Pokemon Field Guide: Gothitelle Report

#576: Gothitelle:
The Astral Body Pokemon
Psychic

Height: 4.5-5 ft tall

Weight: 95-100 lbs

Sound: It still makes a high-pitched call, just as it has with its previous evolutions. Only this time, it’s more drawn out. If you listen closely, it almost sounds like a scare chord.

Gender: 25% male, 75% female. Males have a MARGINALLY more masculine figure, less prominent lips and upper torso, as well as bigger central nodes on their ribbon-like feelers.

The nodes are what allows them to absorb starlight/forms of electromagnetic radiation, while the ribbons can spread it out. So, the difference is that males have bigger nodes and smaller ribbons to absorb more and put it out at a more precise level, allowing them to use the ability Shadow Tag (which binds the target to the battlefield via telekinesis) while also having higher Special Attack Values. Females have smaller nodes and bigger ribbons to allow a steadier amount of it to be put out in larger amounts, allowing them the ability Frisk (using a widespread amount of Telekinesis to give away the foe’s secretly held item) and a higher special defense due to many attacks partly dissipating before they reach the Gothitelle.

Other than that, much like the case of Gardevoir, the very limited numbers of differences brought by the Y chromosome makes them both have a somewhat feminine appearance. Thus, many people tend to mistake male Gothitelles for females. Much to the everlasting embarrassment of both parties.

HP: 70
Attack: 55
Defense: 95
Sp. Attack: 95
Sp. Defense: 110
Speed: 65
Total: 490

Effective moves against it:
Fighting (1/2x), Psychic (1/2x)
Bug (2x), Ghost (2x), Dark (2x)

Location: They’re occasionally found in Route 9, as well as other places with Gothita or Gothorita like the Strange House, as well as Route 5 and 16. However, any encounter with a wild Gothitelle is highly unlikely, because by then, they’d learn to be most comfortable living away from people.

In those cases, they like to be left be, so please respect that.

( A ) General: Gothitelle is a Pokemon species that, for a long time, remained a mystery in many ways.

This is understandable, since like Elgyem, Gothitelle and its line had only been discovered in recent times. What makes them even more mysterious than they are already is that their attention and knowledge seems to be much more concentrated on what’s in outer space rather than the planet they live on. They are less familiar with this world than we’d suppose them to be. Most people find their behavior and knowledge on celestial bodies incomprehensible. But by far their strangest feature yet is their ability to see the future using the movement of stars. All of this, and the fact that their sentience is on-par with us, it’s difficult to figure out why THEY’RE not the dominant species on the planet Earth instead of us.

I can only hope that what I write in this report is all factual. Because some of the facts unearthed seem so mind-boggling, most scientists would sooner say the implications are too preposterous to be true.

If anything, the only thing I’ll request of whoever’s reading this is open-mindedness...with Pokemon, practically anything is possible.

Evolution: The Gothita line has always been a victim of what’s called “Blue and Orange Morality”. What I mean by this is that their behavior is nothing short of outlandish. It can’t be classified as good or evil, but something that can’t be so easily understood. This makes them come off as slightly unnerving to human trainers.

Gothita spend their time staring into what could be things few other Pokemon are perceptive to. Like extremely faint traces of spiritual or electromagnetic energy that are more widespread than we can tell, or even the aura of spiritual energy coming from living creatures. Not to mention the electromagnetic radiation coming from the stars themselves. Either way, they’re so engrossed with observing the patterns made by these that they completely lose touch with reality. Seeing these things also spurs them into doing things which seemingly have no logical basis at all. Like unplugging the central heating or electricity to a house, and patrolling the entire vicinity with a fork for seemingly no reason.

Upon evolving into Gothorita, they have the ability to actively manipulate electromagnetic radiation and use it as psychic power. It’s at this point that they use them not only to affect physical objects (i.e. making diagrams of the closest constellations using rocks), but the minds of living organisms too. They’re smart enough to realize just how far they can take this power. They don’t seem to have malicious intentions when they hypnotize adults and children alike into following them. But they don’t quite grasp the concept that humans can’t live for very long by themselves in the woods, and they also don’t understand why families become frantic when they realize one of their own has disappeared in the middle of the night. Especially when, if a child is missing, the adults can simply give birth to a new child.

And then they become Gothitelle.

Even now, their behavior makes no sense to those who don’t understand what the Gothita line can see. But the questions don’t come from what do they do; if anyone has questions about Gothitelle’s behavior, it’s about the actual emotions it feels. Come down to the “Behavior” segment as section E to get more details on this.

( B ) Species Ancient History: This is perhaps one of the most incredibly vague details about Gothitelle: why is it the way it is? More specifically why does it have such a close connection to the stars? Not even Ledian is this familiar with stellar patterns!

If I’m right, then this may have been the possible scenario.

(Disclaimer: I say POSSIBLE because much like Elgyem’s line, while some older Gothitelle did confess to having this kind of past, they didn’t specify most of it in detail. So, I’m piecing together each solitary clue as best as I can to give you a picture of what might have been, unless I’m directly disproven by new evidence.)

Fossil evidence denotes that the Gothita line started out as fairly average Psychic-type Pokemon, while also being contemporaries to Mew when they were only starting to dwindle in numbers. They weren’t very unique in the sense that they had many of the same brain adornments other Psychic-type Pokemon have evolved to have, but they had one distinguishing factor: the development of feelers composed of small nodes filled with a cluster of extra sensory “nerves” which could voluntarily absorb electromagnetic radiation and incorporate it into their own nervous system. Much like Alakazam, they can use these “super-signals” to be projected through any part of their body (but especially the ribbons” around the nodes) as psychic energy, allowing it to manipulate matter on a quantum scale.

(NOTE: I’m assuming that they evolved these feelers to function as well in the wild as other Psychic-type Pokemon, but I can only guess that it was selective breeding which caused this part of their anatomy to grow so out of original proportions. We can’t be sure why though, it was too long ago.)

Where did this electromagnetic energy come from? At first, it was the sun. But as their feelers became more advanced and more acutely tuned to absorb larger amounts of it for greater power, trying to absorb photons from such a close source became painful. Absorbing photons reflected from the moon was even worse for their health because it was much closer to the Earth. What’s more is that the Gothita line had become very dependant on their psychic powers for survival; as their powers developed further, their bodies had weakened immensely in comparison to other Pokemon. So they figured the next best solution was to absorb energy from a farther away place.

This was a problem for them at first, but not for long, because the solution to this dilemma hung above their heads every night. They discovered, perhaps on accident, that the stars were a superb solution to this predicament. They provided far more electromagnetic radiation than the Sun ever could, and to top it all off it comes to the members of the Gothita line in smoothed out quantities from having travelled such a long distance, allowing them to gather large amounts of starlight without hurting itself. (Most likely is that they at first allowed this starlight to come to them gradually, albeit in modern times they use self-generated wormholes to transport it to them. I’ll get to that point in the Anatomy Section.)

From what could be understood from archaeological evidence, at this time the Gothita line started to exhibit astoundingly Human-like behavior. They wore clothes to shield themselves from the weather, they lived together in what may be considered “houses” to shelter them, they exchanged things with each other to provide each other with daily necessities, and even developed a set of values and morals that is usually only found in human beings.

One of these values was akin to religion. They believed that the stars were something more than mere sources of power millions of miles away. They knew that the stars were something greater than they perceived them to be. Something huge, grand, even godly. They then believed that their race was chosen because in their eyes, they were literally capable of wielding the power of these gods.

Once their prowess for psychic powers have reached a peak, and they found themselves fully able to control their intake of electromagnetic radiation, they decided: why not find out what’s out there?

So they did. One fateful day, without any technology to speak of, they perhaps were able to use their immensely powerful psychic abilities to create a wormhole allowing them to leave the planet, and set out to the vastness of space itself on a mass religious Exodus. Where they went is vague, but from an ancient star map I found that seems to be written in their own style of handwriting, I’m willing to bet they went to settle in the Taurus constellation, around the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. Even more specifically, I’m thinking it’s around the yellow dwarf star, HD 37124, where the other stars are still very clear in view. At the time, these stars were still millions of times more majestic than they would have thought; something they considered godly indeed.

(FUN FACT: The planets revolving around HD 37124 are in/around its habitable zone, which insinuates the very exciting possibility that life exists around in those planets! We can’t be too sure, but assuming that atmospheres many light years away are visible due to its spatial distortions, I’m thinking it knew of the planet’s habitability ahead of time. How they knew what to eat at the time is currently left nebulous)

( C ) Anatomy and Powers : Now that they’ve arrived to their destination. their extraterrestrial environment allowed them to adjust themselves in rather strange ways that still remain to this day.

Their body stature might denote that they’ve settled in an environment with slightly higher gravity. Namely, their bodies are somewhat wider around the pelvis and more bottom heavy, but this isn’t as noticeable as in the body structure of Gothita and Gothorita. Their feet are also shaped in thick stubs to allow them to stand upright WITHOUT having to be very close to the ground to move around.

In the meanwhile, they also have a few other adaptations allowing them to be more active at night, when the stars are out. Their eyes are considerably larger than those of humans to see in what could be considered a tetrachromatic spectrum, to see in a larger spectrum than humans can. Their dresses are actually made from hairs that were detached from their bodies. How the Gothita line is able to extend this dress over time is by adding onto its molecular structure via using psychic powers to convert the molecules in the air around it into keratin, into the same molecular structure as its hairs, then adding them onto its dress. The texture of the actual dress is very smooth, almost like silk cloth, but its very insulating; especially helpful considering how active they are at night.

And then, they have two more notable traits about them.

All three members of their family have, as I said before, sensors which appear to be bowties, with a node in the middle that absorbs electromagnetic radiation, and ribbons on their sides to expel it away. The curled “ponytails” on the side of their head are actually extensions of brain adornments hidden under hair that can create small “wormholes” to concentrate starlight into their EM nodes. They can convert this electromagnetic radiation into psychokinetic energy, allowing it to do a number of things from moving objects with telekinesis, to distorting light waves to create frighteningly life-like illusions.

But the most unique power Gothitelle have is the ability to use the stars to tell the future. How they do this is first focusing on the starry sky above them. They use their psychic powers to distort the space around it, allowing them to get a better view of the stars. Once they have a good look at it, they can see in what direction and what speed the stars orbit around the galaxy’s core, in the form of a mental time lapse. This somehow allows it to predict not only the movement of the stars, but the movement of everything else around it. Once it’s able to formulate the rate that things go at, including how much time it would take for a star to circle the galactic core, or a star to die out, it can also predict a lot of other things with great ease, using the time-lapse theory. For example, it can predict its trainer’s lifespan, in the form of a time lapse of both the trainer’s lifestyle, and the things going on around him/her.

Some well-trained individuals could see the eventual fate of entire civilizations. Everything from becoming greater to dying out entirely.

Something that can, at times, cause more harm than good to the Gothitelle’s psychology.

( D ) Arrival Back to Earth: Unlike Elgyem and its kin, they didn’t leave the planet because they needed to, and they didn’t live as a colony (albeit they did settle in a fixed area, namely a nearby planet). Rather, they decided to live instead as a religious covenant. Whether it was building very large places of worship, or actively participating to convey a collective word of gratitude for allowing such a prosperous time to be reached, the Gothita line as a whole dedicated most of their lifestyle to the worship of what they see as godly, life-giving entities: the Stellar Gods.

But like Elgyem’s line, this fell apart. At a much faster rate than Elgyem and Beheeyem’s ancestors. One particular reason for this was not too much progress as Elgyem and Beheeyem, but none of it at all. The Gothita line restricted itself to only one kind of lifestyle, that revolved around the workings of the stars, and it would be forever shattered by this one harsh blow of truth.

Science appeared in the Gothita line’s culture. Gothorita and Gothitelle began to tell of the solid, unabridged truth about how things worked. This was a bad thing because of this: it was an extreme heresy to attempt to downgrade and depreciate the holy “beings” who empowered them to mere physical objects . From the way they saw it, devaluing their gods in such a significant manner would lead to the Gothita line’s being smitten by the Stellar Gods, if they came across as insolent and prideful.

These scientists, far and few, ignored the pleas of their culturally stagnant race, and sought to open their eyes once and for all. They had gathered the nerve to go near these stars and see the truth up close. That was when they found out what the Stellar Gods really were.

The gods of the Gothita line’s civilization were nothing more than hot balls of gas drifting in space. Despite these scientists being executed in short time, the proof had already gotten out. There was no ignoring it.

The Gothita line found itself devastated and about to fall apart, not because of being smitten by angered gods, but rather because they lost their reason to keep functioning at all. There were no Stellar Gods, so all of their hard work had been rendered pointless. There was nowhere else to move on to; no guide, no answer, no hope, no alternative solution. Only the crushing loneliness and isolation brought on by this maddening revelation. The only company they have now are the possibility of “monsters” roaming around the Milky Way.

(NOTE: They mentioned monsters at one point, but they didn’t make it clear what they were. Whether they were monstrous extraterrestrial life forms, or monstrously proportioned objects and events like Black Holes occurring in space, we don’t know what they mean by this. Not that we’d want to find out if they are called “monsters”.)

Many had gone completely mad from these revelations. Many more had tried their earnest to attempt holding on to their beliefs, but these “delusions” as the scientists put it were far too easy to be debunked as false truths. On top of that, a frightening number of them completely committed suicide, putting an end to their meaningless life.

The only ones who survived were those who hardened their hearts and moved on, despite having an enormous part of their life missing. These individuals became stoic and unfeeling, and promised themselves to remain that way until they found something truly worth in believing in. This stoic atmosphere it carries about it had also passed itself on to later generations.

They eventually came across Earth on accident, and arrived there but they initially had no intention of staying. They figured it was simply akin to an oasis in the desert, and should move on when it was necessary. That was….until they actually arrived there and saw their handiwork still existed, bringing about the notion that this is where they originally came from.

This brought about a sense of mass grief, as they realized that a long time ago, they left this planet to find something greater than themselves. Only to find something no more “holy” than a giant hunk of rock and a huge ball of hot gas. Now they were back where they started, and not at all well accustomed to living on this planet anymore. The individuals that came back here so many years ago had promised themselves to neuter the intelligences of their children, so they don’t experience the urge to repeat this process all over again. They are still unbelievably intelligent, enough to predict the future of whatever it wants, but not intelligent enough to think as abstractly as their ancestors did.

Then they met the human race. In secret. Human government organizations had stepped in to notice their appearance first, and therefore, went in to assess the threat. When they found out that they both had no intention of harming humanity AND their society was in ruins, humans went to help them out. (They didn't release a WORD of this to the public or other government branches, as the massive controversy that would have followed could potentially halt the effort altogether.)

By the time the Gothita line had recovered from bad times, the older Gothitelle had sworn themselves and their future generations to serve humanity in return for their kindness. It's about all they have to look forward to anyway, with the Stellar Gods theory gone out the window.

These days, they are now included in the National Pokedex. Not as simple creatures to be caught and fought with, but comrades of humanity itself.

So that’s the story of Gothitelle back then. What about Gothitelle today?

( E ) Behavior: Gothitelle nowadays have very notable personality traits about them. One of the most common descriptions of Gothitelle: sophisticated, but aloof, stoic, quiet, no-nonsense.

One would be forgiven for thinking that this how they truly are. However, to those who have read the segments before this one, they’ll know for a fact that Gothitelle can learn a lot very quickly.

While they may learn about something good happening, many of it’s information they don’t want to know. Whether it’s how long it will be before a natural disaster strikes, or when a town’s food supply will deplete due to being swarmed by Bug-type Pokemon, they learn early to harden their hearts so that they’re no longer surprised or extremely alarmed by whatever harbingers of misfortune they see. This is why they seldom ever show any feeling at all. Even the oldest of Gothitelle who know of their ancient civilizations find themselves unbothered by bad events.

However, there is one blow that will tear down even this wall, possibly for good.

Seeing their trainer’s life span.

They get a look of EXACTLY what can/will happen to their trainer in the future. Whether it’s a car accident, a virulent disease, or a Pokemon encounter gone wrong, they can see exactly when and how their trainer will die.

And that fills them with a despair they have never known before.

The closer this trainer’s expiration date is, the more anguished and melancholy it becomes. No matter what this expiration date, its mourning is heartrending to watch. Many trainers don’t know what else to do in this situation other than do what they usually do when people are mourning: console them. Give them a hug. Tell them things will turn out OK. Let things play out as they should. And to those same trainers, I want to apologize, because that’s really all you can do.

After this revelation, Gothitelle tend to shed their old, stoic selves because they know they’re lying by implying that their future-visions don’t affect them anymore. Because they do. From the day, they become conflicted on what to do, what to feel, because this forecast of their trainer’s death has impacted them so much. So I’ll tell you what you should do in the Trainer Tips.

Trainer Tips:
- REMEMBER: THERE IS ALWAYS A REASON FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR. If their emotions inexplicably polarize from aloof and unreactive to being emotionally fragile, there is a reason they feel that way. The best you can do for your Gothitelle is let it know that you recognize that.
- THE BEST THING TO DO FOR A GOTHITELLE THAT’S SEEN YOUR LIFESPAN IS CONSOLE IT. Not only this, but spend the rest of your days as best as you can. That, at least, will bring the Gothitelle some peace of mind knowing that you’ve had a good life while it lasts.
- YOU. MUST. NEVER ATTEMPT TO ASK A GOTHITELLE YOUR EVENTUAL FATE IF YOU PLAN TO AVERT IT. Because it’s impossible. I apologize for being so blunt about things as grim as this, but….those kinds of things are unavoidable. Trainers who’ve tried to prevent their deaths from happening suddenly find themselves being killed in exceedingly grisly ways that permanently damage their Gothitelle’s psyche. It doesn’t matter in what fashion these trainers expire; they die that day, that hour. That can never change. All I can say to that is just live your life as you normally do. That expiration date will come on its own.
- YOUR GOTHITELLE APPRECIATES BEING TREATED AS AN EQUAL. Even if their morality is a lot more ambiguous than we’re comfortable with, they’re still equal to us in their own ways. Never forget that when raising a Gothitelle.
- By the way...THEY HAVE A BILL OF RIGHTS TOO. Just thought you should know that because they have shown the ability to be active members of human society apart from being battling Pokemon. With that in mind, DON'T BE TERRIBLY SHOCKED IF YOU FIND A GOTHITELLE WORKING A HUMAN PROFESSION. Yes....it happens. Trust me, it does.

Personal Experiences:
The reason my report on Gothitelle is so expansive is because my grandfather was a part of the operation that uncovered some details of their origins.

He interrogated Gothitelle under the impression that they might have been aliens, when in reality they were of terrestrial origin. Either way, he assisted in helping the Gothita line recover from the recent disasters that struck their society, and also allowed them a way to safely join human society.

A particularly old Gothitelle still lives with him, serving as a housemaid and caretaker to my now very old grandfather. It was in his old files that I was allowed to find what may be the truth concerning Gothitelle's origin.

I asked him before...."Are you sure it's OK to publish this?"

And so he responded that this has remained a secret for a very long time. While it would most definitely cause a lot of controversy, he argues that people as of now can barely comprehend anything concerning Gothita and their kin. If people know about what the Gothita line used to be, then they could perhaps truly understand them for who they are now.

Knowing what they've been through...we agreed that in the end, this is for the best.