How *does* the top level of the circuit work once you have six badges? Pokemon The Game treats defeating the Elite Four and the Champion as a binary achievement, but I don't get the impression that this system's built around The Champ getting defeated every season....and there's an interesting question how Roland, someone who became champ in a system that he then removed, plays with past Leagues...hmm.
Eight badges, rather than six. There's four sub-Gyms in Laurum one can challenge in minor towns who offer valid badges, but it's seen as less prestigious to challenge these gyms for entrance into the Elite Four- only one trainer's made it into the Elite Four who challenged a minor Gym for their entry in. Those sub-Gyms receive less League support, and are so generally much easier than a proper Gym.
Completing the Gym Circuit and gaining eight badges is one way in which people can qualify to join Laurum's League Conference at the end of the year, along with several other methods- certain organisations can sponsor a limited number of trainers per year, you can qualify through the Ace program, you can be given special qualification for exemplary service at special dispensation by the Champion or a member of the Elite Four, and so on.
The League Conference is a series of fights between all participants in a ladder tournament style, with a variety of different battle styles and rules being incorporated. The intent is to ensure that only skilled competitors make it to the end.
The top four competitors each year gain the right to challenge members of the Elite Four to a fight. At that stage, winning against all members of the Elite Four within a time limit, typically a month, guarantees one the right to challenge the Champion. At that stage, beating the Champion wins you the title of Champion, and there's a tricky takeover period wherein the rights and duties are transferred over.
This is actually fairly rare.
Red and Blue, over in Kanto, each placed in the top four in their Conference and managed to successfully challenge Lance, but each ended up refusing the position of Champion for their own reasons. Blue works as a Gym Leader now, though he typically takes off the first few months of the Gym circuit (refusing any Challengers with less than seven badges) and so only works within the circuit part-time. He's occasionally seen travelling the world with Red, leading to quite a lot of truly scurrilous rumours in gossip magazines.
Dawn, over in Sinnoh, showed an uncanny level of skill for someone her age, and managed to be one of the few Trainers in recorded history to make it to the Conference in her first year. Rumours are that her involvement with the Team Galactic incident helped propel her to great heights, though others point out that there were a lot of people involved with that, and they didn't manage to take home the victory. Despite making it to the Conference, though, Dawn has never managed to take out Cynthia; Sinnoh's Champion is just too strong. In an unusual act, Cynthia has since decided to take on Dawn as her apprentice, officially declaring that if nobody else manages to claim the position prior to her retirement, she's going to pass on the title of Champion to Dawn.
Hilbert, from Unova, technically beat Unova's Elite Four and was able to challenge Alder for the position of Champion. The Team Plasma incident threw his career into chaos, however, as one of the commanders of Team Plasma- N- subjugated Unova's Champion with the aid of a single Pokemon- the legendary Pokemon, Reshiram. Official reports claim that Hilbert was able to temporarily secure the aid of the legendary Pokemon Zekrom to duel N to a standstill, but there are no surviving eye-witnesses to this account other than Hilbert and N themselves. Hilbert has since renounced any interest in challenging Alder for the position of Champion, preferring to accompany N in a journey around the world to learn how Pokemon and humanity can live together- a move that has been widely criticized by Unova's public, but that nobody is in a position to stop.
The only official handover of Champion status in a region in the past decade has been Kalos' champion, Diantha, handing over her status as Champion to Serena after her fourth year in the Gym Circuit.
Side of interesting gossip:
People are currently watching Alola with great interest. Talks for the Pokemon League being officially instated as an institution within the region are going positively, and it's likely that it will be official within the next year or two. People are eyeing the region's foremost professor, Kukui, as the most likely Champion of the region, but it's to be seen whether there's a challenger in the country who can overthrow the Professor and claim the title of Alola's first Champion when that happens.
The current champion of Hoenn is Wallace, though it's widely acknowledge that Steven would be Champion if he were ever to try for the title again.
There was a Pokemon trainer called May who made it through to the Conference in her first Circuit, but she fizzled out against the Elite Four- a common thing for even skilled trainers. Maybe she could have made it in a few more years, but she's since faded from public prominence; she was last seen travelling with an unusual trainer suspected to be a defector from Team Magma. She's occasionally reported in to Professor Birch regarding several ancient mysteries in Hoenn, however, including the Mirage Tower and the Sky Pillar. May is currently considered to be one of the world's foremost experts in Mega Evolution, however, having somehow learned a substantial amount of information about the process.
[X] You're going to emulate the endless winter. The centrepieces of your team are going to be Glaceon, Vanillice and Glalie.
Glaceon is best icy doggo boi. And this is a ghost-ice type gym, and I feel this is the strategy that best adheres to that. Not only in the ice sense, but in that the dust cloud really was the deadliest part of the extinction event.
I've never seen anyone use Vanillice before, I have to vote this. There's other stuff I could say like how this ties into most of Morgan's existing themes already (although shaking that up would also be fun with Impact or Earth) and how it could be fun having both Froslass and Glailie around, but I'm gonna be fully real, I want the ice-cream. I want the ice-cream to defeat Gym challengers who disregard it for being ice-cream.
Despite making it to the Conference, though, Dawn has never managed to take out Cynthia; Sinnoh's Champion is just too strong. In an unusual act, Cynthia has since decided to take on Dawn as her apprentice, officially declaring that if nobody else manages to claim the position prior to her retirement, she's going to pass on the title of Champion to Dawn.
The current champion of Hoenn is Wallace, though it's widely acknowledge that Steven would be Champion if he were ever to try for the title again.
There was a Pokemon trainer called May who made it through to the Conference in her first Circuit, but she fizzled out against the Elite Four- a common thing for even skilled trainers. Maybe she could have made it in a few more years, but she's since faded from public prominence; she was last seen travelling with an unusual trainer suspected to be a defector from Team Magma. She's occasionally reported in to Professor Birch regarding several ancient mysteries in Hoenn, however, including the Mirage Tower and the Sky Pillar. May is currently considered to be one of the world's foremost experts in Mega Evolution, however, having somehow learned a substantial amount of information about the process.
It does feel as if a Champion is but one peak, but far from the only peak, even discounting the fact that there are enough Leagues to be a full stable of Champions.
Eight badges, rather than six. There's four sub-Gyms in Laurum one can challenge in minor towns who offer valid badges, but it's seen as less prestigious to challenge these gyms for entrance into the Elite Four- only one trainer's made it into the Elite Four who challenged a minor Gym for their entry in. Those sub-Gyms receive less League support, and are so generally much easier than a proper Gym.
Completing the Gym Circuit and gaining eight badges is one way in which people can qualify to join Laurum's League Conference at the end of the year, along with several other methods- certain organisations can sponsor a limited number of trainers per year, you can qualify through the Ace program, you can be given special qualification for exemplary service at special dispensation by the Champion or a member of the Elite Four, and so on.
The League Conference is a series of fights between all participants in a ladder tournament style, with a variety of different battle styles and rules being incorporated. The intent is to ensure that only skilled competitors make it to the end.
The top four competitors each year gain the right to challenge members of the Elite Four to a fight. At that stage, winning against all members of the Elite Four within a time limit, typically a month, guarantees one the right to challenge the Champion. At that stage, beating the Champion wins you the title of Champion, and there's a tricky takeover period wherein the rights and duties are transferred over.
This is actually fairly rare.
Red and Blue, over in Kanto, each placed in the top four in their Conference and managed to successfully challenge Lance, but each ended up refusing the position of Champion for their own reasons. Blue works as a Gym Leader now, though he typically takes off the first few months of the Gym circuit (refusing any Challengers with less than seven badges) and so only works within the circuit part-time. He's occasionally seen travelling the world with Red, leading to quite a lot of truly scurrilous rumours in gossip magazines.
Dawn, over in Sinnoh, showed an uncanny level of skill for someone her age, and managed to be one of the few Trainers in recorded history to make it to the Conference in her first year. Rumours are that her involvement with the Team Galactic incident helped propel her to great heights, though others point out that there were a lot of people involved with that, and they didn't manage to take home the victory. Despite making it to the Conference, though, Dawn has never managed to take out Cynthia; Sinnoh's Champion is just too strong. In an unusual act, Cynthia has since decided to take on Dawn as her apprentice, officially declaring that if nobody else manages to claim the position prior to her retirement, she's going to pass on the title of Champion to Dawn.
Hilbert, from Unova, technically beat Unova's Elite Four and was able to challenge Alder for the position of Champion. The Team Plasma incident threw his career into chaos, however, as one of the commanders of Team Plasma- N- subjugated Unova's Champion with the aid of a single Pokemon- the legendary Pokemon, Reshiram. Official reports claim that Hilbert was able to temporarily secure the aid of the legendary Pokemon Zekrom to duel N to a standstill, but there are no surviving eye-witnesses to this account other than Hilbert and N themselves. Hilbert has since renounced any interest in challenging Alder for the position of Champion, preferring to accompany N in a journey around the world to learn how Pokemon and humanity can live together- a move that has been widely criticized by Unova's public, but that nobody is in a position to stop.
The only official handover of Champion status in a region in the past decade has been Kalos' champion, Diantha, handing over her status as Champion to Serena after her fourth year in the Gym Circuit.
Side of interesting gossip:
People are currently watching Alola with great interest. Talks for the Pokemon League being officially instated as an institution within the region are going positively, and it's likely that it will be official within the next year or two. People are eyeing the region's foremost professor, Kukui, as the most likely Champion of the region, but it's to be seen whether there's a challenger in the country who can overthrow the Professor and claim the title of Alola's first Champion when that happens.
The current champion of Hoenn is Wallace, though it's widely acknowledge that Steven would be Champion if he were ever to try for the title again.
There was a Pokemon trainer called May who made it through to the Conference in her first Circuit, but she fizzled out against the Elite Four- a common thing for even skilled trainers. Maybe she could have made it in a few more years, but she's since faded from public prominence; she was last seen travelling with an unusual trainer suspected to be a defector from Team Magma. She's occasionally reported in to Professor Birch regarding several ancient mysteries in Hoenn, however, including the Mirage Tower and the Sky Pillar. May is currently considered to be one of the world's foremost experts in Mega Evolution, however, having somehow learned a substantial amount of information about the process.
Really do have loads of fun from your worldbuilding posts Tempera, it adds a lot of life to the setting to have it be the case that even though all the game protagonists did the main plot world saving, they didn't necessarily integrate with the League system, or even reach the top before moving onto other things, gives punch to Serena being the only Champion among her peers, at least until SUMO's protag takes their crown (actually super cool that we're explicitly before 7th Gen. in the fic's timeline, feels like something to look forward to).
May never quite cementing her reputation and basically ending up a god fighting cryptid is really the most Tony Hawk thing, especially great because it tilts the balance to more than half of these being "Man, fuck this" [Drops out of the tournament arc to go on a homoerotic world tour].
To round out the list, what happened with the kid who fistfought Red on Mt. Silver?
With thanks to @NonSequtur and @Xepheria for their assistance in creating this map, as they put all the actual work into creating it based on my descriptions of the cities and Gym typings on Discord.
Halley Town is not positioned in such a place as to be your "canon" trainer's starting point. In fact, it's probably not anyone's starting point unless they're from specifically either Torne or Halley; Halley because if you're already from there you might as well tackle it as your first Gym, and Torne because... the Dragon gym there is fucking hard even as a first-badge challenge, so many trainers skip it as their first Gym and tackle Halley and a few other Gyms before returning.
The "canon" route if this were a game would most likely be Azur, then down to Breenth, then up to Emerald City, then to Split Peaks, then to Halley, where you bounce between individual gyms from Halley before tackling Torne last. Then, you have a direct shot back through Split Peaks and Emerald City to the Pokemon League.
This makes Halley your typical "fifth Gym" for most Trainers; but should it become a wall, it's also a great resting point as it becomes a later badge.
The mix of locales and Gym Towns is interesting to me, like a few notable islands here and there as a Gym and the Pokemon League, the fact that the Gyms are mostly split in a surprisingly even 3 to the West, 3 to the East, 2 in the middle balance, but most of the eastern cities are bunched together on a straight line along the coast, and Halley is at the center of that blasted desert with only a thin line of minor midpoint settlements, it's really good at showing why our domain is a dying ghost town, but also decidedly pivotal for keeping Laurum connected.
The Type Specialty markers are fun little hints, because you can kinda see how all the replacement options kinda mess up the Type Balance:
Halley Town: Morgan taking Halley Town's Gym from Leonardo removed the only Steel specialist in the Region, and while Ice is actually a new Type brought to the table, unlike the rest of our options, it kinda intrudes on Emerald City's turf by bringing Ghost Types into focus.
Whiterock: Replacing Frederick would've meant no Bug Types, funnily enough, while stepping on the toes of our closest neighbor with Steel Typing (actually, I did suddenly just realize that the Gym Leaders we had the option to replace are all in an uninterrupted triangle, that is, Interesting).
Split Peaks: Unlike her fellow has-beens, Daphne's Grass/Flying Typing has no overlaps among her peers, so that would've just removed both her Types entirely from the Circuit, and have made Rock the single most represented Type in the region at a shocking 3 count (mostly unrelated, but kinda funny to think Morgan's closest neighbor could probably give them the best advice on Rowlet until exactly the point he becomes Decidueye).
About the main thing that has me going Hm is, if the Pokemon League Type Marker is specifically for Roland, that suggests he has, Triple Specialty? Which kinda Says Something, though I'm not sure if it's more, or less ominous than the only two and a half pokemon who have Rock/Poison Type to begin with (really started picking my brain that the only pokemon Morgan mentioned him having were Poison Types instead of his apparent other specialty).
Always a joy when fairly incidental knowledge revvs up the meta brain.
There's a variety of local cryptically running around the Indigo League still; they are just less notable than Red and Blue.
There's a girl named Leaf who's taken up residence in the Sevii Islands, along with Lorelei, who moved back there after she lost her position in the Elite Four. Leaf has been working with Lorelei in an attempt to get the Sevii Islands recognition as their own region, independent of the Indigo League, but it's slow progress; there's few trainers in the region with the potential to match either in strength, though it's commonly acknowledged that Lorelei does perfectly deserve the title of Elite Four and Leaf is a Champion-contender.
Ethan is still wrapped up in the League Circuit, six years later. He's struggled to ever beat Lance, but has claimed victory over the Elite Four three years running now; it's likely that when Agatha retires, he's a shoe-in for the position over Lorelei.
Lyra and Kris wander the countrysides of Kanto and Johto, mostly investigating forgotten histories of the countries. Their encounters with the Legendary Pokémon Suicune have led the two to seriously investigate the region's ancient history, and most specifically the ruins containing huge numbers of Unown.
There's a Psychic/Ghost specialist in Emerald City?
Those are my two favorite types, to the point where if I lived in the Pokeworld I would possibly become a specialist in them. We should see about meeting that gym leader, maybe trading ghost-type tips. Emerald City is not one of the gym leaders that were up for replacement in the OP, so maybe they're more competent/less corrupt? One would hope that some of the gym leaders are fine...
There's a Psychic/Ghost specialist in Emerald City?
Those are my two favorite types, to the point where if I lived in the Pokeworld I would possibly become a specialist in them. We should see about meeting that gym leader, maybe trading ghost-type tips. Emerald City is not one of the gym leaders that were up for replacement in the OP, so maybe they're more competent/less corrupt? One would hope that some of the gym leaders are fine...
Not all of them are corrupt, no. At least, I don't believe so? Hopefully they're competent enough to have actually kept their job. I believe it was said most gym leaders probably won't be a big fan of us, considering we're from outside the region and ousted one of their fellow gym leaders. Befriending one of them would be nice.
