Babylonians

The Babylonians is an ancient and highly technologicly advanced alien civilization of presumably genie-like birds mentioned in Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. They are known as the creators of Babylon Garden, their ancient spaceship, the Arks of the Cosmos, units that can harness gravity and as well the earliest form of Extreme Gear. The legends surrounding the Babylonians and their legacy forms the basic storyline for Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

In the ancient past, the Babylonians stranded on Earth during one of their interstellar travels and became a legendary civilization renowned for their amazing treasures, which (unknowningly) was in the form of advanced technology. In the present day, the only known descendants of the Babylonians left are believed to be the current generation of the Babylon Rogues.

History
Much of the Babylonians' history is shrouded in mystery and legends. Presumably, the Babylonians originated from another planet somewhere in the universe. In the ancient past, the Babylonians was travelling through the vastness of space in an ancient spaceship known as Astral Babylon, which was powered by their own inventions: the Arks of the Cosmos which could harness the forces of a black hole to power their warp engines. As they passed by Earth, however, some sort of accident or instability with the Arks of the Cosmos created a malfunction that made the Babylonians realize that they could not control the powers of the Arks of the Cosmos, and that their energies made their engine core create a black hole.

To save themselves, their ship and possibly everything else, the Babylonians decided to disconnect the Arks of the Cosmos from their ship and send them into Earth's orbit, while they and Astral Babylon crash-landed on Earth. Now stranded on Earth without any means of leaving beside their now near-powerless spaceship, the Babylonians could only wait for the Arks of the Cosmos to fall down to the surface from Earth's orbits so they could gather them up again and use them to power Astral Babylon once more and get back to their home planet. However, as time passed and the Arks of the Cosmos did not leave the orbits, the Babylonians began to settle down on the stil-floating Astral Babylon, making it their new home, and began to construct an outer shell around their spaceship, thus forming Babylon Garden. Whenever they would see a shooting star, the Babylonians would hope that it was one of the Arks of the Cosmos falling down to Earth.

Over time, and under unknown circumstances, the Babylonians became great thieves in the ancient world and they became known as a legendary band of thieves called the Babylon Rouges. Sometime in the far ancient past, the Babylonians gave a boy an "Angle Wing" as a gift made from the their advance technology, which made the boy feel like he could "rule the world". At the time of the 13th leader of the Babylon Rogues, the Babylonians completed their ultimate invention in the form of the prototype for the first Extreme Gear so that they did not have to "work so hard to keep themselves flying". To safeguard their important creation, the Babylon Guardian was created to protect it from any thieves.

At some point in time, according to legend, the Babylonians lost Babylon Garden when they incurred the wrath of the Gods because of their crimes. How much of this legend is true remains unknown, though the outcome was that Babylon Garden was "cast into the depths of the earth", which resulted in it being buried in the sands near Sand Ruins.

Over time, the original Babylonian died out, but their descendants lived on. During the early generations of descendants, these "children of the Babylon" remained aware of their origin and their ancestors' history. At some point they made, or was given, a control box that would bring Babylon Garden up from the ground when used in tandem with the seven Chaos Emeralds. Eventually, these new generations of Babylonians was present when two Arks of the Cosmos fell down from orbit. They managed to locate them and placed each one of them at the Gigan Rocks and the Crimson Crater to keep them safe until they could bring all five Arks of the Cosmos back together and reenergize Astral Babylon.

As time passed and no more Arks of the Cosmos showed up, however, the Babylonians themselves slowly began to fade away; over time, they began to forget all the knowledge and remains of their advanced technology and even records of their own civilization's history and origin, eventually leaving nothing behind, but misunderstood legends about Babylon Garden's treasures and the control box. With their past eventually near-forgotten, the descendants of the Babylonians became an integrated part of Earth's population, and eventually disappeared into near-instinction. Eventually, the only remaining members of Babylonian descent was the remainder of the Babylon Rogues thieves who continued their thieving ways. The children of these Babylon Rogues would then come together as a new generation of Babylon Rogues, continuing the cycle for generations to come.

As of today, the only known remaining descendants of the Babylonians is Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross.

Trivia

 * 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 ot their home world.
 * In Sonic Rush Adventure, where Sonic, Tails, Blaze and Marine are exploring the sea of the Sol Dimension, an reality parallel to Sonic's dimension, several hints to an ancient civilizationm 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. Due to such similarities it can be implied that this ancient civilization may be the Sol Dimension counterparts of Sonic's world's Babylonians.