24's World Building Extravaganza: Tribal Dioda · 4:15am Apr 7th, 2014
It's that time again, my respected fans! Time for another world building extravaganza! Unlike last time, I'm actually getting this out to you on time! Now, this is a fun one, and it sets up a lot of my future plans. So let's get started, shall we?
Today's Forecast calls for a spoiler rating of:
Caution: References to the end of OSLF and some plot details in future, unwritten stories.
Now, today's question is brought to you all courtesy of fredford312. Now fredford, while I love you like every one of my fans, let me just clean up your question into something more readable than what you gave me in the comments:
I do believe that in OSLF there was some mention during the history of the Cirran Empire that the griffons seemed to have more control of the land while the pegasi were a bunch of tribes before uniting against the griffons. So I was wondering if you could go into more detail about that and describe that time period a bit more...
Well, this is actually an interesting topic, because I've thought about this for a long time. I've even written my thoughts down on the subject. Why, you might ask? The answer is simple. My next major project after A Song of Storms is a series on the life of Roamulus, the ancient Cirran that united the pegasus tribes into the Cirran Empire and fought the griffons, ending with the climactic battle of Feathertop.
This is the spot where I'd put some art of Roamulus to break up the text walls. Since I don't have said art of Roamulus, here's the map of Dioda instead for reference:
Now imagine, if you will, a line tracing the western edge of the mountain range, just to the left of Feathertop and going from north to south. This was the extent of pegasus lands in tribal Dioda, and everything to the east belonged to the griffons. Now, it looks like the land is fairly evenly split, half pegasus, and half griffon, but the reality is that the griffons were considerably more powerful than the pegasus tribes in the western half of Dioda. While pegasus dominance over this half of Dioda was spotty at best, everything to the east of this imaginary line was firmly in the claws of the griffons. While not necessarily a unified state like Gryphus, the precursors existed and the nation would rise in time. For now, however, Dioda was scattered into numerous different tribal lands, which we will go over in more detail below:
The Cirran Republic
No real spoilers here; we know that Cirra ultimately was the victor out of all the tribal states; this is why the pegasus nation is called the Cirran Empire as opposed to the Nimban Empire, for instance. In the days before Cirra unified the other tribes under its banner, however, it functioned much like the Roman Republic, not so much like a 'tribe', although that is the name generally used to label the pegasus factions of the time. As I've pointed out in my writing and blog posts several times, the idea for the Cirran Empire came from the Roman Empire, and as such it only makes sense that it grew out of a Cirran Republic, much like how the Roman Empire grew out of the Roman Republic. As such, tribal Cirra has its own lineup of senators, praetors, consuls, etc. that helped run it, and instead of legionaries, the Cirran Legion of the time used the different types of units that the Roman Republic had at its disposal; triarii, hastatii, velites, etc. This military force was greatly flexible and proved more than capable of dealing with griffon threats whenever they threatened the Republic. It was through this force that the Cirran Republic was able to unite the other pegasus tribes under its banner.
Roamulus was the last consul of the Cirran Republic and became its first emperor once the Empire was established. During this time, he led the armies of Cirra personally, annexing neighboring tribes through a combination of force and diplomacy to build his empire. Of course, there were tribes that resisted, intent on forging their own pegasus empires, each with themselves as the head state. These warring forces fought and struggled against each other and against Cirra, and only through a measure of cunning and skill was Roamulus able to defeat them and gather them all under Cirran rule. Perhaps the most notable of these rivaling tribes was Nimbus.
The City of Nimbus
Besides the Cirran Republic, the city-state of Nimbus was the most powerful and fiercest pegasus tribe in Dioda. Heavily organized and incredibly dangerous, the pegasi of Nimbus put unchallenged priority in building a militaristic nation onto themselves and their children. Every pony of Nimbus knew how to fight, and every pony was disciplined. Being on the very edge of griffon territory, such was required of them for their survival. Nimbus could not afford to breed soft ponies; if their walls slackened even the slightest bit, they would be inviting death and destruction to their homes.
If Cirra is Rome, then Nimbus is Sparta. Nimban ponies fight in the phalanx formation, and while the Cirrans use swords, the Nimban hoplites heavily favored spears. Weak foals were killed, and everypony was trained to fight in the military as soon as they could fly. Nimban ponies were expected to serve in the military for 20 years minimum, from ages 15-35. Given that a pegasus' natural lifespan lasts about 60 years, this is an entire third of their life. The most honorable of Nimban hoplites was the soldier who volunteered to serve longer than their expected 20 years. If a pegasus served forty years in the Nimban military before retiring due to declining health, they were granted a position on Nimbus' Council of Elders. Apart from the royal family that led Nimbus, this council held the majority of the tribe's power. And being old ponies who had known nothing but war and glory, they were eager to turn Nimbus' goals to the furthering of its power and honor. With this leadership, Nimbus quashed numerous smaller tribes under its military, razing their settlements and colonizing with ponies from Nimbus itself. Other pegasi weren't so much assimilated into Nimbus' holdings as they were removed from their land.
Of course, there were those that resisted Nimbus' attempts to dominate them. Foremost among these was Cirra itself. The conflict that followed between these two tribes was long and terrible.
The Cirro-Nimbus Wars
As stated earlier, the two most powerful factions in pre-empire Dioda were Cirra and Nimbus. Of course, being the militaristic species that the pegasi are, this meant that they tried pretty damn hard to put an end to one another. However, if you look at the map, Cirra (centered around Stratopolis) and Nimbus are pretty far apart. In fact, they would have to get through the lands of Nyx and other tribes in the area to simply go at each other. Thus, instead of fighting each other directly, Nimbus and Cirra fought proxy-wars with each other through the various tribes around them that they had under their influence. This meant that Cirran and Nimban ponies rarely fought each other in battle, but wars in their names were fought by the tribes supporting them. This method, however, changed little in the several centuries of fighting, and the only changes were which proxy tribes were destroyed, conquered, rose to power, or switched allegiances throughout the fighting. However, by the time of Roamulus, tensions between Cirra and Nimbus had simmered down to the point where the two nations hadn't been clawing at each other for several decades. That didn't mean things stayed that way when Roamulus set out to unite the tribes, however...
But that'd be giving too much away too early. Instead, let's cover some of the other city-states that existed at the time.
The Free City of Nyx
Aside from Cirra and Nimbus, one of the other major powers at play in Dioda was Nyx. Built in the plains near Feathertop Mountain, Nyx is noticeably different from the other pegasus cities in that it isn't a sky-city. The reason for this is quite simple: Nyx was a trading empire. While not quite the size as Venice, Nyx definitely has some of those themes going on, in that it traded for or outright took much of Dioda's natural resources. For example, the majority of Dioda's iron resides in the mountain range to the east of Nyx, and for any tribe to field a really large army, they need iron from Nyx. Similarly, Nyx controls much of the timber that pegasi use for anything needing wood, as they control much of the forest to the south. As a result, Nyx became hundreds of times richer than Cirra and Nimbus combined, and its soldiers wore iron armor and wielded iron weapons plated with gold into battle. While they didn't have anywhere near as large an army as Cirra or Nimbus, the simple fact that Nyx could dictate who won and who lost wars from afar simply by embargoing one party or the other made everypony want to be on their good side.
Aside from its economic strength, Nyx is also notable for being a home to the finest mercenaries and sell-swords a pegasus could want. These mercenaries were highly sought after not only because they were amazingly skilled individuals in combat, but they could use magic. Those of you who have read onto Snow and Shadows know that pegasus magic, Empatha, was only discovered after the Exodus from Dioda. The mercenaries from Nyx, however, knew how to use this magic, allowing them to take the field and singlehandedly decimate entire regiments of troops. These mercenaries were specially trained by Nyx, and they were the only pegasi in the world who knew how to utilize Empatha. It was such a closely guarded secret that when the order that taught these mercenaries this special magic was destroyed in 119 AE, the knowledge was lost from the world for three centuries.
In times of war, the aid of Nyx could be bought with gold or tribute. In the Unification War, Nyx played a pivotal role in the conflict as parties from all sides sought the city's aid. Hell, even the griffons attempted to make nice with Nyx, as the griffon warlord Haldber knew what he could accomplish if he had the city's gold on his side. Steel might win battles, but gold wins wars, and Nyx held the lion's share of the continent's gold.
Tonitrua and Ignis: the Kin Cities
In the north, around the region that now holds Pileus, the Kin Cities Tonitrua and Ignis (literally Thunder and Lightning) resided. These two cities were both powerful pegasus tribes in their own right, but they were unique for a number of reasons. First, while they were both separate city-states, each one was led by siblings of the same royal family. Second, even though they were called Kin Cities, both cities were very independent from each other and often fought one another for power and rights to which city's royal family would provide the siblings that would rule the pair next. Third, despite that, both cities knew that they were closely bound to one another by blood, and if one was attacked by an outside force, both would band together and respond as one. This made tying alliances to one of the cities difficult, as they would more often than not turn on the tribe they had an alliance to if it would otherwise force them to fight with their allied tribe against their fellow Kin City. When the Unification War began, these two cities fought together to try and build not one empire, but two-halves to the same empire, each of which responded to one city-state or the other.
As far as the system of ruling Tonitrua and Ignis went, the city-state that was considered more powerful than its brother provided two siblings from its ruling family to rule both cities. This "changing of the guard" occurred once every 25 years, and the few years immediately before then would be filled with fierce fighting to try and become the dominant sibling in the relationship. As soon as the 25th year passed, the two city-states would throw down their weapons and meet to change out the old leaders with the new ones. Since this was usually preceded by war, the two siblings were chosen in the following way:
-The city-state that had claimed more of its brother's land was determined most powerful, and thus the two eldest children of its leader would become rulers of the tribes, with the oldest remaining in their home state and the younger moving to the brother city.
-If the city that was more powerful did not have two siblings as heirs to the thrones, and the other city did, the two heirs would be chosen from the other city.
-If both cities lacked two siblings to be chosen as heirs, but each had one child, the children would directly succeed their parents as leaders of their respective cities.
In this way, it was possible for the weaker of the two states to "win" the thrones of both city-states by killing off their brother city's heirs. However, there was a sacred tradition in place that neither city could kill the last heirs of the other. To do so would force a non-related party to take over one of the cities, and thus break the tradition that each city was ruled by a pair of siblings.
During the time of Roamulus, Tonitrua and Ignis were ruled by a brother and a sister. Both responded violently and in unison to Cirra's attempts to unify the tribes under its own banner. I can't really say more about what happened, as that'd be spoilers for Roamulus' story which I ultimately plan on writing, but the single city of Pileus now resides in the area where there once were two cities.
The Griffon States
As mentioned before, the griffon states existing at the time were undoubtedly more powerful than the individual pegasus tribes in the west. Griffon incursions into pegasus lands were frequent and left a trail of destruction in their wake, but there were hardly ever any serious challenges to pegasus dominance within their own lands. The price to pay from pissing off Nimbus, Nyx, or Cirra was more often than not far too much for anything the griffon warlords could hope to attain.
While the pegasi were unifying themselves through blood and iron, the griffon states remained fractured and unwilling to cooperate. Like I said, this is not to imply that they were weak; the griffon state under Warlord Haldber was responsible for the majority of the incursions into pegasus lands, and his state alone at some point fought armies from every one of the major pegasus tribes without ever losing any of his land. Haldber controlled almost the entirety of the mountains, and from there he could stage devastating raids into pegasus lands that annihilated smaller tribes and would set the larger pegasus nations back a few years of progress. Until Roamulus came, the griffon supremacy in the east was never challenged. Not even Nimbus could field a force powerful enough to ever hope to subdue the griffon states by itself.
During the Unification War, Haldber took notice of Roamulus' attempts to unify the pegasus tribes under Cirra's banner. Hardly a fool, Haldber responded with a devastating raid that nearly crushed Cirra's chances at unifying the tribes before it could really gain momentum. However, the raid failed to stop Roamulus, and despite everything, the pegasus fought through it all to ultimately slay Haldber and destroy the griffon state at Feathertop Mountain, buying respect and fear of the newly formed Cirran Empire that gave it time to establish its footing before any of the other griffon states were able to respond. By that point, however, Cirra was too entrenched as a powerful and unified empire that it would not be driven away by any of the griffon states alone. In time, the Empire grew into the Empire it was during Hurricane's time: powerful, dominant, and seemingly infallible.
And that's it, my friends. There's a first real look at everything going on in tribal Dioda during the time of Roamulus. Now, if some things were intentionally vague, rest assured that they will be answered with time. I look forward to writing Roamulus' story, and I can guarantee it'll be some of my best work ever. After all, it'll be heavily influenced by Game of Thrones. What could possibly go wrong?
I'll be back next week to answer more questions! Until next time,
Ante Legionem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem
24
I'm gonna love hearing more about Pre-Cirran Empire Nimbus.
How did the Zebra defeat the gryphons? :v
From your previous blog, you stated that Gryphus was still around during Magnus' return, 2k years after his death; was he still around during the Zebra takeover? V:
And what happened to the bronze statue of Roamulus after the fall of Stratopolis?
Huh. Where does Magnus come in in the timeline then? And for that matter, Celestia, Luna, Krenn, and those other two that I can never remember the name of?
Roamulus' story is going to be awesome, I am really looking forward to it. And extremely limited pre-exodus Empatha usage? Fun.
Wow great history exploration
even if we have to see Hurricane go 
And thank you for answering my question
I am greatly looking forward to the series of Roamulus
Can we hear some history on the unicorns and earth ponies pre-pegasus contact?
Sorta curious as to what happened
1987873
I believe you're mistaken in the events that happened. The zebras never conquered the griffons by any stretch of the term; they simply moved into evacuated Cirran lands in the southern forests and jungles while the rest of the griffons were fighting their civil wars. The zebras are nowhere near advanced enough to ever make an attempt at taking down any of the griffon states. This is both a blessing and a curse, as it means that they're at the will of Magnus as to whether or not they can survive in Dioda, but they're not advanced enough that Magnus doesn't see it as worth it to remove them. Besides, zebra guerrilla tactics in the dense jungles where griffons can hardly fly are devastatingly effective, and it'd cost Magnus an inordinate amount of soldiers just to make any sort of headway.
Ok.
About how many total troops did the Cirrans have just before the tide turned ageist them? So after the first draft or so.
How many Legions did they have at about the same time?
Do the Legions each have any specific names?
Are specialty Legions a thing? If so, what kinds are there?
What was the(is) ranking structure of the Legions/the nation as a whole ((From the bottom to the top) Hurricane did start from the bottom after all)
Tl;dr
Tell me all about the Legions.