#lysande

The World:

Most of the regions remain the same, other than minor tweaks. Because this au is so far focused on the characters below, I’m mainly working on the Kalos region, as while I loved the xy games, the story really lacked details in some areas. I definitely encourage others to pose ideas for the other regions too, please, I’d love to hear from you guys. But anyways, here’s some world building stuff.

Changes to Areas: I’ll have a map drawn out eventually. But I wanted to include the Volcanion movie area, the Azoth Kingdom, and while I was looking at the regional map I noticed there are forest areas north and south east of the mountains that could still be considered part of the region. Hence west Kalos, where the setting is for gen six, is the main political/commercial hub and these two other areas are more closed off and reclusive for several reasons.

Kalos: This region, as shown by the war three thousand years before the game, and a war five hundred years before the anime with the azoth kingdom referenced in the volcanion movie, Kalos could be a very volatile and even admittedly unstable region based on its past. This region also didn’t have a professor until Augustine, as unlike Juniper he had to travel to get trained in sinnoh under Rowan (take that information for what you will, but for me it’s used to represent the instability based around 15-20 years before the xy series). Finally, like how it is implied in other regions, the Pokémon league is the political leadership of the area but there is still a royal family, they just serve more like a regional/national figure (which will be relevant later when discussing Lysandre).

Gyms: Eight gym badges are required to challenge the league (of course), however, there is usually more than eight in the region, based on local towns/populations, and they serve as defenders and local leaders for their communities, and have a higher responsibility of protecting the region as a whole (aka as seen in the ending of xyz).

Pokémon League: The primary council and political leadership, while the champion can vary drastically in age it is noted that the rest of the elite four always has at least one older and more experienced individual that can help lead, and in a normal scenario it is likely that the league was formed to a) create unity among the other regions to prevent further conflict between each other and b) organize a group strong enough to push back against threats that might arise. (In most cases this falls upon the gym leaders, likely the league gets involved as a last resort). The champions (Diantha, Steven, Wallace, Lance, Cynthia, etc) are chosen due to their charisma and likely are meant to be ambassadors between regions, mostly seen with Cynthia.

Legendary Pokémon: I mean this by the “god tier” pokemon, like the creation trio, arceus, yveltal and xerneas, basically any Pokémon shown to be able to communicate telepathically, (I’m definitely going to make a separate post about this topic but that’s for another time), can manifest themselves in a human like form. However this is very unlikely as it is shown that most of the legendaries really didn’t like humans and probably wouldn’t bother replicating their looks.

Humans: for the sake of keeping the anime/games pg of course pokemon aren’t outright killing people and other pokemon(lol but there have definitely been exceptions Jesus Christ), but in this au this can be explained by the idea that humans in the Pokémon universe are far more durable due to their exposure with pokemon (Ash getting thundershocked over and over again, trainers getting hit by stray attacks, resilience to fire, Meyer getting absolutely bodied by Zygarde and still being able to stand afterwards, etc etc.). This also plays into another concept (again something I’ll go more in depth in another post) that being exposed to a certain amount of certain types of pokemon have innate effects on their trainers.

Lysandre:

Look, we’re starting these sections off on the backstorys of these characters. Lysandre is referenced to very likely be a prince, a descendant of AZ’s brother due to both how he holds himself(plus his height) and the reference of sheer wealth Lys has. While I wouldn’t doubt he could’ve built himself from nothing, there are signs pointing that he is meant to be related to AZ so just as a note he and his family are relevant to Kalos for a variety of reasons. (I mean damn, his Japanese name is Fleur de Lis.)

Mier, Lysandre’s father and Sylvie, Lysandre’s mother, were members of the elite four until they eventually retire (Malva and Siebold take their place). In this au for the sake of it, despite the royal family not officially having control over the region, they still do what they can to look over it. Both Lysandre (and his brother Bastien that I’ll talk about later) are well educated and were, well, trained to be able to potentially take their place in the league. Lysandre didn’t really follow suit, instead founding his own research facility/business with the focus of improving Kalos technologically and making the region more accessible to itself. Bastien takes the role of actively representing the royal family, and is currently the king (despite that title meaning absolutely nothing). He also helps with facilitating communities, establishing relationships between towns, and reinforcing policies and proposing projects for economics first drafted up by the league.

Lysandre himself was very reserved and sheltered during his younger years. Their chateau, located in the forest area north of Geosenge, had very few neighbors. His family wasn’t really around that often due to his parents duty with the league and his brother residing mostly at the palace (which despite it being a museum it still has parts used for their average function... I might redesign it later on), but Lysandre spent most of his time with his childhood friend Augustine on his families ranch, up until the pair left to go explore Kalos (This time in the timeline Kalos, mostly in lumiose and the surrounding areas, is a dangerous place, due to a villain team that I’m working on.)

Lysandre was a very caring and an extremely generous individual (until later something so bad happens that it causes him to become a misanthrope. Referenced to be a bad event plus witnessing general human stupidity and greed). He was known for his love and admiration of life, human and Pokémon, and did what he could to protect it. (I still have some stuff to work out for the story during this time) He was willing to learn both the secrets of mega evolution and move based combat. He, alongside Augustine and the others, helped stop The Order of Midnight (the villain team, still a work in progress) from destroying Kalos.

After that, he establishes what eventually will become team flare (back when it wasn’t an evil organization and I’ll probably come up with a name for it later). He, with the help of Clemont (damn child genius), figure out how to provide lumiose and eventually Kalos as a whole with clean renewable energy. He is a known inventor and philanthropist around the region, he also took Clemont in as an apprentice up until Clemont took his father’s place as the lumiose gym leader.

Eventually something happens (still working out the details, but it will involve shadow Pokémon and maybe something with his brother), and Lysandre loses all hope in humanity. By this time and from his experience he hides his misanthropy very well, his friends notice something’s wrong but could never really pry enough to figure out what it really was, until events similar to a mix of the manga/the anime take place, (again this is a work in progress).

In a failed attempt to use the ultimate weapon the building collapses. Trapping Lysandre, who had direct exposure to the blast during the collapse, in and killing him in the process. However, because he used both xerneas and yveltal, became immortal (in a way were he can die but revives and heals /as long as he’s not impaled to something/ over and over again). Xerneas in an act of pity, as Lysandre helped her and yveltal when fighting the order, and an act of justice by freeing him from the debris and making him her champion to protect the world from those bent on making the same decision he did.

Despite his hesitation he also eventually reconnects with his friends, and through his service to xerneas rekindles his love for the world, despite knowing how unlikely it would be for the world to forgive him for his actions, but because the populace doesn’t know he’s alive he doesn’t really care as long as he could help and protect others, once again finding his purpose and his passion that he though he had permanently lost after ‘the event’.

(This is just a note, but as I scroll through sources I found that his misanthropy is also caused by his fear and his anger over his own shortcomings, as it is referenced in the anime and kinda in the games that his generosity was abused, and therefore holds himself to blame for not being able to help others because of his own blind willingness. It gives him character but isn’t something that isn’t easily incorporated into the timeline so I’m just putting it here.)

Augustine:

Augustine lived with his family (I’ll have names later, probably) on their estate/ranch, his father is a pokemon breeder and his mother is a pokemon ranger. Because of this, August grew up taking care of Pokémon to the point it became a literal second nature to him, and Pokémon are drawn to him naturally. However, even though he found that he was actually pretty good at both of his parents professions he didn’t really have a passion for them.

So as the years went on and he really didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, when Lysandre proposed that he could come with him across Kalos he jumped at the opportunity. He was joined by a gabite, one that tended to give the family a really hard time but over time developed a really strong bond with him (at the cost of the smoothness of his hands /rip/).

He hates seeing Pokémon get hurt, but due to his background is a rather epic opponent in battle (he just says he’s weak to avoid conflict). But he is really good at caring for Pokémon after battle (hey maybe you can pay him back with a cup of coffee later or something). Instead during the journey he participated more in entertainment and performing and tried to avoid battling as much as he could.

However, when they get to lumiose (around the time Lysandre gets his third badge and they try to see if they can challenge Meyer) he discovers mega evolution when they encounter blaziken mask for the first time. This sets him on the path, after learning that Kalos has been without a professor for a really long time, to learn the secrets and techniques of mega evolution, (he later discovers that he is capable of mega evolving any one of his team, and the weaker members of the order built up quite a reputation for the man that could pull a super powered monster on you in seconds).

Meyer and Auriel also teach him about using pokemon moves, and how you can boost the strength of your own Pokémon (think like similar to ash greninja or az’s flotte). Once again he becomes quite a force to be reckoned with (and I’m considering making him apart of Meyer and Auriel’s team as a band of super heroes because hero Augustine is cool, okay?)

He also encounters a disguised Alva (the main villain of the volcanion movie to which they are unaware that he’s associated with the azoth kingdom) and finds out that mega evolutions can in fact be forced which a) terrifies Augustine, and b) motivates him to teach others the importance of having a bond with you pokemon if you’re going to have access to mega evolution, hence the entries on everything that goes wrong or the bad stuff that can happen with mega evolution (he discovered them from Alva.)

After the events with the order and through his own notes and research he is able to get a position under professor Rowan, leaving Kalos for a bit so he can go study in sinnoh. (If you mess with Augustine in the presence of Rowan I’m sorry but you’re hella dead, that man becomes a son to him.) Augustine also becomes a pretty well known coordinator in sinnoh, not really to the surprise of his friends but a surprise to the populace of Kalos after some of those details resurface a decade later.

(Not much is really changed with Augustine afterwards, other than making him even more of a force to be reckoned with and adding in some background details for him).

Meyer:

(Oh look one of my favorite characters) So Meyer was the lumiose gym leader, known for being one of the strongest in the region behind Olympia and Wulfric, and he could have become one of the elite for had it now been for the fact the he just wanted to settle down with his kids, his mechanic shop, and his super hero alter ego. He focused primarily on electric types and was rather difficult to get past for most trainers.

He was one of the major reasons lumiose was even inhabited during the issues with the Order, as he was a defender of the people and did his damndest to keep everything in order. Of course he is just one man, and even beat himself up over that fact that he couldn’t be everywhere at once to protect everyone.

He was also a single father, I’m not exactly sure about the circumstances, but after Bonnie was born their mother just wasn’t in their life afterwards, but he was able to raise his kids pretty well (he gladly accepted the help from his friends when he could, especially when they offered to look over the siblings so he could do his superhero stuff).

No one really discovered his identity other than his friends either because people just didn’t equate his sweetheart mechanic personality with the flying badass that is blaziken mask. His suit, unlike Auriel’s, is actually made by him. He’s not an inventor just because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, but it’s very Ironman-esk in concept to he doesn’t waste time changing if shit starts going down.

He eventually joins forces with Auriel, another vigilante living in lumiose at the time, (maybe also Augustine after he returns from sinnoh) and they work togther to try and stop the order from causing chaos and destruction in Kalos.

Unlike Auriel he learned the process of using Pokémon moves by himself, that in combination with close calls with the order means he has a few scars, they’re primarily on his palms, lower legs, and torso. He tries to avoid that as much as he can because he doesn’t want his kids worrying about him over this stuff (but that plan didn’t work).