Commissioned by bronzonghittransplant on Thousand Roads. Borrow's heavily from Seven After by kintsugi.
Kyurem (Unova)
"If you seek kindness, if you seek warmth, then find Truth and her Hero.
If you seek justice, if you seek power, then find Ideals and his Hero.
There is nothing here but memory and oblivion. If you seek these, enter."
-Engraved on the gates of Full Court
Overview
Kyurem, The Holy Corpse, The Null Dragon, The Wise One, rested for centuries at the bottom of the Giant Chasm. They emerged in 2012 in an apparent attempt to end the world before being defeated and forced to rest. Now they rest again in their old temple. Kyurem's rampage was not nearly as destructive as that of Kyogre and Groudon just weeks prior. It still was part of a marked shift in theology worldwide. Modern religion often emphasized the inherent goodness of the gods. If their power was mentioned at all it was to assure worshippers that their prayers could be answered. Kyurem answered one man's prayers and killed thousands. The gods of Hoenn left hundreds of thousands dead in their wake.
After the invention of electricity, modern medicine, and the mass-produced pokéball, humanity had nothing to fear but themselves. With the conclusion of the Cold War most people stopped fearing even that. In the 2010s humans had to contend once more with the reality that there were beings with both the power to wipe countries off the map in a matter of days and the inclination to do so. In the decade since there have been a number of reactions to this. Some have drifted away from polytheistic faiths towards the Church of Life or other general purpose gods, suddenly afraid of what was once a source of comfort and inspiration. Others have worshipped the local gods with more fervor than before in an attempt to gain their favor, or at least stave off their wrath. Governments have brought back or increased state-sponsored offerings to local gods in public while plotting ways to defeat or contain them in private.
Kyurem has become the subject of considerable theological and public policy debate in recent years. How does a society react when one of their gods tries to destroy them? Can beings that powerful be meaningfully punished or imprisoned? Would it be wise to do so? Should a secular state be involved in the appeasement of any gods? Should the worship of gods that turn on humanity be prohibited or encouraged? In many ways these questions skirt around the main problem that Kyurem raised: there are forces in the world more powerful than any government. Most of humanity had forgotten this. The United States government had become accustomed to being the world's sole superpower, capable of exerting their power anywhere on the planet without meaningful opposition. Now that same government must reckon with a force sleeping less than thirty miles from their largest city that they cannot control.
It is not our place to answer the questions Kyurem's rampage raised. Instead, we shall present our readers with the folklore and history behind the dragon and let them come to their own conclusions.
Appearance
Kyurem is a bipedal dragon roughly ten feet tall at the shoulder. The arms are comparatively small on the body and their body shape is remarkably similar to that of a tyrantrum. Their body is primarily slate gray. Ice encases most of the head and tail. Wings that appear to be made entirely of ice extend from the back, although Kyurem has not demonstrated the ability to fly like their siblings. During the later stages of Kyurem's rampage they appeared to shift to a more upright posture. Their arms grew longer and one turned black. The wings grew smaller and one turned black as well while the other still appeared to be made of ice. Kyurem's tail extended, turned black, and shifted to a shape more similar to that of their siblings' tails. It has been rumored that this occurred after Kyurem consumed Zekrom and began returning to the form of The Starchild. Neither the government nor the league have ever confirmed these rumors.
In Unovan drawings Kyurem was often drawn as far larger than they actually are. The details are also heavily stylized. This makes sense as the only people who viewed Kyurem would have seen them distorted by thick layers of ice.
Most powerful deities inevitably end up depicted in human form. This has historically not been the case with The Starchild and her successors. Zekrom and Reshiram typically appeared at least once every century and Kyurem could be viewed by anyone who dared to trek through the Giant Chasm and enter Full Court.
There is some debate over Kyurem's proper gender. Most scholars and priests contend that Kyurem should be addressed in a gender-neutral fashion, as The Starchild's femininity and masculinity were poured into Reshiram and Zekrom, respectively, leaving nothing behind for Kyurem. Others use female pronouns as The Starchild was typically seen as female and Reshiram and Zekrom are supposedly equal, meaning the balance would be female. Kawisenhawe has used both. An Iroquois account of a conversation between the Clan Mothers and Kawisenhawe has the latter calling Kyurem female, but also saying that the dragon did not particularly care one way or another.
In Unovan Mythology
In ancient times a meteorite crashed approximately two dozen miles northeast of what is now downtown Castelia. The meteorite began to crack like an egg and from it a mighty dragon emerged. She grew quickly in size and power until she had defeated even the mightiest of tribes. Dragons are not prone to worship, but even they began to worship the fallen dragon, referred to as The Starchild. The Five Nations and the Dragon Clans followed suit. Even the Norse and Malian immigrants acknowledged The Starchild's preeminence. The Starchild preferred to stay near the place where she had landed. Over time she worked to fully undo the damage caused by her arrival. She was seen as a wise and benevolent figure. She accepted sacrifices of livestock but did not take kindly to human sacrifice. The hydreigon would also bring her some of their kills. In exchange The Starchild would provide advice to anyone who sought her out and mediate disputes.
The Starchild intervened to help The Harbor Queen unify the Five Nations, the dragon tribes, and the Norse and bring peace to a wartorn nation. One legend says that she gave The Harbor Queen her gift of translation so that there would be one person who could understand everyone and rule justly. However, this legend arose centuries after The Harbor Queen's Death. Temples from the early kingdom prominently feature Meloetta, the other goddess believed to have blessed the royal line. It is also possible, and perhaps even probable, that The Harbor Queen was simply a psychic bloodliner as the result of a mutation. If The Starchild's children have commented on the subject their answer has not been recorded.
There was a crisis of succession roughly two centuries after The Harbor Queen's ascension. The Heromani Queen was assassinated alongside her eldest daughter, Skanawati. At the time there was an ongoing civil war between an ever-shifting set of alliances between the five nations, the dragon tribes, the Norse, and even a few pokémon species. The assassins were members of the dragon tribes who were temporarily allied with the kingdom. Their leader decided to switch sides and use her troops' access to the imperial palace to strike while the royal guard felt secure, far from the front lines. Their mother's death unexpectedly left the younger siblings, twins, to take the throne. The Heronami Queen had refused to clarify which one would inherit the throne in the event their elder sister could not as she was afraid the loser would assassinate the other. Her lady in waiting was the only survivor of the assassination that knew her decision. Her dislike of the elder twin was also well known.
The younger twin ascended the throne and immediately became controversial for offering to parlay with the dragon tribes and other factions in an effort to broker a more permanent peace. The ongoing civil war had lasted nearly thirty years and stemmed from growing resentments towards the crown as the kings and queens of Unova were accused of favoritism towards their parents tribes. The new king argued that the only way to avoid the problem was to transition away from a monarchy and towards a grand council composed of representatives from self-governing tribes who came together to solve common issues.
The older twin was furious. War had raged for thirty years. The dragon tribes had killed his mother and sister and were about to be given everything they wanted as a result. Behind closed doors he argued that the only way to end the war was to crush all of the factions beneath a single centralized government so that none had the power to rebel whenever they had a petty grievance. In the end he was sent by his brother to the front lines when the dragon tribes main force marched on the castle. He ended up repelling the assault and earning the respect of the soldiers. He then turned around and marched on his brother, whom he accused of being an illegitimate king only coronated because of a servant's grudge.
Before blood could be spilled, The Starchild arrived. She heard both sides and came to a judgment. What exactly her judgment was has been lost to time. Regardless, neither of the siblings found it acceptable and they instead challenged each other to single combat in front of her. This caused The Starchild a great deal of distress, so much so, in fact, that it literally tore her in two. Her ambition, dominance, and the disposition of a ruler split into Reshiram; her yearning for peace and fairness as well as her kindness and empathy split into Zekrom.
The Starchild's mind and spirit left the body and emerged as fully formed dragons. The body still remained, empty, devoid of the warmth and energy that once powered it. Instead, there was only a great emptiness and her caution and indecision, traits that neither of the warrior dragons were birthed from. The remnant, now calling themself Kyurem, quickly began to freeze over everything near them. They were an incomplete, soulless being incapable of regulating their own divine power.
The youngest daughter of The Heronami Queen, Kawisenhawe, had been too young to be considered eligible for the throne at the time. As the war continued and more of Unova was charred by her brothers and their dragons or frozen by the soulless Kyurem, she grew determined to end the conflict. First she approached her brothers, separately and together, and pleaded for them to stop. Neither listened. Kawisenhawe came to believe that she was incapable of changing their minds and stopping the war as she was. What was a girl against the power of the dragons' gods? She made up her mind and went to claim a dragon of her own.
Kawisenhawe went to Kyurem with only her stoutland at her side. In time even the pokémon froze to death in the extreme cold and she continued alone, on foot, with increasingly severe frostbite. She was on death's door when she finally met The Starchild's corpse. The dying girl and the soulless dragon spoke for a time. In the end the girl moved Kyurem and the two made a bargain. Kawisenhawe agreed to be fused to Kyurem and lend the dragon her soul. In exchange, she would be the voice of Kyurem and live an unending life. Kyurem fused themselves with Kawisenhawe and the girl ceased to die, for now she shared the blood and body of an ice dragon. Her soul allowed Kyurem to fully control their own divinity and stop the snowstorm engulfing Unova. The two retreated to Full Court, a chamber where The Starchild received representatives of every tribe of human and pokémon, and barricaded themselves inside. Kyurem was better able to control themself, but their nature as a god of ice and void led them to freeze the canyon around Full Court.
Kyurem technically upheld their end of the bargain to Kawisenhawe, although not in a way that she would have appreciated. Her body still continued to age until even Kyurem's ice and divine blood could not preserve her any longer. The dragon, through Kawisenhawe, commanded that another girl be brought before him, the wisest and worthiest child of the clans. When the clans presented them with their choice, Kyurem cast aside Kawisenhawe and merged with the new girl. She inherited the memories and name of Kawisenhawe, and every girl after her inherited the combined memories of every Kawisenhawe before her. Kyurem's voice is still named Kawisenhawe and will not answer to any name she held before she merged with the dragon. The unbroken lineage of Kawisenhawe continued until 2012. Kyurem's new priestess has claimed not to have the memories of Kawisenhawe.
Kyurem has a long memory, the wisdom of an ancient goddess, and a human soul. They can also see visions of the future. This made Kyurem, and by extension Kawisenhawe, the favored oracle of Unova. Clan leaders and anyone able to brave the treacherous weather and strong pokémon of Full Court went to seek the guidance of Kawisenhawe, oracle of Kyurem, in the frozen chamber. For their part, Kyurem froze themself under a block of ice so thick even they would struggle to break it. This served as a symbol of their vow of neutrality and ultimate prophecy and promise. If humans and pokémon could come together and set aside their differences, if peace reigned for one thousand years and the world was in harmony, then Kyurem would reemerge and reunite with their siblings, forming the complete Starchild once more. However, if the world proved to be beyond hope and neither truth nor ideals persisted, if the seas themselves turned to poison and spiderwebs cracked the earth, Kyurem would reemerge to freeze the world in judgment so that something better would emerge from the thawing ice.
Historically, the guards of Full Court have been the Swords of Justice. The Swords are a quartet of pokémon said to have been elevated to godhood by Kyurem in exchange for proving their bravery by challenging the dragon to single combat and emerging alive. The four survivors were assigned the task of protecting Kawisenhawe and escorting pilgrims out of the Chasm if they had been injured on the way in.
Worship
The main form of sacrifice to Kyurem was in the form of new Kawisenhawes. Once every century another young girl from the Five Nations or the dragon tribes would need to be sacrificed to the dragon. It is unknown whether the ethnicity requirement was imposed by Kawisenhawe or Kyurem, or even where it came from in the first place, but it has been adhered to for centuries nonetheless. Kawisenhawe served as Kyurem's voice and chief priestess. She was always locked into place by ice and scaly tendrils, unable to move at all. Kyurem, distorted by a thick layer of ice, loomed beneath her. Kawisenhawe was consulted for everything from romantic advice to military strategies and visions of the future. Anyone who could survive the trek down the chasm was entitled to an audience with Kawisenhawe, and Kawisenhawe always provided an answer. Whether this was out of loneliness or religious obligation remains unclear. At least one Kawisenhawe was asked but never provided a direct answer. This is true for almost all questions of a personal nature asked to Kawisenhawe. Perhaps Kawisenhawe answered these questions when her replacement asked, but these moments were always private. We can only speculate as to what the girls said to each other.
Kyurem was officially neutral in all political matters. However, Kawisenhawe often tacitly spoke against the Galarian colonizers and in favor of the Five Nations, dragon tribes, and pokémon. These messages were usually couched in vague, metaphorical language that gave her plausible deniability. Some scholars have argued that Kawisenhawe retained a level of independence from Kyurem and these messages were ways to test the limits of the commands she had been given without breaking them outright.
Aside from the centennial human sacrifice, Kyurem did not request offerings of any kind. Sometimes hydreigon have been observed hauling particularly impressive kills into the Giant Chasm. This may be the result of an arrangement between the species and Kyurem. How the dragon, sealed away beneath the ice, would even eat the offerings is another question entirely. No evidence of the kills has ever been documented in Full Court. One scholar has suggested that the hydreigon eat the kill in front of Kyurem, either as a means of showing their hunting prowess or of taunting the dragon in hopes of luring them out and heralding the end of human civilization.
Origins
Kyurem's origins are far better documented than that of almost any other deity in this book. There is a layer of debris in the soil of Unova believed to correspond with The Starchild's arrival. Carbon dating suggests she arrived in approximately 300 BCE.
The historiography of The War of Kings is fraught. Some events may be mere legend but tax records and archeological evidence suggests that there were many civil wars in Unova around the time, that The Heronami Queen reigned until approximately 1215 CE, and that the civil war ultimately came to center on a conflict between two kings. The war ended in the collapse of The Kingdom of Unova, the destruction of most of central Unova, including the old capitol, and a century of lawlessness. Records from this time are scarce as literacy rates plummeted in the era of collapse. The Malians arrived just as Unova was beginning to pull itself back together. By this point Reshiram and Zekrom were already dormant once more, Kyurem rested in Full Court, and the original Kawisenhawe had died.
Most of the legends regarding Kyurem were also well established and documented by the Malians. These included the prophecy regarding Kyurem's emergence.
Today
Kyurem worship had declined dramatically after the subjugation of the Five Nations and their removal from modern Unova. The final Kawisenhawe was illegally smuggled into Full Court in 2011 as the Unovan legislature had banned voluntary human sacrifice for any purpose in 1994. Her father and three others were subsequently sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to commit child abuse and human sacrifice.
Fewer people than ever were consulting Kawisenhawe as well. The Unovan government had posted armed guards at the gates of Full Court since 1891 in order to prevent indigenous people from using the oracle to obtain information damaging to the United States or trying to awaken Kyurem. All visitors were prohibited following the installation of the final Kawisenhawe in hopes of deterring future generations from sacrificing another girl. The Swords of Justice strongly opposed this decision and dispersed the guard before being defeated by Chris Foster, a then-rising trainer who would go on to be recognized as the world's strongest.
On August 17, 2012, Ghetsis Gropius and the Plasma Liberation Front stormed Giant Chasm, killed the guards, and persuaded Kyurem to emerge and destroy Unova. Kawisenhawe was killed in the process, apparently by Ghetsis. For the next eight days Kyurem battled the Swords of Justice and Reshiram and Zekrom in Giant Chasm. A blizzard engulfed most of the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, stretching west to Ohio, south to Virginia, and north to Ontario and Quebec. Thousands died across the region, although the storm's slow spread meant that most of the area could be evacuated before the blizzard arrived. Almost all crops growing in the region were killed by the unseasonal blizzard.
Kyurem was eventually defeated and sealed themself away in Full Court once again. By the end of the year the Swords escorted a new child down to become Kawisenhawe, although she claims not to have the memories of her predecessors. She further claims that Kyurem is not speaking to her and only agreed to merge in order to use her soul to stabilize their power. Travel to see her has been legal since 2016, although with no ancestral memory and Kyurem not providing visions of the future there is little reason to do so.
State-sponsored offerings of meat were brough to Full Court for a short period in 2015, before Kyurem's priestess asked that the practice be discontinued. The offerings were enormously controversial as the families of the dead often saw them as the dragon being rewarded for their rampage. Some politicians and activists have called for the strongest trainers in the world to be brought together to kill or capture Kyurem, something that neither Reshiram nor Zekrom allowed in 2012. Chris Foster has expressed interest in the idea, but says he will not do so without the approval of the Unovan government. Both Unova and the United States have been reluctant to provoke the dragon and ensure another blizzard.
For now Kyurem simply waits. Perhaps they will emerge again to judge the world or reform The Starchild. They have not revealed whether that prophecy has been fulfilled or merely delayed. They have said almost nothing at all since their defeat.
Ghetsis Gropius and most of the leadership of the Plasma Liberation Front have subsequently been captured and executed. Thousands of Plasma Liberation Front foot soldiers have been arrested and imprisoned, although most have subsequently been released.