Perhaps the oldest story still recorded today is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Written by the Sumerians, who created the first writing systems on Earth almost 5,000 years ago, this is a story about a king, a warrior, a friendship and a tragedy. Like later tales of Heracles or Arthur, it weaves epic feats of gods and monsters with a fundamentally human quest.
Gilgamesh is the King of Uruk and Enkidu is a wild warrior sent by the gods to subdue Gilgamesh, but they became the best of friends. After many adventures, Enkidu dies, leaving Gilgamesh heartbroken and facing his own mortality. He then embarks on a quest to find the Plant of Eternal Youth but must ultimately come to accept that death is a natural part of life.
I’m Luke Summerhayes, and I love Xerneas.
A quest for immortality, and ultimate acceptance of the inevitable, is a story still told to this day in science fiction and fantasy. It seems that humanity’s awareness of death, generally quite rare in the animal kingdom, has driven us to create stories and myths for as long as we’ve been around.
Pokemon draws inspiration from myth and legend, as we’ve seen many times across this podcast. There are Pokemon inspired by Japanese Yokai, celtic fairytales and modern cryptids. When it comes to the Legendary Pokemon, though, we tend to see inspiration from deeper, more primal myths. The Phoenix and dragon in Gold and Silver, the Behemoth, Leviathan and Roc in the third generation, the creation of the universe in Sinnoh and the Taoist yin and yang in Unova. Now we turn to the oldest story of all.
Xerneas is a fairy type Legendary Pokemon which appears on the boxart of Pokemon X. Players first encounter it as a white tree, like a petrified fossil, having been dormant for centuries, or perhaps millennia. When it awakens, what appeared to be branches turn out to be antlers, and it is a deer-like creature with a silhouette quite like the letter X.
Deer antlers do grow somewhat similarly to tree branches. We have seen the comparison made quite literally in Pokemon before, with the Deerling line, and many cultures around the world have worshipped the two as symbols of life. Of particular note is Eikthyrnir, a stag in Norse mythology who bites at Ygdrasil, the world tree, and from whose antlers drip the waters of life.
X
Legends say it can share eternal life. It slept for a thousand years in the form of a tree before its revival.
Y
When the horns on its head shine in seven colors, it is said to be sharing everlasting life.

We can hear more of these legends from a character in Anistar City in Pokemon X:
"It happened around 800 years ago. The Pokémon known as Xerneas used its shining horns to illuminate the lands of Kalos. At that very moment, people and Pokémon throughout the land felt great energy and vitality surge through their bodies. At the same time, a vast forest sprang up, with Xerneas at its center. Legend has it that, when it nears the end of its thousand-year life span, Xerneas releases all of its remaining energy, sharing it with all living things nearby. There's another story I know that talks of the appearance of just such a fortuitous Pokémon. Back 3,000 years ago, the Kalos region was engulfed in a terrible war. So the tale goes, a Pokémon came to the rescue of all the wounded Pokémon that had been caught up in the conflict. Some people suspect the Pokémon that appeared was Xerneas, but there's no way to know. Maybe they just wished a Legendary Pokémon had come to the rescue to brighten a tale of woe. Supposedly, after Xerneas had released its remaining energy, it transformed into a dried-up tree. It remains in hiding deep within the forest. According to old tales, as I say. Stories and tales."
Of course, over the course of a playthrough, we do learn that at least parts of these stories are true. The character AZ is a 3,000-year-old king, and the Ultimate Weapon in Geosenge, analogous to the real-world Carnac stones, he used in a desperate attempt to prevent his beloved Floette from dying.
The name Xerneas comes from the latin for deer, Cernus, and in particular the Cernyan Hind of Greek myth, though spelled with an X as this is the mascot of the videogame Pokemon X.
After all the talk of ancient power and legendary weapons, Xerneas has a lot to live up to. Remarkably, it does.
Xerneas is a pure fairy type Pokemon with excellent stats and the ability Fairy Aura, which boosts all fairy type attacks on the field by a third. On top of this, it also has the signature attack Geomancy, with which it boosts all speed and attack stats by two stages. This move requires a turn to charge up, but once this is negated with an item Xerneas becomes what many competitive players have deemed the strongest Pokemon ever. Xerneas dominated the competitive scene when it arrived. Ironically, in being so powerful, the entire player base built teams around dealing with it and so it has never actually been a world championship winning monster.
Like seeking the tree if life, the fountain of youth or the holy grail, or indeed like the tragedy of darth plagieus the wise, by seeking so hard for life and power, it led to a downfall.
This is a legend each of us must learn in our own way, and then find our own beauty and meaning in this strange thing called life.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. If you enjoy the podcast, find out about my other shows at podcastiopodcastius.org, get in touch on bluesky @podcastpodcast, or support the show at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
If you want to see my slow playthrough of Pokémon Legends Z-A, check out twitch.tv/buskalilly. I love hearing from Listeners! Up next are Yveltal and Zygarde, so hit me up about those or any other Pokemon. Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much for listening.
I love Xerneas. And remember, I love you too.