With designs ranging from frogs, to ice cream, to actual bags of garbage, you might be forgiven for thinking that Pokemon are created completely at random.

But in amongst the 721 that have been spawned to date, a number of them take their cues (both conceptually and visually) from real-world legends and cultures.

While there's never actually been a race of spritely yellow mouses that shoot electricity about their cheeks, a number of Nintendo's other pocket monsters find their origins in parts of the world, and parts of history, that will surprise and astound even the most hardened Pokemon trainer. Crack open your Pokedexs, we're going on an adventure.

12. Yamask And Cofagrigus

Yamask is inspired by an Ancient Egyptian death mask and has possibly the most disturbing origin tale of any Pokemon. In their Pokedex entry, it is said that Yamask became Pokemon when they rose from the graves of humans and that their masks used to be their human faces. As if this wasn't bad enough, the Pokedex then continues to inform the player that Yamask will occasionally look at their masks and begin to cry Its unnerving stuff.

At level 34, Yamask evolves into Cofagrigus whose design is based on an Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Cofagrigus are ghost-type Pokemon who hide in ancient tombs to punish unwary grave robbers. Their backstory is likely based on the rumours of cruses befalling people who entered the tombs of former Pharaohs. The most famous incident of a cursed Egyptian Tomb is that of King Tutankhamun. His tomb was discovered by an archeological team in 1922 and many members of this team suffered untimely deaths following their find.