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Description
The Nightmare Pokémon
"The barb at the end of its tail has become a second head, complete with eyes and fangs. Able to bite from both ends and spray clouds of poison, its glowing eyes are often the last thing its victims ever see."
"Despite its loathsome appearance, it has a beautiful cry which it uses while hiding to deceive its victims, who don't notice it until it's too late to flee. Once it has devoured a meal, it leaves nothing behind."

Type: Dark/Poison
Height: 4'
Weight: 180 lbs
Ability: Carnivorous* (Merciless)
Evolution: SATUE --> Level 22 --> DUARKHOR --> Level 48 --> TIGAMERA
Egg Groups: Field/Monster

Basis: A hybrid of a nue (a Japanese yokai with a tiger's legs, monkey's head, and a snake for a tail) and a manticore (a Persian monster with a lion's body, a venomous spiked tail, and a human's head), with added traits from lorises and baboons.
Name Origin: DUA (two in Indonesian) + DARK + MardyKHOR (modern Persian name for the manticore)

Moves Learned: Same as SATUE, with added starting move Poison Darts**.
Notable Other Moves: Same as SATUE.

Base Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 90
Defense: 65
Sp. Atk: 50
Sp. Def: 65
Speed: 85
TOTAL: 420

* Carnivorous: Restores 1/4 of the user's maximum health upon KO-ing an opponent.

** Poison Darts
Category: Physical
Type: Poison
Power: 25
PP: 30
Accuracy: 100%
The user flings a shower of poisoned needles at its opponent two to five times in a row. Each strike may poison the target. (Compare: Bullet Seed.)
NOTE: Each hit from this move has a 33% chance of Poisoning the foe. This effect does not apply if the foe is already Poisoned.

**********

10/9/20 EDIT: New design!

I had a solid design for Satue's do-over, so I didn't want to one-up it by accident with the new Duarkhor. Because Satue is now more primate-inspired, though, I decided to give Duarkhor a more monkey-like feel as well, so I referenced baboons this time around. A number of spec-evo works I've seen going for plausible interpretations of fantasy creatures make their manticores into giant murderous baboons, and it's easy to see why because of the manes, slightly human-like faces, quadruped stance, and predatory disposition. Additional inspiration came from the venomous, hairless baboon from "All Todays", a section from the wonderful All Yesterdays book about speculative paleoart wherein modern animals are depicted in the same way as outdated reconstructions of extinct life - I thought it was a pretty good inspiration for a monster design! I'm quite proud of what I managed to come up with - it's like the unholy lovechild of Dougal Dixon's Horrane (a carnivorous tiger-like monkey from a future African savannah) and the Wuggly Ump of Edward Gorey. It's eerie, derpy, charming, and formidable all at once! Hopefully this new look is to your liking as well. Just one more stage to go!

Old version: sta.sh/067t5kzlust

**********

Behold, my second pseudo-legendary's middle stage / and prepare to face its ravenous rage! / First it was one head, and now there's two / because Duarkhor is coming for you!

As noted previously, the original pitch for my Dark/Poison pseudo-legendary was partly if not mostly based on a manticore. However I went with the nue in the end because it's explicitly Asian and I didn't want a pseudo-legend for an Asian region to have a strictly Western basis (although to be fair the manticore is said to be originally from India, though only in European bestiaries; its origins are actually Middle-Eastern). However, since the nue and manticore are quite similar, being a mix of big cat and primate with some other animals mixed in, I guess there's something to be said for just combining them, especially because some variants of the manticore were part tiger instead of part lion (and some historians like Pausanias have theorized that the manticore may have even been inspired by tigers in the first place). I retroactively put an arrowhead barb on Satue's tail so the transition to a snake-like head on the end of that of Duarkhor wouldn't seem so sudden; think of it as being similar to Girafarig's Chain Chomp tail except with a venomous bite! The addition of new move Poison Darts is a reference to the manticore's alleged ability to fling venomous spines from its tail in some depictions, and I imagine Duarkhor pulls this off by having his tail-head spit crystallized needles of poison, similar to the way Poison Sting is depicted in the anime. Otherwise, the poison smoke and explicitly evil nature are a continuation of Satue's, and based on the abilities of the nue. Other additions to keep Duarkhor from being just a bigger Satue are simple horns, a color patch on the face, small wings on the shoulders like the wings the manticore is sometimes portrayed with, and outwards-curling fangs on the sides of the mouth similar to a Japanese oni mask, as nues sometimes have these as well. I think he also looks considerably more sly with that nefarious squint, which adds a lot to his personality and emphasizes that he is, in fact, evil as all get out. As he should be!

For the stat spread, I looked to several other pseudo-legendary mid-stages, especially Gabite, Zweilous, and Hakamo-o. For HP I went with 65, a nice balance between the ranges of HP for these three (Hakamo-o's 55, Zweilous' 72, and Gabite's 68). From there I kept Gabite's 90 Attack, 50 Special Attack, and 65 Defense, and made the Special Defense the same 65 for consistency. For Speed I rounded up Gabite's 82 to 85, since the Gible line seems to be the fastest of the pseudo-legendaries thus far and is thus the closest equivalent I can think of to the way this line works. The resultant stat total is 420, a nice middle ground among the mid-stage pseudos (which can range between 410 and, say, Sliggoo's 452).

Stay tuned for the final form as soon as I get the flavor written! Hopefully it'll be soon, because I've been looking forward to posting this line and I'm sure it won't disappoint!

Pokémon © Nintendo
DUARKHOR is mine!

Description
The Nightmare Pokémon
"The barb at the end of its tail has become a second head, complete with eyes and fangs. Able to bite from both ends and spray clouds of poison, its glowing eyes are often the last thing its victims ever see."
"Despite its loathsome appearance, it has a beautiful cry which it uses while hiding to deceive its victims, who don't notice it until it's too late to flee. Once it has devoured a meal, it leaves nothing behind."

Type: Dark/Poison
Height: 4'
Weight: 180 lbs
Ability: Carnivorous* (Merciless)
Evolution: SATUE --> Level 22 --> DUARKHOR --> Level 48 --> TIGAMERA
Egg Groups: Field/Monster

Basis: A hybrid of a nue (a Japanese yokai with a tiger's legs, monkey's head, and a snake for a tail) and a manticore (a Persian monster with a lion's body, a venomous spiked tail, and a human's head), with added traits from lorises and baboons.
Name Origin: DUA (two in Indonesian) + DARK + MardyKHOR (modern Persian name for the manticore)

Moves Learned: Same as SATUE, with added starting move Poison Darts**.
Notable Other Moves: Same as SATUE.

Base Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 90
Defense: 65
Sp. Atk: 50
Sp. Def: 65
Speed: 85
TOTAL: 420

* Carnivorous: Restores 1/4 of the user's maximum health upon KO-ing an opponent.

** Poison Darts
Category: Physical
Type: Poison
Power: 25
PP: 30
Accuracy: 100%
The user flings a shower of poisoned needles at its opponent two to five times in a row. Each strike may poison the target. (Compare: Bullet Seed.)
NOTE: Each hit from this move has a 33% chance of Poisoning the foe. This effect does not apply if the foe is already Poisoned.

**********

10/9/20 EDIT: New design!

I had a solid design for Satue's do-over, so I didn't want to one-up it by accident with the new Duarkhor. Because Satue is now more primate-inspired, though, I decided to give Duarkhor a more monkey-like feel as well, so I referenced baboons this time around. A number of spec-evo works I've seen going for plausible interpretations of fantasy creatures make their manticores into giant murderous baboons, and it's easy to see why because of the manes, slightly human-like faces, quadruped stance, and predatory disposition. Additional inspiration came from the venomous, hairless baboon from "All Todays", a section from the wonderful All Yesterdays book about speculative paleoart wherein modern animals are depicted in the same way as outdated reconstructions of extinct life - I thought it was a pretty good inspiration for a monster design! I'm quite proud of what I managed to come up with - it's like the unholy lovechild of Dougal Dixon's Horrane (a carnivorous tiger-like monkey from a future African savannah) and the Wuggly Ump of Edward Gorey. It's eerie, derpy, charming, and formidable all at once! Hopefully this new look is to your liking as well. Just one more stage to go!

Old version: sta.sh/067t5kzlust

**********

Behold, my second pseudo-legendary's middle stage / and prepare to face its ravenous rage! / First it was one head, and now there's two / because Duarkhor is coming for you!

As noted previously, the original pitch for my Dark/Poison pseudo-legendary was partly if not mostly based on a manticore. However I went with the nue in the end because it's explicitly Asian and I didn't want a pseudo-legend for an Asian region to have a strictly Western basis (although to be fair the manticore is said to be originally from India, though only in European bestiaries; its origins are actually Middle-Eastern). However, since the nue and manticore are quite similar, being a mix of big cat and primate with some other animals mixed in, I guess there's something to be said for just combining them, especially because some variants of the manticore were part tiger instead of part lion (and some historians like Pausanias have theorized that the manticore may have even been inspired by tigers in the first place). I retroactively put an arrowhead barb on Satue's tail so the transition to a snake-like head on the end of that of Duarkhor wouldn't seem so sudden; think of it as being similar to Girafarig's Chain Chomp tail except with a venomous bite! The addition of new move Poison Darts is a reference to the manticore's alleged ability to fling venomous spines from its tail in some depictions, and I imagine Duarkhor pulls this off by having his tail-head spit crystallized needles of poison, similar to the way Poison Sting is depicted in the anime. Otherwise, the poison smoke and explicitly evil nature are a continuation of Satue's, and based on the abilities of the nue. Other additions to keep Duarkhor from being just a bigger Satue are simple horns, a color patch on the face, small wings on the shoulders like the wings the manticore is sometimes portrayed with, and outwards-curling fangs on the sides of the mouth similar to a Japanese oni mask, as nues sometimes have these as well. I think he also looks considerably more sly with that nefarious squint, which adds a lot to his personality and emphasizes that he is, in fact, evil as all get out. As he should be!

For the stat spread, I looked to several other pseudo-legendary mid-stages, especially Gabite, Zweilous, and Hakamo-o. For HP I went with 65, a nice balance between the ranges of HP for these three (Hakamo-o's 55, Zweilous' 72, and Gabite's 68). From there I kept Gabite's 90 Attack, 50 Special Attack, and 65 Defense, and made the Special Defense the same 65 for consistency. For Speed I rounded up Gabite's 82 to 85, since the Gible line seems to be the fastest of the pseudo-legendaries thus far and is thus the closest equivalent I can think of to the way this line works. The resultant stat total is 420, a nice middle ground among the mid-stage pseudos (which can range between 410 and, say, Sliggoo's 452).

Stay tuned for the final form as soon as I get the flavor written! Hopefully it'll be soon, because I've been looking forward to posting this line and I'm sure it won't disappoint!

Pokémon © Nintendo
DUARKHOR is mine!