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SkarmorySilver — 134 - XIANGEKIDO
#nematode #sandworm #groundtype #poisontype #xiangliu #threepoisons #chinesemythology #fakemon #legendary #legendarypokemon #pokemon
Published: 2019-06-05 18:51:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 3275; Favourites: 53; Downloads: 5
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Description
"When the world was new, there was light. It was warm and kind and caring, but also innocent, blind to the ills of all that lived alongside it. The creatures of the world grew jealous of its radiance, and turned on it in great and terrible droves. The light fought valiantly, and even though it ultimately it fell under their collective might, many beasts still sacrificed themselves to secure the victory. But this came at a terrible cost, for the spirits of all the fallen creatures came together and formed a group of terrible monsters, no longer restrained by their mortality and carrying a fatal poison within their bodies. War exploded across the land as they and those under their rule did battle against each other, until only three remained. The sages of yore realized that the destruction of their rulers' battles bought only ruin, and so they betrayed the monsters and sealed them far away, where they would never be found.""The first of the Poisonous Beasts came from the land, a Monster of Silt that emerged from deep beneath the planet's crust. It had nine terrible stalked necks and frightening heads, each and every one carrying a hatred for all things, so powerful and virulent that it came into physical being in the form of a poisonous sand that spilled from every part of its body. This tainted silt covered the ground wherever it went, seeping into the land itself and wilting all verdant life it touched. Supposedly it could only be defeated when all nine of its heads, mounted on extendable stalks, were destroyed. But such was its rage that it could not allow that to happen, and so the sages that once feared it were forced to seal it away deep beneath the earth. To this day, the people of this world practice making peace with each other and expressing forgiveness, knowing what will happen if they fail to do so. Should hate and war once again arise among us today, the Monster of Silt will surely return."
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The Blight of Fury Pokémon
"Legend has it that it first emerged from deep beneath the ground over two thousand years ago. It was said to carry a never-ending fury, which produced poison so foul that any soil it touched could not grow plants."
"With nine heads on extendable necks, nothing could escape its sight as it raged and rampaged, turning lush forests and plains into wastelands. It is one of a triad of terrible monsters known as 'The Poisonous Beasts'."
Type: Poison/Ground
Height: 30'
Weight: 950 lbs
Ability: Toxidize** (Pressure)
Evolution: Does not evolve (Legendary).
Egg Groups: Undiscovered
Basis: Xiangliu, a nine-headed serpent from Chinese folklore; parasitic nematodes; wyrms (serpentine dragons); the sandworm monster trope; the Buddhist vice of Dvesha (aversion).
Name Origin: XIANGliu+GEKIDO ("rage" in Japanese)
Moves Learned: Dragon Rage, Bulldoze, Poison Fang, Extrasensory, Swords Dance, Earth Power, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Sandstorm, Sludge Bomb, and starting moves Tainted Silt**, Outrage, Fissure, Roar, Mud Shot, Rock Tomb, and Toxic Terrain***.
Notable Other Moves: Notable TMs include Venoshock, Sunny Day, Taunt, Solar Beam, Smack Down, Leech Life, Shadow Ball, Sludge Wave, Torment, Rest, Thief, Brutal Swing, Payback, Rock Polish, Stone Edge, Dragon Tail, Infestation, Snarl, and Dark Pulse.
Base Stats:
HP: 90
Attack: 135
Defense: 80
Sp.Atk: 95
Sp.Def: 80
Speed: 100
TOTAL: 580
* Toxidize - Allows Poison-type moves to hit Steel-types for neutral damage.
** Tainted Silt
Category: Physical
Type: Poison
Power: 80
PP: 10
Accuracy: 100% (hits adjacent foes)
The user whips up a sandstorm full of toxic soils which badly poisons those it hits. This move is Poison and Ground type simultaneously.
*** Toxic Terrain
Category: Status
Type: Poison
Power: N/A
PP: 10
Accuracy: N/A
The user turns the ground under everyone's feet to poisonous sludge for five turns. This poisons Pokémon on the ground every turn.
NOTE: When Toxic Terrain is in effect:
- Grounded Pokémon are poisoned at the end of each turn unless they are currently affected by another status (if the status wears off, the poison takes its place). This does not apply to either Poison-types or a Pokémon with an ability that sets Toxic Terrain, which heal 1/8th of their HP during each turn. The poisoned status will remain after the Toxic Terrain effect stops. Steel-types will not be affected, but Flying-type or levitating Pokémon will be.
- Poison-type moves used by affected Pokémon are boosted by 50% (regardless of whether the target of the move is affected by Toxic Terrain).
- Grass-type moves have their power halved if used against affected Pokémon (regardless of whether the user of the move is affected by Toxic Terrain).
- Water- and Flying-type moves will have a 20% chance of poisoning the target on top of any existing secondary effect (regardless of whether the user of the move is affected by Toxic Terrain).
- Nature Power becomes Sludge Bomb.
- Secret Power uses the animation of Poison Sting and may poison the target.
- Camouflage causes the user to become Poison-type.
In the wake of today's hype for Sword and Shield, it's time to kick off the second Legendary roaming trio in style! So here's a design I had sitting in my backlog for a while which I'd initially struggled to get right, though I like how it turned out in the end. Xiangekido here is the first of The Poisonous Beasts, the version counterparts to the Stars of Virtue, and like the other two is encountered in Pokémon Zenith as a major enemy or obstacle. While the Star Maidens are themed after goddesses, spacecraft, extraterrestrial life, and science fiction in general, The Poisonous Beasts are more heavily mythology-inspired. I wanted to use designs based on the Three Poisons of Buddhism after seeing JWNutz 's take on the same concept, seen here , but I didn't want to directly copy off those designs and thus I couldn't use the animals as is. Thus I had to look at dangerous mythical beasts as well, but for at least one I struggled a little, and I still needed to make them visually striking and threatening. The answer: Combine them with pathogens and infectious organisms, to really hammer home that these are diseases which, when taken out of context or used in excess, are dangerous to an unprepared world - even if, perhaps, they may be more necessary to the regions untouched by man than most would suspect!
Xiangekido in particular is based on the vice of aversion, represented by a snake, and Xiangliu, or Xiangyao, a nine-headed snake monster that appears in Chinese mythology. A minister of the draconic water deity Gonggong, Xiangliu devastated the land wherever he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life, until he was killed by either Yu the Great, the goddess Nuwa, or the god Zhurong, depending on the account. Even that wasn't enough to curb his influence, though, as his blood was so poisonous that plants couldn't grow where it spilled, so he had to be buried deep within the earth so that the soil would remain fertile! I first learned of Xiangliu upon seeing the third Night at the Museum movie, the fight with the bronze statue of the creature easily being one of the coolest scenes, and he's fascinated me since then and, despite his despicable nature, helped open up the gateway for me to learn more about Chinese mythology, so I kinda owe it to the movie for that lol. In any case, given his status as a calamity bringer I knew I had to make Xiangliu a Legendary if I adapted him into a fakemon region, and a Poison-type to boot. How to get his nine heads to work took quite a few tries, though! I originally planned for all the heads to be on the edges of a cobra-like hood but that proved too complex to draw, so when I happened upon the pathogen influence as a solution I decided to dial it back a little. He takes more than a few design cues from parasitic nematodes now, with one main head on a retractable stalk and the other eight arranged around the orifice said stalk comes from like a set of teeth - though I also intend for them to extend on stalks of their own, so he can still look hydra-like on occasion. The stalks are just all retracted here except the main one; I might make a supplementary drawing showing them extended later. The skull on the top of the main head is based on Xiangliu sometimes being portrayed with human faces, and it sports venomous fangs as well to make him look more snake-like. With the nematode influence came bits and bobs inspired by Graboids as well, especially with the beak-like mouth. Add some spikes down the back and a dragon-like arrowhead tail blade, and there you have it, the Monster of Silt in all his slithery, scary glory!
The rules I set up for the stats of The Poisonous Beasts are as follows: All of them should have the same HP, 90, and the same BST, 580. All of them should also have higher offensive stats than defensive ones, with neither defensive stat exceeding either of the two offenses. And both defense stats are identical to each other, but should be below 100 to compensate for the higher HP. To this end, the stats of Xiangekido were taken from another Ground-type roaming Legendary, Landorus, who has a stat spread of 89/145/90/105/80/91. The stat total for Landorus is 600 due being the trio master (Tornadus and Thundurus have BSTs of 580), so I needed to cut 20 points for consistency, and thus I took ten each from Defense and Special Attack. Then to make him a bit faster I took ten points from physical attack and gave them to Speed. I also took one point from Speed and added to HP because I prefer each stat number to be a multiple of five, but that's just a personal preference and obviously changes virtually nothing else.
Move-wise, it's Landorus to the rescue once again, since I needed a Ground-type Legendary with a destructive streak and he fit just fine. He gives us 17 required moves in total without repeats, so that's the number I'm going for with all three Poisonous Beasts. From Landorus' level-up movepool we have Bulldoze, Extrasensory, Swords Dance, Earth Power, Earthquake, Sandstorm, and starting moves Outrage, Fissure, Mud Shot, and Rock Tomb. Fellow Poison-type Seviper provided Poison Fang and Poison Tail. Lastly, for flavor reasons, Block is replaced by Roar, Punishment by Dragon Rage, and Stone Edge by Sludge Bomb.
A decently fast attacker with better emphasis on physical attack, Xiangekido takes the strengths of the Ground and Poison types and covers some of their weaknesses quite well. Ground takes on Steel which Poison can't touch outside of the trio's ability, Toxidize (which I've also retconned as the HA for Varenom and Korrodra, incidentally), as well as Rock- and other Poison-types which resist Poison, while Poison deals with Grass which hurts Ground. He also gets a bunch of Rock-type moves to deal with Flying- and Ice-types that are good against Ground, and other coverage options include Dragon, Dark, Grass, Ghost, and Bug-type moves, too. Backed up by his powerful physical attack stat and solid speed, they're all going to leave quite a sting, especially Earthquake and Sludge Wave - the latter works especially well when Toxic Terrain is in effect, since that basically requires the rest of your team being Poison-type so they won't take the poison status! There's also his signature move, the dual-typed Tainted Silt, which hits Electric-, Fire-, and Steel-types super-effectively, but is neutral against Bug, Poison, Rock, and Grass; it's only resisted by Ghost-types, however, making it at least good for consistent neutral damage (Ground hits Steel and Poison hits Flying). Perhaps it'd be easier to just take one Ground and one Poison move in any case. There are support moves he can use like Taunt, Sunny Day, Thief, and Infestation, and he's quick enough to not get killed so quickly when attempting to bring them into play, but really, you'd be better off using him to just destroy everything in front of you. Besides, he's the freaking Blight of Fury! Would you really want to have him do anything else?
I've got the other two Poisonous Beasts already completed, so hopefully they shall be revealed over the next few days. Stay tuned!
Pokémon © Nintendo
XIANGEKIDO is mine!
