>>33144962Malie Library says the Tapu were gifted with great power, not created that way. They fought against "the legendary Pokemon" (heavily implied to be Solgaleo/Lunala based off the ending cutscene) to get it, so they weren't statues before being given this power. It's possible Arceus created them just as regular Pokemon guardians before all this happened, though, and they just got an upgrade from the box legendary's UB/dimension-hopping abilities later. But I'm not sure what points to that.
