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Mainline World

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One of the various canon views of the Pokémon World

The “Mainline World” is the Earth-like world of the Suocéverse analogue to the “Pokémon world” in Pokémon; that is, the world with humans where eg.: the anime takes place. It would be an Earth-like planet, if not an alternate interpretation of Earth itself. Functionally, it is a world not unlike ours except for what comes with the One Big Lie of there being Pokémon in it.

Design-wise this world is built closer to the anime incarnation than other Pokémon World incarnations such as the games' mainline, but still incorporates some elements from them.

For comparison see Pokémon world.

Macro Aspects

History

Geologically the history of the Mainline world would have been similar to that of the franchise Pokéon world: it would have been born in a similar star system in an universe created by Arceus and it would have experienced a number of geological iterations until the “present”, with some key events in the far past having made it into myth such as the confrontation between the two ancient Pokémon of Hoenn.

The current common calendar for Mainline world sets the timeframe concurrent to canon-like events as aprox. year 3730, meaning the current era sets Year 0 3730 years ago. Records exist of events and civilizations before that time but they remain intentionally vague and are considered “Ancient History”.

A more comprehensive take on the history of this world before the current calendar, can be found in Timeline of Mainline World.

Culture

Humans are the “main” civilization of the world, but are by far not the only extant culture set, nor the only sapient species. Humans have built much of their societies to account for a generalist focus on interacting with Pokémon as a source of companionship but also for a number of activities following the same base paradigm: a Pokémon, or a group of them, banding together under the coaching of a human to seek out their development and realization. Those activities include Pokémon Training, Contests, Rangers, etc.

Some Pokémon also have their own societies with different degrees of development. For the most part these societies tend to involve different species and aggregate on factors such as egg group, morphological consistency, or geographical niche. The more advanced societies have a concept of self determination and maintain communities or territories, a model called "Sovereignty".

Lifeforms

The world has humans and Pokémon in it, but also a variety of life that could be considered “IRL-like” that includes trees and mushrooms (which is also seen in the franchise games and anime) but also IRL-like animals of up to human-like scale (as was the case with the franchise's early anime).

Those creatures fill ecological niches for the most part similar to what they do in IRL, including serving as part of the food chain for other creatures or other Pokémon. Such is the case of krill, small bugs, worms and small rodents, for example.

Geography

The world is similar to IRL Earth in the various foundational aspects tied to background of the setting and the design of such a planet: it features landforms and oceans in a proportion similar to that of IRL Earth, including the presence of continents, islands and other features.

The position or structures of the general Mainline geography remains intentionally vague, but a general “IRL-like” sense of the relative positioning and distance between named regions is preserved compared to their inspirations: for example, Hoenn is a tropical region wheras Sinnoh is closer to the arctic, or Suocé and Caledoria represent the eastern and western coast of a larger landform.

The geographical features are subject to geological phenomena such as tectonic migration, volcanic eruptions, etc., as well as subject to manipulation of forces of nature used by Pokémon.

Region-scale features such as (the Pokéverse equivalents of) “Scandinavia” or the “Iberian Peninsula” would be recognizable from outer space just as they are in the sat view in M8 or in the World Globe visible in the BW season of the anime. Presumably a landmass allowing for subdivisions resembling modern Japan also exist, as the regions of Kanto and Johto at least are their analogues.

Geopolitical Structure

Regions

Main Article: Regions of the World.

Pokéarth has a multitude of regions, that are geologically and/or politically “independent” areas of the world map comparable to provinces or countries, where stories take place. Each region has its own culture, its own form of government, and in most cases its own Pokémon League.

There's the canon regions, that is the ones named in the mainline games and other forms of media: including but not limited to Kanto, Unova, or territories like Holon or Rota. There's also regions not canon to the Pokémon Franchise, such as Suocé and Emisre, and regions shared with other authors and continuities, in particular Angela.

Nothing much is ever stated in canon about the relative positioning of regions with respect to each other, so everything here is made up, and the points don't matter.

One continent hosts the regions of Kanto, Johto, Rota (neighbour to Kanto according to M8) and other regions not yet named in canon. This landmass might or might be not East Asia-shaped.

What would be IRL “Asia” is largely split into two stand-in landmasses (large islands or continents); one of these hosts the region of Krasnoska which is intended to be the “meme Russia” analogue. The split would be resulting from geological events in the far past that have reshaped and repositioned parts of the continent.

One landmass functions as a stand-in to the Northern Americas and hosts the regions of Unova, Orre, Angela, Emisre (aka Totally not Mexico), Omixence, and probably other regions not named in canon.

One landmass in the opposite hemisphere, but likely connected to the continent above, serves a closer stand-in to the Central and South Americas, with some elements from the conceptual Zealandia as well, and hosts the regions of Suocé, Caledoria (aka Totally Not Argentina/Chile), Malvusia, Rondovia and other regions not named in canon, as well as the “Guyanas” mentioned in early franchise canon regarding the legendary Pokémon Mew.

One landmass hosts what would be an equivalent to Poké!Europe, with Kalos, Paldea and a number of non-canon regions around it.

Hoenn is located within the tropical belt, placed at about one region's distance from either Johto or Sinnoh, whereas the other canon regions (Sinnoh in particular) are located outside the tropical belt.

While regions are primarily a human-oriented concept of political subdivisions, Pokémon civilizations sometimes also shape their own autonomous territories with their own forms of government. These are usually smaller in scale than regions, and take the name of Sovereignties or Sovereign Lands.

 

Biodiversity

There's Pokémon. There's humans. There's also trees. There's not much to say about it in canon, so everything here is for the most part “logical expansion”. For example, in order to support Pokémon in their numbers, things that are similar to IRL plankton and small bugs should exist. With IRL-like trees being a thing, there is no reason why small animals and more Earth-like flora should not also be a thing. In the end, with humans being a thing and given all of the above, there is also no reason why farm animals like cows can not also be a thing, and that also helps solve the problem of what do humans eat.

There is also the existence of non-Pokémon, non-Earthlike creatures that are canon to the franchise, such as Bittercold, so others that could be original can also be a thing to fill in some niches. See also Disputed Pokémon.

Potential Pokémon

All content starting here is subject to modifications via canon lore or events that can be introduced in later generations, and should be considered flavour text, not fully committed as canon to the Suocéverse.
As written at the moment of the latest revision, the chronology takes into account primarily elements up to Generation Ⅴ.
 

Of course, Pokémon from future generations reasonably exist in the Suocéverse, it's just that until they are revealed and the setting adjusted for them in terms of lore and worldbuilding, they basically remain in the shadows. Such is the situation of, at the last update of this article, things like the Generation 6 event Pokémon like Diancie, the Generation 7 Ultra Beasts and other such very recent additions to the canon, and would thus be for the upcoming Pokémon of Generation 8. (See: Upcoming Pokémon)

While there are various proper hooks for the existence of Fakemon, such as the size of the biodiversity and some incomplete taxonomies (such as the missing Eeveelutions), the Suocéverse takes as of latest updates no stance on whether Fakemon are a thing; just that, if needed, there's room for them to be. (See: Fakémon)

As of latest updates, the only “half-Fakemon” confirmed existing in the Suocéverse is the Original Dragon.

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