Pokémonworld Who’s Who: A Writer’s Guide to the Characters of the Games

Introduction

This is a guide of all of the major characters that appear in the games. I have expanded on the biographies to include original material and have also created original characters of my own. Characters from outside the game are noted at the end of their bios in brackets. All characters from the games, animated series, etc. are the sole property of and copyrighted by Nintendo, and Pokémon, Inc. All original characters are created by myself and are my property, all rights reserved.

I have written this only as a guide for those interested in writing fan fiction. Anyone wishing to write a work for publication should contact Nintendo or Pokémon USA, Inc./Pokémon, Inc. for permission/licensing first.

I am writing this using the game as canon. You will notice that I have also attempted to establish a sort of history for the world of the Pokémon games. This is my own contribution and is not necessarily to be accepted as canon. However, if the majority of authors for fan fiction of Pokémon accept this as such, so be it. Especially notice the names. Professor Oak introduces himself simply as “Oak”. And I realized that “Ash” is also a species of tree, which would imply that the name was meant to be this and not a shortened form of a name such as “Ashton”. So, it would seem within the context of the storyline of the game, people use only a given name and then are differentiated by some other aspect usually their birth place or at least where they have grown up.

Famous people of Pokémon science, technology and training

Kurt of Azalea Town: He is the descendant of a long line of pokéball craftsmen. His ancestors have made pokéballs for thousands of years. He still makes pokéballs from apricorns. Despite the ancient techniques, his pokéballs are still superior in quality to any that the Silph Company can manufacture. Only the Silph MasterBall is stronger than Kurt’s hand-crafted balls.

Oak of Pallet Town: Leading expert of pokémon in general in all of the world. He is the mentor of many great pokémon scientists and trainers. He also designed the PokéDex, a device which allows anyone to capture, send and share information about pokémon. He also initiated the first global database of pokémon research, beginning with the Kantonese pokémon and sending his students to the corners of the world to gather information on pokémon in all other regions. He lives with his wife, Rose, and has a son Dwight, who is an accountant for the Silph Corporation. During the summer his grandchildren, Daisy and Gary, stay at his home. [I created the characters Rose and Dwight to fill in the gap of missing family members.]

Bill of Fuchsia City: Researcher and inventor of the pokémon storage devices used by researchers and trainers all over Pokémonworld. He is currently working on perfecting the teleporter technology begun by his uncle, Pine of Fuchsia City. He has proposed a theory of opening portals thru time. He is also the leading expert on the eon family of pokémon. He currently resides at a lighthouse on Cerulean Point in Kanto. He created the PokéDex based on design specifications of Professor Oak.

Imakuni?: Creator and manufacturer of the Pokémon Trading Cards and inventor of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. He is an eccentric character who dresses in black and wears a hood with mouse ears. He owns a doduo as a pet. [Real person, Tomoaki Imakuni, illustrator and part-time singer, and his alter ego from the card game and the Pokémon Trading Card Game for Game Boy.]

Brock of Pewter City: Gym leader. His particular expertise is rock and ground pokémon. He developed the Bind technical machine (TM). His gym bestows the Boulder Badge upon qualifying trainers.

Misty of Cerulean City: Gym leader. Expert in water pokémon who will award the Cascade Badge to any trainer who can defeat her. She developed the Hydropump TM. Possibly the daughter or sister of Lilith of the Elite Four. [Misty, as she originally appears in the other Pokémon games outside of Yellow.]

Surge of Vermilion City: Gym leader, lieutenant of the Kantonese Army (retired). He is the only pokémon expert with a military background, having fought in the infamous World Civil War. He developed the Thunderbolt TM. His expertise is electric pokémon and he surrenders the Lightning Badge only to those who are worthy.

Koga of Fuchsia City: Gym leader. He is skilled in the martial arts and ninja techniques. His expertise is poison pokémon. He developed the Toxic TM. Those who are able to best him win the Marsh Badge. He has a wife, Yuriko, and daughter, Jasmine. [Yuriko sounded good. Jasmine first appears in Gold.]

Sabrina of Saffron City: Gym leader. Born a telepath, she developed psychokinetic skills in her teens. She, of course, trains psychic pokémon. She developed the Psybeam TM. Her gym offers the Soul Badge.

Erika of Celadon City: Gym leader. She is a highly skilled perfumer and botanist. She is an expert with grass pokémon. She developed the Mega Drain and Giga Drain TMs. The Rainbow badge may only be received by defeating her.

Freestone of Saffron City: A scientist who specializes in bio-engineering. He has studied the genetics of pokémon. He authored a research article on pokémon genetics compared to genetics of the other human, plant and animal life forms of our world, but other than that has contributed little to pokémon research. At last report he seemed to be concentrating on the discovery of reviving extinct species of pokémon and unlocking the secret of creating living beings. [Freestone is a translation of Frankenstein. I felt it fitting, considering the similarity between Mary Shelley’s scientist and this one. He would be one of the un-named scientists from the game who may or may not have been killed. He could even be one of the scientists left over in the Pokémon Mansion of Cinnabar Island.]

Cedar of Viridian City: A journalist and collector of pokémon stories and myths. He later moved to Pallet Town with his wife, Delia and infant son, Ash. He was one of the many who died when the S.S. May capsized off the coast of Kanto during the Great Storm of 20xx. [Original character to explain why the player’s character in the first generation of games has no father.]

Fuji of Lavender Town: Perhaps the oldest pokémon trainer alive today. He has retired to Lavender Town to become a musician. It was he who discovered the melodies that have peculiar effects on pokémon when played on his specially designed pokéflute. He was also the only one able to stay awake during an entire jigglypuff sing attack and record its song.

Blaine of Cinnabar Island: Gym leader. The secretive Blaine is an expert with fire pokémon. You have the option of beating him in a pokémon match or passing his quizzes of pokémon knowledge to gain the Fire Badge. He designed the Flamethrower TM.

Giovanni of Viridian City: Gym leader. His expertise seems to be with rare and powerful pokémon of no particular type. He is the only gym leader who was never a student of Professor Oak. He is known to be quite wealthy due to his various investments in Pokémon research laboratories and other technological businesses. He developed the Fissure TM. The Earth Badge is won at his gym.

“King” Kiyo of Saffron City: Dojo leader. Formerly a gym leader, the gym lost its standing after being defeated by Sabrina’s gym three years running. The dojo no longer has a standing with the Pokémon League and therefore can offer no badge, but Bruno of the Mountains was his star pupil. He is an expert with fighting pokémon.

Bruno of the Mountains: Member of the Final Four Champions of the Pokémon League.

Lance of Blackthorn: Member of the Final Four Champions and current leader of the Pokémon League.

Agatha: Member of the Final Four Champions of the Pokémon League.

Lilith of Cerulean City: Member of the Final Four Champions of the Pokémon League.

Ironwood of Lavender Town: Founder and president of the Silph Company, which manufactures many of the products used in the care, capture and training of pokémon. It also is responsible for the creation of the first and only man-made (however accidental) and patented pokémon, the porygon. Many other notable products include the super potion, Max Repel, XSpeed, the Dig TM, the SelfDestruct TM, the Silph scope, and the Master Ball.

Joy of Cinnabar Island: Veterinary nurse specializing in pokémon. Has the distinction of having attained the highest score to date for the Pokémon Test at Kanto University. [Combined a character from the series with the ubiquitous nurses in the game, but left out the running gag about them all being related, looking alike, etc.]

Collin of Azalea Town: He is the son of Kurt, and a leading researcher of poké balls at Silph Company. He is responsible for the breakthroughs that led to the creation of the Master Ball. He has a wife and a daughter, Mei(?). [Original character invented to explain Kurt’s granddaughter and the absence of her parents. Also makes a nice connection between hand-made poké balls and the manufactured ones.]

Pine of Fuchsia City: Retired electronics engineer of the Silph Company. He made many of the electronic inventions created at Silph in the past and was working on the transporter when he accidentally created the porygon when some live cells from feathers of a pidgey, a golduck and a farfetch’d got caught in the energy flow and mutated. This discovery also led to my theory of how the different species of pokémon evolved. Pine is the uncle of the famous Bill of Fuchsia City who took up the further development of the teleporter. [Developed the uncle from the game a bit to help connect things together.]

Hail of Vermilion City: Captain of the cruise ship, S.S. Anne. Sword master and inventor of the hypertechnical machine (HM), Cut. [I picked this name in honor of Alan Hale, Jr. who played Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. I changed the name of HM from “hidden” to “hypertechnical” since this term makes more sense from the characters’ point-of-view.]

Adric of Celadon City (born 2105): Taxonomist and journalist. Born an empath, Adric investigates and reports criminal and unethical behavior concerning the treatment or use of pokémon and the efforts of special trainers. Advocate for the re-classification of pokémon species. [Original character I created to explain differences in my version and the version from the games and to act as a guide. Could also be the guy at the entrance of most of the gyms in Johto and Kanto who acts as an advisor to the player’s character.]

Accents

In the games several accents have been indicated, yet everyone speaks the same language. Apparently Pokémonworld only has one language (being a sparsely populated world) with regional accents. To reconcile this (for example, say there would be a live-action movie series in the future) I am presenting this list of the accents that have appeared and assigned a region to them.

*Lt. Surge is the only character that speaks English in the Japanese versions of the game, but he speaks the same language as everyone else in the American versions. The fighting dojo, Sabrina, Koga and Erika have definite Asian cultural overtones. That makes me think that the individual city-states might have their own cultural heritage and that the region around Celadon and Saffron is Asian/Japanese.

Cards, clubs and Imakuni?

The Dualist region from the Pokémon TCG for Game Boy game can easily be adapted to any of the above regions. Considering the cards and the general point in the timeline the natural region for it to be adapted to would be Kanto. The storyline can easily be adapted into the main Pokémon RPG simply by expanding Imakuni?’s role into a more important one.

While appearing to be an eccentric card player, the man known as Imakuni? invented the card game based on pokémon and pokémon trainers. He has a pet doduo, and manufactures the cards in Saffron City. He travels around and visits the regional TCG clubs to promote his card game.

Each of the eight cities in Kanto have a pokémon gym and a TCG gym/club. Each of the TCG clubs roughly corresponding to their Pokémon counterparts. The Psychic Club in Saffron City, the Rock Club in Pewter City, the Lightning Club in Vermilion City, the Water Club in Cerulean, the Fire Club on Cinnabar Island, the Grass Club in Celadon City, the Science Club in Fuchsia City, and Fighting Club in Pallet Town. Lavender Town instead of Pallet Town could be the home of Professor Mason while the Pokémon Dome shares Indigo Plateau with the Pokémon League. The Challenge Hall could be located in Viridian City.

By extension within the game: As the popularity of the game expands world-wide, Pokémon TCG Clubs appear in corresponding cities in each of the regions. Hoenn’s Challenge Hall could be located in the Battle Frontier.

A Pokémonworld alphabet

White Phoenix also sketched an alphabet and a set of numerals for the people of his Pokémon world. This is his rough draft from 2006.