Archive of Our Own

Notes:

• For mewCoyote.

This was a really fun exercise!! If you'd like to know a little more about the process, I'll put it under a details tag so you can read it after seeing the art :)

Design notes & process

FOSSOREON, the Burrowing Pokémon
Names in other languages: クレーヤ (JPN) Substrali (FRA) Erdara (GER)
Evolves from Eevee when leveling up in a cave while knowing a Ground-type move.
Using its armored tail, it digs tunnels deep inside the ground to use as burrows. It only emerges at night.

First, I randomly picked a type that didn't have an Eeveelution tied to it yet. Originally, I was going to do Steel in honor of the Steel Eeveelution I made up as a child, but I thought starting fresh would be more fun. The random generator I used picked Ground, so I got to work thinking about what a Ground-type Eeveelution could look like. I tried to go for something "believable" (i.e. a design that could actually exist) rather than just following my whimsy, because I found the challenge more fun. That meant forgoing some of my initial ideas (like giving the Pokémon no eyes to further highlight the burrowing aspect) and keeping the design fairly cutesy and simple (following the "Eeveelution brief", so to speak.)

I looked at all the Eeveelutions to see which colors hadn't been covered yet. Brown is the obvious candidate for Ground, but Eevee is already brown, so I went for more of a greyish, desaturated brown instead, although it still progressively became warmer as I kept working on it lol. I looked up "mammals that live underground" and discovered the term "fossorial" which gave me a perfect name for the Eeveelution. I went with an armadillo/pangolin vibe because I just couldn't resist it, although it does mean the result is very Sandshrew-coded, but I decided I could indulge myself just this once lol. The squinty eyes are a remnant of the "no eyes" idea, a compromise if you will. The claws are for digging (duh), the red mustache is a nod to star-nosed moles, and the color pattern on the face is (vaguely) badgery. I'm ambivalent about the fur on the belly, but I kept it in the end because I think younger me would want Fossoreon to be fluffey... Realistically it would probably not be kept for the final design though, I think. It makes more sense for a burrowing animal to have shorter, sleeker fur. But it's cute!!!

I went with silvery and blue for the shiny more instinctively than anything else; shifted the hue a bit and ended up with something I liked. I did end up making the armor shell pinker because one of my initial inspiration was the pink armadillo.

For the non-English names:
— Japanese: I was really attached to Groundia (グランディア) unfortunately it would be spelled exactly like the game Grandia which made it a no-go lol. I ended up going with "clay" instead. Maybe the official Japanese romaji could be something like Claya... I went with the -ia/ya ending because it seems to have become the standard since the 4th generation (with Glacia, Leafia, and (in gen6) Nymphia.)
— French: from substratum and the French Eeveelution ending -li.
— German: from Erd and the German Eeveelution ending -a, although a lot of the more recent ones seemed to go with -ara, so I picked that. Not my best one but honestly, some of the German ones are kinda wild and I don't feel qualified to come up with something better LOL. I welcome suggestions!

That's about all I have to say about Fossoreon! Hope you enjoyed! :D