Eternity Ring — stc

Art by and . — Art by Roberto Corona and Nigel Dobbyn.

The The Ring of Eternity (or Eternity Ring as it is sometimes known) appears to be a large, ring-shaped ancient stone carving, much like the Portal Ring that Knuckles discovered on the Floating Island. In reality, it is so much more. The Ring is alive and is the physical manifestation of the spirit of Planet Mobius itself. It made its first appearance in Issue 134 in the Amy and Tekno story, Eternity Ring.

History

The Journey Begins

The Ring of Eternity was found by Amy and Tekno in the Snowcap Mountain Zone. It tested them with various traps and obstacles before it appeared to them in its usual form of a stone ring filled with a shining golden face. The Ring explained that it was the spirit of Mobius itself and served as a doorway between dimensions. It asked Amy and Tekno if they were willing to embark on a journey through time and space, helping others across different planets and eras. The girls accepted and leapt into the Ring. Little did they know that at the same time, the villainous Max Gamble was in hiding in Snowcap Mountain Zone and had seen them vanish into the Ring, and had leapt into it as well in order to escape the Mobian authorities.

Destinations

After Amy and Tekno jumped into the Ring, they were sent across the cosmos to explore different worlds and times and to help their respective inhabitants with various threats. Listed below are all of the worlds and time periods that the Ring has sent Amy and Tekno to.

Planet Granite - The first world Amy and Tekno visited appeared to be in its early development. They encountered two tribes - the Meeks and the Thickskulls - in conflict. The Meeks were peaceful and would suffer frequent attacks from the agressive Thickskull tribe. Amy and Tekno intervened by teaching the Meeks to laugh in the face of adversity and settle their differences with their neighbours around the dinner table.

Astratraz - An interstellar prison ship that was transporting an army of criminal puppets to a prison planet. When Amy and Tekno arrived, a breakout was in progress. The pilot had been jettisoned and so Tekno fooled the puppets into thinking she was helping them find a planet to invade. She piloted the Astratraz to a planet populated by giant termites, which immediately devoured the puppets.

Mobius 5000 AD - Mobius' far future, where technology has advanced far enough to produce invisible flying cars, caps that feed information directly into people's brains, and edible chips that contain knowledge of Mobian history. Amy and Tekno were brought here to stop the techno-terrorist Gremlyn from absorbing all power in the city with his power-armour.

Kansas, 1870 - One of Amy and Tekno's several visits to Planet Earth via the Ring of Eternity. The girls were brought here to stop an old human enemy - Colonel Granite - from corrupting his planet's timeline by bringing technology from his own era into the past to invade America, creating a new army which he intended to use to conquer the world. Although Amy and Tekno stopped Granite's plan, their interference came with dire consequences: Granite gained access to Mobius' spatial coordinates, which would later allow him to invade the planet.

Prehistoric Mobius - The Ring brought the girls here to show them how life began. However, when Amy and Tekno encountered a group of dinosaurs in spacesuits, they mistook them for invaders and attacked. Thankfully they were shown the truth before they inadvertantly damaged their timeline.

Planet Romanus - A Roman-esque world populated by a race of red-eyed, blue-skinned humanoids. Amy and Tekno were brought here to liberate the people who had been enslaved by Emperor Zero.

Time Stream - After saving an alien from his own Christmas nightmare, Amy and Tekno were brought to a dimension populated by the Spirits of the Years Past to stop a creature called the Time Waster from destroying history.

World of Giants - An unnamed world where Amy and Tekno are the size of insects. Their goal here was to stop an alien called Agent Skog from downloading top-secret government files and starting a war.

Ancient Greece - Amy and Tekno are brought to Earth yet again, this time to assist Hercules in completing his thirteenth task so that he may enter Mount Olympus.

Planet Gremlyn - Amy and Tekno materialize within the walls of Castle Grimm and assist treasure hunter Xenor Krell in finding the Ultragem, which Xenor claims was stolen from her people. In reality, Xenor wished to steal it and use its power to conquer her world. Though she retrieved the Ultragem, its power ultimately destroyed her before she could achieve her dreams of conquest.

Wish World - A blank, desolate world made of clay. The clay, however, can react to the thoughts of intelligent beings and be shaped into whatever one desires. Max Gamble arrived here when he used the Ring of Eternity to get off Mobius and transformed the world into a 1930's-style city that was rife with gangs and organized crime. This was Amy and Tekno's last destination before they returned home and they managed to overpower Gamble and bring him back with them.

After Amy and Tekno had permanently returned to Mobius, the Ring remained available for them to use if they wished to travel to other planets or dimensions, but the comparatively random nature of such trips meant that it wasn't used for this purpose very often. One of its earliest such uses was when Sonic was trapped in the pocket dimension of Shanazar; after he had been missing for several weeks ("Knightmares"), Amy was able to travel to aid him via the Ring, but the homing device that she had been intending to use to get them home was damaged, requiring her to remain with Sonic and find another way back to Mobius.

Appearances

Amy and Tekno did not always arrive in their next destination through the Ring of Eternity, usually materialising in from the "limbo dimension".

Trivia

The runes that appear on the Ring of Eternity are from the Elder Futhark, the writing system used by ancient Germanic tribes living in modern day Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
- These runes when translated say "vœagmx" (top left), " ïngnptk" (top right),"jthfrhl" (bottom right), and "ebïidth" (bottom left). These words are obviously nonsensical, but add to the mystic qualities to the Ring of Eternity.