This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
So I'm gonna be putting a write up in the FAQdex explaining what the scourge actually are, where they came from and etc. Thing is, I don't actually know.
Known facts about the virus: - The virus (if it IS a virus) originated from Lake Pax, from the scientists there - The virus makes pokemon EXTREMELY powerful - The virus is contagious through the air alone, and doubly contagious upon contact
Facts about scourge pokemon: -Scourge pokemon are immensely powerful (duh) -Scourge pokemon CAN be exceptionally dumb, unable to comprehend anything but bloodthirst and hunger -Scourge pokemon can ALSO be exceptionally intelligent -The intelligent ones are capable of allegiances -There are shiny variants that ally with humans -They believe in a new world order -The new world order apparently comes through the destruction of the current world order
Things to be added: -Distortion World, leading to a Land of Nightmares, an inversed Dream World where hades agents and scourge pokemon make their home -Land of Nightmares would be a lv100+ zone.
Potentially noteworthy setting facts: - Kohaku for some reason has a huge chunk of its economy and society operating in the Dream World--there's no real reason for this, although it's now very convenient that scourge pokemon can't enter - Somnus Ruins was once part of an ancient and great civilization; what could've possibly destroyed it? - How did Kohaku culture develop so that it prized battling so much? - What's hidden within the artifice? - What happened to the weapons forged at the anvil? - What secret was lost upon the monolith? - What is the purpose of the prism?
Thematics to consider: Did the scientists CREATE the virus, or did they simply UNLEASH it? Are the scourge pokemon RIGHT about their new world order? Are the scourge pokemon INDIVIDUALS or a HIVE MIND? Are they tied to a HIGHER POWER or are they FOR THE SCOURGE? Do they remember their past? Are they BRAINWASHED or do they see the LIGHT (or darkness, such as it were)? Why the fuck are they working with humans jesus they dont need em Can/should it be possible for them to be destroyed for good?
i'll look up......the uh images what do you want me to say then
OK UM yes to everything above potentially noteworthy setting facts >dream world is p useful. kind of weird. but useful. nothing much else to say there >somnus ruins: precursor to scourge? like scourge version 1.0 and the civilization kind of. s...ealed it dude idk how this shit works >ancient society aka somnus society kept up the thingy the sorry i lost my train of thought the emphasis on battling in remembrance of the previous wave of demon pokespawn >dude i have no idea what any of those four landmarks really do i've been confused by them since forever
>i vote unleash >dude who the heck knows if they're RIGHT but it's a lot of anti-human aggression so we'll see >maybe a bit of both? the stupider ones are all driven by the same thing (what is the thing?? i don't know) but the smarter ones can also act individually. >.....am i supposed to answer all of these >i'd vote not really. memories vs instincts, kind of? >HELL IF I KNOW are we discussing scourge morality here >.........dude actually idk maybe the scourge think the agents are nice pets >can they be destroyed for good? probably not, esp if it's something this airborne. should they? re: are we discussing scourge morality
the virus originated from pokerus gone wrong. pokerus had always existed, but the scientists had tried to exploit it for even more pokemon potential. obviously things didn't work out as expected. i love stories ab human hubris tbh
i'm not sure if the question of whether the scourge are right or not chould be answered without in-character threading tbh. imo all they really did was shift the food chain a little bit. your mileage may vary
i've always seen scourge as individuals who are for themselves, but also feel a closer kinship with other scourge. i don't personally think that they remember their past, although they may have instinctive ties with their birthplace or maybe an old trainer (albeit stronger inclinations to eat their trainer maybe)
i'm not sure if they're brainwashed? like that would imply that someone is controlling them. i think the virus just gives them a different set of instincts and priorities.
i'm thinking that since the pokemon universe strongly implies that pokemon and human relations were highly mutualistic relationships that developed over time, the inclinations for human companionship is kind of wired into the pokemon systems, even after they turn scourge. it's just a little more powerful in some than others, so those scourge take direct commands. maybe bonding with a scourge pokemon protects the hades agent from being eaten by other scourge? make up some pokemon hormone reason idk do i look like a vet
i was under the impression that their destruction was the endgame. possibly connected to the ruins at the end. if you still want my input, i can give those ruins a longer think.
fuck im such a scourge sympathizer just shoot me on sight
okay so for the very bottom chunk of the scourge faq:
1. i think scientists created the virus, but they didn't mean for it to turn out as what it did. maybe the whole deal with virus 'mutations' that made it a deadly infection? i can't imagine why scientists would want to unleash it unless they thought that it was a good thing, maybe. 2. dont' know about this one? its more like i haven't decided, but oh well. 3. i think scourge pokemon have a hive mind. they all want the same thing, basically, but hades agents are a way for them to become independent. hades agents are ways for the scourge to become individual minds? 4. for the scourge, i think. virus infections usually do this kind of stuff, unless they're loyal to whatever virus is infecting them. then we'd have to get even deeper into the scourge and that would be nice, i think? 5. no. i want to say that the virus maybe eats at their brain and therefore, memory. the scourge are savage beasts acting on instinct to infect and eat other pokemon(maybe). if it were the other way around, however, could open the gates for a lot of drama. 6. i don't know about this either, ahh. maybe they feel like humans can do a better job than they can with plans of world domination and what not. the scourge pokemon don't all have thumbs like humans, wahh. 7. destroy it like viruses are normally destroyed. vaccines, then killing off all the scourge pokemon ever in existence before they get the chance to infect other pokemon. which might be super hard, but it's a glimmer of hope.
that's all I have for now, i might add more later!
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
Conspiracy theories. I like the idea of unleashing it. We could actually have it originating within the Artifice? I imagine it was used to conceal something. Could have been the very first Scourge Pokemon to exist in the world.
I have no idea if they're RIGHT about the new world order, but if we go with the theory above, they could be tied to a higher power, higher power being the original single Scourge.
Maybe it's like the Jenova cells. The Geostigma. Or something. Hive mind. But they're not necessarily... brainwashed? They do seem to have minds of their own. Maybe they're just really bitter Pokemon. The world may never know.
Also yeah like Citrus said, Pokemon don't have opposable thumbs.
As for Hades being destroyed, I was also under the impression that this would be endgame.
tuyet re: landmarks. Landmarks have only one purpose, really. They're supposed to be tools for clever players to try to investigate them to find a way to beat the scourge. Like, you're not supposed to just walk up to them blindly and expect an apple to fall on your head. My plan was basically to let whatever player's character that came up with a cool theory have it be true.
Like, you know how in Pacific Rim, Newt thought he could commune with the kaiju if he got a brain? Turns out he could. The landmarks would be similar; whoever has the coolest what if theory can have their theory come true if they follow through with it IC.
toska I like the idea of pokerus being hades' benign form.
citrus What do you think of the hades agents' partner pokemon? Most of them seem to be fully functional with personalities and general intelligence.
ZULF ? ...Ngl, a Jenova/Geostigma approach would work pretty beautifully. The dumb scourge could be failed hosts, and the smart scourge could be successful hosts. Shiny scourge for A++ hosts.
And just to reiterate what I said in cbox:
Originally, I intended for hades agents to be susceptible to the virus themselves. It was supposed to be a part of their scaling. They'd have powers based on ranger signs, but that was only to save time; they wouldn't actually have needed to draw the signs.
In cbox, I mentioned a traveling virus theory--it searches for the strongest host, consuming along the way. Therefore, the reason the virus is interested in humans is because they'd be considered a perfect host. Eventually, the virus would consume the scourge partner pokemon and then overtake the agent, giving the agent the scourge pokemon's powers.
It's a fucking cheesy theory though, which is why I didn't ever go with the original idea in the first place.
Jenova is some crazy alien lady (okay, I don't know the exact canon) that arrives onto FF7's planet upon a meteor, with the intention of... I'm not sure. I think she wanted to destroy everything, but she totally failed. So she's stuck on earth. Somehow, an evil corporation got a hold of her cells, and they started using her cells to create super soldiers, which was cool. Then they tried putting her cells into a baby, and that got crazy fast. The whole FF7 plot follows.
Anyway, after she's inevitably destroyed, in FF7:AC, her cells are still kinda floating around the world, creating the disease Geostigma.
I have never finished FF7. This is all based off of hearsay and what parts of the game I have played. And fandom. FF7:AC doesn't make any sense even if you've watched it though.
hook ¿ ooh, good point! i like tuyet's theory on how there's two categories of scourge - some(most?) of them are just mindless horde but there are a few high elite, smarter scourge that actually have personalities. that could also be a reason for why the scourge chose to team up with humans? elitism exists among humans so why can't it exist among pokemon sort of thing.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
