Brotherhood of Guardians

The Brotherhood of Guardians is a fictional organization of anthropomorphic, humanoid echidnas in the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie comic) series. They are a group of Echidnas who protect Mobius from a secret facility known as Haven. They are also Knuckles the Echidna's predecessors and family in the title of Guardian. The Brotherhood's existence is secret to all but a few individuals, including their arch-enemies, the Dark Legion.

History
The Brotherhood of Guardians began with Steppenwolf inheriting the title of Guardian from his deceased father, Edmund, and battling the Dark Legion. As the years passed, Steppenwolf's descendants joined him in watching over Angel Island, and it was his great-grandson Remembrandt who first suggested the name Brotherhood. Early on, the group's operating methods and existence were known to all its members, even the current Guardian, until the first death of one of their number since Edmund: that of Aaron. Afterwards, the Brotherhood created a code of conduct that involved hiding from the people of Mobius, their existence hidden from all but a handful of allies-and of course their ancestral enemies, the Dark Legion-and observing Mobius as a whole while the youngest member defended Angel Island itself against such threats as the Dingoes and the Overlanders. With only a few exceptions, the Brotherhood had no contact with anyone from the outside world. This continued for 400 years, right up until Knuckles became the active Guardian of Angel Island.

The House of Acorn formed a friendship of sorts with the Brotherhood during the years between the Great War with the Overlanders and the later war with Dr. Robotnik. Because of political differences, however, the two groups never truly aligned with each other, not even against the threat posed by the second Dr. Robotnik. When Princess Sally Acorn met with the Brotherhood to discuss their providing support to the beleaguered people of Knothole, the Guardians refused to grant her request. The main reason for this was that the Brotherhood's main offering would include munitions technology, something that the Kingdom of Acorn's traditional laws forbade the use of and that Sally personally loathed.

Despite their usual missions of observing Mobius, the Brotherhood members have gotten involved in matters personally. Such occurrences include when the disguised Guardians threw Monk, Knuckles' childhood tormentor, off the edge of Angel Island. They later atoned for this in a way by holding Hunter, the human responsible for Monk's death, in prison. Later, members of the Brotherhood led by Guardian Mathias attacked the Dark Legion stronghold at the Grand Conservatory, resulting in Mathias' death. The living members of the Brotherhood-with the exception of Knuckles-were then transported to the Twilight Zone, only to be brought back by Knuckles' himself. During Knuckles' brief death, all the deceased members of the Brotherhood-from Steppenwolf down to Tobor and including Janelle-Li-appeared with him at his own funeral to begin explaining his evolution to a higher plane of existence to him.

During Sonic's exodus in space, a result of the battle with the Xorda, all living members of the Brotherhood except for Locke and Knuckles-with the exception of Athair, as he is not technically a member of the Brotherhood any longer, disappeared mysteriously. This apparently occurred when they worked together to hold off Dr. Robotnik's attempt to seize the Master Emerald. Later on, Dr. Finitevus supplies Locke with the apparent location of his missing family, tricking Locke into passing on the Guardian duties to him and sending him off with a Warp Ring to undertake his search. The white furred Echidna later revealed to Scourge the Hedgehog that he had captured the Brotherhood after their battle with Robotnik's forces, experimenting on them to learn what he could about their use of Chaos energy before banishing them to the Twilight Zone.

Possible Future
Several members of the Brotherhood appear in the unaltered future depicted in the Mobius: 25 Years Later storyline, indicating that somewhere along that possible timeline the Guardians were found and brought back. Knuckles approached them in search of a way to spy on Lien-Da's son Rutan. They did not appear in the second version of Mobius: 25 Years Later in which Mobius is ruled by Shadow the Hedgehog.

Moritori Rex
Pretended to be Tobor after the real Tobor went missing and was Guardian for years.

Dr. Finitevus
While he is not actually a member of the Brotherhood, Dr. Finitevus can be considered a temporary Guardian given that Locke turned over the responsibilities of the office to him to search for the other real members of the group. However, Finitevus's only reason for seeking out this post was so he could get Locke out of the way of his plans, which involved using the energy within the Master Emerald to restore Enerjak, through Knuckles. This is part of Finitevus' overall plan to crush the Dingo regime and reunify the civil war-split Dark Legion.

Abilities
Since Steppenwolf was instructed in the manipulation of Chaos energy by the fire ant Christopheles, all of the Guardians have had the ability to control such energy. Each member of the Brotherhood uses it to varying power, and it seems to be augmented by their emotions. Use of these energies gives the Guardians powers such as teleportation, telekinesis, and the ability to fire Chaos energy blasts from various parts of their bodies, most often their hands. Upon dying, members of the Brotherhood actually undergo a sort of evolution, in which they ascend to a higher plane of existence than ordinary mortality. They remain in this state until such time as they join the Chaos Force.

Having been exposed to Chaos radiation while in his egg state, Knuckles is the most powerful member of the Brotherhood, being effectively a living Chaos Emerald who can thus draw directly from the Chaos Force; all Guardians before him had to draw it from the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald of Angel Island. As such, he has demonstrated powers that no other member of the Brotherhood has ever exhibited, such as warping reality as he so chooses or healing any injuries that are inflicted upon him. Knuckles also temporarily used his power to become Chaos Knuckles, a green colored version of himself who is the most powerful Chaos entity on Mobius. Knuckles is also uniquely possesses super strength, and is the first member of the Brotherhood to have actual fist spurs. All older Guardians who appear to possess them are really wearing barbed mittens, a tradition originating in the Knuckles Clan, whose members include Tikal the Echidna and her father Pachacamac. Knuckles is the only Guardian whose knuckle spikes are actually part of his hand. His future/possible daughter, Lara-Su, allegedly has a similar feature, but is capable of retracting them into her hands.

Haven
The headquarters of the Brotherhood, Haven is located in the Forbidden Zone, a dimension split off from the rest of Mobius with its entrance disguised by a holographic wall of fire. Haven is the most advanced facility on Mobius, and all Guardians not on active duty reside here. Haven also serves as a monitor for nearly all activities on Angel Island, and many on the rest of Mobius. Haven was originally used as a training center by Steppenwolf, who was brought to the location by the fire ant Christopheles. During the Dark Legion Quantum Beam attack, Haven was demolished.

In the Mobius: 25 Years Later story, the Brotherhood lives in an identical facility known as Haven 2.

Jordann and Kayla-La
The great-grandparents of Edmund and Dimitri. Kayla-La was the scientist who discovered that the White Comet would impact Echidnaopolis. Together, the two managed to devise a method to lift Echidnaopolis and part of the surrounding landscape into the sky with 12 Chaos Emeralds, thus making them the founders of the Floating Island.

Byron and Angel-La
Edmund and Dimitri's parents. The Floating Island was later renamed Angel Island after Angel-La.

Sonja-Ra
Hawking's wife, the mother of Guardian Tobor.

Voni-Ca
Tobor's wife, the mother of Spectre.

Crystal-La
Athair's wife, Sabre's mother, was a member of the Lost Tribe. Crystal-La is the only Guardian spouse whose absence is explained, as she was captured and Roboticized. Assuming that she survived the years spent as a Robian, she could conceivably have been restored to normal form by the Bem, but she has not appeared to indicate continued existence.
 * Current writer Ian Flynn has stated that he assumes the character to have survived and made her way to Albion, but does not plan on revisiting the subject in the series.

Jenna-Lu
Wife of Guardian Sabre, Locke's mother.



Lara-Le
Mother of Knuckles the Echidna, Lara-Le is a member of the House of Arian, presumably named after an important ancestor of hers. She did not figure prominently in Knuckles' life until years after his birth. Wife to the Guardian Locke, Lara-Le became furious with her husband when she realized what he had done to their son. Divorcing Locke, she intended to leave with Knuckles, but was forced to give him up. When Knuckles grew old enough to question her absence, Locke simply replied that she was gone. Because of this, Knuckles assumed that she was dead, not thinking that his father's actions had driven her away. Despite this, she still had feelings towards Locke as he did her and she was deeply saddened by his death in Mobius: 25 Years Later.

Later, when Echidnaopolis was restored, Knuckles met his mother for the first time. He grew to love her, and the only bit of contention he felt was when she remarried to an Echidna named Wynmacher. Later, Lara-Le gave birth to Knuckles' half-brother, Knecapeon Mace, otherwise known as 'Kneecaps' or 'Mace'. Shortly afterwards, Lara and the other former residents of the destroyed city of Echidnaopolis were faced with the horror of a reborn Enerjak, who proved benevolent as he transported them to the safe haven of Albion. Of course, Lara knew nothing at the time of the full evil behind the new Enerjak: that he was, in fact, her firstborn son Knuckles.

In addition, several alternate futures have named her as the grandmother and namesake of Lara-Su, Knuckles and Julie-Su's daughter.

Wynmacher the Echidna
A resident of Echidnaopolis, Wynmacher is Lara-Le's second husband and Knuckles the Echidna's stepfather. Despite the mild tension caused by his mother remarrying, Knuckles has no ill feelings towards Wyn, and Wynmacher has no problems at all towards his stepson and his wife's former in-laws. Wynmacher and Lara later had a son, Kneecapeon Mace, Kneecaps for short, and in the dark days of Robotnik's domination, the three are inseparable. Wyn is also a fanatic when it comes to the prophecy of the Avatar, whom the general populace of Echidnaopolis believe is Knuckles. This leads Wyn to constantly call Knuckles "Avatar," despite Knuckles' protests. Together with his wife and son, Wynmacher was among the Echidnas who witnessed Enerjak's return before being sent to the Echidna island of Albion.

Despite his aristocratic appearance, Wyn is not afraid to do work. He helped Knuckles subdue a group of Dingoes holding him and Lara hostage during Echidnaopolis' return to Mobius proper. When Knuckles complimented his tackle, Wyn replied, "I played varsity!" This skill, along with his cooking expertise, came from his college days.


 * Keeping up with many other Star Wars references in the comics, Wynmacher wears an outfit similar to Darth Vader, sans the helmet.


 * Cancelled story ideas by Archie included Wynmacher also being taken prisoner due to Hunter's attack, leaving Lara to raise Kneecaps with the help of Locke. 

Knecapeon "Kneecaps" Mace the Echidna
Knecapeon, going by the nickname Kneecaps is the son of Lara-Le and Wynmacher, and the half-brother of Knuckles. Knuckles is rather put off by his new baby brother, for several reasons: his horrible name (Knuckles and Kneecaps?) and habit of hitting Knuckles on the head with his rattle. Kneecaps is a rather stereotypical infant: he loves his rattle - and hitting Knuckles with it - speaks in baby gibberish that most people do not understand, and is inseparable from his mother. Despite his tendency to hit Knuckles with his rattle, he seems genuinely fond of his older sibling. However, this fondness would have been noticeably decreased had Kneecaps been able to understand that Enerjak, whom he encountered some time later, was his transformed older sibling.

In Mobius: 25 Years Later, he is understandably more mature, about 25 at the time of the story. He also goes by the more mature (and perhaps more apt, considering his behavior as a child) name Mace.

Continuity Errors
Back in the letters page of Knuckles the Echidna #21 a fan asks a question about listing Knuckles' relatives in order up to Hawking. It states, "The father of Knuckles is Locke. Locke's father is Sabre. Sabre's father is Athair. Followed by Athair is his mother Janelle-Li, the first and only female guardian, and daughter of Thunderhawk. Thunderhawk's father was Sojourner, who was child of Spectre. Tobor the father of Spectre, and the son of Hawking."

It even goes as far as the official story in Knuckles the Echidna #29 when Spectre gives a roll call introduction to Princess Sally stating that his son is Sojourner and Thunderhawk is his grandson.

It wasn't until the Sonic Data Banks that this was changed around to Sojourner being the son of Thunderhawk.

As to reasons why this change was made nobody is quite sure. All that is known of this situation was that it was handled under poor editing. Hardcore fans got upset with this, but many have adapted to the changes.