Lake guardians

Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf

Artwork from the Pokémon Global Link.

The lake guardians (Japanese: 湖の神々 lake gods), or lake trio, is a term used to describe the Legendary trio residing in the three lakes of Sinnoh: Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. They are meant to represent knowledge, emotion, and willpower, respectively. They are based on the Imperial Regalia of Japan: the Yata no Kagami (wisdom), Yasakani no Magatama (benevolence), and Kusanagi (valor). Parts of their names come from fantasy creatures: pixies, sprites and elves, respectively. The other parts of their names come from personal pronouns: you (Uxie), me (Mesprit), and us (Azelf).

All three are Psychic-type and have the Ability Levitate.

Mythology

According to legend, when Arceus created the universe it created Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, and therefore is believed to be their master and were given the ability to calm and control Dialga and Palkia whenever they were enraged. According to one of Azelf's Pokédex entries, all three of them were born from the same Egg.

As mentioned in their respective Pokédex entries, the Lake Guardians taught humans the ability to feel emotions, knowledge, and willpower. The Lake guardians are said to reside in three lakes in Sinnoh; Lake Acuity, Lake Verity, and Lake Valor. As mentioned in "A Horrific Myth", the Lake Guardians are known to drive humans away from them by either erasing their memories, losing emotions within three days, or losing willpower.

Similar movesets

Lv.	Uxie  Psychic	Mesprit  Psychic	Azelf  Psychic
1	Confusion
	Rest
7	Swift
14	Endure	Protect	Detect
21	Psybeam
28	Imprison
35	Extrasensory
42	Amnesia	Charm	Nasty Plot
49	Psychic
56	Yawn	Flatter	Uproar
63	Future Sight
70	Flail	Copycat	Last Resort
77	Memento	Healing Wish	Explosion
Moves in bold are STAB. Moves in italics do no damage.

Base stat comparison

Pokémon	Uxie	Mesprit	Azelf
HP	75	80	75
Attack	75	105	125
Defense	130	105	70
Sp. Atk	75	105	125
Sp. Def	130	105	70
Speed	95	80	115
Total	580	580	580

In the games

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

The lake guardians each live in the cavern at the center of one of Sinnoh's three commonly known lakes: Uxie resides in Acuity Cavern of Lake Acuity, Mesprit resides in Verity Cavern of Lake Verity, and Azelf resides Valor Cavern of Lake Valor. A secret fourth lake exists, but instead houses Turnback Cave, which contains a portal to the Distortion World and is thus often visited by Giratina.

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, Team Galactic attempts to capture all three of the lake guardians. Saturn goes to Lake Valor, where Team Galactic drains the lake by blowing it up with a Galactic Bomb. This is the lake the player must go to first. Despite losing to the player, Team Galactic still successfully captures Azelf. Over at Lake Verity, Mars is leading the operation and easily holding off Professor Rowan and Lucas/Dawn. While the player again manages to defeat Mars, Team Galactic still successfully capture Mesprit. Finally, at Lake Acuity, by the time the player arrives, Jupiter has just defeated Barry and successfully captured Uxie.

When the player later storms Team Galactic HQ, it is discovered that Cyrus used the lake guardians to create the Red Chain so that he could control Dialga and/or Palkia. In Platinum, Cyrus then duplicates this Red Chain with his technology to create a second one, as he intends to control both Dialga and Palkia.

In Diamond and Pearl, the lake guardians come to the Spear Pillar when Cyrus summons Dialga^D or Palkia^P and destroy the Red Chain he is using to control it, as their combined power is equal to that of one of the members of the creation trio. This prevents Cyrus from creating his new world without spirit. After doing so, they return to their lakes.

In Platinum, the lake guardians come to the Spear Pillar to attempt to balance out the power of Dialga and Palkia; however, the three lake guardians combined can only balance out one of the two, so they are overpowered. As a result, Giratina is angered by the imbalance and is forced to merge the Distortion World with the real world at the Spear Pillar to prevent them from being destroyed. Cyrus, followed by the lake guardians, enter the Distortion World. Inside the Distortion World, the lake guardians assist the player with the Strength puzzle, then return to their lakes.

The three lake guardians are obtainable after the defeat of Team Galactic at Mt. Coronet. They each return to their lakes, and Uxie and Azelf can be caught in the caverns of their lakes; however, when encountering Mesprit in its cave, it flies off and roams the region.

• 

  Uxie

• 

  Mesprit

• 

  Azelf

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

After beating the Champion, the player can encounter Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf at the Cave of Being, causing them to fly off to various places in Unova, where the player may then battle them. Uxie heads to Nacrene City and is encountered outside of the Nacrene Museum, Mesprit heads to the top of Celestial Tower, and Azelf heads to Route 23 and is found in part of the Strength puzzle; all three are initially invisible. They are encountered at level 65.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

The lake trio can be captured at Nameless Cavern, which can only be accessed by soaring in the sky while there are three or more Pokémon with maximum friendship in the party. Only one member appears at a time, depending on the time of day. Mesprit appears from 4:00 am - 7:59 pm, Uxie from 8:00 pm - 8:59 pm, and Azelf from 9:00 pm - 3:59 am.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

The lake trio can be captured at the Water World dimension in the Ultra Space Wilds by using Ultra Warp Ride by reaching blue warp holes.

Pokémon Sword and Shield

In The Crown Tundra DLC, the Lake Trio can be caught during Dynamax Adventures at Max Lair.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

The three are also found in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, and Explorers of Sky. They are found in three different lakes and are in charge of protecting three Time Gears.

In the anime

Main article: Lake guardians (anime)

The lake guardians in the anime

All three first appeared in forms similar to souls, floating above their respective lakes, to Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl's main characters. Mesprit appeared to Dawn during the start of her journey in Following a Maiden's Voyage!, Azelf appeared to Ash during the Wallace Cup in Pruning a Passel of Pals!, and Uxie appeared to Brock while he was looking for a Berry in Uncrushing Defeat!. Due to these encounters, all three established a connection to the human they each met.

They appeared in their physical forms for the first time in The Needs of the Three!, wherein, after being hired by Team Galactic, J was able to capture all three of them. Team Galactic was then able to control them using red gems. With their power, Cyrus was able to summon Dialga and Palkia during the next episode.

When the gems were broken by Pikachu, Piplup, and Croagunk, the three were set free from Team Galactic's control. They then helped Ash and his friends stop the effects of summoning Dialga and Palkia.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

Main article: Lake guardians (Adventures)

The lake guardians in Pokémon Adventures

Similar to the anime, the lake guardians all have a connection to the three Sinnoh Pokédex holders Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.

The lake guardians in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!

In the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga

The lake guardians were captured by Team Galactic to create the Red Chain so that they can control the Legendary Dialga. They were eventually freed sometime during the battle between Hareta's Empoleon and Cyrus's Dialga. They helped stop Dialga by breaking the Red Chain.

The lake guardians in Pokémon Pocket Monsters

In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blazing Exploration Team manga

The lake guardians appeared in BET2.

In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga

The lake guardians appeared in PMDP13.

Trivia

• Acuity, Verity and Valor Cavern each have two puddles of water which can be compared to the relative positions in Sinnoh of the other two caverns; the lake guardian in each cavern occupies the position of its own location.
• The lake guardians are the only trio whose members are all exactly the same type.
• The lake guardians are the first set of Legendary Pokémon since the Legendary birds to have their names changed for non-Japanese language versions of the game; Mesprit and Azelf in English versions, and Uxie in various European-language versions.
• The lake trio contains the three subtractive colors of yellow (Uxie), magenta (Mesprit) and cyan (Azelf).
  • In addition, they share the same main colors with Cresselia.
• The trio's encounter music contains several remixed segments of their caverns' music.
• They are the only Legendary trio that are incapable of learning any HMs.
• Each of the lake guardians has connected to one of the three main characters of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl anime along with the Pokédex holders of the Diamond & Pearl arc of Pokémon Adventures.
  • Mesprit appeared to Dawn, highlighting her ability to understand what Pokémon feel, in Following a Maiden's Voyage.
  • Mesprit connected to Diamond in Pokémon Adventures because of his strong emotional control, as shown in Problematic Probopass & Mad Magnezone II where even though he was shown to be angry, he never once raised his voice.
  • Azelf appeared to Ash, highlighting his courageous actions without fear of his own harm, in Pruning a Passel of Pals.
  • Azelf connected to Pearl in Pokémon Adventures because of his strong unbending will, as shown in A Conk on Cranidos's Cranium where he is seen helping Platinum in her Gym battle against Roark despite the strain it put on him.
  • Uxie appeared to Brock, highlighting his superior knowledge of Pokémon to his companions, in Uncrushing Defeat!.
  • Uxie connected to Platinum in Pokémon Adventures because of her great wisdom, as shown in Stagestruck Starly where it is revealed that her family, the House of Berlitz, is a family of scholars.
  • The genders of the three main anime characters are parallel to the trio's genders in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness.
• In the Japanese fandom, the lake guardians are sometimes referred as the "UMA trio" or "UMA combination", with "UMA" standing for "unidentified mysterious animal". Coincidentally, these are also the initials of the three lake guardians in English; and in their Japanese names (Uxie, Emrit, Agnome), they use the second letter of Emrit to represent "M".
• They are the only 580 base stat Legendary trio to not have a base friendship of 35. In fact, they have the highest base friendship of all Legendary Pokémon, at 140, tying for the highest base friendship of all Pokémon with Lopunny and the evolutionary families of Chansey and Clefairy.
• All members of the lake guardians learn sacrificing moves at level 77, Uxie to lower both offensive stats of the opponent, Mesprit to heal a party member, and Azelf to highly damage the opponent.
• The lake guardians learn the same TM moves and Move Tutor moves except that only
  • Uxie can learn Giga Drain, Solar Beam, both damaging Grass-type moves, Heal Bell and Foul Play.
  • Mesprit can learn Ice Beam and Blizzard, both damaging Ice type moves.
  • Azelf can learn Flamethrower, Fire Blast, both damaging Fire type moves, Last Resort, Uproar and Taunt.
• The lake guardians are the only non-mascot Legendary trio which does not receive a 150% power bonus in a Battrio combo, instead receiving 160%.
• The lake guardians are tied for the lightest Pokémon with a footprint.
• In Black 2 and White 2, each member of the lake guardians appears in a place that represents what they represent after leaving Cave of Being. Uxie appears in front of the Nacrene City museum, a place where people go to seek knowledge. Mesprit appears at the Celestial Tower, a place were people express their feelings and mourn. Azelf appears on Route 23, the path that leads to Victory Road and where a Trainer's courage will be tested.
• Other than Confusion and Rest, which the trio learns at level 1, all moves that they learn are learned at a level that is a multiple of seven.

In other languages

Language Title Mandarin Chinese 湖之眾神 Hú-zhī Zhòngshén European French Gardiens des lacs German Hüter der Seen Italian Guardiani del lago Polish Strażnicy jezior European Spanish Guardianes del lago Vietnamese 3 Pokémon của hồ nước