Arceus vs Solaris: a Battle of the Deities of Light
There’s been a question burning in my mind. A question I am unable to shake away from my thoughts. Eat, sleep, research, it all comes back to one thing, one all consuming question…
Can Solaris, Soleanna’s Sun God, triumph over Arceus, Sinnoh’s Original One?
I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore, so that’s why I’m here in the library, checking out anything I can find in the mythology section. I’ve got the information I need for Sonic the Hedgehog’s Solaris, so we’ll see what I’m able to do for Pokemon’s Arceus.
These won’t be entirely comprehensive overviews (mainly because Pokemon, by the sheer nature of being an RPG with a lot of moves, inherently has a lot to go over), but I will be sure to provide enough information to make sure you all can understand the conclusion.
Oh, and just so we’re clear, when applicable the standard rules for this lore blog will also apply to the Pokemon side of things where appropriate (the key differences being “no word of god”, and by extension using the main Pokemon continuity, a distinction that only matters when not using WoG statements).
Solaris, the Sun God, the Flames of Disaster…
Ah, Soleanna, one of many popular tourist destinations, and it’s hard not to see why. Between the old castle town of Soleanna, the city of water, and the various celebrations such as the water festival, it is truly a one of a kind experience.
Even their mythology is fascinating, with the yearly Festival of the Sun to give thanks to Solaris for watching over them with its eternal light. And it’s no wonder that Solaris would watch over them, as legends speak of the sacred flame being entrusted to the royal family.
But it’s not all good things, as Solaris is also said to have a wrath which, if awakened, would destroy the world - taking the form of Iblis, the Flames of Disaster. As Iblis, it could burn the world to ash if it wanted to, blocking out the sun to keep new life from growing, and even create an unending army composed of incarnations of itself from its rage. And even if someone were strong enough to defeat it, it would merely continue to reincarnate again and again for eternity. Once it’s released, the only way to stop it would be to seal it within a royal soul via a Chaos Emerald (although in theory, if a soul were already alit with flames they might serve as a substitute). Given the mythology is centred within Soleanna, the assumption is that a royal soul refers to the royal family.
Hidden deep within the library, I could also find a few tales of Mephiles the Dark, a schemer and manipulator who can take physical form by absorbing one’s shadow, and then mimics the power from whom he absorbed the shadow of. And on top of that, displays some level of control over time, even banishing others through time. If he’s absorbed your shadow, he can hide within it, unable to be expelled by anything besides the holy light of the Chaos Emeralds (given the lack of information, it’s hard to judge whether this is due to the light in and of itself, or if enough Chaos Energy is required).
Of course, as with every culture, the Chaos Emeralds manage to find a way to sneak themselves in somewhere. It’s said that if Solaris were to channel the miracle gems, it would become a transcendent being with a body of light, and be able to reduce all of time down into nothing, until the very concept of time ceases to exist. That’s even more impressive than it sounds, since to bring time itself down to nothing, it would have to bring Cyber Space, a universe composed entirely of information, down to nothing, alongside Maginaryworld, the 4th dimensional universe that holds the dreams of the entire multiverse.
But that’s not all, this empowered form of Solaris can exist throughout all of time at once, it can summon blue eyes of solaris to pull things in (even ignoring the protective properties of rings), or orange ones to spit out debris. It can fire laser-like beams, and it would even be able to harm the invincible super forms. And given this true form is achieved with the Chaos Emeralds, it might even be invincible itself (and can create a momentary shield that protects it from harm even from beings that can bypass said invincibility).
If this Solaris is a real being, then the people of Solaris have very, very good reason to keep it happy, as enraging it could very well reduce all of existence down to nothing…
Arceus, the Original One, Almighty Sinnoh…
Over in the world of Pokemon, the Sinnoh region has its own legends about the world and the universe. Their own theories on how the world came to be. In the beginning, before space, before time even, there just existed the primordial chaos.
Then within that primordial space an egg came into being. When this egg hatched, the Pokemon Arceus came to being. Arceus then created three beings from within this primordial nothingness: Dialga - whose existence caused time to start flowing, Palkia - whose existence caused space to start expanding, and Giratina - whose existence brought both matter and antimatter (most sources omit Giratina’s presence entirely, as its violent disposition caused Arceus to banish it).
And so Arceus created three more beings: Uxie - which granted knowledge to the world, Mesprit - which granted emotion to the world, and Azelf - which granted willpower to the world.
Palkia and Dialga created matter, and then Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf created spirit. And then Arceus went into a deep, everlasting slumber.
Despite the everlasting slumber, there have been a small handful of claims towards spotting Arceus - one of a trainer from the Sinnoh champion battling and catching it, one of a trainer from Johto with it in their possession being taken to the Sinjoh Ruins and witnessing the creation of an egg, one of a team of Pokemon Rangers situated in the Oblivia region calming it down and convincing it not to destroy the universe it created.
Most interesting one, however, is this old record from the Sinnoh region (back when it was known as the Hisui region), about when the very first Pokedex was created. It speaks of a trainer who was sent from the present to the ancient past and tasked with catching every single Pokemon by Arceus itself; and upon completion faced off against and defeated Arceus. Then to claim that Arceus as we know it is only a fragment of the real thing. Given that the Hisui Pokedex includes entries on what appear to be Porygon, a Pokemon we know the date of invention, there appears to be at least some validity to this time travel.
This supreme creator deity should be capable of everything its creations have been able to achieve, but on a much grander scale. Given that includes the universe, and plausibly many universes, that’s quite a lot of things it’s capable of. Too much to get into, truthfully.
Just know that there’s a lot of Pokemon who are capable of a lot of crazy things, such as Hoopa going through hyperspace, Porygon travelling through data, Eternamax Eternatus shutting down all (or I should say most) Pokemon’s ability to fight, the list goes on.
If all of these legends are true, and Arceus really was responsible for the creation of an entire multiverse, then it’s a good thing that it’s in an eternal slumber. And it’s a good thing that Pokemon Rangers are able to convince it to leave individual universes alone. Because otherwise, there’s not a single being that could stop it…
So, who wins?
I think overall the winner is-
… What?
Oh, you want some kind of fight, don’t you?
Well I technically could write one, but I don’t really want to put outright fanfiction on the lore blog, even if it’s for the sake of hyping up a lore fight.
Hm… You know what, I’ll put it on my personal writing blog, and just link it from here, that way if you want a fight you can read it, but if you don’t you can just skip to the conclusion.
Go read it here!
…
And welcome back, those of you who went to read the narrated battle, and for those who just want to hear the result, let’s break it down.
Speed wise, Solaris exists throughout all of time, and is able to fight against beings fast enough to dodge its attacks, which should grant it immeasurable combat speeds (movement speed is not relevant due to its temporal omnipresence). Arceus predates time itself and created the deity of time, and so should be immeasurable in kind - and should also allow it to land hits on Solaris throughout all of time to boot, even if it has to actively manipulate time to do so.
However, Arceus can easily gain the speed advantage by boosting its own speed up, up to a 4 times speed advantage.
So what about power?
Both can destroy an entire 4th dimensional universe (the size of these universes don’t matter, since breaking the universe itself is more impressive than destroying anything within said universe), but both benefit from intra-verse scaling differently.
The Palkia/Dialga that threatened to destroy the entire universe in Diamond/Pearl (and the Giratina that interfered in Platinum) were all at level 47 - less than half of their maximum strength. We know this event happened in a vague sense even in continuities that are confirmed 4th dimensional thanks to each event still following an overarching vague timeline - after DP is BW, and then XY (which introduces hyperspace thanks to Hoopa, who can traverse hyperspace via its Hyperspace Hole move).
At level 100, Palkia/Dialga/Giratina should reasonably be capable of threatening the universes contained within a singular copy, which includes that of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, where there are so many universes that it’s said to be uncountable (possibly even an infinite amount).
Then consider that stats in Pokemon can be given a +6 modifier, for a x4 increase, which puts that uncountable number even further apart from what Solaris would be able to achieve. And the Legend Plate (which Arceus can use even without the aid of a trainer) ensures its Judgement will always be the most efficient attack option possible, ensuring that Arceus will be attacking Solaris’s consciousness.
Even if we are deliberately overly generous for Solaris, its best scaling for durability (and invincibility) only goes to x40 (thanks to scaling from Super Sonic Powered Up and theoretically using the full power of the Chaos Emeralds rather than just an approximate quarter), and that’s well below an uncountable amount. Heck, some people have passed by more universes in their individual Ultra Space trips than that (such as this video, where someone passed by 89 of them, for a total of 90 alternate universes in this one trip).
And Arceus the Original One might possibly have created the entire multiverse rather than just the multi-universal structures that each game copy finds itself in, which would balloon the already clear power gap by millions, maybe even billions of times over.
So even if Solaris could defeat Arceus the Pokemon, Arceus the Original Spirit can merely create an endless stream of Pokemon at equivalent power for Solaris to fight through endlessly, ensuring that it loses the endurance battle. And as the creator of all Pokemon, it should have access to a greater array of specialised abilities than Solaris has ever had to deal with even as its base components.
Solaris vs. Arceus estimated win rate: 0%/0%/100% in favour of Arceus.
And… there you have it. An unfathomable battle between two deities, but in the end it can only ever end one way.
