The Original Story

At the beginning of time, when the Universe was merely a swirling ball of chaos, there was everything and there was nothing. The Void that was all existence was the gleam in a Rattata's eye and the enormous, burning sun; it was everywhere and nowhere, a confused, dancing whirlpool of colours and colourlessness, of ideas yet to be born, of people and Pokémon yet to live.

At the centre of the Void, shining with the light of a thousand stars, the pure white of snow and the rich gold of precious treasure, appeared an Egg. It shook, and shattered into infinite pieces, and there was revealed the First, the best of all; Arceus.

To the eye She seemed an unlikely candidate for the ruler of all the world, lacking the stature of those more notorious in the human world, such as the mighty, earth-shaking Groudon and the speeding, sky-shrieking Rayquaza. However, She had been born fully formed, with the knowledge of every civilisation that would wage its petty wars across the lands, every nation that would rise and fall, every despotic or good ruler that would raise themselves above the people and do good or evil.

And She knew what She must do.

Raising Her slender, elegant head towards the heavens, She gave a great wordless cry. From Her body two spheres appeared, one a cool ocean-blue, the other the soft pink of clouds at sunset. Slowly, the two beings uncurled, revealing themselves as enormous beasts, fanged, clawed and powerful. First, the strong Daughter of Time, Dialga, who could force human or Pokémon to age a hundred years in the blink of an eyelid, or grant them eternal life according to her whims; second, the gigantic Palkia, manipulator of space, warping and twisting the world as he pleased.

The two mammoth Pokémon bowed their heads and murmured respectfully; Greetings, Mother.

Greetings, my children, replied She. However, our work is not yet complete.

She closed Her calm red eyes and gave a soft smile, the first that had ever been seen. Gently, a ball of light floated from her body and split into three. Two resembled the first children that had been born from her, but without the currents of rage that threaded through those eggs, while the other was a calm yellow, like a Sunflora's petals. Rising lethargically from their sleep, the three new Pokémon appeared, of lesser size than the titans before them, but no less important. Uxie, ruler and custodian of all knowledge, Mesprit, giver of joy and despair, and Azelf, who lends bravery to people and Pokémon in times of need.

Smiling with the birth of the second children, Arceus spoke once more; Now, we shall begin the creation of the world.

Closing their eyes, Dialga and Palkia called to their power deep within, and made a simple wish. Audibly, the second children gasped as they felt the chaos around them resolve into atoms, order asserting itself down to the tiniest of details. They wished as their siblings had done, and the first children wept as they felt spirit flow through their bodies for the first time.

However, Arceus and Her children could not yet rest, for they had to begin the universe. She shot into the confusion of darkness above them, and came down hard on the fragments of Her egg. Each glittering fragment shot away into the dark, incandescent with the heat of their travel, and lay, an ocean of scattered diamonds, across the blackness. In years to come humans would stare at these shards, some dismissing and some worshipping them, and name them stars. Across the newly jewelled void She set comets to fly and dazzle and clouds of rock and dust to shade the brightness of the more powerful stars.

Next came a far more delicate task; the creation of worlds. To begin, She called to her all the small particles of iron drifting aimlessly in space, and pulled them together into two enormous spheres of solid metal, gleaming in the faint starlight. After this, She commanded yet more tiny flecks to come to Her, and, melting them with a powerful shot of energy from Her jaws, spread the molten iron over both spheres, then, finally, wrapped each in a crust of rock and fertile soil.

She then knew that they would require greater power for the next chance, and again the globules of power fled from her body, one again a soft pink, the other green and speckled with yellow. Both unfurled, and, sleepily blinking, the two tiny beings glanced around them, and joyfully leapt on their Mother's back, squeaking greetings. Arceus turned to her children, presenting to them Mew, creator of life, and Shaymin, for whom plants flowered wherever he stepped.

Without saying a single word, Shaymin flicked his small head, and a multitude of green flowed across the two worlds' surfaces, bursting into extraordinary colours here and there. Mew jumped, and flew in a trail of glittering particles across the two worlds. Wherever each tiny spark lay to rest, a new being sprung from the soil, or air, or plants, and slumbered on the ground, ready for when She would awaken them.

Weeping at the wonder of this new sight, the first children wanted to do nothing more than to explore the two bright, new worlds, but She stopped them, telling them in Her gentle voice that they had many more tasks yet to perform.

Laws are necessary, and must be there from the very beginning, governing lives and thought and action, otherwise what are we if not beasts? Every aspect of the world, however small or insignificant, had its allotted guardian, defender and ruler. To join them in the forming of the world came the strange, eye-patterned Regigigas, with strength surpassing even that of the first children, brought into existence to serve, protect, and to drag the heavy continents into their rightful places. From the molten fastnesses of a volcano where a spark of Mew's gift had landed, crawled the mighty Heatran, a powerful warrior whose fiery flowers would leave many a mark in the coming years. After her came a gentler creature, the blesser of dreams and giver of sweet thoughts, Cresselia Moon-Queen. To spread water across the globe came the great Kyogre, in the form of a giant Wailord, yet possessing more power than the biggest of that species could ever dream of holding, having the gift to control the oceans. Yet Arceus feared that if the ocean goddess were allowed to exercise her powers fully, the world would be submerged beneath Kyogre's domain. Therefore, she created a counterpart for the furious water goddess, in the likeness of a red behemoth with mastery of the earth, its dry, cracked surface and currents of molten rock glowing bright like candles, craving heat where his counterpart desired cold and damp. Furthermore, to ensure the balance between these two would always be maintained, she created a being like a giant dragon, green as emeralds and patterned with gold, which remained in the sky, ever watchful, guarding against the possibility of a war between sea and earth. Elemental masters, the ice-hearted Articuno, the lightning-quick Zapdos and the fiery Moltres, were created to assist the titans of earth, sea and sky in their work of controlling the weather. But Arceus feared the rash, impulsive legendaries would use their gifts against mortals, and so also brought into being their masters, the mighty Ho-oh, which flies through the air and leaves arches drawn in bright colours soaring across the sky, and the calm Lugia, dwelling in the depths of the ocean, deeper than all Pokémon go save for the cavern where Kyogre sleeps.

Others would come later, but these were the first, the purest children of Arceus' heart. All bowed before their great Creator, ready to obey Her every order.

Flapping his great fiery wings, Ho-oh remarked "Truly, Powerful One, this is a perfect universe!"

But the great goddess bowed Her head sadly, and told her child; "No, for though we are good, there must be balance, otherwise the universe can never truly be peaceful."

The masters of Time and Space screamed aloud as they felt something new, something that should not be, an abomination, polluting the perfect universe which they had thought themselves total rulers of, twisting and perverting the rules which they depended on, yet something so extraordinarily like them. A being, red-lit eyes casting scornful glances at the assembled deities, rose from the shadows, and smiled, revealing a maw ringed with yellowed fangs.

From beside it, a pool of darkness flowed out, and began to bubble and writhe, forming itself into a bizarre new creature. Ethereal though this new being was, the legendaries could clearly feel the malevolence flowing from it. A column of whitish smoke rose from its jagged, blood-red neck, and from its insubstantial depths, an ice-blue eye shone, striking a sharp dart of fear into all those assembled.

Cackling, these new monsters began to circle their counterparts, tormenting them with cruel words and spears of dark energy, but the Creator formed a ball of unbearably bright light and tossed it at them, flinging them away to the darkest corners of the universe. She then turned to face her creation, and told them "These beings cannot be destroyed, for to do so would upset the equilibrium of this beautiful new world. However, they can always be defeated, or banished. This, my children, will be your greatest trial. Remember, however, without the darkness the light would be nothing."