Zoah

The Zoah (ゾーア) are a race of aliens that appeared in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. They appeared during Chapter 8 of the game where they forced Sonic and the team down in the Cyclone after they entered their territory. They are know for their ongoing war to conquer their most hated enemies, the N'rrgal.

Anatomy
The Zoah species are a race of very massive and large humanoid giants, up to four meters tall, though some members are known to be even larger. Their body appears to be made of energized cyan crystal and they have dark armor covering much of it. The individuals of the Zoahs can be distinguished by the design of their body armor, especially their heads and horns.

Characteristics and Culture
The Zoah species are known for their love of warfare and desire to rule all others. Their culture focuses straight on military might and conquest and are very advanced in warfare technology.

The Zoah society is highly stratified, and has clear division between citizens and non-citizens, most prominently in the quality of life between citizens and the Zoah military's members. Members of the military are considered the noble caste of the Zoahs and has respect and luxury beyond anything that is available to the citizens. The citizens can enjoy many rights that non-citizens do not, but anyone can become a Zoah citizen if they can pass the citizenship test.

The Zoah's government appears to be a military dictatorship named the Zoah Empire, headed by General Raxos. Personal martial might and personal honour are both important to them. One particular tradition they hold is that of the Challenge. Should anyone defeat Raxos in one-on-one combat, Raxos was bound to honour any request made by the victor.

Powers and Abilities
As a military society, the Zoah race are a strong race of warriors. They possesses natural high strength and have impressive physical defence as well. Due to being made of energized crystals, the Zoah can discharge a cyan form of energy and fire it as energy beams or form energy shields to protect themselves from certain attacks. They are also shown to have limited control over their crystal structure, allowing them to form spikes on their exposed body parts and use them as melee weapons or fire crystal shards as projectiles.

History
Just like all the other alien races inhabiting the Twilight Cage, the Zoah originally lived on another world. At the height of their power however, they were transported, along with their civilization, to the Twilight Cage by a mysterious force, as they were probably regarded as a too powerful race. While the exact time of their imprisonment is vague, it is known they arrived after the Kron and has lived in the Twilight Cage for thousands of years.

The Zoah became one of the races in the Twilight Cage, and ended up living on the Zoah Colony. When the N'rrgal race came to live on the N'rrgal Colony, the Zoah, in an attempt for conquest, began a series of near-constant attacks on the N'rrgal Colony. Eventually the Zoahs came to have a great dislike for the N'rrgal and ended up facing them in a war that would go on for thousands of year. Later, they were forced to join the Nocturnus Clan when their leader Pir'Oth Ix challenged and won a fight with General Raxos, the leader of the military. To ensure that the Zoah did not rebel against him, Ix gave them one of the stolen Chaos Emeralds to help them in their fight against the N'rrgal, who Ix also gave an emerald to so that they would both be occupied.

When Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends were captured by the N'rrgal Queen, she blackmailed them into going to the Zoah Colony so that Sonic would steal their emerald, which actually proved to be both sides secret weapon. Sonic and the others were able to get past the army and challenge Raxos or attempt to steal the emerald (depending on what the player decided to do.) Regardless, they are captured and Raxos decides to let Commander Syrax fight them, so Raxos can determine whether they are worthy of fighting him. Sonic wins against both Syrax and one-on-one against Raxos. Raxos then reveals that he was testing Sonic to determine whether they had a chance in defeating Ix. It is revealed that, like the other four races in the Twilight Cage, they secretly despised Ix and the Nocturnus Clan.

Shortly after, when Sonic and the others freed the Voxai, Tails and the chief of the Kron Foreman Krag decided to have a meeting of all four races to decide what the best course of action would be. Raxos agreed to have a meeting with Krag and the other leaders, and despite a small argument with the N'rrgal queen, they were able to figure out a plan to get past Ix's shield and to enable the heroes to challenge Ix.

Known Zoah

 * General Raxos
 * Commander Syrax
 * Gentleman
 * Haniman
 * Zoah Brutes: The main fighting force of the Zoah Army, they have high defence and attack power, and their armour deterred most standard attacks (similar to the Kron).

Allies

 * Sonic
 * Tails
 * Knuckles
 * Amy
 * Cream (optional)
 * Big
 * Shadow
 * Rouge
 * Omega (optional)
 * Shade
 * The N'rrgal (at the end of the game) (temporarily)
 * The Voxai (at the end of the game)
 * The Kron (at the end of the game)
 * Nocturnus Clan (forced alliance) (no longer allies)

Enemies

 * Nocturnus Clan
 * The N'rrgal

Archie Comics
In the Archie Comics, the Zoah are an alien race imprisoned within the Twilight Cage. They once resided in the same galaxy as Mobius, but were teleported to the Twilight Cage in the Argus Event.

Trivia

 * During February 2008, Sega announced that it would be giving fans the opportunity to vote on the name of a hostile alien race that would appear within the game. From March 4, fans were invited to vote on Sega Europe's Sonic portal Sonic City for their preferred name. The winning entry in the contest was announced as The Zoah, a reference to the town in the Panzer Dragoon Saga. The name was suggested as a potential name initially by the Sega fan blog, Sega Nerds. Here are the other candidates:
 * The Bluchaos
 * The Crushers
 * The Darknood
 * The Dusk
 * The Gravitus
 * The Guardian
 * The Icebo
 * The Psykore


 * Despite not making an actual appearance, the Zoah are mentioned in Sonic the Hedgehog #205, as residents of the Twilight Zone, which the Twilight Cage is believed to be based on.
 * The only "3D model" of "the Zoah" is shown in the trailer of Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood.
 * The Zoah's walking pose is similar to Shadow's pose from Shadow the Hedgehog.