( @asktheisle) Nat: "I heard you say something about studying different species and variants! I've got a little experience myself in seeing them, where I live. Anything from your studies that stick out to you?"
Carillon was thrilled at the question. “Dude, fuck yes. Oh my gosh there’s so much interesting stuff, but I think my time in the Great Cambium Forest still sticks out to me the most, probably because it was my first time doing any major research for, well, anyone. Sorry, now you legally have to listen to me ramble for the next, eh, 10 minutes. To be fair, you did ask for this.”
Carillon quickly went into teacher mode, a little more formal in her words but still full of passion. "So, anyway, here’s a bit of set up. We all know there are many Pokemon that learn a move upon evolving, and have their own ‘signature moves’ that are, more often than not, unique to them. There is also a specific subset of Pokemon which need to know a move to evolve. Taking it one step further, there is a small but unique group of Pokemon which must fully master their signature moves before evolving. It’s a quickly growing field of study, and is incredibly important when it relates to evolutions that are considered lost.”
“The clearest example I can give would be by examining Wyrdeer in Sinnoh, since that is the species I’m most familiar with. I have one on my team, even! But basically, due to hunting and poaching, the once thriving population of Wyrdeer and Stantler in Sinnoh dropped rapidly, with Wyrdeer becoming, at the time, fully extinct. Even when Stantler populations recovered, they would not– or perhaps could not –evolve as they once had. It was during my studies within the Cambium Forest that we learned why; not only did these pokemon need to fully master a specific move, but the move itself was something taught generationally. These groups actively picked who would get to learn their move, and when they were ready to do so.”
“It seems very obvious when stated just like that, but it had genuinely stumped many for the longest time, why Psyshield Bash, Wyrdeer’s signature move, was not observed in surviving populations. The loss inflicted upon the Stantler of Sinnoh was more than just a loss of numbers, it was a loss of culture too. All of us are very lucky that a separate population existed within the Cambium Forest, otherwise Wyrdeer might have been lost to us forever without us ever really knowing why.”
“With this knowledge, efforts were made to rectify the problem, which has led to a resurgence in the Wyrdeer population! I am so very lucky and humbled that I was able to play a part in their story, and it’s stuff like that which really sticks out to me. It’s all fun and games until the information you gather actually gets applied.”
“Anyway, yeah, that's kinda it. I can yap more if you really wanna hear about some stuff, but I’ll have mercy on you for now, haha! Though, if you want to share, I'd love to hear about your own experiences! No pressure though, I’m just passionate about the topic.”
