Pokémon The Alola Pokedex

[Persephone]

Castform
Cirrocumulus amenomori

Overview

Castform were originally made with the intention of predicting the weather. They are nearly incapable of doing so in a useful manner. Instead, they conform to what the weather is currently doing around them. Their creator believed his life’s work had ended in failure. It drove him to burn his notes and end his own life, only leaving behind a half dozen specimens of a new species.

Castform have still ended up revolutionizing both pokémon studies and meteorology. While they struggle to predict the weather, castform can change and be changed by it. Their ability to do so raises questions about the links between elemental energy and meteorology. Studying castform could answer those questions.

Alola holds the world’s only wild population of castform. They were left behind in 2011 after a research study was abruptly abandoned due to a tragic accident and an abrupt loss of funding and personnel. Castform have since bred far more readily than expected and have become established on most of Alola’s islands. This is not seen as an ecological problem as they are far more likely to emulate weather than change it and mostly keep to themselves.

Trainers in Alola have a rare opportunity to capture and train castform. They are docile pokémon with a very unusual background. Those interested in focusing on multiple weathers may find castform to be an invaluable supporting pokémon. Trainers more interested in traditional battle statistics and strategies may find castform to be too weak to bother with.

Physiology

Castform are classified as pure normal-types. The ruling is disputed. Some researchers push for a water-, flying-, or ghost-type. Castform are made almost entirely of water. It is believed they are controlled by a spirit. They usually have a gaseous body and float through the air. These traits would justify other typings. Normal is simply the default typing for pokémon that can change theirs.

Castform have three other recognized forms, colloquially known as the sunny, rainy, and snowy states. Sunny state castform are classified as fire-types due to their warm body and pyrokinesis. Rainy state castform are classified as water-types due to their liquid body and even more potent hydrokinesis than normal. Snowy state castform are classified as ice-types due to their icy body, snow summoning, and cryokinesis.

The main portion of castform’s body is shaped like a light grey teardrop. Two knobby protrusions hang beneath it with a small tail extends behind. The protrusions cannot be used to manipulate objects and serve no discernible purpose. On castform’s “face” is a lighter patch resembling a domino mask with two eyes. The eyes may or may not be functional. Castform have demonstrated color vision but can see in all directions.

Castform do not appear to have distinct organs. Their entire body is made of dust and water vapor likely held in place by a spiritual entity similar to jellicent. Even this is disputed as castform are nearly immune to spiritual attacks in their base state and are unusually docile for a pokémon, much less a ghost-type. Their reproduction patterns do not have any clear link to local deaths and they do not feed on emotions. In the absence of the creator’s notes or related species, all research on castform’s origins is essentially guesswork.

Sunny state castform have a similar lower body. Their upper body becomes filled with flickering sparks and is incredibly hot to the touch. Multiple bubble-like growths form a vertical ring around castform from one base of the upper body to the top to the base on the other side. The bubbles rise and fall slowly over time. The castform’s face becomes dark red with orange on the mask. The body is similar in size and mass to normal castform but at a far higher temperature, leading to more energy expended keeping the water vapor contained. The water vapor can be scalding in particularly powerful castform in artificially hot conditions. In laboratory tests castform have held their shape in temperatures up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, although they became seriously ill and lost cohesion when held at that temperature for an extended period of time. They can briefly withstand far hotter flames.

Rainy state castform develop a more complex lower body resembling a pleated skirt. It is darker in color than is typical for castform. The upper body coalesces into a blue, spherical core of water and a wispy teardrop of water vapor around it. This is the only state in which part of the castform’s body is liquid. They can only enter this state in very humid environments as they must take in a great deal of water. Outside of their states, castform are only about 30% water vapor by volume and 80% by mass, the rest being made up of air and dust. Rainy state castform can be up to 70% water by volume and 99% water by mass.

Snowy state castform can form in cold and humid conditions. They require extra ambient water in the same way rainy state castform do. Snowy state is the largest and heaviest state with the castform’s entire body growing outwards with thin layers of icy armor held in place around the edges. A hollow sphere of ice forms around their eyes and upper body with swirling wisps of freezing air revolving around it. The ice in their body can be broken but will quickly reform in much the same state. Snowy state castform can survive in temperatures as low 75 degrees Kelvin.

Castform in all states subsist on dead organic particles or single-called organisms in the air or on the surface of objects. They passively feed. Very small or dead organic material that enters their body seems to decompose and disappear completely in a matter of seconds. Whether it is turned into the dust binding castform’s body together or converted directly to some form of energy or ectoplasm is not known. Castform often make themselves useful by dusting surfaces or cleaning up dandruff or other shedding from pokémon or humans. Trainers do not actively need to feed them. Simply avoid prolonged stays in highly sterile environments.

Castform are typically about eleven inches tall. Their mass varies by state, from a few ounces in their standard state to three pounds in snowy or rainy states. The period between regenerations ranges from six to twenty years in captivity. Wild regeneration intervals are not known.

Behavior

Castform do not possess a great deal of willpower or intelligence. They are mostly content to drift aimlessly, occasionally lowering themselves onto an object to feed. There is no discernible difference in activity at different times of the day for captive specimens. Wild populations tend to be mostly nocturnal to avoid encountering humans.

Activity increases dramatically outside of their base states, leading to social gatherings and more rapid movements through the air. These dances do not appear to have any order to them and their purpose is unknown. Movementsatterns vary between states. The snowy state’s movements are slower and involve more spinning. Sunny states will tumble through the air. Rainy states move the least, mostly bobbing up and down with slow horizontal movements.

It is believed that castform can only survive in places with frequent natural intense sunlight, rainfall, or snow. These are the only places in Alola castform are found. Castform do not work together to create their preferred climates like ninetales and flygon. Wild castform almost never change the weather at all and much prefer to be changed by it. The ambient elemental energy in weather may feed them in some way.

Captive specimens often pick up a few behaviors from observing teammates and humans. Some even whistle or softly babble in a way that almost hints at language but is incomprehensible to all other species. Wild castform occasionally whistle to roughly mimic common bird calls. Mimicry may be a form of stimulation or a way to endear themselves to other species.

Castform do not have predators or hunt anything but microorganisms. They are mostly ignored by other wildlife, although very curious creatures may interact with them.

Husbandry

Castform require very little effort to keep. They appear to enjoy interactions with humans and other pokémon, but do not engage in traditional forms of play. They can feed passively or with occasional exposure to dusty rooms. Waste takes the form of an occasional trail of dust or water droplets. They naturally prefer to release waste outside.

Most specimens experience a marked increase in activity and mood when taken into natural rain, snow, or harsh sunlight. They can be trusted to wander unsupervised for a time as they are unlikely to get in trouble and will invariably return home. Outdoor access in general provides a boost to activity. There is no significant difference in activity after time inside or in a stasis ball. Most specimens do not mind spending a few hours at a time in their ball, although some will sulk if they missed out on rain or snow.

Castform may appreciate having other weather manipulators as teammates. While experienced specimens can change the weather themselves, they prefer if someone else does it for them. Having ready access to state-altering weather increases activity levels. There have been few documented conflicts between a castform and another species. In the worst-case scenario, they will simply ignore or float away from the aggressor, who in turn often loses interest.

Illness

After taking extensive damage castform will begin to lose cohesion and stop battling. This is the proper time to withdraw them. If withdrawn when they stop fighting there will almost never be further health effects. Castform can be killed by continuous elemental damage.

The only other known ailments castform suffer from are starvation and dehydration. Starvation is only a risk in extremely sterile environments. Researchers initially struggled to care for castform until they learned what castform ate. Most modern laboratories that work with castform are either large outdoor spaces or greenhouses with healthy microbiology.

Dehydration is a more practical risk. Castform can thrive in warm, humid environments but can struggle in hot deserts. The population in the Haina Valley frequently travels to the coast to rehydrate and takes shelter on windy days when it is difficult to properly anchor themselves. Most of Alola is humid enough to support them. Care should still be taken in the driest of environments. Castform can thrive in dry, cold areas by rehydrating with melted snow. A research population in Antarctica flourished in the summer before being removed as a potential invasive species. It is unknown if they would have survived the dry, sunless winter.

Evolution

Castform continue to grow slightly larger and heavier as they age. Combat experience helps them gain mastery of weather manipulation, something peaceful wild specimens struggle at. Frequent combat also leads to somewhat shorter lifespans (see Breeding).

Battle

Castform are versatile pokémon that can alter weather more quickly and thoroughly than even pokémon such as ninetales and politoed. They can even do this with multiple types of weather and adjust their attacks to match. This makes castform very useful on teams utilizing multiple forms of weather to counter different play styles.

Unfortunately, castform are still small and relatively frail and weak. Physical attacks will go right through them but elemental ones can wear them out quickly. They can usually set weather in high level matches but do little else. Even if they did survive, castform’s shallow support movepool and modest power would limit what they could accomplish. Castform have a niche and do it well, but it’s a small niche and they struggle outside of it.

Castform have a diverse array of attacks early in the challenge and an unmatched ability to change the weather in the trainer’s favor later in it. This can lead to important advantages such as fighting the dragon trial in snow, the fire trial in rain, and the water trial in harsh sunlight. That alone often makes them worth a team slot, even if they can struggle to take hits or do damage.

Acquisition

Castform have quickly established themselves across much of Alola. They appear to be ecologically harmless and provide a small boost to the economy. The Department of Natural Resources has decided to not only leave them be but offer some protections such as seasonal and trainer quotas.

Castform usually stay hidden or close to ground during calm weather. Rainforest populations tend to wander the forest during rainstorms. The Lanakila population will descend lower on mountain during blizzards. The Haina population is most active on calm, hot days. During particularly dry periods they can be seen by the ocean nearby.

Castform can be readily released and are rarely found in shelters. Several breeders and trainers in Alola actively or passively breed castform and will have specimens available for purchase.

Trainers may capture, adopt, or purchase a castform with a Class I license.

Breeding

Castform experience a natural lifespan of growth, increasing power, senescence, death, and regeneration. For the first few months they will grow quickly in size until they reach 80% of their final mass. They will then grow slowly in size and power for the next few years. Eventually, castform begin to slow down and struggle in battle. They will stop responding entirely to external stimuli a week or so before their death.

Upon death, castform briefly collapse into an expanding cloud of water vapor. The cloud will then coalesce into one or more castform, each smaller than their progenitor. Stronger castform produce more offspring. The new specimens retain some of the progenitor’s habits, including an affinity for the same places and people. Some behaviors such as babbling speech or individualized dances will also be retained.

Breeding is inevitable. Trainers who do not wish to care for all of the offspring can sell them off or release them to the wild to bolster the population. It is encouraged to release offspring to the place where their progenitor was first captured. This eases the transition to wild life.

Relatives

Castform’s creator, Dr. Haruto Amenomori, had previously published a paper on jellicent. Like castform, jellicent are ghosts with a body almost entirely composed of water. Unlike castform, jellicent have a significant amount of ectoplasm in their bodies. Their behaviors are also almost entirely different. Colleagues report that Dr. Amenomori had also taken interest in kecleon and porygon shortly before his death.

Jellicent and castform seem to reflexively dislike each other. Kecleon and porygon are curious about castform but show no unusual affinity or aggression. At present castform are tentatively classified as a domesticated relative of jellicent, but this is one of the most uncertain relations in the entirety of pokémon phylogeny.

 

[Persephone]

Golisopod (Wimpod)
Cataphractis propelitus

Overview

Golisopod are a fascinating glimpse into deep sea wildlife. They are rare among deep sea species in that they begin their life on land. Wimpod are common scavengers along portions of Alola’s coastlines. With enough support and training they can become strong, durable pokémon capable of holding their own through the end of the island challenge. However, they will be essentially useless until they evolve. They also have less ultimate power than gyarados and milotic, two other water-types with slow starts. On balance, golisopod are far less difficult to handle than the pseudo-dragons. They’re also easier to care for than most other deep sea life on account of their origins at the surface.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual water- and bug-types. The ruling is not controversial.

Wimpod are small arthropod pokémon. Their body is split into segments with armor along the back. The exoskeleton is usually a pale blue, but can also be white or grey. Wimpod have eight legs. None are proper claws and they are adapted to allow wimpod to grip onto slick surfaces and run or swim away as quickly as possible. When threatened wimpod can curl up into an armored ball.

Wimpod have compound eyes but primarily sense the world through their antennae. The antennae can sense smells and subtle shifts in air currents to help them identify potential food and predators. Wimpod can sense when kecleon are near despite their invisibility. They can find their way to rotting plants or flesh up to one mile away. Each wimpod has scent glands that can be used to emit a putrid odor that informs nearby conspecifics of a threat. Because wimpod’s bar for threats is quite low their habitats can gain a very distinct scent.

Golisopod are built less for curling into a ball and escaping and more for active hunting, or at least punishing whatever predator thought the they would be an easy meal. They still have eight limbs. The back two are stocky and muscular. They can be used to launch golisopod forward to attack or punish enemies who sneak up on them. The front two limbs are heavily armored and can be used as shields. Each of the front limbs has two retractable claws that are long and sharp enough to be used for climbing, slashing through hides, or piercing into weak points such as eye sockets. The remaining limbs are relatively short and tipped in smaller, fixed claws. These can be used for moving food to the mouth or slashing anything that gets too close. They are also used to grip onto the partner during mating.

Golisopod’s back is coated in thick armor plates. This toughness can be augmented with moves like iron defense to make their armor harder than steel. Golisopod’s extra bulk and large claws prevent them from fully forming an armored ball so they prefer to take hits to the back when in danger. Along the side of the armor are several strange protrusions resembling an inverted ribcage. These can be lowered to cover the gaps in the armor and reduce heat loss in the open ocean or raised to facilitate heat loss on the surface. This allows golisopod to thrive anywhere from 80 degree temperatures in the air to water cooler than 40 degrees. On the seafloor the pokémon’s metabolism plunges and their body temperature can be as low as 48 degrees. They are far warmer on the surface.

Wimpod and golisopod have gill structures they breathe through in the water. On the surface they can force air through the gills into air sacs deeper in the body. Both stages have stomachs capable of digesting nearly anything and very long digestive tracts designed to process all possible nutrients from what they eat.

Golisopod can grow to be seven feet long and weigh up to two hundred pounds. Captive specimens can live for over fifty years, although this number has continuously increased as the species is better understood and care has improved. Wild lifespans are not well understood but are believed to be longer than captive ones.

Behavior

Wimpod are scavengers that live along Alola’s rocky shores and in some warm cave systems near the ocean. They do not dig their own burrows but need to have cramped, enclosed spaces to retreat to. These are often gaps between stones or very small caves. They do not mind sharing space with conspecifics and there can be up to fifty wimpod in a suitable cave. Ordinary social behaviors such as communal grooming, leadership hierarchies, or group strategizing are conspicuously absent. They seem to be essentially solitary pokémon living in the same territory in great numbers.

Almost anything can be a meal for a wimpod. They prefer rotting flesh but are usually driven away by larger scavengers. As a result they tend to eat meat too degraded for most competitors. They will also happily eat algae, decaying plants, or anything incapable of running from them or fighting back. Some wimpod have demonstrated an ability to eat washed up tentacool without striking the nematocysts. Wimpod can also swim well and are capable of feeding above and below the water’s surface.

In practice wimpod are usually nocturnal to minimize the number of threats they encounter. They are incredibly cowardly creatures that prefer to hide from anything large moving nearby. When confronted they will run back to their shelter. If this fails they will curl up into a ball and wait until they die or the aggressor leaves. It is extremely uncommon for wimpod to fight back against anything, even conventional animals.

Most of Alola’s golisopod live between five hundred and five thousand feet beneath the surface. They mostly live in the ocean’s twilight zone, although some venture into the darkness below. The lack of food further from shore limits the population at such depths. They are primarily scavengers that will lie in wait for months at a time before swarming towards anything they sense falling nearby. Golisopod prefer to simply eat the fallen food, although if this runs out they may attack and kill other scavengers drawn to it. Closer to shore golisopod are well known for breaking into trawls or traps to kill and eat all the fish inside. When food is available golisopod can gorge themselves so much that they are unable or unwilling to move for over two months afterwards. One specimen repeatedly monitored on the seafloor was still sluggish more than six months after a wailord had fallen nearby.

Golisopod further away from the land and water’s surface can also serve as ambush predators. They lurk in total darkness and lunge using their powerful legs at anything that comes close. If they do not finish their prey in one blow with their claws they are likely to retreat back into the darkness and wait for another chance.

The species’ large size and relative lack of movement has made them easy to study compared to more motile deep sea creatures. They are also curious and will approach submersibles to see if they have food or are threats to be avoided. One submersible carrying live samples for an aquarium was attacked and destroyed by a golisopod trying to eat the fish and invertebrates being brought to the surface.

There are still critical gaps in science’s understanding of golisopod. They have never been seen breeding, although gravid females have been photographed and even captured in trawls. Golisopod have been documented tolerating each other at larger falls, but their social system is still poorly understood. It’s easy to photograph a golisopod with a submersible, but the vehicle may affect their behavior.

Wimpod are preyed upon by most mid-size predators. Kecleon can often infiltrate their hiding places and use their long tongues to target their vulnerable antennae and underside. Carvanha can bite through their armor. Birds can sometimes ambush them from above.

Golisopod have been seen with marks on their armor or underside similar to those from malamar and grapploct suction cups. It is unclear if the cephalopods were hunting the golisopod or vice-versa. Few malamar have been found with golisopod slash marks, suggesting that any wounds they sustain in these fights are likely fatal. Grapploct have been found with slash and piercing marks and even hoarding golisopod armor as trophies or makeshift shields.

Husbandry

Wimpod will eat anything presented to them. Seafood is the best option but it does not necessarily have to be fresh. They will also happily eat table scraps and can digest nearly all common human foods. The main problem with feeding wimpod is ensuring they don’t gorge themselves. They should be fed as much and often as they can sustain while still being active after meals. This usually works out to five to eight ounces of food per day, depending on the specimen’s size. Drinkable water should be present whenever the pokémon is taken out of their ball.

Golisopod are pickier eaters but need to eat less frequently. They strongly prefer meat and seafood. Frozen foods are usually acceptable, but some will insist on reasonably fresh meals. Golisopod can go days or even weeks without eating. Sessile aquarium specimens can go months between meals. One specimen at a Japanese aquarium went on a hunger strike and died five years later. Most trainers of reasonably active specimens adopt a weekly feeding schedule. It is fine to feed them enough that they will not move for a few hours afterwards, but feeding them so much that they cannot move for a full day is discouraged.

Both stages appreciate having dark, confined spaces to retreat to. Most will happily spend days on end in a stasis ball. Trainers should still let them out at least once a day to avoid potential health problems. While not strictly nocturnal, golisopod feel most comfortable out of direct sunlight. They can still be active on cloudy days. Wimpod are ambivalent and will be active whenever their trainer is.

Wimpod are easily startled and should be kept in controlled, safe environments whenever possible. Introductions to new pokémon should be taken very slowly. They can appreciate simple puzzles and novel objects, but can be scared by anything that makes sudden movements or loud noises. Wimpod should be given access to fresh or saltwater to submerge in whenever possible. Almost all will refuse to use communal pools at Pokémon Centers.

Golisopod are bolder, but not particularly outgoing. They still prefer to spend most of their time in their pokéball or sitting still in a cool, dark space outside of it. When given the option they will usually retreat into the surf and keep an eye on everything around them. Many people and pokémon find this to be unnerving. A well-fed golisopod rarely attacks or otherwise misbehaves. They simply enjoy keeping tabs on their environments.

Most golisopod appreciate feeding puzzles, toys, and occasional battle. Aquarium specimens have long been kept in dark, barren tanks with few behavioral issues. They rarely engage in socialization. Captive wimpod and golisopod may still appreciate having their shells brushed. Wimpod brushing should be done with a soft toothbrush. Golisopod can be handled cleaned with rags. Some will accept non-cleaning petting.

Wimpod strongly prefer even-tempered, herbivorous or lithovorous teammates. Even non-predatory spectral pokémon can upset them. Golisopod are far more tolerant of team members, although they may attempt to hunt smaller pokémon when they are first introduced to the team. Some pokémon find golisopod’s size and predatory gaze to be too much and will be anxious in their presence.

Illness

Wimpod and golisopod are capable of regenerating most physical damage, including exoskeleton fractures and loss of limbs. This requires them to molt, a period of several days during which they are exceedingly vulnerable and appreciate dark, secluded places to rest in. They should be allowed to emerge at their own pace.

Golisopod are prone to overheating when left in direct sunlight on warm days for an extended period of time. They will usually attempt to catch their trainer’s attention or find shade long before this becomes a serious health hazard. Try to keep golisopod nocturnal or at least able to retreat to their ball, cool water, air conditioning, or shade during the day.

As with most bug-types, both stages are vulnerable to medicines used on other species. Chlorinated water can be dangerous to them and should be avoided at all costs. They cannot usually drink or bathe in untreated tap water. Golisopod can usually survive accidental poisoning. Ingesting chlorine is often fatal for wimpod.

Isopod iridescent virus has never been documented in Alola but can be a serious concern when traveling abroad. The virus’s most visible symptom is the development of brilliant blue or purple patterns on the exoskeleton. The disease can lead to anorexia, confusion, sluggishness, and death. It was once popular to intentionally infect isopods for aesthetic purposes. The practice has now been banned in most nations and knowingly importing an infected individual to Alola is a felony.

Evolution

Most pokémon evolve more quickly if they have extensive combat experience. It is believed that the elemental energy flowing through their bodies can accelerate growth and evolution. This is particularly true for species that experience flash evolution.

For golisopod, combat is a requirement for evolution. Not much is required. A single high-stakes battle will usually do. Wimpod avoid combat at all costs. It is estimated that fewer than 8% of mature wild wimpod will actually evolve. Evolution rates are much higher in captivity. It is easiest to acclimate wimpod to combat by having them attack ordinary plants or bugs before moving on to weak grass- or bug-type pokémon. In time they may become confident enough to challenge progressively larger opponents until they finally seek out a challenge that can triggers a flash evolution.

Upon evolution golisopod are usually five to six feet long. They will grow to their full size over the course of three to five more molts, depending on how much damage must be healed with each one.

Wild golisopod tend to spend a few weeks around the shallows before moving down the slope of the Alolan islands until they reach the twilight zone. They will move progressively further down as they age.

Battle

Golisopod are not top-tier threats capable of wiping out unprepared teams themselves. They’re still powerful, useful pokémon that are known to help fill out the teams of upper echelon trainers or even serve as the ace of regional professional trainers.

To start with, golisopod are capable of lunging and formidable speeds and can deal a great deal of damage with their sharp claws and deceptively strong muscles. They are capable of basic strategizing on the fly, falling back when the tide of battle turns against them and then lunging again for another devastating opening blow. They are fast enough to outmaneuver some slower walls. Most physical attacks will fail to deal significant damage to their shell. Some golisopod will even quickly pick up tricks such as spikes and leech life and add them to their repertoire.

Golisopod lack exceptional strengths. They will not knock out many pokémon in one hit. They are not the fastest. Their armor is durable but can be circumvented. They’re vulnerable to elemental attacks. Golisopod also only have one exceptional weakness: high flying opponents. In their natural habitat golisopod can ‘fly’ through the water to reach enemies. Even on land they can jump surprisingly high to catch birds. If an enemy is too far above them, though, they lack any real means of damaging them. This is a common weakness for melee attackers that most teams will build around. Overall golisopod are a reliable pokémon that can pull their weight in most matchups but are unlikely to swing the match by themselves. Their lack of clear weaknesses makes them a popular mid-challenge power check for many gym leaders around the Indo-Pacific.

Golisopod can be extremely useful pokémon on the island challenge. They match up well into every grand trial with water- and bug-coverage for Olivia, Nanu, and Hapu and sturdy armor for Hala. In standard trials they work well as assassins charging in to seriously damage a totem or supporting pokémon before the entire opposition can converge and gang up on them.

Acquisition

Wimpod can be found along most of Alola’s coastline, especially near rocky shores. A small population can also be found in the volcanic caves of northeast Akala. Finding wimpod is easy. Catching them can be considerably more difficult due to their skittishness. Traps are probably the most effective method. Standing very still with food nearby can work, but is far more likely to attract wingull or other pokémon that scare wimpod away. It is rare to see a store or shelter with wimpod as they are easily released and cannot be bred in captivity. Wimpod can be acquired with a Class I license.

Very few wild golisopod live near the surface in Alola. They are protected from capture to help preserve the wild population. Individuals can occasionally be found for sale or adoption with a Class III license.

Breeding

Golisopod breeding is believed to occur deep in the ocean at low temperatures and high pressures. Captive golisopod have never shown much interest in mating. Aquariums capable of replicate their wild conditions are still fairly new and usually too small to house two golisopod long-term. It is known that gravid golisopod can store up to five thousand fertilized eggs. They approach the shore before hiding their eggs and departing. Buried eggs have never been found.

Relatives

The island, coastal, or nearshore golisopod is the species that lives in Alola. They are believed to have traveled between island chains on top of driftwood rather than on the seafloor. Golisopod can be found ranging across most islands of the tropical Pacific, as well as in portions of mainland Southeast Asia. There is some dispute as to whether the Asian population constitutes a separate subspecies or species as adults are almost never seen below 3,000 feet.

Deepwater or abyssal golisopod (C. tenetaquas) live on the abyssal plains. They are smaller than nearshore golisopod. The largest documented specimen was only about five feet long. The species can be found across most of the Indo-Pacific. They have a pure white exoskeleton rather than the blue-tinged coloration of their more coastal cousins. Abyssal golisopod are entirely blind. Wimpod are usually seen partially buried in the sediment. Golisopod simply rest fully exposed on the seafloor until food approaches. They rarely interact with submersibles at all, leading to theories that abyssal golisopod are exclusively scavengers that do not bother hunting anything in the water column. This may be a prudent strategy when most of their prospective prey is bigger than them.

Smaller species of land-dwelling isopods can be found on six continents. Golisopod are believed to have originally evolved from a terrestrial Asian species that adapted to scavenging on the seafloor. Eventually some golisopod evolved to live their entire lives on the seafloor, even deeper than nearshore golisopod will go.

 

[Persephone]

Starmie (Staryu)
Quinquennium astrologus

Overview

There are many pokémon that are widely known to come to Earth from elsewhere, whether that be the moon, the rest of the solar system, the vast outer reaches of space, or another dimension entirely. For millennia, natural philosophers have argued that starmie must also be from another world. They glow in strange colors and patterns at night and rise to the surface. Their body shape is notably different from vertebrates or arthropods. Just standing near them while they glow can cause headaches or strange visions. When modern researchers discovered that starmie are broadcasting radio waves to the night sky these theories became all but confirmed.

Despite mythology, historical belief, and modern theories, no concrete evidence for an extraterrestrial origin has emerged. Starmie are apparently just particularly odd echinoderms that use radio waves to communicate with each other. The headaches and visions are the attempted psionic communication with a creature that is vastly different from them.

Both stages are fast, powerful, and surprisingly durable pokémon. A starmie can easily hold their own through the end of the island challenge. Their main drawbacks are husbandry requirements. Like many water-types, starmie must spend several hours a day submerged in seawater. They can leave the water, but get nervous if there is not a pool to retreat back to as needed. Starmie’s attempts at communication can cause migraines. It has often been alleged that starmie cause brain cancer, but clinical studies have yet to show a conclusive link. They are not as accidentally damaging as alakazam but can still take a toll on anyone without at least some psi-sensitivity. Even psychic trainers can be frustrated with starmie as their messages are often difficult to comprehend without years of experience.

Staryu will begin to fall off towards the end of the island challenge but do not cause headaches and are generally more relaxed than starmie. Trainers who do not intend to become professional battlers after the end of the island challenge and do not need a starmie’s power may be better off not evolving their pokémon.

Physiology

Staryu are classified as pure water-types. Starmie are classified as dual water- and psychic-types. While staryu can learn a few psychic-type moves and are capable of very crude telepathic signals, they primarily communicate by radio waves and do not appear to use telepathy with conspecifics. They are far more comfortable using water-type attacks or moves such as swift.

Staryu are echinoderms. This means that they have five-fold symmetry, rather than the lateral symmetry of arthropods and vertebrates. At their center is a gem, or core, made of a mix of silicon and calcium carbonate. The core acts as the pokémon’s central nervous system and is the only irreplaceable part of their body. This makes starmie one of the only organic pokémon to have a silicon-based nervous system. There is some speculation that starmie are the result of a mineral pokémon parasitizing an echinoderm, eventually resulting in a single organism. Cores and even the preserved imprint of a creature that resembles a starmie have been found that are over 200 million years old.

The rest of staryu’s body consists of five armored legs each with dozens of tube feet. Staryu’s tube feet help them move and grab onto objects. Staryu are surprisingly strong and can easily pry open most bivalves. Their mouth is in the center of their body, on the opposite side as the core. Staryu typically feed externally by extruding their core through the mouth, coating prey in stomach acid and sticking them to the stomach lining, and then pulling the mouth back in. Sand absorbed in the process can be digested and used to repair or grow the core.

Starmie have two sets of five legs. The second set forms behind the first in the gaps between legs. The tube feet of the front set are front-facing while those on the back set are back-facing. This lets starmie climb even more surfaces than staryu and physically defend themselves from either direction. Starmie are also typically darker in coloration than staryu. Colors for both stages vary with many staryu being orange, brown, yellow, or red and starmie typically becoming a dark blue, green, purple, or black.

Both stages, but especially starmie, are known for their clever usage of hydrokinesis. They can lie on their back and form whirlpools that suck plankton towards their mouth and into their stomach. Vortexes of water can also be used to move themselves at high speeds by rapidly increasing their angular momentum and angling themselves like a propeller.

Starmie can grow to be four feet in diameter. They can weigh up to sixty pounds. Wild lifespans are poorly understood. Captive specimens typically live between thirty-five and fifty years. The oldest known starmie lived for seventy years.

Behavior

Staryu are generally nearshore benthic feeders. They root through the substrate for slow-moving prey like molluscs and bivalves. They will then rip them open and eat. Staryu are highly curious and have been known to use and even modify human tools to make simple traps for larger prey like fish. They will also often reside in shipwrecks, dock pillars, or other manmade structures. Sometimes staryu are trapped on land at high tide. They can still move outside of saltwater for several hours. This can allow them to hunt for terrestrial crabs and scavenge for garbage. Sometimes staryu make a nuisance of themselves on public beaches. They are usually quick to learn what behaviors will get them punished and avoid repeating them, or at least avoid being caught.

Starmie spend most of their time in the open ocean, using their whirlpools to suck in plankton to feed on. Sometimes they have been observed chasing down slower moving fish and killing them with an elemental attack. On one occasion a starmie used a fish corpse as bait to lure in a wingull and then kill it with a psionic attack, leaving it with two kills. During the day they tend to lurk further down beneath the surface in an apparent state of rest. They hunt in the morning and evening. At night they rest on the surface and emit radio waves for communications. They have been known to approach boats with a radio and attempt to communicate. Starmie are skilled at identifying what wavelength a radio is receiving but their own signals are nearly indistinguishable from background static.

Starmie flock to areas of abundant food. Predators and researchers that annoy or injure one starmie will quickly be avoided by all starmie within fifty miles. Despite their near-constant communication, starmie rarely physically interact with each other. Captive specimens are also not physically affectionate. Research into starmie broadcasts has identified common patterns that may be a vocabulary. At least one researcher has suggested that some of these patterns may be names that refer to specific individuals, although this theory has yet to gain widespread acceptance.

In many ways, from their intelligence to the use of their limbs, staryu and starmie are most comparable to cephalopods. They compete for many of the same niches. Staryu have an advantage in their willingness to cooperate with each other, but are generally less intelligent and maneuverable than cephalopods. Starmie even the scales on these fronts and even live longer to boot. However, starmie are relatively rare and generally prefer open waters rather than typical cephalopod habitats.

Husbandry

Starmie and staryu are hardy, reasonably low maintenance pokémon until they aren’t. Captive specimens sometimes rapidly decline in health and die for seemingly minor reasons or even from things that haven’t been a problem before. A great deal of care should be put into starmie husbandry and monitoring their health to avoid issues.

Both staryu and starmie primarily eat seafood. Staryu prefer worms, mollusks, crustaceans, and other echinoderms. Food should have some sand mixed in to ensure proper core health. Staryu are incredibly reluctant to eat on land and prefer to feed in tanks at least five feet deep. They should be fed at least twice a day. The use of live food or puzzles can make feeding an enrichment activity.

Starmie eat more fish in the wild. The most commonly recommended diet is 60% fresh or frozen fish and 40% invertebrates. Other forms of meat can be used as an occasional treat, but are best avoided in sensitive individuals.

The main drawback for starmie is their need of a reasonably deep tank. Starmie are fast swimmers that live in the middle of the water column, requiring a tank that is both deep and wide. Outside of public aquaria they are more suited for large pools or saltwater ponds than conventional tanks. Staryu can tolerate smaller, shallower pools. They need places to hide and explore to feel safe and satisfied.

While traveling, staryu and starmie can rest in the ocean or habitat balls. Pokémon Centers vary as to whether or not they can be in community tanks. Starmie rarely mind predator tanks as any damage taken can be quickly healed. Staryu can become stressed and rapidly decline when held with larger predators, even if they are physically unharmed. They will likely leave the pool and potentially experience dehydration as a result. While staryu and starmie can function on land, it is best for their trainers to pick a route that hugs the coastline, using vehicles or ride pokémon for inland trips whenever possible.

Because starmie can leave the water and are clever enough to open most barriers they are nearly impossible to contain. If they are well fed, provided with toys, and have a large enough tank they are unlikely to leave. Specimens with unmet needs will seek to meet those needs on their own, potentially hurting themselves or breaking things in the process.

Staryu and especially starmie have high enrichment needs. Puzzles can help. So can other toys, although they tend to go through them quickly. It is important to note the ways starmie perceive the world and what makes things interesting to them. Starmie can recognize objects in photographs through their core. This suggests some form of vision, although the exact mechanics of how and what they see are poorly understood. Starmie often change the color their core glows and sometimes do so in short, regular intervals. This may be a form of communication. They are adept at recognizing vibrations in the water but struggle to do so in the air. This can make them difficult to command in battle or give auditory orders to. Starmie do sense radio waves and can learn to recognize the meanings of certain patterns and repeat it back themselves. For example, if a signal is paired with feedings, starmie can repeat it back when hungry. They can also do this to an extent with sound waves underwater, but they are far more adept at radio mimicry than audio imitation. Starmie do have a sense of touch on their limbs but not their core. They become distressed and/or hostile if the core is touched. Finally, starmie are believed to run telepathic scans of their surroundings to learn the rough positions of other lifeforms and gauge basic information. Some psychic trainers or psychic-types have learned to trade messages with starmie, but it is rarely intuitive for them.

Starmie and staryu tolerate occasional nibbling and rarely eat tankmates if well fed, making them good fits for very large community tanks at public aquaria. In smaller tanks they are less likely to tolerate other pokémon. Both stages appreciate opportunities to broadcast and receive radio waves at night and will become fond of people or pokémon who accompany them while they do it.

Illness

Physical trauma is almost never a problem for the species. Stronger specimens can recover from the loss of up to 80% of their organic body. Even young, weak specimens can easily regrow a limb. Core damage is much harder to repair. The core is very hard and has no cleavage, making it difficult to break accidentally. Even professional battles are unlikely to kill a starmie barring an intentional hit to the core. Small cracks or the loss of 1-3% of its mass can be healed, but even this can result in behavioral shifts or cognitive problems. Anything more serious will be irreversible and likely fatal.

Starmie are still prone to illness. Sick specimens can have no symptoms at all and then be dead hours later. When symptoms do appear they usually take the form of white spots, depressions in the body, labored or unusual movements, lethargy, anorexia, or necrosis. Any sign of illness should be a cause for immediate concern. If treated quickly the illness may be reversible. Localized infections can be halted by amputation without permanent limb loss.

Evolution

Approaching evolution, staryu dive deeper and seek out a mineral pokémon to consume. Sources of both elemental energy and silicon will also work. After consuming their meal, staryu bury deep into the substrate and go dormant. Over the course of five days to two weeks, the core grows in size and complexity. When the staryu emerges they will be ravenous and eat as much as they can as their new legs grow in.

The immediate boost in power and the duration of dormancy are linked. The staryu that are strongest after evolution are those that have the most potent meals and stay dormant the longest. These specimens maintain an advantage over their peers years after evolution, although the size of the power gap shrinks considerably. High quality water stones are believed to produce the best results and are most commonly used in captivity. Evolution is optional, but many staryu will eventually take the initiative and become unusually aggressive towards mineral pokémon. If this occurs a water stone should be purchased as soon as possible.

Battle

Starmie are fast, versatile pokémon. They can function on quick stall teams as a hazard remover and status spreader that can regenerate minor injuries over the course of a battle and has little risk of permanent injury against stronger opponents. Starmie trained in defensive techniques like harden, reflect, and recover can make themselves very difficult to hurt while still being fast enough to dodge attacks and strong enough to overpower frailer offensive threats.

Offensive starmie are capable of unleashing powerful elemental attacks from their core while zipping over the arena at high speeds. They have a wide variety of moves they can learn, although their standard set is some combination of psychic, hydro pump, ice beam, thunder beam, and recover or rapid spin. Starmie are at their strongest when using beam moves that can be channeled in their core.

While starmie fill two niches well, they do have to choose one. As a result of specialized training and the four move limit, the strongest starmie are rarely the most durable. Trying to do both is likely to confuse the pokémon and split their focus, leaving them unable to be as durable as they need to be for a quickstall team or strong as they need to be for offense.

When countering offensive starmie it is best to focus on steadily wearing them down with area of effect or homing moves. Shock wave and discharge are particularly effective at this. Once the pokémon has taken a little damage they will be easier to approach and finish off. Do not give starmie time to get away and recover. The finishing blow must be struck in the same combo as the first one or it is unlikely to last.

Defensive starmie matchups usually turn into games of attrition. The starmie is usually too durable to take down in one flurry of blows like offensive starmie. They can also outheal minor injuries. The best way to deal with them is to simply exhaust them over time. Their healing abilities are best at physical wounds rather than more nebulous or generalized afflictions. Poisons, curses, burns, and other residual damage can wear them down. Enough blows will also tax their short-term regeneration abilities and leave them vulnerable in the end. Opponents just have to be careful to dodge or mitigate enough of the starmie’s attacks in the meantime to avoid going down themselves. Finally, trainers can shut down active regeneration with taunt, disable, or other trickery.

On the island challenge starmie are best used as fast attackers that can overwhelm a particularly annoying foe early in a totem fight or clean up weakened opponents. They are solid pokémon through the end of the challenge.

Staryu are weaker and frailer than starmie, but still decently fast and with reliable regeneration. They can serve a similar role to starmie, just less effectively. Staryu are usually better sticking to water-type attacks like bubblebeam rather than elemental blasts. Staryu are formidable at the start of the challenge but start to fall off on the second or third island.

Acquisition

Staryu prefer relatively undisturbed warm-water beaches. In Alola this effectively bars them from Melemele and portions of Akala and Ula’Ula. Protected beaches away from urban areas, especially on Poni, are the best places to find one. They are easiest to spot at night when they surface.

Catching a staryu’s interest and gaining their loyalty is tricky and somewhat random. Many staryu are fascinated by technology such as smartphones and will tag along to learn more. Others want to become stronger. Most will flee when a human approaches. In the past staryu and starmie were often hunted to make jewelry from their cores. The species are still wary of humans. Proving battles tend to scare them away, although a few will be interested in traveling with strong trainers.

Staryu can occasionally be found in shelters but most can be released. Aquarium supply stores often carry them, although they are not as common as other aquatic invertebrates that are easier to care for. Starmie are more common in shelters than staryu. Many trainers decide they are too high maintenance to keep when the island challenge is over. Formerly captive starmie do not behave like wild starmie and are usually unreleasable.

Wild starmie are typically only found out at sea. Their capture is prohibited in accordance with international treaties on marine pokémon conservation.

Staryu can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class II license. Starmie can be adopted or purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Wild starmie spawn in March. They congregate in nearshore waters, particularly around reefs, and broadcast spawn under a new moon. Starmie stay around the reef for another few weeks to defend eggs that settle on the coral and then leave when they begin to hatch. Baby staryu live on the corals and eat algae. As they grow they will eventually move away from the reef and its predators towards the beaches where they can hide in stand. Because staryu and starmie live in different places, a staryu’s only contact with adults of its species may have been brief glimpses shortly after hatching.

Starmie are hermaphrodites and which gamete they emit in the wild is seemingly random. Spawning of a specific gamete can be induced in captivity with chemical injections, although this may be detrimental to the long-term health of the starmie. Post-spawning lifespans of starmie are poorly understood in the wild but it is possible that mortality is high. Starmie will watch the eggs until they hatch and will then take no further interest in their offspring, allowing for easy adoptions but requiring the breeder to pay especially close attention to the young staryu.

Starmie have cross-bred with other echinoderms in captivity. In the wild this is extremely rare due to differences in spawning times. The most common hybrid, with toxapex, are unusually durable staryu or lightweight, mobile mareanie. Hybrids generally fail to fully capitalize on the strengths of either parent, although one hybrid starmie with toxic spikes along its body has seen some success in the competitive circuits.

Relatives

There is probably only one extant starmie species. There are slight variations across the oceans, but the pelagic and mobile nature of starmie ensures gene mixing and prevents the formation of subspecies. There may be a second species (Q. fonsnili) in and around the White Nile and Lake Victoria. Freshwater starmie were smaller than oceanic starmie and had thinner legs. Their core was usually purple, although silver cores have also been documented. In local folklore starmie were children of the gods that observed humanity’s deeds and reported them to the heavens at night. This did not save them from extensive poaching for their beautiful cores which could be sold for over ten times the average annual salary in the region. The introduction of sharpedo likely finished the species off. The last widely accepted sighting was in 1977, although it is possible that some remain in Lake Victoria’s tributaries and the deeper portions of the lake.

 

[Persephone]

Palossand (Sandygast)
Osmonstrum albaharenae

Overview

Palossand, the nightmare of the beach, are some of the most widely feared ghosts in Alola. They are also some of the most well-mannered ghosts in captivity and a potential starting point for aminovore care.

Most true ghosts are passive or partial aminovores, feeding on the feelings of the living without fully draining them. Wild palossand have been known to engage in active predation. They can disguise themselves as an abandoned sand castle and suddenly trap unsuspecting passersby between a sandstorm above and a vortex below, sucking them away from the air so that the ghost can kill them at leisure. Most parents warn their children to avoid sand castles of unknown origin lest they fall victim to palossand.

It is true that palossand are ambush hunters that kill their prey to ensure they get as much of their soul as possible. However, palossand almost never hunt humans. All documented attacks were provoked by damage to their castle, theft of a shovel, or unwanted capture attempts. Nearly all fatal attacks followed at least one warning.

Palossand mainly feed on play and creative impulses. They enjoy letting humans build them up further or decorate their exterior. Palossand are not passive aminovores and do engage in feeding during these activities. Humans who play with them will find themselves emotionally and physically exhausted after a few hours. Most people fully recover after a good night’s sleep. There may be lingering impacts, such as a reduced sense of humor or aversion to creative tasks, for a few days after particularly long play sessions.

Full predation is reserved for extremely hungry specimens and prey without much creative spirit to give.

Palossand trainers rarely suffer permanent or even prolonged effects and specimens are usually willing to take less, drain from more people, or leave entirely to avoid side effects. They are reasonably intelligent and empathetic creatures. While they do have a fondness for clever curses and can hold a grudge for decades, palossand are still easier to work with than most ghost-types and are often retained by trainers after the island challenge ends. Palossand are also ground-types, a rarity in Alola, and are powerful enough to pull their weight through the end of the island challenge.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual ground- and ghost-types. The ruling is not disputed.

Sandygast are ghosts that posses small mounds of partially wet sand. They are often seen with a shovel, mold, or other objects associated with sand play. Sandygast cannot directly manipulate these objects and they are not part of the core body. These objects are still jealously guarded and should not be removed without permission. While sandygast often form a mouth or limbs out of comfort or for the sake of mimicking the organisms they play with, these are not necessary or permanent features.



Palossand have larger, more elaborate bodies. In Alola these often take the form of boxy sandcastles with two towers to the side. Palossand often adorn themselves with dribble art patterns, seashells, or other objects. They usually have a mouth, eyes, and arms that are disguised as part of the castle.

Both stages have extremely malleable bodies. Like chandelure, sinistea, or dhelmise, palossand are a spirit possessing an object. Palossand’s object is wet sand and sometimes other objects conceptually and physically linked to it. It core body is an amorphous phantom. However, the phantom can only live for a few minutes without being anchored to a physical object. This is sand. Specifically, slightly wet sand.

Palossand are minor hydrokinetics that need small amounts of the water to form the surface tension that keeps their body adhered together. Otherwise they must manually keep every sand particle linked, rapidly draining their energy reserves. Too much water can also make it difficult to keep their body clumped together and can drain energy. Beyond their core body, both stages can manipulate non-bonded sand around them through elemental

Both stages can form glowing eyes inside of their body cavities that can sense the world around them through a wide swathe of the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light. Specimens without eyes are limited to proprioception and a limited sense of vibrations. Palossand also have a seemingly innate ability to sense other ghosts nearby.

Sandygast are weak and inexperienced. The core body of sand they hold absolute dominion over is only a few pounds and they struggle to hold it in shapes more elaborate than a mound with a hole in it.

Palossand are stronger and can form and maintain larger bodies in more elaborate shapes. They have a preference for bodies with at least some similarities to the creatures that play with them. Human-bonded palossand tend to develop mouths, arms, and sometimes hair-like patterns disguised as part of the castle. Specimens bonded to other species can develop tails and more esoteric features. When questioned palossand give contradictory answers as to why they do this. Some insist it is purely to develop deeper bonds with their playmates. Others cite an almost dysphoric desire to make their body more human. Whether this comes from their origins as potential former humans or is a side effect of feeding on human creativity is unclear. (See Breeding.)

Palossand and sandygast adopt the color of the sand they’re made of. This can change over time as sand is lost and replaced. Palossand often enjoy having different types of sand making up their body so they can vary their patterns and add more complexity. This can be difficult for sandygast.

Maximum size and lifespans for palossand, and especially for wild palossand, are uncertain. Some captive specimens in Malaysia and Indonesia likely weigh hundreds of tons and can be up to thirty feet tall. They are centuries old. Wild specimens of similar size and age have never been observed.

Behavior

Sandygast prefer to live on beaches frequented by humans. They are usually found around the high tide mark, allowing for occasional hydration without being entirely washed away. It can be difficult to tell an unliving mound of sand from a sandygast. The latter is colder, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable to hold. Sandygast also impart a temporary psychic suggestion that increases focus on playing with them to the point of near obsession. This suggestion fades as the sandygast feeds and disappears entirely after five days away from the pokémon. The suggestion can also be overriden by physical needs or ignored entirely with enough will. Sandygast enjoy being built up by humans, even if they struggle to retain the complexity and will usually collapse back into a heap around high tide. Sometimes sandygast will reveal themselves to a playmate, but they usually stay hidden in Alola. Most beaches try to remove them as nuisances that scare away tourists, attack other pokémon, and drain the energy of children.

While shovels are not part of their body, sandygast love to collect them to encourage children to play with them. They can be fiercely protective of their shovels. Children who attempt to take the shovel with them at the end of the day are often startled when the sandygast reveals themselves and attempts to reclaim it. Sandygast almost never attack playmates with intent to harm but may temporarily draw a child deeper into the sand to get them to release the shovel. This often is interpreted as an attack and results in reprisals from parents and lifeguards. Sandygast without a shovel will attempt to find buckets, sticks, seashells, and other objects to attract potential playmates.

Wild palossand are exceptionally rare. Most wild specimens are predatory, eating anything slow enough to be caught. Wingull seem to be their favorite prey due to their reasonably high intelligence, but they are also often clever enough to avoid capture. Most palossand eventually end up in captivity, either intentionally or after being removed from beaches as a nuisance and put into a shelter. Due to a lack of demand for captive specimens and their perceived threat, many palossand are euthanized.

Most specimens are not social. Conspecifics are competitors for scarce resources. Wild palossand, however, have been documented engaging in cooperative hunting to bring down large flocks of birds at once or make entire beaches unsafe to avoid prey simply moving a few dozen feet down the beach to safety. Wild palossand are also protective of sandygast and can even funnel kills towards them or find ways to encourage playmates to interact with them.

Outside of being played with or hunting, both stages tend to go inactive and only move to defend or reposition themselves.

Wild lifespans for sandygast are poorly understood but believed to be short. They need a good amount of play to survive as they are poor hunters. Few humans want to play with them due to their fearsome reputation. It is difficult to keep track of sandygast numbers as they resemble lumps of sand. Mortality rates of 60% per beach per month are plausible, although this is at the higher end of estimates. Other studies have estimated as little as 10% mortality per month per beach.

Human interference further complicates many of these studies as humans both take specimens into captivity, where they generally thrive, and cull them in the wild.

One of palossand’s most feared behaviors is their hoarding of bones. Palossand often keep bones in the sand beneath them. Some are from their kills. Others are simply found and collected. In Southeast Asia it is believed that palossand are deceased humans and keep their skeletons nearby. It is still unknown where palossand come from. It is rare for them to keep a complete human skeleton, or even a partial one. Their bones tend to be from fish and birds that die on the beach. Palossand will often raise up bones as a threat display to warn others against attacking. This requires relatively little energy on their part and often scares away foes. While some media depicts palossand attacking with bones, this is extremely rare. Palossand are protective of all remains and grow extremely upset when corpses are desecrated in their presence. They would never intentionally jeopardize a bone in their care.

In portions of Asia, palossand are gravekeepers who watch over ashes and bones. Mourners believe they can commune with their loved ones by decorating or building up the palossand. In return, the palossand ensure the safety of the site.

Palossand are adept at casting curses. These are usually tied to the bones in their collection or other souls they have encountered. Typical curses cause the victim to relieve some physical or emotional component of the dead’s suffering. This is usually only done in cases where someone triumphs over the palossand through force and takes something, be it a shovel or bones, that they held dear. It is nearly impossible to be accidentally and obliviously cursed by one.

Husbandry

Sandygast and palossand are fairly straightforward to care for, but there are important considerations to keep in mind. The first problem is food. Both stages only need about ten hours of play per week to survive. Battling and more consistent activity will require up to twenty hours per week. This is easiest if spread across multiple days and ideally multiple playmates. Sandygast prefer to be built up into ever larger and more elaborate shapes. Palossand enjoy being decorated and refined rather than entirely reworked. Seashells, dribble sand, etched patterns, pretty rocks, and colored glass or plastic are all immensely appreciated. Their feeding seems to depend on the thought put behind the decisions. More artistic decorations, or at least more passionate ones, will allow for a greater energy transfer.

Children do not seem to suffer adverse effects when playing with palossand. If anything, the temporary exhaustion is appreciated by many parents. Palossand can be trusted to monitor and safeguard a child as they play near their sandbox. Trainers without children will likely have to contribute the bulk of the play themselves or bribe traveling companions into helping. It is best to space out playtime across multiple days whenever possible to avoid particularly unpleasant side effects.

Some teammates can also play with palossand out of either genuine interest or obligation. This works best for intelligent pokémon with some ability to add decorations manually or telekinetically. True psychics, fairies, and primates are usually the best candidates for this role.

Palossand prefer to have access to sandy areas so that they can build up their body or regenerate lost sand. This also makes them feel more relaxed as they better blend in. A large sandbox or, ideally, a beach works best. Be warned that some housebroken pokémon will attempt to use a palossand’s sandbox, potentially leading to all parties involved becoming greatly upset.

Palossand are tolerant of most other species as teammates. Mandibuzz generally upset them through their usage of bones as common jewelry. Other ghosts can get into fights with palossand for reasons known only to them. This is common with ghosts held on the same team. While palossand are generally tame and prefer to stay out of drama, they can still be brought into the odd disputes of phantoms.

Illness

As aminovores, palossand are vulnerable to a variety of bizarre illnesses best left to ghost-type specialists. Symptoms are usually both obvious and disturbing. Most aminovore illnesses are not particularly serious if a specialist is promptly consulted, however unpleasant it may look.

Sandygast are more prone to illness than palossand. In addition to spectral illnesses, sandygast can also show signs of starvation in the partial collapse of their body, a further reduction in activity levels, or other odd behaviors. It is best to get all illnesses looked into as soon as possible. Palossand are more resilient. Apparently minor symptoms are best treated with the provision of additional sand and play. If the problem does not stop after one to two days, schedule an appointment with a specialist.

Both stages are sensitive to moisture levels. Palossand do not do well when thoroughly soaked, but also cannot be dry. It’s best to spray them with water a few times a day, stopping when the pokémon begins to object or stops moving. Overhydrated specimens tend to lock into place to conserve energy. This is not a sign of death. Dead palossand entirely collapse. Provision of a large tub of saltwater can also let palossand self-regulate, although they are prone to spilling tubs and potentially overhydrating on accident. This is particularly common for sandygast.

Evolution

Sandygast steadily develop into palossand. Over time, as they are repeatedly built up and absorb more energy, sandygast can better retain elaborate shapes. Young sandygast inevitably collapse into heaps of sand after a day or so without being built up. Palossand do not. They are also stronger, smarter, and larger than sandygast. The formal demarcation is the ability to hold a complex shape for more than twenty-four hours without external assistance.

Play, especially constructive play, can greatly accelerate evolution times.

Battle

Palossand have a decent set of tools. They are amorphous and difficult to hurt in a way that matters. Raw strength can knock over their castle, but the pokémon is the ghost possessing grains of sand. They can restore their physical form easily enough and can even gradually regenerate from spectral damage over the course of a fight. They can use moves like scorching sands and stealth rock to wear down enemies and control the battlefield.

Nevertheless, palossand do not do fare well on the competitive circuits. This is mainly because they are very, very slow. Outside of sandy surfaces, palossand can only move at speeds of about ten feet per minute. Even on sandy beaches they max out around six miles per hour. This leaves palossand essentially unable to reposition to avoid attacks or escape traps. Their ranged arsenal, such as shadow ball, can help alleviate this, but palossand do not hit particularly hard and even their attacks are somewhat slow. Fast fighters can sometimes avoid taking anything but chip damage from sandstorms.

If something does approach, palossand can trap them in sand when available or at least make them weather an extremely intense localized sandstorm if they cannot. The worst part of the attack is localized to a ten foot radius.

There are also two surefire ways to handle palossand without ghost or dark attacks: overhydration and dehydration. Palossand slow down and struggle to move when overhydrated. This can increase the durability of their sand to a point. Past that point the grains of sand will be pushed apart and the pokémon will struggle to keep their body together. Dehydration through sunny day and heat based attacks can cause the pokémon to lose control over their physical body, steadily draining their energy and making their attacks even more telegraphed.

In theory palossand can work as devastating trappers and solid counters to purely physical brutes, but their many checks must be eliminated first. This still lets them effectively counter many threats on the island challenge and they fare well against the traditional first two kahunas and can close out fights once threats they cannot handle are dealt with.

Sandygast are even slower than palossand and somewhat less durable. Aside from these weaknesses, they play mostly the same.

Acquisition

Sandygast can be found on many of Alola’s beaches. Identifying them can be somewhat difficult. Lumps of sand with a shovel or stick in it are usually quickly removed by property owners or their contractors. More discrete sandygast require dedicated trackers to find. Some property owners will pay to have sandygast removed. Almost all will allow a trainer to take one.

Wild palossand are essentially nonexistent due to removals. Both stages are quite easy to adopt and shelters will happily get rid of them. There is not a widespread domestic market for them, but a few exterminators may be willing to part with palossand or sandygast for a small fee.

Both stages can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class III liceense.

Breeding

Scientists remain uncertain where sandygast come from. Some beaches have them and some don’t. Sandygast can begin appearing on a beach once multiple palossand frequent it. They can disappear when the population is completely eradicated by starvation or violence.

Palossand have never been observed doing anything that could be construed as reproduction. They seem mildly confused by the concept. Sandygast simply appear, even when all adults are consistently removed. Old superstition holds that they are the reborn souls of the dead who drowned in the ocean or died on the beach. The bones they carried were their own. This is patently false. Sandygast appear in rates far exceeding mortality in their habitat. Spawning intervals are not tied to the local death rate. Not all specimens even guard human bones.

The answer must lie with palossand since sandygast only appear on already colonized beaches. Perhaps sand they leave behind can eventually animate on its own. Maybe the ambient magic of curses creates more possessed sand. Or, perhaps, palossand’s corpses split into multiple sandygast. This has not been observed in a controlled setting but has enough references in superstition to make it plausible.

Captive breeding of palossand is impossible and likely undesirable. The scientists that attempt it do so purely to better understand the species.

Relatives

At present only one palossand species is recognized. In the past they were broken into three: the giant palossand of Southeast Asia, the white palossand along most beaches, and the Alolan black palossand. Recent studies have found that both white and black palossand can completely change their coloration over time. There are also wild, normally sized palossand throughout Southeast Asia.

The giant palossand are colossal, ancient creatures that are centuries old and dozens of feet tall. A raft of six to ten can form large coastal monastery complexes complete with rooms and monks who live within. The monks keep the palossand well fed and properly hydrated in exchange for shelter. These palossand tend to form shapes closer to pagodas or other local architecture than the castles found in Alola and other islands with an abundance of Western tourists. Laboratory experiments have shown that palossand can continuously grow in the right circumstances, but it would still take well over two centuries to reach the size of the giant palossand.

Palossand are tentatively classified as object-possessing spirits alongside species such as sinistea and chandelure. There is similar ambiguity around all of their origins and they demonstrate similar behaviors. Ectoplasm analysis has suggested that sinistea and palossand are quite similar, but chandelure may not belong in the same family. Ghost taxonomy is complicated. A full discussion of it is beyond the scope of this guide.

 

[Persephone]

Omastar (Omanyte)
Lapispolypus gastaldi

Overview

Upwards of a dozen long-extinct species now roam the Earth once more thanks to fossil revival technology. Trainers with the opportunity to train a fossil pokémon should do so with caution. Omastar are similar to modern cephalopods, just with a shell that adds care requirements from other mollusks. This made learning the basics of their care relatively simple for modern aquarists. It does not mean they are simple for trainers.

Omastar are deep sea cephalopods with all of the associated challenges. They prefer dark, cold tanks with frequent enrichment opportunities. While they can briefly survive on land, they cannot feed on the surface and dislike being out of the water.

Stationary aquarists with a large amount of funding and a desire for a challenge can give omastar a try. All others should just appreciate them from afar.

Physiology

Most fossils have begun to lose their rock-typing over generations of breeding both within the species and with other modern ones. Omastar, one of the earliest and most widely revived fossils, has retained its typing. It is now believed that the original species were dual rock- and water-types, just as the revived specimens are.

Omastar live in a spiraled shell that grows with them from birth. The pokémon itself lives in the outermost chamber of the shell. As they outgrow it, the shell develops further and the pokémon moved forward. The old shell segment is sectioned off by a dividing wall known as a septa. Very old omastar can up to thirty chambers behind their current abode. These chambers are connected by a siphuncle, a long tentacle that helps pump air and water between chambers. Omastar sink by filling chambers with water and float by pumping water out of chambers. The water can also be used as a reserve for breathing and moisturizing when on land. When threatened or in need of preserving water, omastar can close their hood, a plate that fits over the shell’s entrance. High power suction keeps anything from getting in or out when the hood is closed.

Omastar have eleven or twelve tentacles, depending on sex. The siphuncle is never visible. Only males have a spadix, the twelfth tentacle. Omastar have a powerful beak over their mouth. Omanyte’s is much smaller and usually hidden by tentacles. Omastar also have spikes growing from the shell that omanyte lack. Both stages have crude forward-facing eyes lacking a lens. Their most sophisticated sense is smell. Both stages will often stay still, identifying chemical trails in the water that can alert them to predators or food.

Omanyte tentacles are of roughly equal length. They are used to sift through sand to find food or to draw prey like krill or zooplankton towards their mouth. Omanyte do not have ink glands like modern cephalopods. They also cannot change color. Omanyte can create jets of water for rapid movement, but they have little control over it. This is fine in the open ocean but can cause them to accidentally ram into tank walls and decorations in captivity.

Omastar have six longer tentacles, three on each side, two shorter, broader tentacles at the front of their body, and two more at the back. Each tentacle is coated in adhesives but lack proper suction cups. The tentacles are used to snare prey or move stationary food towards the mouth. Their sharp, powerful beak then breaks through any shells or other armor to kill the prey. This is fine for stationary meals, but does require moving more feisty prey directly towards the core of their body. Omastar soft tissue did not often fossilize so we do not know how much of a problem this posed in antiquity. In the modern era omastar recaptured after escaping to sea tend to have extensive scarring.

Omastar can weigh up to three hundred pounds with a shell four feet in diameter. Captive individuals have a lifespan of roughly twenty-five years, which is unusually long for a cephalopod and largely attributive to the lack of post-reproduction senescence. The few escaped individuals documented rarely survived for longer than eight years in the wild.

Behavior

Omanyte and omastar fossils were rarely found in the same place. This is reflected in the two stages’ preferences. Omanyte prefer brighter, warmer waters. They still dislike brackish water. Omastar prefer dark, cold waters. It is likely that omanyte began life near the shore and slowly moved away from it as they grew.

Both stages favor shellfish diets in captivity. Their tentacles are strong enough to grip them and beaks can pierce their shells. Omanyte are not strong enough to break shellder. Omastar are. They are reasonably intelligent and capable of using simple tools to bypass armor or set basic traps.

A population escaped into the North Atlantic after a research vessel carrying ten omanyte and three omastar sunk under mysterious circumstances. The population has stayed at roughly the same size for ten years. Wild specimens seem to be solitary by nature, although omanyte are slightly more gregarious where food is abundant. Cannibalism has been observed in captivity and among the wild population.

Husbandry

Omanyte can be kept in relatively warm tanks, around 70 to 75 degrees. They also need salinities of around 60 parts per thousand, compared to 35 for modern seawater. Omanyte can survive in normal seawater for short periods of time, but it will eventually cause them serious health problems. Both stages also need calcium supplements in the water such as cuttlebones or shells to break down and eat.

Omanyte need wide tanks to accommodate their tendency to jet around wildly. The space requirements can be reduced by the usage of tethers or nets that redirect omanyte towards the center when they jet out too far. These prevent damage to the tank or pokémon from the force of the collision.

Both stages are very curious. While they need slightly less enrichment than modern cephalopods, they should still be given a new toy every few days to play with. They are far more likely to simply bite through or destroy food based puzzles than malamar, making less tangible rewards a better fit.

Omastar prefer dark, cold tanks with roughly the same salinity as omanyte. Light levels can be high enough to observe the specimen but should not be much higher. Adults are far less likely to jet around than juveniles and spend most of their time resting on or near the substrate. Sand is their preferred substrate, but they can also rest on rock. They tend to accidentally shatter glass with their weight and spikes. Omastar need more calcium heavy foods and supplements than omanyte.



The best food for both stages is shellfish. Live specimens are the best as it forces them to demonstrate natural behaviors. Omanyte will need small shellfish they are capable of breaking or tools to assist them. Crustaceans are also favored foods. Omanyte in particular can passively feed on brine shrimp throughout the day. They can eat fish, and will willingly do so, but they seem less interested in them than in invertebrates.

Neither omanyte nor omastar are good tankmates. Their high salinity requirements block most potential species. Both stages are also relatively aggressive and prone to seeing other pokémon as predators or prey. Similarly sized specimens may be tolerated, but at best their relationship will be an uneasy truce.

Omanyte and omastar can be coaxed out of their tanks for small periods of time. It is easier to acclimate an omanyte than on omastar. It is easiest to convince them to come out of their shells if there is food. Over time they as they associate land with relative safety, the specimen may begin to explore for longer periods of time. Some will even battle out of the water, although their heavy shells makes them very slow in air. The ability to stay on land depends on water reserves in the shell. Large omastar can theoretically survive for over sixteen hours out of the water. Omanyte can rarely last more than two.

Illness

Early omanyte often suffered from disorientation, metabolic problems, and strokes. These were the result of keeping them in water without sufficient salinity. After switching to 60 to 70 parts per thousand these problems largely faded away.

Both stages have a high bioload and will need an excellent filtration system to prevent bacterial buildup or hypoxia.

The most commonly reported ‘illness’ in omastar is the development of a sickly looking, flabby black rim around their shell. This is a temporary affliction and it will eventually crumble away and fall off, allowing for healthy growth. It is a sign of calcium deficiency and is not serious unless existing shell turns black or it occurs twice in a row.

Evolution

Omanyte evolution occurs around one year of age. Some tentacles begin to lengthen while others broaden. Spines grow above major segments on the shell. In the wild, the new omastar probably began to move into deeper waters over the course of the three-month process. The formal demarcation line is the spines reaching three inches long.

Battle

Omastar are too cumbersome to function well in land-based metagames. They can set stealth rock, spikes, and toxic spikes and hit relatively hard with elemental attacks, but there are hazard setters capable of movement speeds greater than one mile per hour. There are even other functionally immobile hazard setters that at least have better defenses. Shell smash can slightly increase movement speeds, but not enough to really make a difference.



In water-based metagames, omastar is still a slow hazard setter. They can maneuver well enough to aim attacks like hydro pump, ice beam, and meteor beam. Alternatively, omastar can use shell smash to become far less cumbersome. The added elemental power makes them a genuine offensive threat. Still, few trainers are willing to risk an expensive specimen like omastar in a casual battle.

Only one trainer has used an omastar on the island challenge. It performed reasonably well in arenas with water features and was usually able to set up a full suite of hazards before being taken down.

Omanyte with the right movepool are solid in the early stages of the island challenge. They are also not very maneuverable outside of unpredictable aqua jets but can set hazards well enough before going down.

The main problem with both omanyte and omastar is competition with other rock-types. Why obtain and risk a rare fossil pokémon that does much the same thing as a gigalith or golem?

Acquisition

As one of the earliest fossils, omastar are becoming increasingly commonplace. They exited the realm of research labs and became established in science museums and public aquaria in the early 2000s. Now they are becoming available to collectors - for a price. The average omanyte costs over $15,000. Specimens bred for a specific purpose or already bonded with humans can cost far more. Consult the largest aquarium specialty stores for more information on obtaining an omanyte.

Both stages can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

Breeding

Male omastar have a spadix, an extra tentacle used to deposit sperm. Omastar that cross paths and wish to mate will face each other, approach, and then float motionless for several hours as the male inserts his sperm. The female will then make a trek towards warmer waters, bury one to two eggs in the sand, and go back to her normal range. In captivity, where females do not have to go through an arduous journey, omastar mate and lay eggs on a monthly basis. They should not be held together outside of mating unless a very large (greater than 100,000 gallon) tank is used. Interest can be gauged by putting unfiltered water from one omastar’s tank into the other’s. If they become curious rather than aggressive, the pokémon is receptive to mating.

Eggs take roughly one year to hatch. Newly hatched omastar are roughly three inches across. Wild-born specimens have not received any parental care. Captive specimens also show little interest in their children and have even been observed eating them when held together.

Relatives

Theories for omastar’s extinction have been wide-ranging. The most common theory was that decreased calcium carbonate levels due to warming temperatures made their large shells impractical and led to the evolution of shell-less cephalopods. Another theory took the opposite approach and held that they went extinct because large shellfish evolved with shells that were too tough for omanyte to crack, leading to gradual population decline from starvation. They may also have been outcompeted by far nimbler predators or done in by the first true titans of the ocean with jaws strong enough to break open an omanyte or even an omastar.

These theories were revised or debunked as more and more recent discoveries were made. The most common species in the fossil record, the one that was ultimately revived, went extinct in the late Carboniferous or early Permian. For a time, it was believed that all omastar went extinct at some point in the Permian and were certainly wiped out by the Great Dying. L. novissime, an omastar species from the Jurassic, was discovered in Syria in 1987. Since then, three more Mesozoic omastar species have been found. These later omastar had gaps in the shell for sideways facing eyes. These were much larger than the eyes of revived omastar, suggesting they lived in deeper waters. It is now believed that species may have persisted through the end of the Cretaceous in the deep sea. Unfortunately, our knowledge of life off the continental shelves remains limited. As such we cannot definitively say how common the deep sea omastar were or how much they had declined before their eventual extinction.

 

[Persephone]

Kabutops (Kabuto)
Kabutops maximus

Overview

Kabuto are an ancient lineage dating back to the Cambrian. They were believed to have gone extinct in the late Permian or early Triassic when kabutops tracts disappeared from the fossil record. Kalosian natural historians had written treatises on the fossils as early as 1640.

European explorers rediscovered a living population of kabuto in 1722. In fact they were local abundant around Rapa Nui with thousands coming to its beaches to lay eggs every month.

Scientists were fascinated by the species. At one point bringing a live specimen back to a European university could earn a year’s wages, leading to a boom in harvesting that caused their numbers to decline. Rapa Nui banned hunting in 1811 and populations mostly rebounded.

In the 1970s interest grew in reviving fossils. Early kabutops species were a very promising candidate given the extant population to crossbreed with and knowledge of their care. This coincided with the discovery that kabuto blood contains disinfectants and coagulants. Kabuto blood now sells for tens of thousands of dollars per gallon. The European captive population had declined to eight individuals due to inbreeding and a difficulty breeding them.

All of this combined to present Rapa Nui with a very lucrative revenue source. The island was culturally rich but monetarily poor. A decision was made to reopen the kabuto harvest.

Fifty years later, the last continuous kabuto lineage is on the brink of extinction. Where thousands of kabuto once mated every month only a few dozen show up. The reduced numbers has increased pressure on the remaining eggs from seabird predation.

Wild, revived, and hybrid kabuto are expensive compared to most pokémon, but relatively cheap compared to other fossils. This makes them a popular introduction to the care of revived pokémon. While Kabutops may no longer the planet’s apex predator, they are still extremely formidable combatants that can see success through the end of the island challenge.

Physiology

Kabuto and kabutops are classified as dual rock- and water-types. Some scholars contend they deserve a big-typing as they are arthropods related to the arachnids, almost all of whom have bug-typings. They are also adept at using bug-type moves. However, their thick stone carapace, aquatic habitat, and hydrokinesis make the current typings more applicable than one primarily rooted in lineage.

Kabuto are the last of the trilobites. They are like nothing else seen on the planet since the dawn of the Mesozoic. A kabuto’s body is composed of two segments, a prosthoma and an opisthoma. The prosthoma is the head and opsithoma the remainder of the body. The prosthoma is the heavier of the segments and contains all sensory organs and the core of the nervous and circulatory systems. The opsithoma contains a segmented thorax and the bulk of the digestive, respiratory, and reproductive systems.

Kabuto have a heavy stone carapace on their back. It is not segmented and extends from the prosthoma to cover the entire body. The opsithoma is built to carry some of the weight but has no direct connection to the carapace.

Every kabuto has nine eyes. Two are located on the back. These are simple eyes that can only detect light and potentially crude motion. There are five more small, simple eyes on the front and bottom of the prosthoma. Kabuto’s primary eyes are two forward-facing, holochoral eyes. Each contains over 10,000 lenses. Kabuto have color vision, extremely accurate depth perception, and the ability to distinguish similar objects over 200 yards away in clear water. Their other senses are a bit more limited. They have a chemoreceptor used for smelling the water and a very crude sensory pit for detecting vibrations.

Kabuto also have chilicerae, a pair of fangs and pincers located just beneath the mouth. These are usually kept pressed against the exoskeleton but can be brought out to keep opponents away from the head, move food to the mouth, latch onto objects, or even to drain bodily fluids through their hollow interiors. They have eight smaller legs beneath them used for locomotion. Four are for walking and four are tipped with paddles that can propel them through the water. Only two sets are down at a time with the others tucked against the body.

Kabutops are evolved for a more predatory niche. Their thorax has more pronounced segmentation than kabuto. The carapace has split into multiple segments. A large semicircular plate covers the prosthoma. The opisthoma has a single large plate over the center of the back with smaller, slightly maneuverable plates positioned perpendicular to the long plate. The side plates, or fins, can be moved to alter the flow of water around the body and accelerate or decelerate quickly. Kabutops have a maximum swimming speed of roughly thirty-three miles per hour, which was likely far faster than their Ordovician Era prey.

Kabutops have only two pairs of legs, not including the chilicirae The foreleg of the front limbs is a large crescent-shaped blade with an extremely sharp edge. Prior to revival there was debate as to what secondary purposes they may have had. Some scholars argued they were paddles. Others that they were used to anchor in the substrate. In reality kabutops scythes are used for sex and violence. They are formidable weapons that can slash through most prey. Kabutops can also rub them against each other in a certain way to produce a scraping sound that serves as a mating call. The hind legs are much longer than kabuto with broad feet ending in two long claws. These allow them to stand bipedally on land or anchor themselves for more powerful slashes. Kabutops struggle to move quickly bipedally and prefer to slide on their stomach while creating a jet of water beneath them. Their tracts are more common in the fossil record than conventional kabutops fossils.

Until the species rediscovery by science it was unknown how they breathed in the water. They had crude air sacs in their prosthoma that could store oxygen when moving on land. However, no evidence of gills was preserved in the fossil record. Surviving and revived kabuto have book gills, appendages used for gas exchange with the surrounding water. Kabutops can manipulate their fins to drive water straight past the book gills and ensure an adequate supply of oxygen during periods of intense activity.

Kabutops grow to lengths of eight feet. Their hunched posture means they are less than six feet tall when standing upright. Females can weigh up to five hundred pounds. This is almost entirely due to the carapace. Excluding it, kabutops are far lighter than their size would suggest. Males are smaller, rarely exceeding six feet and three hundred pounds. Captive lifespans are around twenty years in good conditions. Wild kabuto lifespans are about five years.

Behavior

Kabuto are scavengers that spend most of their time trawling the substrate one to three hundred feet beneath the surface. They will also hunt any worms are small crustaceans they come across. They try to minimize eating shelled creatures as they lack a jaw to break them down. Instead, tougher food is ground by sand and pebbles in their gizzard.

Wild kabuto are known for having many other organisms living on their carapace. Kabuto have no ability to remove them, move around, and will defend themselves against larger creatures. This makes their carapace an excellent home for barnacles. They may also host echinoderms, anemones, and snails. On occasion a male will latch onto a female’s back and not let go for months, sometimes going without eating for the duration.

There has not been a truly wild kabutops population in hundreds of millions of years. They were believed to be apex predators that initially dominated the seas with their size, speed, and scythes. As the Silurian gave way to the Devonian, large fish began to compete for kabutops’ niche. They evolved to hunt on land for brief periods of time, probably to chase prey towards the shore and then eating them when they grounded themselves. Kabutops may have even used their scythes to cut down trees to eat animals nesting in them. This connection is tenuous, rooted in a single fossil of a large tree with a clean cut through it. Kabutops may have also eaten the tree itself. They are known to eat driftwood and will readily accept fruit in captivity.

Perhaps in the Permian, when the seas had long outgrown kabutops’ reign, the ability to surface let them escape their own predators.

Kabutops fossils generally have not been found clustered together. They are sometimes tolerant of conspecifics in captivity but rarely social.

Captive specimens tend to rest in their enclosure’s substrate for most of the day. Their fins are used to move oxygenated water past their book gills. They visually track moving objects. If they decide to attack, they lift themselves off the seafloor and quickly accelerate to chase the prey down before ending it with a slash. They prefer to drive prey onto land rather than killing it underwater as the former lets them drain all the fluids with their chilicirae. Their lungs may have evolved to chase prey onto land, but scholars have argued with these results as they occurred in revived, captive specimens in situations where they may have been incentivized to push their prey to shore due to the design of the testing facility.

Husbandry

Kabuto are hardy creatures that can survive in water between 55 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. They can tolerate salinities between seven and sixty parts per thousand. Pools should be a minimum of two hundred square feet with a thick layer of sandy substrate. They do not care about depth as long as their entire carapace is underwater. Kabuto can be given access to a land area but will not reliably use it.

Kabutops need larger, deeper pools than kabuto. The deepest part should be at least eight feet deep. Substrate should be at least as thick as in a kabuto tank. Kabutops prefer having access to a sandy beach area. If indoors they enjoy having a heat lamp to bask under.

Theoretically both kabuto and kabutops can survive indefinitely on land as long as they receive adequate food and access to fluids. This still causes them distress, especially if the ocean is not in view. Use of a translator can alleviate concerns. Kabutops are reasonably intelligent and can be trained through classical condition or bargained with through a translator.

Kabuto enjoy oysters or clams that have been removed from their shells, crustacean, fish, and worms. They can be fed some pre-packaged mixes but these are generally inadequate for meeting all of their dietary needs. On land kabuto should be given access to a pouch with a thin membrane and water inside of it. Kabuto can stab into the pouch and drink through their chilicirae. Scattering food in their substrate can be good enrichment but can also foul the water if it is not found.

Kabutops prefer fish and larger invertebrates. They will also eat amphibians and reptiles. Birds and mammals will sometimes be accepted, but this varies depending on the individual. Kabutops prefer food that is strung along by a fishing line or other cable to give them something to chase.

In addition to their standard diet, kabuto and kabutops should either be kept in mineral rich water or given frequent access to small pebbles and fragmented cuttlebones to allow for proper carapace growth.

Kabuto are extremely easygoing teammates that rarely have conflicts with teammates, aside from a few very large predators that try to eat them. Kabutops are also surprisingly accepting of other species so long as they do not swim in their pool. Anything that swims in their pool while the kabutops is hungry may be chased down and dismembered, regardless of prior affinity. Allies met exclusively on land, in shallow water, or while full are usually tolerated. Some are even appreciated if they prove competent battlers or help clean the kabutops’ carapace.

Illness

Kabuto and kabutops rarely have serious health problems. Physical injuries can be healed by molting. Bacterial and viruses in their bloodstream are usually clotted around and prevented from spreading to the rest of the body. Some parasites can be a problem if they lodge themselves near the book gills. They are also known to be host to cyanobacteria colonies that can make them very sick. Finally there is the risk of panhypoproteinemia. This syndrome causes a gradual loss of proteins throughout the body. It is 100% lethal and usually kills within five weeks of detection. Its cause is still unknown but the syndrome has become rarer as husbandry has improved.

Evolution

Kabuto spend the first week of their life drifting as larvae. Then they sink to the seafloor and settle. Kabuto grow extremely rapidly, alternating between week long periods of molting, growing, and reforming their carapace and three day periods of non-stop consumption. Kabuto undergo twenty molts in their first sixth months of life until they reach full size. Every molt involves less physical growth and more growth of the carapace. Kabuto can consume small portions of their old stone armor but cannot process shed exoskeletons like some modern crustaceans can. The long periods spent without any protection leads to extremely high juvenile mortality.

Kabuto have not evolved into kabutops for hundreds of millions of years. The lineages that could evolve died out at the end of the Permian in favor of sticking to scavenging the benthos for life. Revived and hybridized kabuto can evolve. If food is extremely abundant for a few weeks kabuto will gorge themselves. After a few days of nearly continuous eating they may flash evolve into a kabutops. The new kabutops is only about 50% larger than the kabuto. They will steadily grow to their full size over the course of four to five more months. Unlike modern crustaceans kabutops do reach a terminal size and will no longer molt unless injured. These molts do not result in growth, simply regeneration.

Captive kabutops prefer to spend the entire molting process hiding in the sand. During this time their claws are not fully developed and they have few defensive or offensive tools.

A kabuto that has stopped molting can be provided a great deal of food for several weeks. This will usually trigger evolution.

Battle

Kabutops’ viability is more dependent on the arena than most pokémon. Specifically, their odds of success depend on the floor. Kabutops can zip around open, sandy arenas with or without water features and deliver devastating blows up close. Any attacks aimed their way while in motion will hit their armor. Environments that are slick due to rainfall are extra beneficial.

Kabutops struggle to maneuver on grassy terrain and hard, packed surfaces like concrete. Arenas with lots of features to avoid are even more problematic.

Kabutops aren’t particularly fast without sliding. They can still outwalk most walls. Their very sharp claws, decently strong armor, and access to swords dance can make them an intimidating wallbreaker in any environment. Their use as a sweeper depends on terrain or the presence of rain. They are reasonably popular on rain teams but can struggle a little outside of them.

On the island challenge kabutops can simply end many fights with a few slashes of their scythes. Even totems cannot keep battling with large gashes in their size. Hard, artificial battlefields are also relatively rare. Many battlefields even have water features. The simple combination of water and bug attacks gives them an advantage over three of the kahunas, although their rock-typing gives them a disadvantage against Hala.

Kabuto function better as support pokémon that can deal damage as needed. Their shells let them tank almost any weak physical hit while setting up stealth rocks or firing projectiles. In a war of attrition, the kabuto eventually wins. Assuming, of course, that they aren’t flipped over. Kabuto have no means of righting themselves on land and cannot so much of anything if flipped onto their back. The armor beneath them is weaker than the armor above, letting most opponents quickly and easily defeat them while defenseless. Kabuto’s weight and very low center of gravity can make this easier said than done.

Acquisition

International conservation treaties heavily restrict the movement of live wild kabuto. Almost all specimens available in Alola or revived or hybridized. As fossils they are predictably expensive. The cost is more affordable than others. A hybridized kabuto can be purchased for less than three thousand dollars. A pure revived kabuto is somewhat more expensive. Kabutops are rarely available but can sometimes be adopted. Both stages can be purchased or adopted with a Class III license.

Breeding

Kabuto gather on spring tides, high tides under a full moon, to deposit their eggs. They congregate in the intertidal zone. Females dig small burrows and insert eggs through an ovipositor. At least one male will then fertilize the eggs. The female buries them under a thin layer of sand and then departs back to the sea. Kabuto are believed to lay eggs only three to four times per year. Males may attempt to fertilize them far more frequently. A female can lay thousands of eggs at a time.

Captive breeding requires a setup with an artificial beach, simulated tides, and access to natural moonlight. It is fairly straightforward, though, and the kabuto do not mind humans taking their eggs to put them into a hatchery tank.

Hybridized kabuto can breed. Pure revived kabuto cannot. Kabutops mating involves displays of strength between males. These do not involve their scythes, which are to be dangerous to spar with. Instead they stand bipedally on the beach and attempt to knock the other over by pressing into them with their chest. The strongest males may attract a female’s attention. She will then deposit eggs in the intertidal zone and the male will fertilize them. Males then stay with the eggs to guard them until they hatch. Kabutops can lay tens of thousands of eggs at a time and lay them up to five times a year. They often pick the same mates but sometimes change their selection over time.

Captive breeding only requires two kabutops of opposite sexes. Ideally, they would be kept apart outside of the week before a full moon. Kabutops will not willingly surrender eggs and may lash out if they are withdrawn to their ball while eggs are removed. They are not protective of larvae or juveniles.

Relatives

Over the course of millions of years, dozens of genera of trilobites rose and fell. Today, two are alive. The first is the natural kabuto, Ultimum deceptor. The revived kabutops are discussed in the entry above. No recent fossils of other kabuto species have been found.

There are persistent rumors that the Plasma Liberation Front directly or indirectly controlled a project trying to create a super weapon. The existence of this weapon, referred to as genesect, has never been proven. Regardless, enough evidence has been leaked that it would be unwise to entirely dismiss it. The story goes that Plasma made a genetically modified kabutops with no scythes but a powerful cannon on its back. Reports vary as to how many, if any, were successfully created. There are no credible reports of the PLF or its successors using a genesect in any of their activities.

 

[Persephone]

Cradily (Lileep)
Quattuor vulgaris

Overview

Lileep evolved in the Ordovician. Most species were wiped out by the end of the Permian. Those that survived evolved a mobile adult form, cradily. As the dinosaurs ruled the land during the Jurassic, the cradily came to dominate the seas. Cradily fossils from this era are extremely abundant and range in size from inches in diameter to 130 feet. The grand cradily were already in decline by the middle of the Cretaceous. The end of the Mesozoic spelled the end for all but the smallest species. Living fossils survive in the deep sea, but they are now all less than a foot across as adults. Most lack complex nervous systems or advanced elemental manipulation. It is a matter of some debate whether they should qualify as pokémon at all.

The Jurassic cradily, Harlson’s cradily, or the common cradily—Q. vulgaris—was among the first fossil species to be revived due to the presence of a living relative and their sheer abundance in the fossil record. Lileep are a somewhat advanced aquarium species. Cradily are simpler to care for. They are odd creatures that are still somewhat difficult to obtain. Those who can get their hands on one may find them to be one of the most endearing and least destructive fossil pokémon available.

Physiology

Both cradily and lileep are classified as dual grass- and rock-types. They are capable of photosynthesis and have heavy mineral-based armor. They may also qualify for a water-typing given their habitat and mild hydrokinesis. The basis for their current two typings is stronger and so they are likely to remain in place.

For centuries there was a debate among natural philosophers as to whether cradily were plants or animals. They are similar to modern echinoderms, just with four-fold symmetry. Fossil evidence suggested they possessed root systems and lived near the surface. It was possible they photosynthesized, although information on their coloration and the presence of chloroplasts was never uncovered. It was only upon the first cellular analysis of surviving lileep was it confirmed that they can photosynthesize due to microorganisms beneath the surface. Lileep are animals.

Lileep consist of three segments. The first is a base and holdfast system. The base is a piece of stone armor with a basin on the top. Lileep filter minerals from the water and ground with their mouth before having specialized microorganisms secrete thin layers of stone that build on top of each other. Lileep’s holdfasts, which are very similar to roots, extend from the base. Their holdfasts are a network of root-like fibers that anchor the pokémon in place. Lileep can bore into solid stone if needed, but prefer sand or fragmented stone.

The second segment is the stalk. The stalk is an unarmored cord containing a water-based vascular system for moving resources. Lileep also have some control of the direction the stalk moves. The stalk length and direction can be adjusted throughout the day to keep the arboral cup facing sunlight or ideal feeding opportunities. When out of the water the stalk is withdrawn entirely into the base.

Lileep’s arboral cup is an armored, bell-like structure containing the bulk of the pokémon’s organs. Most of its exterior is porous and home to photosynthesizing microorganisms. There are two spots on the cap’s face that appear to be eyes. They are not. Lileep can sense light but do not have proper eyes. These spots are the mouth and anus. Lileep’s digestive tract is short and u-shaped with both orifices located right next to each other.

The arboral cup has eight tentacles, or feathers. These are actually groupings of many fine tentacles that can capture particles from the water column and slowly move them towards the mouth. The feathers can also excrete digestive acids and enzymes to reduce the amount of digestion that needs to happen in the gut. Different parts of each feather are also home to photosynthesizing microorganisms that supplement the pokémon’s carnivorous tendencies.

Lileep tend to be have purple or pink tentacles and armor. This helps them blend in better with the shadows. The arboral cup has concentric circle patterns on the side to present the illusion of eyes and deter predators. The face of the cup is black with yellow markings around the mouth and anus to act as an additional face for confusing or intimidating predators. The stem tends to be brown or yellow.

Cradily are mobile. The base sheathes four shorter, thicker tentacles that can be used for locomotion or rooting into the substrate. The base’s weight also provides resistance against being moved by waves, tides, or other organisms. Cradily can move at speeds of up to 1500 feet per hour. The stalk is now the same color as the rest of the body, green, to better blend in with coastal seagrasses. Cradily’s stalk can vary in apparent length from just a few inches to fifteen feet. A pressurized hydraulic chamber can be filled and released to shoot the arboral cap out to full length in a fraction of a second, wounding or killing whatever it is shot at. This usually injures the cradily as well and is used only as a last resort.

The relatively flat arboral cap surface of lileep develops into a large mouth structure that can entirely close and fill with acids and digestive enzymes. This allows for the consumption of larger prey. Two crude teeth are used to hold prey in place. The risk of having a living organism thrashing inside of the mouth limits cradily to eating slow, weak, or dead food. The teeth’s sharp edges can also be used to bite off and eat seagrasses as necessary. The tentacles can still be used to capture microorganisms and funnel them towards the mouth. Cradily’s anus is located at the base of the mouth where the throat might be in a vertebrate animal. Waste from the rest of the body is excreted into the mouth for release. Undigestible waste is also spit out directly.

Common cradily can grow to weigh 180 pounds and reach a maximum stalk length of 15 feet. The length of a single tentacle is usually about eleven inches in an adult. Captive lifespans of fifteen years are common. Lifespans in the Jurassic are not known.

Behavior

Lileep latch onto a surface, ideally towards the base of a reef, and begin to feed. They cannot move their base. The arboral cap can be extended and moved towards areas of greater water flow to enable more efficient feeding. When threatened they can withdraw their stalk and tentacles to leave fewer unarmored targets. They likely declined in the Cretaceous due to the evolution of pokémon who filled a role similar to the modern bruxish and could easily crush stone armor and eat the immobile lileep.

Cradily have more complex behaviors aided by their locomotion. They usually move towards shallow seagrass beds for camouflage and to increase available prey. Revived cradily tend to rely on their tentacles to catch food in areas of extremely abundant microorganisms or during the spawning season of nearby species. In the past cradily may have migrated between spawning grounds throughout the year to capture eggs and zooplankton.

The mouth can be used to capture larger prey, including small fish in the water column. Cradily can also root around in the substrate, digest any animals they uncover, and then spit out the inorganic material. One specimen in an outdoor holding area was observed catching and consuming a wingull. Cradily can survive for hours at a time on land. Specimens held in intertidal zones tend to simply retreat into their base and arboral cap during low tide while becoming active again at high tide. Some have been observed entering tidal pools to hunt.

Husbandry

Lileep require a tank or pool containing at least 500 gallons to comfortably keep. Larger tanks work better. They paradoxically need both very high water quality and an abundance of suspended organic material to eat. This is best achieved through target feeding. Lileep can come to recognize chemical cues and vibration patterns associated with a target. They can then approach a target before zooplankton are released from or near it. Lileep can sometimes filter feed almost entirely off of organic waste or zooplankton in very large community tanks, but this requires a gentle but persistent water flow past them at all times. Finally, lileep are photosynthetic and require a lighting system commonly used for live plants or coral. The water should be kept between 71 and 77 degrees with a pH of 8 to 8.5. A wide range of salinities can be tolerated. Calcium levels should be kept high to allow for armor formation.

Cradily are comparatively easy to care for. They can survive in salt or brackish water. Even dry air can be tolerated for several hours. Feeding consists of putting seafood in their environment and letting them find and eat it. They can also have food dropped straight into their mouth for convenience. They should be allowed to bask for a few hours a day to keep their microorganisms healthy.

Cradily sense the world primarily through scent, touch, and vibration. They can smell in both air and water. Cradily can sense the presence, direction, and intensity of light but not its color. They cannot see shapes or motion. A combination of smell and hearing lets them track large creatures in their environment. Trainers should keep in mind that audio cues will be far more effective than visual ones.

Cradily are acceptable teammates for anything too big to fit in their mouth. Smaller pokémon may be eaten. This is a problem behavior in battles that will need to be trained out of them. Fortunately their teeth and digestive acids are rarely strong enough to kill a pokémon instantly and there is time to persuade them to spit it out.

Some cradily will display affection towards trainers by resting the arboral cup on them. This can be awkward or even dangerous given the sheer weight of the cup. It may be helpful to redirect the cup into the space between the legs and then gently stroke the exterior. Do not touch the tentacles.

Illness

Cradily depend on a variety of microorganisms to form their ossicles and photosynthesize. The main problem in their care, historically, has been getting the correct microorganisms to bond with them and then keeping them there. The original organisms cradily were bonded with are long extinct. The ossicle-forming microorganisms on modern cradily are not tolerant of warm waters. Only crossbreeding and gene editing could recreate a modern organism that can fill the role for ancient cradily. This needs to be introduced to lileep when they are very young. Coral zooxanthellae can be persuaded to live in cradily’s arboral cup but not the tentacles. Modern cradily do not photosynthesize. The most success so far has been seen with an algae. However, this can die out after extended periods on land or particularly intense battles. Occasional reseeding may be necessary.

Most soft tissue is very delicate. An attack that breaches the ossicles could prove fatal. Thankfully cradily armor is incredibly sturdy. Permanent injury is unlikely so long as the pokémon is withdrawn when visual damage is sustained. The tenacles can be regenerated in a matter of days and were probably commonly lost in the wild.

Evolution

The holdfasts become increasingly brittle and begin to fall away as evolution approaches. The arboral cup deepens and pigmentation shifts throughout the body in anticipation of evolution. Four tentacles become increasingly prominent on the base. Eventually the last holdfast falls away and evolution is formally completed. With modern husbandry this typically occurs around the two-year mark.

Battle

Cradily do not see much competitive use. They are durable rock-types that can soak up water attacks and retaliate with super effective coverage. Unfortunately, they have many drawbacks. Their lack of proper eyes leaves them reliant on vibration sensing. This is fine in the water where everything that moves sends out vibrations in all directions. It is less useful in air where vibrations attenuate much faster. Cradily are also functionally immobile in battle. Many of their best strategies, such as ingrain and curse, sacrifice any pretense of mobility they might have otherwise had. With everything taken together it is not worth risking the investment in a fossil pokémon to use one in serious battle.

Many of cradily’s weaknesses remain on the island challenge. They cannot move quickly and struggle to understand the state of the battlefield. The lower power level offers a considerable benefit, though: between their natural durability and access to moves like recover, ingrain, and giga drain it can be functionally impossible to knock a cradily out. Eventually they will prevail with a lucky strike or attrition from hazards. It’s a good idea to poison or otherwise put a totem on a timer and then stall them out with cradily. This strategy stops being as effective towards the end of the island challenge as all of the current Ula’Ula and Poni totems can hit cradily for super effective damage.

Lileep should not be battled with or removed from the spot they are attached to.

Acquisition

Lileep can be acquired with a Class III license. Cradily require a Class II. Few breeders in Alola specialize in them. Most orders will have to be handled through a specialty dealer, an upscale aquarium shop, or the Konikoni Fossils and Gemstones Emporium. There was formerly a large-scale research project on Akala and even an attempted introduction into the wild. These initiatives failed when bruxish broke into the sea pens and killed most of the lileep present. Lileep must typically be acquired as eggs as they cannot be removed once they have attached. The cost of ten eggs, the typical sale volume, is typically between five and six thousand dollars. It is unlikely more than three develop into lileep. Cradily typically sell for around ten thousand.

Breeding

Cradily are not hermaphrodites. Every individual has one set of sex organs that appears to be static throughout their life. They are stored in the arboral cup but can be moved out onto the tentacles. If a male and cradily meet during mating season, typically the spring, the male will sway his stem and arboral cup in a form of dancing. If the female joints they may intertwine their stems and press their tentacles together. Eggs and sperm will join on the tentacles. The fertilized eggs will then be deposited on loose, rocky substrate. The male will guard them until they hatch. Larval lileep will then emerge into the watr column and float for roughly one week before settling onto the first surface they encounter.

Breeding in captivity can occur between two specimens that are familiar with each other or strangers. The male typically will not retaliate if the eggs are removed when he is withdrawn. The eggs should then be moved to the tank the lileep will live in until evolution.

Relatives

The earliest proto-lileep evolved in the mid-Cambrian. They had several advantages that made them competitive at the time: sturdy armor few predators could pierce and photosynthesis chief among them. They were also echinoderms with five-fold symmetry. The echinoderm lileep could not evolve. They stayed relatively small and became less common throughout the eras until the time of the Great Dying. Few lileep species survived. One that did apparently had a random mutation resulting in four-fold symmetry. This became common in all lileep—and cradily—as the family reached its zenith.

The first cradily appear in the fossil record in the Triassic. They are accompanied by gigantic lileep with diameters of over 100 feet. Cradily could scavenge, hunt, or photosynthesize in or out of the water. They could stay in the intertidal zone and avoid the kinds of large predators strong enough to eat them. In areas with dinosaurs capable of killing cradily they could simply stay in somewhat deeper water. In some areas the vast majority of Jurassic-era fossils found are cradily.

By the Cretaceous era the tides had turned on coastal cradily. Large or intelligent species evolved on land that could easily bypass their defenses through force or finesse. Cradily’s slow speed and limited attack power left them unable to effectively fight back. The oceans were also home to increasingly large numbers of smaller predators capable of preying on lileep, if not cradily. Disease took its tole on the remaining populations. By the end of the Cretaceous coastal cradily were already nearly extinct. The impact just sealed their fate.

A few species survive in the deep sea. The rose petal lileep (Clarapetalis clarapetalis) is known for their long tentacles that are bright red and coated in a potent adhesive. Anything that sticks to them is digested on the spot, unable to escape, before being brought to the mouth. They are found on the continental shelf off the Atlantic coast of Africa and have been displayed and even bred in multiple public aquaria. They are not known to evolve.

The largest known surviving cradily, the pale bell cradily (Sacoris monterri), is found just off the shelf in California. Their body is white and some of their flesh is even translucent. They are exclusively carnivorous and keep their mouth open wide before snapping it shut when something swims through. They are only three feet tall and prey primarily on small fish. Pale bell cradily can imitate the bioluminescent chemicals of its prey to replicate their patterns, drawing in more to feed on. They have been known to bite submersibles far larger than they are.

 

[Persephone]

Armaldo (Anorith)
Octoalis armatis

Overview

Anorith were some of the first apex predators to evolve. Their powerful eyes, strange wings, and sharp claws made them perceptive, mobile, and strong. This was all relative to the Cambrian. By the time of the Devonian anorith were solidly outclassed by the new predators who had followed in their footsteps. Even the evolution of armaldo couldn’t keep them alive until the Great Dying.

Armaldo are still reasonably capable pokémon in battle with a ridiculously strong punch and strong armor. Trainers interested in raising a Paleozoic fossil pokémon comfortable on land may find armaldo to be just the pokémon they’re looking for.

Physiology

Anorith and armaldo are both classified as dual bug- and rock-types. This is disputed. Armaldo have stone armor and a penchant for rock-type attacks. They are considered to be an ancestor of most modern bug-types. In captivity they can readily learn moves like x-scissor. They are not considered to be arthropods in the modern sense. Some taxonomists argue a water typing is more appropriate as they are (semi-) aquatic creatures who can use water-type attacks.

Anorith are radiodants, a now extinct order of proto-arthropods that thrived during the Cambrian. This makes them unlike anything else alive today. Their body is long and relatively flat with four wing-like flaps on each side of the body. These swimming flaps can be undulated to allow for movement speeds of up to three to four miles per hour. This was quite fast in the Cambrian but is rather slow today. There are two more appendages at the end of the body that look like stiff tails. These function as rudders and help the pokémon turn.

Anorith have two frontal appendages. These are crude pincers that can grow up to a quarter of the pokémon’s total length. The appendages could be use to grasp food and move it to the oral cone, a collection of plates covering the mouth. This is located on the underside of the pokémon’s head. In later anorith species and armaldo there is a group of muscles at the base of the appendages capable of incredible elastic compression and release. This can send the appendages flying forward at speeds fast enough to create a vacuum between the claw and the shell struck. The physics of the vaccum’s formation and collapse do more damage to the target than the actual strike. This is far more potent in armaldo than anorith. The former can crack cloyster shells with repeated hits. The latter can just bypass basic exoskeleton armor. The sharp edge of the appendage can also be used to cut prey into more manageable chunks.

Anorith’s eyes are their most impressive adaptation. Each eye is located at the end of a stalk on the side of the head. These are compound eyes with resolution comparable to modern yanma. They were entirely unmatched until the evolution of camera eyes.

Armaldo are larger, bulkier creatures than the streamlined anorith. Their stony armor can be up to half an inch thick. It was probably capable of surviving every attack in the Devonian save those from other armaldo and potentially dracosteous. Armaldo’s large lungs can store air to counterbalance the weight of their armor and allow them to move in water.

The swimming flaps have not grown and are now located on the neck. They are far too small to provide any assistance in swimming. Two more fixed flaps are located above the long tail. The tail is tipped in two thagomizers and is primarily used for balancing the pokémon when standing on two legs and moving when in the water. It is also capable of powerful attacks at greater range than the claws.

Armaldo have two arms and two legs rather than the frontal and hind appendages of anorith. The legs are short, stocky, and heavily armored to support the pokemon’s weight. The arms are tipped in pincers and are capable of far more devastating punches than anorith. Nothing could stop their attacks in the Devonian. It is possible that nothing could survive repeated hits from an armaldo at the time of their extinction.

Armaldo have a long, armored neck leading to the head. There are still compound eyes on either side of it. They now have a hinged mouth instead of an oral cone.

Theories abound on the radical differences between anorith and armaldo. For a long time it was believed that they were two different species and juvenile armaldo had simply never been found. Their connection was not firmly established until the first anorith evolved in captivity.

Armaldo’s maximum lifespan is around thirty years, although fifteen to twenty years is more common. They can reach lengths of six feet while swimming or four feet while standing and weigh up to 350 pounds.

Behavior

Anorith have powerful punches capable of shattering armor. This allowed them hunt slow, heavy prey like bivalves. Their large swimming flaps were designed not for speed but for pushing away sand to expose benthic organisms like worms and bivalves.

Armaldo were capable of hunting on land or in the sea. They have odd activity patterns that vary by area and individual. This let them adapt to prey on local creatures in their burrows whenever they rested. They are patient with high stamina. Revived specimens have been known to track prey across fairly large distances. Even if they are not fast enough to catch the prey, they can outlast them and kill them in their sleep. Armaldo’s armor and brutal punches ensured they would win against anything that tried to fight them rather than fleeing. Alternatively, they could hunt underwater slow prey underwater. Modern armaldo have been known to employ ambush strategies while hiding in kelp or seagrass. These had not evolved in the Devonian. Their bright colors would have made hiding in plain sight difficult.

Husbandry

Anorith are an almost exclusively aquatic species that prefers highly saline waters resembling those of the Carboniferous. They are also relatively solitary. Community tanks need to be large and kept well fed. Anorith prefer to have visible barriers or at least tinted glass. They can be fed fresh or frozen fish. Live fish work as good enrichment but can often outrun the anorith. Calcium supplements are required to ensure healthy armor development. They should also be provided granite or basalt pebbles roughly the size of a pea.

Armaldo are generally easier to care for. They can tolerate a wider range of salinities and spend over 24 hours at a time on land. They eat most meats but prefer crustacean, mollusk, fish, or amphibian flesh. Water is unnecessary as long as fresh food is provided. Calcium supplements and the occasional small rock are necessary dietary supplements.

Housebreaking armaldo is difficult but can be done with patience and a great deal of positive reinforcement. It is usually easiest to link feeding and excretion so that armaldo will defecate in one location and then go to another to eat. This teaches them to signal hunger and helps ensure they do not defecate in inconvenient places.

Heat lamps or good basking areas, sand pits, and highly saline pools are important components of a good Armaldo habitat. Traveling trainers will have to find chances for them to bask every day and swim or dig every other day. Swimming needs can be reduced through use of a Paleo Ball.

Armaldo are good teammates once it established that food is abundant and will be provided by the trainer. They are still not particularly social or intelligent creatures. Armaldo may share basking spots or occasionally express interest in a toy.

Illness

Anorith and armaldo do not molt. This spares them from periods of vulnerability but leaves them more vulnerable to permanent damage than true arthropods. In their era they used their heavy armor to avoid sustaining injury in the first place. Damage to the armor can slowly be evened out or repaired. Lost limbs cannot be regenerated. Eyes can be regrown over the course of a year. These are still the species’ most critical weakness. A blind armaldo would have stood little chance of survival in the wild.

Most infectious diseases that would have affected armaldo are long extinct. They are distant enough from modern arthropods that few diseases have crossed over. The main health problems in the early years after revival stemmed from insufficiently salty water. The Paleozoic seas were about twice as saline as modern water. Armaldo have more resistance to fresh water and modern seawater. In their own times they may have swum in brackish and even freshwater in pursuit of their prey.

Lack of calcium supplements can lead to steady deterioration of the armor. A lack of rocky substrate can lead to stunted growth.

Evolution

Anorith flash evolve into armaldo after reaching a sufficient size. This is usually around the time they reach a length of thirty inches. Anorith approaching evolution spend more time in shallow waters. They also pay more attention to their environment as they try to find ideal future hunting spots. Newly evolved armaldo are roughly four feet long. They grow to their full size over the next three to five years.

Battle

Armaldo are durably pokémon with a mix of powerful short-ranged options. Their most powerful option on land is their tail swipe. Their punch, while strong, is much weaker in air as most of its destructive power comes from the collapsing vacuum rather than the physical strike.

Armaldo are functionally stationary. Their armor provides a measure of protection but can be bypassed by psionic and spectral attacks. Their ranged options are not as powerful as their melee attacks. In practice armaldo work best as a pokémon that can force melee attackers into a confrontation or burn time setting up stealth rocks. A few melee attackers can seriously harm them. Some physical walls like steelix can tank all of armaldo’s attacks. This is all to say that armaldo are not particularly good in land based metagames. Underwater their stronger punches can devastate anything they hit but most opponents will be more mobile. They usually require status support from teammates to support a late game sweep.

In any format intentionally targeting the eyes is considered excessive force that can result in forfeiting the match and potential fines or suspension.

The island challenge is far more favorable to armaldo. Arenas are smaller, letting armaldo traverse them faster and giving opponents few options to escape. Their tail swipes are strong enough to seriously hurt most opponents. Few opponents can even hurt hope to damage their armor.

Anorith do not enjoy spending time on land. They can tolerate it for the length of a short battle but have essentially no mobility. On land arenas they can set up stealth rocks if trained to do so but accomplish little else. Underwater they can tank many attacks and swim, even if they are not particularly fast in the modern age. It’s usually better to introduce anorith to the concept of battles, teach them a few moves, and wait to use them more extensively until they’ve evolved.

Acquisition

Anorith and armaldo are only available in captivity. In recent years they have become more widely available. An anorith can still cost nearly ten thousand dollars. Armaldo can go for double the price.

Anorith are available from a handful of high-end aquarium supply stores or specialty dealers. Armaldo usually require an import license or special arrangement with a current owner as few adults are kept in the region.

Breeding

Armaldo are not particularly territorial. Conspecifics of both sexes are tolerated in times of abundance. Mating tends to occur following periods of abundant food in large enclosure studies. In normal conditions it occurs a few times throughout the year. Armaldo seem to select mates based on the vibrancy of their colors, especially the swimming flaps. Mating itself takes several hours due to the species’ bulk and thick armor.

After roughly thirty days of internal development the female deposits an egg sac under rocky substrate. It is then abandoned. A single sac can produce up to 200 anorith, although wild mortality rates were likely so high that only one or two survived the first six months of life. This fecundity has allowed the revived population to quickly grow.

In captivity two armaldo can be kept on the same time. Communities of adults are also possible. Eggs can be collected and moved to a hatchery shortly after they are deposited.

Armaldo have not expressed interest in crossbreeding with modern arthropods. It is unclear if they could produce viable offspring.

Relatives

In the Cambrian anorith were capable of chasing down and finishing off unarmored prey such as primitive fish. Armored species were too difficult for them to pierce, even if they could be scooped up in their frontal appendages.

Over time anorith’s status as an apex predator diminished before becoming entirely out of reach. They could not outrun most lightly armored species. They could not bring down slow, armored ones. Their relatively small size made them vulnerable to the new apex predators. This is when the oldest anorith species disappear from the fossil record. The new anorith developed thicker armor, swimming flaps capable of blowing away sand, and their devastating punches to help them hunt the bivalves and benthic organisms they could still outmaneuver. O. Amartis is a prime example of these anorith.

Other species developed lighter armor and tried to hunt slower fish. Their swimming speed was still probably limited to about ten to fifteen miles per hour, limiting their ability to catch maneuverable opponents. Their lighter armor also made them vulnerable to other predators.

Some Devonian Era anorith began to go onto land. The amphibians and terrestrial vertebrates were relatively easy prey for anything capable of following them onto dry land. This opened up an entirely new food source as new problems began to appear underwater. Specifically, the larger bivalves developed water jets that let them move away at speeds anorith could not match. This limited the food supply of larger specimens and led to the development of a separate adult phase.

It’s not entirely clear what finished armaldo off. Faster bivalves cut off a major foot source for anorith. Predators emerged that were strong enough to prey on juveniles and even adults. Their strategy of hauling a heavy body long distances over land was never a good one. Burrows may have become deeper to keep burrowing creatures safe. Whatever the case, the last armaldo went extinct in the early Permian.

 

[Persephone]

Rampardos (Cranidos)
Lacertacarpa fractiligno

Overview

Of all the pokémon species lost to time, the dinosaurs have always commanded the most attention. The first fossils to be revived were invertebrates with modern counterparts. After that research shifted to the reptiles of the Mesozoic.

Rampardos were among the first successful dinosaur revivals. They were of great scientific interest due to the many mysteries surrounding their behavior. More importantly, they can live in large breeding bashes on private ranches. This made raising a sustainable revived population far more practical than for tyrantrum and aurorus.

This does not necessarily make them easy for the average trainer to care for. Rampardos predate fines for property damage. Early researchers believed they were accidentally destructive. This is not the case. They just knock things over when they are hungry, upset, or scared. Rampardos trainers need to be excellent trainers, counselors, or both to avoid the already hefty premiums attached to rampardos ownership climbing ever higher.

Physiology

Both cranidos and rampardos are classified as pure rock-types. There is an argument for a dual steel-typing. Original rampardos may have been steel-types. Their skull domes, while technically bone, contain a high iron concentration. Second and third generation rampardos also use iron defense before engaging in ramming attacks. They still rarely use steel-type attacks offensively. For now a pure rock typing is maintained as researchers monitor future generations.

Cranidos are bipedal dinosaurs with broad, three-clawed feet. Their tail is relatively short and covered in blue feathers. The feathers extend over the back and part of the thighs. The rest of their body is covered in leathery grey or black skin, except for a patch of blue scales on the skull dome. Their arms are long enough to reach their mouth but cannot reach the ground when the p okémon is standing upright. Cranidos tend to stand with their spine parallel to the ground.

Cranidos’s skull fascinated paleontologists before and after their revival. Their teeth are relatively sharp and showed little sign of wear. They are adapted for eating fruits, soft leaves, and meat rather than grasses or bark. Four bone spikes protrude from the back of the head. The skull itself has a prominent bulge with a high metal concentration.

The species has one of the smallest brain-to-body ratios of all known dinosaurs. The skull is primarily structured to support the dome and provide some measure of cushioning around the brain. Even this is not enough to prevent somewhat frequent concussions. If cranidos were more intelligent it would probably be undone by frequent head trauma. Cranidos have relatively sophisticated noses and a decent sense of hearing. Their vision is fairly limited and is mostly used for identifying silhouettes, movement, and basic colors. They struggle with fine details.

Rampardos retain the same general body shape as cranidos. Their tail is far longer to help counter-balance the weight of their skull. Their dome can now be up to fourteen inches in males thick and prominently rises above the rest of the skull. Females usually have a dome about half the size of males. Both sexes have a short, hard beak for cracking nuts and other hard foods. Rampardos have developed far more semi-metallic bone spikes across their body. These include one on each knee, two on the neck, and two on the front of the skull. Two of the old four spines grow far larger, up to sixteen inches long.

Rampardos can grow up to ten feet in length with a typical height of five feet while standing. They usually weigh between 900 and 1200 pounds. Lifespans with proper care are greater than thirty years.

Behavior

Paleontologists long believed that rampardos used their skulls for ramming into each other in dominance battles like modern caprids. This has been observed among revived specimens but is extremely rare. Caprids have horns to redirect some of the force of impact. Rampardos strike directly with their skull. They can also run at speeds of up to thirty miles an hour. Rampardos could not survive a head-on impact with another specimen moving at those speeds. Dominance displays in captivity tend to involve striking their rival’s flanks or wrestling with interlocked horns, heads beside each other.

Rampardos do still employ head-on charges as a primary attack. They are known to ram into trees to knock down fruits, nuts, and leaves. This often knocks the entire tree down. Rampardos will also charge at things that upset or threaten them. This is especially common for mothers protecting their young. They will usually eat anything they kill in defense or on accident but do not actively hunt.

Cranidos have been known to engage in recreational skull bashing. This is almost never done at full strength and seems to be a play behavior rather than one linked to dominance. It is more common among males but has been observed in females.

Rampardos live in bashes consisting of one adult male, up to fifteen females, and their cranidos. Non-dominant males tend to be solitary. They may also attract one to two females if the main bash in an area becomes overcrowded. The major research facilities often sell excess males to fund their operations. This is where most publicly available specimens come from.

There is some debate as to what habitats rampardos preferred. Parts of their ancient range were covered in tropical forests. Damaged trees have been found near rampardos fossils. Fruit and nut bearing trees are an important part of their diet in captivity. They have also been found in areas that were probably savannah or grasslands. The original bash in California’s Central Valley initially required supplemental food but have since learned to feed on various crops and soft plants that are grown on the ranch.

Rampardos are known to move across fairly large ranges when allowed to do so in order to allow food sources to replenish. Some paleontologists have speculated they were migratory based on a large number of fossils found together who may have drowned in a swamp or river crossing. This is very difficult to test in revived specimens living in fixed home ranges.

Older cranidos will often leave their parents and form their own subadult bash. These consist of full or half-siblings. Males will eventually go off to live on their own. Females will disperse to established bashes they encounter.

Husbandry

Rampardos and cranidos live primarily on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and leaves. This disqualifies many grass or leaf dominated herbivore mixes. In practice it’s usually best to provide them with fresh ingredients and the occasional primate biscuit for protein. They also require supplements of minerals, especially iron. These can take the form of vitamins, mineral-rich foods, or actual rocks.

For wild rampardos obtaining food was a time-consuming activity that often involved foraging for rare, valuable food sources other herbivores had not yet gotten to. Other times they knocked down trees. In either case their food intake was limited by time and caloric expenditures. This is not the case in captivity. Rampardos are greedy eaters and can easily become obese. Underfeeding them can lead to rampages. It’s best to ensure rampardos get lots of exercise and also have a fair amount of food available to them. This is expensive and time consuming but leads to the best health outcomes.

Rampardos need large tracts of land for proper exercise. They enjoy running and swimming. Breaking things is their favorite pastime. Favored toys include walls, trees, rocks, and buildings. Anything that is not extremely durable will be destroyed within a few minutes of play. Enclosure boundaries must consist of dry moats or abrupt elevation changes. Walls will be smashed through on principle. Baby Cranidos will need smaller things to break. Large, durable objects might hurt them due to their comparatively underdeveloped skulls. Short brick walls are good starting points as they let the cranidos feel accomplished without risking their health.

The species is adapted for warm, humid weather. This is rarely a problem in Alola. Consider keeping them in their ball for longer periods than normal when climbing mountains or traveling to colder regions.

Rampardos love to spend time in and around water. The ideal pool lets them stand on the bottom while keeping most of their body submerged. They are also fond of mud and dirt baths on hot days.

The main problem with rampardos care is keeping them from charging. Rampardos are easily frightened by the modern world and can interpret things such as cars as potential predators. They also need to learn over time what other species are safe and which are dangerous. Introductions must be very carefully managed. Ideally they should spend most of their time in a quiet, secluded area with minimal intrusion from the modern world. If they must travel to unfamiliar areas they should be brought in their pokéball and closely monitored while outside of it.

Cranidos are generally more accepting of new circumstances and less capable of inflicting major damage when they do get upset. They also expect to be protected. Seeing their protector figure completely unafraid of something strange can calm them down. Receiving no protection from something they see as an obvious concern, like a large predator or machine, may cause them to lose trust in their trainer.

Do not take rampardos into buildings unless they were been trained to tolerate them as a cranidos. Recirculated air and the feeling of confinement can scare them and lead to at least one destroyed wall.

Illness

Cranidos often sustain head trauma. This is expected and results in a general decline in intelligence between the two evolutionary stages. Preventing it altogether is difficult. The best treatment plan, rest and abstaining from potentially traumatic activities, is very unlikely to be followed. Some calmer specimens can be persuaded. Most cannot. The best prevention option is ensuring that rampardos, and especially cranidos, do not have regular access to objects that are likely to significantly alter their momentum. Plains exhibits can use water barriers to keep rampardos from charging full speed at undesirable targets.

Rampardos have a diet largely composed of fruit. The fruits that exist now are entirely different to those that existed in the Mesozoic. Their instincts are no longer helpful for determining which plants are toxic to them. Cranidos are capable of learning through exposure to very small amounts of toxic plants when they are young. This teaches them to avoid eating those plants in the environment. Ensure that the sample given has roughly the same scent and appearance as it would in the wild. Linking the berry and the plant it grows on can also help prevent future poisonings. Specimens kept in designated paddocks can have their paddocks routinely swept to remove toxic plant species.

Evolution

Cranidos gradually evolve into rampardos. On large ranches evolution coincides with increased independence and the formation of cranidos bashes. Evolution’s most visible changes are the emergence of more spikes and the thickening of the skull. The formal demarcation line between the stages is the outer spikes at the back of the skull growing twice as large as the inner spikes. It typically occurs around two years of age. Frequent combat can shorten this period to around one year.

Battle

Rampardos can hit hard enough to end most fights in one shot. The problems are landing it safely and landing it at all. Rampardos can sustain damage to their brain and spine if they are suddenly brought to a complete stop from a full charge. There are very few pokémon strong enough to do this. Steelix is the most prominent but particularly large aggron and bastiodon can also rapidly decelerate a charging bastiodon while surviving the impact. Equally dangerous are pokémon that can dodge and send rampardos crashing into the telepathic or physical barriers at the edge of the arena. Finally, a full speed rampardos head smash can kill many opponents. This is usually grounds for excessive force penalties.

A charging rampardos is decently fast but they struggle to turn. Anything that can fly above, bury below, or sidestep them can avoid the entire attack. This leaves only semi-stationary walls that are often dangerous for rampardos to hit and pokémon incapacitated by traps or status that do not need a particularly powerful attack to knock out.

It’s usually better to play rampardos as a walbreaker without a great deal of charging for buildup. So-called dry head smashes can knock out many tanks and are harder to avoid. Rampardos can also use other attacks like fire punch, stone edge, and earthquake that are strong but not as absolutely devastating as a head smash. They can also employ a handful of moderately powerful ranged elemental attacks like ice beam and flamethrower.

Defensively rampardos are not frail but they are also unexceptional. They can easily take weaker hits from unboosted sweepers, defensive pokémon, and some speedsters. Most high level attacks can take them out in a few good hits. The very strongest attackers can knock out a rampardos in one shot.

Most professional trainers who want a nigh-unstoppable wallbreaker are more likely to turn to a fighting- or dragon-type with more than a single highly telegraphed attack that can really tear through their enemies.

Island challengers are unlikely to afford the price and insurance requirements for rampardos. Those that can will find that even the species’ weaker attacks can knock out many trial opponents. Totems being unusually large also makes them better targets for a head smash.

Cranidos have more versatility than rampardos at the cost of raw power. Their head smash is weaker but less relied upon. Cranidos are also more likely to listen to advice to fight more tactically with punches, bites, and ranged attacks mixed in with the occasional devastating finisher. Their relative power can carry them deep into the island challenge but their relative reality will eventually catch up with them.

Acquisition

There is an active breeding bash of rampardos on one of the minor outlying islands. Male cranidos occasionally become available for purchase in Hau’oli. The price depends on individual power and temperament but is usually between $25,000 and $40,000. Both stages require a Class IV license to possess. More importantly, they require a minimum of $10,000,000 of insurance. Premiums are usually very high given the volatility of the species.

Some commentators have wondered if the insurance minimum is too low. They often cite the 2004 destruction of a Las Vegas skyscraper by a rampaging rampardos. The details of the incident were mostly factionalized. The demolition was intentional and done via rampardos as a stunt. The building had already been strategically stripped and weakened to ensure a sufficiently dramatic collapse once the rampardos hit a key load-bearing pillar. The pokémon was withdrawn before they could be injured. Most modern skyscrapers are reinforced to account for unnatural meteorological events, earthquakes, and dragon attacks. A single rampardos would have to be unusually powerful and exceedingly lucky to bring a properly reinforced building down with even a series of attacks.

Breeding

Rampardos tend to mate year-round. Females are only fertile for a small portion of the year, though. In Alola procreative mating occurs in August. Roughly six weeks later females will dig a small indention in the ground and lay three to six eggs in it. For the next few weeks the bash will be far more sedentary than normal. Nests are clumped together to allow for a few females at a time to leave and forage. In bashes with only one or two females the male will forage for his mates. Activity steadily increases after the cranidos hatch. Rampardos take turns babysitting all cranidos while the others forage. Free another three to four months the bash will begin moving as normal with cranidos staying close to their mother at all times.

Cross-breeding has not been attempted. Rampardos are too aggressive to make introductions worth it. They are also not rare enough to require cross breeding or common enough to allow for a relaxation of the breeding program. One trainer reported that their male rampardos had mated with a female blaziken. The blaziken never laid fertilized eggs.

Relatives

Many people assume rampardos must be closely related to tyrantrum as they share a similar build. This is not the case. Rampardos are more closely related to bastiodon. They are a rare bipedal ornithischian, a group composed of herbivores distantly related to birds. Rampardos and their close relatives form the Clade Paterakranion. The number of species placed in the clade is contentious. Some paleontologists classify rampardos, large specimens with a partially metallic skull and an abundance of bony spines, as belonging to a single species. Others separate them into as many as seven species. The revived specimens belong to the type species first discovered in Wyoming and made famous by the discovery of a large grouping of rampardos skulls at Hayley’s Gorge in North Dakota. They lived in the Late Cretaceous and were contemporaries of the iconic bastiodon and tyrantrum. Mixed herds with bastiodon have been established and both species seem to tolerate the other. Tyrantrum introductions tend to immediately devolve into violence.

 

[Persephone]

Bastiodon (Shieldon)
Ambulanscutum montaneises

Overview

As the predators of the Mesozoic reached record sizes and strengths, their prey were forced to adapt or die out. Some opted for the speed to outrun larger predators or camouflage to avoid confrontations altogether. Others decided to develop defenses so formidable even tyrantrum would pass them over. Bastiodon were potentially some of the first steel-types to lean into the role of immovable object in a world of nigh-unstoppable forces.

Bastiodon adapt surprisingly moderately well to the modern world. They have settled into the role of grazers despite grass evolving after they went extinct. They’re relatively peaceful for a dinosaur species and can mostly take care of themselves on large breeding ranches.

Raising a single bastiodon in an urban area is an entirely different problem. They are large creatures that need a great deal of food. Being away from conspecifics can also make them anxious and lead to lashing out in extreme cases. Bastiodon are only a good choice for wealthy experts on dinosaurs or large herbivore care. Others should content themselves with watching these majestic creatures from afar.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual rock- and steel-types. There is some dispute as to what typing bastiodon may have had prior to their revival. The steel-typing is generally accepted as bastiodon have a metallic frill structure. Bastiodon probably were not rock-types. Natural born specimens have less and less affinity for rock elemental energy with each generation. No other typing has emerged as a strong contender for replacing it.

Shieldon are quadrupedal dinosaurs with a short tail. Their scales are large and sturdy. They lack any kind of feathers. Shieldon have three toes on each foot. The middle is shielded by a large metallic nail made of dinosaur iron, a copper-iron alloy. An additional iron plate covers prt of their back.

Bastiodon are best known for their frills. In shieldon these are comparatively simple oval plates extending back from their forehead. Metal ridges extend above and below the eyes for additional protection.

Bastiodon are large, heavily armored dinosaurs. Each of their three toes. Every toe now has dinosaur iron plating. The single plate on the back has become a ridge of spines to punish attackers targeting them from above.

Bastiodon’s frill is rectangular. It contains four hollow cavities to reduce weight. Leathery, scaly skin grows taut above the cavities to give the appearance of one continuous shield. The skin is yellow with black dots to confuse predators about which are the real eyes. The cavities and skin may also help with thermoregulation. Unlike in shieldon, which have almost entirely inorganic frills, bastiodon frills contain many blood vessels and a bone structure beneath the metal. The frill is tipped in two bone spikes and two metallic ones.

A bulge on the center of the frill contains the nose and better protects the cavity skin from blunt attacks. Long bone spines extend from the bulge above each eye. Four bone knobs grow up from the lower jaw to further protect the eyes, with one spine on each side of them. Bastiodon have short, thick necks to better support the weight of their drill.

The species have good vision and smell but weak hearing. Their bellows are remarkably loud to compensate. Bastiodon have a small brain-body ratio and are generally somewhat dull. They have a two-chambered stomach and dull teeth to better digest plant material, including grasses. They cannot raise their mouth more than three feet above the ground and must either graze or eat low-lying fruit, bark, and bushes.

Bastiodon can reach lengths of fifteen feet, heights of six feet at the shoulder and ten at the top of the frill, and they can weigh nearly 8,000 pounds. Lifespans are currently unknown.

Behavior

Bastiodon prefer to live in mixed-sex herds of over fifty individuals. They wander constantly in search of new food after eating everything they can find in one place. Bastiodon are known to dig holes to create mud baths to wallow in. Growing shieldon and bastiodon will also seek out any source of metal they can find. Early captive herds broke and ate the fences designed to keep them contained. Now a system of wet moats and concrete walls are used.

Bastiodon are ordinarily quite docile and will even allow humans to approach shieldon. When a predator appears, they will begin to bellow and form a circle around the herd’s shieldon. The adults lock grills to form a nigh-impenetrable barrier.

Bastiodon are slow. Herds can spread out while grazing. In order to form the shield wall they must spot a predator a long ways away and then have time to circle up. A predator that catches them beforehand will still probably struggle to take down a bastiodon due to the armor around their body. Shieldon are more vulnerable. As a result, bastiodon prefer areas with short grasses and no trees for maximum advanced notice of approaching predators.

There other flaws with bastiodon’s strategy. It requires the bulk of a herd to do nothing but protect the shieldon while it is active. If tyrantrum were reasonably intelligent they could have made a point of standing near the bastiodon for a very long time. This would have been easier if tyrantrum were social. Eventually the bastiodon would have to choose between continuing to protect their young or obtaining food themselves. Pantherma have been observed trying to hunt bastiodon this way and likely would have succeeded without rancher intervention.

Bastiodon have been observed rubbing their frills against trees they encounter. An early scientist theorized that this was done to polish their frill. It is now believed that the behavior is intended to either knock over trees and improve their line of sight or knock fruits, leaves, and nuts down to the ground.

Rampardos fossils have been found near bastiodon with the rampardos’s neck snapped. This was once taken as evidence that rampardos were active predators that may have hunted shieldon. Mixed herds in the modern era have shown little tension. It now seems most likely that a rampardos believed the bastiodon to be a predator and charged, resulting in its death upon collision.

Bastiodon sink in water. They still often enter the shallows to graze on the plants there and cool off. If the banks are gentle enough they can also hold their breath and successfully walk across rivers or ponds to the other side. Shieldon are lighter and capable of swimming.

Husbandry

Bastiodon are multiton herbivores. They can eat hay and grasses. They eat a lot of hay and grasses. A single fully grown bastiodon can eat over one ton of food per week. This results in a very large amount of feces produced. On ranches the food can be purchased in bulk if the natural production is insufficient. Traveling trainers or urban dwellers must always have a steady stream of hundreds of pounds of food per day and a means of collecting and disposing of the waste. There must also be large troughs of food available. Growing specimens will require provision of chunks of mineral-rich soil or small ingots of iron and copper to promote frill growth. The most basic logistics of bastiodon care alone are enough to preclude almost all trainers.

Even bastiodon that have food brought to them will want to roam. They require at least two acres of land per specimen to be comfortable but strongly prefer larger ranges. Sightline obstructions should be kept to a minimum.

Bastiodon kept alone or in small groups are prone to anxiety. This can be helped by adding in straw effigies of bastiodon, large pictures of them, or mirrors. Bastiodon are not particularly intelligent and are put at ease by the mere impression that conspecifics are around. Having multiple bastiodon is still the best way to alleviate the problem. Other large herbivores or photosynthesizers such as tauros and tropius are the best alternative. Small predators are often tolerated if there are no shieldon around.

Bastiodon should not be the first large herbivore or even the first dinosaur a trainer raises. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the logistics of feeding and housing an adult, even if it was possible to care for them as a shieldon. Even many professionals struggle with the species.

Illness

Bastiodon’s most common ailments are gastrointestinal. Their stomachs have adjusted well to a diet of grasses but there can still be digestion problems. This is most common among juveniles. It is best to ease grass into a shieldon’s diet, gradually moving from a mix of leaves and tubers to nearly all grass. Trainers with the money should consider using brush, bark, and leaves as the base of a diet instead of hay and grass. Specimens should be quarantined as soon as problems eating or defecating are observed. Shieldon must be quarantined with their parents and any siblings. Separating a family may result in serious collateral damage or further injuries from stress-related behaviors. In extreme cases the family may refuse to accept a shieldon that has been kept away for too long. Hand-rearing a large, social dinosaur is more difficult than most trainers can imagine.

Mineral deficiency is the other major health problem in bastiodon. Deficiency can result in weakened or warped armor. The most common impact is a shield that does not fully grow in. This is almost as common as full shields in the fossil record. Ordinary grazing will not provide enough minerals. Supplements are necessary to ensure proper growth. Ideally, they should be placed near a flowing water source. This is where bastiodon are most likely to look for them.

Evolution

Shieldon steadily grow into bastiodon over the first six years of their life. The first growth plateau is reached around three years of age when the shieldon is around six feet long. After a year or so of dormancy the pokémon enters a period of rapid growth over the next two years. The formal demarcation line is the development of bone horns on top of the frill.

Battle

Bastiodon are nigh-impenetrable from the front with hard metal frills that can be further boosted by iron defense until they are harder than diamond. Even their back and flanks are well protected by thick skin and a few metal spikes. Bastiodon’s problems are their extreme passivity and relative vulnerability from behind.

The fastest recorded bastiodon had a running speed of around five miles per hour. Most opponents can outmaneuver them. Bastiodon’s only offensive option is body press, leveraging iron defense boosts to land a devastating melee attack. This only works on opponents that can hit them and is only strong enough to break competitively trained walls after an iron defense boost. In practice many bastiodon rely on easily predicted moves like metal burst for damage. They can learn stealth rock but otherwise have a fairly shallow supporting movepool. Stronger attackers can also bypass the frill to attack from behind.

Bastiodon see essentially no usage in competitive circuits. In more casual matches and on the island challenge their sheer size and the lack of preparation for metal burst can still make them decent walls.

Shieldon are fairly slow supporting pokémon. In lower level matches their skin is still durable enough to let them wall enemies that get behind them. They lack any real offensive power and are limited to stalling out opponents who have already been poisoned, cursed, or burned. Otherwise, they must engage in slow damage races with their opponent.

Acquisition

There is a bastiodon herd held on a privately owned minor outlying island. Older shieldon and unwanted bastiodon sometimes come up for sale in Hau’oli. The usual asking price is around $100,000. Anyone who cannot easily afford this price should seriously consider whether they have the means to care for a bastiodon. Shieldon and bastiodon can be acquired with a Class IV license.

Breeding

Scientists were unsure how bastiodon defended eggs and hatchlings for long periods of time without starving. A full wall would have been necessary at all times to ward off not only large predators but nimble egg thieves. The answer to this question is that bastiodon did not guard their eggs: they are ovoviviparous. Eggs develop and hatch inside the female before she gives birth to live young. This prevents the need to play defense with eggs and ensures that hatchlings weigh at least 100 pounds at birth. On balance, only a single child is born at a time. Bastiodon rarely give birth in successive years.

Bastiodon mate within their herd. Females seem to prefer males with larger, better developed frills. Pairings can be for life but often fray after the last shieldon evolves and begins to assert independence. There are usually one or two older shieldon staying close to their parents and helping watch over newborns.

In captivity it is difficult to remove a shieldon before four years of age. Doing so can create serious behavioral problems in the remaining herd and can even result in the pokémon lashing out at humans. Most breeders wait until evolution to move bastiodon into new herds or sell them off.

Relatives

Some scientists put seven species in the genus Ambulanscutum and twenty-one in the family Ceratopsian. Others go with three and twelve, respectively. The most common arrangement is five species in the genus and sixteen in the family.

Bastiodon lived in the late Cretaceous. They had the most heavily reinforced frill in the family but were nowhere near the largest. The largest Ceratopsians were in the genus Vivicastellum. They could grow to be twenty-five feet long and weighed around ten tons. Bastiodon were likely a mid-sized species.

Bastiodon was first identified under the scientific name Dumspina americanus after Edward Drinker Cope found a single bone he believed to be a vertebrae of a hadrosaur. The bone is now believed to have been an eye shield from a bastiodon. They were only identified as a Ceratopsian from a skull found in Montana in 1901. D. americanus were only identified as bastiodon after the first revived specimens grew similar bones. Other potential bastiodon fossils were misidentified as small meteorites or ingots often found by prospectors or the indigenous peoples.

Bastiodon have been found in the Dakotas, Montana, and Alberta. They may have lived for less than one million years before the end of the Cretaceous.

 

[Persephone]

Archeops (Archen)
Archeops primafuga

Overview

Archeops played a major role in establishing a scientific consensus in favor of macroevolution. Early theorists could suggest that life radiated outwards from common ancestors in favor of more specialized forms and provide anecdotal evidence in fossils and living creatures, but they could not prove their ideas. Macroevolution could not be replicated in a laboratory. Finally, if modern creatures came from ancient ones, where were the missing links in the fossil record to show birds emerging from reptiles?

Enter archeops. The first fossils were excavated shortly after Darwin published his findings. Archeops appeared to be neither bird nor dinosaur but something in between. It almost seemed too convenient and many scientists tried to dismiss archeops as a hoax. It took years of additional excavations supervised by esteemed paleontologists for them to come around.

Archeops would again play a major role in paleontology and evolutionary biology over a century later. The discovery of new fossils had led some paleontologists to believe that archeops were not the true ancestors of the birds. Many questioned whether they could even fly. The new fossil revival technology was turned to for answering the question. It has not done so. Controversy abounds as to how much the modern archeops can be used as a stand-in for their Jurassic counterparts given their rock-typing and interbreeding with modern species, including birds.

Archeops have the least demanding husbandry of the revived dinosaurs. They are not so large that logistics becomes a major hurdle. Archeops are intelligent enough to easily train without being so clever as to cause problems. Most specimens will accept a wide range of foods. Trainers who have the funds to afford a revived dinosaur but not the experience to try and tame a rampardos should strongly consider training an archeops.

Physiology

Archen and archeops are classified as dual rock- and flying-type pokémon. The original species were almost certainly not rock-types. Successive generations are shedding rock-type characteristics at a faster rate than any other revived fossil pokémon. Archeops have a natural talent for dragon elemental energy and seem to bond well with dragon-types. Within another few years some revived specimens may qualify for this dual typing.

Archen are reptilian dinosaurs. They are not considered to be birds. Most paleontologists now believe they are not, in fact, the actual ancestor of modern birds. See Relatives. They still have many similarities. First, archen have a large, hard beak. There are teeth inside the beak. Archen are prone to underbites, overbites, or both at the same time at different points in the beak.

Archen’s neck, torso, and wings are coated in delicate feathers. The feathers at the neck and base of the tail are red. The flight feathers and a single large feather at the end of the tail are blue. All other feathers are brown or yellow. Archen have flight feathers very similar to those of modern birds, but their wing muscles are not developed enough and their wings not yet large enough for powered flight. At the tip of each wing are two sharp claws. Like modern birds, archen’s knees are located inside the torso. Only the lower leg is visible. Unlike modern birds, archen do not have an elongated foot between the toes and the ankle. The leg lacks any sort of feathers and ends in a three-taloned foot. The middle talon is sickle-like and larger than the others.

Archeops have colorful scales in addition to their feathers. The scales on their underside are red while those on top are a vibrant green. Archeops have much longer legs and feet than archen and can run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. Their tail is longer and used for balance while running or for swiping at predators behind them. The wings now have three visible claws at the ends rather than two.

Unlike archen, archeops are capable of actual powered flight. They still need a running start. Archeops do not move their wings in the same way as modern birds due to the differences in wing shape and musculature. This can catch observers off guard and come off as subtly wrong. Archeops must flap relatively frequently to gain height. Flying was probably meant more as an augmentation to jumping onto prey or a way to quickly get into the trees while running from predators than as a means of traveling.

Archeops do not have hollow bones because they do not fly long distances and do not need the extra oxygen hollow bones provide. Their muscles are surprisingly strong and their bones are quite dense to withstand their own strength. Archeops’ plumage is not so durable. Even slight damage to feathers can cause them to fall out. It can take days, weeks, or even months to regrow, depending on the feather. This is a major explanation for archeops’ reluctance to fight. Any battle, no matter how minor, is likely to damage their plumage and make them less able to fly and less attractive to prospective mates.

Archeops can have wingspans of eight feet and weigh over fifty pounds. Average lifespans are still poorly understood due to the recency of their revival and rapid changes across generations.

Behavior

Archen are mostly arboreal. They hunt and sleep well above the surface and only descend in emergencies. Archen’s diet can vary considerably in captivity and likely varied with the seasons in the wild. They can survive on an almost entirely frugivorous diet or an insect-based one. Revived specimens will routinely hunt large insects and small vertebrates. Anything that weighs more than eight ounces is usually avoided. They are quite capable of jumping between branches or trees. Archen can travel up to one hundred feet at a time between their initial jump and subsequent gliding.

At night archen retreat into tree cavities or other indentations at least five feet above the ground. Multiple archen can share a roosting site before dispersing to hunt alone during the day. Play behaviors have been observed between conspecifics. These often take the form of jumps and glides with no clear purpose.

Archeops are primarily terrestrial pack hunters. They prefer open spaces without larger predators. Archeops will retreat to increasingly forested areas until there is no longer any common predator that will eat them. In the Jurassic they likely lived on islands that may have been devoid of any larger competitors.

Archeops hunts resemble those of modern growlithe. Part of the flock begin chasing their prey down on foot. Smaller archeops or larger archen hunt alongside them in the trees to keep the prey from veering off path. Ideally prey are herded towards a cliff, the ocean, or some other environmental hazard. If not the largest and strongest archeops will wait in hiding to ambush the exhausted prey and finish them in one or two strikes. These tactics allow archeops to hunt things up to twice their own size. They only work on prey that runs. Anything that fights back might defeat the initial runners and ruin the hunt. Archeops will usually begin these encounters with a few powerful moves in hopes of convincing the prey to run. The hunt will be abandoned if this strategy fails.

In addition to meat, archeops will also forage for fruit and leaves. They also enjoy eating bark even though they struggle to digest it. Scientists theorize they may be trying to get at insects under the bark. Early studies are inconclusive.

Flocks are fairly egalitarian. Both the strongest archeops and the chief runner, usually the specimen with the most endurance, have more authority on where, how, and what to hunt, but they do not claim a higher share of kills or better nesting arrangements. All flock members sleep in a large communal nest. In areas without predators, they nest in the open. Nests are moved into the forests or even into caves if predators are present.

Husbandry

Archen and archeops care is close enough to modern birds, just with less emphasis on flight. Many trainers even feed archen a blend of insectivorous and herbivorous bird feeds. Archeops can subsist on this mix and raw meat. They prefer red meat and fish to poultry. This is unusual for carnivorous dinosaurs. Both stages are prone to overeating. Archen should be fed between 15% and 20% of their body weight a day while archeops should be given 10-12% of theirs. More food can be provided when sick, injured, or after major battles.

Both stages prefer food to be given alongside enrichment. Food can be split between several bowls hidden around their enclosure. Archeops also appreciate foraging. Some trainers have also reported great success attaching meat to a pulley system or a basic string and making their pokémon chase after and ‘kill’ it. This can also convince more sedentary specimens to exercise.

Archeops appreciate going on jogs with their trainer once a day. For best results set a length between one and two miles. Keep the archeops on a leash and with their ball ready for quick recall. Archeops associate running and hunting and will sometimes lunge for pokémon they encounter along the trail.

The ideal archen habitat is a tall aviary or room with many climbing structures and perches. Most zoological and research facilities use enclosures at least twenty feet tall with a two hundred square foot area. Multiple archen can be kept together as long as they are separated out during feeding. They will tend to use the same roosting areas, even when more are available. Absent adequate climbing and gliding opportunities archen’s high energy can make them a drain on their trainer’s time.

Archeops should have a few climbing opportunities in their enclosure but strongly prefer having wide open spaces for running. Captive specimens can be flight restricted by strategically clipping flight feathers. This allows for trainers who can afford a good-sized yard but not an aviary over it to keep the species. It also limits their ability to flee from predators like persian that get into their enclosure. Archeops prefer to be held in flocks of three to eight specimens and can be fed together.

It is possible to housebreak archeops. They eat the entirety of their prey and pass pellets like a modern owl. They can be taught through gradual reinforcement to refrain from leaving pellets in some areas and to prioritize others. Archen have not yet been reliably housebroken.

Both stages have a mixed record with other species. They generally dislike sharing an enclosure or team with pokémon who are substantially larger than them. This usually results in the archeops becoming more reclusive and significantly changing behavioral patterns. Archeops are prone to eating smaller pokémon unless they were introduced before evolution. Sometimes both stages will readily accept and even become affectionate with other pokémon of a similar size. Sometimes there will be aggression or avoidance. Success depends on the exact species being introduced and the individual temperament of both pokémon.

Illness

Both stages have delicate plumage and grow upset when it is damaged. Even fairly low-intensity battles can cause a few feathers to fall out. This makes the line reluctant to fight (see Battle). It also means they are prone to acting far more injured or distraught than they really are after battles to prolong the time until the next one. After feather damage archen can also be reluctant to let their trainer touch them and assess how severe the injury actually is. For most specimens a trip to the veterinarian can be threatened. If symptoms immediately resolve they were not real. Of course, this can result in some particularly vet-averse specimens suppressing signs of real injury to protect their plumage and avoid intensive examination. It generally takes time for a trainer to learn how to interpret their pokémon’s behavior.

Evolution

As archen approach three years of age they begin to spend an increasing amount of time on the ground hunting for small animals. At first this takes the form of occasionally gliding down to kill something and then immediately scurrying back up trees. Over time they grow bolder and begin to spend most of their hunting time less than ten feet from the surface. They will rarely enter the canopy. At some point between two and three years old an archen will seek out nearby archeops and join their flock. In captivity the formal demarcation line is the first powered flight from the ground.

Battle

Archeops are surprisingly powerful for their fairly small size. They can hit hard with melee attacks like acrobatics but prefer to act as mid-range fighters with moves such as stone edge, meteor beam, air slash, and heat wave. They can also set up stealth rocks or use tricks such as substitute to prolong their time on the battlefield.

The hardest part of using archeops is convincing them to fight. In the wild archeops probably relied on their prey running away from them. Intraspecific fights are rare. They strongly preferred to avoid predators rather than facing them head on. Not all archeops are fighters. Most are not. The few that are will still need a lot of rewards and encouragement to engage in higher level matches. Even then they will likely bow out early to preserve their plumage. This is an especially large risk against fire, poison, ice, and electric-types.

Archeops do not solidly fit into a single niche. They are not fast enough to act as dodge tanks or use a highly reactive style. While archeops are surprisingly durable, they do not enjoy taking hits and cannot reliably tank the strongest attacks in most metagames. Archeops rarely master boosting moves and cannot reliably overpower walls. Their supporting movepools are not large enough to act as utility pokémon. Archeops’ mix of durability, speed, utility, and power still makes them able to fill most roles in a pinch. It is best to either use them as an anti-lead to outspeed and overpower suicide leads while setting their own hazards or save them until the lategame when a role desperately needs filled but the usual pokémon filling it has been incapacitated.

Archeops are strong enough to function well throughout almost all of the island challenge. They stop being able to reliably score quick kills with projectiles towards the end and can become harder to use. Clever strategies can still let them play a major role in fights, but these opportunities require team support and a successful setup.

Archen do not hunt large prey. Their natural reaction to predators is to flee. Even if their teeth and claws are surprisingly sharp it is difficult to get them to battle, much less to do it well. Liberal use of protect or substitute helps. An archen that will battle can put in a lot of work in the early stages of the island challenge before falling off in the second or third island.

Acquisition

Alola’s tropical climate and distance from the rest of the world makes it an ideal site for large fossil pokémon ranches. The Royal Aviary maintains a flock of archeops and a large archen exhibit. A few bird specialist breeders and collectors also maintain a small breeding flock or individual specimens. Mid-size breeding facilities can also be found on Akala and the outlying islands.

An archen typically sells for between $10,000 and $20,000, depending on the genetic purity, size, plumage vibrancy, and number of generations since revival. Specimens willing to battle can go for significantly more, up to $50,000, due to their rarity and the demand for them among collectors, or for slightly less than an average specimen if they are too aggressive to keep in a breeding setup and not particularly good at combat.

Ownership of archen and archeops requires a Class III license.

Breeding

Only the strongest fighter and the best runner mate in a flock. If they are of opposite sexes there will be one breeding pair. If they are of same sexes they will take other mates. If both are male and there is a single female she will decide who to mate with. Females lay a clutch of two to six eggs. Females in single-pair flocks lay larger clutches. All archeops guard the nest, which is usually placed on a tree stump or in another defensible position. Adults can switch to primarily hunting smaller prey drawn in by the eggs during this time.

The eggs hatch after roughly three weeks. Hatchlings are relatively large at six to eight inches long, including the tail. Hatchlings can begin hunting insects and small mammals around the next in as little as two to three days. They are kept around in the flock until the next set hatch and are invaluable in defending the nest from smaller threats. All archeops contribute to protecting and training the archen. The archen rarely join the adults’ hunts and find their own food under the watchful eye of an archeops.

Archeops have readily crossbred with pyroclaptor and zoomazolt in captivity. Crossbreeding with several modern birds has been reported with mixed results. In most cases it produces sterile offspring or embryos that fail to properly develop. Dodrio and hawlucha have sired fertile offspring with an archeops.

Relatives

The biggest question surrounding archeops from the time the first fossils were unearthed was their relationship to birds. Study of revived individuals suggests that they are far more similar to other small theropod dinosaurs than to modern birds. Their wing structure is different and they use flight in only fairly crude ways compared to their potential descendants.

Fossils have been found from the Cretaceeous of winged, feathered dinosaurs with tail and wing structures more similar to modern birds than those of archeops. Their morphology has significant differences from archeops and suggests they evolved to fill similar roles independently of each other. Archeops themselves were likely an evolutionary dead end. They were confined to small, forested islands in Central Europe and do not appear to have expanded outside of a fairly narrow range and habitat. No clear descendants have been found from the Cretaceous.

There is some debate as to whether the revived archeops should be split into two or more species. Black color morphs are nearly as common among revived specimens as the standard vibrant morphs, although they are uncommon in the private trade outside of Europe. The black archeops are also 20% smaller on average than other archeops and have relatively short, thick beaks. Most scientists split them into their own species, A. corvus. Given their island habitats and reluctance to swim it is possible there were many species, each centered around particularly large or remote islands.

 

[Persephone]

Per a bonus entry poll on my discord...

Indeedee
Lares miltonii

Overview

Indeedee have long worked alongside humans as household or personal servants. They are true psychics that feed in part off of gratitude and other positive emotions. This leads to them helping an intelligent creature, often humans, with their work in exchange for silent gratitude and token material gifts.

Despite their millennia of service, indeedee have never been domesticated. They are surprisingly prideful creatures that refuse to let humans meddle in their romantic affairs or treat them as mere pets. For most indeedee trainers their pokémon is an often-unseen servant in the background, treated as an equal, and rarely battled with. Few indeedee have the inclination and temperament for combat. Like chansey they tend to fill more of a supporting role behind the scenes of a team rather than actively fighting on the frontlines. For some trainers this trade-off is more than worth it.

Physiology

Indeedee were historically often classified as dual psychic- and fairy-types. They are mercurial creatures native to Galar with many of the same quirks as fairies. However, indeedee are absolutely adamant that they are not fairy-type. This is consistent across populations. Merely implying they are fairies can result in them leaving in the dead of night. Most indeedee ignore or subtly undermine fairy-types on the team, especially bargaining fairies. Non-bargaining, asocial fairies like sylveon and alcremie may be tolerated. Indeedee have instead been classified as dual normal-types due to their almost total immunity to curses and ectoplasm-based attacks.

Indeedee are bipedal pokémon similar to mammals. Their biology appears to be more cogent than most true-psychics with a complete digestive tract, liver, heart, and kidneys. Less than 20% of indeedee have lungs. Those with lungs rarely breathe. Their heart is in the neck.

Indeedee have proportionally very large heads and hips with a torso only slightly thicker than the neck. Their legs are about half as long as their arms. Indeedee have a short tail about three inches long. It appears two to three times as long as it is due to fur.

Indeedee have white and royal blue, navy, or purple fur three to five inches thick. It is very dense and soft. Patterns vary by sex. Males tend to have white torsos, feet, and faces with darker fur everywhere else. In females the white fur extends halfway down the hips.

Indeedee’s mouth is usually quite small, only two to three inches across. Their eyes are fairly large, up to five inches tall and two inches wide on large females. Both sexes have horns on the sides of their head surrounded by coarse black fur. In males the horns curl down. In females they curl up. Touching horns greatly improves indeedee’s telepathic abilities.

Some indeedee have shown an ability to greatly amplify all psionic energy around them, apparently through chants or small rituals. These indeedee consistently refuse to explain how the act works, just that it does. Scientists have theorized this ability only develops when it is needed for service, such as when bonded with a psychic human or pokémon.

Modern indeedee are about three feet tall. Weight can be tricky to discern as indeedee consistently only weigh about five to six pounds on a scale, although when unconscious their weight can balloon up to forty to fifty pounds. It is believed that they reflexively lift most of their weight off the ground telekinetically. In Imperium Era Galar indeedee were consistently described as being five to six feet tall. Whether these were the same species as modern indeedee is disputed. See Relatives. Indeedee can live for at least two centuries.

Behavior

Behavior varies considerably between males and females. Both sexes feed passively on gratitude. They earn this gratitude through service. It is the target of their service, and the resulting adaptations, that varies between sexes.

Male indeedee tend to serve a single individual at a time. Their ward is usually human. The indeedee will take on many household tasks and other duties as they believe necessary for proper service. They are mildly precognitive and can even anticipate and address situations before they arise, such as having new plates arrive immediately after an old one breaks. They seem unwilling to avert these incidents and only use their abilities to ensure the damage is mitigated after the fact. Males prefer to perform their duties during the day when their target is awake. They rest at night. A male may perform tasks for their liege’s family if they have time, but they tend to prioritize fixing even minor problems for their liege over solving major problems for their partner and children.

When not actively in service indeedee tend to fade into the background. It is a common conception that they can make themselves invisible. They cannot. Indeedee simply exploit the boundary of the conscious and unconscious. There are many sensory inputs that the conscious mind is not aware of due to their perceived insignificance, such as the taste of one’s own saliva. Indeedee use telepathy to keep themselves out of a target’s conscious mind. If noticed at all they will be immediately dismissed as something very ordinary.

Females are more similar to chansey. They adopt a ward to serve rather than a single individual. This can be a population of pokémon, a family, a distinct unit of unrelated individuals like an apartment building, or even an institution such as a town or university.

The amount of housework females do depends on the size of their ward. An indeedee watching over an entire town may clean the streets and important buildings but will rarely enter into homes to do laundry. One serving a nuclear family in a single household will behave much like a male. Females are much more likely to serve pokémon than males are, with roughly 40% serving pokémon and 60% humans. Some blur the line by serving a Pokémon Center, helping with the housekeeping blissey can’t or won’t do. In general the two species pair well together as blissey tend to physical and emotional wounds while indeedee handle day-to-day affairs.

Neither sex of indeedee enjoys direct attention. Masking their presence to many minds is more difficult than blocking themselves from one or two. This leads females to a more nocturnal lifestyle.

Both sexes abhor violence and will usually try to break up any they witness. For males this takes the form of vigorously defending physical assaults on their trainer. Females are more likely to telekinetically pull both sides apart and make them talk things out. If violence becomes common they are likely to leave.

Husbandry

Indeedee are capable of taking care of themselves. This section is more focused on how to avoid offending one.

While indeedee are primarily aminovorous they can and will accept small offerings of food. These usually take the form of small bowls of milk, cream, tea, or some other liquid and a few small pastries or fruits. The nutritional content is irrelevant. The meaning behind the gesture as a small expression of gratitude is important. These are best left in a conspicuous place in the evening before going to sleep. Indeedee usually dislike directly recovering things. Forgetting offerings too often will offend the pokémon. In some cases, such as illness or a sudden event, they may forgive the slight so long as a somewhat grander offering than usual is left at the next opportunity.

Male indeedee usually do most laundry and cleaning for their trainer. Females bonded to a household will usually do so as well. The trainer should avoid intentionally making messes and make some effort to do tasks themselves. An indeedee that feels like they are taken for granted will likely lash out or leave.

Most indeedee are not conversational. They are telepaths and can communicate if they want, but tend to limit their conversations to figuring out how they can be of service or relaying critical information. It is rare for one to enjoy being directly addressed or even publicly acknowledged at all.

The species still has some desire for socialization. It is common for them to allow themselves to be seen during meals. Plates left for them will likely be ignored. Any food dropped to the floor will be picked up and disposed of. It is usually disposed of by eating it. Making the feeding arrangement obvious will upset them but tacit, unacknowledged gifts are appreciated. They seem to enjoy watching over communal meals and appreciate when they are held regularly in the indeedee’s usual home. Most specimens will also stay around and listen attentively if someone reads aloud. They will promptly leave if their presence is acknowledged during the reading.

The exception to these rules is usually children too young to understand indeedee’s preferences. Females in particular seem to enjoy helping children and love babysitting. Sincere gifts from children, especially of high symbolic value, are usually kept for years or even decades. Male indeedee will at least tolerate a child’s attention and will usually honor harmless requests.

In the past it was believed that offering an indeedee clothes or trying to convert them to a religion would instantly cause them to leave. This is true, but not for the reasons previously believed. Indeedee see gifts of clothing as an insult to their body and religious conversion as an insult to their way of being. Both suggest that they are beneath humans as they are. Indeedee cannot stand being looked down upon.

Clothing given for temporary, practical reasons, like keeping sand out of fur or offering protection in a hazardous area, can be accepted if explained. Females may also dress up for children as part of a game. If this game is done often they may tolerate a shopping trip alongside their usual playmate.

Similarly, religious and philosophical discussions are not strictly off-limits with more conversational specimens so long as no disrespect is implied. It is usually best to stay clear of such subjects, though, especially if a party is particularly fervent in their devotion.

Indeedee are believed to be quite clever for pokémon. Some scholars have argued they have human-comparable intelligence. It is possible to discuss delicate, fringe situations with them. In important matters they will accept being addressed directly if their input is helpful or their life is likely to be significantly impacted.

Indeedee usually help trainers with pokémon care such as supply gathering and cleaning. They will not cook under any circumstances and tend to avoid more direct tasks like grooming. Pokémon usually annoy indeedee more than they help. This is especially true for dark, psychic, and fairy-types that can resist their mental suggestions and bother them at will. More relaxed pokémon such as inorganics are their best teammates, aside from blissey and audino. Highly intelligent pokémon can serve as an additional source of gratitude.

In any case, the most important problem to avoid with teammates is competition for food. Anything that eats indeedee’s offerings is a cause of concern. It’s best to put any possible scavengers behind locked doors or inside their ball shortly after the offering is laid out.

In terms of living arrangements, indeedee appreciate soft beds sized properly for them. If all humans in a residence have their own room they will insist on one as well. If rooms are sometimes shared they may accept a smaller space. In essence, don’t give indeedee a room substantially smaller than the smallest bedroom for humans. Do not ask them to give it up for guests unless humans are doing so as well and they were consulted beforehand. Indeedee dwellings are usually sparsely decorated beyond their bed with only a few shiny rocks or gifted keepsakes. They are intensely protective of the few material possessions they do collect.

Illness

Indeedee are fairly resistant to most of the illnesses that impact true psychics and ghosts. If they are starved for gratitude they will simply leave. Unease in a person or community they protect can bleed over into stressed behaviors like skin picking, insomnia, and vacantly staring into the distance. It can be hard to identify signs of illness as they reflexively mask their presence. It is believed that these illnesses are from the stress of perceiving themselves to be bad caretakers more than a direct telepathic burden. Explaining the cause of stress and how the pokémon can and can’t help can alleviate symptoms.

Combat injuries, while rare, can be difficult to treat due to feedback loops. Sustaining serious injury often accompanies a massive loss. The loss can result in frustration in the trainer, potentially dimming gratitude or leading them to withdraw. The pokémon also cannot actively serve while injured, reducing the chances to earn gratitude. The lack of sustenance can slow healing, exacerbating the problem. Ideally serious injuries should be avoided at all costs. A healer like blissey, alomomola, or audino should be kept on team or on call to quickly heal injuries that do occur. Trainers will also have to walk the fine line of being sincerely grateful for their pokémon without coming off as insincere or patronizing following a loss.

There are good reasons not to battle regularly with an indeedee, even if they will acquiesce to doing so. They should be kept in reserve as a last resort and the battle planned to keep them out of dangerous matchups.

Evolution

Very young indeedee lack horns. They develop as they age. Indeedee lack conventional sex organs. Gender appears to be something chosen, with the appropriate horn pattern forming as a result. It is not a subject that indeedee discuss often. Both sexes are classified as the same evolutionary stage. Juveniles are essentially just miniature adults without horns. For the time being the entire line is marked as a single stage.

Battle

Few indeedee are willing to battle. Those that will are usually males bonded to someone obsessed with the sport, making combat a form of service. On occasion a female may agree to support a human in their care or, in extremely rare cases, because they enjoy it. Never assume that a given indeedee will agree to battle. Those that have in the past may change their mind at any time. Attempting to press an indeedee to change their mindis a sure-fire way to get them to leave. The indeedee that do enjoy combat rarely enjoy large crowds.

The main asset of indeedee in battle is their telepathic masking. Opponents will know they are in a fight and maybe have vague ideas of their opponent, but not be able to detect them or remember much information on counters. This effect can also be cast on the opposing trainer in some leagues. In Alola and most of the United States, including all major national-level tournaments, this is forbidden as an assault on the other trainer. In leagues where minor telepathic interference is prohibited trainers can just tell their pokémon where to aim. In those where it is allowed indeedee are best countered by telepathy-resistant pokémon or broad area of effect attacks, although in the moment an influenced trainer is unlikely to remember this advice.

A few individuals can also passively amplify psychic attacks, including their own. They can have telepathic power akin to an alakazam or boost other teammates. Indeedee can also learn disruptive techniques like encore and more niche supporting moves for double battles like follow me and helping hand. Indeedee are generally most comfortable filling supporting roles rather than dealing damage themselves.

Acquisition

There is no reliable way to obtain an indeedee. Males tend to follow a friend or relative of their mother they believe needs assistance. Females will typically test out caring for a few institutions or families near their mother’s before finally settling on one. Both sexes tend to be drawn towards marginalized and impoverished wards rather than affluent ones, especially ones who already have servants or abundant employees of their own.

It is far easier to lose an indeedee. This is what most of the section will discuss.

Indeedee leave if they are not adequately fed with gratitude. They also do not accept ostentatious displays of it. A quiet understanding, occasional smiles, and genuine but mostly unexpressed appreciation work best. Unlike bargaining fairies, there will be no repercussions to briefly, privately thanking an indeedee.

Signs of disrespect are the second most common cause of departure. These include any signs they are taken for granted, such as leaving large messes completely unattended to, expecting an indeedee to take on more work without either consulting them or taking away another responsibility, regularly forgetting offerings, or being flippant about their service when talking to others. Any mention of ownership will also be rejected. Indeedee do not believe they can be owned, even by their ward.

Indeedee do not make many requests. They will almost always leave if a rare request is denied or an important promise is broken.

Breeding

The details of indeedee reproduction is poorly understood due to their long lifespans, telepathic masking, and desire for privacy. A male and a female living in close proximity may begin to seek each other out around dusk and dawn. Both may take a roughly day-long break from their duties and retreat to a private location. Roughly six months later, a baby will appear near the female. The exact manifestation has never been observed. The mother will act perplexed when someone suggests the baby was not always there. It is best to simply go along with it.

Children stay close to their mother’s side for the first few months of life, but do not perform any duties. Around eight months of age they begin to perform basic tasks. After another two years their horns will grow. Males will depart shortly after. Females will stay near their mother as they try and select a ward. Sometimes a younger indeedee will come back to stay near their mother after leaving their previous ward. Visits that last for more than two weeks are rare.

Cross-breeding has potentially been observed between a male indeedee and a blissey. The offspring was genetically a pure happiny, but was talented with psychic moves and regarded the indeedee as their father. The indeedee was very indulgent of the happiny and allowed her to follow him almost everywhere. Both species have extremely odd reproductive methods and it is possible that they can influence each other.

Relatives

Indeedee are described as being human-sized in surviving Imperium Era sources. Over the next thousand years they became progressively smaller in literary and artistic depictions, before settling around their current height. No one is certain as to why this shift occurred.

The leading theory is that indeedee altered themselves like jynx to a form better-suited for service. It isn’t clear why they would do this. No Imperium or Medieval sources associate servants with a very short stature. Indeedee probably wouldn’t care about human perceptions of servants anyway.

Some scholars have claimed that indeedee became smaller due to starvation in the Imperium where slaves were seen as sub-human and performed most manual labor for the nobility and merchants. The cultural explanation is weakened by indeedee being about the same height throughout the world in the present day. Unless every culture on the planet is less grateful than the ancient Celts, the cause is something genetic or otherwise universal rather than a result of a poor upbringing.

Others have argued that something unique to Galar allowed indeedee to reach massive sizes. Modern specimens on the island are about the same size as everywhere else. Another theory is that the old, larger indeedee were just adults and that no living specimens are fully grown. Scientists have documented indeedee that began to slow down over time before eventually passing off what appeared to be old age. Growth also seems to stop after around five years with no statistically significant difference in height between new adults and those confirmed to be over a century old.

Whatever the cause, most taxonomists currently reject a full species split between modern and ancient indeedee but will occasionally support a subspecific one.

Indeedee’s closest relatives are difficult to determine. It is suspected that they are a missing link of sorts between the bargaining fairies and the true psychics. Both have extremely odd biology with different elemental strengths and social behaviors. It is still often theorized that gardevoir, mime sr., hatterene, or another dual psychic- and fairy-type best represent the link. But indeedee, a true psychic with fey-like qualities that denies being a fairy, make another compelling link. Alternatively, they may simply be the descendants of fairies that, for whatever reason, reject the tribe of their ancestors.

 

[Persephone]

Carracosta (Tirtouga)
Testudinesrex coriumtesta

Overview

Carracosta is an ancient sea turtle that was once the king of the North American Interior Seaway. Their status as one of, if not the, largest turtles to ever live made them a top priority for scientists to revive.

Unfortunately, carracosta are large, aggressive, highly migratory pokémon that have not always adapted well to captivity. Their long lifespans and the difficulty in breeding them has also made them slow to shed the ossification of newly revived fossil pokémon and return to something closer to their original forms. In fact, most carracosta available today are directly revived specimens or first generation births. Only one second generation birth has been documented so far.

The lack of insight into the original carracosta and the expense of the program has led to most corporate and public sector work on carracosta revival and mass-breeding being abandoned. This has resulted in many specimens being available on the open market. Trainers should still be warned that carracosta are large, aquatic apex predators that need specialized enclosures or constant ocean access.

Physiology

Revived carracosta and tirtouga are dual rock- and water-types. The original specimens are believed to have had far less rock and bone in their shells, potentially even having leathery shells like some modern sea turtles. No bulky shells like those of modern equivalents have been found in fossils and the most recent generation of tirtouga have notably thinner shells than their first generation equivalents.

Tirtouga are primarily aquatic turtles with flippers instead of legs. Their flesh is blue and their shell and other bony growths are naturally dark blue, grey, or black. Algae growth can sometimes make them appear to be green.

Tirtouga have a curved bony beak in front of their jaws. The hook helps them grab and tear their prey. A thick, wide jawbone helps them crush shells and bones. They do not have proper teeth. Backwards-facing spines in the throat help them keep fish swallowed whole from escaping.

Tirtouga’s front flippers are long, curved, and powerful. They are usually about a third of the total body length and can be used for short bursts of speed underwater or to slap away opponents. Each front flipper has a single bony growth to make slaps more impactful.

Tirtouga’s shell varies depending upon the generation. First generation revived specimens have jagged, rocky shells and plastrons. Second generation specimens tend to have a bulky but somewhat rounder shell. Third generation tirtouga have bony shells about two inches think. Their shells also have six marks that appear to be indentions in the shell. They are actually nearly flat. Tirtouga use optical illusions to fool predators into biting down in areas where the attack will slide right off of them.

Carracosta are larger and more heavily armored than tirtouga. Their front fins are approximately the length of the rest of the body and backed by powerful muscles. There are now three stony claws on top of the flipper to help deal damage. The claws are essentially fixed in place and can only be moved about a tenth of an inch up and down. Flipper swipes can break bones and boats alike.



Carracosta have a stony mask on their face, including a hooked beak for tearing. Their jawbones let them shatter the thickest of shells to eat large prey.

Fossilized carracosta appear to have a fairly soft shell that has not been well preserved. Above it are a few bony “ribs” and a central line of bone to protect the shell from attack. Revived carracosta have a very ossified shell and even a fairly bulky prostega. This provides more protection but slows them down and inhibits their diving.

It is believed that carracosta had soft shells to let their lungs expand on deep dives. They may have spent a significant amount of time on the floor of their habitat, about five to six hundred feet beneath the surface. Some scientists theorize they were adapted for the open ocean, although so far fossils have only been found in the northern section of the seaway, blocking them off from the wider ocean. If they were oceanic their massive lungs and flexible shells could have supported dives of three to four thousand feet. The bulky shell and prostega of revived specimens limit them to dives of one to two hundred feet.

Carracosta’s back legs developed into stout limbs capable of letting them stand upright in shallower waters. They no longer need back fins as their front fins are more than capable of powering their movements. Instead, they can stand upright on land or on sandbars to bring their fins into play in combat with terrestrial opponents. Their tail is thick and comparatively short, two feet long at most.

Revived carracosta are probably not done growing. Their bulky shells may also inhibit their maximum size. Fossilized specimens reached lengths of fifteen feet. The tallest revived carracosta is about eight feet tall, but likely weighs as much if not more than their original counterparts at 6,000 pounds. Scientists have estimated that carracosta lived for more than a century. No revived specimen has died of old age.

Behavior

Young tirtouga were probably most comfortable far away from the coasts in waters several hundred feet deep. This would let them avoid many of the larger coastal predators. It is believed that they were generalist carnivores that ate anything and everything they could find. Revived specimens have a preference for crustaceans and mollusks but will readily hunt fish, jellies, echinoderms, sponges, worms, and almost anything else they can fit in their mouth.

Tirtouga and carracosta can be comfortable at depth in part because of their metabolic heating. They are not actually capable of passively generating their own body heat like mammals, but simulate it by constantly being active. Their muscles’ waste heat warms the rest of the body. As a result they rarely need to bask. Carracosta are believed to only stay still and at rest for about two minutes a day.

Revived tirtouga have been observed entering into tidal pools at low tide to eat animals that are unable to escape them. This behavior would have been extremely risky in their own time due to the abundance of coastal predators on land and in the sea. Tirtouga are limited to crawling on land. They cannot swim backwards which further limits them in confined, shallow pools.

Carracosta may have been a more coastal species, although they could still dive as needed. They probably used their jaws and flippers to kill large, armored pokémon and eat them. Revived specimens have been observed hunting on land or in shallow waters. They have been known to burst from the water and try to drag prey in like modern crocodilians. This strategy is impeded by their saltwater habitat. Few pokémon come to the beach to drink.

On land carracosta are too slow to hunt prey. Terrestrial hunting is probably only something revived specimens do because of their forced proximity to land. Shallow water hunting may have been more common due to the abundance of large prey near the coasts. The few specimens allowed to roam with geotags spend most of their time on the continental shelf. They dive down during the day before surfacing at night. This is probably done to follow their food.

Carracosta were probably highly migratory. Released specimens rarely spend more than a week in the same place before moving on. One tagged specimen swam across the Pacific over the course of two years. He frequented coastal island waters, including a stop in Alola.

It’s not clear why carracosta needed their monstrous strength. Most of their prey could have been killed with lesser attacks or a bite to a critical point. It’s possible they used it as a deterrent against other large predators. No carracosta fossil has been found with prominent bite marks, suggesting that predators may have given them a wide berth.

Husbandry

Carracosta are a poor fit for most caregivers. They are constantly active and swimming. In smaller pools and even ponds and sea pens they are prone to hitting the walls or accidentally beaching themselves and having to reenter the water. They cannot swim backwards to reposition. Some breeders avoid the problem in young tirtouga by attaching them to a harness anchored to the bottom of the tank. This will not work for larger tirtouga and carracosta.

The only good way to keep carracosta is a saltwater lake with millions of gallons of water in it and a soft, sandy edge to facilitate beaching. A ten-foot-high reinforced concrete wall around the enclosure’s perimeter prevents escape on land. Sea-pens are easily chewed through or otherwise escaped. Carracosta and tirtouga are extremely migratory and can swim over forty miles a day. They almost never rest. Some habitat balls can simulate an endless ocean for a short period of time, but the pokémon will quickly grow disoriented or bored.

Both stages need much more calcium than modern turtles due to their rapid growth (see Evolution) and large size. Their preferred prey are mollusks and larger crustaceans. Shells should be left on. About half of carracosta’s diet can be made up of miscellaneous seafood including fish, larger worms, echinoderms, sponges, and jellies.

Carracosta are usually aggressive and are poor tankmates for other species. Tirtouga can tolerate larger, non-aggressive tankmates. They may even engage in inter-specific play behaviors. Carracosta will not eat anything they regarded as a friend while young.

Illness

Carracosta are long-lived and unable to fully regenerate body parts like some reptiles. Most fossils of adults have some kind of minor injury.

In captivity two problems have become most prevalent. The first is simple abrasion. Both stages are near-constant swimmers who prefer pelagic habitats. They cannot quickly turn or swim backwards. In captivity they are prone to repeatedly swimming into the walls of a tank. Individual abrasion wounds are insignificant, but a few a day every day can quickly add up.

The second problem is fibropapillomatosis. Carracosta are prone to developing non-cancerous tumors, especially on the face. These aren’t a direct hazard to health but can grow to block vision or breathing or make certain normal movements painful. Studies have shown that improving water quality reduces the incidence of tumors. They need cleaner water than most other species their size, which can be a problem given the large amount of waste they produce and their tendency to eat filter feeders in their environment.

Evolution

Tirtouga have a faster growth rate than any modern turtle. They reach five feet in length and sexual maturity around their sixth birthday. Upright walking is also usually observed around this time. Scientists are unsure which to mark as the formal demarcation point for evolution. The debate does not matter much for husbandry as all three occur at similar points and the process is relatively gradual. After the fifth birthday the shell begins to grow bulkier and body growth slows. Growth continues after the shell reaches its new form around nine years of age. Carracosta may continue to grow throughout their life.

Battle

Carracosta can battle on land and in the water. They excel at neither.

On land carracosta simply lack enough speed to act as anything but a wall or a stallbreaker. Even shell smash can’t hasten their lumbering movements. Carracosta theoretically have the tools to fill the two roles available for them. Their flipper slaps are incredibly powerful and can take out many walls in a few hits. Unfortunately, the kinds of walls that carracosta can outrun tend to be the kind that are resistant to blunt force attacks. A blissey might go down to a single slap, but a gigalith or tyranitar can take a few. Theoretically carracosta can stay still and unleash jets of water to break down mineral pokémon, but there are stronger options for this role. Few trainers are going to pick a carracosta as a wallbreaker over something like machamp, especially when factoring in carracosta’s care requirements.

As tanks or walls carracosta can stay in place and set up stealth rocks or use more utility-based moves like rock tomb, sandstorm, or scale. Anything that gets close can be repelled with a slap. While this strategy works against many fast melee attackers, it falls apart against projectile users and anything with taunt.

In the water carracosta fare a little better. They have one of the strongest melee options available. Unfortunately, they require a shell smash to have any chance of outmaneuvering an opponent. Even then carracosta can be tricked into a literal corner where they will need to take valuable time to turn around. Shell smash can also risk permanent damage to a very expensive pokémon.

Melee-based tanks are less useful in underwater combat where almost every pokémon has some kind of counter to them. Stealth rocks can be washed away and hydrokinesis can batter opponents from a distance. Carracosta usually hunt prey that is very slow, not particularly intelligent, or both. They struggle in battles where a trainer is constantly giving commands and opponents are strong and have a modicum of strategy. Essentially, they are a hard counter to purely melee attackers and flounder against almost everything else.

It would be very difficult to bring a carracosta or even a particularly large tirtouga through the island challenge. In combat they could easily deal with very slow opponents and at least set up hazards against faster ones. Combat is not one of the primary issues in using one. Those are finding large pools of salt or brackish water and feeding a large predator.

Tirtouga struggle to move on land are not well suited for most battles on the island challenge.

Acquisition

A few carracosta have been released to the open ocean to see what they would do. They are all geotagged and monitored when they come to the surface to track any potential breeding. These carracosta are privately owned and cannot be captured.

There are not many carracosta in existence. Of those that do exist, many are in the open ocean. The scarcity should drive up the price of acquiring one. However, many trainers have to resell after learning the true difficulty of caring for a large pelagic predator.

The current going rate for a tortouga is between $10,000 and $40,000, depending on the generation. Many carracosta are essentially free to anyone who can care for them. Both stages require a Class V license.

Breeding

Carracosta mating occurs in deep water. In captivity it has not been observed in pools shallower than fifty feet. After about eight weeks the female will go to the nearest shoreline and lay between eight and ten nests that each contain about one hundred eggs. She will also make between one and ten decoy nests that only contain one to three eggs. After creating the nest, she will go back into the ocean. Carracosta have been documented engaging in cannibalism of tirtouga that cannot evade their bites or slaps. This includes their own offspring. Either the carracosta or the eggs must be removed from the enclosure.

Incubation has been a challenge with tirtouga eggs. Sex ratios are dependent on incubation temperature. Fine-tuning temperatures to what a carracosta nest millions of years ago might have been ahs been tricky. Early attempts almost invariably either failed to hatch any eggs or resulted in single-sex batches. Temperatures of roughly 40 to 40 degrees Celsius yield the most balanced sex ratios.

Eggs hatch after roughly seventy days. When night falls all tirtouga begin crawling down the beach towards the ocean. They sense the ocean as a light background from the open sky, while the land usually has a dark background from dunes, trees, or other obstacles. Light pollution can confuse them and leave them vulnerable to predation, starvation, or dehydration. Hatcheries must be carefully designed to ensure tirtouga get into the water within a half hour of hatching and have zooplankton to eat shortly after.

Cross-breeding has not been attempted at this time due to the relative abundance of revived specimens and the desire to create a relatively pure de-fossilized specimen.

Relatives

Carracosta were initially held to be an ancestor to all sea turtles. This is no longer believed to be the case. They are probably only a close relative of the softshell sea turtles and it is unlikely they are a direct ancestor. The critically endangered tuluth is probably their closest surviving relative. The two have been observed interacting in modern oceans, usually with friendly curiosity. Carracosta have been observed hunting other sea turtle species, although these were usually injured specimens unable to outrun them.

The cause of cartacosta’s exitnction is still debated. They were long gone by the time the Cretaceous ended. The most widely accepted theory is that eggs and tirtouga were simply eaten in such large numbers by raptors and primitive birds that the population steadily declined. Tirtouga or even carracosta may have fallen prey to new, large predators or at least been outcompeted by them. Cooling temperatures and a shrinking seaway could have also finished them off. Some scientists believe they survived in the open ocean for millions of years after the fossil record stops in North America. Until a fossil is found in the southern seaway or continental shelf there is little to support this theory.