Daystar Eld

Pokemon: The Origin of Species

A rationalist Pokemon fanfiction exploring what would really happen if a scientifically-minded trainer entered the Pokemon world.

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About the Story

Hello all, and welcome to Pokemon: TOoS. This fiction is mostly based on the gameverse rather than the anime, the greatest distinction being that the vast majority of pokemon have roughly animal-level intelligence. It was inspired by rationalist fiction such as Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which strived to entertain and educate by deconstructing then reconstructing the world of Harry Potter into one that makes more sense, even if it's still full of magic, and communicates real rational and scientific principles to the reader.

To that end, much of the science mentioned in my story, especially the psychology, is based on real research and experimental results. While I could no more rationally explain how a pokeball would "actually" work than I could build one, my aim is to, at the very least, present a version of the pokemon world that is logically consistent with itself, which includes not just a realistic examination of pokemon/human interactions and an attempt to address some of the contradictory parts of the pokemon universe, but also an exploration of how society thrives in a world where deadly monsters are commonplace, and children are trained from a young age to survive independently by their pre-teens.

All feedback is appreciated, either on the fanfiction.net or at my individual chapter posts in the subreddit /r/rational.

Finally, all intellectual property in this story belong to The Pokémon Company International, Game Freak, and ultimately Nintendo. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!