Lapeo Region 2.0: The New Guys!

As I mentioned in my last post here, I recently redrew all my fossil fakemon dex and compiled them into a little zine (which is available here!). On top of adapting these mons to the new style, I added a few new mons in, too, to round out the dex some more for the zine! At this point Lapeo has almost a passable minimal dex–something like the dexes we’re getting with these new regions. At the moment I don’t know how much I plan to stretch out Lapeo–it’s a project I’m leaving open to return to whenever I feel like it. I have a good feeling I’ll probably return to it and make more fakemon, because it’s fun and I like doing it, but it’s basically free to continue or end at any point here.

Anyway! Enough about that! We’re here for some new fakemon! Let’s go!

(Almost) every Pokemon region has their early 3-stage bug line, so this was what I decided to go with for Lapeo! This is Sclerva, Pupalil and Optikalli! Sclerva is pure Bug type, but the other two are Bug/Psychic! Here are their dex entries:

• Sclerva: (Eye Pokemon) Sclerva’s eyes are big enough to absorb psychic waves. Unfortunately its brain isn’t developed enough to process it.
• Pupalil: (Eye Pokemon) Pupalil encases itself in the psychic energy it took in as a Sclerva. It closes its eyes and shuts itself off from sensing anything from outside its bubble.
• Optikalli: (Eye Pokemon) The fossil record shows that Optikall predates other similar Bug Pokemon. With its eye spots its able to emit devastating psychic attacks to confuse enemies.

This line is based on Kalligrammatids! They’re sometimes known as “Jurassic butterflies”, but they aren’t butterflies! Although they resembled butterflies and moths, they evolved millions of years beforehand. They’re actually related to our modern day lacewings. Since Kalligrammatids have been found with intact wings, which show eye spots, I wanted to play with that.

From bugs to plants! These guys are Troal and Carbonferno! These two are both the very strange typing of Grass/Fire. Their dex entries are:

• Troal: (Fuel Pokemon) Troal have little furnaces that burn in their bodies, giving them ample amounts of energy to run for days!
• Carbonferno: (Fuel Pokemon) Carbonferno consumes debris from the forest floor to fuel its internal flame. The trees on its back cancel out the pollution from this.

This line is based on scale trees! (A shoutout to my friend Gisele for suggesting these) Scale trees hail from the Carboniferous and were one of the earliest kinds of tree. In fact, they had a lot of trouble decomposing properly, because nothing had evolved yet to tackle the job efficiently–and because of this, it caused a drastic shift in climate that ultimately spelled their doom. However, it was from this that the scale trees became our modern day coal. Basically, these trees are always at the centre of climate change (it is not their fault though I’m sorry scale tree it just keeps happening this way).

Anyway! (Can you tell I went on a deep dive research for this one–) I thought it would be fun pulling these two contrasting ideas for one Pokemon. A life giving tree, that also is a polluting furnace–but it all cancels out! That’s right, Carbonferno is carbon neutral, baby! Okay, I’m sorry. Grass/Fire is also such an underused type, and though I see why (it’s a little awkward to use in battle), I think it can used for some really cool concepts. I’m glad to see Pokemon finally has its first ever official Grass/Fire type with Scovillain, and I hope they play with more in the future!

More Fire types! Well, in this case Poison/Fire. This is Tademon and Toadevil! Their dex entries are:

• Tademon (Tadpole Pokemon): Tademon are mischievous little Pokemon that like causing havoc wherever they go. Their skin secrets a venom that’s hot to the touch.
• Toadevil (Large Frog Pokemon): Toadevil are brutes, eating anything that fits into its mouth. Any burns from its tongue are almost impossible to heal.

These two are based on Beezlebufo, an extinct giant frog from the Cretaceous. It’s also known as “the frog/toad from hell” because of its large size. Pokemon loves its frog mons, so it feels wrong to not have some in a dex–I feel like almost every region at this point has gotta have its own frogs. I don’t think a licensed Pokemon game would ever let names like this fly, but good thing this isn’t a licensed Pokemon game and I can do what I want.

The next couple of mons are some single-stagers! (Or, well, the next one is a single evolution of an existing mon, but close enough?) Every region has its “Pika-clone”, so here’s Lapeo’s: it’s Eleptic! It’s an Electric/Grass type, and its dex entry is:

(Root Pokemon) Eleptic uses its long tail to root itself into the ground to gather energy. Its large cheek pouches convert this energy into electricity.

This guy is based on Leptictidium, a small mammal from the Eocene that looked a lot like modern elephant shrews. Though it wasn’t a rodent, which Pika-clones tend to be based on, I thought this guy was a pretty interesting creature to turn into an electric non-rodent. It was made pretty popular when it was featured prominently in Walking with Beasts. This was the last design I made for the zine, and it was done a bit hastily to fill a spot for the page counts to work–it might be a design I revisit in the future.

Now it’s that evolution! This is Omaspire, an evolution of Omastar! There isn’t a Lapeoan form of Omanite and Omastar, they remain their Rock/Water types, because I think that really suits them still! But they do get an evolution, which is also Rock/Water! This is its dex entry:

(Spire Pokemon) Omaspire travel in herds, drifting with their great masses through the ocean. They will spin their spiked shells if threatened.

Omaspire is based on Orthocones, which were giant shelled cephalopods from the Ordovician. They weren’t technically ammonites, but what’s a shelled cephalopod to another shelled cephalopod? I always thought these creatures were interesting in how insanely big they got at such an early age of life on earth–why were you so big so fast?!? Just yesterday you were a single-celled organism!!

Finally, we have probably my favourite of the bunch. This is Lapeo’s legendary trio! There’s Mankylo, Compazdarc and Icthyore!

• Mankylo (Mantle Pokemon–Rock Type): The plates on Mankylo’s body are ever shifting due to the molten nature of its body. Its eyes are thought to be heavily condensed gemstones.
• Compazdarc (Inner Core Pokemon–Steel Type): The long pointed beak of Compazdarc is always pointed north. The rotation of its wings is said to create the earth’s magnetic field.
• Icthyore (Core Pokemon–Fire Type): Icthyore is always turning, and is said to be lying deep in the centre of the earth. Its body burns as hot as the sun.

As you can maybe guess from the titles, these fakemon are themed around different layers of the earth. Mankylo is based on the mantle, where we get all that lovely continental drift, and it’s also based on an Ankylosaur. Compazdarc is the inner core, which helps create the magnetic field of the earth–it’s also based on my personal favourite prehistoric creatures, the giant pterosaurs, Azhdarchids. Icthyore is, clearly, the very core, and based on Icthyosaurs, ancient aquatic reptiles. Although we already have a sort of “mantle” like legendary with Groudon, I figured we needed a nice set. Prehistory is shaped by the earth, how it moved, and how it creates and errodes fossils for us to find–I feel like it was fitting for the true legendaries of Lapeo (Irideorite was technically created, and also came from space) to be based on the very inner earth itself.

And that’s it for now! As I mentioned, I have no doubt there will be more added to the Lapeo region in the future (even if it isn’t more fakemon, there’s the trainers to flesh out, too!) It’s been a lot of fun nerding out with this little project, and if you’ve been reading these blogs where I nerd out even more about it, I hope it’s been fun–and thanks for indulging me.