[Worldbuilding] Let's talk about the Champions

I have this story idea that won't leave me alone that fits Red, Gold, and Lance into the Pokemon narrative, but it also changes up Ash quite a lot.
Basically, a Red as Ash's Dad and Orange Islands Champion Ash fic, with Lance as his full brother. Plenty of Aura etcetera with a focus on the original anime plot, but I want Champion politics and more Team Rocket as the malicious presence from the games. I'll be happy to share as soon as I have a good plot and a first draft, but first off I need to talk about the Champions' positions in their respective regions, and the political systems in each region. Anyone up to helping me?

First up is Kanto's culture. I won't be changing that kind of thing too much, but I do want to talk about it before diving in deep to its policy, politics, and military.

"Champion" is just about one of the most nebulous concepts. In functional terms it works, in particular in the games, but what does it exactly mean I'm not too sure, at least in the anime. Do Champions hold any kind of power? I'm not sure. The anime has had a few of them doing actual Important Field Work, such as fighting the Team Evil du jour, but it's not clear if that's their job or just a thing they are doing it just because they can. It doesn't help matters that on the rare occasion we see them do, they're acting outside their jurisdiction (the anime RSE Arc had Lance get involved in fighting Groudon and Kyogre directly, for example).

Also, qualifying. Merely winning that year's (local) conference Championship doesn't really seem to cover it, it's too volatile a position and when written having this condition plus political power it kind of flies in the face of how the connection between humans and Pokémon is built: if merely being the strongest gives you a right to rule of sorts, how do we expect children to grow to care about their Pokémon? Teens, at least, would rather care about winning.

Anyway, there's lots of politics to talk but much depends on how are you building your setting and how close to the anime (also, which anime) do you want to keep. But the long story short: how a Champion functions in your setting is likely a direct reflection of how does each local Conference function in your setting.

But the long story short: how a Champion functions is likely a direct reflection of how does each local conference function in your setting.

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Exactly, @Venia Silente ! That's why I'm working things out in a specific order. With each region(except for Palangea or whatever the new one was, I want to be moving fast on this and be well into my first draft before it comes out, and even if I'm not quite there yet when S&V comes out, I'd want to play through it fully before adding it to the story. The problem with that? I have a lot of siblings and my home is a one-Switch household. Ergo, not a lot of play time), I'm going to work through the individual cultures and militaries(which the Leagues will probably play a major part in), and then hit every Champion's responsibilities and influence. After that is the political system/situation, and finally the region's diplomatic policy towards other regions. I've already got Kanto(and thus the closely tied Johto and Orange Islands)'s basic situation scrawled down in a notebook. Give me a minute, and I'll tell you what I've got so far!

So, the first major thing that comes to mind culture-wise with Kanto: people come of age early there, and it has Rota, and ninjas. So very brutal and harsh, but it also takes pretty good care of those kids(Ash doesn't really have much to begin with, and my guess is everything is free, at least in Indigo and Gold & Silver. Later, after reaching as far as he does in those three Leagues, I think he's got enough money to pay for everything). It also seems-at least from my point of view-to almost be a mix between Japanese and American culture, mostly Japanese. And I'm going to pull every ounce of my real-world knowledge of Japan to bear with this.
Japan is very formal, with high amounts of social pressure from young ages to not do anything that effects the community negatively. It's highly unlikely that you'll ever see litter in Tokyo, for this exact reason. There's less litter, and it gets picked up soon after it's dropped.
Japan's very ambitious, literally working themselves to death(they seriously have a word for that kind of death, 過労死 or karoshi).
Japan has high respect for authority, karoshi plays into this, as you don't leave work after your boss, and if your boss is working overtime, well, look who's stuck in the office working too, until the boss is gone.
And then, of course, you've got the Shinto religion, and all of the customs and landmarks there woven into the fabric of Japan as well.
But this is Kanto. The place with at least 15 gyms in the anime, if we look at Gary Oak and Ash Ketchum's badge sets(Gary only has three of the eight Ash gets, and vice versa with Gary's ten).
In my work this go around, it's going to be a warrior culture, with the biggest military and biggest potential militia, much like the US. Almost everyone in Kanto on this story(and thus Johto, but in this case not the Orange Islands) has Battling Pokemon and knows how to use them, just like the US with guns.
There's a fair bit more to what I've got so far than that, but that's the root of what I have, and it's late where I am.

...I just realized that I'm going to want something else, before I culture build. History. And it's been ages since I've seen the movies/episodes where they mentioned how long ago things were... I know about PokeAtlantis, Pokemonopolis, Damos, etcetera, but I don't remember the numbers. Great. Any help?

Well, with SWC now over, I can take a further look at this TBH.

The problem with that? I have a lot of siblings and my home is a one-Switch household. Ergo, not a lot of play time

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Unironically suggesting that you look for an abbreviated Let's Play, since the Pokémon games tend to not be plot-heavy anyway, you can breeze through a complete LP without missing anything so long as they take stuff like optional quests, and don't skip cutscenes or something equivalent.

So, the first major thing that comes to mind culture-wise with Kanto: people come of age early there, and it has Rota, and ninjas

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Might be my impression from the dubs I recall (mostly Spanish) but my understanding is that Rota is a neighbouring nation and not part of Kanto, as it is described as a Kingdom (which also doesn't map with how geopolitical organization of Japan looks like if the anime follows IRL Japan conventions for Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh). That said, even if that was the case they're nearby enough to share cultural influence with one another.

...I just realized that I'm going to want something else, before I culture build. History. And it's been ages since I've seen the movies/episodes where they mentioned how long ago things were... I know about PokeAtlantis, Pokemonopolis, Damos, etcetera, but I don't remember the numbers. Great. Any help?

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Bulbapedia has a page detailing an official timeline of the animeverse though I am not sure if it considers the movies or not. The situation of the movies is a bit hazy in that at least some of them are or should be canon.

Some quickie pointers I can recall that could be relevant for your concerns about Champions and high-performance Trainers general:

* Damos was M12 (Arceus movie) and that is stated to be around 800 years before the events of the anime. It is to be said that [i}unlike[/i] Rota, Michima (where the movie takes place) is not said to be a separate geopolitical entity, and is perhaps something equivalent to a district or commune within then-Sinnoh (which, if going by PLA timeline, should also have been then-Hisui).
* In the anime the position of "Trainer" might be relatively recent. It's at least 40 years old (M4 / Celebi movie) and almost definitively not older than about 300 years which is when the known Leagues started (OI is said to be ~300 yr old and I think Evergrande is said in the anime to be about 200 yr old?).
* The anime is quite fuzzy with historical details for stuff like Pokémonopolis or the confrontations if Kyogre and Groudon across history. You are allowed (heck, almost required!) lots of leway if you are going to do Alternate History worldbuilding.