Terapagos

Terapagos, also known as "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero", is a legendary Pokémon featured in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. It is a powerful Pokémon with the ability to create Tera Crystals and the creator of the Terrastalization phenomenon. 
Terapagos existed in the distant past until a series of seismic shifts caused them to go near extinct, with a sole survivor of the species being left behind buried deep within the Paldea region.
==Biography==
===Background===
Terapagos is a Pokémon that existed in the distant past which had the ability to create Tera Crystals, these crystals radiate a strange kind of energy that alters living beings; in the short term, Tera energy enhances the already existing capabilities of humans, making them more intelligent and efficient, while Pokémon are given short burst of additional power when using Moves that match their natural types. In the long term, Tera energy beings to deteriorate the minds of humans exposed to it, causing them to be driven into madness and obsessions with it as seen with Professor Sada / Professor Turo. 
Pokémon exposed to large amounts of Tera Energy at once become encased with crystalized energy that causes them to change their natural Pokémon Typing into a different one, this phenomenon became dubbed "Terrastalization" by scientists when it was discovered. Wild Pokémon exposed to Tera Energy for long periods of time demonstrate the ability to Terrastalize at will and also themselves radiate Tera Energy, causing them to glow at all times even when not Terrastalized.
Terrapagos in particular has ability to adopt all existing Pokémon types at once, creating the Stellar-Type. Pokémon radiated to Tera Energy in close proximity to Terapagos for long enough time can also become Stellar-type. Terrapagos also demonstrated the ability to warp reality to a limited, and even transport beings from different points in time and space for a limited time. It is implied that Terapagos' reality warping abilities are influenced by whoever is near it, as it always creates whatever the person wants or needs to see albeit temporarily.
The Terapagos species existed within the Paldea region in the past where they interacted with humans while humans used the Tera Energy that they radiate to enhance their lives allowing Paldea to prosper into a large and powerful empire. This came to an abrupt end when a series of massive tectonic shifts ravaged the Paldea region. 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 Tera Energy to encase itself in Tera Crystals to protect itself and go into a comatose-like state of hibernation. In the aftermath of the event a massive crater was left in the center of Paldea region, where the remaints of the last Terapagos were left buried deep underground out of reach for any human to find.
===Buried in Area Zero===
The giant crater left behind where Terapagos rests was dubbed "Area Zero" by humans and was deemed too dangerous to venture into. Due to the loss of Terapagos Tera Energy was also lost causing Paldea to drop into a drastic decline. Over the centuries, the resting place of Terapagos continued radiating Tera Energy that slowly spread throughout the rest of Area Zero. Tera Crystals began forming all over the Great Crater of Paldea, the closer to the bottom of the crater the more prominent the crystals were. Eventually Pokémon started populating Area Zero, but these were constantly radiated by the Tera Energy released from the bottom of the crater causing them to become Tera Pokémon over time. 
Although Tera Energy was largely forgotten by the population and Area Zero remained off-limits for humans, rumors of what existed within the crater and an incredible treasure being buried in the deepest part of Area Zero continued to be carried down through the generations.
Eventually Tera Energy started escaping Area Zero and affecting the surface of Paldea, albeit in much smaller doses. Small clusters of Tera Crystals would occasionally form and Pokémon able to naturally Terastalized stared appearing in the surface as well. The rediscovery of Tera Energy 200 years prior to the events of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet had a scientist named Heath lead an expedition into Area Zero in hopes of learning the secrets of the crater.
Heath's expedition team was attacked by Pokémon that seemed to defy all logic or science, these Pokémon seemed to be prehistoric beings / futirstic machines not possible to exist but still resembled Pokémon existing in the present day. Heath would make it to was presumed to be the bottom of the crater where he found a series of small caverns that went even deeper, there he witnessed Pokémon wielding Tera Energy to become Stellar-Type, a feat that once again defied all logic or common sense. 
Heath made it to Terapagos' resting place and witnessed Terapagos awaken and transform into its Stellar Form for a moment. Heath's memory of the account, or how he even stumbled into Terapagos in the first place, was seemingly blurred out, yet he still wrote down the encounter as a "Disk-like Pokemon enshrouded by hexagonal crystals nesting over a planet". 
After the expedition Heath wrote down all his discoveries in a book, he named the Scarlet Violet / Violet Book and published it. The population of Paldea largely dismissed Heath's discoveries as mere fiction rather than any kind of legitimate science to the seeming impossibility of what he wrote down, Heath was also discredited as a scientist after publishing this book, despite this the book was still a best seller and became a popular piece of literature of Paldea for years.
===Pokémon Scarlet / Violet===
Professor Sada / Professor Turo obtained a copy of the Scarlet / Violet book in their childhood. She / he became fascinated by the stories written in the book and, unlike the rest of Paldea, believed the stories in the book to be true and was inspired to become a scientist themselves. Sada / Turo in their adulthood led another expedition to Area Zero where they found now massive Tera Crystals at the presumed bottom of the crater. The professor studied the crystals and was developed a device that allows humans to gather Tera Energy on command and Terastalize Pokémon on command for a limited time, they named this invention the "Tera Orb".
Sada / Turo's invention of Tera Orbs granted them large fundings to further the research into Area Zero where they installed multiple research stations and a massive laboratory at the bottom of the crater. Sada / Turo became aware of Tera Crystal's ability to enhance the capabilities of organic beings, but also realized that machinery is also affected by Tera Energy which made it exponentially more efficient than what should be humanly possible. This allowed Sada / Turo to create an AI replica of themselves and build a Time Machine that could bring Pokémon from the distant past / future just like the Scarlet / Violet book described.
The professor also discovered the underdepths of Area Zero where Terapagos is nesting, they were unable to awaken the creature but realized it is the source of Tera Energy. 
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 / Turo had the Player, Arven, Penny, and Nemona venture into Area Zero to assist in shutting down the time machine.
===The Indigo Disk===
The incident in Area Zero regarding Paradox Pokémon was mostly kept secret, but word of it reached a woman named Briar who is a descendant of Heath. Briar had spent her entire life trying to debunk the rumors that Heath's expedition into Area Zero written in the Scarlet / Violet book were mere fiction and exonerate her ancestor's credibility, mainly by proving that Terapagos does indeed exist. 
For this purpose. Briar had the Player participate in a student exchange program with the Blueberry Academy so that she could get to know them better and also obtain clearance to go into Area Zero. As part of this exchange program the player went on a school trim to the Kitakami region, a place where a lake shrouded in Tera Crystals is present which also causes Tera Phenomenon to happen naturally. Briar investigated the Crystal Pool at Kitakami while the player befriended two kids named Carmine and Kieran. 
The Player, Carmine, and Kieran became involved in a conflict regarding Ogerpon, an ogre-like Pokémon who was believed to be evil but in reality was an innocent victim and wielded masks that allow her to Terastalize at will in a unique way. Although the Ogerpon situation was solved, Kieran became resentful and jealous towards the player over them becoming Ogerpon's owner.
Later on, Briar had the Player travel to Blueberry Academy as part of the student exchange program while she continued negotiations with Naranja / Uva Academy for traveling to Area Zero. During the Player's time at Blueberry Academy they learn 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 go into Area Zero by pointing out the incident with Sada / Turo's time machine and the possibility that dangerous Pokémon are still 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, with Keiran in particular plotting 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 Tera 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, Terrapagos seemed to be just a small and rather weak turtle that did radiate excessive amounts of Tera Energy but didn't otherwise seem that much different from any ordinary Pokémon.
Carmine warned Keiran 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 try Terastalizing Terapagos to see if it could unleash its true power. 
When Keiran Terastalized Terapagos it transformed into a much more powerful form, but it 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 itself. Kieran snapped out of his desperation and assisted in fighting Terapagos, the efforts of the tree ultimately allowed them to weaken Terapagos enough to return into its 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.
===Post-Game===
After Terapagos is caught, the player is allowed to use it as a regular Party member, its 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 reality warping powers to bring Professor Sada / Turo from a point in the timeline when they were still alive and not yet consumed by their obsession with Tera Energy, into the present. 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.
This encounter created a Time Paradox, where Terapagos summoning the Professor to meet the player gave them the insight and knowledge required to create their time machine and leave behind notes about Terapagos, which set in motion the events that led the player to venture to Area Zero to stop the time machine and find Terapagos.
==Abilities==
* Tera Energy manipulation: As the original source of Tera energy, Terapagos continuously radiates this energy to its immediate surrounding at all times. This energy affects organic beings empowering them over time and enhances the functionality of mechanical devices exposed to it. In its Stellar Form Terapagos radiates so much Tera Energy that it becomes uncontrollable and can drain the Tera energy from other Pokémon in the area to empower itself even further.
* Tera Crystal creation: The Tera Energy that Terapagos emanates can condense into hard crystals that become a source of this energy. Terepagos is able to create these crystals at will. During the thousands of years that Terapagos remained in hibernation it continued creating Tera Crystals that slowly spread overtime to the rest of Area Zero.
* Self-preservation: A baby Terapagos was able to encase itself in a mass amount of Tera Crystals to protect itself from a cataclysmic earthquake that nearly drove its species to extinction. This Terapagos remained encased in this crystal for thousands of years in a sort of hibernation state until it was rediscovered and awakened by Keiran, when it was reawakened, it was still a hatchling.
* Pokémon-Type Manipulation: Terapagos has the ability to wield all Pokémon-Types at once, when this happens it is considered to be the Stellar-Type. Terapagos' ability to warp Pokémon Typings can be spread to other Pokémon via the Terastalization phenomenon, where Pokémon are imbued with a large amount of Tera Energy at once causing them to be shrouded in a Crystalized aura that changes its current Typing into a different one. 
* Reality Warping: Terapagos has the ability to warp reality to a limited extent, ranging from its signature Terastalization powers to bending time-space to draw living beings from different timelines into the present. Terapagos' ability to warp reality seems to be influenced by whatever human is within its proximity at the moment, as it always seems to create whatever the owner desired at the moment. The very existence of Paradox Pokémon is strongly speculated to be due to Terapagos' influence over Area Zero.
* Transformation: In its normal form, Terapagos is a small rather fragile turtle with a crystalline shell. When in battle it transforms into a larger turtle with three tails and a large shell decorated in hexagons that represent all the Pokémon types. If Terastalized by force Terapagos further transforms into its Stellar Form where it ls surrounded by large crystals representing the Pokémon Types and rests over a large disc-like object that somewhat resembles a planet. 
==Trivia==
*Terapagos is similar to Necrozma and Eternatus, where he is a Legendary Pokémon responsible for creating the transformation mechanic featured in his debut region and is largely responsible for the events in said debut region.
**In contrast to Necrozma and Eternatus however, who were malevolent beings that used their unique powers to cause harm and destruction, Terapagos is a harmless infant who merely was trying to protect his own life and the dangers that his powers presented were more due to humans abusing and misusing Tera Energy rather than any intention of Terapagos to cause harm.
**Terapagos' brief rampage of uncontrollable Tera Energy was caused due to Keiran forcibly injecting excessive amounts of Tera Energy into him at once, once Terapagos was calmed down he returned to being a mostly innocent child.
**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, partly due to the one found in-game being a young child. Even when transforming into his more powerful forms Terapagos is still considerably smaller than other Legendary Pokémon of similar power levels.
*Terapagos is based on the myth of the World Turtle, a belief in which planet Earth was a flat structure held in the back of a giant turtle. Terapagos' Stellar form depicts this more clearly.
*Terapagos is also based on the Galapagos Turtle, a species of turtles that was believed to be extinct until a single male specimen 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 male regardless. This is a further reference to the Galapagos Turtle.
==Navigation==
* Terapagos on the Villains Wiki
* Terapagos on Bulbapedia
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