The Emergence and Mystery Dungeons

The Emergence is a world wide event that is currently impacting Pokémon everywhere. The emergence can be described as a phenomenon where a new alien world appears to be growing on top of the old one. Wildly different environments are getting merged together, for example a dessert might begin to be merged with a swamp or a flat plain could be uprooted by strange alien formations. Often this growth is supernatural in nature and has no clear cause as to what happened to incite this ordeal. The emergence also has lead to chaotic, impossible weather patterns and drastic changes to how the physics work in any given area. Alongside these landscape changes, the emergence also introduced entirely new species of Pokémon called Ultra Beasts into this world. Unfortunately, Ultra Beasts do not posses any memories upon arriving here, despite ultra beasts appearing at several different ages. Each one is a blank slate and it’s often a struggle to adapt quickly to whatever area they appeared in, especially for the ultra beast children that appear with out parents.

History and Cultural Impacts
In the beginning the emergence was a slower force, something that wasn’t entirely noticeable, save for a few areas where the change had rapidly occurred. Pokémon felt for a time that some rogue champion was causing this to occur, but a conclusion could never be met. Now it’s more wildly believed to be some sort of dark force Arceus had warned them about. Now in the current era, you will be hard pressed to find an area that has not been impacted by the emergence in some way. Although there are still plenty of safe places to live, it’s not an uncommon occurrence for Pokémon to suddenly be uprooted from their homes during a sudden burst of emergence. This is especially true if a change results in the formation of a mystery dungeon.

A mystery dungeon is a place where the emergence has gotten so powerful that an area begins to exhibit supernatural qualities. A mystery dungeon will change every time a Pokémon enters it and is known to spawn creatures known as duplicates. Each mystery dungeon seems to have one or more shimmering spots within it, often times in the deepest parts of the dungeon. The laws of physics are completely distorted in these places. You might encounter a dungeon where gravity is much lighter then normal or run into an endless black void. No matter the appearance of a dungeon on the outside, the inside of a dungeon can be sprawling and sometimes even seemingly endless. Some dungeons have been noted to feel like entirely different worlds.

Some places have adapted to use these dungeons to continue to live in places where survival is increasingly difficult. For example, while the players were trapped in Alipam, they discovered the mystery dungeon that was being used to farm food. The dungeon itself was of an Alipam village, but one unstuck from time. Inside it appeared as Alipam had once been countless generations ago and in its depths was a small farm that continually replenished itself to keep in line with the time the dungeon was presenting. The food in this farm was edible and so despite Alipam being nearly uninhabitable to all but the strongest electric and ground types, they were still able to acquire food.

Ultra Beasts
The treatment of ultra beasts has never been that great since their appearance in this world. Due to their often strange powers and their associations with the emergence, Ultra Beasts are often the scapegoat for any bad occurrences that have happened due to the emergence. They have been blamed for the destruction of homelands; for plagues and diseases; and for potentially being the force that is causing the emergence. During particularly dark periods, there were and still are civilizations that will attempt to eradicate all Ultra Beasts in an area in the hopes that will slow down the emergence. There are champions out there advocating on the ultra beasts behalf after observing that this practice does little to slow down the emergence so this behavior has been tempered some.

Unfortunately even in places where such violent actions have not been taken, ultra beasts are still often harshly abused. It is rather hard to find places willing to live alongside ultra beasts, so most have taken to living in the harshest parts of the world. They do have a slight advantage while doing so, as a lot of the locations appearing seem better suited for their biology which has also caused them grief as another example communities have used to blame them for the emergence.

Ultra beasts are just as much victims to this world wide calamity as anyone else and several have been working hard to try and figure out what is happening as much as the residence that lived here prior to their arrival. In a few remote locations, communities have taken ultra beasts into their towns with more open arms. Prairieville is one such place. It’s thanks in part to the celesteela that have appeared here that the town is still standing. As a consequence of this, more ultra beasts live here and interact with the town then is common. It’s not the only example of a friendship forming between these two parties, but it is a rare sight.