Which came first: Unown or writing?
Unown look like letters. The Pokédex itself says nobody knows why.
Case status: Open. The games leave it unanswered, so nobody can say for sure.
What the games say
Unown first appeared in Gold and Silver, in the Ruins of Alph in Johto. Gold and Silver had 26 shapes, the letters A to Z. From Generation 3 on there are 28, because an exclamation mark and a question mark joined them. In the Ruins you work through picture puzzles that open hidden chambers, and the chamber walls show Unown script.
The Pokédex is unusually honest about this one. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald say it is a mystery which came first, the ancient writings or the Unown, and that research is ongoing but nothing is known. Diamond and Y call it a huge mystery whether language or Unown came first. Gold, HeartGold and LeafGreen say the shapes look like hieroglyphs on ancient tablets and the two seem to be related. In Legends: Arceus a researcher says the forms look like writing from other lands, and no one takes the idea seriously.
What fans think
Many fans enjoy treating the Unown shapes as a code to crack. Because they look like our letters, fans spell words with them. That is a fan game, and it is fun, but the games never ask you to decode anything beyond the puzzles.
A popular fan idea is that Unown taught people to write, so the letters we use came from them. It is a fun idea. It is also just the question the Pokédex asks, turned into an answer.
Our verdict
Case status: Open
Open. This is one of the few mysteries where the games state the problem out loud. When the official Pokédex says "nothing is known", that is as open as a case gets.
What do you think?
Which came first?
- The Unown
- The writing
- They grew up together
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