#ask-shrinking-dewott

“While the tree was made by the Deity, and I’m guessing that was back during the age of the Gods...the temple was made by regular Pokemon...a lot of their descendants still live in the town, like myself and my parents. In fact, I don’t believe our ancestors even started building the temple until after Pokemon began to make a settlement around the hill.Originally asides from its enormous size, no one thought the tree was particularly unique...until they realize that nothing could cut into the bark or burn it, and that the tree was flowering year-round. Anyone near the tree felt...purified in a way, like they were healthier and could breathe better, and Pokemon started to notice that their crops grew exceptionally well the closer they were to the tree. Medicine made from the leaves and flowers made for great anti-toxins, and we still make and sell that medicine to other towns to this day.At first...there was just a small shrine at the base of all the tree’s roots. Until the town got some visitors...The largest gathering of Shaymins you could have ever dreamed of seeing! I imagine that the first meeting between them and the newly developing town was...awkward, to say the least. But they saw that no one was trying to hurt the tree, and as long as it stayed that way...they were fine. This tree, above all others, was special to them too.Shortly after that, to honor the Shaymin, the Pokemon in the town set forth on making an actual temple within the roots. Like I said, it was impossible to build from or into the tree, but the roots were spacious enough to create an actual building beneath. The temple was never suppose to be as large as it is now, but smaller roots kept wrapping around the stone and making cracks and holes. It didn’t hurt the foundation of the building actually, but they were worried that the roots would eventually overrun the temple so Pokemon kept adding to it until it’s as you see now. It only looks more...rustic because the tree keeps, well, adding itself to the building.It had been decided that to preserve both the town’s history and the importance of the temple, one family would be the sole bearers of all the stories and memories. The family was mine, and I am the 6th generation to keep up this tradition. My grandmother was the temple’s keeper before me. So the temple isn’t really that old at all......there’s a line I remember, about the conversation on why the Shaymins visited the tree every few decades. They said that...this ‘tree was where the lives of all Shaymin first began’. No one understood what that meant...I suppose, until the Deity woke up a few months ago.”