#on that note for those wondering ''why didn't the warlocks just summon the mythicals''

[sage-nebula]

I’ve been mulling over more thoughts for my Pokémon fantasy AU and I have some more thoughts worked out (that are going under a cut because this got Long):

— The basic backstory / lore / plot I’m working with at present is something along the lines of: in this version of the world, there were twelve mythical pokémon whose powers (unique to each of them) were considered godlike. These pokémon were, of course, far too powerful to be captured, but every now and then, when they found a human they deemed worthy, they partnered with the human to lend them their power in whatever way they needed at the time.

(Note: I’ve not decided which twelve mythicals I’m using yet, though I have a few picked out. And yes, it is only twelve, and they have to be mythicals. Legendaries with similar lore will not be used.)

— Of course, these pokémon being revered as godlike, and being known for being too powerful to be caught, didn’t deter humans from trying to capture them regardless. Whether it was because of a belief that “a pokémon is a pokémon” or merely a desire for power, humans tried for centuries to capture them. Eventually, an order of powerful warlocks summoned and formed a pact with the legendary Giratina to get the job done. Giratina agreed to seal the mythical pokémon into spherical gemstones so their power could be harnessed, and in return, the warlocks would use that power to serve Giratina’s ends. The warlocks accepted.

— Things did not go entirely to their plan. Though Giratina succeeded in capturing the mythicals in the stones as promised, and though said stones were initially turned over to the warlocks so they could do Giratina’s bidding, the legendary Arceus was one step ahead of them. After a fierce battle, Arceus banished Giratina to the Distortion World, along with the warlocks that had served it. The mythical stones stayed behind, but even Arceus’ power was not enough to awaken the mythicals trapped inside. Instead, Arceus used what strength it had left after Giratina’s banishing to cast the mythical stones into the time stream, where they would at some point be reborn within the humans destined to awaken and protect them. (How the humans were supposed to do this when the mythical stones were trapped within their hearts, only Arceus knows, probably. There is no guarantee that Arceus actually does know. One can only hope.)

(Note: I know that Arceus is technically a mythical as well, but the story just doesn’t work if there are thirteen mythicals and one legendary, so I’m bumping Arceus up in status. I don’t care that it’s technically wrong, this is my AU and I will do as I like.)

— So it was that the world continued on, and the mythical pokémon faded into oft-forgotten myth for many as kingdoms and empires rose and fell. That is . . . until the present day.

— In the present day, the twelve mythical stones are finally all in the normal realm again, their Chosen (sometimes called Keepers) all having been born. A few notes on what it is to be a Chosen / Keeper:

Keepers have no way of knowing they’re Keepers. In fact, most people don’t know who the Keepers are, or even that they exist at all. The only way to tell is through ancient magic when can a.) locate the rough location of where a Keeper is, and b.) if a particular kind of stone is enchanted with the spell, glow when one is near. Beyond that, a Keeper could be born, live, and die without anyone ever being the wiser, and then the mythical stone would have to find a new Chosen and incarnate again, which could take millennia. (This has undoubtedly happened multiple times. Arceus isn’t good at plans.)

Despite not knowing they’re Keepers, or having any way of controlling it, Keepers do have and, if circumstances are right, can use the power of the mythical pokémon slumbering inside of them. Sometimes this power is just always unconsciously active (e.g. Manaphy’s Keeper forms deep emotional bonds with the pokémon he meets routinely all over the place), sometimes it only triggers when the Keeper is on the brink of death (e.g. Victini’s Keeper has unbreakable willpower which can drive them past mortal limitations and onward to victory before letting them die), and sometimes it’s honestly random (e.g. Celebi’s Keeper gets precognitive dreams and sometimes postcognitive visions in places where there’s high energy for it). Usually Keepers are unaware of what it is they’re doing, but again, detection magic can see it (and those around them can be disturbed; Victini’s Keeper is a terrifying foe on the battlefield, what with them not staying down despite having been stabbed several times).

Pretty much all the leaders of the various regional governments want to get their hands on at least one Keeper for military purposes and have been putting efforts in for centuries to do just that. So far, at least two have succeeded. (The monarchs/emperors/what have you that have Keepers under their command would obviously prefer to take the mythical stone from them and discard the Keeper, but so far no one in history has found a way to do that without killing the Keeper and therefore causing the mythical stone to be yeeted back into the time stream due to Arceus’ power, so most just do their best to keep the Keepers on short leashes until they figure out what else to do. Also, in these cases the Keepers still usually don’t understand that’s what’s going on because most world leaders are smart enough to know that if you tell a Keeper they’re a Keeper and you’re using them, they’re probably going to turn on you, and no criminal in power wants that.)

Bloodlines have nothing to do with it. The mythicals don’t Choose (and they do Choose, subconscious though it is) through heritage, but rather by soul. 

— The two kingdoms whose monarchs have succeeded in finding Keepers are Unova and Kalos.

— The current reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Unova is King Ghetsis, who has been alive for as long as any of his people have been (and much longer than most). An immensely powerful warlock, Ghetsis has cast spells and made contracts in order to keep his once-mortal body alive and keep himself on Unova’s throne, though most (especially those who work closest to him) speculate that ruling Unova is far and away not his end goal, but is instead just the starting point. Regardless, Ghetsis has used his decades (centuries?) in power to search for the Keepers, and fourteen years before the present day he finally succeeded, at least with one: the Keeper of Mew, a boy named N.

— N is, according to the official story, Ghetsis’ son and the Crown Prince of Unova. Ghetsis claims that N is his biological son, and N does look the part, although no one knew of the boy until he was five, and also Ghetsis is unmarried and doesn’t have any concubines that anyone is aware of, and also no one in the kingdom can think of anyone who would ever want to bed or be bedded by Ghetsis (though most everyone keeps that to themselves; it’s an unspoken, kingdom-wide agreement). Nonetheless, N is the Crown Prince, and though he is pretty much never allowed out of the castle (for reasons ranging from “he is studying to one day be a worthy king” to “he has a weak constitution and the outdoors are harmful to him”), the people of the kingdom can’t imagine a worse king than Ghetsis so, you know, they’re kind of excited for N to maybe one day inherit the throne if Ghetsis ever dies. (And yes, many have tried to kill him over the years, but between his pokémon and his magic, none have succeeded yet.)

— As the Keeper of Mew, N can psychically connect with any and all pokémon, allowing him to communicate with them. This is a passive power that is always active, and one that N (since he hasn’t been informed of just what he has inside of him, only that he’s “special”) is always using, 24/7. It’s possible that he may be able to at some point make himself invisible, but so far in nineteen years of life he’s never managed to succeeded at that (on purpose) once.

— Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Kalos is presently under the rule of King Lysandre (who, at least at the moment, is living a normal lifespan). Things in Kalos aren’t as outright horrible as they are in Unova because Lysandre at least makes an attempt to pretend that his rule isn’t an authoritarian dictatorship (unlike Ghetsis) even though it is, but that doesn’t change how he has secret police known by the citizens as Team Flare keeping tabs on the citizens, or how swathes of people go “missing” if they can’t afford to pay their ridiculously high taxes or the economy starts to feel strain in any way. Kalos is in a strict class caste system, put in place and enforced by King Lysandre, but most of the citizenry try to not be too open about how they feel about it.

(Note: This is all inspired by Lysandre’s behavior in the anime / games, such as how his plan in the games is to commit mass genocide on everyone except members of Team Flare in order to “conserve resources” for those who remain, and that to join Team Flare you have to pay him $5mil. He’s a classist genocidal murderer who somehow manages good PR, so that’s what I’m basing this on. It has nothing at all do with real life France, despite Kalos being based on that country.)

— But while Lysandre has Kalos under his fist, it of course isn’t enough; his aspirations reach beyond his rule. As a result, Lysandre had powerful mages searching for Keepers even before he ascended the throne, and set them to work double-time once he did. And through their efforts, three years before the present day, Lysandre located the Keeper of Victini, a boy named Alan.

— Alan spent the first five years of his life an ostracized and abused orphan in an isolated village that, while they weren’t aware that he was a Keeper, could tell there was something different and off about him, and on top of him being an orphan, they didn’t like that. He was found at the age of five by an alchemist named Augustine Sycamore, who was repulsed by the abusive behavior of the villagers and felt empathy and pity for the child he saw before him. As a result, Sycamore took Alan home with him, and decided to raise him as his own son. While wary and anxious at first, once Alan realized and accepted that he had a home and family with Sycamore, he was thrilled.

— For the next seven years, Alan studied and worked so that he, too, could become an alchemist, following in Sycamore’s footsteps. But that changed when Lysandre’s archmage, Malva, discovered that Alan was a Keeper. For the next year they studied him from afar, staging little tests—“accidents”—to test his latent ability. Finally, shortly after Alan turned thirteen, they staged an attack on the town where Sycamore and Alan lived that put both of their lives in mortal danger. The unbridled determination of Victini awoke within Alan, allowing him to protect Sycamore and make it through (along with his partner Charmander, nicknamed Lizardon, of course) despite the odds. Satisfied that Malva’s conclusion was correct (and secretly thrilled that the Keeper they’d found was Victini’s), Lysandre himself made an appearance in the village, congratulating Alan on a job well done, and offered him a position in the crownguard.

— At first, Alan refused. Joining the crownguard would mean leaving his town—his home—his father. And he didn’t really want to fight; he loved research and science, he wanted to be an alchemist. But their talk was a private one, and during it Lysandre “revealed” that the “accidents” that had happened over the past year were targeted attacks on Sycamore, and that this one in particular had come very close. Alan had protected him, but barely. What would happen next time, if Alan didn’t have the strength to protect him? Didn’t he want to keep his father safe? Keep him alive? 

— Suitably afraid, and determined to save Sycamore just as Sycamore had saved him, Alan made the decision to join the crownguard. Sycamore didn’t want him to leave, of course; he tried to talk him out of it. But Alan insisted, practically pleaded, and ultimately Sycamore gave in. Alan left at the age of thirteen to join the royal guard, and he and Sycamore have not seen each other or spoken since.

— Lysandre put Alan through rigorous training—far more intense than any other squires—which, among other things, left Alan with scars down the left side of his face from the claws of Lysandre’s Pyroar. (It was a lesson and reminder, Lysandre said, for Alan to never allow his attention to be wholly distracted in battle.) Alan rose through the ranks quickly, ultimately becoming a dragon knight along his now fully-evolved (and Mega Evolution capable) Charizard, and a general to boot. No one else in the crownguard likes him because of this, something they perceive as favoritism from the king. (And perhaps it is, in a way, but certainly not in a good way, given that Lysandre is not a good man.)

— Despite his rank, ferocity in battle, and all the rumors that surround him, Alan has never killed anyone in battle.

— He has exactly one friend in that castle, and that friend is Lizardon. No one else likes him. “Coincidentally,” Lizardon is also his regular sparring partner. He uses a wooden training lance while Lizardon uses his claws. They never kept track of how many sparring matches they had, but supposing they had 600, then Lizardon has won 600 of them. 99% of the time the matches end with Lizardon flattening Alan on the ground and licking his face. You know. To make him feel better after losing.

— That said, while Alan might lose all of his sparring matches to the literal dragon he spars against, other humans aren’t really a match for him (which really pisses off the other members of the crownguard, given that they know that he maintains his place through actual skill and can, if challenged, wipe the training field with them). It’s simply hard for an ordinary human being to face him when he’s trained himself by sparring with a literal dragon, and keeps that up multiple times a week.

— Alan does not know he’s a Keeper. Sycamore didn’t know, either. And neither does anyone else apart from Lysandre and Malva.

— As mentioned, the slumbering Victini gives Alan supernatural determination, allowing him to push on even after his mortal body should have reached its limits, accomplishing impossible feats in order to do what he’s determined to accomplish. Of course, this won’t stop him from potentially dropping immediately after his goal his accomplished, but nonetheless, Victini’s inner fire as the Victory Star gives Alan the indomitable will needed to overcome whatever barriers are set before him. There’s a reason why Lysandre was particularly happy to be able to make this Keeper his top general.

— Meanwhile, though the current monarchs of Kanto are unaware of it, in a tiny, backwater village secluded from most of the rest of the population, there is a ten-year-old boy named Ash Ketchum who is the Keeper of Manaphy.

— Ash was born to a young woman named Delia, and initially, she had no idea that her baby boy was the Chosen Keeper of a mythical pokémon. But one day, when Ash was three, he wandered out of sight while Delia worked on her garden. When she found him, a great bird with rainbow wings was towering over him. And though she at first rushed forward to protect him, she stopped and stared in awe when she saw that bird—that legendary pokémon, Ho-Oh—bend its head down and touch its beak to Ash’s forehead, her tiny toddler boy having manifested an emotional bond with the legendary phoenix beyond all logical reasoning. Ho-Oh flew away after noticing Delia in the little grove, and Ash, happy to see his mother, thought nothing of it. But as she carried him back to their home, Delia did.

— Delia confided in what happened to a long-time teacher of hers, a sage named Samuel Oak, who recognized Ash for what he was: a Keeper, and most likely the Keeper of Manaphy, at that. He explained that legends said that the Keeper of Manaphy would be able to form a deep emotional bond with any pokémon they met, something that both explained what happened with Ho-Oh in the forest and also sounded beautiful to Delia. But, Oak warned, Ash’s power would make him not only an incredibly powerful trainer, but also an incredibly wanted trainer. No doubt those in power would want to use Ash for their own gain. And with Ash being so young . . .

— Delia understood. She and Oak agreed to keep Ash’s power secret, even from himself. Their tiny town of Pallet was remote enough that Delia didn’t worry too much about others noticing Ash’s innate “talent” for bonding with pokémon, and so for years she was able to keep her worries at bay. But as Ash grew, he bonded with many pokémon (a Pikachu in particular), clicking with them almost immediately upon meeting. And while Delia didn’t want him to go out into the world where he would be put in danger, the older he grew, the more he wanted to venture out and meet every pokémon he could, even if he himself couldn’t understand just why he felt so connected with them.

— So Delia allowed him to study pokémon battling with Oak’s grandson, Gary, a young boy Ash’s age who also had beastmaster skill (if not nearly on the same level) and who also aspired to be a trainer. And unbeknownst to Oak or Gary, when Ash was around seven, Delia had Ash begin training under Bruno, a Kanto-renowned brawler, so that Ash would know how to defend himself even if his pokémon were ever overpowered. She couldn’t keep him in secret forever, Delia knew, but she could still prepare him for what was out there . . . and make sure that no one would ever be able to use him without a fight.

And for now, at the late hour of midnight, that is all I have. More to come . . . at some point.