Latias and Latios

• Latias [#380]
• Latios [#381]

Latias and Latios are the names given to two kinds of rare Pokémon of fairly particular features that have been sighted across history. With bird-like bodies of elongated and thick necks, rigid wings, particular colors and streamlined appearance, these Pokémon soar through the coastal skies, hidden from the rest of the world, and have originated various myths and tales. While very similar, they have two parallel morphs that seem to be tied to gender, and are called Latias the female and Latios the male. See the section Naming for details.

Unlike some other “Legendary Pokémon”, the presence of Latii is more or less well studied and documented across history even in the most ancients of times, as is at least their outer physiology, and not counting Legendaries with strong historical ties such as the Regis, Latii may be considered among the more “down to Earth” Legendaries. Despite this facet of closeness to us they remain highly elusive which they achieve by a variety of means.

The two are commonly known as well as the “Eon Pokémon”, tying into their ethereal and constant presence in history as well as their early role as apparent “earthly” manifestations of divinity, given that they were the first Pokémon considered “Legendary” believed to be gendered.

The overall shape of Latias and Latios can better be described as “oval dragons”. They have bicolored alar bodies that on the lower half have a physiology resembling that of eg.: Hydreigon, two large solid wings, extremely short tails and a prominent neck at the end of which lies the head, with short pointed snout and two solid, fluffy ears. A painted “mask” covers part of their face in a fashion similar to that of a helmet visor for eg.: airplane pilots.

While not extensively tested, it is presumed that their entire bodies are covered with small flat feathers or scales, as at least their ears and tail show signs of being so.

The lower half body, the wings, the dorsal side of the forearms and the face mask are painted in uniform color; dark red for Latias and light blue for Latios; the rest of their bodies, in particular the entirety of the neck, is covered by whiteish feathers or hide that looks slightly darker on Latios than it looks on Latias. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the same alternate colouration phenomena found in various Pokémon species has been also detected on extremely rare Latii sightings, describing Latias and Latios painted with yellow and seagreen instead of red and blue respectively.

The arms are segmented and end in a pad-like hand with three visible claws. Their physiology is very particular in that the “shoulder” actually emerges laterally from their bodies and then the arm grows down in the caudal direction, which seems to suggest they can be used as functional legs. A short “tube” connects to the actual forearm which is comprised of a long oval piece with a flat dorsal side, and at the end the three claws. Unsure of whether this piece functions as an arm, wrist or hand, it has been suggested by some theorists to call it “pawpads”.

Both Latias and Latios wear a particular brand on their chest, which looks like a triangle-shaped ring with one end pointing forwards; this mark has the same color as their counterpart's colouration (blue for Latias, red for Latios). Whether it is a natural or acquired marking is as of yet unknown, as well as its significance.

The origins of the names “Latias” and “Latios” are unknown, as is the reason behind the existence of two separate names instead of a single name like for other Pokémon species. While it could be assumed that, as what happened with other Pokémon, each gender was given different names because they were discovered and known in different settings, the fact that most lore portrays Latias and Latios together suggests otherwise. Another possible cause is that Latii themselves used different names to refer to the female and male morph in a similar way as humans use the terms “women” and “men” or in other countries “nina” and “nino” for example (note the similarity with Nidorina and Nidorino).

When the members of the Latias and Latios are referred to as a collective disregarding their apparent gender, people and researchers tend to use the shortcut “Latii”. In some informal circles since the advent of internet communications, the form “Lati@s” has been adopted using the at-symbol as a hybrid a-o.

Little is known about Latii themselves in lore, as they are elusive Pokémon that can pass undetected even among dense human populations; however they are at the same time unique in that sense as lore indicates they find themselves comfortable in human settlements and are open to the idea, though not prone to, interacting with humans; to the point that recordings in lore speak of encounters with Latii even in the earliest stages of recorded human history. Most sightings and records have been linked to coastal areas or secluded islands, suggesting these Pokémon make of them their home; however it is also known they can travel very long distances in herds, and there are definite accounts of Latii families leaving an island to go explore a new land at the other end of the ocean.

Latias and Latios were known to emphasize strongly with people who are compassionate and feel towards other human beings as “soul mates”, and thus tended to tag along with or travel after them; however they seem to also strongly respect the people who plan ahead and take their time to rest, and it has been reported that some people have met Latios with very laid-back apparent personalities.

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Folklore depiction of Latii delivering a Soul Dew to humans.

Latii were known to also have searched in the past for people or Pokémon carrying special jewels with them, and following them around to try and trade or battle for the jewel. Ancient inscriptions indicate Latii seem to believe the spirits of their ancestors rest within those jewels. Across history those jewels, called “Soul Dews”, have been barely studied due to their rarity, but it is known that they hold a considerable amount of power that can be somehow extracted; as can be seen in the section Known Sightings, this discovery might be a reason why in present times Latii remain so elusive to humans. Earlier findings of similar stones have been documented as “Enigma[tic] Stones”, and Hoenn Champion Steven Stone successfully assisted in identifying some of them as Soul Dews specifically.

An interesting case with regards to Latii depiction in lore is the one in some old Hoenn paintings, where in some circumstances Latias was depicted with a body shape and traits more remniscent of .Blaziken, including long legs and clawed hands, yet maintaining the long neck and streamlined wings. The origins of these depictions are unknown as of yet, and they are sought after by collectors of the strange, who have coined the term “Latiziken” or “Latiaziken” to refer to them.

Some tales in lore associate the powers of Latii to the abilities of clairvoyance, precognition, stealth and transmogrification. One particularly prominent tale tells of an ancient Latii civilization living in a flat land bound by two “eternal rivers”; under their guidance that land was turned into a paradise where Pokémon and early humans formed families together; though Latii remained always in charge. One day, the Latii learned of an imminent mass extinction event and sought the mystical power of their ancestors to defend their land against it, but were distracted at a fatal time by a revolt led by warring Psychic Pokémon. The land and their race nearly doomed, the last few Latii scattered across the world, but before that they met the humans with whom they shared a strong link and implanted in them a “sixth sense” to reveal what is hidden, in the hopes those humans would not be left unprotected should a similar disaster repeat itself at some point in history.

Latii are sighted near coastal areas all across the globe, but only rarely and for very brief bursts of time. Witnesses usually describe a blue or red streak flying from the horizon at low altitude, or a shining orb that floats eerily in the sky and then departs at an incredibly high speed. Those who have gotten close enough to them don't get to enjoy the sighting for too long, as a Latii will most likely use its abilities to mimetize with the environment, or just fly away top-speed.

So far there have been three known, well-publicized recent sightings. The latest one was during the Sinnoh Conference League, where a trainer managed to somehow sign up with a Darkrai and a Latios, among possibly other Legendary Pokémon. The trainer was disqualified and disappeared without comment from any of the authorities. A couple of years before that, a Latii was reported to have been circling the coasts of Hoenn for long periods of time. Reports differ on whether it was a Latios or Latias, but concur on most other key details, such as the Pokémon looking for someone with a certain jewel. It was later reported that a trainer bearing a similar jewel was sighted in Olivine City, but more details have not been released to the public yet.

The most notable event however was the .Alto Mare near-apocalypse some years ago. After remnants of Team Rocket took control of the city's mystical-powered security and energy generation systems, a skirmish against an unidentified trainer forced the Rocket remnants to take civil hostages and shield themselves within the security control temple. After it was revealed that one of the hostages was actually a Latios, a battle over control of its Soul Dew was fought inside the security temple in the middle of the night. The damage caused to the mystical power gem serving as a power source, disrupted the balance of Nature in the sea, triggering a tsunami that threatened to erase the entirely of Alto Mare off the face of the planet before the population could be evacuated. Shortly before hitting land the tidal wave was stopped by an energy burst with a measured power output rivaling what had been measured by PEFE from some Legendaries; eventually reports were undisclosed indicating the energy burst was the product of a Latios's death, the Legendary having self-sacrificed to stop the tsunami in place.

The Alto Mare incident also marks one of the few trustworthy and known evidences that Legendary Pokémon can die or be killed, unlike the bogus, attention-calling reports from some cultists and fanboys in Sinnoh a couple of years later that insisted on an interpretation of Michina (Sinn) manuscripts as proof that it was possible to kill .Arceus by drowning Him, of all things.

Latias and Latios are known to possess tremendous abilities of both psionic and draconic nature, though these abilities are apparently not up to par with other known Psychic or Dragon Legendaries. At the pinnacle of their psionic abilities they present opponents with two formidable techniques that seem to be exclusive to them, that have been dubbed Mist Ball when used by Latias, and Luster Purge when used by Latios.

It is suspected the Latii are also in possession of abilities of mystical origin, as their levitation and apparent mirage or transmogrification abilities do not seem to be connected to psionic or draconic power sources. These mystical abilities might include but not be limited to sense-sharing, which allows members of a Latii herd to instantly share sensitive information with each other, and some form of light-bending that they use to enfold their body, becoming undetectable to various scopes of light frequency including the ones perceived by the naked human eye.

Among other observed abilities, it is believed that a healthy enough Latios and Latias can coordinate their powers to spread curative energy over an area, possibly to help their herd regain strength; an account of Latii in battle indicates that Latias can also shoot an energy blast specifically tuned to disable Pokémon that themselves count with some sort of unnatural / divine protection or power source; whereas Latios can shoot energy blast specifically tuned to hurt and disable only high-evolved Pokémon. These abilities show that their prowess in energy manipulation is most likely unmatched by anything other than a higher Legendary.

All these abilities can be used in battle, however that is by far not the only field where Latii show their versatility and mastery of them. It is suspected that Latias and Latios are experts at camouflaging themselves even within a human crowd and spending a notorious amount of time actually functioning as part of human societies, given their track record and the unusual circumstances of most of their sightings. How do they achieve this exactly is subject to debate.

One theory supported by evidence is that they combine their ability to fold light with their psychic powers to disguise their shape with human avatars including voice and smell projection as well as a hard aura that allows them to interact with solid objects. When they do this they essentially project a hard hologram that is perceived as a real human by a large array of sensors including the smell and psychic probing abilities of some Pokémon because, basically, they do fold light and air around them into the shape of a human. It is even suspected that individual Latii have “preferred” avatars which they use to carry out periodical and common tasks, and some Latii are suspected of being assiduous visitors of museums and research centers; it is also a running joke in some tabloids that “a Lati@s installed my TV cable”.

Another theory, also supported by evidence, is that folding light and disguising their shape is only a secondary measure; Latii achieve their highly successful blending-in by broadcasting powerful, specific and finely tuned “self-images” by using their mystical abilities, perhaps amplified by their psychic powers. These projected self-images well-tuned to our senses so to people they look and feel like the real thing probably even if the Latias or Latios in question is not light-folding their shape as camouflage; in this way they work as a sort of advanced mental suggestion. The effect of the spell is broken when a deep enough interaction with them forces our senses to acknowledge the breaching, such as a child suddenly jumping at a self-image's arms, or a self-image being suddenly thrown a bucket of water. Not even digital recording systems like cameras are safe – it is suspected that some Latii individuals are so versed in our technology that they can actually manifest their self-images to cameras or voice recorders via some level of hacking, and it is believed that one famous kidnapping incident that was broadcasted live may have actually been a Latios knowledgeable enough to hack television feeds, advertising screens and even sight-assisting implants live.

Latii are known to either seek for or carry with themselves a jewel of enigmatic origin dubbed “Soul Dew”, which they seem to believe is the remnant of their ancestors. Whether this belief is true or not, it has been proven that these jewels grant Latii notorious boosts to their natural abilities, strengthening their natural defenses. These jewels are also quite powerful by themselves, as the Hazards section indicates.

describe Luster Purge, Mist Ball

Latias and Latios bring together a whole assortment of words of power that clearly indicate they are not to be ignored and definitively not to be battled out of their own accord; they are, after all, psychic dragon legendary Pokémon. Trying to push a Latios or Latias into a battle without extensive preparation is unwise, and even with enough preparation the battle can quickly turn to nowhere if the Latii in question decides to simply “disappear”, which is possibly the best outcome possible for those who try to harass them.

Being draconic Pokémon they have an incredible raw power that they unleash with attacks like Dragonbreath, Dragon Claw or, in the rare occasion, Outrage. Added to this is their also vast psychic ability which they use to build barriers, strengthen themselves and attack with concentrated physical prowess in the form of Zen Headbutt. Next is the array of curious and probably mystical abilities which they use to perform various kinds of energy manipulation; these run the whole gamut of strategy and trickery from lending their own energy to an ally, to curing themselves out of burns or toxins, to even copying or emulating traits from their opponents such as fire resistance or absorbing water back into health. Finally their other various natural traits are brought into play, such as moving with incredible speed in open spaces or mimetizing into a crowd. All these abilities will be used to surprise, disconcert and imbalance their opponent as well as to deal the damage required to swiftly end their intervention.

While this has not been definitively proven, it is likely that the abilities of Latios and Latias go as far as rewriting or removing memories like other Psychic Pokémon can do, or leveling large areas with energy blasts like other Dragon Pokémon can do.

All and all, the documented encounters between the Latii and humans indicate that they come seeking a common understanding with us of various “hidden” facets of life, death and nature; that they also appreciate the achievements of the human species in their own way - as can be seen below, they probably find us “fun” in general; and finally that they consider battling just as much a rarity as we do seeing or meeting them. Thus trying to open one's relationship with a Latios or Latias via a battle is a mistake that they will be willing to punish hard, once and for all, to then go on their own way and never again meet that human. Any opening move that were to be even stronger will most likely have serious consequences for one and their surroundings, as the fated incident in Alto Mare demonstrates.

As has been mentioned above, Latias and Latios have been present all across human history. Even in the time of the cavemen there were recordings left indicating the presence of flying Pokémon with streamlined appearance and mystical abilities who have also been perceived as Pokémon possessing incredible knowledge and ability of the forces of nature.

Not only that, but there is evidence suggesting that prior or concurrent to the appearance of early humans, Latii possessed, assembled and used technological artifacts of their own. From various ruins across the world devices of unexplained origin as of yet have been dug up, and some of them were repaired into an active state to serve various functions, the most prominent one the city-wide structural manipulation engine that is said to have served as a defense for the city of Alto Mare. These devices share a particular detail in that they can operate using the mysterious jewels Latias and Latios seek and sometimes carry – the so called “Soul Dew”; in fact, these devices tend to have sockets where the jewels can be plugged in and they are capable of extracting and storing the unidentified energy contained within these jewels. Design and controls of such devices also hint that they are not explicitly intended for human operation, such as using three-dimensional motion detection in all directions, orbiting controllers and probably hardware-to-mind interfaces.

It has been suggested, but not proven, that such technology might have been designed by Latii, or for them by a civilization existing previous to humans, given the fact that it can, and to what point, interface cleanly with them, as one of those devices, when it went out of control, was capable of harnessing enough power from a Soul Dew to destroy it and nearly kill the Latios associated with it. The likeliness of Latii sightings to the appearances of “unidentified objects” in the sky in earlier times of history and their apparent behaviour towards human society and technology seem to indicate they are familiar to a high degree with such concepts, even more than Pokémon of the breeds raised to become Starters for example.

What does it mean that the Soul Dews are used as direct power sources for these kinds of technology, in the face of Latii apparently believing the jewels embody their ancestors somehow, is currently unknown and a source of much investigation as well as preoccupation – as an agent capable of overpowering a Latias or Latios and using their jewels could prove a very dangerous threat to social order.

Presumed Precursors

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“Casual” (for them!) encounter with a Latios.

Due to various cues, among them their streamlined design, it is presumed that Latii can fly at incredible speeds, perhaps easily outmatching that of a Dragonite. It is telling that artists and engineers have become inspired on their features to design various facets of technology that bring humans closer to the skies, ranging from visors and helmets to the shape and features of high-speed aircraft, an excellent example being Dekus Industries's LatioSU-31. It is believed that Latii themselves appreciate those efforts as they seem to appear and observe more and more frequently events such as aircraft demonstrations, parades and even, according to at least one report, live fire testing of battle aircraft, which the involved Latios found to be the most casual and amusing encounter if the pilot of the aircraft is to be believed (a possible portayal of the encounter is pictured to the right).

After documentation on the Alto Mare incident was released to the public, large enough interest was generated that movie studios decided to adapt the tale into a script. The story about a Latii family that helps a young trainer track the last remnants of Team Rocket before they can steal the mystical power their species have left to the city was released some time later as a film under the name Heroes.

Unfortunately this increasing interest on their end to meet us might not be adequately reciprocated as of present. Due to incidents such as the one in Alto Mare and the commonly held belief that a Soul Dew carries a Latii ancestor's memories and power, the Pokémon International Police has banned possession of such artifacts, as anyone holding these jewels in the hopes of meeting a Latii is actually more likely to meet organizations such as Cipher in a dark alley instead, and thus reach a quick demise. One officer has gone on record mentioning that people who want to keep a Soul Dew themselves are “TooDumbToLive”.

Original artwork “Latios n' Latias from Pokémon” by chocolatecherry@DeviantArt. Permission obtained by PEFE's Umbramatic as recorded here.

“Latii delivering Soul Dew to humans” screencap taken from Bulbapedia. Obtained from original showcased here. Uploader claims Fair Use.

“'sup!” artwork obtained from 4chan /vp/ imageboard. Origin unknown.

Original artwork “LatioSU-31” by Dekus@DeviantArt. Permission granted via PM to PEFE admin Tangent128.

Entry by Venia Silente.

Preliminary revisions available in the history in latii (for signed up members).

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