Babylonians

"Be careful what you ask for, ultimately you'll only get three true wishes!"

- One of the teachings of the Babylonians, Sonic Riders

The Babylonians, also known as the children of Babylon, are a species that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They were an ancient alien civilization that stranded on earth in the far past, where they earned a legendary reputation for their amazing treasures, and are the ancestors of the current generation of Babylon Rogues. Extremely technologically advanced, the Babylonians are responsible for the creation of Babylon Garden, the Arks of the Cosmos and as well the earliest form of Extreme Gear.

The legends surrounding the Babylonians and their legacy form the basics of the storylines for Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

Anatomy
The Babylonians' exact anatomy is largely unknown, though legends depict them as humanoid beings with pointy faces, and feather-like fingers and quills on the back on their heads. Supposedly, they had the characteristics of genies and presumably either resembled terrestrial, anthropomorphic birds or their descendants attained avian characteristics after breeding with anthropomorphic birds on Earth. Chances are, both of these two assumptions have some element of truth.

Characteristics and Culture
The Babylonians were a highly advanced people in terms of technology, being ages ahead of the earth's time, much like the Nocturnus Clan. Even in ancient times, their technologies were more advanced than those in the present day and appeared to possess vast potential, ranging from possibly dominating the world to destroying it.

The ancient Babylonians used a writing system unique to their own culture, utilizing symbols resembling foreign letters or syllables. While this type of writing has seemingly been abandoned over time, the descendants of the Babylonians and treasure hunters like Knuckles still know how to translate them.

During their time on Earth, the Babylonians proved to be treasure hunters and robbers by nature and would fly across the world stealing various treasure. This might suggest that the Babylonians were a somewhat amoral and unethical people, as their crimes were great enough to incur the wrath of the Gods. They were also known to be Extreme Gear specialists.

Arrival and colonization
Much of the Babylonians' history is shrouded in mystery and legends, and their original home world is unknown. In the ancient past, the Babylonians were traveling through space in an ancient spaceship known as Babylon Garden, which warp engines were powered by the Arks of the Cosmos. When they passed by Earth however, some sort of malfunction, caused by the Babylonians' inability to control the Arks of the Cosmos' power, threatened to make their ship's engine core create a black hole‑a "lightless black"‑that would consume everything. Reaching a decision, the Babylonians condemned themselves by disconnecting the Arks of the Cosmos from their ship and sending them into Earth's orbit in hopes that they would fall back down the planet, while they and Babylon Garden crash-landed on Earth. There, the Babylonians could only wait for the Arks of the Cosmos to resurface so they could use them to return to their planet. As such, whenever they saw a shooting star, they wished to go back home in hopes that it was an Ark of the Cosmos.

Starting a new life on earth, the Babylonians settled down on the still-floating Babylon Garden and built an island for themselves around its substructure: Astral Babylon. Over time, the Babylonians became a legendary band of great thieves and robbers known as the Babylon Rogues, who would search the world for treasure and loot alike. At some point, the Babylonians gave a boy an "Angel Wing" made from the their advanced technology as a gift, which stories said allowed the boy to "rule the world." During the time of Stolen, the thirteen leader of the Babylon Rogues, the Babylonians completed their ultimate invention, the Magic Carpet (the prototype for the first Extreme Gear), to let them travel all over the world to gather treasure without the effort needed to keep themselves flying. This creation was placed under the protection of the Babylon Guardian. From then on, the Babylonians became specialists in the art of Extreme Gear.

Reclaims and losses
In the time that followed, Babylonians managed to recover two Arks of the Cosmos that fell from orbit. To keep them safe and their dangerous power out of reach, the Babylonians sealed one Ark of the Cosmos on Gigan Rocks and the other in the Crimson Crater until it was safe to re-launch Babylon Garden. According to legend though, the Babylonians at some point incurred the wrath of the Gods because of their crimes, and Babylon Garden was buried in the sands near Sand Ruins, while the Babylonians were supposedly scattered for all time.

While the Babylonian race lived on by breeding with the inhabitants of earth, they and their history slowly faded into legend. Over time, their descendants would lose their high technology and the knowledge of their own history, leaving nothing behind but misunderstood legends about Babylon Garden's treasures and their scattered relics. Eventually, all that seemingly remained of the Babylonians were the Babylon clan, who continued their ways of thieving as the Babylon Rogues. The children of these people would then come together as a new generation of Babylon Rogues, continuing the cycle for generations to come, with the Key to Babylon Garden, one of the few remaining relics in the Babylonians' possession, being passed down along with them.

In the present day, the only known descendants of the Babylonians are Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series and its spin-off comics published by Archie Comics, the Babylonians closely resemble Mobian birds. About a millennium ago, they crash-landed on Mobius in Babylon Garden, where their ship's malfunctioning wormhole generator threatened to destroy Mobius with a black hole. To keep the ship from launching automatically, the Babylonians removed the ship's ignition matrix and hid its parts away. The Babylonians colonized Mobius acfterwards, with half of them embracing travel and independence while the other half adopted a strict militaristic lifestyle under the family of the Battle Kukkus. The stories of the Babylonians and Babylon Garden persisted, though their exact knowledge and history were lost in time, including to the descendants of the Babylonians.

Trivia

 * In the real world, Babylonians were an ancient empire centered around the city of Babylon, located within present day Iraq. It lasted from around 1800 BC until it was subsumed into the Persian Empire in 539 BC.
 * In the universe of Sonic, Amy speculates that the tradition of "wishing upon a star" may have originated from the grounded Babylonians' yearning to return to space and get back to their home world.
 * In Sonic Rush Adventure, where Sonic, Tails, Blaze and Marine are exploring the sea of Blaze's world, a reality parallel to Sonic's dimension, several hints to an ancient civilization much like the Babylonians can be found. The foremost proof of this is a lost floating city, named Sky Babylon, which was hidden underground due to it falling from the heavens.