Sandopolis Zone on angel island in 3 and the egyptan pyramid eggman set up base inside in adventure 2 were both egyptian themed echnidna associated ruins. It's kinda a weird implication running through the sonic games that the echidnas were basically one of those "hyper advanced lost societies that aided a hand in others development" or some shit like that. Enerjak being egyptian themed isn't even stemmed from an original concept but once more a derivative and warping of a pre-existing concept from the games.
You’re absolutely correct. Sorry, I brainfarted on Sandopolis and while I never played SA2, I’m familiar with the lore on it. I agree that regardless of canon, the echidnas are, across the board, the most advanced civilization of all of the animals, and they did
something to fuck it all up. Marble Garden and Launch Base were clearly remnants of that same civilization. Sega was trying to do the world pyramid/ziggurat connection, with the echidnas, not aliens, being the master race that invented it all I ‘spose.
Hidden Palace always smacked of the more positive, and mystical, aspects of the echidnas, and maybe it was their last construction before whatever happened, happened. Basically their “Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi!”, but a prophetic one literally set in stone… obviously, with Sonic already in effigy.
To get back to the subject of this thread, everything Ken Penders did was derivative, and he can’t handle facing that fact. This is coming from someone who loved the Knuckles comic as a kid. I loved politics and religion, and the world building aspect of a great race. All Ken did was steal from every source he could, filled in the blanks left by Sega, and then made all of the echidnas assholes, with Knuckles having a shit dad, a shit family, and a shit job. Projecting much, Ken?