Last normal entry before I go on hiatus. Check my profile for a poll on the next bonus entry. Options are Zacian (WME), Vespiquen, Dracozolt, and Amoonguss.
Sableye
Overview
Sableye were first sighted in 1841 by spelunkers deep in the bowels of Mammoth Cave. They were sighted again in the upper levels of the cave in 1857, and a crypt of sableye explored a nearby farm in 1871. Sableye have since used their stealth and intelligence to find their way across the world, finding new caves and mines to live in.
Despite their unsettling appearance and creepy laughter, sableye do not represent a serious threat to humans. They are, however, an existential threat to gemstone-based pokémon. Carbink populations have plummeted in Alola and are only now starting to level off. Sableye are now rare themselves, although dedicated trainers can find one by spelunking into the depths of Melemele and Poni islands' cave systems. In return they will find themselves with a surprisingly fast and durable trickster that can slowly wear down opponents many times larger than itself.
Physiology
Sableye are classified as dual ghost- and dark-types. There is a school of thought that sableye should be classified as ghost- and rock-types due to the prominence of crystals in their body. This theory is currently not dominant. Sableye are highly resistant to telepathic assault, can meld into shadows better than most ghosts, and originally lived in total darkness. These traits make them well-qualified for a dark-typing.
Sableye are small bipeds. Their dark purple "skin" is actually a variant of ectoplasm that fades into nearby darkness very well. Each limb ends in three sharp claws. A variety of gemstones rise to the surface of the pokémon's body, typically on the head and torso. Many sableye have eye-like gemstones. The evolutionary purpose of faux eyes for a creature that lived in total darkness is disputed. It may have helped deter bioluminescent threats, but relatively few have been documented in the Mammoth Cave system.
One of sableye's more unusual features is often hidden. When leaping or falling, sableye can extend shadowy "wings" from their upper arms, allowing them to make slightly higher jumps or break falls. The wings can also be used to appear larger than the pokémon is, deterring predators and competitors.
Unusually for a phantom, sableye eat like an organic or mineral pokémon. They seldom feed on emotional energies in the wild, although research has suggested that they can passively feed on curiosity and fear. Instead, they primarily feed on rocks, particularly coal and gemstones. Sableye use an unusual curse-like process to break down the rocks into spectral energy that is ingested. Some of the physical stone remains and leaves the body with a gemstone impurity. These stones make sableye harder to take down, but they also gradually slow the pokémon until it is nearly immobile and unable to reliably feed.
Sableye have fluorescent green fluid in their body, presumably fulfilling a similar purpose to blood. The liquid evaporates rapidly at room temperature, forcing sableye to keep their own bodies highly pressurized. Wounds are almost-instantly sealed with a smell stretch of shadowy skin.
The oldest of sableye can weigh up to twenty-five kilograms, although most weigh barely more than ten. Fully grown sableye are forty-five to fifty-five centimeters tall. Captive sableye's lifespans vary depending on the frequency of gemstone feedings. Specimens fed gemstones every day usually die within ten years of capture. Those fed gemstones sparingly, once a month or less, can live for several decades.
Behavior
Most wild sableye, in Mammoth Cave and around the globe, live far underground in gemstone mines or large cave systems. They live in crypts of four to eleven individuals. Most of their diet seems to be made up of limestone, with slate and granite rounding out their meals. Gemstones such as quartz, peridot, diamond, and corundum, are less frequently consumed but highly desired. Most of the gem is ingested and transformed into spectral energy. Some remains and physically fortifies the body, boosting the pokémon's strength and durability at the cost of speed.
The depths of Mammoth Cave are still poorly understood. Strange energy fields block teleportation to and from all but the uppermost caverns and tunnels. This makes exploration even more dangerous, as there is no good means of escape should something go wrong. Drones that attempt to explore the deep reaches of the cave system are quickly destroyed, usually by curious sableye. The spelunking expeditions that dare to venture down are notoriously unlucky, with electronics breaking, fires quickly going out, and strange accidents plaguing the crew. Many camps have been found years or decades after the fact, stones and gemstones consumed but otherwise intact. The remains of spelunkers are rarely found.
All of these obstacles mean that not much is understood about the environment sableye first adapted to. A need to defend against predators would explain the slow accrual of gemstone armor and social behaviors. Lithovores and the rare predator of phantom pokémon go after sableye in other parts of the world. There are roggenrola in the Mammoth Cave system, but it is the unencumbered, young sableye that can climb up stalagmites and cling to stalagtites that fair best against roggenrola. Very old sableye often meet their end at the hands of the small rock-types.
Circumstantial evidence suggests an agile but weak predator, making a lithovore unlikely. There are many ghost-types in Mammoth Cave, but most seem to prey on living pokémon or the humans that wander in. Others wander up to the surface to hunt. A handful have been documented feeding on other ghost-types when starving, but this does not seem to be a common occurrence. Scholars, paranormal enthusiasts, and spelunkers continue to speculate on the identity of Mammoth Cave's apex predator.
Sableye usually just dig for their food. On occasion they will have individual crypt members lure a target away from its social group, only for the others to surround and overwhelm it in the darkness. Carbink is their most common target in Alola, although they will occasionally go after a stray roggenrola or boldore.
Unfortunately for sableye, carbink have adapted to their presence. Individuals rarely stray from their hardness. Carbink have also been documented hunting the ghost-types by scouring the cave system, flushing out sableye with dazzling gleam, and then going for the kill with repeated fairy-type attacks. What sableye remain typically live deep inside the cave systems of Poni and Melemele, away from the territory of carbink. It is presumed that they just dig for rocks rather than hunt them, but it is difficult to document sableye behavior. Spelunkers are likely to miss them in the darkness, and cameras are quickly dismantled or devoured by sableye or other lithovores.
Husbandry
Do not keep sableye on a team with carbink, minior or a member of the gigalith line. Conversely, lithovores that are faster than sableye are prone to hunting them. Garchomp and gabite are particularly likely to eat their would-be teammate.
About 80% of sableye's diet should be made up of limestone, with shale, magnetite, and granite making up the rest. Sableye should eat about two hundred milligrams of stone a week. Gemstones should either be mixed into the diet or presented as a reward on special occasions. Quartz is the most cost-efficient means of meeting this need for most trainers, although those living in some parts of Ula'Ula and Akala may find obsidian easier to come by.
Gemstones should be kept away from sableye in the home, but this is a futile endeavor in the long run. Sableye are intelligent, patient, and have very sharp claws. In time they will pilfer any gemstones in their home. Many trainers do not think to protect their electronics. Synthetic diamond is extremely useful for absorbing heat. Quartz semiconductors are also common. Between the two, sableye are known to rip apart computers, phones, and gaming consoles to get to the gemstones inside. There is no cheap way to safeguard these, beyond experimental technology that withdraws pokémon when they cross certain boundaries. This is generally useless on the strongest of pokémon, but it can work for the relatively small sableye. Keeping the electronics in a room with constant, extremely bright lighting can also help deter the ghost-types.
It is unwise to let a sableye out in public unless it is constantly supervised. Trainers otherwise run the risk of their pokémon eating something rather expensive.
Sableye living in one place should have a space dedicated to them. It should be kept dark, humid, and cool at almost all times. The sounds of running water help calm sableye, but it may be difficult to play the sounds with a device that the sableye will not dismantle or eat. Poles, especially stone poles, help sableye interact with their environment as they would in the wild. Sableye also enjoy scratching posts, most cat or dog toys, blocks of ice, and, strangely, stuffed animals. These toys can be occasionally placed in or removed from the habitat or moved around within it to stimulate the pokémon.
Zoos and farms typically keep entire crypts of sableye to ensure that social needs are met and reduce the need for toys. Individual trainers, especially traveling ones, should spend lots of time with the pokémon to help compensate for the absence of conspecifics. Other ghost-types will rarely prey upon sableye and make for decent companions or playmates. If nothing else, sableye see other ghost-types as fascinating creatures to observe.
Polishing the protruding gemstones is a good method of bonding with a sableye. Even the eyes can be polished with no negative reaction. Physical affection, by contrast, is not recommended due to sableye's sharp claws.
Battling can also serve as enrichment, especially against opponents that have little to no chance of harming sableye. They are cruel pokémon that enjoy steadily wearing their opponents down while dodging hits or shrugging off damage.
Illness
As they are not aminivores, sableye do not suffer from the same illnesses as most ghost-types. Most sableye illnesses instead stem from physical damage. Blood loss and massive trauma, especially if it damages crystals, can result in difficulty moving or reforming, loss of senses, an inability or unwillingness to eat, memory loss, or strange deviations in future crystal growth. The causes and treatments for all of these illnesses are poorly understood. Prevention is the only real solution. Keep sableye out of fights with very powerful fairy-types or pokémon that can strike with enough power to instantly shatter gemstone.
At the end of their natural life, sableye are gradually encumbered by their gemstones to the point where they can no longer move. In the wild they will be killed by lithovores. Captive sableye can survive for some time longer, but eventually will die when they can no longer eat. Their gemstones survive them, making sableye farming a difficult but lucrative venture. A great deal of small, low-quality gems must be fed to a sableye but, in turn, a few pure, massive gemstones will be harvested.
Evolution
There is some debate as to whether the oldest sableye, encumbered by their gems, constitute a separate evolutionary stage from younger ones. At present most paranormal studies researchers reject this view. The oldest of sableye are differentiated from the youngest only by the exaggeration of a single feature that the youngest already possess. There is no substantial difference in size or biological processes. Even their elemental signatures are nearly identical.
Sableye are capable of mega evolution. The process removes all the gemstones from the pokémon's body and reforms them into a single large one outside of it. This gemstone can be used as a powerful shield and a source of energy for spectral attacks. However, sableye will faint and the mega evolution will be reversed if they come out of contact with the gem for more than a few seconds. This makes mega sableye bulkier and stronger at the cost of speed and stealth. Competitive battlers and analysts are torn over whether mega sableye is better than its base form.
Battle
Sableye are a quintessential component of quick stall teams. Their ability to slip in and out of shadows to dance around attacks helps them dodge hits. Weak attacks can be tanked and then shrugged off with recover or pain split. In the meantime, sableye can wear down opponents with taunt, night shade, and will-o-wisp.
Strong attackers and fairy-types with dazzling gleam can overpower sableye before it can be too annoying. However, powerful normal- and fighting-type pokémon may need to rely on elementally charged attacks to hit sableye in the first place.
In practice, sableye is disadvantaged by the tendency of competitive matches to take place on open fields of dirt or grass under bright lighting. There are relatively few places to hide and shadows to move in. There are also few things to climb on to use for escape or a better attacking point.
The island challenge is a very good environment for sableye. Few pokémon can harm the average sableye. Most totem matches and some kahuna battles will take place in non-standard battling environments, such as caves and buildings. These environments present plenty of opportunities for sableye to avoid and wear down opponents.
The main drawback of sableye on the challenge is the difficulty of feeding them. Rocks are heavy and, unlike most lithovores, sableye are not able to help carry the weight. Teaching sableye all the tricks they need to win matches with passive damage can also take time and money.
Acquisition
The easiest way to find sableye is to go spelunking into the depths of either Verdant Cavern or Ten Carat Hill. Deep down in the tunnels, sableye start to appear. The pokémon are not particularly shy, but they are also difficult to spot in a dark cave system. Laying out bait of some sort, such as a large quartz crystal, is the best way to lure them out. Then more quartz should be shown, with the implicit promise that there will be more waiting on the surface. After a quick proving battle, the sableye will follow its new trainer.
There are very few restrictions on sableye capture given their status as a particularly destructive invasive species. Anyone with a Class II license can capture them, and they can be handed over the DNR or sold on the open market for a fair bit of money. In turn, importing sableye is illegal and purchases with the intent to keep the pokémon in the region are discouraged. Sableye that would be placed up for adoption are usually either put down or transferred to the mainland.
Breeding
Sableye do not have sex and do not appear to have gender. Any two sableye can mate. The pair gathers a few small gemstones. Then they both pour shadows into the stones, creating a new sableye nearly as large as its parents. Newborn sableye are not particularly durable but can slip in and out of shadows with ease.
Captive breeding is prohibited on Alola. While a few laboratories breed sableye as part of their research on phantom pokémon reproduction, the captive demand is easily met by capture from the places where sableye are disrupting ecosystems.
Subspecies
None known.