Cubone in Alola are orphaned, but they do not share the isolation of their international counterparts, for their deceased mothers have learned a way to visibly watch over their children. Alolan Marowak can not hold their children, but their warm flames and occasional appearance of astral bodies remind the Cubone that they are not alone. Should danger ever approach one of these lone, young pokemon, an Alolan Marowak will appear from nowhere to protect its only same-sex child (for Cubone in Alola are always twins, one male, one female) and ensure it will live long enough to evolve and have children of its own.

Yet sadly, Cubone in Alola barely live long enough to see their cubs before evolving and perishing themselves. With only grandchildren in the world of the living, Alolan Marowak struggle to maintain a connection to the world, their spirit reduced to a flame that comforts the ghosts of their children and serves as the primary weapon protecting their grandchildren. Only when their grandchild, too, passes away can an Alolan Marowak move on, confident that its lineage will survive.

It is perhaps remarkable that, although war, revolution, and simple infertility has led to the extinction of many of Alola's great families, nearly every piece of Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA known from ancient Cubone graveyards is attested in modern populations. Some have suggested that Marowak love their families more than Men do, and a few worried old houses have even adopted the Alolan Marowak as a symbol for that very reason. Yet in truth, the distinction is that a wealthy human or pokemon family can have many children to replace the dead, while every Cubone who dies young drives the Alolan Marowak one step closer to extinction.


This concludes the Alola Edition of Pokedex. I'd like to thank Vethica for beta reading all of these, along with both kokocarina and the /vpwt/ discord for helping me with brainstorming, and everyone who's reviewed, favorited, or even read this for motivating me along the way. See you whenever I have enough to go on to write Meltan and Melmetal, and then again in gen 8!