World of Camelot

The World of Camelot is an alternate reality that appears in Sonic and the Black Knight. This world exists within the storybook of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, a compilation of stories about the adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and is created from the stories written within this storybook. As such, this world and the living beings that resides there reflects the book's stories and characters.

In Sonic and the Black Knight, this arthurian realm was threaten when this world's central character, King Arthur himself, was corrupted by the power of the Scabbard of Excalibur, thus becoming the Black Knight, and began enslaving his once-peaceful kingdom. To combat this foe, Merlina the Wizard called Sonic the Hedgehog from his world into the world of Camelot, so that he could defeat their evil king with the help from the Sacred Sword Caliburn.

Sonic and Caliburn eventually managed to defeat King Arthur and took the Scabbard of Excalibur. Merlina, double-crossed Sonic by using him to reclaim the Scabbard so that she could take it for herself to prevent the end of the kingdom and this world, though at immeasurable costs. Sonic and Caliburn, however, managed to foil Merlina's plans, thus bringing peace to the kingdom and the world of Camelot.

Setting
As a world created from the stories of the arthurian legends, much of the world of Camelot's locations and settings resembles those found in medieval Europe, such as stonehenge, while the world's history and recordings themselves resemble and follow the stories written in the storybook.

Many of the residents that can be found in the world of Camelot are more-or-less identical counterparts to the characters found in the arthurian legends, such as Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, the Lady of the Lake and King Arthur and has as well backgrounds similar to those of the characters in the stories. This world also features several common folk tale creatures originating from Europe, such as fairies, giant trolls and european dragons. The main inhabitants of this world is the arthurian townspeople, while anthropomorphic animal like Sonic is also shown to make up a part of them.

King Arthur's Kingdom
King Arthur's kingdom is the central location of the world of Camelot and the main setting for Sonic and the Black Knight. It is (formerly) ruled by King Arthur, and is divided into four regions: the Grand Kingdom, which is the capital, the Highlands which is a mountain and plain region, the Outlands which is a bog and volcanic region and Avalon which is King Arthur's private grounds.

Early History
Much of the world of Camelot's early history remains largely unknown. According to Merlina the world of Camelot was created from the stories in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which presumably occurred at the time where this storybook were just created, giving birth to the beginnings of this world. While the inhabitants born in the world of Camelot are as much sentient beings as those in the "real world" and able to make their own choices and decisions, they can have certain parts of their lives determined before handed, due to the stories involving them had been written so.

Several ancient ruins can be found around in King Arthur's kingdom, which hints that at some point in the past, one or more unspecified civilizations might have existed.

Arrival of King Arthur
Several years before the beginning of Sonic and the Black Knight, a wizard named Merlin created a sentient, magical illusion named King Arthur with the purpose of bringing peace and a just rule to the kingdom as its monarch, creating the perfect world. However, no one beside Merlin and his granddaughter Merlina the Wizard knew about the creation of the kingdom's up-and-coming ruler.

After Arthur appeared in the kingdom, he soon managed to achieve this purpose, and became the king and ruler of the kingdom and Camelot under unknown circumstances. As a ruler, King Arthur proved himself to be a wise and just ruler, and an equally noble knight, and as such, everyone praised King Arthur. While under his rule, King Arthur managed to gather a group of mighty and noble knights under his service, which was named the Knights of the Round Table. With their aid, King Arthur led his kingdom and possibly the world into an era of peace and prosperity.

The Fall of a King and Rise of a Tyrant
The peace of King Arthur's kingdom and the rest of the world, however, would not prove to last forever. In the drawn of King Arthur's noble days, Nimue, Lady of the Lake came to know of King Arthur's nobility, virtue and chivalry and decided to bestov the legendary sword Excalibur and the Scabbard of Excalibur upon the king. King Arthur, having proven himself worthy to wield these artifacts, received them from Nimue and soon discovered the incredible power of the Scabbard.

The Scabbard of Ecalibur's magical enchantment made King Arthur an immortal being, but it powers proved to be too great for even King Arthur to wield; the magical power of the scabbard and promise of immortality ultimately bewitched and corrupted King Arthur into a power-hungry tyrant. Taking on a new name, the Black Knight, King Arthur began enslaving his people and summoning the Knights of the Underworld to do his bidding, thus plunging his kingdom and the world of Camelot into a world of horror and chaos. The corrupting darkness of King Arthur eventually caused the light of Excalibur to be lost and it split into the four Sacred Swords, leaving the corrupted illusion of itself, Deathcalibur, behind as King Arthur's personal sword.

Despite his change in character, the Knights of the Round Table chose to remain loyal to King Arthur as their honor and code required them to say by their king's side, leaving little hope for the world of Camelot and King Arthur's kingdom.

A Bleak Future
At some point, Merlina, now having become the Royal Wizard, managed to scry into the future of the storybook realm and the kingdom, but was deeply scarred by grief and sorrow to see that at the end of the stories that made up the world of Camelot, nothing but ruin and warfare awaited their world. Determined to stop this, and to escape her own sorrow, Merlina planned to uphold her now late grandfather's wish of an eternal kingdom by taking the Scabbard of Excalibur for herself and use its power over immortality to keep her kingdom and world suspended in a permanent state, thus keeping it from arriving at its inevitable fate. To do this, however, Merlina first had to steal the scabbard from King Arthur.

Under unknown circumstances, however, Merlina got on King Arthur's bad side, and the king sentenced her to death. Merlina tried to escape and made a run for it, but King Arthur gave chase to Merlina himself, determined not to let her get away.

Enter the Knight Swift as the Wind
While she was on the run from King Arthur, the king caught up with Merlina and began summoning the Knights of the Underworld to corner her. Merlina was surrounded by King Arthur's minions, but before King Arthur could take her, Merlina performed a summoning ritual, calling upon a knight "swift as the wind" to aid her. The result of her spell brought Sonic the Hedgehog to her world (just as Sonic was enjoying some chili dogs). As Sonic fell down from the sky and caught his chili dogs, he wondered where he was and Merlina tried to explain the situation. Sonic, however understood the issue at hand and defeated the King Arthur's minions in a flash, leaving Merlina surprised at this act. Sonic and King Arthur then try to fight, but Sonic was restrained by Merlina and she teleported them both away in a whirlwind. With his targets gone, King Arthur send out the three Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, Gawain and Percival to find and kill Sonic and Merlina on sight, while he gave chase. While Lancelot was firmly determined to carry out the king's order, Gawain and Percival were nevertheless concerned about their king's change.

At Misty Lake Sonic questioned Merlina why she stopped him, and Merlina explained that King Arthur was immortal and why. Seeing that Sonic was willing to fight King Arthur, Merlina fought he could possibly defeat King Arthur and help her get the Scabbard of Excalibur, so Merlina began training Sonic in the art of swordsmanship, without revealing her true intentions though. With Merlina's guidance, Sonic acquired the Sacred Sword Caliburn, a talking sword who is highly skeptical of Sonic's abilities, to aid Sonic in the coming battles. Shortly after Sonic got Caliburn, however, King Arthur appeared and Sonic and Caliburn tried to fight him. Lacking however the skills and means to defeat Arthur, Sonic could not beat King Arthur. King Arthur, deciding that Sonic was not threat to him, arrogantly bailed out on his battle with Sonic and took off.

In order to find a way to hinder the Scabbard of Excalibur's power Caliburn suggested that they sought out the scabbard's former owner, Nimue, for that kind of information. Sonic, however was more or less annoyed by Caliburn, who continuously called him "Knave". As the trio headed out, however, Caliburn had to get his blade sharpen in Castle Town. As Sonic teased him for that, however, he noticed Merlina acting strange, before she said that she had to go into hiding as she would be recognized in town. Sonic was cool with this though and said goodbye to Merlina for the time being, before taking off to town.

The Path to a Knight
In Castle Town, Sonic and Caliburn found the Blacksmith, who Sonic briefly mistook for Tails. The blacksmith recognized Caliburn, but could not remember where he had heard of its name before. With Caliburn's blade sharpen by the Blacksmith, Sonic headed into the Deep Woods to find Nimue. On the way, however, Sonic met Lancelot, who challenged him to a duel. Through either sheer skill or luck, Sonic defeated Lancelot and claimed his sacred sword Arondight. After the battle, Sonic and Caliburn found Nimue, but Sonic mistook her for Amy and tried to run away, but Caliburn remonstrated Sonic and had him give a proper greeting.

As Nimue knew about Sonic and his quest, Nimue told Sonic and Caliburn that she was willing to help stop King Arthur, as she was the one gave it to him. However, fearing that Sonic could turn out the same way as King Arthur if he took the scabbard, she would only assist Sonic if he proved himself a true knight and presented him with three tests to be completed in three days. After completing first task, liberating King Arthur's prisoners in Camelot Castle, Sonic soon encounters a crying townspeople child whose village was abducted by a dragon. Sonic quickly decided to help her, despite Caliburn's protests and with the risk of running out of time to clear the tasks. At Titanic Plain Sonic soon encountered and defeated Gawain, and took his swords Galatine before he could kill himself out of shame for failing his king. Sonic then asked him if there was more to being a knight than serving a king before heading of to save the townspeople.

Eventually, Sonic managed to save the townsfolk, though at the cost of running out of time. As Sonic and Caliburn return to find the child waiting for them, Nimue revealed that she was the crying child and that she was testing Sonic. Having shown compassion, strength and courage, Nimue deemed Sonic and worthy knight and the she would reveal the scabbard's secrets to him. Nimue told Sonic that he could blunt the scabbard's power by retrieving the sacred swords wielded by the Knights of the Round Table. Confident as ever, Sonic was ready to obtain Laevatein from Percival. Despite Caliburn warning Sonic about her skills, however, Sonic had grown used to Caliburn and had faith they could succeed.

At Molten Mine Sonic met Percival and defeated her. After the battle, Sonic saved her from falling from a cliff, an act that finally earned him Caliburn's respect and Caliburn knighted Sonic "Sir Sonic, Knight of the Wind".

Now that Sonic had all four sacred swords, Merlina, having seen those events from her reflecting pool, arrived to inform Sonic that King Arthur was on Faraway Avalon. After giving Sonic praise for his development, Merlina told Sonic where to find her and Sonic headed towards Avalon. Once arriving there, Sonic and Caliburn pursued and defeated King Arthur with the power of the sacred swords.

Merlina's Betrayal
As Sonic celebrated his triumph over King Arthur, the hedgehog was surprised to see the evil king fading away like one of the Knights of the Underworld. Later, at Castle Camelot, Merlina revealed to the Knights of the Round Table that King Arthur was an illusion conjured by her grandfather, Merlin. As Sonic then arrived, Merlina revealed her true colors to Sonic as she took Excalibur's scabbard to become all-powerful and go through with her plan of making King Arthur's kingdom eternal.

Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table were forced to flee as Merlina unleashed the power of the Scabbard of Excalibur across the kingdom. However, Merlina is too blinded by her desire for an eternal kingdom that he did not realize that the magic she was using to put the kingdom under stasis disrupted the natural order of the world of Camelot and could eventually destroy it. As Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table regrouped, Sonic got the Knights of the Round Table to resume the fight despite the odds and revelations. Then, with Nimue's help, the group set off to use the sacred swords to contain Merlina's influence by putting up a barrier around the kingdom. As the managed to set up the barrier, however, it was revealed that is too weak, and was only slowing Merlina down at best.

The Dark Queen and the Golden Knight
After the four swords formed a barrier around the castle, Sonic and Caliburn confronted Merlina, now the Dark Queen, in the Dark Hollow. There, Merlina explained that she knew the kingdom would come to an end, and that she wanted it to make it last forever. Sonic, however, refused such a world, and battled her, but was outmatched. During the battle, Caliburn is broken in half as he protected Sonic, but Sonic continuously persevered, despite taking a very severe beating. At the same time, Nimue and the Knights of the Round Table, watched Sonic's efforts, telling him to run. Sonic, however refuses, resolving to stop Merlina no matter the cost. With Sonic's determination at its highest, the lost light of Excalibur was awoken, repairing Caliburn, and transforming the duo into Excalibur-Sonic and the true Excalibur, respectively. They then engage Merlina, where she transformed monstrous creature, and after a long battle, Sonic and Caliburn manage to defeat Merlina, thus saving the world of Camelot.

As the kingdom and the world of Camelot returned to normal, Merlina continued to lament the fate of the kingdom. Sonic then tried to comfort Merlina as he gave her a flower and told her that, while all worlds have to end, they merely need to live life to the fullest in the time that they have; reminiscing about her grandfather, Merlina took his advice to her heart, and letting go of her sorrow.

As Sonic thanked the Knights of the Round Table for their help, Lancelot said that they would now have to disband now that King Arthur is gone, but Caliburn reminded them that he was the one who chose the one to be king; thus, Sonic was the true King Arthur, leaving both Sonic and the knights shocked at this revelation. Sonic then told the Knights of the Round Table to cut it out as the bowed before him.

Aftermath
Despite now being recognized as the true King Arthur of the world of Camelot and the kingdom, Sonic still chose to go back to his own world, now that this one was safe. What happened to the world of Camelot and the kingdom after Sonic left as they did not have a monarch remains unknown.

After Sonic returned from the world of Camelot, much like the Arabian Nights, the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table storybook that contained the world of Camelot, changed its title into "Sonic and the Black Knight", as the storybook and the world of Camelot acknowledged Sonic's participation in the stories it contained.

Archie Comics
The world of Camelot also appeared in the Archie Comics' Archie Sonic the Hedgehog 197 as a part of the comic's adaptation of Sonic and the Black Knight. In this media, it is known as the Medieval Zone.

As presented in this media, the Medieval Zone is a zone which is a medieval version of Mobius Prime. Many of the residents of this zone resemble characters from the legends of King Arthur. The knights of the round table, made up of counterparts of Knuckles, Blaze and Shadow, serve their once-great King Arthur. At one point, King Arthur wished death to his royal wizard Merlina and chased after her with an army of monstrous knights. Merlina summoned a version of Sonic the Hedgehog from another zone into her realm in the hopes of defeating the corrupted king, who had then became known as the infamous Black Knight. Sonic defeated his army of monstrous knights, but before he could take on the king himself, Merlina pulled him back and they disappeared in a whirlwind of smoke and dust. King Arthur then ordered his three Mobian knights Lancelot, Percival and Gawain to spread out and kill the two of them on sight. Though some of them expressed doubts in their king and his orders, they proceeded on the mission nonetheless.