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No. 9: Porpone, the wind powered pokémon

Type: Water / Flying

Evolves from: ???

"Whenever storms rage over the oceans, Porpone can be seen soaring between wind turbines. It is said that the harder the wind rages, the more powerful Porpone become."

Name origin: the name Porpone is a combination of Harbour Porpoise and Cyclone.

Design Origin: After Furnura I decided I wanted a strong theme between my starters to tie them all together and make them more cohesive and memorable. Since Furnura is a coal furnace, I decided on basing the water starter on wind turbines. The Netherlands has a couple of offshore wind farms, so tying that in with the water starter was a natural fit.

The animal this Pokémon is based is the Harbour Porpoise (P. phocoena) which is the most common (and only?) Cetacean in the Dutch seas. Finding a semi-aquatic animal to serve as a water starter that hasn't been used yet was surprisingly hard. While I do think cetaceans don't lend themselves super well to the "out of water" experience of other water starters, I do think I can make it work with the Flying subtype.

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About this Blog

Now I've posted my first design on this page I'll write a small introduction to this all!

tl:dr: I'm Eileen and this region is a passion project and will be based on The Netherlands. I don't have a release order in mind and the blog will feature a larger exploration of the region in terms of mechanics than just Pokémon designs. I don't have any plans yet to turn this into a fan game or comic or anything.

Read more under the cut!

About Me:

Hi, I'm Eileen, a game design (not art) student from the Netherlands. I've been a long-time pokémon fan. In the past when I was ~14, I used to design fakemon as well and post them on DeviantArt. Now years later, interest renewed by Pokémon Scarlet & Violet and some friends, I'm returning with increased art skill, better design knowledge, and more sense.

About the Region:

This region will be based on The Netherlands. The reson of this ofcourse being that I'm Dutch and have had most of my life experiences here. It seems like an interesting challenge how I can translate normal/mundane elements of this country, and translate it into the fantastical Pokémon setting. Additionally, I know I can do the country justice in this way. Instead of just basing everything on online research, and vague memories of trips that I've had in the past.

Blog's Goal:

I don't have any specific goals as of yet with this region. Mainly just designing the region as a whole. Way back when, I wanted to create a comic, based on Kylee Nim's Myths of Unova comic. But I don't think that's my goal anymore. I do however want to explore more of the region than just Pokémon designs, think of trainer designs, battle gimmicks, overarching plot, and other mechanics that change/vary game by game. A lot of these have been thought/sketched out but are not in any state to share as of yet.

Posts:

I'm not going to keep to any specific schedule, nor do I have an order in mind of when I'm going to draw what. Time will tell. I do think that up next are the final evolutions of the other starters and then a nice layout for the posts themselves. Think of a pokédex of sorts, where all information is laid out on the image itself rather than posted below. However, like with Furnura, I am planning on giving every post a little design reasoning / autor notes below the cut.

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No. 6: Furnura, The Furnace Pokémon Type: Fire Evolves from: ??? "The inside of Furnura's glass stomach holds a heat that rivals Heatran. Whenever Furnura lays a batch of eggs, they stuff them securely in the thick smog that covers their backs."

Notes: With Furnura, the final evolution of the fire starters of my region I'm kicking off this blog! Honestly, big achievement that I'm super happy with. I think I did a great job at matching the pokémon artstyle and to create a design that would fit in the pokémon franchise. For the design itself I decided to break free from the "Chinese Zodiac Fire Starter" theory since that was broken in Scarlet & Violet anyways. I opted for a frog & furnace design, mainly to see how I could combine fire and aquatic animals, like frogs, in a natural way. Additionally this creates a frog starter for every "primary" type, with Venusaur & Greninja. This design is mainly inspired by coal furnaces and toads, specifically Yellow Bellied Toads (B. variegata) and the Common Midwife Toad (A. obstetricans) which, while uncommon, can be found in The Netherlands. The name itself is a combination of Furnace & Anura, the taxonomic name for the group that contains frogs and toads.