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Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
The Kohenyu are creatures that appear in the Sonic the Comic series published by Fleetway Editions. They were a race of dinosaurs that were once native to the Floating Island, before they were hunted to extinction by the Echidnas.
History[]
The Kohenyu herd once roamed the Floating Island in peace. In particular, they lived in a valley (later to be known as the Kohenyu Graveyard) that contained the Emerald Mine (from which the Echidnas would later take the raw materials for the Chaos Emeralds). The herd had hundreds of members, but only twenty males, who were the largest and slowest of the breed.
When the Echidnas first arrived, the Kohenyu considered them small and non-threatening. However, the Echidnas possessed weapons (spears and bows), and began to hunt the Kohenyu for food. Although the Echidnas avoided hunting too many of the Kohenyu, they did not realise that the largest and slowest were the species' only males, and thus killed them all. Without males to breed, the entire species went extinct.[1]
The ghosts of the Kohenyu, represented by a phantom known as the Spirit of the Herd, were kept alive by means of a giant emerald known as the Soul Crystal.[2] The Spirit blamed all Echidnas for the Kohenyu's extinction, believing that they were all liars and murderers. The bones of the Kohenyu remained in their valley, which became known as the Kohenyu Graveyard. The bones were preserved forever by some unknown power (possibly the Spirit of the Herd).[3]
Many centuries later, Knuckles the Echidna travelled to the Kohenyu Graveyard to find a replacement Master Emerald from the Emerald Mine[3] (the original having been destroyed[4]). The Spirit of the Herd attempted to take revenge on Knuckles for his ancestors' actions, reanimating the bones of the herd in order to do so.[3] The Spirit told Knuckles how the species had gone extinct.[1] Knuckles attempted to escape, and had an opportunity to shatter the Soul Crystal, thus "killing" the Spirit of the Herd, the last trace of the once-plentiful species.[2] However, knowing what it was like to have lost his own people, Knuckles could not bring himself to destroy the last remains of the Kohenyu civilization. Moved by the unexpected generosity, the Spirit of the Herd forgave Knuckles for his people's crime and allowed him to take a raw Emerald.[5]
Trivia[]
- A similar species, the Mobosaurs, appeared in the Archie Comics series at about the same time as the introduction of the Kohenyu. Although both species are extinct at the time of the story, their back-stories are otherwise very different.
- The Kohenyu resemble Styracosaurus, an actual dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous period.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic the Comic #70, "The Graveyard, Part 2"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonic the Comic #71, "The Graveyard, Part 3"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Sonic the Comic #69, "The Graveyard, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #66, "The Homecoming, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #72, "The Graveyard, Part 4"
