u/Chilli-byte-

So this has been on my mind since week 1:

Do you think that Rocky Ridges is a combination of two different maps? Geographically, it's seemingly a blend of Cerluean, Pewter and Lavender. Alpine and obviously Mount moon. Pewter is obvious, but the may is much larger than the Pewter we're used to. However, it doesn't feel complete or tied together in a way the other maps do.

I really believe it was finalised very late into development as a merge of the northern cities and another map, (likely Cinnabar, absolutely volcanic) due to them lacking content. It's possible this map was intended to encompass other cities too, but wasn't finished and whatever area was going to host volcanoes was merged with this map as a way to pad it out and save development time.

Reason for this include:

- Dolls

Starting with the smoking gun here. Clefairy takes us to an alpine region. Arcanine takes us to a volcanic region.

Every other doll is linked directly to a single area.

Arcanine is a Fire pokemon that shows up close to Lavender but is more a signature of Cinnabar.

- Resources

Rocky Ridges introduces you to many resources, more than the other areas.

- Storyline

You don't particularly need to interact with ore or the mines in the Rocky Ridges. Beyond DJ Rotom and unlocking furnaces, you don't need to explore ANY of the mines.

It feels like a cave exploration storyline was merged with the food storyline.

- Buildings & Area

In general, I feel like there's a disconnect in the area.

Theres just so much ash and most of the map is nothing, with some mines underneath. Where is Cerluean's daycare? Bill's house? Lavender's pokemon tower? Three cities and very few distinctive features. Pewter is so small and they have already expanded it in pokopia. There's room for so much more, like the buildings crossed out above. The mines feel like an addition to a map that was too empty.

We have the museum, with fossils. Sure, fossils are found in Mt Moon, but reviving fossils is Cinnabar's gimmick. The museum also feels a little strange and could potentially be a rework of the Cinnabar research lab or Mansion. which reflects the pokemon go games very well.

- Geography and History

[People have theorised](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemonconspiracies/s/8UGFomJLJ0) Mt. Moon as a Volcano. So having it erupt from the disaster does make sense. All the evidence of mining over existing lava flows, however, does not track with anything we have encountered in the games so far.

Additionally, if the volcanic area was indeed Cinnabar, it may have been scrapped because yet another area surrounded by ocean would be kinda boring. Plus how would a gate system work to travel to an island?

So that's my theory.

A volcanic area (possibly Cinnabar) and an Alpine area (possibly a merged map of Pewter, Cerulean & Lavender) were under developed in both story, content and map, so a decision was made to have Mt Moon erupt so as to blend both areas into a single one.

What do you think about this? I'm genuinely curious. The two biomes in one map bugs me to no end.

EDIT: Removed the weight I placed on which towns were merged to draw focus back to the theory of Rocky Ridges being 2 original planned maps blended into one disjointed (and my least favourite) map.