I've attempted this in the past, but I never got very far with it, but here we go. Post apocalyptic Pokémon AU? I'm such a huge fan of the post apocalyptic/dystopian genre, but I could never go above and beyond with it. In the past when I attempted it though, the entire world was pretty much grey- clouds were constantly hanging over, there was grey ash all over the ground, all plant life had died, and even the few remaining buildings were grey from rotting. This was due to Xerneas, Shaymin, and the Swords of Justice + Forces of Nature were wiped out, which lead to a massive war, which caused the rapid death of the world, too rapid to be fixed. Or something like that What do you guys think?
I think this is a really cool idea! I wonder if you could incorporate small parts of the Pokémon War and the Pokémon world history into this? Not that you have to, but it sounds like at some point there could always be an opportunity to explain a little bit about the past
It's definitely an idea worth developing on! I imagine some types / species would thrive while others wither in this kind of setting? Imagine a new standard for what's considered "rare" or "common"... has the relationship between 'mon and people changed? There are so many possibilities, I hope you have fun with this concept!
If you want, I could recommend a fanfiction with a similar concept. Its not Pokémon but it was so well written that I think it would be an excellent story to help you see what are the possibilities of this world. Its called Fallout: Equestria. It follows the same basic idea, what if My little pony was in a post apocalyptic story. Warning, very dark and very graphic. This story was done so well with such a similar premise that I think it would help you build your own world.
I actually did something similar to this premise a few years back, though ultimately I didn't really keep up with the post-apocalyptic nature of it. It mostly turned out to be an apocalypse hit somewhere else (Deoxys and meteor you stopped in the Delta Episode of ORAS, except it wasn't stopped) and was spreading to the currently traveled region and the rest of the world. As the story progressed, it eventually it became such a background detail that I could have just written the villainous team as wanting to capture <insert legendary Pokémon here, not even Deoxys necessarily> and the heroes trying to stop them, rather than trying to stop an apocalyptic force as well as a set of people trying to harness that force for greed and evil. The concept has a lot of potential. My only recommendation is that you not make it too dreary. It might just be the fact that I gravitated away from the post-apocalyptic-ness of it all, but I think my work would have been better with less gloominess. You do your thing though.
