Cynthia's Church - Enemy Within

While Sinnoh appears to be in a golden age of prosperity under Champion Cynthia Shirona's rule, it has been the home of much inner turmoil in recent years since the end of the Sinnoh War.

The Shirona regime boasts that it is in command and is backed by what it calls the largest assembled army of human pokemon in the Nation. It also tells the world that the people of Sinnoh are happier and healthier than before Cynthia's rise to power.

However, newly leaked documents have proven the opposite: the Shirona regime is embroiled in a power struggle over the people's loyalty and support, and the people themselves are living in fear; and worshipping the Champion as commanded by the powerful cult that has risen in the region. In exchange for compliance with the cult's demands, the people are allowed to live, says one source.

Calling itself the Church of Shirona, this politically powerful organisation rose from the aftermath of the Sinnoh War, operated in secret while Cynthia Shirona established her government, law, and forces; and then presented itself before the regime, daring the Champion to challenge this so-called church, which has literally siezed control of allegiance and support that keeps Cynthia in power.

While she maintains near absolute control over the entire region, Champion Cynthia has been unable shake off this cult, which has been forcefully converting her subjects into fanatic followers. The Church of Shirona claims it bolstered morale and support for the Shirona regime, and in truth it has, but many fear that this cult can easily alienate Cynthia from her 4.2 million-strong "fan club", topple her government, destabilize Sinnoh, and plunge the region into a second devastating war, of which experts fear will be far more bloody than the first.

The cult's leaders are brazen enough to walk into the Sinnoh Legislature building and 'pledge their undying love and loyalty to their champion,' whom they also call their savior, angel, and even goddess of Sinnoh.

Accross the region, cultists have weasled their way into the media, schools, public services, and private companies, all part of their effort to ensure maximum loyalty and stamp out even the slightest hint of criticism or opposition to Cynthia Shirona.

It is these cultists who have forced people to put up pictures of Sinnoh's champion in their homes and offices; set up large monuments, and murials of Cynthia everywhere, and even place statues of her in town squares all accross Sinnoh. They force their way into people's homes to inspect the pictures alone, and mete out brutal punishment for even what they believe to be a thought crime against 'the Angel,' as betrayed by a nervous or critical facial expression.

Since taking over most newspaper, television, and radio stations in the major cities, the cultists have established a propaganda machine that continually bombards Sinnoans with messages about how great Cynthia is, and how lucky they are to have her as their leader.

The ideology is lined up nicely with the local history. Sinnoh's previous League Champion, Rex Luger, is pictured as a bloodthirsty tyrant, and so are the champions of the other regions. The story also includes a section in which tells us that everyone outside of Sinnoh, is hell bent on destroying Sinnoh. The object of pure evil: the pokéball. The ultimate enemy, Indigo League Champion, Lance Wataru (who is the supposed leader of the League Coalition).

Cynthia Shirona is placed right next to Jesus Christ as the people's saviour, and the story of her uprising is glorified and told biblically in three religious books, much of the content plagiarized from books written by Cynthia herself.

On Sundays, many Sinnoans attend a religious mass at local worship centers, where they sing, preach, bow, and shout the glory of Cynthia. Those who don't regularly attend are routinely scrutinized by the cult's 'truth police.'

But one must ask, how did this cult come to be? And what is it's intentions? For the Shirona regime, it is complexity and possible conflict, as the cult's leaders can directly project a strong influence on Cynthia Shirona herself, and coerce her into making favored decisions.

For the League Coalition, it is a convenience. Ever since its humiliating defeat and loss of half a million trainers and civil volunteers, the Coalition has maintained a seething grudge against Cynthia Shirona, and desires nothing less than her downfall and demise. As she is a human pokemon, whom bit off the head of her predesessor in a brutal battle, their prejudice has been unbreakable.

Because of the League Coalition's position and beliefs, many suspect that cult has been a covert force of theirs, intent on destabilizing the regime, and weakening it.

Sinnoh is a secret land now, and very few people if any are allowed in, and Sinnoans hardly ever travel beyond their borders due to restrictions and or fears of the outside.

The Church of Shirona has been infiltrated numerous times by agents sent by Cynthia Shirona, the League Coalition, and even the Rangers Union, but it is those spies sent in by criminal syndicates (Rocket, Magma-Aqua, Plasma), and private companies who made it out alive with this shocking information, surprising us all.

The cult has inflicted terror upon the population in all forms. It has meted out violence against those who refused to conform to its ways. The cult has also carried out its own inquisition, rounding up non-believers and burning them at the stake in public.

While the cult has waged this campaign of terror upon Cynthia Shirona's subjects, Shirona's forces have been fighting a covert war with the cult. Secret agents and assassins routinely capture or kill high ranking members of the cult. This secret war is the Shirona regime's strategy for keeping the cult in check.

But the cult is no push over. A former member now hiding out in Fiora is all too familiar with the kind of damage the cult can really do.

"The Church of Shirona is pretty much the biggest enemy [Cynthia] has had since ending the Sinnoh War and siezing power. The fact that the cult has successfully forced Cynthia's subjects to love and obey her more than she even commanded is an incredible double take, because the cult can use this reverence as a weapon against her. If they really wanted to remove her from power and install a more desirable figure, then they can simply launch of media campaign of character assasination.

"That means that they can tell everyone in Sinnoh that she died or was killed, and they can whip people into a massive frenzy of greviance that they would hardly believe it if the real Cynthia came out and said she's still alive and in charge. By then it's too late, because the cult will have already told everyone that she is an imposter sent by the enemy. And so, the real Cynthia than can be killed off."

However, even if it is capable of pulling off such a stunt, the cult would have Cynthia's massive army to  contend with, who have since followed orders not to take up the cult's religion about her.

When she became Champion and took over, Cynthia Shirona wrote three books: the Pearl Book, which outlines her history and rise to power, the Diamond Book, which outlines the details of the Sinnoh War, and the Platinum Book. The Platinum Book contains the original commandments that Cynthia issued to her subjects to follow.

In these commands that Cynthia wrote for the people of Sinnoh, she explicitly told the people to obey the laws of the land, and view her as their Champion and leader; and to live their lives peacefully according to her ideals that condemn violence and exploitation. It is also written that no one is to idolize or worship Cynthia or anyone else in power, or hail her as a deity or a heroine more divine than realistically speaking.

"Champion Shirona hardly even sees herself as the hero, or the savior as everyone says she is. In fact, she even cringes when someone makes that kind of comment. If anything, she considers herself to be just as evil and wicked as anyone in the League Coalition. After all, she became Champion by ripping apart the last champion and biting his head off. it's all written in the Pearl and Diamond books.

She says, 'don't tout me as an angel or saintly figure, for I am farthest from being so. Even I am not powerful enough to carry out the deeds I've done without incurring the costs in blood. I'm here to do my job, and you have your lives and duties to tend to.'"

But the cult took Shirona's word and blew it out of context and proportion. They chopped it up and re-designed it to their liking, and re-wrote her three books in a psuedo-biblical version, and added their own commandments and ideologies. While she wrote the details of the moment she killed Rex Luger, the cult wrote that she was possessed by demons she unleashed from Luger by wounding him.

The cult holds sessions in which they hash out Cynthia's original word and apply different contexts to it in effort to brainwash their masses. They also claim that it was the ghost of Rex Luger, the previous League champion, who cause Cynthia to experience delusions when writing her books.

Anyone caught with the original books by these fanatics is taken in for forced 're-education.'

There is speculation among Sinnoans that the cult is an agent of the League Coalition, and many belive that the cult intends to take out Cynthia's regime and destroy Sinnoh if they don't their way.


"A lot of people think that the LC is responsible for establishing this cult. Speculation then varies, pending who you talk to, on the cult's real motive. Is it following an agenda for the League Coalition, or is it something separate, and established just to set Cynthia Shirona up for some kind of failure, either way most of the cult's opposition can agree that it is an enemy of Sinnoh, and is really just trying to prepare the region for another invasion by the League Coalition.

Cult members are also repeatedly told that Cynthia is the true leader of their faith, when it fact, it's true leader is well hidden from them.


"To make matters much worse, the cult's leader, a woman from Unova named Abigail Scarn is almost always at Cynthia's side. Our intel on her shows that she used to work for Team Plasma, a militant cult that operates in Unova. Our intel also shows, that Plasma now employs former Team Galactic members who escaped during the Sinnoh War; it is indirectly sponsored by the Unova League, and therefore the League Coalition.

"Abigail Scarn was a high ranking priestess in Plasma, well indoctrinated with their beliefs, and she may have gone to Sinnoh long before the war began. She worked alongside the Silph scientists who created hundreds of thousands of human pokemon in secret, and she is believed to have worked on Rex Luger's doomsday attack that released every single pokemon in Sinnoh, thus starting the war.

"After the war, she went into hiding and helped prop up the cult. She's charismatic, manipulative, and swayed the crowds she needed to do her bidding. Now, she hangs out with Cynthia Shirona, unopposed. Question is, can Cynthia resist Scarn's manipulation? That's the variable that will decide the fate of the whole region in the future."

Attempts are routinely made by intel companies who have successfuly infiltrated the Shirona regime, the cult, and the League Coalition nationwide to get this vital information to Cynthia. Such action was done by the National Party, which is trying to avert another civil war and put an end to these dangerous insurrections and uprisings.

But the Shirona regime has not taken this threat lying down. The regime's army, and the Shino League (the militia of pokemon trainers and human pokemon), are constantly at war with the cult, and are routinely picking off key members, and carrying out sabotage and other activities to deter the population from taking up its cause, all while keeping Sinnoans from discovering the secret war that has gone on during the postwar years.

While the cult enforces that people are living in total harmony and paradise; bolsters support for Cynthia Shirona, the future of Sinnoh couldn't be more certain