My roots are showing

If this makes sense to you, you're as bad as I am

I said before that I was a Sonic nerd. I also said here that one day I would write a really nerdy Sonic based blog to prove that. Now I already wrote a Pokémon blog entry that was nerdy, despite not being into Pokémon like some people, so I worry before I begin just how complicated this might get. Hence I apologise in advance if this makes no sense.

This was taken from a forum and a discussion about the geography of Sonic's world:

Mobius/Earth and Where Everything Happens Before Sonic Got Green Eyes

As far as the games are concerned it's largely a matter of what you'll consider canon, and what you won't For this I'm assuming pretty much every game takes place on the same planet (notable exceptions: Sonic Rush Adventure takes place in another dimension, Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, is largely a AoStH set game, and has no location).

Lets start from the beginning here. You've got Sonic 1, which takes place on South Island. Assume the Game Gear version takes place in the same landmass, and assume that one story is canon, since they're basically the same story, only difference is location, and the Special Stages (or lack thereof). Sonic 2 then takes place on Westside Island. Once again, both games are the same (assume at some point Robotnik captures Tails). Most the rest of the Game Gear series then exist on unspecified places, and can thus slot in nigh on anywhere, with one exception, Tails Adventure, which takes place on Poloi.

Sonic 3 introduces Knuckles, and since he's from the Floating Island, it's safe to assume Sonic 3, and the other half of the game Sonic and Knuckles take place in the same island. Or is it? Think about it for a second, what evidence is there in the first six zones of S3&K that says it takes place on the Floating Island? It's possible Knuckles, in his gullibility, left the Floating Island to get the Chaos Emeralds back. This last paragraph is speculative, and can be dismissed if you prefer.

Sonic CD is set on Little Planet, which is tied by Robotnik to Never Lake. Again never lake could be anywhere, but the key aspect here is that, at the end of Sonic CD, the chain is destroyed, allowing Little Planet to return to normal orbital activities.

Knuckles Chaotix suggests that the island rose from the depths of the sea. Thus until the game it lived under the sea. Perhaps it's an echidnean relic, but that's again speculative. Whether or not it's still there is also an unknown.

Once again, Sonic 3D is set on Flickies Island. So at this point in time, before the confusion of Sonic Adventure we have one orbiting planetoid (perhaps two, we never do see the Death Egg crash or get fully destroyed at the end Sonic & Knuckles), one flying island, at least five confirmed islands of which one was submerged before Sonic 1, and a slew of Zones that aren't specifically stated as being in any one place.

One thing I would like to say here is that Sonic the Fighters offers a map of the world in the opening title. It's very vague, but it is there. It also doesn't agree with the one shown in Shadow The Hedgehog.

Sonic On Earth; The Post Adventure Years

Sonic Adventure confirmed the planets name to be Earth, in game-canon anyway. it takes place in and around Station Square, and also shows some of the Floating Island (referred to here as just "Angel Island"). This could be a ret-con, like the name Eggman, and the change in appearance and ages for many characters, but the size of the island has changed drastically since S3&K, and doesn't stay consistent in any games that show the emerald alter since. It's possible to conclude there are actually several emerald alters, and as Guardian it's Knuckles job to move the emerald, but yet again, speculative, though somewhat supported by the seven emerald alters to be found in the upcoming Sonic Unleashed.

Up until this point, everything seems feasible. Yes humans did turn up out of nowhere, but it is entirely possibly to say that humans were always there. After all, bar the playable anthro cast, the only animals you ever freed from badnik's were small animals, perhaps feral, certainly not looking the same as Sonic did, design wise. Just because you can't see a human, doesn't mean there are humans. After all, there is one human there from the start, Dr Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

It's Sonic Adventure 2 that throws a spanner in the works. Not for it's settings, but for two things. Firstly it's world map contains a section near the bottom where the Green Hill Zone bonus level can be found. This is a hint that it is South Island, the very same South Island Sonic 1 was set on.

But this raises a few questions. Firstly, why would a military organisation like GUN shown in Sonic Adventure 2 allow Robotnik to build such evil machinery in the earlier games when they're so intent to stop him? Was GUN formed in responce to the continued threat of Robotnik? Err, nope, because of the history of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow, Gerald Robotnik, and The Ark.

The Shadow's History Arc On The Ark.

Think about this for a moment. If Robotnik is a genius with an IQ of 300, why would he assemble the Death Egg, when he could just as easily take over the Ark, and use that as a Death Egg. If you assume he did, then how did it magically restore back to The Arks default in time for SA2? If you turn to that and say "Well Eggman and Sonic are from another dimension that raises two more questions: 1) How did Robotnik get from Earth to Sonic's dimension? and 2) Why is there the same Green Hill Zone on Earth?

Speculatively, you can dismiss the Green Hill Zone in SA2 as a bonus, and no more canon than Tikal and Chaos appearing in the two player mode. However, if you prefer, you can assume that there's a Green Hill Zone on both planets, and it happens to be identical. After all, Robotnik did very little to the Green Hill Zone, and what is there in SA2 could have easily been down in the time Robotnik was making al the other spike traps and things.

But then you have the moon. It's a key set piece to the plot, the moon gets destroyed by the Eclipse Canon's laser as a way for Robotnik to prove he's a threat. Not a problem like that, but then when you go back to Sonic Heroes, the moon in Hang Castle is completely full. Once again, you can speculate this to be one of two things. Either Sonic Heroes is a dimensional jump, or if you're still focusing on the one world idea, then the Eclipse Canon messed up the moons spinning.

Of course, we're assuming this moon to behave like our moon here. Even though no map or screenshot of Earth from the Sonic games ever matches up to the real world Earth (the one you're on right now), just because they share the same name, the moon has to behave in the same way, and always have the same part face the Earth right? Well no, not technically, it's a large coincidence that our moon does that, and a lot of moons orbiting many other planets don't. Our moon is unique compared to other moons in our own solar system for that.

So so far the only evidence we have of there being more than one world are two non-identical maps (neither of which I doubt match up to what we'll see in the games anyway), and this idea that Robotnik could've used The Ark, but didn't, and GUN's unwillingness to step in during the earlier games.

Every game since has been fairly inconsequential with regards to geography. Sure we've had new Zones added, as well as a new place called Soleanna, but we've not gained any clearer evidence to whether it's one world or two. Just another inconsistency in the form of a cat.

Blaze The Cats Indecisive Origins

She's the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, who lives in another dimension. She's also a pyrokinetically gifted cat from the future. Same is true of Eggman Nega too. How do you explain this plot hole? She can't be both, but if she's not then her future is not actually the future of Earth, and thus maybe Soleanna is not on the same world? Well maybe, but neither dimensional travel, nor time travel are concrete science.

It's very possible that time travel is a form of dimensional travel. This means that if you travel in time, you're really travelling through dimensions. It all depends on what you think time travel is. Without any confirmation, it's possible that Blaze's dimension is historically so many years into an alternate reality.

Confused? Let me put it another way. In Blazes world (shown in Sonic Rush Adventure), Sonic and Robotnik existed, and Robotnik had a descendant. Several generations later, we have Eggman Nega fighting the same fight with Blaze the Cat. When the two dimensions threaten to collide in Sonic Rush, Blaze's dimension is actually Sonic's dimension in the future, albeit with a few key differences.

What I'm saying is thus: Either the Blaze seen in Sonic '06 is the same cat seen in Sonic Rush, but in an alternate time line created due to the events of Sonic '06 resetting (technically, if they perform a reset, they create a paradox, whereby they can't do the reset due to not being aware of needing to do so, thus setting the games story into motion again), or there are two Blaze's one from the future, one from an alternate dimension.

But What Does That All Mean?

Well, it means that either everything is one planet (including the islands from Sonic Rush Adventure), giving you the islands of South Island, Westside Island, Poloi Island, New Tek Island (the one from Knuckles Chaotix, I might be wrong on it's name) Prison Island, and the islands of SRA, and a few other small islands mentioned in the other games, as well as several larger continents, which may or may not contain levels shown in games with no maps, no markings making up the abandoned areas of those continents. You also have a Floating Island with several Emerald Chambers, as well as the Babylon Island shown in Sonic Riders and Little Planet, all flying around in the sky of Earth.

Or, you have some of that on Earth, and some of it not on Earth. Only thing that is confirmed in all the games is that Westside Island, and the Floating Island (as seen in S3&K) are in the same dimension (plot doesn't work otherwise), and that depending on how correct Tails is in his assumptions of dimensional travel, Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure take place on two separate worlds, rather than the same world in two different points in history. Whether either of these is the Earth shown in Shadow the Hedgehog is debatable.

Couple Of Lost Ideas

None of this last bit is confirmed nor denied, but it makes for a bit more interest:

• Sonic cannot turn super without all seven of The Chaos Emeralds. The Chaos Emeralds are not consistent in shape or colour. Thus it's possible that in some games Sonic never got them all.
• Since both the Chaos Emeralds, and (it's safe to assume) the Sol Emeralds have the capability of ending up in the special stage dimensions, it's entirely possible that in any situation where Sonic can get all seven, and not turn super (Sonic 3D, for instance), that Sonic mistakenly picked up at least one Sol Emerald without realising. Due to the emeralds ability to return to these dimensions, it's not hard to imagine them all returning, and Sonic later picking up all seven of the proper Chaos Emeralds.
• Flickies are stated to be able to travel between dimensions. Also note that the Emeralds in Sonic 3D are for more square-shaped, than gem-shaped. The Sol Emeralds are Square shaped. Flickies also turn up in the Early Sonic games, and the more recent ones the ones that are apparently "a different dimension".
• Finally, we've had a lot of time travel in the series. The entire thing is very prone to a paradox, and it's entirely possible that the planet is in a paradoxical state of flux, but nobody on the planet notices due to living within all the time lines the paradox has made.

There's really no right answer. It's possible to put everyone and everything on one planet with a bit of logical thought, and some abstract thinking. However, it's just as easy to accept the SonicX answer that there's more than one world, and they're all constantly going back and forth. The question's to be answerred by fanfic writers is either "how and why are they constantly going from A to B to C via D, E, F, and G?" or "How, in spite of evidence saying otherwise, and all the plotholes and ideas it creates, is this all one world?"

Even in answering those, you need to think how much of it you want to accept as being all in one dimension/time considering just how much dimensional/time jumping there is.

Anyway, that was a long ramble...