Although the city of Alph has had its share of kings and emperors, it was long said that the power behind the throne was the royal line of Xatu Oracles. Xatu have long been said to be able to see the future, but this was a sad and lonesome fate, for they were unable to change it. In Alph, however, they were given enough Unown to spell out a full sentence, treated as full members of the royal court, and always consulted in times of great crisis. Such is the way that Alph grew into a great empire.
The Xatu prophecies were not perfect. The simple act of observing the future and communicating it to others can be enough to alter the flow of time. Some Xatu had poorer future sight than others, and often communicated in cryptic prophecies, and even the wisest, because of the vast energy involved in commanding so many Unown to make words, had to resort to this method on occasion. And yet despite this weakness, it worked for hundreds of years, as long as the kings listened to their Xatu and the Xatu loyally gave advice.
But Xatu can be a temperamental pokemon, and kings too proud to listen to their advisors. The sources differ on whether the Xatu or the last king was to blame. Where they agree was that he did not consult the Xatu Oracle, built Alph to its greatest height of glory, and through his megalomania gave rise to a great coalition against him of kings who feared for their own thrones. When Alph was besieged by forces ten times the size of his remaining army, humbled by desperation, the king at last asked what he should do. The Xatu is said to have wept as he answered.
"RUN"
