Saint-type Pokemon

**If you want to read my very wordy explanation of WHY I chose this particular type, scroll down to my "Exposition" well past all the other stuff**

BREAKDOWN

Concept

The Saint-type would be a new type for Pokemon based around the element of "holy" from traditional RPGs.

Theming

Monster designs and attacks would draw heavily from "sacred" and "supernatural" beings or ideas from different worldwide cultures, religions, and philosophies. This would NOT be a type where all of the Pokemon are angels and everything is based on a Medieval Christian worldview. Rather, those concepts would be part of a variety of that includes Pokemon based on folklore and religions from all over the world.

Saint-type Pokemon are able to interact with a world beyond our own, whether they hail from it or have become disciplined enough to gain access. Throughout history, they have been used by humans to improve fortunes, provide guidance, or give a connection to realms outside our own. Not all Saint-types are holy beings of light either. While some seem to come to us with a divine purpose, there are others who come from the darker belly of the underworld and use their supernatural powers for ill-gain. Still, some may be neither of these -- just mortal Pokemon who exhibit high levels of saintliness and faith in greater powers. What connects Saint-type Pokemon together is not their origins, but their otherworldly abilities. Saint-types are connected by their shared use of hellish and heavenly energies to do battle, and even moreso connected by their reliance on faith for their power.

Type Matchups

-OFFENSIVE
...Super-Effective Against: Dragon, Fairy, Dark
...Not Very Effective Against: Ghost, Bug, Psychic, Poison

-DEFENSIVE
...Weak Against: Dragon, Dark, Psychic
...Resists: Ghost, Steel, Fairy

Saint-type has a complex relationship with its weaknesses, as it is mutually strong against and weak to them. Saints slay dragons (ex. the legend of St. George, pictured above), but they may also die fighting them. Holy beings are also known to vanquish darkness, but the darkness is also their mortal enemy. Psychics are beings who rely on their mental abilities, not faith, for their strength. If you could consider Psychic the "Mind" and Saint the "Soul," you could understand that the mind has some power over beliefs, giving an origin for the advantage Psychic has over Saint both offensively and defensively. Also, Psychic needed another type to hit for SE damage, so this change may buff Psychic in the current meta.

As for its strengths, Saint has simpler relationships. Priests and holy men were often employed to stop "tricksters" and fairies, potentially saving entire villages from a curse, which is why Saint has an advantage of Fairy in all aspects. Plus, Fairy needed another check in this current meta. Metal is a sacred element in Eastern philosophy and retains a strong role in religious practice; hence, Saint would be resistant to Steel. 

As for the final three relationships: Ghosts, representing spirits, would be both weak to a religious blessing but also resilient against faith as they also beings "not of this world." Hence, there is a mutual resistance between Saint and Ghosts. Bug, being a type focused on the "hivemind," would have no use for faith, making it resistant to attacks from Saints. Finally, Poison is impure and thus a little tougher than most to influence with the power of a Saint. Both of these also make Bug and Poison a little more defensive in use, which I am 100% on board with.

Pokemon Ideas

Visually, I could some of the more powerful, legendary or fully-evolved Saint-type Pokemon appearing similar to a lot of the Digimon who have a similar "heaven vs. hell" theme. Imperialdramon, shown directly above, above is a good example of this concept. (MagnaAngemon, shown much further above in this post, is also a good example)  

One idea for a "basic" Saint-type might be this temple monkey right here, which could fulfill a role as an early game Pokemon who evolves multiple times.

These Assyrian winged lions were always fascinating to me, and would make for an interesting Saint/Flying combo. This is a design that could easily be made into a Pokemon without losing much of what makes it so unique in the first place.

The story of Buddha meditating underneath a tree until reaching Nirvana gives me an idea for a tree which itself is meditating, a possible Grass/Saint Pokemon in the making.

Asuras are quite popular figures from Hinduism who appear in multiple forms of media already. They would make for an interesting pseudo-legendary or one-off Pokemon with monstrous stat potential. Some obvious typings for this one include Fighting/Saint, Fire/Saint, and Dark/Saint.

Kachina dolls are already represented with Sigilyph (I've heard that explanation before, at least), but they're also another good candidate for a Saint-type. A kachina Pokemon could really go anywhere with the design, since the dolls themselves come in many shapes and sizes. Psychic/Saint is a good catch-all type for most ideas here, but, then again, kachinas are actually a form of fairy-like creature in some Native American religions, so Fairy/Saint may be more apt here.

Demons and their ilk could be part of the Saint-type family as well. One real-world resource, the Malleus Maleficarum, profiles a lot of interesting and unique demon designs. Rather than creating a typical humanoid demon with goat hooves and horns, I think it would be more interesting to pull inspiration from other sources or to attach the demonic origin onto an otherwise normal animal-based design. Baal, for example, sometimes appears as a toad in his backstory. Why not have a Dark/Saint toad Pokemon who also just happens to draw inspiration from Baal? Any of the demonic beasts in the witchcraft image above would also be fair game; that bat-winged cat(?) from the image above would make for an interesting Saint/Ghost or Saint/Flying type.

In Aboriginal folklore, bunyips are amphibious creatures (demons?) who sometimes resemble seals, sometimes Sasquatch, and sometimes something else entirely. Long story short, let's make this one a Water/Saint type and call it a day. Bonus points for it being more original than, like, a water cherub or something.

Yeah, Claydol and Baltoy are already these. But imagine a different take on a Dogu Pokemon that's part Saint and part Ground, Rock, or Steel. It could even have gender differences, since these things may (or may not) have something to do with fertility

Move Ideas

• Searing Light: more powerful Special attack, similar to Fire Blast or Hydro Pump
• Luminous Burst: basic powerful Special attack, similar to TBolt and Ice Beam
• Divine Storm: extremely powerful Special attack, hits both targets, user recharges 
• Saintly Chorus: retyped Boomburst with less damage but a chance to cause Sleep
• Gaia Magnade: powerful Physical attack that hits all Pokemon, similar to Equake
• Light Daggers: weaker Physical multi-hit move
• Heaven Sword: powerful Physical attack, works like all other "blade" moves
• Angelic Arrow: mid-power Physical attack, ignores barriers like Reflect or Aurora Veil to deal damage but does not break them
• Righteous Fist: Saint-type punching move (compare to Ice Punch, Thunderpunch...)
• Soul Fist: Saint-type version of Shadow Punch (also never misses)
• Spirit Dance: dancing move that deals light Physical damage and boosts Evasion
• Purifying Water: mid-power Special attack, deals dual Saint and Water damage
• Cleansing Flame: same as above, but dual Saint and Fire
• Smudging Sage: same as above, but dual Saint and Grass
• Wheel of Fire: powerful Special attack that hits both opponents, can cause Burn
• Exorcise: deals massive damage to Ghosts, but has no effect on anything else
• Miracle Move: powerful move that deals dmg with user's higher attacking stat
• Magic Seal: low accuracy and priority, cuts target's HP by 1/2 then forces a switch
• White Aura: protects user's side of field from indirect damage for 5 turns
• Chakra: heals 1/8 max HP on target and cures Poison, Paralysis or Burn
• Hallowed Terrain: 5 turn terrain that increases likelihood of secondary effects 
• Consecrate: clears hazards around user and prevents their use while user is out
• Come Back: switches out target and heals incoming Pokemon by 30%, can self target
• Lucent Barrier: high priority, protects user and allies from status effects this turn
• Healing Palms: retyped Heal Pulse but also a contact move
• Beacon: high priority, turns user into a beacon, drawing attacks to them on this turn
• Blessing: non-damaging move that reverses just stat drops into stat boosts
• Angel Whisper: cuts HP by 50%, gives target indefinite Endure effect until activated
• Sacred Chant: sound move that causes target to be more susceptible to crit-hits
• Glorious Guard: increases Def +1 and SpDef +2
• Dispel: inaccurate, removes all stat boosts on the target
• Shining Halo: user slowly restores 1/16 HP at end of each turn 
• Inverted Halo: restores 1/8 HP instead, but loses 1PP from random move each turn
• Nirvana: charges, then restores HP by 50%, recovers all PP, and drops each stat -1
• Hand of Fate: extremely powerful Physical attack that has a small chance to OHKO
• Runespell: pulls a rune with 1 of 4 effects: dmg, heavy dmg, Def buff, Att buff
• Offering: sacrifices user but next Pokemon to switch in gets +3 in highest stat
• Z-Move: Otherworldly Gate

New Abilities

• Thaumaturge: special attacks deal physical damage
• Third Eye: ignores type immunities when attacking 
• Divine Intervention: activates at low health to boost Att, SpAtt, and Speed +1 each
• Discipline: immune to moves and abilities that work based on gender or trickery (ex. Foul Play, Captivate, Prankster...) 
• Sanctum: becomes a vessel of saintliness and boosts power of Saint attacks for all on field
• Exalted: has reached a higher level of holiness, granting immunity to lowered stats
• Malevolent: upon switching in, lowers all opponent's Defense -1
• Martyrdom: lowers opponent's Att and SpAtt -1 when KO'd

Other Things

• Arceus Plate: Chosen Plate
• Silvally Memory: Saint Memory
• Type Boosting Item: Ancient Relic
• Type Boosting Item 2: Old Inscription
• Z-Crystal: Saintnium Z

EXPOSITION

Let's cut to the chase: it's pretty hard to come up with a new type for Pokemon. Dark and Steel being added in Generation II made sense -- they not only covered two elements already evidently missing in Pokemon from Generation I, but we also knew they were being added pretty much from day one. Fairy was a tough sell for Generation VI, considering a lot of people to this day still have mixed feelings about the typing. However, despite how polarizing it became, Fairy-type did decentralize the meta (at the time) and help to better define a few other types who needed attention; Fairy gave Steel a reason to use attacking moves, Poison a boost in usage, and the gift of better outlined designs for Psychic and Normal types. Whether Fairy actually is well defined itself is up for debate (not quite sure how a set of living keys, an aquatic moon rabbit and a nature deity are all of the same type that fights with "moon magic" and kisses, but I digress). Currently, there are 18 types in Pokemon, and all of them (to one extent or another) cover your base elements in fantasy RPGs. Is there really room for something else?

I'm going to argue that there is, and in fact it's quite simple. Let me explain a little of my rationale here.

Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft... the "classic" RPGs all use similar theming for magic elements. Fire, Air, Earth and Water are the ones everyone knows, but you also get a healthy dose of abilities that may be other elements or "magic classes" such as Nature, Ether, Arcane, Psionic, Void, Darkness, etc. All of these have analogues to Pokemon types, as you can probably tell. And you would also be able to find similar trends or precedent for the more esoteric types like Dragon, Steel, Fighting, Fairy, Ghost or Bug; for example, Metal is an element in traditional Eastern mysticism, and classes of just dragon or insect monsters are a popular trope in Japanese monster battling games. My point is, none of the existing types in Pokemon come from "nowhere."

So, working backwards, what is the one "common element" we see in fantasy that is NOT currently in Pokemon? Light, or better put Holy. But let's not call it either of those. Let's call it Saint-type.

The Saint-type could best be defined as a type that focuses on sacred arts, such as meditation, prayer, hymns, and so forth. It would not be reliant entirely on "holy," but it would be best described as the Pokemon equivalent.

So then why am I calling it Saint-type and not Light or Holy? Besides being original (since everyone and their mom has asked for a "Light-type" by this point), it also has other intent. Using the word "holy" in a game like Pokemon would probably not fly with Nintendo's translators as it brings religious elements into the games (something they've sworn to avoid since the NES days). It also sort of pigeonholes the idea of the type too greatly, since I don't envision it as just being faith-based magic like it is in most RPGs. As for not calling it Light-type, my sense is that Light as an "element" really is covered by other types in pretty much every aspect except for its attachment to "holy": Psychic and Fairy types both have ties to "magic" and "cosmic abilities," so that immediately knocks out anything there; Fire and Electric types both deal with energy, the sun, lightning, heat, and so forth, meaning that there's no need for that to be a part of this new type; and finally Grass type gets the ability to also use sun-based moves and abilities, such as Solarbeam, so again already laying claim to that part of the typing. This only leaves "holy" magic, or as I would deem it in this case, "otherworldly" or "heavenly."

If we're also being completely honest here, back when there were rumors about Fairy-type being added in Pokemon XY, there were similar rumors about a new Saint-type being added to the games. Personally, this excited me more than the fairies, but we all know how history turned out. So, for me, this is sort of my way of vindicating my feelings about the Fairy-type being real and how cool it was, for that brief moment in time, to think it wasn't going to be the only new type in Generation VI.