ARIU, the Tribal Mask Pokégirl
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Plant/Normal
Frequency: Uncommon (Tropical temperate leagues), Common (Dark Continent), Rare (Everywhere else)
Diet: Human diet
Role: Artisans, cheap labor, gatherers
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Ghost, Electric, Ground, Plant, Rock, Water
Weak Vs: Fighting, Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison
Attacks: Yell, Headbutt, Command Plants
Enhancements: Enhanced Strength (x3), Enhanced Speed (x3), Enhanced Endurance (x3)
Evolves: Lairio (Normal/[Special])
Evolves From: None
Africa or as it is currently known "The Dark Continent" in the past as historians have found from ancient media that survived over the centuries was always an area with conflict because of the various wars between tribes. This constant war, and strife, it made perfect testing grounds for Sukebe to test his pokégirls forces before he launched the Revenge War. The Ariu were wonderful test subjects that could infiltrate the jungles of Africa and the Savannah without raising to much suspicion. This trait combined with the near destruction of the continent into the present day Dark Continent allowed them to exist under radar until their recent rediscovery in 250 AS by John Clayton, who claimed to belong to the Pre-Sukebe Blue League family Greystoke. Before his groundbreaking expedition, small amount of expeditions that went into Dark Continent either never came back or those that did come back were in smaller numbers than those that left, muttering (quite madly) about masked pokégirls attacking and decimating their expedition parties; for years, many believed these rumors of unknown pokégirls were simply those of the Amazon-line who had adopted masks.
As far as appearance is concerned the Ariu has dark skin tones, ranging from a light brown to the deepest shades of ebony. Their hair is black, and sometimes is a dark brown. Their eye colors are usually earth colors of brown and hazel, though there have been noted cases of green eyes. Their breasts are usually around a B-cup, sometimes dipping into a large A-cup, the heights staying between 5'-5'3", bodies are lithe and very athletic. One of the most distinguishing features of this breed is their masks. Each mask of a Ariu is different, the masks are usually made of very hard wood, and all have eyeholes. The sizes vary but most Ariu keep them so they cover the bridge of the nose up to the top of the head. Each mask is crafted by the Ariu and very precious to them, despite being are rather plain. All masks of any Ariu has a distinguishing symbol of their tribe (or harem).
Ariu are very social pokégirls, both when tamed and feral. When feral though will group together with Lairio and form tribes, usually with an Agrii as the head of the tribe, or the strongest Lairio will take control of the tribe. In the tribe setting the Ariu do most of the gathering and planting of small crops. Since they have to deal with the harshness of the wild they understand teamwork is important and share everything. They can craft tools to help in their work and know how to work with the nature around them. Most of this translates to when they are tamed. They make perfect wilderness experts, instinctually knowing what plants, fruits and fungi are poisonous and not safe to eat. They get along well in a harem, understanding that working together is more important than petty differences. Despite this belief they don't make good Alphas or Betas as they don't really have the power or mindset to lead, and take a backseat to the Alpha and their Master who they might call their chieftain.
Unlike their evolutions, they aren't really meant for battling, but if need be they can put up a decent fight, usually using a stick they fashioned into a spear via commanding the tree to create one for them. They're more meant to work at supporting and feeding the front line fighters. Although, an Ariu who is put through enough battles will eventually evolve of course. Taming wise, Ariu have a thing for being tamed from behind, where they can have their faces pushed into the ground. By no means does this mean they like BDSM, they just prefer, rougher more animalistic sex. As far as most researchers know there has been no documented cases of threshold as they are a rather recent discovery and only pockets of them are found in the other leagues with a climate similar to the Dark Continent's.