This is the official Storyline for Ecco - The Tides of Time taken from the manual of the Sega CD Version.
It is an additional piece of Ecco history that can only be found in there!
Cassandra looked at the faces around her. She knew that when she started speaking, she would have to be very persuasive. But that would be an easy task for an Atlantean, a daughter of the wisest, most accomplished race of beings on earth. Cassandra took a deep breath, and began...
"My friends, we know our time here on Earth is coming to an end. A cataclysm will soon befall us and we will be forced to leave our home. We will take what we can of our knowledge and technology, though we cannot take everything. We must change, but we will survive.
"But what about our fellow beings, all the creatures of this warm, nurturing planet? They will become hostages of the evil that will soon overwhelm this planet. Even worse, they will have to nourish the evil by sacrificing members of their own families!
"I propose that we leave help for them, hidden in a secret place, with a trail of clues leading to it. The evil that is coming will not be smart enough to unravel the puzzle. But an Earth creature of high intelligence can do it, and can save the Earth and all living beings."
"A noble idea, Cassandra," broke in Nerinee, a highly-respected teacher in the Atlantis society. "But what creature might that be? It would have to be one like us, that can live both underwater and in the air."
"And that puzzle idea..." added Pella, the mathematician. "The creature would have to be curious enough to look for clues, and tenacious enough to string them together into a solution."
"What about enemies? Is there a creature strong enough, and fast enough, who still has the other qualities?" The questions came flying at Cassandra. "Once we're gone, what other creature is left who can solve a puzzle of our making?"
"I know a race of creatures that live in the sea, though they breathe air," replied Cassandra. She had caught their attention. If they would just let her talk, she could convince them...
"They originally inhabited the land, but in the distant past they returned to the sea, tenaciously following the fish and other delicacies that were their favorite food, and easy to gather.
"They are superbly suited for the sea, with a sleek form built for swiftness and agility. You should watch them swim! With a burst of speed, they can outdo even our fastest longboats. They roll and spin, and leap from the waves in curving flips, whirling around like wheels, sometimes above the water and sometimes under it. They are natural acrobats!
"And dive! I've seen them plunge repeatedly, as deep as a hundret longboats, holding their breath twice as long as our best pearl diver. They breathe through a blowhole at the top of their body, with only the slightest break through the water's surface.
"They are extremely intelligent. My own belief is that they are even more intelligent than many of us. I've watched them work together, herding schools of fish into shallow areas for easier catching. They post sentinels to protect the group from predators. Once, I saw two of them lift another injured friend above the water at a regular pace so it could breathe.
"They're noisy! I've heard them squawk, chuckle, blat, bark, belch, grunt, pop, click, clap, rasp and whistle, in what is most likely a type of language. Each one makes a distinctive, recognizable whistle that the others imitate. It could be that they're calling each other by name.
"The sounds they make blend together in what I call 'songs.' It seems, in some miraculous way, that they navigate with these songs. I think they send out sound waves that echo back to them with a pattern of their surroundings. If that is true, their "ears" are better than our eyes, because they can navigate even in the dark.
"The older ones, the adults, are about a third again as tall as our taller folks, though I would say they're about three times as heavy. They're able to defend themselves quite well. I've seen them ramming large sharks hard enough to push them out of the water.
"As for solving puzzles, they can learn tricks by mimicking other of their kind. But I've also seen them invent tricks of their own. These are creatures with unbound curiosity and skill."
"But what, or who, are they?" Cassandra's audience was eager to know.
"The same creatures who help us fish by chasing schools of mullet into our nets. Perhaps the most intelligent beings on Earth, our friends the Dolphins."