- This article is about the species in the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog series. For the race in the Sonic Boom series, see Ancients (Sonic Boom).
The Ancients[2] (古代人[3] Kodaijin?) are a race that appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They were extraordinarily advanced aliens that existed in prehistoric times. They originally come from a distant alien planet, and sought refuge on Earth after they were attacked by a mysterious entity that destroyed their home planet. They arrived on the Starfall Islands and settled there. However, their settlement on the islands was short-lived because the threat that destroyed their planet followed them, causing a small group to flee towards the location of what is now known as Angel Island. However, the Ancients were wiped out from the Earth due to unknown circumstances, leaving nothing behind except the seven Chaos Emeralds, as well as their creations on the Starfall Islands and Angel Island, as their spirits began inhabiting their good luck charms which became the Koco.[4][5] Their characteristics and appearance would later be inherited by their descendant: Chaos.
Concept and creation[]
The Ancients were created by Sonic Team, pitched as an alien race to explain the origin of the Chaos Emeralds. When writing for Sonic Frontiers, Ian Flynn proposed that the Ancients were ancestors to the Chao and by extension Chaos, as he felt there were already too many "random aliens" in the Sonic franchise, with this being approved.[6]
Description[]
Anatomy[]
The Ancients share many similar characteristics as Chaos 0, being humanoid creatures with a long body that seem to be made out of some sort of liquid. They have claw-like hands with three fingers on each hand, and two fingers on each foot. They have a protrusion at the top of their heads, two usually long protrusions at the back of their heads, and usually protrusions from their shoulders and hips, and they have two glowing eyes. The Ancients exhibit sexual dimorphism.
Male[]
Males have a masculine torso and shoulder and hip protrusions pointing upwards.
Female[]
Females have longer protrusions from the back of their heads, dropped shoulders, a feminine torso, and thinner shoulder and hip protrusions hanging downwards.
Warrior[]
Ancient warriors are similar to normal male Ancients except they have pronounced eyebrows and larger shoulder and hip protrusions.
Child[]
Child Ancients are smaller, shorter, have much shorter head protrusions, and lack shoulder and hip protrusions.
Elderly[]
Elderly Ancients, tend to bend forward. The protrusions on their heads go in a zig-zag direction and they drag downwards. The shoulder and hip protrusions also drag downwards a bit. Additionally, Elders appear to have a pronounced vascular system visible on the surface of their bodies.
Five Tribes[]
There were five different tribes of Ancients that had diverse body types from each other. Though not much is known about the majority of these tribes, as most were destroyed, the Titan's were built in the image of the four tribes that were lost during The End's attack on their former planet.
- A tribe with big, powerful bodies. Giganto was built in the image of this tribe.
- A tribe that developed a tail instead of legs. Wyvern was built in the image of this tribe.
- A tribe that walked on four legs. Knight was built in the image of this tribe.
- A winged tribe. Supreme was built in the image of this tribe.
- A tribe that is the most intelligent of them all. This is the only tribe to escape their planet before it was destroyed by The End and the only tribe we physically see within the events of Sonic Frontiers.
History[]
Long before recorded history, the Ancients used to live on a planet far from Earth, along with five other Ancient tribes.[7] One day, a mysterious entity known as The End attacked the Ancients and their planet, eradicating the other four tribes in the progress. [8] In an attempt to escape, the survivors of the most intelligent tribe built machines called Chaos Engines that harnessed the power of the Chaos Emeralds in order to power their spaceships, and escape from the impending doom.
Once they were successful, they mounted their spaceships and narrowly escaped while witnessing the destruction of their home planet and mourning the other four tribes.
During their travels across space, the Chaos Emeralds powering their ships start reacting to the Master Emerald on planet Earth. As a result, the Ancients lost control of the navigation of their ships and the emeralds drew them towards the planet.
The Ancients landed on the Starfall Islands and start rebuilding their civilization from there. Among their creations were altars that harnessed the energies of the Chaos Emeralds, the Cyber Space which stored all the Ancients' hopes, dreams, memories and data that can be accessed through portals they created. They also created weaponry, towers and an army of robots in order to defend themselves in case The End was able to find them on Earth.[citation needed]
Once The End arrived upon Earth and attacked the Islands, it killed many Ancients, despite their best attempts to fight back. While the Ancients powered up their most powerful robots known as Titans which were based on the four tribes that perished to honor and avenge their fallen comrades[9], using the energies of the Chaos Emeralds, a backup plan was made that consisted of a small group of Ancients taking the Emeralds away from the Starfall Islands, to the location of the Master Emerald.
Four of the Ancients: Dragon, Snake, Tiger, piloted the Titans: Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight fought The End in space, but it proved far too powerful to defeat.
Crane, the Ancient piloting the Titan known as Supreme, came up with the plan of binding their Titan with The End and tell the other three pilots to seal them in Cyber Space. However, the process of binding the Titan with The End caused their death. The Ancients carried out their backup plan and a small group fled towards the land that would later become known as Angel Island.
Any other remaining Ancients that survived on the islands have presumably passed away, as their spirits were stored into their good luck charms that later became known as the Koco, which continued to inhabit the Starfall Islands. Eggman believes the Ancients died a generation later.[10]
Not much is known about the Ancients that fled to the Master Emerald; though the DNA analysis from Dr. Eggman suggest that the Master Emerald may have devolved them into the Chao, thus making them genetically related to Chaos, who was a normal Chao but became mutated, giving him a liquid-like body with a similar appearance to the Ancients, making him their descendent.[11]
Personality[]
The Ancients' emotions are very akin to humans. They are capable of expressing various emotions such as sadness, happiness, amazement and love.[citation needed] They valued their hopes, dreams and memories as much as they valued their knowledge and history. They were also a group of archivists as evidenced by the Cyber Space that they created for the purpose of storing their data in hopes of passing it on to the younger generation or to those who would inherit the Earth after them.[citation needed]
Despite their technological advancements, the Ancients also relished in simpler pleasures. While inhabiting the Starfall Islands, one of their favorite activities would be to stack stones into large structures and towers. The activity was fiercely competitive, and annual contests were hosted, with the winners being based on the height of their structure, as well as the creativity of it. They also enjoyed knocking the structures down, because it meant that they could be rebuilt.
Much like humans, they also seemed to have a less serious, more playful side. When Sonic questioned why there was a pinball machine in the volcano on Chaos Island, Tails explains that the pinball machine was actually a way to control the volcano. When Sonic pressed again about why it was designed like a pinball machine specifically, Tails could only tell him that maybe the engineer designing it was simply being playful.
Powers and abilities[]
According to Sage, a tribe with big, powerful bodies were said to be strong, a tribe that developed a tail instead of legs were said to move on ground like a snake or swim in water like a shark, a tribe that walked on four legs were said to crawl like a spider or a crab, a winged tribe were said to have the ability to fly using their wings, and the most intelligent are extremely smart.
They use technological marvels such as the Cyber Space network and Guardians being far more advanced than modern-day technology on Earth.
They are also able to telekinetically control their creations, and are competent pilots of spaceships and Titans.
In addition, they speak in an otherworldly language beyond that of humans and other beings.
Symbol[]
The symbol which the Ancients identified their deity, from Sonic Frontiers.
Despite their highly advanced technology, the Ancients had a form of religion. They worshiped an unknown deity, only identified with a symbol. Sage speculates that, whoever this deity is, may still exist somehow.
The symbol of the Ancients appears during the story of Sonic Frontiers, every time the characters relive the memories of the ancients after helping the Koco complete their mission and find peace. It appears in the sky, close to the recently departed Koco, ominously. The symbol appears in the base game post-credits sequence on Dr. Eggman's computer when Sage is revived by him.
List of known Ancients[]
Trivia[]
Imagery of heads resembling those of the Ancients in Sky Road, from Team Sonic Racing.
- The Ancients may have been hinted as early as Team Sonic Racing in 2019, with carvings at the end of the Sky Road track showing heads that resemble that of Chaos and/or what seems to be an Ancient.
- The Ancients share their name and many characteristics with the group from the Sonic Boom series.
- The Ancients are known as "the Ancestors" in the Spanish and French dubs of Sonic Frontiers. This dub change also acts as foreshadowing, as is later revealed that they are the ancestors of the Chao.
- According to Ian Flynn, the Ancients that piloted the Titans had placeholder names in the script of Sonic Frontiers in order to identify and differentiate the four of them.[12]
Gallery[]
Concept art[]
References[]
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: Rhea Island. Cutscene: Sage Memory Token cutscene #6. "Sage: The Ancients came to this world tens of thousands years ago. The planet was still undeveloped back then, and their technology was vastly superior to anything else at the time."
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: View Fish-o-pedia Menu. "Egg Memo 7': Who were the Ancients? They predate any civilization by a wide margin. The echidnas? Pfft. The Black Arms? Please. The Babylonians? Hardly! And yet they didn't seem to influence the world beyond these three piddly islands. Why? What stopped them from conquering the world?"
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: View Fish-o-pedia Menu. "Egg Memo 7': 古代人とは何者か? 「彼らはどんな文明よりもはるか昔に存在した。 「エキドナ? プププ。 「ブラックアームズ? 冗談はよせ。 バビロン盗賊団?比べものにならん! だが連中はこのつまらん島々以外の世界には影響をもたらさなかったようだ。 なぜだ? なぜ連中は世界を征服しようとしなかったのだ?"
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: Ouranos Island. Cutscene: Side Story. "Sonic: If I understood those visions correctly, the Ancients came from space, right? And they wearing things that looked like the Koco, but they didn't seem... I dunno, "alive?" Do you know what the Koco really are? / Sage: They originated as lucky charms for the Ancients. They were never designed to contain their data... their will."
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: Ouranos Island. Cutscene: Side Story. "Sonic: Yeah, but the Koco I've found do hold the memories of their creators. Maybe the Ancients changed them, or maybe the Koco wanted to keep their memories alive after they were gone."
- ↑ BumbleKing Videos (30 December 2022). BumbleKast Mini for December 30th, 2022 - Ian Flynn Q&A Podcast. YouTube. Retrieved on 30 December 2022.
- ↑ Sonic Team (November 8, 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. "Sage: There used to be five tribes co-existing on the planet of the Ancients."
- ↑ Sonic Team (November 8, 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. "Sage: The five tribes fought as one to stand against their foe, but they were desperately outmatched. As a result, four of the five tribes perished."
- ↑ Sonic Team (28 September 2023). Sonic Frontiers. Xbox One. Sega. "Sage: The survivors of the most inttelligent tribe created weapons based on the other four tribes to challenge their enemy once again. The Titans represents the Ancients' determination to avenge their fallen compatriots."
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: View Fish-o-pedia Menu. "Egg Memo 10': Something wiped out the Ancients, that's for certain. A catastrophic event caused dire environmental shifts across the islands. It appears they made some effort to rebuild, but they were living on borrowed time. They died out within a generation.."
- ↑ Sonic Team (8 November 2022). Sonic Frontiers. PlayStation 5. Sega. Area/level: View Fish-o-pedia Menu. "Egg Memo 11': I don't believe this! I had Sage run a diagnostic on the recorded genetic data of the Ancients and then against archives I have with me. They're relatives to Chaos, the God of Destruction! After countless years, their DNA corroded to the point they were completely transformed into a new species. Some kind of radiation affected them for eons, making them unrecognizable -- except for a genius like me."
- ↑ Keepin' on Bumblin' | BumbleKast LIVE! for May 1st, 2023 - Ian Flynn Q&A Monthly Stream (14:13). YouTube. BumbleKast Videos (29 April 2023). Retrieved on 3 May 2023. "'Ian Flynn: They had placeholder names...in the script, just to identify them."
