u/Kiki-Y

Part 2 of my Pokemon trainer region lore dump! It includes cities that do not exist canonically because I'm expanding the regions at some point. Eventually.

• Worship the birds as main deities
• Multiple birds which led to formation of clans along ideological lines — same species had same ideals but different ways of interpreting
• Articuno — resilience, perseverence, strength comes through enduring hardship — purity and maintaining clarity of thought
• Zapdos — harnessing one’s inner strength to use at right time — take bold action — independence, autonomy, freedom of choice
• Moltres — endings cause new beginnings — setback or failure but a step toward reinvention and transformation — passion, purpose, drive — pursue dreams with intensity while also understanding need for control and respect
• Life is about balance and never stagnant — importance about harmony in diversity — balance does not mean uniformity but working together despite differences

Articuno Clans

• Sienna Hills: long-term endurance: This clan combines some of Celebi’s teachings into their own. They’re the oldest recordkeepers in Kanto and are renowned for their scribal abilities. Many are trained from a young age to be recordkeepers and go into various fields related to it such as library science and court stenographers. They are deeply motivated people and are spread through the region. They believe that hard work will bring about rewards in this life and the next, sometimes to their own mental and physical detriment. They can be guilted into long hours as their work ethic can unfortunately be manipulated easily quite often.
• Viridian City: gentle, nurturing, protection of life: The Viridian Clan is dedicated to all things nature and ensuring the world is cared for. They believe nature is purity and that preserving nature is the best to ensure the longevity of everyone and everything. The Viridian Forest is a stretch of forest they’ve preserved for a very long time. They’re generally in conservation work or something related to it. They have close ties with the Ranger Union and help out Affiliated Rangers across Kanto and the world. The Viridian Clan is known worldwide for its love of nature and dedication to it. They are also Pokémon breeders with many breeders in the world having close ties with them. Many also run Pokémon preserves and help with homeless, abused, and confiscated Pokémon across the world. THey work closely with the Joy Succession across the world to ensure those sorts of Pokémon can be care for and nurtured.
• Pewter City: discipline and control of emotions: The Pewter Clan is all about resilience and control. They maintain belief in purity of thought and interpret it as a desire to control and even subjugate emotions. The Pewter Clan is where al ot of Black Belts originate from though not necessarily through blood. The Pewter Clan helps maintain martial practices of all sorts across the world and run dojos that anyone can join and learn from. The Pewter Clan believes that people can and should own and control their emotions and urges at any cost. As such, mental health is taboo among the members of the clan as it’s perceived as weakness. Arranged marriage is still commonly practiced as they believe love and other emotions shouldn’t be dabbled in and accepted. Marriage is pretty strictly for only procreation and nothing else.
• Cerulean City: artistic, symbolic, seeing clarity in life: Basically hippies. They believe in artistic expression and that art and expression are the highest thing one can do with their life. They believe love is one of the strongest forces in the universe and it can overcome a lot. Opposite of the Pewter Clan. They love nature and believe that it can help bring more meaning and clarity to life. Interaction with nature is pretty much divine and should be celebrated. They’re looser in laws when it comes to certain substances than the rest of Kanto as they believe they can bring about close experiences with the soul and even the divine itself.
• Amberstead: observing/understanding without interference: A group of philosophers and intellectuals that often butt heads with other clans. They think they know best of all clans and conflict with the Sienna Clan constantly. They’re also recordkeepers but more in a business and research way than the Sienna Clan who encompass as much knowledge as possible. They value higher learning immensely and often send their children abroad to other regions to study and broaden their horizons. They’re often found in high positions like CEOs and universities. They love to argue and be philosophical, though many other clans find them to be abrasive and frustrating. They are incredibly wealthy as well, meaning they have heavy influence on many things.

  

Zapdos Clans

• Cerise Crossing: chaotic, freedom at all costs: The Cerise Clan is a very fragmented clan due to the fact they value freedom at all costs. Some of them wander while others resort to thievery because they don’t believe in central authority to a large degree. While there is a clan council as there are with all other clans, its authority over its membres is limited due to how many interpret the idea of freedom at all costs. Cerise Crossing is a place of corruption, poverty, and crime due to how the clan operates. They’re by far the most despised clan in all of Kanto due to their overall nature. Cerise Crossing is a place of debauchery, decadence, and corruption. Basically Vegas run by 1920’s gangsters. The safe areas are generally safe with the bad areas being incredibly bad.
• Fuchsia City: strategic decision making: The Fuchsia Clan is known for its people being strong leaders and decision makers. In times past, they were feared military leaders and warlords for hire. They often butted heads with the Pewter Clan due to both being very martially oriented. The Fuchsia Clan maintains ranks in the Kanto military. Most large regions do maintain a military though they are relatively small forces. Most in the Fuchsia Clan go into the military for training then go into higher education for training in leadership. Many get recruited for HR, project management, corporate management, and similar roles. They aren’t as intense as the Pewter Clan, but they still do expect some level mental and emotional discipline without major highs or lows outside of understandable circumstances.
• Saffron City: overcoming obstacles through force: The Saffron Clan are known for their propensity to be very outspoken and to the point. They deeply value honesty and openness. They’re often to the point and don’t play games. They tend to butt heads with other clans over their philosophies and attitudes. Despite this, they do know when to have tact and be sensitive at times. A lot of those in the Saffron Clan can be found in positions like hostage negotiation as well as other leadership positions, though they don’t tend to overlap with the Fuchsia Clan too much. Many can actually be found in the entertainment industry due to many finding it an interesting challenge to become someone they’re not. They can also often be found in law enforcement as detectives, interrogators, and profilers. Surprisingly, they can also be found in psych-related fields due to believing in uncovering the truth so much.
• Chartreuse Ridge: rapid response to threads: The Chartreuse Clan is similar to the Viridian Clan but they’re much more action oriented. Members of this clan believe that helping others is of the utmost importance and that keeping order is their duty. As such, they’re found in the fields of first responders and social work most often. A number of them choose to become Affiliated Rangers and go to other regions in order to help others the most. This clan is known for its high level of empathy as most members do choose to go into such fields. They’re also found in healthcare, human and Pokémon alike. They work closely with the Joy Succession at least in Kanto and Johto, often intermarrying due to their values being so close aligned. Some also become Union Rangers.
• Celadon City: embrace energy and spontaneity: The Celadon Clan is known for being home to artists, wanderers, and generally free souls who seek understanding. This clan has very close ties to the Cerulean Clan who are similar in a number of ways. However, the Celadon Clan takes a more philosophical bent rather than trying to just be artistic. They deeply enjoy the ideas behind philosophy and symbolism and think there’s deeper meaning in everything. Members of this clan can be found in literary and artistic circles, the critique and philosophy side. They become historians due to knowing philosophy and art are deeply, intimately tied to their era in history as well as understanding that things are different. Some can enter tech as that is a unique field for them and they find technology and its philosophies beautiful in its own way.

 

Moltres Clans

• Vermillion Clan: destruction for renewal: The Vermillion Clan is focused on ideals of being able to renew things and growth via trials. They believe that people must gro through hardship in order to grow. The Vermillion Clan goes out of its way to help members grow by putting them through trials at certain points in life and encouraging members to continue to push themselves to grow. This leads members to become internally drive and to challenge themselves in various ways. Members of the Vermillion Clan can be found in sports of all sorts as well as medicine, law, aerospace, and first responder roles quite often. They enjoy anything that can and will push them mentally or physically, depending on that individual’s inclinations.
• Lavender Town: nurturing growth and renewal: The Lavender Clan is similar to the Viridian Clan but with how they nurture and care for things but they’re more about compassionate acceptance than protection. They believe in renewal and cycles of life, emphasising that life and death are two sides of the same coin. They believe that growth isn’t an easy process and that it can sometimes hurt. Death is not something to be feared but to be celebrated and even cherished because nothing is truly permanent. They believe that lessons learned from all living things and interactions are scared and should be nurtured. Due to being the keepers of Lavender Tower, this clan is generally associated with death. Members of this clan can be found in the death industry, but also healthcare and psychiatric fields due to wanting to help others grow.
• Bronzefall: follow one’s fire: The Bronze Clan is by far the most individualist clan in all of Kanto and the most dispersed. They believe deeply in following one’s dreams boldly. They’re taught from a young age to invest in themselves and go after what interests them. The hallmark traits of this clan’s members are those that live life to the fullest with a zest for life and a fiery twinkle in their eyes. There’s no real unifying philosophy for this clan in the same way to that there is for others.
• Rosewood Springs: chaos to catalyse change: Those in the Rosewood Clan tend to be moves and shakers across the world. This clan is almost inherently rebellious as their core philosophy is that of catalysing change. They don’t have unified fields they tend toward as a group because their clan encourages diversity of thought and interest. The main thing is that people learn to think critically about themselves and the world to challenge things. The more radical, the better in the clan’s eyes. As long as ideas, people, and institutions are being challenged, the clan is happy.
• Cinnabar Island: control over destructive power: The Cinnabar Clan is focused on careful use of fire and passion for transformation. They often deal with the Pewter Clan as they are highly disciplined. However, the Cinnabar Clan believes that emotions aren’t all bad especially not one’s passions and loves. They believe a person should control their passion but still allow it to help push them along. They do war about passions becoming too consuming and overwhelming which is one reason why they do work closely with the Pewter Clan. They don’t practice arranged marriage, though, thinking love is one of the greatest experiences in life overall. As the encourage individual passions, there’s no set pattern of fields they enter most frequently.

 

Reddit's gonna fuck up the formatting so warning there.

I've been on a Pokemon kick lately so I've been laying the groundwork for some of the Trainer regions. If you've seen Pokemon Ranger stuff posted, I'm that person and this is congruent with my Ranger stuff. For the most part, this stuff is meant to be like 7500 years in the past where legendaries are teaching humans lessons.

Creation

• Arceus is creator
• Only survivor of a cataclysmic battle from another world - all was unstable as he stood on the ashes of the previous world - only thing stable was him - not even space and time were stable - alone, he was buffeted and nearly destroyed - he tried to bring stability to reality, but he wasn’t able to by himself - resulted in creation of three dragons - Dialga and Palkia stablised space and time while Giratina stabilised matter - however, Giratina was unstable in var temperament which made matter itself unstable - only one non-stable area remained, so Arceus banished Giratina to that area which became known as the Distortion World - resembles the world in its form before all was stabilised - where the worst destruction of the previous world happened and nobody could do anything about it
• Dialga and Palkia helped set the foundation of the universe which included many stars and galaxies - all was good for at ime until Dialga and Palkia began to fight which threatened the stability of the universe itself - frustrated, Arceus created the Lake Guardians to be able to calm the two dragons - both couldn’t be subdued at the same time but it was enough to stop all of spacetime from being torn apart
• Arceus missed life and decided to create a planet he could watch over - created one point called the Spear Pillow which was the origin of the world and began building from there - once satisfied with the world, he created Mew to begin adapting to the planet which which happened slowly over the course of millions of years
• Pokémon could be overly aggressive and destructive at times, threatening the harmony of the world especially with powerful ones like the Regis and Weather Trio developed - Arceus created beings from earth, water, air, fire - these beings could do many things, but were weak and easily pushed around - the Guardian Trio saw them lacking and gifted them willpower, emotion, knowledge - this allowed these beings to be creative and think in ways Pokémon were unable to at the time - gave them dominion over Pokémon to a large degree and allowed them to control the environment and Pokémon on the whole
• However, led to conflict between humans and Pokémon which had no ability to think or reason - Arceus had the Guardian Trio give Pokémon the same abilities as humans - led to increased conflict between humans and Pokémon with humans afraid of the creatures on the whole - led to fortified strongholds and weapons used by humans to defend against Pokémon
• Creation of Pokémon like Birds, Beasts, original dragons, etc to act as bridge between humans and Pokémon - act as teachers and begin to be seen as actual gods by humans as Arceus focuses on only a few regions including Sinnoh, Fiore, and Oblivia - 7500 years before modern age

Johto

• Worship Lugia and Ho-oh with the beasts being seen as demigods

• Celebi?

  Lugia and Ho-oh are the center of Johto’s religion and culture. They have shrines and adherents in Kanto, but the three birds are preferred to Ho-oh and Lugia. There is overlap due to the regions being so close, but Kantonians and Johtans have their preferences. These legendaries and their teachings had a deep impact on Johto and Kanto, though to a lesser degree.

  Ho-oh is a relatively calm, detached force that doesn’t often get involved in human affairs as he prefers to watch and observe. However, his teachings have left and impact. He wanted humans to learn to be calm in the face of hardship and turmoil. He came down harder on humans than Pokémon, though, as they were often the aggressors in conflict which frustrated him to no end. He equipped them with psychic powers that would force them to learn to be calm and controlled, thus explaining the high level of psychics in Johto compared to other regions. He mostly met those that were considered leaders as he preferred to let humans govern and take care of their own affairs instead of having them rely on him.

  Lugia took the opposite approach and spent a lot of time among all strata of humans. Part of her felt responsible after Ho-oh spent so much time apart from humans. She felt like humans could be calmer, but not the way Ho-oh went about it was wrong. She equipped humans with compassion for themselves and others. She set the groundwork for kindness and empathy to overflow from the people of Johto from others.

  The beasts opted to act more as administrators and organisers instead of being direct teachers. They were down among the people of Johto and helping humans to rebuild as well as smoothing over friction between humans and Pokémon. After so many issues between them, a lot of bridges needed to be built and civilisations rebuilt. Arceus made multiple beasts to help all corners of the region rebuild and work as administrators as writing and other issues came up.

  Celebi helped develop the first writing system in the world not based off of Unown and allowed humans to begin recording their history. This system spread to Kanto as well, making the two regions to record their histories. This made Johto want to preserve its legacy and pass down knowledge across time. Johto has the longest record of any region, but it’s still incomplete and biased as any history is.

 

Hoenn

• Worship Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza mainly - Regis seen as primal forces

• Latis? 

• Jirachi?

  Hoenn was the region where humans got their start despite the Guardian Trio being in Sinnoh. Sinnoh is where the world started but humans. Arceus began humans in Hoenn because Kyogre and Groudon were causing so many issues for the area due to their constant fighting. Arceus needed beings to calm the constant fighting, so he created humans. However, it took the Guardian Trio stepping in to really be able to quell the fighting as humans needed knowledge to be creative and come up with how the orbs worked. Knowledge brought creativity which allowed humans to be able to do things never intended. This was before teacher legendaries were created; humans and Pokémon were still in conflict. Humans used their knowledge to extract life force from Pokémon to bind Kyogre and Groudon to the Blue and Red Orbs in order to put them to sleep so they would never cause harm to the world again. Rayquaza was similarly bound to the Sky Pillar so it would sleep and not cause issues for humans down the road.

  After that, Arceus created multiple Latis and Jirachi to work as the teachers for humans in this region. Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza are the deities worshiped and treated as creation gods, but the Latis are treated as the teachers they are. The Regis are from the same era as the Weather Trio and were similarly sealed away as they caused much damage to the world and strife overall. 

  Latios and Latias were harbingers of harmony and understanding, something sorely needed as humans and Pokémon had been in conflict for so long. Generally, Latios was more reserved than their sisters but were all about harmony and ensuring balance between all living things. His ability to travel quickly made him able to answer conflict calls in an incredible amount of time. Pokémon were still new to having the capacity for language and intelligent thought. So far, no humans had developed the capacity to understand Pokémon, so it was up to the legendaries to help smooth out conflicts. Latios was the main one, though, as he valued harmony and balance above all else.

  Latias was incredibly sweet and gentle, teaching humans about empathy and love above all else. She struggled deeply when it came to being a mediator like her brother. She was a great teacher but truly struggled when it came to flaring tempers and misunderstandings. Humans and Pokémon alike were good at misunderstanding themselves and each other across species boundaries as well as within. 

  Jirachi was the teacher of kindness and potential. There was overlap with what Latias taught, but there were differences. Jirachi taught love and warmth for all living things as well as patience. Humans had developed agriculture and were beginning to work with Pokémon, but humans could still be impatient. This led to Jirachi choosing specific evolutions lines to have patience and would overflow with love even when humans struggled to.

 

Sinnoh

• Worship Arceus and dragons mainly - lake trio seen as saints or something

• Heatran?

• Cress/Dark?

• Manaphy? 

• Shaymin?

  Heatran, Darkrai, Cresselia, Manaph, Shaymin were among the first teachers to begin talking to humans to approach them. Shaymin and Manaphy were the first ones accepted by humans due to the fact they were cute and seemed relatively harmless though they were truly powerful in their own rights. Agriculture had begun to spread among humans 7500 years ago, so Shaymin bounced around the region to start teaching humans about pollination, selective breeding, and such. Manaphy taught them about irrigation and how to work with Pokémon for such purposes. Humans were reluctant to trust wild Pokémon as there had been thousands of years of conflict up until this point. Wild Pokémon were similar as they expected humans to come after them with weapons. Not having experienced this, Manaphy and Shaymin had to work to get humans and Pokémon to understand each other and build bridges where there had been none before.

  Darkrai and Cresselia were guardians against the Distortion World leaking into the waking world. THere are many layers of the Distortion World and humans and Pokémon can touch them when asleep. Darkrai is the main guardian of this layer to make sure it doesn’t harm people and bleed too deeply into their psyches. Negative emotions can cause people to enter the Rift of Reverie and make them vulnerable to Echofiends which can possess a person and leak into the waking world. Cresselia helps people that went too far into the Rift return. They’ve taught other legendaries across the regions how to do the same thing and had Arceus grant them the same abilities so humans and Pokémon from other regions don’t end up in the Rift. Certain Pokémon lines across regions act on Darkrai and Cresselia’s behalves to help safeguard against the Rift. Some humans in the modern world have made it their job to keep and rescue others from the Rift.

  Heatran was not a force for destruction despite being tied to volcanoes which still fill a lot humans with fear and awe. As a powerful Fire type, Heatran was feared due to the ability to cause a lot of destruction. However, Heatran had a steady temperament and never lashed out unless something truly heinous happened. Lots of people saw stuff like wildfires as bad, but Heatrans helped them see it another way as purifying and transformation. Humans had mastered fire a long time before, but they continued to treat much of it with respect and some level of fear. Heatran began to teach them that fire can be used to help purify the land as well as spirits and minds. Meditation and mindfulness became hallmark cornerstones of Sinnoh’s religious practices and culture.

  Arceus maintained close ties with Sinnoh and eventually allowed Giratina to come back from the Distortion World as va had had actually done what Arceus himself couldn’t do: bring some sort of stability to the area. It would never truly be stable, but Giratina had made layers of the Distortion World that halped after some continuity. Arceus then granted Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina human forms so that way humans would be able to learn from them as well. They didn’t spend much time in any other region but Sinnoh, though they occasionally dropped by Oblivia to see what humans were doing. They let the other legendaries there do what they were doing in most of the teaching.

  Dialga spent time teaching that time is a river that flows. It can be guided but shouldn’t be directed or forced into a singular route. The course is not fully set but outside influences can and will change said flow. Celebi (unknown in Sinnoh) works for Dialga and Arceus, keeping an eye the river but not changing the current unless there’s good reason to (see: Summer). Humans learned to not meddle with time and to allow changes to happen as they are inevitable and natural. 

  Palkia taught about the way everything is interconnected. Va taught how one decision can change the flow of time and how celestial bodies impact each other. Va didn’t go into things like relativity or quantum mechanics at great depth, but va did some basic explanations. Palkia’s teachings focused on the sanctity of life from the smallest bug to Arceus Himself. No one life form was more important than another and all life was to be respected.

  Giratina focused on the cyclical nature of life and balance between all things. All things must be born and somehow die. Spirits and souls are not recycled, but all things come from the ground and must return to it someday. All souls come from Arceus and must eventually return as well. Death, mistakes, and hardship are all simply a part of life and all such things must be respected as teachers in their own right.

Unova

• Worship original dragon

• Musketeers?

• Victini?

• Meloetta?

• Kami?

  The core of Unova’s religion is that of worshiping the original dragon before it split. It was named Eryndra and was the ruler of Unova for a long time. It ruled fairly and evenly, making Unova one of the first regions to have Pokémon and humans work together and respect each other despite the eons of tension and fighting between them.

  The musketeers and Keldeo were martial pacifists that were defenders of Pokémon in the era before Eryndra when humans weren’t able to listen to Pokémon. After Eryndra’s creation, they fell into helping humans create and enforce laws across the region. They didn’t like fighting despite being called the Swords of Justice. They preferred to use words to sort things out, though it could be tough until Eryndra brought peace ot he region.

  Arceus did not create Eryndra in the initial batch of legendaries meant to teach humans as the other regions had proven to take well to the teachers. Unova, though, proved to be different with people and Pokémon continuing to fight. A war broke out and Arceus created Eryndra to quell the fighting. The extremely powerful dragon laid waste to a huge area of the region and forced a peace treaty between humans and Pokemon. This allowed the other legendaries to step in and truly become the teachers they were meant to be. 

  Meloetta taught the humans of Unova about joy and warmth. It’s not that they were incapable of such emotions, but after the war as well as the constant conflict, they needed to be taught how to love life and open up as well. Meloetta taught all sorts of music and dances to the people in order to help them open up and see life as more than work and hardship.

  The Nature Trio also worked hard to teach humans important lessons despite being seen as lesser. Tornadus was largely teaching about adaptability and the need for change in all things through life. Considering the changes that Eryndra brought to the region on the whole, this was hugely important. Humans had largely stagnated due to being hold up in fortified settlements and not growing as much as other regions. That and, with Eryndra working with the Musketeers, big changes were happening which needed to be accounted for. 

  Thundurus was teaching how to use power with responsibility. However, this was a lesson aimed at both people and Pokémon. Despite the truce, the Pokémon were more reluctant to let go and allow bygones to be bygones. With Eryndra ruling over, the Pokémon though they should have dominion over the weaker humans. Eryndra backed Thundurus’ message and had the Musketeers enforce it on a legal and societal level. Many Pokémon felt cheated but submitted to Eryndra’s will. 

  Landorus leaned more into teaching humans rather than Pokémon. His teachings were about stability and harmony. While both sides had lost a lot in the war, humans had lost a lot more than Pokémon due to Eryndra’s wrath. Most of their settlements had been destroyed and they’d been forced to rebuild. Eryndra made Pokémon help as so much had been lost .Humans wanted to dominate and control nature which Landorus taught them not to do. Humans began to understand stability without excessive dominion and subjugation.

  Victini was another important piece after the war. Both humans and Pokémon were mentally distraught and destroyed. Combined with Meloetta, Victini taught about pushing beyond limits and how all beings have limitless potential. The beginnings of Pokémon training began taking hold as both beings began to move closer together. Pokémon that had struggled with certain things began to flourish as humans could be outside observers in a way Pokémon themselves couldn’t be.

Orre

• Celebi, Ho-oh, Musketeers, Zeraora, Meloetta, Darkrai/Cresselia who abandoned dream abilities, Latis
• Legendaries are more land guardians than teachers — protect land from those that wish it harm — land of extreme abundance that had a large population of humans and Pokémon alike — relative peace and harmony for millennia until humans began to get greedy and started hoarding resources that resulted in inequalities and issues among populations — splintered and fractured into multiple kingdoms that started to go to war with each other frequently
• The legendaries begged the human leaders to stop fighting as Cresselia saw nothing but destruction down this path — wanted the region to continue to flourish, but monarchs ignored warnings — battles raged for centuries and the land slowly began to wither bit by bit — legendaries continued warnings but they were ignored
• Eventually large swaths of the region were desert — people leaving to find better places to live — region began to collapse rapidly 500 years before present — kingdoms withered aside from one which turned into democracy in the Unova Revolution timespan — rest of region is desert with lots of ghost towns and small, scattered dwellings — some people took to wandering the harsh desert, so nomads go from oasis to oasis — Captura Crystals can be found in desert and allows some bands of nomads to make some sort of money not just from robbing random travelers
• The last war that happened in Orre had a cataclysmic battle where huge amounts of energy were released due to the Pokémon attacks being used — raw Infinity Energy that then crystallised into Captural Crystals, a major component in producing Pokéballs — Pyrite Town had a crystal mine on top of a normal mine, but with as delicate as the crystals are, the rough mining methods caused mass quantities to break and not be viable — League regions didn’t want to invest, so they left and only buy crystals from nomads now
• Wild Pokémon exist in region but low type variety — mostly Rock/Ground types that can survive in desert heat or ones like Cacnea line

I just finished reading everything that's posted of my absolutely perfect ideal fic... I'm so happy to have read so much but now I have to wait until the next update.

I finally understand. 😭

I'm off work today for stupid reasons, so I decided to read my unicorn fic and catch up with it. I'm reading it on my Kindle just because I prefer e-ink for, like, everything when possible. But I'm reading at my computer and so I'm leaving comments every couple of chapters.

Hopefully the author appreciates me semi-spamming their inbox with my comments!

I'm one of those fanfic authors that can take research incredibly seriously and fall down massive research rabbit holes. I'm not joking when I say I've spent over $3000 on research materials due to the topics being relatively niche and print books being the only way I can get to most of my materials.

I do not control my hyperfixations and my brain landed back in Pokemon. I want to really flesh out the world's lore which includes the Alola region.

For context, Alola is based off of Hawai'i.

This is where the research part comes in.

I'm not sure how much I should research Hawai'ian culture in general. i am one of those people that really wants to be respectful to colonised cultures. Most of those $3000 I spent were for books on one culture to try to be respectful to the traditional culture (as best I can be, at least, since the English-language materials aren't the best) while working with it.

However...that has led me down a path of not having read most of the books I've picked up. I don't want to end up in a similar situation with Hawai'i where I have 40 books to read and not enough time to read and take notes on them. But I also don't want to be disrespectful to the native culture that is living and has struggled with colonisation.

I have decided against including colonisation into my Pokemon world, though. I don't feel like I can handle that topic personally. Sinnoh is where I got into hot water with the decision to do so or not because the colonised culture I've spent so much time researching is the Ainu. I was faced with the decision of including a really difficult real-world topic or not, and I just...don't want to deal with it personally. My cultures can have their own biases and issues, but I just feel like colonisation is too touchy of a topic for me to handle especially as a very white bread American.

I'm just really uncertain of how to handle this at all. I really can't ignore the aspects that are inspired by Hawai'i with Alola. I want to do some research and take inspiration from the native culture, but I also feel like not doing enough research would be really disrespectful.