Lore Question: Deep Lore on Tera Orbs [Potential Spoilers]

[Onyx Tanuki]

I'll hide some chunks of this in spoiler tags, just in case, since some of it bears late-game plot relevance. So, apropos of nothing particularly important, I've found myself curious about some of the more specific details involving Tera Orbs. It's been a month or so since I cleared the game, so some of my knowledge is fuzzy, but from what I remember:

Spoiler

- There is normally some kind of trial or testing process that students must go through to obtain one, but Nemona used her influence to get you one, allowing you to bypass it.
- Tera Orbs are constructed from the crystals discovered by Sada/Turo in Area Zero ten years prior to the start of the game. As such, nobody was able to Terastalize their pokemon more than about a decade ago, regardless of rank or abilities.

The main things I want to know, assuming there's any canon information:

Spoiler

- What is the normal procedure for receiving a Tera Orb? By this I don't mean in-game, I mean what process did the Gym Leaders, Elite 4, the Academy's faculty, etc. have to go through to receive Tera Orbs if they weren't readily accessible to them?
- Are Tera Orbs a limited resource? Can those on the surface world make them, or was the tech something only available to Sada/Turo and their research team prior to the events at RS4?
- If they are a limited resource and cannot be reliably reproduced without at least having access to the Professor's notes, what would be the likelihood of the Academy and/or League running out of Tera Orbs to distribute to Paldeans wanting one, had the player's actions not made the depths of Area Zero more easily accessible?

If anyone has some answers to the questions - even if that answer is "there is no canon answer" - it'd be much appreciated.

 

[BCVM22]

There’s no canon answer to most of this, but the likely answers are that there’s no real shortage of Tera Orbs and that the process of getting one is just like the Mega Evolution key stones or Z-bracelets - you need to pass a basic competency/achievement test but beyond that it isn’t a terribly exclusive process. All of the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and most of the other important characters you battle have one.

 

[Ophie]

That's how it sounded to me too--there are WAY more characters with Tera Orbs in Paldea than Alolans had Z-Crystals or Galarians had Dynamax Bands, even. The test, to me, comes across as something like getting a license, though characters like Poppy suggest there's no age minimum for it.

 

[Gargoss]

It would most likely be a Test from the Pokémon League, with Geeta or Rika running the show. Geeta would be who Nemona got your Tera Orb from, so Champion-Rank Trainers can possibly get them through their Connections, too.

I believe Director Clavell has the knowledge of how to build Tera Orbs, as he used to be Sada/Turo's peer in Researching. Others who might know include Geeta and Jacq.

The real question is if any of them know what is actually Powering them...

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Other people must be manufacturing them considering that the professors are, one, dead, and two, were incredibly closed off and isolated in the last years of their lives, with hardly any contact with the outside world including their own son.