Earth


 * This article is about the planet in the game series. For the equivalent in Archie Comics continuity also referred to as "Sonic's world", see Sonic's World.



The earth (地), also referred to as Sonic's world (ソニックの世界),  is the main planet and overall setting in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The planet was originally unnamed except in other media, in which most early continuities instead took place on the fictional planet Mobius. With few exceptions, the planet's name in the games was never mentioned; however, games were generally assumed to take place on an Earth-like planet, with some locations based on real-world places. The English translators of Sonic Adventure 2 opted for “earth”, which has been reused in many scripts afterwards.

Concept
Sonic the Hedgehog was created as a mascot for Sega, replacing its former mascot Alex Kidd. In order to maximize the appeal of the new character, his background (and the planet on which he lived) was given no detailed information in any of the initial games of the series (from the first game through to Sonic R). This allowed the separate branches of the company (Sega of Japan, Sega of America and Sega of Europe) to each create its own stories to fit third-party sponsors such as comics and animated television series.

The name Mobius was adopted by western cartoons and comics. However, since the release of Sonic Adventure, which featured more human interaction than previous games, the term began to diminish in the context of the games. The name "Mobius" is sometimes believed to have originated from a mistranslation of a 1992 Yuji Naka interview, but Sega of America had been using the name since at least 1991.

Overview
Humans are the dominant species of the earth coexisting with animals and plants just like the real-world modern day Earth. However, a number of fictional deities are also present on the planet, such as Chaos, Solaris, Dark Gaia and Light Gaia. The term Mobian is sometimes used in other continuities such as comics and cartoons to describe Sonic the Hedgehog and other anthropomorphic animals, although the term really refers to people who hail from Mobius (according to Sonic X, these sapient animal-like creatures are aliens from an unknown planet). Regardless, humans and "Mobians" live peacefully and are often affiliated with each other. Examples of this include Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog both being part of the human military force Guardian Units of Nations.

Although many countries have been seen (especially in Sonic Unleashed), the country most games take place in appears to be the fictional United Federation, based on the United States of America. In the capital Central City lies a White House-like building with the President as the head of state. Its main military is GUN, which is shown to be a brutal "shoot now, ask questions later" organization that strive for justice but are often clouded in judgment. Some of the planet's larger cities seem to be very advanced and futuristic, as robots and breakthrough technology are commonplace especially to GUN, who create weapons, robots and air fleets primarily to combat the notorious Dr. Eggman. Cutting-edge cities like Grand Metropolis, Metal City and Monopole hold robots, flying cars, Extreme Gear and transport tubes. However, there are vast portions of nature preserved from the clutches of technology - which Dr. Eggman often seeks to corrupt.

History
The earth came into existence in the beginning of time. In that era, Dark Gaia and Light Gaia came to reside on it. Following a constant cycle, Dark Gaia awakens once every couple of millions of years to destroy the earth and Light Gaia then restores it in an event known as the time of awakening. The two of them would then return to sleep in the earth's core until they can awaken to continue the cycle.

Over 4,000 years ago, there were two warring civilizations of Echidnas known as the Knuckles Clan and Nocturnus Clan. In order to overcome their foes, Pachacamac, the leader of the Knuckles Clan, attempted to steal the mighty seven Emeralds from the Chao. His civilization was almost completely wiped out by their guardian Chaos in the process after he transformed into a terrible monster. Afterwards, the large jewel was known as the Master Emerald, and the other smaller ones were called Chaos Emeralds.

In that same time, a series of sentient weapons, the Gizoids, were created by the Nocturnus Clan, one of which was thought to have destroyed the "Fourth Great Civilization." In actuality, this Great Civilization was the tribe themselves, and they were all really pulled into a different dimension known as the Twilight Cage after conquering nearly all of the ancient world.

The alien Black Doom of the Black Arms seems to have been observing the planet for aeons, as he has warped Glyphic Canyon to it over 2,000 years ago. His people's home, the Black Comet, passed by the earth every fifty years. However, it was eventually destroyed by the Eclipse Cannon when they posed a threat to the citizens of the world.

Fifty years before the present, aboard the Space Colony ARK, Professor Gerald Robotnik was forced by the President of that time to create the Ultimate Life Form. Aided by Black Doom, they created Shadow the Hedgehog. Gerald also studied the Gizoid, Chaos, and at least one Chaos Emerald. Later, GUN invaded the ARK and either imprisoned or killed all those related with "Project Shadow". This was because of their fear of Professor Gerald Robotnik's work. Gerald's granddaughter Maria Robotnik, who had become very close to Shadow, was killed and Shadow was sent to the surface. Gerald was later found and imprisoned on Prison Island under the pretense of disappearance, and heavily implied to have been executed by firing.

The planet has recently been constantly pained by the professor's grandson, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who also goes by the alias Dr. Eggman with number of his attacks and bases being taken place in different types of islands and earth's natural satellite. It was also attacked by the monster Chaos, threatened with impact by the falling ARK, invaded by the Black Arms, nearly sucked into a giant black hole (twice), broken apart and plagued by the hyper energy organism Dark Gaia, and had its very existence in space-time threatened on multiple occasions. All disasters have been stopped by Sonic and his allies who use the powers of the Chaos Emeralds to protect the world time and again.

Parallel timelines and the future
More than 200 years after Sonic's time, the people of the world had evolved to the point where they gained psychokinetic powers, which they would use in everyday life. During the centuries leading up to that point, the earth would be largely destroyed by Iblis. Amidst Iblis' dark reign, a resident of the future named Silver tried to stop Iblis for good under Mephiles the Dark's machinations by traveling back to Sonic's time to find the Iblis Trigger, the person responsible for releasing Iblis. When Solaris returned as a result of that, the deity sought to destroy all existing timelines, but was defeated by Sonic, Shadow and Silver. Solaris was then erased from history by Sonic and Princess Elise of Soleanna to prevent his wrath from being released, thereby changing the future for the better. With the sole exception of Blaze the Cat, no one would remember this negated timeline.

In this reformed future, Dr. Eggman Nega, a descendant of Dr. Eggman tried to release a dimensional being, called the Ifrit into Sonic's world in the past, which in turn changed Silver's time frame for the worse. To restore the future, Silver went back in time where he prevented the Ifrit from destroying Sonic's world, and by extension his time frame.

Main locations
{|
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Continents

 * Atlantis (submerged)

Islands

 * Angel Island
 * Babylon Garden (formerly)
 * Cocoa Island
 * Christmas Island
 * Eggman Island
 * Flicky Island
 * Newtrogic High Zone
 * Prison Island
 * South Island
 * West Side Island

Main political factions

 * Eggman Empire
 * Japan
 * United Federation
 * Kingdom of Soleanna
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

Cities and territories

 * Adabat
 * Apotos
 * Central City
 * Chun-nan
 * Emerald Town
 * Empire City
 * Eggmanland
 * Holoska
 * Mazuri
 * Metropolis
 * Monopole
 * Shamar
 * Soleanna
 * Spagonia
 * Station Square
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

Areas

 * GUN Fortress
 * Holy Summit
 * Mystic Ruins
 * Never Lake
 * North Cave

Natural satellites

 * Little Planet
 * Lost Hex
 * Moon
 * }

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the planet Mobius was originally the earth. In the early 21st century, earth was contacted by the Xorda. However, the Xorda ambassador was captured and dissected by humanity, and the aggressive Xorda race declared war on earth. Though some of humanity managed to preserve themselves, the Xorda ended the world with their Gene Bombs which broke all forms of life down to their basic components. Thousands of years later, this combined biomatter gave birth to the Mobian race, who would repopulate the earth and rename it Mobius.

Following the events of Worlds Collide that rebooted the continuity, the planet now shares the same elements as its game counterpart. However, it also has its own exclusive elements, and Mobians now live side-by-side with humanity. The planet is also only referred to as "Sonic's World"

Sonic the Comic
Earth appeared in the British series Sonic the Comic, but in this continuity it is considered entirely separate from Sonic's home planet of Mobius. In an early Sonic's World strip, the Kintobor Computer claimed that Mobius was in a small galaxy that was "117,63222 light years from Earth", in a parallel dimension, in a different time zone and the whole region is made up of dark matter.

Despite this, later stories revealed that travel between the two worlds was possible. Amy Rose and Tekno the Canary crash-landed on Earth in a space ship after being teleported across the universe accidentally. During this short stay, they were mistaken for aliens. They befriended a human named Professor Cratermass and earned the enmity of Colonel Granite, the deranged commander of Operation Starwatch, who believed they were the vanguard of an invasion fleet. Amy and Tekno managed to escape and teleport back to Mobius with some help from Professor Cratermass, who deleted the teleportation program afterwards so that Colonel Granite couldn't follow. Amy and Tekno encountered Granite again on Earth during their trips through the Ring of Eternity, and as a result of this story, rogue British military forces led by Colonel Granite subsequently invaded Mobius before being hurled out by the spirit of the planet itself. An even later story showed that, due to their highly similar ecosystems, Earth and Mobius were twin planets.

Sonic X
In Sonic X, it is revealed that Sonic, his friends and Dr. Eggman originate from an alternate reality version of Earth. A long time ago, Sonic's world and Earth were once one, but a cataclysmic event split the planet into two and sent them to different dimensions. The flow of time in Sonic's world is considerably slower than on Earth, with one month in Sonic's world equaling an entire year on Earth.

When Sonic came to Earth, the two worlds began to merge into one once again, which would ultimately stop the flow of time completely, thus forcing Sonic and co. to return to their world.

Sonic Boom
In Sonic Boom franchise, earth is where the series takes place. In this media, the planet resides in the Sonic Boom World and holds a mysterious past that has spawned both legends and lore alike. Its surface consists mostly of lush and wild nature filled with jungles, mountains, undersea civilizations, cloud cities, and all kinds of other environments. The earth has very little urbanization and most of the residents live in and around a Village. The series centers around Seaside Island where Team Sonic fight against Dr. Eggman to keep the doctor from achieving domination over the planet.

The majority of the planet's population is made up of anthropomorphic animals, though humans like Dr. Eggman are also present. While civilization here is predominantly rustic, modern commodities such as ice cream stands, airplanes, televisions and highly advanced technology are also found here, though in much lesser quantity. A few places on the planet, like Dr. Eggman's lair and the Ancients' civilization, are highly futuristic and technological areas.

While the inhabitants celebrate New Year, they do not appear to have holidays like Easter, Halloween, Christmas, or Groundhog Day. They also appear to be using a calendar identical to one in real-life.

Trivia

 * A common misconception is that Japanese materials have always explicitly named Sonic's planet Earth. However, virtually all instances of earth (地) really have multiple meanings (such as surface, ground, etc.), so a more accurate and less confusing translation would probably be "the planet" since the implication is that it suggests a life-sustaining home world. Japanese sources ultimately do not use the literal word Earth (地球) to directly refer to the planet.
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is the first and only game in the series so far to use the terms ‘earth’, ‘Sonic's world’ and ‘Sonic's World’.
 * In Shadow the Hedgehog, when playing Air Fleet in Expert Mode, touching the Hint Ring will play a message from the President where his Secretary will remind him that he is late for tea time with the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan.
 * In an interview, Takashi Iizuka said that the Sonic games takes place across two worlds―one is human, and one is set on the non-human side, the latter which Sonic Colors takes place in. However, it is not confirmed whether this means the games literally take place across two different versions of the earth (like in Sonic X) or across different societies. The PR and Social Media Manager of Sonic the Hedgehog Aaron Webber (to his understanding) confirms the former while former Sega Europe community manager Kevin Eva disapproves the former. These conflicting statements is theorized to be due to the fluctuating canon of the Sonic games.