Raikou, Entei, and Suicune: Born from the Brass Tower Fire
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Seven hundred years before the events of Gold and Silver, two towers were built side by side in Ecruteak City to foster friendship between people and Pokémon. The Bell Tower rose to the east and the Brass Tower to the west, named for the gleaming golden brass panels that covered it. Then, 150 years before the games begin, a bolt of lightning struck the Brass Tower. Fire consumed it. A sudden downpour finally put the flames out. And somewhere in the ruin, three unnamed Pokémon perished.
What rose from that ruin were not the same three Pokémon. They were something new, shaped by Ho-Oh's power and by the very forces that had ended their first lives. The lightning, the fire, the rain: each one became a body.
The night the tower fell
The fire was ignited by a lightning strike and put out by a downpour. Three nameless Pokémon perished in the blaze. Ho-Oh, which had been roosting at the Bell Tower to the east, returned briefly after the flames were extinguished to revive the three, granting them new life as the legendary beasts before flying off in search of a pure-hearted Trainer.
The Bell Tower survived. Lugia, which according to some legends had perched at the Brass Tower, fled to the Whirl Islands. Ho-Oh, having revived the three, flew off as well, leaving Ecruteak's towers as monuments to absence. What remained of the Brass Tower became the Burned Tower, charred and half-standing, the beasts sleeping in its basement until a player character stumbles down there and startles them into Johto's open roads.
The lightning, the fire, the rain
The division of elements is precise and deliberate. Raikou and its Electric typing represent the lightning that struck the Brass Tower. Entei and its Fire typing represent the fire that burned it. Suicune and its Water typing represent the rain that put it out. The three events of that one night are encoded into the three bodies Ho-Oh created.
This means Raikou, Entei, and Suicune are not independent legendaries who happen to share a trio label. They are a single catastrophe split across three living forms. Every time they roam Johto, they carry that night with them: lightning, flame, rain.
Mythology behind the designs
All three were designed by Muneo Saitō. When asked about the animal inspirations, Saitō explained that after Entei's design settled into something lion-like, he incorporated leopard-like elements for Suicune and tiger-like elements for Raikou. But none of them are simply animals.
Raikou's long upper fangs recall a smilodon, and its flowing purple back-cloud may be based on a dark nimbostratus or cumulonimbus cloud. It may also reference the Nue, a chimeric Japanese creature with tiger limbs often accompanied by black clouds it can shapeshift into. An early design even featured a drum on Raikou's back, which may hint at Raijin, the Japanese god of thunder depicted carrying taiko drums, who is often given oni features associated with tiger pelts. Raikou's name may be derived from 雷光 raikō (lightning) and 公 kō (lord) or 皇 kō (emperor), possibly referencing 雷公 Leigong, the Thunder Duke of Chinese mythology.
Entei's design, in Saitō's own words, came together as "a hairy, rock-like body, volcanic smoke rising from behind its head, a king with a dignified beard." He deliberately avoided locking it into a single animal: "I settled on a silhouette that could look like a dog or a cat (or neither)." Its volcano-like visual elements, the red faceplate, the flowing smoke, the rocky brown coloration, mirror the fire it embodies. The name may derive from 炎 en (flame) and 帝 tei (emperor), referencing 炎帝 Yándì, the Yan Emperor of Chinese legend.
Suicune is partially based on a leopard and may reference the Qilin, a mythological creature with a horn-like crest and the ability to walk on water. It may also reference Fūjin, the Japanese god of wind, who is commonly depicted wearing a leopard loincloth. Suicune's associations with auroras and the north wind may point loosely to Aurora and Boreas as additional influences. Its name may combine 水 sui (water), 水晶 suishō (water crystal), and 君 kun (monarch).
Roaming as memorial
After the player wakes them in the Burned Tower's basement, Raikou and Entei scatter across Johto's routes, appearing randomly and fleeing at the first sign of battle. Suicune takes a different path, appearing at fixed locations and eventually confronting the player directly in Crystal, where it is the box mascot and the focus of Eusine's pursuit.
But all three carry the same origin. They roam because that is what Ho-Oh destined them to do after reviving them: to speed across the land. The Burned Tower's basement is the only place in Johto where the three can be seen together, standing on the spot where their first lives ended and their second ones began.
Three cards, one catastrophe
The Suicune V, Raikou V, and Entei V cards each capture a facet of that same night. Suicune's crystalline blues hold the rain that ended the fire. Raikou's electric charge carries the bolt that started it. Entei's volcanic mass is the blaze in between. Collected together, they tell the story more completely than any single card could.
One tower burned. Three Pokémon died. Three others rose in their place, and Johto has never stopped carrying that night forward.