Pokemon Legends Arceus Lore Discussion

I finished PLA postgame a while back and I found myself Super invested in the old verses. They cover a lot of different things, mostly relating to the story of an Ancient Hero and the Sinnoh legendaries, but what really caught my attention was the story of the Celestica people (also interchangeably called the Sinnoh people). In the actual game itself, they aren’t referenced very much beyond a few lines of dialogue, but the old verses bring a lot of insight about them. They are a group of people who lived in Hisui long before the Diamond and Pearl clans did, and subsequently disappeared from the land mysteriously. A lot of details surrounding them are very vague or left up in the air, so I wanted to try to make sense of them. I want to go over what could have happened to them, and also branch off into talking about the sole two Celestica characters that appear in the game proper: Cogita and Volo. While there are a few verses that give clues about the Celestica people, this is the only one that directly mentions them:



“Ah, yes. A tale whose origins lie a millennium or two ago... Those were the days of the ancient Sinnoh people, from whom I am descended across many generations. These forbears of mine worshiped Arceus as the Pokemon that created the Hisui region. [...] I'm afraid I've nothing new to tell you. Why, the Diamond and Pearl Clans would never have confused Dialga and Palkia with the creator, Arceus, had anything concrete been passed down.”

So the Old Celestica people were the native people of Hisui who lived there around 1000-2000 years prior to PLA. They created all the structures and statues seen in the game that are now ruins, including the Snowpoint Temple in Alabaster Icelands and the statues of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina on Mount Coronet. For some unknown reason, they disappeared from the land a very long time ago and the town they inhabited was left empty. After their disappearance, foreigners from overseas came to live in Hisui and came to worship the Celestica people’s deity Almighty Sinnoh, but they would later split into the diamond and pearl clans because they disagreed on who “Almighty Sinnoh” was (and they were both wrong.) They claimed the name of the Celestica people for themselves even though it did not belong to them (kind of fucked up but okay pokemon) and the culture of the true Celestica people was lost. The Galaxy Team seems to erroneously use the name of Celestica as a shorthand for everyone living in Hisui, seeing as how Kamado straight up tells the player at the end of the main story to calm dialga/palkia “For the sake of all the Celestica people.”




So maybe the original rift showed up while the old Celestica people were still around and it caused a lot of upset and posed a genuine danger to the people living there, by causing many pokemon to become frenzied and go berserk. It could possibly have also been caused by Giratina just like the present rift, and would give an explanation as to why it was banished by Arceus in the first place. I’m guessing a good portion of Celestica people died unfortunately from frenzied pokemon attacks (which sounds dark for a pokemon game but also, the player gets told shit like “you will be left to DIE out there in the wilds. Make sure you dont DIE alone and make it back ALIVE” like chill LOL) From there, I imagine a large part of the remaining Celestica people left Hisui out of fear, and a small portion stayed behind to try and close the rift (and i guess destroy the Giratina statue they made in the process.) The ones who stayed behind managed to close the rift via the Red Chain in the same way the player character does in the main story, and then passed down the knowledge of the Red Chain to future generations, which eventually made its way to Cogita. As for the Celestica people who left Hisui, they likely scattered around the world and for a large part no longer practice their old religions/culture, considering the final line of verse 5 stating “[The Celestica’s] heart does not live on.” However, I do think that of the Celestica people who left, a portion of them moved to one area in particular, that’s mentioned in another old verse:


I’ll be coming back to the second half of that verse later, but when I read this verse it bothered me because “Sinjoh” sounded familiar yet I couldn't exactly place where I’d heard it before. Then after looking it up I remembered it was a special event location in Heartgold+Soulsilver that you could only access with an Arceus in your party (that you’d obtained via event distribution.) I won’t go over Every Detail, but the event triggers when you enter the Ruins of Alph in Johto. When you go inside while having an Arceus walking around with you, you suddenly black out and get transported to the Sinjoh Ruins, a place completely off the Johto and Kanto maps. If you check your map in game while in the Sinjoh Ruins, it marks you somewhere up north, outside of the region entirely:


The Sinjoh Ruins are in a mountain with heavy snowfall, and the Sinjoh ruins theme is a more mellow version of the Mount Coronet theme, which suggests a connection between the two locations. Although It’d be reasonable to assume that the Sinjoh ruins are located somewhere nearby Mount Coronet (especially since Sinnoh is north of Johto which would line up with the map above), Old Verse 12 contradicts that idea. If Sinjoh were directly within Hisui/Sinnoh, It’d be very strange to say that Hisui “bears resemblance” to Sinjoh. I’m not sure where exactly the ruins would be located, but it must be somewhere North of Johto and South of Sinnoh, between the two regions. Here is a map of Japan + pokemon regions for convenience. (The first 4 pokemon regions are based on actual regions in Japan, Johto being based off Kansai and Sinnoh region being based off of Hokkaido. Hoenn is based off Kyūshū and Kanto is based off irl Kanto.)


Upon leaving the ruins in the event, you’re greeted by a hiker npc who tells you some interesting information: The Sinjoh ruins are architecturally similar to the Ruins of Alph of Johto and the Spear Pillar ruins of Sinnoh (which is on Mount Coronet, where you fight Volo and confront Arceus) and the legends surrounding Sinjoh are inherited from those two locations, showing a blend of the two region’s cultures. The hiker then takes you to a nearby house where you find Cynthia is staying, studying the ruins. Her dialogue also drops some neat tidbits:

“My name is Cynthia. I am a Pokémon Trainer. The Sinjoh Ruins remind me of Sinnoh, where I come from. Initially, I thought it was because it snows a lot here as well. But that was not it. A long time ago... people came from Sinnoh to live here. They must have built a temple here while longing for home. That's why we call these the Sinjoh Ruins…”

She’s obviously referring to the Celestica people here, but what’s noteworthy to point out is that some of them left Sinnoh/Hisui of their own accord but at the same time longed to go home. It could tie in with the original Rift opening that caused most of the Celestica people to leave Hisui. Even if the Original Rift wasn’t the reason they left, its clear that whatever drove them to leave prevented them from coming back. Those who left found and lived in Sinjoh for a good while, but over the course of time they slowly left Sinnoh as well and dispersed, and their old customs + culture slowly faded into obscurity because the Celestica people were scattered and no longer unified. There’s more stuff that happens in the event that I won’t cover since it’s irrelevant, but here’s a link to it if you want to see since its pretty neat.

So what is the state of the Celestica people now? We know for certain that some of the Celestica people (or at least, those with Celestica ancestry) are living in Celestic town from DPPT. It is described as a very tiny, and very old town dedicated to preserving the history of Sinnoh and its old ways of life. Its also where Champion Cynthia and her family live, who are descendants of Celestica people. In DPPT, Cynthia asks you to deliver an old charm to her grandmother in Celestic town, who is the village elder. When you complete this sidequest, Cynthia’s grandma tells you that the charm was made in Celestic town a long time ago in honor of a deity said to have created Sinnoh (Arceus), so the town has been around for a very long time keeping the Celestica traditions alive. It’s not anywhere in PLA though, because it had not been built yet, but its old location is there. In PLA Celestic town is actually Cogita’s home, the Ancient Retreat. In DPPT Celestic town is described as being the oldest town in Sinnoh and as having been there since the creation of Sinnoh itself, so the chance of the Ancient Retreat actually being the old town that the Celestica people inhabited is very high. You can see how it lines up in the geography of both maps in relation to Mount Coronet:



So who actually wrote the old verses? It would have to be a descendant of the Celestica people, since the narrator refers to them as “our people” in old verse 5. It’s heavily suggested that Cogita is the author of the old verses, which would make sense since she gives us the most information about the Celestica people outside of the verses. The most blatant hint towards this is when you complete the Enamorus request, and Cogita begins to recite an old verse about the pokemon verbatim:


Cogita only recites the first two sentences of the verse, but she couldn’t have known them unless she had written them herself, since the verses are scattered all across Hisui and aren’t replicated anywhere else. Plus, Cogita herself has a close friendship with Enamorus, which lines up with the narrator having a casual conversation with her in the old verse. But that’s not the only noteworthy thing Cogita tells the player when you bring her Enamorus. She also says something pretty strange before reciting the old verse:


The phrasing of this is pretty weird, like Cogita is insinuating that Enamorus will eventually return to her side and that she’ll outlive the player despite her being clearly much older. It’s a pretty random line, but it brings up the question: Is Cogita straight up Immortal??? There are three other old verses that read like diary entries for the narrator, which suggest this could be the case.



These verses have a very sullen air to them. They portray the narrator mourning their old lover, friends and pokemon, and suggest that they will continue to live on without them for many years to come, and will part with more loved ones as years go on. They want to see their old friends again but it's a futile wish that they keep to themselves, knowing it won’t ever happen. If Cogita is the narrator, this lines up pretty well with the idea that she’s actually immortal. Cogita is always shown wearing a formal dress that’s black from head to toe, and she has a perpetual sad look in her eyes, like she’s in constant mourning. For whatever reason, she cannot die and has outlived nearly everyone she’s ever been close to, save for Enamorus. Of course, while Cogita’s physical age isn’t super clear, you could read those verses as Cogita just being Old (she has gray hair and bags under her eyes) and just outliving her friends within a normal human lifespan. But I’m willing to bet otherwise, based on the second half of Old Verse 12 (which I brought up earlier.)


That second sentence confirms that the narrator is immortal (unless they’re being symbolic or hyperbolic when they say “an eternity”, but considering the nature of the other 2 verses, I kind of doubt it.) It also sounds a lot like what Cogita is doing: waiting alone in the Ancient Retreat until the player, or the “lost one” arrives according to some sort of prophecy so she can pass on her knowledge to them and aid them in closing the rift.

All that said though, How did Cogita become immortal anyways??? Why and when??? And is she still alive by the events of DPPT? The most probable and sensible answer for how Cogita became immortal is through the aid or blessing of a legendary pokemon, but as for which one I’m not sure. Since Enamorus is Cogita’s friend and only companion it might be her, but there’s nothing to suggest that Enamorus might be able to grant immortality to humans. Enamorus IS tied with the birth of fresh life though, and grants punishments to anyone who disrespects any form of life. It’s a stretch, but she could be able to extend life as well if she already has a connection to life itself. There’s unfortunately not much else to go off on, I think Gamefreak really wanted to keep her deal as vague and mysterious as possible considering her backstory is solely in the Old Verses. (It just occurred to me while writing this that pokemon X has a legendary pokemon that’s directly tied to life/eternal life LOL. I haven’t played the XY games though and can’t really make any sensible theories or connections without knowing what exactly goes on in those games.)

As for why Cogita became immortal, her own dialogue to the player and the old verses seem to suggest that her sole purpose for staying alive all these years was to wait and pass on her people’s knowledge onto the Player years into the future. She describes it as her duty, to which she takes great relief in finally achieving. It seems a bit… overkill to appoint One Specific Person to stay alive for however many years though just for this, even if it is to save the world, but it may have to do with the lack of any written scripts for the Celestica people’s history and beliefs. For all the information she knows, Cogita herself is unsure of many things regarding Hisui’s mythos, only being able to give vague details to the player while they’re searching for the remaining plates and admitting that nothing concrete in terms of written history had been passed down. Even if they had started keeping writings somewhere down the line, it would be hard to guarantee that it makes its way to the player years in the future. Making sure someone sticks around to tell the player directly what they need to know would be an absolutely 100% guaranteed way for the player to be armed with the necessary tools and knowledge. Cogita is, understandably, pretty bitter about it though. When Volo questions what she tells the player to do after visiting her for the first time, she says this:

“I know the old words and what they bid us do. How true they are isn’t mine to know. And regardless of their truth, I am bound to pass them on. How callous of my ancestors, to leave their legends to their children without a thought for the hardship it would cause them!”

This whole situation Really Sucks for her and I feel like maybe the Celestica people from her generation could have come up with a better idea than burdening this poor woman with Eternal Life and leaving her to watch all her friends and loved ones die over lifetimes but it is what it is i guess. As for when Exactly Cogita became immortal, it must have been a significant time after most of the Celestica people left Hisui for other areas, otherwise she would not have as much lapses in her knowledge of the Hisui mythos as she does. I definitely do not think she is from an early generation of the Celestica people, since she tells the player that she’s descended from the Celestica people across many generations. Cogita must have been born before the Diamond and Pearl clans were founded, since by the time they arrived in Hisui all the Celestica people were gone from the land, and we know from the old verses that Cogita lived alongside companions and peers. We know the Celestica people’s history stretches back to 2000 years ago, but without knowing When exactly the Diamond and Pearl clans settled in Hisui as a reference point, it’s hard to make a more refined estimate.




Next question: What is Cogita and Volo’s relationship to each other? They look similar to each other, and I’ve seen a lot of people assume she must be a family member, but I don’t really think they are directly or closely related. Volo seems to come to Cogita’s hideout often to learn about Hisui’s myths and legends (to Cogita’s annoyment) and Volo calls Cogita mistress, so they seem to have more of a mentor–student relationship rather than a direct familial one. Plus Cogita seems to really dislike Volo and how much he pesters her. I imagine them looking similar is just a design choice to drive home the fact that they have a common Celestica ancestor. (I guess all the Celestica people cover their left eyes with their hair bangs for some reason.) While Cogita descended from the Celestica people that were born in Hisui, I think Volo is descended from some of the Celestia people that left Hisui and returned generations later, which would explain why he doesn’t know very much about his own culture’s myths and legends and is actively studying them under Cogita (who he most likely sought out to learn from.)

Final question: So between Cogita and Volo, which one is Cynthia’s direct ancestor? You’re lead to believe it’s Volo based on the physical resemblance, but introducing Cogita late in the story opens up a different possibility. Here’s a list of possible answers:

1 - Volo is Cynthia’s ancestor
This is the Common Sense conclusion that people default to and has some strong backing by canon: Volo shares Cynthia’s pokemon team in battle (save for Milotic which does not exist in Hisui) and shares Cynthia’s Foreboding Piano Theme. He harbors a great curiosity in legends and myths and loves research, just like Cynthia. It’s a logical assumption. But in my heart I can’t bring myself to believe he’s her ancestor because quite frankly I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind having a kid with this hot mess. Or maybe he chilled out post-postgame and became normal then I’d believe it. But I doubt it.

2 - Cogita is Cynthia’s ancestor
While not as obvious as Volo, Cogita does also share some physical resemblance to Cynthia, from the curves of her hair, and the way she dresses in all black. Plus Cynthia has a lot more in common personality-wise with Cogita than she does with Volo. For her to feasibly be Cynthia’s ancestor though, it would have to mean that she had children at one point (that left Hisui, since Cogita lives in the Ancient Retreat all alone.) Since the game suggests that Cogita’s immortal, that would mean she’d outlive her own children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and so on, which is kind of depressing. But moving on

3 - Both are Cynthia’s ancestors
This contradicts what I said earlier about Cogita and Volo not being directly related, but just disregard that for a second. If Cogita ever had kids like I bought up above, then maybe Volo is her great great great great grandson or something. Far enough removed from relation that neither of them actually know that they share blood, and are still essentially strangers to each other. From there, Cynthia eventually descends from Volo (somehow.) This would make Cynthia related to the both of them, which would explain why she has so many overlapping similarities with the two.

4 - Neither are Cynthia’s ancestor
What if the similarities between Cynthia and Cogita and Volo are just straight up red herrings. After all, it's not like Cogita and Volo are the only Celestica people out there at this point, based on everything I’ve covered previously. Cynthia could be descended from some other random Celestica person we never even see in game and the only thing she has in common with Cogita and Volo is a common ancestor. This prrrobably isn’t what the devs want us to think, especially since there’s a design element that ties all three characters together (beyond the gray eyes and left eye bangs): this metallic tear shaped pendant.


There’s no indication anywhere of what the significance of this shape is, but I think it could just be a symbol of the Celestica people as opposed to a specific family symbol. Without more context it’s impossible to say which (and even if they Are related the teardrop could still just be a generic Celestica symbol anyways.)

So which is it? Between all these possibilities, I honestly can’t decide which one I agree with most LOL. To finish off this section though I'm stealing some words said by my friend because he’s right I think and said it better than I could.



That covers everything I wanted to talk about, but to finish this off I want to highlight the final Old Verse.


I can’t decipher what exactly this one is saying, since the sun and sunlight in the verse seems to be a metaphor for something but I can’t figure out what. If I were to guess though, this sounds like a flowery prose describing the plight of the Celestica people. They once lived happily in Hisui but fell due to circumstances beyond their control, and grieve the lives they had before. Some left the land in search of a new place to call home, leaving Hisui behind. And when they are all gone, the land will be a home to No human in general, and only be a land belonging to the Pokemon living in it. A pretty ominous note to end on for sure, and not entirely accurate since Sinnoh is still around and has many people living in it. But I think this verse is also meant to be a look into the far, far distant future, predicting that one day, the land really Will be just a land for Pokemon and no humans will live on it. Something about it just feels appropriate.