Solaris


 * For the project, see Solaris Project.

"That body of light is the sign of a super-dimensional life-form. Standard attacks won't work on him. He eats dimensions for lunch!"

- Dr. Eggman, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Solaris (ソラリス) is the true main antagonist and final boss of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). He is the sun god of Soleanna, as well as a super-dimensional lifeform and a god of time, who is worshiped by the people of Soleanna. Originally a living flame, Solaris was during the Solaris Project split into two halves; Mephiles the Dark, his conscious mind, and Iblis, his raw power. Both of Solaris' halves were subsequently sealed away.

Ten years later, Mephiles and Iblis were freed and rejoined, recreating Solaris as a corporeal lifeform. Solaris then sought to bring the destruction of nothing less then time itself, but was defeated by Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver. Solaris was then completely erased from existence when Elise blew out Solaris' flame in the past, ensuring his wrath would never be unleashed.

Appearance
Prior to the Solaris Project, Solaris was nothing more than a tiny white flame. After his two halves Mephiles and Iblis fused together, Solaris took on a more creature-like form. During the battle against him, Solaris' main body is revealed to be a rather simple figure: He has a large and transparent body made of light, with a red orb that is his consciousness/core in the center of his body. He has no head, his upper body only includes the top piece above his core, with a curve behind his "neck", and his lower body resembles a stalactite. He has three fingers on each hand with no visible palms, and his arms are not connected to his body at his shoulders.

In Solaris' first form, he has three shells of light covering his body, giving him a more complex appearance. He has one shell covering each of his upper arms, and one main shell on his body. The lower part of the main shell covers his "chest" area, as well as his core, and the top part of it has a figure, resembling an eagle head with glowing yellow eyes and antlers. This makes it look like Solaris actually has a head. On his back he has a ring with six triangular pieces "attached", making it resemble a sun.

In his second form, Solaris loses his light shells, exposing his main body. On his back, he now has a long plate, with a set of wings "attached", where each wing is made up of five segments.

History
Solaris initially existed as an apparently sentient flame which was worshiped by the citizens of Soleanna. Nothing is known about Solaris' origins, other that he had been "entrusted" to the royal family ruling over Soleanna at some point in the past and had remained under the protection of them for an unpresented amount of time.

During the reign of the Duke of Soleanna, the duke prepared the Solaris Project to experiment on Solaris in the hopes of using his time control powers to allow humanity to correct its past sins (and also to allow himself and his young daughter, Princess Elise, to see Elise's deceased mother once again). Once Solaris' flame had grown sufficiently large enough, the Solaris Project was initiated, leading to several experiments being performed on Solaris. However, during one such experiment, Solaris became unstable, ignoring the Duke of Soleanna's pleas and split into two forms: Iblis: the raw power and Mephiles: the cunning mind. Mephiles was sealed into an artifact known as the Scepter of Darkness by the time-traveling Shadow the Hedgehog, while the Duke was forced to seal Iblis inside of Elise's soul. Before dying from wounds caused by the accident, he told his daughter to grow up to be a strong queen who would never cry as doing so would destroy the seal on Iblis.

Mephiles was eventually freed and he began plotting to reunite with Iblis. He made Elise cry by killing Sonic the Hedgehog, thereby releasing Iblis and the two entities joined to create Solaris again. Solaris immediately plunged the world into darkness and prepared to devour time itself by consume all existing timelines. Before he could achieve this, however, he was defeated by a combined assault from Super Shadow, Super Silver and a resurrected Super Sonic. The three heroes managed to defeat Solaris by destroying his consciousness. Solaris' defeat reverted him back to his original form and spirited Elise and Sonic back to the time before the fateful experiment. After some contemplation, Elise chose to blow out the flame that would become Solaris - thus changing history by erasing his corporeal form from existence.

Powers and abilities
Solaris stands as arguably the most powerful being in the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series. Along with possessing several godlike traits, it took the combined might of three super transformed hedgehogs to defeat him, and even then, they could not actually destroy him. As another testament to his enormous strength, Solaris is one of the few beings seen that has been able to injure someone in a Super State through sheer force.

Temporal Powers
A transcendent life form, Solaris exists in the past, present and future simultaneously, making him omnipresent throughout time and virtually impossible to defeat, unless he is attacked simultaneously in all time periods.

As a god over time, Solaris possesses the ability to freely manipulate and change the fabric of time itself. According to Dr. Eggman, Solaris is capable of devouring time and space on an incomprehensible scale, encompassing entire dimensions and timelines. He can also create time-space rifts which come in two variants: black orbs that can suck objects into oblivion and red orbs that can hurl meteors of condensed matter with such force that they can bypass the invulnerability granted by a Super State.

Physical Abilities
Solaris possesses unbelievable high physical durability, nearing that of invulnerability, being unaffected by standard attacks from even super transformed characters. Even when unprotected, Solaris's natural durability is so high that so far only super-charged Chaos Powers from super transformed characters can harm him, hinting an immeasurably high level of durability.

Solaris is capable of energy projection, being able to fire energy blasts that are so powerful that they can bypass the invulnerability granted by a Super State. When projecting energy, Solaris can fire it in the shape of both large laser beams and purple orbs that will follow the opponent until it hits. In his second form, Solaris demonstrated the ability to generate an almost impenetrable shield of light that can block any attack and which can only be bypassed when Solaris himself attacks as he has to put it down to launch his own attacks.

Much like his two halves, Iblis and Mephiles, Solaris's physical body appears to be immortal and indestructible, as he easily came back, fully revitalized, after his first defeat by Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver. His only weak point is his red core that is his consciousness, which is still vulnerable to attacks. By destroying it, it would still leave Solaris' body intact, but he would be unable to use it.

Solaris is also capable of at least limited shapeshifting, allowing him to assume new and stronger physical forms, as seen when he changed the sun-like appendage on his back into wings and became even more powerful.

According to Princess Elise and Eggman, Solaris also possesses pyrokinetic abilities, which is further enforced by his relationship to Iblis, a being of fire.

Boss guide
To defeat Solaris, the player must take control of Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver. Like most super forms, rings are required to maintain them. If running low on rings, the player can switch characters to collect more. The boss has two phases, and the strategies for each are below. Getting hit by an attack from Solaris will cost the player ten Rings.

Phase One
To defeat this form of Solaris, the player's targets are the "light shells" on his body. Solaris mainly attacks by telekinetically throwing meteors at the hedgehogs as well as firing a laser from his chest. He can also create an invisible force field to protect himself. To start the fight, switch to Super Silver and use his Shield of Light power to grab the meteors that Solaris throws and hurl them back to destroy the light shell on his left arm. Once that light shell is gone, switch to Super Shadow and use his Spear of Light beam to destroy the light shell on his right arm. After the light shell on his right arm is destroyed, switch to Super Sonic and use his Arrow of Light to destroy the light shell on his body. Once all three light shells are destroyed he can take damage from any of the three characters. Attack the red core on his chest until he is defeated, or so it seems.

Phase Two
It seems that Solaris has been defeated, but he quickly rises up with a new body. Eggman suggests that if they cannot stop his body, they can stop his consciousness. To do so, the player must attack the red core to damage him. This is much easier then before, as now any of the hedgehogs can attack Solaris at anytime. Solaris' tactics have not changed from the previous battle. The only obvious difference is that Solaris can increase the number of lasers and meteors he can fire at the hedgehogs; he can now fire up to nine lasers at once. Otherwise, this is the easier of the two forms. As long as the player switches characters to collect more rings, Solaris will be defeated, and the player will have beaten the overall game storyline.

Archie Comics
In the Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series, Solaris was initially hinted to have appeared in the comics' continuity by writer Ian Flynn, who confirmed that the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) had occurred in the comics. Solaris was later officially revealed to have appeared in the comics in The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia though it has yet to appear in the storyline. Much like in the game, Solaris was originally a flame which was split into Mephiles and Iblis during experiments conducted by the Duke of Soleanna and his researchers. Solaris was eventually restored due to the actions of Mephiles and prepared to destroy time, but was stopped, and eventually erased from existence by Sonic the Hedgehog and Princess Elise.

Trivia

 * The six stones behind Solaris turn clockwise with Sonic and Shadow being controlled. However, with Silver, his stones turn counter clockwise (after several hits).
 * Solaris, at least in its second form, looks remarkably like part of the crest of Hyrule from the Legend of Zelda series.
 * In his first phase, Solaris has six stones on his back, six claws and six horn segments on his head. This may be a reference to the number 666, which is generally the accepted Number of the Beast from the Book of Revelation. The angelic second form of Solaris can also be looked upon as the true form of Satan. The most beautiful angel but also the most evil entity in the universe.
 * The Time Eater's core closely resembles Solaris' own. Further similarities between the two bosses include their shared power of time travel, and the fact that they can destroy the timeline with relative ease.
 * In further reference to the Book of Revelation, Solaris' two halves, Mephiles and Iblis, represent the False Prophet and the Beast respectively. Both creatures' names are also derived from synonyms for the Devil.
 * The Time Eater from Sonic Generations has a similar ability: to alter (and destroy) time and many of abilities that Solaris has.
 * Solaris is one the few final bosses to be canonically battled by more than one super transformed character, or by one super transformed character and a character transformed in a similar way; the other ones who have that trait are the Finalhazard, the Time Eater, the Egg Salamander and the Egg Wizard.
 * Out of all of these bosses, however, Solaris is the only one that required more than two super transformed characters to defeat, with a total of three.
 * In the second phase of Solaris, the music is an instrumental remix of His World.