User:MemyselfandI/Headcanon

Legendaries

• Legendaries come in several tiers of power. At the bottom of the pyramid are the various spritelike legends: Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, and Victini. They are akin to minor spirits, and there are many of them. Their power is not infinite, and with some effort they can be defeated. Slightly higher are Shaymin, Darkrai, Cresselia, Regigigas, and most of the legendary trios. While most of them can take down a full team's worth of mons, with proper preparation and incredible skill they can be fought. After that are most of the version legendaries (Ho-oh, Lugia, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem), as well as the Lake Trio and Mew. Against one of these mons, unless you have trained specifically to defeat them, and all your mons are at the absolute pinnacle of their strength, they will almost certainly crush you. Almost at the top are Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina. The odds of any trainer ever defeating one of these three are roughly the same as the odds of your average Sunkern defeating a top percentage Salamence.

• Arceus, of course, far surpasses any other Legendary in power. It is not so much invincible as beyond the concept of harm, and any evidence to the contrary is solely for its own amusement.

• Mewtwo is not a legendary, due to its artificial status. However, it has power on par with that of even some major legendaries, and is not to be taken lightly. It can and quite likely might make your head explode without much effort.

• The Regis and Genesect, likewise, are not legendaries. Their powers are comparable to minor legends, such as Latii or Shaymin, but they lack dominion over elements of the natural world, and have no followers.

• Latii used to be merely a species of extremely powerful dragons, possibly akin to psuedos. However, due to overcapture and poor knowledge of how to care for them, their numbers have declined greatly and they have been given a protected status (so yes, Brendan/May is pushing the boundaries of the law a little in RSE). They are only seen as legendaries because of their protection of Alto Mare from its frequent natural (or otherwise) disasters.

• Heatran, similarly, is only a rare and extremely powerful volcano-dwelling mon, who is rarely seen due to its chosen habitat. The massive destruction it can cause when not dormant has led to its being dubbed a "spirit of volcanoes" but that is merely a title. However, it is still incredibly strong. Your level 100 pseudo isn't going to provide it with much of a challenge.

• Deoxys is unconfirmed as a legendary. It is unquestionably a Pokemon of great power, but as it is from another world, it cannot be determined how its power level matches that of the mons from that world.

• Mew, unlike most legendaries at its power level, come in multiples. They are rarely seen in the same place twice, and their current purpose, if anything, has not yet been discovered.

• Unown are not individually legendaries, or indeed even remotely powerful. The Unown collective, however, is both. All matter in the universe is composed of Unown, and the world can be reshaped by the patterns they spell out. Unown become powerful in large quantities because the more of them there are, the larger and more complex the commands that they can make are. In addition, Unown can speak to (and more to the point, communicate with) inanimate objects, and move instantaneously through both time and space.

While individual Unown have individual personalities (usually fairly playful, and all sharing the same verbal tic as those in WAAPT), as more Unown gather their minds will link, subsuming the original personalities until only the collective remains. Fortunately, this effect will wear off once the Unown scatter again.

• While minor legendaries occasionally interact with the world, anything on the level of Ho-oh or higher will make itself known once or twice every hundred years, and only in the direst of emergencies. The events surrounding the games qualify.

• Legendaries occasionally manifest avatars of themselves to assist humans as a temporary team member. These avatars are not as powerful as the real deal, but are still a force to be reckoned with.

Attributes

Attributes aren't something one is born with, or indeed a particular quality of a person. Rather, they are representative of a legendary that, sensing like-mindedness or like-goaledness in the person in question, has chosen to make them (temporarily) an instrument of their influence, such as carrying a message in minor cases, or defeating dangerous people in extreme cases. People chosen in such fashion are not always aware of it, as legendaries can make their wills known in ways varying from a direct appearance to a subtle shift in reality to point their champion in the appropriate direction. However, these chosen are often introverted, prefer Pokemon to people, and speak only when forced.

If the Legendary in question deems its servant in sufficient need, it may form an avatar of itself to assist them (see above). However, they will rarely if ever give people powers.

Heart Legends: Ho-oh, Raikou and Entei, Kyogre, Dialga, Mesprit, Cresselia, Zekrom, the genies, Xerneas (to be continued)

Soul Legends: Lugia, the bird trio, Groudon, Palkia, Azelf, Darkrai Reshiram, the Sabots, Yveltal (to be continued)

Mind Legends: Suicune, Rayquaza, Giratina, Uxie, Kyurem, Meloetta, Zygarde (to be continued)

Culture

• While the legendaries clearly exist in the Pokeworld, how they are perceived and worshipped varies from person to person. While an acceptance of the Pokeverse legends as a pantheon of gods is not unheard of (particularly in Sinnoh, where it is by far the majority religion), many other interpretations exist. Arceus is frequently cited as the only true god, while other legendaries are either of angelic status or merely aspects of Arceus.

• Pokemon training is a common practice, and trainers are usually sent out around the age of 15, if they wish to become a trainer. Trainers replace traditional schooling with abridged online classes, and there is a fairly profitable business in finding better ways to keep trainers educated.

• In both residential and business areas, building owners can mark their buildings with an "open to trainers sign." This will place the building on the virtual map that trainers are given at the start of their journey, and indicate that they are okay with random strangers entering their house and asking questions.

• A number of the more far-fetched Pokedex entries are a result of young children making up numbers or facts that they think are cool. However, qualitative data is correct more often than not.

• Many Pokemon have been deemed dangerous, and are forbidden to be caught without sufficient experience (usually in the form of badges, though in some cases a license is required). Some examples: Most pseudos, Volcarona, Shiftry, Ducklett.

• Some common or easily bred species of Pokemon are eaten by humans. Prime examples include Tauros and Torchic.

• New trainers, while they often obtain a starter from the regional lab, also have the option of obtaining a local Pokemon, whether by catch or by gift, to start their journey with.

• The information of every trainer is kept on file, sorted by ID number. To get into a Gym, a trainer must present their ID, at which point a message will be sent to the Gym Leader so that they know how many mons to use and of what level of training.

• When a trainer defeats the Champion of the Elite 4, they are not automatically given the option to replace them. This requires both a large degree of studying to prove that the applicant has the necessary knowledge of Pokemon, and a battle against the Champion's team with no holding back on the Champion's part. A similar process would be required to oust a Gym Leader.

Combat

• Stats

HP: All Pokemon (and to a lesser extent Pokeverse!Humans) have a healing factor that would put Wolverine to shame. HP is a reflection of how much injury they can recover from until the strain becomes too much and they collapse.

Note: Yes, this does mean that attacks such as Guillotine, Overheat, Hyper Beam, etc. really are inflicting serious and quite possibly lethal damage. It's just that it doesn't matter so much when the target's insides will magically realign themselves.

Further Note: Also yes, this does mean that your average Pokemon has a much higher pain tolerance than any RL animal.

Attack: The attack stat is measured primarily in raw physical strength. Most physical attacks are little more than brute force, coupled with a little elemental ability and a (usually) rudimentary knowledge of where to hit.

Defense: Defense is pretty simple as well, it's just layers of armor or other things that would make it difficult to inflict serious damage by punching, slashing, stabbing, biting, or otherwise physically attacking somemon.

Sp. Atk: Sp. Atk is the degree of command a mon has over the elements it can access. Darmanitan, for example, while it possesses amazing strength, is not a particularly powerful manipulator of fire. Volcarona, on the other hand, while lacking in strength, possesses an unbelievable degree of power over fire.

Sp. Def: Sp. Def can be caused by many different things. Altaria, for example, uses its cotton and dragon scales to dampen incoming attacks, while an Umbreon projects an ambient obscura field with a similar effect.

Speed: Speed is not a measure of actual top speed. Rather, it is reflective of agility and potential to maneuver within a small space. Running at 70 mph won't help you if you only have a few hundred square feet to work with. For instance, while Rapidash is far faster than Electrode, Electrode is both quick and capable of making turns on a dime, allowing it to make an attack before the opponent can land one.

• Moves are not the only ways in which Pokemon can use their abilities. Rather, they are techniques submitted to and approved by major leagues for use in professional battles. In the wild or in friendly battles, improvisation is both possible and likely. The process for creating new legal moves, however, is difficult and a bit complicated, so should be undertaken with caution.

Biology

• Each evolutionary line is a single species, its members are simply different stages of its life and would not be given separate scientific names. The names we see in the games began as simply what adults told their children, but gradually slipped into mainstream culture as "Charizard" was much simpler than saying "final morph of Candela."

• Egg groups are akin to genus, and mons that share an egg group are very closely related. Nobody yet understands how mons can belong to multiple egg groups. And Ditto are just weird.

• While on a macroscopic scale Pokemon easily outcompete any Earthlike fauna, on a microscopic scale things are more even (only so much room for a pyrosac when you're a single cell), and bacteria or other single-celled life resembles that of Earth. However, most insects that we know, even the very small ones, are Pokemon in the Pokemon world. They aren't considered for battle due to their small size and general weakness.

• Braviary and other male-only species occasionally make use of friendly Ditto to propagate their species.

Miscellaneous Notes on Traits of a few types

Psychic-types:

• Telekinesis does not work on living objects. Moves that seem to operate based on telekinetic force against opposing Pokemon are actually manipulating the atoms and molecules making up air to create a semisolid cushion. While telekinetic mons (and people) have an instinctual grasp of these abilities the same way as humans understand balance, using such abilities requires extreme focus (hence why the move Telekinesis is not automatically used by Psychics the second they enter a battle, and why it works against Dark-types). However, a quickly-moving opponent will likely be almost impossible to touch with telekinetic abilities.

• Psychic is a telekinetic push, with effects akin to a strong wind. Psyshock/Psystrike involve condensing air particles into a solid attack, which while powered by the user's command over their psychic powers hits in a fashion more similar to a physical blow.

• Mind-reading will pick up only on what the target is actually thinking, and cannot go any deeper. As such, while it is fairly difficult to lie to a psychic, anyone with sufficient self-control can keep others out of their thoughts. Dark-types are entirely immune due to ambient obscura, though Miracle Eye can penetrate this.

• Telepathic conversation involves a link to another's mind. While normally this link is gentle and can be accepted or ignored like a phone call, moves like Confusion and Extrasensory force the connection, creating a jarring stream of information to disorient a foe.

• Teleportation can only be made to an area which the teleporter can form a clear mental picture of (the last visited Pokemon Center is an easy-to-remember landmark, as they look the same in a given region), and requires a fair amount of focus (hence why it can't be used to evade attacks).

• Hypnosis involves no psychic powers, only a relaxing action or light pattern.

Ghost-types:

• All Ghost-types except for the Golett line are capable of phasing, though the Gastly line is unquestionably the best at it. Phasing works best the less dense the medium in question is. There are certain substances or coatings that are 100% effective in preventing the phasing of Ghosts. Finally, a ghost phasing through an object is usually detectable by the surface of the object (a Chandelure might cause the surface to heat up, a Froslass to cool down, etc.).

• Ghost-type obscura will not act as a defense against Fighting-type Aura, it will only be intangible to it. A shield of the stuff will not protect you from a Force Palm (or a Tackle, for that matter).

Fighting-types:

• All Fighting-types are capable of using Aura to some degree. Lucario, Gallade, Medicham, and Mienshao are the best at it, however.

• Aura can be used to make simplistic constructs, to empower blows or weapons, and to detect the emotions of others, but nothing beyond that.

• Force Palm uses a combination of knowing where to hit and a burst of Aura to shut down nervous centers in the struck area. Capable Aura-users can extend their range several feet using a spike of Aura.

• Detect is some form of precognition put to use to predict and evade the next attack. While it is usually done with Aura, it can be performed using other methods of clairvoyance (Absol), or just incredible reflexes (Sceptile). Mind Reader is its converse, using prediction to aim an attack without fail.

Dark-types:

• A Dark-type's proximity makes maintaining telepathic bonds extremely difficult. As such, it is impossible to read the mind of a Dark-type without Miracle Eye, and a Dark-type in direct contact with a non-Dark-type can serve as a psychic shield of sorts. Most forms of telekinesis will likewise dissipate around Dark-types, though with proper focus (the Telekinesis move) this can be bypassed.

• The majority of Dark attacks use obscura to some extent, if only to empower a strike.

Pokemon Abilities in Humans

• The most common Pokemon abilities found in humans are the ones relating to the Auric Spectrum: That is Psychic, Fighting, Ghost and Dark. Most humans are extremely weak with these abilities in comparison to even the weakest Pokemon, and increased power with them frequently correlates with various psychoses (which often become worse as the power is used more).

Psychic Powers: The average psychic human is a spoonbender. They may have minor telekinetic abilities (such as levitating Pokeballs, the best party trick of all time), the ability to read surface thoughts, or even basic clairvoyant abilities, but such efforts require a great deal of strain. More powerful psychics, while their abilities increase exponentially, have a tendency to become distant from their fellow humans, withdraw from oral communication in favor of telepathy, and become prone to fits of destructive rage (frequently coinciding with loss of control over powers).

Fighting-type Abilities: Auric humans strike noticeably faster and more powerfully than their normal counterparts, and can use Aura to read nearby emotions or sense incoming strikes. Naturally, these types of people frequently become martial artists. Stronger Aura powers include constructs such as Aura Spheres. However, people strong in Aura tend to develop a violent personality, often resorting to verbal or physical combat unnecessarily. Since ancient times, there have been devices designed to increase someone's ability to use Aura without bringing on the associated dangers.

Ghost-type Abilities: Ghost-Obscuric people can communicate with Ghosts, and occasionally create wisps of raw obscura to fight with. More powerful obscurics can manipulate those wisps into Shadow Claws or Shadow Balls (and some can perform feats on par with stronger Ghost-types). However, powerful obscurics frequently suffer from depression, feel uncomfortable in a corporeal body, and detach from the living.

Dark-type Abilities: Dark-Obscuric people are usually immune to telepathy, and can create small constructs of obscura, similar to Aura users. Stronger Dark obscurics can project this lack of telepathy for an effect similar to a Dark Pulse, as well as create far stronger, larger, and more complex constructs. However, Dark obscurics often become single-mindedly paranoid of others, and often tend towards sociopathy.

• Abilities found in other types (minor hydrokinesis or firebreathing) have also popped up in humans on occasion. However, they are in all documented cases extremely minor, and no evidence exists of any powerful Water-type or Electric-type people.

Notes on Specific Species, Techniques, and Abilities

• Ditto can Transform into anything they wish, including specific instances of other mons as well as inanimate objects. However, if they turn into a Pokemon that is not immediately present, they will be able to use only a single one of its moves.

• Illusions (whether produced by Zoroark, Mismagius, or Stantler) affect sight, sound, and smell only. They cannot create feelings or tastes, and as such can be broken by touching (or licking) them.

• Diglett's underside is not a mystery. It is a wall of small tendrils and claws, which dig extremely quickly and allow Diglett to tunnel as it does.

• Voltorb and Foongus came first. The modern Pokeball aesthetic is based on a repeating red/white pattern throughout various Pokemon.

• While Yamask's mask is natural (resembling its true face in life, or just a generic mask if it was born a Ghost), Cofagrigus's coffin is not. Rather, it possesses an available coffin (usually altering the coffin's appearance in the process) and sets the mask into it. Cofagrigus will occasionally possess other objects associated with death, such as urns and washing machines.

• Nidorina is fertile. Nidoqueen is not.

• The weather abilities, as held by non-legends, are a personal raincloud/sun/sandstorm/hailcloud that appears and intensifies when secreting adrenaline (such as in battle). Cloud Nine works similarly, but exudes an effect that dampens the effects of weather in the immediate area. The weather trio, however, extend their abilities to a regional level, and they are on at all times. As such, they spend most of their time out of sight to avoid inadvertent apocalypse-causing.

• Pressure amplifies gravity immediately around the user. As such, it takes far more effort to make an attack land at regular strength.

• Starters, while extremely rare in the wild, are populous in captivity.

• While Honedge will possess any weapon they can find, their power will alter the weapon until it looks more or less like the standard Honedge. After evolution no distinction would be visible to someone who is not either another Honedge or familiar with the Honedge in question.

• Inkay, when it gets close to evolution, will immediately telekinetically flip its Trainer upside-down when it enters battle.

• Phantom Force is neither teleportation nor a dimensional shift. The user simply renders itself invisible with obscura, then strikes from behind.

Other Canon

Neither the manga nor the anime have any authority here, as I follow neither. TCG might, but it's hard to say.

As for the games...

Red is the canon protagonist of the first gen games, in which Yellow is canon.

The rest of the stories, while the third version (Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, etc.) is always canon, are ambiguous as to the gender of the protagonist. Some people claim to have seen a girl taming Rayquaza, some a boy. The protagonists certainly aren't talking.