.  They survived, malnourished, but otherwise unharmed.  An overturned carriage landed on a child's leg.  The little girl received stitches and walked on crutches for a month.

The source of this new-found "ruggedness" is not instantaneously palpable.  It is later demonstrated that Mobian anatomy is changing... apparently adapting to Mobius and the menace of war.  Metamorphosis commences in Prominent Hope and spreads outward in an ever-expanding wave pattern.

Initially, these findings are linked to the "island" floating off the coast of Radia, formally named Corona Island [War-time Codename: Jade Nexus].  Strangely, though, the data is graphed in a bureaucratic revision and the hypothesis is proven false.  The energy discharged by the crystal is fundamentally divergent from any known record.

More obscure data is composed that delineates lineage for the "powers".  Families convey the fundamental genetics for the latest transmutation from one generation to the next.  Yet the manifestation is variable in nature.  A father may perhaps develop wings and learn to fly while his daughter becomes a champion sprinter.

With the exhibition of new and broadly encompassing abilities such as strength, speed, flight, and heightened intelligence, the Mobian’s gain advantage.  When the war invariably shifts in favor of Radia, the nomads and mountaineers resort to terrorist tactics.

They kidnap victims, often from the surviving plainsmen.  The hostages are eventually dissected alive in hopes of ascertaining the source of their powers.

Black powder weapons appear during this time.  Bombs are planted in huts in small outlying villages.  Experimental muskets are found in captured camps.  Refined incarnations are in development when an incomparable episode transpires one fateful night.

The vein of light circumnavigates the planet at high orbit and descends hastily.  It passes over the colonized towns.  Then, it plummets aggressively over Prominent Hope.  Early gossip insists that a meteor disappeared into the ocean.

When the streak cruises over the city, hearsay is dismissed.  It lands in the historic district... home of the early colony that spawned Prominent Hope a mere decade previous.

The shuttle craft is a striking new creation to the Mobians.  Even in their former lives, they only witnessed twentieth century space shuttle orbiters, rockets, and other such technology.  The ship before them is perceptibly far advanced.

When the hatch opens a stunned throng faces a young, rotund man.  His eyes glow in the night and one of his arms is sparklingly metallic.  He steps down from his ship and is trailed by a much thinner teenager.

The first man introduces himself as a doctor.  Doctor Ivo Robotnik.  He and his nephew Sidney are explorers from Earth.  On hearing this, the mob stirs closer and empties questions upon the duo.  Robotnik has an answer for every one.

He and Sidney were on a mission to colonize another world when they were mutinied upon by an unseemly crew.  Their ship was destroyed in the fighting and they were forced to save as many "life pods" as possible.  Friends and family.  They dare not allow anyone to touch the pods in case their loved ones die from internal wounds that have yet to be treated.

Why, even the doctor himself was grievously injured in the final moments.  He had been forced to endure blindness and the loss of an arm as well as other minor wounds until he and Sidney could "replicate bionic prosthetics".

With gentle persuasion and fairytales, the doctor and his nephew captivated onlookers.  They were greeted as heroes and granted resources for the necessary work of saving their friends and family.

With a year’s passage, the duo integrates into the community.  Local scientists find themselves with a wealth of new data and texts.

Robotnik never fully achieves the trust of the king, but he manages his business politely and according to the local laws.  Then, one day he convenes the local scientists for presentation.   He touts a telescopic apparatus and its capabilities.  He proclaims his excitement of viewing other worlds of the Mobian system, for he and Sidney had been in stasis prior to landing.

The production concludes with the installation of a battery.  The scientists giddily congregate for the first glimpse of their star system.

What's that?  Is that Jupiter?  Good heavens, Mobius is a part of the earth's solar system.

Robotnik deduces that his ship returned to earth due to an outdated safety protocol.  Closed door discussions begin with the doctor sitting prominently among the delegates.  The decision is made to keep the discovery classified due to the war.

Later, the doctor "finds" references to resource drones and mines for the Galilean moons of Jupiter, Mars, and the asteroid belt.  He reasons that a homing beacon could be fabricated north of the city.  It would mean a leap forward in technology.  Radia would be propelled into the space age.

Local scientists are fawning over the doctor's innovations and the thought of sophisticated research technology.  They whole-heartedly endorse his plans.  The king consents as long as local scientists may be present.

The beacon is assembled from residual provisions in Robotnik’s shuttle.  A team of scientists is summoned and trained for the project.  Once the beacon is triggered, supply freighters arrive touting robust loads.  Refined metals and resources.

Doctor Robotnik’s team scrutinizes and repairs the equipment, making notes throughout the process.  Afterward, using the notes, they devise and reverse engineer a first generation construction series robot.

The equipment is analyzed, completed, and released into active service within months.  Over the next year, Prominent Hope advances exponentially.

Ivo Robotnik strengthens in favor with the citizens and the king.  He is a respected member of the royal court and society in general.  He is given charge of many scientific endeavors (often through his own recommendations).

The king, an older man when he was elected, is prepared to conclude his reign.  He advocates an election, but the citizens insist that his son inherit the thrown.

At nearly thirty, "Prince" Henry Allgemann has commanded troops in the Great War and has spear-headed many humanitarian efforts.  He is possibly more popular then Thomas, his father, and assumes the throne as a champion of the people.

During his reign, the kingdom prospers.  Doctor Robotnik's work has led to a beautiful futuristic city with its older roots still apparent and preserved by the historical society.  Education, a project that was laid at the feet of the doctor, has also greatly advanced.  A young Charles Campbell, a doctor in his own right, is appointed to work with Robotnik and serve as liaison.

Campbell is soon responsible for overseeing the education initiative and spends part of his time teaching.  The rest of his time is spent on projects that he co-chairs with Doctor Robotnik.  Alternative fuel cell mechanics.  Robotic intelligence.  A partial-stasis suit.  Great and wonderful concepts.

In due course, Robotnik's Trans-Mobian Technological Institute has revolutionized the construction and transportation industries.  A fleet of shuttles are built for transit to the mining stations beyond the terrestrial bounds and soon are mimicked in fighter form to serve the military.

King Allgemann insists that TMTI develop weapons of non-lethal capacity given his own war-time experiences.  The result is a collection of particle weapons.  Depending on the power setting, they can be used to burn through solid metal or to stun an opponent.  Range is limited due to dispersion of the particles themselves, but the weapons are effective.

Regardless, Doctor Robotnik compiles a fresh proposal.  A fully automated weapon system.  Robotic intelligence produced a self-sufficient drone and could be incorporated into mobile units.  A foot-soldier design was already in the prototype phase.  Each could be equipped with particle weapons and programmed according to the king's guidelines.

Casualties would be none existent.  Similar designs could be implemented in existing fighter squadrons.  Moreover, a tank design could be functional within two weeks

It is an ideal option.  No casualties.  Mechanized precision.  But Henry is decidedly uneasy.  The thought of an army of metal marching in his name across the plains and into the mountains and through the deserts... it fills him with eerie concern.

When faced with the latest strategy reports, though, the facts give him pause.  A squadron had been betrayed by one of their own pilots.  They had been ambushed and overwhelmed by enemy fighters, assembled from stolen blueprints no less.  An entire platoon had been seized.  Particle weapons with slightly higher intensity ratings had been utilized by the nomads.  Victims that escaped incineration were dissected publicly.

Henry orders the program.  The first machines are combat ready within a month.  Defense posts are constructed around the kingdom.  Fighters are retro-fitted quickly and serve with an average record... but no pilots are lost... a marked improvement.  The full army is recalled for defensive duties while the mechanical soldiers are put into service.

The war lasts another two years, but ends with a figurative whimper.  The nomads surrender on the plains along with a contingent of mountaineers.  They return to their collective territories and begin petitioning Radia for trade rights, sighting poverty and malnourishment from decades of war.

It is Docor Ivo Robotnik himself that suggests the military machine be decommissioned.  His recommendations are approved under the condition that he personally supervises the renovation.

Tanks will be auto-tractors for farming and crop development in the desert... a process too rigorous for the nomads.  The foot-soldiers would be re-commissioned as "SWAT" bots to serve as back-up for the police force.

Fighters would begin service as transports for trans-continental flights and exploration.  After all, in nearly four decades of existence on Mobius, only about one-fourth of the continent has been explored.

Regrettably, the king's original feelings of doubt prove well founded and should not have been ignored.

With tanks dispersed across the dessert, and air-craft scouring the continent or ferrying passengers, and SWAT-bots in every police station the fall of all mankind is short.  Robtnik didn't need the virus of his past attempted coup.  This instance is different.  He has overseen every aspect of the machines implementation.  He personally added code and tested it with the kingdom’s resources.

There is no battle.  Robotnik has claimed Prominent Hope with-in minutes.  The nomads, mountaineers, and plainsmen are rounded up and transported to makeshift camps that had once been defense posts.  All organized resistance is crushed within the first six days.

The king is arrested by SWAT bots.  Only his daughter escapes the melee thanks to the efforts of her nanny.  The few people that ever dared resist the forces of Robotnik are either imprisoned or escape to the Great Forest.

Oddly, the green crystal on the floating island is emitting a peculiar energy signature that fills even the finest sensor array with "dark spots".  These allow insurrection to cultivate.

Traitors and sympathizers join Robotnik's forces.  Those fearful or too weak to escape become unwilling citizens.

Doctor Robotnik appoints himself "Eggman" the Emperor and utilizes the research of TMTI for nearly every facet of his government.  He employs stasis when it suits him, as he has for well more then sixty years.  He uses the robotics and weapons designs to advance his military.

He even abuses Doctor Campbell's partial-stasis suit to enslave his opponents.  The suits create a limited degree of stasis hibernation.  Utilizing input nodes, he is able to "suggest" pre-programmed data streams for the user's subconscious.

They effectively sleep walk through life.  The prisoner believes they are living in their own dream world.  The on-board computer can then tap their unused brain capacity for advanced processing.  It proves a new and terrifying expansion of cybernetics, one that is used to manufacture more sinister machines.

Communities appear in the hill country and within the forest and canyons around the Eggman Empire.  Minor pockets of resistance appear.  But they are disorganized outcasts in an age electronic slavery.  For eleven years, Eggman's rule is virtually inescapable.


A Few Last Details
Beyond the basics of narrative background, there remain a few items of consequence.  Some of which must be handled delicately.  Character specific plot notes will be addressed individually with each drawing or within a fiction.  Other matters will be addressed below.

Clothing Optional
Nudity in an anthropomorphic world is not uncommon.  In fact, many pornographic materials have been devised specifically with anthros in mind.  This universe is not, however, intended for “yiff”.

Mobians cannot ignore their origins as men and women with delicate sensibilities.  Nevertheless, their bodies have been changed specifically because of their willingness to forget those same sensibilities in favor of survival.

Therefore, garments are used for specific purposes.  Gardening in the yard might entail a pair of gloves and boots with a tool belt.  Equally, riding into battle during the Great War would have demanded a full battle suit and equipment selection.  And lounging around with no prospects for afternoon activity would not require clothing at all.

Formalwear would be standard at a gala event.  More so, one must not forget the possibility of a stylish outfit that simply insists it be worn.

A touch of common sense is the primary rule.  Mobians are predominantly fur covered and physically do not require garments to conceal erogenous organs or to maintain health.

"Humans," on the other hand, require clothing.  They are a frail race with pale, blistering skin.  They boast no natural hair for warmth and have lost their sexual individuality.

Wigs, prosthetics, and clothing fulfill their needs.

Relations of A Different Sort
Sexual intercourse is a sensitive subject and necessitates proper care when detailed in a public arena.  Many fans of the anthropomorphic genres prefer genitalia and other erogenous zones be presented clearly.  But such is not the case in this universe.

Mainly, the reader must understand that Mobian genetics have addressed these matters.  Relations are only possible with a true love.  Relevant organs only function during relations or relevant needs, and even those functions are reinvented slightly.

The full explanation would include information regarding additional/changed hormones and moderately in-depth studies of human sexual anatomy.  In developing this universe, an entire redesign of the reproductive process for both men and women was developed.  Nevertheless, it does not require further comment at this time.

The human side of relations has seen a much more drastic mutation.  Effectively, they no longer are capable of reproduction.

Super Friends?
Characters such as Sonic display super powers.  The assumption of this universe is that all Mobians will eventually be capable of some super-human feet.  The means to this end is simple heredity.

More then half of the population sustains such powers initially.  The next generation witnesses the spread of powers.  Parents pass the genetically required inheritance to their children, but the children then develop powers specific to their circumstance.

Mobians are the only beings with these powers naturally.  However, bionics and other artificial means exist.  Furthermore, power rings are an invention of Doctor Charles Campbell which augments a Mobian’s natural abilities with varying success.

Chaos Emeralds
Naturally, the chaos emeralds are not actually emeralds.  They are mysterious gems endowed with unique energy.  They are named according to their green crystalline nature and for their relation to the asteroid which destroyed earth.

The “Master Emerald” is the crystalline core of said asteroid.  The floating island, “Corona Island”, exists due to the crystal’s raw energy.  The Master Emerald is only partially visible on the surface of the island.  Ninety percent of its form is buried within the dirt and rock.

The chaos emeralds themselves are additional fragments of the core.  They were scattered by the impact and re-modeling of the planet.  Each can have unusual effects, both positive and negative, on super-powered beings that brandish them.  When technology advances, they may be utilized to power electronic equipment.

Each rough edged fragment is a green crystal shard from the master emerald.  They are extremely durable and nearly impossible to cut.  Due to the immense charge and often random reactions they create on the surrounding environment, they are only truly safe for use on Corona Island in the presence of the Master Emerald.

What's in a Name?
For fans of the SATAM program, other cartoons, games, or comics, it is obvious that names have been changed within this document.  Names like Acorn were created for the cartoon.  Sonic himself is never given a proper name beyond “Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog” as proposed by authors of the Archie Comic series.

This universe is intended to boast a touch of reality.  No normal parent would name their child Sonic nor have the last name of Hedgehog.  Thus, names have added or changed.  For instance, Doctor Charles Campbell would be better known to SATAM fans as Uncle Chuck.

Stanly Vincent Campbell is none other then Sonic the Hedgehog, with “Sonic” serving as an assumed nick-name.  Most names will be addressed in specific character drawings or stories however.

Wildlife
There are limitless species of animal to encounter in this universe.  Even the abandoned Advent and the three damaged ships could become something different over time.  Who knows what will be encountered.

Creatures of earth have been gathered to the Mobian continent from throughout time.  And some may well have mutated in the fifty-odd years that passed after the settling of Mobius.