The ancestors of Persian were enormous beasts with long saber teeth, related to Raikou and Mew. They were not normal-type pokemon, but psychics whose power emanated from an enormous red jewel on their foreheads and could shoot thunderbolts from their giant whiskers. Like most of the pokemon world's megafauna, a mixture of climate change and overhunting wiped them out, and only their smaller, weaker descendants are alive today.

Modern Persian jewels are usually a vestigial body part, akin to a human's tailbone or an Empoleon's wings. However, there is a limited atavism found in Persian throughout the ages: they do not regrow their old fangs or size, but they learn electric attacks without special training, and powerful psychic attacks which cause their jewels to grow a deep crimson hue. They are also expert ventriloquists, able to move their mouths to telepathy to the point where virtually all trainers mistake it for human speech.

There only two atavistic, psychic Persian confirmed to be alive today. This is not an unusually low number; such Persian are extremely rare. One of them is kept as a pet by Sabrina of Saffron City, and the other is believed to be in the possession of Team Rocket.