so, not sure if anyone is particularly interested, but as a bit of a design challenge, I've been working on some fan-made pokemon designs. I always dig the designs the games come up with so I figured I'd give it a swing myself!
images in the spoilers to keep this post from being huge
vaporca, meant to become a three-stage line based on the mythological creatures known as de witte wieven: white women that hide in fog and lure people in, to down in swamps and lakes. and orcas.
name: vapor, orca.
Santermine, inspired by the folkloric belief that white stoats are so pure that they would choose to die rather than dirty their pristine fur. as well as the radical colour change the animal undergoes as seasons change. white stoats often stand for royalty, virginity, and holiness in art whereas brown stoats get conflated with weasels and are depicted as thieves and swindlers.
I gave them two forms, a brown summer form that is not afraid to get dirty, and a glittery white winter form.
name: sant (old dutch word for saint), sand, and ermine. alludes to slander.
so far unnamed pokemon based on the myth of the pig faced women
zweyer is based on the flemish variant of the boogeyman; oude rode ogen (old red eyes) which can show up as either a man or a dog melting into the shadows with bright glowing red eyes. it is said to eat children that wander around past their bed time. it also takes some inspiration from de bokkenrijders, a mythical group of satanic ghosts that rode around the nightsky on goats.
Name; Zweyer from zwerven (dutch for to roam or wander), eye and eager (to eat children)
Laptoo combines the northen lapwing, a common bird in the lowlands, with the concept of a taptoe. which is a festivity in which marching bands show off their abilities, in english these get called a military tattoo.
Name: Lap-wing, tat-too
Bosterus is based on the works of jeroen bosch (Specifically the blue flutist) and the celebration known as carnaval in the southern Netherlands.
Name: jeroen Bosch, Den Bosch(city in the Netherlands), Lazerus(dutch for "drunk out of your mind")
Knalboutar is based on the mythological creature known as the kabouter. these are from germanic folklore and very similar to gnomes. This is combined with a firework in part because it references a flemish cartoon called kabouter wesley that went viral across the dutch speaking world years ago. in one of the episodes the words "turbo turbo" make him spontaniously combust. it also references illegal fireworks that are often imported into the benelux, and notoriously belgium
Name: knal (dutch for a sound bang), kabouter
feedback more than welcome, as well as other ideas or telling me I've gone insane
