A basic map of the setting of Tails of Tomorrow at I'd say the midpoint of the story with the meat and potatoes of the setting, the civil wars and all.
Teal = Sage
Green= Starline
Indigo = Metal
Orange= Resistance/Belle
Yellow = Restoration/Tails
Blue = Kitsunami
Still heavily under construction ofc but I wanted to get a general idea of how the world is going to be sectioned off. Feel free to ask any questions and give suggestions.
Map is based off of the map those guys made plotting the world for 60 days, the outline is mostly traced from a map screenshot from theirs. Anyway, have a great day!
Will forever find it amusing that naming conventions for Sonic Characters/Mobians has about the same rules as naming your pet.
You’re just as likely to find someone called Chrome, Ninja or Switchboard as you are to find someone called Nigel, Hannah or Tilly.
Naming your babies must be fun because you could literally throw a dart with a blindfold on and anything you land on would be a perfectly valid name for your child. Or you could just make some shit up that sounds cool and call them that. You can name your darling baby a pun if you wanted and it would still be a valid name.
Imagine meeting a highly praised scientist and her name is ‘Professor Cornella (Corn Cob) Cobalt’ or some shit like that.
Elaborating on implicit Sonic worldbuilding thoughts again- I'm normally not one for the traditional "robot racism" as most science fiction plays it. I don't think people would hate robots, or deliberately oppress them and insist specifically that they shouldn't have rights or whatever.
But I do think that in the Sonic universe, there's just a lot of ignorance.
People see a big scary robot and they run away screaming. And the thought never even crosses their mind that hey, this walking gun might be sentient, so they don't treat Omega as sentient.
It's a mistake that a person who gets to know Omega would only make once or twice. But that's every person. Every person who first meets him makes that assumption/doesn't know what to think of him/is scared of him etc etc etc etc. And I can imagine it gets bothersome and tiring and even disheartening at times (even if getting him to admit that last part would be impossible.)
It isn't "racism". I've never liked that parallel. But it is a kind of othering, a kind of ignorance, a snap judgement made on limited experience. It's not this intentional thing that the perpetrators put words to. And maybe there are some reflections on real life that can be found in there, but I don't think they're race related- I actually think they're more related to ableism. But THAT is a post I'm neither smart enough or brave enough to make yet.
Headcanons on Gold and Red Rings, Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic's Iconic Forms
I've been wondering for a while about how the rings and Chaos Energy in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog might work, and I've come up with a few ideas that I'd love to explore.
Of course, my musings don't take into account all of the established canon, as some elements have been changed or discarded over the years, and said musings started before the two latest games in the franchise. But this is mostly just self-indulgent creativity anyways, isn't it? No need to think too hard about the absolutely pin-prick fine details of a franchise that's been ongoing for 31 years and counting, I'd be giving myself a massive headache if I tried.
So, without further ado, let me share how I like to imagine the way that rings and Chaos Energy work in the Sonic universe.
I like to imagine that the golden rings found throughout the zones are a physical manifestation of positive energy. Depending on the amount of positive energy present in a location, the rings can range from being abundant to scarce. For example, when nature is being oppressed and drained of life by the mad doctor Eggman's machines, the rings can become increasingly difficult to come by, as he saps the resources from the land and tramples on its life. In contrast, the buildup of negative energy in an area could lead to the manifestation of red rings, similar to those found in Sonic.EXE fan creations, especially their portrayal in "An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack", but, y’know... without the crappypasta entity really being at all involved. These rings have the power to cancel out the collected golden rings, thereby weakening the player who is not protected by positive rings.
It would honestly be pretty cool to see SEGA add something akin to this, and develop this whole concept of positive and negative energies further, after involving positive and negative energy in the plot of Sonic Adventure 1 and not touching it again past that.
The Chaos Emeralds, on the other hand, possess limitless energy, but said energy is inherently chaotic and discordant. The Master Emerald, capable of unifying the chaotic energy, serves as a controller, enabling its user to create or destroy. If one uses the energy from the Chaos Emeralds without unification, the result is purely chaos and discordance, a mishmash of positive or negative energy.
Super Sonic is a result of harmonizing the energies of the Chaos Emeralds towards the positive end. You know the deal with that - fifty rings, seven emeralds, and you're golden. Literally.
Hyper Sonic involves harmonizing the energy through the Master Emerald instead, before this energy somehow being purified and refined by the user. Hence the white quills that flash the colors of each of the emeralds - purity of energy combined with a resemblance to the energy’s source. This is the part I've thought the least about, but I still feel like this makes some amount of sense, or at least I hope it will.
Fleetway's version of Super Sonic, meanwhile, came about from the raw unharmonized combination of positive and negative energy within the Emeralds, resulting in disharmony, dissonance, discord… chaos, aptly enough, which is exactly what the transformation resulted in.
Drawing from the negative energies, finally, results in Dark Super Sonic. When Dark Sonic appeared, the only real source of negative energy anywhere near Sonic were the fake Chaos Emeralds. Sonic had previously been able to utilize Chaos Energy by using a fake Emerald that was created by Tails in Sonic Adventure 2, which allowed him to Chaos Control himself back onto the Space Colony ARK, but I personally doubt that Sonic would be able to sustain a real Super transformation with fake Emeralds, even if he had as many as he would normally need, especially since there were very obviously more than seven fake Emeralds visible during the scene in which Dark Super Sonic made its singular appearance. I’d probably say that Sonic has some innate positive energy enabled him, one, to utilize the fake Emerald to perform Chaos Control, and two, probably just to be as powerful (and don’t forget fast!) as he is by default.
This explains Sonic's ability to effortlessly use the Chaos Emeralds. With others, it appears to require either extensive training, such as with Tails in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, who was only able to transform once the energies were already harmonized through the Master Emerald, but became able to use only the Chaos Emeralds alone to transform once Mania came around, suggesting Tails’ adventures in the interim allowed him to somehow gradually unlock the understanding of how to harmonize the energy of these gems, or a deep knowledge and understanding of these gems, such as Knuckles after serving as the guardian of the Master Emerald for fifteen years by the time Sonic and his friends arrive.
Not only that, but it also explains positive energy of Sonic explains why the Dark transformation was easy to undo with just some words from Eggman. Unlike the Super transformation, which adds positive energy on top of positive, Sonic's innate positive energy actually hinders his Dark transformation. This is because his positive energy cancels out some of the negative energy, and since, once again, the supply of negative energy from the fake Emeralds is limited, the transformation wasn’t going to last very long if it were left to continue anyways, with how much of it Sonic was using up at once.
TL;DR: Gold rings represent positive energy, red rings represent negative energy, Chaos Emeralds contain chaotic energy that needs harmonization, Super Sonic is a positive harmony transformation, Fleetway's Super Sonic is unharmonized chaos, and Dark Sonic is a negative harmony transformation, hindered by Sonic's innate positive energy when the negative energy is limited.
In one universe (The Alternate version of Sonic X) they are aliens, whom are a part of an army called The Final Regiment
In a second universe they are supernatural transcendent nightmare beings who appear in people's dreams and sometimes in their waking moments. They are often described as dark, ethereal and wierd.
In another universe they are demonic alien like beings unlike The Black Arms. More savage but often described as savage as one can get, but have a certain poise about them as if all of them come from a royal bloodline. Act regal but are still dark and bloodthirsty. They wield magic, but some prefer their hands to fight and kill.
In another universe they are described as supernatural messengers. Again dark, ethereal, and wierd. Very ominous in their messeges. They do appear in monk like robes. Hooded figures.
In another universe they are a tragic species. Tortured and twisted beyond recognition, but not comprehension.
Anyway, seriously started working on the tails of tomorrow map, BECAUSE I LOVE DRAWING MAPS. Sage's empire because it was on the mind, built mostly over what was once Empire city.. Just wanted to share this cause I been real nerdy about this lol. Tune in for updates every so often
Drawn buildings are NOT built to scale. Ask any questions you have!!
How do the Scrapniks fit into your au? I feel like Belle would do her best to integrate them into the modern resistance, plus her having a not evil older brother in Mecha Sonic would be cool. After his time on Scrapnik Island, I feel like Belle would try to repair him, although I feel like Mecha would try to keep some of the aspects of himself he gained on the island.
The Scrapniks just want to be left alone, really. I want to establish Scrapnik Isle as a lot of things. But its primary purpose is to serve as a root point for ideology. It takes on a life of its own in the ideas of everyone in the Eggman empire, while nobody really knows where it is or what's really on it.
To the robots of Metal's domain, it's the afterlife. To the mad scientists of Starline-land, it's full of ancient pattern robots that Starline in his fanboyism can't help but think are a lot more powerful than they actually are, and to Sage it's an isle of precious artifacts - yet more links to her father she spent only 10 years with, an eyeblink to her eternity of a lifetime.
To Sticks and the denizens of Woodwall, it's an island of great myths and legend, to Sara and the little fiedom of Monopole it's a wunderwaffe - a pipe dream to get her out of Metal's grip she dreams to leverage if she can find it, to Honey she wants to find it for the sole purpose of selling its location to the highest bidder.
Belle would appreciate Mecha, but she knows he just wants to be alone. Tails has said as much, Sonic has said as much, and she doesn't really give it thought. Belle will be the one person who knows what Scrapnik Isle actually is: a refuge for people who just want to be left alone.
In a way though, I do want it to be a place of spiritual significance but not be any virtue inherent to itself, just through the value others give it. Later on Sage will have the most intimate relationship with the place, again I want Sage to have her epilogue be set there. So, hope I can one day write it up/draw it.
