I would imagine the Echidna would have left as many marks as they could around the civilisations to alert everyone of the dragon born of water. Including what he looked like, so anyone who saw would not make the mistake of ignoring him for not being a dragon. Robotnik does indicate he has some research regarding Chaos, since he knew to destroy the Master Emerald to free him and refers to him as the God of Destruction. Considering the next game has him attack G.U.N. for the Ultimate Lifeform, he might have broken into their systems at some point and go the ARK Project Research Database or something to that effect.
Or told by his grandfather about Chaos. Either in person or through the diary. Never considered that before. I know they didn’t plan the games to have the connection before, but I wonder if anyone on the dev team thought about that possible connection.
Well, if we take the Sonic the Hedgehog CD Concept art of him as canonical, and assume the Classic Era takes place in 1991, then Robotnik would have been 10 when the ARK happened, assuming they're rounding it to 50 years instead of saying 5X years ago. Lotta assumptions though.
It actually brings up a rather dark possibility. We know that Chaos himself was a chao that was heavily mutated by the Master Emerald. We also know that if Chao evolve enough they can become Chaos Chao that are similar in appearance to Chaos but probably not a full-on water creature like he was. Further, Professor Gerald's team was researching the Emeralds and managed to develop Chaos Drives which Chao can also absorb. With no other known way to create a creature like Chaos, it's very possible that the Artificial Chaos are heavily mutated Chao that were purposefully exposed to chaos energy. If that's the case, it's no wonder they began rampaging around the colony in Lost Impact; they probably either became vengeful like the real Chaos or went mad as a result of the experiments conducted upon them.
Eggman learned about Chaos from a stone tablet. https://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=File:SonicAdventureNavigationGuide_Book_JP.pdf&page=159 https://pastebin.com/Vu8yNjtz
Ah, yup. I remember now. There’s also the line referring to it after giving the first emerald to Chaos. Damn. Well I’m not surprised there was no actual link lol.
According to Maria in Shadow the Hedgehog, they are the research byproducts based on the deity of an ancient culture. So yes, Gerald canonically studied the Echidnas and the Chaos mural. The way it describes them as "research byproducts" suggests that it was the result of liquifying Chaos Energy during testing, much in the same way the Chaos Drive was made by crystalizing Chaos Energy in testing. That's...pretty dark and makes a lot of sense. In general I was of the believe Chao themselves come from the Emeralds and their bodies were made of liquid Chaos Energy much like Chaos itself. It is possible Gerald in experimenting with the Emeralds energy and liquifying it, created these weird mutated haft states of Chao. The thing o keep in mind with Artificial Chaos is that they are A.I. because they run of Chaos Drives themselves like the other GUN robots, and Gerald regularly had to fiddle with their wires or what have you according to his quote in Expert Mode. I've always been partial myself to the idea of the Black Arms being mutated Dark Chao since we are on the subject.
Honestly that idea of Artificial Chaos being a byproduct of mutating Chao in studies of Chaos energy makes far too much sense and is exactly the kind of screwed up shit G.U.N. would've been doing at that time. I highly doubt it's something they'll ever go into for the sake of either confirming or denying it, but damn if it isn't a compelling theory.
As for the ancient hedgehogs and the Project Shadow decision .... I would love to see Sonic Frontiers become part of a story-driven trilogy. In the first part of the Starfall Islands, Sonic learns something about the hedgehog's past, let it be in the background of the presented story. At the end of the game, we have a post-credits scene that foreshadows something in the next part - for example that hedgehogs were at war with echidnas, and somehow tie it to Adventure lore. I imagine Knuckles dilemmas, references and easter eggs ... And then I go down to earth and I realize I can't count on Sega/Sonic Team to do this. At least maybe we'll see a good plot...
The games never say that. You're assuming that the mural in the middle of Lost World is the only record of Chaos. The Artificial Chaos series resemble Chaos 0 more than Perfect Chaos. Huge reach. It suggests no such thing. That's fan theory territory, not an idea the game is putting out there. "Chaos Energy" itself is mostly a fan thing and not something Sonic Team ever uses. It's usually things like "power of the Chaos Emeralds", "Chaos Emeralds' energy" etc. Though Sonic Unleashed had the "Chaos Energy Cannon" (don't think we ever confirmed what that's called in Japanese). GUN didn't make them, Gerald did.
I edited my post just before you replied. That is one instance, and I don't think we've confirmed what the Japanese version calls it. But it's also just the name of Eggman's device. Sonic Team never refers to the power of the Chaos Emeralds by any special name in any other context.
The JP manual doesn’t use the term in the prologue section. I am not super familiar with Unleashed’s cutscenes but does someone know where it’s said in the game so I can check? It’s kind of hard to find footage of the game with JP text if it’s not a voiced line though. edit: My search ended up bringing me a few pages earlier lol. I can check this out today.
Yeah, I found an old post here with a description of where it is and edited my post. I’ll check it out now. If it’s a hint, it won’t be hard to just boot up my PS3 and do it myself.
Well, there we go. Chaos Energy is an official thing. Now the extent of what it can do, if mutations are within their realm of capability, is a whole different matter.
Well, I don't think the mutation that created Chaos or the Artificial Chaos was solely because of Chaos Energy. Bear in mind that Chao have an uncanny ability to take on the abilities of animals and drives to affect their own stats. In effect, Chao mutate all on their own anyway. If you think about it, it's similar to how Chaos mutates into stronger forms each time he absorbs an emerald. Combine that with Chaos Energy and you get some bizarre reaction that results in a creature like Chaos. It's also equally possible it has something to do with the emeralds' ability to "Translate thoughts into power", but somehow I doubt the Chao that was Chaos actively wished to be a creature of water.
Considering SA2 cannon's core entrance is literally based on Lost World, and they specify "the god of an ancient culture" (Chaos was only called the "God of Destruction" AFTER the Perfect Chaos rampage) No I'm gonna double down and say this is what the game is saying. I don't see how? Could you explain then how they are "experiment by-products" then? The Guidebooks explain overtly that the Chaos Drives were the result of crystalizing Chaos radiation in testing last I read. ...no the term "Chaos Emerald Energy" is used in Sonic Battle and the term "Chaos Emerald radiation" is used in the Guidebooks in Rouge's report iirc. I believe it is also in the manual for Shadow's game, explaining how his moves work this seems needlessly pedantic....
I'll take fault on that, I prefer to make sure something is in the Japanese since that's the original language and not subject to localisation tomfoolery. You'd be surprised the amount of dumb stuff they add. But that one, that's on me that.
