Arabian Nights


 * This article is about the book in Sonic and the Secret RIngs. For the world where the game takes place, see World of the Arabian Nights.

The Arabian Nights is a book that appears in Sonic and the Secret Rings and is a major part of the game's story. It is a storybook, containing a collection of several classic, fictional tales, such as "Aladin and the Magic Lamp", and other stories with famous characters such as King Shahryar, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor.

Unknown to many, however, the stories found within the Arabian Nights had spawned an alternate reality, the world of the Arabian Nights. In this world, which is composed of all the Arabian Nights' stories, the places and characters from the Arabian Nights' stories are real and brought together, making this reality a reflection of the stories themselves.

During the events of Sonic and the Secret Rings, however, one of the book's characters, the Erazor Djinn, went rogue and began setting the Arabian Nights' inscriptions free and absorbing them, thereby absorbing the power of the Arabian Nights storybook itself, with the intention of taking control over the world of the Arabian Nights and eventually enter Sonic's world as well. As a result of Erazor's actions, not only had the world of the Arabian Nights begun to vanish, but the Arabian Nights storybooks' pages began to turn blank as well, leaving nothing behind but empty pages. This meant that if the Erazor Djinn brought an end to the world of the Arabian Nights, the stories in the Arabian Nights storybooks would be lost forever.

Seeing the threat Erazor posed to the Arabian Nights, Shahra, the Genie of the Ring from the world of the Arabian Nights, entered the real world to find the "Legendary Blue Hedgehog", who was foretold could save the Arabian Nights.

In the real world, Sonic the Hedgehog, who had fallen asleep while reading the Arabian Nights, were awaken by Shahra who was sure that Sonic was the one meant to save the Arabian Nights. After presenting the declining state of the Arabian Nights to Sonic and the threat the Erazor Djinn posed to his world, Sonic agreed to help and ventured into the world of the Arabian Nights with Shahra to save this world.

After many ordeals which left over half of the Arabian Nights' pages blank, Sonic defeated Erazor. Then, by using the evil genie's own Magic Lamp, Sonic made Erazor grant his wish of restoring the Arabian Nights' stories back to their original state. Having no choice, Erazor releasing all the stolen inscriptions from his body and returned them, thus restoring the Arabian Nights storybook to normal.

As the Arabian Nights and the world it had created were at peace, the story about "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" found in the Arabian Nights was changed into "Sonic and the Secret Rings", as the world of the Arabian Nights recognized Sonic's participation in its stories.

Real World Reference
The Arabian Nights is directly taken from the real life storybook, "One Thousand and One Nights", where the Arabian Nights was the book's title when first shown in English language in 1706. It features a collection of several stories gathered from West, Central, South Asia and North Africa, with the tales themselves tracing back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature, and has been over centuries in the making.

The main stories concerns a King Shahryar and his new bride. The king is shocked to discover that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her executed: but in his bitterness and grief decides that all women are the same. Shahryar then begins to marry a succession of virgins, but then executes them each morning before they are given a chance to dishonor him. Eventually, the vizier cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again, with cycle going on for 1,001 nights.

Trivia

 * The wordings of the storybook were all erased by Erazor Djinn, with the wordings in the real-life book being in a language of Arabic. However, the letters in the Arabian Nights as seen in the game are not Arabic. The language presented here, however, could be the equivalent to Arabic in Sonic's world.
 * The door leading into Erazor Djinn's chamber is presented on the Arabian Nights book cover.