Hoenn and the Age of Pirates
By Steven Stone
Champion of Hoenn
The Hoenn region, by all means, can be considered a mediocre, but that has never been a disadvantage. In fact, lying in the middle of the spectrum of regions has served Hoenn a nice profit since ages.
If you're a traveller, the first thing you'll notice in Hoenn is its climate. Hoenn is a tropical land, and hence, is warmer than any other region in Pokémon World, except Alneo. It also features a vast and diversified habitat for both humans and Pokémon. The most striking thing about Hoenn is that it is half-land and half-sea, and hence, is home to a huge variety of Pokémon, especially those who inhabit deep sea trenches. Talking about trenches, did I mentioned Hoenn has the only marine trenches in the entire Pokémon World?
This is probably the reason that the Primal Titans call this region home. The largest active volcano and the deepest sea trenches make great homes for the Pokémon who were born from magma and ocean. One might also notice that the cities and towns of Hoenn are the closest to nature, in contrast to the modernized cities of the other regions.
Apart from all this, the biggest feat of Hoenn is that the human and Pokémon populations have the best harmony here. And this has been the same way since the very beginning.
Sir Horace Reigner and his Milotic could be the best example of the relationship between a trainer and Pokémon. It is often told in Hoenn folklore that the Milotic had a telepathic link with Sir Horace and was his partner not only in battles, but in politics and kingship as well. No wonder why Milotic the sigil of the ancient House of Reigner.
Sir Horace was the first to discover that Pokémon do not need to battle others in order to grow up. A trainer's care and love alone can make the Pokémon grow stronger. This discovery motivated the non-violent king to find a new alternative for Pokémon Battles, and that was how Pokémon Contests were born. Sir Horace would hold a semi-annual festival at his palace, where people from all over Hoenn came and participated. The concept was simple, to grade a Pokémon not on the basis of strength, but by various virtues that represented its growth. There was no pitting Pokémon against each other. Instead, a trainer should execute combinations of Pokémon moves to impress the king and the audience. The trainer whose Pokémon managed to get the most applause was declared the winner, rewarded with fame and gold. If a Pokémon made exceptionally good performance, a statue of the trainer and Pokémon was made to be placed in the Ever Grande Palace, which was indeed the biggest reward for anyone.
The introduction of Pokémon Contests was widely accepted by the Hoennish trainers. However, some people still wanted the traditional style of battling and hence, the Battle Tower was built on a southern island, where the people with a love for battles can participate against each other.
Since Sir Horace was not interested in battles, he appointed one of his best generals, Sir Sebastian Potter, as the in-charge of Battle Tower facility. Sir Sebastian Potter is the very person from whom the Potter family of Lavaridge has descended. Scott Davidson, the owner of the modern Battle Frontier, is also a descendant of Sir Potter.
Moving back to Sir Horace's bloodline. The Reigner family was later branched when Lady Dakota was married to Devon Stone, a wealthy diamond dealer from Rustboro. Yeah, you got it right, Lady Dakota was my many-times-great grandma. So, Devon Stone later established the company known today as the Devon Corps and opened gates of economical and scientific development for Hoenn. Many people who wished to dedicate themselves to research joined Devon Corps and the company flourished. In more recent times, my dad worked with Mr Nicholas Silph of Kanto to develop the ultimate Pokéball, also called the Master Ball, but the project was abandoned before completion to protect the technology from wrong hands.
The main branch of Sir Horace's bloodline saw many great trainers who maintained the name of the Reigner family as one of the most prestigious families in Hoenn. One of them was Sir Dave Reigner, who found a large volcanic crater in the middle of the sea when he was seafaring with his Milotic in search of the supposedly extinct Relicanth. He was impressed how the place was hidden from normal eyes and could only be accessed by either underwater or the sky. He shifted the capital from Ever Grande to this crater, naming it Sootopolis.
His son later discovered the Cave of Origins, the ancient cave from Ransean times that depicted wall paintings of the events of Ransei, like the battle of Groudon and Kyogre, Rayquaza calming the Weather Titans, Regigigas shifting the continents, etc. After the implementation of the League system in Hoenn, the Reigner Palace was converted to Sootopolis Gym and the Reigner family became one of the most powerful Gym Leaders in the world.
Another one of the major families of Hoenn is the Ohana family. The Ohanas used to live in the region of Oblivia, but when Unova invaded the region, the family migrated to Hoenn and settled at Mt. Pyre. Being a family of gypsies, Ohana family is notable for being the only one able to communicate with spirits of the dead, and hence, are Hoenn's master Ghost-type specialists. The Ohanas are exceptionally strong because of their signature Pokémon, Sableye, the only Hoenn Pokémon to have just one weakness, i.e. Fairy-types, which are significantly rare in Hoenn. This is the reason that when the Weather Orbs were discovered by Devon Corps' archaeologists and it was found that the Orbs had power to awake Groudon and Kyogre, the Devon Corps handed them over to the Ohana family for safekeeping. The last Ohana child, Phoebe, is presently one of the Hoenn Elite Four.
Now, we'll move on to one of the most nefarious villains of Pokémon World, named Edward Thatch. While little is known about his early life, sources say that he was born in Slateport, which, even then, was a major port of Hoenn. Born near the sea, he was a brilliant Water-type specialist and hence was appointed as a crew of a merchant vessel of Hoenn.
However, Thatch soon got bored of that and got involved in acts of piracy. He murdered various crew members on board, along with the ship's captain, and claimed the ship for himself, renaming it S.S. Anne's Revenge. Thatch started to roam the Hoenn seas, destroying and robbing merchant ships with his ferocious Sharpedo. Because of his dark impact and his fearsome image of a man with thick black beard, Edward Thatch got the name Blackbeard.
Blackbeard soon extended his area of operation from Hoenn to the International Waters, particularly the Hoenn-Unova Sea Route. The tales of his exploits started to travel farther and farther, and the fear of Blackbeard increased. Soon, he involved into acts of human and Pokémon slavery, imprisoning the survivors of the vessels he sabotaged and forcing them into piracy. He claimed monopoly over sea-dwelling Pokémon, barring people from capturing them. It is also said that he managed to imprison the legendary Pokémon Suicune, after which Suicune cursed him for eternal hunger and unquenchable thirst.
This incident drove him insane. He tried to awaken Kyogre to sink all the land, but his Sharpedo was cleanly out matched by Halo Ohana's Sableye on Mt. Pyre, thus saving the Weather Orbs he had his eyes on. Frustrated, Blackbeard started to corrupt the common people. He encouraged young trainers into piracy, and in a couple years, had seven pirate ships under his fleet.
He sabotaged the vessels from Kalos that was shipping Mega Stones to Hoenn, thus becoming the first Hoennish to own a Mega Evolved Pokémon. With his new Mega Sharpedo, he managed to defeat Hola's Sableye and get the Weather Orbs. He would have raised Kyogre and unleashed doom on the entire world, but he was diverted by Captain Drake Williamson.
Drake was initially an independent pirate who was under trial for piracy in Hoenn court. When he heard that Blackbeard was going to raise Kyogre from its sleep, the man took it upon himself to stop the villianous pirate and offered the Hoenn government help in exchange for freedom. After a long debate, the court finally agreed and gave Drake the command of a merchant vessel called Black Clamperl. Drake redesigned it to appear like a pirate ship and the governer of Hoenn announced a fake bounty on Drake's head, calling him a bigger threat than even Blackbeard.
Curious, Blackbeard organised a meeting with Drake at the Pirate Cove, known today as the Lilycove City, in order to find his secret. Drake explained him about the Island of Lost Wishes, a place inhabited by the mythical Jirachi, who was said to fulfil the wishes of those who found it. Blackbeard saw this as a way to get rid of his curse and proposed Drake to work with him. In return, Blackbeard promised Drake the captainship of S.S. Anne's Revenge.
Drake, completing his part of the promise, led Blackbeard to the Island of Lost Wishes, where Blackbeard announced him the new captain of Anne's Revenge. However, when the fearsome pirate reached the end of the cavern, he found the Hoennish army waiting for him. A battle ensued, and Blackbeard's Mega Sharpedo seemed victorious, until Drake appeared with his famous Dragon-type partner, Salamence. Since he was the new captain of Anne's Revenge, he had complete access to all her treasures, including the Mega Stones. Using a Salamencite, Drake mega-evolved Salamence and defeated Blackbeard's Sharpedo.
Blackbeard was imprisoned and all his ships were confiscated by royal navy, except the S.S. Anne's Revenge, which was instead presented as a gift to Drake. Drake was offered the post of Commodore in the royal navy, but he refused, instead continuing his adventurous life as a pirate. He appealed to save the people who were forced into piracy by Blackbeard and became an idol among the pirate community. After that, Captain Drake left to roam the world's seas and was never seen again, though there were legends of a large pirate ship with black sails appearing in the seas to help those in peril.
The story of Captain Drake Williamson gradually faded in the pages of history and Anne's Revenge was considered pure myth, until the League system was implemented in Hoenn and Drake's descendant, Drake Williamson III was found and brought back to Hoenn as a member of the Elite Four.
Along with Pokémon Contests and pirates, Hoenn has always been home to new and innovative styles of Pokémon battling, as the people here are always curious to invent something new. The concept of Contests and Battle Tower mixed together gave birth to a lot new ideas for battling and hence, several new facilities were built around Hoenn, known as Battle Tents, where a trainer was able to enjoy new and innovative styles of battling, perfecting themselves as a trainer and strengthening the bond between them and their Pokémon.
The earliest forms of Battle Tents were competitive events held once every year. The concept was to put in front of trainers, several challenges in order to test their skills as a trainer. The Battle Tent event was held at several different places selected according to the nature of the challenges. The Swap Challenge tested a trainer's ability to work with new Pokémon by providing them rental Pokémon for a series of battles. The Time Tourney Challenge was a tournament where participating trainers had to win against the other trainer in a set amount of time, judged by several factors like the moves used, the damages dealt, the strategy, etc. The Tag Team Challenge tested a trainer's coordination with others by randomly pairing them with other competitors in a tag team battle. The Trust Challenge was based around the bonds between a trainer and Pokémon, where trainers were restricted from giving instructions and the Pokémon fought on their own.
With the ages, the Battle Tent became a craze among young trainers and it was converted to a permanent facility in various cities of Hoenn. Also, it started a new form of Pokémon battling, known as Double Battles, where trainers used two Pokémon instead of the traditional one-on-one. While this was a way to refresh trainers from the boredom of traditional battling, it provided a medium of strengthening the collaboration between a trainer's Pokémon.
While Hoenn has been known as the Land of Abundant Relations, it is not far behind in scientific development. Though, most development in Hoenn was brought when Kanto colonized the region during the World War, but development is development nonetheless.
The largest Space Research Center in the Pokémon World is situated in Mossdeep City of Hoenn. It was built by the famous astronomers Helius and Selena Solace, who were so fascinated by the Pokémon Solrock and Lunatone (seen by that-time Hoenn as the deities of Sun and Moon) that they decided to find out about their origins. Their work led to opening the gates of outer space, and soon humans learned more about the supposedly mythical world beyond the blue sky. The work started by the couple is now administrated by their descendants, the mystic twins Tate and Lisa Solace.
Hoenn is credited for many other accomplishments, but the last one I'll be talking about is the discovery of variations of Pokémon. The evolution line of Pokémon were long considered to be straight chains. But the eventual discovery of Eevee in Kanto established a new fact in front of the World: branched families. It was soon discovered by Sir Isaac Elm of Johto that Slowpoke evolve by two different ways: into a Slowbro when a Shellder bites its tail, and into a Slowking when the Shellder bites its head while it is wearing the King's Rock. Elm studied various other Pokémon, and found that when treated with different stimuli, some of them evolve into different kind of Pokémon. Elm also found that the Pokémon species can acquire a difference in coloration. This variation, however, was so rare that the chances of finding a different colored Pokémon was considered less than the chances of getting struck by lightning twice.
Hoenn took this revelation to a further new level when Professor Fredrick Birch of New Bark Town discovered that the variations in Pokémon can also be affected by their gender. Although, the Nidoran family had already introduced the world with gender differences, it was long considered the only Pokémon to show such differences. Prof Birch discovered that Pokémon like Gyarados, Milotic, Gulpin, etc also exhibit gender variations, though that were minor and easily ignored. He also found that Illumise, when bred, produced both Volbeat and Illumise eggs, similar to Nidoran family.
Another great revelation was brought by the discovery of the Pokémon Castform. When Castform was first discovered, it was thought by the local people to be a legendary Pokémon responsible for the change of seasons. However, Prof Birch later found by subjecting a Castform to various artificial climates that it was in fact the other way round; Castform did not influence the weather, but the weather influenced Castform's variations. The reason for this unique behavior was that a Castform's DNA mutated with the slightest change in climatic conditions, similar to Eevee. The only difference was that Castform's changes were found to be reversible, unlike Eevee whose evolution was permanent.
This discovery set the researchers of entire world at square one, and gradually, more and more Pokémon were discovered to show variations based on differences between gender, climate, location, and so on. The legendary Pokémon that was discovered by space researchers at Birth Island was also found to be able to change its appearance by changing its Offense, Defense and Speed factors.
That was all I had to say about Hoenn. If you some day decided to travel to my homeland, make sure to pay me a visit. Till then, see y'all.
