Orx of Twinleaf
Branch into Psyche
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- Years
- The Corner of Hither and Yon
- Seen Mar 12, 2023
The Black Hands That Reach
This is considered supplementary context and thus may be understood as extant in any Pokémon world that does not contradict it
The Rift
The Pokémon plane can be considered parallel with another pocket space that is not is its own universe and is, if anything, a component of the Pokémon universe proper. This pocket space goes by many names—hell, Reverse World, dreamland—but for sake of clarity, it shall be referred to here as the Rift, so named for its ultimate composition of the substance called rift, this being the fourth component of reality alongside matter, energy, and time.
Lord over the Rift, commander of that dark realm, is Giratina, one of the most powerful of all Legendaries. Only Palkia and Dialga match Giratina for age, and only Mew and Arceus are older still. Thus it is that Giratina outranks most Legendaries from veterancy alone, although he is still outpowered by a handful of the younger ones, like Regigigas.
Giratina, Doom Herald
In the beginning, Arceus, the One, made all, and it was He who then made Mew, All-Mother, the first child and first to bear children in turn. Arceus's third act was to create His three sons to manage the realm He had created. These were Palkia, Who Crosses the Cosmos, Dialga, Keeper of Causality, and Giratina, Giver of Life. Palkia had reigns on dimensions, and the space within which all things exist and occur. Dialga had sight of the flow of time, and with it preserves the past and ensures the future. Giratina was promised guardianship over the life that Mew was meant to bear into the realm.
Before this life could be born, however, the brutal primordial cosmos required further work, and Arceus was tired from His endeavors. He made instead a fourth son, Heatran, the Cosmic Sculptor, to shape a multitude of planets, and with Heatran put to work He slept. As Palkia and Dialga explored their duties, Giratina was left to wait and grow impatient.
When finally Heatran finished his duties and Arceus awoke, Me was sent to lay life onto every planet, and Giratina felt as if he was overlooked and ignored, for he had no hand in this life's creation. Arceus had preserved an alternate plane for Himself and His children, and after blessing each planet with its own guardian Legendaries He returned to it and slept again. Giratina was charged with watching the planets and to play lord over the various Legendaries.
But the task was too much for Giratina and he could not handle the magnitude of the order. On countless planets, the Legendaries and the lesser life conflicted and fought. Some planets fell apart as the lesser beings killed their Legendaries, and others grew cold and quiet as the Legendaries killed their lesser charges. Frustrated, Giratina tore open the way to his Father's realm, and that stuff neither matter nor energy fell into the universe and made chaos.
Giratina went mad and decided that life was best defended by ending it prematurely. He began choking countless worlds, leaving their lesser life forms corpses and destroying their Legendaries. When Arceus awoke, He put a stop to this, and punished Giratina. He revoked his son's title of guardian of life, and forced him to play custodian for His realm, to hold together the Rift and ensure it never flowed into reality again.
In modern times, Giratina has calmed down considerably, but he still does not fully recognize lesser life as inherently sacred, and is incredibly irritable. Despite their history, Giratina cannot hate his Father, and he is not what could be considered "evil" in the cosmic sense. At our level, the level of lesser life, he can easily be considered so, however, and he still holds private delusions that life is still his to give or take as he pleases, and Arceus can't be keeping an eye on him all the time.
Abominations
Far later in the cosmic timeline, Arceus made Jirachi, the Wishing Star, to grant wishes in His stead, as the quantity of requests made of Him had begun to tire Him. In short order, though, Arceus realized He had acted unthinkingly, and that He has given Jirachi far too much power. Still, He would not unmake His daughter, and instead cast her in crystal and flung her into the cosmos, to bounce between all the remaining planets and be allowed only a week on each before returning to slumber.It was on one such route that Jirachi came back to this planet, and during that week Mew was defensive of her sister, but Giratina duped Rayquaza into helping him trick Mew, and Giratina seized on Jirachi. Jirachi could grant any wish to anyone, so long as she understood what was asked of her. Giratina demanded the ability to remake life as he saw fit, and his wish was granted even as Mew drove him back into the Rift.
With this ability Giratina possesses the ability to utilize the innate holy powers he has as a cosmic Legendary from the universe's creation to transmogrify extant lesser life forms into twisted horrors that fall under many names but here shall be referred to as Abominations. Besides, Giratina, the Unown, the Darkrai, and Cresselia, the Abominations are the only things that live in the Rift. They vary widely in intelligence and do not answer to Giratina. Although Giratina does have a few that he considers confidants, Abominations largely act on their own principles and very often have low opinions of more traditional life forms. They can't all travel out of the Rift on their own, but Darkrai and Cresselia cross over often enough that Abominations do occasionally slip out onto our plane. Abominations fall into one of four main classes.
Voidmass
So named for defying most common principles of measurement, these Abominations are essentially living chunks of rift, being the product of Giratina transmogrifying things like bacteria or fungi. They are generally either shapeless of hold shape loosely, and are not considered intelligent on any level. Voidmass Abominations generally won't even do anything when left alone and only with hesitance defend themselves. They do, however, perfectly understand information communicated to them in any way and are very keen on following the orders of those who have stronger willpowers. Abominations of this sort re generally only ever seen employed by higher Abominations or occasionally by Legendaries directly, and are little more than advanced tools. Voidmasses are usually solid black but can come in grey or very rarely white, and the brighter its color the greater its power. There are several varieties, and each one seems able to do one or two things and only meagerly do anything else. Examples include the Projectilis which fires energy charges, the Abruptionis which emits mental noise, and the Volanti which flies at high speeds.
Terrorspawn
So named for their nightmarish qualities. These Abominations largely resemble Pokémon, but with terrible visages, often described as "demonic" or "hyperrealistic." These are the second-most common sort of Abomination and are the result of Giratina changing standard Pokémon. Terrorspawns can understand language, but are largely only intelligent in an animal sense, and display predatory levels of stalking and offensive capabilities regardless of the demeanor of the changed species. Terrorspawns are capable of using the rift infused in them to dematerialize into a wave of negative emotions and rematerialize at will, and they use this to travel across the world in search of victims. A Terrorspawn will often torment a victim with dark visions and begin issuing poltergeist activity, as well as attacking it in its dreamstate. Terrorspawns infrequently attack others directly and seem to derive pleasure from managing to have a victim kill itself or others. They are not Pokémon anymore and cannot use Moves or Abilities, do not have Types, and are ignored by Pokéballs. They exhibit unusual strength and endurance and the ability to levitate, as well.
Hodgepodge
So named for their chimeric properties. These Abominations are conglomerate creatures of parts from several Pokémon, plants, and/or humans. Hodgepodges are uncommon enough that each one has its own name, and they are capable both of speech and telepathy. They cannot dematerialize like Terrorspawns can, but instead use their rift reserves to disrupt reality to conjure plagues, storms, fires, and waves of insanity. They are also well-known for utilizing a process called Hodgery-Podgery to summon locust-like dirt constructs that shred all nonmetal materials to ribbons. Hodgepodges are intelligent enough to have motives (or at least perceived ones), but for the most part will by and large devote their time and energy to killing as much life as they can before they return to the Rift. Hodgepodges used to roam the land in the Dark Ages, but in modern times they are extremely uncommon and don't often reveal themselves on large scale. Many Hodgepodges heed Giratina in modern times and usually don't go on killing sprees, although they might still do any manner of other unsavory thing and claim Giratina told them to. Some notable Hodgepodges include Rat-Catcher, Giratina's right-hand man, Skull-Gnawer, Giratina's enforcer, and Haunt-Maker, Giratina's embassy. Although Hodgepodges are generally brutish and aggressive, those ones under Giratina's command can be unthreatening or even helpful, as they value his favor.
Fiend
So named for their demonic nature. These Abominations are the strongest of any sort, and are on the power level of lesser Legendaries. Some Fiends may even be considered to rival upper Legendaries like Rayquaza. They have so much rift in them that to consider them having a "form" is largely counterintuitive: they may take on any form they choose, although they tend to stick to bipedal forms that largely fall into what humans consider "demons." Fiends are usually created when Giratina changes a human, but this is not always the case. They are extremely intelligent and capable of both the dematerialization of Terrorspawns and the conjuring powers of Hodgepodges. They each have a personal name and their own motivations, and their allegiances are to none but themselves. However, this also means that they are given to unusual displays of helpfulness on occasion, and have historically proven useful to demon-hunters on more than one account. When all is said and done, however, they are still Abominations, and not to be trusted. Of especial note is their unique ability to enter other life forms while dematerialized and hijack their systems. Possession of this sort is incredibly serious and if not handled quickly can lead to exponentially increasing magnitudes of destruction.
Stopping Abominations
Abominations are not invincible, for all they make lead one to believe. There are a number of factors that keep them in check that ultimately keep Abominations very much under the radar. Abominations can be killed, but this is easier said than done in most cases, and their bodies implode when killed, which can cause more destruction than desired. It is the common mode to simply oust them back into the Rift, instead, since most of them don't have the means to return on their own. There are a few means of fighting back.
Giratina
Not a recommended method for the layman, but if one should gain his favor, Giratina can intervene. Even if Abominations won't all listen to him, he does outpower even the highest Fiends. Giratina is largely disliked by the other Legendaries, and he has done enough to directly antagonize most of them over the course of reality. As such, Giratina cares little for how he's viewed, but there are a few things he's willing to stand up for. Those Abominations closest to him he considers children, and should anything threaten them, he will answer the threat. Besides this, Giratina considers the Darkrai and Cresselia his friends (even if they don't totally return the affection) and if an Abomintion interferes with their respective duties, Giratina will put a stop to it. Arceus has the ability to unmake anything in existence, and Giratina has a similar power over Abominations. If he gets ahold of one, he can drain its rift and kill it completely.
Other Legendaries
The other Legendaries largely ignore the actions of Abominations, but receiving the favor of lesser Legendaries like Cobalion or Moltres isn't unheard of, and they can at the very least equal a Fiend's powers if called upon. They don't have the power of unmaking over Abominations like Giratina does, but Legendaries are not heavily affected by rift disturbance and can resist an Abomination's mental assault and conjurings. A number of Legendaries can produce holy implements that can be weaponized against Abominations. The feathers of Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno, for example, can sear the flesh of Abominations, and the sweet fluid found in Shaymin's flowers is corrosive to all but the most powerful Fiends.
Faith
Lesser life forms can direct their belief and hope into a force called faith that is responsible for inspiration, miracles, and other such phenomena. Objects and symbols that have received faith from great numbers of persons over long times achieve a holy state that is abhorrent to Abominations. These symbols by themselves are painful and repelling to Abominations, but they can be coupled with special faith-fueled rituals that can cripple, hobble, or banish Abominations and their effects. It should be noted, however, that stronger Abominations do have ways to subvert these effects, and that the power of a holy symbol or ritual is significantly lessened if individuals in the immediate vicinity are not lending their faith. Such objects include things like rosaries, crucifixes, and censers. Certain substances are by themselves already imbued with faith as well, such as silver and salt.
Challenge
For Hodgepodges and Fiends there is an innate drive for competition that links to their behavior is different ways. This can be played to by particularly sly individuals in proper settings. Abominations generally don't answer challenges if there are persons around to play audience. Otherwise, however, they will generally agree to games of any and all sorts, although mental or fortune-based ones are preferred, like chess, any number of card games, mahjong, and dominoes, to name a few. These challenges will generally occur in a pocket space in the Rift, which allows the Abomination to summon constructs or Voidmass Abominations to fill rosters for team games. A wager is made before the challenge, but it must be one the Abomination will feel confident in taking: Fiends especially will weasel out of heavy wagers that might see them banished unless the challenger is also risking something dire. For however chaotic Abominations behave, they invariably honor these conditions, at least in the immediate sense, and will actually banish themselves if put in the position. Mind, however, that even if they don't cheat they are quite skilled at an uncanny range of games, and beating one may be grounds for being targeted in the future to instigate a rematch. Abominations won't accept wagers that are impossible to fill; they may agree to granting things within their power, but if they are incapable of providing what the wager asks for, they will say as much. Voidmass and Terrorspawn Abominations have neither the patience nor the intelligence to answer challenges of this nature, and this is a manner to be employed only by the most skilled of individuals against Hodgepodges or Fiends. Care must be taken against Fiends to word the wagers very carefully, as they can easily find loop holes in most phrases.
Force
The final and least-sophisticated manner of combating an Abomination is to simply damage it to such a point as it is unable to function, at which point it implodes and is no more. Abominations are strong and hardy, but they are not immune to damage, although the standard Moves used by Pokémon are generally less-effective than might be liked for the purpose. Abominations do not have vitals and don't operate under normal principles of life, so attempting to bleed one or rupture it is generally ineffective. Voidmass Abominations especially prove stubbornly resistant to normal trauma, and will fuse dismembered segments back to their person. Other Abominations can sustain significant damage and can be dismembered with enough force. It is recommended to use weaponry that incorporates faith-fueled materials like silver and salt to kill Abominations in this manner, and to make certain to allow enough space for the resultant implosion to not do to much damage in return. Hodgepodges are incredibly difficult to kill in this manner and will generally flee back into the Rift if they take too much damage, but Fiends are not intimidated by shows of force, and only very few incidents have been recorded of a Fiend being killed in this manner. It is recommended, also, to use special rituals that lock Abominations in place, since Terrorspawns and Fiends may attempt to flee through dematerialization. Forceful tactics like these are generally reserved for Terrorspawn Abominations, as other sorts are generally dealt with in more sophisticated means or, in the case of Voidmasses, simply don't mind being banished.
Demon Hunters
The International Association of Demon Hunters
Among the human lands, Abominations are dealt with by a group of professionals who form the global IADH. They are given very specific diplomatic immunities and in return are expected to deal with Abominations quietly and with minimal damage. They aren't all Trainers, but some of them are and have trained their Pokémon in any number of special techniques and maneuvers to deal with Abominations in urban environments. The IADH generally implements rituals and holy symbols, but also carry armaments to combat Abominations in the event they resist banishment. The IADH's members keep in close contact with one another all over the world and usually answer to churches and other religious organizations. When standard priests and other religious officials perform their rituals and can't handle the problem on their own, they contact the IADH, who deploys a member or two to contain the situation. It is thanks to their efforts that humanity as a whole is largely unaffected by Abominations in modern times.
The Agents of Arceus
Among the wild Pokémon, outside of human lands, there are varying degrees of long-range communication, and the most effective sort is employed by the Agents of Arceus, who use a slew of couriers and telepaths to maintain its hierarchy. An ancient and by modern times global organization, the Agents were first formed by Regigigas in the Dark Ages to quell the Hodgepodge hordes. Now, they all answer to various commanders, all under the joint guidance of the thirteen Candles, whose authority and power makes their names threats against Abominations. Agents of Arceus exist in many places with varying degrees of power, but they generally organize hunting parties and point them in the direction of reported Abomination activity. In these wild badlands away from humans, the Abominations crawl about with more frequency than one might think at first glance. It is the efforts of the Agents that keeps them from doing too much damage. Unlike human demon-hunters, the Agents generally don't consider banishment as a first option: they utilize their holy implements, weaponry, and rituals and combine them with their own power as Pokémon to attempt to kill their targets rather than banish them. In modern times, the Agents have become especially active, and have become suspicious: special members called inquisitors, armed with entirely different sorts of holy item (scourges, kartikas, tumis, etc.), are sicced on Pokémon who are suspected to have had dealing with Abominations. Their increased ruthlessness has lead some to believe the Candles to have become corrupt, and more and more Pokémon retreat into human lands, more willing to face domestication than assault of this nature.
