Merlin Prower

Merlin's early history is unknown, though he was apparently good friends with King Max during his time as the Court Wizard for the Acorn Kingdom. At some point, he apparently went into exile, leaving behind his brother Amadeus and sister-in-law Rosemary. Though he would remain in his exile during the war against Dr. Ivo Robotnik, he did appear to a young Sonic the Hedgehog to give him Tails' first pair of shoes in exchange for a sack of magical stones the Hedgehog had found.

Years later, Knuckles met Merlin while searching for the Sword of Acorns, overcoming a number of illusions set by Merlin as security before finally reaching the wizard himself. Sadly, even Merlin was unaware of location of the Sword, though he did direct Knuckles to search for the mysterious Land of the Dark.

Later, Merlin would be forced to deal with the Guardian by healing his nephew Tails and using a spell to force his transformation into Turbo Tails at the behest of Athair. Sending Turbo Tails to battle against Chaos Knuckles, he then followed, only to learn after the battle that his nephew had been replaced with a duplicate. Despite this unsettling event, Merlin return to hiding.

Tails would learn of Merlin from Athair, but wouldn't meet his uncle until the dying Ancient Walkers directed him to travel to Knothole in search of the power of the Source of All, the only thing that could possibly save the Ancient Walkers and prevent the escape of Mammoth Mogul from his Chaos Emerald, which had been entrusted to Merlin after Mogul's defeat at the hands of Titan Tails. Accompanied by Sir Connery, Paladin of the Ancient Walkers and wielder of the Sword of Light, he arrived in Knothole and had a warm first meeting with his nephew. Before they could get to know each other, though, they were attacked by the Destructix, a band of criminals attempting to steal Mogul's emerald. The crooks were defeated by the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, and Merlin received the Crown of Acorns after making his case to King Elias Acorn. Unfortunately, the Sword of Acorns was then used elsewhere by the Arachne to release Merlin's predecessor as Royal Wizard, Ixis Naugus, from the Zone of Silence. The resulting dimensional breach killed the Ancient Walkers, and Mogul was released from his Emerald.

Mogul defeated Merlin and his young allies single handily before recruiting the Destructix. Merlin, Connery, Elias, and the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix did battle separately with the forces of the two villains, until Naugus learned that Mogul had founded the Order of Ixis and submitted to him, offering him the Sword of Acorns. Connery then sacrificed himself to destroy the Acorn artifacts, and the battle ended with the capture of the villains by the Egg Fleet.

Shortly afterwards, Merlin would use the power of a Chaos Emerald obtained from Feist by Sonic and Tails, together with Knuckles' Guiding Star Gem, to transport himself and the three young heroes to Argentium, homeworld of the Bem, where his brother and sister-in-law had been stranded for some time. The Prower family enjoyed a warm reunion before traveling back to Mobius, where Amadeus and Rosemary began advocating reform in the government. Not entirely supportive of his brother's radical ideas, Merlin remained neutral during the ensuing feud between Amadeus and King Elias, which resulted in the formation of the Council of Acorn.

Merlin also refrained from participating in the struggle against the second Enerjak, though he would later use his magic to cleanse Tails, Mina Mongoose, and Mighty the Armadillo of a mind controlling spell placed on them in the past by Mammoth Mogul. He performed a similar cleansing on Sonic, just to ensure that the Hedgehog suffered no ill effects from interacting with a similar spell cast on the Master Emerald by Dr. Finitevus, which at the time had not affected him. Determined to find out why, Merlin departed from New Mobotropolis, despite Tails' sadness at seeing him go.

Just prior to their death, the Ancient Walkers named Merlin as one of their three successors, the Neo Walkers, together with Athair and Aurora. As a result, it can be inferred that Merlin's quest to find answers about Sonic's mysterious nature will also lead him to explore his own connection to the Chaos Force more fully, so that he may achieve the same level of unity with it as his two compatriots.