Gold – Pinkie's Paradise

Arceus: The Pokémon God

Greetings young trainers, Professor Pinkie here , after a two week Hiatus I am finally back to teach you a bit about pokémon again. Today we will talk about religion in the pokémon world.. and the single deity everyone in this world worships. The Alpha and the Omega of the Pokémon world Lord Arceus.

The Omnipotent

Good day dear sir/madam/person do you have a minute to talk about our lord and saviour Arceus? There really is a lot to talk about. Introduced in the fourth generation of Pokémon as a mythical Pokémon. At first it seemed like a bit of a generic pokémon that tied in heavily with the so called creation trio. The creation trio were the Pokémon Palkia , representing space, Dialga representing time and Giratina representing chaos or antimatter. These represented pokemon Pearl, Diamond and Platinum respectively. Yet we found out there was a pokémon above them Arceus, the creator of Sinnoh. In retrospect it became clear that people .. rightfully so were worshipping this pokémon. Yet it wasn’t that strange to find out that a Pokémon was responsible for the creation. Yet on a closer look, this had a much larger impact than people initially had thought. In subsequent games it was revealed that people in Johto also worshipped Arceus and in ancient times Arceus also created the island of Ransei.

Ransei was a region shaped entirely like Arceus itself and housed 17 kingdoms of samurai warlords including the great Nobunaga. If Arceus was worshipped throughout the world and it could even create islands in it’s own image.. perhaps he was more than JUST the creator of Sinnoh It does make sense that the being that created time and space created everything. The theme of being all-powerful is quite interwoven with Arceus from the get go. Arceus depending on how it’s depicted either is said to have every type (it’s depicted in it’s own movie as such) being able to switch types (the anime) or being every possible type depending on a held item (the video games). An argument is easily made to disqualify the view of the games due to technical and balancing limitations. After all, Omni Type Arceus would have seven immunities and would only really be weak to rock type moves, which aren’t THAT present in the battling scene. Most mythical pokémon are only released after a movie about them triggers an event or the event promotes the movie so it is a safe bet to take the movie’s depiction as their intended vision of the actual character. Reinforcing the belief of an almighty pokemon. The games , though bound by balance try to confirm this in their own way by giving Arceus the highest base stat total (let’s compare it to a dragon ball power level) at 720. Respectively Mewtwo .. the runner up has only 680. Though the latter can overpower god with his mega evolution and moveset. Arceus is also the only pokémon that can learn the move Judgement. Now that seems like some divine intervention to me. In the anime it’s shown watching from above in dangerous situations when it needs to .. wielding several typings.. to intervene if it has to.. choosing an advantageous type.

Theology

Now Giratina might be a pokémon that is older than Arceus itself but things get a little vague. Cynthia and a nameless hiker that can be found exploring Sinnoh on multiple occasions are our biggest source of exposition on our one true god. Pokémon at least answers the question what came first the chicken or the egg. Answer THE EGG. At first the wonderful world of Pokémon was nothing but pure and primal Chaos… which may or may not be Giratina already existing, when suddenly an egg appeared in the midst of it. When the egg tumbled from the vortex it gave rise to the original one. Since Arceus here is referred as the original one it would seem like it is the first pokémon yet chaos already existed so it’s somewhat unclear. To create Order.. from itself Arceus created two beings.. (though unnamed in this story they refer to Palkia and Dialga) as time began to flow and space began to expand (Palka represents space and Dialga is the pokemon of time).

Later Arceus created 3 living things.. that wished for it and so spirits came to be. These three living things would be identified as the lake guardians Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie.

Even though the story the hiker tells us ends there as it states that Arceus went to sleep after creating the Lake Trio iit is pretty commonly accepted, if not confirmed, that Arceus also created Mew (who created all non legendary pokémon) as well as other creation pokémon like Groudon and Kyogre and Rayquaza (who created land and water and air). Arceus is believed to have created all legendary (and mystical) pokémon or at least created the legendary every pokemon can be traced back to Arceus… with the exception of Ultra Beasts which are like the eldritch beings of the pokémon world. Cases can be made for Time, Space Chaos and Spirit creating the rest yet the limited typing of the 5 Arceus factually created makes people more inclined to think Arceus had a bigger hand in this.

Theorycrafting is more Detective Pinkie’s thing.. so we will not delve to much further into who created what. I simply wished to highlight two fairly common streams of belief. Now the mythos of Arceus seems very similar to the shinto religion. Arceus is said to have created everything at the location of the spear pillar. In Shinto religion there is a god named Amenominakanushi, whose name is much too to type again, was the first god that came into existence by itself. The name roughly translates to something like divine ancestral deity that is the originating heart of the universe. So yeah… I am nicknaming it First-First. So when First-First plopped into existence he created Izanagi and Izanami.. a brother and sister who ‘loved each very much’. Aside from playing with her brothers spear..Izanami actually had another spear, which the two used to stir the chaotic sees to create the many islands of Japan though this required some more incest and pillar building for some reason. I guess it’s wincest after all. She ended up dying and becoming an evil deity after though ..so unsure.

While there are definitely some similarities with Shinto religion arceus connection to theology goes a lot deeper. If the player in the fourth gen Pokémon games has an Arceus on their team the man reveals he is actually a philosophy major who is researching the creation story. On several locations he gives you the type changing plate items as well as some insight to Arceus story. At one point he says “When that spirit came to be, there followed awareness about the world. Within the Newborn spirit, time and space were intertwined as one, People and Pokémon where but the same presence’ Unlike Shintoism Arceus seems to have a lot more in common with a monotheistic views. There are a lot of hints towards christianity and judaism in their lore and symbolism. For example the Judaistic principle of Kabbalah has a symbol known as the Kaphtziel.

Some people of faith wore this symbol as a tribute to Cassiel, the angel of Saturn. Saturn the planet as you know is known by its rings. Arceus currently typing is depicted by it’s ring. Even more so followers of arceus carry their own symbol that looks A LOT like that symbol the Kabbalah used. Too much to be purely incidental.

Yet this is not the only symbol that is used to identify Arceus with. There is also a circle inside a triangle that is seen in the Pillar.

Cynthia has her visions on how these symbols symbolize Arceus and the creation trio.. as well as the roles the lake guardians play in the story, and of course she is not incorrect. The gear symbols refer to space and time.. which was later reestablished in the pokémon mystery dungeon games. Leaving the third one to be giratina represented by the triangular symbol.

Yet once more this symbol is eerily similar to a thing tied to yet another religion. Christianity! The symbol is a spot on match for the Shield of trinity. Depicting the holy trinity of father son and holy ghost with god sitting in the middle. Though it might be inverted it still is pretty much spot on. I would be willing to believe it was a coincidence if but one religion shared some symbology, but three separate cases of religion? That seems a bit unlikely.. but you can judge for yourself.

Alchemy and Philosophy.

Pokémon HEAVILY relies on a few alchemic concepts throughout their mythos and Arceus is no different. Let’s begin with kicking in a open door it’s golden ring. Arceus literally has the ability to turn his circle gold. Now.. Arceus ring.. is a circular shape with crosses on it. This has nothing to do with christianity but everything with alchemy. Ladies gentleman and other readers let me introduce you to the alchemical symbol for lead.

Pretty right, though it might not be directly linkable to Arceus ring.. their shape is kind of similar. Now before you crucify me for overreaching here.. because the symbol is not THAT similar.. Lead in alchemy is considered as the original metal.. the first into existence.. like Arceus. Still reaching for straws? Well remember that jewish symbol that looked a lot like Arceus religious symbol? The Kaphtziel.. that represents Saturn.. and guess what planet in alchemy is connected to lead in alchemy? That is right Saturn!

Now I will come back to the links with Alchemy in a bit, but saturn returns once more in the mythos about our divine pokémon and to explain that we will have to delve into some greek philosophy first. Alchemy is part of what is called Western Esoteric Tradition a collective name for many doctrines which also include Astrology and Kabbalah for example. Like pokémon all come from Arceus every doctrine in the WET share roots in the Neoplatonic Philosophy works of Plotinus. This philosopher described The One in his work as someone consisting of three aspects. The divine mind which was the impulse for creation, the physical reality in which matter and multiplicity exists and the Soul World or Anima Mundi which is quite complex but basically can be described as the force that actual makes things happen.

Now returning to our dear hiker’s story.. the chaos was Arceus impulse to create the world. The creation of space can easily be tied to the physical reality, and though the Anima Mundi is way more complex than anything in the pokémon world it is basically the engine that makes things happen.. much like time. Now when we remember the hikers words ‘When the new born spirit came to this world time and space were intertwined as one. People and Pokémon where but the same presence. This does seem to be applicable to Arceus and Plotinus ideas. With the new born spirit resembling the principles of the divine mind very closely and the intertwined existence being a manifestation of both the anima munda as the physical reality. Now this concept has been utilized in both Alchemy as well as the Kabbalah by their Tree of Life. A upside down tree.

*(Seems like Thanos would like this tree as well)*

Paracelsus (whose name sounds like a battery) was a alchemist in medieval times who also used this tree. The roots on the higher level represent gods coming into existence from nothing.. quite like Arceus. Then in the second phase , whose details I shall spare this tree begins to emanate a light that is slowly moving down the tree.. the life energy leaking into the material realm. Granting it souls.. to make it go round.. making things move as it were.The lower level is just plainly the physical level. But Paracelsus described a plain of existence that as it were is a border between the physical reality and the astral plane. A level of the astral plane that was so dense it can basically manifest in the Malkuth.. or the physical plane. He called this form of existence ARCHEUS. Now Arceus is a pokémon.. it materially exists..sort off not always.. it can cross between those layers. So the intangible pokémon only exists to us.. when it’s in the ‘Acheus’. Now.. since battery-bloke was an alchemist things seem to come together quite nicely yet earlier I told you that before returning to alchemy teachings I still had to tell about a link with saturn right? Well.. the Archeus in a fair few translations or subsidiary works is referred to as the path of Saturn. With so many references to Arceus ring.. we could deduce and hypothesise that the pokémon we know as the god is not goat or quilin like animal in the middle at all. Arceus the Pokémon.. might very well be the ring.. and that what we know was it’s true body might just be how it can manifest in the Archeus. For those who do not know, this is a Quilin vairant. Usualy more dragon like this one came closest to our god.

Now I could go on and talk about the Azoth of Philosophers, the alchemic alphabet and their link to Unown script or the teachings about alchemical shapes, the principles of the lake guardians and Arceus impact on the human spirit and link that to Plotinus and other beliefs but let’s save that for another time, as it would involve a plethora of other pokémon I would need to explain as well, to fully finish Arceus tale. I would rather close off with some rather convincing proof that Arceus is indeed tied to alchemy. In Pokémon Heartgold and Soulsilver you can also encounter the Alpha Pokémon. This time you find him on YET another symbol since linked to it.. this one is vastly more complex.

Many people use this one to figure out which pokémon created which in the pokémon universe. Plopping in Pokémon at all the little dots. Though I have seen many convincing variations of this idea there is something else this picture very much resembles. Those who ever watched fullmetal alchemist might already have an idea what I am talking about. Arceus new symbol looks very close to a transmutation circle.. an insanely complex one but a alchemy circle nonetheless.

Now what not a lot of people know is that the outer circle is required for ritual but the shapes inside tell you how complex the transmutation is. The triangle is the simplest form and provides mind matter and energy… space replacing matter, time replacing energy and the determination to end chaos replacing mind in arceus case. The triangle is outside the circle though symbolising they are infinite power Arceus has.. basically being its own philosopher’s stone, the interior patterns consists fully out of circles so iit is my belief that what we say in Pokémon HG/SS is Arceus transmutation circle for all existence The only circle fit for a god. Oh and Shiny Arceus is gold as well.. if you need more links!

So you see my eager little knowledge students, no matter what religion you follow, from christianity to judaism . From astrology believers too pseudo scientists, much like in the games there seems to be a type of Arceus for you. Explaining a god feels really good after this professor was forced to be absent for two weeks. Would you like to hear more about pokémon connected to alchemy? Do you have suggestions for my next post? Do you want to pat me on the hat for all this research i’ve done? Let me know in the comments and remember!

I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again

XO

Pinkie

My Own Pokemon Game

Hey there little monsters! Normally we would pick up to the story of what if Ash turned into a girl this week. However with my grandfather passing I decided to dedicate this week to pokémon talk which serves in memory of my grandfather. Today’s I will tell you about the concept of a Pokémon game me and my sister developed while sleeping over at our grandparents place. We spend the entire time crafting our own region and custom Pokémon as well as our evil team. Today I will take you on trip through our little vision.

The Heather Region

Our game would have been set in the Region we called the Heather Region.. (translated) heather is a type of growth or land that is very common in our area. Though my grandparents didn’t actually live on heather it was injoke based on how we referred their house as. The region was entirely based on their garden with gyms being based on rooms of their house. The player would start as bright student of Driveway-Village and would travel across places like Tullip-Town, Rose-shrine-city, Cascade City, Magicherri, Composthold and White Arch town. There were a handful of other villages which I either forgot because they were minor or do not translate well. Like Lamphoven, which was a reference to a lamp that had a phillips bulb.. a company that is based in the city of Eindhoven. Like the garden the region was mostly boomerang shaped with mountains instead of hills to the north a neighbouring country ruled by a madman to the west. A desert to the east. (there was a sandy construction lot in real life.. not actual desert) To the south there would our variation of indigo plateau. Since back then Johto and Kanto shared a league name we just named it New Indigo Plateau cause we kinda thought it had to be called that.

The gym leader representing the bathroom was a water type user . The fire type leader of the Rose-Shrine-City Kitchen Gym dressed like a chef but could not actually cook . Lamphoven was the home of the electric gym leader, her gym represented the computer area. She was very flirty to girls The home office represented the psychic types because in our minds working people where all very smart like psychic types as well. Some of the typings were a bit more far fetched like the living room was normal type because all normal types back then.. or most of them .. like jigglypuff and clefairy and snubbull felt pink and soft and they had pink couches. The garage gym had rock types because it had a stone floor.. and the laundry room had flying types because their drying machine used this hot air hose that was always very prominent in the room.. as we figured the birds in this gym would glide on the hot air. It was kinda cleverly crafted if I do say so myself. Grandpa liked it too.. he said.

Flora and Fauna

We came up with an interesting concept for the games. We would divide the game in two versions as well. Pokémon Flora and Pokémon Fauna, unlike the Gen I and Gen II games out at the time you’d pick on professor to assist. Professor Jan (my grandpa’s name) would assist you in Pokémon Flora as he would send you on a quest to protect the lands of Heather from a Pokémon infestation by catching them or by defeating them in battle. He especially hated mole Pokémon (as grandpa hated animals in his yard and killed many mole mouse and bug) in our version though you could still just catch them all to solve the problem. You’d also encounter more grass and ground type pokémon in this version. It would be somewhat of the ‘evil story’ as you take out all animals to make Heather blossom again.

Pokémon Fauna was the ‘Good Side’ where you followed professor Toos (grandma) who would try to welcome as many life forms as possible, as she loved animals and to have everyone around. In this version you’d move pokémon to Toos research garden similar to what Oak had in the anime. So Flora would be more of a Noah’s Ark verison of pokémon… or a trump version where you end up yeeting them all over a wall maybe.. we never settled on endgame. Fauna would have been a more classic experience with the Pokédex.

There was also Team Eco based on my quite successful and rich but distant uncle. They sold nature friendly but crappy pokémon equipment.. like bio-degradable pokeballs.. but that meant the pokémon inside lived in constant fear of being stuck. Potions blessed by Jomanda.. a dutch.. touch healer person who “positively radiates’ your water bottles for health benefits. She was a new age white witch of sorts who at the time was relevant but to our child minds was silly and scamming so we used that. They cared for profit only and would wear outfits quite similar to team flare.. but mixed with hippies. They would use very natural pokemon such as grass ground and bug types. While Flora would have many exclusive grass and ground types, Fauna would have extra normal and bug types.
Our legendaries were based on grandma’s lapdog, whose name we will redact to Fido cause the real name is way to specific, and grandpa’s magic Cherry Tree who we gave the name Mystertree .. as I was old enough to read english well enough and it seemed like a great name. Most of the Pokémon designs we made I can not say where great though.

*What Fido actually looked like! More or less, she was a bit darker.*

My designed Pokémon

We never made a very full Pokédex for the game unfortunately I think we came up with about 30 pokémon and I do not remember the names or designs of my sister’s Pokémon very well. We decided to make non animal starters .. because grandpa needed to like them too. So we ended up with a grass Pokémon that was themed after a cucumber.. would evolve into a zucchini and end up as an eggplant. Their names were based on their dutch names. Komkom, Courcour and GineGine (after aubergine) .

Our water starter was a bubble that would get larger with more small bubbles as it grew. This one we named in english.
Blue-Bubble.. the blueberry bubble, Purble.. the berry bubble and Rainbubble…the rainbow coloured bubble who knew self destruct cause bubbles so big pops. It’s pokédex entry stated it that it loved to play with it’’s trainer in the tub and that it occasionally swallows rubber duckies. It would get jealous when his trainer is playing with soap bubbles and would attack them with his own.

Our fire starter was based on a fire pit. Grandpa loved to light these when we stayed with them in summer in the yard. It would evolve into a gas barbeque as its final form but we never settled on a second form, but their old coal barbeque was up for consideration, as well as a burning table ..because I accidentally set on of their tables on fire once. The first one would be named Korf.. after the dutch word Vuurkorf.. being a fire pit. The final evolution was called Schirck..it has to do with the german word for burning and our dialect from Limburg as well as some other things which make it a bit to long to explain properly.

Other Pokémon we invented was a grape that would end up evolving into wine. There was also a snake based on the garden of Eden..which had moves like apple toss. (In that period we were still being thought religion and it came up for either me or my sister) and the final one I distinctly remember was a compost pokémon who was our muk clone so it became it poison type named Compie. Yeah I know weird typing..but it smelled so poison!

When things became to slow we blatantly plagiarized things. We had a pokémon named Scrappy that evolved into Scooby for example and our legendary trio became a legendary quintet. There was a Red Tyrannosaurus, a Blue Triceratops, Black Mastodont , Yellow Sabertooth Tiger and Pink Pterodactyl. I think they were called Jaty, BiTi, Zama, Trisa and Kimpte. Let’s see if a reader is smart enough to figure out how we got those names! Our main legendaries where Fido and Mystertree. Fido was normal ghost type.. normal because it was based on a normal dog.. and ghost because it was dead and back then neither of those types had a legendary. Mystertree was a Grass ghost type… grass because it was a tree… ghost because.. you probably know where this is going…it was dead.

People of Heather

Even though we went clever in some aspects the same can not really be said for the people inhabiting the Heather Region. The main trainer was a girl rather then a boy but we fixed the issue of Red and Blue .. where you always start as Red even if you had Blue version. You either started with Fauna .. basically my sister or Flora basically me. I remember this making me upset because my sister said that Flora could walk weird like me so that Fauna could be faster. My sister didn’t mean this as insulting but she had to make sure her version of Pokémon was better…because she was better in Pokémon (she was not..but she attack me and hit me if she lost so I played to lose..but she would kick me if I lost intentional so I learned full well how much moves did so I could convincingly lose ) again since not listening to her usually resulted in her launching punches at me .. I agreed but I felt upset that even game me would walk funny. She also wanted to dibs mom and I would get dad… but me and dad do not exactly go along well.. she punched me until I relented. Grandpa told us to play nice and gave me a chocolat for being the bigger person.. actually telling my sister that after which we played nice so she could earn her chocolat as well. However by now I was losing my heart for this.

So we named everyone to people from our village or family. Gym leaders were based on family. Funniest one now would be dad’s somewhat actively bisexual polyamorous uncle. Back then we did not know. At a family party he was talking to my gay uncle and mom..I was playing waitress when I overheard him saying call me Sletje, which basically translates to little slut. Even though I was .. I think around 14 or 15 here I had no idea what a slut was… I really am panda… so we called him Gym Leader Sletje or translated Gym Leader Little Slut. Little Slut had a catchphrase ‘Hey Listen’ which he would say to access. We did not know about Navi at the time.. which reminds me first time I played Ocarina of Time my first Zelda game.. my sister forced me to play it under the name Turbann (Tulband in dutch) 8. My gay uncle was the gym leader ot the living room just so he could use jigglypuff (fairy types weren’t a thing by then so it’s not meant as a cruel thing to gays or anything) because he sings a lot and really stuff that is waaaay out of my comfort zone.. like italian opera stuff and other classical stuff. In our game he would try to kill us with boredom.

For some reason we decided to name all bug catchers after a classmate of my sister. Cochise was his name. We ended up changing the class to Cochise as well so eventually we ended up with Cochise Cochise wants to battle. Of course we decided to also design a pokemon named Cochise who only knew the move Cochise.. which would have been a bug type.. but we never got around to designing it. Hikers became fat ladies and where called …… ‘s mother. So rather than Hiker Anthony you’d face Anthony’s Mother. BEcause there was one mom that was REALLY fat and it was a joke towards her.. not PC I know.. but hey we designed this as kids. The champion would be Mario (like super mario) that way we figured we could sell the game to nintendo more easily.

Game over

Eventually my grandma became less mobile and she got a brand new mobility scooter. That was way more interesting to play on than designing a pokémon game. I would race my sister, who got to ride the scooter first of course by sliding down the hill on a large plant trolly. Of course I shouldn’t have.. because I was bound to gravity so way faster.

I also always had to babysit my tinier nephews because my aunt made me responsible for them even if I did not feel like playing with them. One time they wanted to play pranks by ringing doorbells with my sister and I did not feel like it so I went inside for a drink. My aunt scolded at me for so long for leaving her child unattended (they had a tiny one of like 3 or four with them) but my sister was 12 and her oldest was like 10 but I somehow ended up being responsible so every time those kids were there.. I would be in trouble if they broke anything or did something bad. It pissed of my mom that she did that but dad seemed fine with it so I couldn’t exclude myself.

It at least ended up with us gradually forgetting about our Pokémon project so it was never fleshed out more. Being in a reminiscing mood lately I just remembered it and figured it was a nice story to share with you. It’s a shame it never became a full world concept but I think we got the basics knocked out pretty well. Of course grandpa was a bit insulted he was basically a bad guy what wanted to move all animal life and grandma just said we earned a treat for our hard work and good play but still it was really nice to do and something I have only done so once ever since, for my tabletop campaign.. which currently is unhealthy. Who knows maybe one day I will create a concept for my own Pokémon game again. As for now Pokémon Fauna.. has fainted.

I do hope you guys do not mind how I pay tribute this week. It just felt like a sweet thing to do where I give grandpa his own little place here in my safe space. What would you like to see in a pokémon game, what kind of pokémon would you design? Which one of the ones I mentioned is your favorite! Sorry that I am not an artist .. I tried my best to draw these from my own memory. Even if you are looking at those though.. .Remember..
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again.

XO
Pinkie