Johto mythology holds that Suicune is a world-traveling god, so its worshipers were understandably fascinated to discover a similar cult in Paldea – notwithstanding that Suicune is invariably portrayed as traveling north-south, not east-west. Walking Wake is not quite Suicune – its appearance is considerably more saurian, and in accordance with Paldean religion, it is treated less as a god to thank than a monster to appease – but the resemblance is impossible to ignore.
Johto-based folklorists have attributed the differences between Suicune and Walking Wake to adaptation, both to local myths which held that gods are usually dragons and to the region's many slower dragon pokemon. But feline deities are well-known in Paldea – as anyone who has visited Chien-Pao's shrine in winter can attest – so one must find some other explanation for Walking Wake's consistently reptilian iconography. Attempts to explain away the short forelimbs as cat paws, or the split tail as reminiscent of Espeon's, have proven entirely unconvincing; at most they are adaptations from Suicune's base form. But Paldean scholars have not failed to note the resemblance between Walking Wake and a number of extinct pokemon, and hold that, if anything, it is Suicune's legend which is the derivative one.
All the same, the people of Paldea view it as a source of devastating floods, a walking catastrophe, a storm which must be left perpetual offerings to keep away. Paldea's young women are fortunate that these offerings no longer come in the form of maiden sacrifices, yet ferries often refuse them as passengers, and most prefer regardless to enter and leave the region by air; Walking Wake, according to widespread superstition, still wishes to devour its brides.