For the main Pokémon character sheet, see here.
For Arceus itself, see here.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
open/close all folders
Protagonists
In General
A kid brought from the modern Pokémon world to Hisui at the behest of Arceus. They are tasked with completing the Pokédex after falling in with the Galaxy Team. The protagonist you do not choose is a native Hisuian Survey Corps member around the protagonist's age, who assists them and Professor Laventon throughout the story.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- The protagonist's close resemblance to Lucas/Dawn while coming from the present opens the possibility that they're the same person but a few years older, but nothing is confirmed about it. In fact, when Adaman and Irida appeared in Pokémon Masters EX, they state that Lucas and Dawn are not the Rei and Akari they remember, citing their different mannerisms. However, this doesn't account for any shift in the protagonist's personality after falling into Hisui, so the possibility still exists. One notable difference is that Lucas/Dawn are left-handed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but the protagonist of Legends is right-handed. Also, it is not known if the protagonist was already a Pokémon trainer prior to being summoned into the past. If they weren't, then it means they had skills but didn't use them before the game started.
- Just how much the player character remembers of the world they came from and their first meeting with Arceus is left unclear. They are given dialog options that can either show they remember at least some things or present them as complete amnesiacs beyond their name and knack for Pokémon training. The Daybreak update removes all ambiguity at the end when regardless of which option you choose the player character will show they remember some important details about the future Pokémon world they came from (namely explaining a bit about what either Pokémon Gyms or Pokémon Contests are, both alien concepts to the Diamond and Pearl Clans, though they like the idea of them); however, given Ingo's own amnesia clears up after battling the player, both "had amnesia but have since recovered" and "remembered everything from the word go" are still equally plausible.
- Ambiguously Related: The rival's resemblance to Lucas/Dawn opens the possibility that they're their Identical Ancestor, but again, no official confirmation is given.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Their eyes glow out of the dark riding basket when riding on Sneasler.
- Child Prodigy: Due to their familiarity with interacting with Pokémon, they are seen as this in the era of Hisui, though there's nothing to suggest that they aren't just an average modern teenager who has studied the basics of Pokémon catching.
- The Chosen One: Moreso than any other Pokémon protagonist thus far, this one was chosen by Arceus itself to catch every Pokémon, and then Arceus. Volo speculates that their true reason to be the Chosen One was specifically to defeat him, but this is never confirmed.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Well, prequel. Various playable protagonists were exceptionally skilled trainers that just happens to save the world or existence even though saving the world wasn't on their to-do list even when asked, but they do it anyway. The protagonist of Legends Arceus is (or was) one of those skillful children sought by Arceus itself to not only collect every Pokémon in Hisui, but to save the very fabric of existence.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Rei is depicted as the protagonist in Masters, being the one that was sent to Hisui through a space-time rift, while Akari is a native to the time period.
- Deadpan Snarker: As the rival, they tend to dryly snark Professor Laventon.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The protagonist ends up in Hisui from the future/present day.
- Friend to All Living Things: The player has some shades of this with the Pokémon. Examples of which include the Starters running towards them when they fall out of the wormhole, and when they are comforted by a Shinx after they are banished from Jubilife. note Then of course, there's their partnership with Arceus.
- Friendly Rival: The one you don't play as makes themselves your rival, but they remain as friendly to you as ever.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Has to snap Iscan out of it when he starts getting too scared to finish the Basculegion's food using a Dusclops's Dark Pulse.
- Godzilla Threshold: Of all things, the player character themself is implied to be this. Almost everyone in the setting is useless when it comes to Pokémon battling, and it's clear even such a skilled trainer as Kamado would be Curb Stomped by Volo, as the former doesn't even have a sixth Pokémon. Why else would Arceus pluck an average/Child Prodigy teenager from the present day as its chosen champion? Volo fully intended to destroy the universe, so such a drastic measure as creating a Stable Time Loop would be warranted to stop him.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Due to falling into Hisui from a space-time wormhole, the inhabitants of the region are all naturally suspicious of the protagonist and keep their distance when you first arrive. And even when they start warming up to you, it all goes down the drain when a paranoid Kamado banishes the protagonist from the village under suspicion of them being the cause of the recent Pokémon attacks and space rifts.
- Identical Stranger: They strongly resemble Dawn/Lucas, but there are slight differences to tell the pairs apart (for instance them being right-handed instead of Lucas/Dawn's left-handedness). In fact, in Pokémon Masters, Adaman and Irida mistake Lucas and Dawn for Rei and Akari respectively, to their understandable confusion.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: They start their journey in a Poké Ball T-shirt, shorts, and sandals, making them look like a tourist and clashing with the satchel they need to carry. The rival points out that they'd be "minced meat" if they tried to fight a Pokémon in those clothes. Hilariously, the starting outfit inspires Anthe to begin designing new patterns for kimono that can be bought later.
- Instant Expert:
- From the perspective of the Hisuian residents, they're a natural at catching and training Pokémon, which shocks said residents as they fear Pokémon for how powerful they are. This can only be justified by the fact that they came from a time where Pokémon and humans already coexist and work together, and thus have some idea with what to do.
- They also effortlessly master the Celestica Flute and can even play it whilst dodging wild Pokémon's attacks to make quick getaways, treading in water, or even falling in midair.
- Just a Kid: The playable character is often looked down by the other characters due to their younger age and overall inexperience in the world of Hisui. This especially gets brought up whenever the discussion of them attempting to quell the frenzied Nobles comes up. Once they do manage to tame several of the frenzied Nobles, many of their naysayers (such as Irida) start treating them better.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a protagonist, it's possible to imply some amnesia on this matter by certain dialogue options. When Professor Laventon asks whether the player knows what a Pokémon is, there is an option to say no; later on, when Ingo starts to remember what Pokémon Trainers are, the player can suggest that they remember such a thing as well, or claim they have no idea.
- Meaningful Name: Both of their names in all languages refer to light or shine.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Depending on your dialogue choices at certain points, the Player is either from the modern-day Pokémon world where much of the fear that humans once had in Pokémon are mostly non-existent, or they are from a whole other world where Pokémon don't exist. Or they could be stricken with amnesia. That said, the "Daybreak" post-launch content implies that they at least finally remember some details about the timeline they came from.
- Older Than They Look: Implied; they look very similar to the preteen Lucas and Dawn but Cyllene describes them as around 15.
- Our Fairies Are Different: They obtain the Fairy-type Mr. Mime and following the Daybreak update, a Clefairy.
- Out of Focus: As a rival, Akari/Rei has very little plot importance, being mainly relegated as a Satellite Character to Laventon and rarely having independence of their own.
- Pals with Jesus: Downplayed—Arceus itself sent them to Hisui and tricked out their smartphone specifically so that it could meet them, and it's implied that Arceus is the one guiding them via said phone. However, it's not clear at first why it's doing this.
- Poor Communication Kills: While it's easy to assume they don't ever talk about Arceus, many of their problems could had been avoided if they told someone trustworthy that they were specifically sent by the Pokémon god itself for one simple task, which indirectly caused Kamado to have them exiled from Jubilife Village. At that point, they had to receive help from a third party, the Lake guardians to form the Red Chain, and Arceus to find them. At least Professor Laventon seems to trust them even without knowing the full details.
- Primary-Color Champion: They wear the blue uniform of the Survey Corps, with a red scarf (and hat, in Rei's case).
- Punny Name: Their Japanese names when combined are likely puns of the English phrase "Show & Tell".
- The Rival: Downplayed, overall. While the character you don't select does fill out the usual "rival" role for the protagonist, they're more interested in helping the Professor than beating the protagonist in a Pokémon battle, instead only partaking in battles to learn about the relationship between humans and Pokémon. Somewhat justified, since the concept of competitive Pokémon battles hasn't really been invented yet.
- Ship Tease: With each other, a notable moment being when Laventon mentions that the rival couldn't sleep out of worry for the player character after the latter gets exiled. Akari's Broken Smile reaction upon hearing that the Player Character "Rei" has been banished is especially stark, given her usual snarky attitude.
- Signature Headgear: As is traditional for the protagonists, they both sport headwear in their default appearances. The player character receives theirs from Cyllene.
- Signature Mon:
- As the rival, their main Pokémon partner is a Pikachu.
- Following the Daybreak update, they also add the Sinnoh starter whose type is weak to your starter's primary typing to their team at an equal level to Pikachu.
- Static Role, Exchangeable Character: The one you pick is a time-traveler from the modern day, while the one you don't is Laventon's fellow assistant in the Survey Corps who left their parents behind in their home region.
- Super Drowning Skills: If your character enters a body of water deeper than chest height they'll start flailing helplessly until you either summon Basculegion or black out. This may be justified by the fact that most modern people aren't accustomed to getting into chest-deep cold water (especially river water) while fully clothed and any attempt to swim would be hampered by the soaked clothes.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Like Laventon, they enjoy potato mochi.
- Trapped in the Past: Arceus sent them as the protagonist to Hisui from the modern day and they're stuck there while they fill out the Pokédex. Even after completing their task and meeting Arceus again, it is very heavily implied that there isn't really a way to go back.
- True Craftsman: Apart from teaching you how to make Poké Balls, Laventon reveals during the climax of the game that the rival is actually the best craftsman in the Survey Team. This leads to their contribution to the climax of the main game being the crafting of the Origin Ball for the protagonist.
- Undying Loyalty: As the rival, when Kamado unfairly exiles the player, they are not happy with this decision and alongside Professor Laventon, are more than willing to fight against Kamado before Cyllene has to convince them to stand down so as to not end up being collateral damage.
- Vague Age: Their age is never stated, but due to a piece of Cyllene's dialogue, they're generally considered 15.
- Virtual Paperdoll: You are able to customize what clothes your Player Character wears as well as their appearance.
- You Can't Go Home Again: After the final Noble is quelled, the rival worries that if the Space-Time Rift closes, the player character will be trapped in Hisui forever. Professor Laventon assures them that they can easily find an alternative, and if they don't, they'll always have a home in Jubilife Village. We never do get an answer as to whether or not they'll make it back, though there is some hope, as by the end of the game they have several Physical Gods in their possession, including the two (Arceus and Giratina) who are directly responsible for them being there. However, Arceus also states with some finality that this world is where the player character now dwells, and no dialog choices give the option to have the player express that they want to go back to where they came from, confirming that the player is stuck in the past forever. Lampshaded by a kid in Galaxy Headquarters, who if you speak to him, asks where you come from and if you'll go back.
- You Monster!: The rival rightfully calls out Kamado for exiling the player.
Rei (Teru)
Rei / Teru (テル teru)
Voiced by: John Patneaude (EN, Pokémon Masters), Junta Terashima (JP, Pokémon Masters)
One of the two gender options who ended up in Hisui.
In Pokémon Masters, Rei is presented as the space-time rift traveler who arrived at Hisui and thus the main character. Some tropes pertaining his appearance there may appear below.
- Always Someone Better: Akari believes him to be this to her in Pokémon Masters when he adapts to Pasio and its rules very quickly.
- Ascended Extra: Among the many other protagonists in Pokémon Masters, he receives special attention during the Mysterious Stones Chapter as he is crucial in understanding said stones' origins and the fact that Volo is apparently spying on his actions and Arceus communicates with him.
- Cowardly Lion: Rei admits to the player he finds Pokémon terrifying, and it's apparently why he has trouble bonding with his Pikachu. Nevertheless, he's still part of the Survey Corps.
- Deadpan Snarker: Despite overall being more reserved than Akari, his wit can still be pretty dry at times.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: A common facial expression for him when he's confused, annoyed, or doubtful, all three usually because of Laventon.
- Is This a Joke?: His word-for-word response when Laventon mentions that you (as Akari) came from the sky is to ask if they're joking, and he seems confused more than anything, in stark contrast to Akari's response.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In Pokémon Masters, despite seemingly coming back to his time period, Rei says that he can't exactly remember if he's even back to his time because he suffers from a bout of amnesia, leaving it very ambiguous if he's supposed to be in the right era at all.
- Nice Guy: Never seems to have anything bad to say to the player character.
- Signature Mon: In Masters Rei uses Hisuian Decidueye as his Sync Pair partner.
- The Unreveal: In Pokémon Masters, Rei can only say that the modern era feels familiar to him, but it doesn't help him remember in full if he's in the right time due to having amnesia.
Akari (Shō)
Akari / Shō (ショウ shō)
One of the two gender options who ended up in Hisui.
In Pokémon Masters, Akari is presented as Laventon's assistant who mentored Rei and wishes to be as good as him. Some tropes below may pertain to her appearance there.
- Always Second Best: In Pokémon Masters, she feels a bit depressed that she's not as good as Rei is when he got used to Pasio and its battle style faster than she did. She also feels that she must stay on equal footing with him since she mentored him when he first arrived in Hisui.
- Bilingual Bonus: Her English name is a variation of Dawn's Japanese name, Hikari, meaning "light". Her Japanese name instead means "shine".
- Birds of a Feather: In Pokémon Masters, Lucas feels a connection with her because both are mentors to others who started inexperienced and became much better battlers than they did.
- Blatant Lies: After the player comes back after getting banished from Jubilife Village by Kamado, when Laventon mentions that Akari couldn't sleep because she was so worried about them, Akari's response is to deny it and claim Laventon was actually talking about himself, compared to Rei who just admits embarrassment that Laventon mentioned that to Akari as the player character.
- Broken Smile: She makes a particularly striking one when she finds out you've been banished, in contrast to Rei's wide-eyed shocked face if you play as a female character.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: In Pokémon Masters, unlike modern-native Rei, Akari is brought from Meiji period-esque Hisui to modern day Pasio.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's snarkier and harsher than Rei, but aside from that, she's still pretty nice to the player.
- Meaningful Name: Her default name in English is Akari, while her Japanese name is Shou. Both are Japanese words that mean "light". This is likely also a callback to her Diamond & Pearl counterpart's Japanese name, Hikari, which also means "light".
- Sarcastic Devotee: She does not hold back with her facial expressions and snarky comments, but she's loyal to both Laventon and you.
- Signature Mon: Akari is always paired with Hisuian Samurott in merchandise. In Masters, she forms a Sync Pair with a recently caught one.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Her default "Survey Corps" hairstyle has her wear a headscarf with her hair tied in a high ponytail underneath. As the player character, she starts with a more Dawn-like loose hairstyle and can revert to it via the hairdresser.
- Tsundere: She's mostly sweet, even when you've just met, but as noted, she will let the sarcasm fly around you if you or Laventon say something she thinks is dumb.
Galaxy Expedition Team
In General
The Galaxy Expedition Team is an organization based in the fledgling Jubilife Village. They seek to find ways with which humans can coexist with Pokémon.
- All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Generic members of the Security Corps appear Asian and wear these hats.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each branch of the team has its own specific color scheme:
- Survey Corps: Blue
- Security Corps: Red
- Medical Corps: Pink
- Supply Corps: Green
- Agriculture Corps: Brown
- Construction Corps: Purple
- Good Counterpart: In spite of having a very similar name (the exact same name in Japanese in fact) to Team Galactic, they're a force for good, seeking to investigate the land of Hisui and create the first Pokédex.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never actually see it in person, but the Security Corps are very good at one of their main jobs, that being to rescue Survey Corps members such as yourself, if they get knocked out in the field, before anything worse can happen to them.
Professor Laventon (Dr. Laven)
Professor Laventon / Dr. Laven (ラベン博士 raben hakase)
- Agent Mulder: With one or two exceptions, he's this to nearly the whole village being Agent Scully. Despite saying he's "only concerned with facts", he accepts almost immediately that the player fell from a rift, that they might be from a different time period entirely, and puts immediate faith in their help and assistance without needing direct proof. Interestingly, this doesn't prevent him from being a Reasonable Authority Figure, as he's one of the few constantly on the player's side and helping them out however he possibly can.
- Ambiguously Brown: He has a rather brown skin tone. With the implication in Raichu's Dex entry that Copperajah comes from his homeland, the fact that Copperajah is stated in Sword and Shield to not originate from Galar, the mention of Copperajah directly retconning the "Indian elephant" previously mentioned in Raichu's Dex entries, and Britain's historic control over India, it is possible that while he may be based in Galar, he originally may have came from the Pokémon counterpart to India.
- Ambiguously Related: His skin tone, facial hair, purple color scheme and the implication that he's from Galar implies that he might be Leon and Hop's ancestor.
- The Cameo: In Scarlet and Violet a (partially obscured) picture of him on a history timeline can be seen behind Ms. Raifort's head during her History class at Naranja/Uva, along with a diagram of the early Pokéballs he helped design.
- Cassandra Truth: He can't get anyone to believe his theory the Unown look like some other language.
- Friend to All Children: He's very concerned about the player character when they fall into Hisui and wants to set them up with a Survey Corps position so that they won't have to wander the wilderness all alone. When the player is banished by Kamado, he's determined to help them in any way he can and is incredibly relieved when the player comes back safe. He's also seemingly close friends with Akari/Rei and seems fond of Pokémon with child-like traits (the starters, Mime Jr., Piplup).
- Funny Foreigner: Seen as this by some citizens due to his grand idea to make the dex in the first place. It's never clarified where he's from, but the amount of British vernacular in his speech and the fact that he describes Copperajah as being from his homeland implies that he's from Galar, though the last fact could also imply that he may have originally come from the Pokémon version of India, as Copperajah is not native to Galar.
- Gratuitous English: In every language of the game except English (since obviously it wouldn't work there) he has a tendency to insert English phrases into his sentences. The English version gets this across by having him use British phrases such as "jolly good".
- Legendary in the Sequel: An easy-to-miss Continuity Nod in Scarlet and Violet implies Laventon would become historically known for his involvement in Pokémon research.
- Lemony Narrator: Of the Hisui Pokédex; alongside some of the more factual observations, some entries contain his personal opinions written in a first-person perspective, such as referencing his homeland or being worried about the erratic behavior of Porygon-Z.
- Meaningful Name: His name reflects the lavender color of the cloth wrapped around his head.
- Never Bareheaded: His hair is not visible under his head cloth and can only be seen in concept art.
- Nice Guy: Upon seeing the player character (a complete stranger wearing clothing unusual for the setting) fall from the space-time rift, he doesn't hesitate to ask if they need help, and after they demonstrate their ability to capture Pokémon, he offers them a chance to enter the Survey Corps, affording them food and a place to stay.
- Non-Action Guy: Why he's got the player character and rival out doing the leg-work. Much as he'd like to gather the information himself, he's hopeless at it. He just doesn't have the skills to cope with the wilds, and he up and tells the player this.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: He has a tendency of appearing out of the blue, often when someone is criticizing him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Potato mochi. Likes eating it daily.
- Undying Loyalty: After the protagonist gets banished from Jubilife Village by Kamado, he's willing alongside the rival to go fight Kamado over it before Cyllene convinces them that it's better not to do something that could lead to them getting banished too.
Kamado (Denboku)
Kamado / Denboku (デンボク denboku)
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After you beat him in a Pokémon battle to determine who takes on the mysterious Pokémon on the other side of the rift, he realizes he was wrong to doubt you, gets on his knees, and begs you to forgive him and save everyone.
- Ambiguous Situation: On his desk is a photo of him in a tuxedo with a woman in a wedding dress
implied to being a wedding photo. Where is his wife in game? He still clearly cares about her if he has the photo on his desk, but is she simply offscreen in the village? Is she deceased? Did she die during the destruction of Kamado and Beni's village? - Anti-Villain: Has genuinely good intentions, but his paranoia and obsessive desire to protect Jubilife and its people leads to him taking some rather extreme actions, including having the player flat out exiled.
- Big Good: Is the one responsible for the Galaxy Expedition Team and is implied to be the one responsible for the neutrality between the Diamond and Pearl clans. However, it's subverted, as his stark paranoia about your presence in Hisui leads him to constantly suspect you and eventually banish you. At that point, he becomes the main antagonist in the main story.
- Bilingual Bonus: Like with Akari, his English name (but not his Japanese one) is derived from "Dr. Nanakamado", the Japanese name of his descendant Professor Rowan.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Shows that humans in the Pokémon world have had a long history of attaining superhuman strength and durability through simply training their bodies over long periods of time. He's noted to be able to sumo throw Pokémon and boulders alike with ease (tossing the player character clear across the room in his introduction), and it's only when he intends to try to fight off a quasi deity of a Pokémon that he proves to be out of his depth.
- Climax Boss: He is fought just before the reveal of Dialga and Palkia, both of whom make up the final fights of the main story.
- Coat Cape: He wears the outer layer of his kimono over his shoulders.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Witnessed his home village be destroyed by wild Pokémon, with himself one of the only survivors.
- Decoy Antagonist: He is set up as the main antagonist of the game, until the postgame reveals that Volo is the true Big Bad.
- Fatal Flaw: Distrust and impulsiveness, which eventually leads to outright paranoia. His inability to trust others leads to him exiling the player character in an attempt to stop the threat they pose. When it becomes apparent that doing so will not stop the rift, he resolves to make the journey up Mount Coronet himself but because he had no knowledge on the actual situation, Kamado would most likely have gotten himself killed (or made the situation worse) if the player didn't show up with the Red Chain.
- Freudian Excuse: His Knight Templar tendencies come from watching his village get destroyed by Pokémon.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: When he goes into battle, he dons a suit of Galarian armor (somewhat resembling Wikstrom's armor but in a different color) that leaves his head uncovered.
- Hero Antagonist: He serves as the main antagonist of the pre-credits storyline, but ultimately wants to protect Jubilife Village and its people.
- I Gave My Word: When he exiles the player from Jubilife Village, he agrees to allow them back in on the condition that they prove they're not responsible for the rifts. When the player does just that, he keeps his end of the bargain, even apologizing for the grief he caused you.
- Identical Grandson: He's stated to be the ancestor of Professor Rowan and has more-than-passing resemblance to him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Played with; all of his decisions are done out of a desire to protect Jubilife Village and its people first and foremost. Ideally, people and Pokémon can co-exist to make a better world, but if the latter threatens the former, Kamado makes it absolutely clear that he will choose a world where his people are safe and protected over a riskier co-existence any time. Even his decision to exile you has shades of this. Initially, it seemed the frenzied nobles were the ones responsible for the rift in the sky. Once you quell them and the rift gets bigger, the only conclusion Kamado could draw on was you, a person who fell out of the sky the same time Kleavor became frenzied. These suspicious circumstances do paint the player as a threat and as such must be exiled for the safety of everyone else in the village.
- Knight Templar: He will do everything to ensure the protection of Jubilife Village and its people. This isn't a big deal until the player character quells all of the nobles and the rift in space and time not only gets bigger but also turns the sky red. In a fit of paranoia, he exiles the player character in an attempt to stop the perceived threat they pose.
- Manly Facial Hair: Sports the same bushy mustache as his descendant, giving him the most prominent facial hair of any Galaxy Team member. He's also the leader of the team, can throw the player character across a room, and could probably fight a Pokémon himself if he had to.
- Manly Tears: Sheds mostly dignified tears after the player succeeds in quelling both legendaries.
- Might Makes Right: An early indicator of this mindset is when he personally requests to fight the player in an actual brawl. This comes to a head in the climax where he outright states that whoever is right between him and the player character is going to be the victor of their battle.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Has one at the end of the story, where he realizes what he had done to the player was wrong, and all his efforts at helping have only caused more harm.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After you capture the first Pokémon to emerge from the rift and another is approaching (now that you no longer have the Red Chain to catch it since it broke in the first fight), he drops all formality and basically tells everyone to get the hell away from there. He later apologizes for his loss of composure.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: When the party is forced to escape the summit after Dialga/Palkia rampages, Kamado ends up shouting in his real informal accent to get everyone out, though he quickly apologizes for it.
- In the Japanese version his informal speech is in the Kansai accent, indicating he may come from Johto, which is based on Kansai.
- Pose of Supplication: He prostrates himself in front of the player after the latter defeats him in the climax, accepting that he was wrong to exile the latter.
- Real Men Wear Pink: While most of his team is made with pretty masculine members like Snorlax and Golem, one of his team members in all of his battles is Clefable.
- Signature Mon: The ace of both his story and post-game teams is Snorlax. He is also shown meditating with it in concept art, with it wearing a white bandana to match his black one. How he managed to become so comfortable with it despite his extremely negative past experiences with Pokémon is unclear.
- Too Dumb to Live: His plan to deal with the rift was to try and kill Dialga/Palkia. You know, the borderline eldritch Reality Warper godlike entity. Several characters, including his loyal right-hand man, repeatedly note how incredibly stupid and reckless Kamado is being, requiring the player to intervene and beat some sense into him.
- Took a Level in Kindness: His defeat at the player's hands causes him to seriously mellow out. He's not only genuinely apologetic and helpful afterwards, but he's much more personable once the Dialga/Palkia threat has been resolved.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After the space-time rift gets bigger and the sky turns an ominous red, Kamado immediately assumes the player had something to do with it, kicks them out of the Survey Corps, exiles them from Jubilife Village and threatens both the Diamond and Pearl Clans with war if they help the player. This is in spite of the player having worked hard to quell all five Nobles at great personal risk, collect information on Hisui's Pokémon for the Survey Corps, and do many favors for the townspeople.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kamado really does want to protect the people of Jubilife Village, and to prevent the same events that wiped out his former village. However, he is also embedded with a sense of paranoia that leads to him making some very questionable decisions, even going as far as exiling the player from the village under the belief that they are responsible for the recent events, thinking it will somehow fix the rift. He is instantly proven very, very wrong.
Cyllene (Shimaboshi)
Cyllene / Shimaboshi (シマボシ shimaboshi)
Voiced by: Romi Park (JP), Alexandra Yastishock (EN)
The Captain of Galaxy Team's Survey Corps, strict with both herself and others.- Ambiguously Related: Her appearance, name, and stoic demeanor imply she might be an ancestor of Cyrus, but there's no official word on it. In an extra cutscene where she and Kamado reminesce about how the Galaxy Team will soon disband since it'll no longer be needed, she mentions she'll make sure to pass on stories about the Team to her descendants, which might have inspired Cyrus to form his own Team Galactic.
- Big Eater: Beni mentions that she ate ten orders of potato mochi all by herself due to the stress she's feeling at the beginning of the game.
- Brutal Honesty: She makes it absolutely clear that the protagonist will not survive without the aid of Jubilife Village and as such should make sure that they pass her test.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: At the start of the game, she really could not care less about you. If you are an asset to the Survey Corps, then you may be provided with food, water, and shelter. If you aren't, you have no place in Jubilife Village and can just die to some random Pokémon. By the end, it's safe to say she's gained a bit of a soft spot for you, with her outright ordering you to come back to the village alive.
- Good Counterpart: She is one to Cyrus. Both appear to be rather cold, stern, and unfriendly, but whereas Cyrus was a major sociopath who wanted to remake the world in his twisted vision, Cyllene proves to be one of the player's most valuable allies when they're exiled by Kamado and lends her support to them in whatever way she can.
- Good Is Not Nice: Even after the player proves themselves, her meetings with them essentially boil down to a brief report and a terse farewell while reminding you of your duties.
- Hidden Depths: According to Zisu, Cyllene is a Master Swordswoman.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While extremely harsh to the player character, Cyllene is right that the village can't just bring in a random stranger who apparently fell out of the sky rent-free. If they can pull their weight, they can stay. If they can't, it's back into the wilderness with you.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's harsh and cold but she's never unfair to the Galaxy Team members and genuinely cares about their safety, as shown when she orders you to come back alive and even bends the rules so she can secretly help you when you're banished. She eventually just rewrites the rules herself so you can be let back into the village.
- Loophole Abuse: After Kamado banishes the protagonist, her Abra conveniently wanders off to aid the player. Cyllene pretends that she had absolutely no idea where it might have gone and if it aided the protagonist of its own free will, against Kamado's orders, it's not her problem. Even if it just so happened to be carrying a letter addressed from her to the protagonist.
- Mundane Utility: She uses her Abra to teleport bugs out of her office. This skill also comes in pretty handy when the player is exiled, allowing them to access the Pokémon back in the pastures.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Although she is clearly unhappy at doing so, she fulfills Kamado's order to banish the protagonist without complaint. Though it does not stop her from loaning the player her Abra so they can access the pastures. And she ultimately goes against Kamado's orders and reinstates the player back into the Survey Corps once it's clear that they have the solution to the space-time crisis befalling all of Hisui.
- No Brows: She has no eyebrows, which serve to really emphasize her stern appearance.
- Not So Above It All: Is seen enjoying herself at the festival between the three major teams.
- Not So Stoic: The one thing that can break her demeanor is Bug-type Pokémon showing up in her office.
- Perpetual Frowner: Almost never seen without a stern scowl.
- Pet the Dog: The player has to prove they can be an asset before Cyllene will let them stay in Jubilife Village... but she does give them the night before the trial in the quarters, without even asking if they have a means to pay for it.
- Red Herring: With her resemblance to Cyrus, a savvy player might assume she'll turn out to be evil like him, but no, she's on the player's side the entire game. Volo is the real villain, despite his resemblance to Cynthia.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Even more so than Kamado. Regardless of her cold demeanor, she does still give the player character a fair chance to prove themselves and her test is nothing less than what Laventon described to her. When the player is exiled, Cyllene takes it upon herself to provide as much support to them as she reasonably can, pulling strings to let the player access the base-camps and sending her Abra to ensure that the player would still have access to the pastures.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When the player returns with a way to solve the immediate calamity they are facing, Cyllene immediately disregards Kamado's orders and reinstates them as a member of the Survey Corps. Her justification is that if Kamado didn't want her to make that decision, he shouldn't have put her in charge of the Galaxy Hall while he went away.
- Signature Mon: Her partner is an Abra (one factor distinguishing her from Cyrus, who doesn't use any Psychic-types and has Weavile, a Dark-type, as his ace). Since she's not a battler, Abra serves as a work assistant by teleporting things around.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Akari will mention that maybe Cyllene's appetite will return once you return to Jubilife village with the Red Chain, implying that Cyllene's concern for you has kept her from eating.
- Try Not to Die: In keeping with her 'cold with a not-so-secret soft spot for the player' attitude, she expresses her concern for the protagonist during the Red Chain plot by ordering them not to die in the field.
- Tsundere: When the player thanks her for her help during their exile, she promptly denies it and says she had no idea where her Abra went. Considering her Abra came with a letter from her, she was probably keeping up appearances.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She has a phobia of Bug types to the point that she is absolutely terrified of a Wurmple.
Zisu (Perilla)
Zisu / Perilla (ペリーラ perīra)
- The Ace: Implied to be this in terms of battling for the Expedition Team due to being the captain of the battle-centric Security Corps. One of its members even says Akari/Rei would be better suited to Zisu's corps because of how strong they are.
- Ambiguously Related: Based on her appearance (namely her puffy red hair), Japanese name, strong-willed demeanor, expertise in battle, and emphasis on being stronger for the sake of battle, she's implied to be an ancestor of the future 2nd-strongest Sinnoh Elite Four member Flint and his younger brother Stat Trainer Buck. Additionally, during your Path of Tenacity battles with her, she slowly amasses a team that ends up identical to Flint's Diamond and Pearl team.
- Large and in Charge: Befitting her status as the captain of the Galaxy Team's Security Corps, Zisu is a physically large and imposing woman. The player character only stands about as tall as her stomach.
- Not So Above It All: She takes her duty as Captain of the Security Corps quite seriously but will still answer Ingo's call to have a recreational battle against either Rei or Akari whenever they ask, expressing pride in how far they've come if they beat her.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite the main character having shown up out of nowhere, seemingly from the time-space rift (which is a source of great unease among the village), Zisu readily teaches them how to become stronger in battle without fear that the skills will be misused.
- Shared Family Quirks: If she is indeed Flint and Buck's ancestor, she does the same arm winding pose that Buck does when preparing for battle.
- Signature Mon: Zisu's ace Pokémon in general Training Grounds battles turns out to be the unbelievably rare Hisuian Zoroark. On the Path of Tenacity, she uses Infernape as her lead.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Her Tomboyish Ponytail is in the shape of a Lopunny's ears.
Beni (Mube)
Beni / Mube (ムベ mube)
In-Battle Appearence
The owner of the Wallflower, the Galaxy Team's local food shop, well known for his potato mochi. He is close friends with Kamado and one of the very few people the Commander fully trusts.
- Ambiguously Related: When you confront him on the way to Kamado, his appearance and choice of mons imply he might be Wally's ancestor. In the postgame he even mentions his plans to move to someplace warmer now that his business with Kamado has wrapped up.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Comes off as just a kooky if somewhat gruff food shop owner, when in fact he's Kamado's right hand and a master of Ninja arts.
- Blood Knight: He stands in the player's way when they head to Mt. Coronet in the climax, having been ordered by Kamado to stop them from interfering. However, he admits he just wants to see the power of the one who managed to quell all of the Noble Pokémon Lords.
- Composite Character: His role as a chef and his green hair gives him a resemblance to Cilan, whereas his appearance as a ninja, and his team, make him bear a resemblance to Wally.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His and Kamado's home village was destroyed by rampaging wild Pokémon and many of the people they knew were injured or killed.
- The Dragon: He refers to himself as Kamado's right-hand man when confronting the player at Mt. Coronet.
- Graceful Loser: When you defeat him, he takes his loss with grace, and basically begs the player to stop Kamado with force, if necessary, before he gets himself killed.
- Implied Death Threat: Tells the player that he and Kamado "ought to get rid of [them] for good" before battling them.
- Mythology Gag: He is suggested to be an ancestor of Wally, and his Pokémon team includes both Gardevoir and Gallade, Wally's Signature Mons from the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes, respectively.
- Ninja: He wears a white ninja suit when he battles, uses smoke bombs to change outfits, and expresses enthusiasm for an opportunity to once again use his long-neglected ninja techniques.
- Old Master: At first glance, he seems like a feeble old man, but he's actually a formidable ninja.
- One-Note Cook: Potato mochi is all he's ever seen serving, and while he's good at making it, there's no word on whether he's any good at cooking anything else. After rematching him in the postgame, Beni muses that he should probably come up with other dishes before everyone starts getting sick of potato mochi.
- Only Friend: To Kamado. While Kamado generally keeps almost everyone, especially the player, at an arm's length due to his trust issues, dialogue shows that Beni is one of the few, if not the only person Kamado trusts fully and unconditionally. The fact they grew up in the same village likely contributes to this.
- Shoot the Dog: His job is to do the dirty acts that Kamado either can't or won't do.
- Signature Mon: He technically has two, as he uses both of Ralts' final evolutions, Gardevoir and Gallade, on his team and keeps them equally leveled.
- Supreme Chef: He is well known for his delicious potato mochi.
- Undying Loyalty: His devotion to Kamado has him serve as his right-hand ninja, to the point of acting as Kamado's vanguard when the player attempts to confront Kamado at the top of mount Coronet.
- Worthy Opponent: After battling the player character Beni says he doesn't hate them and may actually like them for their skill in battle.
Choy (Taisai)
Choy / Taisai (タイサイ taisai)
- Ambiguously Related: His hair color, hairstyle, and glasses make him heavily resemble Charon from Team Galactic.
- Good Counterpart: To Platinum's Charon, being a benevolent and content shopkeeper instead of a scheming and power-hungry commander.
- Happily Married: To Tao Hua's granddaughter Yui, much to Tao Hua's irritation.
- No Hero Discount: His prices remain the same even after you help him add new wares to his shop, and not even after saving all of spacetime.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Tao Hua swears vengeance toward him and treats him coldly, which forces him to use the player as a middleman when negotiating for new wares. Tao Hua claims it's because Choy stole his most precious treasure. We later learn it's because Choy married his granddaughter Yui, and she chews him out over this.
Anthe (Sharon)
Anthe / Sharon (シャロン sharon)
- Ambiguously Related: Her hair, glasses, and purple outfit evoke the Battle Castle's Frontier Brain Darach.
- The Fashionista: Being a clothier, she's deeply interested in fashion and coming up with new designs for her kimonos. She often asks the player character to bring her Pokémon of varying forms to get inspiration from. Part of this was a result of seeing the player's initial starting outfit, giving her the idea to make Pokémon-based patterns in the first place.
- Nice Girl: She's a sweet and friendly lady who's always happy to see the player check out her various lines of clothing. Notably, when the player is exiled, Anthe refuses to believe that they caused the space time rift to expand.
- Quest Giver: Makes several requests of the player character to find Pokémon for her to base new fashions on.
Colza (Nabana)
Colza / Nabana (ナバナ nabana)
- Ambiguously Related: He has a shared affinity for plants and the exact same hairstyle as Gardenia. In addition, both their Japanese names are derived from rapeseed.
- Family Theme Naming: His Japanese name is Nabana, while Gardenia's is Natane.
Sanqua (Sazanka)
Sanqua / Sazanka (サザンカ sazanka)
- Ambiguously Related: Her hairstyle and color make her resemble the Johto League Elite Four member Karen quite a bit. Adding to this she is frequently accompanied by an Eevee and later Umbreon, though it is not her Pokémon specifically and belongs to her subordinate Floaro.
- Hidden Depths: A post-game conversation has her reveal she's actually quite an artist; she's inspired by a photo Professor Laventon took of the rift, and does a painting of it, though she holds off putting it up anywhere because she figures it's too soon to put it up.
Tao Hua (Taohua)
Tao Hua / Taohua
- Everyone Has Standards: Curmudgeon though he is, he does feel bad about the player character having to play go-between in his feud with Choy, and it's what eventually motivates him to stop.
- Grumpy Old Man: Unlike the other corps leaders, he is visibly elderly, with white hair, glasses, wrinkles and a bent posture. He's also the most crotchety.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: He is publicly feuding with Choy because he hates that Choy married his beloved granddaughter.
- Stubborn Mule: He freely admits to being too stubborn, and it's the reason for his feud with Choy; When his daughter was little, he made her promise to always stay with him, and expects her to stick to this even as a grown woman.
- Would Rather Suffer: States he'd much prefer to be eaten by a Pokémon than make nice with Choy.
Pesselle (Kine)
Pesselle / Kine (キネ kine)
- Ambiguously Related: She looks like an older version of your DPPt/BDSP Wayward Cave companion Mira. In addition, she may or may not also be related to the (many) Pokémon Center nurses of the modern world.
- Exact Words: Asks the player to do an easy quest for her; fetching one hundred Medicinal Leeks for her. Even the music cuts out for a moment in stunned surprise. She said "easy", as Medicinal Leeks are plentiful in the Obsidian Fieldlands. Not short.
- Meaningful Name: Her name takes obvious inspiration from the pestle that was used to crush ingredients used in medicines of old within a mortar.
Rye (Haku)
Rye / Haku (ハク haku)
- All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: His eastern style straw hat. Curiously, if you look at him directly, the hat's got a part chipped off just like Riley's Fedora of Asskicking does for him.
- Ambiguously Related: A dead ringer for Riley (who may or may not be as Ambiguously Related to Sir Aaron), just with a eastern style straw hat instead of a western style fedora and prefering orange and reds to blues and grays.
- The Empath: His Lucario takes a liking to the player due to their aura, which Rye is implied to sense as well.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: His request explicitly involves a battle against him and his Lucario. However, due to Rye lacking actual Trainer data, the battle is treated gameplay-wise as one against a wild, uncatchable Lucario.note
- Signature Mon: Has a Lucario, just like his implied descendant.
Vessa (Yura)
Vessa / Yura (ユラ yura)
- Ambiguously Evil: Spiritomb is said to be 108 souls bound to the Odd Keystone, at least some of which were malicious. Which begs the question, who was Vessa in life?
- The Atoner: She indicates that she wants to be forgiven by the traveler that cursed her. Whether it was she or Spiritomb that was cursed is unknown, but it matches up with Spiritomb's origin story.
- Creepy Child: She seems to know way more than she lets on, can see ghostly wisps invisible to humans even when she is without the Odd Keystone, and carries an Odd Keystone with her. She also seems sad for some unknown reason. The player can note that she's weird.
- Creepy Loner Girl: Never seen interacting with the other children in Jubilife Village.
- Dead All Along: She's Wisp 108.
- Gender Bender: Vessa is a girl, but the Spiritomb you capture after gathering all the wisps can be male or female. Justified due to the fact that Vessa is but one of 108 souls attached to Spiritomb.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: She sent the player skittering after the Wisps in part to reunite them all to allow them to retake the form of Spiritomb, but also to make a friend in the player.
- Meaningful Name: "Vessa" sounds an awful lot like "vessel", doesn't it?
- Mysterious Waif: A mysterious and tragic girl who gives you a plot-relevant object and sends you on a quest.
Diamond and Pearl Clans
In General
- Ambiguously Related: Visiting the settlements allow you to see some portraits of presumably the previous clan leaders or founders in the houses of the clan members who bear resemblance to other characters from different games, such as Maxie in the Diamond Settlement, Archie in the Pearl Settlement, and Alder in both settlements (this one potentially being a depiction of the Ancient Hero of legend).
- Cavalry Refusal: When the player is exiled by Kamado, there is the option to try to seek refuge among the two clans, only to be refused. Given Adaman and Irida's reactions, however, this was definitely not by choice, and they were most likely threatened by Kamado into staying silent, under the threat of declaring war.
- Combat Pragmatist: None of them have any qualms about sending out many Pokémon at once to fight one of Akari/Rei's. This is justified, as battling hasn't yet become the sport it is in modern day and they live in a much more ruthless world, so they'd have no reason to follow the "traditional" rules of battling that already exist in other regions. Plus, they don't use Poké Balls (yet).
- Enforced Cold War: The clans have literally gone to war over their interpretation of Almighty Sinnoh in the past, but by the time the player arrives, the hostility between the two groups has cooled down, with the Galaxy Team playing mediator.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The clans are roughly analogous to the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido which Sinnoh is based on.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Both Clans have six prominent members each and have the genders split evenly between them, but also have this combined: Six men (Adaman, Iscan, and Melli in the Diamond Clan; Lian, Gaeric, and Sneasler's Warden in the Pearl Clan) and six women (Irida, Calaba, and Palina in the Pearl Clan; Mai, Arezu, and Sabi in the Diamond Clan).
- The Hecate Sisters: The female members of the Pearl Clan form this dynamic - Irida, with her youth and self doubt, is the Maiden; Palina, soft-spoken and caring towards her beloved Growlithes, is the Mother; and Calaba, the eldest and most assertive, is the Crone.
- The Heretic: Each Clan views the other as a heretic for their beliefs on the nature of Almighty Sinnoh.
- Mythical Motifs: When the Pearl Clan's hoodies are up their ridge resembles the top of Origin Palkia's head.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: While there's a general uniform for both clans, several of the Wardens have made modifications to theirs; for example, Arezu's hooded top bears more resemblance to a modern-day hoodie than those of her peers, while Gaeric doesn't wear a top and instead styles his chest hair like the Pearl Clan logo.
- Punny Name: Most of the citizens in the settlements are named after units of time for the Diamond Clan, and units of space for the Pearl clan.
- Religious Bruiser: The Diamond and Pearl clans explicitly have their own religious belief of the mighty "Sinnoh" who created the world (actually Arceus), however, there is a split between whether it ruled over time (Dialga's territory) or space (Palkia's territory). Their trainers are no exception to this and will frequently voice their beliefs.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A variant. When Kamado exiles the player from Jubilife Village and threatens retribution, potentially even war on the clans if they try to help, Adaman and Irida decide they cannot stand by and secretly meet the protagonist at the Ancient Retreat. They decide to have one of them stay behind to keep tabs on the Galaxy Team, while the other discretely accompanies the player to witness their efforts to assemble the Red Chain and hopefully prove their innocence via their testimony.
The Diamond Clan
Adaman (Seki)
Adaman / Seki (セキ seki)
- Ambiguously Related: The DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduces a character named Perrin who shares his hair color, eye shape, and eye color as well as a fondness for time metaphors (which she states runs in the family), implying that she's his descendant; however, any relationship between them has yet to be confirmed.
- Badass Normal: Unlike Irida, Adaman is unable to use his Celestica Flute, opting to give it to the player character instead. Thus, he is incapable of summoning the various Noble and Ride Pokémon that the clans are tasked with caring for. Additionally, unlike Irida, who has seen Palkia in her dreams, Adaman has never received any dreams or visions of Dialga, and thus has less of a foundation to base his beliefs on. Despite these limitations, he still proves to be a capable leader to the Diamond Clan.
- Character Catchphrase:
- As his clan reveres time, he likes to fit in the word "time" whenever he can.
- He also tends to call himself a "strapping young man".
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Dealing him one of these is a requirement to clear the "Adaman's Hope" request. To wit, he asks the player character to let him battle Dialga in its Origin Forme, and the player must solely have it on their team. In turn, his team is comprised of a Level 65 Leafeon, and an Umbreon and Vaporeon, both at Level 34. The minimum level a caught Dialga in the game can be at is 65, matching Leafeon, assuming the player did not level it up further after capturing it. However, Dialga possesses a double resistance against Leafon, and also resists Vaporeon, whose level is around half its own at best, meaning that these Pokémon would struggle to even damage it to any significant degree. Additionally, unlike in previous games, Roar of Time does not require Dialga to recharge, and its power is significantly boosted in its Origin Forme (albeit at the cost of a reduction in accuracy), which would enable it to deal massive damage to Leafeon, and likely One-Hit Kill the rest of Adaman's Pokémon. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that Dialga is thus easily capable of knocking out Adaman's entire team on its own without much difficulty.
- Deuteragonist: He and Irida share a majority of the game's focus and story with the player. He's promoted to the sole deuteragonist if you choose the Diamond Clan route in the game's climax.
- Dreadful Musician: Implied. One of Adaman's reasons for giving the Player the Celestica Flute that presumably belonged to him was saying that it's because he couldn't play the flute at all. So, the flute is technically useless to him. Not surprisingly, he's amazed that the player can actually use the flute on the first try. In contrast, his foil Irida is an excellent flautist. Ending stills from the final episode of the Pokémon: Hisuian Snow shorts also show a younger Adaman struggling to play the Celestica Flute while Mai watches him.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Notably, he is the only character besides Laventon to express no doubts in the player character's abilities and intentions though this was probably helped by the player character helping one of his wardens.
- Fatal Flaw: Impatience. Adaman is adamant about not wasting any time. When forced to simply sit and wait for Laventon to make the Origin Ball, all he can do is complain about how much time they were wasting. Although this is heavily downplayed as he is still enough of a Reasonable Authority Figure that he doesn't make careless mistakes like the rest of the characters.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Alongside Irida, he is misplaced in time into modern-day Pasio.
- God Test: In the request "Adaman's Hope", he asks the player character for the chance to battle Dialga in its Origin Forme. This is downplayed in that Adaman already believes in Dialga and its power, he simply wants to see how his own battling prowess stacks up against it. This is in contrast to Irida, who wanted to battle Palkia in its Origin Forme because she sought validation for her clan's worship of the Spacial Pokémon as the Almighty Sinnoh.
- Green Thumb: His main Pokémon is the Grass-type Leafeon.
- Guyliner: He wears eyeliner and blue eyeshadow in the corners of his eyes.
- Hopeless with Tech: Quite unsurprisingly in Pokémon Masters when he and Irida are sent to the present day Pasio he initially has issues with technology. His friendship story involves him asking the player to help teach him how to use a Rotom Phone. Thankfully with their help, he's able to figure it out and subvert the trope.
- On the other hand, he's beside himself when he learns about the Timer Ball being a handy ball that gets better at catching the more time it passes. Being an impatient person, this stresses him out, and he complains about who the hell made such a thing possible. He's much more excited about and willing to praise the invention of the Quick Ball which is a handy ball for catching Pokémon quickly which matches him better.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Adaman is a rare male example, with the neckline of his clothes under his haori being low and quite loose, showing off his collarbone and upper chest.
- Jerkass to One: He and Irida frequently get into rather petty squabbles with each other, with him usually starting to stir them. He gets some subtle Character Development after quelling the five Lords though, and both him and Irida turn into something more akin to Vitriolic Best Buds by the end of the game.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. He's not even that much of a jerk, only acting as such to Irida because of their clans' differing issues about the almighty Sinnoh, though his impatience can come across as mildly jerkish at times. He's otherwise levelheaded and trusting of people, especially the player, and he does start to get along with Irida near the end.
- Meaningful Name: Adaman is derived from adamas, an Ancient Greek word meaning unbreakable, which is the etymological source of the word diamond. "Adaman" also calls to mind the Adamant Orb and Crystal, items tied to Dialga.
- Mr. Fanservice: A muscular Pretty Boy with an Impossibly-Low Neckline that shows off his collarbone, arm bandages that draw attention to his muscular forearms, and calls himself a "strapping young man."
- Nice Guy: Almost immediately trusts the player characters and provides adequate throughout the game. He also doesn't hesitate at all to help the player after they're exiled, if he is chosen to accompany them.
- No-Respect Guy: Is implied to be this in his clan as despite being the leader, he actually hasn't seen the Almighty Sinnoh that he proclaims about. Additionally, Melli is a constant pain in his ass and will only stop being so if directly ordered to do so.
- Only Sane Man: Downplayed, as he's not the only sane person, but certainly has his head on straight, never seems to make any truly wrong decisions, and isn't afraid to call out anyone acting irrationally (like Melli and Kamado).
- Pretty Boy: He's pretty and he knows it, as he often calls himself a "strapping young man".
- Proud Beauty: Adaman is very proud of his looks and isn't afraid to describe himself in flattering terms.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Perhaps the most reasonable in the game. Upon hearing how you helped one of his wardens, he immediately places his trust in you. He also reins his wardens in when he thinks they have gone too far, such as when Melli was determined to keep Noble Electrode in a frenzied state.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Irida's blue. His defining traits are his impatience & tendency to act rashly in the name of not wasting time, which puts him at odds with Irida who values caution & foresight and thus sometimes struggles with indecisiveness & self-doubt. Their outfit colors are reversed, oddly enough.
- Signature Mon: Adaman's main partner is Leafeon. Fittingly, as he hails from the Pastoria area where there are Grass-types aplenty.
- Theme Naming: All of the named Diamond Clan members that aren't a leader or warden are named after measurements or forms of time.
- Voice for the Voiceless: Sort of. If he is chosen to accompany the player, Dialga will speak to him through telepathy and Adaman will relay its message to the others. Quite fitting for the leader of the Diamond Clan.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lambasts Melli for constantly trying to keep Electrode in its frenzied state and acting like a jerk in general. The rebuke mostly falls on deaf ears, though Melli does grudgingly end up helping make the balms.
Mai (Yone)
Mai / Yone (ヨネ yone)
- Ambiguously Related: She's a dead ringer for Marley, one of the Stat Trainers from Sinnoh (and Mai is even Marley's Japanese name), but there's no official word on it. This is made more clear after the "Daybreak" update, where she uses two Pokémon from Marley's Platinum Battlegrounds team (Crobat and Weavile) in addition to Munchlax.
- Animal Motifs: She has an Ursaring on her hoodie and a Stantler on her right legging.
- Cool Big Sis: She's a confident, surrogate big sister to Adaman (who she helped raise), and Lian admires her for her kindness despite being from a different clan.
- Contrived Coincidence: Though not related in any way to the quest, she works in the same land where Shaymin resides. Shaymin was the Pokémon Marley wished to see.
- A Day in the Limelight: In the main story, Mai is only around for the Obsidian Fieldlands arc, and appears again very briefly when the player gets exiled only to vanish afterwards. In the post-launch "Daybreak" content, she and her Munchlax become focal characters and investigate the Massive Mass Outbreaks alongside the player, and after the Daybreak campaign is finished, she continues to appear whenever Massive Mass Outbreaks occur with her Munchlax, who the player character can feed berries to in order to learn which Pokémon are at the location of each outbreak in the area.
- Irony: Her probable descendant Marley prefers speedy Pokémon, while Mai has a Munchlax, one of the slowest Pokémon in the entire game.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Adaman; she comments in the "Daybreak" DLC that he's a brother figure whom she "helped raise". Also, she claims her Munchlax is like a sibling to her.
- Mighty Glacier: In contrast to Marley, her preferred type seems to be slow yet strong Pokémon such as her Munchlax.
- Not So Stoic: Rarely drops her confident, almost smug, expression, but briefly loses herself to pure shock when she mistakes a Zorua in disguise for her Munchlax (after claiming she would never make such a mistake). Her Munchlax was offended by the mistake as well.
- Older Than They Look: While she could pass for a older teen or young adult herself, her frequent use of "young people" to refer to the player character and Akari/Rei suggests she is notably older.
- Signature Mon: Her Munchlax, which she was raised alongside like siblings.
- The Stoic: Downplayed. She's fairly friendly towards the protagonist, though she can also be serious at times and rarely changes her facial expression.
- Verbal Tic: At least in English, often starts her sentences with "my, my."
Arezu (Hinatsu)
Arezu / Hinatsu (ヒナツ hinatsu)
- Ambiguously Related: Even more so than most other characters in the game. She looks like she might be an ancestor of Mars — they look all but identical, and are named after different versions of the Greco-Roman war god — but there's no official word on it. Given Adaman himself confuses Mars for Arezu, their resemblance was done on purpose. The Path of Tenacity battles against her give her Purugly and Bronzong (the former is Mars's ace and the latter is common to all Team Galactic admins) to hammer it in. In addition, her hair contains just enough resemblance to both Silver and Rocket Admin Ariana to throw them into the mix as well.
- Big Eater: The player is able to track her down with Ursaluna because she ate so much potato mochi that she reeked of the stuff.
- Establishing Character Moment: Her first scene is literally her gushing over the Galaxy Team's hairdresser before introducing herself to the player. She later gets her wish to work there as Edith's apprentice.
- Fatal Flaw: As mentioned in her bio, she shoulders a lot of responsibility, so she tries to take care of matters by herself; however, hiding Lilligant's frenzied state in the hopes of fixing it herself just leads to more problems, as even if she succeeded in bringing her bag of balms back to the Diamond Clan settlement, there's no telling if she'd be capable of facing Lilligant in its frenzy.
- Hartman Hips: While a little harder to see in-game thanks to her oversized hoodie, her concept art◊ shows that she has quite the pair of hips to go along with her shapely thighs.
- Ironic Name: Her Meaningful Name has some mythological irony, since the Roman Mars was the heroic newer counterpart of the Greek Ares, while in Pokémon Arezu is the heroic older counterpart to Mars.
- Leg Focus: Her Diamond Clan uniform includes strikingly notable multicolored leggings, especially the prominent red on her thighs, that combined with shorts (which are mostly hidden under her hoodie) and small boots make her legs stand out much more prominently than even the girls like Irida who have bare legs. Also unlike Irida, her legs have more shape to them, with her thighs in particular being especially thick. Both of these traits get notable focus during her Twisted Ankle incident.
- Meaningful Name: Fitting her Ambiguously Related status, Arezu is Japanese phonetic for Ares, the older Greek version of the Roman Mars. Her Japanese name, Hinatsu, is derived from hinatsuboshi, an archaic Japanese name for Mars.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She was trying her best to help Lilligant, but she deliberately hid the Pokémon's frenzied state from everyone and accidentally drove Ursaluna crazy, which could have been interpreted as an attack on the Pearl Clan. When all is said and done, Adaman is understandably upset with her, though he realizes she only had the best of intentions.
- Not What It Looks Like: Her messing with Ursaluna and Lilligant behind Adaman's back paints her in a negative light, but in reality, she was just trying her best to fix Lilligant's frenzy herself.
- Signature Mon: In the Diamond Clan's Path of Tenacity battles, Arezu's ace is her own Hisuian Lilligant.
- Twisted Ankle: She's sprained her ankle when the player finds her shortly before the battle with Lilligant. Thankfully, Calaba is there to patch her up.
- Workaholic: She feels perfectly fine in working both as a Warden and a hair stylist. Mind you, the jobs are on opposite sides of Mt. Coronet; it's a wonder how she makes it work.
Iscan (Susuki)
Iscan / Susuki (ススキ susuki)
- Cowardly Lion: Is normally afraid of many things, but when duty calls, he ignores his fears to make sure it is completed.
- Irony: Iscan's afraid of Ghost types but is the Warden to the part Ghost-type Basculegion.
- Lovable Coward: Despite being easily scared, he's a very polite and kind man.
- Nice Guy: He saved Palina simply because it was the right thing to do, and is quite humble about it.
- Rescue Romance: He and Palina started dating after he saved her life during the same incident where the previous Lord Arcanine died. He modestly says it wasn't a big deal because "any decent person" would do it, but that still helped her fall in love with him.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Is in a relationship with the Pearl Clan member Palina, which they have to keep secret due to the rivalry between their clans and Palina's particular issues with being viewed as an inferior successor. Subverted once Origin Palkia/Dialga is caught, since the art during the credits shows them sitting together in Jubilife Village during the "we just saved the universe" festival, in which Mai and Arezu are also openly hanging out with Calaba.
- The Unfought: The only Warden of the Diamond Clan who can never be battled. Unlike Cabala and Palina, you don't even get to fight the Noble Pokémon he cares for.
- Voice Changeling: According to his concept art one of his hobbies is mimicking the voices of Pokémon, which he's shown doing with an East Sea Gastrodon.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is terrified of Ghost types. When making Basculegion's food with a Dusclops's Dark Pulse, he ends up getting so spooked that the player has to angrily snap at him to get on with it.
Melli (Tsubaki)
Melli / Tsubaki (ツバキ tsubaki)
- Admiring the Abomination: Believes that the frenzied Noble Electrode shouldn't be quelled.
- Ambiguously Related: He bears a resemblance to Lucian of Sinnoh's Elite Four, albeit without the sunglasses and specializing in Poison types instead of Psychic types. His purple hair and use of Skuntank and Golbat could also suggest he's related to Jupiter, although his hair is more bluish-purple while hers is more reddish-purple.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Melli and Adaman aren't blood related, but he views Adaman like an older brother figure to look up to, and Adaman can find him just as irritating as everyone else.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: According to his official concept art, he's a pretty good singer.
- Blatant Lies: Given that he actually seems to care about Electrode, it's pretty transparent that his claiming to have forgotten its favorite food is just another attempt to prevent the player from stopping its frenzied state.
- Bystander Syndrome: His reaction to Electrode's frenzying makes it sound as if his main motivation is just to suck up to "Almighty Sinnoh" at everyone else's expense.
- Evil Is Petty: More like Jerkass is Petty, but removing all the torches in Wayward Cave so no one else can reach the Noble Electrode just screams pettiness.
- Expy: Is similar to anime May's rival Harley from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire in both appearance and personality.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: With his petty and snooty attitude, it should come off as no surprise that none of the other Wardens, nor even his own leader, like him all that much, though they still consider him their ally and Adaman is quite intent on improving his attitude. His Golbat remaining unevolved seems to imply that even his Pokémon dislike him.
- The Fundamentalist: Is the only character in the game that's close to being one as he's convinced the frenzied Noble Pokémon are the result of "almighty Sinnoh's will" and wants to have them keep rampaging even though all evidence points out that doing so would be a bad thing.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Melli is disliked by most people due to his massive ego and obnoxious personality. In-game, his Golbat never evolves into a Crobat, implying that even his Pokémon don't like him.
- Hate Sink: Melli is a huge Jerkass who shows animosity towards both of the other two factions, refusing to associate with Ingo and Lian, and constantly talking the player down because he doesn't believe them to be all that (despite events saying otherwise). He has an ego the size of almighty Sinnoh, constantly talks about how grandiose he is, is willing to keep Electrode in a frenzied state, and refuses to listen to reason from everyone and especially Adaman (even if he genuinely believes it's good that Lord Electrode is in a frenzy rather than harmful). Even after proven wrong, he claims how it's never his fault. It shouldn't be surprising that none of the other wardens like him, and the fact that his Golbat isn't fully evolved suggest even his own Pokémon share the sentiment.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently, he has a beautiful singing voice.
- Informed Attribute: The official site describes Melli as someone who "cares passionately for his fellow clan members". In the game itself, he's a gigantic prick who is at odds with just about everyone. The way he provides the bare minimum of any help and presents it as a great boon makes one wonder if the site bio was meant to be from his perspective.
- Jerkass: Is the most hostile of the Wardens, constantly talking down to the player and speaking of his own greatness. He also takes the bad blood between the Diamond and Pearl Clans too far, refusing to associate with Ingo just because he's from the opposing Pearl Clan. And he even calls the player a "grunt", a term used to describe future villainous organization members. His official bio does claim a Jerk with a Heart of Gold side to him with his fellow clan members, though the player won't even see such interactions in-game and his fellow clan members dislike him as well. Notably, his Golbat still hasn't evolved into a Crobat, which can only be done through The Power of Friendship, implying that even his Pokémon don't like him.
- Lean and Mean: He's the tallest and thinnest of the Wardens, and also the meanest.
- Narcissist: The man has a hugely inflated opinion of himself and views himself as being far more significant in the Diamond Clan than he actually is, up to calling himself "the great Melli."
- Pet the Dog: In his own way, he does legitimately care about Electrode in his care, as he complains about how scared it is when Cresselia suddenly appears in its territory. And he also genuinely believes Electrode's frenzying is good for it, rather than harmful.
- Poisonous Person: He has the Poison-type Skuntank as his main partner. He also calls upon a Skorupi and a Zubat for help in his rematch, which become Drapion and Golbat for his Path of Tenacity battles.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He gets an ineffectual rivalry with Lian after meeting him towards the end of the game. This extends into the "Daybreak" quests where they attempt to one-up each other, though by the end they seem to have gained respect for each other.
- Signature Mon: He uses a Skuntank in both of his battles in the Coronet Highlands and on the Path of Tenacity.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He's just one of the many Wardens who look after Noble Pokémon, but he acts like he's the only person that's actually important and should be worshipped by everyone else, to the extent that he outright thinks the Massive Mass Outbreaks are hordes of wild Pokémon celebrating his very existence.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Non-evil example; Mai remarks during the "Daybreak" quests that he used to be fairly shy and withdrawn when he was a child, but eventually set out to prove himself to be of help to Adaman and let his newfound confidence go to his head.
- Worthy Opponent: Downplayed, but the postgame shows that he respects the player's strength... if nothing else.
Sabi (Wasabi)
Sabi / Wasabi (ワサビ wasabi)
- The Ace: With the possible exception of Ingo, she shows off the most battle skill of all the Wardens and even the heads of each clan by commanding an Electivire, Magmortar, and Rhyperior all at once. Not only is this difficult and a specialized battle style in the modern day (in the form of Triple Battle), but each of these Pokémon is an absolute beast, fully evolved and highly dangerous. And she's commanding them in battle, in an era where Pokémon roam wild and are likely to try and kill humans. As of the Daybreak update, she doesn't even fall into the "one serious combatant and two others on support" pitfall that other Clan members (including Adaman and Irida) do, with Magmortar and Electrivire being a very close Lv. 50 to Rhyperior's Lv. 65. Given her unusual demeanor, she might lack the aversions others have with Pokémon in general, even fierce ones, letting her take control of them more easily.
- Achilles' Heel: In her initial battle, all three of her Pokémon can be easily taken down by a Ground-type. She tries to get better in the rematch where all three of them know Ice-type moves but a Water/Ground-type such as Whiscash will still be able to stomp them.
- Ambiguously Related: She might be an ancestor of Stat Trainer Cheryl from Diamond and Pearl, but there's no official word on it. She has hair about the same color and parted on her head the same way, though she keeps her hair in pigtails as opposed to Cheryl's Motherly Side Plait, and in terms of age she appears much younger.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: She has green hair and wears a yellow-green furred hat along with green leggings, making her appearance resemble her namesake, the wasabi root.
- Blush Sticker: Has pink circles on her cheeks. Given she lives in the tundra (and is properly bundled, indicating she's not just used to it), the intention is most likely "blushing from the cold" rather than "blush from her mood".
- Edible Theme Naming: Named after wasabi, a Japanese condiment as well as the plant root it is produced from.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Green eyes with blue pupils, which according to concept art is meant to signify her psychic powers.
- The Gadfly: Leads the protagonist on a wild goosechase across the mountains and through Snowpoint Temple all to see if they're worthy of using Braviary and trolls them the whole time about whether or not she's actually a seer or just screwing with them.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: "But the real question here is... [X]? Or [Y]? Hmmm?"
- Mundane Utility: A piece of concept art depicts her using her clairvoyant abilities to see what treats will be for lunch the next day.
- Oracular Urchin: Is believed to have the ability to see the future, but she notes it's possible that she's just making all her visions up. That said, she does come out to Coronet Highlands on a vision in the Daybreak update and saves someone from a horde of alphas, lending credence to her claims of clairvoyance.
- Signature Mon: While she fights with a team of three, her Rhyperior is always significantly stronger than the rest of her team. She is also strongly associated with Hisuian Braviary, which will appear with her in the photo booth.
- Wolfpack Boss: When fought, she has you battle an Electivire, Magmortar, and Rhyperior all at once in a 1v3 bout.
The Pearl Clan
Irida (Kai)
Irida / Kai (カイ kai)
- But Thou Must!: In "The Pearl Clan's Treasure," when she asks the player if they're ready to fight, trying to tell her they're not ready will just have her complain to them to "take a hint" and start the fight already. The sister request "The Diamond Clan's Treasure," ironically, has Adaman agree to wait should the player tell him they need to prepare.
- Bystander Syndrome: Downplayed. She does have a Pokémon and she does use it to battle to test the player. However, in important situations, she typically remains on the sidelines while the player does everything. Though this is more a byproduct of her indecisiveness and she does lament this position, resolving to better herself in this regard.
- Call-Back: In her Trainer Lodge first episode in Pokémon Masters, one of the virtual holograms she gets to see is of Snowpoint City's Gym and wishes to have a gym like it, which is a reference to the Daybreak quest line where she eagerly mentions how she'd want to have a gym herself to test trainers when the player mentions gyms.
- Catchphrase: Likes to drop the "space" word whenever she can.
- Character Tics: She's prone to frantically fanning herself with her hand to cool off. Initially, she fans herself when Adaman gets into his first disagreement with her, which makes it look like she uses the gesture to sarcastically imply she's affected by Adaman's comments. It's later revealed she actually does this because she's perpetually overheated and sweaty due to being from the tundra. This is despite the fact (and likely the reason for) her leaving so much skin bare.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: While she doesn't appear to have her teacher's superhuman strength or durability, she did at least gain his superhuman cold resistance, outright calling the tundra she lives in warm enough to almost make her sweat. This however has a side effect in that she handles heat relatively poorly, which is why she's reluctant to enter Firespit Island's volcano.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Dealing her one of these is a requirement to clear the "Irida's Wish" request. To wit, she asks the player character to let her battle Palkia in its Origin Forme, and the player must solely have it on their team. In turn, her team is comprised of a Level 65 Glaceon, and an Espeon and Flareon, both at Level 34. The minimum level a caught Palkia in the game can be at is 65, matching Glaceon, assuming the player did not level it up further after capturing it. Additionally, Palkia has a type advantage over Flareon that is around half its level at best and being in its Origin Forme, its chances of inflicting critical hits with Spacial Rend are significantly boosted. This would enable it to deal with Glaceon fairly handily, and likely One-Hit Kill the rest of Irida's Pokémon. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that Palkia is thus easily capable of knocking out Irida's entire team on its own without much difficulty.
- Cyberspace: She gets to try augmented reality in her Trainer Lodge's episodes in Pokémon Masters and sees many places around the world. Once the excitement is over, though, she admits that she'd rather be physically in those locations than seeing them from afar.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Is naturally suspicious about the player character's abilities but once they defeat Kleavor, she becomes one of their most supportive companions. It reaches the point where she is more outraged at Kamado's decision to exile them than either Adaman or the player character themselves.
- Deuteragonist: She and Adaman share a majority of the game's focus and story with the player. She's promoted to being the sole deuteragonist in the Pearl Clan's route in the finale.
- Exposed to the Elements: Her dress leaves much of her arms and legs completely bare to the elements, which is particularly egregious because she lives in an icy tundra. Adaman himself finds it freezing when he accompanies her to Avalugg's Warden, and directly calls her out, asking how she isn't freezing with how she's dressed. Given that she was taught by Avalugg's Warden, Gaeric, who is constantly shirtless, it's implied she acclimated by training under him (she herself noting that to her the regular levels of cold in the area actually feels warm, and later admits that she deals with hotter areas extremely poorly). It's noted that her unusual attire is weird even in-universe. Sure enough, the rest of the Pearl Clan dresses warmly and several of them complain about the cold or the risk of sunburn from exposing too much skin, neither of which Irida or Gaeric are bothered by.
- Fatal Flaw: Indecisiveness. She wants to form a plan on how to deal with Kleavor but lacks the time and information necessary to do so, leading to criticisms within both clans.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Alongside Adaman, she is misplaced in time into modern-day Pasio.
- Freudian Excuse: Her indecisiveness was caused by an argument with Palina, in which Palina told her that she was essentially asking Palina to train a baby pup to become the next Noble after watching its father die.
- Friendless Background: Aside from Palina, she apparently had no actual friends growing up, what with being pushed into being clan leader at such a young age.
- Genki Girl: Once the protagonist proves themselves to her, she's a lot more outgoing and friendly than her initial appearance would lead you to believe.
- God Test: In the request "Irida's Wish", she asks the player character for the chance to battle Palkia in its Origin Forme. After centuries or even millennia of Irida and her forebears in the Pearl Clan having worshipped Palkia as the Almighty Sinnoh, she sought validation for her belief in Palkia's abilties. This is in contrast to Adaman, who wished to battle Dialga in its Origin Forme simply to test how his own battling prowess stacks up against it.
- Gone Horribly Right: While it only gives her discomfort rather than being downright life threatening, Irida's training with Gaeric to make herself resist frigid temperatures has a side effect in that she tends to overheat whenever she's in a part of Hisui that isn't freezing.
- An Ice Person: Her signature mon is the Ice-type Glaceon. Fitting for someone who lives in an icy tundra. Further, while she doesn't have the power to control ice, she has developed cold resistance equivalent to most Ice-types and can walk around the tundra only half covered in clothes and be perfectly comfortable.
- Innocently Insensitive: Her urging Palina to train the next Noble was a result of trying to mend internal conflict within the clan. Unfortunately she didn't really consider the implications of what she was asking Palina to do.
- Jerkass to One: Both herself and Adaman are this to each other, bickering at every possible interaction while often turning to speak in a very friendly manner to the player character right after, though their relationship does become better by the end of the game.
- Meaningful Name: Irida sounds like "iridescent", and nacre/mother-of-pearl is known for its iridesence. "Iridescent" is also similar in meaning to "lustrous", like the Lustrous Orb and Globe, items associated with Palkia.
- Missing Mom: Her mother died when she was too young to remember her. Due to her mother's death, she was forced to train to take the mantle as the clan's leader too early; something she has conflicts with due to personally feeling inexperienced (and believing Palina to be more fitting for the role). Her father is not mentioned, however.
- Nice Girl: Moreso than Adaman. Irida becomes especially kind and sweet after the player character quells Kleavor. She also doesn't hesitate to help the player after they're exiled, if she is chosen to accompany them.
- Older Than They Look: She doesn't look that much older than the player, but she is consistently referred as a woman compared to the former who is referred to as a child or teenager.
- Recurring Boss: Compared to Adaman, she's fought twice instead of once against him in the course of the story with an extra battle in the post-game.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Adaman's red. She values approaching situations with caution & introspection, which puts her at odds with Adaman, who thinks fast and acts fast. Their outfit colors are reversed, oddly enough.
- Signature Mon: Glaceon. Fittingly, as she hails from the cold Snowpoint region.
- Stripperiffic: Compared to other members of the Pearl Clan, whose outfits are fairly conservative, she wears tiny boots and short shorts that completely expose her legs, along with a tube tank top that leaves her shoulders, arms, and neck bare, which is very noticeable since she lives in the snowy, freezing tundra. Adaman almost gives up on reconciling their clans over how ridiculously she dresses.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Particularly in scenes with both Adaman and the player. She'll warmly greet the player only to revert to her colder, initial side when dealing with Adaman.
- Theme Naming: The named generic members of the Pearl Clan are named after elements found in space or measurements of distance.
- Voice for the Voiceless: Sort of. If she is chosen to accompany the player, Palkia will speak to her through telepathy and Irida will relay its message to the others. Quite fitting for the leader of the Pearl Clan.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Her friendship story in "Masters" has her enter a virtual world with the player which gives her a glimpse of what things outside of Pasio is like in the present (her future). She's absolutely blown away with what she sees and comments on how impressive the world is, making her want to explore more of Pasio.
- Young and in Charge: According to Pearl Clan members at the Pearl Settlement, Irida has been training to be clan head from a very young age, to the point that she didn't really have anyone her own age to play with.
- You Monster!: Irida outright explodes with rage when Kamado exiles the player from Jubilife Village out of paranoia, calling him heartless.
Lian (Kikui)
Lian / Kikui (キクイ kikui)
- Admiring the Abomination: He briefly entertains the idea that Kleavor's frenzied state is meant to be a blessing rather than a problem to quell and admires how powerful he has become. That said, in the end he admits the quelling was needed.
- Ambiguously Related:
- Unovan Gym Leader Clay is likely descended from him (he looks a lot like a younger Clay, down to the hat and the know-how in ore and minerals he excavates), but there's no official word on it. He picks up two Ground-types for his Path of Tenacity battles, with Mamoswine being on Clay's Pokémon World Tournament teams and Whiscash seemingly standing in for Clay's Palpitoad/Seismitoad.
- By extension, he would also be an ancestor to Lacey, as she's Clay's daughter. If so, both Lian and Lacey share a near-identical hair color.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He becomes a crucial ally in trying to obtain Origin Ore to capture the Final Boss.
- Child Prodigy: Though young, he has earned the title of Warden due to his talent. He is also very well-versed in ores, just like his assumed descendant Clay.
- Dragon Tamer: His partner is a Goomy that has evolved into a Hisuian Sliggoo by the end of the game.
- Foil: To Melli. Both of them are harsh to the player, but the difference is that Lian accepts that their help was needed to quell Kleavor while Melli is unable to admit it honestly for Hisuian Electrode. It's even more apparent when both of them meet and get on each other's nerves.
- Signature Mon: He uses a Goomy and, later on, a Hisuian Sliggoo, though only the pre-evolution is battled in the main game. It evolves into Hisuian Goodra after enough Path of Tenacity fights.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The "Daybreak" questline shows that his squabble with Melli has turned into a rivalry with the two trying to one-up each other, though Mai believes that they still have some begrudging mutual respect.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Will complain to the player if they suddenly get cold feet in fighting Kleavor after making the balms.
Calaba (Yūgao)
Calaba / Yūgao (ユウガオ yūgao)
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She's cold to the protagonist at first, but once they help recover the Wall Fragment from the Miss Fortune sisters, she warms up to them.
- Honor Before Reason: As described by an annoyed Kamado, she's very bound to tradition and is very cold to anyone who happens to be outsiders to the Pearl Clan, which turns out to be true when the player first meets her.
- I Was Quite the Looker: In the official guidebook, we can see that she was quite beautiful in her youth. We also see that her hair used to be a dark green.
- Long-Lived: During the events of the game, she's stated to be 99 years old.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: She's the oldest of the Wardens, being 99 years old, and is also one of the shortest characters in the game.
- Signature Mon: Apart from Ursaluna, she's never seen far from her Bibarel.
- The Unfought: She never properly battles the protagonist, though you do have to calm down the Noble Ursaluna she oversees to progress the story.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Noble Ursaluna she oversees is this, being a Mighty Glacier with enough bulk to withstand an attack and hit back destructively hard.
Palina (Garana)
Palina / Garana (ガラナ garana)
- Affectionate Nickname: Lina. Though Palina often pulls Irida up on her continued use of the word.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Her offscreen argument with Irida has this. For Palina's part, it is selfish to train a pup for the role of a land's Noble immediately after it watched its father die saving it. The trauma from such an event can bring into question how adept it would be at the role. At the same time, the Pearl Clan having one less noble reflects poorly on the clan as a whole. As such both Palina and Irida came under fire for not doing anything to remedy the cultural ramifications of one of the Pearl Clan's Nobles dying. However, by the time the player knows about this Irida has already come around to Palina's point of view and feels really bad about trying to force the issue.
- Childhood Friends: With Irida. They were both rivals to become the leader of the Pearl Clan but it's clear there's no bad blood between them.
- The Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of swimming goggles around her neck presumably because she needs to swim to Firespit Island to tend to her warden duties but is never seen wearing them over her eyes. The concept art guidebook confirms that Palina only wears googles while swimming around the waters of the Cobalt Coastlands, however, due to the incident where the former Lord of the Isles died by drowning in order to save his cub, she has been unable to get the courage to swim again without being reminded of the memory.
- Greater Need Than Mine: Ultimately considers the needs of her Growlithe to be greater than her duties as warden.
- Jerkass Ball: Grabs it briefly in her post-game mission. She essentially has Irida come to Cobalt Coastlands with the intention of forcing her to explore the depths of a volcano, knowing full well Irida doesn't handle heat well. When Irida hesitates, Palina quickly guilt trips her into accepting. Then when the actual mission comes, Palina is nowhere to be seen; having sent Iscan in her place. After the mission is over, Irida deduces that this mission was instead a bit of revenge for trying to force Palina to train the new Noble.
- Parental Substitute: According to a Pearl Clan member, Irida sees Palina as something of a substitute to her dead mother.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: She is dating Iscan, but they have to keep it a secret due to them being from opposing clans. Subverted once Origin Palkia/Dialga is caught, since the art during the credits shows them sitting together in Jubilife Village during the "we just saved the universe" festival, in which Mai and Arezu are also openly hanging out with Calaba.
- The Unfought: Lord Arcanine is the boss of her portion of the story, but Palina doesn't seem to have any Pokémon of her own and is never battled.
Ingo (Nobori)
Ingo / Nobori (ノボリ nobori)
- The Ace: By the end of the game, he ends up being the strongest Warden in battle by far, even though he restricts himself to using one Pokémon at a time instead of three at once like the others. This makes sense since he was originally a boss of the Battle Subway and implied to be around the level of an Elite Four member in terms of battle aptitude. Even with his memories mostly gone he manages to capture a full team of six Pokémon (as, unlike the other Wardens, he hasn't known any his entire life since he only recently was sent to Hisui). This is even more impressive since at the start of the game the player is told that just catching three brand-new Pokémon is unheard of for any member of the Galaxy Expedition team. He ends up being one of only two trainers in the game to use a full team of six Pokémon, and again is the only one of the two who didn't have the advantage of growing up with his Pokémon. In contrast to his style, the other Wardens send out their full teams (three at max) with their primary partner as the most highly leveled and their secondary Pokémon partners as much weaker sidekicks (weaker by up to 30 levels, in fact).
- Amnesiac Resonance: Despite losing his memory, he still uses train-related idioms, knows how to navigate dark underground passageways comparable to subway tunnels, prefers to keep his Pokémon in balls rather than letting them always free like other clan members (and is one of the most proficient Pokémon trainers in the region), and uses his Giving Someone the Pointer Finger signature pose. He also has vague memories of his past life, like Emmet and his Signature Mon Chandelure.
- Ascended Extra: In Pokémon Black and White and their sequels, he is the boss of the optional Battle Subway facility and does not have a role in the main story. As a Warden of the Pearl Clan in this game, he accompanies the player through their first visit to the Coronet Highlands and allows them to call upon Sneasler to climb the mountain surfaces.
- Breakout Character: Ingo was among the most popular characters from Black & White, with one popularity poll having him below only N in ranking. This was apparently used as a reason to have him be the next Faller to include in a later game.
- Busman's Vocabulary: Ingo lost most of his memories after being transported through space and time to Hisui. Despite this, his speech contains various references to train-related jargon.
- Forehead of Doom: Concept art shows that underneath his hat he has a receding hairline◊ that shows off a prominent forehead.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He reappears in Pokémon Legends: Arceus as a Faller, having traveled between the main Pokémon universe to Hisui. Although his memories of his prior life are mostly gone, he retains very fuzzy impressions of Emmet and his partner Pokémon, and still uses a lot of references to railway travel, which others chalk up as simply an odd quirk.
- Multiple Reference Pun: His Japanese Punny Name is re-contextualized into one due to his occupation. "Nobori" originally seems to come from nobori-sen (in-bound line, alluding to him being the leader of the Battle Subway), but it can also be used to refer to climbing, with the word for mountain-climbing being yama-nobori, which fits him being the Warden to the mountain-climbing Sneasler. His English name, Ingo, is from "in-going" (again, referring to an in-bound line), but it is repurposed in this game to refer to how he regularly leads the player in going through caves and ruins in the Coronet Highlands. He also memorized the routes and could navigate in the dark, which is the closest thing in Hisui to the underground tunnels a subway has.
- Signature Mon: His ace in his first battle is Gliscor due to the lack of Chandelure, though it's equally leveled with the rest of his team in rematches. This is remedied in a later update where Gliscor is now one level higher than the rest of Ingo's team.
- Stable Time Loop: While people who use Pokémon in battle are shown to already be widespread (if uncommon) and to have had a long history, Ingo is implied to be a major factor in establishing the modern concept of Pokémon Trainers and the way they battle each other, at least in Hisui, thanks to his ramblings about his foggy memories. Also, unlike his peers, Ingo is the only Warden to willingly use Poké Balls and battle the player's team one-on-one, and it is implied that other members of the Pearl clan will soon follow his trends.
- Time-Passage Beard: At some point between the events of the Unova sequels and Legends, Ingo grew himself a goatee, and it's implied by concept art showing the Pearl Clan discovering him that Ingo's been stuck in Hisui for at least a decade if not more.
- Trapped in Another World: Ingo reappears in Pokémon Legends: Arceus as a Faller, a type of person who accidentally travels between worlds, losing their memories in the process, with no clear way to intentionally regain their memories or return home. Battling with the protagonist does give him a few good memories back, but not enough for him to fully reclaim his identity.
- Tragic Time Traveler: He's a Subway Boss who somehow found himself in the time of Hisui. It's noted that he has lingering memories of his old life, including his favorite Pokémon partner, Chandelure, and his twin brother, Emmett, but whenever he tries to recall them in greater detail, the knowledge escapes him.
- Walking Spoiler: Ingo's mere appearance in this game is a spoiler and has huge plot implications pertaining to modern day.
Gaeric (Hamarenge)
Gaeric / Hamarenge (ハマレンゲ hamarenge)
A Pearl Clan Warden who takes care of the Noble Lord Hisuian Avalugg. He was also Irida's teacher, whom she holds in high honor.
- Admiring the Abomination: It's a bit hazy, but initially, like Lian and Melli before him, he seems to believe the frenzied Avalugg doesn't need to be quelled. However, much like Lian, he doesn't object to quelling Lord Avalugg.
- Ambiguously Related: He resembles a younger, slimmer, and more muscular Wulfric, but there's no official word on if they're related. They're even named after the same plant, and Gaeric is associated with the Hisuian version of Wulfric's ace, Avalugg (being both his associated Noble Pokémon and an extra team member on later attempts at the Path of Tenacity).
- Call-Forward: After being defeated in battle, he says to the player, "Outstanding! I'm tough as an iceberg, but you smashed me through and through!" This is also, word-for-word, what Wulfric says in Pokémon X and Y after being defeated.
- Carpet of Virility: A Type 1. He styled his chest hair into the form of the Pearl Clan's logo.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Not only has he trained himself to be unharmed by Hisui's coldest climes, but he even manages to climb surfaces that a Noble Sneasler can't, and then jump off the couple hundred-foot pinnacle he has just climbed and land unscathed (warning your character not to try the same as they haven't trained like him).
- Exposed to the Elements: He seems perfectly comfortable going shirtless in the freezing cold of the Alabaster Icelands.
- Mr. Fanservice: OH, YES. His Walking Shirtless Scene shows off just how well-built he is, even when Exposed to the Elements.
- Signature Mon: He uses both evolutions of Snorunt, and while Glalie is of a higher level, Froslass has higher effort values for most of the battles it is used in. Like the other wardens, he is also associated with his respective Noble Pokémon, that being Hisuian Avalugg.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Is never seen wearing a shirt (well, technically he does have a shirt, but keeps it wrapped around his waist), showing off his Heroic Build.
Ginkgo Merchant Guild
Ginter (Ginnan)
Ginter / Ginnan (ギンナン ginnan)
- Advertised Extra: Despite having official art revealed before the game's launch, Ginter is just a rare item merchant and isn't involved in the storyline or sidequests in any way, with his biggest role being granting access to Rotom's alternate forms. His description notes he is the one holding the entire guild together, though, and even Cogita seems to respect him, since she notes Volo's regular absences must be a handful he regularly has to deal with.
- Ambiguously Related: His appearance, the way he's posed in his official art, and overall demeanor imply he's an ancestor of Volkner, but there's no official word on it. The fact he ends up selling the Rotom appliances also brings to mind Volkner's tendency to carry out large-scale overhauling of machinery to help out his hometown of Sunyshore, with Ginter noting the inner workings of the machines and appreciating them despite not knowing how they work. Curiously, modern day Sunyshore City would be roughly where Ginkgo Landing is in the Cobalt Coastline, further connecting Volkner to Ginter.
- Money Sink: His most expensive wares are the Rotom Appliances, which get more expensive every time you buy one. The bundles he sells you always work out to be cheaper than if you bought the same number of items elsewhere, though. And it's still nowhere near as much money as Bagin can take from the player.
Volo
Volo (ウォロ woro)
Sinnoh outfit
Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (JP, Pokémon Masters)
A wandering merchant that has a tendency to cross paths with the protagonist due to his curiosity and desire to find unusual things. Seemingly one of the protagonist's main allies throughout the story, he is revealed in the post-game to be an obsessive seeker of Arceus who had formed a contract with Giratina, and the one responsible for the mysterious rifts driving the Noble Pokémon feral.- All for Nothing: Everything Volo did was for the sake of forcing a meeting with Arceus, but it's heavily indicated that he stood no chance of succeeding, that Arceus only meets with those it chooses to meet with. For all its power, Giratina itself could not reach Arceus, and even possessing the Azure Flute does nothing if you don't meet Arceus' own requirements (namely to be the protagonist and to capture every species of Pokémon available in Hisui). While Volo did pressure Arceus into taking action, it never got even near the point of dealing with him personally.
- Almighty Janitor: He initially presents himself as a mere Intrepid Merchant, but turns out to have the strongest Pokémon team of any NPC in the original version of the gamenote , and controls Giratina on top of that.
- Ambiguously Related: It is heavily implied that he's related to Cynthia, as he has similar hair, a remix of her battle theme, and a nearly identical team to her Champion battle, but there's no official word on it. Adding to this is how Cogita also resembles Cynthia, so which one of the two would be her ancestor is hard to tell, if both of them aren't Cynthia's ancestors. For that matter, it's also unclear if he and Cogita are related. Lampshaded in Pokémon Masters, wherein Volo comments on the "peculiar connection" he and Cynthia share when teaming up with her.
- Ambiguous Situation: His parting words to the protagonist are that he'll continue working on his plot to meet Arceus, even if it takes decades or centuries, and he then flees Hisui with no comeuppance for his crimes. It's unknown how his resemblance to Cynthia factors in and if he became a father, and whether or not having descendants would be a part of his long-term plan. In addition, while it's possible to read his parting words metaphorically, as Team Galactic has a similar plan to him and Cynthia might be his descendant, meaning that his legacy lives on centuries later, it's also possible to read them completely literally, meaning that Volo could somehow still be kicking around by the time of the "modern" Pokémon games, serving as a potential Sequel Hook.
- Anime Hair: After The Reveal, his hair curls upwards in a manner meant to mimic Arceus' head.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: While the exact nature of their relationship, if any, is unclear, he certainly acts like this when interacting with Cogita, and she implies that he frequently pesters her to tell him more about Hisui's legends.
- Artificial Brilliance: His AI in battle will often use the Agile-to-Strong tactic to try and get two hits in, and if there's a weakness he can use, he'll swap to a Pokémon that has a super-effective move.
- Ascended Meme: It's commonly joked that Cynthia is The Dreaded to the point where her encounter theme alone strikes fear into the hearts of players. Volo, meanwhile, uses a remix of it as his battle theme right after betraying you to emphasize how imposing and twisted he is.
- Ax-Crazy: Volo keeps this aspect of him hidden throughout most of the game, but once his true nature is revealed, he's shown to be absolutely deranged, gleefully talking about destroying the world just to meet Arceus and ordering Giratina to kill a child, all while sporting a Slasher Smile through it all.
- Badass Fingersnap: If you look closely during his final battle, you'll see that Volo is doing this when he commands his Pokémon to attack, another case of his Evil Is Hammy tendencies.
- Big Bad: He is the true main antagonist of the story, being responsible for the space-time rift, manipulating the protagonist, and serving as the final human opponent of the game. He even convinces Giratina to help him accomplish his plans.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As the postgame reveals, all of his help and advice towards you was all just a means to an end to try and get Arceus to appear.
- Book Ends: He's both the first and the last opposing "trainer" that the protagonist fights during the story.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Volo is highly intelligent and great at Pokémon battles, but frequently shirks his duties as a Gingko Guild member, something Mistress Cogita often scolds him about.
- The Chessmaster: Volo aided the player in collecting all other 17 Plates because collecting all 18 Plates can presumably allow one to drag Arceus out of hiding. Volo couldn't collect any of the other Plates because he's an outsider and couldn't draw attention to himself due to his huge A God Am I wish to reshape Sinnoh.
- Clark Kent Outfit: Volo's Gingko Guild uniform makes him look rather lithe, but post-Evil Costume Switch, he looks significantly more broad (though still somewhat lean).
- Composite Character: He looks like Cynthia, has a near-identical team to hers, shares her leitmotif, and shares her fascination with ruins and mysteries, but his sheer level of heartlessness combined with his gaudy hairdo and robe are traits more in line with Ghetsis Harmonia. Also, like Ghetsis, he manipulates a teenager (in this case, the player character) into helping to advance his plans in the guise of a more noble cause, then uses a Legendary as his practically 7th Pokémon in battle to get rid of the player. His obsession with creating a better world at the expense of ending the current one and association with Giratina closely recalls Cyrus of the chronologically later Sinnoh games. Also, while his blond hair with an eye-obscuring bang is likely intended to resemble Cynthia, when combined with the Slasher Smile after he's revealed as a villain (along with him masquerading as a benevolent figure up until then and having a fanatical obsession with meeting a Pokémon by tearing a hole in reality), he also closely resembles Lusamine.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Despite the similarities to Ghetsis, the two differ in their choice of Pokémon and movesets. Unlike Ghetsis' menagerie of scary, imposing Pokémon, Volo's is full of traditionally heroic species like Lucario and Togekiss. And while Ghetsis' Hydreigon uses Frustration, Volo's team has at least three Pokémon who evolve through friendship.
- In a more immediate sense, to Chairman Rose from Sword and Shield. Both use an eerie-looking Draconic Abomination for their plans and create an unnatural phenomenon as a result (Dynamaxing and space-time distortions, respectively), but while Rose is the esteemed head of a megacorporation, Volo is a lowly merchant. Rose was also a genuinely Well-Intentioned Extremist, while Volo's motives are purely selfish and any claims of altruism from him ring hollow. Finally, while Rose took his loss well enough to turn himself in, Volo escapes punishment but has to live with his failure to achieve his goal.
- Dark Is Evil: Has the Ghost/Dragon-type Giratina as his trump card after his main team falls, and it's cloaked in darkness. He also has Spiritomb, a Dark/Ghost-type Pokémon associated with evil souls, as part of his main team.
- Devilish Hair Horns: His Sinnoh outfit shows that he has hair points resembling horns — ironically meant to resemble the Pokémon world’s god, and he's the true villain of the game.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's one of the last challenges of the post-game content and is directly connected to the problems that occurred in the main story; however, while he is the last Trainer you face, Arceus is still the overall True Final Boss.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The affable, laid-back merchant who's been at your side from basically the beginning and always willing to lend you helpful advice? It's all an act. In truth, Volo is a deranged, psychopathic Godhood Seeker who's so obsessed with the legend of Arceus that he orchestrated the game's entire plot, is perfectly willing to let Hisui fall into chaos, and unleashes a powerful banished god on the protagonist, all for the smallest chance to meet Arceus.
- Dragon Tamer: Like Cynthia, he uses the Dragon/Ground-type Garchomp in his actual team, and his partner in crime is the Ghost/Dragon-type Giratina.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Possibly. Three members of his team consists of Pokémon that evolve via high friendshipnote , which lines up with this trope.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with. He calls himself a "Pokémon Wielder," heavily suggesting that he views his Pokémon as living weapons rather than partners, but several of said Pokémon evolve through friendship, namely Togepi, Roserade, and Lucario later on in the game, and he also has a photo of himself posing happily with his Togepi, so whether he really does care for them on some level or is merely exercising Pragmatic Villainy by keeping them happy is up in the air.
- Evil All Along: Everything he did to help you on your journey was motivated by a desire to meet Arceus, which he planned to somehow subdue and use to remake the world, not caring that this would mean erasing the existing world. Oh, and that space-time rift? He helped cause it.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed — Volo describes both himself and the player character as "Pokémon Wielders" rather than Pokémon Trainers, implying that he not only views Pokémon more as weapons than companions, but also assumed the player character was in the same boat before they defeat him. Despite this, he does ultimately acknowledge that this is why he failed while they succeeded (though he's not happy about it at all).
- Evil Costume Switch: When he reveals his true colors, he rips off his Ginkgo Guild uniform to reveal a toga/kimono hybrid outfit underneath and styles his hair like Arceus' head.
- Evil Counterpart:
- To Cynthia. The two individuals look similar, and both have an interest in the myths and Legendaries of the Hisui/Sinnoh region, but while Cynthia is a benevolent woman whose interest in myths is largely restricted to studying ancient ruins and texts, Volo is so obsessed with meeting Arceus and seeing its power that he's willing to destroy the entire universe to achieve his goals. He even has almost the same team as Cynthia in Platinum when battled, save for Milotic being replaced by Hisuian Arcanine. The two also have contrasting Signature Mons — Cynthia having the monstrous-looking Dragon/Ground-type Garchomp while Volo has the angelic-looking Fairy/Flying-type Togekiss — which also ties into their differing visual aesthetics, Cynthia's being Dark Is Not Evil while Volo's is Light Is Not Good.
- Also, to Mistress Cogita. Both are very knowledgeable about Hisuian myths and legends, both take an interest in the player, both are hiding that they have a Plate in their inventory, both are descendants of the ancient people of Sinnoh, and both offer help to the player. The difference is that Cogita's help and interest is genuine; Volo's help and interest is a means to an end.
- Also an eviler counterpart to Bede. Both Volo and Bede have Fairy-types as their aces (though Bede starts out with Psychic-types), but Bede is a Jerkass trainer who Took a Level in Kindness and eventually become a Gym Leader, while Volo is a Faux Affably Evil Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Omnicidal Maniac who uses his worship to Arceus as a cause.
- Also, to Ash Ketchum. Both are travelers who wear caps, help people wherever they go, have strong bonds with their Pokémon, and are very passionate in accomplishing their dreams (becoming a Pokémon Master for Ash; Meeting Arceus for Volo). That said, Ash is an All-Loving Hero who helps people because of his kind-hearted nature, truly cherishes his Pokémon, and would never put anyone in harm's way to meet his dream. Volo, on the other hand, is a sociopath who only helps people as a means to manipulate them into doing what he wants, merely views his Pokémon as tools, and is willing to destroy the universe and kill everyone in it to accomplish his dream.
- As well as Ash's companion, Goh. Both are obsessed with a Mythical Pokémon (Mew for Goh; Arceus for Volo) and desire to capture it and ally with the main character. However, Goh has No Social Skills who initially had a hard time getting along with Ash but would soon come to admire Ash and learn to care about others, while Volo is a Manipulative Bastard who starts off acting polite to Akari/Rei, only to reveal himself to be resentful of their connection with Arceus and was willing to destroy the universe and everyone in it to meet his selfish desires. Both manage to acquire Legendary Pokémon (Eternatus for Goh; Giratina for Volo), but while Goh decides to seal Eternatus to prevent it from endangering the world, Volo was willing to use Giratina to destroy his.
- His title as a True Final Boss, "Pokémon Wielder", makes him one for Pokémon Trainers in general.
- And "eviler" counterparts to future antagonists like Cyrus and Lysandre. Cyrus also attempted to recreate the universe, and Lysandre was aiming to wipe out those not a part of Team Flare. However, neither take joy in their actions, whilst Volo knows the cataclysmic consequences of his actions but does not care. Additionally, both Cyrus and Lysandre were promptly met with comeuppance over their crimes, but Volo, despite his actions, remains a free man.
- To Adaman and Irida. Like both of them, he ends up becoming acquainted with the protagonist early on, aiding them in their journey and providing them with useful tips, items, and help in their adventure. This culminates to the point that even after Kamado exiles the protagonist, all three of them immediately come to help the protagonist resolve the crisis without issue. But while Adaman and Irida come to genuinely like and trust the protagonist and see them as their friend, Volo's help was merely a means to an end, and once he has no further use for the protagonist, opts to outright kill them. And finally, Adaman and Irida become closely tied with Dialga and Palkia during the endgame, while Volo was tied to Giratina for some time prior to the events of the story.
- Evil Is Bigger: His official height is 190 cm/6'3" and he absolutely towers over the protagonist, making him even more intimidating once he's revealed to be a villain.
- Evil Is Hammy: Most of his dialog after The Reveal consists of him Chewing the Scenery, with spiked dialog boxes to boot. He also dramatically snaps his fingers to command his Pokémon during the battle."Giratina! Strike him/her down!"
- Evil Laugh: Snickers wickedly a few times during the battle with him at Spear Pillar. Combined with Mirthless Laughter and Laughing Mad when he's initially defeated, breaking down laughing while demanding to know why you were chosen over him to have Arceus' blessing.
- Evil Stole My Faith: Implied — Volo claims that part of the reason he seeks to take on Arceus and overthrow it is due to something negative he's seen and experienced, though what exactly it was, if any one specific thing, and how severe it was is never elaborated on.
- Fatal Flaw: Curiosity. His drive to uncover all of Hisui's mysteries leads him to form a pact with Giratina and cause the rift in space and time in order to lure out Arceus and prove that it really exists, hoping to then test its power by destroying the current world and creating a new one.
- Faux Affably Evil: The impression that Volo gives is that he's an overall chill, affable guy who acts as a prominent support throughout your adventure. He even continues supporting the protagonist after they're exiled. However, this all turns out to be an act on his part to manipulate the player character into collecting Arceus' Plates for him, and his attitude turns into unsettling and outright menacing.
- The Fair Folk: The first Pokémon he's seen with is a Togepi, which has evolved into a Togekiss by the final time you battle him. This, however, illustrates his true nature.
- The Fundamentalist: Willing to do anything to meet with Arceus, and bring about a paradise.
- Godhood Seeker: He wishes to subdue Arceus and claim its power for his own to remake reality to his own design.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Upon his Evil Costume Switch, his irises shrink and lack the light reflections they had before, representing his sheer heartlessness.
- Graceful Loser: Subverted. He calmly gives up the Spooky Plate after his defeat... and then flies into a rage when the protagonist's Celestica Flute transforms into the Azure Flute as a consequence of them gathering all 18 typed Plates. He's left ranting at the idea of the protagonist being worthy of Arceus, refusing to accept such a reality and declaring he will one day succeed in unlocking and controlling the mysteries of the world, no matter how many years, decades, or centuries it takes.
- The Heavy: Although working with Giratina, Volo's presence is more significant than either of theirs thanks to his direct manipulations of the protagonist.
- Hidden Depths:
- In spite of everything else he had done and wanted, Volo still tells Professor Laventon of Giratina's change of heart before he leaves Hisui for good; Laventon suspects he may have had ulterior motives in giving this information and pushing for the completion of the Pokédex.
- His party includes a Togekiss, a Roserade, and Lucario. Even with the changed game mechanics, all three still require a high friendship value to evolve, and while all can be caught in the wild as well, his Togekiss is almost certainly the same Togepi he has earlier in the game.
- Volo claims in Pokemon Masters that forging bonds with people is solely about using them "before they use you", potentially hinting that Volo's treacherous nature stems from having been similarly betrayed in the past.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: One eye is hidden, much like his present-day counterpart. Unlike Cynthia having it act as Sultry Bangs, on him it represent his status as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, hiding his true villainous persona like he hides his eye.
- Hypocrite: During his final battle, he claims to have devoted himself to Arceus above everyone else. His actions say otherwise, as well as him apparently not caring a bit about what Arceus itself wants.
- Ignored Epiphany: After his defeat, he recognizes how the protagonist's strength comes from the bond with their Pokémon, making them worthy to meet Arceus. He also realizes that Arceus likely sent the protagonist to stop him, and that this means Arceus believes the existing world should continue to exist. This realization only serves to piss him off even more, making a vow to never give up on his goal of taking down Arceus."You outsider! It's almost as if you were spat out of the space-time rift just to get in my way!"
- It's All About Me: He dedicated his time to studying Arceus so that he could subjugate it and use its powers to create a brand-new world to his liking. He doesn't take kindly to the prospect of the player character being the chosen one, rather than himself.
- In Their Own Image: He wishes to use Arceus's powers to destroy the universe and recreate it anew, knowing that everyone will die and not caring about it.
- Intrepid Merchant: Subverted. He's a merchant, and he's intrepid, but only for the ancient myths of Hisui, shirking his duties to the point that he forgets he's part of the Ginkgo guild. One suspects he's only a merchant as the job allows him to travel and engage in his true passion — controlling Arceus.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He has Pokémon that evolve through friendship, implying that he at least cares about them, but he only sees them as tools for his evil plan.
- Karma Houdini: Zig-zagged. On one hand, he's never punished nor apprehended by the Galaxy Expedition Team nor the Diamond and Pearl Clans for his role in instigating the entire story's conflict in the first place, escaping to parts unknown in an attempt to continue where he had failed. On the other, he's forced to live with the knowledge of not only his own failure to get Arceus to notice him, but that the very person he pretended to befriend and attempt to kill was chosen over him by the aforementioned Arceus. Ultimately, vile as his actions are, he never suffers from any sort of accountability or actual consequences bar his own humiliation, as opposed to Cyrus, Ghetsis, or Lysandre, who were served just desserts for their crimes.
- Lack of Empathy: He knows his plans could very well result not only in the destruction of Hisui, but the entire universe, and would erase all other lives, the Player Character who helped him included, "as though they'd never existed". He gives not a single damn. The realization that Arceus opposes his plans for the world only serves to enrage him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After his defeat, he is now forced to live with the knowledge of someone else being worthy of Arceus over him, much to his frustration.
- Last of Their Kind: One of his justifications for going after Arceus is he "deserves" to see it, being one of the last inheritors of the Celestica people.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Volo's TCG card depicts him in his Sinnoh outfit despite it being one of the game's biggest spoilers. That said, with Supporter cards in the TCG lacking Flavor Text, not much context is given behind why he's dressing up like Arceus instead of wearing his merchant uniform.
- Lean and Mean: Volo is 6'3" and rather slender, which makes him very intimidating once he's revealed to be the main villain.
- Light Is Not Good: His colors after his Evil Costume Switch are white, green, and gold, and yet he's more than ready to have Giratina strike you down. Unlike most other villains of similar caliber, his team is also similar to Cynthia's, meaning that most of the Pokémon he uses are generally associated with heroes.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manipulates the main character to find and gather all the Arceus' Plates for him.
- Mask of Sanity: Volo initially seems like a laid back but friendly and helpful guy. But, at the 11th hour, he's revealed to be a manipulative sociopath willing to destroy the entire region if it means meeting Arceus.
- Meaningful Name: It is Latin for "I wish", alluding to his wish to learn more about the world and his wish for a chance to meet Arceus. His name also connects him to the Togepi line, which itself is heavily associated with wishes of happiness coming true (Togekiss is even called the "Jubilee" Pokémon). It also makes his naming scheme similar to Cogita, whose name means "To think" in Latin, connecting her to the Lake Trio. It's also three letters off from diavolo, which is "devil" in Italian, which fits since he's also aligned with Giratina, who is commonly interpreted by Western theologies as the Pokémon equivalent of Satan.
- Mr. Fanservice: He is very attractive with his bishonen looks and long blonde hair; even with his gaudy Evil Costume Switch he's still probably the prettiest villain in the series.
- Mons as Characterization: Volo at least claims that he desires a world with no suffering or strife. His Signature Mon, Togekiss, is a Pokemon that hates being in places where such strife and suffering is prevalent.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He mentions that his core belief is that Life Isn't Fair and as such he wants to destroy the current reality and make a new, more kind and fair reality. However, unlike Lysandre, who at least felt some semblance of sorrow at his genocidal plans, Volo gleefully tells the player character his plans with a Slasher Smile on his face.
- Omnicidal Maniac: He makes no bones about how his desire for a new reality will mean killing everyone in the old one.
- One-Hour Work Week: Played with, bordering on The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. He's a merchant by trade but is scarcely seen doing much in the way of the mercantile craft. He's available to trade wares with at certain story points, but refers to the player as "his favorite customer" long before they have a chance to actually purchase anything from him.
- Practically Joker: Volo is a sociopath who hides his nature under a Faux Affably Evil mask, wears bright colors, has a Mysterious Past, sports a Slasher Smile, is very hammy, and is nihilistic to the point that he wants to destroy his own reality.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- "Helping" the protagonist clear their name and stop the apocalypse? The protagonist has the Plates he needs to meet Arceus.
- According to N in Pokémon Masters, Togepi is very attached to him and is well taken care of. This showcases that, regardless of whether he truly loves his Pokémon or not, he does not go out of his way to mistreat them.
- Predecessor Villain: Chronologically, he is the first main antagonist of the Sinnoh games, with his goals being very similar to what Cyrus would eventually begin attempting to pursue as well.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After you manage to defeat him and Giratina, he decides to cut his losses and leave Hisui, not wanting to see you be the one to meet Arceus.
- Sequel Hook: Him getting off completely scot-free for his vileness and the magnitude of his plan, combined with his parting words to the player being that he'll work on his plan even if it takes centuries, could be a potential hint to him somehow returning in a future game set in the present, although it's possible to also read that last line in a metaphorical way. There is also a final offscreen interaction between him and Professor Laventon that leaves Laventon suspecting that Volo has, for reasons he does not want Laventon or anyone else to know, become invested in seeing the Pokédex continue to progress in completion.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Befitting a villain who allies himself with the Pokémon World's Satanic Archetype, Volo embodies all of them — he started his path to villainy through his insatiable lust for knowledge; his wrath against the world and its creator leads to him wanting to destroy all reality and remake it in his own image; he vehemently envies the player character for getting Arceus' attention and pridefully tries to argue that he is more worthy due to his bloodline; he shows a slothful side by shirking his responsibilities and manipulating the player character into gathering the plates for him; he has an intense greed for power; and the immense, excessive scope of the destruction he seeks falls into a symbolic form of gluttony. It's likely not intentional, given the setting inspirations and theology, but it could be a plausible interpretation.
- Signature Mon:
- Early on, he's associated with the Togepi line. He even goes out of his way to get a photo taken with his Togepi in Jubilife Village, which is hanging outside the photo studio from the start of the game. Togepi/Togekiss is also his only Pokémon with effort values in its stats. Togepi is also his Partner Pokemon in his appearance in Masters.
- As with Cynthia, he also starts using the Gible line later in the game, though it's not his definitive ace like it is on all her teams; his Garchomp is still very strong and likely to come out last, but it's equally leveled with the rest of the team. However, he also has Giratina under his control, effectively making it his true Signature Mon.
- Slasher Smile: Flashes a creepy one◊ at you for a split second while summoning Giratina to kill you.
- Smug Snake: Volo's a brilliant schemer and manipulator, but his overly high opinion of himself coupled with his inability to accept when he's wrong or has been bested is a major contributor to his downfall.
- The Sociopath: He displays a superficially charming demeanor all to manipulate the player character into helping him collect the plates; he lacks empathy and gleefully wants to destroy the universe and recreate it to satiate his immense ego, and he lacks remorse for causing the rift to begin with. Even though he has Pokémon in his arsenal that evolve due to friendship, he makes it clear that he sees them as tools for his omnicidal scheme.
- Sore Loser: Upon defeat, he complains about his loss and refuses to accept the player character as the one chosen by Arceus. He also lambasts Giratina for fleeing from a mere human after the player defeats it in its Origin Forme.
- "Spread Wings" Frame Shot: When Giratina first shows up, its wings spread out from behind Volo's back, making it briefly look as though he's growing them himself.
- The Unfettered: Volo will do anything to achieve his dream of meeting Arceus, even if he has to kill the player and destroy the world.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Like Cyrus and Lysandre before him (or perhaps after him), Volo's goal is to create, in his words, "a new and better world"… and he will gladly destroy the current one and erase everyone in it from existence to do it.
- Viler New Villain: Volo stands out as lacking any of the redeeming or mitigating aspects of all prior main series villains save Ghetsis, whose Evil Plan still falls short of Volo's in the amount of destruction it would cause.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Pokémon is generally a light-hearted video game series, but despite that, Volo is a purely sociopathic character without any mitigating aspects unlike Cyrus and Lysandre and he attempts to destroy the universe, not caring about the lives of the people in Hisui, making him by far the most heinous villain in the mainline games.
- Villainous Breakdown: He crumples in disbelief after he and Giratina lose to the protagonist before throwing a tantrum when they are found worthy by Arceus.Volo: Turning tail and running? From this puny HUMAN? Pathetic! I was the one to feed you the power you needed so that you could take on Arceus! I was the one who gave you the chance to claw open that space-time rift, driving the deity of space and the deity of time mad so that you could drag the creator out from hiding! How? How could this happen?! Almighty Arceus, if you have any heart within you, then tell me… The blood of the ancient Sinnoh people flows in my veins, does it not?! What is it, then, that you find so lacking in me?! Do you mean to tell me that this world doesn't need to be remade? I can't live with such questions, I can't bear not satisfying this ache to know!
- Villainous Friendship: One possible interpretation of his dynamic with Lucario, Roserade, and Togekiss, all Pokémon that evolve through friendship, if one does not subscribe to the idea that he's just manipulating them.
- Villains Out Shopping: Possibly — there's a picture of him and his Togepi hanging outside the photo studio. While taking pictures has no effect on a Pokémon's friendship from a gameplay standpoint, this could simply be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation (thus leaving the reasoning for Volo's actions up to interpretation).
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Comes off as this with Mistress Cogita; he's the only one she's generally cold to, even before the reveal of him being Evil All Along, while Volo himself seems to enjoy pushing her buttons.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- In the cutscene before the final battle against him, he threatens that he's "not above using force" to get his way when demanding the player battle him with the Plates on the line.
- He outright orders Giratina to kill the player character, after the creature emerges to support him.
Unaffiliated characters
Miss Fortune Gang (Shō-Chiku-Bai)
From left to right: Clover, Charm, and Coin
Charm, Clover, and Coin, three women who show up every so often to cause a little bit of trouble.As a group
- Alphabetical Theme Naming: Their names all start with C. In Japanese, their names instead all start with O (Omatsu, Otake, and Oume).
- Ambiguously Related: Coin resembles Saturn in appearance while also using Toxicroak, while Clover looks like Candice while also using Abomasnow. Charm resembles a younger version of two Elite Four members who are themselves ambiguously related, the Ground-type specialist Bertha from Sinnoh and the Ghost-type specialist Agatha from Kanto, and uses both Rhydonnote and Gengarnote , as well as originally being from Kanto herself. Much like many of the other characters, however, there's no official word on them being descendants.
- Bandit Clan: They operate like one, being a roving gang of troublemakers who resort to brigandage to survive in the frontier region of Hisui, stealing goods from both travelers and the Diamond and Pearl clans. Also emphasizing the "clan" part is with how they address each other as "sisters".
- Criminal Found Family: They call each other "sisters", but they're implied to not be blood related.
- Evil Counterpart: Charm and Clover are more evil versions of Bertha/Agatha and Candice respectively, whereas Coin's counterpart Saturn was A Lighter Shade of Black among Team Galactic.
- Family Theme Naming: In both English and Japanese, Their names all start with C, or O, resepectively, and the way they introduce themselves connects their namesake objects to luck, or their names all mean some kind of plant, respectively.
- Floral Theme Naming: Their Japanese names of Omatsu ("Pine"), Otake ("Bamboo") and Oume ("Plum") combined reference Three Friends of Winter, which itself is their team's name in Japanese.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: They show up to pester you several times throughout the game, but due to having only one or two Pokémon each, they never put up an actual fight and are foiled very quickly each time. It gets a bit silly when they show up to try and stop you from extracting Origin Ore after you've caught Dialga or Palkia, either of whom can squash both of Charm's Pokémon with contemptuous ease using just Earth Power.
- Jerkass: Their motivations for deserting their respective clans aren't exactly sympathetic:
- Coin claims that she left the Pearl Clan because of Irida's "goody-two-shoes attitude".
- Clover takes issue with the Diamond Clan's "stupid rules".
- Finally, Charm seems to resent having had to work in the Galaxy Team (a factor that the protagonist, a Fish out of Temporal Water at roughly 15 or so, takes no issue with).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: According to Irida and Adaman, Coin and Clover were known for going out of their way to help those in need, and aside from stealing the stone slab from the Solaceon Ruins, the three's antics sometimes indicate more benevolent goals. For instance, they intended to steal one of the Growlithes away to raise him to be a Lord under their control since the Cobalt Coastlands lacked a Lord, and they show up to test the player before they can extract Origin Ore from within the Primeval Grotto.
- Karma Houdini: Thanks to their habit of running away when defeated, though in terms of general villainy, they're less evil and just incredibly annoying to everyone else.
- Leitmotif: "A Dangerous Situation!"
- "Miss X" Pun: They're a trio of young female bandits appropriately called the Miss Fortune (misfortune) Gang.
- Mugging the Monster: Their random encounters have them wanting to attack random passers-by, which is the player character, who they've already fought and lost against. No number of defeats cures them of the belief that this time they'll win.
- Optional Boss: You're able to find them in the fields on ocassion. Defeating them earns you some dough.
- Piñata Enemy: They basically become this in the post-game. On top of being fairly easy to defeat (only having 1-2 Pokémon on hand), they also drop 4 Nuggets when they Smoke Out, which is an easy 40,000 in cash.
- Punch-Clock Villain: They get in the way of the player at times, but they all ultimately want to survive out in the wilderness of Hisui.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Have no real importance to the main story except to show up to delay the player every so often.
- Random Encounter: After besting them at Firespit Island, they can be found standing around in random spots in every area, and they will challenge you to battle if you enter their line of sight (very much like the traditional Trainer battles in the games), or you can sneak up behind them and challenge them to battle.
- The Runaway: Coin and Clover both left the Pearl and Diamond Clans respectively at young ages due to being fed up with the clan they are in, and would eventually end up joining (and leaving) the Galaxy Expedition Team. They met up with Charm, having left the Galaxy Expedition Team herself, who took them under her wing and taught them to be a bit on the unscrupulous side.
- Signature Mon: Clover solely uses Abomasnow (Candice's ace in Diamond and Pearl, downgraded in favor of Froslass in Platinum), and Coin solely uses Toxicroak (Saturn's ace in all of his battles in Gen IV). Charm has both a Rhydon and a Gengar, though the latter is stronger and appears during cutscenes to help the trio make getaways.
- Smoke Out: Every encounter has them setting off a smoke bomb before fleeing.
- Theme Naming: Their English names are all based on different lucky objects (lucky charm, four-leaved clover, lucky coin).
Charm
- Affably Evil: "Evil" would be pushing it, but Charm retroactively becomes this as the game progresses. Should you approach her in the wild (instead of being caught by her or catching her from behind), she'll commend your courage for it. If Charm wins the battle, she'll take your stuff but ask you not to think harshly of her; should she lose, she'll takes her loss calmly. Even before growing to respect you, Charm is more polite compared to her other "sisters".
- Cultured Badass: She quotes poetry on occasion in her dialogue.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Uses a Rhydon, a Ground/Rock-type Pokémon, as her first Pokémon in battle.
- Graceful Loser: Depsite admitting losing to be "a disgrace", she still takes her losses in rematches the best of the three, compared to Coin and Clover.
- Had to Be Sharp: Part of her winning quote is essentially this trope."Don't think too harshly of me. We all do what we must to survive in this life—that's all this is."
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Uses a Gengar, a Ghost/Poison Pokémon, as her second Pokémon in battle.
- Revenge by Proxy: Charm has a grudge against the Galaxy Expedition Team for reasons unclear, and decides that the player - who joined the Survey Corps only days prior to their first meeting, well after she left the team - will be subject to her retaliation. Though as the story progresses, she starts to cool down and shows more respect.
- Villain Respect: As the game progresses, she'll start to show admiration for your bravery and strength; especially at her second story battle, where she'll commend you and hope you can calm stuff down once the skies go red.(Approach her in the field) "Daring to approach me rather than turn tail and run? You’ve got courage — I’ll give you that."
Clover
- Blatant Lies: Sneak up on her in the overworld, and she'll claim she totally saw you coming."You got the jump on me?! Not! As if I'd actually let you catch me off guard. It was all a trap, laid out by yours truly. I swear!"
- Girlish Pigtails: Much like her probable descendant, Candice, her hair is in pigtails and she acts the most childish out of the three.
- Hidden Depths: Her losing-battle quote implies that she might have self-worth issues."Rrrghhh! I can't believe you beat me again! I bet the people in the Galaxy Team actually treat you like you're worth something..."
- Hot-Blooded: Compared to her "sisters". She's a lot more prone to bursting into emotions, and even her battle expressions and animations hold weight to them. To further rub it in, she is incredulous whenever the player beats her.
- An Ice Person: Uses an Abomasnow, a Grass/Ice Pokémon, in battle.
- Saying Too Much: Her usual remark after losing has her lament how the Galaxy Team at least seems to think the player is worth something. Then she vanishes.
- Sore Loser: She takes her losses the poorest of the three.
- This Cannot Be!: She doesn't take losing well, never understanding she underestimated you."I don't get it! How'd I lose?!"
- Womanchild: She's the least mature of her sisters, despite being the second oldest.
Coin
- The Baby of the Bunch: Subverted. Coin is the youngest of the three but is noticeably more mature and reserved than her older "sister," Clover.
- Blood Knight: Subtle, but compared to her "sisters", Coin is the most eager to battle you.
- Devilish Hair Horns: Like Saturn, her hair is styled in two points. She's also the most unpleasant of the three.
- Hypocritical Humor: If you sneak up on her, she'll be offended and try to "make you pay for your brazen disrespect". Somewhere along the line, she forgot she kind of does the same thing to you.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: She'll beat herself up if she loses."What a blithering mooncalf I am. How could I let myself lose..."
- Jerkass: She's especially unpleasant compared to her "sisters". While Charm slowly grows to respect the player and Clover seems to put a tough front to compensate for her self-esteem, Coin remains quite rude, abrasive, and willing to battle. Fitting, considering that her implied descendant is an admin of a villainous team, rather than a League figure like Charm's and Clover's.
- Lack of Empathy: She claims the reason she left the Pearl Clan is because she got tired of Irida's heroic nature (with the example given being trying to stop the bloody skies and rampaging legendary Pokémon threatening Hisui, of all things).
- Not So Stoic: If you sneak up on her in the overworld, she'll be flabbergasted."What?! I failed to detect an attack?! Shameless! Who attacks from behind?! I'll make you pay for your brazen disrespect!"
- Poisonous Person: Uses a Toxicroak, a Poison/Fighting Pokémon, in battle.
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: Despite having left the Pearl Clan, she still wears the lower half of her uniform from said Clan.
- The Stoic: Played with. Compared to her other "sisters", her expression barely changes out of and during battle, and she often acts as the voice of reason to Clover. That said, she is much more open about her penchant for battling, and if you sneak up on her in the overworld, she gloriously breaks the act for a moment.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Takes her wins the worst out of the three, and is sadistically gleeful for besting you."That wasn't even a challenge. I hope this loss haunts your dreams, night after night after night. Oh, but maybe you won't have to worry about troublesome dreams. I bet the frustration of losing to me will keep you up all night!"
- We Will Meet Again: Even after losing, she threatens the player that she'll make them pay for it:"You little... You will pay for this embarrassment! I swear I will make you pay with interest!"
Mistress Cogita (Cogito)
Cogita / Cogito (コギト kogito)
- Ambiguously Related: Like Volo, she bears quite a bit of resemblance to Cynthia, with similar hairstyles, similar manners of dress, and similarly lax reactions to otherwise-serious events. She's meant to be something of a counterpart to Cynthia's Grandmother and Cynthia herself, given her role of passing along certain tidbits of information to the player. But is she actually related to Cynthia and her grandmother? No way to tell. For that matter, it's also unclear if she and Volo are also related.
- Big Good: She takes over this from Kamado after he exiles the player.
- Cool Old Lady: Maybe...? She's presented as being older than Volo, who's already an adult, and she has crow's feet and hair that's almost white. She ultimately proves to be extremely knowledgeable about Hisuian myths and legends, as well as a welcoming benefactor to the protagonist.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Wears black clothing yet is one of your most helpful allies.
- Empty Eyes: Her eyes are noticeably rather dull and lack the shine found in every other character's eyes.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: She takes Kamado's place as your mentor and Mission Control starting when you are exiled from Jubilife and offers you her aid up until the very end of the post-game content. In addition, she seems to have a mysterious connection to Arceus just like the player that is never elaborated on, as she has a purpose and a "burden" that she must see out.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: One eye is hidden at all times, like Volo and Cynthia. In her case it represents how she holds many secrets relevant to the truth behind the plot.
- Jerkass to One: She's a kind lady to pretty much everyone... except Volo, who at best she treats like an Annoying Younger Sibling; whenever the two are together, she's prone to snarking him and criticizing him, to which he tends to shoot back by acting more annoying toward her. And this is before she learns he was Evil All Along (something she doesn't seem at all surprised by).
- Last of His Kind: While not the last of the Celestica people (since they abandoned the Hisui region and went to live in other parts of the world), Cogita appears to be the latest and (to her hopes at least) last of the lorekeepers of her people, pledged to pass on what she knows to the chosen one of Arceus (the player character) when they finally appear before her. Her people used to live in Hisui perhaps a thousand years before the Diamond and Pearl clans came from across the sea and took on their name. The original Celestica were ones who constructed the ruins in various locations in Hisui, including the Temple of Sinnoh, and their legends of the Nobles and the ancient hero would eventually be taken up by the Diamond and Pearl clans.
- Limited Wardrobe: For all she says she plans to get some new clothes while visiting Jubilife, she only ever sticks to the same black dress and hat ensemble. Checking her hut shows she even has spare versions of the same dress hanging in her wardrobe.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is Latin for, "I think", connecting her to the Lake Trio as they all govern elements of the human mind and spirit. She ends up explaining to the player the importance of being able to perceive the world for its existing to matter, which is a version of the "I think, therefore I am" philosophical concept, giving further significance to her name.
- Nice Girl: Unlike Akari, who is extremely sarcastic whenever she's not in the mood for things, and unlike Irida, who takes some time to warm up to the player, Mistress Cogita may very well be the nicest lady the player-character meets in the entire story. Albeit she does not mince words, especially in critiquing Volo. She in fact continuously criticizes him throughout the story even before his true demeanor is revealed as she takes a very dim view of him shirking his responsibilities.
- Pals with Jesus: She mentions being well-acquainted with the legendary Pokémon Enamorus, who even personally ferries Cogita across Hisui; this allows her to quickly meet up with the player and company at the Shrouded Ruins at one point in the story's climax (which makes sense, since Enamorus frequents the Crimson Mirelands, where the Shrouded Ruins are).
- Priceless Paperweight: She is using the Pixie Plate, one of the eighteen Origin Plates that contain documents describing the creation of Hisui and the world, as a cutting board!
- Proud Beauty: Downplayed as we don't see her in situations where she might boast of her looks or use them to influence others, but she does express interest in dressing elegantly, has great confidence, and should she appear to get her photograph taken with you she'll note she has taken an interest in this new technology specifically because it will let her "beauty live on eternally."
- Really 700 Years Old: It is extensively teased that Cogita is far older than her Vague Age would imply with comments such as referring to the rest of the protagonist's lifespan (a teenager seemingly far younger than her) as brief and talking about the great burden left to her to share the knowledge of the Celestica people. However, she's also prone to dramatic statements, and her comments might just well be exaggeration. At the very least she is not old enough to have been around for the ancient events she speaks of, since she specifically refers to the people who lived through them as being her ancestors. She isn't even certain how true the various stories and lores she has been tasked to pass down are until she sees them herself. She may well date back to the time of the founding of the Diamond and Pearl clans, however, if she is the author of the Old Verses.
- Skewed Priorities: Her idea of a sane reaction to the end of the world is to go shopping during the potential breakdown of spacetime. Well, it would be too late to shop after the world ends.
- The Smurfette Principle: If you choose to play as the male protagonist and pick Adaman as your partner, she's then the only female in the group when you're exiled.
- Vague Age: Looks older, may actually be young, who knows?
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Comes off as this with Volo; he's the only one she's generally cold to, even before the reveal of him being Evil All Along, while Volo himself seems to enjoy pushing her buttons.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about Cogita without mentioning the late game Wham Episode that occurs around the same time she's introduced.
The Ancient Hero
This mysterious hero lived during the time of the Celestica civilization in ancient Hisui, millennia before the events of this game. Together with a retinue of ten loyal and noble Pokémon, they were able to reach and challenge Arceus itself in battle.
- Ambiguously Related: Assuming the mysterious person depicted in the portraits in the Diamond and Pearl clan houses is the hero, he might be a very distant ancestor of Alder, due to their uncanny similarity, if he's not potentially a time displaced Alder due to his necklace.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Apparently fought Arceus with his team and did well enough to earn its respect.
- The Ghost: Talked about often, but even in places where there are depictions of his partners, there's absolutely none of him, not even the remains of a statue. Its possible that portraits of him are in the Diamond and Pearl clan's houses, but its unconfirmed if the person they depict is the hero.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: Their exploits were such that they are revered by both the Diamond and Pearl clans ages after. Their ability to understand Pokémon and bring out their true strength in battle is considered the ideal to live up to, and they seem to have been well ahead of their time when it came to the modern concept of Pokémon training. Further, they built the foundation which allowed humans to survive during Hisui's most turbulent times. By earning the approval and blessing of Arceus in battle, they proved the strength of humble humanity and their Pokémon were blessed with power from Arceus so that they and their Noble descendants would protect the humans in Hisui for ages to come.
The Author of the Old Verses
Across Hisui one can find various poems written by a singular author. The verses indicate this author to be a descendant of the ancient people of Celestica and evidently a contemporary of the founders of the Diamond and Pearl clans. While they know many truths about Hisui (in particular that the Diamond and Pearl clans have mistaken Dialga and Palkia for Arceus), they were tasked with only holding onto this information rather than spreading it, to live on and preserve the knowledge until the "one with the mission" at last appears before them. There are heavy hints that the author is Cogita herself, and if so, the verses provide many insights to her age and past, however, nothing is as yet proven.
- Ambiguous Situation: While there are various hints that Cogita is the author (their waiting for "the one with the mission" in the ancestral land of the people of Celestica lines up with the duty she is burdened with fulfilling and where she is living, and in one of your last interactions with her she quotes one of the Old Verses directly) but it remains possible that the author was merely a teacher or ancestor of hers who was one in a long line of people who were duty bound to act as lorekeeper until the player character arrived.
- Not So Above It All: In amongst the exposition is... a recipe suggestion for potato mochi.
- Pals with Jesus: Was apparently friends with Enamorus, the personification of spring in the Pokémon world.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Several of the Old Verses have the author lamenting the isolation and loneliness they feel over having lived for so long, their greatest and as yet unattainable wish being to reunite in the afterlife with the friends and "beloved" that they lost so long ago. It would appear they cannot die until after their duty has been fulfilled.
