#ones who cannot dream cannot despair. || DISPARA

[cosmoscourge-a]

Dispara’s Part in the Cold War

So, behind the scenes and somewhat in public, I’ve actually been thinking about the Cold War and how it played out in the Pokémon world. My original thoughts on it were too similar to events that happened in real life (especially at a time where a lot of old Cold War tensions are rising again), so I have been discussing with my friends some ways in which to handle that. As I have learned from my friends, a fictional depiction of sensitive events has to feel fictional so that it’s not too realistic--and there is ample opportunity to do that in a world as fantastical as Pokémon. But sometimes I make the error of defaulting to “keep things in the Pokémon world as similar to the real world as possible” when the worldbuilding would benefit from significant alterations. So, in a series of posts, I hope to be able to create a view of an alternate Cold War history that isn’t triggering to onlookers particularly at this point in time.

With that in mind, here are my initial thoughts: The threat at issue in the Pokéverse Cold War, and Dispara’s part in creating it.

The Cold War has been canon to my Pokémon verse since before this blog was created, but I never had the thought to flesh it out until recently. For the most part, I was just like (vaguely gestures at a period of time when the USSR existed and terrifying doomsday weapons were the main point of issue) and trying to recall what was left of what I’d learned back in grade school when the Cold War was my hyperfixation. But to really form a picture of what went on during that time, I have to start by deciding what was the same and what was different. I was advised to remove nukes from my setting to not only make it make more sense in the Pokémon world but also not to trigger people with the fact that we’re currently on the verge of a nuclear apocalypse, so in this universe they weren’t the weapons that made the Cold War so terrifying. So, instead of nukes, we have an extremely technologically advanced synthetic Pokémon from Dispara making its way into the main Pokémon world (the Outerworld). You might be surprised at what I’ve chosen it to be: Metagross.

(Yes, I know in canon they’re originally from Hoenn. But Metagross is one of my favorite Pokémon and I control the lore. :P)

Metagross first appeared in the main Pokémon universe during the Second War of Ragnarök, which was the only point between ~1850 and Tobias’ rule at which Dispara had real contact with the outside world. They were a synthetic sapient race of superweapons created by Voltea--a subregion of Dispara--with terrifying power. Metagross are made at different power levels, with some of them being just like regular Pokémon--these are the ones most easily found in the wild. But the Apocalypse Metagross, the ones that the US and USSR had? Any SINGLE one of them could obliterate all of humanity all by itself. Another thing that makes Metagross more advanced than other synthetic Pokémon is that you have to train other synthetic Pokémon from level 1 to be fighting fit. Military grade Beldums, the offspring of the kind that could destroy the world, are born at level 100, and level up through Ascendance and Transcendence Levels (levels above 100).

They made their way into the regular Pokémon world for a few reasons. First of all, the gates between Dispara and the main world were broken wide open during the Second War of Ragnarök, and Metagross are fully sapient beings who can and will find a way to travel where they please. But they found themselves in the main universe in such numbers for another reason: Some asshole from Voltea actually went to the U.S. and USSR and taught those governments how to make them. This person, Fox Solseeker, was considered a mediocre engineer in Voltea, but figured that if he was the one (1) person from his terrifyingly advanced nation who was willing to spill its secrets to Outerworld nations, he would be regarded as a genius and a hero. Even after a rivalry between the US and USSR started to sprout, he gave the Metagross technology out to both because of his ego, in spite of foreseeing the arms race this might cause; he wanted to have the props from both governments and the sense that he had some sort of control over both. As the sole Voltean who was brave and stupid enough to play this game with them, he used his technological knowledge to leverage favors from them. Both, deep down, were never truly his friends--but each believed they needed to play his game to one-up the other. Fox even managed to get the KGB so deep in his pockets that they had worldwide missions to round up and kidnap Disparans who had escaped Wilhelmine’s regime into the main Pokémon universe if they tried to expose the fact he was a fraud.

This, of course, screwed over all the Metagross that fell under the two Cold War powers' command. After all, Metagross are sapient. Sapient Pokémon are people. Neither power accounted for or respected the fact that their doomsday weapons are their own fully realized people who might have wishes and desires other than being held indefinitely in reserve just to create mutually assured destruction. What happened to these people was that they were all trained up to Metagross from Beldum, then forced to self-replicate and create new Beldum immediately upon reaching adulthood, then shoved into Poké Balls for until they were needed--which both powers hoped, in spite of all their posturing, that the Metagross would never be. To reiterate: These were people who were kept for decades in a PC--a technology invented in this world based on Voltean knowledge. It would be like putting an entire town of humans inside a storage room and hoping you never have to take them out. The real U.S. had around 10,000 nukes, with the Soviet Union having 35,000. That’s how many fucking people the Pokémon versions of those countries had locked up in their armageddon arms PCs--and, given that both the U.S. and Russia fear retribution from the Metagross if they were ever to be set free, that’s how many they had even after the Cold War ended.

Of course, Fox Solseeker never cared about any of this. He didn’t care that he had doomed an entire generation of sapient beings to this incredibly fucked up fate, and he didn’t care how badly he was fucking up the world in general--he was drunk on the new power and status that he had, and he would do anything to maintain it. But when Tobias Mendelssohn defeated Wilhelmine von Hohenlohe in 2016, renamed Dispara to Unima and opened it back up to the outside world, Volteans were not at all shy about exposing Fox for what he was. None of the technologies he claimed he invented were actually his invention--they had all been created by better, more talented Voltean engineers. With Fox’s shameful actions finally thrust out in the open, people in the Outerworld began to seek retribution. Unfortunately, like a true slimy unrepentant fox, he was never brought to justice.

[cosmoscourge-a]

If Unima were a setting of a video game, there would be two games. 

The first game would be the traditional “collect all the badges, beat the evil Team and become Champion,” except set in a warzone way darker than Pokémon canon. There, you are in Tobias’ place as the protag, and Tobias is actually one of the rival characters. He’s a mix between a friendly and a jerk rival in that he can be a dick and he does get jealous that you’re the great Hero of Dispara instead of him. But ultimately he recognizes you’re fighting for the same cause and wants to help you get better.

The second game, where the Tobias Bad End fight was set, would be both a sequel and an AU. You actually start the game as Champion, having lost your entire team in the battle against Wilhelmine von Hohenlohe and being able to get some higher-level ‘mons off the bat when they pledge their services to you. It would deal a lot with the struggles of actually maintaining the Champion’s seat and guiding the region through the difficult times of reconstruction for a better future. Along the way, you can either ally with Tobias’ Team Blade and grow stronger in your convictions that love and friendship can triumph over all…Or you can become disillusioned with the Great Uniman Dream of a better future, join with Team Shatter, and choose only your own power. And given that the storyline (much like real life) sometimes punishes you for choosing love over hate or integrity over pragmatism, it can be real fucking easy for a blind playthrough player to start picking the choices that lead you to the bad end.

The good route is harder at first, because sometimes, being good can be the hardest choice you ever have to make. You’ll find yourself groaning in frustration as game bosses that play dirty and use slimy methods to juice their Pokémon run you over repeatedly, and also, watching some of your teammates die because you did the right thing is going to make you want to quit. However, you unlock Pokémon Amie effects, all six Mega slots and Bond Phenomenon, and eventually your team will bond enough to unleash Unity Attacks. After that, the later game (except for Tobias temporarily acting like a dickbutt as your final boss) is going to be a breeze.

The bad route is the opposite. It starts off on the easier side because you essentially get to cheat in order to win, but actually gets way harder later on, because in the long run, crime doesn’t pay. You won’t have Pokémon Amie effects or Unity Attacks, unlike basically all of the good guys you’re facing. You’ll get to unlock Megas, but you’ll likely never be able to Mega your entire team like some bosses because in this game, you can only Mega once your Pokémon have hit max friendship--and max friendship is a lot harder to obtain than in Pokémon canon, because it’s influenced by things such as your Pokémon’s responses to the decisions you make in cutscenes. Then you get to Tobias, who basically Megas/Bond Phenomenons his entire team, giving you a battle that’s nearly impossible--and his is just the last in a series of fights that’ll keep you up until 3 AM soft resetting as you try to find a way to beat them. Ironically, though, knowing this actually makes some players deliberately pick the bad options so they can have this experience. Because what’s an insanely difficult video game without an insanely difficult challenge?

[cosmoscourge-a]

The History of Dispara’s Pokémon

So, I’ve covered in my region lore document that Dispara’s Pokémon are all military breeds with military stats, abilities and movesets. They were made this way during the 1800s by the despot Wilhelmine von Hohenlohe, who also tied the power upgrades to their life forces so that the upgrades could not be undone without killing the Pokémon. But to some extent, Unima’s Pokémon were always stronger than the Pokémon in the regular Pokémon world. They just got even more busted over time.

Excluding all Legendaries, the average BST in the Pokémon world is (if you add the numbers here together) somewhere around 412 points. I’m going to be a bit more generous than that and consider only the fully evolved forms, and thus I’d estimate that the average BST for a fully evolved Pokémon in the regular world is 450 - 475 points. In Dispara, meanwhile, the base average BST before human modification was 500 - 525 points. Moreover, Disparan Pokémon were more likely to have OP as fuck abilities and advantageous moves that align with their stats. There are no instances where, say, a predominantly Special attacker gets a lot of physical moves; there are also no instances of Abilities with significant nerfs such as Defeatist, Klutz or Truant.

But when humans (and other species) started blood sporting, this got taken to an even higher level. The average BST rose to 550 - 575 points. Abilities started getting buffed more especially since Ability Evolution was discovered and Pokémon could naturally reach higher Abilities without having to be bred for them. That didn’t stop new moves and Abilities from entering the gene pool however. Stuff like Killer Cleric, which allows Benthic Milotic to apply exponential healing to another Pokémon with Toxic (even other Poison-types), was always there--because let’s face it, some Pokémon were always freaks. But you’d also start seeing stuff like Zombie, an Ability that gives a Pokémon a 50% chance of reviving at full health after it’s fainted, and moves that stacked dual Extreme Status conditions.

Then shit got absolutely buckwild in the age of Wilhelmine von Hohenlohe’s Great Armament. The average BST rose to 600 - 630 points, which was the breed standard of Friedrike Skyherald’s god-killing army; this made Disparan Pokémon on average as strong as pseudo-Legendaries in the regular world. Before now, non-military stats, moves and Abilities also still proliferated in the wild due to military Abilities having been created in captivity (and due to the fact that even infamous broken Ability and move creator Friedrike acknowledged it would be a bad idea to buff Dispara’s wild populations). But with Wilhelmine buffing even wild Pokémon to these standards, the Pokémon that weren’t buffed were driven to extinction over the next 140 years, and almost all record--both supernatural and natural--of their previous stats/moves/Abilities was destroyed to make it even harder for this to be reversed. Then, Wilhelmine wiped her and Eternalux’s collective memory of how to create/undo the binding of the buffs & the Pokémon’s life energy so that if the Heart of Eternalux were ever compromised, nobody would be able to reverse the process.

This basically means that for better or for worse (most likely for worse), Unima’s Pokémon will never return to their original states. It would take Eternalux herself to undo the damage by restoring the Pokémon to their original BSTs, moves and Abilities, since Eternalux was the one whose powers were used to alter these Pokémon. However. The binding process of buffs to life force was extremely deep and complex. All of Dispara’s Pokémon were bound together; if you make a mistake unbinding just one of them, it would cause a chain reaction that could kill every Pokémon in Dispara. Moreover, Wilhelmine covered her tracks so well that not even the gods themselves remember enough details about what Dispara’s Pokémon were like in the past to be able to restore what they used to be. Therefore, figuring out how to change the Pokémon back while at the same time not destroying the Uniman ecosystems would be yet another near-impossible task. So can the Great Armament be reversed? Technically it can, but it’s very unlikely.

[cosmoscourge-a]

Despite this region not being Preuzien anymore, German is still a dominant language in Unima, other than the language of the Tulinese Fae. This is due to the fact that Eisenwald has colonized many parts of Dispara, on again and off again, throughout the alternate universe’s long history. The most recent wave of colonization was under Wilhelmine von Hohenlohe, who reigned over Dispara for around 140 years until her death. 

That’s not to say English / Galarian and Johtoese Japanese (the dominant form of Japanese) haven’t been making the rounds in Unima. When the Uniman Internet was connected inter-universally to the Outerworld’s Internet, more people started to learn these languages as other dominant languages of communication. Moreover, English and Japanese are the two most popular foreign languages in Unima’s schools, because the population wishes to communicate more fluently with the world outside. 

[cosmoscourge-a]

Dual Status Moves

In Unima, you can be inflicted with more than one status at a time. So, it stands to reason that Unima has moves and abilities that can inflict two statuses at the same time, sometimes even stacking Extreme Statuses! Some examples of this include:

Beguiling, an Ability that evolves from Cute Charm, which has a chance of inflicting both Confusion and Obsession at the same time. 

Toxinarcosis, a Poison-type move that inflicts both Poison and Sleep at the same time. Any status combination with Sleep often means that the sleep will turn into a Coma.

Dread Delirium, another Poison-type move, which inflicts Badly Poison and the extreme status condition Delirium at the same time, based on how some poisons make you delirious.

Tetrodotoxin, an Ability that states that if the Pokémon Poisons an opponent, it is also Paralyzed. The Bug-type move that inflicts the same is called Infliction Powder. The combination of Poison and Paralysis often results in Deep Paralysis. 

Fear Trap, a Psychic-type move that inflicts Deep Paralysis and Delirium at the same time. It drives the Pokémon into a psychological meltdown that urges it to struggle, but the Pokémon can’t move. It’s a signature move of the Pokémon Siphonoclast. Gym Leader Psyche is particularly fond of this move.

Faefyre, a dual Fairy- and Fire-type status move that inflicts Badly Burn and Obsession at the same time. The idea is that you are cursed by the flames.

Parapossession, a Ghost-type move that inflicts Delirium and Obsession at the same time.

Frostbite Burn, an Ice- and Fire-type move that inflicts both Frostbite and Burn at the same time.

[cosmoscourge-a]

INTENSE WEATHER.

so, as i mentioned in weiss schnee’s bio, there are several intense weather conditions besides heavy rain and harsh sun in unima. heavy rain and harsh sun both have alterations to them, and. besides them, other conditions such as blinding sandstorm, heavy hail and intense darkness. these weather conditions all have additional effects, and can only be removed by putting other intense conditions on the field. these weather conditions are also more easily summoned--it’s easier for pokémon to learn the moves required to set these weather conditions, and also easier to find ‘mons that can set the conditions with their abilities. here’s how these weather conditions go down in this region:

HEAVY RAIN Can be set with the move First Flood Automatically set by the Ability Primordial Sea

water-type moves are boosted 1.5x

types weak to water lose 1/8 HP each turn.

halves the power of moves that are boosted by sun

fire-type moves fizzle out; the power of types that water resists is cut in half

HARSH SUN Can be set with the move Last Drought Automatically set by the Ability Desolate Land

fire-type moves are boosted 1.5x

types weak to fire lose 1/8 HP each turn.

halves the power of moves that are boosted by rain

water-type moves fizzle out; the power of types that fire resists is cut in half

HEAVY HAIL Can be set with the move Glacial Downpour Automatically set by the Abilities Hell Frozen Over or Everest’s Wrath

(copy-pasted from weiss’s bio)

Non-Ice-types lacking certain Hail-immune abilities lose 1/8 HP each turn. Steel-types that aren’t also part Ice-type lose 1/4 HP each turn, due to the cold damaging the metal. Every turn there is a 10% chance of either Burn or Freeze for non-Ice-types Ice-type moves are increased in power  Fire-type moves fizzle out in the cold Halves the power of moves that are boosted by sun Blizzard is guaranteed a hit and can sometimes hit through Protect or Detect

BLINDING SANDSTORM Can be set with the move Sand Drench Automatically set by the Ability Ruinous Sands

types except for ground, rock and steel lose 1/8 HP each turn. flying-types lose 1/4 HP each turn.

accuracy for all pokémon who are not ground, rock or steel-type is cut 20%

ground- and rock-type moves are boosted 1.5x

halves the power of moves that are boosted by sun

special defense of all rock- and ground-type pokémon raised 1.5x

INTENSE DARKNESS Can be set with the move Blackout Automatically set by the Ability Eternal Night

inspired by the new moon condition in pokémon insurgence

accuracy for all pokémon who are not ghost- or dark-types (or who don’t have an ability that benefits them in darkness) are cut 20%. 

ghost- and dark-type moves are boosted by 1.5x

the power of any fairy-type, psychic-type or light-based moves such as moonblast, dazzling gleam, signal beam and aurora beam is cut in half. non-damaging light-based moves or moves boosted by sun such as flash, reflect, light screen and solarbeam cannot be used

two-turn ghost- and dark-type moves can be used instantly

[cosmoscourge-a]

UBs did appear in many (though not all) areas of Dispara. With the presence of UBs in Dispara, it was possible for certain cultures to develop the use of Z-moves. As the Native Alolans and these other cultures discovered, Z-moves were incredibly powerful. In truth, they can be used more than once per battle as long as you give your Pokémon enough recharge time between moves--and in Unima, you can still use Z-moves this way. It was simply restricted to one use per battle by colonizing powers in the Outerworld, once they feared that the use of multiple Z-moves would disadvantage non-Alolans.

Though Dispara’s Z-move-using cultures were forced to give up their secrets and their Z-crystals in the ages of Wilhelmine’s imperialism, things have changed for the better. The use of Z-moves and the possession and exchange of Z-crystals is now banned for anyone who is not from a culture with a pre-Wilhelminian tradition of using them. Failure to comply with this policy could result in up to five years in prison and the permanent revocation of one’s Trainer License. 

This legislation was introduced by Tobias Mendelssohn, a proud Alolan, and while it has drawn many criticisms, this is something on which he will never budge. He will legitimately refuse to fight or acknowledge the strength of any outsider to a Z-move using culture who uses these moves, and he has told members of his League that they could either choose to respect others’ cultures by giving up their own Z-move usage or resign. He knows this has made him very unpopular in certain circles, but that only confirms to him that he’s doing the right thing. In his view, if you build your career on a power that never should have been yours to begin with, your strength and success is just a sham.

[cosmoscourge-a]

Why The Ultimate Cosmic Power Couldn’t Save The Failed State of Dispara

I’ve talked before about, in spite of Wilhelmine basically being all-powerful, cosmic immunity paved the way to her demise. In this post, I’ll talk about how it goes even deeper than anyone probably ever expected.

Honestly, Wilhelmine realized she was in deep shit decades ago, but it was too late to go back. At first, she would have started out in her reign with VERY FEW people being cosmically immune to her, so she would have basically been able to rearrange the country and that universe as she liked. But as time went on and people got stronger, she would have noticed that her ability to just think things into existence had waned. And by the time she realized it was because she'd made everybody too powerful, there was nothing she could have done to fix things for herself. Because by that point, the blood sport--the very thing that made everyone so powerful--was so ingrained in Disparan culture that to lessen it in any way would have also lessened her legitimacy, causing many of the people who could beat her to turn against her…

Yet at the same time, the blood sport was screwing the country to an UNHOLY degree. As I’ve stated in my lore document, there were so many Trainers that there was a shortage in a ton of necessary professions, and nobody was listening to her when she tried to prop those necessary professions up. So this whole time, she knew that her days as leader of Dispara were numbered, and the only thing she could think to do was to just desperately make herself and her own team even stronger via cosmic bullshit…when really, her abuse of her cosmic powers had broken everything beyond repair.

For her, the worst part of all this was that in the past? Before the new wave of cosmic immunity? Wilhelmine would have been able to warp reality itself to make up for the shortages in the necessary professions. She even tried at first, by just. Creating random people out of nowhere to fill the professions. But the people, and that entire reality in fact, were now so immune to shit like hers that that strategy no longer worked. The people she created got absorbed into the toxic culture of blood sport and abandoned their professions to become Trainers, and she couldn't force them back into their jobs. So now not only was there still a job shortage there was also rampant “overpopulation”* she had to deal with. Similar things kept happening, hastening the end; in the end, the only thing truly propping up Wilhelmine’s rotting regime was Wilhelmine herself. *Note: I don’t really like the term “overpopulation” because Dispara would be like Earth in the fact that it could probably support billions more people if they all lived sustainably--it's just that our lifestyles are exceedingly wasteful and so people like to scream "overpopulation!" because they want to use eugenics bullshit to start culling certain populations, such as the poor, but it would be more people than Wilhelmine’s system could handle.

With that digression aside. The tale of Wilhelmine is a PRIME example of how even those who are “all-powerful” have LIMITS. You can have all the power in the world, but there are still some things you still shouldn’t do. There are always going to be things you overlooked, unintended consequences cropping up from swinging your extreme cosmic power like a hammer at any problem that comes your way. Things like this are the Pokémon world’s answer to the age-old questions of “if the Legendaries are so powerful, why don’t they just interfere when humans are in trouble?” Because Wilhelmine is what happens when someone of Legendary ability uses that power to meddle in human lives in any way possible. To wield godly power against humans as she did is merely the path to one’s undoing.

[cosmoscourge-a]

Stunted Stat Suppressants (SSS) are now-outlawed, supernaturally created supplements that were everywhere on the competitive scene in Dispara. You know how almost every Pokémon has a nature that raises one stat and lowers another? SSS were so named because they prevented Pokémon’s natures from stunting the stat that each nature lowers. This means that Pokémon would have a stat with accelerated growth, but no stat that was lower to compensate for it. SSS were often paired with Competition Capsules (CC), which caused accelerated growth in more than one stat, sometimes causing accelerated growth in all stats.

However, these things are outlawed for a reason, the reason being that it’s not possible to make these supplements work in a healthy way. Each Pokémon’s Nature, which balances a raised stat against a stunted stat (or does not alter any stats), is inherent to the internal balance of the magic that allows them to use moves. If you upset that balance, you will inevitably cause health problems and even death for the Pokémon as their magic spirals out of control. Pokémon who take SSS and CC never live a full life; even the ones that make it past the first several years don’t live as long as their unaltered counterparts. This is why not even the likes of Lotor and Wilhelmine used SSS and CC. Lotor, despite being an absolute shitbag who thought nothing of exploiting a young teenage Tobias, was wise enough to see that these supplements would create short-term gain but would lead to long-term losses. As for Wilhelmine’s part? On the advice of her Elite Four, she grudgingly did not use the supplements--but she gave them to all of her Pokémon just before her final match with Tobias.

Who still uses SSS? Well, a whole lot of shitty Trainers try to use them as an illegal drug, thinking that burning through partners will give them more strength than keeping the Pokémon unaltered and sticking with them over decades (they’re wrong). The main users and distributors of these supplements are actually Team Shatter, who have gone all-in on trying to power up their Pokémon in any way possible to overthrow Unima’s new governing system.

[cosmoscourge-a]

Extreme Status Conditions

Like the intense weather conditions, Unima also has extreme status conditions--and Badly Poison is just the start of it. Every move that causes status as a secondary effect in Unima has a 10% chance of inflicting Extreme Status.

The complete list of Unima’s extreme status conditions are as follows:

Poison -> BADLY POISON: Target loses an exponential amount of HP per turn. Defense or Special Defense is also halved, depending on which one is greater. Most often afflicted by the move Toxic (Poison). If the move Allpoison is used, it affects Poison-types, even though Poison-types are immune to poison. 

Burn -> BADLY BURN: Target loses an exponential amount of HP per turn. Attack or Special Attack is also halved, depending on which one is greater. Most often afflicted by the move Spectral Burn (Ghost) or Savage Sear (Fire). If Spectral Burn is used, it affects Fire-types, even though Fire-types are immune to burn.

Paralysis -> DEEP PARALYSIS: Target suffers paraplegia or even quadriplegia unless cured by a stat-healing item, move or Ability. Can be used, by an extremely powerful caster, to afflict a Pokémon or person permanently. Affects Electric-types, even though Electric-types are immune to normal paralysis. Most often afflicted by the move Nerve Obstruct (Electric) or Malpressure (Fighting).

Sleep -> COMA: Target sleeps for 7-10 turns instead of 2-5. If used by an extremely powerful caster, it can also be used to put a Pokémon or person into an actual coma that will last for God knows how long, from which awakening is doubtful. Most often afflicted by the move Enigma Lull (Psychic), or Knockout Blow (Fighting).

Freeze -> FROSTBITE: Target loses 1/8 of its HP per turn due to being frostbitten on top of being unable to move for 5-6 turns. Most often afflicted by the eponymous move Frostbite (Ice).

Confusion -> DELIRIUM: Target has a chance of attacking its teammates as well as itself, and has a 75% chance of attacking itself or its allies rather than a 33% chance due to hallucination. Most often afflicted by the move Phantasmic Illusions (Ghost).

Attraction -> OBSESSION: Can be cast successfully by all genders, regardless of whatever gender the target is attracted to. Instead of being immobilized, the target will attack any ally who attacks the caster, or shield the caster from attacking moves with its own body; this lasts 5-6 turns. Most often afflicted by the move Charismatic Persuasion (Psychic).

[cosmoscourge-a]

Team Rocket, as Ngozi said, used to have a VERY active presence in Dispara. They attempted to be active everywhere in the realm, but they were most active in Igneo, Glacialis and Madjani, where there were a few nations in those subregions that were completely taken over by Rocket. Giovanni, power-hungry bastard that he is, would of course want to take advantage of the fierce and untold power that Unima holds. Of the many villainous teams from outside (not counting King Ghetsis), Giovanni, Cyrus and Lysandre were the only ones ambitious--or strong enough--to attempt or even consider such a feat. Rocket was also the only group of people who managed to get past Wilhelmine’s vicegrip on the Turntables for consistent inter-universe travel access.

The takeovers happened in one of a few ways. Some nations were just weak, and were taken over with the sole use of force. Other power-hungry nations invited Rocket to help them out in things such as power struggles, and soon found themselves devoured by Giovanni’s ambitions. Still other nations were desperate for help in running themselves because of how Wilhelmine embargoed them for their refusal to partake in the blood sport, and because they were (initially) not politically significant enough to get on rebellion leader Lotor’s radar; abandoned by both sides, they turned to Rocket. Through all these methods, Giovanni found significant footholds in Dispara. Though he did not take over any major countries, his small but vocal minority was strong enough to be extremely concerning.

He ran into difficulties, however, because both sides of the Disparan Civil War saw him as an enemy. No matter who won the war, his presence would mean a challenge to the winner’s rule that neither one would tolerate. Lotor, being the cold-hearted pragmatist that he was, sometimes even allied with Wilhelmine temporarily to eradicate Rocket’s presence from a certain land (and then bludgeoned her over who got to keep the land that they just "liberated”). His problems only grew when Ngozi Okocha, his top assassin, defected first to Wilhelmine’s side and then to Lotor’s; either way, she was now running fades against some of his best agents in Dispara, and damn near singlehandedly took down some of the Rocket empires in Madjani that she had once helped build. And then the final nail in the coffin was Tobias, the Uniman prodigy protagonist, who for seven fucking years was only ever defeated in terms of battle or military strategy by two people (@idanikou and @fallenxspirit) counting the entire population of both universes. With him at the helm, Rocket’s presence was all but expelled from Unima. Five years later, all political influence of Rocket has been expelled completely from the land……though that’s not to say Giovanni hasn’t been trying to spite them via other means--like trying to influence the press in Outerworld nations to run negative articles on Unima and its League members.

Now is the part where I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects--the dark side of rebellion. Before the future Uniman League members came along and their influence made the rebellion less brutal, Lotor could be just as merciless as Giovanni himself. This meant public executions for all those who were caught collaborating with Team Rocket, along with a lot of torture during interrogations. Moreover, in the countries that the rebellion took over, Lotor attempted to enact draconian laws in the former Rocket-controlled states, putting them under a rule just as oppressive as Rocket’s in the name of keeping them out. Honestly? Thank fucking God Tobias came along. Because between Giovanni and Lotor……There are a lot of people who would still pick Giovanni, but why should they be forced to choose the less shitty option when they can choose an option that’s actually good?

[cosmoscourge-a]

“The Great Birds shall return to the mountains, and the mountains return to us.”

a repost with light edits

this is a centuries-old prophecy among the draconids of europe and dispara, particularly in the floating mountains high above the german-speaking regions, one that came about when the destruction of the mountains was taking place and the ancestors of the chikyinur were forced into slavery. this sentence means two things. one, ‘great birds’ was used as a metaphor for the draconids; thus, this means that the draconid people would once again ascend to the mountains that they once ruled--and the mountains would be restored. and two, that the draconids’ return would be preceded by a literal return of dragons such as altaria and cockatrice variants; these variants are known as the Great Birds, and it is said they would flock back to their ancestral homelands to pave the way for the draconids to follow. a later addition to the prophecy occurred when floating mountains all around the world started to be destroyed in the name of colonialism, stating that the great birds returning to the mountains of europe and dispara would be followed by a returning procession of dragons across the world as the floating mountains were restored to their rightful places.

throughout draconid history post-destruction, draconids have been on the lookout for the ruler whose rule would be said to bring about the return. friedrike skyherald was said to be such a ruler, and it’s hard not to see why: she liberated her people from slavery, promoted them relentlessly throughout her rule, and created strong allegiances with the floating draconid kingdoms that remained. however, friedrike grew to see herself as the ruler to fulfill the prophecy--and this is part of how her downfall began. as she grew more and more convinced that her people were about to return to their homeland, she became more and more obsessed with ensuring they would be able to retain their hold on the mountains once they returned--which meant wiping out any possible threats. this eventually led her to initiating the first war of ragnarök--a war where dispara singlehandedly took on dozens of countries, to destroy the rulers and ruling classes who would pose a threat to the fulfillment of the great birds prophecy. the war ended in her summoning all the pieces of eternalux to her and triggering the brightest day.

the actual draconid ruler to fulfill this prophecy is tobias mendelssohn. on the day of his championship win against wilhelmine, the draconid world was greeted by an auspicious sign: altaria and other bird-dragons flocking north from all over the world, coalescing around the remaining mountains. sure enough, i have covered before that with @iramundi‘s kaito/groudon as one of his gym leaders, he was thus able to restore the floating mountains with groudon’s help. he also put the restored mountains directly back under the custody of the skyseeker and skyarrow families, the two remaining ruling families of the disparan draconids, to be kept until such time as the chikyinur descendants of the five great draconid ruling families in each universe were ready to rule them again. eventually, these descendants--ana.kin sky.walker, friedrike skyherald & viktoria skyherald, and asteria skyfeather (who’s on an unreleased blog)--all returned, one by one, to their rightful positions as heirs to the thrones their ancestors were taken from. it’s at that point that the great birds prophecy is truly complete.

once, these draconids were slaves. now, they are royalty.

[cosmoscourge-a]

The Post On How I Managed to Cram The Jedi and Sith Into Pokéverse

a ramble that is long overdue

In the beginning, there were always two halves of the Legendary of Balance, Equilipax: Ashla, the peaceful half, and Shokahn, the warlike half. They each sought to bring, well, balance to the tumultuous world of Dispara, Ashla through gentle and diplomatic methods and Shokahn through more, ahem…direct methods like fighting. Each recognized the need for the other, and for a time, they would work together against Arceus’ curse (though they didn’t know of a curse) to bring harmony to society. 

Until the Burning of Mustafar, the event that tore this all down.

Mustafar in the Pokémon universe currently exists as a volcanic wasteland in the outskirts of Igneo, home of the hardiest Ignean Draconids, the one place that all other Igneans--as famously tough as they are--would be hard-pressed to enter. But it wasn’t always that way. As in Star Wars canon, Mustafar was once a flourishing forest oasis teeming with life, and in the Pokémon universe, I take this even further. This place, now called Ya’khahanu Narimama or Mother of the Chaos Flame by the Draconids, was not just a place of life--it was the place of life, containing the last stretch of original land on which all life in Dispara originated. But it could very easily have become the place where all life in Dispara ended as well as began. For the life energy there began to overflow, upsetting the sacred balance between life and death in the world…

Narimama had been Ashla’s favorite place in Dispara, a land that she treated as though it were her own child. She knew that destroying the land was an option, but she couldn’t bear the thought of losing what she held most dear--and so she sought other methods to heal the suffering land. However, as she tried and tried in vain to heal it, Shokahn grew impatient with Ashla’s methods. Eventually, tired of waiting and believing Dispara on the brink of an irreversible crisis of excess life energy, Shokahn destroyed Narimama entirely. In doing so, he wiped out its ecosystem and its many unique species, and turned it into the volcanic wastes that it is today.

Ashla cried out, bereaved and enraged--the first time she had ever felt emotions that strongly in her entire existence. Shokahn retaliated, saying it was necessary to maintain the balance that they’d fought so hard for. He even taunted her, saying that she had advised so many people to let go their attachments in order to build better futures, yet she failed to let go her own attachment to the land that was about to destroy the entirety of Dispara. Finding this slight too hard to let go, however, Ashla created a race of godly dragons known as the Jedi to fight for Mustafar’s restoration. Shokahn, not wanting to be outdone, magically corrupted some of these dragons to create the Sith. From then on, Equilipax would not be one dragon with two Aspects of its personality, but rather two severed, warring Aspects who each became their own independent personalities. 

Thus did Dispara fall further into the curse. They had been partially shielded from it in the past thanks to Equilipax’s efforts--but with the two halves now at war, Dispara’s peoples were left at Arceus’ mercy.

The followers of these two halves of Equilipax believe their gods wholeheartedly. Ashla’s followers, known as the Dai Bendi (Dai Bendu singular), believe that Mustafar should never have burned and that there are still ways to transform it now. Shokahn’s followers, known as the Jensaarai (who are more morally grey rather than evil just like the Pokéverse Sith), believe that the destruction was necessary and Ashla is just throwing a fit over nothing. The Dai Bendi and the Jedi are very strict about who gets initiated into their order, asking them to go through trials proving their ethical worth.The Jensaarai and the Sith don’t care who they teach, refusing only those who threaten harm on dragons--but they go at one pace and one pace only and anyone who can’t keep up gets destroyed. And while it’s true that the Jensaarai path is more dangerous, which causes people to become consumed by their emotions, Ashla can be just as dangerous for the unwary--as too much of her causes people to lose their emotions entirely. The only thing they shared in common now was The Force, which was their religions’ name for the source of their power. 

Who is right here? It’s impossible to say. All that’s known for certain is that Anakin Skywalker, the Herald of Equilipax and the strongest Force user of all time, is prophesied to be the one to patch up this mess, but so far he’s doing a shit job. He’s supposed to make Equilipax whole again and restore true balance to Dispara. But right now he can’t see past his frustration with Ashla and her followers and is trying to pigheadedly get them to accept that Shokahn was right without even considering alternate arguments. Is this man ever going to learn and fulfill his destiny? Maybe sometime in the far-flung future, but certainly not now…

[cosmoscourge-a]

From The Great Unity to the Uniman Federation: The How and Why of Unimans Sticking Together

written because if i do say so myself it’s a bitchin’ idea and also because i realized that if i don’t have something like this here my fanregion will come off as Imperialism Lite.

so, back in the Primordial Days before the war, there were no such thing as nations, and there was no big rift between humans and nonhumans. people simply lived together in harmony, vibing and chilling with each others’ cultures, sharing their resources and supporting each other in times of need. of course, this harmony was not to last, with arceus sowing discord among the people so that they’d split into eight and then nine kingdoms. but this time would always be looked upon as a simpler time, a better time, a time called The Great Unity.

over the ages, the great unity meant different things to different people. it happened such a long time ago that nobody really remembered what it was actually like, and so it became a rorschach test of sorts; what people read into the scraps and ruins that remain often says more about them than it does about the great unity. in the days of the war and the days of siegfried von hohenlohe, the great unity meant nothing to the fae, but what it meant to humans was quite possibly worse. every human kingdom wanted to reestablish some of the great unity solely to take the credit for it, and even then, they wouldn’t bring it back all the way. like, the international trade and economic (if you could even say the primordial humans had an economy) prosperity was definitely on the table. but cultural unity? mmmmmm not so much, so each kingdom’s picture of the great unity was everybody else submitting to a single country’s world order; which country that was depended solely on who was painting the picture. each country believed, correctly, that the great unity would never be fully restored, but what they did with that information was monstrous: they aimed to create unlimited prosperity for themselves and their personal selection of chosen others, building it by forcing everyone else into the blood sport and slave-like conditions.

the image of the great unity changed during the time of friedrike skyherald, who desired not the absolute rule of one nation but for every independent nation to have a say in a federation--which she literally had to kick the shit out of every other country before they would accept it, because they were all so sold on the idea of becoming a dominant force instead of one part of a large collaboration. Pandispara, like the modern uniman federation, operated thus. discretion was left to the individual states for how to carry out policies agreed upon by the union and how to ensure its own individual security; it was also left to individual states to determine things like censorship, technomagical development, and its citizens’ privileges. yet all of them collaborated together on economic agreements, on deciding what their citizens had the right to (such as free speech and freedom of religion) and on interuniversal policy and security. friedrike too believed that the age of the great unity could never come again. but she wanted to get as close to it as possible, and she believed that this was how to do it.

the era of wilhelmine brought pandispara back to the days that it was an empire, with the great unity once again interpreted the same way it was in the time of siegfried; she honestly threw out the concept of the great unity entirely, believing it to be too soft to suit the needs of the blood sport. however, when tobias took power, he created the Uniman Federation and in the name of getting as close to the great unity as possible, he returned disparaverse to the union that it had under friedrike skyherald. this time, however, things were far more progressive. instead of limiting rights to, say, life, the UF stepped up and gave people a right to a good life; people deserve to be comfortable, not just barely scraping by. they also added things such as the right to be innocent until proven guilty, and the right to privacy. while the league serves as an overall governing body that represents each subregion to the full region, each subregion has its own independent government with its own discretion as to how to carry out policy. as for how the league was chosen? the process was semi-democratic. the nominees would have had to be selected as Candidates by the vote of each subregion, and go through certain trials decided upon by each subregion’s local leaders. then the remaining candidates would go on to face tobias’ trials and be further whittled down until only one per position was remaining.

this needs a conclusion but i have no concentration left to write one up. hope you enjoyed reading!

[cosmoscourge-a]

📚

even though i’m constantly weighed down with depression and despair, i still have some spots of hope, and i think they show up in the worldbuilding. like……if you think about it……yes, siegfried von hohenlohe did kill himself after rebelling from the fae, but humanity still found its path of freedom away from the fae without him and he was shit fucking awful so who needed him to be our liberator anyway? and yes, friedrike and luise both met terrible fates…but freddie destroyed arceus’ fell city of the gods and injured him so badly that he’ll never recover from it, badly enough that humanity could be freed even more from his reins. and then yes, both tobias and renate fell to arceus’ curse on the championship and i guarantee you renate’s fall is going to be as heart-wrenching and soul-gutting as tobias’s. but under them, the strongest league in the pokémon world has now become stronger than ever, and arceus’ curse has finally been broken for the rest of the nation. moreover, since freddie/eternalux is back for a round two on top of tobias doing “avengers assemble” with the strongest trainers of every region in unima’s league and on top of ghetsis / @idanikou existing, overthrowing arceus is currently possible without initiating the brightest day EVEN CONSIDERING tobias’ 30% cut to the size of unima’s military.

so, in the end, maybe dispara/unima wasn’t so different from the rest of the world after all. in our world, doesn’t all progress come with massive setbacks in every century--but does not the human race continue to ascend even so? now call me superstitious, but i think that maybe……maybe my subconsious put those things there because it didn’t think everything in this world or in ours was as hopeless as we made it out to be.

[cosmoscourge-a]

The Final Armament, reposted with edits:

why uniman pokémon are so OP in comparison to those elsewhere: These Pokémon were made for WAR, not entertainment. their abilities, moves, stats, and physical characteristics were mostly bred for/created for using aquilaeon powers–as aquilaeon is ???/dragon, and ??? or Q type is the typing of arceus and creation, its hosts were able to harness some of that ability to shape pokémon in whatever image they wanted. you will see similar moves/abilities/etc. in pokémon bred specifically for militaries all over the globe, but unima is the only nation in the world where military-grade ‘mons have fallen into civilian hands. why? wilhelmine, at the start of her reign, made it her goal to arm every single loyal civilian with the trappings of the army, in the hopes of making dispara the strongest nation in both worlds–an undertaking known as the great armament. the project was so successful and so far-reaching that no one has been able to reverse it ever since, and no one ever will.

many uniman pokémon, abilities and moves are banned in international competitive battling, and with good reason. for one thing, some of them would completely unbalance the competitive scene. but more importantly than that, uniman pokémon are banned amongst civilians in many countries around the world because people fear a hypothetical event known as the final armament: an event in which global society becomes heavily militarized due to military breeds being allowed to be commonplace. the rest of the two worlds knows full well that the genie is out of the bottle in unima and it will never be able to reverse what its rulers did to it; they have seen some of the consequences and they want no part of that. they know what will happen if they let even one military-grade breed slip into where it shouldn’t be. it might create some sort of competitive battling arms race in which trainers strain to get stronger, stronger, stronger in ways that they shouldn’t–and that is when the final armament begins.