A Map and Some Lore · 10:55am Mar 26th, 2023
Maps are great. As a kid I used to spend hours pouring over my parents' atlas, even though it was a little out of date and still had the Soviet Union on it. It was, however, the 1990s, and the collapse of the USSR had only been a few years ago, so I suppose they could be forgiven for that.
At any rate, Setokaiva, the long-term proof-reader and editor of The Blueblood Papers, who is more of a partner-in-crime by this point, suggested that I create a map of the Changeling War. Now, I'd always kept the geography of the conflict rather loose, as I did for most of the background information about the conflict; I'd wanted to imply that there was a greater conflict taking place, while keeping the focus firmly on Blueblood who either doesn't know or doesn't care what's going on there. However, by this point, I have come up with enough that it's worth putting down on a map so I don't lose track of it all. Readers have asked me in comments about what's going on in these places only hinted at, and while I was drawing this out I'd also started to flesh out these other places that Blueblood has never seen, so I'm combining this with a bit of a lore-dump. Feel free to ask me questions, as it'll help add even more detail.
I should also point out that my artistic and map-making skills are lacking, and this was done as an exercise to get a general idea of the state of the fronts. As soon as I've paid off various debts I may consider commissioning an artist to do this properly, perhaps in the style of a military map Celestia might have pinned up on the wall in her office. Also, this map depicts the position of the belligerents at the end of Royal Blood, but may contain spoilers for Bound by Blood.
The Central Front:
The 1st Army of the new Equestrian Army is the tip of the spear driving into the Changeling Heartlands. Under the new leadership of Field Marshal Hardscrabble and General Market Garden, they aim to drive deep into the enemy's home territory, cutting off hive cities along the way, to draw the Changelings into an open battle and then assault the Queen's Hive. The experience of the first year of the war, which saw the Royal Guard take Black Venom Pass and then Fort E-5150, exposed grave weaknesses in command, which spurred on the Twilight Sparkle Reforms. Virion Hive, the first attempt to take a hive city, resulted in a siege that led to the single bloodiest day in the conflict, and discouraged the Equestrians from directly assaulting defended hives.
The terrain consists of wide open plains interspersed with dry, rocky hills. The campaign is planned to be one of maneouvre across open ground, to constantly bait the Changelings under the command of the brilliant Hive Marshal Chela into open battle by cutting off their supply of love and threatening the Queen's Hive itself. Equestrian command, however, is still split, with Hardscrabble favouring a high tempo of operations to end the war quickly and decisively, and Market Garden demanding a more cautious, attritional approach, ensuring that her logistics can keep up in what is the enemy's home turf. The so-called Desolation of Chrysalis, a by-product of the Changelings draining of love from the equine population, has left the land barren and almost lifeless, with little in the way for grazing for the advancing ponies. The advance, therefore, will be restrained by the ability of the Equestrian forces to transport enough food across the desert, along supply lines that are constantly threatened by infiltrating drones. The worsening internal problems faced by the Hive as well as the Western Front's unexpected success in threatening their prime agricultural land means that 1st Army is unlikely to loot sufficient rations from the enemy to sustain its advance. Nevertheless, Hardscrabble is keen to maintain pressure on the enemy.
A key feature of this campaign is the use of partisan warfare. While the Changelings use infiltrators to harass supply lines, Equestrian forces have started working with native ponies to stage slave uprisings that draw away ponypower from the front. The Hives must dedicate a not-inconsiderable portion of their forces to preventing their nightmare from taking place, a mass-slave uprising across the entirety of their occupied lands. This is a nightmare Princess Luna is keen to inspire, with small, elite groups in the countryside where Changeling control is the weakest.
Teratoma Hive is, for all intents and purposes, a work camp the size of a small city. Its population consists entirely of slaves of all races, including dissident Changelings, who are forced to work in appalling conditions in the factories, producing weapons for the war-swarms. However, the high turnover of workers and lack of skilled labour compared to the Equestrian industrial cities of Trottingham and Manehattan, coupled with an ever-increasing need for more materiel at a faster rate, has resulted in poor quality equipment. Drones have been known to discard domestically-produced muskets in favour of stealing foreign ones, either Equestrian-made or ones supplied by their unknown benefactor.
The Chrysalis Line is only in the planning stage. Chela, aware that her forces are outnumbered and outgunned and under pressure from Chrysalis to hold the line, has made preparations to construct a defensive line to guard the Queen's Hive from attack from the north. Equestria currently has little intelligence on these plans.
Eastern Front
The 3rd Army's advance was aimed to cut off the Changelings' access to the sea. During the Siege of Virion Hive, it became known that they were receiving aid from an unknown benefactor, assumed to be southern pirates who had been on the receiving end of a combined Equestrian-Hippogriff campaign, in the form of muskets. However, the terrain in the Hayseed Swamps does not lend itself to rapid advances, and the advance has literally bogged down in the marshes. The logistical situation is worse than in the Central Front, for both sides. The fighting here has degenerated into a back-and-forth slog through the swamps, with each side only advancing several miles at a time before being the exhausted troops are thrown back in a counter attack. Despite the lack of progress, Chrysalis is aware that cutting off her access to the sea will only accelerate the deterioration of her Hives , and continues to throw more and more drones into the mealgrinder, drawing off forces that might otherwise be used to hold off 1st Army's drive on the Queen's Hive.
With the failure of 3rd Army to cut off the flow of arms from the sea, the Equestrian Navy and Airship Fleet has established a blockade. However, the Changelings always seem to find a way to get through.
Western Front
The success of then-General Hardscrabble's advance here shocked everyone, not least the Equestrians. The 2nd Army's intent was merely to guard the flank of 1st Army, but the Changelings seemed not to expect the Equestrians to advance straight over the Macintosh Hills. Changeling response was piecemeal, as they were dealing with the Central Front, and so the 2nd Army won a series of spectacular victories against isolated war-swarms. Far from the Changeling Heartlands, the enemy struggled to respond adequately to the threat. Over-stretched logistics and forces taken to reinforce 1st Army meant that 2nd Army was not able to exploit its dramatic success. Here, however, is the Hive's prime agricultural land; though the Changelings feed on love, they must keep their slave population fed, at least just enough for them to survive. 2nd Army has therefore split up into a number of independent brigades, living off the land, and raiding the large plantations and farms the enemy use to maintain their slave population, while recruiting an ever-growing band of liberated ponies into their midst. It is hoped that this will hasten the end of the war.
I think you might need to correct the text in details of the Eastern Front to refer to the 3rd Army - at least based on the map.
Nice map, by the way. Where is the prisoner camp where Blueblood is kept?
Has any particularly hard-nosed individual suggested burning/destroying the Slaves' Food supply? Or utilizing Princess Luna's dream walking skills to ferment dissent or cause mass fatigue?
5719885
Derp, I can't believe that I missed that. I've fixed it.
The prison camp would be somewhere in the hills to the east, but its exact location is unknown
5719886
Yes, and that has been happening to a limited degree on that front. Most Equestrians find such wanton destruction distasteful, and arguments still rage in Equestria about the validity of total war strategy, but those on the ground having seen the conditions the slaves live and work under are more than willing to burn those farms and plantations to the ground. However, more often than not, the independent brigades of 2nd Army simply steal shipments of food intended for the hive cities of the Heartlands.
Changelings seem to be quite resilient to Luna's dream walking, speculated to be a side-effect of their constant hunger for love that keeps her at bay. She tends to use it as form of communication with the partisans behind enemy lines, though it is unreliable due to turmoil in the dream realm.
5719889
I actually meant using the dream disruption on the slaves. Tired, sleep deprived workers are poor ones, thus impacting the quality of Changeling arms
5719890
Ah, right. Yes, Luna does do that, however, she is only one mare and must also maintain her duty of banishing nightmares, so the amount of impact that has is quite small. She finds it more productive to use it to encourage those slaves into acts of sabotage.
Fascinating stuff. Thanks for providing a wider perspective of the war.
5719891
Good point. It did also feel a tad OOC for Luna to torment the already suffering, but war makes monsters of us all.
5719887
I think you overedited, now the 3rd Army is mentioned once in the Western Front as well
5719895
Well, that's embarrassing! Hopefully it's right now.
Have Thorax and other dissidents made contact with Equestria at this point? If so, what role, if any, are they currently playing?
5719938
Good question. Thorax is up in the Crystal Empire, as in the show, but his status as a low-level drone whose only service for the Queen had been in failed attack on Canterlot, so he doesn't really have much to offer, which is why he hasn't been mentioned much. Odonata, as we know, is currently in Canterlot, trying to organise some sort of Purestrain resistance to Chrysalis and supplying advice to Celestia on what the enemy might do.
Like most tyrants, Chrysalis values personal loyalty her above all, and has therefore surrounded herself with yes-drones. Dissidents in a position to make any meaningful impact are few and far between, and most tend to be starving drones more concerned about their next meal than opposition to the regime. Drones who surrender to Equestrian forces, being few at first but growing in number as the war worsens, are kept in PoW camps. Purestrains in positions of authority, fearful of Blackhorn reprisal, tend to choose more subtle means of resistance - a shipment of arms for the front is 'lost' to partisans, orders are muddled or delivered too late, or intel leaked to the Equestrians.
I absolutely the map with the commentary on the war as a whole and overall resume of the progress made is a delight. I think It help build the lore a lot and it gives us a lot of answers as well. This could easily be inserted at the end of an arc as it's own chapter. Just add a bit more fluff like who were the Purestrain leaders on each fronts or where the Hayseed swamp front get their supplies from and it would be good to go.
If it was on another site I would suggest to add this as a side story for the main thread.
I wouldn't mind a resume like this of the various progress at the end of each arc. Maybe not with a map each time, or maybe this one but with some updates on it.
I am surprised by your description on how flat the terrain is. With the "official" map in MLP, there seems to be some very rocky mountains, some Mesa and canyons as well in there. But I like how you the description varies from parts to parts like the agricultural sector is in the west, the north was very dry, sandy and mountainous as you go north but more and more grass is found as they advance south. We'll, the yellow rocky peaks and mesa do seems to be more to the East, South-East and South West so it normal the Equestrian army hasn't dealt with those as well. Well... there was a city of the locals that was described as carved into a mountain since Blueblood had go fight in it's depth in a previous story so it's not just hills and flat lands surrounded by mountains. However I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hive on top and inside of a Mesa somewhere in the Badlands but it would be hell to take for the Equestrian army I am sure.
As for the situation in general, Equestria logistics are very lacking and they are probably working very hard to correct this as well. Building the train tracks for the central front being a good example.
The first front is slow to advance and the the second is too stretched so they absolutely need to improve the logistics and flow of supplies or they will stall. And as seen in the story, you can only lay down tracks so fast, depots need to be built and guarded and the army consume like a starving horse.
The third front in Hayseed swamp sound like a nightmare of disease, bugs and rot due to the humidity. They are probably loosing as much ponies from the environment as they are from the Changelings. Unless they can get a train there, they are probably forced to build a dirt road in a swamp by bringing in rock, sand, gravel and littles bridges by the tons while zigzaging to build on the not too deep parts. Otherwise, they have a port on the coast to shorten the travel on land to the front or they make heavy use of slow and vulnerable zeppelin.
The blockade on the coast by the navy sounds like it's could be a good way to have Blueblood test is sea leg while dealing with whatever calamity that will befall him. He will be soooo happy to go back go the firm and dry sand of the Badlands when he is done.
It's very concerning that the majority of the East, South-East and South of the Badlands have no Equestrian presence there. The First Army is slowly becoming vulnerable to get flanked from the East and the the rest is still an enormous reserve for the Changelings even if most of their troops are co concentrating on stopping the Equestrian advance on three fronts, four if you count what is happening with Blueblood and operation Sunburn and five with trying to deal with all the infiltrators back home.
I am also worried that other actors that could get into play here. The Equestrian army is slowly making alies with the Free tribes that lives here and is liberating the slaves while arming both but I don't think the problem will come from them besides the few diplomatic incidents, some theft of supplies or maybe some violent altercation here and there because assholes on both sides exist and everyone is tense. It wouldn't make sense to break the alliance or betray for Chrysalis at this point when things look like they will finally get rid of the Bugs.
No we need go look ar other possible actors on the map. The navy blockade might get into conflict with the weapon suppliers and the Forbidden Jungle seems like a whole basket of 'NOPE' when it comes to things that could crawl out from the underbrush. A likely scenario that the Equestrian might have to face since the Chrysalis Line will block their advance, their only solution will be to go around, putting their flank and back to the jungle at the south. If there was mercenaries Chrysalis could hire it would be from there. And since this is MLP (which kind of have a very dark undertone and a lot of dormant horrors buried everywhere) and a crossover with WH40K, the chances that there is something in there that would love to go and nibble on some ponies or would love nothing more and grab some fresh bodies to a sacrifice for their eldritch idols is entirely plausible in my eyes.
5719939
You could also add this comment to the resume above as for how the Changelings factions are doing.
I would be interested in a similar analysis on how the various parts of Equestria are fairing in the war, what cites are contributing (like for example Cloudsdale problem in finding a way to contribute), what the major actors back home for the war, how the population is taking the news and the wartime economy, the moral, etc. Basically everything Blueblood does focus on. There is enough there for a whole chapter of content really.
And a analysis on the international aspect would be fun to see. We already saw the Crystal Empire contributing as well as the Yaks and now we are seeing what is happening in a colony with the latest story but other nations must be looking at Equestria with a lot of attention. Some would probably try to profit from it, other may even attempt a move Equestria would have normally put their hooves down to stop, like with economic sanctions but now that they are stuck in a war, they can't fling their usual enormous weight around as they need to concentrate with the internal crisis.
5719998
Thanks for the extensive comment! To address some of the points you raised:
Yes the terrain is a bit flat, mainly because I didn't feel like drawing in every hill and mesa. The area known as the Badlands is big, and has a lot of variation; the east is agricultural land because the rivers flowing through make it so, while the rest is mostly barren. The northern regions tend to be the roughest. There are plains, hills, mesas, rocks, etc. all over the place, so plenty of variation for future stories.
The Equestrian armies are pretty spaced out. Being at a Napoleonic/American Civil War level of military development (with anachronisms, of course, the show is already full of them), there are enough units on either side for the sorts of continuous frontlines we see in WWI and WWII, so individual armies on both sides are fairly spaced out and vulnerable to outflanking.
And there are plenty of other things for me to expound upon. Perhaps I'll add more blogposts, but I quite like the idea of responding to specific questions, especially ones that I didn't expect, so it's more of a collaborative world-building exercise in addition to the main story series. Aside from the Crystal Empire and the Yaks, there aren't many other political entities to speak of that the show portrays except perhaps the Griffons, who, aside from the Princesses' Griffon Legion, as a whole have more pressing issues in Griffonstone to deal with. However, I'd imagine that some of the more wealthy ones there are engaging in some measure of war profiteering on both sides. Perhaps as labourers for the Equestrians in building and maintaining the growing logistical backbone of the armies' advance into the Heartlands.