Babylon Garden

For the track in Sonic Riders, see Babylon Garden (track).

Babylon Garden
Babylon Garden
Background information
First appearance	Sonic Riders
Game appearances	Sonic Riders Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Appearances in other media	Archie Comics
Overview
Other names	Babylon Divine wings
Location	Varies
Inhabitants	Babylonians (formerly) Babylon Guardian
Visitors	Sonic the Hedgehog Miles "Tails" Prower Knuckles the Echidna Amy Rose Jet the Hawk Wave the Swallow Storm the Albatross Dr. Eggman SCR-HD
Final state	Restored to original form and in orbit around earth

Babylon Garden (バビロンガーデン, Babirongāden^?) is a location in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Originally a spaceship used by the ancient Babylonians, Babylon Garden became the ancestral home of the Babylon Rogues after the Babylonians got marooned on earth. However, its inhabitants would lose the entire island as punishment from the Gods for their crimes.

Babylon Garden was rediscovered generations later by the latest Babylon Rogues, and their subsequent adventures brought it back into space.

Description

Architecture

The substructure of Babylon Garden: Astral Babylon.

Babylon Garden's substructure consists of the Babylonians' interstellar spaceship, Astral Babylon, which has a beautiful, yet alien design. It has an elegant fundament with pillars supporting an upper flat layer, and in the center lies a purple core enveloped by an intertwining structure. Surrounding the upper section are smaller towers with purple bottoms, which are connected by small bridges. Due to having Astral Babylon in its center, Babylon Garden's inner sanctums are highly technological.

The city on Babylon Garden.

After being reconstructed, Babylon Garden came to resemble an island. The entirety of Astral Babylon was obscured by a rock fundament, though it would have some cracks that revealed an artificial shell. On the top lay a lavishly decorated city of mosaic plazas, Byzantine domes and buildings, and winding roads for Extreme Gear traffic. Surrounding Babylon Garden was a fractured ring of tall arch bridges connected to the main structure by bridges at each of its cardinal points. These points also held scaled-down versions of the main structure. Additionally, lawns, trimmed hedges, trees, and giant hanging plants grew all over the island.

When the five Arks of the Cosmos were brought back to Babylon Garden, the island's superstructure was stripped down to its original incarnation.

Defenses and workings

Though ancient, Babylon Garden possesses a couple of technological defenses against unwanted intruders, all of which have remained functional even after being buried for ages. Silver-and-cyan fighter drones patrol the skies and its most secure area is safeguarded by the Babylon Guardian, the guardian God of Babylon.

Babylon Garden can be operated with the Key to Babylon Garden. This key can also summon the garden for its wielder (provided it is powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds). Additionally, the resonance from all five Arks of the Cosmos can call Babylon Garden to their location.

History

Past

The Arks of the Cosmos disconnected from Babylon Garden.

The exact origins of Babylon Garden are unknown. Originally a spaceship, Babylon Garden was used by the ancient Babylonians for their interstellar travels. The vessel's warp drive was powered by the Ark of the Cosmos, devices that harnessed the power of gravity. When the ship arrived at earth in the ancient past, however, Babylon Garden experienced a malfunction due to the Babylonians' inability to control the Arks of the Cosmos, leaving the ship's engine at the verge of creating a black hole―a "lightless black"―that would consume everything. The Arks of the Cosmos were thus jettisoned into earth's orbit by the Babylonians to prevent this catastrophe, making Babylon Garden crash land on earth.

Babylon Garden depicted as the "divine wings" in legend.

With the Babylonians marooned and crippled, the now-inoperable Babylon Garden was turned into a floating home for the Babylonians on earth, who constructed an island-like shell, with a city on top, around it. The Babylonians thus waited for the Arks of the Cosmos to resurface, so they could relaunch Babylon Garden safely and go back home. During ancient times, Babylon Garden would also become known as the "divine wings" (神の翼, Kami no tsubasa^?)―a legendary bird that the gods rode through the heavens. When the Babylonians created the Magic Carpet, the very first form of Extreme Gear, they hid it inside Babylon Garden to be protected by the Babylon Guardian. This would become known as Treasure of Babylon, which vague legends would describe as an invaluable treasure left behind by its creators.

Babylon Garden being lost to the Gods.

According to legend, the Babylonians, who had become a society of thieves, eventually incurred the wrath of the Gods because of their crimes. As punishment, Babylon Garden was "cast into the depths of the earth," leaving it buried deep beneath Sand Ruins. Though the stories of the treasure within Babylon Garden endured the test of time, the scattered Babylonians' descendants would forget the truth about the treasure and come to regard Babylon Garden as only a fable.

Sonic Riders

Babylon Garden returning to the sky.

In Sonic Riders, Babylon Garden was rediscovered by the current generation of Babylon Rogues (under Dr. Eggman's machinations), who sought what they believed was a valuable treasure here. Using the Key to Babylon Garden and the seven Chaos Emeralds, Jet hoisted Babylon Garden back up from the underground. Eggman then stole the key and went to Babylon Garden to steal its treasure, convinced it was technology he could use to conquer the world, with Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues in hot pursuit. At Babylon Garden, Sonic and Jet raced each other to Eggman while their teams fled Eggman's robots.

Beating Jet, Sonic disposed of Eggman as he tried to enter Babylon Garden and took back the key as the teams reunited. While Jet was too proud to take the key, Wave took it on his behalf. The Babylon Rogues then entered Babylon Garden's center, where they faced the Babylon Guardian. Team Sonic and Amy speed in to help out in the last minute, and the teams defeated the guardian God, making it release the chest containing the Magic Carpet. As they discovered the carpet, Eggman returned to demand the treasure. While the group obliged, Eggman fainted from the shock over wasting so much time on a piece of cloth. Needless, the others were fascinated by the Magic Carpet. Though intrigued about their ancestry, the Babylon Rogues left Babylon Garden to itself to continue searching for treasure.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Babylon Garden falls apart as it forms a black hole.

In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Babylon Garden was called to Crimson Tower by the five Arks of the Cosmos when Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues brought them together. However, SCR-HD, possessed by the Arks of the Cosmos' programing, stole the relics and brought them to Babylon Garden, causing the calamity the Babylonians tried to avoid: with the meteorites resonating together, Babylon Garden's engine overloaded, causing the island's shell to fall apart as a giant black hole was formed which would eventually swallow the entire planet.

Babylon Garden returned to space in its original form.

To stop Babylon Garden, Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues headed into its engine room to disconnect its core unit. There, they faced Master Core: ABIS, a mutated form of SCR-HD, and destroyed it, causing Babylon Garden's black hole to subside. Its engine now under control, Babylon Garden, in its original incarnation, went into orbit around earth. However, rather than fulfilling their ancestors' wish of going home, the Babylon Rogues opted to remain on earth.

Points of interest

• Astral Babylon
• Babylon Garden
• Babylon Guardian
• Mobius Strip
• Sky Road

In other media

Archie Comics

In the Archie Comics, Babylon Garden was a spaceship controlled by the Babylonians, but was forced to crash-land on Mobius a thousand years prior to the current story line. A malfunction inside Babylon Garden threatened to destroy Mobius with a black hole if the Babylonians tried to leave, so the Babylonians deactivated Babylon Garden and hid away underground so no one would find it and risk the destruction of the planet.

A thousand years later, the Battle Bird Armada and the Babylon Rogues managed to find Babylon Garden, which was located beneath New Mobotropolis, and succeeded in reactivating it and made it emerge into the sky. However, before the ship's autopilot could create a black hole when it tried to travel into space, it was stopped by Sonic the Hedgehog, and Babylon Garden itself crashed into the mountains near Mobotropolis.

Trivia

• Even though it is called garden, Babylon Garden hardly has any plants of any kind.
• Babylon Garden is similar to Angel Island.
• Babylon Garden is based on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a real-life location that existed is Mesoptamia, which was situated in modern day Iraq.
• Babylon Garden and its points of interest, it seems that they had a connection with Sky Babylon.

Gallery

Concept artwork

Artwork

Screenshots

Gallery

Babylon Garden as depicted in the legend of the Treasure of Babylon. Babylon Garden from the outside in Sonic Riders. Buildings on Babylon Garden. A gateway and road on Babylon Garden. Inside a building on Babylon Garden. The inner sanctum of Babylon Garden. Babylon Garden in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, before being stripped on its superstructure. Babylon Garden after being stripped of its superstructure. Babylon Garden, as Astral Babylon, in the center of its black hole.

References

Sonic Riders

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Main article · Scripts (Heroes, Babylon) · Staff · Beta elements · Gallery

V·T·E · {{Zero Gravity info}} · {{Free Riders info}} · Category

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

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Main article | Scripts (Heroes, Babylon) | Staff | Glitches | Beta elements | Gallery