Cadence Verse! Griffon Empires & Other Species. · 7:48am Mar 1st, 2013
The Griffon Empires:
Considering I would like to keep some of the B5 references discussed, the Griffons would likely be the centauri analogue.
This piece is a bit vaguer than some of my other posts, the only two "solid" posts I have planned are Equestria's government and Cadence's profile, both of which are very time consuming. I am willing to discuss, take suggestions and revise the stuff here, and as usual reviews, comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated. I’d also like to thank everyone who has shown an interest or commented on this idea so far, it’s very encouraging!
In modern C!Verse Eqauestria, there are two Griffon Empire’s; the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire. The griffons were originally different tribes and small clans, living in the great mountainous areas north of Equestria (or other continent) eventually they began uniting into larger group and founding towns and small nation states and may have spent some of their time acting like vikings. Eventually 1200 years before the current story-line the various Griffon states were largely united under a single ruler who dubbed themselves the emperor/empress of all Griffons. There were wars against other nations, (there had been some before the unification as well) to take their land or to expand their dominion to other species, and ruined forts and settlements can sometimes be found in the modern day. But the empire was too large, disorganized and unwieldy, partially due to the communication abilities of the time. The last emperor had numerous heirs and close friends who could make a valid claim to the thrown but had left no instructions for what to do upon their death, the last emperor’s death coincided the disappearance of the Princess’s beginning the era of Twilight, leading to anarchy within the empire.
The Eastern Empire is largely united and secure, they have warred with Equestria in the past but not in any mortals living memory, they were somewhat expansionist but are mostly interested in maintaining their power base as opposed to expanding it. The government is (likely) a diarchy with two kings/queens (as no Griffon would claim to be emperor) elected to serve as the empire’s Diarchy’s for ten years, assuming they are not impeached. Both leaders tend to specialise in different areas of leadership and were elected to balance one another and few decision can be made by one that is not affected by the other. Besides that they also have a council of elders who advise them and hold a fair amount of political sway. The Eastern Empire is a nominal friend and competitor to Equestria and is a highly respected world power. Its culture and aesthetics is largely based on a mixture between Russia, medieval England/Germany/Vikings/Celts.
The Western Empire is on the other hand a fractious government held together by old treaties and ancient traditions. It’s made up of a collection of a few dozen smaller nations, with a great sense of distance and culture between the different states, (in many ways it is similar to Equestria, but without a consistent presence to help unite it.) There is a high king, who is advised by a council of priest’s and elder warriors/shamans. There is little unity and internal political conflicts and even threats of war “civil or otherwise” spring up, both within their own empire and anything nearby. Some effort was made in recent memory to extend into Equestria and there are still marks left over from this. The high king/queen/ETC is jealous of both the Eastern Empire and Equestria and I power hungry more concerned with creating a legendary empire than managing their own kingdoms. While the high king/queen/ETC is technically the highest authority, they have to listen to their advisers and each “state” is still technically ruled by its own king/chief/ETC, who’s opinions have a great deal of sway, though that is often tied to the leaders popularity with other states and their military power. They may have aided Changelings in the past and are hungry to recapture the glory days of long ago when their power and unity was unmatched.
Notes:
Griffon religion is based around ancestral worship (insulting a griffons family/ancestor, bad idea) clans dedicate shrines to their ancestors alone and in some cases all the clans revere cultural heroes and have public shrines and temples dedicated to them. (the pavilion of heroes, for instance.) Though this is not necessarily uniform amongst all Griffons. Their magic is primarily weather based but they also runes for enchanting objects. The more stable nations are making good advancement in magitech style creations.
The Princess's were mostly willing to ignore the Griffon Empire, and the Griffons generally tried to avoid angering them after a few disastrous forays into warfare with them. Some of the modern day Empire’s territories stretch into what would in other cases be Equestrian territory. There are also small tribes of Griffon that pledge allegiance to neither Empire and instead form small communities of their own, some are nomadic while other’s settle in small mountain valley’s; they wield little political power and are in many way’s sort of like the Amish of the Griffon world. While the Empires have ,magic they can be a bit "superstitious, regarding things like spirits and the like . (of course it's fantasy so they aren't exactly wrong either) and are not generally as trusting to think like unicorn magic
The two empires aesthetics and culture are quite similar to one another, one simply being more Russian/German/English/Viking than the other, though both have a certain “middle ages” feel to them, despite relative advancement. That is when not building cloud cities Griffons have a mixture of stone castle, temples and home built on clifftop and cloud based cities, the more destructive weather of their land make entirely cloud cities impractical and the Griffon view the land as theirs as well and have no intention of letting another species being able to just move in.
(Technically, we don't know where Griffons come from within the normal MLP world, they may have a continent all to themselves or, live on Equestria or some sort of mix, for the moment I am happy to have them be in the north.)
Cloudsdale and certain pegasi clans have been allies to either specific Griffon clans or empires in the past and even before Equestria was re-formed there was polite trade. Some Griffon’s from tribes to empires to old outpost and towns that were re-absorbed now live in Equestria. Equestria has a “reasonably” large Griffon population in trade and sky centered cities and both Eqauestria and the empires have a sporadic hippogryph population, Equestria more so than any other.
Griffons have weather magic, to an extreme and call their greatest weather master Shamans (maybe) they also have priests, but I am unsure if I want them to have a magic of their own, possibly involving the spirits of passed Griffons. Knights, champions and gladiators exist within the two empires and tend to be highly regarded, Griffons who are born particularly large often come from "warrior families" and are exceedingly strong and fast, while spell cast Griffon will either be normal size or smaller, though any Griffon in between/normal can rise high as well.
Other Species:
While I do have more detailed ideas for these species, i'd rather leave them open for later use or reinterpretation.
Abada, if they exist, have magic focused on pollymorhping, healing and spacial magic (it's bigger on the inside, maybe), they tend to keep themselves looking young if they can and generally place a good deal of important upon physical attractiveness and magical ability. Their magic looks like fire. Their society is very much into tall towers in terms of construction and most can be seen with a at least some jewelry.
Zebras are a mix, some areas have nomadic tribe of zebra but there are also nations of zebra with sprawling cities and everything in-between. Zebra’s and Abada never had the same degree of disdain for one another that the three pony tribes did, but they are not particularly close many living in entirely different nations from one another and not making it a point to get closer. They have their own magic, possibly more than one but all are rather vague within the verse itself.
Buffalo are more or less the same as they were seen in the normal T.V series, they are a primarily nomadic culture, that move around following the weather in the seasons, each tribe has their own territorial which can be extremely large (as large as a small state) it is within this territory that they travel, gather food and live their lives. Some tribes have set up permanent homes, these towns are quite spread out and are usually built around oasis's or near very fertile spots of land the border of Equestria is such a place. The Buffalo have basic agriculture, that mostly functions by them planting seeds in an area after living their and caring for them until they leave, when they return the seeds have grown a new food source. They try to avoid using magic for this task, but in times of need they will do so. and specific sacred areas have a permanent population to guard these areas. The border is patrolled by different tribes in different areas, the Buffalo are quite territorial.
Buffalo practice a religion/magic based around reverence for nature , they can draw magic from the land itself combine it with their own to create different affects, but they generally try to use it sparingly to maintain balance. Certain Buffalo's are also born as "seers" which basically means they are so in-tune with nature they can extend their magical energies into it and observe distant places. This is a difficult to train and control ability. They also respect their ancestors but do not worship them, instead they revere the spirit/idea of nature itself and may believe in reincarnation.
For Deer I’d probably do something similar to Fizzy Orange’s, if he was cool with that. Or perhaps make them more like mysterious "wood elves/druids".
Diamond Dogs tend to live in a pack based society and are largely subterranean. They were a great threat when Cadence was working for the re-unification of Equestria, expanding their territory and enslaving ponies. Even in the modern age roving bands of Diamond Dogs are still a problem for Equestria, the Diamond Dogs, do not have much of a united nation, though there are a few small city states; mostly they go where gems are or where they desire territory. They either have earth/stone based magic or a magic based around making “contracts” with spirit/elemental entities, possibly combined with a form of ritual magic. They may have a connection to Cerebus (sire/creator) and if he exists his brother Othrus, who may be a hero a figure of evil, or a demi god like figure.
As for groups like Minoataurs, I could simply have them as other species with their own nations and the like or I could instead have them as unique creatures, who exist in small numbers, there may be only a hundred minotaur in the world as very few are born and only in one area. (An example would be with Centaur in Greek Mythology, they existed but only had a small population in the mountain of Pelia) In this case they would likely be creatures created, born from odd unions or “raised/altered” by a powerful entity, the gorgons for instance could be created a medusa or Stheno or Euryale like entity and live on a single island( or maybe not). I'd kind of like to do something with Aztec architecure at some point as well. Oh and I’m still up in the air about what I want to do for the Crystal Empire.
Thanks again for reading!
You are doing a heck of a lot of world-building, and I'm very impressed. How long until we get a story, though?
877273
Thank you I really appreciate that! World building is terrific fun for me so I tend to do a fair amount and receiving comments like this is very encouraging.
877359
Don't feel bad, LNLD had two or three false starts before I actually finished the first chapter.
I definitely recommend starting with an in media res story, though perhaps not Boast Busters, since the reason why I started that was due to reversing Trixie and Twilight.
Hmm...for some reason, I'm thinking "parasprites..."
877366
Thanks, I have a few different beginnings and a battle scene in my head, but not much else. That's good advice, fair point about Boast Busters. hmm Parasprites could certainly work. Thanks for the suggestion!
If the Griffin societies have Viking and German influences, what about giving them rune magic, used for enchantments rather than casting fireballs?
1125422
hmm that is an interesting idea, I generally felt griffon would use weather and shamanistic/spirit magic, but they do have "hands" so rune drawing could also work very well for them, weather and runes could combine very well if runes were for enchantments as you said. Part of me was considering going with the L!verse idea of having elk with runes, but there's no reason more than one species/society can't also make use of runic magic and it would help balance things out a bit. I've been considering making them more "elf like" anyway.
Thank you for the suggestion i'l l definitely think more on it in the future!
1125439
What about buffalos, the american-indian equivalent on Equus? It´s easy to picture their religion as shamanistic in nature, like in Lunaverse.
1125638
Excellent point there, hmm OK I think I got it, Griffon religion is based around ancestral worship (insulting a griffons family/ancestor, bad idea) clans dedicate shrines to their ancestors alone and in some cases all the clans revere cultural heroes and have public shrines and temples dedicated to them. (the pavilion of heroes, for instance.) Though this is not necessarily uniform amongst all Griffons. Their magic is primarily weather based but they also runes for enchanting objects. The more stable nations are making good advancement in magitech style creations.
Buffalo practice a religion/magic based around reverence for nature , they can draw magic from the land itself combine it with their own to create different affects, but they generally try to use it sparingly to maintain balance. Certain Buffalo's are also born as "seers" which basically means they are so in-tune with nature they can extend their magical energies into it and observe distant places. This is a difficult to train and control ability. They also respect their ancestors but do not worship them, instead they revere the spirit/idea of nature itself and may believe in reincarnation.
1125650
I think it´s perfect that way.
1125654
Thanks for your help, I greatly appreciate it!
1125654
oh, sorry, I just thought of something else, a skilled Buffalo shaman can create "enchanted" objects they do this by channeling magic into, a stone for example.
They channel magical energy into the stone and then begin changing the way the magic within the stone functions until it suits their purposes. then it juts up form the ground and they can use it for whatever they intended.
They can do the same with say, trees, or even channel air/wind into an object (possibly called totems) Certain wooden carving (totem poles) are also made with this in mind; i'm thinking these are either an exception to their rule or they are designed to allow magical energy in and out with greater ease than normal. Buffalo generally do not like doing this as they view it as a "perversion" of how nature is supposed to work so enchanted objects are destroyed after they are used.
Seers may also being able to form a connection with animals, I imagine like earth ponies Buffalo have a "connection" with animals, though culturally is is significantly different from Eqauestria's.
EDIT: I have been informed that I should not have used totems and am sorry for my ignorance.
I have an idea for world building if you are interested.
During the reign of the alicorn sisters, many deer tribes were driven out of home land by both ponies and griffons alike. Though the deer were able to reclaim a portion of their land after the Griffon Emperor's death. Princess Cadence came across a young buck and doe and returned them to their family. The tribe's chief, who just happen to be the pair's father, was grateful his children were return to him.Later on in the early years of Princess Cadence's rule, she was visited by the two deer she had helped who were now grown up.
They told her of their past tragedy and to warn her that many deer tribes were planning on uniting and attack. Wanting to prevent bloodshed and hopefully gain a new ally, went to talk with the deer leaders. Eventually Princess Cadence was able to give the deer back most of their land, a move that still controversial to this day. A few on both sides were not happy, some-ponies were angry at being forced from their home while some-deer was that Princess Cadence wasn't able to give them back all of their land.
And if you don't like this idea or have other plans for the deer, I understand.