| “ | An old expedition journal describes the sight of this Pokémon buried in the depths of the earth as resembling a planet floating in space. | „ |
| ~ Stellar Form Terapagos' Violet Pokédex Entry. |
Terapagos, also known as the Tera Pokémon, is the overarching antagonist of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, being the titular secondary antagonist of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk DLC. It is the mascot Legendary Pokémon of the aforementioned DLC in its Terastal Form.
In The Indigo Disk, it is a primeval Pokémon who thousands of years ago was trapped underground in a series of seismic shifts that drove the species to near-extinction, with a sole survivor being left behind buried deep within the Paldea region in what would become known as The Great Crater of Paldea. Over the years, it remained in hibernation in the deepest cave in Area Zero, and it's body slowly became crystallized, giving birth to a phenomenon in Paldea known as Terastalization.
Though not an evil creature by nature, Terapagos' role as the source of all Terastal Energy and by extension the cause of all the strange phenomena that occurs in Area Zero makes it the main instigator of the central conflict in the game. Furthermore, being a primitive creature its limited grasp on its own strength has caused it to unwittingly attack and nearly kill people such as the explorer Heath and later on, the player and Kieran.
Biography
Origins
Terapagos is a species of Pokémon who supposedly used to live in Paldea millions of years ago, which have the ability to radiate an energy known as "Terastal Energy" which empowers organic beings and enhances the functionality of machinery.
Terapagos were caught in the constant earthquakes and were buried underground deeper and deeper causing almost all of them to die at once.
Some Terapagos survived the catastrophic event that drove the species into near-extinction. This titular Terapagos was able to survive by unleashing a massive amount of Terastal Energy to encase itself in Tera Crystals to protect itself and go into a comatose-like state of hibernation. It ended up in a cavern 3,300 feet beneath the surface, where it went into a state of hibernation to survive for over 2 million years. In the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic seismic shifts a massive crater was left in the center of the Paldea region, which would eventually be named "Area Zero". Area Zero was deemed too dangerous for humans to venture into, leaving the last Terapagos buried at the deepest bottom of the crater abandoned in what'd be later named, the Area Zero Underdepths.
Over the years, as Terapagos hibernated in the Area Zero Underdepths, it continued to release Terastal Energy that caused large Tera Crystal to grow around it, and later expand taking over all of Area Zero, even crystallizing trees around in the caverns. Pokémon that came to inhabit Area Zero were continuously radiated by the Tera Energy released from Terapagos' dormant form and the crystals growing all over the crater which slowly started affecting them over time. This gave birth to a phenomenon exclusive to Paldea which would be later named, Terastal, a phenomenon which can temporarily crystallize other Pokémon and change their Typings, which includes a Type which was created by Terapagos itself, a mix of all known Types, which would be later named, Stellar.
It appears that Terapagos' crystals also caused some rare Pokémon to be born out of them, these being Carbink, Glimmet, and Glimmora, that all possess crystallized bodies similar to Terapagos' and appear to be the only wild Pokémon that naturally live in the Area Zero Underdepths. Glimmet and Glimmora are also said to stab into walls and feed on Terapagos' Terastal Energy.
During the era of the Paldean Empire, 2000 years ago, rumors of a treasure deep in Area Zero started originating, causing the Paldean King to start sending expedition teams down into the crater to try and find the rumored treasure, ushering the Great Age of Exploration, which eventually led the empire to fall into decline, forcing it to unify with its neighboring countries, forming the present day Paldea region. This treasure later on would be revealed to be Terapagos itself slumbering deep in Area Zero.
Much later, 200 years ago, another expedition team was formed by a man named Heath to explore Area Zero and find the hidden treasure once and for all. During the expedition, the team encountered and was attacked the very first Paradox Pokémon in the history, presumably brought there as a result of Terapagos' influence. Later on, Heath was separated from the rest of the team and somehow encountered Terapagos while in it's Stellar Form, resembling a planet floating in space, Heath was unsure of what he saw, not even sure if it was indeed a Pokémon or even a living thing at all, he referred to him as "The Disk Pokémon" and later named him Terapagos, theorizing him to be the origin of the crystallization of Pokémon in Area Zero.
Heath wrote a book titled "The Scarlet/Violet Book" which narrated his expedition to Area Zero and everything he discovered in it. This book was largely written off as more fiction than science due to the implausible, logic defying anecdotes that Heath wrote in it. Heath was discredited and disgraced after the publishing of the Scarlet/Violet book, though the book still went on to become a best seller and common fixture of Paldean literature for centuries.
Even later, 10 years ago, Professor Sada/Professor Turo discovered the remains Terapagos in the Area Zero Underdepths thanks to Briar's Book given to them by a the player from the future, they started researching on him while he slept inside of it's crystal shell, using the Terastal Energy his body produced to start the Project Tera, with that energy they created Tera Orbs, capable of Terastallizing Pokémon at will, this invention granted them the corporate backing and funding that allowed them to continue their research.
Professor Sada/Professor Turo was never able to awaken Terapagos from it's state of hibernation but was able to determine he was the source of all the Terastal Energy in Area Zero and the surrounding Paldea region and left behind several research notes about it's existence.
The professor was able to use Terastal Energy to create an AI copy of themselves so they could help with the research and eventually succeeded in developing a Time Machine to bring Pokémon from alternate timelines or maybe eras to the present, these Pokémon would be known as Paradox Pokémon.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Main game
Though Terapagos is not physically present in the main games' story, it's presence is felt through the entire Paldea region, such as the Tera crystals growing all over Area Zero and even spreading around the rest of the region, but specially, Heath's Scarlet Book/Violet Book. In Naranja Academy/Uva Academy, the player can explore the library and read copies of Heath's book, in all of them, there's a page about Heath's encounter with Terapagos, revealing a sketch of it in it's Stellar Form. Heath in this sketch referred to Terapagos as "The Disk Pokémon" and described it as a massive creature nesting over a crystalline planet, questioning if the Disk Pokémon was even a Pokémon in the first place. Strangely, every copy of the Scarlet Book/Violet Book has multiple smudges over this particular page making it impossible to properly read it.
In Professor Sada's/Turo's lab in Poco Path's lighthouse, an image of Terapagos in his slumbering gem-like state can be seen in a monitor.
The Way Home
Professor Sada/Turo died in an incident involving the time-displaced Pokémon, now known as Paradox Pokémon, but the time machine they created continued to use Tera Energy to bring more Paradox Pokémon into the present, this put the Paldea region in imminent danger if the Paradox Pokémon were to leave Area Zero, but this crisis was prevented when AI Sada/AI Turo had the Player, Arven, Penny, and Nemona venture into Area Zero to assist in shutting down the time machine.
During the four students' descent to the Zero Lab, notebooks written by Sada/Turo can be found in some Research Stations, in one of them, Terapagos is mentioned as being linked to the phenomenon they named Terastallization.
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask
Terapagos is briefly mentioned when the player met Briar in the Naranja Academy/Uva Academy, she showed them the original manuscript of the Scarlet / Violet Book, showing once again the sketch of Stellar Form Terapagos but in this manuscript the smudges preventing the text from being read were not present, revealing that Heath not only named him but was also who discovered his connection with Terastallization phenomenon.
Briar also revealed that she's an ancestor of Heath and dreams of encountering Terapagos so she disproves the claims that Heath was a liar and clear his reputation. Briar also explained that she was working on negotiations with the Paldean Pokémon League to obtain a warrant to travel into Area Zero so she can find proof of Terapagos' existence.
As part of her negotiations, Briar had the player participate in a student exchange program with the Blueberry academy, which involved a trip to the Kitakami region where a lake shrouded in Tera Crystals is present which also causes Tera Phenomenas to happen naturally. Briar investigated the Crystal Pool at Kitakami while the player befriended two kids named Carmine and Kieran and became involved in a conflict regarding an ogre Pokémon named Ogerpon.
The conflict with Ogerpon was solved but over the course of the trip Kieran became increasingly jealous of the player and snapped after Ogerpon chose to bond the Player over him.
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk
A few months after the trip to Kitakami, Briar had the Player travel to Blueberry Academy as part of the student exchange program while she continued negotiations with Naranja / Uva Academy regarding Area Zero. During the Player's time at Blueberry Academy, they learned that Keiran had developed a toxic obsession with defeating the player at all costs which was starting to take a toll with his mental health. The Player yet again defeating Kieran for the title of BB League champion drove him further into desperation.
Briar finally managed to convince Chairwoman Geeta to let her make another expedition into Area Zero by pointing out the incident with Sada/Turo's time machine and the possibility that more dangerous Pokémon could still exist within the crater. Briar scouted the Player, Carmine, Kieran, and Drayton to join her expedition, she also theorized that Terapagos itself must be the fabled hidden treasure of Area Zero written in legends. Drayton declined the offer while the rest agreed, Keiran secretly plotted to take Terapagos for himself. Before leaving, Geeta gave the player a strange object named the Indigo Disk which the academy had been studying for a long time and believed was tied into Area Zero.
Briar, Carmine, Kieran, and the Player returned to the Zero Lab, there the security gates detected the Indigo Disk and request it to be inserted. The disk then enabled a secret function that allowed the elevator in the lab to go into an area even deeper than the time machine. The elevator took the group to the Underdepth caverns where Terastal Energy radiates out of control, there they also discovered Sada/Turo had installed a desk to research this cavern. Briar deduced that this must be the cavern where Heath found Terapagos, this theory was confirmed when the group was attacked by wild Pokémon capable of Terastalizing into the Stellar type.
The group ventured deeper and deeper until they finally found Terapagos' nest, there Keiran found a gem that seemed to be the hibernating Terapagos. He desperately attempted to awaken it and succeeded in doing so. Contrary to what the books and theories depicted, Terapagos seemed to be just a small and rather weak turtle that did radiate enormous amounts of Terastal Energy but didn't otherwise seem that much different from any ordinary Pokémon.
Carmine warned Kieran to be careful, but he did not listen and threw a Master Ball at Terapagos to catch it before anyone else had the chance. Briar was eager to see Terapagos in action while Keiran was desperate to defeat the player, so he demanded another battle this time using Terapagos. Terapagos did not show any kind of special power and was swiftly defeated to Keiran's frustration. Briar suggested Keiran to try Terastalizing Terapagos to see if that could unleash its true power.
When Kieran Terastalized Terapagos, he transformed into a much more powerful form, but he immediately went into an uncontrollable rampage that risked causing a cave-in and unleashing a massive amount of dangerous Tera Energy into the rest of Paldea. Keiran attempted to return Terapagos to its Master Ball, but Terapagos' power was too much and destroyed the Pokéball.
The player and Carmine attempted to battle Terapagos but were vastly outmatched, Terapagos would continue bringing Tera barriers to protect himself and any attempts to Terastalize the player's Pokémon to even the playing field backfired by Terapagos absorbing that Tera energy for himself. Kieran, seeing the situation turn worse and worse, and feeling guilty for causing the problem, snapped out of his desperation and assisted in fighting Terapagos, the efforts of the three ultimately allowed them to weaken Terapagos enough to return into his normal form, while Kieran allowed the Player to be the one who catches it this time.
With Terapagos returned to normal and contained in a Pokéball, Briar and Kieran both apologized for their recklessness nearly causing another disaster and Kieran offered to repair his friendship with the player.
Briar then proceeded to write a book about the events that took place at the Area Zero Underdepths as well as prove with factual evidence that Heath's expedition 200 years ago was genuine. Briar then gave an early copy of the book to the player as gratitude for their help in finding Terapagos, named simply as Briar's Book.
Post-game
After Terapagos is caught, the player is allowed to use it as a regular Party member, it's reawakening also allowed to Stellar type to be used in regular battles.
If the player takes Terapagos to the Crystal Pool at Kitakami, Terapagos uses its timeline manipulating powers to bring a Professor Sada/Professor Turo from an alternate timeline, when they were alive and not yet consumed by their obsession with Tera Energy, into this timeline. The player and Sada/Turo met and shared knowledge and insight about each other, and Sada/Turo requested the player to gift them Briar's book as it would potentially be useful in their research after Terapagos returned them to their proper timeline.
Appearance
In it's normal form, Terapagos takes the form of a small, indigo turtle with a greenish blue, hexagonal shell resembling a crystal that has a hexagonal star on it. It has a ponytail-like appendage made of greenish blue crystals extending from the back of it's head, similar green crystals extending from its cheeks similar to ears, star shaped markings on it's legs and forehead, blue bands on it's neck and limbs as well as a star-shaped knob at the end of the thing's tail. It's eyes are purple and green and it has white star-shaped pupils.
When Terapagos is in danger or wishes to slumber for some years, Terapagos pulls his limbs, tail and head inside his crystal-like shell and shrinks it, becoming much smaller. This causes him to be regularly confused for a regular, small, green jewel.
During combat, Terapagos crystallizes the energy around itself, forming a new shell around it's body, assuming it's Terastal form. It's eyes turn light blue, his hind legs disappear inside the shell, and it grows long teal fur around it's front section and back, forming three tails at the end. Terapagos’s new shell is indigo and crystalline, bearing 18 scutes that display the different type symbols, occasionally morphing into abstract shapes. The central scute of Terapagos’s shell is light green and displays the symbol of the Stellar type which is found on the shell of its usual form.
When Terapagos uses its Terastal power to assume its Stellar form, its entire body crystallizes, the type icons on its shell turn cyan and it rests atop an indigo, crystal dome made of Terastal energy. Crystals bearing the different type symbols circle around it, and it wears a Terastal crown with a crystal resembling a miniature version of its normal self, with 18 gems dotting the crown’s bottom. An indigo crystal representing the Stellar type also levitates atop the crown.
Personality
Thanks to being a primitive creature, Terapagos is by nature rather inquisitive and gentle, being curious about the player upon awakening from dormancy, possibly bonding to them as a friend. During its short time under Kieran's ownership, its behavior and power level was largely that of a typical Pokémon, contrary to what the legends claimed about its supposed incredible powers and was visibly disappointed in itself after losing in battle so easily.
Being Terastalized caused Terapagos to go berserk unable to control its now fully unleashed powers. Terapagos showed a wrathful and vengeful side where it attempted to kill Kieran for mistreating it and went into a rampage that threatened the lives of everyone at the Area Zero Underdepths and by extension the rest of Paldea if it were to leave the crater in that uncontrollable state.
Once Terapagos was defeated and returned to it's normal form resumed its gentle and kindly nature after being captured by the player, seemingly placated by their presence and being a willing companion. During a visit to the Crystal Pool at Kitakami, Terapagos in his childlike curiosity triggered a reality warping event that brought Professor Sada/Turo from a point in time where she/he was still alive for a brief period of time. It is implied during this event that Terapagos knew the player wished to meet the professor.
Abilities
- Pokémon Moves: Like any Pokémon, Terapagos is able to use many different Moves in battle. Terapagos specifically can use the Signature Move "Tera Starstorm" which draws power from the Terastal phenomena he created, shooting countless star-shaped projectiles at his foes.
- Form changing: Terapagos is able to transform into his Terastal Form the moment he enters battle, crystallizing the Terastal Energy around him to create a bigger, tougher shell and turning the ring rubs on his legs into fur. Terastalizing Terapagos causes him to transform into his most powerful form, the Stellar Form, turning into the Stellar Type. When he's in danger or wishes to slumber for a few years, Terapagos will go inside his crystal-like shell, taking a dormant state where he resembles a regular, green crystal.
- Type Manipulation: Terapagos can draw the power of all known Pokémon types at once in the form of the secret Stellar type which is only possible to achieve through Terastalization. Furthermore, Terapagos is able to manipulate the known matchups of Types to always take not-very-effective damage from the first attack it receives.
- Tera Energy Radiation: Terapagos is the source of Terastal Energy which he is always radiating at all times. Terapagos' control over this power is rather limited, but he was able to use it to survive a catastrophic tectonic shift that drove the rest of his species extinct by crystalizing his own body. During the 2 million years that Terapagos slumbered, his hibernating form continued radiating Tera Energy to his surroundings, this Tera Energy can accumulate and turn into large crystals referred to as Tera Crystals. Terastal Energy also affects plant life, which led to the creation of Herba Mysticas. Over time Area Zero became covered in Tera Crystals, with the deeper sections having gigantic crystals, while smaller Tera Crystals can form in the surface of the Paldea region from the Terastal Energy leaking out of Area Zero. He was also shown to be capable of absorbing Terastal Energy that radiates from other Terastallized Pokémon, detransforming them back to normal.
- Reality Warping: Terapagos can warp reality to some limited extent, causing beings from parallel timelines to cross into Terapagos' own reality for a limited amount of time; Whenever Terapagos uses this ability, a strange mist surrounds the area. This is what caused the first Paradox Pokémon to appear in Area Zero, while Heath somehow experienced an encounter with Stellar Terapagos despite it still hibernating. Heath could not tell if his encounter was real or not and he found his notebooks full of notes made with his own handwriting referring to the encounter that he had no recollection of writing down. Using Terapagos's Terastal Energy, Professor Sada/Professor Turo were capable of creating a machine that could bring Paradox Pokémon to her/his own timeline permanently. A Sada/Turo from another timeline was brought to the Crystal Pool at Kitakami, this Professor gave away their Scarlet Book/Violet Book in exchange for Briar's Book under the player's possession, which did not happen in the main timeline.
Trivia
- Terapagos is similar to Necrozma and Eternatus, where it is a Legendary Pokémon responsible for creating the main mechanic featured in it's debut region and is largely responsible for the events in said debut region. Furthermore, all three are said to be reptilian Pokémon, at least in one form and are somewhat crystalline in appearance.
- In contrast to Necrozma and Eternatus however, who were willingly using their unique powers to cause harm and destruction for their own reasons, Terapagos is an innocent being who did not mean any harm to anyone, instead the dangers that Tera Energy presented were more due to humans abusing and misusing it, rather than any intention of Terapagos to do any wrongdoing.
- Furthermore, while Necrozma, Eternatus, and other similar Legendary Pokémon of similar power levels are depicted as gargantuan beings of massive scale, Terrapagos is a very small creature, possibly due to the one found in-game being a juvenile one. Even when transforming into his most powerful form, Terapagos is still considerably smaller than other similar Legendary Pokémon.
- Also, when Terapagos first Terestalized by Kieran and went on a rampage, it was not in control of its own power due to the excess Tera Energy that was forcibly injected excessive into him at once, once Terapagos was defeated and returned to it's Normal Form, it fully calmed down and returned to being a mostly gentle beast
- When fans found Terapagos's description in Area Zero's journals written by Sada/Turo and Stellar Terapagos's sketch made by Heath in the Scarlet Book/Violet Book (this all happened before Terapagos's official reveal), many started to speculated that the unnamed Pokémon had a relationship to Eternatus and Necrozma, due to all three Pokémon possessing crystal-like bodies, a strong glow, and being reptile-like features.
- Fans also speculated Terapagos would be related to Zygarde, who possesses similar hexagonal shapes on its body and reptile features in its 50% Form
- Following the tradition of Legendary Pokémon, Terapagos draws its design and inspiration on multiple forms of folkore; In Terapagos' case, it being a turtle itself represents that turtles are a species frequently depicted as important beingsin various cultures. Some of said depictions include:
- Terapagos's Stellar form is based the concept of the World Turtle, a belief in several cultures in which planet Earth was a flat structure held in the back of a giant turtle. It also references the concept of "turtles all the way down", a hypothetical scientific problem which describes the multiverse as each individual universe being a world turtle that rests over another bigger world turtle, which also rests over an even bigger world turtle, repeating at infinitum.
- Terapagos' Terastal form is based on the Minogame, a Japanese Yokai depicted as a turtle with 3 tails.
- Multiple Mesoamerican cultures feature turtles as divine beings in their respective myths and religions.
- Fittingly, both Koraidon and Miraidon also draw inspiration from various Mesoamerican deities.
- Terapagos' Normal form is based on the Pinta Island Tortoise, a subspecies of the Galapagos Tortoise that was believed to be extinct until a single male specimen named Lonesome George was found as the last survivor of the species.
- According to the game's programing, Terapagos has a 50% chance of being either male or female, however the Terapagos obtained during the Indigo Disk campaign is always guaranteed to be a male regardless. This is a further reference to the Pinta Island Tortoise.
- Calling back to this, the map of Paldea somewhat resembles Terapagos's Terastal form, with the Great Crater being located in the area where the Stellar type symbol is seen on Terapagos's shell.
- This notable similarity led some prior to the release of The Indigo Disk to theorize that Terapagos does in fact make up the entirety of Paldea, with the obtainable Pokémon merely being a vessel of its will similarly to the Arceus seen in-game. Others have instead theorized that Paldea is built on the remains of an adult Terapagos, with said remains represented by the dome Terapagos sits on in its Stellar form.
- At 0.2m tall, normal form Terapagos ties with Shroodle and Azurill for the shortest Normal type Pokémon. It is also the shortest fully evolved Legendary, with the 2nd-stage Legendary Cosmoem still being shorter at 0.1m (though it's noted that Cosmoem's height is measured lengthwise, making it even shorter).
- With the Terastalization sound effect sounding identical to Terapago's cry and the eyes on every Terastal crown resembling the eyes on Terapagos's own Stellar crown, it's implied that Terapagos can see through the Terastal crowns of other Pokémon and observe the world that way.
- All Tera Orbs possess a small Tera gem within them, this crystal looks almost exactly like Normal Form Terapagos's shell and along with the Terastallization sound being the same as Terapagos's Cry, it's implied the crystal in Tera Orbs are actually other slumbering, or even deceased Terapagos.
- In a Spirit Board event of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Terapagos is a spirit. Its battle is three Squirtle, a regular one for Terapagos's Normal form, a Giant Metal Squirtle for its Terastal Form, and a Giant Golden one for its Stellar Form. The stage is the Fountain of Dreams in reference to the Area Zero Underdepths.
External Links
- Terapagos on the Heroes wiki
- Terapagos on Bulbapedia
