I realized that I’ve never made a post just outlining how I use Legendary Pokemon in this AU and the details and lore behind so I’ll take the opportunity to do that now. I’ll most likely add this to my Legendaries and lore pages on here as well so it won’t be buried in just this post!
Legendary Pokemon: Legendary Pokemon are supernatural, mythical beings that exist as their own category. Their origins are mysterious, but they all seem to draw from the same type of power and share some commonalities.
- They all were created by an external force and were originally not Legendary Pokemon. This has been proven via the historical record of people becoming certain Legendaries, as most Legendaries were formed from famous historical figures (such as the Founder King of Unova). Other Legendaries are too old to know their origins or it was simply never recorded, but it’s assumed their origin is the same. Most were humans, but in theory a supernatural could become a Legendary as well. The most recently created Legendaries were the Lunar Duo, created about 200 years ago, and the Beast Trio, created about 150 years ago. The oldest known, and assumed first, Legendaries are the Creation Quartet, who have existed for all of recorded history.
- They can be created by either an unknown force or another legendary. Arceus, Giratina, Dialga, Palkia, Xerneas, and Yveltal all have unknown origins and are thus known as Prime Legendaries. In turn, Arceus, Giratina, Xerneas, and Yveltal have the power to create new legendaries themselves, and all others (barring Dialga and Palkia) were made by one of these four. It was presumed Prime Legendaries had prior forms as well, but this wasn’t proven until the acts of Team Oracle reverted all Legendaries – including Primes – to their original forms.
- Due to their origins, all Legendary Pokemon are unique. There is only one of each and they’re immortal. However, many have the ability to traverse vast distances very quickly, thus sightings of the same Legendary on opposites ends of the world within a short period of time have led to some believing there are multiples of them.
I classify Legendaries somewhat differently than in canon, so some pokemon that are legendary in canon I don’t count as such in my AU and some that are mythical in canon I class as legendary. The full list along with their original names in their original forms can be found on the Legendaries page and Directory.
Mythical Pokemon: Any Pokemon that’s not a Legendary, but is significant for being especially rare, important, or having unusual abilities. This includes all canon mythicals not on my list, along with any legendaries that didn’t make my list (such as the Weather Trio and Alola Legendaries). Some Mythical Pokemon are unique like Legendaries (such as Hoenn’s Weather Trio and the Tapus of Alola), but due to having different origins, are not classed as Legendaries. The one exception to this is Rayquaza who, 1000 years ago, merged with a human Lorekeeper in order to Mega Evolve for the first time thanks to intervention from a Prime Legendary, making it the only hybrid Mythical/Legendary known to exist.
Mew: Pokemon are believed to be aliens that arrived to Earth 10s of millions of years ago, and Mew is believed to the original form of the entire species. Over time, Pokemon adapted and evolved to their new environment (driving out other species of prehistoric animal in the process), leading to the vast number of different types today. However, Mew is their common ancestor and whether or not this ‘living fossil’ could have survived to modern times in some form is a subject of heated debate, some believing it to be likely and citing supposed sightings while others see Mew as being firmly in cryptid territory.
Deities: While almost all Legendaries and many Mythical Pokemon are worshiped in some form as deities, there also exist ‘non-Pokemon’ deities in this world, similar to the wide variety found in real life religions. Many people don’t necessarily make a distinction between the two, however, and worship both Legendary/Mythical Pokemon and local deities in the same manner. Generally, most people around the world observe some form of polytheistic religious practice, though some are much more spiritual than others.
Supernatural Beings: Alongside humans and Pokemon, a vast variety of supernatural beings exist. In modern times, most live in parallel/pocket worlds due to increasing conflicts with human populations, but generally everyone has had some kind of supernatural encounter in their life – be it ghosts, meeting someone not human, or any other kind of incident. Unlike humans, most supernaturals do not train or have a significant relationship with Pokemon, but there are many Pokemon who evolved to mimic or resemble supernatural beings (like Froslass or most dragon types). Despite living separately now, many humans still have some supernatural ancestry and there are still cases where humans and supernaturals become close in modern times.
Pokémon Legends & Legacies 