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pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop · 5 days ago

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Horsea, Seadra, & Kingdra

Horsea (#116)

Hippocampus parvoceanicus

General Information: Horsea the Seahorse Pokémon, this Pokémon is excellent at shooting jets of water or ink at insects above the water’s surface. Ink jets are also used to startled foes and blur their vision, allowing the Horsea ample time to escape. Their dorsal fin allows them to swim backwards.

Horsea average at 1’4 feet tall (0.4 M) and weigh about 17.6 pounds (8 kg).

Habitat: Horsea are found in the shallow tropics in and around the equator, preferring coral reefs, islands, and warm gentle currents to call home.

Life Cycles: Horseas are born in broods of anywhere from 20-100 eggs depending on a variety of ecological conditions. These newly hatched Horsea (which are about the size of a pinkie finger) are left to fend for themselves and only a handful from each brood will survive to adulthood. Baby Horseas are eaten by anything bigger than themselves that eat meat, which includes but is not limited to: Sharpedos and Carvanhas, Gorebysses, Wartortles, Krabbies and Kinglers, Octillerys, Claunchers and Clawitzers, Brionnes and Primarinas, Finizens and Palafins, Tentacools and Tentacruels, Chinchous and Lanturns, Veluzas, and Pelippers. Until they get bigger, freshly hatched Horseas are popular snacks of the oceanic ecosystem.

Horseas reach reproductive maturity at level 15 per usual. They can reproduce all year round and in good conditions can lay up to 4 broods a year. Of particular note, since true biological pregnancy is not a thing that exists in Pokémon in this world, male Horseas do not birth the babies but they are the ones who defend their broods to the death while the females go on to continue mating. Any parental care that can be attributed to Horseas, is entirely because of the fathers and the mothers have little to nothing to do with their offspring. This is not cruel but rather a relatively fair division of resource expenditure, and the energy spent on creating a shitton of eggs (which are effectively crystallized Pokémon magicks forming a new entity) by the females far surpasses the energy spent by males for defending the brood. By not also having to spend time taking care of them, the female Horseas are able to take care of themselves and strengthen themselves to continue breeding and maybe even evolve later on in life.

Behavior: Horseas are mildly social creatures, forming loose colonies that live in the same coral reefs together, but not so closely bonded that they’re “herd mates.” However, because of the intense energy costs of reproducing at the high rates that Horseas do, the females are extremely picky about their seasonal mates and insist on a long courtships. The courtship ritual of a Horsea takes on two major steps.

The first step is their initial courtship, which happens at dawn when the females are ready to find a mate and until “pregnancy” occurs. During this stage they will quiver coquettishly in the water, and a reciprocal male will return the quivering. The pair will go back and forth with this quivering (Horsea dancing?) until they decide to wrap their tails around the same hold-fast, where they will then spin around their shared hold-fast together.

The second step is several days of spending time quivering off and on with each other, spending about an hour doing this together until they’re done. This phase determines how much they like each other enough to finish mating. After 5-8 days of this, mating occurs.

After courtship, the female begins her magical gestation (which only lasts maybe 3 weeks), she lays her brood as dozens of small tiny eggs, and leaves them for the male to watch over.

In friendly competition with each other, Horseas enjoy tests of “who can make the biggest whirlpool.”

Diet: Horseas eat moss and insects.

Conservation: Endangered

Relationship with Humans: Horseas are sensitive to environmental disruption and are at the forefront of issues caused by rising ocean temperatures and the bleaching of coral reefs. Additionally, Horseas are used in many traditional medicine practices and are poached for human consumption, despite many international regulations against such practices.

In captivity, Horseas make great companion but as a saltwater Pokémon tend to have needs that most folks can’t supply unless they live near the warm ocean.

Classification: The scientific name of Horsea is “Hippocampus parvoceanicus” which means “small oceanic sea horse.” The genus name “Hippocampus” is the genus name of all seahorses.

Seadra (#117)

Hippocampus dracoceanicus

General Information: Seadra the Seahorse Pokémon and the evolved form of Horsea. They can rapidly swim in any direction, and they sometimes make whirlpools in order to capture prey by exhausting it inside. Seadra swallow prey through their long snout, eating them whole. Their spikes are venomous and have been known to cause fainting in some people. They also like to anchor themselves to coral and get along with Corsolas.

Seadras average at 3’11 feet (1.2 M) tall and weigh about 77 pounds (35 kg).

Habitat: Seadra are found in tropical coral reefs in and around the equator. They especially like habitats that have healthy populations of Corsola, whom they often rely on for anchoring. The Corsola don’t mind because the Seadra eat some of their predators and will attack those trying to harvest Corsola branches.

Life Cycles: Once a Seadra evolves from a Horsea, it gains size and strength that allow them to defend themselves against most predators, drastically reducing their predation rates and increasing their survival rates. A key difference between Seadra and Horsea is the difference in how many eggs that they can make. While Horseas can lay 20-100 eggs at a time, Seadras can lay 50-300 eggs at a time. Their parenting isn’t any better though, and the baby Horseas are still eaten at huge rates.

They are believed to live up to 30 years.

Behavior: Seadras are very aggressive when defending their territories, their Corsola friends, themselves, or any nearby Horseas. Their spikes have felled many a foe. Amongst their friends though, they are reasonable sociable.

Diet: Seadra eat small insects, fish, and sometimes seagrass or kelp.

Conservation: Endangered

Relationship with Humans: Seadra spikes (or spines) are used in some traditional medicines which unfortunately requires the lethal harvesting of the Seadra. Paired with environmental destruction because of global ocean temperatures rising (which also causes the bleaching/death of many Corsolas), Seadras are endangered specifically because of the actions of humans.

Classification: The species epithet of Seadra, “dracoceanicus” means “ocean dragon.”

Evolution: Seadra evolves from Horsea at level 32.

Kingdra (#230)

Hippocampus posidonicus

General Information: Kingdra the Dragon Pokémon and the final evolution of Horsea. An immensely powerful Pokémon that has gained the dragon-typing, Kingdra can create whirlpools and water spouts and have been the cause of many shipwrecks over the ages. Legend says that the yawn of a sleeping Kingdra can create undercurrents so powerful that they can sink small ships.

Kingdra are remarkably large, and from head to tail they average at 5’11 feet (1.8 M) tall, not including their tails if they were unwound. They weigh an whopping 335 pounds (152 kg)

Note to both myself and players: Kingdra’s base stats are being upped to “pseudo-legendary” levels. It seems weird that such a marvelous Pokémon be significantly outclassed by Dragonite, especially considering their rivalry.

Habitat: Unlike their pre-evolutions, Kingdras will wander the vast ocean and even enjoy hibernating in the murky depths of the dark ocean. They have been found in the abyssal zone of the ocean, and at higher depths can be found amongst deep-sea Corsola colonies. It is believed that Kingdra are able to transcend the greatest depths of the ocean, far beyond any other creature. Supposedly, they particularly like to live inside deepwater caves.

Life Cycles: Kingdra take their newfound tolerance for cold waters and power as a chance to travel the oceans and explore the great depths below. They are responsible for the majority of gene transferring between populations of Horseas/Seadras. It is unknown how long a Kingdra can live for. Kingdra also do not reproduce at the same frequency as their pre-evolutions, instead taking this new stage in life as an opportunity to live freely. However, when they do reproduce, they take on the same role-reversal as their pre-evolutions do, where the mother Kingdra will lay 200-600 eggs in a brood while the father is the one who protects them until hatching. Female Kingdras will rarely mate with a cross-species Pokémon unless it demonstrates its willingness to protect their brood.

Behavior: Kingdra are free spirits who often live in isolation, but may on occasion take on a mate. When they do surface and encounter a Dragonite, they will engage in battle against the only opponent that they feel is truly worthy of their rivalry.

Diet: Kingdra eat anything that they can fit into their snouts, especially fish and insects. They are also one of the few predators of note upon the creatures of the abyss.

Conservation: Endangered

Relationship with Humans: Kingdra have largely creatures of folklore and myths, but modernity has confirmed their existence—there’s more than one oceanic documentary about them! In ages past, sailors would tell tales of the rivalry between Kingdras and Dragonites, the great storms that would be waged, and of the mighty whirlpools and water spouts supposedly caused by Kingdras.

Classification: The species epithet of Kingdra, “posidonicus” means “Poseidon.”

Evolution: Kingdra evolves from Seadra using a Dragon Scale (it’s used like an evolution stone).

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