Palkia is a light-purple, theropod-like Pokémon with darker stripes, gray underarms, and a distinctly alien look. Its shoulders have round purple-striped plates with pink pearl-like crystals embedded in gray rims, while fin-like wings sprout from its back. The arms extend into gauntlet-like formations with purple wrist bands, and its long, usually-bent neck supports a pointed white crest that runs down to the wings. Two horn-like tusks jut from its jaw, and its powerful tail shows faint cracks along with the rest of its legs.
According to Sinnoh and Hisui legends, Palkia hatched from an egg created by Arceus at the universe's beginning—the deity of space itself. It retreated into its own dimension and has lived there ever since, though the Pearl Clan once worshipped it as their almighty god. Palkia can speak telepathically to humans, famously communicating through the Pearl Clan's leader, Irida. Space-time distortions from Giratina can send both Palkia and Dialga into a frenzy, and the two can spread those same distortions across the world, turning Pokémon alpha and frenzied.
The Pokémon's main ability is warping space itself—it travels between dimensions and parallel timelines, tears apart space around its targets, and supposedly has the power to destroy or create entire universes. It opens dimensional portals to alternate worlds and levitates as its normal mode of travel. According to myth, Palkia's very birth caused the world's walls to vanish, creating an infinite sky, and space stabilizes with each breath it takes. Since it lives in a different dimension most of the time, studying its behavior is nearly impossible. The dimension itself is described as shredded like ribbons, and Palkia becomes aggressive when outsiders enter—leading to violent clashes with Dialga when their worlds collide.
Forms
Palkia shifts between its standard form and its Origin Forme, the latter being its true state. In Origin Forme, it becomes a centaur-dragon hybrid resembling Arceus itself—drastically larger with a grayish-pink body, light gray wing and leg tips, and dark purple accents throughout. The shoulder plates grow massive and pearl-like, surrounded by six rectangular purple protrusions. Its lower half morphs into a horse-like body with hooves and spiked forelegs, while the back legs gain heels and bend to let Palkia stand upright. The tail splits into five, and its jaw develops a plate-like mask covered in spikes that can lower to reveal its mouth during attacks or roars. The crest grows taller, and an Arceus-like cross-wheel structure appears on its abdomen.
At full power in Origin Forme—which it supposedly maintains permanently in its home dimension—Palkia can unleash meteors and shockwaves while walking on all fours or flying. The transformation triggers via the Lustrous Globe or radiant light. Its signature move Spacial Rend becomes even deadlier when charged in this state, as fans saw during the boss fight in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The crystals and purple markings glow brightly whenever it taps into its reality-warping powers.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
