Unown is a flat, thin Pokémon shaped like an eye with appendages that make it resemble a letter or a punctuation mark. It is entirely black, except for its white sclerae. All 26 alphabetic forms of Unown have fully open eyes, while the two punctuation forms have half-closed eyes. Though each of its forms has a counterpart in the Latin alphabet, Unown is said to resemble ancient writing and hieroglyphs. It is a mystery whether Unown predates or postdates written language, and therefore which one is based on the other. Unown can move its appendages independently like tentacles or fingers. The Pokédex and Professor Oak's research disagree on whether Unown communicates using electromagnetic waves or telepathy. Either way, it can be detected by the Pokégear radio, which interprets it as the melody of the Azure Flute. Unown has an unknown connection to Arceus. It is said that an "odd power" emerges when more than one Unown come together. Certain Unown loose in the Hisui region were capable of repelling Poké Balls that contained Pokémon, preventing them from being battled. Professor Laventon's research observed that Unown resemble human writing from other lands, though no one took him seriously. In the anime, it is capable of reading the thoughts of other life forms. Great numbers of Unown are capable of distorting the reality to suit the dreams and wishes of whoever is in control of the Unown. However, they can only do this when more Unown are present, so it could be a shared effort rather than an ability unique to each Unown. Unown is an extremely rare Pokémon that lives in its own dimension and rarely ventures outside. When it moves to the Pokémon world, Unown tends to stick to walls like engravings of ancient texts or orbit other Unown, usually in ruins. In Generation VIII, Hidden Power is Unown's signature move.