Arcanum

The region

It is an island, much similar to Sinnoh with a big mountain in the middle, but also more tropical in atmosphere.

Its people are a mix of stubborn traditionalists and eager modernists; the island was relatively recently colonized by the outside world since it had been hidden by its guardian pok?mon for the longest of time. Traditional Arcanians call the immigrants and their offspring "foreigners" still today.

It is basically being exploited these days since its naturally occurring pok?mon look differently than the normal species in the rest of the world;
they are what is elsewhere referred to as "shiny colored". In Arcanum, "normal colored" pok?mon are called foreign, while the native mons are called Arcanian pok?mon. Despite various protection and preservation acts, foreign organizations capture or steal Arcanian 'mons to sell in the outside world.


The Settlements

There are twelve main settlements, named after the months of the year. There are Arenas in all of them, each focusing on one type as their specialty.

Januvale - Dragon
Feborough - Bug
Marchall - Fighting
Apriton - Flying
Maydale - Grass
Junelane - Water
Julyridge - Ghost
Augushore - Ground
Septemburg - Poison
Octowell - Fairy
Noverth - Dark
Decemark - Normal


The Gyms
... won't be called Gyms. Like in the original RP, they'll be Arenas. A leader will supervise and guide training there, but it's not the leader the player has to beat in order to earn an Arena Pin. They will have to train either a pok?mon of the relevant type of their own, or teach their existing mons types of that kind, or at the very least train together with arena regulars (the leader's helpers who work in the arena and tend to the pok?mon etc) to learn what's important to know about the relevant type, before they will be approved by the leader for an Arena Battle.

In Arena Battles, two players will face off against each other, and usually only the winner will earn a Pin. Maybe in some cases, the leader feels like the loser also deserves a Pin, but most often they'll have to train some more and come back for a rematch against another player.

If there's no other player who can battle you within reasonable ooc time, you can be allowed to do the battle against a NPC.


Characters

Zekrom and Reshiram (shiny of course) are the island's traditional guardians. In Arcanian lore, they are always meant to have been in strife. Reshiram stood for truth and tradition, while Zekrom stood for ideals and change. When the foreigners arrived, they took Zekrom's image to heart and tried to use that as a way to convince the Arcanians that their modern ways were a natural evolution for their land. Traditionalists instead took up Reshiram's image as their mark, preaching tradition and nature above technical advancement.

There are at least two GM-ed characters that will appear often, and they will, since I like things categorized ahah, together with the legendaries, embody the last pok?mon types.

Electric - Zekrom
Fire - Reshiram

Man who is pro change, champion of Zekrom
His main pok?mon could be something like:
Ice - Alolan Sandslash
Steel - Registeel

Woman who is pro traditions, champion of Reshiram
Her main mons might be something like:
Rock - Regirock
Psychic - Meowstic


The Players

Like in the old Arcanum RP, they will get to start off with an eeveelution each. They will receive this pok?mon from the Arena master of Januvale (who trains Dragons and is pro-traditions), or from a professor, or maybe from one of the two big GM-characters.

The players can choose to already be adept trainers, but they won't have taken on the Arcanum League yet. If they come from the outside world, they can have 1-2 foreign (non-shiny) pok?mon already, too, before receiving their eeveelution starter.


The Mechanics of the RP

Probably there won't be much. No levels, no particular requirements for captures etc. since we'd try to focus on interaction, plot and story rather than farming levels or trudging through sidequests. Solve the mystery of Arcanum! Pick a side between Zekrom or Reshiram's fans! and such

New areas would likely be presented through GM storytelling rather than as "area/chapter posts" and the players would, very anime free style, choose for themselves what moves and strengths wild pok?mon in the area would have.


Would it be a journey, then?

Hmmm kind of not. I haven't come up with a better plot than the original yet, but I'd like to. Some good reason for somebody to give the characters pok?mon and send them out through the region. Something sinister and captivating, that keeps the characters focused and makes them want to advance to the next place.

Maybe the Arenas should be optional; this doesn't even have to be a journey where newbie trainers go on a journey to get stronger. You could start off as a trainer with a couple of strong mons already and just travel the region for The Plot Reason and get to know your new shiny eevee evolution.

Possibly we can have fake eeveelutions too? A pure flying type with cute wings and such!
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