Lore

OOC Corner

I want Cobble Town to have a lot of room for people to do their own things and add to the world, but here's the broad strokes of the lore.

Humans

• The human world is basically our world, with modern technology and everything, but the Pokemon franchise doesn't exist. Humans don't know what Pokemon are when they first arrive.
• Transported humans remember that they were once human. Other than that, the memory loss thing seems to be inconsistent and unreliable; they might remember everything or nothing, or lose only the memories of a specific topic or time period, etc. It's up to you.
• Getting shoved into a Pokemon body means your abilities and instincts change, and some humans adjust better than others. Some might get the hang of walking on four legs quickly, while others may be flailing around for weeks.

Pokemon World

• It doesn't really have a name, but many Pokemon have taken to calling it "the Pokemon World" recently for the benefit of the humans.
• The average Pokemon is most familiar with the species that can be found near their home. Someone who can identify anyone's species and type on sight would be considered very knowledgeable.
  • Most Legendary Pokemon are the stuff of obscure myths - historians study them, and there's small groups who worship specific ones, but mostly people don't know much about them.
• In most places, the technology is similar to that of the PMD games - rustic and pastoral without much automation. There are small communities that operate differently, especially those with a lot of Steel- and Electric-type Pokemon, but the rest of the world is in no hurry to adopt their standards.
• Items such as Wonder Orbs and Wands are explicitly magic items. It's a separate system from Pokemon moves & abilities, and creating them is a trade you can learn.

Mystery Dungeons

• Mystery dungeons are mysterious places where space is warped. There's always some around, but more tend to appear when there are huge disasters, or the fate of the world is threatened. (Despite the plague of human heroes arriving lately, the number of mystery dungeons hasn't really changed, perplexing some people.)
• Their layouts shift unpredictably, even when Pokemon are inside. Explorers who aren't careful can easily get separated from their teammates and get lost.
• Someone who stays inside a mystery dungeon for too long will become feral, mindlessly attacking anyone who approaches. A lot of rescue work involves finding these Pokemon, knocking them out, and carrying them back out of the dungeon so they can recover.

Timeline

• At the start of the plot, it has been a few months since humans first started showing up in the Pokemon World - enough that the news has spread, and most people at least vaguely know of the situation with the humans. Some humans have gotten their bearings and left Cobble Town to live or travel elsewhere.
• Generally, the ARPG will run on a pretty loose timeline. If you buy a new character you can say they've been on your team all along, and you can submit art of your guys that takes place in the past. Seasons/climate are more determined by location than time too.

Misc

• Terminology-wise, I've been doing these things for consistency, but they're not rules you have to follow:
  • capitalize Pokemon, specific Pokemon species, and types (e.g. "Bidoof is a Normal-type Pokemon.")
  • use people/anyone/etc. to refer to both humans & Pokemon generally, as opposed to just humans
  • substituting man/men as a suffix with mon/mons (e.g. salesmons) for fun