Master Emerald

The Master Emerald (マスターエメラルド) is an object that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a massive green emerald and a mystical relic of immeasurable power from the forgotten past. Created by the gods, the Master Emerald acts as a counter to the Chaos Emeralds. The one who controls the Master Emerald can nullify and control the Chaos Emeralds, making the Master Emerald a very valuable gem.

The Master Emerald rests on Angel Island where its power keeps the island afloat; without it, the island will fall down from the sky. Over the last four millennia, the Master Emerald has been guarded by the surviving echidnas of the Knuckles Clan who has kept the gem safe from those seeking it for their own gain. In the present day, its current guardian is Knuckles the Echidna.

Background
The Master Emerald has existed since before recorded time, so the details of its origin is shrouded in mystery. It is said that the Master Emerald was created by the gods as a balance against the power of the Chaos Emeralds after seeing people using them for evil, and equipped the gem with the ability to nullify and control the Chaos Emeralds in the event that anybody would attempt to misuse them. An ancient mantra associated with the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds would eventually arise, explaining their connection, which goes like this: "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The heart is the controller. The controller serves to unify the Chaos."

Over 4,000 years ago, the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds came to reside in the Altar of the Emeralds, a shrine in the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins where a colony of Chao lived peacefully. This shrine was protected by a sacred barrier, preventing anyone from taking the Emeralds, with the mystical water beast Chaos serving as the guardian of the shrine's inhabitants and contents. As the ancient echidna clan, the Knuckles Clan arose, the members would revere the Master Emerald as a sacred object and it became a part of their lore along with their associated mantra.

Around 4,000 years ago, Tikal, the daughter of chief Pachacamac of the Knuckles Clan and a friend to the Chao and Chaos, was eventually allowed into the shrine by Chaos. There, she first saw the Master Emerald, which made her understand its role from her clan's mantra.

As the Knuckles Clan faced extermination at the hands of their rivals, the Nocturnus Clan, Pachacamac and his followers launched a raid on the Altar of the Emeralds to steal the Master Emerald and the the Chaos Emeralds to gain undisputed power. Tikal attempted to stop her clan, but her pleas fell on deaf ears, and the men trampled over Tikal and the Chao alike in the process, prompting Chaos to appear and wipe out most of the clan in a fit of rage as Perfect Chaos. The creature out of control and poised to destroy the planet, Tikal prayed to the Master Emerald to stop Chaos. In response, the gem sealed both Chaos and Tikal inside itself, in the process creating an energy surge and backlash into a large fragment of the land and a portion of the Mystic Ruins, causing it to be ripped from the ground and float into the sky with the remaining echidnas, thus creating Angel Island. The surviving members of the Knuckles Clan would afterwards devote themselves to protecting the Master Emerald.

Throughout history, many people tried to steal the Master Emerald, and each time, they were thwarted. Over the centuries though, the surviving generations of echidnas to guard the Master Emerald became even fewer until the only remaining was Knuckles the Echidna. Brought into the world to guard the Master Emerald, Knuckles assumed this role, knowing from innate knowledge that this was his purpose, spending a solitary life alone in his duty.

Powers and traits
The Master Emerald is regarded as the most powerful relic on Earth, possessing unbound and infinite power even more powerful than the Chaos Emeralds. As its primary function, the Master Emerald has the power to fully control everything that the Chaos Emeralds do, which grants it the ability to both negate and empower Chaos Emeralds, meaning it can stop the chaos energy of the Chaos Emeralds, or enhance them. The Master Emerald's energies can as well be harnessed to initiate a super transformation as seen in Mecha Sonic's case.

The Master Emerald has also been seen creating three-dimensional holographic images within itself (thus suggesting that the Master Emerald is in fact sentient). In addition, if the Master Emerald is broken into several pieces, it can repair itself if the shards are brought back together. However, the shattering of the emerald seems to give the shards an explosive trajectory, causing them to fly a great distance which makes the task of gathering them rather painstaking.

As revealed in Sonic Rivals, the Master Emerald is a transcendental object that exists simultaneously in all time lines across the time-space continuum. That means should the Master Emerald disappear in one time frame, it would cause a chain reaction that would make the Master Emerald disappear in all existing time frames.

Only Knuckles, Chaos and Tikal are able to talk to, command, and control the Master Emerald. On most occasions, for Knuckles and Tikal to connect to or unlock the power of the Master Emerald, they must recite an ancient quote: "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The heart is the controller. The controller serves to unify the chaos."

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ad its add-on continuation Sonic & Knuckles, the Master Emerald came under threat when the Death Egg crashed onto Angel Island. Knuckles encountered the ships creator and pilot, Dr. Robotnik, who convinced the somewhat guidable echidna that Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower, both on the doctor's tail, were evil-doers coming to steal the Master Emerald. In truth, Robotnik plotted to steal the Master Emerald himself and use it as a power source to re-launch the Death Egg.

During their adventures, Sonic and Tails stumbled upon the entrance to the Master Emerald's hiding place in the Hidden Palace Zone when Knuckles went to check on it. Riddled with questions upon seeing the massive gem, Sonic and Tails left to get answers. As Knuckles went to confront Sonic upon their arrival at the shrine, Robotnik made his move and stole the Master Emerald, much to Knuckles' humiliation at realizing he had been tricked.

The Master Emerald allowed Robotnik to relaunch the Death Egg, but Sonic and Tails got onboard his ship to reclaim the gem. Using a giant mech powered by the Master Emerald, Robotnik hoped to defeat Sonic, but he still lost and tried escaping with the gem into space. However, Super Sonic destroyed Eggman's final robot, and Sonic returned to the surface, Master Emerald in hand, and brought it back to Angel Island, allowing it to arise once again.

It was not long before that the Master Emerald was stolen again, this time by the Eggrobo, seemingly under the command of Mecha Sonic. Knuckles pursued the Master Emerald to Sky Sanctuary Zone where Mecha Sonic used the Master Emerald's power to attain it own Super State. However, because it was unable to properly maintain its Super State, Knuckles defeated Mecha Sonic and reclaimed the Master Emerald. Timing it perfectly. Sonic appearing in his biplane to help Knuckles back home and the Master Emerald was again brought back to Angel Island.

Sonic Adventure
The Master Emerald appeared again in Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast, where it was again shown keeping Angel Island afloat. The Emerald also held within it the ancient monster known as Chaos along with the ancient controller of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, and an Echidna female named Tikal. In the game, it was shattered by Dr. Robotnik to release Chaos, causing Angel Island to fall. In the duration of the game's storyarc, Knuckles collects the shattered pieces of the Master Emerald from a variety of locations, and ultimately repairs the Emerald.

Sonic Adventure 2
The Master Emerald was again a source of contention as Knuckles fought with Rouge the Bat for possession of it in Sonic Adventure 2. Doctor Eggman tried to steal it again while they were distracted, but Knuckles purposely shattered the Emerald in order to keep it out of his hands. Knuckles and Rouge then set off separately to gather the shards of the Emerald for their own reasons. He managed to recover most of the Emerald shards, although after they briefly collided with an asteroid and opened up the cargo bay of a space shuttle, he was forced to ditch his friends (and nearly killed them by crashing the shuttle) in order to re-recover the lost emerald shards.

Once all the pieces had been collected the Emerald was reformed by Knuckles. When Space Colony ARK started to fall (due to an automatic system when all seven Chaos Emeralds were gathered in the central control room), Knuckles used the Master Emerald to try to stop the disaster in the Eclipse Cannon's Core, which resembled the Emerald Shrine on Angel Island, to negate the Chaos Emeralds' power.

Sonic Battle
When Sonic went to fight Emerl on the Death Egg in Sonic Battle, he brought the Master Emerald with him, hoping it would negate the Chaos Emeralds that powered Emerl. However, the Master Emerald was shattered by a crazed Emerl, as he was bothered by the light it produced. It was most likely put together again, as it appears in Sonic Advance 3, which is very likely situated after Sonic Battle.

When the Master Emerald appears, Sonic says "a Master Emerald!". This is most likely a translation error, especially because in the next sentence he refers to it as "the Master Emerald."

Sonic Heroes
The Master Emerald played no role in Sonic Heroes, but it was mentioned by Rouge the Bat in the last movie of Team Dark's Story. She says she "might as well go after that Master Emerald, since that irritating ECHIDNA is here!". Shadow responds, saying, "Some things never change, do they?", hinting that he managed to remember her rivalry with Knuckles. It is later hinted at in the ending of the final story, when Rouge the Bat mentions "stealing someone else's treasure," with Knuckles deducing after hearing the remark that she's going to steal the Master Emerald.

Sonic Advance 3
The Master Emerald then had a somewhat important role in Sonic Advance 3. After Eggman uses Chaos Control to split the world into seven parts, Sonic and Tails travel to the Master Emerald in order to use its Chaos Emerald-negating powers to undo the changes. After the heroes find it, the final boss is then fought at the Master Emerald altar. After the boss is defeated, the Master Emerald releases a bright light and repairs the world.

Sonic Rivals
In Sonic Rivals, Eggman Nega, masquerading as Eggman, stole the Master Emerald and used a special camera to turn it into a card, forcing Knuckles to find him and get it back. The game also stated that the Master Emerald exists in all moments in time simultaneously, so when Eggman Nega transformed the Emerald into a card in one moment in time, it disappeared from all other points in time. The Master Emerald is also one of the 150 collectible cards in the game.

Sonic Rivals 2
In Sonic Rivals 2, the Master Emerald was once again stolen. Working with Rouge, Knuckles uses an Emerald detector he found to help locate the Master Emerald without luck, as it's revealed at the end of the game the Master Emerald is in fact inside the detector. It is also in the card "Knuckles and the Master Emerald", but strangely, only Knuckles is shown on the card. This is because it is a cropped image from Sonic Adventure.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Pir'Oth Ix uses the Master Emerald to create a gateway to the Twilight Cage and at the end of the game he uses either the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, or "the power of Nocturne itself" to achieve his Super State. Later, Knuckles takes the Emerald back.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Eggman mentions the Master Emerald in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity when clearing Mission 4 of Astral Babylon with an Extreme Rank.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Knuckles' All-Star Move uses the Master Emerald. It is revealed that Knuckles can use the Master Emerald to absorb power. In this increased power state, Knuckles is able to fly above the ground and charge up energy in his right fist. This huge build up of energy allows him to punch the ground so hard that everyone on the track will be hurt and bounced up in the air. In this state Knuckles also has increased speed, which can be used to get closer to first place.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
In Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed, the Master Emerald appears when Knuckles uses his All-Star Move. in this game, he can use the Master Emerald's power to use an energy attack similar to Shadow's Chaos Blast.

Size Dispute
The Master Emerald's size and shape seems to change over time; in games such as Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure, the Master Emerald is fairly larger than Knuckles, while in other games such as Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood depicts it as being about the same size as a Chaos Emerald. Also in Sonic Rivals 2, it was small enough to fit inside Eggman's Emerald Detector.

While these appearances may seem to contradict themselves, it is actually a demonstration of the Master Emerald's ability to change its size according to its owner's will. This is firmly demonstrated by Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2: After Knuckles restores the Master Emerald, he is able to shrink it down to the size of his hand. Then, after Shadow defeats the Biolizard, Knuckles puts the Master Emerald into the core of the Space Colony ARK where he is able to enlarge it to a size slightly larger than himself.

Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, the Master Emerald is not an eighth emerald separate from the main group of seven, but is rather the green Chaos Emerald at the peak of its power. While it is the most powerful of them all, it does not have the powers to control the others, this role being filled by the Grey Emerald. As in other continuities, the Floating Island will fall out of the sky if it does not have the Master Emerald to power it, although this does not happen immediately, but rather over a course of hours.

Originally created by the Drakons, the Master Emerald was claimed by the Echidnas. Over the next eight millennia, the Master Emerald and five of the Chaos Emeralds got split in two. On Mobius, they were targeted by Dr. Robotnik while Sonic and the Freedom Fighters kept them safe. In one of Robotnik's failed attempts to seize the Emeralds, the Master Emerald and the other Chaos Emeralds were rejoined with their missing halves and taken back to the Floating Island to be guarded by Knuckles. While multiple factions would come to the island seeking the Emeralds, Dr. Zachary's attempt shattered the Master Emerald and Knuckles had to contain its energies a broken robot until he found a new emerald for them.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Master Emerald was created after Miles "Tails" Prower used the Chaos Syphon to collect the energies of Mammoth Mogul and Enerjak's Chaos Emeralds, and merge them with the two that were keeping Angel Island afloat. As a result, the Master Emerald has the power of fourteen Chaos Emeralds. As with the Chaos Emeralds that kept the Island aloft before it, the Master Emerald is protected by Knuckles, and also by his relatives in the Brotherhood of Guardians.

As such a massive power source, it has been targeted by many villains, including Dr. Eggman. Currently, the Master Emerald is in the care of Knuckles' father Locke and the Dark Legion, following the repulsion of Eggman from Angel Island and the disappearance of the rest of the Brotherhood. The Master Emerald has been involved in several plots, and was used to give more power to Chaos and provided Evil Sonic with the energy to become Scourge the Hedgehog. It was also the only Emerald to be rescued from A.D.A.M.'s summons, an effort brought about by the efforts of both Locke and Dr. Finitevus.

Finitevus later secured stewardship of the gem, fooling Locke into handing the duties over to him by having the Destructix attack a group of Dingoes. His intention: to use the power of the Emerald to restore Dimitri-who had once been Enerjak, but lost his powers to Mammoth Mogul-to his former glory. However, Finitevus soon revealed that he had fooled Dimitri-as well as Dark Legion leaders Remington and Lien-Da into thinking that he would give them the Emerald's power, when in fact his intent was to use it to brainwash Knuckles into becoming a new Enerjak. His plan succeeded, and the new Enerjak went on a reign of terror before being confronted by Super Sonic, who was able to thwart the spell Finitevus had placed on the Emerald to avoid being affected as Knuckles had been. The resulting battle resulted in the separation of the Master Emerald's Shrine from the rest of Angel Island. Finitevus then revealed that his spell on the Master Emerald-and thus on Knuckles-could only be unlocked by the sacrifice of a person's life. Locke chose to lay down his own life to rescue his son, dying to undo Finitevus' spell. The Master Emerald has since been left in its new position on Shrine Island, which the Chaotix connected to the rest of Angel Island by building a bridge.

Following the events of Worlds Collide, the Master Emerald was once again situated on Shrine Island, but its origins and history matched that of the games universe. During the Shattered World Crisis, Chaos and Tikal emerged from the Emerald again in order to help the heroes of Mobius restore the planet to its proper condition. Charged with finding Light Gaia, Knuckles left Relic the Pika and Fixit, her Gizoid-like assistant, to guard the Master Emerald in his place. Subsequently, it would be targeted by the fiendish alien Eclipse the Darkling, prompting Shadow the Hedgehog to demand that it be relocated to a G.U.N. facility. This angered Knuckles, and the pair immediately began fighting over the issue.

Sonic X
In Sonic X, the Master Emerald is a powerful object originating from a parallel earth. Much like in the games, it is guarded by Knuckles the Echidna and it holds the power to control the Chaos Emeralds.

When Knuckles was transported to earth, he spent most of his time looking for a way back home to continue protecting the Master Emerald. Ironically, the Master Emerald came to him when it was transported to earth during a giant Chaos Control. There, it came under Knuckles' protection again who would reassemble it after it got shattered from Chaos' release, reclaim it from Rouge when she stole it, and use it to stop the Space Colony ARK from impacting the earth. Eventually though, the Master Emerald and everything from its world were returned home when their presence threatened to freeze time.

Six months later, the Master Emerald was used to power the Blue Typhoon, which Sonic and co. used to travel around the galaxy and battle the Metarex. In the final battle with Dark Oak, the Metarex's leader, Knuckles was forced to sacrifice the Master Emerald in an attempt to defeat the villain, leaving it shattered and powerless. It was afterwards returned to Angel Island where Knuckles could watch over it while its power regenerated.

Trivia

 * In Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Beta, there is a large green object shaped like an emerald in Hidden Palace Zone, which was often believed to be the Master Emerald. However, it was just a rock that Sonic could break to enter the tube that is below.
 * In the 2013 re-release, a spring would be hidden in it.
 * In Proto Palace Zone, the emerald object would warp the player back to the Level Select if he/she stood on it.
 * The Master Emerald that appear in the Tikal visions in Sonic Adventure is much darker than the Master Emerald that appear elsewhere in the game.
 * It also move up and down in Tikal Visions
 * According to a prototype plot line shown on Sonic HQ for the Archie Comics post issue #134, a second powerful jewel known as the Master Geode would later be introduced. This gem would have become a point of conflict for Mammoth Mogul, Dr. Eggman, the Iron Queen, and Rouge the Bat before being shattered. Knuckles would have gained omnipotence from exposure to the gem, and could absorb power from its fragments. However, given that most of the other plots in this article have been rendered impossible, it seems unlikely that the Master Geode will ever make an appearance.
 * In Sonic Adventure, after beating the game, the player can visit the Emerald Altar on Angel Island and see the incomplete Master Emerald with a small chunk missing (as a select few characters). However, in Knuckles' and Super Sonic's story, it is 100% complete.
 * The Master Emerald has been used to transform a character into a Super State at least twice in the game series. Once by Mecha Sonic in Sonic & Knuckles, and once by Ix in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
 * An accessory of the Master EmeraldAccEmeraldKnuckles.jpg was included with Knuckles late-2012 by Jazwares.
 * The Master Emerald is constantly being stolen, and was broken twice (Sonic Adventure, and once in Sonic Adventure 2 and thus Sonic X).
 * It was shown that Knuckles and maybe other guardians could change the size of the Master Emerald, as shown in Sonic Adventure 2 when it was about as big as Knuckles and Rouge at one point, and about the size of a Chaos Emerald in another. Or it was just a program mistake.
 * Since it has the same properties as the Chaos Emeralds, characters have been seen using its power to go Super at various points in the Archie comics. Even Ray jumped on top of the Master Emerald and pretended to use its power to go "Super Ray" to scare the Flying Dingoes.
 * If one were to perform a certain glitch with Tails in Sonic Adventure to get him through to the outside area of Angel Island, the Master Emerald would be completely gone from the altar.
 * It is possible that the Master Emerald, much like the Chaos Emeralds, is sentient. As Knuckles has been seen talking to the Master Emerald a few times and in Sonic Adventure, the Master Emerald showed Knuckles a holographic image of the Egg Carrier, where he found the remaining pieces of the Master Emerald.
 * The Master Emerald and the green Chaos Emerald, are the only two emeralds to be green like emeralds in real life.