The Griffon Empire · 6:50am Sep 16th, 2014
Introduction
The Griffon Empire is one of the Great Powers of the world; they dominate the Central and North-Central portions of the continent of Taura. They emerged as the victors of the Great Tauran War of YOH 1500-1504, but their victory was far from decisive and despite ending the war on favorable terms, they are surrounded by the Allied Powers they defeated, who yearn for revenge against them. Equestria was nearly drawn into the Great Tauran War, but managed to remain neutral due to skillful diplomacy.
The Griffons and Their History
Much of the Western portions of the Old Worlds, particularly the continent of Taura and North Zebrica, are dominated by the Griffons. The Griffons are a predatory, sapient and technological race of obscure origins -- part bird of prey, part cat, they are obviously not the result of any natural evolutionary process. They may have been created by the Eldren, or by Discord, or brought here from some other world. In any case, they are here, and they do not get along well with Ponies. In fact, they are natural predators of large ungulates, including Ponies, and until around 500-1000 years ago had no compunctions against killing and eating Ponies.
Griffons were a minor race during the Age of High Antiquity (8000 to 7000 years Before Present) but grew in numbers, and were one of the many non-Pony races who brought down the High Ancient Pony Civilizations around 7000 years before Present and helped to destroy the Ancient Classical cultures around 6250 years Before Present. The early Griffons had only very crude technology, few skills beyond hunting and war, and were normally auxiliary troops for more civilized non-Pony conquerors. They were fearsome for their size and savagery, but lacked discipline and equipment.
In the Reclamation (around 6000 to 5500 years Before Present) Ponykind, energized by the examples of the Megan, Firefly and Wind Whistler, waged a merciless war of annihilation against the Griffons, showing them especially little pity because they specifically and enthusiastically preyed upon Ponies. In those five centuries, the Griffons vanished from the Earth. Their subsequent return, sometimes with traditions from before the Reclamation, shows that they were not entirely wiped out, but instead driven into hiding, probably in the high mountain ranges, possibly in other worlds.
By the Age of Wonders they were assumed to have been a myth. The Cataclysm of 4000 years ago, however, weakened Ponykind, and Griffons returned to prey upon them in such great numbers that it is obvious that they must have had some considerable hidden refuges. Since the Age of Wonders had included aerial and satellite photography of the Earth, hidden caves or extradimensional refugia seem entirely possible. The Griffons who returned had only the most primitive technology, but the demoralized and disorganized survivors of Ponykind were vulnerable even to teeth and talons.
In any case, the Griffons were one of the reasons why the Ponies did not more swiftly recover from the Cataclysm. In some places, the Griffons wiped out the local Ponies by predation; in other places, the Griffons kept the Ponies as slaves and meat-stock. In Taura and North Zebrica, Griffons generally enslaved rather than wiped out Ponies; they were kept from ruling Draconia by the Cervids, Onagers and Dragons, and Central and Southern Zebrica by the Zebras, who fought fiercely to keep their freedom.
North Amareica: Near-Annihilation of Griffonkind
The Griffons established talon-holds in North Amareica, but there they encountered severe resistance in the north from the nascent Three Tribes (especially the Pegasi) and the Crystal City (which managed to hold onto some Age of Wonders military organization and technology); in the south the Coatls held them at bay. They were never able to prosper in the hottest and wettest parts of South Amareica until well after the coming of the Windigoes and the Little Ice Age those creatures caused.
In North Amareica, the Griffons founded tribes and nations and gradually acquired an Iron Age technology. However, much of this was lost as the Crystal Empire expanded and the Three Tribes grew in power, gradually pushing the Griffons into worse and worse territory. The coming of the Windigoes shattered the Griffon cultures of the north, reducing them to the increasingly savage and atechnological Snow Griffons who would resurge against the Crystal Empire in its last days.
Still worse for the Griffons was the advent of Discord, who did not find them funny at all, and hence only played with them in the most destructive fashions. Discord did not like cold environments, so the Griffons survived in the Far North, in a belt of territory squeezed between the areas Discord haunted, the remnant Crystal Empire, and the Ice Wastes (haunted by the Frost Giants and Windigoes, who would cheerfully prey upon Griffons). One of the few things for which the Ponies liked Discord was his depredations against Griffonkind.
When Discord fell, 1500 years Before Present, and the Years Of Harmony started, one bad effect from the Pony point of view was that Griffons recovered. In North Amareica, that recovery was temporary; the Griffons of North Amareica would be slowly crushed into insignificance by the expanding power of Equestria. By the early to mid 13th century YOH, around 250 years ago, the last remaining Griffon power of importance in North Amareica was in the Northwest. There, the Griffon warlord Guntram the Black led the last attempt by the Griffons at restoring their race to any power in the Amareicas -- his defeat and death in YOH 1249 meant the final failure of the Amareican Griffons to remain free of Equestrian domination.
Taura: Rise and Fall and Rise of the Griffon Empire
Things went the other way in the Old Worlds. In Taura, the fall of Discord meant the elimination of the main factor which had checked Griffon population growth. The surviving Pony kingdoms and empires of Taura were overrun by Griffon hordes during the 1st century YOH and the Griffons became the masters of Tauran Ponykind -- save in the extreme North of Taura, where Dragons instead dominated; and in the South and Southeast, where first Onagers and then other races, including the Wolves, Camels and Sphinxes, were to gain domininon.
In YOH 386, the great Griffon warlord King Gar the Great established the Griffon Empire. At the beginning it was centered on Waterkeep, a city located in what is today Western Germaney, and included Prance, Lippanzer and northern Istallia. Over the centuries to come, a dynastic split would cause the loss of Prance after Gar's death in 398 to become a separate kingdom, and it would constantly fight to control its Istallion possessions, but expand its borders eastward and southeastward, at the expense of the Speaker Pony polities. This hostility between the Griffon Empire and the Speaker Ponies persists into modern times.
From the beginning, the Empire stood for an advance in Griffon civilization. The Imperial Griffons patronized the arts, encouraged literacy and in general attempted to rule rather than prey upon its Pony subjects. While some Griffon nobles, especially the crueler ones, continued to eat Pony flesh (generally taken from condemned criminals or war prisoners) as late as c. YOH 700, by and large the consumption of sapients came to be seen as barbaric. Increasingly, the Griffons began to interbreed and even in some cases intermarry with their Pony subjects, creating a large population of Hippogriffs.
As the Empire increased in wealth and technology, trade increased, and the towns began to grow. These towns were primarily inhabited by Ponies, especially Earth Ponies and Unicorns, and often by Hippogriffs and more exotic races, and were dominated by their own merchant elites. The Griffon Emperors found that they could gain gold from the towns in return for protecting them against the depradations of their own Griffon Nobles, and consequently began to sell them privileges and immunities. This in turn increased the wealth of the towns.
Around YOH 1100, the Empire gave up on trying to control Istallia. The 12th and 13th centuries YOH saw the Empire riven by dynastic wars, which ultimately shattered into a rump centered on Lippanzer which began to lose control over more and more of its Germane possessions. Then in the late 14th to early 15th centuries, social revolutions and foreign invasions seemed to doom Lippanzer as well, and the last remnants of the Empire.
But the Empire made a rapid recovery in the 15th century, during which brilliant dynastic marriages with the Germane states enabled the reunification of much of the old Empire. This was possible due to an alliance and union between Lippanzer and the rising East Germane state of Trakkhener, which were together able to dominate Western and Central Germaney. Lippanzer provided wealth and sophistication; the Trakkheners a brutal military efficiency which became internationally-famous after the Imperial defeat of Prance in the Prench-Imperial war of 1456-57, and is even more famous today owing to the recent victory over the Allies in the Great Tauran War of 1500-04. Though greatly strained by the recent war effort, the Griffon Empire now dreams of global domination.
This resurgent Empire is commonly called the Second Empire, to distinguish it from the Empire as it existed before the wars of the 12th-13th centuries and revolutions of the late 14th to early 15th centuries. The Second Empire is so far highly successful.
Culture
An important thing to understand about the Griffon Empire is that -- though now civilized and indeed one of the most technologically-progressive Powers in the world (up there with Albion, Prance and Equestria) -- it is still very much ruled by the Griffons, who are very aware of the fact that they are carnivores ruling herbivores, and view their day-to-day decision not to simply slaughter their subjects as an act of continual mercy and wisdom.
The Ponies of the Empire are also very much aware of their distance from their rulers, whom they serve abjectly because they have little choice -- though there have been stirrings of rebellion as early as the great uprisings of the late 14th century and YOH 1434, and which support a thriving though regularly-culled subculture of subversives and revolutionaries. There is serious danger of widespread revolt, and the Imperial troops are occupiers as well as protectors.
Meanwhile, the Hippogriffs are an uneasy group. They are well aware that the Griffons do not see them as their equals, and they are also aware that the Ponies deeply distrust them, a distrust mixed with envy. Intermarriage between Griffons and Hippogriffs, and Hippogriffs and Ponies, are quite common. There is even intermarriage between Griffons and Ponies. But in times of trouble, interspecies couples of this sort are often met with hatred and intolerance from both sides.
What all this means is that the Imperial class structure is far more rigid in terms of social climbing (or falling) than it is in the Realm of Equestria. Social climbers are unlikely to rise more than a single half-class within their lives, and will have trouble being respected as members of their new class. Those of higher classes expect far more deference from those of lower classes than is normal in Equestria, and those of lower classes are far more in awe and fear of their "betters" than is the case by Equestrian standards.
Lippanzer and the Hawkcastles
The country longest under continuous Imperial rule, the Lippanzers consider themselves more civilized and sophisticated than the rest of the Empire. The Hawkcastles, the royal dynasty of the Empire, were originally the Dukes of Lippanzer, and their aristocratic lineage is known to stretch back over a thousand years. Their capital -- the beautiful White City, located on the Wedding River -- is an international center of art, cuisine, literature, music and science.
The Hawkcastles are astute intriguers who prefer to win by diplomacy and marriage what other clans win by war -- but in a new age of mass ideology and industrialized warfare, can they keep control of the Imperial monster they have in harness? They already almost lost control of the Empire during the militarization of the Great War, and they are not secure in their victory. Can the elegant Lippanzers remain dominant through superior culture, among a generation who saw victory gained by brute force?
Trakkhener and the Hightowers
As the Griffons of the Empire expanded to the East, subduing the Western-Speaker Pony tribes, they established "high towers" from which to launch their forces. These were keeps built on low hills on the plains, for there are no mountains in Eastern Germaney. From this name came the Hightowers.
They emerged into prominence in the 6th century YOH, not much later than the Hawkcastles. But unlike the Hawkcastles, they were forced to fight almost constantly, and in consequence they developed a militaristic culture even by Imperial standards. They wholeheartedly believe that violence is the best solution to most problems, and they have relatively little respect for culture and learning unless it increases national strength.
The Hightower duchy of Trakkhener is dominated by the Griffon nobility, of a caste calling themselves the Young Lords because they emphasize the ability to fight as the true mark of the aristocrat. Many of the Young Lords are merely aggressive and brutal, but the most dangerous of them are also highly intelligent. Since the 14th century, the Trakkheners have become extremely professional soldiers, and today furnish the Empire some of the best troops in the world.
The Hightower capital city of Bearswamp is mostly a grim garrison and factory town, though the aristocratic districts include some find architecture. There is nothing like the rich cultural life of the White City, though there is a highly-decadent red-light district. Visitors to the city may encounter marching troops hauling around sinister-looking artillery engines, and camera pan-ins while darkly militaristic music plays to establish the scene, perhaps with the name of the city and the date superimposed. An Evil Overlord would be happily at home here.
But the Hightowers are not the rulers of the Empire. Despite the fact that they are demonstrably the toughest soldiers. The Hightowers have married into the Hawkcastles but fear that they and their people are viewed by the Hawkcastles as just so many brutal barbarians who make good cannon fodder in wartime. This fear is quite accurate.
Wonder how long it will be before the Hightowers decide to do something about it? After all, they know that might makes right, and that therefore they deseve to be in charge.
Other Regions
The western portions of the Empire have been heavily influenced by the Prench and tend to be alarmingly liberal by Imperial standards. Along the great Running River, there are many cities, and there is extensive steamboat trade and industrial production. The commercial classes, many of them Hippogriffs, are very influential there. The extreme western portion is called the Foreign Land, speaks a dialect of Germane that is almost Prench, and has been repeatedly fought over between the Prench and the Empire.
The northern parts of the Empire have been influenced by the North-Ponies and the Dragons. The huge port of Brimmer supports an international trade, now resumed with the end of the Great War and the lifting of the Allied blockade. The Empire trades all over the world from here, especially with the Dragon-Realms of North Taura and the North-Islands, Albion, Equestria and South Amareica.
The central parts of the Empire tend to be insular and highly loyal to the Empire. These were divided into many small duchies and principalities when the Empire declined, which have been reabsorbed into the resurgent Empire. The population of this area is dense, and most of the average Imperial troops come from this region.
Conclusion
The Griffon Empire is the greatest realm of the Griffons, just as Equestria is the greatest realm of the Ponies. In addition to this, they are animated by rather contrary ideologies: the Griffon Empire is militaristic, racist and hierarchical, while Equestria is peaceful, racially-tolerant and relatively socially-egalitarian.
This may seem to point to war against Equestria in the future, but such war is eminently avoidable. The two Powers do not border one another, and, absent a Second Great War, have no real conflicts of interests. The chief danger is that the Griffon Empire may cherish notions of global domination to which Equestrian wealth and power would constitute clear obstacles, and may feel required to strike. As long as the relatively peaceful Hawkcastles continue to control the Empire, it is likely that the Great War will constitute ample blooding for the inherently-aggressive Griffon nobility. Should the Hightowers -- or worse, one of the socially-radical factions -- assume power, all bets are off.
A more local Tauran war seems far more likely. Albion and Prance are defeated but not crushed, and might war against the Griffon Empire given provocation or even opportunity. And the Empire of the Red-Speakers to the East has fallen into civil war, but the victors in that war might decide to prove their right to rule by threatening the Griffon Empire. If such happens, hopefully Equestria can stay clear of it.
Meanwhile, of course, the Nightshadows fish in the troubled Tauran waters. Any dissension on Earth aids their dark designs, and as Taura struggles to find its way back to peace, time may be running out for our planet ...
There are some similarities to how I map out that region of the world, though I give the analogue of Greece to minotaurs for obvious reasons. Also, Diamond Dogs. You can't dig a hole in that part of the world without crossing international borders.
In any case, both informative and ominous. Thank you for it.
So…the Griffions are sort of your stand-in for Hapsburgs, Prussians and other German-based cultural groups with special attention to an Alsasce-Lorraine type area in the western reaches of their holdings that have been fought over multiple times…nice
. 
As a student of history, it is almost a game to go through your historic essays and try and find their real-world influences keep it up!
2459206
I am so glad someone noticed!
I put a lot of work into it and then tweaked the Ponified history with a little Alternate History -- my "Austria" reunified the equivalent of the HRE in its equivalent of the 19th century AD through marriages and diplomatic alliances, and remained the dominant part of that Empire, much to the annoyance of my "Prussia" which found itself being used as Imperial cannon fodder. And, for various reasons, Equestria did not play the "American" role in the Great War, so the Empire won.
Taura is named "Taura" because it used to have a lot of Minotaurs. I have them be a race which still exists in pockets here and there. Oh, and I should probably have the Tauran Diamond Dogs live in pockets here and there too -- the most important one being a mountain republic in the Alps, where they've become very good at defensive war, fortified everything, grown very civilized, and gone into international banking.
2459251
do those dogs speak a modified form of whatever language is closest e.g. those dogs living near Prance speak a form of Prench that is similar, but not exact, so those who speak the language but can be tripped up by usage? 
2459263
Oh, of course. And have a universal militia.
*Grins and applauds* While I must confess to not being a student of history as much as you clearly are, these are always fascinating reads and always inspire.
You mention "-speakers" on occasion, though I'm not sure I entirely understand what you mean by it. Could you perhaps enlighten me?
2459705
The "Speakers" are a large Pony ethnic group, stretching from southeast to central to eastern Taura, and east of there to the northerly parts of Draconia. Their empires, nations and tribes are sometimes led by Griffons or Hippogriffs, sometimes by actual Ponies. The biggest Speaker nation, the Empire of All the Red-Speakers, controls eastern Taura and northern Draconia, but these vast eastern territories are but thinly settled, and there the Ponies rule over a subject population of Cervids (and, confusingly, some Griffons and Hippogriffs). It was led by Griffons, but is currently (1504) locked in a civil war between those adhering to the old Griffon nobility and rebels who demand rule by the Ponies and extermination of the Griffons and most Hippogriffs (the rebels are, also confusingly, led by Hippogriffs). Currently the rebels are winning.
Perhaps relevantly here, in our world the word "Slovenim" (Slavic term for "Slav") derives from "Slova" meaning "word" and hence the "Slovenim" are implicitly "Those Who Speak" or "Speakers."
"Let others war. Thou, lucky Lippanzer, shall wed."
"War is the national industry of Trakkhener."
2459760 Merci!
Something tells me that you've been studying ancient history. Have you? Just asking to want to know.
2495048
Rather a lot in my life, though Medieval to Modern European history is more relevant to this essay.
2495067 Hey, I'm studying ancient history too, even though it has more to do with the ancient Near East and Northeast Africa. What do you think about that?
2495150
Two areas in which I'm very interested, especially if "Northeast Africa" includes Egypt and the Sudan. Mesopotamian and Egyptian histories are fascinating: they include the birth of the first fully-literate civilizations.
2495161 Agree. I love learning about their ancient cultures and beliefs. Hey have you heard of ancient Syria and the other countries surondding ancient Israel?
Could you also talk about the ancient High Pony Civilizations?