welcome to kamerigo

◀ ▼ ▶ ▲

developing the region

after diving into creating fake pokémon for my pankasu region, i wanted to continue to do more and expand on the 'mons i already made. so i combined the research i did for the pankasu region and started working on making my own region based on the united states, called kamerigo.

first thing i needed to do was determine how i was going to address the fifty states (plus puerto rico and washington dc). to do this, i borrowed from the locations of the districts of the hunger games and tweaked the collection of states to fit similar geographical features, cultural histories, and regional divisions. once i had them divided, it was onto naming the separated areas. to accomplish this, i researched what those regions were called throughout history, culturally, and geographically.

tenshi rock

consists of maine, new hampshire, vermont, massachusetts, rhode island, and connecticut. inspired by new england and plymouth rock. england was also called the "land of angels/angles," so i took the angel part and translated it to the japanese word for angel tenshi. then i added the second inspiration, rock.

polis

consists of new york, pennsylvania, new jersey, maryland, delaware, and washington dc. this area is sometimes referred to as the new england highlands. it is also referred to as the metropolitan and megalopolis. that is where i got inspiration for the name, polis.

appalatic

consists of virginia, north carolina, south carolina, and georgia. the name comes from the appalachian mountain range that runs through the states and the atlantic ocean that borders the states. the naming is quite simple combining appala (of appalachian) and the tic (of atlantic)

wan coast

consists of puerto rico, florida, alabama, mississippi, and louisiana. this one is quite a simple name explanation, taking inspiration from the gulf coast that is near. i used the japanese word for gulf "wan" and just added coast to the end to complete it.

taxo grande

consists of oklahoma, texas, and new mexico. this area is also often called the rio grande valley, which is where the second part of the name come from. a large part of the area is texas so i started to delve into the history of the name. some historians believe the name comes from the native caddo word for friend "teycha." however, some spanish historians believe that the spanish explorers saw the bald cypress in now texas, and were reminded of the yew trees from their home and named the area "teja" which refers to a type of yew tree. using this, i found the scientific name for the bald cypress "taxodium distichum," and used the beginning of it taxo to join with grande.

sabita lakes

consists of ohio, illinois, indiana, michigan, and wisconsin. this area is often considered the rust belt and is known for the great lakes. i used these two to create the name. using the japanese word for "rusted", sabita and the lakes part of great lakes, to create the name.

oxachi

consists of arkansas, missouri, tennessee, kentucky, and west virginia. this area is called the inland midwest and also considered the ozarks. the ozarks being such an important part of the area, i wanted to focus on that. the ozarks get its name from the french term "aux arcs," considered the land of arches. so i took the japanese word for arches "āchi" and combined o sound of ozark and the sound "aux" makes (like ox) to get oxachi.

naka plains

consists of iowa, kansas, nebraska, and south dakota also known as the great plains and the midwest. to come up with the name of this area, i combined those two names. i used the japanese word for middle (from midwest) "naka" and just added plains to reference the landscape.

hekuro

consists of minnesota, montana, alaska, and north dakota. this area is famous for the black hills and the indigenous people that originate from there. the lakota people (natives of the area) were the ones to give the area its name, though they called it paha sapa which translate to "the hills that are black" and the name he sapa which means "black ridge." so i used this to influence the name. i used the he from he sapa and used the japanese word for black "kuro."

mt rokkus

consists of idaho, wyoming, and coloroda also referred to ask the rockies. this one is another simple name, taking inspiration from the rocky mountains themselves. mt shortened for mountain, rokku meaning "rock" in japanese, and an added s at the end to reference the nickname rockies.

tarai desert

consists of nevada, arizona, and utah. this area is known as the great basin of the united states and is home to many deserts in the country. i combined these two claim-to-fames by having the name take from basin (tarai in japanese) and just the desert.

pacifierra bay

consists of california and the islands of hawai'i. this name is a hodge podge of areas found within the two states. it combines the pacifi of the pacific ocean, the erra of the sierra nevada mountain range, and bay of the famous bay area.

caskitas

consists of washington and oregon. this area is known under two names "the north west" and cascadia. this is where the name comes from. it takes the cas from the cascadia region and uses the japanese word for north "kita" from the north west.

once i had all the split areas named, i had to work on the hardest part...naming the entire region. this was especially difficult because i wanted to set it apart from the several fan-made pokémon regions and the canon us-based region, unova. to do this, i wanted to do a lot of research into how we got the name the united states of america and the history of the land itself.

once i did the research and workshopped some names, i decided on a name kamerigo. the ending of the name, amerigo, comes from the italian explorer and navigator amerigo vespucci, who corrected columbus' wrong belief that the place he landed was asia and was instead a previously unknown landmass. amerigo was where we derivied the name america from. the beginning of kamerigo, comes from the japanese word for turtle kame. this originates from an ojibwe creation story that tells that the land on which we live on is a large turtle swimming around with an entire land built on it's shell. this notion of "turtle island" is also known as mikinaak minis.

◀ ▼ ▶ ▲

the symbol of the region

not only does a region need a name, it also often has some sort of icon or slight change to the image of the pokéball. some fakemon artists use common symbols or motif from the location that inspired their region. so to create an icon that represents kamerigo, i took inspiration from the common motifs of america, namely the star, the stripes, and the color palette.

◀ ▼ ▶ ▲

meet the kamerigo regional variants

this project originally started as me wanting to do a design exercise by doing regional variants of pre-existing pokémon inspired by specific states' landmarks, geography, history, and culture among a ton of other background information. here are the regional variants for the kamerigo region, and have fun guessing what state inspired the new look!