Pokeau stands for pokemon au, or as it was originally called, ‘my super embarrassing pokemon au’ back in like, 2015. It originated in 2014 from Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, because I kind of projected too hard on a certain lorekeeper and made a certain Rayquaza gijinka and it all got out of hand from there. And now there’s rabbit people???
Originally super active on my tumblr blog in 2016-early 2017 in the form of rambles, Pokeau has evolved a bunch to where it is now, and is now archived here!
Pokeau consists of three universes:
- Classic/OG Pokeau, which is rooted in Pokemon and does not deviate from the core of the world… at least, not too far?
- Ultra arc, which is a newer storyline that branched out from classic pokeau in 2022 and kind of became its own thing! This universe only retains a very vague semblance to Pokemon and many of the rules are rewritten, but it remains archived here as well, as some characters cross over.
- PSMD (Pokeau Swag Mystery Dungeon), which is rooted in the Mystery Dungeon spinoff series of Pokemon. There are more creative liberties with pokemon designs here, but it for the most part follows a similar canon-basis as Classic.
Like the mainseries game, Classic Pokeau is generally a modern/urban fantasy setting, and its genre is… a mess. Let’s just say it’s somewhere in between slice of life, drama, and magical girl.
Ultra arc is more of a sci-fi setting with heavy themes of political intrigue.
I’m always open to questions about Pokeau , so if you’re confused you’re always free to leave a comment!
Also, if you don’t know anything about pokemon: things about classic pokeau / PSMD aren’t going to make much sense but feel free to look anyways.
Pokeau is a closed development world for my own personal happiness, so I don’t really RP with the characters or do any non-solo worldbuilding, sorry ^^“
If you’d like a complete clarification of my boundaries, you can find it here.
For clarity’s sake on Classic Pokeau’s lore, the most important sections are the timeline and legends pages, as they affect everything here. Everything is accessible through the directory page, individual character bios can be found through the characters page.
Ultra arc information is largely based around its locations, which can be found in the world section – but the characters themselves are largely important, too!
Notable changes from canon (for Classic and PSMD)
General:
- Obligatory This Game Is Dark!™ warning. In its origins Pokeau was (and still is, to an extent) a way to cope with things, so themes not present in pokemon are in Pokeau. Namely death, violence, grief, and intensified criminal activity.
- also double disclaimer while pokeau might contain these i promise i try not to overdo it – (almost) everyone ends up happy in the end dw
- Pokemon mostly stay true to how they are in canon, though there are albino and melanistic pokemon in addition to shinies – but that’s it.
Lore:
- Canalave library is dead to me and thrown entirely out of the window because humans came from Ultra Space here.
- Actually I’m gonna be real I just threw a bunch of random pokedex entries that imply certain lore about certain pokemon completely out. I pretend I do not see it.
- Certain timeline events, notably the burning of the tin tower, take place at different times.
- If something happened in canon and it’s never mentioned or at a wrong time, there’s a 99% chance it’s because I forgot.
- Ultra space is a mess. Don’t worry about it.
- Gigantamax and dynamax have been retconned and worked into the system of mega evolution. I… also accidentally retconned Z-moves because keeping track of all these gimmicks is a pain.
World:
- Sinnoh and Hoenn are not exclusively based off of Japan.
- Any canon gameverse maps have been thrown out the window also.
- Spin-off locations do not exist; sorry Orre!
- I imagine both towns and routes to be much larger.
- Regional pokedexes aren’t fully true to the games.
Character:
- Many character ages are altered/fluid – many of the protags are around 15 instead of 10, and certain characters age significantly over the course of the timeline (the biggest example being Cynthia who goes from like 18 to 90 years old)
- The main protags (i.e. Hilbert, Hilda, May, Dawn, etc.) do not exist and instead are replaced by their region’s corresponding protag, save for certain cases. Pokeau was and still is a retelling of the region’s plot, and the protags replace that role.
- My characterization is based primarily off of gameverse, as I do not care for Pokeani or Pokespe.