Part 4 of the Palaververse: Bovaland · 12:28am Oct 6th, 2015
Is everyone ready for another onslaught of worldbuilding miscellany? I'll assume hearty cries of 'yes' came from all quarters and put up said onslaught anyway, which focuses on the bovines of Bovaland!
The same stuff from previous posts applies here. Is there a nation or species you'd like to see more of? Drop a comment requesting that it be covered in the next post and I'll see what I can do. The list of candidates now includes Capra and the Capricious Crown, as well as the griffons, dragons, diamond dogs, changelings, Saddle Arabia, Zebrica, Gazellen, Pachydermia, Ceratos, old Antlertis, Equestria itself, and anything else in the setting not necessarily nation-related that you'd like to know more of. Thanks goes once again to themaskedferret for checking over this madness.
Drop your preferences in the comments ... and have a gander at Bovaland past the remarkably appropriate and yet somewhat unsettling coat of arms of Mecklenburg.
Drag back the confused observer from the Ovarn entry, direct their attention towards the Greycairns and Bovaland’s neighbours, and don’t be surprised if dry phrases involving rocks and a hard place emerge from them. It’s certainly a phrase that haunts the minds of Bovaland’s rulers.
The rugged country of Bovaland lies south of the great Ungula-spanning spine of the Greycairn Mountains; a patchwork of craggy mountains and hills, damp pastures and high moorland, pockmarked with fortified villages, farmland, and squat and sturdy castles. Here dwell the bovine folk, caught between the mighty powers of Capra to the west and Corva to the east, who have weathered millennia of being targeted for raiding and conquest and whose current independence balances on a knife’s edge.
Evidence of bovish habitation in Bovaland dates back over three thousand years, to around the time of Antlertis’s Fall. In the early part of this era, civilisation in Bovaland was the same mix of tribes, clans, petty kingdoms, and small warlords that existed for nearly every other sapient species in Ungula at the time, lacking in any real unity and frequently clashing with one another as well as the nearby Ovish city-states and corvid clans. Five main tribes of bovines dwelt here, and three of them dwell here still; the longhorns, shorthorns, and minotaurs. The buffalo migrated far into the west of the continent into what is now Equestria’s Badlands, while the yaks migrated north-west above the Greycairns. Reasons for these migrations are muddied by the pathetic book-keeping and myths of the period, but inter-kingdom wars and a resulting series of windigo winters are most commonly held to blame.
The latent magic of the bovines takes various forms, though all share great physical sturdiness and endurance in common. Longhorns also boast spell-wielding and the ability to channel magic through their horns, while shorthorns possess great strength and a connection to the earth to rival earth ponies. Well-integrated communities of them have existed in Bovaland since ancient times, using their talents in harmony for the benefit of their own clans and kingdoms. The minotaurs were initially regarded as a curious tribe apart from the quadrupedal others, with their bizarre bipedal stance and lack of latent magic often attributed by modern scholars to the eldritch magics that briefly held sway in the world after Antlertis’s Fall. However, the benefits their bipedal stance and opposable thumbs gave them in tool-using, crafting, vision, and warfare earned them a place of respect in many communities.
As the centuries ticked by, the petty kingdoms of Bovaland slowly coalesced and developed more and more cultural commonality. The traditions of raising circles of standing stones as crude aides for ancient magical rituals, burying the dead in barrows with objects to aid them in the afterlife, the subordination of lowborn bovines to their nobility, and an early chivalric code among the warrior classes of the kingdoms all have their roots in this time. All were widespread across Bovaland by the time the outside world came knocking in the calamitous way that any outside world which included the Capric Empire tended to do.
The Capric Empire was relatively late to expand into Bovaland nineteen-hundred years ago, only doing so after it had subdued the far wealthier and more accommodating territories of Ovarn and Asinia. The few bovish kings and queens with their eyes on the outside world had had time to see the writing on the wall and prepare for war. Forming a united front, their levy forces and few knights met the first Capric legions in pitched battle and put up a surprisingly stiff resistance, routing the legions back to Capra. The bovish monarchs rejoiced, thinking they had thwarted the seemingly-invincible Empire and saved themselves from slavery.
They were wrong. The stung pride of the Capric Imperator of the time demanded a savage escalation, and the Empire was still in its grim heyday and quite willing to bury its problems under bodies. Disciplined legion after disciplined legion came across the border, overwhelming the ad-hoc levies and knights of the bovish. The long, bloody, piecemeal conquest of Bovaland had begun and would span just under half a century. And in it, the greatest and most binding of bovish myths and traditions would take shape.
Amberhorn was a young longhorn aurochs king, one of the many bovish rulers who gathered together to resist the Capric invaders, and quickly rose as a charismatic, skilled and remarkably determined leader amongst his peers. When the Empire pressed further and conquered more of the kingdoms, the case for one great king to oversee the war effort spread like wildfire, and before long, Amberhorn was the first to be anointed as High King of the Bovish - the Bullwalda. That much, the histories can disentangle from the myth. Sorting out how exactly he rose to the position is all but impossible to determine - whether he was responsible for deeds of derring-do against the caprids, paid the best poets to spread his legend, disposed of his rivals, managed an intricate web of alliances and deals, or all or none of the above - none can say.
Sorting what exactly happened during his long rule is even more of a nightmare. The whole age is mired in the Matter of Bovaland, the collective name for the romantic legends associated with Amberhorn and his rule. Glorious victories and tragic defeats against the Empire feature, as do adventures and great deeds by Amberhorn himself. Amberhorn’s formation of a elite and gallant circle of bovish knights heavily features in these legends, as well as the unending quests of these knights to protect the common folk of Bovaland, keep the kingdoms united, slay magical beasts spawned from the arcane laboratories of the Empire, and defy the inexorable Capric advance.
Regardless of the truth or otherwise of these accounts, they have an unshakable place in the memory of modern Bovaland, as does the story of Amberhorn’s last stand. Despite Amberhorn’s decades of fighting, he couldn’t save the kingdoms, and he and his few remaining knights fought one final battle against the massed Capric legions outside the last bovish city of Cromlech Taur. Despite their courage and skill, the outnumbered and outmatched forces of Amberhorn perished, as did the then-old Amberhorn. The legends muddy even that last point. Depending on the story, he either threw off his kingly regalia and charged into the fray to die side by side with the most common of his soldiers, or was dragged mortally wounded from the field into a great barrow under the earth, to sleep until Bovaland’s eventual darkest hour roused him to defend his people once more.
Whatever the case, the conquest was concluded at the Battle of Cromlech Taur, and the legions raised the Imperator’s banner over the city’s walls in short order. But though Bovaland had been subjugated, it would never be truly subdued, and was soon joined by the frontier with Corva in being an all-round pain in the haunch for the Empire. Banditry and constant low-key resistance and disobedience were the norm, no matter the savage reprisals meted out by imperial governors, and bovines soon acquired a reputation amongst caprid slaveowners as simply being too stubborn and truculent to make good chattel. Although the cities and main swathes of farmland were kept under tight control, resistance groups and orders of rebellious hedge knights kept the ideals of old Bovaland alive. Some of these groups were even rumoured to be led by Amberhorn’s descendants, a rumour happily cultivated by Bullwaldas in later times in order to claim continuity from these dissident courts.
This persisted in spite (and possibly because) of the ruthless imperial governance, and Bovaland was ripe to rise up in full-scale revolt when the Capric Empire tottered in the wake of Discord’s reign and Equestria’s rise under the alicorn princesses. The crackdown by the Empire upon the battered bovine population only hardened attitudes past any point of return, and revolts soon replaced low-key resistance as the norm. The Empire’s Imperator was even contemplating withdrawing from Bovaland altogether by the time the rest of the continent rose up in rebellion, beyond the ability of the Empire to suppress after its losses against Corva’s Fourth Cormaer. The Empire was ousted from Bovaland, and the hedge knights and descendants of throneless kings in Bovaland’s wilderness rose to reclaim their rule at long last.
After a flurry of intrigue, deals, and double-dealing, one Bullwalda was acclaimed to lead the reborn nation. Ironring, a shorthorn queen who claimed descent from Amberhorn and who had been in the thickest fighting during the rebellion, took immediate steps to consolidate her rule and guarantee Bovaland’s perilous new position on the world stage. Friendly overtures were made to Ovarn and its new Tyrant, as well as the nearby corvid clans to try and minimise raiding from the east. Ironring walked a careful path to try and ensure Bovaland had friends in the world, but tried not to commit the country to any allegiance that could imperil its hard-fought sovereignty. The Bullwalda’s notional sovereignty was asserted over the distant buffalo tribes and yaks also, a notion that was never seriously enforced or cared much about by the buffalo or yaks. Bullwaldas generally had saner things to attend to than forcing subjugation across half a continent with an alicorn princess in the way.
Conventional and more arcane defenses were arranged as well. In addition to an early spate of castle-raising across the land, Ironring brought many longhorns and even unicorns from Equestria to Cromlech Taur, ostensibly to help build the new Royal Barrow and preserve its future contents behind enchantments. In secret and under binding oaths, they laid magic upon the barrow that would hold the souls of those placed in rest there in readiness, to be unleashed as a spectral army if Bovaland faced a truly existential threat.
As well, the internal state of Bovaland was heavily adjusted. All the old kingly titles were incorporated into the position of Bullwalda in order to prevent competition from petty kings, and many of the old royal lands were taken into Ironring’s own grasp. All other land fell into the ranks of the warrior aristocracy: the rough hierarchy of dukes, earls, thanes, and landed knights that composed the traditional Bovish feudal system. All were charged by the Bullwalda with managing and protecting their land and people in the name of the nation, and a codified system of chivalry was wrangled out of the mythic accounts by Ironring’s poets and council to try and reinforce the moral and social values the knights should adhere to.
This feudal system, for all its rough patches and systemic hiccups and denial of meaningful power to lowborn Bovish citizens, has persisted in the nation and kept it governed in both its early peaceful years and latter days of warfare and strife. After Bovaland’s independence, the forces of the knights, backed up by the militia levies of farmers and town-dwellers known as fyrds, were enough to beat back the odd corvid raiding flock or invading force from one of the multitude of petty caprid realms. Villages cultivated sturdy fortifications to repel attacks from both land and air, while stone castles spread quickly across the landscape; low, enclosed, thick-walled, and capable of giving refuge to nearby populations in times of war.
But war was relatively uncommon for the new nation, which enjoyed its breathing space and saw itself flourish internally. New castles and towns spread across the land, and even amidst the often-sordid humdrum of politics in the courts of the dukes and Bullwaldas, the ideals of old Bovaland and the legends of Amberborn still had an eager audience. Chivalry was still expected of every bovish knight, duels over matters of honour were common, and notions of courtly love blossomed and were indulged in amongst the nobility. Lowborn bovines still had little access to the corridors of power, but limited engagement with the rest of the continent and emerging avenues of trade and industry which the nobility had little traditional interest in meant that their voice and influence grew and grew. Although pressure from the caprids and the corvids was a constant, Bovaland kept its balance.
However, Bovaland’s relative isolation and self-imposed seclusion from the rest of the continent kept it behind other nations in the advancing industries and sciences. The world turned and changed, and Bovaland failed to turn with it. And in the most recent era of Ungula’s history, those same traditions of steadfastness and isolation have brought Bovaland repeatedly to the brink of destruction.
The first of the modern crises was the great raid of Bovaland by the Sixth Cormaer of Corva, emerging fresh from her victory in the clan wars against the Fifth’s supporters. Bovaland’s relations with the clans had always swithered between tense trading and withstanding their raids, with the eastern lords having more reason than most to remain suspicious of the corvids. That impression was cemented across all Bovaland for good when the Sixth’s forces stormed past the border and ravaged much of the countryside. Although Bullwalda Steelhide quickly met the Cormaer in battle and slew her in personal combat, the damage was done. Relations between the two nations never recovered, and Bovaland was left rattled - but still intact.
Next came the rapid reunification of Capra by the Capricious Crown, around three hundred years ago. Before Bovaland could react with an appropriate degree of panicked preparation, the Crown and its reformed legions fell upon both Bovaland and Asinia like a mad wolf, shattering its outdated armies in the field and brutally subjugating the cities and civilian populations in the name of a new Empire. The ferocity of the war and the disciplined and ruthless modernity of the legions shocked the minotaur Bullwalda Gathering Storm. In desperation, he sent accounts of the war’s atrocities to Princess Celestia in Equestria, who then threatened to intervene against the Crown with Equestria’s full might. The Crown, reluctant to gain nothing from the war, threatened to ensure the civilian populations of everyone involved would come off worst if Celestia didn’t back off herself.
Celestia blinked then, and the eventual peace that followed resulted in the Crown tearing chunks off Asinia as well as seizing a western strip of land containing Bovaland’s small musk ox population. The aftermath left Bovaland as a whole traumatised, awakened to the power the new world could bring to bear - and yet unwilling to change to meet it. Fearful of reductions in their prestige and power, the ruling lords argued for a continuation of the old ways in order to ensure stability, married to increased vigilance and readiness for war. Caught between a reforged Capra and the hostile mass of Corva, a siege mentality fell across Bovaland. The castles and knights would have to serve as safeguards.
The castles and knights weren’t enough for the next great crisis. Bovaland was the nation to feel the full brunt of the fury of the Corvid Incursion, when the Seventh Cormaer came out of the east with black powder-wielding hordes. Castle after castle fell, blasted to pieces by corvid bombards, and they proved no shelter at all for those taking refuge in them. Volleys of gonnefire followed by headlong corvid charges saw countless knights slain, and three Bullwaldas rose, fought, and died in the space of a single year. The whole country was occupied, and wouldn’t be liberated until Celestia and Equestria’s legions slew the Cormaer and routed the corvids back across the continent.
Bovaland’s recovery was slow, shaky, and haunted throughout by the prospect of such an invasion ever happening again. Even as the castles were gradually rebuilt and knights and Bullwaldas dedicated themselves anew to training for war, many of the civilian population simply left. Herds of bovines became a common sight in many of the other nations of Ungula, wandering from place to place, performing seasonal work for farmers, and offering up their own goods and talents to earn a living and to send funds home. Some of those who returned spoke about the nations past Bovaland’s borders and their customs. Their modern ways and ways of governance ignited a radical tradition in many of the larger Bovish cities, at odds with the increasingly beleaguered nobility. Bovaland would have to change if it was to survive, but that change showed little sign of coming. Even as the chivalric notions petered away in increasingly desperate times, the traditional forms of rule were ever-more fiercely asserted. Tax-raising, governance, and supremacy in military matters remained the pure perogatives of the noble class.
The newest Bullwalda, an aurochs called Greenhorn, leads a country on the brink internally and beset by nightmares on either side. Young, cautious, and conservative at heart, he has regardless taken the controversial step of approaching Equestria, Asinia, and Ovarn for formal alliances, abrogating Bovaland’s isolationist traditions in favour of trying to safeguard his people. Even that, he knows, will not be enough. For all Bovaland’s deep-rooted martial pride and a legacy of embattled defiance, Bovaland’s armies remain small, archaic in their organisation, and unprofessional compared to the hostile great powers on either side. The Capricious Crown remains as eager as always for conquest … and an Eighth Cormaer has arisen in Corva, intent on avenging the Seventh’s defeat, situations which would be bad enough if the Crown and Cormaer weren’t getting friendly as well.
Greenhorn suspects he may well be the last Bullwalda of a kingdom poised to go down in flames when the inevitable great war comes. Modern ideas of governance and a keen desire for pragmatic change have many supporters amongst the increasingly powerful lowborn bovines, bovines who remember the failure of the knights to protect them. One way or another, the modern world seems set to claim Bovaland, and only time will tell whether Bovaland will perish in the process.
The world will change Bovaland, whether for good or ill. But when that change comes, for one last time, the knights of Bovaland will march out to meet it.
So many choices for the next post.
I would really like to see your take on the Griffons or the Yaks(now that they have been introduced). I do wonder at what the Changeling will do in your verse.
Probably the same thing as in the show.
Oof. Not a land that time forgot, but a land that forgot time. Tradition is all well and good, but it doesn't protect you from bombing raids. Between martial and cultural threats, Greenhorn definitely has his work cut out for him.
As for what to look at next, given all the talk of it, I have to wonder about ancient Antlertis.
I second a look at the griffons.
I just have to say that Gathering Storm is a fantastic name.
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Horrible, horrible choice!
Choice!
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Nominations for the griffons and the yaks noted. I should have stuck the changelings up with the choices on offer - in fact, I might just retroactively do that.
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Nomination for Antlertis noted! The Bovish are certainly in the uneviable position of having hostile neighbours a few centuries ahead of them in industrial and military capacity.
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Nomination for the griffons noted!
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Glad you approve! I was thinking of something else appropriate for a minotaur, and it seemed as fitting with Iron Will and my own Steel Thews as any. Good and ominous.
Really want to see what's up with Capra and that crown - but I'd be satisfied with a look at the dragons as well.
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Nominations for Capra and the dragons noted!
Would it be possible for Saddle Arabia to be included in the choices? After all these war-ravaged countries, I could use some lovable, good-natured Simoom thrown into the mix.
Intriguing. Definitely some Arthurian influences there, but mainly it reminds me of Spain. A once proud and powerful kingdom left behind as the world changed and they failed to change with it. I'm a bit surprised that the Barrow was not unleashed during the Corvid Incursion but then the Bullwaldas probably didn't want to play their trump card early, then by the time they realized that they needed to, it was too late.
I shall vote for the Griffins again and put in a vote that either Equestria or Antlertis is the very last entry.
I love how there is no simple historical comparison to any nation, each holding a melange of inspirations. I'm torn between Capra and the griffins for the next one.
Interesting. :)
regarding the next topic:
Changelings are available even though the Royal Wedding story isn't out yet?
Hm...
There are so many choices, but I suppose that I'll vote for either the changelings or the griffons next.
Dragons! The stories of Amberhorn were based on the Arthurian legends, were they not?
I nominate the diamond dogs and griffons in that order. Also, I think it might be a good idea to do Capra and Equestria back-to-back, given their shared history.
Something looks backwards here....
Gotta give my vote to the griffons. Love the Arthurian themes in this one, and I have to feel sorry for the poor blighters; rock and hard place indeed.
3446520 I thought the Charlemagne refs were fairly clear.
(important bits at 2:00)
I choose Antleris as well
Changelings sound good.
While I'd rather we finish covering Ungula before moving onto other continents, and I definitely still want to hear more about Capra first, Antlertis is the first thing I want to hear about afterwards.
Dragons, Changelings and Antlertis (and it's fall) in that order, plus a nomination for the Everfree Forest - wether it's been pacified by the ponies, is a wildlife preserve or a source of horror and trouble that noone can get a handle on.
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Whoops, I'd managed to forget clean about Simoom. He and Saddle Arabia are also totally viable candidates for posting!
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Nomination for the griffons noted! Spot on about the Spanish influences, as well as the reason the Royal Barrow wasn't deployed.
Not so sure about withholding Equestria or Antlertis to a last post, though. The whole series of these runs off reader interest; so long as people still ask for something new to be covered in a comments, I'm happy to keep writing. A 'last post' would be hard to determine, unless I just sit on it until people stop asking for things to be covered.
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There's generally a melange of stuff that inspires any particular faction - Arthurian England and medieval-to-modern Spain were among the larger items to go into here. And unless you tilt any particular way, nominations for Capra and the griffons noted!
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Yep, they're available. The stuff in their post shouldn't be that spoilery for what goes on in the royal wedding story ... I hope. And changeling and griffon nominations noted!
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Dragon nomination noted! And yep, Amberhorn's totally Arthur, if Uther Pendragon had been that little bit more into barnyard animals.
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Diamond dogs and griffon nominations noted, as well as the suggestion about Capra and Equestria. And whoops, well-spotted. Cultivating readers who remember Ungula's geography better than I do is a handy thing.
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Griffon nomination noted! Sympathy for the Bovish, indeed. It's as if Arthur and his court had survived, persisted into the modern era without changing a thing, and then suddenly found Napoleon et al on their doorstep.
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Bit of Charlemagne in Amberhorn too, inasmuch as he united a great many small kingdoms. I've not delved into the Matter of France too much, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't some legend overlap between it and the Matter of Britain.
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Nomination for Antlertis noted! And let's not go to Cromlech Taur. It is a silly place.
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Nomination for the changelings noted!
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Nomination for Capra noted! I suspect folk might vote for the familiar faces - the Ungulan crowd - before moving onto the outside world. But maybe I'm wrong.
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Nominations for (sequential) dragons, changelings, and Antlertis noted! And the Everfree forest is indeed a fun topic. It's totally fair game for nominating.
Beautiful, again. All of these nations that share a common history (and borders) are incredibly different despite of it. Bovaland chose the head in sand policy when faced with overwhelming odds and the actions of the nobility are refreshingly non-stupid in themselves, as so often portrayed, but meaningful in the light of being mired in unbreakable traditions. Traditions being unbreakable fit the nature of bovines nicely in turn.
Sad, really. First they were made a doormat, then chose to stay a doormat. They could use a lesson from Iron Will - alas he dwells in Equestria now. Probably fed up with his home country for the very same reason and migrated to greener pastures where he can find creatures that will actually listen to him. I knew I liked the guy... what a backstory.
Oh and...
Thank you for that. No, seriously. It's good to see that even she can't win through all the time and can lose in a game of geopolitical chess.
Right then, another great instalment. Nominate Griffons, Equestria and Changelings, in that order.
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Thank you! I've tried to make all of the nations distinct in their own ways and actions ... and yet have their actions make some sort of sense in the context of their own cultures at the same time. The bovish nobility holding to their traditions in the face of Capra and Corva is a really suboptimal strategy on the face of it, but from their perspective, without those same traditions, they'd lose their own power and independence and Bovaland would lose an ethos that has helped it weather storms in the past. Given a toss-up between a slow decline that might be reversed with enough courage and personal skill, or gambling on undesirable progress, there's reasons many of them act the way they do And plenty of reasons why Iron Will and others chose to move on.
Glad you liked the point about Celestia as well. She's almighty compared to most other rulers and nations, but she's not invincible, and there are ways by which she can be exploited ... such as her genuine conscience and revulsion at the thought of innocents getting hurt. Put an unfettered and cunning opponent like the Crown up against her, who can guess at these weaknesses and won't hesitate to exploit them, and Celestia can find herself put on the backhoof.
Of course, that's not to say Celestia's made stupid by her conscience, and she's capable of observing and reflecting on her past mistakes. If she believes capitulation to the Crown brought about more suffering than otherwise, then all bets are off as to what she'd do next time in that sort of situation.
Nominations for the griffons next week noted! I'm thinking it might be best to hold off on nominations for weeks after that, in case decisions change or my book-keeping slips.
I love these! they're wonderful!
I nominate Capra! And if there isn't enough of a mob for that one yet, how about Zebrica?
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And nomination for Capra noted. I imagine more mobs will cohere for the non-Ungulan nations once most of the major players are ticked off.
I'm glad you like them!
This is why I read blog posts. This was so cool to read, and made me fall in love with the Palaververse all over again.
Also, I nominate Capra. Now, excuse me while I go read the other three.
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Nomination for Capra noted! I hope the other three satisfy as well.
It makes one wonder why Celestia doesn't simply forcibly melt down that hunk of metal, particularly in various summits where it is at her seeming mercy.
Or, at a least, why she doesn't have a contingent of Equestrian sages devoted to figuring out how to do just that; every time the Crown comes up, it comes off as ever more vile, and no matter how pleasant Celestia may be, even she must recognize it belongs in Tartarus - if one is feeling merciful.
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She'd love few things better than to reduce the Crown to a puddle, believe me - but there are several factors weighing against her doing so. The Crown has its own armies, resources, and magic with which to fight against her, and it would certainly fortify itself against any attempts to destroy it from afar. Trying to do so would be risky at best, and even if she succeeded or did so at a conference, its supporters would rally for a war that would be costly to the civilians of both sides - to say nothing of the horror and responses of other leaders, for whom a precedent that allows Celestia to annihilate them when convenient would have been established.
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This feels something akin to...
Well, imagine WW2, except FDR and Stalin are both immortal. And FDR is far more powerful than Stalin, and FDR has nukes and far more - but he also knows Stalin will never stop until Stalin has nukes as well. And that no matter what, if Stalin is removed from power, the Soviets are going to be...upset, to put it lightly.
But if Stalin is allowed to continue, then eventually he will have nukes, and unlike FDR, Stalin will not hesitate to burn the world in his pursuit of power.
Yes, the cost may be war now - but it is a war now she can win. The war later may be a far, far greater cost. And, at least among the leaders presented thusfar, it would seem Fairy Floss, Gellert, and Burro would be quite understanding of it. The Bullwalda seems more an unknown (Although given the history of the Bovines, unlikely to really object), which just leaves the Birds - and the Birds are pretty much just as bad as the Crown, so making them realize 'Celestia is willing to incinerate us if need be, and can do so with ease' isn't a bad lesson to teach.
I mean, the more rational ones have to be aware Celestia -can- annihilate them if they push her too far, after all. And, Luna being Luna, I have a feeling the younger sister would not only be onboard but actively advocating for such; much better that than having Rarity restore the sun.
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That's about the shape of it, yep.
Part of the issue is Celestia's own moral code and reservations - she's not going to strike the first blow if she can possibly help it, she'll explore every avenue for a negotiated peace if she can, and she's also cultivated a healthy distrust of any thought of resolving the matter through sheer power.
She's seen what happens when an alicorn dances on the edge of darkness and slips off the deep end, after all. And a world, even a Crownless one, where Celestia's gotten a taste of her own potential and slips into Nightmare madness could be even worse than the alternative.
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Mm. I can see her thought processes there, but it does seem in many ways to be running from the problem and allowing much worse stuff to perpetuate in the interim, fleeing an end she knows is inevitable. Perhaps, then Luna should just step up and do what must be done. Let Celestia remain feeling, mm, 'untarnished' as it were
Mispunctuated. That semicolon should be a colon.
Missing words: "Herds of bovines became a common sight in many of the other nations of Ungula, wandering from place to place,"
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Also fixed.
Day 4: Bovaland
- How is the confused observer doing? I have not seen him since this blog. Was Ovarn and Bovaland too much for him?
- Considering Bovaland's history, I guess the many bovish monarchs suffer from between a rock and a hard place syndrome.
- Early history for all your nations seem to be a collection of tribes and small kingdoms fighting each other for dominion over their respective races. I can see where and why the denizens of the Palaververse felt that there is a Creator and that is the bane of all sensible life. That should be your new title by the way. It goes well with the mythos that surrounds you.
- How do the Buffalo and Yaks feel about their distinct kin and vise versa?
- Windigos attacked not only the ponies, but the Bovish as well? Have they attacked any other nations and do Windigos live in the Utmost South?
- If the Minotaurs lack magic, then do the Apes lack magic of well? Or do Apes have more mental based magic like the donkeys?
- Did the pony mentioned in Wedding March who went to join the bovish to forge a bond of friendship lived during the time of the Capric invasion of Bovaland or after it? He/she must have done something worthy of a song to be remembered by the bovines centuries later.
- Darn those Alicorn princesses, always getting in the way of glorious subjugation.
- The Corvid Incursion lasted for only a year?
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- The confused observer's approximately intact-ish, and may re-appear in future, though they've taken a temporary leave of absence to spend more time with their remaining limbs and shreds of sanity while they still have them.
- They don't have the easiest time of things as far as Palaververse entities go, true. Mind you, most of them would probably look askance at any way that seemed unduly easy. Where'd be the honour?
- It's not the worst name I've ever received.
- The Buffalo and Yaks interact in a friendly enough fashion with their far-flung kin whenever they cross paths, and vice-versa. The Bullwaldas traditionally proclaim themselves the rulers of all bovine kindreds, which is a notion that tends to never be seriously enforced and which the Buffalo and Yaks tend to politely ignore.
- Wherever's there's been strife and disharmony across peoples all over the world, cold winters have crept in around the margins. The early pony tribes got an extra hard whammy of it due to geography and traditional metereology reinforcing the coldness, but nearly everyone's suffered the predations of windigos at one point or another.
- The magic of the apes, as far as can be perceived, begins and ends with a special talent for being robustly ignored by Gazellen scholars no matter how keenly they try to describe their formulae and equations. That, and a special talent for eternal optimism.
- SaId pony's a part of the Matter of Bovaland, dating back to the Capric invasion and the rule of Amberhorn himself. Legend ascribes them a whole host of glorious deeds, as well as death in the final battle at Cromlech Taur.
- They're such nuisances.
- Yep. Dunderheid's forces blitzed through the east with the intention of shattering everyone else's strength first, and then enforcing their grip once everything capable of punching back had been punched to the ground. Break-neck paces and furious pitched battles abounded.
There's something that's been confusing me for a while: where do aurochs fit in the cattle family tree? Because I didn't see them listed here
But they get referenced elsewhere both in this post and in the stories. I've been guessing that it's an alternate name for longhorns, but how correct is that?
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Aurochs fit into the longhorn subtribe, and it's a term that's most often used for a particular and distinctive phenotype within that tribe - black-hided, brawny, and big-horned.
Historians usually seem to prefer more neutral phrases such as "scant book-keeping" or "a lack of reliable records".
Somepony must have very out-of-sorts when they wrote that part.
...and just like that I've conjured up a historian called Rusty Quill.
Not the name they were given as a child, but rather a moniker they earned through the habit of aggressively jabbing anypony who irritated them such as editors, publishers, food delivery ponies and on one occasion a member of the Palace Guard.
Oh that's right, there's a herd of shorthorns living in Ponyville, aren't there?
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This historians of Theia can be a deid snippy bunch, and tend to be less than charitably inclined to the past's record-keepers. No wonder, if the record-keepers give them this sort of guff to work with.
Indeed there are! Mooella is a very traditional sort of Bovish name, you know.
No wonder they are struggling to find their place in the world, they are a strange mixture of nordic, germanic and more post-viking/pagan age style of a more centralized feudalism.
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They're quite a mix, aye. My jumping-off point for them was Anglo-Saxon England, then bolted on a more late-medieval feudal/chivalric system, and nodded here and there to older and more pagan Brythonic stuff (stone circles, the Arthurian equivalence, etc.)
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Yeah, i mixed the nordic part up, thats more the crows with probably a pictish/irish and maybe norse inspirations rather then the south english bretons and anglos, saxons, jutes.
I appreciate the expanding of information when the Buffalo and the Yak arrived on the show's scene. Thankfully, their being so far remote lends itself to the scenario you postulate, namely that Bullwaldas have enough sense to know it's just not worth it to try to enforce fealty with Equestria in the way. Especially since Buffalo and Yaks and ponies are all friendly to Bovaland. A generous friend can be so much more worth it compared to a reluctant vassal.
It's been a few years, but I remember mentioning once how I personally see the Yaks like a tribe of very benign ogres. Big, loud, stompy and smashy, quick to anger, but also well-meaning, very direct, very prideful, and uniquely destructive because of their sheer strength. Now I mention this once again because after reading Moonlight Palaver for the... I stopped counting, actually, sixth time? Ninth? Anyway, I thought the first time about how the Aurochs have magic, while the Yaks don't.
Or rather, how it could be like with Unicorns and Earth Ponies. Aurochs have spells, but Yaks appear to be really, really, REALLY physically powerful. Like, Yona can choke Smolder without trying or easily lift things Ocellus's super transformation struggles with. She can shake the ground just by dancing, and she's a teenager.
So, am I on the right path with that? Aurochs aren't weak either, not at all, but Yaks are utterly terrifying in how strong they are. Is there a difference in how their magic manifests, and is it this? That the Yaks lack spells but they're waaay stronger than anything their size ought to be, even compared to other bovine species?
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That sounds like an entirely fair path, aye, given the abilities of the yaks we see on the show - enhanced strength seems entirely fitting for how their magic manifests. Bullwalda Greenhorn's a strapping example of a longhorn, and he certainly doesn't lack for physical muscle and heft. But he'd be handily hoofwrestled into submission by Prince Rutherford if the two ever met, and he'd be in need of a restorative gin-and-tonic and a lie-down afterwards with his new collection of bruises if Yona ever honoured him with a dance.
I'd conceived of enhanced strength and durability as the special talent of the shorthorns, the other main bovine tribe concentrated in Bovaland alongside longhorns and minotaurs. But there's no reason why magical knacks can't run in parallel.
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For all we know, the Yaks could be to the shorthorns what the Crystal Ponies are to the Earth Ponies.
Assuming the Crystal Ponies are an actual kind of pony, and not a state of being or something. Perhaps something up in the north facilitates the creation of subraces, the Yaks and the Crystal Ponies—only that, as the typical ponyphobe would probably grouse, the ponies, as they are wont to do, made it all shiny and bright and magical.
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Of the isolated populations sheltered by the Crystal Mountains and exposed to the vagaries of northern wild magic, one set got shinier and crystalier and magicaler. Another set got longer-horned and hairier. Both believe they got the best end of the deal.
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It's difficult to argue with the Yaks on that. Because Yaks are best at arguing, they would say, but really more because Yaks actually are best at smashing into fine splinters anything that offends them.
All things considered, Rutherford and delegates meeting Greenhorn could make for a fun anecdote. Like the friendly distant cousin who dislocates your shoulder with a hardy clap and then wants to make you swallow down some bubbling, swirly thing that would normally be used to blast away stubborn old tree stumps but you do it anyway to numb the pain and because you couldn't bear to see him sad that you didn't like their national drink.
Really, the wonder is that they've lasted so long as they have. But it can't hold much longer, it seems. As it is, all that holds the ruling class up may well be that they're seen as better than the alternatives on either side (as well as the migration away of many malcontents).
I wonder what their "friendliest" neighbour, Ovarn, thinks of the situation? Do they have eyes on the territory, or prefer it as a buffer of sorts? And was it via Ovarn that bovines migrated to the west, or did they dare the mountains? (Likely both, I'm guessing.)
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Ovarn Tyranny's definitely concerned about the state of Bovaland. They've no realistic aspirations to rule the territory, but they're increasingly concerned about their northern neighbour's slow decline from bulwark to buffer to speedbump. The latter shan't be much immediate use when Capra or Corva inevitably come knocking again.
Bit of both, aye, but Ovarn in the main. An easier route, with more grazing grounds en-route and less mountain-dwelling horrors to get in the way.