Pokemon

Pokemon isn't actually a big thing in this region. Pokemon battling isn't a professional sport, though some people do it for fun, and you can't make a living as a pokemon trainer. Most pokemon are kept only as pets; while most families have one, it's not utterly unknown for families not to have any. Most of these pets are companions from previous Champions' Pilgrimages.

Wild pokemon can be aggressive but tend to stay away from places where people are commonly found.

Pokemon have high intelligence, but only the brightest (typically psychic types and pokemon with aura) approach adult human levels. The average 3rd-level Evo is about equivalent to a five year old. Lower evolution stages tend to be dumber. Pokemon can pick up on English to a limited extent in order to understand what their trainers want, but aren't born knowing it and need to be exposed to learn.

In very rare cases, a pokemon that's gained a lot of power can show very high intelligence and power that's far from the normal capabilities of the species. Oddly, this only seems to occur with wilds, and those wilds are next to impossible to train.

The status of legendary pokémon runs from "It's generally known they exist, but no one would ever expect to see one" to “maybe it exists” to "Get ahold of this moron, they believe in Giratina! I bet they believe in Santa and the tooth fairy too!" Which category they are depends on the particular legend, but most are in the last two. Even those that are known to exist are considered just extremely powerful pokemon. There is no evidence they can affect nature on more than the very local level.