"I awoke one morning to find myself stranded on a small ship in the middle of an ocean with a thousand red eyes." Thus begins one of the pokemon world's most famous works of literature, the Saga of the Great Bloom. Put together a century ago by a great nihilist whose name was known only to his publisher, it is based on legends which were based on history of the time of Kyogre and Groudon's great war to control the world.

The protagonist, a man named Orange who is a fierce partisan of Groudon's cause, spends the first half of the saga trapped in the midst of a Tentacool pod which drifts slowly towards shore. Carrier Pidgey send letters to him, and are always allowed to drop them off before being eaten by members of the bloom: he is not allowed to warn the people of the impending attack. A great deal of attention is paid to his own mental state: he is harassed by day by fear, worry, and guilt, and at night by horrific, otherworldly nightmares sent to him by Kyogre. The story is as much an exploration of man's unraveling in the face of a waking nightmare as of any actual war.

In the second half, the Tentacool bloom sacks his hometown, but he escapes into friendly lines. It follows him through the war for some time, writing scenes more for action than for psychological exploration, fighting armies of water pokemon, often the same Tentacool who tormented him. It ends with him being left to die by an incompetent commander whose ruthless strategy utterly fails, and his country is washed away by the sea while the war continues without him.