How was knuckles born when chaos destroyed the echidna clan

[Nathan]

One thing I always wander How was knuckles born and when and how because chaos destroyed the whole echidna clan and how and why dose he know he must protect the master emerald who taught him? And who was his parents 

[Cuz]

The impression I had was that Chaos didn't wipe out the entire echidna clan just started their decline, and knuckles line was among the survivors. 

[Sonictrainer]

Well, didn't Tikal live after sealing Chaos inside the Master Emerald?

[Sega DogTagz]

It never specifically said that Chaos wiped out every single Echidna. It was just said that what he did do was enough for their society to collapse and become extinct.

 

Technically speaking, King Pac was likely to bring his best warriors with him to raid the Emeralds, and those guys were the first to die when Chaos started his rampage. The Knuckles clan was a warrior caste, so even if Chaos's killing spree stopped there, the loss of both their King and their strongest echidna's would have spelled the end of that civilization. If the power vacuum didn't cause a total collapse, then the neighboring nations of the time (whom we know the Knuckles clan did not play nice with) would have saw their weakness and toppled what was left. The Knuckles clan wouldn't have lasted much longer following the events of that day, and any survivors would have dwindled in number until their population was no more via diffusion. The only pure Echidna bloodline that would last the test of time, would be the handful who stayed behind to guard the Master Emerald.

[Shadow Chaos Control]

I am bot particularly fond of the idea that Chaos wiped out much of the Echidna clans. I prefer the Archie Knuckles Comics where there are many of Echidnas. Now is Enerjak tried to wipe out the Echidna clans to achieve supremacy, that makes more sense. 

[Scritch the Cat]

Someone stashed his egg in a refrigerator and archaeologists found it.  Yes; echidnas hatch from eggs.

[Nathan]

7 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Well, didn't Tikal live after sealing Chaos inside the Master Emerald?

No she sealed him in inside the emerald with her to I think 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I agree with others that the idea of it is probably that Chaos didn't kill all the echidnas, but that does make it kind of feel like the disappearance of the echidnas hasn't really been explained at all, since that event was so long ago. I know Sonic the Comic did a thing where Knuckles was actually a warrior in the echidna tribe who became immortal and lost his memory.

[Plumbers_Helper]

It's a common misconception that Chaos wiped out the entire echidna race. The Japanese strategy guide for Sonic Adventure helps clear that up:

Quote

The End of Arrogance
The Knuckles clan took a devastating blow from Chaos's attack, and their power weakens significantly. The surviving Knuckles clan suspended the Emeralds' altar area into the sky by the Master Emerald's power and lived there, bearing the duty of observing and protecting the sealed Master Emerald, so that an incident like this never happens again. They also left murals and inscriptions in the temple to communicate this incident to future generations. The Chao were also on the verge of extinction with the Chaos Emeralds lost, but mere numbers have managed to find lands with suitable environments and barely survive.

There is no explanation as to what happened to the rest of the Knuckles clan, but considering echidnas lay eggs it's possible his species could have disappeared before he was even hatched. The Japanese manual for Sonic 3 says the animals on Angel Island are his friends and according to Sonic Runners are the ones who guard the Master Emerald for Knuckles when he's away. Maybe the animals of the island found his egg and are the ones who raised him?

[Ricochet]

I believe knux  was raised by anything but his people then found out about his heritage later on, after exploring whatever left standing in the island's ruins (since He was a treasure hunter prior of becoming a zealot). Probably found some glyphs and from his interpretations He realized the commitment of Knuckles clan as mastah emerord guardians.

So yeah, that his egg hatched after every echidna left die out, is likely to hold true.

[Domino]

Real-world echidna eggs hatch only ten days after being laid, so that's a pretty small window of time for his species to reach all-but extinction. Maybe anthro echidnas take longer to hatch on account of being larger, but still, the short time frame does make you wonder.

Knuckles' parents could have stayed alive for a short while after he was born. Probably not long enough for Knuckles to be old enough to remember them, though. Either way, it seems likely they would have died of unnatural causes.

The circumstances of Knuckles' birth and upbringing raise so many questions...

[KnuxDLX]

My own personal headcanon is that Knuckles protects the Master Emerald to pay off the debts of his ancestors.

 

His life is extended to protect the Emerald. His existence is inextricably tied to the Master Emerald.

[OwlEyes]

... I'll just leave this here.

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Yeah, that doesn't really help in this discussion, because it's a totally different canon.

I would assume that the rest of the echidnas died off over time due to just not being a sustainable population. Knuckles's parent or parents were probably the last ones before him. After all, the guy speaks English just fine (well, Japanese) and doesn't seem to have much in the way of exaggerated reactions to the outside world. If he were just an egg for a really long time or whatever, he would be more like Tarzan.

[OwlEyes]

So just for my info (newb contribution) - is there a preferred canon in this community? And who decides which one is right? I mean generally it would be the original storyline no? I’m not really a big fan of the whole Tikal version tbh.... but that’s just personal bias.

thanks for your help!

[Shaddy Zaphod]

It's not about "preferred canons", just recognizing that this thread was primarily about the games (as are most lore threads not specifying a continuity), so posting screencaps of a long-discontinued comic series where the status quo is completely different such that Knuckles isn't even the last echidna by a huge margin doesn't really answer the question.

[OwlEyes]

you’ll have to forgive me - the games and comics used to tie-in.

[Cadence]

There's a lot of questions here. Because knuckles can speak has some understanding of other people and most importantly has some duty to the M.E. All these things are thought, its why he's more fuzzy lumpkins and less tarzan. His parents could have died young but that doesn't explain why there aren't any other echidna's besides his parents. Sonic's world is a pretty chill place outside of eggman and eggman is a rather recent occurrence all things considered. So there should be other echidna just...about really. Maybe there was a curse infectious disease that caused them to go instinct? But why didn't infect knuckles? 

I think there is another solution here something no one considers and I think is pretty relevant. 

Shut up and don't think about it. 

Seriously though, knuckles' premise is something that wasn't well thought out ( like a lot of sonic's premises)  and due to ken penders will never be expanded upon or at least not soon. Outside of possibly the film. So he's just... one now, because  branding separating said brand from the dumpster fire that was the pre flynn archie canon  and avoiding any potential legal issues. 

So don't think about it , there is no sense to be found here. Only advertiser speak and legal jargon. 

[Simasuu]

Gerald Robotnik made an functioning clone of an Echinda found from a DNA sample while he was investigating Angel Island.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Heh, I like the idea of Gerald Robotnik resurrecting Echidna's.
Possibly on his quest to find "the ultimate life form".
The good Doctor took a look at Knuckles and promptly passed. Poor Knuckles. It should be him having yelling matches with Shadow about who's the faker.

Probably not true, but an funny idea regardless.
 

[KnuxDLX]

On 4/4/2021 at 1:14 AM, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Yeah, that doesn't really help in this discussion, because it's a totally different canon.

I would assume that the rest of the echidnas died off over time due to just not being a sustainable population. Knuckles's parent or parents were probably the last ones before him. After all, the guy speaks English just fine (well, Japanese) and doesn't seem to have much in the way of exaggerated reactions to the outside world. If he were just an egg for a really long time or whatever, he would be more like Tarzan.

No, the M.E. gave him purpose.

 

This explains everything:

[OwlEyes]

Hahahaha

 

that song is already wrong AF - we all know he chuckled before flexing. That’s an L my friend.