Happy Raichu day! Or, well, belated Raichu day, since I might be a few hours late on posting this, but still! Enjoy this chunk of world-building exposition written by yours truly to celebrate the date and the lovely art~

This incredible piece was made by the phenomenally talented Cinnamon Beehive!  cinnamonbeehive
Make sure to give him a watch (and tell him that being bullied by a Raichu is what nature intends and really he likes it anyways while you're at it).

Read it on Google Docs if you prefer!

Full rez version, because FA is stuck in the early 2010's as an actual art website.

Secret alt for reading the description before I make a proper solo post for it.

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To say the Pikachu Proliferation Phenomenom (or Problem, depending on the Professor you ask) was wide-spread would be an understatement. Agile, stealthy, small, a truly remarkable adaptability in diet, all combined with an aesthetic makeup that could best be described as ‘disarming’, allowed them to spread far and wide once travel from Kanto and Johoto to other regions became commonplace. Accompanying their owners or stowing away on cargo ships, the wily electric mouse colonized the world over faster than even the humans they hitched a ride with.

With centuries worth of generational evolution since, it’s no surprise to see each region developing their own bespoke species as environmental pressures forced adaptation. Sinnoh’s Pachirisu’s spiked tail to ward off predatory Glameow, Emolga gracefully gliding across Unova’s vast forests, even Paldea’s unusually combative Pawmots, the lineage Pikachu has left across the world cannot be understated. Alola, until recently, stood alone as one of the few regions where Pikachu were merely that: Pikachu. Rarely found in the untamed jungles, it was believed conservation efforts to maintain the delicate ecosystem of the island chain would hold fast, that their population would remain too small to reach the point of ubiquity the line has the world over.

Instead, it seems these efforts instead applied intense evolutionary pressure on them. Combined with their remarkable adaptability, researchers now flock to Alola to witness the dawn of a new sub-species that’s almost occurring in real-time. Already known for possessing several regional variants, Alola’s unique climate and bountiful berry groves in the deep wilderness seems to have catalyzed the development of Alolan Raichu. While theories abound, the most popular amongst them claims that Persim berries, notable for their bitter taste and mind-clearing qualities, were less sought-after by the native Pokémon. Pikachu naturally filled this niche and, by engorging themselves them, started to develop Psychic senses that fully developed upon evolution.

The first Alolan Raichu was discovered a decade after Pikachu were first noted as having escaped into the wilderness, dramatically pushing up previous estimates for Pokémon adaptability. Known for their promiscuity and rapid breeding cycle, it seems they were able to develop faster than even laboratories dedicated to generational variant studies. Despite the encroachment on local ecology, their impact on the ecosystem has thankfully been low; their psychic powers developed with a focus on empath abilities as opposed to raw strength, making them natural ‘good neighbors’, although this does frustrate attempts to document their day-to-day activities due to being able to sense encroaching humans. On the rare occasion remote filming equipment captured them on tape, they have even been witnessed acting as mediators between other wild Pokémon.

From here researchers naturally debated how long it would take the adaptations to work their way backwards along the evolutionary chain. It has long been agreed that such changes travel backwards, as each evolutionary stage acts as a major reconstruction of the Pokémon’s environmental tailoring, far moreso than new generations, after all. Guesses ranged anywhere from another decade, certainly no sooner than half that, and yet within two years the first Alolan Pikachu had been witnessed, and mere months after Pichu varients.

To say the speed and breadth of development shocked the scientific community would be a gross understatement. Fortunately, as their population swelled, the Alolan Pikachu line started being forced into more accessible parts of the island due to resource and territory scarcity, making studies far easier. Their natural good-natured cheer and newfound proximity to humans has also made them more sociable, especially when presented with sugary foods; their diet of persim berries, while integral for growth, is evidently a matter of necessity over preference. They will happily eat in close proximity to humans if sweets are offered, although island authorities warn against it since even a happy Pikachu can still carry a dangerously high static charge, nevermind if something surprises them. Traps meant to capture them for population control are also baited with sugar snacks; waffles and pancakes are noted for being particularly potent, although the reasons for this aren’t confidently known yet.

Physical changes have also been tracked as the local Pikachu population continues to develop, with significant aesthetic changes being recorded even from generation to generation, serving to further differentiate them from their Johto origins. While previous models have naturally been discarded by necessity, it’s still believed it will be at least several years before the Alolan line truly splinters into its own offshoot a la the Pikachu descendants of other regions. Still, to see the process happening so quickly has proven to be an astounding and exciting time in the realm of Pokémon genealogy.

While there’s a great deal more to cover when it comes to new developments, such as their adaptation to ‘surfing’ on their tails via a combination of electro-magnetism and psychic stablization, in-depth review of these goes beyond the scope of this introductory paper. Given the surging popularity of the Alolan Raichu line, doubly so given the transient nature of their ever-updating appearance, care and training documentation will be distributed to all of our subscribers and any local trainers, as directed by the Alolan Pokémon Center Institute for Conservation And Pokémon Wellbeing. Please expect it to arrive in your mail or email inboxes next month alongside the next Poképlex issue. Until then, stay safe and stay curious!

~ Prof. Yew