Magearna
Morphs [Oak Catalog #]
- Magearna [801]
Physical Descriptions
While the details vary, in all stories it appears in, Magearna is described as a robot resembling a Buneary in an extravagent ballgown, into which it can hide, covering its upper body with its large ears. This shell gives it a resemblance to the modern Poké Ball. Its face has an open mouth painted onto it, and a small stud to represent a nose. The eyes are a bright red, with cross-shaped pupils and golden eyelashes. A gear with seven teeth acts as a makeshift headpiece. All four of its limbs are pointed. In some tales, the ends of its arms can open up, and its arms can sprout metallic "petals" when using its mystic power. The Soul-Heart, the vessel of Magearna's consciousness, is consistently located in the body's chest, but its descriptions vary from iteration to iteration. While the most common interpretation is a brilliant blue orb with a gold-framed red and blue heart painted on it, a large gem with other gems embedded in it, and even a metallic plant bulb.Lore and History
Though many tales and stories have been told of Magearna in the Alola region, the Pokémon's history has been a matter of debate; for its basis in historical fact, for the canonical version of its story, and for where it originated. The earliest known surviving tales — the Alolan poem The Ingenious Magearna and the Royal King's Daughter and the Kalos anthology book Le Marvel Mécanique du Roi (or, The King's Mechanical Marvel) — are both around the same age, having been written in the 16th century. A third school of thought suggests that the legend may have had fact in another region entirely, and the story simply reached others through oral traditions, with details being dropped and added as time went on. According to The Ingenious Magearna and the King's Daughter, there lived a toymaker whose genius, skill and craft were unparalleled across the islands of Alola. News of them eventually reached the king of Alola on Ula'ula Island, whose daughter had long desired a plaything unlike anything she had. The toymaker was subsequently commissioned by the king to create such a thing, and they created a life-sized mechanical doll with tricky machinery ahead of its time, including powerful weapons to protect the daughter from harm. The toymaker then devised an ingenious machine that, through the collection and compiling of Pokémon life energy, created an artificial soul that brought the doll to life. After teaching it compassion and instructing it to be empathetic towards life, the toymaker demonstrated Magearna to the king and his daughter, both of whom were pleased with it. The poem ends with Magearna and the daughter remaining friends all the way through her ascension to queen.Le Marvel Mécanique du Roi offers an expanded version of the tale. The first story chronicles the creation of Magearna by the king, a wise inventor who wished to present his daughter with a friend and companion that would protect her from harm. To this end, he created a mechanical body that could move around if provided power, and crafted the Soul-Heart using the energies of various Pokémon, creating Magearna. Presenting it to her, she is pleased with it. From here, miscellaneous tales are told of Magearna and the princess's life together, with the former's advanced machinery and magic powers often being the catalyst and solution to various conflicts. The final tale, often omitted from childrens' editions, takes place years later, with a rival kingdom attacking with the intent of stealing away Magearna and using its power for itself. The king, distressed that his peaceful creation was being sought out for war, ordered Magearna to be hidden away where no-one would discover it, ultimately passing on while buying time for the Pokémon to escape.
As with many stories and folklore, the story in both forms has been subject to revision, alternative interpretation, and expansion. The poem never reveals what became of the king's daughter, the toymaker, or Magearna, nor does it name them or describe the creation of Magearna itself, thus making it difficult to discern who each character is supposed to be historically based on, if the tales have any historical truth to them at all. This also makes the canon sequence of events highly debatable, as some tales tell of events that have no existing historical record.
One notable and supposedly historically-accurate expansion from the mid-to-late 17th century, The Playmate of the Princess, provides a grimmer take on the story; in it, the scientist (the reinterpretation of the toymaker) forcefully drains several Pokémon's lives with the Soul-Heart machine, and Magearna becomes empathetic towards others as a result of the cruel method of its creation. In the end, the daughter grows weak and feeble as time passes. Realizing the Soul-Heart is constantly draining all life energy with no way to stop it, the scientist takes Magearna and, unwilling to destroy what they created, flees into the wilderness, telling it to never go near others before leaving it behind. In defiance, Magearna proceeds to travel the world assisting those in need, and the scientist is later tried and executed for the disappearance of Magearna and the daughter's death.
Known Sightings
Outside of the collection of fairy tales starring Magearna, little to no verifiable historic documents suggest it really existed. While there was a skilled mechanical toy maker in Alola at the time, and the king of a small province in Kalos at that time expressed an interest in science and technology, nothing reveals if they ever made, or were capable of creating, a device as advanced as Magearna's body. Although a set of old parchments with the robot's schematics were claimed to have been discovered in Kalos, rising evidence (including a reconstruction using them failing to work properly) suggests these are little more than hoaxes. However, a few accounts dating between the 16th and 21st centuries claim to have witnessed a mechanical creature assisting a person or Pokémon when they were injured and far from their territory. One tale from a 19th century explorer claims that, while lost on a mountain, he began to suffer frostbite and was certain death would follow. By pure chance, a walking doll Pokémon in a strange gown appeared before him, and with but a single touch offset his frostbite and gave him enough energy to make his way back down the mountain. Another cites an instance where a young man and his Trumbeak were attacked by a wild Haxorus, and were saved by a chance intervention from a mechanical Pokémon whose arms were like flowers. These claims are regarded with skepticism, but remain the most recent information hinting at Magearna's existence and, if true, imply it roams the Earth while assisting those in need and whom it empathizes with.Abilities
Magearna's body is described as being full of tricky machinery capable of amazing feats, and some stories even admit no-one knows the true extent of its talents. Among its more well-known tricks are the formation of powerful "flower cannons" from its forearms, with which it can produce fresh flowers and even energy blasts in dire situations. The power source for these (and Magearna itself) is the Soul-Heart enclosed in its body. One known ability of its design is its tendency to shift its body parts into its gown, resembling to modern eyes a large Poké Ball. In the tales where it does this, it does so when sleeping or sulking. The most well-known of Magearna's abilities is the Fleur Cannon, so named for the flower shape of Magearna's cannons during its use. With it, the Soul-Heart pours a tremendous level of power into a single point in its casing, from which it is fired as a large beam from the cannon, devastating all in its path. As a consequence, however, the Soul-Heart's impressive energy conservation takes a hit, sharply reducing its battle abilities. According to the segment in The Ingenious Magearna where it is first mentioned, the toymaker created this technique in the hopes that it never be forced to see use.Using the strange, seemingly limitless energy the Soul-Heart provides, Magearna can use all sorts of move types. One story has it use Aurora Beam to keep the kingdom's fish supply fresh, another involves it firing an intense Flash Cannon beam as a call for help, and yet another has its mechanisms use Shift Gear to significantly boost its running speed during a race with the palace Growlithe. Supposedly, Magearna once swapped the minds and talents of people using Heart Swap, a technique once thought to be exclusive to fellow Mythical Pokémon Manaphy. Perhaps most strikingly, Magearna in one story is said to be able to utilize Aura and fire the Aura Sphere technique, despite being a totally mechanical being unlike all other Aura users. The story also praises this ability of Magearna's as a sign of the talent of its creator.
The Soul-Heart, in addition to powering Magearna's body and hosting its consciousness, also has a supposed extra ability, wherein it bolsters Magearna's own power after a nearby Pokémon, friend or foe, is felled. The exact reason for why and how this occurs is unknown and open for interpretation. Some versions of the story theorise it as a side effect of the Soul-Heart's creation, and that it is constantly draining all life energy without stopping. Others suggest that the Soul-Heart instead bolsters its power as a consequence of the Pokémon's empathy and desire to end conflicts as quickly as possible. However, unless Magearna is somehow proven to exist and obtained, no clear answer can be reached.
Hazards
Magearna is said to be kind and instantly trusting towards those whom it senses a good heart in, thus a Trainer would, at least in theory, have no issues befriending it. However, some fairy tales involve Magearna's antique body suffering some sort of fault, ranging from limbs seizing up to blasts of energy uncontrollably firing off. In these cases, the Soul-Heart was removed from its body by whoever happened to find it until the fault was fixed (itself a tricky prospect owing to its advanced construction). If a Trainer should ever find Magearna in such a state of distress, it is recommended the same procedure be done (after winning the Pokémon's trust first).Other
Magearna's story of an inanimate humanoid toy coming through life via almost magical means served as an inspiration for similar stories by other authors, one of which became well-known once an influential animation company adapted it as their second film. The most curious aspect of Magearna is its uncanny resemblance to the modern day Poké Ball. Many have speculated on how this could be, but the most commonly accepted theory is that the tale (or at least, Magearna's ball shape and supposed energy-absorbing abilities) reached the Johto region in some form or another, and thus served as the inspiration for the first Poké Ball manufacturers.Spin Attaxx read more childrens' books than he would like to admit and studied how to infuse clockwork dolls with magic to bring you this page.
