Pokemon: My Fan-made Region? [Part 2]

This is part two of my little rambling fanwank of what my 'fan-made region' for Pokemon would be. Click here for part one, where I have talked a bit about what the first half of the region would be. Tentatively borrowing the map of Fiore from the Pokemon Ranger game, it gave me a template for the rough description of what the general eagle's-eye view of the map would be:

...TL;DR, I talked about the massive rainforests in this region and the mountains that hide a 'Lost World' style area filled with the 'natural' versions of the prehistoric fossil Pokemon, as well as cover a bit about the Pokemon in the mountainous and desert regions. We had a lot of Bug-types and Grass-types, but here we'll cover the big half of the map -- the ocean!

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OCEAN AREA:

Yes, "too much water" is a bit of a meme thanks to the Hoenn games, but a large amount of real life's biodiversity does come in the water, and Pokemon itself does have a gigantic selection of aquatic Water-types and Ice-types to pick from, so... yeah. It wouldn't all be just waterways and giant swathes of water, though, otherwise we run into the same problem that people complained about Zelda: Wind Waker, but that's where Dive comes in. Instead of exploring the top of the water, there would be places where you can explore colourful coral reefs, sunken ships haunted by Dhelmise, swathes of the ocean ruled by Tentacruel and Jellicents, Pacifidlog-Town-style cities suspended on colonies of Corsola, a village where people live in ships... and, of course, loads and loads of islands. 

Haneei
Single-stage Water/Fairy. Another very clever concept that I felt should have been retained in some way! I love Mantine, and I think the design of Haneei is distinct enough that they could be two completely different species. But with the advent of abilities, I'll steal Morpeko's ability and adapt it to Haneei -- every turn Haneei 'flips over' and switches from Water/Fairy to Water/Dark, depending on which side of its body is facing you. Like Morpeko, it'd have a signature move that switches types depending on the 'phase' that it is in.

One-Stage Clownfish-Lionfish
Water, then Water/Poison. Not much to say here, just two rather iconic aquatic animals that both feel like they could be Pokemon. I have the idea that they're the 'common' boring fishy like Goldeen, Finneon or Arrokuda. For the longest time, I had these be two separate species, but the idea is that the Clownfish Pokemon is a scared little prey fish that lived in a poisonous anemone. The anemone would probably even follow it around, sort of like an accessory not too dissimilar to Hisuian Sliggoo. Upon evolution, it eventually merges with the poisonous anemone that splays around its body like a lionfish's distinctive spines and fins.

"[speciesname] hides within poisonous anemones to avoid being preyed on. The scientific community is constantly debating whether the anemone is a separate Pokemon species." / "After evolution, [speciesname] have merged with its home, and has a symbiotic relationship with the anemones that form its spines."

Two-Stage Moray Eel:
Water/Electric. I know Eelektross exists, and this might be just a little bit redundant, but Eelektross is a lamprey-leech thing. My idea for this is more of the undulating, monstrous moray eel... except just adapting random aquatic animals without a twist won't appeal to too many Pokemon fans out there that isn't me. So my go-to idea is to make this one an electric eel as well, and... and I think we've had repeat concepts show up a couple of times that two different 'electric eel' Pokemon wouldn't be out of the question. 

Two-Stage Shark -- ("Ikari")
Water/Steel. Sharpedo's cool, and we've got other shark-based Pokemon like Gabite and Garchomp out there, but I do really like the visual of this other abandoned 'beta' Pokemon. We don't have all that many Water/Steel types besides. My idea would be for the 'Ikari' design to be the final stage, while its pre-evolution lacks the chain and is just a baby shark whose tail just happens to be the curved parts of an anchor. 

"As Ikari's tail grows, it forces the species to change its hunting habits to fit the seafloor. Some species live in symbiotic relationships with the algal parts of Dhelmise who have lost their anchors."

Two-Stage Mantis Shrimp

Water/Fighting. This one is a very easy one. The mantis shrimp, with its colours and its alien eyes and its insane heat-pistol ability, is already a Pokemon in all but name anyway. Sure, there is a fear bit of overlap with Crabrawler and Clawitzer in certain cases, but I think that, hell, even an unedited "just this creature but in Sugimori style" mantis shrimp looks different enough from those two in terms of concept. This is also probably the only one that I actually have a decent idea about the mechanics -- it'd have extremely accurate attacks, it'd be a fragile special attacker, and it's special attack would be a part-Fighting, part-Fire dual-type move. 

Two-Stage Glaucus Sea Slugs

Fairy, then a Poison/Fairy. Pokemon Uranium went with a Water/Ice version of this creature, and that's cool! Honestly, my mental image isn't too far off from Uranium's Glavinug -- maybe a bit more 'sluggy' the way Gastrodon is instead of being full-on graceful. But for the sake of having a bit more diversity and not having 50% of the Pokedex just be Water-types, I decided to make this distinctly-shaped sea slug be a Fairy-type as its appearance suggests, but also be a Poisonous one just like the real thing!

The real-life Glaucus feeds on creatures like cnidarians and the Portuguese Man-O-War. So the first stage of this creature would be a pure Fairy-type, but upon defeating a specific amount of Tentacools or Tentacruels, this Pokemon would 'consume' enough of the poisonous nematocysts of the jellyfishes and evolve into its Poison/Fairy final form. Maybe it has an ability that causes it to take reduced damage from Poison type.

"This sinister Fairy-type Pokemon roams the ocean, hunting for Tentacool. It collects stinger cells from defeated prey which it hopes to utilize as weapons." / "Uniquely adapted to battle Poison-type Pokemon, [speciesname] lets out a haunting wail as it feeds on its prey."

Alternate Binacle Evolution

Grass/Rock. Quarantine Crystal did an absolutely great goose barnacle fan-made Pokemon that's both a goose and also a barnacle... but I feel like this one could either be a regional variant to Barbaracle or just a straight-up branched evolution. And the general look would still be similar to Barbaracle, a bunch of Barnacle tendrils holding up bunches of stone ending with the individual 'Binacle claw' sub-organisms with eyeballs.  

It would crawl around on its tendril somewhat like a Hydra or a Yamata-no-Orochi, with its five barnacle heads snapping around. This alternate Barbaracle would still have the rock chunks that regular Barbaracle/Binacle have, but the rocks themselves would be covered with moss or algae. 

"An alternate evolution to Barbaracle, [speciesname] adapted to the poor quality of water by harnessing the power of the sun." / "[Speciesname] allows Wingull and Ducklett to perch within its heads. Past scientists have mistakenly thought that the Flying-type Pokemon were born from it." 

Alternate Milotic Evolution

Water/Fairy. I like Milotic. Milotic is cool, and I've always been struck by how, at the time of release, it was one of the most elaborately convoluted evolution methods. Especially since Generation VII, I think Milotic has lost that title and became even more mundane thanks to the introduction of the Prism Scale, reducing poor Milotic to a pretty mundane 'trade while holding an item' evolution. So... I don't know. What I'm saying is, I was looking through the list of all available Pokemon and I thought that Milotic would be someone I would give an alternate form to, and I think I kind of want it to look more like Milotic's (alleged) base form of an oarfish. Sort of an 'inner beauty is still beautiful' thing, where it's still graceful but not in the more conventional way that Milotic is. Water/Dragon would be a bit too obvious, and I already had a Water/Psychic regional variant below, so this alternate evolution would be Water/Fairy.

"[Speciesname] has inspired various myths in seafaring communities. Some describe it as a benevolent trickster that helps those shipwrecked at sea; others say it's the one that causes those shipwrecks itself."

Regional Dumbo Octopus Grapploct

Water/Fighting. It always never sat right with me that Grapploct was pure-Fighting. I guess not every single Pokemon in the ocean has to be Water-type, I get that -- Hisuian Qwilfish is another very recent addition that is water-dwelling but isn't water-type, and I'll be using this trope of 'non-Water-type aquatic Pokemon' later on. But... I dunno. I wanted to add some sort of octopus Pokemon to my region because I really do like cephalopods, and I felt like it might be neat just to give a regional variant to Grapploct. Whereas Galarian Grapploct is based more on a wrestler, this one (visually based on the dumbo octopus) would focus more aesthetically on body-slams.

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'DEEP SEA' AREA:

There were a lot of region concepts that I considered before I went with the "back to basics" nature exploration of exploring forests and the ocean -- basically writing about biomes that appeal to me personally. And the Lost World, of course. But there were versions of this article where I had a focus on a large subterranean cave network (essentialy if the Sinnoh Underground was a proper area); a more explicitly fantasy/Fairy themed region; a mainly-cryptid-based region; an equally more explicitly spooky Halloween-y region with many more Ghost types; a bayou; a sci-fi themed area themed after Delta Pokemon; a region wracked with toxic spills with an environmental theme; highlighting the alien themes...

But in all versions of my drafts, I always had a deep sea region. Diving has always been one of the cooler aspect of the Hoenn games, and I've always thought that it was kind of a waste and an underdeveloped gimmick since all we got was, what, three wild Pokemon in the deep sea?

Well, this is my fan region and I'm allowed to do whatever I want, so one of the major areas would definitely be a deep sea trench. I suppose the expedition could be done with a submarine or the traditional Dive HM, and the Pokemon population would get progressively more different as we go deeper, similar to real oceans. Giant swathes of tube worm-like growths would populate hydrothermal vents, which would be little sub-areas of their own. 

The requisite legendary Pokemon associated here would be the likes of Lugia, Kyogre and Manaphy.

Alternate Huntail & Gorebyss Evolution

Water/Dark Gulper Eel; Water/Psychic Chimaera. These two were always going to be pretty high on my list of 'fan evolutions' or 'fan regional variants'. Hell, I don't even like Huntail and Gorebyss all that much in the grand scheme of things. But a combination of the Pokemon TCG and the Pokemon Ranger side-games, and I've always had this mentality that, yeah, Huntail and Gorebyss was part-Dark and part-Psychic respectively.

So yeah, my proposed evolution would be them turning into these two dual-typings. Huntail would be the easiest, since we actually do have a rejected beta Pokemon based on the gulper eel. Huntail himself is already based on one, but I feel like they really could've gone a lot more in emphasizing his big, pelican-sized mouth. "Grotesque" here has a little anglerfish lure, and I think that could be done with this Huntail evolution as well, although as a twist, that 'fake fish head' on regular Huntail could be the lure here, and on the center would be a glowing pearl. It always bothers me that no part of Clamperl is retained in its evolutions, so we're bringing that back. 

Gorebyss... I have less of a concrete idea on what Gorebyss would look like, although I suppose more prominent fins like the real-life Chimaera fish would work. Perhaps those shells have detached and float around as 'fins', so we get the overall silhouette of the real-life Chimaera while Gorebyss still retains her eel-like look? Like Huntail, I would definitely also want that pearl to be hovering over Gorebyss's head. Maybe it's not even attached to the main body -- it's just hovering on top of the head, like an anglerfish lure that's not connected. 

Regional Sexually-Dimorphic Lanturn and alternate evolution

Water/Dark. One of the coolest animals in the world are anglerfishes, especially these deep-sea variants commonly called 'seadevils'. Now I do adore Chinchou and Lanturn, but I feel like a deep-sea Lanturn variant would be very, very obvious. And yes, while it is admittedly a bit cliche'd, I would definitely want Lanturn to have that distinctive, monstrous jaw. I don't think the design itself would need to change too much, and I'm sure Pokemon's art team can have a way of adapting this giant jaw without detracting too much from the idea of Lanturn itself. At least, that's what the female Lanturns look like, because these deep-sea Lanturns are all females. 

Now the 'gimmick' here is based on some real-life species of anglerfishes, where the males are tiny and attach to the much-larger females. IRL male anglerfishes are reduced to basically a sperm bank, but since that doesn't gel with the vibe of Pokemon, we'll just have the male Chinchous evolve into a branching evolution in this region. They end up becoming smaller, still having the rough body shape of Chinchou but with a single 'light stalk' and maybe a different face. I'd still keep those eyes, though. It's different enough at this point that instead of being a gender difference, I guess it'd count as a separate species a la Gallade or Volbeat. 

The idea here is that a male Lanturn is just a lot smaller and can be 'equipped' to a female Lanturn, the way Calyrex and his mounts are. The male Lanturns would look like tiny Chinchous with a single angler-stalk. When the male Lanturns are attached to the females, they basically provide the female Lanturn with access to powerful Electric-type attacks that benefit from STAB. 

Too much for just Lanturn? Maybe it'd work better as its own species? Eh. 

Three-Stage Hatchetfish into Viperfish Deep Sea Dragon

Water/Dragon. This is my pseudo-legendary, and it originally grew from two different concepts of two different deep-sea Pokemon. But since we have rather drastic changes in evolutions like Dratini to Dragonite or Goomy to Goodra... yeah, why not? We start off with a little hatchetfish Pokemon, who tries to mimic larger creatures with its light show. Like real-life hatchetfishes, their eyes point upwards to look at prey swimming above them... though this being Pokemon, I could see these eyes being given a worried, constantly-terrified expression. 

Ultimately, little hatchetfish would evolve (I can't think of a good 'bridge') into the monsterous deep-sea viperfish. The viperfish is just a creture with a very nightmarish face, and it definitely feels like something that could inspire a pretty badass leviathan. I don't think we've really got an aquatic-beast pseudo-legendary that I can think of, and the closest we get to that is probably just Dragonite. I briefly thought about making it a 'Kraken' analogue and giving it extra tentacles, but that'd be a bit too much for a Pokemon design. Not too much to say here, it's just an animal that I really think is cool.

"[speciesname] is the unquestioned apex predator of the deep. It is the reason Golisopod is so cowardly." / "It is theorized that [speciesname] was the reason many aquatic species of Pokemon went extinct."

Single-Stage Vampire Squid

Water/Dark. Another pretty neat cephalopod that's already basically a Pokemon by appearance alone -- the modern depiction of the D&D monster Darkmantle is basically this creature, but floating in the air. The Vampire Squid Pokemon would be pretty much the 'Zubat' of the deep-sea areas, flitting around, stealing a bite from you and then jetting away with their propulsions. Maybe they could be the 'stage hazards' of the deep-sea exploration, attacking your diving Pokemon and draining their health unless you bring something more heavily-armoured like a Carracosta? Like most of the Pokemon in the deep sea area, these would have bioluminescent body parts. 

I briefly thought of making this a 'deep sea' Inkay, but I felt like it's unique enough to be its own thing. 

"[speciesname] used to compete with Tentacool for territory, but eventually found a niche where they can thrive when they adapted to the depths of the ocean."

Bobbit Worm
Bug/Dark. Okay, yeah, I can't resist. One of the recent darlings of the geek community, these bobbit worms really don't look like they should be real creatures, yeah? They look like some sort of fantasy monster or video game creature, like how someone would fuse an antlion larva and a shrimp and an earthworm together and make it aquatic for some reason... except it's real. It's got a giant-ass trapjaw mouth, and it lives in our ocean, hiding within tunnels or the seafloor. Look at this thing. It looks more like a Pokemon than a creature that's actually living on our planet. I don't really think you even need too much editing to make it a Pokemon. 

Anyway, not too much to say here. These guys would populate the absolute seafloors with only their antennae showing, and then their jaws would clamp shut around you. Maybe they could be the Voltorb/Foongus equivalent of the deep sea, looking like a clump of items only to reveal itself to be a monstrous deep-sea creature. It's Bug/Dark-type, mostly to not overload the region with too many Water-types. Maybe it'll have a secondary typing that makes it resist Water-types?

Two-Stage Hallucigenia/Wiwaxia

Poison/Psychic. As with 'the Lost World' area, we're going to have a couple of Pokemon based on extinct creatures, and two of the more interesting precambrian animals are these guys. And... I decided to mix both of them into a single species. It could start off as a Water/Psychic Hallucigenia, and I feel like a Hallucigenia Pokemon would flip itself upside down back and forth to be a cheeky nod to how IRL palaeontologists were confused on which side was up for this creature. 

Then, it evolves into the Poison/Psychic Wiwaxia, which... again, already looks like a Pokemon. Just add eyeballs! I feel like this Pokemon would still have two forms, flipping upside-down. It's normally super-defensive (doesn't hurt that the actual images of the thing remind me of Toxapex) but when it uses its signature move, it flips around a la Aegislash to reveal the massive fangs it has below and becomes an offensive Pokemon. 

"There have been countless debates on which side of [speciesname] is the right side up. Scientists debate whether Inkay have evolved to mimic these primordial creatures. "

Single-Stage Dunkleosteus

Water/Dark. We covered the other three 'halves' of the Galarian fossils in the previous page, but this one is kind of an obvious one? The Dunkleosteus is another one with a pretty obvious real-life animal design screaming 'make me into a Pokemon' already. Not too much to say, out of all the types around Dark seems to be the obvious one. Again, just like how the Lost World area had all the land-borne fossil Pokemon existing in regional variants, so does the deep ocean.

"[speciesname] used to swim the oceans with RELICANTH. When food became scarce, it failed to thrive like its cousin and became extinct."

Regional Deep-Sea Fossil Pokemon:

Again, just like what we did with the 'Lost World' area, we'll be having regional variants for all of the fossil Pokemon based on aquatic creatures, which will fill up a lot of the 'slots' in the deep ocean. I don't really have a whole ton to say here.

(I thought about adding a relicanth alternate form, but the whole joke is that it's unchanging. But I'll still acknowledge that I almost did a Relicanth regional form here. Maybe as a joke, it's actually the common encounter in the deep-sea trenches?

Regional Omanyte line

Pure-Water. There would be several variations of Omanyte and Omastar with different shells, just like real-life ammonites. Probably somewhat similar to Burmy, where the secondary typing would be carried over to Omastar? The reular spiral shell would still be Water/Rock. A drill-shaped Omastar would be Water/Steel, and the more rare one that has a massive spring-shaped shell would be Water/Psychic, hypnotizing enemies with its shell. 

"The pure forms of OMANYTE untained by being resurrected from a fossil. These have been classified as regional variants by the scientific community." / "The changes in climate caused only those that were adapted to deep oceans to survive to this day."

Regional Kabuto line

Bug/Dark as Kabuto, Steel/Dark as Kabutops. Just like Grapploct, Dhelmise and Hisuian Qwilfish, this regional Kabuto would be water-dwelling without the Water type. It'd probably have an ability similar to Dhelmise's "Steelworker" that allows it to maybe resist the Water-type attacks, since it's living deep under the ocean? The visual appearance of Kabuto would have a less-smooth shell, and actually look more mottled like trilobites or the modern-day horseshoe crab. Kabutops would likewise be even leaner and meaner -- not too dissimilar to how they draw Golisopod, perhaps. They'd have a dark slate colour instead of brown, which reflects real-life trilobites and their Dark-types a bit more. 

"Despite not being Water-type, KABUTOPS is highly adapted to hunt aquatic creatures. It can spend its entire life underwater." / "The original form of KABUTOPS is even more brutal than its resurrected counterpart. They tend to display hostile tendencies when encountering released Kantonian KABUTOPS in the wild. "

Regional Lileep line

Water/Grass. Lileep and Cradily are based on prehistoric crinoids, which were extremely abundant in the past. So yeah, as we go deeper and deeper, there would be an entire swath of the area just undulating with an underwater field of Lileeps and Cradilies. Representing the real-life evolution of prehistoric crinoids, Lileep would be entirely rooted in one spot, so it'd have a rock that its 'stem' embedded into a la Diglett or Binacle. Cradily would look a bit more like its Hoennian counterpart, but the tentacles would be a bit more feathery instead of looking like phallic lumps. 

"Prehistoric LILEEP were unable to move, and this made them ideal prey for other prehistoric Pokemon." / "CRADILY would eventually migrate to shallower waters and arrive become land-bound, and it is theorized that this resulted in the migration of Grass-types to the land."

Regional Anorith / alternate branch evolution

Water/Bug. Anorith himself is already kind of perfect, as a Sugimori-style adaptation of the real-life Anomalocaris. And while I do like Anorith better, the 'kaiju suit' design of Armaldo really does look cool. So other than the type change, I really don't see myself actually changing Anorith or Armaldo at all... different colours to symbolize how it's more of a 'Water Bug' now instead of being part-Rock, sure, but otherwise...

...which is why I propose a branching evolution for Anorith. The Opanibia here is another ancient basal arthropod that looks similar to the Anomalocaris, but with a distinctive set of five eyes and a giant grasping claw. It's be neat, visually, to have some members of this 'family' retain its shrimp-like body shape while others become bipedal kaijus. Unlike regular Armaldo, this branching evolution would be more special-attack-focused.

Regional Tirtouga line

Water, then Water/Fighting as Carracosta. Probably kind of the most 'boring' out of the ones here? I feel like Tirtouga is kind of already pretty primal-looking and natural-looking. The idea here is that the regional Carracosta would capitalize a lot more on the 'aquatic creature finally moving to land' trope. It's probably look a bit more like a cartoon caveman, and its flippers have developed to wrap itself around crude rocks and branches to use as weapons? 

I'm sorry. I really can't think of too many prehistoric turtles with weird enough of a 'gimmick' to adapt here. 

"Thought to be the first species of Pokemon to use tools. The first CARRACOSTA that picked up a branch invented the move 'Wood Hammer'." / "Most of the species retreated deep into the ocean when the climate changed. Some of them, however, still dream of coming back on land."

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THE CITIES -- URBAN AREA

With all of this natural areas in the jungle and the deep sea, I'm not about to forget the urban cities. As we're loosely copying the Fiore map, we'll still have a huge metropolitan area, but just like how many RPG games (and even Pokemon Ranger itself!) likes to have dungeons going through filthy and unnecessarily labyrinthine sewer pipes or junkyards, the primary city of 'Not-Fiore' would have an extended quest where your character has to explore the deeper underbellies filled with trash and sewer -- kinda like that one Muk/Magnemite episode from the first season of the anime. 

A primary set of areas where you can encounter Pokemon would be a 'National Park' similar to Johto, yes, but also a segment of the town that's just a giant junkyard filled with Steel- and Electric-types, and another part of the quset would be you reactivating the power plant similar to Hoenn. At the center of the power plant you'll find that the Steel-types are actually protecting a Margeana -- another under-utilized legendary. 

Another area would be a huge fancy tower-facility (not too dissimilar to Aether Foundation in Sun/Moon or the Macro Cosmos base in Sword/Shield) that is devoted to researching Ultra Beasts, Ditto, Type: Null, Porygon and other more 'artificial' Pokemon. Maybe this would be a good 'DLC' area, if we're thinking of marketing this as a game? Swarms of Meltan would periodically appear here as well, but the focus of this area would be the captured Ultra Beasts experimented upon by the scientists.

Two-Stage House Centipede

Pure Bug-type. We have Venipede and Sizzlipede, which represent different tropes associated with the centipedes, but an urban locale would definitely be pretty great to have the distinctive long legs of this blitzing house centipede -- and the very distinctive boltiness of this animal would definitely give it an obvious in-game battle niche, too, being a speedy physical fighter compared to the slower Scolipede or Centiskorch. 

Rinrin & Berurun:
Normal-type, evolves into Normal/Fairy. Another pretty popular 'rejected' Pokemon, it is kind of expected that every region give us a Pokemon like Skitty or Glameow or Espurr -- a cute kitty. And... why not just use this? I'm not the fondest guy of cats, but I can admit that these guys look pretty cute as city-dwelling kittens. The bell gimmick is neat enough that I feel like they would work well as a cute mascot. 

"RINRIN is very proud of the bell on its neck and tail, which evolved after the species was domesticated. The unique chimes helps owners to know where their companion is." / "Having developed powerful Fairy-type moves, BERURUN is extremely territorial. It repays its owner by stalking the owner's home at night and eliminating any trespassers."

Kotora & Raitora:
Pure-Electric. Another pretty adorable duo from Beta Johto that I felt would be a pretty common 'domesticated' pet. The idea here is that they're kind of like... like pugs or pomeranians, species-es of dogs that have been so transformed by breeding into toy breeds that it would be near-impossible for them to thrive in the wild outside of hanging out with other dog breeds or with humans. That's what I get from this roly-poly body, anyway.

"Generations of breeding has caused KOTORA to have an adorably rotund body. However, it has became dependent on humans to survive." / "RAITORA is a bit fiercer than its pre-evolution, but without a human or another Pokemon's instructions, it has terrible survival instincts. "

Two-Stage Sushi Roll Dragon

Fairy, then Fairy/Dragon. There was a leak leading up to... either XY or Sun/Moon of a fake Pokedex that talked about a 'sushi roll' Pokemon. And I thought it was actually delightfully adorable! We've been getting at least a line of food-themed Fairy-type every generation anyway (Swirlix, Milcery, etc) so I felt like having a sushi roll Pokemon -- one of those where they have the shrimp head dolled up to look like a dragon -- would be a neat Pokemon concept! It'd start off as a reular, cheap six-piece roll kind of like an Exeggcute, each with its own face, and then they would combine into a single serpentine sushi roll dragon. 

Single-Stage Computer Virus ("Anti-Porygon")

Electric/Bug. I've flip-flopped on making a 'corrupted' Porygon-Z or an alternate version of Porygon-Z, but why not make an entirely brand-new species? The idea is that the same company that produced the bootleg 'Dubious Disc' item that evolves Porygon2 to Porygon-Z tried their own hand at making artificial Pokemon with data taken from... oh, one of the Ultra Beasts or something, and instead frankensteined a sentient computer virus. 

This computer virus would look like the traditional, very commonly-seen-in-cartoons look of a bacteriophage, with its very cool giant orb-head and spidery legs. Despite being a computer virus, though, my idea is that it's not actually violent and it is just trying to survive, and your character would be involved in introducing these guys to a location outside of the virtual world where they can survive.

It's Electric/Bug because... well, I've always thought that Porygon should be Electric-type, but then the 'Bug' is just a delightful little in-joke from me. 

Two-Stage Cockroach

Bug/Dark. Not too much to say here, kind of obvious. We do have Pheromosa and I adore Pheromosa and how she subverts normal expectations that a roach Pokemon has to be grimy and dirty... but I also low-key want a grimy-and-dirty roach Pokemon. These would hang out in the junkyard and the abandoned factories. It's speedy and not very offensive, but very defensive instead. 

"Recent genetic sequencing research has found out that [speciesname] shares 89.5% of its genetic sequence with the Ultra Beast PHEROMOSA. This has baffled researchers." / "[speciesname] can eat through any kind of refuse. It gets along well with the Alolan variant of Grimer and Muk."

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"GHOST TOWN" AREA

...And there's a segment of town that's just... abandoned, kind of like a ghost town. It's less of a 'town obviously filled with ghosts' but more of a spooky set of empty, dilapidated buildings. The ghost town would act similar to the Lost Woods in Zelda, where it'll turn you around into weird dead ends and whatnot, and it's a combination of many urban-dwelling Psychic, Ghost and Fairy types (think the likes of Hypno, Mr. Mime, Chandelure, Mimikyu, Bannette, Polteageist) that have settled here that caused it to essentially warp into an eldritch location. The 'boss' of this area would be a Marshadow.

Single-Stage Substitute Doll
Pure-Fairy. I thought about just having 'Norowa', the voodoo doll from Beta Gold and Silver, but with the nail imagery of even the move Curse being phased out of Pokemon games, I feel like that's not ever going to be a Pokemon design that's ever going to show up realistically as a Pokemon. But the Substitute doll? I'm frankly kind of surprised it hasn't really been made into a Pokemon, considering that we've even gotten official merchandise out of it. Uranium did a great adaptation of the Substitute doll as a chained Pokemon, but I'm not trying to really copy that.

My idea is that it's just a little doll, identical to the substitute doll... but with a little zipper on the back. During attacks, an amorphous black shadow similar to Mimikyu's limbs would appear and attack you. A bit too similar to Digimon's Monzaemon, perhaps, but eh. 

"Some speculate that when Ghost-types utilize the move 'Substitute', some of their life essence is left behind and gains a new life of their own." / "Attempts by [evil scientific organization name] to peer into what is inside the doll has resulted in a catastrophic incident."

One-Stage Mothman

Bug/Fairy. I thought about a combination of Dark, Fairy or Ghost, but... I can't make a Mothman creature without making it a bug now, can I? Now the legend of Mothman has gotten a bit more of a focus thanks to popular media, and there have been a lot of great monsters inspired by Mothman (the one in Fallout, a fan-mon from Quarantine Crystal) and for the longest time this Mothman Pokemon hung out in the forest area of my fan region. But it felt a bit more appropriate hiding in the depths of the urban area, stalking humans and observing them. They're not quite malicious, but definitely very mischievous.

"Twinz"
Ghost/Dark. Another rejected Pokemon from the Beta Gold/Silver, this is another one that I felt has a distinctive enough design to bring into the Pokemon world. It's one who is just screaming for some sort of battle gimmick, like it has two separate health bars or something, or it transforms between an offensive or a speedy form or whatever.

I thought of making it tied to Girafarig just like its Beta counterpart, or making it a Spiritomb pre-evolution, but... look at those guys. They look cool enough to be their own Pokemon, right? Or Pokemons?

"A local [region name] folktale tells of a child and his faithful Pokemon who drowned together in a river. So strong was their bond that the Pokemon continued to guard the child even in death." / "It has two minds. Johtonian legends have spoken that [speciesname] empowered the first Girafarig and gave it its powerful psychic capabilities."

Regional Scrapyard Golett/Golurk Variant

Ghost/Steel. Golett and Golurk are always cool, being rocky golems... but what if they had a variant that was made out of scrap metal? Garbodor is a bit of a scrapyard creature, but I really would like a variation of Golett that's just made up of scrap metal -- it'd still be ghostly, since it's still a Golett variant, but it's now a junkyard golem animated by the same ghostly spirit that animated the regular Unovan Golett.

And when it evolves into Golurk, it would actually have sci-fi Iron Giant repulsors when it flies. Hell yea!

Trash Can Garbodor Evolution

Poison/Steel. I've seen a lot of artwork of Garbodor regional variants giving it a trash can, not unlike Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch or Garbagemon from Digimon (pictured here)... and I felt like it's a great idea! My idea is that this is an evolution caused by Garbodor living in an area that's a bit too filled with metallic waste. Stuffing most of Garbodor's body inside a steel trash can, while it uses a metal pipe as a bazooka and the trash can lid as a shield? We could even have this Garbodor regional variant be a 'mimic' that jumps out of trash cans!

"[speciesname] is the result of GARBODOR observing the ambush tactics of other species like VOLTORB and STUNFISK. The trash can is now part of its anatomy."

Ghost-type Eeveelution

Ghost-type. A little bit obvious that fan-regions need an Eevee evolution, and I would like to throw my hat in the ring for a Ghost-type one. My ideal one would be a skeletal Eevee, but that seems to be a big no-no for Pokemon nowadays, so... a wispy, ghostly Eevee not too dissimilar to Sylveon, but instead of ribbons we get ghostly, wraithly misty tendrils. This 'Wispeon' or whatever would not have its feet touching the ground similar to Spectrier from Sword/Shield. 

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THE BIG RAPID-FIRE REGIONAL VARIANT DUMP:

I could really go on and on and on about the various other animals and fan-made Pokemon that I have. I don't think it's an exaggeration that this pair of articles was easily three or four times longer than it is before I trimmed the concepts down to approximately 100+ new species only, and I still think I cheated by having so many regional variants. 

But that sounds pretty easy to bring in new Pokemon concepts via regional variants, right? And looking at how so many Pokemon nowadays (looking at you, Alcremie, Vivillon, Unown, Furfrou...) have so many regional variants, here's a rapid-fire list of Pokemon that I debated having regional variants, but ended up just listing here as mostly 'cosmetic' variants. These wouldn't necessarily have a different typing or movesets or stat distributions, just extra new forms to add variation to the Pokemon universe. There are some where I thought it would come with extra effects, which I would list. 

• Regional Arbok: Just give them alternate markings. The ones I show here are actual official sprites from Generation II and III. I don't get how so many dex entries and even official manga have shown Arbok with different hood patterns, and how modern Pokemon games have so many redundant cosmetic variations, but poor Arbok is left in the dirt. If there's any one of the designs here that deserves a mechanical change, it's Arbok. 
• Regional Dhelmise: Instead of a helm and an anchor, variants of Dhelmise encountered in the deep-sea would have like, propellers or submarine periscopes or ship cannons instead, having scavenged for different parts of different ships.
• Regional Spinarak: That 'pumpkin patch' Spinarak seen in Beta Gold & Silver could've easily been a cosmetic variant. The lore would be that these Spinaraks (and Ariadoses) have evolved to live in symbiosis with Pumpkaboos. 
• Regional (Kantonian) Sirfetch'd: Instead of having a giant lance and a shield, Kantonian Sirfetch'd would look a bit more like a samurai -- the 'shield' from Sirfetch'd would act like a kasa hat, and the leek is wielded like a quick-draw katana. The fur would still be brown. 
• Regional (Kantonian) Mr. Rime: Still Psychic/Fairy, would have regular Mr. Mime's colouration, but still tap-dances. Has a huge fake mustache like Kricketune. 
• Regional Vanniluxe: 'Urban' Vanniluxe would have their ice-cream cones be in the colour of like, chocolate fudge or strawberry sundae. Probably nowhere to the extent of Milcery... I also kind of want these 'less pure' Vanniluxe to be Ice/Fairy, since they resemble food more than the arguably more 'pure' snow-themed Vanniluxe.
• Regional Furret: Like Beta Furret, this represents a sub-breed of Furret that has been a bit more domesticated.
• Regional Noctowl: ...mostly just because I really like the 'Booboo' design from beta. Maybe could be a branched evolution?
• Regional Pincurchin: Ones with spikier, bright-purple thorns based on Echinometra viridis, and ones with shorter bright-blue thorns based on Echinotrix diadema.
• Regional Gogoat: Probably one of the more boring Pokemon, maybe we can get a 'bramble bush' Gogoat to replace its pretty generic grass coat? Autumn leaves or cherry blossoms might be a bit too Sawsbuck. 
• Regional Carbink: Not much to say, the Diancie movie did give us a bunch of alternate Carbink variants with different rock formations and stuff. Definitely would make sense for a rock formation based creature!
• Regional Corsola: Coral reefs are super-colourful, and while Corsola is based on a specific kind of coral, maybe we could have variants where it's got different horns and colours?
• Regional Porygon line: Maybe in the "virtual world" area you'll get a location where you can swap Porygon2 and Porygon-Z's shapes similar to Rotom or Deoxys. The beta "lion" Porygon2 could be a thing, and we might turn Porygon-Z into a "glitch" form. Or turn the head around and make the body look like a dragonfly, making Z into a literal computer bug.
• Regional Whimsicott: The cotton 'hair' might be filled with sakura petals, making it a bit more sakura-themed. It's a bit surprising that we haven't actually ever gotten a 'cherry blossom' themed Pokemon, huh?
• Regional Coalossal: It is more or less the same design, but remains quadrupedal like some sort of giant turtle, making it look more like a locomotive and a natural evolution of Carkol.
• Regional Bruxish: Just... just swap around some of its colours to match some of the more outrageous real-life coral fishes. A lot of fancy colours that I could think up of on top of my head, if this article isn't already like, super-long as it is. 
• Regional Voltorb/Electrode: These would have variations based on at least the 'basic' set of Pokeballs: Great, Ultra and Premier. (Shiny Voltorb is already the Master Ball).
• Regional Toxicroak: Various patterns based on real-life frogs and toads. We could have a brown muddy one, a bright green tree frog one, bright oranges and yellows... real-life poisonous frogs are super-duper colourful, and the flavour could just be Toxicroak adapting to its environments. 
• Regional Mimikyu: A lot of fan art is ouy there of Mimikyu adopting different Pokemon as the basis of its hood. I don't think it'd really change its typing, but I would definitely love to see that a bunch of Mimikyu has taken over a 'toy store' in the abandoned city segment, and have looted a lot of the plushies there to use as clothing. All the 'Pika-clones', starters... 
• Mewtwo: Shadow Mewtwo: Basically the design from Pokken Tournament, this one would be an imperfect Psychic/Dark clone of Mewtwo found in the science lab area. 

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New Abilities -- 'Steelworker' for other types...

I don't want to put in any more new 'gimmicks' like Mega Evolution or Z-Moves or Gigantamax or Alpha Pokemon or Shadow Pokemon or whatever because I really do think that they're played out, and honestly one of my original drafts actually had a list of all Mega and G-Max forms turned into actual new permanent evolutions or regional forms. But then it devolved into me doing an old-man ranting about what I wanted to change... so instead, why not just add stuff? And I'm basically inspired by Dhelmise's "Steelworker" ability, which gives the Ghost/Grass Dhelmise STAB with Steel-type moves without giving it any of the resistances it does. Which I feel I would expand. A lot. A quick mental list of what I can think of on top of my head. This allows me to not retcon any moves, too, which is nice:

Perhaps other than 'Flight' and 'Aquatic', the Pokemon needs to go through a specific side-quest to gain these abilities? The idea is that the balance would be caused by the Pokemon only getting STAB from maybe one or two extra moves instead of having a full third type with its resistances and whatnot. 

• Flight: The Pokemon is flying, so they have (maybe not full damage) STAB for Flying-type moves, and resistance/immunity to Ground-moves.
• This would include Beedrill, Venomoth, Vibrava, Flygon, Dustox, both Decidueyes, Vikavolt, Cutiefly and Ribombee, Scizor, Lunala, Naganadel, Orbeetle, Frosmoth, Whimsicott, Eldegoss and Flapple.
• Aquatic: The Pokemon lives in aquatic environments, so has mild resistance to Water-type moves. 
• This would include Lugia, the Dratini line, Alolan Slowpoke and its evolutions, Hisuian Qwilfish and Overqwil, Dragalge, Pincurchin, Clobbopus and Grapploct. 
• Mind's Eye: The Pokemon has STAB from Psychic-type moves. 
• Would include Golduck, the Hoothoot line, Stantler and probably a bunch of fairy, dark or ghost types I can't think of at the moment.
• Venomous: This Pokemon has STAB from Poison-type moves.
• Would include Gligar and Gliscor, Umbreon, Shellder.
• The Fair Folk: The Pokemon has STAB from Fairy-type moves. 
• Would include the likes of Audino, Chansey, Blissey, Jynx, Shiftry, Bellossom, Altaria, Celebi, Jirachi, Victini, the lake fairies, Vanniluxe, Calyrex.
• Green Fingers: The Pokemon has STAB from Grass-type moves.
• Would include Florges, Comfey, Xurkitree and Celesteela.
• Mischievous Soul: The Pokemon has STAB from Dark-type moves. Perhaps a 'bad influence' side-quest, similar to how Pancham becomes Pangoro? 
• Would include the likes of Tentacruel, Gyarados, Banette, Dusknoir, Gengar, Glalie, Croagunk, Toxicroak, Giratina, Huntail, Midnight Lycanroc, Toxapex and Basculin.
• Primal Insect: The Pokemon has STAB from Bug-type moves.
• Would include Armaldo, Drapion, Kabutops, Gligar again, maaaaybe Lurantis?
• Powered by Electricity: The Pokemon has STAB from Electric-type moves.
• Would include the likes of Porygon2, Porygon-Z and Klinklang.
• Martial Artist: The Pokemon has STAB from Fighting-type moves. One that could very easily  be a 'training dojo' to obtain. 
• Would include both Marowaks, Lopunny, Samurott, Incineroar, Accelgor, Zeraora, Tsareena and Ledian.
• Heart of the Dragon: The Pokemon has STAB from Dragon-type moves. Would probably be the one that needs a 'quest' the most. 
• Charizard, Ampharos, Tyranitar, maybe a couple others I can't think of at the moment.

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Everything New is Old Again!

In this region, I do want all gimmickry to remain existent in some way -- Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, Gigantamax, and (something that didn't exist in the original time of writing of this article) Terastral forms. But... the latter two always felt a lot less special for me, in particular because everyone can do those. Which is why in this hypothetical new game/region, Gigantamax forms would be treated as a subset of Mega Evolutions as 'super mode', due to... uh... some radiation-or-other. But if they get retconned into Mega Evolutions (Giga Evolutions? I do still want them to become big) then they would require new typings and new abilities, which honestly fits extremely well with the idea of them as more proper new forms.

As with most Mega Evolutions, they would all receive stat changes that would essentially lean them towards being much more specialized for whatever attack they do (i.e. Butterfree would be a heavy Special Attacker). Whenever possible, I try to look at their G-Max attacks and incorporate it into their abilities. 

• Giga Venusaur: Grass/Poison. Ability becomes "Frenzied Forest", which causes a Grass-type DoT to be applied to all enemies after Giga Venusaur unleashes a move.
• Giga Charizard: Fire. Just pure fire, to contrast with the two existing Megas. Ability becomes  "Wildfire", which causes an additional small explosion of Fire-type damage that hits both opponents after every Fire-type attack Charizard does. 
• Giga Blastoise: Water/Steel. Yeah, I changed his typing because of all the cannons on his back. The ability is "Bullet Rain", which creates a unique version of rain (with all the effects that brings) that damages all non-Water, non-Steel type Pokemon on the field like Hail. 
• Giga Butterfree: Bug/Flying. Ability becomes "Befuddle", which causes all damaging attacks to have a guaranteed status effect of either Paralysis, Sleep or Poison to afflict the enemy.
• Giga Pikachu: Electric. Ability becomes "Mold Breaker", which is a cheeky reference to anime Pikachu bypassing some type resistances -- interpreted as abilities here. 
• Giga Meowth: Normal. Ability becomes "Cat Festival", which causes all Normal, Steel and Dark attacks (the types of Meowth's regional variants) done by Giga-Meowth and his allies to be boosted.
• Giga Machamp: Fighting. I really wanted to change the typing for this one, but couldn't think of a good secondary type. Ability becomes "Quadriceps", which is basically Parental Bond -- Giga Machamp attacks a second time for half damage in a turn. 
• Giga Gengar: Ghost. (Yes, it becomes pure ghost.) Ability becomes "Night Terrors", which is Mega Gengar's Shadow Tag mixed with an additional effect of casting Dream Eater on any asleep Pokemon on the field. To compensate for the buffed ability, Giga Gengar has a much smaller boost to stats than Mega Gengar. 
• Giga Kingler: Water. Ability becomes "Foam Entrapment". When hit, Giga Kingler's Water-type attacks traps the enemy in foam, forcing them to move last in the next turn regardless of priority moves.
• Giga Lapras: Water/Ice. Ability becomes "Siren's Resonance". Giga Lapras boosts the damage of 'sound-based' moves, and increases the likelihood (not to 100%, though) of 'sound-based' status moves.
• Giga Eevee: Normal. Ability becomes "Mutable Genes". Giga Eevee gains STAB for Fire, Water, Electric, Psychic, Dark, Grass, Ice and Fairy type moves. (Oh, and Ghost-type, since this fan-game introduces a Ghost-type evolution). 
• Giga Snorlax: Normal/Grass. One of the type-changes here, since Gigantamax Snorlax has a tree. Ability becomes "Walking Forest", where at the end of each turn, Giga Snorlax recovers a Sitrus Berry and eats it.
• Giga Garbodor: Poison/Steel. I know Gigantamax Garbodor has toys technically, but we can assume some of them are metal, right? Ability becomes "Corrosion", which is Salazzle's ability. 
• Mega Greninja: Water/Dark. Yeah, it's the Ash-Greninja thing. This one gets the simple but effective ability of "Protean".
• Giga Melmetal: Steel. Ability becomes "Tormenting Meltdown", which forces all Pokemon on the field to be subject to the effects of Torment. 
• Giga Rillaboom: Grass. Ability becomes "Drum Solo", where both Grass-type moves and 'sound-based' moves have the Mold Breaker effect on them. 
• Giga Cinderace: Fire. Ability becomes "Libero", which is Cinderace's hidden ability.
• Giga Inteleon: Water/Dark. Yes, Inteleon gets a bonus typing, because snipers are sneaky! Inteleon gets "Hydrosnipe", which causes all Water-type moves used by Inteleon to always hit regardless of protection and substitute, and has an increased critical chance. 
• Giga Corviknight: Flying/Steel. Ability becomes "Steelswarm Wings". This is similar to pre-nerf Gale Wings (priority to Flying-type moves), but only affects offensive moves to prevent Roost shenanigans. 
• Giga Orbeetle: Bug/Psychic. Ability becomes "Orbit Gravitas", which creates the effect of Gravity as long as Orbeetle is on the field. 
• Giga Drednaw: Water/Rock. Ability becomes "Stonesurge". Water and Rock-type moves that Giga Drednaw uses deals both Water and Rock damage, similar to Hawlucha's Flying Pres. 
• Giga Coalossal: Rock/Fire. Ability becomes "Steam Engine Overdrive", which combines the effects of 'Steam Engine' and 'Flame Body'. 
• Giga Flapple: Grass/Dragon. Ability becomes "Wyrmheart", which boosts Dragon-type moves.
• Giga Appletun: Grass/Dragon. Ability becomes "Appleheart", which boosts Grass-type moves.
• Giga Sandaconda: Ground/Dragon. Big snake, big dragon, why not? Ability becomes "Sand Stream". A bit boring, but thematic. 
• Giga Toxtricity: Poison/Electric. Ability becomes "Punk Concert". Electric, Poison and sound-based moves have a chance to poison or paralyze as long as Giga Toxtricity is on the field. 
• Giga Centiskorch: Fire/Bug. Ability becomes "Centiferno". Fire-type moves cast by Centiskorch will prevent switching out and deal Fire Spin damage for the next couple of turns.
• Giga Hatterene: Psychic/Fairy. Ability becomes "Fairy Smite". All moves used by Giga Hatterene has a chance of confusing the opponent. This special confusion lasts 2 turns.
• Giga Grimmsnarl: Dark/Fairy. Ability becomes "Snoozing Goblin". Status moves used by Giga Grimmsnarl also cast Yawn. 
• Giga Alcremie: Fairy. Ability becomes "Cake Finale". If Giga Alcremie moves after its ally, it heals all members of its party. In single battles, this effect always procs. 
• Giga Copperajah: Steel. Ability becomes "Mammoth Weight". Giga Copperajah gains additional damage for any moves that utilize weight in its calculation.
• Giga Duraludon: Steel/Dragon. Ability becomes "Depletion", where upon attacking an opponent, Giga Duraludon causes the PP of the last move utilized by the opponent to be reduced by a further 1.
• Giga Urshifu: Fighting/Dark (Single Strike); Fighting/Water (Rapid Strike). Ability remains "Unseen Fist", which I think is already good enough.

...phew, that's quite a bit! Well, there are definitely a bunch more concepts that almost made the cut, but I think I'm more or less satisfied with these two articles.