Horsea
Water
1 male/1 female
Seadra
Water
1 male/1 female
Kingdra
Water/Dragon
1 male/1 female
Deep Kingdra
Water/Dragon
1 male/1 female
Family oriented sharpshooters of the reefs and kelp forests. They can support a water bubble on land with a bit of training.
Description
Horsea is an aquatic demi-dragon. It is about as long as a man's leg when the tail is fully stretched out. The body could be compared to a lizard without limbs. It has a tube-shaped mouth, a single fin on its back, and a frill of spikes around its head. Aside from the fin and belly scales, all of its scales are a light blue. The fin and belly are tan. Seadra is mostly bigger and spikier. Its head and back are covered in sharp spines. The two jagged fins are located on its sides that only show pale white scales near the tips. Its scales no longer have a smooth appearance and now look like layered armor. Kingdra can be said to look like branching coral. Its back fin and horns look like the coral it nests in. it has two small sensor fins on its head. Kingdra is roughly the size of a human's torso, and the tail can uncurl to make it as long as a human is tall.
The two most common subspecies are the reef variant and the open sea variant. At the Horsea and Kingdra stage, the reef variant has remarkable abilities in Swift Swimming and can sense their environments easily. On land, their attunement to water lets them map the environment when it rains. The reef variant Seadra is covered in Poison Points, adding another hazard to the coral reefs for any human divers and obscuring some of their sensory ability beneath a crown of spines. Out in the open ocean, the line are incredibly precise Snipers who can focus their attacks and hit weak points all the harder. A rare shallow water variant exists that saturates the air with Dampness and moisture to nullify any explosive attacks.
Deep Kingdra draws heavily on its draconian ancestry. It is the only member of the line with actual teeth and jaws. It mostly resembles a dragon without hind limbs, and a single fin on the back. The forelimbs have webbing between the fingers of the razor sharp claws.
Battle Characteristics
Kingdra has moderate Constitution, and moderate-high Speed. Everything else is good.
In the wild, they mostly learn Water moves, with a light smattering of Normal and Dragon moves. They can learn the coveted Dragon Dance naturally. Breeding, tutoring, and TMs add some more variety, but mostly in the form of specific moves for other types. They learn plenty of Ice moves and one or two Bug, Steel, and Flying moves. Draco Meteor is available.
Deep Kingdra's stats are substantially higher.
Legends/Folklore
The Maelstrom Strait is a ten mile gap between Esmera Island and the Saphika Archipelago. It got is name because thousands of these Pokémon live in those waters and create unpredictable currents and spontaneous whirlpools that once tore apart an aircraft carrier. Rumors hold that a massive throne, home to some ancient Deep Kingdra resides there, from which it rules all Horsea and Seadra, with only Kingdra beyond its grasp.
It is said that they once had no dragon traits. A story from the Saphika Archipelago tells how they got the Dragon typing. One young Horsea, driven by a lust for power, sought out Lugia. The journey was long and arduous. It took decades and the little seahorse was waylaid every step, or rather swimming stroke, of the way. Decades of questing, occasionally fighting and beating various threats for locals to bargain for information, eventually led it to Lugia. Lugia blessed the Horsea, which had become a Seadra by that point, with some of its power over maelstroms and the might of a Dragon. And that is how Kingdra was born, so named because it rapidly conquered all the Horsea and Seadra.
Stories say that while a wild Deep Kingdra will never bow to the will of another, one man brought his Seadra to fight a god in 1 vs 1, and managed to win a single scale. The resulting Deep Kingdra worked with that man for the rest of the trainer's life, and even used its powers to let the trainer be reborn as a Pokémon upon death.
Life Cycle/Evolution Conditions
Horsea live near their parents for a month or two before seeking out their own futures. They live and hunt for thirty-two years before evolving. After that, evolving further requires a bit of a quest. Seadra must seek out a Dragon and fight it in honorable battle, not ambush, and claim one of its scales. This Dragon Scale, sanctified in battle and blood, is then driven into Seadra's scales and merges, causing a rapid change and transforming all the scales into dragon scales, evolving to Kingdra. A scale from a Kingdra results in the default phenotype. Scales from other, fully evolved dragons can result in some changes to move pool and appearance. It is said that the Deep Kingdra form is caused from either a scale from a three-hundred year old Hydreigon, or from a Legendary Pokémon. As can be imagined, surviving a fight with a 300+ year Hydreigon is nearly impossible.
If Seadra does not get that dragon scale, it dies after a total lifespan of a century. With evolution comes a substantial boost to lifespan.
Diet
This line is, like many sea and oceanic Pokémon, omnivorous. They have no teeth, and so use high pressure water to cut up larger prey into manageable chunks, as well as sucking small shrimp or plankton out of the water. As is typical for Dragons, they eat a lot given the chance.
Breeding
Water 1 and Dragon groups. Eggs are not for sale, but hatchlings trained to make land-bubbles for terrestrial combat sell for 37,000P.
The various seahorse cousins, including this line, are among the only cases where the males give birth. The females transfer eggs into the male's egg pouch, which is then fertilized. They mate under the light of the full moon and are doting lovers. They cuddle during the pregnancy, and sing to comfort each other. Should a couple find a dead male with swollen egg pouch, they have been recorded to extract the eggs and transfer them to the living male's egg pouch.
Wild Behavior/Threat Level
In the wild, they are uncaring of humans. They may not actively threaten humans, but they make no effort to avoid hurting humans as collateral damage.
Bonding and Care
Many in this line have ambitions to be royalty. Aid them in this quest. From grooming them to look their best, to making them stronger in battle, they respond to aid toward the throne. If they lack the drive to be royalty, they still like grooming and play.
Human/Pokémon Relations
A driven Horsea, by the time it reaches Kingdra, will see one of two options in its trainer. Either the trainer is a loyal vassal that should be rewarded, or the trainer is an Emperor/Empress worthy of being bowed to.
With Family
They are doting toward their own families, and can be so toward their trainer's family.
Team Compatibility
They are predators, but will abstain from eating team members if taught that the team are allies in its dreams. They do not like the Popplio line, and are rarely friendly with the singing Fairy.
Warning
The spines are moderately poisonous. They also can cause widespread destruction with their whirlpools.
Summary
Aspiring kings of the seas.
