Inscrutable Ancientness
Among the regions of the Pokémon World, Paldea strikes as the one lacking the most in terms of prehistorical findings. Not only there are no Fossil Pokémon native to the area, but fossil remains are apparently absent altogether in the underground — to a point no facility for revival is present on the territory. Obviously, it would be questionable to think the whole region was colonized by life only in a later era, so the reason for this oddity is to be found elsewhere. More likely, conditions simply weren’t favorable for fossilization. The Pokédex does allude to intense tectonic movements occurring in the ancient Paldea, maybe hinting to its position on a fault line, and the formation of Area Zero alone is fertile soil for oxygen infiltrations and scavengers from above to spoil the organic rests in lower strata — not a stretch if even a Noivern managed to slip in the Underdepths. Evidently, too few specimens survived in the process for the paleontological field to gain any attention in this corner of the world.
Where biology is lacking, geological formations can at least give us a small glimpse in the region’s prehistory. Colonnade Hollow [列柱洞, Column Cave] is a massive tunnel structure located in the West Province. Sustained by characteristic stone pillars and fitting den for the local Dunsparce, this peculiar natural formation holds to the title of one of the Ten Sights of Paldea. The formation is heavily inspired by the site of Ciudad Encantada near the city of Cuenca [Spain], whose stones were carved in anomalous shapes by water from a nearby river, rainfall, and other weather conditions in the course of million of years — in the real world they date back to approximately 90 million of years ago, which may be more or less mirrored in the fictional setting. The process of formation seems to have also been partially adopted by developers, if the Water Tera Garchomp inside is of any thematical indication — ground replaced by waters. Even the Ghost Tera Naclstack just outside may serve the same purpose, giving the image of hollowed rocks that “passed away” as time went by.
“This place is called Colonnade Hollow. It’s one of the Ten Sights of Paldea. I’m going to research how the area came to be shaped this way!”
Indeed, the presence of those two Pokémon in a seemingly ancient site is no oddity. Gible had to came from their tropical homeland at some point the regions’ early days, and a fixed encounter with a Gabite below the colonnade shows some were able to adapt just as fine — both Fly and Dragon Pulse nearby reiterate the idea. The environment is surely suited for the land sharks, Heat Wave near the river implying hot winds from the southern desert contribute to the area’s climate.
Nacli are instead described as born in a layer of rock and salt deep underground, testifying their ancientness. Not a different process from what led to the birth of Carbink from matter subjected to conditions of high pressure and temperature below the earth for hundreds of millions of years — in Paldea, the Jewel Pokémon can be found exclusively in the Underdepths: these are no doubt early specimens. So, even without actual records, we can still manage to infer to some degree the state of region’s fauna back in its beginnings. And another species is worth mentioning.
It was born in a layer of rock salt deep under the earth. This species was particularly treasured in the old days, as they would share precious salt.
The Legendary Pokémon Terapagos was once a common creature that lived in the Paldea of old [according to the Pokédex, they can even be of both genders, despite the only specimen we can catch is 100% male], and eventually went extinct after being caught in the aforementioned seismic shifts. Given the formation of the great cave below the region coincides with one of these Pokémon falling from above, the species must’ve roamed around well before 2 million years ago — the date currently attributed to the start of Area Zero Underdepths. We can even suggest a range spanning from 100 to 2 million years ago if we consider the timeframe Tirtouga swam in the seas — the ancestor of most turtle Pokémon according to its entries. It surely is fitting that Terapagos internal name is コダイカメ [kodaikame], literally meaning “ancient turtle”.
[Terapagos] It’s thought that this Pokémon lived in ancient Paldea until it got caught in seismic shifts and went extinct.
[Tirtouga] Reputed to be the ancestor of most turtle Pokémon, it lived in warm seas approximately a hundred million years ago.
The planet the first Terapagos lived on was an unwelcoming place, the never-ending clashes between Groudon and Kyogre still frequent at the time had to largely influence atmospheric conditions of the world to some extent, even denying their presence locally. It is only natural for lifeforms from this era to develop strategies to survive the harshest conditions. According to Pokédex, Terapagos owns the ability to convert energy into hard crystals. It is worth noticing that never it’s stated this pertains to Terastal energy specifically. Before encountering a much greater source of power, these turtles likely absorbed all types of elemental energies to hard their shells in defense from enemies. Sea predators were no match for carapace imbued with the power of flora, and if a being of flames attempted an attack in return, the crystals could’ve always been powered with waters. It was a perfect trait in a world filled with elemental energies like the super-ancient past. We may even have traces of this early mineralization.
Terapagos protects itself using its power to transform energy into hard crystals. This Pokémon is the source of the Terastal phenomenon.
Among Type-enhancing items, Gems [ジュエル, Jewels] are by far the most underutilized. These crystals were firstly introduced in Generation V as one-time boosters, one per each of the seventeen Types back available — despite not being legally obtainable, a Fairy Gem was added in the code of later iterations. The exact origin of such gems is never addressed, but we do find them mostly among the dust of caves and other mountainous areas in Unova. You would expect as such from minerals, but how did they end up imbued with all kinds of essences — including those so distant from a rocky environment? Introducing Terapagos and its Type-crystallization ability, and suddenly the existence of these items isn’t so farfetched anymore. While we don’t find them in Paldea, this is coherent with the apparent lack of relics from prehistory, and if the Pokémon did evolve from Tirtouga we can reasonably expect a population had to exist in Unova to begin with. Moreover, Normal Gems seem to be more frequent in nature; we can loot them from various rocks in Hoenn, in Kalos’ Terminus Cave, on Route 15 of Alola, and on Route 8 of Galar, while the other variants are completely absent outside Unovan borders. And since Terapagos is a Normal Type, we should expect its default crystallization to be the most abundant.
What we do find in Paldea are blueish crystals in growing amount as we approach Area Zero’s epicenter. These minerals serve as the basis for Terastallization, a phenomenon that allows a Pokémon Type to change in its hidden “Tera Type”, and Terapagos is repeatedly addressed as its source. Indeed, Briar goes as far as claiming the Pokémon finds its essence in Terastal energy altogether, and this same energy is the true component behind the crystals. At its roots, this is the same process described for other jewels: the turtle absorbs a certain kind of energy and converts it in solid form, all while enduring its shell accordingly. But what is this “Terastal energy” the Pokémon came across?
“It seems we’ve found another one of those crystal flowers… Could the Terastal energy that’s saturating the air be condensing into a crystallized form?”
“Of course! Terapagos is made of Terastal energy!”
In all likelihood, Terastallization is the result to Terapagos meeting a source of Stellar Type energy, consequentially crystallizing it. This peculiar essence is a true mixture of all, granting the user a boost on each of the existing Types — notably, only one time per Type, in a process clearly mirroring that of Gems. And Stellar Type is undeniably tied hand in glove to Terastallization, moves falling in the category being super-effective against Terastallized opponents. Indeed, “Terastal” original name is テラスタル, which can be equally read as “Terastar” in a more obvious thematic nod. Similarly, ステラタイプ [sutera type] is an anagram of テラスタイプ [terasu type]. The connection between Stellar and Terastal is self-evident, and it serves as a proper explanation for the phenomenon’s dominion over all Types. But if this is true, the next question is also obvious: since Stellar Type Pokémon do not seem to exist in nature, how did Terapagos manage to make a contact with its raw form?
Fall in God’s Grave
According to the Professor’s journals, the Area Zero Underdepths [ゼロの大空洞, Great Zero Hollow] formed two million years ago when a filled space was suddenly hollowed. Localization states that the cavern was once filled with “many objects, or creatures perhaps”, but this is more the translation team’s uncertainty than the author. 無数の何か is simply “countless things”, and nothing is spoken on the nature of such things — let alone if they were alive or not. At some point, these things simply vanished, creating the first cavern. Later collapses caused by tectonic activities, rainwater and groundwater is what gave the Underdepths their current layout.
The Area Zero Underdepths
ENG:
I am calling the area found below Area Zero the Area Zero Underdepths. From the composition of the rock, I would date the cavern’s formation to two million years ago. There are indications that many objects — or creatures perhaps — filled the space prior to the current cavern’s formation.
The depths bottoms out approximately 3,300 feet beneath the surface. There are indications of numerous past cave-ins, likely resulting from tectonic activity and erosion caused by rainwater or groundwater, but it appears that the ground has remained stable since the last major cave-in.
JPN:
エリアゼロよりさらに下層をゼロの大空洞と呼んでいる。この空洞が形作られたのは地層から推測するに約200万年前。空洞ができる直前まで無数の何かが穴を埋めつくしていた形跡がある。
陥没の深さは約1000メートル。何度も崩落を繰り返した跡がある。原因はおそらく地殻活動や雨水、地下水による浸食。最後に最大の崩落が起きた後、現在まで地形は安定している。
The layer below Area Zero is called the Great Zero Hollow. Judging from the geological strata, this cavity was formed about 2 million years ago. There is evidence that countless things filled the hole just before it was formed.
The depth of the depression is approximately 1000 meters. There are traces of repeated collapses. The cause is probably tectonic activity, rainwater, and groundwater erosion. Since the last major collapse, the terrain has remained stable until the present.
The nature of the “countless things” is never spoken, but given they disappeared without a trace where we can now find a dormant Terapagos, its fall down the earth is likely what triggered the hollowing. The Pokédex does affirm the species went extinct due to tectonic activities, and it appears one individual simply slipped in the cracks of the planet’s crust and reached an energized end — the ability Teraform Zero [ゼロフォーミング, Zero-Forming] is an allusion to its terraforming role in the formation of Area Zero. If Terapagos is responsible for the things to disappear, and it’s this particular specimen that eventually came in contact with Stellar Type energy, then these things were probably entirely made of such raw energy that the Pokémon naturally consumed.
Whether they were meteorites or alien lifeforms, a massive stock of Stellar material rested below the earth, and a Terapagos just happened to came in contact and feast with it. The source of these things is likely extraterrestrial — not only the names “Stellar” and the signature move Tera Starstorm [テラクラスター, Tera Cluster] are a clear allusion to outer space. Past a secret entrance in the Underdepths we can only access after defeating a Stellar Tera Garchomp, we can find countless Tera Shards; among them, a single other item stands out: the TM for Meteor Beam.
Despite Scarlet and Violet wacky item placement, TMs seem to still be taken in some regard compared to the setting. While it is obviously nonsensical modern artificial items are scattered through the secluded cave, the franchise always used man-made moves as a thematic mean to convey environmental storytelling. In some cases, TMs are just there to signify certain Pokémon in the area — we can loot Outrage and Stone Edge following the path to Garchomp. Earthquake is found in the lower levels, both to symbolize the intense tectonic activity and as a tie to the guarding Garganacl. In Noivern’s level we find two other moves: Hydro Pump and Flare Blitz. Given the current layout is the result of multiple cave-ins, it is plausible the materials directly above the innermost cave to have considerably changed in the course of millennia. In fact, crystals have formed in the area following a curious scheme, almost flowing from the edge of a cliff like molten lava that solidified on a second time. In short, a magma basin was likely once directly above the first cave [high temperatures are one of the conditions of Carbink to be born after all], successive collapses exposed it to groundwaters and the heated matter eventually solidified — while the liquid that escaped evaporation recollected at the small lake at the very bottom. A Hydro Pump clashing with a Flare Blitz.
The image evoked by a Meteor Beam with Tera Shards all around is clear, the Blizzard just outside the cave only reinforcing the obvious: Terastallization arrived from space, meteors often carrying ice and other frozen materials. It is possible that such energized “things” arrived billions of years ago on a young planet, well before Terapagos roamed Paldea. We can’t see evidence of meteoric strikes after the formation of the Great Crater, and for them to rest miles underground, strata must have piled up on top of one another until the Stellar relics were completely buried. If so, these objects or creatures could have even derived from the body of one of the defeated titans during the War against the Giants. More specifically, they would belong to the strongest of them, fittingly arrived before all the others.
The Stellar Type is an amalgamation of all other Types, something surely akin to the primordial chaos before creation that intermingled everything in one. A similar concept was presented in Legends: Arceus with the introduction of the Legend Plate — an artifact imbued with the essences of all Types. Given a star is engraved on its face, it is crystal clear the power of a Stellar Type giant is infused in this Plate. And it just happens that a source of the same power is buried below ground? This is no coincidence. The creature may have even reached Earth while alive before being slain by Arceus and Giratina, opposed to all the others whose remnants roamed in outer space for billions of years before striking the planet. Then, those countless things Terapagos absorbed may have been none other than byproducts of a divine corpse.
The Professor’s journals in the Underdepths address the current state of Terapagos, dormant after its body crystallized when it came in contact with the mysterious source of power below. This hardening is described as a mere natural reaction, a way to protect itself from external threats. This is again no different that the species usual behavior, but this time it evidently changed its form indefinitely. The Stellar remnants were a virtually infinite spring of energy to make crystal, and this highly affected Terapagos physiognomy. The ancient turtle became littered with the blueish jewels, shaping its shell and growing both on its legs and on top of its head. More importantly, it became one and the same with the Terastal phenomenon, gaining the ability Tera Shift [テラスチェンジ, Tera Change].
The Treasure and the Stellar Tera Type
ENG:
A massive cavern exists beneath Area Zero, and there slumbers Terapagos, the hidden treasure of Area Zero. Its body has become crystal, protecting it from hostile outsiders. It appears that rousing it will take some time.
In this cavern, I have witnessed the Terastal phenomenon occurring in a way I’ve never seen aboveground — Terastallization that appears to hold the power of every known type. I have dubbed this Tera Type the Stellar type for now. Could Terapagos’s influence be at play?JPN:
エリアゼロよりさらに下層には巨大な空洞が存在しておりその最深部にはテラパゴス…ゼロの秘宝が眠っている。その体は結晶体となり外敵から身を守っている。目覚めるには少し時間が必要そうだ。
テラパゴスの影響であろうか。大空洞内では地上では見たことがないテラスタル現象が起きている。すべてのタイプを宿したテラスタル…私はそのテラスタイプを仮にステラと呼ぶことにする。
There is a huge cavern below Area Zero, and in the deepest part lies Terapagos… the dormant secret treasure of (Area) Zero. Its body became crystal to protect itself from external threats. Looks like it’ll take some time to be awaken.
Could it be the influence of Terapagos? Inside the vast cavity, a Terastal phenomenon that has never been seen on the surface is occurring. A Terastal that houses all types… I will provisionally name this Tera Type “Stellar”.
Absorbing the energy around it, Terapagos can now shift to its Terastal Form. In this battle stance the Pokémon assumes when sensing hostility, the shell undergoes a second crystallization that unravel the hidden potential of a being encompassing all Types — their essences physically manifesting on its plates. This is reflected by the signature ability Tera Shell [テラスシェル, Tera Shell], which allows to absorb any attack when the Pokémon is undamaged, shielding it from moves of any Types.
Upon sensing danger, it prepares itself for battle by creating a sturdy shell of crystallized Terastal energy.
The shell is made of crystallized Terastal energy. When struck by a move, this shell absorbs the move’s energy and transfers it to Terapagos.
The presence of Terapagos naturally influenced its surroundings. The source remained secluded for who knows how many years, but the burst that carved the first cavity made it easier to leak from its new host. As the Professor notices, it’s Terapagos own presence the reason Stellar Type Terastallization occurs only near the epicenter, while the more the crystals expand further from the main body, the more diluted their powers become. In fact, the crystals are all-in-all extensions of the turtle’s shell: that is why fragments can be caught inside a Tera Orb like an actual Pokémon, and why Terastallization will always be preceded by a sound font almost identical to Terapagos’ cry. You may say they’re almost like cells of a single gigantic organism, expanding more and more as they made their way outside their dome. And that’s exactly what happened in the forgotten days of Paldea.
Capital of Brightness
Eventually, the crystals reached the surface. Even without the proper Great Crater communicating with the outside world, energy leaks and small seismic cracks were enough for small samples of the unearthly gems to made their way to the top and be bathed by sunrays for the first time. In fact, we can be sure Terastallization was known by humans in the mythical era that settled in Paldea. Upon Terastallization, Terapagos will assume its Stellar Form, unraveling its full potential. The Pokémon creates a surrogate of its normal resemblances on its top — mirrored by the more common Tera Jewels [テラスタルジュエル, Terastal Jewel] on top of standard Tera Pokémon, shaped by their inner potential — while below its feet it appears a semisphere with gems of all Types floating around in circle. Clearly, this an interpretation of the expression “turtles all the way down” used in reference of myths describing the gargantuan reptiles on top of one another in order to sustain the whole world. Such folklore is not foreign to the Pokémon World. According to the Pokédex, Stellar Terapagos resembles the world as the ancients conceived it, and this can reveal much on the Earth of old.
In this form, Terapagos resembles the world as the ancients saw it, and its Terastal energy is abnormally amplified.
For instance, the fact Terapagos is on a semisphere suggests the first inhabitants of Paldea were unaware of the existence of the opposite hemisphere. These were primitive natives with no deep knowledge of the world, and they surely didn’t perfect sea travels. More importantly, the world as the ancients saw it was one circled by Terastal energy, as the Types icons surrounding Terapagos testify. The leak of crystals from the Underdepths must’ve looked like a miracle for those ancestral tribes, as they naturally set in that mystic land. But how would a society develop when pushed by a power beyond human comprehension?
Through the course of the game, Terapagos reveals to possess the most diverse powers. The most obvious is allowing Terastallization to occur, either through the crystals inside our Tera Orbs or naturally through the energy around. The Pokémon affected by such process have their regular Type changed by a hidden Tera Type [テラスタイプ, Teras Type] determined at birth or through contact with a great number of Tera Shards [テラピース, Tera Pieces]. These items imbued with different powers are simply fragments of crystals with a certain Type affinity, often resulting from the shattering of the Tera Jewels of defeated opponents according to their description. In other words, Terastallization seems to draw this “hidden Type” from the target temporarily superimposing to its usual categorization.
On rare occasions, these shards form when a Tera Pokémon falls in battle and its Tera Jewel shatters.
A second mean through which Terapagos affects reality is the distortion of spacetime. A seen both through the time machine and at the Crystal Pool, the Pokémon can summon beings and objects from different timelines, effectively allowing multiversal travel. But how can two powers so different from each other originate from the same source? In reality, under closer scrutiny they reveal to be conceptually the same. Having absorbed the power of primordial chaos, a force that existed when everything was mixed as one, Terapagos became able to erase differences and confound the boundaries of reality: for instance, it can merge every Type in a unifying Stellar Terastallization — or turn one elemental affinity to another when its influence grows weaker at distance. In the same way, it can merge two different continuities in one. Simply speaking, Terapagos powers can be reduced to a single word: convergence. Be it a Type changed from A to B or a man pulled from timeline X to Y, the Legendary Pokémon always closes the gap between two points.
Given the crystals are merely parts of Terapagos’ body, such phenomenon can occur even far away from the main body. This is obvious for Terastallization, but it’s also true for the summoning — rumors of people coming back from the dead at the Crystal Pool started well before the Pokémon left Area Zero. And in a time Terapagos still had the most of its initial pool of energy, the ancients likely witnessed these multiversal shifts in person. It’s even possible someone was pulled to the Underdepths and came in contact with the creature below, considering myths of a giant turtle living in the underground started to flourish all over the world.
Ancient people imagined that beneath the ground dwelt a gigantic Torterra.
If there was something blessing the land from below, then that creature had to be worshipped. If it had the power to manifest things from who-knows-where, then maybe it could’ve answered the prayers of its acolytes. Whether intentionally or not from Terapagos’ behalf, the rituals proved to be beneficial. “Atlantis” surely is a fitting name to call Area Zero in internal data, given both the advancement of its people and its successive downfall. With the sunken city par excellence often described as powered by mysterious crystals in more modern reinterpretations of the myth, the inspiration must’ve come as natural as it gets. Crossing the multiverse, technologies beyond human understanding reached a small clan of primitive worshippers, and Paldea’s first civilization experienced a boost in progress like no one else in the mythical era and beyond.
The plate in the depths of Area Zero is likely an artifact from Atlantis. Despite being placed horizontally, almost as it was originally built in this spot, this is a later placement. Heath’s expedition diary shows it was actually found buried in a small cave, the implement likely crumbled all way down when the crater was formed. Engraved on hard metal there’s one of the four symbols of the games’ logos also found on the cover of the Scarlet/Violet Book. A triangle intersects another one, upside-down compared to the first, while two small circles leave the intersection and point to a map of Paldea. This is likely a representation of Terapagos power: two timelines are merging to a single point, resulting in the region of today.
During our descent into Area Zero, we came across a buried metal plate inscribed with a strange symbol. We attempted to shave off a piece of the plate but failed to leave even a scratch. Even determining the nature of the metal seems beyond modern science. We know not why the inscription was made, let alone how.
“Region of today” isn’t figurative speech. A closer look to the plate reveals its absurdity. For instance, Heath notes how it was made with a metal unknown to modern science, and impossible to scratch altogether. Yet it bears writings written in modern Paldean alphabet. The first and second words from above are even directly translatable as “Pokémon” and “Area Zero” based on identical examples find elsewhere in the game, while the third’s meaning remains unknown.
Moreover, the map of Paldea engraved on the item has dots corresponding to the modern locations of cities in the region. Whether the plate directly arrived in this state to the Atlanteans, or if they crafted it with the use of extradimensional technology, it reveals how much knowledge of future events the ancient city managed to gather thanks to their god’s gifts.
The exact purpose of such implement isn’t known, but it is possible it served as a gospel of sorts. Following images that came from the “future”, these people may have used this as a map to reach a destination in time rather than in space. That was the Paldea they could’ve sought, a world filled with flourishing cities, and one metropolis above all the others. Indeed, Area Zero has its borders marked more prominently, almost like depicting a high mountain rather than a giant pit. Maybe the tablet came from a world where the crater was never formed, and Atlantis towered over the region in eternity as the “Area Zero” to many following. Then, all they had to do was follow the dots god had marked for them. Nothing could’ve possibly gone wrong if the future was already engraved on a plate. It was precisely such naïve assumption that prevented them to foresee their demise.
Númenóreans No More
Like in the most classical of Atlantis’ stories, Paldea’s first civilization eventually met its end. The formation of the Great Crater of Paldea [パルデアの大穴, Great Pit of Paldea] and the Area Zero [エリアゼロ, Area Zero] below is dated to one million years ago. This leaves a full one million years for Terapagos’ energy to leak on the surface, its cult to be born, and society to bloom consequentially. Then, everything disappeared, leaving almost no traces behind.
“As you are all aware, a massive crater known as the Great Crater of Paldea exists in the heart of our region. The area inside this crater is called Area Zero, and research of its geological strata and material composition has shown that the crater is in fact over one million years old. It was long believed that a certain something rested at the bottom of this mysterious crater.” […] “Some believed that a treasure more valuable than anything else in this world rested in the depths of the Great Crater! So much for dreams of treasure hunting, though, as a lab has been built in those very same depths.”
The reason for the Great Crater’s formation remains currently unclear, but the numerous tectonic movements that resulted from the Underdepths may have slowly continued to alter the region’s underground in the course of millennia, until a critical point was reached and the earth above sunk down all at once, leaving only a pit in the place of a grandiose city. The wild Magnezone roaming in the sky above the depression may also suggest the magnetic field in the area was somehow disrupted and amplified at some point, if by natural mineral shifts or by unknown forces is currently anyone’s guess.
To the people of Atlantis, the destruction of their hometown must’ve looked like divine punishment. Did they do something wrong, deserving the ire of god? Were they using the power of crystals the wrong way? Did they fail to notice the depravities you could perpetrate with such immense gifts? Or did they noticed, and decided to look the other way nonetheless? In the lack of specifics, there’s no way to know what the survivors on the outskirts may have thought. We do, however, find one of their legacies.
Deep in Area Zero we can find a mysterious symbol carved on the ground, the same also present in the games’ logo and on Heath’s book. Given its location inside a cave, and its more mundane appearance compared to the high-tech plate, it can’t possibly be a remnant of Atlantis sunk from the surface: this “circle crop” has to have been made after the crater’s formation, but the lack of visible sky saved from small cavities for water infiltration excludes the intention was to send a message above. Then, isn’t below the only other option?
A photograph of a spot where the survey team rested on day two of the expedition. Note the strange symbols inscribed in the ground here — were they left by explorers in the time of the Paldean Empire, or could they be older still? Regardless, they seemed as if they must hold some meaning.
When Heath found the symbols, he equally asked himself its meaning and its authors. He wondered if first expeditions at the time of the Empire may have been behind them, but if so, it’s unlikely their meaning would remain a complete mystery — other sources from the time period evidently don’t show any similarities if the scholar doesn’t notice a clear connection. The metal plate does instead testify the familiarity of Atlanteans with logograms, and the obscurity of this symbol is coherent with a super-ancient origin. Then, it must’ve been engraved by those searching for other survivors in the crumbled ruins of their hometown. The many intersections pointing to all directions converge to a star-shaped center much like the one that slept in the Underdepths. Maybe the glyph was simply a way to call for Terapagos, and ask it what did they do wrong. But as far as we know, it hardly received any answer.
Some fans have suggested a connection between the symbol and the Treasures of Ruin, noticing the pattern overlaps with the shrines’ locations in modern Paldea. This, however, is unsubstantiated upon a closer inspection. Not only it would barely make sense for a super-ancient relic to share a connection with much more modern facilities, but all the images online trying to prove this point have to purposefully adjust the glyph’s angles in order for the spots to match, other than rotate the figure arbitrarily. A faithful reprodution shows the two to be simply unrelated.
The collapse of the surface obviously made the crystals expand much more rapidly, and Terastal energy started to overflow outside to a point new lifeforms arose. For instance, Terapagos crystallization seems to serve as ideal seedbed for flora, from the “crystal flowers” blocking the path to the Underdepths to the emergence of the miraculous Herba Mystica [秘伝スパイス, Secret Spice]. Once again, the plant kingdom shows to be both particularly akin and resistant to chaotic energy, much like it happened with Dynamax in Galar. In the lower levels of the Underdepths we even come across a peculiar great tree — and given the lack of proper flora in the surroundings, this is likely a tree-shaped crystal more than a crystallized tree.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Terapagos crystals are able to develop flowers just like regular plants. Glimmet and Glimmora are described as made of petals of crystallized poison energy, and their composition is much alike Tera Jewels. Considering their massive presence in Area Zero and in the Crystal Pool, and that Glimmet Crystals are needed to craft Tera Blast, it’s clear these flowers are none other than sentient clusters born of condensed Terastal energy. Maybe the great tree in the Underdepths is where Glimmet flowered for the first time, but what is sure is that they eventually spread even beyond Area Zero, and the specimens in Kitakami show they can be born even from smaller sources.
It absorbs nutrients from cave walls. The petals it wears are made of crystallized poison.
Glimmora’s petals are made of crystallized poison energy. It has recently become evident that these petals resemble Tera Jewels.
This does beg the question of why the Poison Type seems to be favorited in this kind of sentient crystallization. Glimmet and Glimmora are poisonous flowers in all effects, nests of filth and uncleanness to a point they’re the only Pokémon to possess the ability Toxic Debris [どくげしょう, Scattered Poison], that scatters poison spikes in the surroundings. Maybe the crystals are just more inclined to harvest such toxins, which would put in perspective their true nature. When even Penny notices the Zero Lab has currently been “swallowed” by the minerals, their expansion seems to violently engulf everything on their path. Like a growing metastasis, Terapagos’ shell grows bigger and bigger as the ages pass and more energy gets converted. In the modern era some clusters have developed outside Area Zero, serving as dens for Terastallized Pokémon. And the strongest opponents are found in peculiar “black crystals” accompanied with an ominous aura. Where is the world headed if this process continues undisturbed?
This, however, wasn’t among the main concerns of the capital’s survivors. Those who managed to escape the cataclysm found themselves in a world where the crystals they so adored were now swirling down the depths of hell. The thought their god may have been a deceptive devil must’ve at least come across their minds at some point. Deprived of homes and technologies, the curtain came down on the mythical era, and Paldea entered a new phase of human prehistory.