Pokémon The Tale of Origin

[StellarWind]

A piece of Pokémon-world scripture, possibly apocrypha, conceived as an introduction for something that has since long lost its way. I felt it was awesome enough to post on its own. So there you have it.

~*~​

In the beginning there was the word, and the word was unknown. And the word became many words, and many words became a tale - written in the bodies of the watchers by the will of One-Who-Is-Outside. Thus hath the words become as a thousand arms to One, to mold a nascent void-pocket to his will and shape the world that was to be.

First was told the Tale of Two - The Adamant, whose roar bindeth time in shackles of steel, and the Lustrous, whose claws rend the infinite, shaping the mists of aether into a great ocean. In tandem did the Two bring direction to the void-pocket - the pulse of a great awakening dragon.

Thus the two who begat direction and order became the body of the world that is to be.

And with the Tale of Two was told the Tale of the Renegade, the Forgotten Tale - A Griseous beast to offset and mirror the Two. Alas, as its nature was opposite, the beast ran rampant in confusion and rage, bringing forth great calamity until ushered to its rightful place across the threshold of reflection, where it was becalmed. Where the beast once brought violence it now brought peace.

Thus the Renegade became Guardian of the world that is to be.

Then was told the Tale of Three - the beings of azure, bearing each a red stone. And the three delved into the depths of primal lakes, and there did the essence of their stones permeate the clearest of waters. And from waters sprang life, for the stones were gifts of spirit.

And thus the Three who begat life became the heart of the world that is to be.

Lo, No longer did the watchers need the Original teller's Will to guide them - for where once there was but one voice, there were now six - and of these six countless others were born, each with a tale of their own, ripples of a stone cast into a void, expanding ever forward, ever outward, in every way. For within the gifts of spirit did the Original One place a fraction of his will - so that the echoes may tell tales of their own and transcend that which it has set in motion. Thus the Tale no longer needed its teller - and the One, its purpose completed, returned to the Outside so that one day the ripples left in its wake will be great enough for his Will-Children to follow.

 

[Namohysip]

Not much for me to say from this little snippet, but you know, I don't think this is really something that would have to be considered a standalone at all! It's pretty easy to gather that this is more or less the mythos of the Sinnoh region put to a passage. If there's any nitpick I could make on this, it goes a bit ham on the "thus" and hath" and oldspeak, but I guess that's a stylistic choice that I felt was overdone.

Another minor nitpick, as much as the canon lore likes to gloss over them in favor of the rightfully awesome dragons, the lore here didn't do much justice for the trio of spirit. We have willpower, yet no real mention of knowledge and emotion, the other two of the spirit trio. I suppose a line or two could have been dropped to give a nod to them, but otherwise, we only have Azelf as the main focus of the trio. Assuming I'm reading that right.

But that aside, nice passage depicting the Sinnoh creation mythos.

 

[StellarWind]

As noted, this thing was originally conceived as an introduction to something that never really managed to get itself written beyond the introduction in question and was eventually scrapped. However, I particularly liked the way this segment turned out and so I decided to preserve it and share it as it is (in spite of being short) rather than allow it to be lost under some assumption of recycling it into another work that may never happen.

I did indeed somewhat gloss over the Mews In Funny Hats and just generally condensed all three of their particular Triforce pieces alignments to "gifts of spirit". Probably could have name-dropped their exact natures or their lakes like I did for the Dragon's items, I suppose. But that would give them more screen time than they deserve. I still want to take a baseball bat to all three of them for being so utterly obnoxious to battle/catch. It should be noted that Azelf ISN'T actually getting singled out or granted particular importance, however. Arceus' Will specifically is brought up many times through this because that's, essentially, the source of its significance. Arceus itself is a powerful, wilful being - but it has no power of creation of its own right. But what beings have been known to gather around beings of strong will, "crystallize" around them as a core of sorts and resonate with them and with each other, shaping entire realities through this?

The Unown, that is what. The letters in which the story of existence is written. The Thousand Arms Themselves.

So yes. It was Arceus' Will guiding Unown-resonance that begat the tools/creatures it needed to shape the world and to seed life that may one day flourish into something that could create its own stories in a similar way, perhaps. The Gifts of Spirit - Knowledge, Emotion and Willpower - are all a product of Arceus' Will - but all three are important and all three are likely required to be a shaper.

But I'm kind of amused you've interpreted this as such because I can see this actually inspiring some hot takes amidst Pokémon-World-Theologians and scholars of old texts. Picture, for a moment, a group of bearded self-proclaimed sage monks gathered in a Pokéball-dome-roofed abbey and poring over faded, decaying old Sinnohan scroll fragments in an attempt to patch together some form of a coherent canon (nothing better to do between aging cheese and bottling suspicious fermented herbal tonics made with Bayleef clippings and White Herbs, after all!), one of them heatedly arguing the questionable validity of this particular fragment of text because it was obviously the work of some Azelfish Sect that would downplay the value of Knowledge and/or Emotion, and surely these are not the true Words of the Original One! And then you'd have the others that would argue that the very idea of the Original One's power not being innate to be blasphemous, and those who would take issue with the idea of the Creator wanting its Creations to become Like Them One Day while others would find these interpretations more valid than others, and they'd all throw passages from other faded scrolls to support their positions. Allowing their Emotion to influence the way they perceive the Knowledge and Wilfully Arguing About It For Decades™ , presumably just like Original One Intended.

(The Original One's actual intentions are, of course, more inscrutable and far beyond the understanding of its Will-children, but they could probably be summarised as the noise of a Llama stuck in brackets bleating out into eternity in a millieu of discordant voices. IA, IA, ARCEUS, WHITE GOAT IN THE HALL OF ORIGIN WITH A THOUSAND ARMS!)

Which really brings me to the nitpick about 'oldspeak' - It is there because this is meant to be a piece of pseudo-scripture and that tends to go with the territory. Old But Persistent Translations of Ancient Texts don't tend to be written in modern English, after all! I could go even more ham but then Arceus would have probably turned into a badger somehow and there would be five pages of footnotes debating the exact colour of the Lake Trio's stones (and only a few would agree that it was some sort of red, some might just decide it was blue or purple or straight up rainbow-coloured. Weirder Shit Has Happened with actual scripture.)

 

[Chibi Pika]

Oh neat, I'm always on board for more creation mythos (someday I will be able to post mine *sobs*). I caught the reference to the Unown, but I didn't piece together that the Unown themselves were the ones that brought form to Arceus's Will, which is a clever way to tie in their powers in the anime (and honestly, the Unown have a lot of potential that isn't used often enough!) I like the flavor in how you described the timespace dragons (seriously tempted to steal it, haha). And I'm a bit amused that the extra info in your response to Namo is longer than the scripture itself. ;D

But yes, I can tell I will enjoy reading more worldbuilding stuff from you! ^^

 

[Rainfall]

[Blitz! a slightly more detailed "good fic" review][max-249! for the next one...]

Hey Stellar! Like many, I've always been interested in legendaries and origin myths! TPC really went in with this in Gen 4, and Sinnoh mythology is quite lovely.

Overall I enjoyed the archaic-style scripture singing of the beginnings of the world. I agree with Namo (oops, saw part of his comment) that sometimes the words are a bit much, but generally, the tone does fit the subject matter.

In the beginning there was the word, and the word was unknown.

Ah, a play on unown--the primordial alphabet soup, the thousand arms (not quoted, mentioned later in paragraph)--yes! This is all perfect.

written in the bodies of the watchers by the will of One-Who-Is-Outside.

The words and fundamental substance compose the watchers. "One-Who-Is-Outside" has that deist and meta-watcher ring to it.

to mold a nascent void-pocket to his will and shape the world that was to be.

I love this phrase!

First was told the Tale of Two - The Adamant, whose roar bindeth time in shackles of steel, and the Lustrous, whose claws rend the infinite, shaping the mists of aether into a great ocean.

This is a very faithful rendering of the timespace beings.

Thus the two who begat direction and order became the body of the world that is to be.

More deity-as-world, entity-as-carrier language. (Also, begat is a funny word, much like "Egads!")

bringing forth great calamity until ushered to its rightful place across the threshold of reflection, where it was becalmed. Where the beast once brought violence it now brought peace.

Giratina fans unite! "Threshold of reflection" is a good follow to the action verbs "offset and mirror". I find "becalmed" mildly irksome, possibly just from underexposure. I hold a small preference for a comma to split the last line's clauses.

And the three delved into the depths of primal lakes, and there did the essence of their stones permeate the clearest of waters. And from waters sprang life, for the stones were gifts of spirit.

I really like the first line, but I feel like I need more exploration for how the Lake Trio relate to spirit-and-consciousness! Give to me the entangled gifts of understanding and cognition, qualia and emotion, decision-making and volition. Actually, that may disrupt the flow of the piece, and while they're important, they indeed aren't at the center of the creation-mythos, so the passage may work better as it currently is.
__

So! We have the shaper, the body, the guardian, and the heart of the world-to-be. Beings one and six (two, one, three).

Lo, No longer did the watchers need the Original teller's Will to guide them - for where once there was but one voice, there were now six - and of these six countless others were born, each with a tale of their own, ripples of a stone cast into a void, expanding ever forward, ever outward, in every way.

I very much enjoy the metaphor of the stone cast into the void, with ripples undulating ever outward in new ways. Also the progression of one, to six, to countless other beings and life born and thriving.

For within the gifts of spirit did the Original One place a fraction of his will - so that the echoes may tell tales of their own and transcend that which it has set in motion. Thus the Tale no longer needed its teller - and the One, its purpose completed, returned to the Outside so that one day the ripples left in its wake will be great enough for his Will-Children to follow.

"so that one day the ripples left in its wake will be great enough for his Will-Children to follow."
Oh! This strikes me as very important, but I also can't parse this, so I'm missing something. I'm not sure if the "so that" indicates cause-effect here. And does this imply that the One's Will-Children will grow and eventually join the creator and shaper on another level, or that the world has been created, and now the Will-Children are free to grow, change, evolve, adapt, develop, and keep transforming within the world.
___

For follow-on commentary to scripture in reply to Namo!

The theologians and scholars worldbuilding is a good touch! It's impossible for the entire group to settle on one particular reading and interpretation.

while others would find these interpretations more valid than others, and they'd all throw passages from other faded scrolls to support their positions. Allowing their Emotion to influence the way they perceive the Knowledge and Wilfully Arguing About It For Decades™ , presumably just like Original One Intended.

Mmm, love it! ^^

(The Original One's actual intentions are, of course, more inscrutable and far beyond the understanding of its Will-children, but they could probably be summarised as the noise of a Llama stuck in brackets bleating out into eternity in a millieu of discordant voices. IA, IA, ARCEUS, WHITE GOAT IN THE HALL OF ORIGIN WITH A THOUSAND ARMS!)

HA : D

Gather around, ladies, gents and nonbinaries, and I will tell you a tale of Weird Language Shit - the tale of how the same Hebrew word came to refer to two completely unrelated animals by way of a third unrelated animal, how the Bible and at least two Germans are to blame…. and what exactly does it all have to do with unicorns.
Meet the Dugong.

And there you have it - how an obscure biblical word named various creatures, real and imagined - and I still wonder how, with all the weird mythical animals spawned through ridiculous overthinking of old Hebrew words

I did not read this, but it seems very curious!

I could go even more ham but then Arceus would have probably turned into a badger somehow and there would be five pages of footnotes debating the exact colour of the Lake Trio's stones (and only a few would agree that it was some sort of red, some might just decide it was blue or purple or straight up rainbow-coloured.

I'm glad you did not, but this seems like it would be excellent worldbuilding material!
It would be further exploration on the machinations and activity coming from the imperfection of limited beings with the gifts of the Lake trio, and a study on the boons and weaknesses of language (i.e. concept ideation via unown, as opposed to materialisation via unown).