Guardians

The Guardians are the colloquial name for a group of four megalithic structures located across the Miato region. Wrought by the ancient, advanced civilizations that once ruled the Miato region through unknown techniques that are most likely impossible to reproduce, the Guardians are not so much 'buildings' as vast, semi-living biomechanical constructs serving multiple functions of observation and regulation in an ancient system rooted throughout the entire region and stabilizing it.

Resembling living creatures from the outside and shaped into flowing organic curves within, the Guardians appear to be largely constructed of some kind of a living stone resembling marble in texture - albeit warm to the touch, and streaked with luminous veins of energy which appears to flow within the material. Their internal structure is fairly complex and labyrinthine, and it is quite possible that it subtly changes over many years, the complexifying of the internal structure akin to the formation of new neural connections as others fade. There are a few fixed paths, however, presumably intended for the few occasions where a human would need to access the heart of the system. These paths often need to be accessed in particular ways, and involve a myriad of puzzles involving the redirection of the energy flow. In addition to these puzzles, there are wild Pokémon living within the Guardians in a symbiotic relationship, serving a variety of purposes within the system.

Each of the Guardians is associated with a direction and a season (affecting both their placement and the area which they monitor), and should a reactivation of the system be required, it must be done in a particular order. To perform a reactivation, the Guardian's Heart Chamber must be accessed and the Glyph in its centered must be accessed using the correct interface stone. The Glyphs are not without their security system, however, and are protected by modified terrain and a Protector Pokémon, awakened at times of need.

The Northern Guardian

Located in the north of Miato, the Northern Guardian is associated with the winter season and the classical element of water.

To reach the Northern Guardian, the trainer must surf out of Galena Town into the treacherous northern seas of Miato. Using the Pathfinder, the trainer must chart a path through a labyrinth of glaciers, ice floes and thick, obscuring mists of the northern seas, essentially "flying on instruments" in the low visibility, towards the one major thing that appears constant - something massive and shrouded in the mists in the distance that they cannot quite make out. Some of the ice floes move, necessitating proper timing to cross, and some of them require stepping onto and crossing on foot. Wild Pokémon - both of the swimming sort and of the sort you might find on ice floes and glaciers - may also impede the trainer's progress, until at last the veil of fog tears revealing the Northern Guardian in all its glory - an island-sized construct wrought in the shape of a giant turtle and appearing partially carved of the ice of its surroundings and part of the living stone, veins of icy-blue energy flowing through its form and giving it a sort of an ethereal radiance.

The Northern Guardian's heart-chamber resembles a resplendent icy cavern, the glow of the energy within the walls and the assorted interface structures casting marvelous refraction patterns. The Glyph's protector is a Winterora with boosted stats and a permanent Rainbow Mist that cannot be dispelled, making it impossible for the trainer to match the protector's boosts or use confusion or attraction to their benefit.