Hello! And welcome to the third installment of Lore! This time things are going to be a lot more interesting as there’s a lot of fan debate and speculation over what the myths of the Sinnoh region actually mean. Primarily this first article on the Sinnoh region will focus on the theories explaining what Arceus is.
[spoiler]
In the beginning there was only a churning turmoil of chaos.
At the heart of the chaos, where all things became one, appeared an Egg.
Having tumbled from the vortex, the Egg gave rise to the Original One.
From itself, two beings the original one did make.
Time began to spin.
Space began to expand
From itself again, three living thing the Original One did make.
The two beings wished, and from them, matter came to be.
The three livings things wished, and from them, spirit came to be.
The world created, the Original One took to unyielding sleep.
The above passage suggests how the Pokémon World came to be mentioning only the Sinnoh Pokémon involved. Because the information provided by it is so bland there are a number of ways it can be interpreted and as such we can’t safely assume any is fully correct.
The first undeniable claim in the story is that Arceus created. Both the rulers of Time & Space and the living beings who give knowledge, emotion and willpower to the Pokémon following their creation. The second is that the Pokémon created are responsible for the Pokémon World being what it is now.
Interestingly some fans believe that Arceus was the creator of Sinnoh and it’s legendaries alone, and was not responsible for the creation of the entire Earth, or, Universe. This would have made the existence of the Lake Guardians, Palkia and Dialga pointless unless Sinnoh existed in a separate suspended state to the rest of Earth, in which these Pokémon created the region as they would have created the Earth/Universe in other theories. But, it would also mean that Sinnoh would have been created by something other than the theory behind Kyogre and Groudon shaping the seas and lands.
The idea behind gods is that they are the rulers and creators of existence. Everything that exists does so because of the action of a god. There are four ways to look at the situations told in Pokémon Mythology. First, is that there isn’t a God (or not at least one we know of and Arceus certainly isn’t one. Second is that Arceus is the God of the Pokémon World, it started the creation of everything. The next idea is that gods don’t exist and they are merely a name given to a thing to note it’s importance. For example a man creates an entirely new type of device that allows invisibility, does that make him the god of invisibility devices? No, but people could consider him a god in a non-literal sense.
Lastly is less specific idea in the sense that there is more than one god. Similarly to how the Romans, Greeks or Ancient Egyptians had gods for a number of different things, the World of Pokémon has more than one god. Arceus could be considered the father or king of gods (Zeus or Jupiter in Greek and Roman mythology respectively), and other Legendary Pokémon gods too; for example Dialga is the god of Time.
Regardless of whether Arceus is considered a god or not the ancient passage stated that it created what lead to the Pokémon World we know today and a Pokédex entry claims that it shaped the universe with a thousand arms. Now rather interestingly the story behind Arceus, Dialga and Palkia (possibly Giratina too) is extremely similar to that of the Tao Trio of Unova. The Egg eventually became The Original One, who created Dialga, Palkia and presumably Giratina, and what remains was the Arceus we know today. This would suggest that much like the Original Dragon of Unova, Arceus was once a much more powerful being; perhaps the Taiji form, a balanced existence (this theory was also mentioned by a commenter on the first article).
This theory is again backed up by the general idea behind Taoism. Dialga represents Time, Palkia space, Giratina antimatter (Dialga and Palkia were said to have created matter, thus Giratina is the opposite of this). When all Pokémon were originally one – Arceus/The Original One – each of these were represented in this single existence.
During the time period of HGSS players are able to visit the Sinjoh Ruins and have Arceus create a member of the Creation Trio. Interestingly, it has been confirmed that there can be more than one individual Legendary Pokémon, or, it can at least be derived from information we already know as fact. This doesn’t appear to be the case with Pokémon that could be considered gods (see above and the annotation below), there is- as I can tell – only one mention of these Pokémon in the history of the Earth. Thus, the actions of Arceus at the Ruins quite interesting. It is able to create extremely powerful Pokémon at will, without repeating the process it is told to have used at the start of the creation story; that is, forging them from its own body.
There’s an absolutely huge amount to be written here about explanations of how and why the actions of aforementioned Pokémon are relevant and of importance. But spreading it out over more than one article is the plan here. Now I’d like to get views and opinions from the readers on how they believe the story to have actually happened.
*Using the Roman ideology of gods, “god Pokémon” would include: Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza. As well as several others who will be mentioned in the future.[/spoiler]
So, what do you guys think of The Original Story and how do you believe Arceus had a role in the creation of Sinnoh/Earth/The Universe? Your comments will shape how the second part of this article is written so I will try read through all of your discussion. A few things I’d also like you to give your views on is the relationship between the Unown and Arceus, as well as how the myths found in Unova can relate to the stories told in other regions – whether contradictory or not.
So yes, get discussing and throwing your own theories and ideas about!