Pokémon The Travelling Trainer's Textbook (9th Edition, WOOPER-Approved)

[SparklingEspeon]

The Travelling Trainer’s Textbook (9th Edition, WOOPER-Approved)
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Introduction​

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a brand new pokemon trainer, just about to set off on your journey. If so, STOP!

The statistics show that 90 percent of pokemon trainer deaths or disappearances in the wild aren’t caused by wild pokemon attacks. Rather, they are caused by pokemon trainers not knowing the basics and landing themselves in sticky situations they can’t get out of.

That’s where this handbook comes in. In the Travelling Trainer’s Textbook, you’ll learn everything you need to know about pokemon training to prevent yourself from landing in such a spot, from the types of equipment you’ll need for your journey to how to care for and battle with your pokemon, what berries are and aren’t safe to eat, and even how to camp out in a pokemon center for the night.

You’ll also learn important information about trainer tuitions, the gym circuit, and the role that the pokemon league and championships plays in governing and motivating regions all over the world. It’s a must-have for any pokemon trainer, whether you’re just looking to sightsee or seeking to try your luck at the pokemon league!

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Meet the authors:

Prof. Samuel Oak, Ph.D.

Professor Samuel Oak is a renowned researcher in the Kanto Region, famously known for his research strides in revolutionary devices such as the pokedex and pokemon to pokeball compatibility research. He has also pioneered the Trainer Tuition program, a hybrid system between pokemon training and pokemon research. His grandson, Blue, assists Oak at his lab in Pallet Town.

Prof. Elm Utsugi, Ph.D.

After earning his doctorate in Pokemology as an assistant under Professor Oak, Professor Elm Utsugi accepted a research position as the Johto Region’s head pokemon researcher. Elm regularly co-ordinates with Professor Oak in the study of pokemon reproduction, and is famously known for a running joke about pokemon eggs ‘appearing out of nowhere’. His lab in New Bark Town was the second in the world to introduce the successful Trainer Tuition program.

(This textbook was published and approved by WOOPER., the Worldwide Online Organization for Pokemon Enthusiasts and Researchers)

Spoiler: Table of Contents

• 1: The Wonderful World of Pokemon… Trainers

- Introduction: So what is pokemon training, anyway?
- History and culture of pokemon trainers
- Why humans and pokemon work together
- When Training Goes Wrong
- The unspoken and spoken rules of pokemon training

• 2: What You’ll Need

- Essential equipment: Bag, Gloves, and Tent
- Essential Equipment: Pokedex, Pokeballs, and Rotom
- Your trainer ID, and why it’s so important
- The Trainer Test
- Trainer tuition

• 3: How to Train Your Pokemon

- The difference between your starter and a wild pokemon
- How to catch a pokemon
- Bonding with your pokemon
- How to handle evolutions
- Handling uncooperative pokemon
- Trading pokemon
- Releasing pokemon

• 4: Pokemon, I choose you!

- The importance of pokemon battles
- Battle items: Berries, potions, and elixirs
- Battle items: Mega stone, Z-crystal, and Dynamax
- Battling VS. playfighting
- Battles in the wild
- Trainer Battles
- Battling with Synergy

• 5: The Gym Circuit

- A long road to glory
- Gyms, gym leaders, and eligible towns
- Restrictions for gym circuit registered trainers
- Optimizing your gym challenge
- The Island Challenge

• 6: Surviving in the Wild

- Travelling between towns
- Camping out in the wild
- How to properly pick berries
- When wild pokemon attack
- The importance of Pokemon Centers

• 7: The Pokemon League

- Here at last!
- The Annual Championships
- The elite four showcase
- Notable attractions
- League battles
- Facing the Champion

• 8: Hall of Fame

- The role of the Pokemon Champion
- The Elite Four behind the scenes
- WOOPER
- Interaction with other regions and their champions
- Happy training!

 

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UNIT ONE: THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF POKEMON… TRAINERS



Introduction: So What is Pokemon Training, Anyway?​

For centuries, humans and the immensely powerful creatures known as pokemon have coexisted together. As civilizations rise and fall, the bond between human and pokemon has taken many different forms, but it has stayed strong all throughout history, and holds firmly now.

Today, that bond takes the form of a sport. All throughout the world, children, teens, and adults travel on a ceremonial coming of age journey across their region of choice, meeting pokemon, making friends, and training with their partners as they prepare to challenge the pokemon league and make their marks on the history of champions. This coming-of-age journey defines everything about our culture, from our entertainment to our schools to our towns, but what does it mean? Where did it come from? And how do we learn and grow from it?

The simplest answer is that pokemon training is about honoring the ages-old bond between human and pokemon. Humans raise and train pokemon to attain their full strength and potential, and in return pokemon bring out the best in us and open up new avenues for us to continue forward. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that is the result of centuries of coexistence.

The mainstream belief is that pokemon training is about taking on the gym circuit and challenging the pokemon league; this is incorrect. Pokemon training can take almost any form imaginable, from bonding through play to bonding through battle to bonding over work. The sole consistent element is the healthy relationship between human and pokemon.

However, it isn’t as simple as scooping a pokemon out of the tall grass and expecting it to battle for you. There are many complicated rules surrounding the practice, the ceremony, and the sport, all intended to make sure that pokemon training stays on the same track and subject that it is today – maintaining the bond between humans and pokemon.

In this unit, you’ll learn about the history and years of culture that formed the version of pokemon training that we have today, the reason that humans and pokemon work together, the many rules and etiquette humans and pokemon share to keep our relationship healthy, and what happens when those rules are broken.

 

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Section 1: History and Culture of Pokemon Training​

The earliest form of the bond between human and pokemon in recorded history dates back to before the invention of the pokeball. Ancient writings depicted on several ruins in Johto show characters similar or identical to the now nearly extinct pokemon subset referred to as Unown, leading scientists to believe that the unown willingly allowed the humans to study them and develop a writing system off their likeness.

Early humans used to worship pokemon as deities. While there are indeed powerful pokemon that exist in the Legendary family (and an ongoing scientific debate over whether these pokemon are indeed deities or just powerful, now nearly extinct species of pokemon), it is believed that many pokemon in the Mythical family, such as Latias and Zeroara, attained their status from the pedestal the humans of old placed them on.

Shrines were often built to honor many mythicals and legendaries, and humans would leave offerings of food to these shrines, hoping the pokemon they upheld would bless them with fortune and health. Although many of these pokemon were nowhere near as powerful as the humans believed, they bonded quickly with and protected the towns that praised them. A notable shrine whose ruins stand to this day are the Bell Tower and the Brass Tower in Ecruteak, Johto. While it isn’t entirely clear what pokemon these shrines were built to glorify (and some sources say that the towers were in fact built as a monument to all pokemon), after its destruction the Brass Tower became a shrine to Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, who were allegedly reborn out of the tower’s flames at the wings of the legendary pokemon Ho-oh.

There is also evidence that humans and pokemon lived together in harmony on a smaller scale. Books in the Canalave City Library detail an ancient pact formed between humans and pokemon to band together and strengthen their bond, folk tales about a swordsman who disrespected pokemon and came to face the wrath of the legendary pokemon Giratina, and (disputed) myths about human pokemon marriage, as well as a time eons ago when both humans and pokemon were one and the same.

Ancient ruins of large buildings in Kalos suggest that the denizens of the region 3,000 years ago partook in a similar version of pokemon battles to the ones we enjoy today, with large stadiums to watch pokemon battles take place and massive scoreboards detailing the winners of each event. It is a little-known fact that the modern pokemon league stadiums are based upon these Kalosian sport stadiums of old.

After the invention of the pokeball, pokemon training took on a whole new look. It soon became customary for pokemon joining humans to be bound to a pokeball, and for the pokeball to be destroyed when that pokemon wished to return to the wild. With the invention came new avenues, such as increased capacity for pokemon research and cataloguing, lessened chances of losing a pokemon to the wild or to poachers, and newfound portability for larger pokemon and pokemon that needed very specific conditions to survive in.

• The Pokemon Technology Boom

It’s not clear who invented the pokeball. The modern form of the pokeball dates back to feudal Sinnoh, where cartographers and travelers in the region used wooden, steam-powered capsules to capture and train pokemon for help along their journeys. However, records dating back as far as seven centuries ago show that similar devices fashioned from apricorn fruits were in use in various other parts of the world. However, without the proper technology to refine them for long-term use, these apricorns were considered short-term storage, and were usually eaten after the pokemon inside them had been released.

TRAINER TIP: Today, apricorns can be fashioned into proper pokeballs with the help of an apricorn specialist. The color of the apricorn determines what kind of ball you’ll get.

With the help of pokemon, various other types of technology have been established. On the sea, large, waterbound pokemon such as wailord and lapras help ferry large barges to and from land. Rotom find cozy homes in various machinery such as cameras, pokedexes, and computers. Pokemon Centers that used to be staffed by endless hordes of blissey and audino are now helped by a machine that functions similar to the move Heal Pulse. Though much of this technology didn’t see the widespread use it does today until the opening of the first pokemon league, the advancements made with the help of pokemon are undeniable.

• The First Pokemon League

Approaching the end of the 1920s, Contemporary pokemon training was catching on as a sport, with many of the modern battles held in smaller arenas now being televised with Rotom-vision and broadcast to parts of the world which had never seen an organized pokemon battle before. The venture was deemed profitable, and the republic of Kanto and Johto were the first regions to launch a full-fledged pokemon league championship. The Indigo League, a joint venture between the two regions, was launched that year.

The initial Indigo League looked nothing like the pokemon championships that are held today. It was held in a small sportsball stadium set up in Saffron City, and a badge system for entering trainers to go through didn’t yet exist. Instead, trainers signed up by the dozen with little to no quality control whatsoever. The preliminary battles were limp and took almost a week to go through, and as the battles got larger and more explosive, damage was risked to the stadium. Audiences had to be cleared out except for necessary crew once fully evolved pokemon started being used, and in one of the semifinal battles a flamethrower attack resulted in a fire that nearly burnt down half the stadium.

The first Indigo League pokemon championship was deemed a disaster by every official who worked on it, but the audience ratings read differently – the final, lacklustre battle between a high schooler’s Squirtle and a bread baker’s venonat was met with standing ovations all throughout Kanto and Johto. Despite all its complications, the public response to the event was overwhelming.

The Indigo League would go on to lead the pokemon championship game for many years, before eventually being overtaken by more explosive leagues like the Kalos and Galar championships. In its wake, other regions quickly noticed the potential of a sport centered around pokemon battling, and began to develop their own leagues. Four more leagues quickly popped up in the developed regions of Kalos, Unova, Galar, and Sinnoh, and with them came innovations. The Kalos league pioneered technology advancements with better and better stadiums designed to contain the explosiveness of pokemon battles, while the Galar league became known for harnessing the dormant Dynamax energy within the region’s ground and offered a battling experience unlike any other.

However, the origins of the world-famous Gym Circuit came not from any of these advanced regions, but from the most unexpected of places: the secluded islands of Alola.

• Samson Oak and the Island Challenge

While the rest of the world chugged on into the realm of industrial pokemon battling and championships, the Alola Region existed in a small little bubble separate from the mainland. Pokemon training in the form we know it today had in fact existed in Alola for centuries, in the form of a ceremonial coming of age rite of passage known as the Island Challenge.

The island challenge was undertaken by alolan children from the ages of 13 to 17. Pokemon Trainers travelled around Alola’s four islands, meeting the trial captains and taking on both the captains’ tests and the powerful pokemon that guarded the dens all around the region. At the end of the year, those who entered the challenge would then return to Meleme island, where a celebration festival was held in honor of the legendary tapus (believed to be the islands’ protectors). Those who passed all eight trials were eligible to become the next trial captains once the current ones outgrew their positions.

Samson Oak was a pokemon researcher travelling to Alola to study new forms of pokemon. Then a young man, he was greeted by the native Alolans, who (despite migrating from Kanto) had experienced little contact with those outside of their island. Samson was welcomed and treated with the best of hospitality, and brought many technological advancements from the mainland with him. In return, he was allowed to study the local pokemon and habitats, particularly the ones that had previously migrated from Kanto and had evolved to live in the tropical climate. Samson Oak took note of the Island Challenge during his time there, and passed the notes of what he had seen back to the rest of the Oak Research foundation upon his return to Kanto.

As Alola drifted more and more into the public eye, talk of the Island Challenge became public buzz. Soon, there was large demand for Kanto, Johto, and every region in between to have their very own versions of the Island Challenge. Reacting to popular demand, the growing Indigo League instated a similar system, and the Gym Circuit was born.

Years of innovation, research, and technology have pioneered pokemon training into a brilliant new age of lights, glamor, and sport, but nothing has ever been more important or integral to the process than the bond that humans and pokemon share. Through every step of the journey, be it the island challenge, the gym circuit, or even just a trip around the region, working together with pokemon has always been the most important step. The lucky few who make it to the very end of their journeys are those who understand this principle.