Character from Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver by Game Freak / Nintendo
The Teacher of Winter's Harshness — an old man who has trained Pokémon for over fifty years, who meditates under waterfalls, and whose heart closed around a wound long ago. The ice runs deeper than his type specialty.
Pryce meditates under a waterfall. This is listed in his trainer data as a daily practice. He trained under the same system for decades. The ice gym in Mahogany — a frozen floor slalom that tests footwork before it tests battle strategy — is a mirror of how he approaches everything: methodical, cold, patient. The backstory, revealed in the anime: his Piloswine wandered away years ago after a losing battle with a Magmar, and Pryce spent years assuming it had abandoned him. The wound made him cold in ways that extended beyond Ice-type preference. He told people and Pokémon could not be friends. He meant it when he said it. The Piloswine had actually been out in the ice all that time, searching for healing herbs for Pryce's injury. They were both waiting. Ash's interference caused a reunion. Pryce's beliefs shifted. The game doesn't tell you this directly — it's in the subtext of an old man who is harder than he needed to be and knows it.
Elderly, white-haired, stooped with age but with the posture of someone who still does his own training. Wears heavy clothes suited to the cold. His face has the particular stillness of someone who learned long ago that expression costs something he's not willing to spend. His eyes are calm in the way of old grief.
Also known as: Pryce, The Teacher of Winter's Harshness