finalfaetasy | The Big World Info/Reference Post

In addition to humans and Pokemon, this world is also populated by magical creatures.

Humans have become the dominant species in most areas of the world due to their adaptability, ingenuity, and sheer numbers proportional to individual impact, as well as their symbiotic cultural relationship with Pokemon.

Thanks to conflicting needs and interests - and the historical strife that's come about as a result - tensions exist between humans and many magical creatures. Even in the modern world, magical creatures struggle to exist peacefully in a world ruled by humans.

Oak's Pokedex project began as an attempt to show the world that magical creatures could co-exist with human interests and mores.

Whether it succeeds or not is up to the actions of the participants.

okay so Magic is a thing. It's a substance. It's non-corporeal until it's interacted with via a spell or some magical function (or until it's bound to the corporeal world via a spell).

Most living beings have magic in them, because life produces life magic.

The arrangement of magic in the body is what distinguishes humans from magical creatures and Pokemon, and magical creatures and Pokemon from one another.

Magical creatures have a magical core and magical veins, which you can imagine as sort of like the heart and blood vessels of the circulatory system.

The core houses all the essential processes needed to maintain the magical creature's powers and existence - for example, the spells that allow a werewolf to change form, or a phoenix to regenerate, or a demon to drain magic. The core also contains the supply of magic that's needed to fuel these processes. If the core were to run out of magic, the creature would probably die - it's essentially major organ failure.

Veins carry magic and spell effects to other parts of the body. The pattern and density of veins varies wildly amongst magical creatures - those who actively use magic to influence their environment, like fairies, tend to have a lot of veins close to the surface, and the proportion of magic in their bodies that's in their core at any one time is rather low. Low-magic creatures like some species of werewolves, on the other hand, may not possess magical veins at all, and their core is the extent of the magic in their bodies.

There's sort of a Atk/Def dichotomy with the cores/veins thing; generally speaking, the closer to the surface your magic is, the more vulnerable it is to being messed with via draining or poisoning (more on that later). And generally speaking, the less magic you have hanging around in veins, the harder it is for things to attack you in ways that target your core. This rule isn't always true, of course, and different species have different ways of dealing with this.

BTW WE NEVER ACTUALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT TO CALL THE VEINS SO IF YOU COME UP WITH A BETTER WORD THAT'D BE AWESOME

Edited 2013-06-06 18:31 (UTC)

Humans are to magic what sponges are to physiological structure.

They don't have cores or veins, or any features adapted to making use of magic. They do, however, produce magic; in fact, humans are a little odd in that they basically bleed magic everywhere when they're in high emotions. This probably originated as a panic response that could scramble the spell attempts of predatory magical creatures, and it's worked pretty well for them into the present day. It draws Pokemon to them, lets them study magic without having any natural ability to begin with...so on and so forth.

Without the usual structures for storing magic in the body, humans on a diagram would look like person-shaped clouds of magic. Magic rests at a low density in the tissues of their bodies, and any excess simply bleeds off.

Pokemon are the great mystery of the world and that is why they are so intensely studied.

Their magical structure seems to be similar to the cores-and-veins system of magical creatures, but the way they process magic is extremely unique, and the resulting powers are bafflingly orderly. Though Pokemon inhabit every corner of the world, their structural similarity to the Legendary beings of myth may have startling implications.

What a creature is genetically and what they are magically are two very different things.

A human can be turned into a vampire, werewolf, or other magical creature, but still genetically be a human.

Dragons and dragon Pokemon are genetically similar to the point of being able to crossbreed, but are distinguished by their powers.

Etcetera and so on.

POKEDEX HOLDERS

Red: Unicorn
Green: Vampire
Blue: Fairy
Yellow: Phoenix
Gold: Werewolf (Arcanine)
Silver: Half-demon
Crystal: Dryad
Ruby: Dragon
Sapphire: Werewolf (Mightyena)
Emerald: (i don't remember)
Diamond: Wendigo
Pearl: Griffin
Platina: Elf

GYM LEADERS/LEAGUE

Erika: i think she had some kind of plant spirit ancestry idk
Sabrina: Witch
Blaine: Wizard
Lorelei: SOMETHING
Bruno: Half-giant?
Agatha: SOMETHING
Lance: Blackthorn Dragon
Falkner: ....g...riffin ancestry......? note that quite a few people in kan-joh have some distant familial ties to the "good" creatures like griffins and elves and shit
Pryce: Ice Mage
Clair: Blackthorn Dragon
Will: fuck idr
Karen: fuck idr
Norman: I THINK HE'S A DRAGON IDK
Tate & Liza: something something I think all psychics in faeverse are witches of some kind

VILLAINS

Giovanni: Human, but he fucked a demon
Keane: Werewolf (Houndoom)
Chermaine: Harpy
Marge/Courtney: idefk but she's gotta be something

THIS LIST IS ALWAYS UP FOR REVISIONS/DEBATE

Edited 2013-06-06 18:31 (UTC)

Nested comments.

Genetically and biologically human, but otherwise different enough to be called by special names.

Wizards are human practitioners of magic who have had a spell performed on them to give themselves a core. The spell is reversible, though it's not pleasant to do so. Canon examples: all the Professors.

Witches are humans who were naturally born with some magical ability. Their magic tends to be a little chaotic and hard to classify. Replaces human psychics in faeverse. I think the term is gender-neutral. Usually passed on through families, though not a genetic trait. Canon examples: any characters who were psychics in canon.

Mages are wizards who take it a step further. There's technically no division between wizards and mages, but the term is in popular use as a wizard that sort of abandons their humanity to perform powerful magic, whether figuratively (by giving up their name and personal connections) or literally (by creating a new, magic-capable body for themselves instead of just giving themselves a core). Canon examples: Pryce (Mask of Ice), Archie (Guile Hideout).

Werewolves are humans under the influence of a transmissible spell that reconfigures their magical structure. They possess a small, dense, resilient magical core that has only one function - to drive their transformation.

There are multiple "subspecies" of werewolf, and each functions slightly differently.

Vampires are similar in origin but idk I never thought about them much so I'm not sure what all they've got going on. I think Kiwi did most of the talking about vampire Green...?

I know there are others but I can't think of any right now.

Dryads are tree nymphs — they’re the female spirit of a tree. There are even two kinds of dryads: regular ones (which are far more populous and better known) and hamadryads.

Hamadryads are born from a tree and are bonded to it for life. If that tree dies somehow - like being chopped down, of old age, burning, etc - then the hamadryad dies as well. As long as her tree is alive, a hamadryad will always regenerate and be able to live. They generally appear in forests where dryads are plentiful, as dryads take over the duty of protecting trees (especially a hamadryad’s).

Regular dryads, on the other hand, are nymphs that are born through regular means; most of them have some sort of ancestry with a hamadryad, but they’re not bonded to any one specific tree. They still live in forests and still have their favorite species of tree, but they won’t die if their tree gets destroyed somehow. They generally appear in forests that have a bloodier history, brought by its fertility.

Both live forested areas across all regions, and do especially well in the more superstitious Johto (where they’re heralded as the servants of Celebi, protector of Ilex Forest) and in cities like Fortree City of Hoenn. However, they really can be found anywhere there’s a grove of trees! The further away from humans the better, too, as both dryads and hamadryads tend to be on the shy side unless they’ve grown up around or close to civilization.

Hamadryads are genetically plants and have control over nature magics (such as growing plants, working with trees, etc). The older a hamadryad is, the better she can control her magic. They also work best with the species of trees they’re connected to; one who’s bonded to an oak tree would have a harder time getting an elm or dogwood to help them out, for example.

Dryads are also genetically plants, but definitely have a bigger magic feel to them, as they are just technically spirits. They also have control over nature magics, but they’re far more limited in what they can do. While they can grow plants the same as hamadryads, they can’t speak the same language of the trees and thus can’t ask for help.

If a forest springs up overnight, you can bet that a group of dryads is responsible for it.

Physically, they both bear resemblance to grass-type Pokémon or Pokémon who resemble trees, such as Sudowoodo. They don’t think of themselves in specific terms, save for “tree nymphs,” though obviously ones who reside in or feel more comfortable in one species of tree than another will stick together; they just don’t hold any animosity the way the subspecies of something like werewolves do. As earth is plentiful, they aren’t incredibly territorial — though obviously they will attack if their forests are in danger.

(Feel free to actually put this wherever Holo, I just wanted to get it down somewhere.)

The Big World Info/Reference Post

Core Concept

Basic Mechanics of Magic

Magical Creatures - Cores and Veins

Humans - Delicious Blobs of Magic

Pokemon - Nobody Has a Damn Clue

Fuck Biology

Cast List and What They Are

Quick Blurbs on Species

Human "Variants"

Human "Variants" pt. 2 - ch-ch-ch-changes

Dryads & Hamadryads