#since draconid swordguards are sort of required to have a dragon or similar as a companion.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Pokemon could just be regular magical fauna, dnd style? Not types, just one or two magical qualities in place of like dragons, displacer beasts, oozes, etc. But no regular animals, just pokemon like normal. Generally moderately intelligent, like crows maybe, but still animals. But if they're a familiar to a human, like rei's pikachu, then they have above average intelligence and can understand human speech and whatnot because of the magic binding them together. Does that work? I don't doubt pokemon battles as a sport like in the games, but lots are dangerous and so are raiders and stuff. Battlemage and healer for hired protection and damage control maybe?

yeah!! there could even be regular animals (or, the regular animals are like... rattata. pidgey. etc.) but pokemon are very common alongside them. i DO think that canon pokemon are sort of...made more recognizably human-intelligent via a trainer bond, actually. if that makes sense. i keep vaguely referencing trainer bonds and not elaborating, but it really is a unique connection that opens a lot of new mental pathways for both parties. like being high-level competitive and having a deep bond of trust with your pokes will rewire your brain. and theirs. which suits very well with the familiar bond idea i think! and another ask here and my response to it actually, hang on

[Anonymous: You think 'pokemon' still have pokeball equivalents? (More of a transportation bc I refuse to believe pokeballs magically make pokemon follow your orders like Black and White Npcs say bc theyre my friends :( I dont wanna mind control them ) I remember a nuzlock comic fantasy style that used cystals n such as pokeballs. that or 'contacts' and they have markings left on your body signaling u have companions. I dont think it would be as commonplace to have 'pokemon' tho. Maybe Ingo and like the wardens are the only ppl to have em? idk but I think Jubelife would like pokemon even LESS than canon does. ]

ooooh so i think having like, bonded markings for familiar/companion bonds is a fun idea... i could see that being a big like, life/green mage thing in particular. physically binding your soul to another feels like a big life force manip thing. tho i do agree that it should be a rarer thing than pokemon training in canon is. i think if there is this kind of bonding process, it's also different than just befriending them. like, maybe rei and pikachu don't have one, or don't at first anyhow? it might actually be more of a pearl/diamond thing in general, which would be an interesting inverse to canon.

or maybe rather than being a bonding process that anyone can do, this is a specific magic effect done by green mages, and it can be either intentionally with the agreement of all parties, or forcibly. either way you form a sort of link of will, which makes me think the marks maybe show up on your head/neck/chest rather than hands? consensually it's an empathic bond, nonconsensually it's almost a mind control effect. ...maybe this is a lake trio related thing, even.

the wardens all having noble bonds i think is good, and that could also go a ways towards explaining why nobles are more powerful/smarter/etc than their non-noble counterparts, if that thing about familiar bonding materially changing the animal/pokemon is true. in which case one of the wardens should be able to cast it. or it's adaman and irida's responsibility, which adds some explanation to "what are they doing in this verse, what are their responsibilities" and also suggests irida has these capabilities, which could further mean that she could materially put a lock on ingo's magic via the same sort of manipulation of life force. which also implies interesting things about their relationship that i sort of dig, if he was so suspected of being unable or unwilling to safely control the magic that she felt the need to do that.

...maybe his own making warden wasn't even like, a position of privilege, it was just using the life link as an entry path to get access and basically impose that link as a block between him and his magic. which almost makes him feel like a suspect that they're trying to control. at least at first, since they'd also inadvertently assigned him to [whatever being a warden means in this world] they sort of had to get to know him and then oops, now they like and respect him as a colleague. fuck. i might also keep none of this entire tangent. idk. what were we talking about again.