#The Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild

[askbeannuts]

Always watching... always judging.

[askbeannuts]

Entry made by Guildmaster Charr

I still can't get over how full of themselves the Researchers think they are… naming such an event after the Miasma Cataclysm's "alternate name" or whatever they've decided to call it… … I should not let my attitude dictate this entry, but I'd prefer that bit stayed in. While this is meant to go into the "Founder's Book" due to its apparent importance, referring to this month's Shift as the "Second Great Shift" is something that bothers me. Granted, I was only privileged to witness what occurred around the city of Yggdrasil and it's neighboring islands, but what reports were able to be documented in the chaotic night left an impression on the Researchers and the Shaymin Guild apparently. Aside from the bizarrely hyper-aggressive Wilds, moreso than normal, some of my squads assisting the Shaymin Guild in areas they were lacking out West reported back a mysterious event near the Life Tree-or the "Tree of Life" as they're calling it now. The dungeon itself began to glow, well, it's leaves from what they claimed. They described tendrils of light flowing around the island itself, amusingly enough, this was the one time no one was physically on the island, so all reports come from individuals witnessing it from nearby islands, even those who tried to fly out there didn't get to see the cause. A few reports, including one of the larger ones from the apparent Guildmaster in training, some piddly-looking-excuse me-youngster of a Pansage claimed that a strange howling could be heard from dungeons in his vicinity as well. Similar reports came in corroborating his observations as well. The issue with all of this is that… details are scarce. A night of fighting abnormal Wilds clouded many memories of the night's events, the glowing could've easily been a hallucination of the individuals in the area, fighting so fervently for hours on end would potentially do that to you… but the Shaymin Guild members are a different story. They intend to assist the Researchers in investigating the tree now… That Delibird Guildmaster came to me asking for assistance as well. While I do not mind lending any able-bodied members to assist with protecting the Researchers, is there any point in going through any part of that dungeon? Wilds do not appear to live there, no one has, not since Xerneas vanished into the tree. Yet… I do wonder if we investigated the area… would we discover something about Vulcan's ramblings? There has to be more to it… if it could be learned that others may be subject to whatever shifted his mind to insanity. I believe I will be a part of whatever team I lend to the two Guilds, though, I am getting a bit tired in my old age. I don't have the same energy my-the Founder-had… maybe I will include my replacement… what was her name again? Ah, Hera, if she's not resting, maybe this would be an ideal way for her to understand the tree, before she undergoes her Trial of Evolution, humph… if the tree's power hasn't weakened because of this so-called glowing anyway…

An added Excerpt from the Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild

[askbeannuts]

I got to work with the leader of that new Shaymin Guild recently. They're very nice, very smart and is “articulate” the right word? Well, either way, they needed some assistance with a guild base of operations and we settled on Yggdrasil first and foremost, but their concerns were response times too, I could get behind that mindset, but I didn't want to waste resources or spread myself super thin with multiple sites, instead I suggested a squad system, like older exploration guilds, except the teams station or live in areas away from the guild, it's what I was doing!

They took my suggestion to heart from the looks of it, but made some modifications, considerations for small sub-bases? So one in each section of the skies… it sounds doable, but would take years beyond them to set up correctly I'd bet… not to mention running them all would be a nightmare in my opinion. I think my squad system works effectively enough but maybe a mini base idea isn't bad either… ah, but I got sidetracked! 

Unlike our guild, which had huge numbers now, they were still getting off the ground and receiving a request to follow up on a prior abduction case in the Southern Isles was odd, but exciting considering it was our first proper teamup.

The Shaymin Guild's Guildmaster and their “Co-Guildmaster”, a Smeargle, accompanied a few members of my Guild, and myself of course, on this trip. We returned to an island sparsely populated, where in the recent past an outlaw, attempting to extort a small-time merchant during a resource collection trip with their child, took that child hostage. Initially, we were able to find and bring the child to safety, but never found the outlaw. Apparently they ran off to set up a trap for us, but never came back… the child mentioned weird wind-like sounds and rumbling not long after and then my team arrived. We weren't skilled at exploring dungeons like this, simplistic as it was, it ended up being a “one-floor” dungeon, but the team decided against investigating further. While it was a simple cave bearing random berries and fruits on occasion along huge vines and bushes and whatnot, we didn't want to risk it back then. 

The Shaymin Guildmaster gave it the title “Berry Caverns” when we ventured in and the team with me took note that the small cave paths were different than they remembered… The dungeon had “shifted” recently. The reason we were investigating this place again was because of a report of strange voices coming from behind a wall… maybe a “Wild”, we weren't sure at the time, but dread did fill my and my fellow Guildmaster's hearts at the idea that… the dungeon shifted when we rescued the child back then… and the missing outlaw…

We found the spot, a huge hole where a vine reached down… this was supposed to be a wall, it wasn't far from where we found the child-and that path was now a wall with bushes growing various weird berries… I’ve explored dungeons before, mind you, both before and after the Cataclysm… just… this new way things worked was weird, I’m certain if a dungeon had a dramatic change with someone inside, who happened to be in the “right” spot, they’d get flung out by an intense wind… at least that’s how my parents described them.

My thoughts aside, we carefully took the time to climb down this vine, following it in the hopes of finding this “voice” alive still. It was a long climb-and walk-downwards and we didn’t have those new “Pin” things the Research Guild came up with yet, and were still carrying around hunks of metal on our necks like charms, and they worked… But I could feel it. This place was dense with that Miasma, why? I asked that at the time, but my question was answered immediately… The massive amount of Miasma we passed through was like a “door”... once we passed through it, the environment we found… was devoid of it. It left us all speechless… a massive tree was growing underneath this dungeon!

Before anyone could say anything in sheer amazement, the Shaymin Guildmaster acted, anxiously telling us to contact both the Research Guild and the Landorus Guild’s leaders and get them here as fast as possible. That request reminded me of why we were originally here as well, and we discovered a-thankfully-unconscious outlaw, it appeared they had fallen down here when the dungeon shifted slightly and injured their leg so much that they weren’t walking or climbing out for some time. They survived off of whatever fruits and berries grew down here and the juices they could get from them for hydration, I’d imagine… it’d been nearly two weeks since then after-all… that’s how often dungeons were shifting of late…

After making sure a communication was being sent, we nervously left the Shaymin Guildmaster and their co-leader there, to escort the outlaw out. At some point, hours later it seemed, the Guildmaster and Co-Guildmaster of the Shaymin Guild came out to talk with us. They figured the path we took led us to a spot directly above where the Beanstalk’s vines branched out, the dungeon was underneath one of these points, allowing us to venture that deep… we weren’t in Berry Caverns anymore at that point. Knowing that, it was a sheer miracle that the only thing broken on the Outlaw was a leg…

After a few days of discussing how we’d go about documenting this, the leaders of the Landours and Research Guilds showed up… and we once again ventured back down there…

It was decided I could document the discovery in my own journals, including an image that was drawn at the time… though what we discovered after this point, I was asked not to disclose, but what I can say is that a new push to find these types of dungeons and study them was what likely led us to venturing into the Lands Below for the very first time… 

Though, I remember the issues it caused when we started just… digging up holes everywhere when no dungeon was found to be linked to the beanstalk in Yggdrasil… urgh… the sinkholes we created still bother me to this day…

An Excerpt From: "The Founder’s Book: Xerneas Guild"

[askbeannuts]

My sister and I spent time talking one day after a rare break from running this new guild of mines. We'd finally setup a temporary base of operations and Pokémon who were eager to help others began to gather there… it was just the challenge of getting these guys around to where they were needed and if we should spend resources on building other bases or maybe just have dedicated teams in some places… I remember the few times my sister and I DID talk, but... it was about "logistics" or something or other… she cared more about how I'd run the Guild than I would sometimes… But today, we talked about the past… about our parents, about more peaceful, fun times when we were kids, but that didn't last too long… We wandered into the times before the Beanstalks were grown and after some hesitation, we finally talked about what happened just before that event and what caused our parents to stay behind. I remembered seeing a legendary Pokémon that all the Heroes seemed to have some vague connection to, like our parents fought them, apparently that nice Espeon and their team also fought them…

Not sure why they all felt so close to someone they seemed to fight with a lot, but that Legendary was Suicune. If I remember that day right… something came up that made that Espeon change course, their team couldn't go and deliver something important because something else happened, but I never heard what it was exactly and Pop didn't want to leave the group escaping from that fog stuff, since he was a guide for everyone at first. They had to rely on Suicune, who showed up, injured, but ready to assist them. I didn't get to hear everything, but one thing my sister and I agreed on was the motivation Suicune had back then… they wanted to do this task to help out the Expedition Society… At first I didn't really remember what happened with them, but thanks to our talk… Suicune took on the task of delivering one of those Beanstalk seeds to the Society, so they could get things together. I can only guess something horrible happened that this needed to be done and no one else could do it. By the time things were in place, everyone was exhausted, I heard not many flying Pokémon were willing to fly through the skies and psychics who could teleport were overexerting themselves as is, we were all running on low by this point, and Suicune was willing to help us. The one thing we both agreed on after this talk was, well, the explosion that caused our parents to leave to fend off that huge dragon… was in the same direction Suicune ran off in. And the Expedition Society never made it to the Skies… Even though I don't expect anyone who joins my guild to risk their lives like that… and even if we're named after Xerneas, maybe I could come up with some way to honor Suicune… Got to think about that for a bit, maybe my sister has some ideas…

An Excerpt from: The Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild

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Since I've been a bit quiet with these lore updates... More of these side stories/lore dumps can be found on the Chapters page too! But for things relating to this little excerpt:

< To The Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild

< To Side Story: A Pocket of Time

[askbeannuts]

Apparently a group of Pokemon who knew my dad were planning to go into the tree at some point too, so they watched over me when I entered... those guys told me that I came back hours later in a weird trance... and I looked strange and even had a weird rainbow aura. I don't remember what happened after that, I blacked out and apparently changed back to a regular Charizard. Everyone who wasn't close enough to see it, said I looked perfectly fine, except for the guys who were supposed to watch over me, they said I covered in wounds, bloody and bruised. I woke up in a medical tent a few days later on the island... Everyone keeps telling me I somehow awakened a "Mega Evolution" without an Awakening Emera or an empowerment seed... from what they could piece together from my memories of what happened and what I could piece together myself... They're just simplifying it down to an "Awakened State" now, apparently. I felt so drained after it all, but, I was able to do it again reliably after I recovered! A lot of Pokemon started gathering around me, they wanted to know what happened, so... after the begging and pleading for more info got too irritating... I tried to remember...

... Someone took the time to fashion that weird rock into a necklace for me to wear and told me to never remove it, no matter what-I took that to heart, obviously. I went into the tree and, honestly... just wandered until I found the way to a higher floor, the rock was pushing that weird fog away, too, it was amazing... scary, but amazing. I lost track of how many floors I went up... 5, 10, 20? I just kept going until I started hearing something. It wasn't the voice, but movement? Someone was following me...I just kept going until I was in an open area, and it showed itself, a strange Pokemon or some kind. The longer I stared, the more it seemed fake, but its attacks were real and they hurt... a lot! I did everything I could to fend it off, but more of them showed up, they looked like Pokemon I respected, I could've sworn one of them looked like the Absol on my pop's team, too. I just kept pushing them back, but they came back stronger and stronger. I was getting tired, but the feeling kept fading away after a while... but they were so aggressive... I started to lose my nerve and tried to run away, but then... "Keep going." A voice called out to me, telling me to keep going, keep fighting back, become stronger and surpass some limit... because I needed to. The Sky Islands were in chaos and someone needed to be there to help subdue the worst of the worst... no one was doing it, someone had to: "And who better than the child of a Human Hero?" Before I could figure out who it was, I was attacked by another fake Pokemon, one that looked like a large, black Charizard... I tried to run, but it wasn't having it, it kept chasing me down and attacking, I had to fight it and in the heat of that battle, being beaten down, over and over again, it felt like I was dying, but I kept getting back up... then... I felt it, I evolved! But... it didn't help, that black Charizard was still tossing me around like a child's toy... I wasn't strong enough to do whatever that voice wanted, but I could still hear it, reminding me of what my goal was: to revive Rescue Teams... All I remember after that, I let loose a yell so hard that it surely went hoarse... I felt a weird sensation and for the briefest of moments I saw that rainbow aura everyone saw around me, then I blacked out. ...

They accepted that story and I guess that's what happened... either way, we can evolve again, but going through it is a serious trial... it won't ever be easy-not for everyone at least. I accepted that much and... I decided then and there I would continue to follow that goal, and bring Rescue Teams back. Thing is... It wouldn't just be individual teams roaming around... we'd have to get with the current system and make it a Guild. When I told my sister and her Vulpix friend that-outside of them freaking out over what happened and all, they seemed to support it. My drive motivated them to try and help others in their own ways, though their ambitions were more about being leaders in different ways, I guess. A few Pokemon did end up following after me, so I had a "team" so to speak, so, I decided to form a Guild with them and, when it came to names, we all eventually agreed that the best name would be after the one who gave us this wonderful and mysterious gift of evolution and "awakening" or at least... who I think did it...: The Xerneas Guild. Yeah... I like it!

An Excerpt From: "The Founder's Book: The Xerneas Guild"

[askbeannuts]

It was honestly scary flying on the back of a Pokemon across the skies... when you get that rare look at what's below you... it's terrifying. I can't get the image out of my head of what looks like a barrier just below the clouds... I guess, that's the "Miasma" I've heard everyone around me call it. Whatever you call it, that thing stretches out so far I couldn't see where it ended... maybe the entire world's covered in it now? Anyway... after a few stops here and there, we reached the Tree of Life. I'd only heard about it, and seen some drawings of it, but being here in person is so much different... it's huge! I couldn't see the top from where we stood at a huge hole leading inside. Everyone was gathered nearby, saying it was the entrance to the dungeon, some even mentioned at least one other path leading underground! But only a bunch of bookish types went down there, a lot of Pokemon just generically called them "Researchers"... of what, I didn't bother to ask. The climb was what I was looking for, and it seemed a group had come out of there already, and I... haven't seen many of them, but I don't think Marowak were ever that dark a color... or could produce fire? Seeing strange sights like that kinda made me nervous... but seeing everyone so excited... I still wanted to go in there... Apparently only one Pokemon went in at a time, while the others watched from the entrance, something about how old luminous springs were handled before they vanished. Either way, I was here now, and there wasn't any backing out, so I just waited. And waited... and waited... by the time my chance came around, it was already nightfall, and no one was willing to let me or anyone else go in at night... so I had to wait longer. Besides being frustrated, I did get a chance to talk to that weird-looking Marowak, and they told me something really strange! Apparently there aren't any natives inside the dungeon, instead a strange force seems to create fake Pokemon who get in your way... they theorized that, because of how dangerous things are now, we'd need to be stronger, so a trial would have to be passed before being allowed to evolve... maybe Xerneas did that before they vanished? It made sense to me, but the thing they told me that shook me to my core was... they, specifically, heard a voice calling out to them, it asked them to do something more to evolve, but all they really did was look back on everyone they had lost, and somehow... boom, weird fire Marowak... I didn't get it. Apparently this only happened to a few Pokemon who went in there, and each one either came out looking slightly different or just completely bizarre... like I saw a weird Girafarig with their tail and head being merged together? I didn't know how to process that, and I did not want to get near them... and some Pokemon made up this weird name: "Farigiraf"... Why?? At that, how did they get them here and how were they getting back? They were MASSIVE now... Urgh, thinking about it just made me more confused, so... I didn't bother focusing on it and tried to sleep... tomorrow was my turn, and who knows... maybe I'll hear this voice they're talking about...

An Excerpt From: "The Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild"

[askbeannuts]

I've lost track of how long it's been since everyone was thrown into the sky. I don't get why the dungeon natives just decided to stop attacking us too, there's still dungeons around and no one wants to go into them... maybe the Legends did something? A lot of teams just kind of disbanded... I haven't seen a rescue team, exploration team or even adventure squads running around and trying to take charge... the ones we did find are demotivated. They call this a "defeat". We lost to something we can't even understand, right? There were five Human Heroes and none of them could solve this, even with the Legendary Pokemon's help... that's what they say. And no one's heard from the Expedition Society. Because of Rayquaza... we're not even sure they got the chance to place the beanstalk seed... they probably never made it up here. Some towns are still intact, but they're too crowded now for anyone to actually live there. Tent towns are popping up all over the place, and there's so many confused and angry Pokemon. They get into fights and... some of them turn horribly violent. I'd try to stop them, but, my sister won't let me, and that Vulpix keeps reminding me about my arm. ... All of this started for us with an emera exploding in my looplet while training with my parents... and now they're gone. We had to leave them behind... even those Marshadow guys left... there's no one strong to protect anyone. No one will help, it's not dungeon natives fighting and attacking us anymore... it's everyone against everyone else. And anyone with the power to stop it won't, or they can't do it alone. I NEED to get strong... just like Mom and Pop... so someone can stop this... but I don't know how... it's difficult to evolve again, just like all the stories I heard...

... It's been a few days now, since I heard all of the stories about Pokemon fighting and crime groups forming on other islands... I even heard something crazy about three Pokemon chasing after Shaymin... but that didn't sound real to me, if Xerneas left after everything was done, why would Shaymin wait so long? Anyway... one night I overheard something... some Pokemon had flown in talking about finding Xerneas returning to the Tree of Life in the West, and vanishing right after. Isn't the tree a dungeon? It never returned to normal after the whole Dark Matter thing, yeah? They apparently went there to see if it was possible to evolve again, and some of them had these weird chucks of metal, saying they're stronger than normal badges. They wanted volunteers to go in there and test it-if we could evolve again! I thought on it and despite my sister and that Vulpix, I signed up to join them-if those metal chunks they found actually blocked that weird fog, why not give it a shot? Though... I gotta say... it was weird holding one... gave me a headache at first, until they told me that's what made them so powerful against the fog and I'll get used to it after a while with one... weird... Anyway, I convinced a friend of my parent's to watch my sister and her friend while I was gone, they were that Absol's family, but they kept away from everyone else to avoid being blamed for something bad. They were safest with them... I made sure to promise to come back, stronger, so maybe... just maybe I could do something to help others and maybe revive Rescue Teams... yeah...! That was-is my goal... yeah!!

An excerpt from: "The Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild"

[askbeannuts]

"The leader of the Shaymin Village", the more I think back on that statement... the more I believe it. She never changes, always in that form, no matter what time of day, unmoving, at least when I've seen her. We've been waiting for word from the other "sky islands" for days, some flying Pokemon brought news sometimes... but it sounds like chaos. Confusion, Fear, Distrust, In-fighting... I've heard some compare it to that "Bitter Cold Incident" or whatever they're calling it now. What happened to Xerneas? Landorus? Where did they go...? Why is Shaymin the only one staying here? Is there a signal she's waiting for? I don't understand... will I ever...? I was told, by a curious fellow, to watch over Shaymin... I believe they said... "Watch over them, protect them... Like I once did for Dialga... like my friend does for Celebi... She is important to the future." ... It was something like that... what did they mean though? Where are they? Did they make it to the skies too? ...

My original Guild's gone.. my team.. my friends.. my family.. did they make it..? Will I ever know? No one's come with a message for me, but waiting here, how long will it go on? ... Where? Where did Shaymin go...?

An excerpt from: "The Founder's Book: Shaymin Guild"

[askbeannuts]

[[As I randomly decided to do last night... I'm indulging the nagging thought in the back of my mind from yesterday and even farther back about doing some changes to the whole "documents" tag on the blog, mainly making them actual information/lore dump posts instead of things that're occasionally said to use as a reference for later.

The "Founder's Book(s)" are kind of part of that, at least what I've thought up (not written down..) about them, I've a vague idea for a couple more, especially for the Shaymin and Xerneas Guilds, since theirs are kinda relevant atm.

I won't make them munday exclusives because work-I made this in the last ten minutes of my break after all-so whenever they're made I'll probably post 'em-specifically Shaymin Guild ones.

Take them as teases/inspo(??) for what can be asked about soon. ;D]]

[askbeannuts]

Once again, the chapters page has been updated to include the Founder's Book: Xerneas Guild! Also, as of today, that's the last of the lore-dump things I immediately have in mind, some others will be updates or more focused elaborations on things found in the documents update tag for the blog, though they'll be more random in nature! As they go up, I'll likely be removing certain things from that tag though.

Standard updates continue tomorrow! They won't follow my four-day schedule, unless I forget